Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: Just looking through all of the different situations and potentially
Speaker 2: volatile areas that could develop into something that could overflow
Speaker 2: later tonight. But we have a situation right now that's
Speaker 2: actually quite dynamic, and it's in downtown LA. Started as
Speaker 2: a few hundred protesters near the Federal Building facing off
Speaker 2: against National Guard troops. Again, it was not a violent confrontation.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a face off where there was anything more
Speaker 2: than a presence. That has morphed into what was to
Speaker 2: have been a situation where they collect at city Hall.
Speaker 2: And even as I say that, morphing took the effect
Speaker 2: of amplifying the numbers by a lot. So now you
Speaker 2: have thousands of people instead of the hundreds that I
Speaker 2: just referenced, and their movement is now being controlled a bit,
Speaker 2: not only by where they want to go, but where
Speaker 2: law enforcement wants to to end up, and they are
Speaker 2: being pushed back by LAPD. From last we heard from
Speaker 2: Michael Monks, his signal is in and out. Let's go
Speaker 2: to Michael now, who is embedded with those protesters.
Speaker 3: Hi, Michael, thank.
Speaker 4: You, Hey Mark. Apologies for some of the technical difficulties.
Speaker 5: I think with a large crowd here in all the
Speaker 5: mobile phone use that our signal is maybe being a
Speaker 5: little bit weakened since this device operates on a mobile signal.
Speaker 5: But I will call in if we drop out. Okay,
Speaker 5: we'll just use the old fashioned phone and see if
Speaker 5: that works better. But for now, let me just say
Speaker 5: Alameda Straight completely full of protesters, Temple Street full of protesters.
Speaker 5: This was a convergence of these two protests, the one
Speaker 5: at the Federal Building and the other one at the
Speaker 5: rally at La City Hall, which started at two o'clock
Speaker 5: but seemed to move very quickly and gathering these folks
Speaker 5: in a march through the streets. And when that march started,
Speaker 5: it was really the first time you could see and
Speaker 5: feel the presence of the Los Angeles City Police Department.
Speaker 5: After all of the stuff that had gone on earlier
Speaker 5: today in the street Alameda Street, the police were nowhere
Speaker 5: to be found to help enforce any traffic or any
Speaker 5: safety concerns. They're not sure what the protocols are, but
Speaker 5: they are here in force now directing this parade. When
Speaker 5: the parade decided to I said parade, I meant march.
Speaker 5: When this march turned back towards that Federal building where
Speaker 5: today's protest was centered. Earlier, the police pushed these folks back.
Speaker 5: There were a few flash bangs, there was a little
Speaker 5: pushing and shoving, not a whole lot. And they have
Speaker 5: redirected this march back into the other direction here in downtown,
Speaker 5: and the march is now continuing on Alameda Street, away
Speaker 5: from Temple Street.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 2: You gave us a good sense of the marchers just
Speaker 2: a few minutes ago, and just to remind everyone who
Speaker 2: might just be joining us, that sense was these are
Speaker 2: not those bent on violence. Their mere presence speaks was
Speaker 2: sort of what you were saying before.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is different than what was happening earlier in
Speaker 5: the afternoon. I mean, Lookla is full of people ready
Speaker 5: to protest. This city knows how to get a protest
Speaker 5: together for whatever cause du jour there is, and they
Speaker 5: mobilize quickly. And that was certainly the case this weekend.
Speaker 5: We've seen how quickly a word of an ice raid
Speaker 5: or even the presence of ice agents being somewhere, crowds
Speaker 5: show up. So they had hundreds of people here outside
Speaker 5: the Federal building. It did get a little chippy, It
Speaker 5: did turn violent when the National Guard move folks out
Speaker 5: of the way through some tear gas and flash bangs,
Speaker 5: use their shields to push people forcefully to make way
Speaker 5: for some federal.
Speaker 4: Vehicles to make their way into the garage. But this
Speaker 4: one is different.
Speaker 5: There's not a lot of direct shouting at any individual
Speaker 5: National guardsmen or federal agent.
Speaker 4: This is just look at how many of us there
Speaker 4: are who leave in this. We have taken over these streets,
Speaker 4: we are marching through them.
Speaker 3: Look at this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a situation that again may change in
Speaker 2: the hours ahead, and with nightfall. We always worry that
Speaker 2: the agitators can really take over, things can get ugly,
Speaker 2: but it's really.
Speaker 5: You know, go ahead, You're right about that mark. But
Speaker 5: I would just make the point that while we have
Speaker 5: seen some violence in the nighttime, it's been strange that
Speaker 5: the previous two days, the worst of the protests seemed
Speaker 5: to happen in daylight. In this case, I mean, typically
Speaker 5: what you're saying is true, But I observed this yesterday.
Speaker 4: I thought, this is.
Speaker 5: Daytime and this is when this has gone down. And
Speaker 5: then when nightfall came, while I was on the air
Speaker 5: KFI Live last night, I was expecting more bad stuff,
Speaker 5: but it was mostly just kind of stare downs and standoffs.
Speaker 4: There was some, but not compared to what was going
Speaker 4: on in the daytime. It's been really interesting to observe that.
