Latest / All About The Joy / Dignity vs. Spectacle: Why Contempt Is the New Political Brand

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Dignity vs. Spectacle: Why Contempt Is the New Political Brand · All About The Joy

• 0:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Hey everyone.
• 0:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Welcome to All About the Joy.
• 0:02
  Carmen Lezeth: This is Culture and Consequence with Carmen and Andrea.
• 0:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Hey, what's up?
• 0:06
  Carmen Lezeth: How you doing, Ans?
• 0:07
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm good.
• 0:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, cool.
• 0:10
  Carmen Lezeth: So, what do you want to talk about?
• 0:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm gonna leave it up to you.
• 0:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, we have a list, but we have a list.
• 0:16
  Carmen Lezeth: We have a list.
• 0:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, what's bothering me today?
• 0:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, I'll tell you what's bothering me today.
• 0:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, go for it.
• 0:25
  Carmen Lezeth: I am tired of the nastiness.
• 0:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I I I know you want to talk about like racism, but I love to.
• 0:35
  Andrea: Love to love it.
• 0:36
  Carmen Lezeth: No, no, no, but here's the thing.
• 0:37
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what?
• 0:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, just watching, what's this woman's name?
• 0:40
  Carmen Lezeth: It's both of them.
• 0:41
  Carmen Lezeth: It's uh Stephen Miller, the deputy.
• 0:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I didn't realize he was just the deputy um chief of staff.
• 0:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I thought he was actually the chief of staff.
• 0:51
  Carmen Lezeth: I believe he's actually the president.
• 0:54
  Carmen Lezeth: True.
• 0:57
  Carmen Lezeth: He's also the um, let me see what he is, because I had to, I mean, he's an asshole, but he's also the homeland security advisor.
• 1:05
  Carmen Lezeth: But um, for people who don't know, I mean, why would anyone know this?
• 1:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I live in Santa Monica, California.
• 1:11
  Carmen Lezeth: I've been here 30 years.
• 1:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I think he's in his 30s.
• 1:16
  Carmen Lezeth: He grew up in this neighborhood, okay.
• 1:19
  Carmen Lezeth: That I and he was here part of the time when I was, he went to school here.
• 1:23
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know him.
• 1:25
  Carmen Lezeth: Thank you, Lord.
• 1:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Jesus, thank you.
• 1:27
  Carmen Lezeth: But but maybe if I had, I could have, I don't know, melted his heart or something.
• 1:32
  Carmen Lezeth: I have no idea.
• 1:33
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't think so, girl.
• 1:35
  Carmen Lezeth: But I am shooketh at why he turned out to be such an evil human being.
• 1:40
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, he's angry and nasty and mean and so.
• 1:45
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm sorry, what is that his family hates him?
• 1:50
  Carmen Lezeth: His family does.
• 1:51
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, I actually have a quote from his cousin, Alyssa Casmar, publicly disowned him in 2025, calling him the face of evil due to his role in shaping the Trump administration's immigration policies.
• 2:06
  Carmen Lezeth: And her quote is, I am living with the deep pain of watching someone I once loved become the face of evil.
• 2:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I will never knowingly let evil into my life, no matter whose blood it carries, including my own.
• 2:17
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, and she goes on and on, but his other family members have really a lot of them have like not said anything, like, which I think is also telling.
• 2:26
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 2:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, but I'm I I literally the other day walked around where he went to school, walked around where I think he possibly lived.
• 2:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Like all these areas.
• 2:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm like, why?
• 2:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Um I think he got his ass kicked by some Latino kids.
• 2:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I do.
• 2:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I think he was bullied or something by some.
• 2:46
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm not blaming it on Latino kids.
• 2:49
  Carmen Lezeth: It's not what I mean.
• 2:50
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just your fault.
• 2:51
  Carmen Lezeth: Latino kids.
• 2:53
  Carmen Lezeth: You reap what you sow.
• 2:56
  Carmen Lezeth: No, but he must have been bullied or something because he is weird.
• 3:02
  Andrea: Yeah, I mean, like, I I I really am hesitant to go in the direction of like some people are just born evil.
• 3:11
  Andrea: Um, yeah, me too.
• 3:12
  Andrea: But I do think there may be like a slight predisposition, and if you know, facts on the ground, I guess, right after you're born, um, feed into that.
• 3:25
  Andrea: You know, I don't know what his his actual like, you know, family situation was, what his parents are like, or any of those kinds of things.
• 3:34
  Andrea: But um it does kind of point to maybe he was bullied in some way.
• 3:40
  Andrea: Maybe he liked a girl who decided to go out with a hot Latin dude.
• 3:45
  Andrea: I don't know.
• 3:48
  Carmen Lezeth: It really because his family, he he has a Jewish background, which is the other part of this, like the the vitriol he has towards other people after you know your own history.
• 4:00
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I know look it.
• 4:01
  Andrea: We're in the I'm just shooketh by I I also as I am hesitant to think that people are like born evil, sort of.
• 4:10
  Andrea: Um I I do also think that a lot of the hate and the vitriol comes from some this is so like psychological, you know, psychological trauma?
• 4:25
  Andrea: Well, no, like deep self-hatred.
• 4:29
  Andrea: Like there's something that you just can't deal with when you look in the mirror.
• 4:35
  Andrea: No offense.
• 4:37
  Andrea: I just mean like I don't even mean like your attractiveness, but like there's something deep within you that you desperately don't like, and so you put it out into the world, you know what I mean?
• 4:55
  Andrea: Um I feel like he needs a hug.
• 4:58
  Andrea: Oh, he no, he needs a hard, hard slap.
• 5:03
  Andrea: That's what he means.
• 5:06
  Carmen Lezeth: There is the difference between me and Andreya.
• 5:08
  Carmen Lezeth: If you want to know, I'm willing to give him a slap.
• 5:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I'm willing to give him a hug.
• 5:14
  Carmen Lezeth: So you already have turned to me.
• 5:15
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm like, yes, a slap.
• 5:16
  Carmen Lezeth: No, we are not for violence ever.
• 5:19
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm not.
• 5:20
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm not.
• 5:20
  Carmen Lezeth: I do not speak on behalf of Andreel.
