Episode 39

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Published on:

28th Jan 2026

Policing in the Age of Viral Video - Power, Perception, and Trust

In this episode of Heroes Behind the Badge, we sit down with Rich Stanek for a candid conversation about policing in the age of viral video—and what happens when the same footage produces radically different interpretations.

  • This is not a breakdown of one incident.
  • It’s a discussion about power, perception, and trust.
  • Why do viral videos shape public opinion so quickly?
  • How do leaders respond when emotion, politics, and public pressure collide?
  • And what gets lost when nuance disappears from the conversation?

Rich shares his perspective on responsibility, leadership, and the difficulty of thinking clearly in moments charged with emotion. The conversation moves deliberately, leaving space for uncertainty instead of easy answers.

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Transcript
Dennis Collins:

That's a pretty heavy word, isn't it?

Dennis Collins:

Unconstitutional.

Dennis Collins:

So I'm gonna ask you, first off, let's get to the high hard one A, a as a person who

Dennis Collins:

has been at the intersection of politics and policing, you've been elected, you've

Dennis Collins:

served as a cop, you've got an interesting perspective, what unconstitutional

Dennis Collins:

behavior has ICE performed in Minneapolis?

Paul Boomer:

This is Heroes Behind the Badge.

Paul Boomer:

Today's conversation isn't about a single moment or incident, it's

Paul Boomer:

about how recent events are being understood, interpreted, and lived with.

Paul Boomer:

As someone who has spent a career inside the institutions now under the most

Paul Boomer:

scrutiny, our guest is Rich Stanek.

Paul Boomer:

What follows is a measured, candid conversation about responsibility,

Paul Boomer:

trust, and how to think clearly when emotions are running hot.

Dennis Collins:

When Craig told me that you were gonna be our guest, I

Dennis Collins:

did my homework and I said, whoa, this is the real deal because you are that

Dennis Collins:

rare guy who sits at the intersection of some very critical issues.

Dennis Collins:

First of all, you were a cop, 20 years Minneapolis cop, but at the same time for

Dennis Collins:

the latter part of your service, uh, at Minneapolis, you were an elected state

Dennis Collins:

legislature legislator in Minnesota.

Dennis Collins:

I think you served, uh, three terms, four, five terms.

Rich Stanek:

Yeah,

Dennis Collins:

Five terms, five terms, and, and then of course,

Dennis Collins:

later on, you ran for Sheriff and one, uh, sheriff of Hennepin County.

Dennis Collins:

That's the county that, uh, min, uh, Minneapolis resides in.

Dennis Collins:

And I believe you had three terms there, 12 years as Sheriff of Hennepin.

Dennis Collins:

So, uh, you sit at a very interesting place because what we

Dennis Collins:

are seeing in Minneapolis is toxic.

Dennis Collins:

It's toxic, mostly because from what we see in the media, the so-called

Dennis Collins:

"leaders" have made inflammatory remarks, particularly Mayor Frey.

Dennis Collins:

He suggested that the activities of ICE were unconstitutional.

Dennis Collins:

That's a pretty heavy word, isn't it?

Dennis Collins:

Unconstitutional.

Dennis Collins:

So I'm gonna ask you, first off, let's get to the high hard one A, a as a

Dennis Collins:

person who has been at the intersection of politics and policing, you've

Dennis Collins:

been elected, you've served as a cop, you've got an interesting perspective.

Dennis Collins:

What unconstitutional behavior has ICE performed in Minneapolis?

Rich Stanek:

Well, that's a great, uh, question, Dennis and others, you

Rich Stanek:

know, my seventh grade nun, uh, sister Benita from Holy Cross, who had a

Rich Stanek:

huge influence on my life and career, told me, if you're not part of the

Rich Stanek:

solution, you're part of the problem.

Rich Stanek:

And that clearly defines, uh, Mayor Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis, as well as

Rich Stanek:

Tim Walz, the Governor of Minnesota.

Rich Stanek:

And, you know, politics aside, I don't, I, I, you know, I just don't see it.

Rich Stanek:

I mean, people can see this video, right?

Rich Stanek:

That's the best.

Rich Stanek:

That's the best visual image there is.

Rich Stanek:

They see it with their own eyes, and four people can see it, and five people walk

Rich Stanek:

away with different interpretations of it.

Rich Stanek:

And what did they see?

Rich Stanek:

What did they not see?

Rich Stanek:

So who's influencing 'em at the end of the day?

Rich Stanek:

Uh, the media, the elected officials, their friends, their

Rich Stanek:

neighbors, they know what they see.

Rich Stanek:

'cause that doesn't lie, but it's how they interpret it.

Rich Stanek:

And I, you know, I've watched a video from a number of different angles.

Rich Stanek:

The one I saw come out on Friday afternoon after the Wednesday

Rich Stanek:

afternoon, tragic shooting of Ms.

Rich Stanek:

Good, released by Jonathan Ross's, uh, cell phone as he was walking around

Rich Stanek:

the car, filming the car, filming the license plate, filming the occupants.

Rich Stanek:

I think that's probably the best video that we have.

Rich Stanek:

Yes, it's of the tragic interaction that led to her death and all the turmoil

Rich Stanek:

since then, but it didn't start just with Jonathan Ross and Renee Good.

Rich Stanek:

This has been going on and boiling for quite

Dennis Collins:

Yes.

Dennis Collins:

For a long time.

Rich Stanek:

Some time, and you're right, I've been right

Rich Stanek:

in the right in the heart of it.

Dennis Collins:

Let me ask you this question, a follow up on that.

Dennis Collins:

How can we, like you say, we all, we can all look at the videos.

Dennis Collins:

We all form some opinions, but how.

Dennis Collins:

Can Frey actually go in the media the day of and say, I watched

Dennis Collins:

the video, and that's bullshit.

Dennis Collins:

How, what does that do to the mentality of the cops in Minneapolis?

Rich Stanek:

Well, honestly, it, and then if you watch videos and,

Rich Stanek:

you know, national news reports following the protests, the civil

Rich Stanek:

disobedience, uh, people's right to congregate and say, we don't like this.

Rich Stanek:

If you've watched it, you'll see them throwing rocks and.

Rich Stanek:

Chunks of ICE and snowballs at the Minneapolis cops, just like they do at

Rich Stanek:

the federal law enforcement ICE officers, they, they don't know the difference.

Rich Stanek:

They don't care what the difference is.

Rich Stanek:

They don't care.

Rich Stanek:

Law enforcement as a whole has been denigrated to such a level

Rich Stanek:

by these elected officials.

Rich Stanek:

They had become the bastards of society, and that is not fair.

Rich Stanek:

That's why Minneapolis can hire back up to a thousand police officers

Rich Stanek:

like they should have at a minimum.

Rich Stanek:

They're still sitting at about five 50, maybe 600 on a good day.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

He

Rich Stanek:

claims

Dennis Collins:

600.

Dennis Collins:

I don't know.

Dennis Collins:

He said chief said 600.

Rich Stanek:

Yeah, when I

Bill Erfurth:

was, there's a, you know, 900.

Bill Erfurth:

That's a good jump in because I think to start this off the, big question

Bill Erfurth:

right here that I'd like to ask, and I'm sure a lot of people are

Bill Erfurth:

interested in, what the hell is it like to be a cop in Minnesota right now?

Rich Stanek:

Well, if you were a police officer in Minnesota, you know, let's

Rich Stanek:

just go back 25 years when, you know, I was in my early thirties and I've

Rich Stanek:

been a Minneapolis cop for 10 years and I was a sergeant on patrol in the

Rich Stanek:

city's neighborhoods in precincts.

Rich Stanek:

We've got four of 'em and I had two young kids at home and a

Rich Stanek:

beautiful wife who worked full-time.

Rich Stanek:

And, you know, I would work the afternoon shift from four at night to two in the

Rich Stanek:

morning, 10 hour shifts and you know, you, you go to work, you're not sure if

Rich Stanek:

you're ever gonna come home at night, uh, or if you're gonna get injured.

Rich Stanek:

I got injured in line of duty like a lot of people do.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, but at least I didn't die in the line of duty.

Rich Stanek:

They are, you know, they go to church on Sundays, they go to the doctor's

Rich Stanek:

office on Monday and Tuesday with their kids or for their annual physical.

Rich Stanek:

They go to the eye doctor.

Rich Stanek:

They see their neighbors out in the yard during the day

Rich Stanek:

when they're mowing the grass.

Rich Stanek:

And everybody's looking at 'em kind of with that jaded eye like, are you friend?

Rich Stanek:

Are you fo?

Rich Stanek:

Never Have you seen where, you know, come on.

Rich Stanek:

I lived in a great neighborhood.

Rich Stanek:

I've lived there for 35 years.

Rich Stanek:

I was born and raised.

Rich Stanek:

In Minneapolis, and then I moved out to the city of Maple Grove, a little

Rich Stanek:

suburb about 15 miles outside the city.

Rich Stanek:

And I liked my neighbors.

Rich Stanek:

We spent a lot of time doing a lot of different things together.

