REVEREND DEAN: (00:00)
I am the Reverend Dean Becker guardian of the drug war Moral high ground. prohibition has no benefit. It is a fascist tool. It seeks to gain control of all our rights, the future of mankind. This is cultural baggage. Hello my friends. Thank you for being with us here today on cultural baggage. I am Dean Becker, the Reverend Most High. We have three guests with us today, all on the West Coast. I'll give you their names First. Diane Goldstein. She's the Executive director of leap. We're gonna hear from attorney Omar Figueroa out there now practicing marijuana and psychedelic medicine in California. And we're gonna hear from, uh, Seattle's former Sheriff, John Erhart. First I want to ask Diane about the rising number of military on our city streets. 

Lt DIANE GOLDSTEIN: (00:50)
Well, I think it's not soon. The military is already on our streets, and it is widely probably one of the most ineffective uses of the National Guard or military resources. So I, I need to clarify, as the executive director of leap, um, it very, very clearly immigration's an issue, 21st century policing, constitutional, uh, policing. And what we're seeing right now from the federal government in many aspects, is going to set local and state law enforcement back decades with regards to police legitimacy and what we need in order to solve crime. And now that Omar is here, is, um, Omar, I, I saw a article recently about a case in particular, that's the perfect example, is there was a suspect who was dressing up as a ICE officer or a Santa Rosa police officer and was raping and sexually assaulting immigrant women. And then, and then literally saying that if she reported to anyone, that she was gonna get deported. And so she sat there for a couple weeks before she trusted Santa Rosa PD enough to go report this crime. And our organization has been saying this for years, is local and state law enforcement should not be beholden to the federal government, should not be assisting them with immigration. They have enough resources. So what is going to happen is people will not be reporting crimes, and you're gonna see crime increase in our community. 

REVEREND DEAN: (02:36)
Thank you for that. Diane. I did have, uh, um, uh, hoe Tree who lives in Washington DC report last week, that they're now starting to see criminals dressing up with those, uh, flack jackets in the bandanas and, and, and got a, a patch on their back saying they're with one of the alphabet agencies and committing crimes. Uh, what, what more could we expect, I guess, uh, I want to jump now to, uh, attorney Omar Figueroa. And I'm seeing this news that, see if I can get her name right, just Lane Maxwell has, has been moved from maximum security to a college campus, basically because she answered a few questions saying that Donald Trump was, he's a good man, and he's, he's just not. Anyway, now today I hear that she's being charged with perjury. And give us your thoughts on that situation, please, Omar Figueroa. 

Atty OMAR FIGUROA: (03:26)
Well, I think as a convicted sex offender, she would be ineligible for, you know, low and minimum security custody, which has been placed into, and so there's been a lot of pending and breaking of the rules to give her special treatment. And of course, we can't expect her to be honest in her, uh, you know, statements because at her previous sentencing, uh, the US Department of Justice, you know, basically, uh, filed a sentencing brief that said that she had lied repeatedly to the court. And she's not to be believed. So anything she says has got to be taken with a huge, uh, pillar of salt. And I think that, you know, when people have, this is a problem with having informants. They have such an incentive to point the finger and to get themselves outta trouble, that they'll point the finger at whoever they're asked to because that's the corrosive nature of paying people for their testimony and rewarding people for their testimony. You know, when the, if the defense were allowed to do what the prosecution does, which is pay witnesses for their testimony, that would be considered perjury. That's simply not allowed. And when one side can reward witnesses for their testimony, but the other side cannot, it really introduces a corrosive element that we're seeing with Ghislaine Maxwell. 

REVEREND DEAN: (04:52)
Thank you, Omar Figueroa. Next I want to talk to former Sheriff John Erhart. Hey, John. Um, I, I, I, I, I'm addicted to these First Amendment audits. Now, I don't know if you see 'em out there on YouTube or not, but I consider those, most of those folks to be patriots because they're standing for our rights. But the, but the fact of the matter is, even with most of these situations, the cops follow the Constitution. They ask for an, uh, an id. Uh, they may not get it, but, but they, they try to follow the rules, whereas you see these ice and now we've got DEA and FBI and everybody else out there doing this, uh, and they don't follow the rules. And I want to get your thoughts on that. Sheriff Erhart. 

