KFI and six for It's Later with Mo Kelly. We're live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. And if you've been listening to KFI, you know what is
going on. But if you haven't, here's the latest. A dispersal order
has been issued at UCLA. There's a considerable law enforcement presence on the campus
and in the surrounding community, LAPD, LA Sheriff's Department and other agencies.
We're going to monitor the events there throughout the evening. And as I've said
before, and I'll say it again, you always got to be more concerned
as the sun goes down. But I want to start off tonight by pulling
back to talk about where we are big picture. Then we'll drill down locally
UCLA, USC and so forth. But the University of Wisconsin Madison and Fordham
in New York checked in with their versions of protests and encampments today. Overall,
more than fifty colleges and universities around the country have had varying levels of
protests every quadrant of the country north, south, east, and west.
More than fifteen hundred people have been arrested. How many of them were actually
students, I don't know. We don't know how many were outside actors the
same I don't know, and we don't know, But I said at the
beginning of the week that USC and UCLA have up until this point kind of
followed the same general trajectory of escalation that was happening on the East coast.
It would happen on the East coast, and then it would filter to the
west coast. That's what it seemed like was what was happening. That trend,
or at least that's what I'm gonna call it, continued with this outbreak
of fights and fireworks, I mean literal fireworks which were being used as weapons
against the encampments in front of Royce Hall on the UCLA campus in the middle
of the night, turning Wednesday morning, to which Governor Gavin Newsom, in
the wake of these protests and growing campus unrest, released this following statement today.
It read quote, I condemned the violence at UCLA last night. The
law is clear. The right to free speech does not extend to inciting violence,
vandalism, or lawlessness on campus. Those who engage in illegal behavior must
be held accountable for their actions, including through criminal prosecution, suspension, or
expulsion. Close quote There was also a question as to when law enforcement LAPD
was called and how long it took for LAPD and or campus police to respond
to the fights and unrest on the campus. That's still being sorted out.
That's less of mind concern tonight, but the university has though, canceled classes
for the foreseeable future. I think they might even be done with finals at
this point or maybe by the end of the week. Royce Hall will be
closed through the end of the week and Powell Library will be closed through the
week and into the weekend, maybe opening on Monday. That's UCLA and we'll
come back to that across the city. Here's USC's latest update to the university
website regarding commencement. Quote. With the new safety measures in place this year,
the time needed to process the large number of guests coming to campus will
increase substantially. As a result, we will not be able to host the
main stage ceremony that traditionally brings sixty five thousand students' families and friends to our
campus, all at the same time and during a short window from eight thirty
am to ten am. We understand that this is disappointing. However, we
are adding many new activities and celebrations to make this commencement academically meaningful, memorable,
and uniquely usc including places to gather with family, friends, faculty,
and staff, the celebratory releasing of the doves, and performances by the Trojan
Marching Band. Close quote. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at
that, but usc, you do know what's going outside, going on outside
right now? Right? You do know that releasing some doves and kicking it
with the marching band, albeit traditional in nature, probably do not a meaningful
commencement make you know that? Right? Well? Evidently not so. Then
let's ask what happens. Now, Here's what happens. It probably gets worse
before it gets better. The outside actors, the political grandstanding, the insincerity
as to caring about either side of the protest, will only grow. And
let me just very quick touch upon what I see as the politics of the
moment. The Republicans, they don't give a damn about anti Semitism, because
if they did, they would have responded differently in every single previous instance,
i e. Connected to Donald Trump, connected to Charlottesville, connected to Elon
Musk. We can run the list. The Democrats, they don't give a
damn about GAZA. They're desperately trying to keep these protests from destroying their election
plans in November. That's all they care about. Politicians only care about the
politics of the moment. Squash a protest on one campus, and another one
is going to pop up on another campus. Rent to repeat. That's what
I expect to happen. Expect this chaos to continue on varying levels all the
way up to and maybe through graduation weekend. That's pretty much the expiration date
on all of this. It has to end around graduation. Campus protests with
no campuses to protest on, well, they have no future. And I'm
going to continue to tell you the truth as I see it and smacks me
in the face. I always say, get the easy ones right for me.