Rich Stanek:

But just think about this, everywhere you go, people are looking at you.

Rich Stanek:

You go to, uh, you go to a birthday party and your family

Rich Stanek:

members want to talk about it.

Rich Stanek:

I have sister-in-laws and brother-in-laws who don't agree, you know, they're

Rich Stanek:

on both sides of this issue.

Rich Stanek:

Just like guns, just like abortion.

Rich Stanek:

Everybody's got an opinion about immigration, legal, illegal.

Rich Stanek:

What can they do?

Rich Stanek:

What can they not do?

Rich Stanek:

But the people who are on the front lines every day are wearing that blue uniform.

Rich Stanek:

Dark blue, light blue, maybe maroona, if you're a state trooper,

Rich Stanek:

maybe brown, some shade of brown if you're a a sheriff's deputy.

Rich Stanek:

Either way, they all look alike and they all get denigrated the same unfortunately.

Rich Stanek:

And you gotta have thick skin, right?

Rich Stanek:

You guys went through this thick skin.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah, I just think, we see what we see on the news, and of

Bill Erfurth:

course it's all, all jaded and slanted.

Bill Erfurth:

And you see this guy that's the mayor of Minneapolis, to me, he's just a

Bill Erfurth:

emasculated, twit, nonsense, right?

Bill Erfurth:

And then I can't help it.

Bill Erfurth:

But from my police experience you see the police chief there now, and

Bill Erfurth:

I know they brought him in from New Jersey, and I know his background.

Bill Erfurth:

He's a liberal dude and everything else, and he just stands there with the mayor.

Bill Erfurth:

He tries to be kind of emotionless from everything.

Bill Erfurth:

I mean, he's been all over the news, but he just comes across as

Bill Erfurth:

like comes the mayor's lap dog.

Bill Erfurth:

And I can tell you as a leader, I supervise countless people over my career.

Bill Erfurth:

You know, if you don't have the respect of the rank and file and, whatnot, the

Bill Erfurth:

morale there, I mean, after watching some of these press conferences and

Bill Erfurth:

the way that the police chief just follows him around, like his puppy

Bill Erfurth:

dog, tell us what you think about that.

Bill Erfurth:

Like what do you know about that police chief?

Bill Erfurth:

What do you know about the morale currently?

Bill Erfurth:

And I, just read somewhere that just with, since this whole incident happened up

Bill Erfurth:

in Minneapolis, that, uh, 18 cops left.

Bill Erfurth:

MPD and became ICE agents.

Rich Stanek:

Yeah.

Rich Stanek:

The rumor is that 24 have, uh, have departed since, uh, this action

Rich Stanek:

started in early December, this surge operation, Metro Surge, and that 18

Rich Stanek:

of 'em have gone to work for ICE.

Rich Stanek:

It's unconfirmed, but you know, then again, there's unconfirmed reports that up

Rich Stanek:

to a hundred Minneapolis police officers just applied for the Family Medical Paid

Rich Stanek:

Leave Act, which says that they can take.

Rich Stanek:

You know, 20 plus weeks off, uh, no questions asked.

Rich Stanek:

They want to get out of there.

Rich Stanek:

That's why you had massive retirements.

Rich Stanek:

There's nobody left from my era.

Rich Stanek:

I'm 63 years old.

Rich Stanek:

There's one guy left, a guy named, uh, uh, commander Zimmerman.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, he's still around after 45 years.

Rich Stanek:

He's just kinda, I, I think he's got something to prove, but,

Rich Stanek:

you know, so he, here we are.

Rich Stanek:

you've got Minneapolis Police, you've got federal ICE officers, they do not talk or

Rich Stanek:

interact, you've got this tragic shooting.

Rich Stanek:

I mean, when, when would you ever have law enforcement agencies

Rich Stanek:

working the same jurisdiction?

Rich Stanek:

the same streets, and they don't talk to each other.

Rich Stanek:

You have a tragic shooting where the ICE officer fatally shoots a resident of the

Rich Stanek:

city of Minneapolis, Minneapolis Police instead of the, um, instead of being

Rich Stanek:

on the inside, looking out, doing the investigation, working with us to find

Rich Stanek:

out what really happened to get the facts.

Rich Stanek:

And, you know, it takes time to gather facts in a fatal shooting.

Rich Stanek:

Instead there from the outside looking in, uh, because their police chief has

Rich Stanek:

said, we don't wanna work with you.

Rich Stanek:

In fact, get the Frick outta Minneapolis.

Rich Stanek:

you got the governor, you know, calling people Gestapo and Nazis.

Rich Stanek:

I'm sorry, but those are, those are fighting words.

Rich Stanek:

We all have friends of different persuasions and

Rich Stanek:

ethnicities and nationalities.

Rich Stanek:

I'm Polish, my wife's Norwegian.

Rich Stanek:

Does that mean we're bad because something my ancestors did

Rich Stanek:

a couple thousand years ago?

Rich Stanek:

I don't think so.

Rich Stanek:

And that's what they face every single day.

Rich Stanek:

And we've got a pretty diverse police force as well, both in

Rich Stanek:

Hennepin County Sheriff's office, as well as Minneapolis Police.

Rich Stanek:

They're treated just as bad as the white Caucasian officers.

Rich Stanek:

The citizens can't tell, won't tell the difference between the two.

Bill Erfurth:

Talk about that leadership though.

Bill Erfurth:

What have you heard about this chief and what have you heard about the

Bill Erfurth:

new sheriff there in Hennepin County?

Bill Erfurth:

What, what's going on with them and their leadership?

Rich Stanek:

Yeah.

Rich Stanek:

Well, you know, leadership starts at the top.

Rich Stanek:

I mean, you've seen Gregory Bovino, the commander of uh, CBP on the ground

Rich Stanek:

every single day with his men and women and leading from the front.

Rich Stanek:

And now you've got, you know, Chief Brian O’Hara who came to town just

Rich Stanek:

after the George Floyd incident.

Rich Stanek:

About 22.

Rich Stanek:

He just got reappointed to a three year term, 25 now 26 to 29.

Rich Stanek:

So that may give you some idea what's been going on the last couple

Rich Stanek:

months in terms of his loyalties.

Rich Stanek:

He likes being the police chief.

Rich Stanek:

He came in after a police chief.

Rich Stanek:

That was also an utter failure during the George Floyd and testified against,

Rich Stanek:

you know, the officers involved, whether right or wrong, But, O'Hara is

Rich Stanek:

caught between a rock and a hard place.

Rich Stanek:

I'm not gonna criticize the police chief 'cause it's a really, a tough

Rich Stanek:

place to be a rock and a hard place.

Rich Stanek:

The Rock is Governor Tim Walz.

Rich Stanek:

The hard place is Mayor Tim Wa uh, Mayor Jacob Frey.

Rich Stanek:

And he's gotta somehow walk that line every single day.

Rich Stanek:

They, he is got 13 council members who make.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, my more liberal friends appear very conservative.

Rich Stanek:

I mean, they are really bad.

Rich Stanek:

Sure.

Rich Stanek:

They're the ones that wanted to defund the police.

Rich Stanek:

They don't like the police.

Rich Stanek:

Their rhetoric is amped up even worse than Walz and Frey.

Rich Stanek:

And so, you know, I told, friends and I would tell Chief O'Hara, when you

Rich Stanek:

get up in the morning, you look in the mirror, you gotta be thinking, what's

Rich Stanek:

gonna hit me between the eyeballs today?

Rich Stanek:

'cause every day it's something.

Rich Stanek:

This has been going on since early December in terms of the metro surge.

Rich Stanek:

Every day he gets up, he's getting phone calls from his command staff, and by the

Rich Stanek:

way, chief O'Hara, it just shook up his command staff over the last week or two,

Rich Stanek:

made a number of significant changes.

Rich Stanek:

No explanation as to why.

Rich Stanek:

Um, what does that tell you?

Rich Stanek:

You know, somebody's gotta take the fall and all they do is push it off.

Rich Stanek:

That's all.

Rich Stanek:

The sheriff is a, is a good person as well.

Rich Stanek:

She, uh, she is, uh, the num, she's the 29th sheriff of Hennepin County.

Rich Stanek:

I was the 27th.

Rich Stanek:

We had 28 in between us and he was an utter disaster.

Rich Stanek:

Got arrested and DUI and rode a squad car and lied to everybody and we, we

Rich Stanek:

don't even, we don't even talk about him.

Rich Stanek:

This sheriff though, uh, does things just a little bit different.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, when I was sheriff, we cooperated with immigration, customs enforcement.

Rich Stanek:

We allowed them to come into the jail if they wanted to look through the roster

Rich Stanek:

in the morning and see who was in custody and they wanted to interview those people.

Rich Stanek:

We allowed that to happen.

Rich Stanek:

If they wanted to facilitate a safe transfer within a custodial

Rich Stanek:

setting, like the jail or the sally port to take them into custody.

Rich Stanek:

We allowed that to happen.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, that stopped when I left office in, uh, early 2019.

