National Police Association Podcast with Guest, Antoine Thomas, Host- Fighting for the Truth
Hi, this is Sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith at the National Police Association, and this is the National Police Association podcast. I have somebody with me literally that I have been trying to get on this show for probably a year and I'm so excited that we finally got to connect in person. We text and pay attention to each other on social media. But he's a guy with a lot of law enforcement experience and he also has his own podcast and he's kind of as a police officer and just as an American, he has lived through some of the big changes that we have seen in law enforcement over the last fifteen years and he knows how to talk to people. So I thought you needed to meet him.
Betsy Smith:Antoine Thomas, welcome to the show.
Antoine Thomas:Yes. I appreciate it. So glad to be here.
Betsy Smith:I know. I'm so, so glad to finally get get you on. So I have to start with this because I always ask people this. Why the heck did you become a cop?
Antoine Thomas:Well, you know, my first, show that I, launched a couple years back in 2022, I believe it was. Might even been 2021. I called it I coined it to becoming a police officer as a calling, built in the Judeo Christian values of of course, I am a devout Christian, and I speak on those matters. And I believe, god's called me to be a police officer, and I tell people all the time as a field training officer, this is a calling from god, not from man. And, I'm also a second generation, police officer.
Antoine Thomas:My uncle who, got arrested solely recently passed, but he served with the, Plantation Florida Police Department, honorably. And so it's always been in my blood. I enjoyed it. I always respected police and, looked up to them. And, again, it is a calling from God.
Antoine Thomas:So that is how I got involved.
Betsy Smith:I'm so glad to hear you say that because I feel the same way. It's not, you don't go into police work because I need a job because I gotta pay my mortgage. It's not that kind of job. It truly is a calling. And in fact, there are many verses that we can turn to in the Bible that literally discuss that calling that we have.
Betsy Smith:I see every single day in this country police officers who run toward the shots, who bring little kids out of fires when the firemen don't get there in time and so many other things and you don't do that for the money, you do that because it's a calling. So talk about your career a little bit. What's been fun? What's been not so fun? Tell folks.
Antoine Thomas:Well, I'll tell you, I'm in my fifteenth year. I'm going on 16 next year. And I I say it to people all the time. It has not been, all rainbows and gumdrops. Over the, four years ago well, now almost it's going on, eight years because we're getting ready for a new election.
Antoine Thomas:We had a rogue sheriff that took over the sheriff's office. I was actually a sheriff's deputy, and I was, in that, category of what people state when they hear about what types of powers the sheriffs have that they can fire you at will. Well, I am a I'm gonna use the word just for my mind. I like to use this word, Betsy, but I'm gonna do it for just a sec. I was a victim of, working at the will of the sheriff.
Antoine Thomas:I was, forced out. Many other, deputies were forced out. Detention officers, people like that during that time. And being, it was mostly stated to due to political beliefs. I'm on the right side, and that sheriff was on the left, and I had a good relationship with the former sheriff who lost the incumbent, had lost the election, served for sixteen years, and, also served on the same side as he does politically, so I didn't align with the new sheriff's ways.
Antoine Thomas:And so I was let go. And that was a dark moment in my police career because that was actually the, still to this day, one of the greatest agencies I've ever worked for, and it was due to the sheriff. And, unfortunately, when I was, let go, it happened to be COVID was sliding in, right before the George Floyd fiasco, believe it or not. And that's when I was like, oh. So that was a dark moment, but I've of course, God has restored me, and I'm I'm back to go what I love, but it hadn't always been rainbow and gumdrops.
Antoine Thomas:However, I still love it, and it's the highlight of my life outside of now being married, but being a police officer. So it's still fun. Times have changed. I know we're gonna dive in it, Betsy, but still, I tell people still the best profession to me on earth.
Betsy Smith:Yeah, You never have the same day twice, right? One of the
Antoine Thomas:best
Betsy Smith:about this job. Here's something that I'm not sure everybody really understands this. When you work for a police department like I did, your chief is hired by either your city manager or your mayor or whatever. For you guys and gals who work at a sheriff's department, generally speaking, your sheriff is chosen by the people. And so that can change.
Betsy Smith:It can change every four years. It might not change for twenty years, depending on what's happening. But a sheriff is a politician as well as the head law enforcement officer. I'll be honest, back when I started in the 80s and even on into the 90s, the political party that your sheriff was a part of for you, the deputy didn't really matter that much. And in fact, most of the time that I was a police officer, we didn't really talk a whole lot about politics unless we were having lunch or something like that.
