K IF. I am six forty. It is later with Mo Kelly.
We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. And I'm not saying I'm right all
the time. I'm just saying I'm right, damn here all the time,
somewhat close to right all the time. Yesterday I started off the show saying
specifically that colleges and universities around the country were going to have to make a
decision, an active, affirmative decision about what they were going to do with
these campus protests prior to graduation, because clearly graduation was going to be the
leverage point for all of these protests. That's the last card in the deck
to play. Honestly, that's the time in which they would have the most
attention. That's the time that they would have the most say and sway in
what universities would do or not do in the coming days and weeks. And
I talked about how certain universities like the university you see Irvine have multiple graduations
depending of the school over the next few weeks, graduations are going to be
impacted. Schools need to have a plan in place immediately. And then I
open up the news today several dozen pro Palestinian protesters have set up an encampment
on the Pomona College commencement stage on the stage, and they're vowing to remain
in place and blog graduation activities unless the college commits to divestment from Israeli tied
companies and weapons manufacturers. They are literally camping on the stage, making it
not virtually impossible, but actually impossible to have graduation with them camping out on
the stage. I'm not saying I'm right all the time. Damn it,
I've got a good percentage going at these at this rate. So once again,
colleges are just gonna have to make a decision in advance. They're going
to have to plan in advance. They're running out of time. But they're
not going to be able to sit idly by and act as if they don't
see it. We don't see them, we don't see them. Not pay
them attention, ignore them, and the problem will go away on its own.
I'm not saying the problem is unsolvable. I'm saying you can't ignore it.
They're camping out on the stage. They're not leaving you a lot of
options. And speaking of not being left with options, there is a degree
of belligerence that I'm hearing more and more with these protests, and I go
back to what I was saying before. You're not leaving universities and law enforcement
for that matter. You're not leaving them a lot of options as to how
to handle it. If you're saying we're going to stay on this stage until
our demands are met, well, what do you want them to do.
You're not even saying we're going to stay on the stage until we have open
lines of communication. No, you're saying that you're not going to move unless
the university gives in. I don't know what type of leverage you have.
I know how you're trying to leverage graduation, but I don't know that you
have actual leverage to make the university or universities bend to your will. And
you have no right to camp out on the stage. So what do you
think is the likely response from universities? What do you think they're going to
do? You think they're gonna pull up a chair and sit down and talk
with you because you said we're not moving until our demands are met are met.
You're not leaving protesters. You're not leaving UC Irvine or cal Poly Pomona
or any other university for that matter. You're not leaving them any choice.
They're going to call on the police, and the police are going to remove
you. Why remember last week I was saying UCLA was going to be the
premer, they were going to use that as the guide for what other universities
would do. And since that time, law enforcement has been coming in and
sweeping out the protesters. Thankfully, this is me. Thankfully, it has
been largely without a major incident. There hasn't been a riot, there hasn't
been all sorts of uncontrollable violence. Thankfully, for the most part, it
has been without incident. But I'm hearing more of a rhetorical escalation. Quote.
Listen to this. Students are prepared to defend the encampment until their demands
are met and call upon the college to heed the overwhelming support for divestment in
their community. Close quote. That's according to a statement from an organizing group
known as Pomona Divest from Apartheid. You are begging for Let me put it
this way. There's an old saying, and I know it's said mostly in
black family, So if you've heard it before, just know it's something that's
said in families of African Americans. Don't write checks with your mouth that you
ask can't cash. Oh you didn't hear it, let me say it again.
Don't write checks with your mouth that you ask can't cash. Because when
you say, when you write the check of quote, students are prepared to
defend the encampment until their demands are met and call upon the college to heed
the overwhelming support for divestment in their community. And I quote, you are
writing a check. You are making a demand. You are dropping the proverbial
gauntlet in the street and daring the university to not give in to your demands.
I sure hope you know what you're doing, but you can't throw the
karate kid. Don't drop a challenge in the dojo and expect that you can
walk out. Don't I know it's a karate kid thing. Don't think that
you can dare the university in this case and subsequently law enforcement that you are
not going anywhere unless your demands are met. And also use the word defend
the encampment. Defend the encampment. You are asking for, you are inviting,
you are encouraging a confrontation. And when that confrontation does happen, because
you're not gonna be there come graduation. I can bet you you're not gonna
be there. When that confrontation does happen. You don't get to then say,
oh my gosh, I can't believe that they removed us. I can't
believe that they use force to dislodge us from that graduation stage it is coming.