Rich Stanek:

Thus we have what we have today, a sanctuary city of Minneapolis,

Rich Stanek:

a sanctuary county of Hennepin.

Rich Stanek:

People say a sanctuary state of Minnesota, although there's many parts of the

Rich Stanek:

state, probably 85 outta the 87 counties.

Rich Stanek:

They don't see it the same way as to two metro counties, Hennepin and Ramsey,

Rich Stanek:

which account for know, probably 65, 70% of the population, unfortunately.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

And I know that this was something that Craig wanted to drill down on and he's

Bill Erfurth:

gonna ask you a little bit more, but when you did say just now about you,

Bill Erfurth:

when you were the sheriff and and allowed immigration to come into the jail and

Bill Erfurth:

whatnot, did you get pushback from the governor's office or the state in general?

Rich Stanek:

Well, here's the beautiful thing about sheriffs.

Rich Stanek:

As you all know, we are elected by the people in the county.

Rich Stanek:

I had 1.3 million bosses every day.

Rich Stanek:

Some that agreed with me, some that didn't agree with me.

Rich Stanek:

Nonetheless, they were my bosses.

Rich Stanek:

And so we did the right thing cooperating with law enforcement, protecting people

Rich Stanek:

in our community, or you know, Kristi Noem or Greg Bovino or Tom Homan to say that.

Rich Stanek:

Minneapolis has released 500 plus murder rapist, kidnappers shooters,

Rich Stanek:

violent, violent gang members back into the community when they could have

Rich Stanek:

facilitated, facilitated a safe transfer to ICE weeks, or weeks, or months ago,

Rich Stanek:

is absolutely outstanding and you gotta look at it and go, why didn't we do that?

Rich Stanek:

Why are we having to stop them on the street and traffic stops or knock on their

Rich Stanek:

door or go into businesses to get them?

Rich Stanek:

that's, you know, that's the, and, and most people, honestly, most residents

Rich Stanek:

in Minnesota, although we live it every single day, do not understand.

Rich Stanek:

What detainers are or aren't, what immigration does or does not do, you

Rich Stanek:

know, they were saying, well, you, if, if ICE comes to your door, don't open it.

Rich Stanek:

They need a warrant and they're not gonna have a warrant.

Rich Stanek:

Well, yesterday you saw ICE doesn't need a warrant.

Rich Stanek:

If you have a, a final order for removal.

Rich Stanek:

They'll just break the door down and people are like, whoa, wait a minute.

Rich Stanek:

You can't do that.

Rich Stanek:

yes you can.

Rich Stanek:

The federal courts have said they can.

Rich Stanek:

And so you've got state courts versus federal courts.

Rich Stanek:

You got my Attorney General in Minnesota, as liberal as they come,

Rich Stanek:

uh, giving advice and guidance suing the Trump administration.

Rich Stanek:

Please don't sue 'em on my behalf.

Rich Stanek:

I'm not, uh, I favor, uh, what's happening, not, not the other way around.

Rich Stanek:

Now, the t if you want to talk about the tactics, Craig and

Rich Stanek:

Dennis and Bill of ICE officers.

Rich Stanek:

I get asked all the time.

Rich Stanek:

Look, are ICE officers, police officers?

Rich Stanek:

Yes, they are.

Rich Stanek:

They receive similar or the same training as local Minneapolis

Rich Stanek:

Police or Hennepin County Sheriff's Deputies or Minnesota State Troopers.

Rich Stanek:

They go to Glynco.

Rich Stanek:

They get go to the federal law enforcement training center.

Rich Stanek:

They're taught use of force.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, they abide by the Constitution.

Rich Stanek:

They have the same rules and policies as we do, although

Rich Stanek:

they work for a different boss.

Rich Stanek:

That being the Department of Homeland Security under President Donald

Rich Stanek:

Trump, just like my deputies worked for Chief Deputy Mike Carrolson,

Rich Stanek:

under the control of Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek, or Chief Brian

Rich Stanek:

O'Hara under the Mayor Jacob Frey.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, that's the only difference with all this.

Craig Floyd:

Rich, the, oli politicization of law enforcement.

Craig Floyd:

This is a big issue.

Craig Floyd:

We've talked about it on this show before.

Craig Floyd:

Um, you've got a Portland police chief who sheds tears when he talks

Craig Floyd:

about two, um, TDA members, gang members being arrested and, and being

Craig Floyd:

shot by, uh, border patrol agents.

Craig Floyd:

Um, you have a sheriff.

Craig Floyd:

In Philadelphia who, threatened ICE agents, if they come into

Craig Floyd:

Philadelphia, they're gonna be arrested.

Craig Floyd:

The district attorney did the same thing.

Craig Floyd:

and you've discussed the situation in Minneapolis.

Craig Floyd:

We're seeing it in Chicago.

Craig Floyd:

We're seeing it in so many of the major cities.

Craig Floyd:

What, what is your view in this?

Craig Floyd:

ha have things changed much since you were a sheriff in Hennepin County?

Craig Floyd:

Did you have the same kind of, interference from your political leaders?

Craig Floyd:

Did you, you were president of the major County Sheriff's Association.

Craig Floyd:

Obviously you saw what was happening across this country 10, 20 years ago.

Craig Floyd:

Have things gotten that bad that, uh, we're having the mayors and the governors

Craig Floyd:

and, and the president and everybody dictating, you know, the, uh, the way law

Craig Floyd:

enforcement occurs and, really encouraging a lot of the citizens to resist if they

Craig Floyd:

don't like a particular law, simply impede the enforcement of that law.

Craig Floyd:

Simply resist if somebody tries to enforce that law on you.

Craig Floyd:

Don't comply.

Craig Floyd:

And I mean, isn't this what's created this very dangerous,

Craig Floyd:

this very volatile situation that this country's in right now?

Rich Stanek:

I think if you drill down even further, you will find that

Rich Stanek:

if you look at major city chiefs.

Rich Stanek:

You know, many of those chiefs are really good.

Rich Stanek:

They're men and women who serve their communities.

Rich Stanek:

But if you look at the cities that have major city chiefs, they're their largest

Rich Stanek:

cities in the United States, about 75 of them in their organization, including

Rich Stanek:

Minneapolis, who's not a major city by any means of the definition, other than their

Rich Stanek:

grandfathered in over the last 30 years.

Rich Stanek:

But those cities are controlled by.

Rich Stanek:

Liberals and the concentration of power is tremendous.

Rich Stanek:

Again, you just look at what happens and I'll just give

Rich Stanek:

myself, you know, as an example.

Rich Stanek:

'cause that's best case.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, when I ran for reelection in 2018, I have 1.3 million residents in my county.

Rich Stanek:

I won 45 of the 40.

Rich Stanek:

I won 46 out of the 47 cities in my county by the election numbers,

Rich Stanek:

by the sheer number of votes I lost because of the city of Minneapolis.

Rich Stanek:

And even then I won four out of the 13 precincts in the city of

Rich Stanek:

Minneapolis, and I still lost an election by 500 some votes when there

Rich Stanek:

were about 600,000 people who voted in my little sheriff election in 2018.

Rich Stanek:

That concentration of power and who votes how they vote,

Rich Stanek:

are they even legal to vote?

Rich Stanek:

There's no, you know, there's no accountability.

Rich Stanek:

I mean, you know, I contested the election for a period of time, but

Rich Stanek:

we don't have provisional ballots.

Rich Stanek:

Like, God bless these people in Florida.

Rich Stanek:

They have them.

Rich Stanek:

Which means when you vote, uh, your vote is set aside and

Rich Stanek:

if it's valid, it's counted.

Rich Stanek:

If it's not, they'll go back in and look at Dennis Collins and say,

Rich Stanek:

uh, your vote is null and void.

Rich Stanek:

In Minnesota, they don't have Rich Stanek name on my ballot.

Rich Stanek:

So when I vote and put it in the box, it's gone.

Rich Stanek:

If I say, well, wait, Rich Stanek was is dead, or he's a felon, or he

Rich Stanek:

was illegal to vote, uh, well show me which one was Rich Stanek's ballot.

Rich Stanek:

They can't do it.

Rich Stanek:

So their only recourse then is to redo the entire election.

Rich Stanek:

Oh, I'm sorry.

Rich Stanek:

But that's, that's a lot of cost, time and effort.

Rich Stanek:

And so every place in this country is a little bit different.

Rich Stanek:

We issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants in Minnesota, and most people

Rich Stanek:

would agree, that is not a good idea.

Rich Stanek:

That's your ticket to get onto an airplane.

Rich Stanek:

It's your ticket to get into all kinds of things.

Rich Stanek:

They wanna drive, drive, I don't care, but don't issue 'em photo id, that's,

Rich Stanek:

valid for all kinds of other things.

Rich Stanek:

And that is part of the problem.

Rich Stanek:

You forgot, Bill, that when I I served in the legislature, I left there to

Rich Stanek:

go to work for my governor as this Commissioner of Public Safety and

Rich Stanek:

Director of Homeland Security, and I spent a couple years doing that.

