Oct. 12, 2026

S12, Chapter 5: Hale

Show Notes
Transcript

In the season finale, I go back to day 11... the $500 bet reset token the app sent me the day I was supposed to quit, and the coffee shop where I decided my sponsor was the enemy. I'll also play you a voicemail my cousin left me, with four words in it that Karl Jacobson said about himself as his career was ending. Then, with his larceny case still open, Karl asked New Haven to make his pension tax-free.

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Karl Jacobson has been charged and has not been convicted. Charges are allegations. The account in this series comes from the sworn arrest warrant affidavit, court and city records, and public reporting.

Resources

If you or someone you know is struggling with gambling, the National Problem Gambling Helpline is available 24/7 — call or text 1-800-522-4700. Free and confidential.

Or if you're somewhere darker than that. Call or text 988. Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 24/7.

Credits

Hosted, written, and produced by T. Z. Borden.

Executive producers: Greg B, Sundeen, Jessica Wagner, Ann K, and Allison Barkley.

Associate producer: Lindsey Choy.

Our new Darksiders:

$7: Dave Humes, Chrissy Cosgrove, Alice Margaret Prout, Marcus Butler, David Fox, Holly Deaton
$5: Em, Lisa Brannen, Emily Matthews, Landy Anderson, Sturgy, Robert Eff, Jim Hillard, Kristen, AllieD, Diane K H
$4: Toby, Cameron Mackay
$3: Chasing Amy in the Dark, Sam, Sunday A, Samantha Booth, Allison Newton, Molly Mackay, RLCH, Johanna Vespe, Justin Briggs, Jake Lee

Music

Matooma — "Infinite Emptiness"; CTRL S — "SpaceTimeThought"; Shahead Mostafafar — "Into the Next Dimension"; Jamie Bathgate — "Atmo"
AUGUSTA TREVERORUM — from the album 1991. agsttrvrrm.bandcamp.com
20SIX Hundred — "Cimmerian Shade / Last Moments," from the album The Cold Rise From Sleep (2015). Used with permission / licensed. 20sixhundred.bandcamp.com
Baby-Doll-Beats / Love Chapo — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtGc3VPRShmnSt8mq6I7fCQ

Merch

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AUDIO IN THIS EPISODE

"New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson's Epic Speech at Memorial Ceremony," The Handler (YouTube). Poem by Matt Vess, U.S. Army (ret.).

Dateline New Haven with Paul Bass, WNHH Community Radio, January 2023.
Kica's Corner, WNHH Community Radio, with Chief Karl Jacobson (2022). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyKxODiMYrI

Dr. K (Alok Kanojia), "Why Giving Up Addiction Feels Impossible," HealthyGamerGG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsUz2Ysg1XU

Hamden Action Now, "Community Conversation: The Culture of Policing & The Randy Cox Incident" (2022).

Voicemail from my cousin Matt.

Posts from r/problemgambling, read as written.

SOURCES

The case against Karl Jacobson Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice, arrest announcement (Feb 20, 2026) https://portal.ct.gov/dcj/press-releases/division-of-criminal-justice/02202026newhavenpolicechief

Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice (Jan 6, 2026) https://portal.ct.gov/dcj/press-releases/division-of-criminal-justice/01062026newhaven

New Haven Independent, "Arrest Warrant: Chief Bet $4.4M Online" (Feb 20, 2026) https://www.newhavenindependent.org/2026/02/20/arrest-warrant-chief-bet-4-4m-online/

CT Public (Feb 20, 2026) https://www.ctpublic.org/news/2026-02-20/new-haven-police-chief-arrest-embezzlement

WTNH, "Former New Haven police chief arrested after admitting to taking city funds" (Feb 20, 2026) https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/former-new-haven-police-chief-arrested-after-admitting-to-taking-city-funds/amp/

WFSB (Mar 6, 2026) https://www.wfsb.com/2026/03/06/former-new-haven-police-chief-due-court-larceny-charges/

WTNH, "Former New Haven police chief appears in court in embezzlement case" (Aug 4, 2026) https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/former-new-haven-police-chief-due-in-court-tuesday-for-embezzlement-case/amp/