This is one of the easy ones, and here it is. There
is nothing, I repeat, there is nothing which suggests that these protests will
change anything at all, not foreign policy, not university policy, not university
investments, not law enforcement engagement policy, absolutely nothing. Can I be more
clear? The protesters, although many of you, I guess are sincere,
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say most of you are very
sincere. Well, you've lost the plot, as they say, You've lost
control of the media characterization of these protests. You've lost the moral authority due
to the violence in vandalism I warned you about, and here we are having
to deal with with it. I tried to make that parallel, that comparison
to the civil rights of the nineteen sixties and why they were more successful than
these protests, which are not going to be successful because you've lost control of
any message you've hoped to convey, because it's now drowned out by fights,
fireworks and self barricades and buildings. Nobody, big picture cares about the supposed
message anymore because the news is going to focus on the violence and the vandalism
and the law enforcement response. The message is not going to matter at all
because the bottom line, you're not changing hearts, minds, or policies.
But hey, I'm not all Debbie Downer tonight. I mean, you can
look at the bright side. Outside of everything I've mentioned the protests, they
seem to be working wonderfully. Outside of everything I said, They're going exactly
as planned. You're listening to later with Moe Kelly on Demand from KFI ams.
It's later with Kelly. We'relive everywhere on the iHeartRadio app Let's go to
NBC. They are at UCLA right now. They're hoping that it won't but
at this time, you know, we're going to stay sort of a safe
distance away. Right now. These are the pro policy and protesters. There
are a lot of them gathered up there, and this is we're hearing them
being spoken to on the loudspeaker and just letting them know we are prepared if
officers make or try to make entrance into our encampment. That's the very latest
here, Colleen and Carolyn, back to you in the studio. Okay,
we'll continue to monitor the events at UCLA. If you're just tuning in.
There is a large law enforcement presence at UCLA. There is a dispersal order
issued to protesters at UCLA. So at this point, law enforcement is making
it very clear that they will not tolerate what happened last night. In fact,
they may take the next step and start clearing people out, but they
have not said specifically any intention they may have of doing that in the immediate
future. But that's why we're going to watch and see what is happening on
UCLA's campus. And if you are following what is happening at USC the student
newspaper, the Daily Trojan, if you go to its website, they have
an ongoing up to the minute update as far as what's happening on campus,
and the most recent post was at seven fifteen pm, not long ago.
And these are the student journalists and it says, quote, chaos and confusion
reigns at the McCarthy Way entrance, where dozens of people were held outside the
gates for about ten minutes before finally being let in. Mixed messages are making
it unclear if students are allowed in or out. A DPS officer, Department
of Public Safety officer said they are in stating, I think that don't mean
instituting a lockdown, and we are trying, we are not trying to let
anyone. There's some grammatical errors there. At McCarthy Way, a professor could
be heard shouting at DPS officers asking if they would take responsibility for his student's
grades. And there was one other report which came in just minutes before that.
Some protesters have made a long sign reading thirty K thirty thousand killed.
Blood on your hands with red handprints on it. That's just a little sampling
of what's going on at USC and UCLA. I expect more of the same
as it goes into the night. I was saying earlier, you have to
be more concerned about what may happen as the sun goes down. You have
these outside actors who are not loyal to the actual goals of the protests.
They're just agents of chaos, and they will do what agents of chaos do,
and that's create more chaos on these campuses. So keep it right here,
keep it on KFIM six forty. We're going to follow these protests and
any type of unrest which may come out of them throughout the evening. Even
though we may not be actively talking about it. I'm monitoring it. Stephan's
monitoring it in air mix to Wallas monitoring it, and we know that Mark
Ronner and the KFI twenty four hour newsroom is monitoring it and also will be
joined once again by Tiffany Hobbs of the viral Load. She if you don't
know, she is a USC alum and also someone who has participated in various
protests over the years and gives and actually last week gave a great insight as
to what happens when you're on the ground, when you're involved in the midst
of it. The people who try to intervene, the people try to interlope,
the people who try to hijack, for lack of a better word,
any type of message, any type of protest, and any type of proceedings
or discussions with the university, regardless of the subject matter. Let me go
back to this. As we watch UCLA, we have to watch for a
couple of things. The sun going down, and also whether law enforcement makes
a push forward. Since there has been an order of dispersal, that says
to me, non compliance would lead to law enforcement pushing forward, that would
lead to a further escalation and heightened tensions in the moment. And given what
happened last night, it says to me something very similar could happen on UCLA's
campus, which happened on Columbia's campus, or which may happen anywhere else or
even on USC's campus. And I didn't make mention of this earlier, but
Mayor Bass has also weighed in saying that the violence is detestable. She said
that people launched fireworks and spread chemical irritants at other people as well as assaulting
them. The Americans Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California set a group of people
with bear spray and weapons descended on the pro Palestinian protesters and attack them.