Rich Stanek:

So, you know, I looked at law enforcement from the local level with

Rich Stanek:

Minneapolis Police, the state level as the Commissioner of Public Safety.

Rich Stanek:

And then back, uh, in the county as the sheriff of Hennepin County.

Rich Stanek:

I had a pretty good.

Rich Stanek:

Purview of what was happening both politically, strategically,

Rich Stanek:

I understood law enforcement.

Rich Stanek:

I would argue that just like all of you today, you know, being retired

Rich Stanek:

for several years and working in a nationwide consulting group.

Rich Stanek:

11 of us we're more engaged today than we were when we

Rich Stanek:

were working in some respects.

Rich Stanek:

'cause we can focus on what's important and what's interesting to us and weigh

Rich Stanek:

in and have an influence like this.

Rich Stanek:

I've commented a number of times about what's happening in Minnesota

Rich Stanek:

since December 1st with this operation Metro Surge with, you know,

Rich Stanek:

the ICE and immigration efforts.

Rich Stanek:

But that's 'cause they trust what we say and most people just want it broken down

Rich Stanek:

to something they can actually understand.

Rich Stanek:

Unfettered nonpolitical, just tell us like it is.

Rich Stanek:

You see it with your own eyes.

Rich Stanek:

What does that mean,?

Rich Stanek:

Interpret it for us.

Bill Erfurth:

Absolutely.

Bill Erfurth:

And you say you, you see it with your own own eyes and it's kind of eyes wide

Bill Erfurth:

open about, you know, the fraud and the, the Somali community and the, and the

Bill Erfurth:

amount of crime that's going on there.

Bill Erfurth:

And so you've seen it through, uh, the law enforcement perspective as a

Bill Erfurth:

sheriff, legislatively, you've seen it.

Bill Erfurth:

Going back to when you were sheriff, how long has this been going on and, and

Bill Erfurth:

what was your experience with it overall?

Rich Stanek:

Well people say, "well, all Somalis are bad." All Somalis are not bad.

Rich Stanek:

All African Americans are not bad.

Rich Stanek:

All Pollocks are not bad.

Rich Stanek:

I mean, you know, pick, pick whatever nationality you want.

Rich Stanek:

people have their way and they're mean and nasty about it.

Rich Stanek:

That's why I never look at Twitter and I don't look at Facebook.

Rich Stanek:

Why would you want see those comments?

Rich Stanek:

and I don't get my news from them.

Rich Stanek:

But I would say that what we're all forgetting is how we got to this place

Rich Stanek:

in time in Minnesota, and it's because of the incessant, obscene numbers in

Rich Stanek:

terms of fraud that's been going on.

Rich Stanek:

People say hundreds of thousands, hundreds of millions, billions of

Rich Stanek:

dollars of fraud going out the door over the last 10, 15, maybe 20 years.

Rich Stanek:

All under DFL leadership of Governors.

Rich Stanek:

Not to say it didn't happen before under Republican governors, but that's,

Rich Stanek:

this is when it started to come about.

Rich Stanek:

People started to call attention to it and what did they do?

Rich Stanek:

You just ignored it.

Rich Stanek:

Now you've got Walz and Frey both being subpoenaed by the Department of Justice.

Rich Stanek:

They wanna know what they said when they said how they set it, to, you know,

Rich Stanek:

encourage citizens to act out against ICE.

Rich Stanek:

But I guarantee you they're also gonna look at campaign contributions.

Rich Stanek:

There are a number of people who were indicted here federally for

Rich Stanek:

the fraud that worked for these two men, these two elected officials.

Rich Stanek:

How could that come to be?

Rich Stanek:

You know that if you ran an agency and you had somebody that worked

Rich Stanek:

for you and they got a DUI or domestic assault or something,

Rich Stanek:

they'd immediately be put on leave.

Rich Stanek:

Probably never see the light of date again, at least in your command staff.

Rich Stanek:

That's not the way it is back here in Minnesota.

Rich Stanek:

All they do is just recycle it, hide it, cover it up.

Rich Stanek:

Move on.

Rich Stanek:

People say that Governor Walz loves what's going on with the ICE immigration efforts

Rich Stanek:

because it takes away from all the fraud.

Rich Stanek:

Remember, he stood before a camera two weeks ago and said, eh, I'm not

Rich Stanek:

gonna run for a third term as governor.

Rich Stanek:

It's just, it's too hot, right?

Rich Stanek:

Uh, people are saying, why are you continuing on as our

Rich Stanek:

governor for the next 11 months?

Rich Stanek:

If it's too hot, get out, resign, be done.

Craig Floyd:

Rich.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, switching gears, the, the protests that we've seen, we

Craig Floyd:

saw the same thing after George Floyd died, right in Minneapolis.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, violent protestors, you know, destroying police cars,

Craig Floyd:

throwing, uh, bombs, whatever.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, we're seeing similar things now.

Craig Floyd:

These violent protestors, um, are, are, you know, doing destructive behavior.

Craig Floyd:

Are these homegrown minnesotans?

Craig Floyd:

Um, are they from Minneapolis?

Craig Floyd:

Or are these agitators as some have claimed, that are brought in, uh,

Craig Floyd:

that are trained by leftist groups to basically cause trouble, uh, basically

Craig Floyd:

be anarchist, uh, opposing the law, opposing the government, uh, opposing

Craig Floyd:

those who, uh, enforce the laws?

Craig Floyd:

What is your opinion on that?

Rich Stanek:

Combination of the two?

Rich Stanek:

If you go out during the day, you're gonna find, uh, homegrown.

Rich Stanek:

If you go out at night, take life in your own hands.

Rich Stanek:

Um, the ones that, you know, organically spring up because of an action or

Rich Stanek:

an incident and the neighbors come out of their homes and they're

Rich Stanek:

upset about what's going on, that's organic, but there's no question.

Rich Stanek:

There are paid agitators that come to Minnesota to.

Rich Stanek:

Spice it up a little bit to, you know, get in the face of ICE officers

Rich Stanek:

to obstruct the legal process, to encourage others, to train others.

Rich Stanek:

You know, every night, just about every night there's a couple hundred

Rich Stanek:

people that get together and.

Rich Stanek:

Churches and other meeting places across Minneapolis and learn from others

Rich Stanek:

about how to obstruct ICE operations.

Rich Stanek:

It's ridiculous.

Rich Stanek:

I got better things to do.

Rich Stanek:

I'd rather watch Netflix in the evening than go to a training session on

Rich Stanek:

how to agitate local federal police.

Rich Stanek:

But this is what they do.

Bill Erfurth:

Do you feel that some of this though, you know, I can go

Bill Erfurth:

back to my days working in Miami.

Bill Erfurth:

I was one of, I was a tactical commander and I was also an operational commander.

Bill Erfurth:

And I can tell you that back when we were working there was, uh, there was

Bill Erfurth:

this group, they were called the Black Block or something like that, and the,

Bill Erfurth:

you know, these G seven things they were going to, and they had just come from

Bill Erfurth:

California and they came to Montreal.

Bill Erfurth:

then they came down to Miami and I remember they were all

Bill Erfurth:

screaming and crying because they were like, we've never been.

Bill Erfurth:

So harshly and hard handed, treated like we were in Miami, and you know what?

Bill Erfurth:

It was over in about two hours.

Bill Erfurth:

It was done.

Bill Erfurth:

And I, I think, and I'm sure based on your experience, we're just

Bill Erfurth:

coddling these people too much.

Bill Erfurth:

I mean, at some point the pendulum's got a swing.

Bill Erfurth:

You know, I was in the gym the other day and somebody said to me, why the

Bill Erfurth:

hell aren't they bringing the water can cannons out and just blasting

Bill Erfurth:

the balls off of these people?

Bill Erfurth:

And I said.

Bill Erfurth:

You know, it's this ification, this liberalism, but I agree a hundred percent.

Bill Erfurth:

You know, you bring the, the, you, you wave the air full of pepper spray

Bill Erfurth:

and nail 'em with the water cannons.

Bill Erfurth:

Uh, they're not gonna be coming out there, they're gonna be

Bill Erfurth:

watching Netflix with you.

Rich Stanek:

you know, and it's, it's interesting that, um,

Rich Stanek:

It just does not define Minnesota.

Rich Stanek:

I'm, I'm TI as a lifelong Minnesota resident of 63 years and

Rich Stanek:

I still live in this community.

Rich Stanek:

I'm tired of seeing Minneapolis on the news.

Rich Stanek:

George Floyd, five and a half years ago, annunciation School shooting and even ICE.

Rich Stanek:

This last week, they went to a church to disrupt a church service because

Rich Stanek:

one of the pastors who wasn't even.

Rich Stanek:

Delivering the sermon that morning happens to be the ICE director here in Minnesota.

Rich Stanek:

So therefore they're justified in disrupting a church service.

Rich Stanek:

I mean, there is no sanctity anymore.

Rich Stanek:

If you don't respect yourself, how are you ever gonna respect others?