• 5:25
  Carmen Lezeth: I like so so this came up because then Pam Bondi, who I'm like, whoa, she's the United States Attorney General, and she was in front of Congress this week.
• 5:36
  Carmen Lezeth: And I don't care whether you agree with her or not, and clearly I don't agree with her at all because I'm not a fan.
• 5:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Her nastiness, like again, like this vitriol, this inability to have conversations, this inability, even if you don't want to answer questions, which she clearly she was not answering any questions whatsoever.
• 5:57
  Carmen Lezeth: She was just like totally, you know, whataboutism seems to be her thing.
• 6:03
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, somebody would ask her, is the sky blue?
• 6:05
  Carmen Lezeth: And she'd be like, I can't believe you would ask me a question after what you did at a rodeo five years ago.
• 6:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, it was just random shit.
• 6:15
  Carmen Lezeth: It was random.
• 6:16
  Carmen Lezeth: And I was like, all this vitriol, all this angst.
• 6:21
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, this is what I think is even more profound in our politics today, right?
• 6:26
  Carmen Lezeth: This inability to just have conversations.
• 6:29
  Andrea: Well, and it's like, you know, not to use like a network television word, but like it's just so performative.
• 6:37
  Andrea: You know what I mean?
• 6:38
  Andrea: They're they're doing it so that Trump can see it and be like, yeah, you're fighting, you know, give them hell.
• 6:45
  Andrea: And, you know, like that's his vibe.
• 6:47
  Andrea: Sorry.
• 6:49
  Carmen Lezeth: That's okay.
• 6:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Dogs are allowed.
• 6:50
  Carmen Lezeth: That's okay.
• 6:51
  Carmen Lezeth: We just have to let people know that that's not like me putting in a sound.
• 6:56
  Andrea: That is probably a leaf blowing by that my dog didn't like.
• 7:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 7:03
  Carmen Lezeth: The victory all and the and the barking, I could hear it.
• 7:06
  Andrea: He's like, yes, yeah, um Go ahead.
• 7:12
  Andrea: You were saying No, I was just saying, like, there, you know, it's primarily, I believe, to well, I think it serves a couple of purposes.
• 7:18
  Andrea: Number one, first and foremost, Trump wants to see fighters and he wants to see people who are tough and all of that because he's not, and you know, they're actually not, so they want to sort of perform toughness.
• 7:31
  Carmen Lezeth: And they don't want to release the Epstein files.
• 7:33
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, sorry.
• 7:34
  Andrea: Yes, that as well.
• 7:35
  Andrea: Um and then it also, I think, riles up a certain contingent of their base who are predisposed to like want to be that way.
• 7:48
  Andrea: You know, like we sort of like it's sort of a joke, like, you know, Carmen's a hugger, I'm a slapper, you know.
• 7:53
  Andrea: But like I'm I'm not necessarily like I think there are people who respond to that that they are trying to get to specifically, you know.
• 8:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 8:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, I totally get that, and I agree with you.
• 8:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I do think it's performative.
• 8:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I guess I just feel sad because like that, it was so not productive.
• 8:20
  Carmen Lezeth: And yet what was great, what was great was to watch her for me.
• 8:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Like I watched her, and I was like, this is exactly what people need to see.
• 8:31
  Carmen Lezeth: They need to see another person and that perfect blonde white woman, you know what I mean?
• 8:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Like exactly the package that we think is the perfect American or whatever, the other side thinks, or whatever, and see that kind of vitriol and that anger or whatever, and see how performative that is the perfect.
• 8:51
  Carmen Lezeth: Because I don't even think people, the same people, the same conservatives and Republicans were okay with all that.
• 9:00
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 9:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Like it just seemed to, I think, flop badly.
• 9:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, because everybody saw what she was doing, everybody understood what she was doing.
• 9:08
  Carmen Lezeth: She was just, you know, performing for one person and not answering any questions whatsoever.
• 9:14
  Carmen Lezeth: And um and throwing cash patel under the bus, which was great as far as I'm concerned.
• 9:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Could care less about him too.
• 9:21
  Carmen Lezeth: So that was unbelievable.
• 9:23
  Carmen Lezeth: But yeah, I'm just tired of the nastiness.
• 9:26
  Carmen Lezeth: So, anyways.
• 9:27
  Andrea: Yeah, I mean, that's I think that's uh as you pointed out, like the larger problem.
• 9:31
  Andrea: How how do you how do we come back from this?
• 9:36
  Andrea: I mean, there's like all of these hurdles that we have to get over in order to have any kind of um new normal, let's call it, that's looks better for most people, but it like it breeds more hate, right?
• 9:54
  Andrea: It's like she does things like that, and then everyone's like, all of these people need to go to the hag, every single one of them needs to be in the like I I don't necessarily disagree, really, truly, but like it like where does it end?
• 10:09
  Andrea: Right?
• 10:09
  Andrea: You just keep like one upping like this and then this and then this.
• 10:13
  Andrea: Like it's just like violence and nastiness, and then more violence and nastiness, and like there's how do you equalize it so that we can actually have conversations again?
• 10:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 10:23
  Carmen Lezeth: And I know you're not gonna like me saying this, but I mean it goes back to the Charlie Kirk thing as well.
• 10:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, no matter how you feel about Charlie Kirk, he did not deserve to uh be killed to be assassinated, and um, you know, we can kid around.
• 10:38
  Andrea: I have a problem with the word assassinated, but go ahead.
• 10:41
  Andrea: Okay, okay, all right.
• 10:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Uh killed?
• 10:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, killed is a nervous okay, whatever, whatever, whatever.
• 10:47
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 10:47
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just saying that's where we end up going when we have all this vitriol, when we can't have actual competent people.
• 10:57
  Carmen Lezeth: And I am gonna say it that way because watching these people spew from a place of such anger and hate, like I may swear every once in a while, but it's not coming from a place of hate.
• 11:08
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 11:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I guess not coming from a place where I want to do something bad to you.
• 11:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I want you to understand my point of view, but I would never intentionally hurt somebody, you know?
• 11:18
  Carmen Lezeth: And she was just going after, like, and the lies.
• 11:22
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, what was great was all the senators were ready for it, right?