New Haven Independent, "Arrested Ex-Police Chief's Criminal Case Continued" (Aug 4, 2026) https://www.newhavenindependent.org/2026/08/04/arrested-ex-police-chiefs-criminal-case-continued/

The pension WFSB (Jan 14, 2026) https://www.wfsb.com/2026/01/14/former-new-haven-chief-who-officials-say-admitted-stealing-will-receive-124332-year-pension

City of New Haven, Police & Fire Pension Fund minutes (Jan 29, 2026) https://www.newhavenct.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/28102/639080445788370000

City of New Haven, Police & Fire Pension Fund minutes (Mar 26, 2026) https://www.newhavenct.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/28656/639132288782030000

New Haven Independent via Patch, "Pension Board Rejects Ex-Police Chief's Disability Application" (Mar 26, 2026) https://patch.com/connecticut/newhaven/pension-board-rejects-ex-police-chief-s-disability-application

The chief's term and his successor New Haven Independent via Patch, "Jacobson Confirmed As Police Chief" (July 8, 2022) https://patch.com/connecticut/newhaven/jacobson-confirmed-police-chief

New Haven Independent, Zannelli confirmed (May 4, 2026) https://www.newhavenindependent.org/2026/05/04/zannelli-confirmed-as-police-chief/

NBC Connecticut, "New Haven swears in new police chief" (May 5, 2026) https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/new-haven-swears-in-new-police-chief-as-former-faces-embezzlement-charges/3733016/?amp=1

Plea deals Missouri v. Frye, U.S. Supreme Court (2012): "ninety-four percent of state convictions are the result of guilty pleas" https://law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/10-444

Project Longevity The Justice Education Center https://www.justiceeducationcenter.org/initiatives/project-longevity/

"The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843), Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore https://www.eapoe.org/WORKS/tales/thearta.htm

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, The Solzhenitsyn Center https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/notable-quotations

Sigmund Freud, "Mourning and Melancholia" (1917), Standard Edition, Vol. XIV https://ia903101.us.archive.org/29/items/FreudMourningAndMelancholia/Freud_MourningAndMelancholia_text.pdf

A century of sports and gambling National Baseball Hall of Fame, Kenesaw Mountain Landis and the Black Sox https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/landis-kenesaw

AP via PBS NewsHour, "Pete Rose, baseball phenom who was banned for gambling, dies at 83" (Sept 30, 2024) https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/pete-rose-baseball-phenom-who-was-banned-for-gambling-dies-at-83

ESPN, "Pete Rose, 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson among players reinstated by MLB" (May 13, 2025) https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/45115659/pete-rose-shoeless-joe-jackson-players-reinstated-mlb

JURIST, leagues sue New Jersey under PASPA (Aug 9, 2012) https://www.jurist.org/news/2012/08/college-and-pro-sports-leagues-sue-new-jersey-to-prevent-sports-gambling/

Sportico, on the leagues and PASPA https://www.sportico.com/law/analysis/2024/legalized-sports-betting-new-scandals-1234783460/

Murphy v. NCAA, U.S. Supreme Court (May 14, 2018) https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/16-476

AP via Bangor Daily News, "Supreme Court makes sports betting a possibility nationwide" (May 14, 2018) https://bangordailynews.com/2018/05/14/news/supreme-court-makes-sports-betting-a-possibility-nationwide/

NBA, MGM Resorts becomes official gaming partner (July 31, 2018) https://www.wnba.com/news/mgm-resorts-international-becomes-official-gaming-partner-of-the-nba MLB.com,

"MLB, MGM announce gaming partnership" (Nov 27, 2018) https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-mgm-announce-gaming-partnership-c301163068

AP via WSLS, "NFL inks sports bet deals with Caesars, FanDuel, DraftKings" (Apr 15, 2021) https://www.wsls.com/sports/2021/04/16/nfl-inks-sports-bet-deals-with-caesars-fanduel-draftkings/

American Gaming Association, State of the States 2020 (2019 handle) https://americangaming.org/resources/state-of-the-states-2020/

American Gaming Association, 2025 commercial gaming revenue (Feb 26, 2026) https://www.americangaming.org/new/commercial-gaming-revenue-hits-78-7-billion-in-2025-driving-record-18-1-billion-in-gaming-taxes-nationwide/