Speaker 2: That is really interesting, and you know, it's funny. I
Speaker 2: was watching Fox News, the local Fox News last night
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles, and there had been an incident involving
Speaker 2: one of their photographers who was shot at with one
Speaker 2: of those less than lethal kind of things. And again
Speaker 2: maybe not shooting at him, it might have just been
Speaker 2: you know, it was unclear, and there were more those reports,
Speaker 2: and I think that's one of the things that can
Speaker 2: happen through the prism of local news. You know, we
Speaker 2: always tend to want to know those stories, and the
Speaker 2: stories that are sexiest oftentimes can be you know, oddly
Speaker 2: the most the most violent, or those involving agitators.
Speaker 3: And maybe it was that. So I like the fact
Speaker 3: that you give us.
Speaker 2: Sort of an overall view of things that essentially depict
Speaker 2: and reflect what has been a peaceful presence, and you
Speaker 2: get the tension, but not the violence.
Speaker 5: Yeah, in this case today not a lot of violence,
Speaker 5: and we did see that. Again, I just reiterate that
Speaker 5: the violence that happened today. If you want to call
Speaker 5: it violence, it was probably more of just a physicality
Speaker 5: is probably a more accurate way to describe it, because
Speaker 5: it didn't seem motivated by hate. It was we got
Speaker 5: to get these cars in. You're in our way, you
Speaker 5: got to go. So that's what happened today.
Speaker 2: And again, just to be for those just joining, those
Speaker 2: are the flash bangs that you're talking about when you
Speaker 2: say get the cars, and this is in the Federal.
Speaker 3: Building and that's why.
Speaker 4: And there was some tear gas as well. Yeah, tear
Speaker 4: gas as well.
Speaker 5: Got my first taste of that, so that, I mean,
Speaker 5: that was unpleasant, But the situation immediately recovered after those
Speaker 5: federal vehicles made their way into the garage. The National
Speaker 5: Guard went back to their skirmish line, and then the
Speaker 5: protesters reconvened in the street. But maybe also to your
Speaker 5: point is that we're these these demonstrators that we're seeing
Speaker 5: today are making a statement with their presence.
Speaker 4: We live in an age where you know, you don't.
Speaker 5: Necessarily need Michael Monks or Mark Thompson from KFI to
Speaker 5: talk about you. You can reach an audience directly, and
Speaker 5: so there's a lot of imagery that can be weaponized
Speaker 5: on both sides of this illegal immigration debate. And so
Speaker 5: if you are somebody who is protesting on behalf of
Speaker 5: illegal immigrants and against ICE and their activities, and you
Speaker 5: get hit in the face with tear gas or a
Speaker 5: riot shield, you know, that may be an unpleasant moment,
Speaker 5: but it can be a powerful for you. On the
Speaker 5: other hand, if you're a police officer, or if you
Speaker 5: are an ICE agent, or if you are a federal
Speaker 5: official and you're hit by a projectile or a firework
Speaker 5: explodes near your vehicle, or they deface your building, those
Speaker 5: are images that can also be powerful for your calls.
Speaker 5: And I've seen a lot of those types of images
Speaker 5: for both sides to weaponize all week and long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really good point, and I made the
Speaker 2: point last hour.
Speaker 3: Look, these are human beings.
Speaker 2: Are in the National Guard, the LAPD, these our people,
Speaker 2: and you know they respond to triggers just like we
Speaker 2: all do. And so I think you're right to point
Speaker 2: that out. We're gonna stay in touch with you and
Speaker 2: really appreciate your presence down there, Michael, especially Pleasure. The
Speaker 2: situation has become more and more fluid, and it seems
Speaker 2: to be growing in terms of the crowd. You know,
Speaker 2: I mentioned last hour, I was just mentioning that that
Speaker 2: became a rally, a rallying cry for a lot of people.
Speaker 2: David Werta is the president of the United service Workers
Speaker 2: West Union.
Speaker 3: And that's a lot of people involved in healthcare.
Speaker 2: Industries, and it's an immense union. And he's a leading
Speaker 2: advocate for immigrant integration and is an advocate for immigrants
Speaker 2: across the board. And I think the injury he was
Speaker 2: taken to the hospital and then the detention of where
Speaker 2: to became again, as I say, something of a rallying
Speaker 2: cause for many in downtown and for an immigrant community
Speaker 2: that feels put upon, you know, they feel singled out,
Speaker 2: even as many of them, they would say, work hard
Speaker 2: in all of these different industries. And so the raid
Speaker 2: at home depot and again the detention of many who
Speaker 2: don't have violent records or police records, they view as excessive.
Speaker 2: And the last thing I'll just say to review is
Speaker 2: the National Guard presence is a complicated issue because the
Speaker 2: National Guard is here in Los Angeles at the request
Speaker 2: and demand of the President of the United States. Now
Speaker 2: the President of the United Statesnald Trump, is already a
Speaker 2: controversial figure, and the presence of the National Guard in
Speaker 2: LA is the result of no request from the governor,
Speaker 2: from the mayor of Los Angeles, or any other public
Speaker 2: official in California. I read you before how Rick Caruso,
Speaker 2: who is an I would say, a political opponent and
Speaker 2: disagrees someone who disagrees with Karen Bass, the mayor of LA,
Speaker 2: on many many issues. They're in lockstep on this. He
Speaker 2: made the statement publicly, we don't need the National Guard
Speaker 2: here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: That's Caruso saying that. So the deployment of.
Speaker 2: The National Guard at the request of Donald Trump is
Speaker 2: viewed as another adjutant here. And you know I mentioned before,
Speaker 2: I've been around LA. Many of you have been too.
