Shawn Ryan Show
#146 Blake Cook - America's Scapegoats: The 365-Day Service That Never Stops
Thu, 28 Nov 2024
Blake Cook is a former U.S. Army infantryman (11 Bravo) who deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, where his bravery and sacrifice earned him the Purple Heart. Following his military career, Blake shifted to law enforcement with the Fayetteville Police Department in North Carolina, dedicating most of his eight-year tenure to the SWAT team. There, he developed expertise in high-pressure tactical operations and emergency response. Now serving as the Director of Law Enforcement Operations and Lead Instructor at Blu Bearing Solutions, Blake focuses on training individuals to handle crises with confidence and precision. His teaching emphasizes preparedness and the cultivation of a "Protector Mindset," drawing from his extensive background to help others safeguard what matters most. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: https://helixsleep.com/srs https://shopify.com/srs https://bunkr.life - USE CODE "SRS" https://blackbuffalo.com https://ShawnLikesGold.com | 855-936-GOLD #goldcopartner Blake Cook Links: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/blakecookactual Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/blakenicole.cook LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-cook Blu Bearing: Website - https://blubearing.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/blu_bearing Blu Bearing Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BluBearingSolutions Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/BluBearingSolutions YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@BluBearingSolutions Blk & Blu Podcast: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/45Ag3kHi8fcdNmSUDqqTQj?si=30d0f2ff99bb442a Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/blkblupodcast Please leave us a review on Apple & Spotify Podcasts. Vigilance Elite/Shawn Ryan Links: Website | Patreon | TikTok | Instagram | Download Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Blake Cook and what is his background?
Blake Cook, welcome to the show, man. Thanks for having me, Sean. It's an honor to be here. It's an honor to have you. Yeah, thank you. So we met through Kyle. Yep. Kyle Morgan. Awesome. One of my favorite guests ever on this show. Phenomenal human. And he is, man. He is. And he connected with us. And I know you guys are working together. Yep.
And I'm just really thankful that he made that connection because I've been looking forward to this interview since we spoke. Appreciate it. So welcome to the show. But so I want to do a, just a full blown life story with you. And I know you have a lot to say to the law enforcement community, especially.
2020.
Defund the police movement? Defund the police. After the George Floyd incident is when
It just spiraled downhill.
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Chapter 2: How did the Defund the Police movement affect law enforcement?
Man, that's, well, people are feeling it. People are seeing it. This is what happens when you shit on the cops. Crime is up nationwide. It's crazy. I mean, I see these videos in, where is it, San Francisco, where people are just looting. That's mind-blowing. They're looting people. the department stores, Apple store.
I mean, I've seen reels of them just walking in Apple stores and just... Jewelry stores, smashing glass, and then just leaving. It's crazy.
Somebody has to pay for that. Yeah, yeah. I would be infuriated if I was a owner of a store in one of those cities.
I mean, what do you even do as a cop? Honest question. What do you do as a law enforcement officer when that's happening? Because if you try to do anything, they're going to send you to jail for enforcing the law.
I feel so sorry for people, for law enforcement officers in those areas. Because, you know, God forbid, I had this conversation. Those guys, their job is to escape by any means necessary. They're very brave and they're bold. They have no respect. They're broad daylight smashing glass, grabbing thousands of dollars of merchandise and then leaving. We show up, what are we supposed to do?
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Chapter 3: What challenges do police officers face in today's society?
Ask them nicely? No, we have to chase them. We have to go hands on with them. And if they fight us and we have to use force, now the mayor or the governor, God forbid, or the police chief, they're gonna say, why didn't you let them go? Is that a hill you want to die on? Yeah, it is. Because you know what? I was hired to enforce the law, not different laws that you want me to enforce.
I was hired and took an oath to do my duty and to protect the laws and to protect innocent folks who are trying to make a living. Yes, did they physically harm anybody? No, but that store owner has to come out of pocket for that. You know, that hurts that family. That hurts the employees' families. They're not going to get paid. Maybe they get laid off because of it. Maybe the store shuts down.
It has a domino effect. Yes, they didn't hurt nobody physically, but somebody has to deal with that. How about the PTSD they just caused those people inside of there? They thought that they could have died. I mean, they're getting robbed. Our job as law enforcement officers is absolutely, I'm going to chase you down and you're going to jail. But unfortunately, those cops, this is their career too.
This is how they feed their family. A lot of cops are not going to go, if they don't have the backing, man, they're going to sit there and watch it happen.
