WTFrs Backing The Blue- Luis Rodriguez

Hi everyone. And welcome to this week's episode of Enduring the Badge Podcast, I'm host Jerry Dean  Lund, and I don't want you to miss an upcoming episode. So please hit that subscribe button. And while your phone's out, please do me a favor and give us a review on iTunes or our apple podcast. It says, Hey, this podcast has a great message and we should send it out to more people.

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And there's a little icon down at the bottom where you can leave a voice note or you can go to the coaching tab and you can schedule a 15 minute discovery call. Now let's jump right into this next episode. My very special guest today is Luis Rodriguez from the WT Fers. It's a motorcycle social writing group, and I'm gonna let him explain what the WTF stands for.

But they are a group that backs the blue and backs the military showing up at funerals, showing up at protests and showing their support. He's also educating the community on who backs the blue and who doesn't and who they should vote for in their elections. And why voting is so important. Let's jump right into this episode with Louise.

I'm doing good. Doing good, Jerry. Yeah, man. I, I like the cut. It's looking. Yeah. How are you? I'm I'm good. I'm good. You got, got off shift this morning. So a little, little bit tired cause I for fitted some sleep, so, but I'm I'm good. I'm good. Let's uh, let's okay. Let's jump right into what you're, what you're doing.

It's the WTS. So you're gonna have to explain that to people.

WTF first, it doesn't stand for what you think it stands for. Uh, it stands for, uh, weight therapy, freedom riders, uh, although we're known as the other side too. Uh, we're a, uh, we're not an MC a traditional MC motorcycle club. Uh, we're more of a SRC, a social riding club. Uh, we allow members for. From, uh, we, we don't have restrictions on what kind of bikes you ride much like MCs do.

Um, you know, typically MCs don't allow women to participate in the MC. They have to do their own thing. You know, we do, you know, we allow 'em in our ranks. Um, you know, we we've had great women, presidents, presidents of chapters and all, uh, we're, we're stretch out across four states, uh, with about leave about six and 17 chapters so far.

Um, mainly based out of Texas, uh, we started out in the Austin area and this is, uh, Our home base, uh, and we've stretched out to Seattle, uh, Mississippi, uh, Florida. Um, but, uh, yeah, main our base membership. Isn't very good. Uh, we, uh, we started out as a, yeah, we needed something to believe in. And, um, law enforcement and military as well was near and dear to my heart.

My dad said. Vietnam veteran. And, uh, and most of my family's, uh, former law enforcement officers. So, uh, when I created this club decided to stand behind something and that's, that's what we, uh, that's what we decided to put, put our efforts behind. Yeah, very cool. So, I mean, what, was there a reason to come up with a catchy name or the, or the WT FERS or like,

so I was, uh, I was doing these rides out in the Texas hill.

call when therapy rides, you know, cuz uh, you'll never see a Harley parked outside of psychiatrists, office, you know, our therapy is the win. Um, and yeah, when the, uh, when the, when the letters went therapy, then, uh, OTF came up. I was like, well just kind of found a catchy name to match that I was already doing.

So when. Therapy freedom riders was born. And, uh, we used to just have, like, our patch was just that. And I came out on, uh, on that we'd make national news at one point came out on. You see world news. I David here and Fox and France and the Fox friends and the Fox people ask, they were like, well, if you're gonna keep coming out on TV, would you mind putting a batch that has your name on it?

so then we, uh, we added the wind therapy, freedom rider, and that's when we, uh, we organized as a cause they have to always run on the bottom scroller, wind therapy, freedom rider. Yeah. Yeah.  that, that, that makes, that makes sense. I mean, uh, it's a, it definitely is catchy. I, I like that part. Why. Why create such an organization?

Uh, really at the beginning it was just really a social riding club.

Um, it was just a way for people with similar interests to get together and ride and go enjoy the hill country and all. And, you know, we, uh, we were notified of, uh, of events. Veteran that was, uh, unaccompanied, which means that they couldn't find friends or family when they're gonna be buried. Uh, we were notified of that and I put an event together and I was thinking about 50 bikes would show up and it ended up being about over 2,500, uh, motorcycles and cars.