Speaker 2: I've been working in news in Los Angeles for thirty
Speaker 2: five years. We've seen the National Guard deployed. So the
Speaker 2: George Floyd protest, the national Guard was deployed because because
Speaker 2: the mayor made a request.
Speaker 3: He was Eric Garcetti at the time.
Speaker 2: Right the Rodney King riots in nineteen ninety two, you
Speaker 2: really felt then there was a palpable sense in the
Speaker 2: city that things were overflowing and unpredictable. There was violence
Speaker 2: in the street, there were fires and troops were deployed
Speaker 2: at the request of the governor and the mayor of
Speaker 2: LA And then you can go on back. This is
Speaker 2: you know, before my time in LA with the wats riots,
Speaker 2: and you know this is again just to watch riots
Speaker 2: because I mentioned again the National Guard deployed, but again
Speaker 2: at the request of the mayor of Los Angeles. So
Speaker 2: this is the first time that you have the National
Speaker 2: Guard deployed in Los Angeles at the demand and request
Speaker 2: of the President of the United States, over the resistance
Speaker 2: of the governor and the mayor. So this is an
Speaker 2: extraordinary circumstance. Narrative will continue when we come back. I
Speaker 2: want to go to a camp Pendleton, where are their
Speaker 2: preparations underway there, and we'll see what that deployment is about.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: We've got you covered here with everything going on in
Speaker 2: southern California and Los Angeles a minute to minute. Let
Speaker 2: me just quickly mention that Gavin Newsom has posted a
Speaker 2: statement on the X platform every single Democratic governor agrees
Speaker 2: Donald Trump's attempts to militarize California are an alarming abuse
Speaker 2: of power and then attached to that post from Newsom.
Speaker 2: All of these governors, I mean, Andy Brashears, Tony Evers,
Speaker 2: Bob Ferguson, et.
Speaker 3: This is just a list of governors.
Speaker 2: President Trump's moved to deploy California's National Guard is an
Speaker 2: alarming abuse of power. Governors are the commanders in chief
Speaker 2: of their national Guard and then the federal government. Then
Speaker 2: activating the National Guard in their own borders without consulting
Speaker 2: or working with the state's governor is ineffective and dangerous. Further,
Speaker 2: threatening to send the US Marines into American neighborhoods undermines
Speaker 2: the mission of our service members, erodes public trust, and
Speaker 2: shows the Trump administration does not trust local law enforcement.
Speaker 2: It's important we respect the executive authority of our country's
Speaker 2: governors to manage their national guards, and we stand with
Speaker 2: Governor Newsom. Again, this is a letter and statement from
Speaker 2: all of these governors. It's important we respect the executive
Speaker 2: authority of our country's governors to manage their national guards,
Speaker 2: and we stand with Governor Newsom, who's made it clear
Speaker 2: that violence is unacceptable and that local authorities should be
Speaker 2: able to do their jobs without the chaos of this
Speaker 2: federal interference and intimidation.
Speaker 3: On that point.
Speaker 2: Beyond the National Guard, there are rumbling at Camp Pendleton,
Speaker 2: the marine base to our south. Farrar joins us and
Speaker 2: he's there now, I.
Speaker 3: Phil, how's it going.
Speaker 6: Everything that you just said was pretty interesting coming from
Speaker 6: governors across the country about using active duty military to
Speaker 6: actually get involved in these types of raids by providing security.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that what strikes me just as we're talking
Speaker 2: is that this is not so dissimilar from what happened
Speaker 2: during the George Floyd protests in Lafayette Park in Washington,
Speaker 2: d C. That was a time at which the president
Speaker 2: at the time was Donald Trump. He felt that something
Speaker 2: should be done, and he wanted and he talked about
Speaker 2: and this is based on reporting, Actually, isn't there a
Speaker 2: way that we can disperse this crowd if they're still
Speaker 2: in the streets. Can't we shoot at them without killing anybody?
Speaker 3: Can't we know?
Speaker 2: There was All of the conversations went on, and ultimately
Speaker 2: they did use tear gas on that crowd, and Trump
Speaker 2: made that walk, that famous walk to the church. So
Speaker 2: beyond that, I can't think of a parallel during a
Speaker 2: Trump administration that quite matches this one. But that's what
Speaker 2: comes to mind. What's happening at Camp Pendleton.
Speaker 6: Well, we had about forty protesters here at Cam Pendleton.
Speaker 6: They began around twelve thirty. They are all gone, What
Speaker 6: if you hold the protest and no one shows up.
Speaker 7: I was.
Speaker 6: The only member of the media here and when I
Speaker 6: approached one woman and I asked her if I could
Speaker 6: talk to her, she says, absolutely not. And I said,
Speaker 6: wait a minute. You guys are holding the protest, don't
Speaker 6: you want to be heard? And then she wanted to
Speaker 6: know about my station, Kogo iHeart, and I proceeded to
Speaker 6: tell her what we do, and I said what I do.
