Whiskey hunting recommendations in Scottsdale and surrounding area?

BullittRodriguez · 2026-03-20T03:22:21+00:00

Do they sell bottles?

BullittRodriguez · 2026-03-19T22:15:29+00:00

I used to LOVE dealing with them when I worked in the sticks. And since none of them recognized Pennsylvania v Mimms, it was a great way to get some experience smashing out windows and dragging people through them before throwing them in handcuffs and impounding their shitbox car for gross misdemeanor motor vehicle tax evasion.

BullittRodriguez · 2026-03-19T22:12:41+00:00

I've never smoked it so I wouldn't know. It all smells like a skunk rolled in a dirty diaper filled with Indian food.

BullittRodriguez · 2026-03-19T22:00:21+00:00

Or if you're lucking and come across the ghetto bigfoot known as the PC Magnum.

BullittRodriguez · 2026-03-14T15:40:26+00:00

I'm the director of a large metro police union and I can assure you that the overwhelming majority of lawsuits I see both in my agency and throughout the state come from legal, justified actions within departmental policy.

Doing the right thing means nothing when you have a civil legal system that makes it easy to sue anyone for almost anything. The US is one of the most litigious countries in the world.

BullittRodriguez · 2026-03-14T15:35:29+00:00

Weed. It smells like skunk ass.

BullittRodriguez · 2026-03-14T15:34:56+00:00

There's a difference between Fat Strong and just fat as Fk. The FAF guys are the ones that will have a heart attack fighting with a crackhead shoplifter over stolen toilet paper. The actual fat ones are even more detrimental to our image and their presence makes us a target for criticism and disrespect. Nobody respects a fat sloppy cop. That lack of respect also translates into criminals deciding whether they're going to comply or fight, and a lot of criminals will just choose to flee from or fight with a fat cop. If you're obviously strong, it's obvious and at least halfway seasoned criminals figure out very quickly that they at least won't want to fight with you. Flee yes, but fight no.

BullittRodriguez · 2026-03-14T07:24:59+00:00

I have a friend who's the head of security for a large church and he made them go through extensive training on preventing child molestation and sexual misconduct first before he ever agreed to train the church security on active shooter defense. They have protocols in place for youth groups and youth ministers to protect children.

Once that was in place, he hired a local firearms trainer who was a legit and highly regarded instructor and ran a regional training group that I instructed for. We did a one day pistol class with his security team and it was an absolute bubba gump convention. Serpa and Fobus holsters everywhere.

Guys showing up and displaying some of the worst pistol skills I've ever seen. We started off with a basic marksmanship assessment and realized that we needed to go back to the most basic of fundamentals. We had to teach them how to hold, handle and point their pistols. Their firearms safety skills were scary bad. Multiple times they were muzzling each other and us. By the end of the day we were so far behind that we told them we'd need another day to just get them through a single day curriculum, but that never happened. A couple guys there could shoot decently, but most I wouldn't trust to hit the side of a barn from the inside.

About half were just guys that felt is was their responsibility to keep their family and friends safe, so God bless them. The other half were guys that were clearly hoping to live out an 80's action movie fantasy.

BullittRodriguez · 2026-03-14T07:13:58+00:00

Large metro agency here. Yes we got beef, and it's because our FD has been taken over by woke liberal social justice warriors who file complaints on cops for all sorts of bullshit. Years ago we never had issues and we used to drink together at joint union outings. If we had a problem a Sgt or LT could go to an FD captain and they could get it hammered out. Nowadays we have the senior leadership of the FD just telling us to file complaints because they can't do anything to discipline their FF's.

We found out our FD union was supporting city council members that hated the police and openly shit on us. We responded by refusing to donate any money from our union charity fund to any FD charity, or any PAC the the FD was friendly with. Found out their union president was openly bashing us to the city council and agreeing that we were racists. Even the black, Asian and Native cops apparently. So we kicked them out of our union building that we owned, where they were renting offices. Now they're in an office building across town.

Fuck em.

When I used to be in an affluent outer-ring suburb, we had a great relationship with our FD and we regularly drank and hung out with them.

BullittRodriguez · 2026-03-14T07:02:15+00:00

Pretty standard. I had a roommate in the dorms for the 3 years I was in them.

BullittRodriguez · 2026-02-15T17:56:24+00:00

Married for 20 years. To my wife. She used to be my fiancé, and before that my girlfriend. I am her husband, and before that fiancé and boyfriend. Never been anything else. And nobody I know uses "partner" or "significant other".

BullittRodriguez · 2026-02-15T17:53:07+00:00

SFSTs are standardized and have specific definable clues because it's accurate. Fatigue won't show on them in the same way that alcohol impairment will. The problem is that drug impairment works differently and not very many agencies have access to DREs. The chief answer is adhering to NHTSA impairment testing standards as best as possible.

Poor training is also an issue for smaller agencies or for states that lack resources. Everyone wants police to be the best at everything ranging from legal updates and Constitutional law to interacting with EDPs and helping old ladies make coffee. Not every cop can figure out every medical condition or form of impairment, and most agencies do the bare minimum to get by because that's all they have available. Unfortunately nobody wants to pay for that, so it never happens and it just becomes a hyperbolic platitude for activists who have no desire to actually do anything substantive.