And, uh, that actually hit national news. And then from there, it it's, it. Just blew up then about two years ago, you know, we, we're still very much, uh, focused around the sense of social riding. You know, it's the majority of what we do. We don't, every time we throw our leg over the bike, it isn't to go on a benefit.

You know, uh, we have our core values that we believe in, uh, you know, which is, uh, highly centered around law enforcement support, uh, veteran support. We have a, we have a unique, uh, program called the Arly circle, which is an anti-bullying and teen prevention. Um, Program that we put together, uh, since COVID, that's kind of, um, that's kind of died down, uh, because of kids not just being in school and all.

Um, but during the  it's a couple of years ago, you know, we, we always said we're police support, but a, uh, an Austin police officer, an APD officer posted on his. Facebook page that, uh, that I was friends with, he said, Hey, where are all these blue line supporters? You know, right now is what we need to, we don't need you guys to buy us lunch or coffee, you know, cuz uh, Antifa at BLM, they were, they were hot and heavy in downtown Austin.

And you know, in the Austin area, it's Austin metroplex. We have multiple, uh, multiple. These that have police forces out here. And it were split between two counties, Travis county, Williamson county, and they are worlds apart. Um, you know, Williamson county is very conservative. Travis county is very liberal and very progressive.

Um, so we were, uh, he posted, he made this post and, um, it, you know, it really got in my head and we were out riding in the hill country and I was like, man, well, where are we? You know, like I seen on, on the news that these riots are down there, they're chunking. Uh, frozen bottles, frozen water bottles at them from afar, you know, and these guys are on rioters are getting hit on the head and pummeled and in Austin, the city council and the mayor are very liberal and very progressive.

So they're completely against the police. I mean, that's why they defunded them to a tune of 150 million. Um, they were out there with the. Antifa. They were, the violent ones were called Mike Romberg gate at that time. Uh, and they were out there, um, marching with those guys instead of marching for the people that saved the city.

You know, they were not marching with the police officers. They were marching against them. And, um, so I turned the, uh, the, the club around. I was like, Hey man, I I've gotta go downtown, man. I gotta, I gotta see what's happening. And we did. And this was after about two weeks of rioting and it was shocking what we saw down there at the Austin police department, main headquarters.

Downtown Austin. It was sickening. You know, there was, um, the, the riots were, were just flat out, tagging the walls of the, the side walls of, uh, APD main headquarters. Um, you know, with F the police and cops must die and pigs, pigs, this pigs that, and they, they were just blatantly, uh, tagging, you know, tagging the walls with, uh, with spray paint and all, and nobody there to stop them.

Um, and we walked around, you know, the front of them and they. You know, the, uh, the riders immediately took notice of us and they started saying things to us. But as soon as we looked at them, they would back off because oddly enough, they're not afraid of the cops, but they're afraid of us. Um, you know, we're civilians, we, we don't answer the city council.

We don't answer to, uh, to the mayor.  right. And the funny thing is that you. You know, the, these, uh, demonstrators and riots that hate the cops so much, they're abolish of police. They won't leave their sides while we're around. . Um, but now we went over there and, you know, we, we just, uh, we gave hugs to the, uh, to the officer we're down there and a few of 'em man, they start crying.

It really got to us because they said, uh, to quote, one of them said, we, you guys are the first smiling faces that we've seen in, in a couple of weeks, it was really getting in their heads, you know, it was mentally draining. And then to know that that your city. Council and your mayor doesn't support you, that they are out marching with the other people that oppose you and these guys didn't even do anything.

I mean, George Floyd is the other, other side of the country from Texas, but it just happens that Austin has that liberal and progressive side. And it's destructive. It's destructive that any city that, that. It's destructive to any city that supports that, that has defunded the police because the numbers in history has shown it.

You know, we, uh, Austin, um, broke, broke two murder records back to back since the defunding of the police. You know, we had, uh, 89 murders last year, record break murders. We're on track again to, to, uh, to this past Chas this year, you know? And, um, so we, we kept going down there and just, and, and being there and, you know, we rolled in.

At one point, we had this, uh, this family friendly event and we had 13 different, uh, police stations and Sheriff's office, uh, constable's offices in the Austin metroplex area. And, uh, we probably had, uh, probably at our peak, probably about six, 700 people that were out. And you're talking about moms with mini bands and all, and we would go like to the Sheriff's.