Speaker 6: I'm an award winning broadcast journalist, and I said, I
Speaker 6: give you the facts. And I said, I know exactly
Speaker 6: what the facts are. And so they dispersed early. So,
Speaker 6: you know, what if you hold the protest and no
Speaker 6: media come, And that's kind of what happened. But they
Speaker 6: were here. One person told me what he was trying
Speaker 6: to do was talk to as many active military because
Speaker 6: they are a lot of them are on liberty this
Speaker 6: weekend and they are coming back to the base. The
Speaker 6: base is very, very busy right now. But this all started,
Speaker 6: you know, just a couple of weeks ago with with
Speaker 6: we had a restaurant down here, Bona Ferketty, and it
Speaker 6: was raided. And then of course Friday night or Friday,
Speaker 6: the raids in Los Angeles, Saturday the raids in Paramount,
Speaker 6: and then today we're hearing about the raids in Pasadena.
Speaker 6: The Department of Defense Pete Hexseth said that the Department
Speaker 6: the military would be on high alert and that marines
Speaker 6: from Camp Pendleton, if things got out of hand, would
Speaker 6: be used in Los Angeles if riots broke out. Now,
Speaker 6: I just want to tell you there is a clause
Speaker 6: that the president can use. It is called the and
Speaker 6: you probably have talked about this. It's called the Insurrection Act.
Speaker 6: It hasn't been used though, since nineteen ninety two, since
Speaker 6: the Rodney King riots after the four officers were acquitted.
Speaker 6: So there is a way to use this, but we
Speaker 6: haven't seen anything like this before. And while there are riots,
Speaker 6: while there are protests going on, there are no riots
Speaker 6: in Los Angeles now. But we do understand that he
Speaker 6: can use this Insurrection Act where he federalizes, federalizes the
Speaker 6: National Guard and then uses active military duty. Something that
Speaker 6: is very very unheard of and very rare.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned it. It would seem, I mean,
Speaker 2: many would say it's already been incredibly excessive that the
Speaker 2: National Guard was deployed here and incredibly right against protocol
Speaker 2: that you would somehow deploy them over the objection of
Speaker 2: the local mayor, Karen Bass and the governor of California
Speaker 2: who says, no, we don't need the National Guard. So
Speaker 2: the idea that you would then up the atte as
Speaker 2: you suggest with the Insurrection Act, which it just takes
Speaker 2: it to another level of absurdity in a sense.
Speaker 6: It really does mean usually local jurisdictions are able to
Speaker 6: handle this, whether it's police from different localities, municipalities in
Speaker 6: Los Angeles, La County sheriffs, if they have to call
Speaker 6: in the National Guard, that would be something that the
Speaker 6: governor would want to do rather than having the president
Speaker 6: federal lies the California National Guard. So this is a
Speaker 6: scope we just haven't seen for quite some time. And
Speaker 6: you know, we've heard rumblings down here that you know,
Speaker 6: the President has it in for California. He wants to
Speaker 6: take away federal funding. Governor Newsom wants to withhold eighty
Speaker 6: billion dollars in federal or in state funding to give
Speaker 6: to the federal government. So a lot of things are
Speaker 6: at play here. We know there is no romance between
Speaker 6: Governor Newsom and President Trump.
Speaker 2: Well and President Trump, just to speak frankly, politics leads
Speaker 2: the way with him. You know, it's in us versus
Speaker 2: them kind of world for President Trump, and he sees
Speaker 2: that them in this case throughout California as the Democrat.
Speaker 2: So it's you always wonder to what extent that's working
Speaker 2: into the equation. But it's interesting to think that even
Speaker 2: for an instant you would deploy Marines from Camp Peddlton
Speaker 2: or anywhere else, or even nationalized the National Guard and
Speaker 2: deploy in any way additional troops in the city of
Speaker 2: LA when at least at this moment, you know, those
Speaker 2: of us who've been in LA for decades look at
Speaker 2: the situation and go, this really is controllable from the
Speaker 2: standpoint of where we sit now by local authorities on
Speaker 2: local law enforcement. I mean, I was here after the
Speaker 2: Rodney King and you might have been as well after
Speaker 2: the Rodney King verdicts, and you really did feel we
Speaker 2: got to get ahold of this city. This city is
Speaker 2: uncontrollable right now, with just the local authorities and control,
Speaker 2: this is nothing in the same universe as that.
Speaker 6: No, I don't think it is either. I mean, I
Speaker 6: think this is you know, it's controllable, and I think
Speaker 6: the San Diego Police to Los Angeles Police Department and
Speaker 6: the LA County Sheriffs can do their job. When you
Speaker 6: start bringing in National Guard with shields and they start
Speaker 6: hiring these pepper balls or tear gas, it almost incites people.
Speaker 6: And I think that the leadership of not only the
Speaker 6: LA Police Department, but the other municipalities and like I said,
Speaker 6: the Sheriff's department, you would think that they could get
Speaker 6: this under control. I know there were about a thousand
Speaker 6: protesters from what we understand yesterday. I don't know how
Speaker 6: many Friday night in Los Angeles, but I know they
Speaker 6: were about a thousand in Paramount yesterday. But you know,
Speaker 6: we've seemed far worse. We've seen, you know, Lakers winning
Speaker 6: the championship, and you know, I don't want to say
Speaker 6: riots breakout, but you know, people are.
Speaker 3: So significant unrest. I think I agree with you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I like that significant unrest, significant unrest, and they've
Speaker 6: been able to quell that you know, but no one
Speaker 6: the National Party was not called in when the Lakers
Speaker 6: won the championship board the Dodgers. You know, So I
Speaker 6: this is right now. It seems as though this is
Speaker 6: a little excessive. They're on once again high alert standby
Speaker 6: here at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. But that is
Speaker 6: all that we know. We have not heard anything. We
Speaker 6: don't see any trucks, tanks or anything lined up. As
Speaker 6: a matter of fact, if you really want to get
Speaker 6: onto this base, if they were allowed to allow the
Speaker 6: protesters onto this base, they would be tired just by
Speaker 6: getting to anyone, because it's about three or four miles
Speaker 6: in right, anybody, Yeah, if you've ever been here, yeah,
Speaker 6: I mean it is a city within a city. There's
Speaker 6: about thirty three thousand people who actually live on the base.