• 11:26
  Carmen Lezeth: So she would say, You did A, B, C, and D, and you took money from A, B, C, and D, and straight up, like, yeah.
• 11:33
  Carmen Lezeth: So that doesn't answer the question.
• 11:35
  Carmen Lezeth: The question again is, and I was like, Oh, see, I wouldn't have been able to hold back.
• 11:38
  Carmen Lezeth: I would have been like, that ain't true.
• 11:40
  Carmen Lezeth: That is not what happened.
• 11:42
  Carmen Lezeth: He did not sponsor me.
• 11:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I would have reacted that way, but they were all so prepared and didn't fall for it, which made her look even worse, you know.
• 11:51
  Andrea: But well, I mean, yeah, that's uh it's like violence is where you go when you have nothing left, right?
• 11:59
  Andrea: When you can't have a conversation, when you can't actually sort of prove your point or say your piece and agree to disagree, or you know, whatever it is.
• 12:08
  Andrea: That's it ratchets up until you get to violence, which is you know, that that's my worry.
• 12:14
  Andrea: I mean, we're already there in many differences, but you know, that is my worry is like eventually we will need to pull back from this and like how do you do that?
• 12:26
  Andrea: Um, you know, and there are other other societies and other countries have done it, um, but it just it's a it's a long process.
• 12:34
  Carmen Lezeth: It's a long process, especially when you have a leader who gets excited by it.
• 12:39
  Carmen Lezeth: So, I mean, it always comes from the top, right?
• 12:41
  Carmen Lezeth: But when you have somebody who's, you know, I'm sorry for those of you who don't understand the bullshittery in that Portland is on fire and that war and like I'm convinced they're just putting pictures in front of his face of like, you know.
• 13:00
  Andrea: Even okay, let's pretend.
• 13:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Let's pretend Los Angeles is a hellfire where I live, by the way, and travel to and around all the time during that huge riot thing that was happening here.
• 13:12
  Carmen Lezeth: It was not happening.
• 13:13
  Carmen Lezeth: Let's pretend it was.
• 13:14
  Carmen Lezeth: How does a president normally handle something like that?
• 13:20
  Carmen Lezeth: They would go to the governor of the state and ask the governor, or the governor would call the president and say, we're in trouble.
• 13:28
  Carmen Lezeth: We need XYZ.
• 13:29
  Carmen Lezeth: It is not that that's how you know it's all bullshit because the governors are saying absolutely not, do not do this.
• 13:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Now he was able to do it in Washington because Washington, D.C.
• 13:39
  Carmen Lezeth: does not have the same representation that we do in other states.
• 13:44
  Carmen Lezeth: And if you don't understand, Washington is a district, it's District of Columbia, and I'll put down at the bottom why you should Google it.
• 13:53
  Carmen Lezeth: But that's why he was able to do what he did and continues to have military force in Washington, D.C.
• 13:59
  Carmen Lezeth: And all the violence, you know.
• 14:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, it's I am tired of Trump.
• 14:06
  Andrea: I am tired of I know, but I'm only like not even 10 months in.
• 14:11
  Andrea: Why do you think?
• 14:12
  Andrea: I know, but it's every day.
• 14:14
  Andrea: Don't you feel like that?
• 14:15
  Andrea: Oh, this this honestly, like there are so many reasons, so many reasons why he should not have been elected, but just the sheer exhaustion of having to deal with this.
• 14:31
  Andrea: Like, isn't everybody tired of this bullshit?
• 14:34
  Andrea: Every day, it's some new bullshit.
• 14:37
  Andrea: Think of all of the days when Biden was president that you didn't even hear his name, or didn't even think about him at all.
• 14:46
  Andrea: Yeah, or George Bush, any other president, right?
• 14:50
  Andrea: They're always like in your face with some kind of bullshit, and that's like he he needs that, he thrives off of that.
• 14:59
  Andrea: I swear to god, it gives him some kind of superhuman energy.
• 15:02
  Andrea: That's why he's still alive because he thrives off of this crazy drama.
• 15:06
  Carmen Lezeth: But I look at I I said this the other day.
• 15:10
  Carmen Lezeth: I think you know, Trump wants so badly something he's never going to have, which is respect.
• 15:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, he's never he wants it so badly.
• 15:18
  Carmen Lezeth: He wants somehow to like he wants the Nobel Peace Prize, which is great, knock yourself out.
• 15:25
  Carmen Lezeth: But he wants it so badly because Obama has one, right?
• 15:29
  Carmen Lezeth: People who usually get the Nobel Peace Prize aren't looking for it.
• 15:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, you know what I mean?
• 15:37
  Carmen Lezeth: It's like tell me you love me, like forcing you to tell me that you love me is a very different thing when someone just says that they love you.
• 15:46
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 15:47
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, and come, and I feel like for whatever reason, Trump can't figure out how to get what he really wants.
• 15:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, like he says now he hates all of Hollywood because he knows Hollywood has rejected him, but he's always wanted to be part of the Hollywood thingamajiggy, right?
• 16:02
  Carmen Lezeth: With the cool kids and hanging out or whatever.
• 16:05
  Carmen Lezeth: But he doesn't get that.
• 16:06
  Carmen Lezeth: He gets it from all the B artists, right?
• 16:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Because they're also not in with the Hollywood crowd.
• 16:12
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's like, I I know you're gonna laugh at me, but I feel bad for him.
• 16:17
  Carmen Lezeth: I feel bad for him because he's he's almost 80 years old, right?
• 16:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Isn't he in his 70s?
• 16:22
  Carmen Lezeth: He's like 79, yeah.
• 16:24
  Carmen Lezeth: And he's still craving something, and he's still incredibly jealous, incredibly hateful.
• 16:31
  Carmen Lezeth: He still hasn't come to a place in his life where he's like, you know what?
• 16:35
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm a man and I am going to be this kind of person, whatever.
• 16:38
  Carmen Lezeth: He's still running after shit that all of us were running after when we were like 11.
• 16:44
  Andrea: And he literally was just gonna say, he's like an 11-year-old, like a 12-year-old.
• 16:48
  Andrea: I mean, he just never actually matured into a normal human being.
• 16:54
  Andrea: Um, and I don't feel sorry for him, not one single bit.