Office, you know, like I said, it was, uh, it split between two counties, the Northern counties, you know, the Williamson counties, man, all the moms came out with their kids. We had St Michael's pins and we would give 'em to the kids, explain what they were. And then they would go up to the office for say, give it to 'em in super friendly event.

All weekend went great. The very last stop was Austin police department and the, uh, the micros brigade, the Antifa BLM. These are the, these are the violent crew of, of them. You know, they're the ones that get busted in from Portland and Seattle. And they have their group of agitators that that will start, you know, the violence, they will start, uh, the, the DeBary and then they count on, uh, on that, uh, on that gang mentality, you know, the right, the crowd mentality to take over because the majority, I would say six, 70%, 80% of the guys that were out there protesting were protesting 10, you know, 15, 20% of them were RS.

But the reason that the, the rest of them became. Is because these guys would instigate something and the rest of the mob mentality would just would take over. Um, you know, we, we, uh, they, they posted an event called blue lives don't matter. And, uh, they, uh, they, they took an American flag, a blue line flag, much like the one I have up there.

Uh, and they, they. Uh, they put it on the ground and they stomped on it and that they took that and they'd make that their cover photo for Facebook. And, you know, on that post that said, you know, how dare this spiker gang. Come down and take over our turf that we've defended and we've gained their turf was, uh, Austin police department, downtown headquarters.

Like that's what they consider their turf. Um, and we rolled in, in the, uh, the previous stop before that I told all the families, Hey guys, we don't know what, what to expect. So anybody is welcome to not go down there with us. Cause I can't secure anybody's safety. Sure. And uh, of course, you know, the, the families, you know, peel off.

From there, the bikers tripled in size  yeah. Um, and you know, we, we had to do a little misdirection, you know, we posted online that we were taking a different route to downtown in case, you know, they decided to come up in cars and try to crash into us or something. We, we did a little misdirection with them.

Um, we rolled in, we probably rolled in about, I don't know, 200 strong, um, and be marched right up to 'em. All of my guys are under strict, uh, directions. Do not touch them. Do not even Jay. We were gonna follow every law, uh, because we knew that the media was gonna turn on us at one point. We're the media darlings.

When we backed the blue, we became the media enemies and all of a sudden the media flipped on us. You know, they were looking for reasons to, to write bad stories about us. Um, so we didn't even jaywalk. We stayed on the sidewalk, you know, our guys were in. Under instructions, you know, unless you absolutely need to defend yourself, um, then do not touch them.

You let the police department do what they're, what they're doing. Even if they come up and shove you or something, you can take shoving, then let the police do what, do what they did. And they did an incredible job. You know, we, we got up on them. They, uh, the agitators starting in, uh, we out flanked them. Um, which mean we were head to head with them and then we sent people around him.

And once we got around him, they panicked, they didn't know what to do. And that's when they started pushing us and shoving us. And as soon as they did, APD came down and boom grabbed the agitators immediately started arresting him. And, um, about 32 minutes later, we took over that whole area. And then we, uh, we started singing the national Anthem, uh, you know, the home of the brave we pointed at the officers, uh, you know, which it was cool.

It was, uh, there there's, there were several tears from the officers, uh, and that was the first time that they had seen a group come in on their side in about two months. You know, we were the first group that, that. Decided we were gonna go out there. We're gonna stick up and not just say that we're going, that we're going to, you know, we don't just have stickers on our car of hoping that it gives me out of a ticket.

At some point we put our money where our mouth was, you know, and, uh, once the officers arrested the, uh, the agitators, the rest of the kids, cuz really they're, they're lost kids. They, uh, they just kind of became the shovel. You know, they, they didn't even know what to do at that point, you know, and I actually up ended up having a good conversation with, uh, with their leader there.

Um, and, and just asked them, you know, questions, you know, they, they said, you know, they, uh, these powerful corporations are evil and all this I'm like, well, you know what a powerful corporation is BLM. They've made hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet if you get arrested, they're not bailing you out. , you know, so we, we ended up having good conversations with them.

And then from that point, we would show up at all of their event. And to the point where, uh, that same, that same gentleman, uh, ended up calling me and saying, Hey, we need to call a truce. And I said, what, why do you guys want a truth for? And he said, quite frankly, we used to be able to pull in a couple hundred people.