Speaker 6: And then when you are talking about war games, and
Speaker 6: I played war games as a reporter with these duty
Speaker 6: men and women, it's another area all together that stretches
Speaker 6: past the Santao Free Power Plant, past Las Polga, is
Speaker 6: almost all the way into Orange County. It is a
Speaker 6: massive base. So them being here, you know, forty of them,
Speaker 6: I don't know what it did today, I really don't.
Speaker 6: They came, they saw, I don't know what and j just.
Speaker 3: If you're just Johnny.
Speaker 2: Is the forty that Phil is talking about are the
Speaker 2: protesters who were there at Camp Pendle and essentially make
Speaker 2: their plan. Phil, thanks for all the thoughts and the
Speaker 2: reporting from Camp Peddlon. Appreciate it and we'll be in touch.
Speaker 2: Let's just hope we don't need to be but appreciate
Speaker 2: you being there. Thank you, all right, Thank you. Mark
Speaker 2: Thompson here on KFI AM six forty, we're watching minute
Speaker 2: to minute. We've got Michael Monks embedded in the demonstration
Speaker 2: as it continues in southern California and in downtown Los Angeles. Again,
Speaker 2: this seems to be a situation even as it grows,
Speaker 2: that local authorities feel very much in control of You've
Speaker 2: heard the mayor say it, You've heard the governor say it.
Speaker 2: You've heard other officials say we've got this. Nonetheless, big
Speaker 2: footed from Washington, Donald Trump and the Donald Trump administration
Speaker 2: and his officials that sign on with him, and Christine
Speaker 2: Noame I'm speaking of Pete Hagsith. You've heard all of
Speaker 2: those officials say, hey, we're here, and we're you know,
Speaker 2: we're behind the president. Deploying the National Guard. So that
Speaker 2: deployment again occurred over the objection of the mayor and
Speaker 2: the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. But we'll have to
Speaker 2: see how this all plays out, and we're hoping for
Speaker 2: a quieter night again.
Speaker 3: We're covering it here.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: We're watching a very dynamic situation in downtown La. Mark
Speaker 2: Thompson here, and we've been discussing all afternoon the various
Speaker 2: stories within the overall story and what one of these
Speaker 2: stories is from Ryan Mana, a crime and public safety
Speaker 2: reporter for Southern California News Group, covered the ice raids
Speaker 2: in LA and I guess was hit by Well, let's
Speaker 2: find out. I mean the coverage was I guess so
Speaker 2: embedded in everything going on that Ryan was hitted was
Speaker 2: hit by it. I'm seeing fragments of information here, so
Speaker 2: let me just get it from our guest.
Speaker 1: Welcome to KFI, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: How do you say your first name?
Speaker 6: It's Ryan?
Speaker 2: Okay, good, just double checking, so Ryan, mayna tell me
Speaker 2: what happened and indeed, what your role was in covering
Speaker 2: this entire event.
Speaker 3: When did it happen.
Speaker 7: So yesterday afternoon, I arrived to Paramount, California at about
Speaker 7: three thirty pm to cover a protest that was is
Speaker 7: that people showed up for to protest the ice raids
Speaker 7: that occurred at a home deep out down the street.
Speaker 7: And by the time I got there, there had been
Speaker 7: cheergas deployed against protesters, and I interviewed two people who
Speaker 7: were hit by Sheriff's deputies with less lethal rounds who
Speaker 7: were bleeding, and then about twenty minutes later, federal agents
Speaker 7: came out of a warehouse area and started shooting again
Speaker 7: less lethal and I and another journalist were shot in
Speaker 7: the head by these And I think.
Speaker 2: I actually saw this video. I think I've seen you
Speaker 2: on local news. And again just remind everybody, this is
Speaker 2: that home depot in Paramount, right And this situation did
Speaker 2: become really sketchy really quickly, didn't it.
Speaker 7: It did things. There's a lot of tension in the air,
Speaker 7: and before before the federal agent started shooting, things seemed
Speaker 7: to be calming down and I was actually about to leave,
Speaker 7: but my friend and I wanted to check out this
Speaker 7: area real quick, and that's when the federal agents came
Speaker 7: out and started shooting.
Speaker 2: Are you a member of the press, I'm unclear when
Speaker 2: you say your friends and you want to check this out?
Speaker 3: Those these are other journalists or how were you there?
Speaker 3: What was your.
Speaker 7: Presence due to Yeah, so, I'm a journalist with the
Speaker 7: Southern California News Group and I was down there covering
Speaker 7: this event for my company. And me and another fellow
Speaker 7: reporter were down there, and before we were leaving, we
Speaker 7: wanted to check out what was going on near the
Speaker 7: home depot because we were at an intersection before down
Speaker 7: the street or shriff deputies had a line, so we
Speaker 7: checked out that area.
Speaker 2: And as you say that, then you were hit by fire.
