This is an IHeart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star

and the American people. Our next storyteller

is a law enforcement consultant, author, and active senior lead officer in Los Angeles.

We'll let him introduce himself. Let's take a listen. I'm Dion Joseph. I am a 27-year veteran of law enforcement. My primary assignment is working in the

Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles, working with the homeless, been doing so for about 25 years.

It ended up being my calling. The reason it became my calling was kind of weird. I never,

never wanted to be a police officer. I was

raised to, not raised or indoctrinated by friends and activist groups that I ran with that the police

were basically my natural mortal enemy. And, you know, a couple of times I was racially

profiled didn't help when I was a civilian. Then came the Rodney King incident.

And the Rodney King incident on top of the insult to injury of those officers getting off

for doing that horrible act that they engaged in,

really, really had a negative impact on me.

So I suffered from what's called availability bias the only thing that was

being shown or told to me about police officers was negative my favorite rap

groups were a public enemy NWA KRS one and everything they said was either

after the police or the police were beast they were monsters who were trying to

exterminate black people.

And I bought into it.

I bought into it.

And what happened was my father and mother, they founded the first black-owned restaurant

...