Betsy Smith:It just really wasn't an issue. I didn't even know the politics of most of my coworkers. Now really from 2014 on, it's really become And this here you are, you're a bit of a unicorn, you're a Christian conservative police officer. How does that affect you? Obviously it affected you greatly, right?
Betsy Smith:Because you got let go by your Democrat sheriff. And, but how does that affect you just with your values and your decision making and things like that as well?
Antoine Thomas:Well, first of all, well said in that order. Right? Christian, conservative, and a police officer. And they were very, very well said. It it definitely affected certain things.
Antoine Thomas:And, honestly, I, sort of saw the writing on the wall, but I didn't take heed to it. Actually, my mother had a couple conversations with me, being that I served with Blexit and Turning Point for years. Actually, I am one of the, not founding members, but one of the long, we'll call it, OG members of Leggett, and now we've launched with Turning Point. But during that time, the only really Black conservative organization that was making moves, even during COVID, so it blew up, But that's when my political career took off. But being in that environment and people, you know, being able to look up what we did, finding out who Candace was, and, of course, a lot of enemies on that turf because they don't like the way she speaks, and all this kind of played a role.
Antoine Thomas:Then, of course, being a Trump supporter, all that went into the job, unfortunately, played a major role. And what I always said was my job never affected the politics of it. Didn't care if you're a Democrat, Republican. If we got called to your residence, we handled that matter. Or if we were on the streets and we stopped the car, didn't ask what political affiliation that you were belonging to, which is still the same to this day.
Antoine Thomas:Right, Betsy? But you played a huge role, and my career as I was advancing actually was demoted before I was even let go. And so these things are taking place in 2025 and it started, I would say around the 2020 era, even of course I got let go in 2019, but we started a trend and the shift, let's just say when president Trump took over, let's just be honest, 2016 is the highlight when people really started going rogue, if I could say, if I can use that expression.
Betsy Smith:Absolutely, and when you talk about blacks, and I wanna explain to folks what that means is black exit. That means the black exit from far left, the far left belief in being a victim and the whole world's racist and all those things. Here in Southern Arizona, we have the co founder of the whole Blexa movement, Brandon Tatum. He's a friend of ours, he's been on the show, he's a friend of the National Police Association. And he was a Tucson, Arizona police officer where I live now.
Betsy Smith:And I've actually had different BLEXIT folks, I had the California director on the show before and that's one of the things that we are so appreciative of BLEXIT and the BLEXIT movement and especially your work with Turning Point because y'all walk around at conferences and at tabling at different events, you have all these phenomenal back the blue stickers and things like that where you are unabashed in your support of constitutional law enforcement. And that's every cop, you and me both raised our right hand when we were young baby cops and took an oath to the constitution first to this country and second to our state. And that's so important, isn't it? When you're talking about American law enforcement.
Antoine Thomas:It 100% is. And I believe, again, we hear this all the time. Why did you? That's like one of the main questions they ask. You're the municipality.
Antoine Thomas:When you go for your first application, they wanna know make you fill out an essay. They want you to tell them why you're motivated to be a police officer. And usually, everybody has that same at least at some point phrase in there that they wanna help people. And that is still the belief today that we want to do that. Our hands have been tied over the years, but I still believe, again, being a field training officer, a cop who trades new office, my position is that we have to still go out and do the job no matter what it looks like as long as we're abiding by the, policies, of course, our laws, and as long as there's some moral and ethical, we have to do it.
Antoine Thomas:We don't care about the cameras out there. We don't care about making the 06:00 news if we're doing what we're supposed to do. And that's what politics get, a little meshed in, and it creates a a atmosphere for cops to, hurt themselves or have somebody else hurt because they're not willing to do what they really was trained for because they're afraid of the aftermath of it. But I believe that we still have to get back to the days when you were out on the street, sergeant Betts, and we gotta get out there and make it safe for our communities, not worrying about cameras and, taking pictures of what we're doing. As long as we're doing it right, who cares?
Betsy Smith:Absolutely, and in fact we were talking about this before the show, you are one of those cops who was here for the evolution of body worn cameras and that really came after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, where he was killed by a police officer after he had done a strong-arm robbery, he was trying to disarm the police officer who stopped him and he was shot and killed. And so there was this huge push for everybody to get body worn cameras. And again, a lot of us had dash cameras then, but body worn cameras, first of all, they're expensive the system that regulates them that every police department has to have is also expensive. Now that price has come down, but it's complicated, you know what that's like because you wear one every day. But you saw that evolution, what was that like the first couple of weeks that you worked with that body worn camera at the insistence frankly of our political class?