SHERIFF JOHN URQUHART: (05:34)
Well, Dean, I think you're probably absolutely correct. You know, you've got these, uh, federal officers have gone to Washington dc gone to la, Chicago is probably next, Seattle may be on the list. And they don't understand street level policing. They don't understand, right? Or haven't been trained in community policing, problem solving, policing, uh, you know, whatever you want to call it. They haven't been trained there, and you can't expect them to operate in the same way. And that means as time goes on, we are gonna have crime go up and we're not gonna be able to solve, uh, as many crimes 'cause people are not gonna come forward. 

REVEREND DEAN: (06:13)
Thank you for that. And I, I wanna maybe address this to all three of you. And, you know, I want you guys to bring forward things you, uh, wanna share with the public as well. But we, we touched on there, there's, they've got military in the streets and they're now gonna send in the military with M sixteens, I guess soon. How can we stop this? I mean, I'm, I'm hopeful that the US military will tell Trump to stick it somewhere, because I remember in that his parade, he had whatever a month ago, uh, most of the military shuffled by, they looked like they had no, they wanted no part of that parade. Uh, y'all's thoughts in this regard, uh, 

Lt DIANE GOLDSTEIN: (06:50)
Let me start with a couple things is, um, I've been writing a lot about immigration. Um, it had a really great piece that, uh, got posted in M-M-S-N-B-C and then, um, further conversations. And, and I think from a local law enforcement perspective with the National Guard is the best, is let's just go back to the Vietnam War. And what happened at Kent State right now very, very specifically, is we have untrained federal officers to the Sheriff's point who have no idea what street level law enforcement looks like, what 21st century policing should be, what constitutional policing is, or frankly, that they don't care because their leadership under the, the, uh, DHS and under the Secretary of Defense are basically literally unleashing them based on an executive order. I am absolutely amazed at is the small acts of resistance of ordinary Americans in our neighborhoods who are standing up in ways that are going to make a difference. 

Lt DIANE GOLDSTEIN: (08:04)
They're videotaping, they're chasing ice, and whatever their, you know, federal task force out of neighborhoods. And then you have certain law firms. So very specifically, I'm going to give you some of the best kudos to INS Institute for Justice right now, who is actively looking on social media for videos and asking to be placed in contact with potential victims. You recently had the Glass House raid, um, out of Santa Barbara, where you had both a farm worker who died because he was chased by ice and fell out of window. And then you had an American citizen who was an army veteran who was trying to get to work, who was the security guard that got arrested, window broken out, detained for days where no one knew where he was at. And so when you start asking, what, what do we need to do? I think that words matter, but we need to have some type of action that pushes back. 

Lt DIANE GOLDSTEIN: (09:11)
And ordinary Americans are sick. San Diego, you know, neighborhood chased, uh, ice out, uh, when they raided a restaurant is I just saw a barbershop, and I think it was in Linwood or in Compton in Southern California that they barricaded, uh, the door so ICE couldn't come in, and the ice agents were then threatening to go after the owner's mother and deport her. All these actions are being done to intimidate all of us. And I would say this, and I say this to people, it's going to take us every single one of us to call this out, but we also have to vote, right? It, it's, you know, how do we define what the re what resistance means? And I'm thrilled to see this, not just in DC but in other places across the country. 

Atty OMAR FIGUROA: (10:06)
I would like to add that resistance is not just public acts like protesting or writing letters to our elected officials, but it can also be something that's very personal, ridiculing the regime, because dictators will wither under ridicule. So make fun of them. You know, I think it's very effective to use, uh, sarcasm and to, you know, basically be like a, a court jester and make fun of it would be king, right? Um, and you can do that in your personal life. You can, it can make, you can take a horrible situation and make it comical and, you know, kind of surreal and ridiculous at the same time. And you can transform pain into laughter. And so I think that is something that is critical. We cannot be living in fear. Deferring to the would be emperor, you know, uh, afraid of his minions. We have to call them for what they are. 