• 16:58
  Andrea: And I said this last time, like we all have our shit, we all have some kind of something that happened to us when we were growing up where we didn't get something that we feel like we needed, and that we did need for that matter, right?
• 17:14
  Andrea: And I don't know about most of us, but a lot of us went through the process of facing that, understanding that, dealing with it, and becoming mature functioning adults.
• 17:29
  Carmen Lezeth: I know, but you're forgetting something that's really important, and I'm not making excuses for him.
• 17:33
  Carmen Lezeth: But the like if we're gonna get all psychological, and neither one of us are PhDs in this, this is just like normal understanding of human beings, okay?
• 17:42
  Carmen Lezeth: And my experience and your experience, like this is basic shit.
• 17:47
  Carmen Lezeth: Money.
• 17:48
  Carmen Lezeth: When you have money and you grow up with money, parents who are not good parents, I'm just gonna say it straight up, will turn around and try to save you from every consequence and ramification of behaviors that you are doing.
• 18:04
  Carmen Lezeth: And I, not being a parent, can easily see this sometimes with some of my friends, not anybody in the room included, but right because you you want to protect your children, and sometimes you need to let your kids fall so that they can learn the lesson.
• 18:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Donald Trump has never had to learn his lesson, never, not once.
• 18:23
  Carmen Lezeth: And he has built a life based on lie after lie after lie, and he got really good at using his name and his money and his prestige to get away with everything.
• 18:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Everything.
• 18:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Look at anything he's gone through.
• 18:37
  Carmen Lezeth: He continues to get away with it all the time.
• 18:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Even the Epstein files, and I'm not even trying to be funny right now.
• 18:44
  Carmen Lezeth: He now has a devout Christian House Speaker not bringing someone into Congress who won their Congress seat, right, in Arizona because he is he's afraid.
• 18:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, she would be the 216th signature to release the Epstein files.
• 19:03
  Carmen Lezeth: It's not even to release them, by the way, it's to have the conversation, right?
• 19:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Or whatever it is, but it's the next step.
• 19:09
  Carmen Lezeth: So, House Speaker, what's his name?
• 19:13
  Carmen Lezeth: Johnson, I think, right?
• 19:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Johnson, Johnson, who is a devout quote unquote Christian, though I question that with every day, with every single day.
• 19:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 19:24
  Carmen Lezeth: It's a slur, frankly, at this point.
• 19:26
  Carmen Lezeth: It's a slur, that's actually that's actually true.
• 19:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, he will and and and people keep confronting him and asking him questions, and he's just lying about it.
• 19:34
  Carmen Lezeth: He's like, no, no, it's not that we don't want her to be get into Congress, blah, blah.
• 19:38
  Carmen Lezeth: It's because we like the other day, he said, I want it to be a ceremony for her, I want her to be able to have her family.
• 19:45
  Carmen Lezeth: And so the the person was like, So if she brings her family, will you then yeah?
• 19:51
  Carmen Lezeth: The lies.
• 19:52
  Carmen Lezeth: And so here is Trump again getting away with the Epstein files not being released, and he has other people doing his bidding.
• 20:01
  Carmen Lezeth: And honestly, why?
• 20:03
  Carmen Lezeth: When are you sacrificing your soul for money, for fame, for power to keep this bullshittery going on?
• 20:13
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, what is in the Epstein files that he's so afraid?
• 20:16
  Carmen Lezeth: By the way, none of us are gonna be surprised about nothing that's in them damn Epstein.
• 20:19
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know what he's so afraid of.
• 20:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Honest to God.
• 20:22
  Carmen Lezeth: He's already money more than enough.
• 20:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I I don't understand what could possibly be in there that he's so afraid of, but it's not just him, it's all of his rich friends that's the problem.
• 20:38
  Andrea: Well, yeah, I think that's more the issue is the other people that are in it who have money and you know, like fund it and fund him.
• 20:47
  Carmen Lezeth: And I and I asked AI, and it was like it could have global ramifications.
• 20:52
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm like, what the bitch, please.
• 20:54
  Carmen Lezeth: I was like, what?
• 20:56
  Carmen Lezeth: So I I don't know.
• 20:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I honestly they're going to come out.
• 21:01
  Carmen Lezeth: It may not be today or tomorrow, but that shit's gonna come out.
• 21:05
  Carmen Lezeth: It's gonna come out.
• 21:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, so I feel bad for Trump.
• 21:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I know you don't, but I just uh okay, whatever.
• 21:14
  Carmen Lezeth: All right, we were gonna talk about well, wait, did you want to say something else?
• 21:17
  Carmen Lezeth: No, like all right, we were gonna talk about ice agents.
• 21:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't even know if I have the energy for this.
• 21:26
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't, I don't know if I do.
• 21:28
  Carmen Lezeth: It's the same shit.
• 21:30
  Carmen Lezeth: This anger and angst and and vitriol, but you know what I found out?
• 21:35
  Carmen Lezeth: I and I did do some research on this.
• 21:38
  Carmen Lezeth: So let me just say this part.
• 21:41
  Carmen Lezeth: So I lived in Beverly Hills for a small amount of time, worst experience of my life.
• 21:47
  Carmen Lezeth: But um, I think I lived there for like two years or something.
• 21:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, and my next door neighbor is a guy named Levi, and we became good friends.
• 21:57
  Carmen Lezeth: He could be my son, like, and I'd be so proud if he was.
• 22:01
  Carmen Lezeth: But he had come to Los Angeles, he's from Texas, and he was going through the process of becoming a fireman.
• 22:06
  Carmen Lezeth: And uh so I got to know him because we would go to lunch every once in a while, and he would tell me what he's going through.
• 22:13
  Carmen Lezeth: And so firemen go through a much more rigorous, longer process to become firemen than police officers do.
• 22:21
  Carmen Lezeth: So let me just, I'm gonna just tell you that to become a firefighter, uh firefighter in Los Angeles, okay?
• 22:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, there's a lot of requirements, but one of the first ones that's really important is you have to have an EMT license and be a uh CPAT person, which is candidate physical ability test.
• 22:41
  Carmen Lezeth: You have to pass that before you can even apply.
• 22:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Cops don't have that at all.