I just want to know one thing. I'm going to ask one question
before I go to break. How much money is in your ass account because
you just wrote a check. You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand
from KFI AM six forty. Feel free to hit me up on Instagram and
threads on Instagram at Later with mo Kelly, hit me on threads at mister
mo Kelly. Trying to broaden our social media profile where we can talk about
these things off the air. These are very important issues, very important.
There are times in which I may talk about it from a somewhat comte standpoint,
but after a while I just run out of jokes. I don't have
any more jokes. You know. I may play with Mark Roner, good
evening Mark Ronner, and we may go back and forth about some of these
things, and we may make some comedic anecdotes on the periphery, but after
a certain point, there's nothing funny for me to offer, because literally,
people are dying. People are dying, people are getting stabbed, people are
getting hurt consistently. A security guard was stabbed today and an alleged trespasser was
shot dead at a Metro station in Hollywood earlier this morning. You might have
heard about it. If you hadn't, well, you knew I was going
to talk about it. This is the latest violent incident in a wave of
incidents which have been happening more recently over the past few weeks. It's been
consistent, but now it's becoming more frequent in nature. The Metro security guard
was stabbed at about nine ten am the platform of the Metro station at fifteen
hundred North Vermont Avenue. This according to the LAPD, and the agency said
the guard found a trespasser during a routine security sweep of a non public area
of the Vermont Slash Sunset station. And I've passed that station every day when
I was riding. The guard was stabbed at the Hollywood Metro station and quote
this resulted in an altercation where contract security guards first utilized pepper spray i e.
Non lethal, and then after the trespasser stabbed one of the contract security
guards in the leg a contract security guard, it seems another person fired a
weapon in self defense. This was Metro in a statement. What is not
clear to me when they say contract security guard, is that a third party
or is it a Metro entity. That's something I will ask Supervisor Catherine Barger
when I speak with her to tomorrow. And if you don't know Catherine Barger,
Supervisor Barger will be joining the show tomorrow evening as we talk about Metro
and some of the other issues plaguing my word Southern California, Los Angeles County,
Los Angeles City proper. So that's tomorrow, but definitely we're going to
talk about Metro. The alleged trespasser succumbed to his wounds and the guard who
was shot was hospitalized, listed in stable condition. Is there anything new that
I can say today that I've not said before? Probably not. Is there
a range of anger that I can display that I've not shared with you before?
Probably not. Can I try to appeal to your humanity or try to
relate to you through family. Can I use those rhetorical devices about imagine if
it were your mother or your wife of our already done that. I don't
know what else new. I can tell you someone is going to get hurt
on the metro sometime soon in the future. It maybe tonight, it may
be tomorrow, It may be tonight and tomorrow. But it doesn't change what
needs to be done. Something needs to be done. Yes, yesterday we
had a dual conversation. We talked about what was happening more generally on public
transit. We talked about how dangerous. And it's not about statistics, it's
about the specifics. As I always say, I can always find some statistic
that says violent crime is down, or this crime is down, or this
has improved statistically, But specifically, we know that crime is more prevalent in
certain aspects of our day to day lives. Right now, we're talking about
public transportation. Let's not get bogged down in the stats. Let's stay with
the specifics and specifically, public transportation has been dealing with this issue of violence
every single day. And this is assuming that we know all of the incidents.
I'm quite sure that there is crime happening that not everyone reports. I'm
quite sure there are issues that we're not aware of. It just doesn't rise
to the level sometimes all the time of someone getting stabbed. Maybe there is
a confrontation with a homeless person that didn't turn into an assault. Maybe there
is something going on with a person who is out of their mind on drugs
and accostant people, but it didn't rise to the level of someone making a
report. I'm sure stuff like that happens every single day, but it doesn't
rise to a certain level, and it's not reported in the news, and
Metro is not going to tell us about it unless it's something that's going to
be reported to the police. I'm out of new words. I don't have
anything new to say. You know, good evenings, Stepan, good evening,
sir. Did you ride public transit today? I did not see.
