Mike was recently interviewed by Your LEO Nation host Mark Garrett about the 1970 CHP Newhall Shooting and its aftermath.
Mark is a retired California Highway Patrol Chief with thirty years of service and an insightful analyst of contemporary law enforcement issues.
Part One of the interview (Episode #74, Part One) focuses on a narrative of the shooting. You can watch it as a video on the Your LEO Nation YouTube channel or listen to it as a podcast via the Your LEO Nation website.
In Part Two (Episode #74, Part Two), Mike, Mark, and co-host Bill Bodner (who retired from the DEA) discuss notable lessons from the gunfight, and how the shadow of Newhall still falls on contemporary law enforcement culture. Again, you can watch it as a video on the Your LEO Nation YouTube channel, or listen to it as a podcast via the Your LEO Nation website.
You can find the Your LEO Nation Podcast on all popular podcast apps and platforms, as well as Rumble, YouTube, and social media.
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Last call! Train with revolverguy!
As a reminder, Mike will be teaching a Defensive Revolver class in Northern California on October 26th. See this post for additional details. Time is running out to register!
Mike gives us a nearly three dimentional replay of this tragedy as though he was in the perp’s vehicle as well as in the two CHP vehicle. I graduated from patrol school @ 2 years after this incident. It was still fresh and very raw for us rookies, and I still think about it to this day. There was obviously a deficiency in training in procedure and tactics. Coordinating tactics and communication might (maybe) have altered the outcome. I can’t begin to count the number of times I could have ended up in a metal box because of my rookiedom.
If there was ever a training movie that needed to be made – this account is it. Mike will have to be the technical advisor (producer, director, etc) to make sure it is totally accurate.
It’s a classroom that still teaches important lessons for us today, all these years later! Thanks for watching it, and for your kind comments. I hope it helps the men and women wearing the badge.
Great interview Mike. Watched both segments with great interest. I too agree with you on the great strain officers are under now because of Furgerson, George Floyd, Tyree Nichols in Memphis, even Zimmerman in Florida and what happened to the Police department and officers who stood up for what was right then what they lost in Sanford Florida, and on and on. Even the Sanford Chief said at least he could lay his head on his pillow and sleep at night because they did what was right.
These occurrences have a great effect on demoralizing morale in all Police Depts, and effects the way officers perform and react down the road. These guys (Officers) are out there with minimal support, and I believe they know it, and they have to wonder is that going to happen to me if I go against the higher ups or get involved in some ultra-high-profile situation(white, black, Hispanic, etc.). It is real concerning for our future, and the future of Law Enforcement in the U S. It is sometimes scary to think about. “Rule of Law,” and is it going to be there in 10 years, or are we going to become like other 3rd world countries, in the future in America.
I am 76 now, however if I were a young man, I would not even consider a law enforcement job today.
I know it, Pop Pop, and that’s exactly what the Leftists wanted. They destroyed the fabric of the profession, scared good people away from wanting to join it. They did the same to my military. We need good people in uniform more than ever these days, but they have plenty of reasons to avoid a career of service. We Americans need to fix that, before it’s too late to recover. If we don’t create an environment where Law & Order prevails, and the enforcers of that law know we have their backs, we’re done for. Anarchy will reign, ruin will follow.
If anyone needs to see what happens when law and order doesn’t prevail, come visit my burg, Portland, Oregon.
However, don’t stay too long or you run the real risk of getting mugged, shot or stabbed. Fatal hit-and-run auto/pedestrian accidents and carjackings are “popular” too.
One of the regulars at a local shop is a retired CHP, hired immediately following the 1970 Newhall tragedy to help fill those vacancies, and who then worked out of that station for many years. He spins some great yarns, like pulling over the two stars of “Adam-12” for speeding (yes, “Reed” was ticketed!) and the time Steve McQueen stopped to help rescue a motorist trapped after rolling down a steep ravine in Canyon Country.
Mike,
Great job on the podcast. I watched both episodes and I’m impressed and thankful for what you have done. I still have the notes (mimeographed-purple ink- on onion skin paper) from the 1/2 day we spent on Newhall when I was in the academy. 5 decades after the fact so much is still relevant. So many good yet very expensive lessons. Officers “on the street” still use what we learned from that massacre even if they don’t know always know where those lessons came from. I hope “higher ups” pay attention too. When they do stupid stuff, like putting paper seals on shotguns, people other than them get hurt and the “higher ups” , while perhaps still buffoons, get promoted.
As always, great job and keep up the good work.
BC
Thanks BC. We’ve got plenty of modern-day “paper seals” in LE that make our officers hesitate, and put them in jeopardy. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Amen!
Mike, I can’t thank you enough for your excellent book. I read “The Newhall Shooting- A Tactical Analysis” about a year ago. I wish I had access to that information years ago as a Field Training Sergeant. It would have helped me better prepare my rookie officers for their careers patrolling the street. A point of reference, in the late 1980s, the NYPD Academy was 5-6 months, followed by 6 months of Field Training before officers were assigned to one of the 76 police precincts.
I watched both episodes on the LEO Nation interview and congratulate you on providing a clear, concise synopsis of the events involved in the Newhall shooting.
Hopefully, the men and women who currently comprise the Thin Blue Line will heed the expensive lessons from the past so they may safely go home at the end of their shift.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you Sir! There’s no better praise than the compliments you receive from the people you respect the most, and I’m truly humbled.
I think we’re in a very dangerous period for our nation, and for the officers who serve and protect it. It’s important that we not forget the blood lessons taught by those who came before us, and I hope my book and interviews will help to educate and protect our brothers and sisters in uniform.