And now it's hard to pull in 15 to 20 because nobody wants to fight the bikers. Granted. We've never touched any of these guys. Um, but you know, these kids say they be, you know, you will, um, you know, F around and find out and be, you know, be tough talkers online. But when you come up face to face with the keyboard, warrior mentality goes away.

And if they know that the cops aren't there to protect them, the cops that they hate aren't. They're to protect them. It's like their world starts unraveling. It doesn't make sense. And we would ask, 'em like, let's go around the corner. If you wanna, if you want a mouth out where the cops are not, which is the world that you want, you know, we weren't really gonna take 'em around the corner, but we wanted to put that in their head that if you hate these guys so much, why won't you leave their side?

You know, because they're here to protect you as well. Right? Right. And, uh, yeah, it got to the point to where, you know, we call the truce. We told 'em not to hurt officers, not to hurt the public and not to destroy our community. And they kept it clean for about three weeks to a month until they attacked a, uh, a reporter.

Um, and when they attacked the reporter, I contacted him and said, Hey, we're no longer gonna be on the defense and we're gonna be on the offenses. So whatever you have at a, an event, we will, we are gonna go and crash. Every single one of your events word got out and they ended up disbanding and that started leading to the.

It's in the Austin area. That's, that's probably the, the hottest story that people ask about is the, uh, the, how the riots happen and how they, you know, how they. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's still hauled out here. Right. That's certainly a very interesting story. And, uh, you know, it's, it's kind of, it's courageous on your guys' part to, to go down there and to, to stick up for the officers and, and show that they're not.

And. You know, put yourself in that situation where something could happen, you know, and that's, and not a lot of people want, want to do that. And not a lot of people want to, you know, they, they wanna show their support maybe sometimes to the officers, but physically coming down there to show their support is a lot different than, you know, like you said, a sticker and stuff like that.

That's, that's completely different. And I as go.

Oh, no. Um, I was gonna say the, um, one of the things that we we learned is, you know, we weren't really, we weren't a political group. Um, but what, what those, uh, what the riots and all that taught me was that we needed to get political. We needed to start creating a way, uh, To influence city council to influence the mayors, the county commissioners.

Um, because you know, if, if you really wanna protect the blue, you'll start from the bottom up. You know, we, we always say, you know, we're about to feet on the streets, not the brass in the seats because when the brass in the seat tells us, tells me not to go someplace, uh, but the office. Would like us to be there.

We're gonna be there, you know? Cause I don't report to, to the mayor, to the city council, they do, you know, that's what we say. We're about to brass, you know, about to feet on the street, not the brass, the seats. However, you know, we, we do wanna work with them, but we understand the pressures that they're, that they're, uh, they're under.

So therefore we started, um, started getting a little smarter, little more tactical, you know, we, uh, we started creating, uh, these Facebook groups that were centered around bringing. People that back the blue. And now, while you may not be able to go out there physically, you know, you don't have 1500 bikers, that'll back.

You, you know, I travel to my own small army. Um, and, and I understand people that wanna back the blue, you know, they, they may not be in that situation, but what they do have is a vote. Every American has a vote and we got, I got very good. At collecting these people, you know, in these areas and, uh, creating these Facebook groups and they understand what we need to do is go out and vote because once we can get rid, rid of, or back the correct politicians, the right judges, right.

City, council, people, the right mayors, uh, the right county commissioners, um, the right district attorneys, then we can truly protect the blue, you know, because then we start protecting from the top down. Right. Right. You know, and here, you know, Here. We are a group of bikers and I, uh, we have about eight, 9,000 voters in this area in about, of those about 85% of them go out and vote.

You know, you can have 10,000 people that follow you. Sure, sure. But out of those 200 of 'em are gonna go out and vote. Ours are very, very heavily motivated and while. 8,000 people, 8,000 votes may not mean a lot in a national election for a statewide election in a local regional election that a fraction of that can mean the difference between gaining, uh, an election or losing it.

So like in Williamston county, we've gotten very good at, um, at keeping Austin out of it. I created a page called a media page call. Don't ask them, I will go my Williamson county. Um, and we've been very good at backing the correct, uh, you know, the. The correct politicians to be out there that will back the blue.