Atty OMAR FIGUROA: (11:06)
Tim Pot dictators, wannabes, basically antithetical to everything that makes America great. America is great because it's a melting pot. It's the best of humanity from all over the world. Ended up and created this nation of innovation where new ideas, new inventions, new ways of, you know, being, um, came to birth and have spread across a whole, uh, global citizenry. So I think America needs to reclaim its greatness, and it's not hating on others. It's really like finding the best in humanity, looking at our capability for innovation, for invention, for solving the problems. That's what makes America truly a great country. And I say that as a first generation immigrant born in Mexico, you know, who, uh, came to the United States from a very corrupt country. And it's making me so sad that the United States is becoming completely corrupt, just like Mexico. Mexico is with an oligarchy that's stealing the wealth of the country that's trying to keep the common population in poverty. That is not okay. I don't want, I didn't come here from Mexico to live in another Mexico. I came here to America because we have economic freedom, we have competition, we have rule of law. And last but not least, we have no kinks. We have no dictators. We have no precedent for life. And so we have to ridicule and make fun of those who take themselves too seriously, because that's how you chip away at their credibility by laughing at them. 

REVEREND DEAN: (12:47)
Thank you. And, uh, your governor certainly doing a good job of that, isn't he? I, I, I appreciate what he's up to. Sheriff 

SHERIFF JOHN URQUHART: (12:53)
Hart, here's a point that I was gonna make, is that, uh, if you look at Governor Newsom and you look at South Park, they've done a great job of ridiculing the President. It shows us that it's still out there. There's something that can be done. And it's always good to laugh at people. You know, everybody should be, should get laughed at, including us from time to time. The point I wanna make is, you know, back, uh, when I first ran for office, and the sheriff here as elected office was in 2012, and it's a non-partisan position. So I spoke to Democrats and democratic groups and Republican groups. And at that point in time, during those few years, May 1st was a big protest day in Seattle Mayday. And the arch anarchists would come up from Eugene, Oregon, and there'd be marches in the streets and broken windows and, and, uh, general mayhem. 

SHERIFF JOHN URQUHART: (13:42)
Uh, every single May 1st. And people in Seattle were getting fed up with it as well. They should. And oftentimes, I would go to one of my campaign events and people would ask me about this and say, if you were sheriff, what would you do? I says, well, here's something I can do. I would talk to the governor and I would get, get him to call out the National Guard and put a national Guardsman with, uh, fixed bayonets and m sixteens on every single street corner down, uh, in downtown Seattle. And I guarantee you, the window breaking and the general mayhem would stop. And of course, everybody in the group would go, oh, even the Republicans. Oh, no, no, we don't want that. We can't, you can't do that. Which of course was exactly my point, right? And my second point was with these groups was, well, you know, democracy is messy and there's going to be streets from time to time. 

SHERIFF JOHN URQUHART: (14:35)
There's gonna be streets that are gonna block be blocked off, and there may be windows that are broken, uh, and the local police should go in and arrest those window breakers, uh, and facilitate the marches and all of that because it is free speech. But people don't want a militaristic, they don't want the military in their cities. And of course, that's what's happened, uh, in DC so far. Uh, and if you re if you believe the polls, people don't want it. They don't believe what Trump is saying. They don't believe the rationale for him sending the National Guard into dc. Uh, and the, the, the biggest irony is that if people have complained for a long time about the militarization of the police, and guess what? They don't like it and they have a reason not to like it. And I'm against the militarization of the police. Well, now they've got the military, literally the military in their streets. Uh, and we all know why they're there has nothing to do with crime, has everything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Mm-hmm . That's why he did this at that point in time. And he lied his way continues to lie his way into it. Uh, and that just makes it that much worse. 

Lt DIANE GOLDSTEIN: (15:49)
I think that's the, the, the big issue for me. Um, it's so, you know, politics aside, I was a registered Republican until I moved to Nevada and, uh, and then became an independent. And I have voted across party lines going back till I was 18. Right? And always looking at what's the best policy that's going to make ordinary people's lives. Not just Americans lives like, you know, Omar, you know, I was born in Mexico City and I immigrated up in the 1960s is when I think about we can all agree crime is an issue at times. It's cyclical, right? Sheriff Hugh and I know that, you know, sometimes cops take credit for, for, um, crime rates going down. But then we also have to, you know, crime rates going up, is how we prevent crime is based on multidisciplinary efforts. And cops alone will never prevent crime. 

Lt DIANE GOLDSTEIN: (16:55)
The return, I think this is my concern right now, is like the return to tough on crime, where we see all the things that the administration has done. And very specifically with regards to the grant cuts, you know, is we work with alternative responses to policing. We support violence interrupters, we support propping up Kos shared models of safety where our community is a valued stakeholders and determines how they wanna be policed and what our policing priorities should be. That's what community policing means. That's community engagement. And right now what we have is a top down response that's performative at best, where the administration does not care that people's lives are being ruined. California again, right? Uh, Omar, how many, how many people have been hit by cars running away from ice in the last month? There's at least two that I know that have died. 