• 22:47
  Carmen Lezeth: So the rest of it is pretty thorough, whatever, but basically the estimated time frame to become a Los Angeles fire department person is 12 to 18 months.
• 22:57
  Carmen Lezeth: And in order to become a police officer carrying a gun, it's six to nine months.
• 23:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, so that's just to start there.
• 23:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Now, an ice agent.
• 23:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Let me just find I have all my 15 pieces of paper here.
• 23:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Uh let me just see.
• 23:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I was gonna do research and then I just got it.
• 23:14
  Carmen Lezeth: But you don't you don't have to.
• 23:16
  Carmen Lezeth: It's not to, it's not about research.
• 23:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Um let me just see where my ice agent shit is.
• 23:22
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I love ice agents, it's so amazing and great.
• 23:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Don't come after me, bitch, because I'm Latina and brown skin.
• 23:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, requirements to become an ice agent.
• 23:33
  Carmen Lezeth: You have to be a U.S.
• 23:34
  Carmen Lezeth: citizen.
• 23:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Duh.
• 23:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, valid driver's license, eligible to carry a firearm, under 37 years old.
• 23:44
  Carmen Lezeth: And here's where I question this: you have to have a bachelor's degree with one of the following.
• 23:50
  Carmen Lezeth: I know, wait, wait, wait.
• 23:51
  Carmen Lezeth: You can't wait.
• 23:53
  Carmen Lezeth: Preferred background, criminal justice or law enforcement experience.
• 23:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Bullshit.
• 23:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, military service or prior federal employment, preferred.
• 24:03
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, you have to do drug screening, medical exam, physical fitness, background investigations could take up to three months.
• 24:09
  Carmen Lezeth: That's all lies.
• 24:10
  Carmen Lezeth: It's not lies.
• 24:11
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm gonna explain why.
• 24:13
  Carmen Lezeth: 22.
• 24:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, and then training duties, you have to um you get paid training uh for 22 weeks, okay?
• 24:20
  Carmen Lezeth: So it sounds like ICE agents get a lot of, right?
• 24:25
  Carmen Lezeth: They get maybe even more than LAPD.
• 24:28
  Carmen Lezeth: But here's the difference, which is something I learned in my research because I questioned this, and I was like, there is no way.
• 24:35
  Carmen Lezeth: The same way Andrea was like, yeah, they don't got no bachelor's degree, these mofos.
• 24:40
  Carmen Lezeth: The difference is ERO agents are enforcement and removal operation agents, and they are hired with high school diplomas or equivalent, and everything else is bypassed.
• 24:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Those are the people that are on the street, those are the people who are on the street.
• 25:02
  Carmen Lezeth: That's why you see them clumsily hurting people and doing all this shit because they have no idea what the fuck they're doing.
• 25:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 25:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Surprise, surprise.
• 25:12
  Carmen Lezeth: So there are ICE agents from back in the day, normal times, and then there are ERO agents, which is what we're seeing on the streets of our cities.
• 25:25
  Andrea: I don't know what I actually should say.
• 25:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, I was more curious because our last episode you talked about you have issues with cops, and we did get someone who asked why you would have they they wait, wait, wait.
• 25:38
  Carmen Lezeth: They understood why I would have issues with cops, but why would you, white woman Andrea, have issues with cops?
• 25:45
  Carmen Lezeth: So that's kind of where this is coming from.
• 25:47
  Andrea: It's a personal experience thing.
• 25:49
  Andrea: I mean, that's really what it comes down to.
• 25:51
  Andrea: I don't want to get into like a whole autobiographical thing, but you know, from the time I was quite young, um my interactions with police were, I would say, overwhelmingly negative.
• 26:04
  Andrea: Not that I had a lot of bad interactions, but but um, you know, you live in a working-class neighborhood, pretty diverse in terms of the racial mix, and you see things and you experience things.
• 26:16
  Andrea: And I think I said somewhere on the show in one of the previous episodes, I grew up in a Mexican family.
• 26:22
  Andrea: Meaning, like, you know, they're like Mexican-American, but like the people that I spent time with in my family were Mexican people.
• 26:33
  Andrea: I was the odd personnel, right?
• 26:36
  Andrea: I'm the one who looks different than the whole rest of my literally my entire family, pretty much.
• 26:41
  Carmen Lezeth: You really do, even your brother looks more mexicano than you could ever.
• 26:46
  Andrea: And so I could see the difference just in treatment, and that you know, I've I'm a very like uh you know, observant person and all of those things, but like I'll I'll tell you just a little story, little brief little autobiographical story to give you an a sense of you don't have to, but we're always well just a like so uh I grew up in the 70s, right?
• 27:12
  Andrea: 70s kid, right?
• 27:13
  Andrea: We were all like feral little kids.
• 27:15
  Andrea: One day my cousin, my two cousins and my brother, we're all the same age.
• 27:19
  Andrea: We're out doing what kids do in the summer, right?
• 27:22
  Andrea: We're like walking around on a canal, literally.
• 27:25
  Andrea: Um not hanging out with gang members, like literally just the four of us, like you know, I don't know why we were out there.
• 27:34
  Andrea: I was very young, I was literally like five, six years old, no joke.
• 27:38
  Andrea: Um I was like kindergarten to first grade.
• 27:40
  Andrea: And these older kids who were probably like junior high just came and started messing with us, right?
• 27:46
  Andrea: And that's this is the kind of stuff that happened back in the day.
• 27:50
  Andrea: Like you were just out and there were like different people who would mess with you.
• 27:53
  Andrea: You didn't know who they were or whatever.
• 27:55
  Andrea: Um, and so they were like messing with us.
• 27:57
  Andrea: And one of the boys grabbed me by my shirt and kissed me, like stuck his tongue down my throat, this big wet, nasty, slobbery kiss, whatever.
• 28:07
  Andrea: I pushed him off of me.
• 28:09
  Andrea: I ran home, you know.
• 28:11
  Andrea: Call my mom, tell my mom.
• 28:13
  Andrea: And meanwhile, you know, you you probably remember like being out and being kind of little feral kid, like you're probably doing stuff and going places you're not really supposed to go.
• 28:22
  Andrea: Like, so it's like typical 70s kid.