That's why you're in a good mood. Good avening, Mark. Did you
write public transit today? Not on your life. That's probably why nobody tried
to stab you today. I want to talk about stats. Statistically, it
is very unlikely that I'm going to get stabbed in my own car. Statistically
it's very unlikely, so I would just keep driving Keana. Excuse me,
Keanna, producer, Keanna. Let me have a bone to pick with you.
You spell your name k I a na. To a reasonable connoisseur of
the English language, a single N usually connotes an anna sound with exeption maybe
Diana. Well none, there's sad, but you do like a Keana Diana
type thing? One end? Yeah, essentially, Okay, blame my parents.
I had nothing to do with that. Are you going to be at
the wedding? Yeah, okay, Then I will bring it up with them.
Then. I don't like it when people try to confuse me with their
names. You don't have to take this, Kiki. You can report into
HR. She would never do that. But to be very serious, I
care about people. I mentioned Stephan, I mentioned Mark, I mentioned Keana
because I care about them. I care about you listening. I care about
you listening. You might be in your car and you're probably thinking, thank
goodness, I'm in my car and not on public transit. But here's the
thing. Even though you may be in your car at this moment, on
this occasion, we all live in the same society, we all live in
the same city, county for the most part, and crime doesn't stop at
the border. It doesn't mean that, well I crossed into Orange County.
I'm saying, no, it doesn't work that way. Orange County is obviously
better at prosecuting it. But it's not limited to Los Angeles County. Last
night I talked about this idea of being bereaft of dignity and honor, how
we don't see common interest and commonality common humanity with one another. That's part
of the problem, but we still have to get to the bottom of this
crime issue and violence issue. Part of it is legislative putting people in jail.
Part of it is the guardrails that we put in place law enforcement on
trains on platforms. This is a perfect example you had, and I'm sorry
that this contract security guard was injured, but having that presence possibly probably likely
prevented that from happening to someone else. It was the security guard on this
occasion, it could have been someone's mother later that day. That's how I
choose to look at it. But tomorrow we'll speak with Supervisor Katherine Barker and
hopefully get some clarity on what we as a county LA County at least are
doing wrong, what we need to do to get better at this and make
this place a much better place, a safer place for you and me and
everyone we care about, because we cannot continue on this trajectory. We cannot
continue dealing with people getting shanked and shot on a daily basis just trying to
get to and from work. That is unheard of, That is ridiculous.
We have to be able to say we can do better than this. Can
we eradicate all crime? No, that's probably not possible, but we can
damn sure do better than what we're doing right now. You're listening to Later
with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty and a part of the
larger discussion about violence. We talked about violence generally in the city, violence
specifically on public transportation, but there's also the issue of violence in our high
schools, middle schools, even sometimes elementary schools. So once again the debate
has heated up regarding school resource officers, actual sworn peace officers armed on many
campuses here in southern California, high schools specifically. And I understand the argument
on both sides of the issue. Here's where I sit personally, and I
say this as someone who does not have a school age child to worry about.
I am not opposed to having a school resource officer. In fact,
I lean more to it than I lean away from it. But here's the
thing. When you have a school resource officer, I would hope in a
perfect world, that that school resource officer is outward focused, trying to keep
threats off the campus from coming on, dealing with things which are outside the
gates. For the most part, when you have a school resource officer being
the person who is charged with handling school disciplinary issues, then it gets complicated
for me because I wouldn't want my child interfacing with the police quote unquote in
that way. We've seen the videos where the situations get out of hand and
you have a school officer, maybe well intentioned, treating that child and it's
still a child like a perpetrator and arresting them. You've seen the videos of
school resource officers putting children. I'm talking about elementary age children in handcuffs.
