EP271: Randy Sutton - What Is The Most Frightening Moment Of Your Life
"I was literally praying to die, not praying to live — because I was afraid of being trapped in my own body."
Randy Sutton gave 34 years to law enforcement. He was a patrol officer, detective, sergeant, and lieutenant with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department — one of the most featured officers in the history of the TV show Cops, and a man who had been through shootings, pursuits, and two decades of the graveyard shift in the most action-oriented city in the country. Then a stroke hit him in his patrol car at 2:30 in the morning on the Las Vegas Strip, and everything changed.
What happened next is something most people in uniform never expect to face. His department — the one he served for 24 years — refused to pay his medical bills or honor his benefits. While he was fighting for his life and recovering from the stroke, he was also fighting a legal battle against the agency that had told him, on the way in, that they were family. He won, eventually. But the 18 months it took, and the reason they dragged it out, is a story that still needs to be heard.
Out of that betrayal, Randy built the Wounded Blue — a national organization staffed by injured officers who have been through it and come out the other side. In seven years, they have helped more than 17,000 police officers: paying for surgeries, fighting workers' comp battles, saving marriages, and in some cases pulling men and women back from the edge. Randy also recently launched Cops Coffee — premium coffee bearing the Bad Boys license from the original Cops TV show — with every dollar of profit going directly to the Wounded Blue.
Nicky and Randy also get into the systemic corruption behind law enforcement's patchwork of legal protections, the truth behind the George Floyd and Ferguson narratives, and what it would realistically take to create federal protection for officers injured in the line of duty.
Learn more & connect
The Wounded Blue: https://www.thewoundedblue.org
Contact The Wounded Blue: info@thewoundedblue.org
Cops Coffee: https://www.copscoffee.org
Resources mentioned:
Rescuing 9-1-1: The Fight for America's Safety by Randy Sutton — https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rescuing-9-1-1-randy-sutton/1147221333
The Fall of Minneapolis — documentary by Liz Collin: https://www.thefallofminneapolis.com
They're Lying by Liz Collin — available wherever books are sold
The Wounded Blue: https://www.thewoundedblue.org
Cops Coffee: https://www.copscoffee.org
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