• 28:24
  Andrea: Do I tell my mom that we were out on the canal?
• 28:27
  Andrea: Because we're not supposed to be out on the canal, whatever.
• 28:29
  Andrea: Anyway, I did.
• 28:30
  Andrea: She calls the cops, the cops come to our house.
• 28:33
  Andrea: Oh no, which is you know, whatever.
• 28:36
  Andrea: The cops come to our house.
• 28:37
  Andrea: Again, this is I'm truly like kindergarten first grade.
• 28:41
  Andrea: Cops come to our house.
• 28:42
  Andrea: I can't remember what he asked me or anything like that.
• 28:45
  Andrea: I remember like all the sounds of all of his equipment, and I remember where he sat and everything, and I remember very distinctly at some point during the conversation, thinking he thinks this is my fault.
• 28:58
  Andrea: Like, I'm gonna get in trouble, or like my mom's gonna get in trouble because we were out there.
• 29:06
  Andrea: Where why were we there?
• 29:07
  Andrea: What were we doing?
• 29:09
  Andrea: Why why weren't why wasn't someone watching us?
• 29:12
  Andrea: Like, all like that whole vibe, right?
• 29:15
  Andrea: And let me just say, this is this little white girl experience is absolutely nothing compared to the experience that a lot of other kids have with the police.
• 29:26
  Andrea: But what it distinctly left me with is truly like an imprint of don't go to the cops, they're not gonna help you.
• 29:35
  Andrea: Uh, they might blame you, you might get in trouble.
• 29:37
  Andrea: So that was like my first interaction that I can remember with the police.
• 29:42
  Andrea: And I have truly, since then, and I have had a fair amount of interactions with the police because I'm you know, I've got pulled over a lot in my teens and twenties.
• 29:53
  Andrea: Uh, I have never had an interaction with the cops or seen an interaction with the cops that proved me different.
• 30:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Wow.
• 30:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Wow.
• 30:02
  Carmen Lezeth: That's uh that's fascinating.
• 30:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Um I uh no no I look at I I think that kind of explains it too, and actually it's kind of in a way refreshing.
• 30:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I'm sorry you had that experience because look at it.
• 30:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Here's the thing too.
• 30:16
  Carmen Lezeth: I actually want to believe, I can't say I really believe this, but in my heart, I want to believe that people who become or want to be police officers go into it for the right reasons.
• 30:27
  Carmen Lezeth: And then sometimes I think, well, like I wish all police officers had to go to college first.
• 30:32
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'm not trying to say college is the thing.
• 30:35
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm not saying you have to be a four-degree, but I feel like that's part of the problem is like there's not enough maturity to be able to deal with de-escalation, dealing with kind of other issues that I think you learn.
• 30:49
  Carmen Lezeth: And if you're just like 18, 19 years old and you're given a gun and all this power and authority after, you know, six months of training, I feel like that's part of the problem.
• 31:00
  Andrea: 100%.
• 31:01
  Andrea: I mean, look, in my socialist utopia, um we do we do abolish the police.
• 31:08
  Andrea: And that, and and what I mean by that is I don't mean no law enforcement.
• 31:13
  Andrea: I'm saying law enforcement as it exists in the United States today needs to be completely deconstructed and rebuilt, and there needs to be extensive, intensive, I would say, years-long training before you are given a weapon and put out on the streets.
• 31:33
  Andrea: Uh, you know, while I'm at it, end qualified immunity.
• 31:37
  Andrea: People need to have personal liability for harm doing, you know, for wrongdoing, doing harm to people, right?
• 31:44
  Andrea: I saw something months ago.
• 31:46
  Andrea: I remember on social media, someone said instead of having the cities or the municipalities pay for the lawsuits, take it out of their pensions.
• 31:54
  Andrea: Yeah, right.
• 31:54
  Andrea: Like that would change things right away.
• 31:57
  Andrea: Create some actual self-policing, right?
• 32:00
  Andrea: If if if your wrongdoing is coming out of my pension, I'm probably not gonna stand by and let you watch you hurt people, kick someone in the face while you arrest them.
• 32:09
  Andrea: You know what I mean?
• 32:09
  Andrea: Like it just needs to be rethought.
• 32:12
  Andrea: And again, like I said, it's my socialist utopia.
• 32:14
  Andrea: Obviously, it's never gonna happen, but you know, I it needs to look and be completely different than it does today for it to actually be a net good, right?
• 32:25
  Carmen Lezeth: I I think one of the reasons why unfortunately people go into the police department is because it's easier, right?
• 32:32
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's uh you you do, you have this ability to make money.
• 32:36
  Carmen Lezeth: It's not a lot of money at the beginning, but you can make a good living as a cop eventually, and then you have all of these protections.
• 32:43
  Carmen Lezeth: And if you have even an ounce, which you kind of sort of have to, of power frenzy or kind of this weird control thing, or you like guns, it's such a bad place for you to be, you know.
• 32:57
  Carmen Lezeth: But um, you know, I don't know if I agree with you 100%, surprise, surprise.
• 33:02
  Carmen Lezeth: But I do think it needs to be reimagined for sure.
• 33:06
  Carmen Lezeth: And my whole thing is like, I don't want people who are 18, 19 years old becoming going to the police academy.
• 33:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I just don't.
• 33:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I want you to have to go do something for four years and become an actual adult who understands people, and it doesn't have to be collie, but it has to be something, you know?
• 33:26
  Carmen Lezeth: And the thing about firemen, not only do they want to help people, because let's say that's what police want to do too, but firemen actually are putting themselves on the line in order to learn to help people without a gun.
• 33:40
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's about teamwork and it's about trying to understand how to fix a situation.
• 33:46
  Carmen Lezeth: But cops are not being told that, they're not being taught that.
• 33:51
  Andrea: Yeah, I I just I do want to say, like, uh, I believe you actually have to be 21 to be a police officer with LAPD.
• 33:59
  Andrea: I could be wrong, but I know you could be right.
• 34:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Let me just say you're absolutely right.
• 34:02
  Andrea: We do a lot of recruitment and training in the high schools, so they get people sort of prepped and ready to go, but I think you have to be 21.
• 34:10
  Carmen Lezeth: No, you do.