And I'm very vocal when they don't, you know, I will go to the county commissioner's court and they all understand, you know, you want our endorsement, this is what it's gonna take. And it was the riots that taught us that, you know, I never really wanted to get into poli. I, I really didn't know anything about politics.

Yeah. But now there probably isn't a mayor or a city Councilman or a county commissioner anywhere in this metroplex doesn't know exactly who I am and who our club is, uh, that doesn. Ask us for our endorsement, you know? And it's because the people that back the blue, it's what we call them. You know, we'll, we'll do the physical stuff, but more importantly, you guys need to be there to cast your vote, to cast your vote for the people that are gonna back the blue and this way, these guys are protected.

And we don't put up with the shenanigans that happen in Austin. Yeah. So that takes some education though, that takes some education on your part on, on who to back, because. As we all know, media will lead us to the stray, I guess, is the easiest way to put it. They're not telling the truth. Um, definitely not telling the truth more often than not.

I feel like when it comes to things like this, when it comes to the rights and, uh, such, so I feel like, you know, they're constructing it to. RI people up or head 'em in a certain direction, because more news like that creates more news and just continues down a road that spirals down into what we had in a bunch of riots.

So, you know, that's gonna take some education on your club's part to educate people and truly hood to back because most people show up to vote and just look at names and just like, ah, that sounds good. That sounds good. That sounds good. And just check boxes. So is that through those groups or you're being able to yeah, very true.

That's spread that. Yeah, very true. Um, you know, and, and that's, uh,

through our, through our, um, our pages and our groups, you know, we have been pretty good about doing that. You know, I, I attend the, uh, political discussions, uh, you know, of course we, we tend. Tend to, to follow inside, not all the time, but, uh, a lot of the times we tend to follow inside with the, uh, police associations, who they tend to back.

Right. Uh, you know, will pay special attention to the, to the candidates that they back, uh, you know, and we're, we're pretty close with the different, uh, uh, departments around this area and the Sheriff's. Office, you know, uh, at one point during the riots, the, uh, county commissioner's court of Williamson county defunded, their Sheriff's department, a million dollars in tactical gear.

Now it's the million dollars that was free to the taxpayers. It came from the us government, from the department of defense in, uh, free tactical gear, uh, the, uh, county judge. Judge bill Gravelle out here. He reached out to an officer who knew me and asked if, uh, if I'd go cause the vote was, uh, three to two to defund and asked if I go speak and, you know, we did.

And, uh, and it was during two of their elections and two of the, two of the people that, that, uh, that elected the defund, uh, they were up for, for votes. So that's all I said was, um, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm here to see one thing on the agenda item a day, whether you're gonna fund or defund and it's gonna. Hard to explain to a family why their loved one is dead because the officer could not see at night without the night, night vision, uh, equipment, whether the person had a gun or a cell phone on their hand, and that blood's gonna be on your hands.

And I just need to see which, which way we're gonna, we're gonna swing our voters. And not only did, did, uh, they overturned their decision. They overturned it unanimously, which is from what I understand that hadn't happened in the history of Williams county. Um, you know, so it was, it was a really cool feeling to.

To know that we came from just a group of social bikers to, uh, um, to wheel the kind of influence that, you know, that makes, you know, even them with their, you know, politicians to a point are greedy. Um, you know, they wanna be elected, you know, and I don't say greed is about. I I say, you know, I, I wanna, I wanna continue to do this.

You know, I'm greeting that point. Um, but I understand their greed, their greed is to get elected and, you know, I can feed into that greed or I can feed into their opposition. And because I am very, very honest with our followers. I mean, I call it like, I see it. And people go like, why don't you. Run for office.

Uh, because then I can't say what I wanna say.  um, and, and I do, I mean, I, I call it, like, I see it. I call out the, yeah. I call out the politicians on their BS, you know, and, and I don't care. I don't have nothing to lose. Like I said, I don't answer to anybody. You know, I, I own my own businesses, so I don't have, uh, a base that the Antifa guys can kind of.