The integrity cases AP via WGCU, NFL gambling suspensions (June 29, 2023) https://news.wgcu.org/section/sports/2023-06-29/nfl-suspends-3-players-indefinitely-fourth-gets-6-games-for-violating-gambling-policy

AP via FOX 9, Uwazurike suspended (July 24, 2023) https://www.fox9.com/news/nfl-suspends-broncos-eyioma-uwazurike-indefinitely-for-gambling-on-games

NHL statement on Shane Pinto (Oct 26, 2023) https://media.nhl.com/site/vasset/public/attachments/2023/10/17365/Pinto102623.pdf

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WEBVTT

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Thank you to our executive producers on patreon greg b

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sundeen ann k allison barkley and jessica wagner it's.

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Getting dark outside.

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Tapes from the dark side contains descriptions of violence and

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sexuality listener discretion is.

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Advised A Memorial Day ceremony in New Haven. The man

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at the mic calls it a beautiful day.

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It is.

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The chief of police steps up to speak.

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Next up, representing the city of New Haven, the police

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of Chile, chief of police, Carl Jacobson.

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Chief.

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He tells the crowd the thing he regrets most in life.

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He never served. He tells them he's given 29 years

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to serving communities instead. He tells them that two weeks earlier,

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he stood at the National Memorial Wall while 358 new

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names went up. And then he tells them he put

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real thought into what to say today, that he went

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looking for the right words and found them in a

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poem by a retired Army veteran named Matt Vess.

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I speak at a lot of events, funeral events, And

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I don't really get nervous about it anymore. But today

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I was extremely nervous because I think this is so important.

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Two weeks ago, we went to the police national memorial wall.

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We put 358 new names who died in the line

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of duty last year. But that pales in comparison to

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who we lose in our military and the cost it

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takes for us to be free and to be safe.

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So I really put some thought into what I was

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going to say today. And I found a saying from

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Matt Best, who's a retired U.S.

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Army veteran.

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And he's speaking to another veteran. And he says these words.

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Our brotherhood is etched in stone. This unbeaten path we

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walk is never alone. And through the trails of terror,

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there is no obstacle we won't fear. Because we are unbroken, unbroken,

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I would die for you. And you would give your

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life for me. The very sense of being free. Can

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we revisit the times of past as if I wish

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they would never fade and always last? For no demon

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real or in mind could ever challenge the courage of

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brotherhood tested in time. So may we walk in the

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memories of those who forever hold the burden of our freedoms.

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And I promise to never let your memory die because

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I am free in it. And you are always with

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me and never forgotten.

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And then the chief asked the crowd, to enjoy the day,

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and to remember.

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I think everyone has a bit of a fascination with

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the dark side.

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I actually raised my hand and I stood up and

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I said, I was part of this, but I didn't

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realize what I was doing. And I was only doing what.

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I was told to do. August 4th, 2026. A Tuesday

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morning in New Haven. Colonel Jacobson walks back into a courtroom,

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and his case gets continued to September. His lawyer tells

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reporters they're still waiting on a report from the state.

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New evidence still being processed. You know what that is.

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The warrants with the expanded time parameters passed 2024 six

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years back to 2019. And they're still back there. Somewhere

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in Connecticut, there's a room where Carl Jacobson's years are

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laid open on a table. Strangers going through them page

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by page, feeling along the seams of the months for

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anything else sewn in. Back in February, the day of

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the arrest, his lawyer put out a statement. This is

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the beginning, he wrote, of a very long process. He

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wrote that back in winter. It's nearly autumn, and the

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state is still counting. There's no verdict yet. There may

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not be one this year, and the odds are this

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will end up the way almost all cases do. Quietly,

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94% of state convictions in this country come down to

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a deal and a signature. However it ends, two tapes stay.

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The worst night his department ever had, Carl Jacobson watched

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on a loop until he could nearly recite it. And

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Carl's own worst year sits on servers, accurate to the scent,

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waiting for a courtroom. Two tapes of the same man,

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one he studied until it changed his whole department, the

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other is still running. For now, Carl Jacobson's file stays open. Tonight,

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we close everything else.

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I won't get a pension. I'll go to jail.

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Those are Carl's words in that room with the tape running.