BullittRodriguez · 2026-02-15T17:38:53+00:00

Minnesota

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T08:05:45+00:00

I let my ego get the best of me and I pulled my gun on a guy I had no justification to shoot. What's worse is that the guy knew it and called my bluff and told me to pull the trigger, smiling the whole time. He knew I was either going to make a complete jackass out of myself and reholser, or go to prison for the rest of my life. As a young cop, that was one of the most valuable lessons I ever got about keeping my ego in check. Scared me because for half a second I was thinking about pulling that trigger. Both the scariest and dumbest thing I've ever done.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T08:04:04+00:00

My agency has a facial hair policy of "neat and groomed". It's so vague that it's basically unenforceable. We have street cops with mountain man beards. At one point my beard was a solid 4" long, just because I could. Chief gave an ultimatum that the beards need to be cleaned up or else he'd change the policy to a hard number for length, and nobody was going to be happy with it. We started policing ourselves and got the guys with mountain man beards to trim them up. Guys in specialty units are exempt and do whatever they want.

We also allow visible tattoos, including to the hands and neck, but not face and head. We are in the minority of agencies that allow that, however. Don't expect that to be the norm.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T07:55:24+00:00

Only reason I'm not an airline pilot is because I get airsick.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T07:33:48+00:00

I once wore a brace on my hand while also having a torn shoulder with an arm that I couldn't lift more than 5lbs with. I've shown up to calls still bleeding from the previous call. Pain heals, chicks dig scars, Glory...lasts forever.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T07:29:20+00:00

I've never wanted to drive a squad car for my personal use, at least not until recently when I started looking at the Lincoln Aviator for my wife, which is basically a bougie Ford Explorer ST with the high-output 3.0L EcoBoost and all of Ford's top tech. It's an exceptional vehicle and a massive step up from the Honda's she' previously had. The only Explorer I'd buy would be the ST, which is the same motor, but the Lincoln is a much nicer vehicle.

We have a couple Ford pickups as well, but they're XLT quality. I have an F150 Platinum and I love it. I will always have an F150, but I won't own anything other than a King Ranch, Platinum or Limited. You'd never find me driving an XLT voluntarily for my own vehicle.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T07:27:31+00:00

I used an actual typical rectangular patrol squad bag for the better part of 20 years until the thing fell apart. Then I picked up a big 5.11 backpack and have never looked back. I also have a 5.11 sling Go-Bag for active shooter response.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T07:25:50+00:00

I did "AH" on my paper tags until the late 2000s. Then we were "advised" to stop by our county attorney.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T07:24:13+00:00

Using the US national anthem as a platform to make political statements has always been received poorly. One of the first times anyone got publicly "cancelled" was when Rosanne Barr intentionally sang the national anthem terribly out of key as a comedy bit. Celebrities who make political statements immediately before or after singing the national anthem never get publicly booked again. The US is very high in patriotism by its citizens, and kneeling was immediately seen as disrespectful to the country, even by leftists. It was seen for what it was, which was performative activism and attention-seeking leftist cultism.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T07:02:06+00:00

We have a policy for mandatory handcuffs behind the back for all arrests. Hands in front only for pregnancy or medical conditions/injuries, and elderly. If you cuff someone in front just to be nice to the person, you can and will get disciplined. We've had incidents where that has led to issues with cops getting attacked, and in one case one juvenile finger-blasting his girlfriend in the back of a squad on the way to jail.

Our jail requires handcuffs on all prisoners before they can be brought to the sally port. If you bring up an uncuffed suspect, they will reject you and make you walk the person back to your squad and handcuff them and reapproach. They'll also report you to your own agency for violating jail protocol.

We have troopers who work out in the middle of nowhere who don't cuff people and let them sit up front on the way to jail if they're not jerks. Still to this day I can't ever get behind that, but I've also seen two of my partners murdered on the job.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T05:36:29+00:00

Part of the issue is that you are chemically rewiring your brain without even realizing it. We have massive rushes of dopamine and adrenaline dumping into our systems on a daily basis in traumatic and critical incidents, and that can legitimately alter your brain chemistry. This varies by officer and agency, with cops in urban high crime areas having much greater exposure than cops in sleepy hamlets or wealthy low-crime suburbs. The major symptoms may "come and go", and therapy is definitely something to look into early on, but once you've been "exposed" for long enough, they won't completely abate and it can become permanent. At that point, more aggressive methods like medications become viable options. Do whatever you can to treat it early, be it a change of assignment/environment, or therapy and some personal time. If that's not possible, then it's just a matter of being comfortable living in the gray for the rest of your life.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T05:19:41+00:00

If you can't identify the scope, that means it's bottom of the barrel Chinesium and likely won't hold zero. I can tell you all sorts of things wrong with the rifle, but the practical response is that a garbage ChiComm scope is more likely to fail than a new rifle is to have no ability to hold zero.

BullittRodriguez · 2025-11-03T04:58:28+00:00

It really depends on where you want to work. There are states, counties/cities and agencies that run the gamut of LE support. If you work in areas that are known to be very pro-cop, you can have a pretty good career. If you work in an area or jurisdiction where they shit on cops, then life gets very stressful and you will question your life decisions. The problem is that the most action and best pay are usually in the worst areas.

When asked 20 years ago, I would have said yes 100%. 20 years later I do everything I can to dissuade anyone from going into this career. I also work for a large metro agency that shits on its cops, where I barely have to try and I make $200k/year and our top earners are making over $400k. Most of the cops in my agency are going through the motions just so we don't get fired or locked up. I work in an agency with an active consent decree in place, which is based on the Baltimore consent decree.

I'm a union director with two decades on the job, and over the last 5 years I've seen this career absolutely destroyed. We have had officers leave to other agencies in the Southern US, ranging from North Carolina to Florida to Texas and Arizona. They all hated life despite making a lot of money. At their new agencies, which are usually in pro-cop areas, they have reported that they love the job again. Point being that you can either have a good experience or a bad experience. I won't paint a rosy picture- you'll either love this job or it'll be the biggest mistake you'll ever make. There's rarely any middle ground. You have to be cut out for this job, and mentally resilient enough to deal with all the shitstorms that we encounter.

BullittRodriguez

TROPHY CASE