Go after they can't get me fired, you know, I own my own businesses. So, you know, so be it. And, uh, you know, that's, uh, it's, it's just been a, it's been weird and it's been very cool to be known, uh, for what we truly believe in, you know, which is back in the blue. And, and of course, back in our military as well, you know, we, uh, in 2000 thousand 19, we attended every single unaccompanied veteran funeral that there was out here.

Uh, you know, and we currently, when there's a law enforcement funeral, we, we will attend those as. Well, we'll, we'll try to, uh, ride up front. We put our, uh, we have bikes with flags up. Um, you know, we pay our respects, you know, I, I own a limo company, so I donated, I don't make the limos to any officers who's who are, who have fallen.

Um, if they don't, if the funeral home doesn't have a limo service, I will donate it gladly for, for officers of. You know, officers that have that, that have fallen that have served. Yeah. That that's awesome. There needs to be more businesses stepping up like that to, to support them. It's uh, yeah, very D very difficult time, you know, like, yeah.

They'll give, they'll give discounts. Uh, yeah. A lot of businesses give discounts, uh, as a marketing ploy, you know, I, I do it because it's what I believe in. It's a thank you, you know, for, for your service. So, you know, we have. We have, uh, a, uh, program called heroes night out where we donate a li night, uh, a weekday li night to a first responder nurse doctor, someone who the public has, uh, has nominated that have gone above and beyond.

Uh, maybe a teacher that stays after school and helps your kid. You know, we do that with the funding of. Our regular business, you know, it's just our way to give back to the community. But I would say about 90% of those, uh, of those nights are given to first responders. Yeah. That's a cool, that's a cool thing to do.

Show a little love, right? Yeah, absolutely. , there's a lot, there's a lot of people who need that and that little, extra bit of kindness goes a long way. And then, you know, showing somebody, you know, given that li for the night shows 'em that they're appreciated. I, I think that makes someone want to even work harder in the community to be that, you know, that good example.

Yeah.

As a yeah. And, uh, you know, like in Austin there, uh, we ended up I'm sorry, go ahead. No, go, go ahead.

Oh, yeah, no. Um, saying like in, in, uh, the fight still continues even after the, uh, the, the riots have subsided, you know, during the riots, uh, Austin elected a very, very liberal and socialist district attorney by the name of Jose Garza, which dropped hundreds of cases against the rioters yet went after nine.

19, uh, Austin officers, uh, for exec excessive force. Like he can't even tell you which officers did what, but he indicted 19 of them. He's been caught and he's had to drop cases because he's withheld, uh, he's withheld evidence from the grand jury because the media will bury officers with an indictment.

What people don't understand is it doesn't take anything TOIC anybody, you know, it's a far cry from a conviction, you know, that's uh, so like the, the, uh, the sure is for the 19 strong, uh, the 19 officers, AP officers that were indicted, you know, it's a difference, there's a thin line between ordering chaos.

Yeah. You know, um, you know, so. Our five continues to this, to this point, you know, with the district attorney's office, um, with the city of Austin right now, they're going through contract negotiations with, uh, with APD and the, the Antifa group, Austin Justice coalition has the, has the, the ear, the mayor.

And, you know, they're the ones that led the B funding. Uh, the, the defunding, uh, policies that have led to 89 murders last year, uh, and they show up to the contract negotiations and it's pretty shocking that, you know, it, they're not even so much arguing the financial part of, you know, uh, of increasing their pay, what they want, uh, the officers to give up is their freedoms, um, freedom against self-incrimination.

Um, they wanted to give, they wanted. Officers to force them without an attorney present into, uh, into making statements. Um, we wanted them to give up the, uh, the, uh, the G nine file so that they could just make accusations, you know, and even though the accusations were, are unfounded, you don't have to put your name into, make an accusation against an officer.

Uh, well, this is what they wanted. Um, you could just do a, you can, uh, make accusations anonymously and not have to even say, you know, who, you know, uh, The officer wouldn't have a right to face their accuser, which is a constitutional right. Um, the officer would have to make a statement without legal representation.

They could not plead the fifth, which is a constitutional right. Uh, and then the files because of accusations, what they wanted them to go public. So that. In the news, they can go like, well, this officer has been, has had 38 complaints filed against them, uh, yeah. Anonymously by this group that is in that business.