Rich Stanek:

There's a lot of good people out there that wanna exercise their right

Rich Stanek:

to civil disobedience and, and First Amendment, but when it crosses the

Rich Stanek:

line, they need to be quick and it needs to be tactful and ICE maybe.

Rich Stanek:

You know, maybe they're not the best at doing that, but then again, that's

Rich Stanek:

what the local police are supposed to be doing, working with them when the

Rich Stanek:

local police are nowhere to be found.

Rich Stanek:

It's really tough.

Rich Stanek:

And now that they're there kind of helping them, they've already got, you

Rich Stanek:

know, six weeks head start and now people are getting hurt during these lawful

Rich Stanek:

protests and they're wondering, well, why?

Rich Stanek:

You know, why did you pepper spray me?

Rich Stanek:

Why did you push me back?

Rich Stanek:

why did you detain me?

Rich Stanek:

ICE has been very clear.

Rich Stanek:

They're not gonna put up with it, tolerate it.

Rich Stanek:

They are police officers just like I am.

Rich Stanek:

Just like you are.

Rich Stanek:

You wouldn't tolerate it.

Rich Stanek:

You wouldn't expect your colleagues to tolerate it.

Rich Stanek:

We don't go to work to be punching bags every day and have rocks thrown at us.

Rich Stanek:

That is not the deal.

Rich Stanek:

You want to yell at me and call me foul names.

Rich Stanek:

We'll have at it.

Rich Stanek:

I can take that, but I don't have to be hurt.

Rich Stanek:

And we've got a number of cops who have been hurt some seriously, and

Rich Stanek:

I've got friends who have had rocks upside the head with a helmet on

Rich Stanek:

and it's still dented their head.

Rich Stanek:

and now they've gotta go out injured on duty.

Rich Stanek:

Some never come back to work or their wives say, Hey, or spouses

Rich Stanek:

say maybe you wanna find a different line of work, one that you're gonna

Rich Stanek:

come home every night and be with your kids as they're growing up.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, rightfully so.

Rich Stanek:

Talk guys.

Rich Stanek:

I mean, this is like, this is fascinating.

Rich Stanek:

You guys are doing a really nice job getting.

Dennis Collins:

I'm glad.

Dennis Collins:

I'm glad you brought up.

Dennis Collins:

I'm glad you brought up Rich, the officers.

Dennis Collins:

Because my question goes back now to the climate, the toxicity.

Dennis Collins:

That's being created by the politicians.

Dennis Collins:

Get inside your cop, your cop head, your cop mentality, uh, for

Dennis Collins:

your 20 years, uh, at Minneapolis.

Dennis Collins:

And of course as, uh, sheriff for 12 years.

Dennis Collins:

what do you have to do mentally to police properly enforce the law in this

Dennis Collins:

community when basically your leadership.

Dennis Collins:

Is flaunting the law is challenging.

Dennis Collins:

The law is calling it unconstitutional, disruptive, whatever name you want to use.

Dennis Collins:

what's inside the mind of the average cop?

Rich Stanek:

Remember it's just been, it's just been in the last decade that

Rich Stanek:

we've talked about the health and wellness of our officers, and rightfully so.

Rich Stanek:

We saw a number of them take their own lives and we saw a number

Rich Stanek:

of them go out, injured on duty.

Rich Stanek:

and so we take better care of our officers.

Rich Stanek:

Today.

Rich Stanek:

But you gotta ask, you know, like I said, a a a 27-year-old patrol officer who

Rich Stanek:

spent four years in college has a couple young kids at home trying to raise his or

Rich Stanek:

her family, uh, and they go to work and they go, why am I, why is this like this?

Rich Stanek:

And then they call their mom and dad at night when they get home, and mom and

Rich Stanek:

dad are like, uh, what are you doing?

Rich Stanek:

You know, the wife is like, what are you doing?

Rich Stanek:

And the neighbors are, you know, looking at you with that, uh,

Rich Stanek:

that slanted eye when you're leaving for work in the morning.

Rich Stanek:

It's really, really hard.

Rich Stanek:

And I, I, think, you know, we gotta, we gotta spend a little more time taking care

Rich Stanek:

of the men and women who serve us, just like we take care of the men and women.

Rich Stanek:

Coming home from the military or serving in the military, these cops are not bad.

Rich Stanek:

This is a job.

Rich Stanek:

At the end of the day, it's only a job and you, you have to go to work,

Rich Stanek:

put on a uniform, get in that squad car, drive down that street and

Rich Stanek:

think, well, am I really a bastard?

Rich Stanek:

Am I really the worst thing?

Rich Stanek:

what did I, you know, this isn't what I signed up for.

Rich Stanek:

I signed up to help people, uh, to be their form.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, to be a problem solver.

Rich Stanek:

They don't get to do any of that.

Rich Stanek:

There's no proactive policing going on these days in the city

Rich Stanek:

of Minneapolis or Hennepin County.

Rich Stanek:

It can't.

Rich Stanek:

Narcotics, gangs, you know, uh, chasing down other fugitives have come to a stop.

Rich Stanek:

A hard stop.

Rich Stanek:

If you're the victim of a burglary, do you think you're gonna get a cop to

Rich Stanek:

come out to your house to take a report these days, or theft of your auto, or,

Rich Stanek:

something happened at school with your kid.

Rich Stanek:

It's not gonna happen.

Rich Stanek:

They, the cops don't have the capacity, not the capabil

Bill Erfurth:

capability, the capacity.

Bill Erfurth:

And, you know, blame blame for that though.

Bill Erfurth:

truly you, you're bla you gotta blame the politicians, especially the crazy rhetoric

Bill Erfurth:

coming out of the, the governor's mouth.

Bill Erfurth:

And the, and the mayor.

Bill Erfurth:

But furthermore, it's, it's the media.

Bill Erfurth:

The media is complicit and the media's in bad with the Democrats as far as just.

Bill Erfurth:

Demonizing every, everything that law enforcement does.

Bill Erfurth:

But as cops, we understand that when you're on the front line, you

Bill Erfurth:

literally have your finger on the pulse of the streets of society.

Bill Erfurth:

And having said that.

Bill Erfurth:

And you said earlier, going back rich, that there's a lot of people

Bill Erfurth:

in Minnesota that are pissed about this because if you don't live in the

Bill Erfurth:

metropolitan area, you're probably looking at this like, what kind of

Bill Erfurth:

fucking clown show is going on here?

Bill Erfurth:

This is unbelievable.

Bill Erfurth:

This is embarrassing to us.

Bill Erfurth:

We don't wanna be in the news.

Bill Erfurth:

How's this gonna change?

Bill Erfurth:

Are there enough people in Minnesota that are going to rally together

Bill Erfurth:

outside of the metroplex and elect a conservative governor and

Bill Erfurth:

get rid of some of this lunacy?

Rich Stanek:

Well, this is what I talked about earlier, really tough, right?

Rich Stanek:

We are, uh, nine months away, eight months away from, uh, from a statewide election

Rich Stanek:

where we will be electing a new governor.

Rich Stanek:

Right now, there is not another Democratic candidate out there.

Rich Stanek:

When the governor.

Rich Stanek:

The current governor said he is not gonna run for a third term

Rich Stanek:

because of all this fraud and stuff.

Rich Stanek:

No one has stepped forward.

Rich Stanek:

They are, I think the Democrats are hoping, uh, DFL, Senator

Rich Stanek:

Amy Klobuchar will step in.

Rich Stanek:

she would do a good job, She's been around a long time.

Rich Stanek:

She's beloved by Minnesotas, even though she may be of a different political

Rich Stanek:

party than half of uh, Minnesota.

Rich Stanek:

There are about 26 people on the Republican side running for

Rich Stanek:

governor, although none of 'em have shown up to this point, that they

Rich Stanek:

have what it takes to get it done.

Rich Stanek:

But that's, that's the process they'll be going through.

Rich Stanek:

And they're gonna have to be endorsed by a party, in this case, the Republican party

Rich Stanek:

on the other side, and they're gonna have to swear their allegiance to some values

Rich Stanek:

they may not necessarily believe in.

Rich Stanek:

Or may not have been in their background.

Rich Stanek:

and then, you know, we're gonna have this big election come, uh, come

Rich Stanek:

November, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, whatever that, uh, first Tuesday is in

Rich Stanek:

November 2nd, Tuesday in November, and.

Rich Stanek:

four years ago I ran for governor of the state of Minnesota, right?

Rich Stanek:

I mean, a number of us stepped up and said, things have to change.

Rich Stanek:

You cannot allow this Tim Walz to continue doing was doing that.

Rich Stanek:

Fortunately, I left the governor's race early due to a

Rich Stanek:

very tragic, car crash I had.

Rich Stanek:

I got broadsided at about 60 miles an hour, and, uh, you know, I decided that,

Rich Stanek:

uh, my life and limb were more valuable than running for another elected office.

Rich Stanek:

And here I am four years later, still contributing every day.

Rich Stanek:

In a different way.

Craig Floyd:

rich, um, what is it about Minnesota that you elect?