And I'm not blaming going back to what I said last segment, I'm not
blaming the protesters for what other people did who opposed the protesters. If the
people and I say, if if the people inside the encampment were not violent,
and then people outside the encampment were violent, I'm not going to blame
the people inside the encampment. But at the same time, you have to
prepare for some of these eventualities when you try to encamp in the school and
you try to lock down the campus and you try to disrupt anything and everything
which is happening on the campus, from school life to final exams, anything
of that. So it's going to be very complex. It's going to be
very difficult to necessarily separate who is responsible for what as the evening progresses.
And that's why it's really dangerous when the sun goes down, because under the
cover of night, people will do a lot of things they wouldn't do in
the plane. Sunlight of day. So this is something we're going to continue
to watch not only on UCLA's campus, but other campuses around the south Land.
We had been watching what had been happening on UCI's campus because oftentimes when
you have these protests, and especially with outside agitators, they're not going to
only focus on one campus at one time. And since we know that the
majority of law enforcement is focused on UCLA. If you're listening to Tim Conway
Junior, he had detailed how the presidence included LAPD, Los Angeles Sheriff's Department,
Santa Monica PD, possibly even Culver CITYPD. Well, the people who
are bad actors and the chaos agents know that, well, there will be
lesser of a police force present and available for other campuses. So something I'm
watching for is not necessarily what happens on UCLA's campus, but whether opportunists will
try things on other campuses knowing that there is such a focus in a media
sense and also law enforcement response sins on UCLA's campus. It's later with mo
Kelly Camfi AM six forty. We are lived everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
When we come back, there is a UCLA survey survey. Get this,
the quality of life rating is the lowest ever for La County residents. You
don't say, we'll get into that next. You're listening to Later with Moe
Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty. And we're continuing to monitor the
events unfolding on the campus of UCLA in front of Royce Hall. There has
been an order to disperse which has been issued by LAPD. There is a
sable law enforcement presence right now on the campus in front of the encampments.
At this point, it's not clear as to what LAPD is going to do
with people who do not heed the dispersal order. I was saying last segment,
when the sun goes down, you have a higher propensity of agitators and
a holes who may try to create some chaos. That's one concern. And
there's also this If we looked at Columbia as a guide, when NYPD showed
up enforce in riot helmets and they had a vehicle to help them gain access
to the Hamilton Building, a reasonable assumption was after a certain amount of time
they probably were going to go in. I would have to say the LAPD,
with hundreds of officers on site and also having given a dispersal order,
at some point probably will move forward. I don't know when that time is
going to be, but I think it's a reasonable assumption given the presence on
campus and given the dispersal order. That's something that we're watching for, we're
waiting for, and we're going to keep monitoring throughout the rest of the evening.
You don't have to worry about missing any of the information or the events
as they unfold. Just keep it right here on KFI AM six forty.
In the meantime, I guess I could share this story from the duh files.
There's UCLA survey. Oddly enough, the quality of life rating is the
lowest ever for La County residents. And this is an annual survey that measures
the quality of life satisfaction and it found that the San Fernando Valley residents have
the lowest satisfaction in the last nine years, and satisfaction is the lowest ever
for residents across La County. County wide, residents are, according to the
survey, concerned about the high cost of living and housing and the survey was
released back on April seventeenth. The survey polled almost seventeen hundred La County residents
back in February and March on forty different aspects of life, including cost of
living, education, environment, and public safety. The poll was part of
the La Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, which has measured
LA County residents' quality of life satisfaction for the past eight years since twenty sixteen.
Zev Yaroslavsky, the dress director of the study at UCLA, said,
quote, we have two societies here in LA. We have an incredible income
gap and wealth gap inequities from A to Z close. Quote. I find
that odd, if only because that wealth gap has always been there. I'm
not so sure that it has really extended, given that we went through a
pandemic, given that we had a real estate crash in the past fifteen years
or so. I don't know if that income gap is worse now than what
it was years ago. But I think we all can agree that LA County
is as not as good as it could be or as it should be.
