“You can’t defund the police,” said eight-time Mr. Olympia and retired police officer Ronnie Coleman on Wednesday during an interview with Joe Rogan on the latter’s eponymous podcast.
Coleman and Rogan discussed left-wing and partisan Democrat calls to “defund the police.” Both agreed that police are a vital service.
“There’s all this talk now of defunding the police,” Rogan said.
Coleman replied, “I’ve been hearing that too, but I don’t know if I can agree with that. Because you need the police. You can’t defund the police. There are people that really need the police. I don’t need them, but I went on a lot of calls where I needed to be there. I don’t really agree with that.”
Rogan agreed, “You need the police. I agree.”
WATCH (relevant portion begins at 50:00):
Partial transcript below:
ROGAN: There are millions of interactions that people have with cops every day, and most are positive.
COLEMAN: Millions. Most of them are positive.
ROGAN: If you get a hundred people in a room — just a hundred random people — in a room, what are the odds that one of them is a fucking idiot? It’s pretty good, right?
COLEMAN: One hundred percent.
ROGAN: Well that’s thing with cops you have I don’t know how many millions of cops are in this country. I don’t know what the number is, but you’re going to have a certain amount of cops that should never have that job. They’re bullies. They’re mean. They’re sociopaths. They’re undisciplined. They’re abusive.
COLEMAN: Yeah, they’re not built for that job. That job is not for everybody.
ROGAN: It takes a strong mind.
COLEMAN: It takes a strong mind. It takes a lot of heart.
Crime rates in Chicago, specifically homicides, are “unimaginably bad,” assessed Coleman.
Rogan remarked, “That guy they killed George Floyd that guy is an example of everything that’s wrong about police officers. He’d been doing it long time. He’d been abusing people for a long time. He had a bunch of complaints against him, yet they kept him on.”
“I don’t think you could have more than like two or three [complaints] where I’m from [without being fired],” responded Coleman, reflecting on his time as a police officer in Arlington, TX, “and we don’t have unions and all that kind of stuff, either. Once they fire you, you’re out of there.”
Coleman added, “You have to be good to the people. You can’t be mistreating people. … It’s real sad that the people you call the help you, hurt you.”
Rogan said, “I think cops should get paid more money, they should be treated better. … I feel like that’s the only way you’re going to get really good people for the job.
Coleman concluded, “You need police everywhere. Defunding [police] is just going to make it worse. You have to have a lot of resources. You have a lot of training. It’s a lot of training. You have to be training all the time. No matter how many years you’ve been there, you have to be trained up all the time
Rogan agreed, “I couldn’t agree more. It sounds horrible for people to hear, but I think they need more funding. … They need more education and need more money.”
“I loved that job,” said Coleman of his time as a police officer, adding that he “tremendously” misses the job and the “purpose” it provided him.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.