Craig Floyd:

Um, you elected a, a former wrestler, uh, to be your governor.

Craig Floyd:

You elected a comedian to be your United States Senator.

Craig Floyd:

it just seems that Minnesota comes up with some interesting candidates and

Craig Floyd:

some interesting, uh, politicians.

Craig Floyd:

I, I'm just wondering, you know, why is Minnesota doing this and No, you

Craig Floyd:

don't hear about that in other states.

Craig Floyd:

I.

Rich Stanek:

Minnesota's like the great experiment, right?

Rich Stanek:

I mean, we try all kinds of things.

Rich Stanek:

And honestly, those are, those were third party candidates.

Rich Stanek:

They weren't the mainstream, they were the, the, leftovers.

Rich Stanek:

So you got, you know, Republican democrat, each side gets about 35%

Rich Stanek:

of the vote, just because people are hardcore Democrat, hardcore republican.

Rich Stanek:

The middle 30% are, what are the, uh, you know, the sway voters.

Rich Stanek:

Then if they can draw some from either side, well that's a pretty good deal.

Rich Stanek:

It's just like, Governor Walz, you know, he was gonna run, he had 55% of

Rich Stanek:

the state's population in his corner.

Rich Stanek:

He was gonna get at least 35% for sure.

Rich Stanek:

But as time went on and they saw what was happening with fraud, his

Rich Stanek:

base at 35% base got cut into, and pretty soon it was down to 30 or 25%.

Rich Stanek:

That left it wide open and made it unfeasible for him to

Rich Stanek:

represent the Democratic Party.

Rich Stanek:

And you know, honestly, he's got thin skin.

Rich Stanek:

I mean, if you look at him, if you talk to him, it's not worth,

Rich Stanek:

that's not worth your breath.

Rich Stanek:

You know, I wouldn't cross the street.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, it's just, it, it's not gonna happen.

Rich Stanek:

Um, I've never had a relationship with him, never will not interested in it.

Rich Stanek:

He doesn't like cops.

Rich Stanek:

I'm a cop.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

And, and he's a, he's a buffoon.

Bill Erfurth:

I mean, you just look at him, he's like a, a weak ballish buffoon basically is, is,

Bill Erfurth:

uh, you know, all of us talk about him.

Bill Erfurth:

We in our cop groups and everybody,

Dennis Collins:

Billy has such a way with words, doesn't he?

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

I mean, well, hey, you know, we're, talking cop to cop.

Bill Erfurth:

We're, we're just being real here.

Bill Erfurth:

Right?

Bill Erfurth:

So.

Rich Stanek:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

In, interestingly enough, so you, ran for governor.

Bill Erfurth:

Uh, you don't, I, I guess you're, you're not looking to, to do that again.

Bill Erfurth:

I guess not really, you know?

Bill Erfurth:

No, that's good.

Rich Stanek:

I priorities acres in northern Minnesota on forested

Rich Stanek:

land with a private lake, and I can snowmobile fish hunt.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, I don't have neighbors next door to me.

Rich Stanek:

you know, my kids come up every weekend with the grandkids.

Rich Stanek:

Why would I, why?

Dennis Collins:

What a life.

Dennis Collins:

Let's, uh, let's come up there and join you.

Bill Erfurth:

Can you fill us in?

Bill Erfurth:

Can you fill us in Rich a little bit about the Attorney General?

Bill Erfurth:

So, you know, the Attorney General of Minnesota, he was in Congress

Bill Erfurth:

and I don't recall exactly why, but he had to leave Congress because

Bill Erfurth:

there were some problems there.

Bill Erfurth:

Somehow or another, controversy or or not, he gets elected as Attorney General.

Bill Erfurth:

And so he's in the midst of all this.

Bill Erfurth:

He knows what the hell's going on.

Bill Erfurth:

Right.

Bill Erfurth:

He already dismissed what we talked about, uh, with the disturbance at the

Bill Erfurth:

church is, uh, nothing to see here.

Bill Erfurth:

Uh, and also his son now is involved in politics, I guess in

Bill Erfurth:

Minneapolis, somehow or another.

Bill Erfurth:

And it, it's just kind of interesting, the whole family affair there.

Rich Stanek:

Well, his son is, uh, leaving.

Rich Stanek:

He's, uh, he was an elected city council member.

Rich Stanek:

He still is to be.

Rich Stanek:

Until the end of the year.

Rich Stanek:

And, but he hasn't been around.

Rich Stanek:

He is been over at, uh, Harvard University getting some fellowship.

Rich Stanek:

So he's not even in Minneapolis, but he is collecting her a hundred plus

Rich Stanek:

thousand dollars a year paycheck.

Rich Stanek:

You gotta love it.

Rich Stanek:

And you know the father is.

Bill Erfurth:

Uh, fraudulent as well, right?

Rich Stanek:

Oh yeah.

Rich Stanek:

People say, I mean, you know, uh, you be your own best, uh, judge and then.

Rich Stanek:

You know the father of Keith Ellison, you're right, he was a

Rich Stanek:

member of Congress before that.

Rich Stanek:

He used to serve with me in the Minnesota legislature.

Rich Stanek:

Before that.

Rich Stanek:

I used to see him all the time on the north side of Minneapolis when I was

Rich Stanek:

a patrol officer, and he was a young, attorney trying to make his, uh, his way.

Rich Stanek:

He's been around for a long time.

Rich Stanek:

I've known him for a long time.

Rich Stanek:

Again, what you see is what you get.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, his religious beliefs are not aligned with my Catholic beliefs.

Rich Stanek:

So your Lutheran beliefs or, uh, any of those.

Rich Stanek:

And, you know, he ran into problems in Congress.

Rich Stanek:

He came to Minnesota.

Rich Stanek:

He ran for Attorney General, got elected.

Rich Stanek:

He has no interest in being governor.

Rich Stanek:

He says, uh, I think it was yesterday or the day before.

Rich Stanek:

because who wants to inherit this mess?

Rich Stanek:

I mean, it would just be more of the same.

Rich Stanek:

He's not, he's, like I said, if you're not, if you're not part of the

Rich Stanek:

solution, you're, you are the problem.

Bill Erfurth:

He's part, he's part of the mess.

Dennis Collins:

Well, he's part of the problem.

Rich Stanek:

Yeah.

Rich Stanek:

I think he's created it.

Rich Stanek:

He's created the legal framework for it.

Rich Stanek:

Right.

Bill Erfurth:

He's the Attorney General.

Craig Floyd:

Guys, uh, before we, finish this interview, I, I'm

Craig Floyd:

very interested as a layman not having served in law enforcement.

Craig Floyd:

Let's go back to the Renee Good, shooting.

Craig Floyd:

I'm just, you know, a lot of people say, oh, that was an avoidable tragedy.

Craig Floyd:

Some blame.

Craig Floyd:

Renee Good.

Craig Floyd:

And, uh, the agitators, some blame the ICE agent.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, bill, I want you to comment on this too, but Rich first, you, how

Craig Floyd:

could we have avoided that situation?

Craig Floyd:

I mean, there were so many things that went into that, that led up to it.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, I don't, I don't know that you can nail it down.

Craig Floyd:

And one thing was to blame, but, but talk me through the incident.

Craig Floyd:

What led up to it and, and how could that have been avoided?

Rich Stanek:

Again, residents are entitled to exercise their

Rich Stanek:

first amendment rights and, you know, disagree with public policy.

Rich Stanek:

And, but the rhetoric amped up by the elected officials, as we've just

Rich Stanek:

said, encouraged average residents like Renee Good or her wife.

Rich Stanek:

I say that right, her wife to, uh, I always have to stop

Rich Stanek:

and check, uh, her wife to,

Bill Erfurth:

uh,

Bill Erfurth:

make sure you got those pronouns.

Rich Stanek:

I do, they them, he, whatever she.

Rich Stanek:

But be any good and her wife to, actively engage and resist

Rich Stanek:

and obstruct ICE officers.

Rich Stanek:

And the ICE officers had said, look, we'd seen them for some time

Rich Stanek:

following us around in this case.

Rich Stanek:

They blocked a major intersection, 34th and Portland, I think is the intersection.

Rich Stanek:

Portland's a one way with about five lanes going one direction.

Rich Stanek:

and you know, you can't pull your car across the street and box in local

Rich Stanek:

law enforcement when they're trying to do their job or impede traffic.

Rich Stanek:

Nobody, they're not police officers.

Rich Stanek:

Nobody said, Hey, pull in front, block this car so they

Rich Stanek:

don't get hit by another car.

Rich Stanek:

And the ICE agents finally got fed up with it.

Rich Stanek:

Ross was already outside of his car and he had his cell phone out and he

Rich Stanek:

literally was like this, walking around the car, filming the exterior of the car.

Rich Stanek:

The driver who was Renee Good the license plate in the rear.

Rich Stanek:

He got around to the passenger side and unfortunately got engaged in

Rich Stanek:

a conversation with Good's Wife.