Speaker 2: Was that fire directed at you or was it just
Speaker 2: sort of indiscriminately? Was it shot into the crowd? What
Speaker 2: was the nature of that? Less than lethal but still
Speaker 2: incredibly painful. Apparently these things can really be injurious. These
Speaker 2: pepperballs describe how that happened.
Speaker 7: So my fellow reporter and I were we weren't even
Speaker 7: in a crowd. I'm not sure if they were targeting
Speaker 7: us or firing indiscriminately, but I mean both of us
Speaker 7: were fired. We were injured on our heads. So while
Speaker 7: we don't know, while if they were targeting us directly,
Speaker 7: we were there as journalists to cover what was happening
Speaker 7: and were injured.
Speaker 2: And so what what happened next? What do you do
Speaker 2: on your hit by that? I mean, give me the
Speaker 2: give me the narrative. Do you do you get first aid?
Speaker 2: Do you go to a hospital?
Speaker 8: What?
Speaker 2: Because what I think if it's the same incident, I
Speaker 2: mean you there was a welt on your head I
Speaker 2: remember seeing in local news.
Speaker 7: Yeah, my friend and I both had welts on our heads.
Speaker 7: And after we were hitting the head, we were also
Speaker 7: tear gas. So we were also, you know, really shocked
Speaker 7: by being hit on the head, and we're we also
Speaker 7: couldn't see, so we were just trying to find a
Speaker 7: way out around the corner to you know, escape this
Speaker 7: really terrible tear gas. It was really hard to breathe,
Speaker 7: we couldn't see, so we just went into we need
Speaker 7: to run away and get help.
Speaker 2: So again, let me just review what the surrounding situation was,
Speaker 2: because I just was it chaotic?
Speaker 3: Was it?
Speaker 2: I saw, for example, trash bags being set on fire.
Speaker 2: I saw this is all at that Paramount home depot.
Speaker 2: The throwing objects, bottles and pieces of like cinder block
Speaker 2: or bricks at officers. There was a there was a
Speaker 2: real sense of things spilling over. Was it during all
Speaker 2: of that that you were hit by that fire?
Speaker 7: No, I did not witness any of that happening. I
Speaker 7: believe some of those incidents happened before I arrived myself.
Speaker 7: But again, the scene was very calm at around the
Speaker 7: time that federal agents started firing.
Speaker 4: At the crowd.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, all right, so you know that makes it
Speaker 2: even obviously more disturbing.
Speaker 3: So how are you now? What did you do? Did
Speaker 3: you medical attention?
Speaker 7: I took my friend to the er because we believe
Speaker 7: he was hit with a cheer gas canister, so his
Speaker 7: welt was pretty significant, and I felt fine, though I
Speaker 7: am going to the hospital later today. So we went
Speaker 7: to the er, got him checked out, and I woke
Speaker 7: up this morning with my neck feeling really sore and injured.
Speaker 7: And yeah, it was a terrible experience.
Speaker 2: Do you have any kind of markings that indicate that
Speaker 2: you're press or do you just look like another person.
Speaker 3: There at the event?
Speaker 7: I had my press pass on me, very visible.
Speaker 3: So what does that look like? It's around your neck?
Speaker 7: Correct, Yes, it's on a lanyard around my neck and
Speaker 7: it says press on both sides.
Speaker 2: Okay, just trying to get a sense of it. It's
Speaker 2: really disturbing.
Speaker 3: Ryan.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you're okay. And we can see your stuff
Speaker 2: at the Southern California News Group and and and that's
Speaker 2: a stringer service.
Speaker 3: Or help me.
Speaker 7: We have eleven different newspapers across Southern California, including Orange
Speaker 7: County Register, ELI Daily News, Riverside Press, Enterprise, and others,
Speaker 7: so a bunch of different newspapers in So cal.
Speaker 2: That's great. Well, we'll watch for your stuff. And I
Speaker 2: think it's courageous work that you're doing and I really
Speaker 2: appreciate you describing it to our audience here on KFI.
Speaker 2: Ryan mina crime and public safety reporter for the Southern
Speaker 2: California News Group covering those ice raids in LA. Good luck, Ryan,
Speaker 2: stay safe as best you are able. I mean, these
Speaker 2: are very unpredictable situations. With all of the assembled thousands
Speaker 2: that have now entered the downtown LA area, most of
Speaker 2: them probably just want to be there, They want their
Speaker 2: presence to do the talking. But there are agitators in
Speaker 2: all of that, and those agitators can create issues for everybody.
Speaker 2: So even as this becomes an increasingly problematic situation with
Speaker 2: the politics of the National Guard and who order them
Speaker 2: National Guard into La, does the National Guard presence inflame
Speaker 2: the situation? These are all questions that I think are
Speaker 2: reasonable to ask. But in all of that, most of
Speaker 2: the demonstrators, even as they take to the streets, they
Speaker 2: want to make a statement, and they want to make
Speaker 2: a nonviolent statement. But remember the police officers and law
Speaker 2: enforcement authorities are charged with protecting the surrounding area and
Speaker 2: keeping the people of the LA community safe. So they
Speaker 2: have to push these crowds back. They have to manage
Speaker 2: these crowds. You can't just let these crowds go anywhere.
Speaker 2: So again there is a tension between both allowing peaceful
Speaker 2: protest and also managing peaceful protest, and that tension is
Speaker 2: being played out now in LA for Day number three.