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By the end of that day, he'd retired, paperwork in,

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effective immediately. Filed just hours before the mayor showed up

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and put him on leave. And the pension is real money.

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Over $ 10, 000 a month. $ 124, 000 a year for just shy

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of 26 years of credited service. But then in March,

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Carl Jacobson asked the city for more. He applied to

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have his retirement certified as a service-connected disability. In his paperwork,

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according to the mayor, he said he had a disability,

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that he couldn't be a police officer anymore because of it.

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He asked the board to make that official. A service-connected

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disability pension is tax-exempt. Same check every month, but untaxed.

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The public record doesn't name the disability, but it does

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say this. The board couldn't find a single worker's comp

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claim from his 25 years. No injury in the file

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that anyone has pointed to. This application threw me for

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a loop, because it didn't fit. It didn't fit the

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picture of the man I thought I had come to

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know this past season. A man who had made mistakes, admittedly,

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but a man whose addiction drove him towards those choices.

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Here was a different Carl Jacobson. A man sober from alcohol,

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sober from sports betting, yet still seemingly driven by greed

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and selfishness. You see, a person can know a system

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and use it. That's competence. The retirement paperwork before he

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could be fired, you could argue that was a man

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using the rules of the game. Though, there's a line

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where using a system becomes working it, becomes abusing it.

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I can't tell you exactly where that line is. I've

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stood at my own version of it. If you're honest

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with yourself, you probably have too. And that line... Four

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and a half million dollars ago, Carl Jacobson was clearly

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on one side of it. While the pension board sat

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with his application, the state finished naming the charges. Two

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counts of larceny in the first degree, and a phrase

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I'd never seen before. Quote, defrauding a public community. That's

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the formal name for stealing from everyone. Bond $ 150, 000. And

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because Carl spent his whole career working beside the prosecutors

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who would handle him in this case, he was moved

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to a different town, New Britain, a smaller city about

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30 miles north past Meriden up towards Hartford, far enough

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that theoretically nobody in the courthouse would owe him anything.

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When they charged him, the state said something that it

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found no one, no conspirators, no help, one man. Carl

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Jacobson's contract as chief ran for four years, and it

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was set to expire this year. He was months from

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walking out of that building with everything. David Zanelli runs

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the department now. The man who hit record on January

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5th was confirmed by the Board of Alders without a

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single vote against him, sworn in at City Hall in May,

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and handed a four-year term of his own through January

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of 2030. And the disability application? The board took it

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up at the end of March. Six members on a

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video call, the mayor among them. They went into an

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executive session, meaning that the public doesn't get to watch.

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Nine minutes. They came back and voted six to nothing, denied.

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That same week, the mayor stood at City Hall and

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named the next chief of police. A therapist told me

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something once, years before any of this. That people can

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survive almost anything. Emotional trauma. Physical trauma. Things you can't

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imagine a human being could come back from. If they

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have a witness. The thing we can't survive is being

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alone with our pain. I remember thinking it sounded like

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an interesting theory. But I had no context for a

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statement like that. So I thought. My subsequent daydreams. in

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recovery has handed me that statement back in the mouths

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of people I've barely known sometimes. From a person in

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a meeting I'd never met, in a story I was

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researching for the show. A man on a cell floor,

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paralyzed from the chest down, working for enough air to

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get seven words out. because a broken neck strips a

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sentence down to the bone. A woman at the podium,

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three years of contempt stacked in her voice, and one

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sentence underneath it all, nobody asked me my background. And

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a chief of police, in a room, with a phone recording,

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whose career had about a minute to expiration. Listen to

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what comes out first, before the problem, before the alcohol.

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The first clause out of that man's mouth is what

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he is not. Quote, It's not that I'm a bad person.

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I want to play you something from the end of

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episode 3. A voicemail my cousin left me. If you

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stick around till after the credits end, then you've heard it.

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Given what I know now about Carl Jacobson, I hear

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it differently. First, let me tell you about my cousin, Matt.

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Every summer growing up, my mom would load up the

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Ford tourist station wagon, put me and my sister in

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the back seat, and God bless her soul, we would

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drive ten and a half hours from North Carolina to

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Atlantic City, New Jersey. That's where her brother and my

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cousins live. We did that for at least a decade straight.