• 34:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Firefighter, my apologies, you were right.
• 34:12
  Carmen Lezeth: To be a Los Angeles fire department, the minimum age to start is 18.
• 34:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Police officer LAPD, 21 at time of hire.
• 34:21
  Carmen Lezeth: So I don't know if that means you can start training before him, but that's what you're talking about.
• 34:26
  Carmen Lezeth: They go into the schools and stuff like that, right?
• 34:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 34:28
  Carmen Lezeth: So I still need them to do four years or something.
• 34:31
  Andrea: I don't know.
• 34:32
  Andrea: You know, again, like not that anyone believes in science anymore, but my understanding is that men in particular are do not even have fully formed brains at that age.
• 34:43
  Andrea: Okay, we're gonna lose.
• 34:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I think all men are beautiful, and you have you have fine ass brains.
• 34:51
  Andrea: Neither do a lot of women.
• 34:52
  Andrea: People's brains are not fully formed until they're in their mid-20s.
• 34:56
  Andrea: Like, oh yeah.
• 34:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I just I just wanted you to correct that.
• 35:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Come on, like you're just like men suck.
• 35:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I'm just kidding.
• 35:05
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just messing with you.
• 35:08
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm messing with you.
• 35:10
  Andrea: Okay, they mature at a slower rate, and actually, like physically, physiologically, that their brains are not fully formed.
• 35:16
  Carmen Lezeth: So, what age would you prefer?
• 35:18
  Carmen Lezeth: I would like to see cops in their 30s.
• 35:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Seriously, start the process.
• 35:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Old ass cops.
• 35:26
  Andrea: Like, imagine you have like a ton of money and you have like a trust fund.
• 35:30
  Andrea: Like, at what age do you want your child to be able to have access to that money and be responsible with it, right?
• 35:37
  Andrea: At what age do we want these people to have a gun and be out on the streets and be responsible with it?
• 35:43
  Andrea: I mean, you know, I don't know.
• 35:45
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 35:45
  Carmen Lezeth: But I do think something that's really interesting is uh uh I really am kind of over the cops being these buddy buddy people who never say a bad thing about somebody who's like killed someone.
• 35:57
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 35:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Like and it just the constant inability for them to be individuals because then you have to hear not all cops.
• 36:05
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I'm sorry.
• 36:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, you mean uh when someone else in on the plane when somebody I'm sorry, yeah, yeah.
• 36:11
  Carmen Lezeth: When somebody else hurts somebody and they don't, they don't they don't get angry about it.
• 36:15
  Carmen Lezeth: And even the cops that do, like and they'll do like social media posts or whatever, all of a sudden their their TikToks are gone.
• 36:22
  Andrea: Yeah, well, I mean, we talked about this before, it's dangerous, you can't do that.
• 36:25
  Andrea: Yeah, you know, these are like okay, everyone's gonna like these are publicly funded gangs.
• 36:31
  Andrea: Like they just are, they truly are, especially LA series people.
• 36:37
  Andrea: Like, you can Google that shit.
• 36:38
  Andrea: It's definitely a public funded gang.
• 36:41
  Andrea: I don't care.
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: But then why we're gonna do it, like I'm trying to hold back.
• 36:47
  Andrea: It's a brotherhood, we have to stick together.
• 36:50
  Andrea: You can't say just that's what gangs do, that's what gangs do.
• 36:56
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm mad because you you're putting a bad name on gangs.
• 36:59
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I'm just gonna say why are you doing that?
• 37:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I grew up in the hood, man.
• 37:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Like there's you know what's so weird in actual gangs, you do something wrong, your ass is kicked out of the gang after it being actually kicked and beaten up, you know what I mean?
• 37:15
  Andrea: And yeah, self-policing.
• 37:19
  Carmen Lezeth: They're very self-policing.
• 37:21
  Carmen Lezeth: This is a bad episode.
• 37:22
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm gonna have to cut all that out.
• 37:24
  Carmen Lezeth: We're advocating for gangs against police officers.
• 37:29
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm not, I've never thought of it.
• 37:31
  Carmen Lezeth: I've never, I will tell you this, I've never thought of it that way, Andrea.
• 37:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Never.
• 37:36
  Andrea: Yeah, well, I have, and it's actually like maybe not the entire departments, maybe, but there are it's a known fact in in this area, and many, you know, uh like there are actual gangs in LA Sheriff's Department.
• 37:56
  Andrea: It's known.
• 37:57
  Andrea: We know this.
• 37:59
  Carmen Lezeth: I have tattoos, they have tattoos, and they like you have to mean that LA and that the LAPD are gang affiliate.
• 38:08
  Carmen Lezeth: It just means that maybe former gang members have decided to become cops.
• 38:13
  Andrea: Uh that's not what I'm saying.
• 38:14
  Andrea: I'm that's not what I'm saying.
• 38:15
  Andrea: I'm saying function like a gang.
• 38:19
  Carmen Lezeth: No, no, I know what you're saying.
• 38:21
  Carmen Lezeth: I just want okay, so you're not okay, okay, okay.
• 38:23
  Carmen Lezeth: So you're saying that the police officers in the LADPD have a gang of their own and they have tattoos of their own.
• 38:31
  Carmen Lezeth: You're not talking about gang members.
• 38:33
  Andrea: Yeah, that's sheriff's department, uh, not LAPD, but probably, but it's LA's.
• 38:37
  Andrea: Okay, yeah, yeah.
• 38:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I I don't want no gang members from Los Angeles coming after my ass.
• 38:44
  Andrea: No, this is like I'm not afraid of the LAPD.
• 38:47
  Andrea: They have gangs that they have created within the department.
• 38:53
  Carmen Lezeth: I have heard that, but yeah.
• 38:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 38:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 38:57
  Carmen Lezeth: I will say this, just to give it a look.
• 39:00
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't, I'm not gonna say I don't hate all cops, but I look it, I had a really bad situation that happened recently where I had a kind of sort of stalker.
• 39:10
  Carmen Lezeth: We've talked about this, you know, where I got a weird letter at work.
• 39:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Um somebody talking very specifically about my Honda.
• 39:18
  Carmen Lezeth: I told you about this, right?
