Latest / Hold Your Ground / A Saxophone Full Of Defiance
Transcript
- joe: What's going on everybody? Welcome back to Hold Your Ground, the podcast, where you get working class culture without all the bullshit. We have a cool episode in store for you today. We've got a guest, Eric Molina, from the band Los Majablados. we have Fuck the World with Copy once again. It's gonna be a fucking dope show. There's all sorts of wild shit that's going on in the world. So with that, I'll give it to Copy for Fuck the World. You're on fucking mute, homeboy. Copy: There we go. You know, I'm kind of silly. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Fuck the microphone. Copy: Yeah, you know, I'm kinda stupid sometimes. You know, I got hit in the head a little bit. So this is fuck the world with copy. How's it going? I'm copy surprise. Listen up. I am so fucking done with these brain-dead, smooth-brained fucking idiots who don't understand how the first goddamn amendment works. The Constitution says that the fucking government can't throw your ass. Into jail for running your fucking mouth, apparently, and spewing whatever vile bottom feeding god-awful bullshit you want to fucking spit. However, you have the legal right to stand on that and be on the public's fucking sidewalk and be a complete miserable piece of shit. But here's the reality, Jack, that every single one of these fucking cowards, now, and I'm not just talking about the right, I'm also talking about the left, independence. I don't give a fuck when it comes to this piece particular. But here's the reality check that you fucking cowards choose to ignore. Freedom of fucking speech is not freedom from fucking consequences. The US government may not lock your ass up for being a racist fucking prick, but the Constitution doesn't give you a magical fucking force field against the goddamn real world. It doesn't mean you have to we anyone has to respect your stupid shit. It doesn't mean anyone p can't call you out for being a human pile of shit. And it sure as fuck doesn't mean you can run around harassing people without catching the fallout. You're free to say whatever the fucking dumb shit you ever fucking want. But you excuse me, but you are sure as shit not free from the fucking fallout of the people you decide to fuck with. I don't give a single goddamn flying fuck. If you shove someone, if you knock the camera out of their hand. You fucking knock their phone out of their hand. You lay your fucking hands on somebody. Fuck you. The second you do that they have every legal, moral, and goddamn human right to defend themselves. Period. Fucking period. It's that fucking simple. You don't get to invade somebody's personal space breaking their fucking goddamn gear or put your filthy fucking hands on And then cry like a fucking bitch when they defend themselves. Shocker. You made the fucking choice to make it physical. You're the one that escalated it. Whatever fucking happens to you after that, that's entirely on your dumbass. And this goes across the fucking board, like I said. Liberal, Republican, I don't give a shit. Keep your fucking hands to yourself. The sheer fucking unhinged hypocrisy on the streets right now makes me want to fucking vomit. We got these fucking clowns wrapping themselves in the American flag, beating their chest about freedom and liberty, screaming at the top of their lungs, about how much they love the fucking Constitution and the Bill of Rights and all of that shit about the second The second anybody fucking disagrees with that standpoint, it is the end of the fucking world. They lose their goddamn fucking minds. The second we on the like I'm gonna speak just generally on my side of things, not anybody else's, not speaking for anybody else. But the second I've been part of an organized group and that we hit the fucking pavement and escalate the protest game, and I'm not saying being violent, I'm not calling for violence or any of that kind of stupid shit. People lose their fucking goddamn mind. They get aggressive, they try to snatch the cameras, they physically bully people, and they act like us using our fucking rights somehow is in a personal attack on them. And that just doesn't fucking compute with me, and I'm a simple person, but I don't know. And you don't even give it the other part of this is don't get me started on the badge wearing fucking thugs that decide to say they're protecting and serving because I remember and I know fucking Luis remembers the 2020 protest with George Floyd in Portland. So I looked it out, looked it up a little bit. So I'm not just throwing blind fucking numbers. These are actual statistics from the Portland Police Bureau. The Portland Police Bureau, the Oregon State Police, and the Multnomah County Sheriffs formed a unified wall of state violence against everybody standing in the street. The Portland Police Bureau alone logged over 6,000, and that's what they're reporting. We all know it's fucking more because the ones that were there, we were fucking there. They used lethal or non-lethal rounds, the impact rounds that are supposed to be skipped off the ground or like hit in center mass type of areas. They're shooting them directly at people's fucking heads. Like anybody that was there, you can see that. The Department of Justice even had to fucking step in and put a leash on those fucking animals, even though yeah, right, you know, that's when they brought in DHS. That's the fucking system in action. Every time everyday people demand accountability, exercise their constitutional rights, the state, the cops, and right wing agitators coordinate escalate the escalation of force and they try to crush it. They use chemical weapons on you. And then they turn around and cry if a fucking camera phone phone camera gets pointed at them. And we have all seen that every day. You can watch YouTube videos and it it doesn't matter if it's about protesting or politics, ops lose their fucking mind or back the fuck off once the camera comes out. It it's pretty fucking brave of them, right? So I'm almost done. Sorry, this one's a little bit longer than my normal one. So The last things here is what these brainless hypocrites and state sanctioned bullies refuse to get through their fucking skulls is that when we march, we and we hold up the signs and when we scream until our fucking throats bleed, we are standing on the same goddamn constitutional bedrock as anyone else. We don't need your fucking permission, and we sure as fuck don't give a fuck about your approval. So if you're out there on the street and you don't fucking like it. And you're on the other side or you see somebody signs that you don't agree with, they do have the right to protest again. Consequences, however, there's freedom of that. You know, the you you can't get away from that. So run your mouth all day long. Constitution says you can be a fucking stupid asshole all the fuck you want. But again, don't understand that actions have consequences. Speech has consequences. If you put your fucking hands on somebody, mess with their gear. Or try to brutally intimidate them. You better be ready for them to step up and defend themselves. To every single racist, every fucking homophobe, every power tripping cop, and every spineless bigoted piece of shit hiding behind a badge or a flag while trying to strip away other people's humanity. You're not fucking patriots. You're fucking weak, miserable, fucking cowards. And nobody is afraid of your bullshit anymore. This is copy. This is fuck the world. Go fuck yourselves out. Luis: Word. That's beautiful. Thank you for those words, copy. normally what we would do about this time is the three of us would talk as a round table discussion. Look at that. I'm I'm getting smarter. topic. But we're gonna bring in our guests for this, okay? We're making special allowances and boys and girls, cousins, whatever the fuck you want to call yourself, we're about to make history right now. Do you know why? This is the first Chicano guest. That we've had on our show in the history of the Hold Your Ground podcast. That's right. This is first. So let me introduce Musician Extraordinaire. Holy shit, that was brilliant of me. Musician Extraordinaire, a good friend of most of us, all of us, all right, and just a greater all-around guy, Eric Molina. Hey Eric, welcome. How you doing? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): What's up guys? What's up? Good man. What's up? Thanks for having me on the on the pod today. joe: Yeah, thanks for coming, bruv. Luis: Thanks. Well, I figured that we'd get you in on this conversation because if I remember correctly, you have a bit of a history knowing what it's like to deal with fascist police officers. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, and w when copy was talking I was I was just I I just couldn't help but just think like, man, I I got I got to see a lot of this face first, you know. And Copy: Yeah, it's it's a problem no matter where you go, honestly. And as small towns as I'm finding out, it's really really bad. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah. And it's Luis: Well Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): and it's not just the small, small towns. Like Copy: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Tri City's Washington is not a small town and there's a lot of really wealthy and educated people there, but the reason that they're wealthy is Lockheed Martin is there. The Copy: Right. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Hanford site is there. There's a couple Copy: Mm-hmm. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): of things there that make people you know I mean, think a certain way. So I grew up around Luis: yeah, absolutely. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): that, so it's really interesting. Luis: Well, let's get into it. Do you wanna give us a background of your story, f with the incident and talk about it and then we can bounce off from there? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): yeah. the The incident. It it honestly it took me some time to stop talking about it because like thinking about it was honestly freaking me out still and it took me some time to actually like heal through this process. So like doing something about it isn't easy. And the reason I didn't fully take my lawsuit to trial was mainly because of my health, my finances and just my mental health, man. Like I would have still been in court. And if I would have lost, I would have paid and I would have been millions of dollars into debt. But that's how they know that they are basically bulletproof. Is they take money and put it in a slush fund so that when these police officers get caught, not when they mess up, because they mess up all the time, they don't get caught very often. But when they get caught with good evidence and you can't deny it. They just give you some taxpayer money back. And knowing damn well that if you actually went through court like you have to when you get pulled over for anything, that they will drag it on. They'll do things to you and your family. And if you for some reason lose, you're on the hook for all of the money. And who's willing to ruin their entire life to be right? Not a lot of people. But the people that do have the money are the ones willing to gamble that because they they can afford to. But that's how the system kind of keeps people, you know, in their place, so to speak, you know. And my my experience with that was was firsthand. Like I'm I'm a saxophonist. I've always loved playing my instrument. I I s I was a band kid in school. I always wanted to be on stages. I love going to I used to drive from Tri-Cities all the way to go see shows at the Roseland. And I went like a couple months ago. And I went in there and I thought, this place is not as big as I remember. Because I remember Luis: Ha ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): when I was a junior in high school, it was this like arena. Like in my head, the Roseland Theater was this like, ho. But going back in there after playing venues that are much bigger than that. It really changed some things. But you know, b b back to the story. I used to, you know, participate in the music on my own and just drive to Portland and back four hours each way by myself just to see a band and you know, I didn't really know much about ska culture. I didn't know much about like reggae culture even, you know. I started smoking weed right after high school and started digging into new music. But I always listened to Pink Floyd sober because it was good music. Luis: Right? Copy: Mm-hmm. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): You know? But, you know, and and then that got me digging into more reggae. And then I was like, well, I play saxophone. I want to start playing, you know, fast forward to I started playing in some scot bands. Fast forward I started playing in some scot bands with skinheads. And I realized I might not be a skinhead, but I fit in here. Because Luis: Word. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): the bare minimum is don't be a fucking shithead. Don't be a bonehead. And wow, it's not hard to pass the bare minimum. You know, it's It's surprising that in twenty twenty six we're walking around just like Hoppy said, there's people who really re don't realize that the bare minimum is treating people with respect. Strangers maybe don't comment about their lives and let them live it over there. Like, who cares? Copy: Yeah, I I've never understood what everybody's fucking fixation, especially on the right, obviously, about what's going on in somebody else's bedroom or how they as long as they're not little kids, you know, and being a fucking absolute abhorrent piece of shit, why do you care? Like why are Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): And in my travels, I have an answer to that. It's an American thing. joe: So do I. Luis: would like to just point out that it I would like to point Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Americans think they're very unique. Luis: out that I think it's the end of the world because in our last two episodes our two guests both quoted myself and copy. So it must be the end of the world when we're dropping making Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): The end of the world. Luis: sense. no no Copy: I don't know. I'm scared actually. Now that joe: Word. I Copy: you point that out. joe: so like I I want to say though, Eric, I'll push back on that a little bit, right? Like it's not a uniquely American fucking thing. I've seen I've seen this yeah, all over. Like I I I travel Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): No, the whole world has its issues. Yeah. joe: all over, you know what I mean? And honestly, like the only thing that I can come up with, the only thing that makes sense to me is that you got a bunch of people who wanna believe in their religion, but they secretly think that dicks taste like fucking whipped cream and strawberries and they can't give it a try and so it fucking makes them mad and they're like, fuck everybody. Luis: That's I love you, Joe. So so beautiful. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Well there's new words for that. You know, there's there's new vocabulary. Like just a couple of months ago I heard about what a lavender w marriage was and I didn't joe: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): realize what that was. I knew that it happened, but I didn't realize that there was a term for it and like Luis: Is that what we used to call a beard? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): That hurts. Luis: No, no, no, no. A lavender marriage joe: I don't know. Copy: You might want to look it up, Louise. Luis: no wait wait. A lavender marriage is when a gay guy marries a girl but to pretend that they're in a normal couple, right? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Thought that's what it was. I'm joe: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): not sure. Luis: Okay, so that sounds like a beard then. joe: That is what it is. Luis: Yeah, that's that's what people called a beard back in the fifties. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Beard. Luis: Yeah. Same thing. No Copy: I gotcha. See joe: Word. Copy: not everybody sip to the ancient Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Anyways Copy: terms. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, sorry. Yeah Luis: Sorry, not everybody's as old as I am, but fuck it. joe: Okay okay, Boomer, back to the story, Eric. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): But but yeah, I got into music, I started playing in bands, and I started kind of liking th the the ethos of what it is being in a punk band and a ska band and in and like not just any scot band, but like working with my phoscophiles, working with Andre, working with with those guys who are New York skinheads, you know, from the nineties who know what you know skinhead culture is, you know. It's just 2026 and now we have to show people documentary. But that's a different that's a different conversation. But being around people like that, it just made me realize that like, hey, th there's some there's some value here and I want to participate in this musically and try to help and do my part in the community and that's playing saxophone. COVID hits and I lose all of my gigs. I cancel all of them. I think it was like over 80 gigs that I ended up canceling and dropping myself. And that's like low for a lot of people had it's because people had been ramping up, ramping up, ramping up, and just hit the we hit the brick wall, you know. fast forward 2021, I'm doing delivery, I'm living with my folks in Tri-Cities, you know, they're older, it's good to stay close, help out, you know. I was I was pretty into gaming, so if they're like, hey, you have to quarantine, I was like, say less. But joe: Ha ha ha. Copy: Worst thing ever. Ha ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I drove past the house in September 2021, and it was the very beginning of what was happening in the US where people were saying that COVID like wasn't real and all this stuff and people started pushing back. And in Tri-Cities it was pretty strong. Like people were, you know. You would see people just arguing in the grocery store everywhere you went and it was just everywhere. You know, people would be like you could walk out of the grocery store with a mask on and like still be pushing your cart and forget it on, and then someone will from a truck will yell at you and say some slurs because you have a fucking mask on and you just forgot. Like it just it it became this energy that was very strange. And I drove by a house that was throwing like a fat, like raging party. Like probably a hundred, hundred and fifty people in like a residential house, just in their yard, kids running around, just tons of people. September 2021, right? And whatever. I'm driving. I at that point I didn't really care. I was just living with my two parents, myself, doing my delivery. That's as impersonal as it gets. I was doing my thing. And I drove by and I distinctly remember some kids playing basketball and like at that point I was twenty eight, twenty-nine. So I was like, I was that kid like not that long ago. Like, so I wait, they get on the sidewalk, make eye contact, cool, you drive by. That's the like unwritten contract between kids playing on the street and drivers, right? You're off the street, excuse me. Okay, go ahead. Well, their parents didn't like that because three of those dudes were bikers and they got on their Harleys and ran me down. They drove about two miles until they got me to a roundabout. And by ran me down, I mean they were like speeding up in front of me. They were in oncoming traffic to the side of me. They were getting in front of me. They were trying to box me in. And I had to maneuver my way to not get s like into a crash. and I just drove a Prius. So I was didn't have any juice in my vehicle. And I'm going up against Harleys that are just powerful machines. I get to an intersection that has like raised sidewalks on both sides, and that's where they surrounded me and they stopped me completely. I immediately stopped and locked the door and immediately called 911 because I was like, these guys are about to like shoot me or something. You know, I want to at least get this call started, but and I have no idea what's hap-gonna happen. And the dude starts sma s- smacking his rings because he had big ass rings and he started smacking them into my window. Luckily the window didn't break. But he was started fucking cussing me out and all this shit and I immediately was on 911 and I started giving them extremely quick and details where I was and everything. I I took a picture of his license plate and I literally took the phone and I looked at him and I said, He's a white male, late forties, beard And they started describing his tattoos like to his face through the window. And that's when he got on his bike and they fucked off. Because I was just like, this is the only way. Like I don't have a weapon, you know, I can't defend myself. And even if I did, there's three of them. And they all have patch jackets that say Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association. And I can definitely see that they have stuff on their hip. Like I can't really make out if it's like a gun or not. But like you could tell that they had either knives or something. So I was fucked. And I when they they drove off the you know, nine one one was like, don't go home, because if they follow you home, you know, so I knew better than that. So I drove to the opposite side of Tri Cities. I caught my my breath, I stopped, I called back in, I said, Hey, so like did you guys talk to them or what? And they're like, Yeah, we talked to them. I was said, Okay. Are you guys gonna press charges? Like I said, they're like, you never said. I was like, yes, I did. I specifically said I wanted to press charges. And later, this comes up in the police report where signed by an officer, he says that he went over there and informed them of the criminal aspect of their actions. So when you're a white good old boy, you get informed of the criminal actions that you've did and But nothing w bad will happen to you. So I went to the social media and I called out their biker club, which is Combat Veter Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association. I've said it once, I'll say it again. Fuck you guys. Fuck you for covering up all the fucking bullshit in your fucking club. That being said, Steven Cooper is a piece of shit and he runs the West Richland Club. Fuck you again. I hope you like being the fucking fire marshal. Luis: Thank you, Steven. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Hope you like being the fire marshal at the Hanford site or energy northwest or wherever you work and having the cops protect you. Fuck you. Anyways, Copy: Caspage. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I didn't find out his name until later. So this this started kind of unraveling. So the cops didn't really do anything. I called the prosecutor's office and they never heard of the case. So I was like, well, what do I do now? I went on social media, started calling out Combat Veteran Veterans Motorcycle Association. And my phone started ringing. and I started picking up because there were random numbers. And one would be, hey man, I'm the guy from this club. We don't do that kind of stuff. We're really sorry that happened to you. Like, if you give me your contact, you know, we can talk to you, we can help you figure out, blah blah blah. And at first I was like, okay. And then another person called, and that guy said, I'm gonna fucking find you and kill you. And I was like, And then the next phone call was like, Hey, we're really sorry. And then the next phone call, I know where you live. So it it just was this hot and cold of like dudes admitting that they're part of the club. So things started getting weird. And out of just desperation, it's COVID, I have nothing else going on. I'm pretty sick and tired of of of people like this. So I fucking emailed every news station in town. But every news station in Tri Cities is ran by Sinclair. And if you're not aware, Sinclair is the Fox News umbrella. So they sure as Luis: So wait. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): shit weren't gonna run my story. Luis: So wait, ev now at at this point right now, Sinclair has a monopoly that's illegal to have in the tri cities. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I think so as far as yeah, yeah. That that's f best of my knowledge, yeah. Luis: Okay, 'cause I know I know they own two stations here in Portland, right? And for those of you that aren't aware, Sinclair is a station that if you look up Sinclair news anchors all say the same thing. there's just they're news anchors from all across the country literally saying the same script over and over, and it starts like with one square and then branches out to it fills up the whole screen. Yeah. They are fucking right winged owned fuck faces. And Sinclair media can go Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, so no one in Tri Cities Luis: fuck off too. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yes, nobody in Tri Cities got back to me. K View and Yakima did. So I did they interviewed me where it happened, this and that. I called them out and I said, The police refused to press charges after I wanted to press charges. They're lying. And they in the news called the officer and they have his quote saying we were just finishing the paperwork. Well that was everything's good. It's like, yeah, motherfuckers, I had to call you Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): out on the news. Luis: Maybe you mentioned this and I'm sorry. maybe I just don't space it off. But is this the West Richland Police Department or is this the Richland Police Department? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): West Richler. Luis: Okay. Okay. Continue on. Just yeah. Not that it matters. Not Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, Luis: that not not that it matters at all. for those of you that don't know the Tri Cities, West Richland is next to the Tri Cities, right? Like it's yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): That's just part of one of the areas, yeah. Anyways, I went on there, so now I was able to push the case to the prosecutor's office. That was the next step. when I I found out that the police chief lived nearby, was when a city councilwoman, shout out to Kate Moran, for helping me out, for actually. Doing what you're supposed to do as an elected official, go figure. She came over and talked to me, because she had met my mom once or something. We talked about everything. She told me that, you know, how sorry she was and this and that. She was very kind. On her way out, she goes, Be careful. The house across the street is police chief Ben Majetic's house. So that was the first part of the story. Uh-huh. Luis: Across the street from where you live. Awesome. Fuck it. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): right across the street from where I live. So this was very interesting. so when I found that out, I started calling him out directly, being like, This little bitch lives on my street. And I just went off even harder. When Copy was talking about free speech, there are limits. If I had posted his address, I would have been in jail and never met any of you guys. Because there's a fine line And it's what you can prove, you know. If he was able to pull up a bunch of doc or a bunch of posts from my social media saying that I hate cops, and then I'm over here posting his address. It probably wasn't gonna go well. So I tried to be as careful as possible while still going hard and being like, Fuck this guy, fuck this guy. He finally agrees to a sit down because the councilwoman tried to talk to him and we sit down and he refused to do the conversation on recording. S but I was able to have the city councilwoman there, which is why I feel very confident making these statements because I have proof. police officer or police chief Ben Majetic told me that police officers do not have to tell anybody the truth. They can lie as much as they want because they're trained to get answers out of people. They're trained to make you self-incriminate. They're trained to make you give up your civil rights. That's in their training. When they say, Do you know why I pulled you over? That's them asking you to incriminate yourself immediately. So they're trained to do this shit. And I got him on record saying that they can say whatever they want because I said, Well, I wanted them to press charges and you guys didn't want to do it. So are you saying I'm lying? Or you are you lying? And he said, Well, okay, yeah, we're we can we can do that out of for investigations. So I said, I was the person who called in the complaint. Why are you investigating me? I have proof that they did this. Chasing people down no matter what you your opinions are. and holding them in traffic against their will isn't legal. So we went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Nothing really happened. Fast forward to my meeting with the prosecutors. And they'd already emailed me, but they said it to my face. They said that they looked at the evidence and they said that they had enough evidence to prosecute, but they declined to prosecute. They just choose not to. Because prosecutions are a political thing. The reason Donald Trump is in offices and isn't being prosecuted is because it's a political thing. Because someone has to take the risk and take his ass to court, but nobody's got this fucking sack to do it. So Motherfucker does does what he wants because prosecutions aren't just things that happen by default. You have to have someone willing to do it. And in this case, the prosecutor said, Nah, we aren't gonna do it. I find out from one of those phone calls from the biker club, he said, These guys kicked me out of the organization for calling out something similar. I want you to get his name. I'm gonna start sending you pictures. And he helped me identify who it was. And that's how I found out it was Steven Cooper. Steven Cooper is the fire marshal at Energy Northwest. Energy Northwest is I I believe is part of the nuclear plant and requires federal security clearance. So when you do something illegal, you was for sure driving drunk. With federal security clearance, nothing bad will happen to you because it's all a good old boys' club. Luis: So for those of you that don't know, Hanford Nuclear Site is the facility where they created the Utonium Bomb or the plutonium that we're now at Nagasaki and Hiroshima and as well as it's one of the only nuclear power plants that's really based on Chernobyl, right? So they're Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): They talk about it in Oppenheimer, the movie. They talk about Hanford. That's that's eastern Washington. Luis: Right. So what like what Eric said is true. There's a lot of money out there because there is literally like something like a hundred and twenty five years worth of cleanup work to do out there. Right. So that's why guys like this are running around the tri cities with federal clearance. If people are like wondering, well, well, how does this have have to take place? Also remember that the city of Richland itself is a decommissioned army base. Right? That that's set up like an and it looks like an army base, you know, to me. but anyway, sorry about that, Eric. I just wanted to explain that part why why it's important that this guy has federal clearance and what that has to do with that area. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): So when I was speaking to the prosecutors, they said they weren't gonna they weren't going to prosecute this guy. S and for context, right before the conversation I said, I don't want to talk to you guys unless I can record it or unless I have a witness, which the councilwoman agreed to come be the witness. They said, The councilwoman isn't coming. She doesn't want to be here with your behavior, and they started just making me feel like I was doing something wrong. I didn't trust them. So in front of the Benton County prosecutors, I looked them square in the eyes. I took my phone out and I called a councilwoman on speaker. And I said, Hey Kate, I'm here. Are you still gonna come to the meeting? She says, What meeting? They called me and said it was canceled. So I said, Cool. Well, they're just looked me in the eyes and said that you didn't want to be around me. And I literally quoted everything right back to them. They're turning bright red. And I said, so Kate, can you please stay on this phone call? Because they're already lying to me. I don't trust my own safety. And can you please be on the call? And she agreed to stay on the call. At the end of the meeting with them when they said the prosecutors aren't going to do anything, I said a few statements very specifically. Because you have to be very specific. I said, if the prosecutors, the police in this town aren't going to do anything about protecting me and my family, I have a Second Amendment right to defend myself if I need to. I specifically mentioned it like that. I didn't say I'm gonna go get a gun, I'm not gonna go harm someone. I specifically said I have a Second Amendment right to defend myself if I need to. Is there anything legally wrong with that statement? No. joe: No. They don't like that shit though, dude. I had a Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): They don't. joe: cop here I did the same thing, except I I'm not as eloquent as you are. And they th so they I w Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I was careful, bro. I had to be. joe: right, I had this shit going on with my business and this dude who was all fuck who worked for me that was all fucking strung out on fucking dope and he came down and like was just destroying shit. And somebody else called the cops, 'cause I don't call the fucking cops. You know what I mean? So the cops come down and they're like, and They fucking take him away, this is also during COVID, and they didn't take him to jail because of COVID, so he came back down, the cops followed him back down, he does all the shit again. It was like seven times in one day, right? And so the last time I asked him was like, You guys gonna put this guy in jail for the night? 'Cause he fucking destroyed my boat last night and he's been down here a bunch today. And I'm not going to lose this fucking multi-million dollar investment that I run. to this fucking jack off. So if he comes back down tonight in the night, I'm staying on this fucking boat. I'm just letting you know the next call you get is gonna be for a fucking shooting. And they were like, Well you can't do that. I'm like I'm just letting you know, man, I have every right to defend myself, really. And quite frankly, I have every right to defend this vessel because this doesn't even fall under your city's laws. Right? This is federal. This is fucking maritime. I'm the captain of this ship. I have full authority to do whatever the fuck I need to do in this moment. So I'm just letting you know. I'm like, you can't just kill somebody. I was like, homie, I'm a motherfucking retired combat infantry fire team leader. I didn't say anything about killing somebody. I said it's gonna be for a shooting. And quite frankly, I Luis: Ha ha ha. joe: have more experience. experience shooting motherfuckers than your entire police force does. So take it as it is. And they did not Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Well, joe: like that. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): like copy was talking about free speech. You gotta figure out how to use synonyms, bro. You gotta figure out how to because it's it's it there's exceptions and if they s they take it as a threat right then and there, right? It happens Copy: Yep. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): right there. So like it I'm just saying, be safe. Luis: And I and I I'd like to point out right there too that like, yo, that Eric has the last name Molina, right? That he does look Latin, right? So if you get a small bunch of small town cops that that think that what you're saying is I'm coming back and clack, clack, motherfucker, right? If they think they're if you're brown or with that last name and you think you're joe: Yeah. Luis: saying that, you ain't making it out that fucking meeting, bro. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): So what did what did that police joe: No, I g I get that. I get that. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): officer say? Hmm, maybe my lawyer subpoenaed the email. Let's let's let's read that. Let's joe: let's fucking read that. Copy: Yes. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): read that, shall we? Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Eric Molina was told today by prosecutors that charges were not being filed on a West Russian PD case where he was an alleged victim of a threat and it as the case number. I met with him early on in reference to him not being happy on how the case was handled by a original officer. His complaint and concerns he's got a bunch of weird slashes and a bunch of weird things in it, because you could tell he's typing fast as shit all angry. His complaint concerns were unfounded. While waiting for the prosecuting attorney's charging decision, he has been harassing the suspect in the case and has posted numerous negative material in reference to me. This is the police chief speaking. Ex-police chief Ben Majetic. Today he threw a fit in the prosecuting prosecutor's office, screamed, yelled profanities, and pounded the table when they were trying to explain their decision not to file. He had he almost had to be escorted from the courthouse. He almost almost had to be escorted by out of the courthouse. While leaving, while leaving, he mentioned. Who's gonna buy it? Luis: That word almost is so crazy because I have a list of Proud Boy applications and in one of these applications one of these fools almost hit a cop. He almost Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Almost. Copy: That's like the motherfuckers that like come up to Joe and I I know Joe's had to deal with it that sit there and go, Well, I almost joined the military, but you know, if a drill sergeant came up to me, I would have fucking like no the fuck you wouldn't. That drill sergeant would fuck you up. Fuck you up. Like don't joe: Ha ha ha ha. Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): So he said I I screamed, I yelled profanities, I pounded the table, and I said I was gonna get a gun. Hmm. Maybe did I have a witness? yes I did. Wow. Would that witness testify in court that that's fucking a lie? They didn't have to, because they didn't even bother going there. Next paragraph. I'm usually not concerned about things such as this, but he unfortunately, unfortunately. lives across the street from me and with his parents. Luis: God damn constitution that lets these fucking brown people move into our neighborhood. What the fuck, city? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): And he knows where I live. That's in the sentence. And he knows where I live. Luis: A Latino knows where I live fucking call ice. joe: Well, straight up d this is wild ass victimization, right? Like where this person is making himself Copy: Right. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): This next line This next line was my cover picture on my Facebook for like the next couple years. This next line. He hates cops. You can read his Facebook to see this and is equivalent to the Antifa mentality. Copy: Jesus Christ. It's f it it's funny you mentioned that 'cause I was just talking to Joe. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): It's right here in writing, baby. Where is where is Where is it? Antifa joe: That's amazing. That's fucking amazing. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): mentality, where we at? joe: Hold on, let him finish. This shit's amazing. Copy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Antifa mentality is backwards, but it's right there. Copy: No, you're straight on. Luis: Yeah, I see it right there. Yeah, equivalent to the antipa I love this because right after this point, you guys, we've already burned down Portland, right? It's a smoking rubble as far as and so this is just Copy: They're concerned. Luis: like this is like three hours east of us right here. So clearly the fear yeah, four. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Four. Luis: The the fear has gotten there, right? Like Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): They're s they're dude, they're s terrified of Portland and Tri-Cities. Anyways, he hates cops. You can read his Facebook to see this, and his equivalent to Antifa mentality. He has not attempted contact with me or my wife at the house yet. Copy: Jesus. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): But appears to be escalating in his poor behaviour. Luis: Miss Cleo. Miss Cleo reading the future. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): If he does come to my home, I will have my wife call nine one one and not answer the door. If I Luis: Hello! Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): am at home, it will be handled in the same manner since I do not want a physical confrontation. Luis: Yeah. Copy: Bullshit. You know that motherfucker come out there with a fucking gun and just shoot your ass. Yeah. Luis: Got a gun. He would have shot you fucking without even asking a question, bro. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): The last last couple sentences. Also, please drive through, especially at night, since he has posted where I live to his antifa Antifa type friends. Molina drives the Red Prius in his parents' driveway. So let me Luis: The Latinos come out at night. The Antifa comes out at night. The Antifa come out at night. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Check it out. Right there. Also please drive through especially at night since he has posted where I live as Antifa type France. Luis: Well, you know, Eric, Antifas and Latinos are both fucking w nocturnal groups of people, right? So that's when we scurry around Antifaine and Chicanoine. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): So I got slapped with so let's just let's just get to to to the next part. So that email I don't know about this email until the co the court process starts because of the the subpoena. I'm just trying to give you guys the pieces in order, you know. So he sent Luis: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely, you're good. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): that email to his whole department. You you can even see it says like Up top it says two and says police staff. Literally everybody can just Luis: What was so so wait, what's your reaction? Cause of course, like you just said, you didn't know that about the existence of this letter till later on in the process, right? and like really he's he's targeting you to his department. He's t he he's essentially Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): The day after I was at the prosecutor attorney's office, there was a cop car parked in front of my house for the next three weeks. Luis: So so what did that like when you got your hands on that like through the subpoena process and you read that w how did that feel? What w what did that mean to you? What what did it mean? 