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I remember the dog days of summer on the beach.

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Me and my cousins and my uncle. It's some of

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the best memories of my life. I went off to

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college and worked summers and then graduated and got a job.

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And I mostly stopped visiting New Jersey entirely. Except for

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the rare summer I'd make the drive up myself. Since

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high school, I've probably only been three times. So, when

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I started my recovery from alcohol and pain pills back

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in 2016, part of my program was making a list

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of people I had hurt. It's the part of the

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program you've probably heard of even if you're not in it.

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The amends process. And a memory from one of my

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last trips to Atlantic City came back to me. Well,

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a couple of memories. I stole Oxycontin from my aunt

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and uncle. I was getting blackout drunk almost every night.

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And in general, I was an inconsiderate guest. So with

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my sponsor's counsel, I wrote out what I wanted to say.

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I called up my uncle and I tried to make

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it right. he very graciously accepted my amends. And that

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sparked the beginning of a new kind of relationship with

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my uncle. During that conversation, that amends, I remembered that

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I had given alcohol to his kids, my cousins, and

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I realized I needed to make amends for that too.

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I vaguely remember a Monopoly game and giving them a

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couple shots of liquor. Sure, it's not the worst thing

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anyone's done, but it's not the kind of example I

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want to set for them. It's not the kind of

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older cousin I want to be. I called Matt and

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Danny up and we talked about it. And at the

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end of those conversations, I dropped them a line. Hey,

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if you ever have trouble with this kind of thing

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and you ever want to talk, give me a call.

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Years later, Matt took me up on that offer when

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he entered his own recovery. Before that day, we were friends, sure.

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But we talked once, twice a year. Nowadays, I talk

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to Matt almost every day. There's an intimacy to our

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friendship that is one of the most precious things in

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my life. And Matt usually knows when I'm going through it,

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and I know when he's going through it. I'm not

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going to get into it right now, but when he

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left me this voicemail, I was having one of those days.

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You are safe.

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Not a loser, even if your mind tells you that.

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You're not a failure.

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You're not a bad person. I'm not just saying that.

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You can't quit on yourself. There's too many people that

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love you. Your family, people in AA, your friends.

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In the middle of that voicemail, in the middle of

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Carl Jacobson's confession, the same four words, not a bad person.

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He said that about himself. My cousin said that to

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me as support. Same words, but only one of us

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had a witness. In 1843, Edgar Allan Poe published a

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short story about four pages long. A man kills the

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elder he lives with He cuts him up and buries

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him under the floorboards. The police come. He's charming. He's calm.

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He brings them chairs, and he sets his own chair

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directly over the body and has a little chat. And

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then he starts to hear the heart under the boards

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getting louder. The police hear nothing. They continue chatting, but

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the sound gets unbearable. and the man tears up the

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floor in front of them, screaming, I admit the deed.

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Every high schooler gets taught that story as a parable

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of guilt. I taught it to you if you listened

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back in season one, the Mark Redwine story, the conscience

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you can't outrun. And that's exactly how I used to

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read it. But now, I don't. Go back to the

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story's first line, before the old man, before the killing.

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The thing the narrator says, the reason he's telling you

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any of this. Will you say that I am mad? Observe,

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he says, how healthily, how calmly I tell you the

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whole story. The whole confession exists to fix how he's seen.

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The deed comes out because carrying it alone becomes unbearable.

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And even then, even mid-scream, he's asking what you'll say

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about him. The thing under Poe's floorboards didn't stay quiet.

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Nothing carried alone does. Carl Jacobson had a word that

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worked like the floorboards. Fixed. You heard it where his

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confession starts. Same as Poe's narrator. The category first. The

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deed after. And at some point in my research I

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found out Carl had given this confession before. Years before.

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With the same grammar. January 2023, community radio again, WNHH,

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a show called Dateline New Haven, a friendly hour, a

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new chief laying out his plans, and unprompted Carl volunteers

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a story.

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And I saw this slide that said there was so

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many percentage of young black men that didn't have a

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father figure at home. And they talked about incarceration rates.

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And I had my own personal story about that because

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I was at the, prior to this, when I was

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in East Providence police, I worked as a DEA task

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force officer. And we would, to control violence, we'd go

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out and do numerous buys and do federal cases on people.