I mean, I can't blame them. It puts food on their table. I mean, some of these, some, here's another question.
I mean, a lot of, there was a lot of people on the bandwagon for defunding the police. Yeah. A ton of them. You know, now they're having to live in this shit. I mean, do you feel bad for them?
You don't have to answer. No, I don't feel bad for him. You know, it's not fair to judge all of us off of one individual's actions. Let's take ownership that that man was also a criminal. Now, I don't believe that a knee should have been in his back. He's in handcuffs. You could have put hands on the shoulders. There's three of you there.
Somebody grab his feet, somebody grab his shoulders until we can get a wrap to put him in. There's way better ways to have handled that situation. But we all got judged based off of one police officer's action. Law enforcement officers were killed during those riots.
Mm-hmm.
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Chapter 4: What was Blake's experience growing up in West Virginia?
It's hilarious. It's like, what are you doing? But I guess if you put it into perspective as police officers are like commercial airline pilots. You can't have a bad pilot. Because if you have a bad pilot and he crashes and kills a bunch of people, people are going to be like, well, those guys aren't trained at that airline. You know, we're not going to fly that airline no more.
We can't have bad cops. And you know how you stop that? Is when good cops, whether you're young or not, you step up and you stop it immediately. You be brave and you be bold and you stand for what you believe in and that is doing the right thing. That's how you stop that. If I would have been there, I would ask him to get his knee off his back
And if he refused, I would have jerked him off of him and told him to stand by the car. Somebody should have done that, but nobody did. Nobody was bold and brave. So now, four years later, now look at us. Crime is through the roof, murders throughout the country, robberies. Man, I'm going to tell you something, everybody should own a gun.
My fastest response time as a police officer was like seven minutes. And now that we live in a time where criminals are braver than law enforcement officers, it's scary, man. It is. I carry, it's why I carry everywhere I go.
Me too. Me too. I'm very thankful for this town, though. Franklin, Williamson County, they do not fuck around here. Hell, I like this place, man.
Did a little history last night laying in the bed, trying not to think about all the episode and all that. And this is a very historical place.
Oh, yeah. It's awesome. Front lines of the Civil War right here.
Yeah.
There's a Chick-fil-A down the road. Pretty new. And when they broke ground there, they found the remains of like 12 soldiers from the Civil War.
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Chapter 5: How did Blake's military career shape his perspective?
Jesus chose wild men.
It's true. Blake Cook. Four years as Army infantry in the 82nd Airborne Division. You are a Purple Heart recipient for an IED explosion in Afghanistan. You are a former gun gang and cartel detective and a SWAT team member in Fayetteville, North Carolina. You have attempted suicide more than once. You're a follower of Jesus Christ and recently baptized in 2023. Congratulations. Thank you.
You are one year sober from alcohol. Congratulations. You received the 2018 Gang Unit of the Year Award. You are the recipient of the 2023 Investigative Achievement Award issued by the United States Attorney's Office. You are currently the LE Director of Operations and Lead CQB Instructor at Blue Varying Solutions.
And you've been married for 12 and a half years and the father of one son who's 16 years old. It's me. Quite the intro. How did you meet Kyle?
Man, let's save that. You want to save that? Let's save that. All right, we'll save that. Because it's a testimony, man, of the power of God. I want to, let's save that.
We'll save it. We'll save it.
Yeah.
So I have a Patreon. I know you and Kyle do too over at Blue Bearing.
I'm subscribed to your Patreon.
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Chapter 6: What impact did addiction have on Blake's family?
Oh, shit.
That's why I started laughing. I was like, what an idiot. Somebody's in trouble. Oh, my God. I mean, I'll whip that thing around. By the time I get back to the house, the whole hood's out there. Everybody. Man, I get out the car. She's holding that radio by the antenna.
She goes, she goes, here, piggy, piggy, piggy, piggy. Here, piggy, piggy, piggy, piggy.
Sean, I felt this big. My tattoos didn't matter. My beard didn't matter. My long hair didn't matter. Nothing mattered. I was so humiliated. I had to walk over and was like, sorry about that. Got my radio, got back in my car. But man, I had, I told everybody the story. Every day I would have Miss Piggy. I would take it down the next morning. It would get right back on my desk.
It was so embarrassing because, I mean, you're talking a channel for that district, not just a channel for our unit, but for that district. So everybody, police chief, everybody in my chain of command, all the patrol officers who look up to us. I mean, it is what it is. I did it to it.