'Cause like I mean I would have been like fuck dude, I am not safe in my hometown by the people that are chosen to protect me. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Honestly, I told a lot of my friends and my family in town, some people who I don't call friends anymore because of this, they said, They're watching me. They're trying to do something to me. And they said, Eric, you're watching too much TV. This isn't important. And I have it in writing that it he's requesting drive-throughs at night. He's requesting surveillance. Luis: Marking out your Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): In writing. Luis: car. Marking out the car that you are driving. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): So the worst part was being surrounded by people that didn't believe me. Copy: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Because the people who I trusted, I d couldn't trust them anymore. Because they really thought I did something. What did I do though? You must have done something was the answer that everyone gave me. Luis: And you can't go sh go to Kennewick or Pasco to feel safe because again, it's a very small community, the tri cities, right? Like I'm sure all the pigs know each other on a first name basis there, right? From whatever Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): So Copy: be willing to bet Luis: department. Copy: that some of are C VMA fucking members themselves. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, honestly. I I I bet you there's a couple C V A like January Sixers for sure. Like it was it's that type of crowd. Anyways, Couple days after the prosecuting attorney's office, I am driving, I go out and get food. And I come back. And it's about 1227. And I see the police chief's car parked in his driveway, and he usually parks in his garage. And I didn't think anything of it. But then I stop at my mailbox and guess where my fucking mailbox is. It's in front of his house, dude. So Luis: Next to his house. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I park my car. In front of his house and he comes out and he goes, Hey, I know what you're doing and and I'm just like, I'm getting my mail Like, god. I'm g and he's like, I know what you're doing, don't fucking go anywhere. And I was like, I'm getting my mail. And he's screaming Luis: 'cause you Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): at me. Luis: 'cause of the way you parked to get your mail, you blocked off his driveway, huh? Okay. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): By a little bit. He's got one of those like double wide driveways and he was arguing. That that ended Luis: Okay. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): up being part of the conversation later. It it was Luis: Okay. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): snowy, so there was like a bunch of ice. And like that became a whole petty, like, Well, the cop cars wouldn't park in the ice, why'd you expect me to park in the ice? Because you can get stuck Luis: Right, right, right. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): in the ice, you know, and all that stuff. But it that just became semantics in the court case. But Luis: Okay. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): he comes at me screaming, and I know my rights, I say. I'm just getting my mail. Is there something I can do for you? And he says, You fucking motherfu he's screaming at me. I know what you're doing. And I said, Am I detained or am I free to go? And he says, you're not free to go, but you're not detained. And I know exactly what that means. That means I'm free to go until he says I'm detained. I can do whatever fuck I want until you say I'm detained. And I said, Alright, unless you specifically detain me, I'm gonna drive home right now. And he says, Don't go anywhere. You're detained. I said, Great. In that moment, three squad cars just fucking bl blow in, and he turns his back. And something in my head said, Eric, you have to do something about this. So I used to wear flannels that have, you know, breast pockets. And I have this big ass phone. And I I didn't have this white sticker on there. That's a flight thing. But I went on Facebook Live and put it in my pocket. And it showed like this. And I was and that's the trick. When you do this to a cop, they know you're filming. But if you do this to a cop. They didn't know. So they spoke freely in front of my livestream for a good forty-five minutes until they got a call saying he's on Facebook live stream, stopped speaking in front of them. Cause they started saying a bunch of shit. They said, We're gonna get you for disorderly conduct, and they said, No, we're gonna get you for false imprisonment, 'cause they were saying that I was parked behind him, so I was holding him against his will. And then then one was What was it? That I was interfering with his his duties and then eventually what ended up getting slapped on me was a harassment charge. I got charged with harassment. So on camera they went through all these options and they were like talking to each other about like how do we fuck this guy up? And lucky for me, I am a saxophone player, band kid, video game nerd. They couldn't really fuck me up for anything. I knew my rights, which is why I said you have to You have to detain me or else I'm walking. You know? And that was those were the key words that ended up being part of my defense later. And Yeah, they said all these things. Like I the Facebook live stream is still on my Facebook. If you wanna go look at it, it's there. And I Luis: yeah. I'll be watching. joe: That's amazing and I will be checking that out tonight after this. Luis: I will be watching it tonight, right? Like I was gonna say Copy: Yeah, I was gonna yeah. I was gonna say all Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Mm-hmm. Copy: three of us are gonna fucking watch that Luis: the same thing, yeah. Copy: in detail. Luis: We're going right there. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): So when they go, what were you doing? I said I want to go get food, they're Can you prove it? I'm like, You know what? My food's getting cold. That's a good point. Can I eat my food right now? And they're like, You do whatever you want. And I was like, Alright, well I'm gonna reach into my car. Is that cool? They're like, Yeah, whatever, do whatever you want. I'm like, You I have to ask you because I'm detained. And you guys are gonna hurt me if I don't ask you. And they're like, just being dicks, I'm like, Alright, I'm gonna grab it was just a fucking cheeseburger. I start eating and he starts asking me questions and I start answering with my food in my mouth. I'm spitting out crumbs like being a fucking asshole. And then even I look down to my phone and one of my buddies says, offer him a bite. So I did. I said, Do you want some, dude? These they say it's like shit, but if you want some, we might be here a while, you can have some. They're pissed. Why? Because I learned what escalation and de-escalation tactics are, and I know that it goes both fucking ways. So they didn't like that I was sharing my food. 30 minutes later, they go, So what were you doing driving around? I was like, getting food. They're Can you prove it? I was like, dude, I offered you a bite. That's in the video. So if you if you want to catch that, he tries to catch me up on the story. I'm like, dude, I offered you food, bro. joe: That's amazing. Copy: I cannot wait. Luis: I mean, I I appreciate the bravado, right? Like I I I I love that shit. But internally, th thank you. yeah Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I was fucking scared, bro. It was just adrenaline, dude. I was angry. I was coursing with adrenaline. At the very end, he comes up. He's like, all right, we're gonna charge you with this. I've already talked to the jail. He's putting his gloves on. And all I could think was, Eric, they're gonna make you flinch. They're gonna make you tense up. You're six foot one. You're 360 pounds. They're gonna take anything you do as a threat. So, like, the second they touch you, hands up. Knees, like do whatever you need to do so they don't smash your skull into the pavement. That's all Luis: Word. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I kept thinking. He put his gloves on, he goes, But it's your lucky day. The jail said that they can't, they don't have any more room. Which the lawyer was like, That's hilarious, that's not a thing. It was just them trying to freak me out, which Luis: It's really not. Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): kind of did. But they they they gave me the thing and they said, you can you can file a report later, you don't have to right now. And I had studied up. And I've seen cases where people who file police reports after the incident, a couple days after, pe they claimed that they were manipulated by somebody else to lie. So I knew that I had to s sit right there, no matter how freaked out I was, and write a report. So I did. And they I could tell they didn't want me to because of that. Because they can they can they can then be like, his politics, his political beliefs, but no, it's happening right here, right now. Let's do this dance. So I I did the whole thing, I was filming, I get to go home. This is about hour forty. The live stream is on my Facebook and I'm proud of it. It's still there. If you wanna get some popcorn. Luis: We we we all we again again we all go on right after we're done recording, I can absolutely promise and the text the text will be Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I'll give you guys the link. Luis: flying all back and forth, back and forth. Like Did you see that? my god, right there. Copy: Yeah, absolutely. Please do send the link. Like Yeah, absolutely. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, I will. Luis: So so so so let me ask you a question. Clearly I don't wanna I don't know we don't know the story that that radicalized you, but what was your kind of attitude before all of this started? in regards to police, and everything? Just I'm just kinda curious, like not like that you believed in the police, but what was it was some kind of innocence destroyed here? What do you feel that yeah. Okay. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): In a w yeah, I would say so in a way. Luis: What was taken from you? What do you feel was taken from me of this? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Bro, I grew up in the neighborhood with a police chief. My family was doing fine ish, you know, like we weren't fucked, but we were chilling, you know? Luis: So you guys knew each other, you guys would say hello to each other, not know what he did, but like Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I walked around that block smoking joints, not knowing that bitch lived there. Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): So I lived in a little bit of like La La Land of like, I'm so cool. No, I was lucky as shit. That's what I was. I was lucky, you know, and I lived in a in a in a nicer part of town, you know, and I I went to Hanford High School, you know, like it wasn't like anything I was in honors classes, I was a band kid. I wasn't even a saxophonist back originally. I was a bassoon player. I like one of the nerdiest band kids there was. So like I was a marching band, jazz band, honor band, wind ensemble, solo ensemble, like private lessons kid. I I wasn't I wasn't really getting into issues, you know. I I started working at at a at a McDonald's when I was sixteen. That's when I first started kinda seeing the real world. You know, I'd be in the in the grill Hey, what's up, man? What's your story? He's like I was in prison for meth for twenty five years. we need two McChens, no mayo. I'm like, okay. You know, like at sixteen, I'm like, I'm learning about life right now. You know, like Luis: Yeah, yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): learning from real people, from real experiences. People what do people who are three times my age working my same job what what are their their experiences like? So I was starting to kinda get a little you know, I w I wasn't that like innocent, but like, When it came to getting in trouble, like I'd always gotten pulled over for they're like, You were speeding, I'm like she You know, like Yeah, you Luis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): know, like when you when when you get busted speeding or you're like hey you ran a fucking stop sign you're like Fuck, you know, y what are you gonna do? But that's like a couple you know, couple of bucks, you know, whatever whatever it is, and you move on with your life and it's all cool. But like these guys w the harassment charges was I was facing a year in jail. and among other like fines and other things. But Luis: You know, I'd like to point out that that word that you use, lucky. That's like a big bubble word to me, right? Because if they'd wanted to or you were in a different community, you could have had the same tragic happening to you that has happened to countless people of color throughout history. And just let me say that what Chicano to another Chicano, I am so happy you're here. And I'm so happy that like like I'm horrified that we have to hear this story, but I'm happy that it has a a an ending with that you're still here and you're still free. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, and my mental health wasn't great because when that happened and there was a cop car parked in front of my house for a few weeks, like I wasn't feeling too confident. And yeah, like Luis: Do you wanna speak on that? Do you wanna speak on like what that terror does to people not being believed by your friends that you you know that you're being made into some weird Mel Gibson conspiratorial movie? Like you're that movie conspiracy theory. I don't know if you guys caught that little fucking thing that I threw out there, but that's what a throwback was. but yeah, what's that feel like? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): But it was it was it was a harassment charge, but it was also a restraining order. The day after it happened, two police officers came up to my house and knocked on our door. My parents answered, they said, Eric, someone's here for you. And I c I stand outside and my parents come outside with me because they want to like be watching. And they give me the paperwork that's basically serving me with a restraining order, right? They weren't the arresting officers or anything. So they were just doing their job. My mom is upset. She's crying. She's hysterical. She said, Go, just go. Why would you do this? And just like my mom's furious. What did this cops do? They said, There's a disturbance and we can't leave a place until we resolve the disturbance. And they refused to get off of our fucking property. I screamed until my voice died. Like I screamed until my voice sh was shot. I said, Get off my fucking property. Lights in the neighborhood were turning on. Said, get the fuck off my property. And they're Nope, you're being disorderly. I'm like, this is my fucking property. Go. And they finally agreed. Both my parents were crying. One second, please. Luis: Yeah, n take all the time you need. That is horrific. I am so sorry. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): But yeah, they gave me the restraining order, and the restraining order was I couldn't go within 150 feet of the police chief's residence. My front driveway was 65 feet away. It was legal for me to leave my home. The order did say that if I was in transit, as long as I could prove that that's what I was my was my intent, that I could be in transit. So in other words, they let me leave my house. And for the next and r temporary restraining orders for people who aren't or restraining orders in general, people who don't know, the process is you get slapped with a restraining order. Say me and Luis get a in a fight and he wants a restraining order against me. it's gonna be a minimum of two weeks. And then we have a hearing. We both go into the hearing and we both speak our piece and the judge decides whether the temporary order is done. Me and him have shaken hands. We're we're good. Cool. Let's just rescind the the order or make it permanent. You know, it's gonna be an issue. So those are the two two ways. You go to a hearing, it becomes permanent, or they dissolve the temporary. Those two weeks during COVID, because court dates were delayed, ended up being two months. And on four twenty. 2021, in my bedroom, just like this, I went to Benton County Court. On Zoom. I put a button-down shirt on, but I was in my underwear and no socks. My bong was this close to the camera also. It was it was Luis: You know what? I'm but believe it or not, I I'm in this Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): it was right here. Luis: I'm in the same outfit that you were wearing at court right now. I just got chonchones on right now, bro. Like seriously. I just threw this shit on. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): And I had a buddy in the room with me just to like witness and just to kind of be my just moral support. I didn't really want to put my parents through it. we we went through it and that was the hearing for the restraining order. But let's rewind a tiny bit. Since it was a police chief, the harassment charges got sent to Franklin County, which is Kenwick. And I have the paperwork for that. So the prosecutor Drop the charges and I'll tell you why. See. I haven't talked about this story in this length because it used to give me fucking anxiety attacks. And I had to get mental health help. And that ended up being part of the lawsuit. A lot of people don't people talk about suing the cops, suing the cops, suing the cops, and people talk about how much money, but the money is damages. So I have to prove with a mental health specialist. That they harm my mental health. So I had to go in to lawyer-mandated therapy sessions and have the counselor tell me, nobody's gonna hear what we say, tell me anything you want, knowing that that's not true. So mm six months of a counselor saying, just tell me anything, where I knew that if I said hypothetically, if I wanted to throw a brick through his window, that would have come up in court. It would not have been covered by HIPAA laws because we are using it to claim damages. So that is a part about suing law enforcement that people don't talk about. Is you have to prove the mental anguish. So basically you have to keep pounding it. And it is it's not fun, but the the Luis: I it it must be horrible to have to keep reopening that wound. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Here is the statement from the prosecutor. I'll let me set it up so you guys can just read it. Luis: Do you wanna read it for us? I I i it's a little bit too small for me to read. and and most of our listeners are gonna end up listening to this. and I don't have my glasses on. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Okay, yeah, I'm try I'm trying to make it like visible so I can read it and there we go. Upon review of the complete file, the prosecutor has concluded that although the pattern of conduct engaged by the defendant, me, towards the alleged victim, which is the police chief, is concerning and did cause the alleged victim to fear for the safety of himself and his family, the charge of harassment based upon the incident that occurred on February cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt as there is lack of evidence Of a direct threat being made to the alleged victim of particular date. So if you pay attention, he's putting in writing that I made a police chief fear for his safety and his family's safety. While also Luis: But that there was no proof. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): saying that there was no proof of a threat. Make that fucking make sense. Luis: You You are Schrdinger's fucking terrorist, bro. Both violent and nonviolent at the same time. You are an Antifa. Like you are, bro. Like Copy: Welcome to the club. Luis: that's the definition. Look at Joe's dead over there with that one. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): That's just crazy, right? I it's in writing that I make a police chief and his family fear for their life and safety. My Copy: Yeah, yeah, that Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): lawyer said, Bud you're moving, dude. He said, You gotta move. And I live in Portland now. Luis: okay, so that so that wrapped up. let's 'cause I want to get into what you're doing now really fast and everything. So how how does all of this re right, how do that that that part wraps up. How does Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Well, almost wrapped up. There's still there's still a little bit more. Yeah. Luis: this end up resolving itself and how's your is your family support I'm I'm assuming they're super supportive at this time. but still it's gotta be taking a toll on them as well. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): My family is been pretty involved in protest like even before. My mom went to protest before twenty twenty, you know. And if you look up my name in Tri Cities, there was I I ended up hosting a counter protest in my hometown because there was a guy parked in front of the mosque in our town with a giant sign with an arrow that said terrorists. And it was Copy: Jesus Christ. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): one guy and it was in front of a bunch of baseball fields full of kids. So me and a bunch of college kids, like I think it like ten or twelve of us. We did a counter protest to be like, hey, no, you're welcome in this community. We don't s that guy doesn't speak for all of us. Fuck that. We got interviewed on the news. A a guy who was like a head of like some is Islamic community in Seattle called like messaged me and thanked me. And I was just like, For what, dude? For making sure that my town isn't ran through with fucking white supremacists. I've driven by that mosque my entire life. That's that's been there forever. Also That guy ended up not even being from Tri-Cities. He ended up being like an hour out of Tri-Cities. He was he was coming in with the hate. And that's something that in Portland happens very often, right? You guys see the these people from living in the woods. They're like, hey, let me tell the city people how I feel. It's like, dude, stay in the woods. Like, fuck you, bro. But Copy: I always love when they would just come hang their sign and it would be down in like within fucking five, ten minutes. But it's just mind blowing that you would waste that much time and money to print that shit out and then just fuck off. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah. But the the charges were dropped. I want to finish wrap up the whole thing real fast. The charges were dropped. I did the hearing two months later on four twenty, twenty twenty one. And the I don't know if you guys have been in court, but it's usually opening statements from the from the defense and then the people Luis: None of us Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): who are prosecuting. Luis: none of us have ever been in court. None of us know what that's like. All of us come from a pristine background where I have never, ever spoken to a cop ever, or a judge for that matter. Allegedly. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Allegedly. but yeah, your your guy says his piece, their guy says his piece, your guy, no no it's the other way around. Their guy says his piece, opening, and then my guy. So he does his opening and he starts doing all this stuff, and then he he's flustered. So he calls a witness during his opening statement. And the judge is like, You can't call witnesses during your opening statement. Like you have to say something and then let the other guy talk. And then he's like, Well, okay, I don't have anything else. My lawyer unmuted and he went, Everything that my client said is covered under the First Amendment. Nothing further. And muted his mic again. That's all he said. And then the other cop, they spent an hour and a half just saying about how horrible I am and how much he felt afraid for his life and just kept fucking. Then it was my turn, and then my lawyer unmuted his mic again. He said, Everything my client said is covered under the first amendment. Muted his mic again. And then the judge ruled in my favor. Because you can't do that. They printed f forty plus pages of my Facebook posts, scrolling back to the beginning, because I had remade a Facebook in 2014. They scrolled to the bottom of my Facebook and they they ha I had a stack Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): like this tall of my own Facebook posts, including memes that were like making fun of like they printed out all the anti cop memes, anything political, I they printed it all out to use as as as evidence. Because in in harass in a harassment situation, this this was the rest restraining order hearing but you harassment is a series of of of things. So I can't just tell you guys to go fuck yourselves and then that's harassment. But if I start telling you guys to go fuck yourselves every day and you can prove that I'm doing it every day, that's fucking harassment. It's a series of conduct and you have to prove it. So he tried to use the Facebook post as one series of conduct and then the mailbox incident as two different things. And he tried to use my Facebook posts against me. When he dropped that, it just became the mailbox incident. And did I have a legal reason to go there? Yes, I can prove that that's my mail. So back two one zero. Case dropped, the restraining order went away. the the judge in his sentencing, and I've I've struggled to get this video. The judge started saying some really fucked up shit to me. He said, If you're ever in my courtroom again, I'm not even gonna listen to your lawyer. I'm gonna sentence you to the maximum sentence possible. And he just started saying all these really out-of-pocket things of like people like you, they only criticize police because they've only been got in trouble and they just the only reason they don't like police is because they're mad they got caught, and like started saying all these really fucked up things. And I've requested this video from Yakima many times and I get the runaround. I've done it like dozens of times and they won't give me the video. I think they deleted it, but they can't admit that they deleted it because of the freedom of information. Luis: That would be illegal. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, so they won't admit it, but I have yet to ever see that again. everything got dropped, zoom call ends, my phone rings, and it's the lawyer. And he said, Do you remember the first thing you said to me? I said, I want to sue these guys. He says, now's the time. Because the first bit of advice he says, like, we can't sue them until we defend you. This is like football. They Luis: Right, until it runs its course. Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): have the ball first. Now we have the ball. It's our turn. Now Talking about the hearing, the the the couple things that he did ask the the police chief, the what is it, the f the fifth amendment is you can't incriminate yourself. Yeah, plead the fifth. Is you can't incriminate yourself. But there's fine writing in that in that amendment. It's when you are being looked at as the cr as the person who committed the crime. You have the right to not incriminate yourself. The police chief is under oath. So he got lobbed a bunch of questions like, How long between you coming out of your house to him being detained was it? How much time elapsed? And we got him under oath saying less than thirty seconds. And then we got him admitting a bunch of different shit under oath, which ended up being used for the lawsuit. the lawsuit was filed and it took about two years to make it all the way through. And they settled out of court for twenty five thousand dollars. At that time Yeah, I Luis: Minus minus lawyer fees. Right? Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): yeah. So the the lawyers ended up taking about thirteen of that and I bought a car and with the last couple thousand I paid some bills and I bought my saxophone case that's right behind me right here and I've taken that all over the world. I bought my my little tablet that I use to play in all my you know, pro gigs and that's all I could really do. So I invested in myself. I that case has been my flight case since 2021. I invest reinvested in myself because I knew that, you know, going on vacation was not gonna do anything for me. but that was that was the end of it. Th the first song that we wrote in my lablas called Guilty Until Proven Innocent. And it's based on how police officers can give people settlements. Because a settlement requires an a a lack of admittance of guilt. They don't admit guilt, but they pay Luis: Y you know what? Now that Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): you a bunch of money so that you drop it. Luis: We've talked privately and you've told me a little bit about the story, not so much in depth, right? We've talked about it and you're like, you know, that you started the band directly as from your experience and now that I know the full experience, I love the name even that much more. Right? Yeah. So for those of you that Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I was talking shit. Hell yeah I was. I'm proud of it. Luis: don't know, it means like those that talk bad, those that speak poorly, right? Those that speak shit. The shit talkers. It's fucking a great name. Those that speak Poil. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): But it also it also implies you say things that are not acceptable. Not necessarily that they're bad words or anything, but just unacceptable things. It's it's stuff that you don't want to talk at Thanksgiving with your family about, you know, like you know, y with with you know what I'm talking about. Like those types of topics, those political, religious conversations that you're not supposed to talk about. Fuck fuck that. You know, let's talk about it. Luis: So you know what? Let's talk about the band now. So you moved to Portland, you started the band. Tell us about Los Mal and what the w what they're about, what you're about, and what do you guys got going on? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, Los Malamelos was founded in Portland twenty twenty two. I I I moved to Portland twenty twenty one in October. like I said, the the hearing was in April. Mephiscoffles from New York City, I had met them and they called me and they said, Hey, do you wanna go on the road? And they knew what I was going through personally. They said, Hey, do you wanna get out of the east west coast for a little bit? I said, Absolutely. They're like the shows are in September. I was like, cool, I'll be there August first. Literally Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): went a month early because I said, Fuck this shit. I'm out. Luis: Mm-hmm. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): And I went to New York and I started kind of jamming, gigging, kinda doing, you know, start meeting people. and I did my first show's Mephiscoffles. The if you go on Spotify and look up sp Mephiscoffles discography, you'll see a live from Supernova. I didn't actually know they were recording that. That was my fourth show I've ever played with them. And it's vinyl and on all streaming. No pressure. So that really changed my outlook on like this isn't just a gig, this is a gig that could end up on vinyl, so you better be ready to go, bro. And that really pushed me. That professionalism from Mephiscophles really really helped. The next tour with Mephiscophles was October. And I we played with Suicide Machines and Jay Navarro says, Eric, I'd met you once before. You played with Mephiscoffles, that's great, you know. He loves Mephiscoffles, you he goes along with them. They played all these shows in the past. And he goes, What's your band called? And I said, Well, I don't really have one. I'm just a freelancer right now. Like I don't have my own band. He said, Like he's like our our generation like is getting older, like we need the new era of dance and musicians. And he didn't necessarily say go start one, but like when he said that, I like I felt this desire. I moved to Portland the week after I got back. I packed everything into my car and I parked it in downtown the first day I got here. I went to go see the Bandulos opening for the Scatelites at Jack London. And that was like my first day in Portland and I was like, I've I've made a good decision. I can just casually go see the Scatelites. This Luis: Ha ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): is this is where I should be. Fuck the Tri Cities. Luis: And you got to see the bandaloos too. I love them, right? Like they're so fucking great, bro. Such a good band. For sure. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): yeah, Bandaloos are great. Yeah. Yeah, shout out to those guys. and then I Yeah, I I moved out here and I wanted to start the band. I started finding some musicians, started put playing some shows, you know, we really got the ball rolling and our first house show was July twenty twenty two and we were on tour with Voodoo Glow Schools and the Slackers December twenty twenty three. So fifteen months and we were on tour with with some some big boys and we were ready to go and it f it felt really good. And then the year after that we did Mexico City. We got flown down and did a festival Mexico City. And then that was the year that we did the Portland night with Brit City Sinners. Shout out to them for inviting us for their big end of the year shows. So we got to play the Crystal Ballroom to a full house. And I still have people saying that they saw us for the first time there. That was a big part of it. But me playing in all these ska bands and like hearing all these musicians in the bands complain about ska. Like I've been in bands where they're like, that opening band. And like they never say anything bad about the people, but it's just like, dude, that music is you know, that's that's early nineties music. Like at this point it's thirty years old. You know, like w the they just want something fresh. Because when when bands like Rubik Fish, Mighty Bostones, when they were out there, They were the new kids on the block. And that's why it was so impactful and that's why it was such a big scene. And I feel like ever since then it's just been kind of a a nostalgia factor. Or people wanna like live that like that genre and that's fine. You know, that's why we still listen to eighties soul bands and you know, like big band and that's fine. But say what it is. You know? Don't be like, we're creating a a new sound, a new tone, a new thing. It's sh Prove your w show your work, you know? And that's something that got really instilled in me. And I was a big fan of Mexican Ska. I love hardcore. You know, I I love bands like, you know, Between the Buried and Me, Oceans 8 Alaska. You know, I would go see bands like The Fall of Troy, all like Russian Circles. I like that kind of progressive like metal kind of stuff, as a saxophonist. And I always wanted to mix these kind of sounds together, and I was a big streetline manifesto fan. fan, you can see my flag back there, you know, because that power in the horn section, you know, it really inspired me. So we did something about it. And my lablados is that ska core sound talking about what's happening now, you know, because music has to can talk about pizza day, you know, like Aquabance, or it could document what's going on. And in our song Los Tenemos Rodellos, what I think I think it was copy was talking about the rubber bullets and all all that stuff. We took audio from a YouTube video. of that and it's in our song. And if you listen to the breakdown, we it's it's it's happening. And when we tour the country we go, hey, don't forget that American police officers, law enforcement, were opening fire on American citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights. Don't forget, because you guys are pretending like it didn't happen. We come from Portland. We we were there. You know, we saw we talked to the people like you guys who Witnessed all of it, you don't get to tell us it didn't happen. So our when we tour, we remind people every single place we go. and then also the the message being in Spanish, you know, to me is important because have you guys ever heard how they say, I don't like how this band's that political? People don't say that about us. Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Wanna know why? Because they don't speak Spanish and they don't understand me. Copy: Yeah. Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): And that's always been the point of Los Malablados. Is that I will Luis: Ha ha ha. Copy: Fuck yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): look you in your face and say, America's a white supremac country, and people will be like, wow, this has a nice beat. joe: Word. Luis: I fucking Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Thank you. Luis: love it. you know, I do got a question because one of my favorite Eric Molina moments is I was telling Joe this and Phil too. I was scrolling through YouTube one day, right? Like just looking for a concert to watch and kind of as I clean the house, you know? And I see Bad Manners live in New York. Cool. Fuck yeah, that's kind of what I want to listen to, it turns out. Hit fucking play, turn up the surround sound, go grab a bong hit for a minute, turn around, and who do I see there wearing gym shorts and a saxophone? Eric. Right. joe: Hell yeah. Luis: And so I call Phil and I'm like, Phil, watch this video. Who wore gym shorts better? Fatty or Eric? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Let's go. Luis: And he was like, What? And I sent him the leak and I hung up. Copy: Ha ha ha Luis: And then he Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): That's amazing. Luis: and then he sent me back a text, Eric. what was that Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Hell yeah. Luis: what was that like? How did that happen? and how dope is fatty? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): That's less so the way it happened is I got to meet Diels. Diels is a saxophone player, l lead singer, he's he's a big part of the Mexican ska community. And he he's in the band Out of Control Army. That's his band. And out of control army and him, they host a lot of shows and you know he he brings bands internationally to Mexico. So he's he's very connected to international spiderweb of ska bands. and he plays with Buster in bad manners, him and the drummer and a couple other people. and he knew me from previous things. So when Buster was coming to the States, Buster prefers working with Latino dudes just because they roll with the punches a little better, no one's gonna get offended, he can do all his crazy Buster shit and you know, we'll just kinda just do our thing. Which is definitely how I roll. So I got recommended and they sent me a YouTube link. No charts, nothing. Just a YouTube link of like an okay phone video of a show. And they said, learn every note off of this. This is the set. Luis: Ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Okay. And I did the fucking homework. It's 26 songs. You know, I'm over here learning lip-up fatty and special brew and interlended violence, just fucking grinding away. And and that's how I got the gig. The first things Buster said to me was, Don't you know how to use a mobile phone? I can't forget it. Because I was on stage playing that song Hey, like the only song with horns that Suicide Machines has. And since I know them, they're like, Come play. I'm like, Great. It's one song, it's like two minutes. During those two minutes, I guess Buster arrived and everyone blew my phone up. I had like 15 missed calls for like 10 numbers. Luis: Ha ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): So I grab my horn and I run over to the to the other spot and he goes, Do you not use a mobile phone? We've been calling you and I'm just like Luis: Ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I was like, I'm here, Buster. I'm Eric. Nice to meet you. I'm your sax player for the rest of the rest of the week. Like he's look and I and Luis: Latino fucking roll with the punches. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): yeah, and he was like, What were you doing? I was like, I was playing a song. He's like, and I've never heard anyone say this. He said, You're practicing other people's music? Luis: Ha ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): And I was like, and I look over at the organizer Tim from Supernova. Shout out to Supernova and Tim. And he gives me this look of like, have fun, bro. You Luis: Ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): have this like, this is what you're getting in for. And like telepathically was just like, I believe in you. Like, you got this shit, dude. And I was like, okay. And he's like, you gotta go rehearse right now. And I'm like, okay, I gotta get my stuff. He's you gotta get your stuff. He's out here just Doing drugs in front of everybody. And joe: Yeah. Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): everyone's just like. And they know I'm getting fed into the fucking like fire. They know I'm the tribute. So I'm just this kid. And Luis: Ha ha ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): they're like, Eric is Eric? fu Eric. Ooh. Cause everyone would Luis: The tribute, I love it. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I called all these other people to kind of see what Buster was like, and the average answer was like, Wow, Eric, that's great. Well, okay. You need to hear a couple things. Like, everyone was like, Great. Wait, time out. Disclaimers. And A lot of people gave me a lot of experiences and I got I got some insight, you know. And I did Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): my I did the gig knowing, you know, I I like to vet when I play with new bands and w when I play with new bands I also know to just keep my mouth shut and do my job. 