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And what I found out was for 3.5 grams of crack, which,

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you know, I always joke around and say, I hope

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you don't know what that means.

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He'd worked a DEA task force back in East Providence

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during the crack years, federal cases. He tells Bass what

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the math was. Three and a half grams of crack

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and a two-time felon is looking at 25 to life.

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He tells him they'd sweep 30 gang members off a

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street where maybe four were shooters, the other 26 caught

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in the net. He says it just wasn't right. He says,

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I see that for what it is. And then he

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tells Bass about a seminar on incarceration he went to,

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where he stood up in front of the room, raised

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his hand, said this.

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It just wasn't right right and it's since changed some

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but not enough so I see that for what it

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is and at that seminar I was at what they

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talked about I actually raised my hand I stood up

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and I said I was part of this but I

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didn't realize what I was doing and I was only

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doing what I was told to do so I think

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that resonates with me about change.

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Now listen to the sentence itself three clauses I was

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part of this The deed admitted in front of strangers

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to his credit. But I didn't realize what I was doing.

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Clause 2 and the ownership starts to disappear. And I

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was only doing what I was told to do. Clause

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3 and it's gone. Now run the tape forward. January 5th, 2026.

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The room and the recording.

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I have a problem. I don't know why. It just

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got worse.

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Twenty years apart. The same grammar. The deed admitted. The

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rest handed off. The orders. The why he doesn't know.

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The intent he didn't have. I'm not diagnosing the man.

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I've read his transcripts. He confesses the way Poe's narrator confesses. Voluntarily. Compulsively.

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And always, always with the self in the frame. The

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deed comes out. But the ownership... never quite does. One

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more time, the first clause.

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It's not that I'm a bad person.

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And he's right. Careful. The checks are real. The kids

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00:20:04.009 --> 00:20:08.750
fund is real. But he is right. Quote-unquote bad people

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are easy. Bad people are a different species. Their stories

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are zoo exhibits. You look, you shudder, you go home safe.

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The scary reptile stays behind the glass. I can hear

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00:20:24.900 --> 00:20:28.940
the detractors. I can hear them because I've had the

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00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:33.180
same thought. And I've read their comments online over and

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over again while researching this story. Gambling addiction?

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00:20:37.569 --> 00:20:38.329
Really?

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00:20:38.349 --> 00:20:41.529
Really? But I want to give that guy the floor

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00:20:41.589 --> 00:20:45.289
for a moment because he's not dumb. Start with me.

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00:20:45.910 --> 00:20:49.750
Nobody made me download 9 apps. I had a sponsor.

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I sat in enough church basements to know exactly what

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a person like me does with free money. I knew

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00:20:57.789 --> 00:21:01.720
the odds before I knew the apps. 40 deposits in

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10 days. Hundreds of bets off the back of that money.

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Every one of them a choice. And I was sober.

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For everyone. Now Carl. Nobody held a gun to his

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00:21:13.920 --> 00:21:17.019
head either. He was a grown man. He was the

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00:21:17.079 --> 00:21:20.680
chief of police for God's sake. He spent 27 years

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learning exactly how people get caught. And then he cashed

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checks made out to himself. From a fund that pays people.

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Who risk their lives to talk to cops. Oh and

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the kids fund. And when he got caught he said

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he stole 10. When he knew it was 20. And

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when the pension was safe, he asked the city to

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make it tax-free. At what point does addiction stop being

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an explanation and start being an excuse? Carl Jacobson is

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00:21:51.619 --> 00:21:56.740
responsible for every check. And he was sick. And the

329
00:21:56.799 --> 00:22:00.059
sickness was farmed by an industry that builds its whole

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00:22:00.119 --> 00:22:03.829
business on brains like his. Three parts to this story.