And then they'll, they'll run into the media and the headlines of the newspapers, 38 officer has 38 complaints against them all and founded because these people are coordinated that way and they fight like, that's how they fight. They fight anonymously. They, because they will not leave their side when we're.

Against them, you know, face to face and they, they realize, well, we need the cops to, and that really that's what starts getting in their head. Yeah. Yeah.  giving up your rights that you, they want in your career field. They want someone to give up their rights. You know, I like, I don't understand that. Why would it be fair for officers to give up their rights that these are the rights that they're protecting?

The citizens to give them those rights.

Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and, and unfortunately the majority of the citizens are, are tired of what goes on, but when it comes time to vote, they don't get up. They don't go and cast their, their votes, you know, to say enough is enough. Know, and it we're, I think it's still, you know, we're still the silent majority, um, you know, not so much in Williams county, but in Travis county, you know, where  is, is, is, you know, we, we are, we are the silent majority and the news won't carry that, that message, the news won't carry the message of, of, uh, the victims of the 89 murders that accused.

Um, they won't run the story of a criminal who was caught for, um, like we just had a conviction. Of a, of a brutal rapist and kidnapper. Um, one of the officers on scene said that there's so much blood from the victim that it's soaked through one side of the mattress and onto the other, got a conviction.

The district attorney gave him 10 years probation and it actually deferred a ju. Notification so that after 10 years it gets wiped off its record, but you don't see the media going out and interviewing the victim because that would cause an uproar that would cause you know, the silent majority to not be silent anymore, you know?

Right. So the media, the media's, you know, they're, they're in cahoots with them, you know, they're, they're culpable, they're, you know, the blood. Is on their hands too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely part is your association of group, you know, what, what was the main reason that you decided to be more of a social group and allow a lot of other people into your group where other clubs may not be like that?

Um, the politics, uh, we didn't wanna have to deal with the politics of, uh, of motorcycling, uh, in the. Cycle world, uh, community typically, uh, every state has a, uh, a one percenter club. One percenter are the outlaw groups, um, that control those states. And, you know, you have to, for example, if you want to ride around without getting any trouble, you have to get sanctioned by a sanctioning by.

Um, which is basically asking, asking permission from the, you know, the top group, which is, you know, your outlaw groups, uh, asking for permission to even ride as an MC, unless you're an L E EMC, a law enforcement motorcycle club. But then again, it also comes with the EMC at the end, the motorcycle club, which, which means that there's a lot of rule.

There's a lot of structures, a lot of rules to it, you know, like women can't be a part of it, um, in, we, we didn't, and then being. L E EMC that immediately puts you at odds against the one percenters. Well, we didn't, we didn't care about that. About those politics. We, we have nothing against any one percenter group out our group against any other, um, whatever the L EMCs have against the one percenter group.

That's that's their business. You know, we, we just got together to ride and we found a common pause. And it it's just it's happened organically where, because of the thing we've just reacted to, what's happened to community organically based on what we believe in, you know, we, I, I turned down three to four, um, asks a week for help for something, raise money for one thing or another.

And, and you know, what, why I feel bad about not being able to help somebody with a brain tumor, you know, race funds for whatever. Um, we can't cuz it doesn't come down to our core value. Sure. You know, we have to remain razor for focused on our core values, which is law enforcement and military support.

And even beyond that is social writing is going out and writing for whatever reason. Cause we have 1500 plus members. Um, you know, some of the members come in and you know, they, they don't care about the military side. You know, they care about law enforcement. Some people don't care about law enforcement.

They care, care more about the military side. Some of 'em just come in because they just wanna socialize. They want a group of friends that come in with no politics in the MC world. Yeah. You know, they don't wanna, we don't have to worry about, you know, what patch or you know, who, who, who do you support?

You know, do you support these, this colors or these colors? We don't, we support the blue line in, in the green line. Yeah. And that's, that's, that's where we stay. That. That's why we've chosen to be a social writing club and not an MC. Yeah. I think that there's a lot of value to that because of like, you know, allowing a lot more people in, you know, I, I, I get that like the social wise, you know, you wanna be with a common core of people that have the same, the beliefs as you.

That's why you have groups of friends and that's why you go and socialize. So this is just one more way of having a common group to like get together, socialize and do some good at the same time.