Antoine Thomas:Absolutely. Well, I've always been a police officer that said that that why did I be the body cam? I know what type of cop I am, and hopefully, my supervisors and those that the chiefs and the sheriffs that run these agencies understand food. But then as I progressed on and started to wear them, I understood now. A matter of fact, I did a show before talking about body worn cameras, why they're important to wear.
Antoine Thomas:And what I've come to find out through not only through the actual real life, research, and I'm gonna use research as if because I wear them every day, I found out that they actually are more beneficial to the police officer. Because what we find now is that everybody wants to complain on the cop even if it's not even true. And really now, even the best back in your days, you had to get in there and file a real complaint by showing up and writing something down. Everybody wants to do it by phone and social media and the Internet, and there's no face to face contact. So we don't know if these people telling the truth or not.
Antoine Thomas:You can't you can't read them. But those body cams give you play by play, and it all also diminishes many complaints, and it also helps out the safety aspects of it. But really, I would say 90% is for you to be able to really see what took place and to be able to say, Yay or nay, if that person who's claiming you did otherwise, if it didn't happen, it's gonna show on that camera. So they're very beneficial. And I changed my trajectory and how I thought about them, I wish we would have had them many, many years ago.
Betsy Smith:Yeah, agree with you a 100%. And I think most cops echo your sentiment that I wish we'd had them when I started in the 80s because that would have, you're absolutely right, it would have saved a lot of complaints and lies and things like that and now we're actually seeing this trend among some on the far left who say body cameras aren't fair, body cameras aren't racist, things like Because now they just show what cops deal with. And I mean, there's whole YouTube shows based on just body worn camera where people pick them apart. And I have friends all the time that say to me, know you used to tell me stories, Betsy, of what you dealt with on the street. I didn't really believe you until I saw these shows with body worn camera.
Betsy Smith:And it's true, I think most people don't really understand what it is that we deal with. So you were a cop in 2020 and you had issues with the agency, but then in the midst of the whole George Floyd thing and protests and all that kind of stuff, you decided to start a podcast and it's called fighting for the truth. Talk to me about the evolution of that.
Antoine Thomas:Absolutely. Well, Betsy, as you know, last year, we're trying to make this happen. It was called the real talk podcast show. Took a sabbatical because I had took on a full time position with Turning Point and being a full time cop. There's a lot going on, so I took a huge break inside the side.
Antoine Thomas:When I came back, I was gonna do a rebrand, relaunch, a rebrand, and all that good stuff. So I've, took some time to, pray on it, even talking to my wife about a name where she thought it would be good. Threw some names out. She actually, loved the name fighting for the truth, and then I've met with one of my colleagues who actually built the logo and all that good stuff. He loved it.
Antoine Thomas:I say, this is the show I need because what we want to do, we've always been fighting for the truth, but now it's time to really dive into it. And I always say on my show that I talk about police matters, the good, bad, and the ugly of it, because I'm always sometimes when I'm having cordial debates, people automatically assume if they're on the left or maybe not really a person who enjoys cops, they think I'm always gonna side with the police officer, but that's actually not the truth. And I know you do the same bets on your show. We tell it like it is. And whenever the chips lie, we have to tell it because that is what the the model of my show is.
Antoine Thomas:Buy the truth and sell it not. Proverbs twenty three and twenty three. So, we're gonna be doing that as we always did but a new brand name I thought would be clever and also it would raise the eyes. And so that's what we're doing on The Real Talk. But that came to me actually sitting around the table with some of my fellow Blegzer members.
Antoine Thomas:They said, you you ought to well, some said I should have became a comedian because, you know, of course, I haven't gotten you laughing yet, Betsy, but I'm a class clown. But I said, no, a comedian is not really my will well, but I always wanted to do a podcast and say, you know, you have the voice, you have the personality for it, you should do that. And so that's what really motivated me. I took some time to think on it. And the one day, I just decided to launch out, and, it's been a highlight.
Antoine Thomas:And, a lot of my coworkers enjoy, a lot of former coworkers watch and keep up with me there. So I enjoy I've interviewed tons of different people, cops, firemen, politicians. And so it's a highlight and civilians, and it's been a highlight of my time when I'm not in the police seat.