Rich Stanek:

It was a nasty, vulgar conversation on behalf of Good's Wife.

Rich Stanek:

She said something about, Hey, big boy, you want some of this?

Rich Stanek:

I mean, I don't know.

Rich Stanek:

People challenge me like that.

Rich Stanek:

You know what would happen, right?

Rich Stanek:

The gloves would come off and that'd be it, but he continued walking

Rich Stanek:

around the car until we got to the front of the car, the front license

Rich Stanek:

plate, et cetera, and all of a sudden.

Rich Stanek:

There was another ICE, two ICE officers at the, at the driver's

Rich Stanek:

side door talking to good.

Rich Stanek:

One of 'em was reaching into the car, probably trying to either restrain her

Rich Stanek:

hands or turn the car off 'cause she wasn't listening to their commands to

Rich Stanek:

turn out the car and get out of the car.

Rich Stanek:

And she put that car into reverse.

Rich Stanek:

Then she put it in the drive.

Rich Stanek:

She spun her wheels on the ICE.

Rich Stanek:

It was icy L that day.

Rich Stanek:

And then she gunned it forward.

Rich Stanek:

Now, at that time, Ross happened to be standing,

Rich Stanek:

directly in line with the car.

Rich Stanek:

So now the car is coming right at him.

Rich Stanek:

I'm sorry, but whatcha gonna do.

Rich Stanek:

He either kept holding his cell phone or dropped it.

Rich Stanek:

He drew his handgun with his, uh, strong hand, and he fired one

Rich Stanek:

round into the front windshield.

Rich Stanek:

He fired two more rounds as the, you know how this happens, right?

Rich Stanek:

All this happened in a couple split seconds, and that was it.

Rich Stanek:

people say, well, you never got hit by the car.

Rich Stanek:

Depending on what angle you looked at, you could see whether you got hit or not.

Rich Stanek:

Angles, they showed us on TV for the first day.

Rich Stanek:

you, you could not definitively see that he was hit or struck by that vehicle.

Rich Stanek:

Ross's video when it came out two days later on Friday afternoon clearly showed

Rich Stanek:

that he got struck by that vehicle.

Rich Stanek:

Um.

Rich Stanek:

His position.

Rich Stanek:

And people said, well, you're not supposed to be standing in front of cars.

Rich Stanek:

I don't look.

Rich Stanek:

Nobody in their right mind's gonna stand in front of a car

Rich Stanek:

and say, Hey, I'm Superman.

Rich Stanek:

Stop it.

Rich Stanek:

but that wasn't what, that wasn't what he was doing.

Rich Stanek:

Remember the totality of the circumstances, what

Rich Stanek:

was going through his mind?

Rich Stanek:

What was he trying to do?

Rich Stanek:

His interaction was different than the two ICE officers at the

Rich Stanek:

driver's side door talking to Good.

Rich Stanek:

And by the way, when Ross was walking around the car and he had

Rich Stanek:

the interaction with the wife.

Rich Stanek:

The wife said, uh, something about, uh, come get your lunch, big boy or something.

Rich Stanek:

And then she turned around, put her hand on the passenger side door,

Rich Stanek:

tried to get in and said, drive baby.

Rich Stanek:

Drive drive.

Rich Stanek:

And Ms. Good did drive, and maybe she wasn't paying attention.

Rich Stanek:

I don't know what, what was going through her head.

Rich Stanek:

I wasn't there.

Rich Stanek:

But she drove and she struck that officer and he fired his self-defense and.

Rich Stanek:

That's, what happened.

Craig Floyd:

And again, you know, in the first report, I, remember

Craig Floyd:

the initial reports, uh, seemed to indicate that, that Renee Good's wife,

Craig Floyd:

actually blamed herself and was tearful afterwards, uh, when all this went down.

Craig Floyd:

And, because she said drive, baby drive, and because she had agitated, uh, with

Craig Floyd:

the ICE agents, uh, and calls this mayhem.

Craig Floyd:

Um, that she actually blamed herself and, and probably should have, uh, carried,

Craig Floyd:

uh, a lot of the burden, uh, on her own Bill, what do you think about that?

Craig Floyd:

I mean, I, I can imagine,

Rich Stanek:

but you, we've never seen, we've never seen the wife's video.

Rich Stanek:

We've never seen any images from her camera.

Rich Stanek:

She was clearly videotaping Ross.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, none of that's been released.

Rich Stanek:

Why?

Rich Stanek:

Well, if I was an attorney, I wouldn't release it either.

Rich Stanek:

you know, I wouldn't release it either.

Rich Stanek:

It's not gonna be good for her.

Craig Floyd:

What do you think about what went down and, uh, how

Craig Floyd:

you would've handled that situation if you were, uh, agent Ross?

Bill Erfurth:

You know, everything that Rich just said is, is pretty spot on.

Bill Erfurth:

Pretty much what I would've said here, here, here's a little bit

Bill Erfurth:

of a different factor in how.

Bill Erfurth:

We dealt with it.

Bill Erfurth:

some other agencies deal with it.

Bill Erfurth:

You know, the, really unfortunate thing is with the feds, they're a little

Bill Erfurth:

bit hamstrung because they're coming into a jurisdiction or a city where

Bill Erfurth:

they may not have the relationships with the local law enforcement.

Bill Erfurth:

Or what I'm going to get at is the tow companies.

Bill Erfurth:

If you look at, we'll, use NYPD for example.

Bill Erfurth:

NYPD actually has marked NYPD tow trucks.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

And when they're doing operations, just like we have the Bearcats and

Bill Erfurth:

things like that, you just smash right into the vehicles or whatnot and just

Bill Erfurth:

move 'em the hell outta your way.

Bill Erfurth:

If.

Bill Erfurth:

If they had tow trucks, like once this started going on, this had been

Bill Erfurth:

happening more, more and more frequently.

Bill Erfurth:

And say if ICE had a relationship there in Minneapolis with some of the

Bill Erfurth:

tow companies, which they probably don't, and Minneapolis PD probably

Bill Erfurth:

does, but they weren't cooperating.

Bill Erfurth:

You have those tow trucks out there.

Bill Erfurth:

You know a lot of people.

Bill Erfurth:

Are very, very pe are particular about their vehicles.

Bill Erfurth:

If you start snagging people's vehicles left and right, you come across the road,

Bill Erfurth:

you obstruct the highway, you obstruct the road, hook that sucker and tow it,

Bill Erfurth:

and they're getting paid, they're getting charged 50, a hundred dollars, for every

Bill Erfurth:

day that that car is in the impound lot.

Bill Erfurth:

I don't think some of these people are gonna be doing that.

Bill Erfurth:

You know, you, you set up.

Bill Erfurth:

Forward behind if you have the manpower.

Bill Erfurth:

And you bring those tow trucks in, you just start towing co. You just put, the

Bill Erfurth:

hook on 'em and yank 'em outta there.

Bill Erfurth:

And I think if, if they had that relationship and could, could

Bill Erfurth:

expeditiously do those kind of things, probably would've prevented that.

Rich Stanek:

Remember there were no Minneapolis cops or Hennepin

Rich Stanek:

County Sheriff's deputies on scene when this happened.

Rich Stanek:

They do not work.

Rich Stanek:

ICE doesn't tell them what they're doing because they didn't wanna, and

Bill Erfurth:

that's the problem.

Bill Erfurth:

Right?

Rich Stanek:

That's the problem.

Dennis Collins:

And therein lies the problem.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah,

Rich Stanek:

absolutely.

Rich Stanek:

So local police whom you trust and build a relationship with weren't there for

Rich Stanek:

the residents to say or do anything with.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

And then after you have all these disturbances, and this is kind of

Bill Erfurth:

becoming I, you know, if they're going out randomly looking at a

Bill Erfurth:

house and looking to find a guy.

Bill Erfurth:

You know, there's just a handful of 'em.

Bill Erfurth:

You're not gonna have that support.

Bill Erfurth:

You're not gonna have these tow trucks with you.

Bill Erfurth:

But I'm talking about now during a civil dis disturbance, right?

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth:

Uh, civil disobedience that's going on.

Bill Erfurth:

And you have these people all coming in now and you watch this on the news

Bill Erfurth:

and they're all blocking 'em, and, and they're having this happening now.

Bill Erfurth:

They just happen, I guess yesterday in, in, in another jurisdiction

Bill Erfurth:

where there was a, a shooting and they're ramming the vehicles.

Bill Erfurth:

Yeah, I think operationally and, and absolutely tactically, some of

Bill Erfurth:

these guys just brought their own tow truck along with them and just

Bill Erfurth:

started yanking these people's cars.

Bill Erfurth:

I don't think they're gonna be, uh, bringing their cars in there anymore.

Dennis Collins:

Hey guys, we could go on and on.

Dennis Collins:

This has been Rich, a fascinating time with you, and we can't

Dennis Collins:

thank you enough for being our guest on Heroes Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins:

As we know from hosting this program, heroes come in all shapes and sizes.

Dennis Collins:

And you, sir, are our hero.