That's not something I want. That's not something I want in the school environment,
and I don't think you would want it for your child. But that's
where the debate is. Keeping children safe on campus and in what capacity are
these school resource officers facing outward or inward with their responsibilities. Law enforcement responding
outside Carson High School, please dealing with a young man here. While paramedics
were come someone injured there a huge response. The campus was already on alert
after parents were notified. A threat to the school was scribbled on a bathroom
wall, along with this social media post that scared some parents enough to want
to remain anonymous as they kept their kids at home. They showing a picture
of a gun and it said Carson CCHS Carson High School. This At the
same time, a Board of Education task force releases a study citing a marked
increase in high school violence in the last few years, from the recent shooting
death of a fifteen year old Washington Prep student during an after school confrontation just
outside campus to a middle schooler caught with weapons in Northridge this week. Fatal
fenttal overdoses, brawls, incidents of fights, and physical aggression have just about
doubled since police officers were removed from campuses responding to protests. The board slashed
the school police budget by thirty five percent. I wish they would have left
the police on the campuses of the high school. She's not alone. A
parent organized petition demanding the return of police at LAUSD schools will be presented at
the school board meeting tomorrow, where the talk is about possibly allowing individual schools
and parents to decide if they want police on campus. No, it's not
necessary. The amount of sure you're going to have problems anywhere you go.
If anything happens around the school, you're gonna see this. Twalie, you
are a parent of two school age children. One is getting ready to graduate
high school, the other is entering in high school early in high school.
You work as an administrator at a school. You have, i would say,
a ground level view of all this from the vanish point of being a
parent, a school administrator. Where do you come out on this? Absolutely
am in support of and I am glad that parent groups are petitioning LAUSD to
bring back school resource officers. Anytime I arrived at either my son or daughter
school and I see a police presence there, I actually do feel a sense
of relief because they are there in a position that they are protecting the school
from anyone coming from the outside. On the outside, I have received I
don't know how many alerts from the school system alerting me and my children's parent
that there has been a threat, whether credible or not, that's being investigated,
and instantaneously my heart sinks when I see that. Knowing that that there
would be an la USD resource officer on hand, it would ease my tension,
It would make me have just a better day in general on campus.
Though, No, because you and I have also seen resource officers go above
and beyond and ultimately end up hurting and I believe forever damaging children. And
I believe that we see that more often than not in inner city communities,
where relations are already strained between what is perceived as the police and the youth.
I don't want that inside the campus. I think that schools need to
have a better system of securing the halls and securing the campus. Period.
When you and I grew up, there was a school security guard on campus
and it was just a big dude. Chances are it was track code something
like that. I am okay with that. And if LAUSD or Orange County
Unified or any school district needs to have more on site, just plain clothes
security guards, security on your shirt, yellow shirt guys, fine resource officers.
Absolutely, I'm wholeheartedly in support of that vote, Okay, And it
doesn't have to be all of this or none of that. It may vary
from school to school. But I do know I'm very concerned with the idea
of having law enforcement interfacing with kids in a police perpetrator sort of relationship way,
because all it's going to do is escalate to something that is going to
benefit me there. I just know. I watched that video of that young
man recently. I believe it was at Crenshaw who was getting the life stomped
out of them by a bunch of young men who were not from that campus.
Had there been school resource officers, I think they would have thought twice
about even sneaking onto the campus to enact that violence. And the clip I
played was started with what was happening the threats at Carson High School. I
know Carson High School. I know a lot of those kids officiating their youth
basketball league for the past fifteen years. A lot of them I've seen grown
up, grow up, and then they go to Carson High School officiate games
at Carson High School. So that's kind of personal for me. I know
that area very well. I would not want to see law enforcement at those
middle schools. For example, we have LA County Sheriff at our games,
but that's outward facing. You know, we're dealing with the public at that
point. That's completely different from them being on campus and dealing with students.
Would I would, I would really hesitate to support that you're listening to later
with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty. And oftentimes I get
asked by people because they know I practice mansoral LARTs. You know what style
do you do? Have you ever had to use it? Hop keto?
Yes, yes, yes. The point I try to make is self defense
is largely about preparing for situations before they happen, conducting yourself in a way
which is safer in nature, not trying. I will never sit here and
say, hey, you got to be ready to fight someone who's, you
know, fifty pounds heavier than you, or who's stronger or younger. There's
always someone stronger, younger, and faster than you. I always talk about
managing your emotions, de escalation and if you do train, train to use
it only if you absolutely need to and if you have to fight, like
your life depends upon it. That's what I do, and from time to
time. We also do women's self defense seminars and classes. They're relatively simple,
but it's usually the simple stuff which is the most effective. Strike get
away, you know, don't try to hang around and trade with someone.