Betsy Smith:So here's the thing. Podcasts are where most young people and some of us oldsters get most of our news and information. I am walking around with headphones in for at least half of the day because I'm listening to my different podcasts, whether it's news podcasts, I got my Bible podcasts, I got my cop stuff podcasts, all that stuff. And I even have like a couple of cooking podcasts, things that'll kind of clear my mind. But this is the thing, and this is the thing that we talk about the legacy media or the corporate media, they hate that stuff because they want people to get their news and information from them.
Betsy Smith:One source, television, maybe a little newspaper, things like that, but shows like yours and people like you, they are the new media. And in fact, I'm gonna throw this down, a year from now, I wanna see you sitting in that new media spot at the White House know, going to a press conference because that's what it's all about, right? It's getting information so you can get information out to people.
Antoine Thomas:Absolutely. We to hear from all sides, and Betsy, I enjoy it. You can vouch for this. Text you every time I get a chance to see you on Newsmax. You always do a beautiful job and you know what you're talking about and you bring a different type of atmosphere to the show if you have a co guest on there with you.
Antoine Thomas:It's always good to listen and hear your perspectives because you still you may not be wearing a uniform, but you have your ears to the ground researching and listening and have tons of people that I'm sure you connect with who are still in the profession, and I'm one of them now. And so you do a great job there. And so I would love to see more of that. And that is my goal to maybe at some point, get a call and say, hey, we want you to come on these different news outlets and talk from your experience because what I'm noticing, there's a lot of talking heads outside of you and some retired people. A lot of people who are not in the profession, they can speak on it, but they're not in it at the moment.
Antoine Thomas:And so it'll be good to hear from another side. But I just wanna bring the truth and let the truth again fall where it falls. But, again, we're not going to sell it, but we will buy it. And whoever takes it for what is worth and does their research and figures out, hey, this is not a bad deal after all because cops are humans and we're just people that are trying to make it.
Betsy Smith:Yeah, absolutely. And that's one of the things about the turning point organization is it's just normal people who had a really big impact on the last couple of elections. And again, we're not the National Police Association, we're a charity. We don't get involved in candidates and things like that. Obviously we pay attention to politics, we pay attention to legislation and in fact we're asking our national legislators to pass some of these bills like the Protect and Save Act that are going to make things easier for guys like you that are still out on the street.
Betsy Smith:How did you happen to get involved with Turning Point? Because again, we hear I live in a purple state, a swing state, and this is the state where Charlie Kirk lives, the founder
Antoine Thomas:of Turning Point.
Betsy Smith:And, but where I hear all the time, oh, he's bad, he's racist, he's sexist, he's old Christian national whites and premises to all that stuff.
Antoine Thomas:None of it.
Betsy Smith:How'd y'all get involved in that organization?
Antoine Thomas:It was a true blessing to to bring the story because I could tell you it'd take hours. I I actually fell into it. So when I was, actually, terminated from my sheriff's position as a deputy, I had free time. This was right before COVID. So God planned all this, and I'm not saying I always tell people, listen very clearly.
Antoine Thomas:I'm not saying COVID was designed for me for that I would prosper, but I actually have a different story during COVID. A lot of people died. We understand that, through the ventilators, and we got locked down with masks. But that is when I really hit the airwaves, and Bledgedd did as well, because what we were able to monopolize on and capitalize on was what everybody was at home and on social media. So we used the social media to really, launch Blexit because Blexit had been, set in motion by Panizomans and Brandon, but they hadn't launched it yet.
Antoine Thomas:So a guy by the name of Pierre Wilson was the mastermind behind the chapter. So and he was originally from North Carolina. He's in Florida now, but I'm in North Carolina. So we all connected that way. I went to a rally and somebody had heard about me to say, hey, this guy, he posted on social media.
Antoine Thomas:He's a black conservative. Let's see what we can do to get him in. And from there, I got involved with Blexit and I became an employee and I rose the ranks to different positions. And we got involved with Turning Point because Candace and Brandon went into a contract with Charlie. He actually bought, Blexit.
Antoine Thomas:So now Blexit falls under Turning Point and, has some cool jobs under Turning Point within Blexit. So that's how we all kinda connect it. And I'm guessing that Charlie's, mindset was, hey. Let's take the biggest black largest organization, as it as it pertains to the conservative movement and mesh them with the largest, conservative organization in the nation that being Turning Point. So it was only a smart idea, and they've continued to grow.
Antoine Thomas:We're continuing to grow. I since have relinquished my position full time with them, I am still a lifelong member, I would say, and I'm never going anywhere. And so I'm always gonna try my best to promote and, tell her how it all came about. That's awesome.