And before I want to go to this next break, I want to bring
into the conversation Tiffany Hobbs, who just got here at the studio. She
usually comes on for the viral load at nine o'clock, but of course,
because of what's been happening around Los Angeles and Tiffany, since you are a
USC grad, I thought again it'd be good to get your thoughts. You've
been watching what has been happening on UCLA's campus. You see the law enforcement
presence. Is there anything that you can pick out from what you've seen that
maybe I haven't touched upon? You know, Mo, You've covered it very
extensive and comprehensively, and I want to thank you for that because you've been
transparent. What I've noticed is that again, the generalities within these protests really
set themselves up for a lack of accomplishment. These seven point plans, these
demands that the organizations that are said to be linked to students but not confirmed
as necessarily being fully comprised of students, are practically impossible, if not fully
impossible, to meet. And I think that that's deliberate. It's gotten really
far away from the core of what these protests started as, which essentially on
SE's campus, were of course, to highlight the fact that Asna to Bossom
was removed as commencement speaker in the last week. Since April twenty fourth,
when the first real media coverage of these protests started on SE's campus, we
have not heard much of anything about Asna to Bossom. She's been completely lost
in this conversation. And I think that that's deliberate as well. They're deliberate
on a part of home delivered on the part of the university, on the
part of the University of Southern California, specifically my alma mater, which I
believe is allowing essentially these bad actors, these groups to continue to take up
space, had allowed in the take up space for so many days when they
could have probably shut that down a lot quicker, a lot earlier. Hey,
Kiffy, let me jump in that. Are you saying or suggesting that
the university allowed some of these bad actors access to in effect delegitimize the protests
on a larger level. I do. I believe that that's exactly what's happening.
And to meet the demands of the core group the initial protest, which
was to reinstate Asna to Bossom as speaker. Those demands were were logical,
they could be met. They came with and continue to come with a lot
of consequences a lot of controversy, but they could be met, whereas these
other groups have demands that will not be met, will never be met by
the university exactly. And so it feels very much like, hey, look
over here at this shiny thing, look over here at this and allow these
protests to balloon. And you have these groups and these splinter groups, these
divest from death coalitions popping up all around these campuses. And again, how
closely linked are they two students? Do they have a couple of students so
they can then claim, you know, the involvement by the university or the
bodies in the university, or are these completely comprised up outside individuals And watching
the coverage, what's being said by quite a few people on the ground is
that on social media as well, is that these members, these organizers are
not students. They are not students. They're on the campus, they're taking
up space. They may involve students, but they're not students in mad But
is that the university's fault, that the protesters haven't maintained control of their own
protests. I think so, But I again I believe that that's deliberate.
I think that you the universities. And this is assumption, but this is
based off of my experience. I believe that they're making space. They're allowing
space for that freedom of speech because that's regulated. Now that things have gotten
out of hand, as we're seeing, as we're expecting it to continue into
the evening, they're going to start shutting it down because now it's reflecting on
them as not having that control that they want to have. Hey, Tifery,
let me jump in there before we go to this break. There's something
that I've noticed, and maybe I've overlooked it, and segueing to UCLA for
a second, I have not heard, and this is in comparison to USC.
I have not heard that UCLA has locked down the campus in the same
way that USC has, in other words, made it virtually impossible for anyone
without a student ID to get on the campus or to leave, as what
students on SE's campus are saying, and that's part of that confusion that was
talked about in the last newsbreak. Students are not being able to leave.
They are on in a lockdown officially and not necessarily over the complete campus.
And I'm not saying that necessarily at UCLA. I can't expect it to happen
as these protests continue, because how irresponsible would it look of UCLA to not
have some sort of shelter in place procedure and stated when just across the city,
USC is doing that for the same thing, so it's in their best
interest to follow suit hopefully, But I have not heard that explicitly. We
heard that explicitly with Columbia they had a shelter in place order which was given
after NYPD moved in. I have not heard that relative to UCLA, So
we will look at that and see if that order has been given on a
campus university level. It's later with mo Kelly. If you're just tuning in.