• 39:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Did you not know about this?
• 39:20
  Carmen Lezeth: No.
• 39:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, you do.
• 39:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Are you serious?
• 39:23
  Carmen Lezeth: I talked about it on the show.
• 39:25
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh my god, how did I not tell you?
• 39:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, because we don't usually talk anymore.
• 39:31
  Carmen Lezeth: See, we don't have the time.
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 39:33
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, so um about four or five months ago, I got a letter at work, and the letter um was very specific about when I come to work, when I leave.
• 39:44
  Carmen Lezeth: It was there, it was a poem about my Honda and the goldenness of it, and it was really weird, but it was also and it was creepy.
• 39:53
  Carmen Lezeth: And in the letter, it said, This is not creepy, which is the sign.
• 39:58
  Carmen Lezeth: You're like, oh, okay, never mind then.
• 40:01
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm glad you said that.
• 40:03
  Carmen Lezeth: And here's the thing they didn't sign it, they didn't sign their name, right?
• 40:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, but they knew where I parked, and so I parked on the street, I parked in the parking lot, but they knew all that, and it was in this weird poem.
• 40:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I'll send you a copy of it.
• 40:14
  Carmen Lezeth: It was so freaky weird.
• 40:16
  Carmen Lezeth: So I, being someone as a young kid who was stalked when I was a performer, it really brought up some weird feelings, and I was so confused by the whole thing.
• 40:27
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, is this just charming?
• 40:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Is this just what I'm I don't know I was trying to?
• 40:33
  Carmen Lezeth: Am I overreacting?
• 40:34
  Carmen Lezeth: But it didn't matter, it was keeping me up at night, it was freaking out.
• 40:37
  Carmen Lezeth: And then I thought I had tags on my car.
• 40:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I was right because you could put yeah, like air tags.
• 40:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I was freaking out.
• 40:45
  Carmen Lezeth: So I actually went to the Santa Monica Police Department, which is part of the LAPD, but it's the Santa Monica uh whatever.
• 40:52
  Carmen Lezeth: And they were wonderful, they were wonderful.
• 40:56
  Carmen Lezeth: They were lovely and kind and helpful and calmed me down and showed me how to check for my car.
• 41:02
  Carmen Lezeth: And, you know, they also said they explained to me that there's nothing illegal.
• 41:06
  Carmen Lezeth: That like somebody could send you flowers, not illegal.
• 41:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Somebody could, you know, they're like they know it's uncomfortable for you, but it's not they haven't done anything.
• 41:15
  Carmen Lezeth: They haven't, there's nothing in here that says it's violent or whatever, they're just an admirer.
• 41:20
  Carmen Lezeth: And one of the officers said, um, you know, back in the day, this would have been thought of as charming.
• 41:26
  Carmen Lezeth: He's like, but in this day and age, with social media and with, you know, they shouldn't have done this, you know.
• 41:32
  Carmen Lezeth: So they then reached out to the LAPD to make sure that because where it happened was in a different area than where I live.
• 41:40
  Carmen Lezeth: And so, and I felt all of a sudden very protected for I will say for the first time in my life when it comes to police officers.
• 41:49
  Carmen Lezeth: He gave me his card.
• 41:50
  Carmen Lezeth: They were like, you know, don't try not to worry about it.
• 41:53
  Carmen Lezeth: It's gonna be fine, blah, blah, blah.
• 41:55
  Carmen Lezeth: And so I think about it in that sense.
• 41:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I do want law enforcement, but what I want is good law enforcement.
• 42:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I want good cops like these cops who are trying to help the public good, you know.
• 42:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, and I want to believe that most cops are like that.
• 42:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Unfortunately, I don't see that.
• 42:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I my heart wants to believe it, but I don't see that as evident all the time and all the things we always hear about, you know?
• 42:24
  Andrea: Yeah, well, and to your point, right?
• 42:26
  Andrea: It's uh it would be fantastic and amazing and and really affirming to have these good cops come out like en masse against some of the, you know, really disgusting and horrific and illegal things that uh their colleagues are doing, but they're uh either not allowed or very strongly discouraged or even threatened to not do that.
• 42:53
  Andrea: And that's what perpetuates this perception.
• 42:56
  Carmen Lezeth: And it would have been cleaned up so much quicker if the first time somebody had done something wrong on the force, that all of them were like, that was wrong, we don't believe in that, and they would have been dismissed out of the force, and there you go.
• 43:11
  Carmen Lezeth: We would be, you know, you would learn the lesson.
• 43:13
  Carmen Lezeth: But what ends up happening is you learn you can get away with whatever you want, and so people do whatever they want to do.
• 43:20
  Carmen Lezeth: So yeah.
• 43:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, that was an interesting conversation, my dear friend.
• 43:27
  Carmen Lezeth: And I you know what?
• 43:31
  Carmen Lezeth: I think it's okay.
• 43:32
  Carmen Lezeth: I sometimes I'm afraid because we get so personal, but I think it's all right.
• 43:38
  Andrea: Uh look, I'm just a you know, white lady spouting off her shit.
• 43:45
  Carmen Lezeth: I thought you're gonna say I'm just a girl looking for a boy.
• 43:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Looking for a good cop.
• 43:51
  Carmen Lezeth: Just looking for a good cop.
• 43:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, good people in government.
• 43:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, just a brandful.
• 43:57
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just looking to, you know what I'm looking forward to someday, and I think this will happen.
• 44:02
  Carmen Lezeth: We will get back to a time, my prayer is that we can live our lives and not have to hear everything about what's happening in politics every single day.
• 44:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, that would be ideal, yes.
• 44:14
  Carmen Lezeth: So crossing our fingers.
• 44:16
  Carmen Lezeth: Anyway, everyone, thank you so much for um listening and hanging out with us.
• 44:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Please consider following us on YouTube and um on Substack.
• 44:25
  Carmen Lezeth: We really appreciate you.
• 44:26
  Carmen Lezeth: And remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy.
• 44:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Thanks, everyone.
• 44:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Bye.
• 44:31
  Carmen Lezeth: Adios.
• 44:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Thanks for stopping by, all about the joy.
• 44:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Be better and stay beautiful, folks.
• 44:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Have a sweet day.