Lt DIANE GOLDSTEIN: (17:59)
So right now, our policies are not based on making people's lives better. They're not based on preventing addiction or, or, um, violence. They are all performative because this administration has a issue of wanting to entrench their power and continue. And it's about distraction. And we cannot let them distract us from what is best for not just America, but for everybody who lives here. Whether you're a green card or you're undocumented. And we can all agree that people who harm other people probably don't deserve to be here. But there's due process. And again, gonna go back to the Holocaust. Remember the, the famous Poe first they came for the gypsies, right? And then, you know, it goes all the way down. And then they came for the Jews, and then they came for me, and there was no one there to speak up for me. And, and you know, that's the gist of it. 

Lt DIANE GOLDSTEIN: (19:01)
And I think this is why so many people are fighting for due process. Because if we allow the government to do this to people who are marginalized, it's gonna happen to anyone. Just look at the John Bolton search warrant. He is this administration, this DOJ is, and I'm not a Bolton fan, right? But this is performative at best. And the sheriff is right. It's done to distract people from the Epstein files, what's in it, and all the other potentially criminal issues that this administration is doing. The cryptocurrencies mm-hmm . The, you know, the scams of, hey, you, you can pay a million dollars. The 10% buying of Intel, that's our taxpayer dollars. Like this is what people don't understand, is we're the ones that are being grif. And it seems like there's a percentage of the population that just doesn't care. 'cause they're fascists in nature. You know, the, the Washington is Washington, right? In Idaho is the white supremacists. The white nationals have been completely emboldened. When would we as, as recent, you know, within the last couple months, a news media article about an Arkansas advocate who's a white nationalist, who was designing an all white town. And the news, it blows my mind that the news doesn't call it out for what it is. It's evil. We are, we are in the banality of evil. Like, and the media is part of the issue here. 

REVEREND DEAN: (20:49)
I I have to jump here and just say, I think the major media is totally gone fascist. They really have. Trump is a, a wreck. He's, he's a, a laughing stock, and they allow him to stand as president of these United States, which ties to my next thought we have in this country, especially a, uh, a scene of mutual absolution where these politicians, uh, back each other's mistakes up one after another, after another into infinity. Because this is a criminal family that we have in place at, in the Congress. And the, I think in the, the, the, the Supreme Court and certainly within the White House, they are all aiming to take our rights, take our money, take our future so they can buy a bigger yacht or whatever in the hell they want. Please respond. I'll just editorialize. 

SHERIFF JOHN URQUHART: (21:41)
Well, let me say that, uh, you know, I've been a police officer for four, I was for 43 years, including many, many, many years as a, uh, narcotics detective. Uh, I was a, a, uh, a, a foot soldier in the war on drugs. But there's one thing I've learned that the police cannot arrest their way out of society's problems. That's right. And too, for too long, the police have thought that still do to a certain extent. And they also have the attitude of we're the cops and you're not, don't tell us how to do our job. And that's a terrible, terrible, terrible attitude that causes no end to problems. That's why as Diane says, we have to partner with other groups, uh, to, to be able to, to do our job, and they have to partner with us. And, you know, if I asked 20 police officers their definition of community policing, I'd get 25 different opinions, right? 

SHERIFF JOHN URQUHART: (22:39)
'cause it is a little bit nebulous. Uh, I always define it as problem solving. And you need to solve, we, we, the police need to solve problems, but we can't do it by ourselves. Never will be able to do it by ourselves. We need the community, however you define community. But we're in a, a, a special situation right now that we've never been in, in this country, at least, uh, during my lifetime, uh, with the people that are in power. And the enablers, uh, I've oftentimes said about Trump is that I don't particularly worry too much about him. I figure he's one cheeseburger away from having a coronary in the Oval Office. Yeah. And then we'll be done with him. What bothers me and where, where I think the real danger is, is the 77 million people that voted for him. 'cause after Trump is long gone, after Lindsey Graham is long gone, Ted Cruz, all of them, those 77 million people are still gonna be there. And what are they willing to tolerate? You know, they elected Trump. They tolerated him with all his baggage. You know, we could go on and on and on about the baggage that he brought to the office, and they still voted for him. That's what we need to worry about. And that's how I'm not sure how we get our country back, right from those people. 