Yep. And I, and I, yeah, we, we continuously get asked for, um, I'm sorry, go ahead. Go ahead. Finish. There's a little bit of lag on our audio. So go ahead. Yeah, I was gonna say we, uh, we continuously get asked  yeah, we continuously get asked for, uh, you know, whenever we don't have chapters in a certain area. Yeah.

Um, you know, with our media presence, we typically will get an ask about starting a chapter in that area because people believe what we believe. And that's really what it takes is you believe what we believe believe, and you do, you relate to our core values, um, our core values and belief systems, you know, which is on our website and on our social media sites.

Um, and people. We'll open up because there's nothing like, like what we have in, you know, in Minnesota or Florida or wherever. Uh, so people get together and they wanna support the group. They want the base foundation for it, you know? So you know, that, that's how we grow, you know? And in podcasts and this like, like your show, it, it helps us find like mind individuals that believe what we believe.

And then we get to open up another chapter and they grow the, the local law enforcement, local first responders, local, uh, veterans know that. Have a group of support that's growing out there. Yeah. And, and, and it's a great way to, to show support. Right? Get, yeah, like you said, get out there and get some, you, you can socialize, but you could also go out there and ride your motorcycle and, you know, get that wind in your face and that freedom, you know, when you're, you're writing and support.

Great. Cause at the same time. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Louis, how do people find you so they can go to your social media and webpages to support you? Um, easiest way is, uh, let's see right here, uh, WTF first, uh, wtf.com, uh, is our website. And then from there you can link onto our, our, uh, Social media, uh, pages on, uh, mainly on Facebook.

Uh, we have, uh, a public page, which you can like, or if you are a writer, then you can, uh, join the club page. Uh, and there's a few questions on there. Uh, and those, those are for the riders. Um, and, um, on our website, it has all my contact information, phone number. Uh, email's interested in opening up a, a local chapter wherever they're at, by all means, send me an E shoot me an email, or, or even better just gimme a call.

Um, and we, we can. Uh, you know, growing, growing our, our, our chapter out there's as long, as long as you believe what we believe, you know, our core values on our website. Like I said's WTF first.com. Uh, Louis said WTF first.com. It's LS, not L U I S  and yeah, that's, that's, that's mainly to how people can get ahold of us.

Yeah. That's awesome. Any last thoughts of before we end the show today?

No, I mean, I, um, I think I hit the main. Points, you know, and it's this just a takeaway is your vote matters. You know, it, those local races are in one, in a sense can mean a lot more to your daily life or the daily life of the officers. And first responders around. On you than the big national races, you know, so take a look to see who, you know, um, you know, who, who backs civil, you know, even, even your school board, racist, you know, what are they about, you know, and get out and vote, you know, follow if your beliefs are, you know, to, uh, to back the blue, find out, you know, who.

You know who, uh, who those candidates are and back them, if anything, for that main reason, you know, if you, if you don't care about, well, you know, property taxes or whatever, they're pitching , but that's the one core thing that you do value then get out and vote. That is the biggest, that's the biggest takeaway that I can give to anybody from this?

You know, we don't have to be the silent majority. You know, we are the majority and we just have to not let the other side take over and bully us. Um, when it. Close to this so that we can't protect the blue from the top down. Yeah, I like that. That's a great way to end this and that's a great takeaway.

Definitely get out there and vote, get out there and educate yourself. Find the people that back the blue to educate yourself. On, yeah, those little, those little races that mean so much that, you know, over, over time in your community and they do affect your day to day life. I mean, of course the national election that affects our day to day life on a whole nother skill.

But if you start local, then the effect that you really want to have nationally is gonna happen as well.

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being on today. I really appreciate. Mean it's it's uh, it's my pleasure. Thank you for

having me on and, uh, Hey, thanks for all you do to, uh, to support, you know, what the life you lived in the back of blue man. Your show's very important to, I appreciate for, I appreciate you for your efforts. Yeah. Thank you so much. All right, brother. Well, you guys have a good one and.

Like what to hear it from you. Okay. Take care. Okay. Bye. Thanks again for listening. Don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you access your podcast. If you know someone that would be great on the show, please get a hold of our hosts. Jerry Dean Lon through the Instagram handles at Jerry Byron fuel or at end during the badge podcast.

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