Speaker 2: We're watching it hour to hour for you.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: One of those days in Los Angeles that we hate
Speaker 2: to see. This gorgeous sunny day marked by a volatility
Speaker 2: the protesters and the protest growing in size, protesters growing
Speaker 2: in number as they occupy downtown la and heroic work,
Speaker 2: I would say, I mean, the guy's already taken tear
Speaker 2: gas and communications tough from downtown with everything going on,
Speaker 2: But Michael Monks has been brilliant in giving us a
Speaker 2: sense of what is actually happening down there.
Speaker 3: Do we have Monks? Now?
Speaker 2: No, I wanted to mention one other thing. You'll let
Speaker 2: me know if we get him back the other. And again,
Speaker 2: there are so many areas of controversy here, so many,
Speaker 2: and you can talk about the Ice raids to begin
Speaker 2: with as controversial, right, there are many you feel like,
Speaker 2: what's Ice doing here?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: I thought you guys are going after violent criminals, you know,
Speaker 2: show me six or seven violent criminals, But meanwhile you're
Speaker 2: scooping up guys at home depot who are just looking
Speaker 2: for day work. I mean, there are plenty of people
Speaker 2: who feel that way, and there are others who go, hey,
Speaker 2: if they're not in the country legally, they should be
Speaker 2: scooped up and deported. And there's still others to say, well,
Speaker 2: why do the deportations have to occur this way? Why
Speaker 2: do they have to occur with everybody in military gear
Speaker 2: and with the night vision glasses, And there's just a
Speaker 2: lot of there's a flex here, a military flex that
Speaker 2: seems both unnecessary and deliberately cruel. So they are all
Speaker 2: of these, both opinions and facts that are essentially dictating
Speaker 2: a lot of these reactions. So California lawmakers and immigrant
Speaker 2: advocates are being denied entry to this ice facility where
Speaker 2: a lot of immigrants are being detained. This ice facility
Speaker 2: is at Alanto, and it is generally understood that lawmakers
Speaker 2: get access to these areas. I don't know about you know,
Speaker 2: immigration advocates, They I think, probably reasonably legally can can
Speaker 2: kept out of these places. But if you're a US congressman,
Speaker 2: you are allowed entrance to these facilities without any kind
Speaker 2: of resistance. And so the turning away of a lot
Speaker 2: of these California lawmakers, I said, I'm looking one, two, three, four,
Speaker 2: all turned away. This is all part of congressional oversight.
Speaker 2: They're allowed in. So I think that that again is
Speaker 2: one other area. As I've told you when we first
Speaker 2: started this conversation a couple hours ago, this is a
Speaker 2: multifaceted situation, and this is a facet associated with congressional oversight.
Speaker 2: So watch this because you're going to hear more about
Speaker 2: this and the same Gabriel Valley is represented by it
Speaker 2: says Narrows, right, Gilbert says Narrows. And his office is
Speaker 2: all already issued a statement and saying we're doing a
Speaker 2: legal congressional oversight, and the congressman is allowed entrance, and
Speaker 2: you'll hear more, you'll hear more from other congress people.
Speaker 2: But again, one more way in which ICE agents and
Speaker 2: ICE policies are being held to account. That's the oversight,
Speaker 2: and right now that oversight is not going on. So
Speaker 2: obviously the thing that has been front and center this day,
Speaker 2: the protests in downtown LA And as I mentioned, Michael
Speaker 2: Monks is embedded in us all. Michael, I think we
Speaker 2: have a signal to you, tell us what's going on.
Speaker 8: You've got a signal to me. It looks like things
Speaker 8: are going to come to sort of an end, although
Speaker 8: for the past couple of days they've lingered well into
Speaker 8: the night, although not much action takes place at night,
Speaker 8: as we discussed a little bit earlier, very strange that
Speaker 8: most of the action takes place in the daytime during
Speaker 8: these particular protests instead of at night. But what we've
Speaker 8: got going on now is after that massive march from
Speaker 8: LA City Hall to the federal building where the California
Speaker 8: National Guard and federal agents from the Department of Homeland
Speaker 8: Security were protecting that building. They've declared an unlawful assembly
Speaker 8: and have demanded that everybody go home. And so everyone
Speaker 8: actually for the most part, has started to go home.
Speaker 8: The LAPP showed up and blocked off a lot of streets.
Speaker 8: There's nothing going on at City Hall right now. I
Speaker 8: just made my way back there. And so after several
Speaker 8: hours this afternoon, and that, as you noted, beautiful hot
Speaker 8: southern California sun on this Sunday, everything is kind of
Speaker 8: collieting back down except for the occasional siren and those
Speaker 8: ongoing in cessant helicopter blades from above.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's a guess, a contrast to what I
Speaker 2: was seeing and hearing just ninety minutes ago. You know,
Speaker 2: I just didn't know where this is going to end up.
Speaker 2: And it sounds to me like it's ending up with
Speaker 2: just a dispersal of the crowd. And I mean, there
Speaker 2: are a lot of people, thousands of people have to
Speaker 2: but there's no aggressive move on the part of law
Speaker 2: enforcement two to hurt everybody out.
Speaker 3: They're letting the crowd disperse.