Thank God I didn't get punished because they realized that I was humiliated because when I got out, I had to turn my body camera on. to make sure they didn't lie on me. So the whole interaction was on camera. The whole Miss Piggy, Piggy, Piggy. I was like, everything. So they're like, man, we're not going to write you up for this one. We feel like that you're, I'm like, hey man, thanks.
Yep, I'm really humiliated. And I'm sure I'm never going to live this down. But yeah, that's it, man. That's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me.
That's a good one.
It was awful.
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Chapter 7: How did Blake's relationship with his father evolve?
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Grew up in a small town in West Virginia called Pombal, West Virginia. 1,000 people max in my hometown, 18,000 in the county. So real small town. Everybody knew everybody. You start daycare with the same people that you graduate with. So, you know, for 13, 14 years, it's the same friends. It's the same people every day. Even in the summer, we all lived next to each other.
So it was a cool place to grow up. Windows open, doors open, ride your bikes wherever until whenever. You know, we didn't have crime, you know, just rednecks, you know, so it was a great place to grow up. I grew up in a split house. You know, the only memory that I have of my mom and dad ever together, my mom was trying to leave, and my dad was punching a hole in the wall, screaming and yelling.
It's the only memory I have of them together, and So they got a divorce when I was young, you know, three or four. And my dad built a house right next door, right beside my mom. And that was kind of cool. Why'd they get divorced? My dad cheated. Yeah. So my mom had a lot of hatred towards him, but she ultimately left him because he was a cheater. He cheated on her. Were you close with both?
Growing up, yeah, I was close with both. My mom was phenomenal, man. To this day, I still wish her Happy Father's Day. She did her best. She was young. She was, I think, maybe 21, 20 when she had us. I remember she'd take me to college with her, to community college, so she could get her degree.
I remember the only memory I have of it was... Your mom would take you to community college so that she could get her degree. She'd get her degree.
Brothers and sisters? I have a brother. I have an older brother. He's four years older than me. I love him more than anything. He's always protected me. Always. We're complete different. He's well-dressed, skinnier little fella. He's an attorney. Here I am looking like a convicted felon. But ultimately, man, at the core, we're the same person. Even to this day, he still looks out for me.
He's one of my biggest role models. So he's a phenomenal father. He's a great husband. He's just a great human. So I have a half-sister and a half-brother from my dad's, you know, I don't consider them that. They're my brother and sister. But when my dad got remarried, he started another family. My dad building a house right next to us.
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Chapter 8: What was the turning point for Blake's mental health?
And my brother was like, dude, you're like three years older than me, four years older than me. What are you talking about? So my brother picked up a two liter of Mountain Dew and chucked it at her. And he came over and got me and was like, hey, we're going to stay at the house. And they ended up calling the police on him.
And there was a cop at the time named Jim Hall who came up there and put my 13-year-old brother in handcuffs, put him in the back of a cop car over that. You called the police on your own son because of something that he did that you caused by marrying somebody that was only two years, three years older than him.
And so it was constant, like my mom would leave, we would go up to my dad's for a few hours, and then me and my brother would go down to the house. Because it was just, it was always something. It was always something. And my brother would cook for us. He'd take care of us. And then when, you know, my mom, we would call my mom the day that she was coming back home.
And we'd be like, hey mom, we just came down to the house, we know you're coming home that day. And she had no idea that we were doing that. But my brother was protecting me from the toxic environment. He's always protected me.
Damn.
And, you know, and I'm not saying that the whole childhood when my dad was back, because that would be a lie. You know, there were great times. You know, we would have Nerf gun wars and things like that. But, you know, and he was a good dad growing up. He would play basketball. He'd teach me how to play basketball and things like that. But, you know, there was always something, right?
There was always something that would happen that would ruin it. Always. And, yeah. And it's just, and my mom did a great job at protecting us from that too. She tried to limit our time as much as possible, but you know, I'm not gonna sit here and beat my dad down, but, because there were good times. He ran our community pool and he would take us down for night swims.
And I mean, there were great, great things, but as we always felt like that we were just second, because he had started a new family and we were just secondary. And that was a lot of my childhood until I became a young teenager. I've been playing sports since I was young, like super young, and basketball was always my thing.
And we won every, as a kid it was cool, but we won every county championship until I was in the eighth grade. And the only games that my dad would really attend were the ones that were impossible. And then when I got into the eighth grade, we won our county championship basketball game, and there was a guy in the stands that had known me forever.
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