But in this time in which we are all, I would say all of
us are very concerned about crime, violence, our own personal safety. I
can't imagine what it would be like to be a woman in today's day and
age, and how that figures into how she would move about society, just
going to the grocery store, taking the dogs for a walk, anything,
things that most men take for granted, it might be considered differently if you
happen to be a woman. Not that women are victims, it's just something
that I think men have the luxury of walking through spaces and places and not
have to consider certain times that we may be vulnerable to assault. It's just
different for men and women in that regard. And I came across this have
a lot of thoughts about it. Listen to this. I'm a new mom.
Obviously I have my hands full. What should I do? We're walking
into the grocery store. It's still easy for you to stay equipped. You
can have something on a belt buckle away from your child. With that quick
release for a purse, you can also have it in your pocket. What
I love is that Damsel also has these wristlets that can literally carry it all.
Jen says, you are your own best defense in these crazy times.
Why the soundtrack, it's weird fence in these crazy times, it's incredibly alarming.
We're seeing it the dramatic music. Sinister, what's going on here?
Your own best defense in these crazy times, it's incredibly alarming. We're seeing
in on the headlines constantly. She says. They is to try never come
in contact with a predator, but just in case, four things to carry.
I have my alarm with the GPS tracking, I have a stun device,
I have a striking tool for close contact strikes, and I have my
pepper spray. But also says one of the best tools is your voice.
So he's coming at me and I do a back off, there's a bigger
chance he's going to back off. Using these techniques may in fact help you
too. Not become a statistic if we are the consequence, because we can't
get the consequences through our justice system or whatever. What if we are the
consequence because we can't get the consequence through the justice system or whatever. Is
that what she said? If we are the consequence because we can't get the
consequences through our justice system or whatever. But we have to start to learn
to be the consequence ourselves. Don't listen to her. Don't listen to her.
If you think that you're going to be the consequence, you're going to
be death wish. If you're going to be that person out there, don't
know. Don't listen to her. Are you talking to me? I know
somewhere Charlton Heston is saying, no, that's a movie. Excuse me,
Charles Bronson. Don't do anything to escalate a confrontation if you can avoid it.
You don't want to get in a fight with someone. And I tell
my students this all the time. Songs of Keto were on some Palpta,
Bolivarden, Culprit City. I tell them all the time. The last thing
you want to do, regardless of who you are, is get in a
fight. The last thing why because you could lose, get seriously injured or
killed. You could win and get seriously injured, You can win and get
sued. You could also put someone else in danger who may be with you.
You could win, and someone can come back later and shoot you.
You could also get in a fight with someone and not know that they have
two or three friends around. They could have a weapon that you don't see.
The last thing you ever want to do, and I say this to
men and women, is get in a physical confrontation. If you can avoid
it, just don't do it. This is horrible advice. Yeah, if
you should have a handy hand a carrying weapon, Okay, that's fine.
You can carry some brass knuckles or something. Sure, knock yourself out,
no pun intended. But honestly, don't try to take on an assailant because
you think that George Gascon is not doing his job, so I'm going to
do his job for him. If we are the consequence, because we can't
get the consequences through our justice system or whatever, but we have to start
to learn to be the consequence ourselves. We have to start learning to be
the consequence ourselves. What is that? What the hell is that? Mark?
What is she trying to say? It's a bunch of foolishness. I
agree with you on this one moment. You have to make that distinction.
This one this day just this one time, nothing else for the rest of
the evening, but on this one Yeah, and you know what I I
also have taught martial arts, and I found the women's students to be far
more brittle than the men and far more willing to kick in the crotch with
with no self restrained. However, there's however, there's a huge difference between
that and a real life confrontation where nobody wins. Ever. Ever, and
if you've ever been in a real confrontation, the adrenaline, you have to
know how to process that. You have to know how to handle that in
a moment that fright or fight, fight or flight, because there are three
things which could happen. You could be so consumed with fear you freeze up.
You could fight, or you can run. So there are three things
which could happen. I just want you to be safe, and part of
being safe is to avoid those dangerous situations. So you don't have to,
you know, but you can always come see us at song sub Keto.
I teach on Saturdays, Culver City, fourth week five four. It's a
public boulevard k if I am six forty. We're live everywhere on the Iheartrado,
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