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Drop the addiction and he's just a thief. Drop the

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00:22:07.809 --> 00:22:12.880
responsibility and he's a victim and the checks disappear. Drop

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00:22:12.910 --> 00:22:16.200
the gambling industry and it's the private failing of a

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00:22:16.259 --> 00:22:19.160
private man. Any one of those by itself is a

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00:22:19.240 --> 00:22:22.519
comfortable place to stand. I want to read you a

336
00:22:22.579 --> 00:22:27.660
post from someone on the gambling recovery boards. Stranger, quote,

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00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:31.079
I won 70k my first year and thought I had

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00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:34.980
it all figured out. Then I lost 130K over the

339
00:22:35.019 --> 00:22:38.339
next two. I knew the odds, but the app made

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it feel like I could win again if I just

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kept playing. I knew the odds. Four words, full knowledge,

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00:22:47.059 --> 00:22:53.829
full responsibility, and still trapped. So did he. So did I.

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I built 12 seasons of this show out of pressing

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play on other people's worst nights, worst years, You're five

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00:23:03.069 --> 00:23:06.440
episodes into this one. There's a machine that got paid

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00:23:06.519 --> 00:23:10.400
every time Carl Jacobson lost, and there's a microphone that

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00:23:10.440 --> 00:23:13.740
gets a little more attention every time I press play

348
00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:18.000
on him. Whatever that instinct is, he has it, I

349
00:23:18.059 --> 00:23:21.990
have it, and you're still here, so you have it too.

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00:23:23.049 --> 00:23:27.250
Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent eight years in a Soviet labor camp

351
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and came out with a book that ended the argument,

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About whether the camps were real. There's a passage in

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it that people quote. Sometimes people skip the first half

354
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of that. And I think that's the part that really matters.

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He says quote.

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If only it were all so simple. If only there

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were evil people somewhere off committing evil deeds. And all

358
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you had to do was separate them from the rest

359
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of us and destroy them. The line dividing good and

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evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And

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who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

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Run that through everyone we've looked at this season. The

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00:24:12.140 --> 00:24:15.579
officers who heard a man say he couldn't move. They

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00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:18.609
called him drunk. A woman at a podium who built

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a career off the wounds she wouldn't look at. A

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00:24:21.809 --> 00:24:25.329
chief with a checkbook and a poem. A VIP host

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00:24:25.369 --> 00:24:30.500
with a sales target. A man holding a microphone. And you.

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00:24:35.980 --> 00:24:40.619
Before he was chief, before Randy Cox, Carl Jacobson helped

369
00:24:40.740 --> 00:24:46.150
run a thing in New Haven called Project Longevity in 2013.

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He described it to Paul Bass as community policing for offenders.

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Every three months, they'd hold a call-in. 30 people calling.

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The most at-risk people in the city just out of jail,

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on probation, on parole. 30 people who learned to expect

374
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:05.119
one thing from a room full of police. And they'd

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give them a presentation. And the presentation came down to

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one sentence.

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Every three months we have a call-in. And at the

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00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:17.160
call-in we invite 30 people who are either just getting

379
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out of jail or on probation or parole. The most

380
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:20.700
at-risk people.

381
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You say 30 people?

382
00:25:22.599 --> 00:25:25.740
About 30, yeah. And then we give them a presentation like,

383
00:25:25.799 --> 00:25:27.619
we want you safe, alive, and out of jail.

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00:25:28.099 --> 00:25:32.059
We want you safe, alive, and out of jail. Carl

385
00:25:32.119 --> 00:25:34.500
said it more than once in that hour with Bass.

386
00:25:34.819 --> 00:25:36.559
And he said it like a man who's said it

387
00:25:36.599 --> 00:25:39.660
a thousand times to people who didn't believe him. He

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00:25:39.700 --> 00:25:43.089
called it a whole new role of policing, reaching out

389
00:25:43.130 --> 00:25:45.730
a hand. And you heard what it did for Curtis,

390
00:25:46.390 --> 00:25:49.069
the kid who shot somebody two days after Carl brought

391
00:25:49.109 --> 00:25:51.990
him a burger. And Carl was standing there when he'd

392
00:25:52.009 --> 00:25:55.250
gone out. asking him how he could help him stay alive.

393
00:25:55.789 --> 00:25:57.769
You heard what it cost him just to tell that

394
00:25:57.829 --> 00:26:00.990
story on the radio. And then the way most men do,

395
00:26:01.109 --> 00:26:04.950
he apologized for it. There's one line in the affidavit

396
00:26:04.990 --> 00:26:09.170

S12, Chapter 5: Hale

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