Betsy Smith:So so you've really been at the forefront of this whole vilified demonized cops as of 2014. Then we saw this kind of resurgence into pride in the profession after 2016, then 2020, the death of George Floyd, all that stuff. And then we were at the bottom again and now in 2025, we're working our way back because in part, because I think people saw that life without cops sucks and your neighborhood without cops sucks. And so give me your perspective on where you see the law enforcement profession going from here.
Antoine Thomas:Absolutely. And another thing about my show prior to this, real talk. Let me just scroll a little plug there. The model of that show, which I've since retired, it was actually, title model was this. We're never defund the police, but we're always defund the police.
Antoine Thomas:And so, that was the model that, you know, of course, I retired that thing. But, where I see this nation going right now in 2025 is, number one, we have a president who always stood for law and order and for the military, And that's what it takes. It has to start from the top. And I mentioned that, many years ago when Barack, brought in the I believe he worked at Harvard professor, you know, the one that was accused of breaking into his own home, brought him down in the Rose Garden for beer and and a burger, the double b. And, he talked how police officers were in that particular incident were acting stupidly, AKA called them stupid.
Antoine Thomas:That's when all things went downhill there, but we had a president in 2016 who was trying to nurture and bring back law enforcement. And then he's back again in 2025, and it's even he's even doubled down on it. And we see that with DC, possibly Chicago, and other states that need a relifting and uplifting of law and order. And I know in my heart that every cop wants to go out there and do the right thing, but they're held down by the chief who is ultimately held down by their city mayors. And so I believe they have a heart to serve, and we're not out here to beat people up or harass.
Antoine Thomas:And, of course, the immigration stuff has been looped in, and they're thinking that we're out there trying to round up new immigrants. So that's not what the law enforcement job is. That is why, like you know, this fancy ICE was created for them to handle those things. Now we're gonna help in some ways, but that's not what we hear. We don't put the unit for a moment to go beat up and killing sheep.
Betsy Smith:No. We're just try yeah. We're just trying to do our jobs and that, you know, Cash Patel says it best about once a week, let cops be cops.
Antoine Thomas:That's it.
Betsy Smith:Do you think, I wish we had more time, last question. Do you think we're gonna be able to bring young people back to this profession? You see a lot of young people, you interact with them. What do you think?
Antoine Thomas:I was actually in training about a week ago at a local community college where we house a law enforcement, BLET program, which stands for basic law enforcement training for them to, go to school to become a cops. I saw about 17 youngsters. They're all young in their early twenties. So I believe they're coming back to the profession. And as we watch law and order be restored once again, And, again, at the top of it, at the helm of it, the president, doubling down, and then a fire governors and, local officials double down and said we're stand by the police.
Antoine Thomas:It's still the best profession on Earth. They'll keep, coming on in and but we wanna set the standard that we're not taking any BS. We're getting people who are accountable, who are law abiding citizens, speaking of the cops, people who actually want to make a difference. We want you. So I do see that trajectory changing, and I I am seeing more youngsters arrive in the profession just how I've seen it at the airport where I'm assigned as a cop.
Antoine Thomas:I see a lot of young marines coming in the door flying and going to camp, boot camp, or going to their destination from boot camp. And I'm amazed, and I I wanna tell everybody out there because I see it. Be assured that we are getting them back into the military as well. I see a lot of women as well, young women entering the, force, marines to be exact. And so it's very uplifting and it also, reassures us that our country is getting back where it should have always been.
Betsy Smith:I love it. I do think America's back, baby.
Antoine Thomas:Yes. It
Betsy Smith:is. Tell Antoine, tell everybody where they can find you, connect with you, work where they can they find the podcast, all your social media, everything.
Antoine Thomas:Absolutely. If you're looking for me on Facebook, Antoine Thomas, and you'll see fighting for the truth, That is the profile logo underneath. But if you wanna find me on any other social media platform, including Instagram, LinkedIn, and all those places, fighting for the truth show. Put that in there, and you'll find me. And we're off to a great start.
Antoine Thomas:Of course, YouTube is where I'm looking to continue to grow that because, again, I took a sabbatical, so I gotta get back in there and re up and get all those listeners back engaged. And then new listeners, YouTube definitely find me there fighting for the truth show.
Betsy Smith:Well, I'm looking forward to the day very soon when I can say, oh, I know that guy. And and everybody will know who I'm talking about. Antoine Thomas, thank you so much for spending time with us today. And if you'd like more information about the National Police Association, you can visit us at nationalpolice.org.
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