Dennis Collins:

You have spent over four decades representing not only at the

Dennis Collins:

street level, the law enforcement level, but the policymaking level.

Dennis Collins:

For those of you interested, look up Rich on online and find out all the

Dennis Collins:

initiatives that he got passed in the Minnesota, Minnesota State legislature.

Dennis Collins:

Unbelievable.

Dennis Collins:

Way too many to mention right now.

Dennis Collins:

You need to look that up and see the contribution this man made to not only

Dennis Collins:

law enforcement, but also the regulation and administration of law enforcement.

Dennis Collins:

And as the Hennepin County Sheriff, you are truly.

Craig Floyd:

Let me just, uh, back that up with an exclamation point.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, I have a story.

Craig Floyd:

Uh, years ago, rich had set me up on a ride along with one of his deputies,

Craig Floyd:

one of the most fascinating experiences I've ever had, and very impressed by the

Craig Floyd:

way his deputies conducted themselves.

Craig Floyd:

But what impressed me more than anything is they took me back to the, uh, the

Craig Floyd:

jail area where they process these criminal suspects when they arrest them.

Craig Floyd:

And I, was amazed to see these criminals walking around like they were at a

Craig Floyd:

department of motor vehicle, station where they, they had no escort.

Craig Floyd:

They were not in handcuffs.

Craig Floyd:

They, they, uh, basically went from the mugshot station

Craig Floyd:

to the fingerprint station.

Craig Floyd:

All on their own.

Craig Floyd:

And I, I was so amazed by that.

Craig Floyd:

And I said to one of the deputies, I said, I, I, you know, why

Craig Floyd:

aren't these people in handcuffs?

Craig Floyd:

Why aren't you escorting them?

Craig Floyd:

And they said something that's never left me.

Craig Floyd:

He said, we treat them with respect.

Craig Floyd:

Until they, uh, prove that they don't deserve that respect.

Craig Floyd:

And, and that was really, to me, a hallmark of rich stanek.

Craig Floyd:

And the way he led his department is he allowed his deputies to, uh, treat people

Craig Floyd:

with respect until they didn't deserve it.

Craig Floyd:

And then he could be tough.

Craig Floyd:

But that, that to me is the epitome of a law enforcement leader.

Rich Stanek:

I appreciate that guys.

Rich Stanek:

I, you know, the shoe, the other shoe hasn't dropped with this whole thing yet.

Rich Stanek:

Uh, we haven't reached the, uh, the pinnacle yet, as you know.

Rich Stanek:

And, you know, I think sometime over the next several weeks, something

Rich Stanek:

bad, hopefully a, a police officer, federal, state, local will not lose

Rich Stanek:

their life as a result of this.

Rich Stanek:

But I don't think we've reached the top by any means.

Rich Stanek:

We certainly haven't reached the top of.

Rich Stanek:

The fraud that's been going on, or the investigation, or the federal indictments.

Rich Stanek:

and, you know, let's put a marker out there.

Rich Stanek:

You wanna have me back, invite me back in, uh, in several weeks,

Rich Stanek:

maybe a month, maybe two months.

Rich Stanek:

Absolutely.

Rich Stanek:

Or maybe just a recap of what happened and saying, Hey, things are back to normal.

Rich Stanek:

It's, it's 70 degrees in Minnesota.

Rich Stanek:

Again,

Craig Floyd:

we can hope,

Dennis Collins:

well, like you say, this ain't over.

Dennis Collins:

And unfortunately the signs are that it's not gonna end well, and

Dennis Collins:

we can only hope that it does.

Dennis Collins:

But, uh, again, thank you sir for being here today.

Dennis Collins:

Thank you for your leadership in law enforcement at all levels

Dennis Collins:

and uh, and you'll be welcome back here anytime, anytime.

Dennis Collins:

Come on down to Florida.

Dennis Collins:

We'll, we'll, we'll get together and do it together.

Dennis Collins:

Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

Well, yeah, well think least,

Rich Stanek:

I mean,

Dennis Collins:

you can lease the, leave the frozen tundra and come.

Rich Stanek:

On the horizon.

Rich Stanek:

You have.

Rich Stanek:

Federal subpoenas that were issued to that governor and mayor, they'll be

Rich Stanek:

in court this coming Tuesday, February 3rd, federal court and maybe an

Rich Stanek:

indictment will be around the corner.

Rich Stanek:

You've got, uh, the president considering federalized troops coming into Minnesota.

Rich Stanek:

At least they're coming from Alaska where they used to are.

Rich Stanek:

Cold weather.

Rich Stanek:

Yeah.

Rich Stanek:

You've got, uh, 3000 ICE agents now and you've got Tom Homan and Kristi

Rich Stanek:

Noem said it's not over anytime soon.

Rich Stanek:

And you know, you've got a big election coming up in the fall

Rich Stanek:

in Minnesota, which could change the course or continue as is, uh.

Dennis Collins:

All eyes on Minnesota, huh?

Rich Stanek:

Yeah, we're the 50th state and we plan on remaining.

Rich Stanek:

We're not gonna, you know, pull away or

Dennis Collins:

you're not seceding or anything from the union.

Rich Stanek:

No, no.

Rich Stanek:

I'm coming to Florida first.

Rich Stanek:

No taxes, huh?

Dennis Collins:

The free state of Florida.

Dennis Collins:

You're always,

Rich Stanek:

I mean, come on.

Rich Stanek:

I get all in one place.

Bill Erfurth:

Fritz Give them hell man.

Bill Erfurth:

Give 'em

Dennis Collins:

hell yeah.

Dennis Collins:

Absolutely.

Dennis Collins:

Thanks for telling it like it is today.

Dennis Collins:

Also.

Dennis Collins:

We appreciate your candor.

Rich Stanek:

Yeah.

Dennis Collins:

Lemme um, let me thank our audience, you know, we

Dennis Collins:

love you guys for tuning in and listening to these broadcast Heroes.

Dennis Collins:

Behind the Badge is our podcast.

Dennis Collins:

It's presented by Citizens Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins:

Citizens Behind the Badge is the leading organization, the leading

Dennis Collins:

voice of the American people in support of law enforcement.

Dennis Collins:

The men and women of law enforcement, those very people

Dennis Collins:

Rich was talking about today.

Dennis Collins:

We support them.

Dennis Collins:

You can also join us CitizensBehindTheBadge-dot-o-r-g.

Dennis Collins:

Dot org,  CitizensBehindTheBadge-dot-org.

Dennis Collins:

What do you find on there?

Dennis Collins:

You can find out how to support law enforcement.

Dennis Collins:

Join the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people just like you

Dennis Collins:

who have pledged their support.

Dennis Collins:

CitizensBehindTheBadge-dot-org.

Dennis Collins:

We will see you the next time.

Dennis Collins:

Oh, by the way, and if you liked anything Rich had to say today, and there was

Dennis Collins:

plenty to like, will you do us a favor?

Dennis Collins:

Hit subscribe.

Dennis Collins:

Hit like hit follow, hit all three.

Dennis Collins:

Why it gives you first dibs at the next episodes.

Dennis Collins:

Heroes behind the badge, you'll be the first to know.

Dennis Collins:

Okay, so thanks again.

Dennis Collins:

signing off for Heroes Behind the Badge for Bill Erfurth, Craig Floyd.

Dennis Collins:

And thanks to Rich Stanek our guest.

Dennis Collins:

We'll see you next time on Heroes Behind the Badge.

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About the Podcast

Heroes Behind the Badge
We tell REAL stories about REAL cops.  And we expose the fake news about police and give you the REAL truth.
From the front lines to the final call, Heroes Behind the Badge brings you the untold stories of America's law enforcement community. Led by Craig Floyd, who spent 34 years working alongside police officers across the nation, alongside veteran facilitator Dennis Collins and law enforcement expert Bill Erfurth, this podcast cuts through misconceptions to reveal the true nature of modern policing.

Our dynamic trio brings unique perspectives to each episode: Craig shares deep insights from his decades of experience and relationships within law enforcement, Dennis guides conversations with meticulous research and natural flow, and Bill adds engaging commentary that makes complex law enforcement topics accessible to all listeners.

Each episode features in-depth conversations with law enforcement professionals, sharing their firsthand experiences, challenges, and triumphs. Drawing from extensive research and real-world experience, we explore the realities faced by the over 800,000 officers who serve and protect our communities every day.

From dramatic accounts of crisis response to quiet moments of everyday heroism, our show illuminates the human stories behind the badge. We dive deep into the statistics, policies, and practices that shape modern law enforcement, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of what it truly means to serve in law enforcement today.

Whether you're a law enforcement professional, a concerned citizen, or someone seeking to understand the complexities of modern policing, Heroes Behind the Badge provides the context, insights, and authentic perspectives you won't find anywhere else. Join us weekly as we honor those who dedicate their lives to keeping our communities safe, one story at a time.

Presented by Citizens Behind the Badge, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and advocating for law enforcement professionals across the United States. Join over 126,000 Americans who have already signed our Declaration of Support for law enforcement at behindbadge.org.