We are following the unfolding events at UCLA and of course the other universities
around southern California, be it USC or UC Irvine, and seeing what may
happen on these campuses in light of the increased law enforcement presence, specifically on
the UCLA campus. An order of dispersal has been given for the campus of
UCLA in front of Royce Hall, and we're waiting to see what type of
response will be given by LAPD and also LA Sheriff's Department and other law enforcement
agencies which are on site for those individuals who do not disperse, So keep
it right here on KFI AM six forty. We will be following this story
and everything that comes along with it for the rest of the evening. You're
listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty Cami m
six forty years Later with mo Kelly Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. As
we continue to follow the events on UCLA's campus and USC's campus, regular commentator
Tiffany Hobbs USC alum also joins me and we have a USC update. Earlier,
I was saying that the Daily Trojan student journalists are giving minute by minute
updates of what is happening on the campus, and I'll give you a couple
of them right now. At seven twenty five pm, a DPS Department of
Public Safety officer told a Daily Trojan reporter who lives on campus that he is
not allowed to enter. That goes back, Tiffany to what you and I
were saying about how we know that USC's campus has been and shut down as
far as people getting on and often it seems like it's very difficult for even
people who are students who live on campus to get back on campus, Whereas
I've not seen, read, or heard the same for UCLA. And given
there is this expanded law enforcement presence, how do you read both That USC
is locking out students, to which you made mention of last segment, but
we haven't heard of UCLA doing the same. I believe that USC's strategy is
born of this chaos. There have been so many people on campus who are
not explicitly linked to campus as faculty or student or in any other closely knitted
way. So to thwart any sort of confusion, you then lock down everything.
Can't come in, can't go out. Obviously that creates a huge problem
for people who are associated with the campus. It's finals UCLA doesn't want to
be involved in this mess because it looks chaotic, it looks very disorganized.
So I will tifty. But we're already past that point. We have UCLA.
It's like, well, the chaos is already here. We have three
different law enforcement agencies on our campus right now with a disorder to disperse.
If anything that says that more chaos is coming, I would assume I think
so, Moen, But do you remember last week when this all kicked off,
LAPD really deferred to USC's Department of Public Safety DPS to handle and mitigate
what was happening on campus, and for the last week or so DPS has
been handling it. It continues to handle it as they've discussed internally, whereas
it looks to be that UCLA is really looking toward LAPD for the control for
that mitigation, and I think then they are letting it fall into LAPD's hands
so that it can be put under control, perhaps a lot faster, with
a lot less confusion. And I think the goal for UCLA is to eradicate
these protesters, to get rid of them as quickly and as calmly as possible.
I don't necessarily see that happening. We're seeing people standing up with bullhorns
saying that they will not be moved. So LAPD has a lot more involvement
in this one, and I think it will continue as the night goes on.
Great point the differentiation between what's happening on campus, who is responsible for
handling what's happening on campus at both USC and UCLA. One more USC update
before we go to the top of the hour news. It says and this
is the daily trojan quote. Protesters posed with two painted banners as Anna Dami
Palastini, a song by Muhammad Asaf that has served as an anthem for the
Palestinian cause, play from a set of speakers at the encampment. My first
takeaway is that, Okay, there is still an encampment presence on the campus
of USC, and I'm not exactly sure why or what is being done relative
to these new air quotes encampments on the campus. Do you know anything about
that? I do. USC's Divest From Death Coalition had their second meeting with
President Jody I forget her last excuse me, Carol Foult, Carol Fault,
President Fault at USC yesterday and during that meeting, they attempted to negotiate Fault
and the encampment organizers is Divests from Death Coalition about their terms, and the
terms were not met. They wanted to know the group wanted to know endowment
disclosure and other things that President Fault wasn't willing to disclose, and they said
that they were going to keep their encampment. There's it's it's definitely a game
of chess. It is. It is very organized and they're waiting this out
the organizers because graduation is next week. They are wanting to disrupt graduation.
They're being very quiet about it, but on campus there is a lot of
anxiety about what they're going to do next. Well, we will watch what
happens not only tonight at UCLA but tomorrow, as it were with usc it's
KFI AM six forty. We're continuing to monitor all of these various protests around
the city and on various campuses in the Southland, and we're watching what may
happen at UCLA as there is an expanded law enforcement presence on the campus and
which has already offered an order of dispersal. So we will watch very closely
what happens at UCLA k if I AM six forty. We're live everywhere on
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