Why a Young Black Man Became a Cop on Skid Row
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Deon Joseph grew up believing police officers were the enemy. Influenced by personal experiences, the Rodney King beating, and the culture around him, he never imagined joining law enforcement himself. But after becoming an LAPD officer, Joseph found his calling serving the people of Los Angeles’ notorious Skid Row, where he spent decades trying to bring order, dignity, and hope to one of America’s toughest neighborhoods. Be sure to check out Deon's book Stepping Across The Line: A Skid Row Cop's Story for more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:14.2 | This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, |
| 0:18.5 | the show where America is the star and the American people. |
| 0:23.2 | Our next storyteller is a law enforcement consultant, author, and active senior lead officer |
| 0:28.8 | in Los Angeles. |
| 0:30.5 | We'll let him introduce himself. |
| 0:32.5 | Let's take a listen. |
| 0:34.1 | I'm Dion Joseph. |
| 0:35.3 | I am a 27-year veteran of law enforcement. |
| 0:39.1 | 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. |
| 0:46.5 | It ended up being my calling. |
| 0:49.0 | The reason it became my calling was kind of weird. |
| 0:52.8 | I never, A, never wanted to be a police officer. I was |
| 0:55.6 | raised to, not raised or indoctrinated by friends and activist groups that I ran with that the police |
| 1:02.0 | were basically my natural mortal enemy. And, you know, a couple of times I was racially profiled |
| 1:08.0 | didn't help when I was a civilian. Then came the Rodney King incident. |
| 1:12.6 | And the Rodney King incident on top of the insult to injury of those officers getting off |
| 1:17.6 | for doing that horrible act that they engaged in, really, really had a negative impact on me. |
| 1:23.6 | So I suffered from what's called availability bias. The only thing that was being |
| 1:28.6 | shown or told to me about police officers was negative. My favorite rap groups were public |
| 1:34.2 | enemy, NWA, KRS1, and everything they said was either after the police or the police were |
... |
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