REVEREND DEAN: (23:55)
Thank you again. That was, uh, former sheriff of Seattle, Mr. John Erhart. We've been listening to Diane Goldstein, uh, the now executive director of Law Enforcement Action Partnership. We've heard from Attorney Omar Figueroa, who's, uh, worked with Tony, Sarah for decades. Tony just retired, having reached the age of 90. Uh, he doing okay, Omar. 

Atty OMAR FIGUROA: (24:16)
Yeah. Tony is, uh, very wise to retire from the practice of law, unlike many lawyers who are involuntarily retired from the practice of law. So, you know, I much respect to Tony and he had an incredible career. Like basically one of the most interesting legal lives that anybody has ever led. Over 3000 jury trials, countless victories. You know, he stopped counting how many jury trials he won after a thousand. 

REVEREND DEAN: (24:44)
Okay, we're about to wrap it up here, friends, but I, I, I wanna say this, I carry with me a 32nd elevator spiel. I, I would give if I got on the, in the elevator with Trump or, or anybody with any authority. But it's, it goes like this. We, by our belief in the drug war, we empower terrorists. We enrich barber's, cartels, we give reason for these violent gangs to exist out prowling our neighborhoods with high powered weapons, enticing our children to lives of crime and addiction. And it's increasing the overdose deaths by, uh, just too many millions. And we've invested trillions of dollars, arrested people 55 million times for drugs. And I ask you, what is the benefit, sir? What do we get back from this? And I've never had anybody even try to answer that because there is no answer to that question. Um, 30 seconds. A piece to close out here, Omar, start us off. 

Atty OMAR FIGUROA: (25:36)
Um, well, I would quote Clarence Darrow who talked about how prohibition breeds contempt for the law. And so, you know, we need to nullify prohibition by going to jury duty and refusing to convict people for cannabis related offenses. Um, and we also need to expand that to other substances that humans have been using, including, uh, psilocybin mushrooms, ibogaine, you know, there's a lot of healing substances that were arbitrarily made illegal in the 1960s in a rush to make, to prohibit everything starting with cannabis. And so I think my appeal would be, um, you know, that we gotta have laws that makes sense. And otherwise, having nonsensical laws means that people will stop following the 

REVEREND DEAN: (26:25)
Law. Now, let's go to, um, former Sheriff John Erhart. 

SHERIFF JOHN URQUHART: (26:28)
You know, there's 900,000 police officers in this country, 13,000 police departments. So, you know, you're gonna get outliers all the time that do the wrong thing that need to be out of the profession, need to be prosecuted. Uh, and I'm all for that. But what it really boils down to is culture. The culture of an organization, whether it's ice or whether it's the US government or an individual police department, that's what is so critical, and that's what we have to change in many cases, is the culture of the organization, if we're ever going to get better. 

REVEREND DEAN: (27:02)
Thank you, John. And, uh, Diane Goldstein, please. Sure. 

Lt DIANE GOLDSTEIN: (27:04)
I, and, and to Omar's point on prohibition, I will just quote August Volmer the, uh, chief of police in, um, our nation who professionalized policing in the 1920s and 1930s who stated about drug prohibition. He was adamantly opposed to law enforcement investigating any moralistic crime, including alcohol prohibition, gambling, sex work, and drugs. And specifically, over a hundred years ago, he predicted exactly the corruption that would be caused by the drug war for policing and even more of a visionary. What he stated was that it would ruin the relationship between law enforcement and our communities. And at the same time, he also understood that the only thing that would fix people who are suffering from public health issues were scientists and medical doctors. And he specifically stated 1930 something that the US government at taxpayer costs should provide a safe supply of drugs for people who suffered from substance use disorder. 

REVEREND DEAN: (28:21)
And that's, that's so true. Uh, Switzerland's doing that. Come to think of it, but, okay. Uh, we gotta wrap it up here, folks. I, I thank you for being my guest. I thank you for listening and I hope it kicks you in the butt a little bit. I hope it motivates you to write that letter and go to that protest and visit your congressman and do something before they devour the rights and freedoms within this nation. And once again, I remind you that because of prohibition, you don't know what's in that bag. I urge you to please be careful and, uh, always remember that euphoria is a blessing, not a crime.