'Cause that is kind of what some bands want you to do. And I think Buster knew that I was the assignment and he kinda liked that. He was like, This guy is just here to play. I like that. but yeah, he like leaned into me, gotta go r get re rehearsed, I go get my stuff, I come back I get thrown in the van and we get shipped off to another house in the area. I show up and Buster's not at rehearsal and I'm like, Is he coming? They're like, No, he never rehearsals with the band. Okay, so now I gotta play these songs without any lyrics marking where I'm at. I'm like, okay, okay, fuck. And it wasn't until the fourth song that I realized that they were putting the cell phone in front of me recording every single track and sending it to Buster so he could tell me if it was correct or not. And they would make me redo it and they said, Can you just play as loud and as hard and as rowdy as possible? And I was like, Yeah. And then when I did, they're like, that's it. That's the sound. And if you listen to those videos, I'm like playing so loud, I'm just like trumpet player, fuck you, trombone player, fuck you. Like that's what they wanted. Because normally Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): in in the music world, you have the higher voices up top, you have the middle voices, and you have the low voices. That's just music. That's in that's inner universal music concept. So as a tenor sax player, I know my place. I'm in the middle. They said, no, no, no, stop playing like that. You're up top. So I said Alright, shit, hold my bong, you know, like fuck it. I'm gonna play loud. I'm gonna play the way that I was told not to. And they loved it. And I was like, okay, great, this is cool And he doesn't show up the next day, he wants to rehearse again. So we rehearse all that night, we rehearse in the morning and we're rehearsing up until about four thirty and our sets at seven. So I miss all the bands. I'm getting in the van, I hear voodoo glow schools in the distance, then Cherry Pop and Daddy's in the distance. And then Pie Tasters plays right before us. And I'm there. Steve Jackson, the singer of Pie Tasters, comes down. He goes, Eric, good luck, bro. It's your turn. And he pats me on the shoulder. And I was just like, Fuck me, dude. I never played with Buster before. But then Buster comes over and he looks at all of us. And this is something he's been doing for a long time. It's part of his history. Where they do this like, like this like little ritual with their hand. I I couldn't recreate it. I would don't remember. Sorry, Buster. But the things he said to us, I would have jumped out of a plane right after that speech. I was I had never been more motivated in my life. And he was Luis: Ha ha ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): like, This isn't a concert, this is an exercise class. I want you to see you jumping. I wanna see you smiling. I wanna see you playing. And he was just I was just like, Yes sir! You know like I was just so Luis: Mm-hmm. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): fucking and we went up there and like holy shit like that energy that he gives us before the sets and he did it every night. wow. I'd always been around people that are like, alright, let's do our best we can. Let's go up there. No, dude, that's not b how Buster rolls. Fuck the best you can. Play it right, motherfucker. And it was Yeah, you got that, yeah. And so working with him was really, really special, and then we played the set I the I took a picture of the lights because they were so bright I couldn't actually see anybody in the crowd. There was a few thousand people there and it was great. The set was great. and he had me stand next to him, so when he did the can can he's a little older, so he puts his hand on my shoulder and he starts kicking. So I was just like, Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I'm playing. I'm out looking to my right and this Buster just grabbing my shoulder, Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): kicking away, and I'm just like, this is a fucking fever dream. Like, holy joe: No. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): shit. Show's over, we're in the backstage, everyone's gone. We're all hanging out, and I'm just excited. I got through it. And the next show's Wednesday, that was Sunday. I got a couple days to breathe. I did it. And then I hear Eric and everyone goes, Eric, Eric, Eric. Dude, he's calling you over. And I'm like, and I sit down, he goes, Eric, you played great. You had great energy. It was gonna be a great week. Thanks for playing with us. And I was just like, you know, like, Luis: yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I passed the test, and then it was a good week from there, but like. That was the roller coaster of playing with Bad Manners and Buster. It was it was a lot of fun. And I've got a lot of experiences joe: That's fucking wild. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): like that with different bands where Luis: Did that did that help shape you? Because I feel like when I see Los Mal, you guys have so much energy. Like it's it's yeah, it I feel like it's an exercise machine. You guys kick a crowd in the balls. it's great energy. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah. Well, the exercise class, but I also remember how I was talking about the just the court case and all that stuff, how I said like it was just all adrenaline, it was like this fear, just all these different emotions. That feeling, whatever chemicals are coming out of people's brains, that's what I want people to feel during our set. I want people to feel, Holy shit, I don't understand what's happening, but it's something big. And the people can't look away. Sometimes we play shows where nobody claps. Because people are just staring at us. No one's Luis: I feel like Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): on their phone, no one's talking to their buddy, no one has their back turned to us. People will stare at us and then they go, song's done. Play another one. Like it's they're just shocked. Luis: I see I I've noticed that you come out with joe: Yeah. Luis: I've noticed that you come out with like sunglasses and the bandana. Does that is is that a character? Is that is it is he a revolutionary? Does he have a name? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah. It is. It's no, it's it's more of I I I call you know, I've since I've played with so many bands, I've seen so many approaches from like lead singers and you know, some notable ones, Steve Perry from Cherry Pop and Daddies, Angelo Moore, Fishbone, Andre from Ephescophiles, you know, Buster, you know, these are all people that I've got to work with. And who they are off stage and on stage, I get to see the difference. And I get to see what they're doing intentionally. Cause sometimes they'll be up there doing stuff that I'm like, Where did this come from? And I realized, like, this is part of his stage approach. And the sunglasses, I played with sunglasses without sunglasses, and one of the reasons is I get really sweaty. And sometimes the lights are super bright and nice stages. So sweat in your eyes and the lights are bright. And I'm just looking like this. You know? But you put some sunglasses on, you're like, hell yeah, I'm cool, you know? And that Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): was part of it. That was something I talked to Libby from Bridge City Centers about. And she's like, I honestly prefer having the visual like eye contact with my c my audience, but the way you do it, like I do it to kinda do this like unhinged like thing. Where like I talk like this off stage, but on stage I go super hard and that's kinda what the sunglasses are. They're just to kinda like flip that switch and to and to go. the bandanas, the logo is The logo is teeth dripping. Luis: Nice. Copy: That's sick. joe: yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): So our bandana with our logo over our mouth, we come out unified. We come out looking, you know, like a team. But also like what were black bandanas in Portland being used for? During the you know what I mean? Like we wanted to have a little nod there. But also we're a new band. How about eight dollars worth of production, guys? You know, like let's try try it. And sometimes we do it, sometimes we don't. We like to do it when we can really do the mystery of the set. We we have like an electronic sounding intro, we come out all in bandanas, and that Crystal Ballroom show was the first show that we ever did in concert dress black. We came out in black ties and slacks and we all dressed nice to a room that mostly didn't know what we sounded like. Then it comes an electronic sounding drone, you're like, What's that? And then the this Then all our songs are in drop D. There's some metal tuning. And then we start playing hard and heavy and people go, What the fuck? I thought this band had hordes. Like, Luis: Ha ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): a couple months ago we opened for Brujeria, that metal band from joe: Ooh. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): from LA, and Luis: Yeah, yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): and it was at the high water mark. So the little merch table is in the room, in Copy: Right. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): the crowd, and our merch person was like, they're all talking shit. And they're why'd they get a fucking ska band? To open for Brujeria, they the metal band first. So I knew it was gonna be like that. So we front loaded all our heavy shit. And that pit was rowdy. Brujeria loved us. So we got Luis: Nice. joe: That's fucking awesome. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): s along super well, but then like we still played our ska stuff, but like it's distorted ska, you know. So it's not necessarily clean, you know. I always shit on mighty boss stones, most mostly dicky. they have that album that's just skore Luis: Everybody does. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): and I'm just like, just cause you bought a distortion pedal doesn't mean Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): that you're ska core. You know, like do some breakdowns. Where's the China cymbals? Where's the fucking bass drops? Where's the what are you even tuning to? You know what I mean? Like if you want to talk about joe: Ha ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): core, metal, and hardcore, let's talk about it, you know? And but but yeah that's that's kind of like the sound and then like talking about my perspective of being a white passing Mexican from Both my parents are from Mexico, and a lot of people in the US go, no, you must be half or Americans like talking about percentages. And it's fucking weird because no one else does in the world. If when I was in Indonesia and I said I'm Mexican, they said, cool. Like they're like, We believe you. You know, like why would you lie about that? That's Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): that's weird. It's all the Americans that are like, I'm 1.5% this. Haha. Luis: Well, Eric, speaking of per speaking of percentages, Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): That's weird, bro. Luis: I always like to brag that I am one point two percent Eastern European princess. I in my family. We are. Like Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): There you go. Copy: Jesus Christ Louise. joe: Luisa's great great great great great grandma was it? Yeah. Yes. Luis: Great great grandma was the princess of Czechoslovakia, joe: Yeah. Luis: Germany. And and and she was imprint it is. And she was imprisoned, joe: That's in pr that's in Prague, right? Yeah, cool, I thought so. Luis: okay? And then she swam the Atlantic Ocean all like swam it. Ugh. Ugh. And she c Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): stroke. Luis: and she came to El Salvador and she met the Linka people. And they welcomed her in and she banged my great great great great great great great grandpa because he had a thing for white women. And yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): is that how white people came to the Americas? They got welcomed in? Luis: They were lovingly welcomed in, bro. We were like, sheepfuckers, come on in. Like, yeah, dude. All of bro. We we we just welcomed Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): wow. I gotta throw away all my Thanksgiving books. Copy: Mm. Luis: them in with w open arms. We were like, This land is your joe: Jesus Christ. Luis: land, you know. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Anyways, the lyrics are from the Mexican American perspective of like I speak both languages when it comes to code switching, I can speak like I'm from the Pacific Northwest. O puedo hablar como que soy de la Ciudad de Mexico. I guess flip it on and off. And everything and and everything in between. You know, like I would meet like cholos and they'd be like, Who are you? and I'll speak Spanish and they'd be like, fuck, this dude speaks better Spanish than we do, Yeah, bro, like be nice to joe: Ha ha ha Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): me. I I'm here to hang out, just like the rest of you guys. Luis: Ha ha ha. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I'm chillin'. And they're like, what do you do? I'm like, I play music and they're like, this guy's cool. So like being even being like a super nerdy dude, like being like, hey, I speak Spanish and I play a saxophone, even the hardest cholos like, Pass this man a blunt. Luis: Hell yeah. Because because like like I mean, everybody listens to music with saxophones, right? Like Suavacito. Well Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Well also just be nice. If you just Copy: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): know how to respect people that you're around, even cholos will be nice to you. Because you just have Luis: Absolutely. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): to be nice, bro. It's it's not hard. joe: So like straight up, dude, I've I've said that shit a hundred fucking times. Is that if you just mind your business, Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Don't stare. joe: yeah, you mind your fucking business and you don't be a cunt, you're pretty good pretty much anywhere. Like I grew up in the fucking barrio, dude. I grew up in San Pedro. You know what I mean? And it it Everybody thinks of San Pedro and like, that's that's fucking wild town. I used to take the bus when I was in high school to go to surf team. I'd have to take the bus from San Pedro to Carson to Compton and then from Compton to fucking Torrance. You know what I mean? Like, okay, cool. I'd fucking be in Carson at fucking five o'clock in the morning to some tall, gangly fucking white kid with a surfboard. Nobody ever fucked with me because I didn't fuck with anybody. Luis: Word. I didn't know you were on surf team. If that's not the whitest thing about you ever. fuck it, bro. joe: Bro, I was I was I was Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah. joe: one of two people on a fucking twenty-eight person fucking surf team. Luis: Wait, wait, hold wait, hold up, stop. You said you Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Cheers. Luis: were w right? Hold on, Copy: Cheers, rough. Luis: wait. You said you were one of two peop two wipes. Okay, yeah, cause you heard what I heard, right, Copy? joe: Of two white people, two white people on that fucking team. Copy: white people. Luis: 'Cause cause copy heard what I heard, that you were one of two people on a twenty eight surf team. Tw Copy: Well y yeah, you can't trust the stoner. joe: I was one of two white people on that fucking surf team. Luis: He's not a stoner. Copy: No, I'm talking about us fool. joe: Yeah. I'm the only one that doesn't smoke weed here. Copy: No, I was talking about us, Luis: So Copy: fool. Luis: Eric, when you're done choking, joe: Yeah yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): We don't smoke weed here. We don't smoke fucking weed here. joe: I don't know what you're talking about. Luis: how'd you do that without dying? I would have coughed. so what's what what's Los Mal have going on? joe: I know, that's brutal. Luis: What what what are you guys doing? Are you guys recording? Are you guys getting ready to tour? What are you guys doing for the winter? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Both. so last July we were approached by a a person that I didn't know and he said, Are you Eric? Yes. He said, I'm Brian. I have an independent publishing company, like a independent label. And do you guys are you guys on a label? Are you guys signed? And I said no. He said, I wanna help you make your first album. And I said, okay. we got a sound check like two minutes. I didn't really know Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): who this guy was. And I was like, hit I was like, come in for sound check and then let's go get a a meal and let's talk. And he was like, okay, he came in and I said, Hey, let's sound check on the new song, you know, to show off to this guy. And we played it and he was just back there like Fuck yeah. And we sound checked, we went over to like a block away. sat down, you know, recorded the conversation. First thing he was like, Do you guys have legal representation? And at that at that point we did, 'cause our ex guitar player kinda went off the handle and tried to, you know, throw his the stick in the spokes, so to speak, when he got fired. But that didn't work out because you can't just do AI sease and desists. So we ended up finding out that it was AI and we had a real lawyer. Thank you, Peter Shaver, at Sound Advice in Portland for representing us. And he checked everything out. He's Yeah, you should work with this guy. It's legit, you know. We we came to terms. in March we were in Jackpot recording studio. We laid down all the drums and if you see the whiteboard behind me, you see all the like squares with X's those are all the like parts that are done. So like we're almost I would say we're like seventy percent done without. But like we're work working on daily, you know, I have it up on the wall. and then Luis: Is there a name? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): not yet. And we're gonna drop everything when it drops, so we're gonna keep it super low-key. The one thing I will say is it's gonna be 13 songs. It's gonna be a nice full length. it's an independent label, so we're gonna continue being independent with with this help. The the deal is for one album, so we aren't gonna be tied to him past this album. And he's been great. We're working with the artist that did our original logo and he's doing some some hand done art. I don't wanna spoil the surprise, for the album cover, especially with all the digital bullshit that we're force fed in today's age. We literally are gonna Luis: Everywhere, bro. Everywhere. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): make this the most like DIY professional level thing that we can without, you know. And the whole point of him producing the album is he's also gonna help us with rolling it out and just giving us those strategies that he had. You know, he used to work for Sony and Disney, you know, in in the publishing side of things. So he has a lot to say about how to get things published and it's it's been great working with him. But coming from a dude who was running away from the cops to move into a new town you know, zero to a hundred really fast. So it's been really great. We're still finishing up the album. Right now we're good working with the engineer named Curtis Irie. He used he was a bass player in Bandoulas for a while. He just recorded the last new tracks that the week before the Slackers played that we supported that show, they recorded with him. So he Yeah. They were at Hallowed Halls, the recording Luis: Okay, okay. When they were here in for Portland they yeah, they were here for yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): studio in South East, and that's a great place. And then we got invited to go play at the after party at Supernova. The after parties are like the after the sh festival shuts down around ten, they do sh late night shows. So we're doing the Sunday show. Us, OmniGon, and chair, some some good bands in the scene of the the newer generation. and th we fly Luis: I'm still Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): out on the second, so September third through the thirteenth, we have shows pretty much every single day. I think there's only one or two days that don't have shows. And we're gonna play in and Pennsylvania, in Virginia, in New Jersey, and New York, in Massachusetts, and I think there's a bunch of different PA shows but we're staying in that Luis: I told Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): kind of area. Luis: I told my uncle Linval, ha, my Uncle Linval boys, to to try and catch your set at supernova. he's gonna try and be there with the agrolites. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, we've we've met before. Whether he remembers me or not is another story, but we've met a couple of times. Luis: And I'm really jealous 'cause the Derek Derek Morgan's playing w probably one of his last sets. So you're gonna be there in time to see that? Are you gonna be there for are you gonna be there for the whole festival? Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): I don't know because if he's closing if he's closing Sunday night, we might have to go sound check around that time. But we we plan on being there at Supernova during the day. Like we didn't plan another Saturday show. We're gonna be at Supernova just because I've done Supernova, I think, four times now, but my band hasn't. And only a couple of the guys got to participate. If you see this yellow flyer behind me, that's the Supernova 20 2024. So it's good to come back a couple of years later. but yeah, no, we're gonna be there and and just try to start touring more often now that we have a touring minded lineup. We had a couple like I said, we had a couple of people coming in and out of of the band, but now we have, you know, a stronger guitar player, stronger drummer, stronger everything, but actually with the mindset to go on tour, you know, because just being a good player isn't enough. 'Cause if you're a good player and you're like, Hey, I also don't want to tour and the band is doing well, well there's something that has to happen, you know. Either you give it a shot or you just pass the torch to someone who wants it. You know, 'cause we went from a backyard band to a touring band to now we have a someone who wants to produce us and we've been working with crawl space booking, you know, J Crash is our booking agent. So like You know, the whole concept of like, one day when we have a booking agent, one day when we have a XYZ, that day was yesterday for us and it's go time for us. So it's r it feels really nice to have the crew, you know, Bacon, Brantley Bacon on drums, Bobby Metter on guitar, we have John England Fisher on trumpet, Stevie Eaton, Steven Eaton on trombone, Eric Beam joins us sometimes on the trumpet as well. And we have Dylan Valentine Who's passing the torch off to Luke Lindell on bass, 'cause he also making a decision about, you know, how much he wants to travel and all that stuff. It's it's a reality of being a touring band. And we were just Luis: Absolutely. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): some dudes jamming in a basement, you know, just a couple years ago. So now that it's become a thing, you know, we gotta we gotta we gotta do what we gotta do to to push the band forward. 'Cause that was always the game plan, right? You know, that's that's something that everyone would agree on, whether they like the plan or not, we all wanted to move it forward. joe: Word. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): but yeah, representing Portland is in in the Sky scene too. Like how many other Portland ska bands are there? You know, there's not a lot. And the ones that are out here we're very tight with, you know, you know, bands like Cascadians, Skylarkers, yeah, all Luis: Shout out. Shout out. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): all these homies, Bandulos were out here, Luis: Yeah. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): leader just moved to New York, so he I think they're gonna be kind of a split intern or national band. I don't know what their plan is, but you know, still shout out to Bandulas. Copy: I I Luis: Yeah. Copy: I would like to say that once this record drops, could you possibly wanna come back on and do another stash with Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, man. Copy: us? Luis: We would love to have you on Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah, we're we're working on joe: Word. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): doing a lot of different press for the album and yeah, that would be a great idea. Yeah. Copy: Fuck yeah. joe: Hell yeah. So Luis: Yeah, hell yeah. joe: with that, Eric, we should probably wrap it up. We're pushing close to two hours here on this episode. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): We got carried away. Copy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, fuck yeah. joe: it's all good, man. Those are fucking great stories. I really enjoyed listening to your story, especially you know, in the beginning there dealing with the police and then the the stories about music and all that shit. It's al the music stories always it always warms my heart. I'm a musician as well. I've been in two bands that were signed and like put out records and went on tour and did all that kind of shit. And it's always fun to to go back and listen to other people who are doing it, especially when they're first starting to experience it with their band. You know what I mean? Like you played a bunch of professional gigs with guys and this, that, and the other. And this this is different. This is something that you built, you know what I mean? And that's a completely Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): Yeah. Feels way different. joe: different feeling for sure. but yeah, man. So like with that, I think a closing question that I would have for you being that you came from the Tri-Cities, which doesn't really have a a punk rock scene, a ska scene, that kind of shit. What would be your advice to to kids that may be listening, and when I say kids, obviously mean teenagers, young people, listening that may feel out of place where they're at. And you know, they're into the punk rock, but their area just ain't it. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): You wouldn't move to Juneau, Alaska to become a country star. You wouldn't move to Moscow, Russia to play Kumbia. You wouldn't move to Africa to play K-pop. Go find your people, find your band, and when you find those people, There's a 1% chance that they're gonna stick with you. So keep finding more people. Because joe: Word. Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): that's natural. There's a lot of different people out here. And it's it's if you think finding like a girlfriend or partner is hard, imagine finding six of them. It's fucking hard, dude. And like getting everyone together, it's it's like dating, like a it's like a poly relationship, but all at once. And then like It's just it's complicated. But find your people. They're out there. If you haven't found them, it's just because you haven't found them yet. If if you need help looking for people, go to shows, and especially shows that are proudly standing for things that shouldn't be political statements. Being anti-racist is not a political statement. Being anti-fascist is not a political statement. When I toured Europe, every single venue I was in. no matter how nice or like b fancy it was, had an anti fascist flag and a different language Copy: Fucking Eric Molina (Los Mal Hablados): every single fucking part of all of Europe because they know what happens if we don't do something about it. But just just be part of the solution and you know, try try to do your part, you know, and you will find those people. And I found those people going to shows. And those are the people who like said, hey, you know, we'll help you, we'll we'll help you, we'll help you. And it's been been able to give myself, you know, everything I needed to start my own project. And it's all thanks to the community. And when people talk about the music scene, you talked about how there's not much of a scene in Tri-Cities, all this stuff. The problem in Tri-Cities is people think that being the music scene is the musicians. The scene is the musicians and the public that comes and contributes to the community. You can't just play in an empty room and be like, I am part of the scene. You have to have some sort of community. Even if it's like ten people, bro, just find your community, do your part for your community, be good, make music, fuck bullies. Thanks for having me on guys. joe: Word. There we go. Thanks are listening to this one, everybody. Eric, thank you so much for coming on with us. Everybody listening, that was Eric Molina from Los Majablados. They got a record coming out soon. Go check that shit out. They're dope as fuck. This is hold your ground. Deuces.