Speaker 8: No question at this, you know, being the home of Hollywood,
Speaker 8: that we had a bit of a story art today
Speaker 8: and we're now in that denu mount of it all,
Speaker 8: and it certainly had a peak right around one o'clock
Speaker 8: when that violence started to break out, the National Guard
Speaker 8: pushing the protesters off the sidewalk into the street, tear
Speaker 8: gas thrown into the street. I got hit by the
Speaker 8: tier gas, flash bangs going off, and people fleeing very quickly,
Speaker 8: including members of the press like me who all got
Speaker 8: hit by that tear gas. And then after that moment,
Speaker 8: and that was to allow some federal vehicles into the
Speaker 8: parking garage. There After that ended, the National Guard reformed
Speaker 8: their skirmish line, the protesters reconvened in the street, and
Speaker 8: then the crowd of protesters started to grow. It was
Speaker 8: around two o'clock when this rally was scheduled for City
Speaker 8: Hall that people started art to leave the protest at
Speaker 8: the Federal building. Somebody got on a bullhorn and said
Speaker 8: let's go to City Hall, and they dig and that
Speaker 8: was the first time I saw the LAPD. All afternoon,
Speaker 8: they had started to shut down some streets down there
Speaker 8: and sent all the protesters back the other way, incidentally
Speaker 8: towards the Federal Building, which I thought was very odd,
Speaker 8: but then we realized why, and it's because the rally
Speaker 8: at City Hall had turned into a massive march thousands
Speaker 8: deeep on downtown Los Angeles streets, moving from LA City
Speaker 8: Hall right back down in the direction of the Federal Building.
Speaker 8: When it got to the Federal Building again, it got
Speaker 8: a little chippy, little jawing going on, some verbal exchanges there,
Speaker 8: hurled by the protesters towards the federal agents and the
Speaker 8: National guardsmen, and the LAPD started to push people back,
Speaker 8: and an unlawful assembly was declared and that started to
Speaker 8: clean up really quickly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, LAPD has really distinguished themselves today, at least based
Speaker 2: on my vantage point and what I can see, they
Speaker 2: really they've done very, very well with this situation. Michael,
Speaker 2: I just want to say, for all of us, thank you.
Speaker 2: It's been a very long, unpredictable day, and I know
Speaker 2: your day's not over, but I just want to thank
Speaker 2: you for keeping us posted.
Speaker 8: That's what I'm here for. It's my pleasure to serve.
Speaker 2: Okay, my friend Michael Monks KFI News. Someone contacting me
Speaker 2: on social media saying the Trump is such a we
Speaker 2: can we can turn Michael down. Now we can turn Yeah,
Speaker 2: I can probably lose Michael. I don't know what button
Speaker 2: you have to push, but if you could push it,
Speaker 2: that'd be great. The uh, what I was going to say?
Speaker 2: Somebody countrying me a social media saying Donald Trump is
Speaker 2: in such a hurry to deploy the National Guard in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, but where was he on January sixth? I
Speaker 2: mean that's a fair point. I mean, again, you're seeing
Speaker 2: a lot of different viewpoints on what's happening. Donald Trump
Speaker 2: is the reason that National Guard troops are in Los
Speaker 2: Angeles over the objections of the governor and the mayor.
Speaker 3: It is unprecedented.
Speaker 2: And of course it's true that I know without president
Speaker 2: on January sixth, he did not deploy the National Guard.
Speaker 2: And what happened in the Lafayette Square area outside the
Speaker 2: White House was filled with some similarities. I mean, they
Speaker 2: used tear gas to disperse that crowd. They used a
Speaker 2: rubber bullets to or pepper what do they call those,
Speaker 2: Chris Pepper the bullets.
Speaker 4: Or yeah, pepper balls, pepper balls, thank you, yeah to.
Speaker 3: I just made that.
Speaker 2: Up to do to disperse that crowd, and as we
Speaker 2: learned later from Mark Asper, his secretary defension at the time,
Speaker 2: Trump asked about actually firing into the crowd to not
Speaker 2: kill anybody, But isn't there a way we can just
Speaker 2: you know, hurt shoot him in the leg? So so
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, again, this is a guy in
Speaker 2: the president who has a much different perspective. And you
Speaker 2: may be a big back of the president, this isn't
Speaker 2: an assault of the president. I'm just describing the situation.
Speaker 2: And so when I got that on social media, that
Speaker 2: person's not wrong. I mean that Trump didn't pull the
Speaker 2: trigger on the National Guard for the January sixth protesters,
Speaker 2: and now he's pulled a trigger for National Guard presence
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles at a time when it doesn't appear
Speaker 2: that Los Angeles really needs those National Guard troops based
Speaker 2: on everything the governors said and the mayors said, and
Speaker 2: even the mayor's adversary in the mayoral race, Rick Caruso,
Speaker 2: who posted a long thing essentially agreeing with Bass and
Speaker 2: newsom you know, Chris saying, hey, we don't need the
Speaker 2: National Guard in Los Angeles.
Speaker 9: Did you think you'd see a time that you'd have
Speaker 9: hydrama like this, and then Caruso and Bass would be
Speaker 9: agreeing on something that speaks volumes. I think I think
Speaker 9: you're right. I think you're absolutely right. I'm kind of
Speaker 9: watching what's going on.
Speaker 4: Mark.
Speaker 9: You kind of called it earlier when you talked about
Speaker 9: the potential for something to spill over onto the one
Speaker 9: oh one.
Speaker 4: That looks like that's kind of the hang up right now.
Speaker 9: As the protesters have gotten on to one to one
Speaker 9: and they've they've stopped that traffic. So anybody's headed downtown,
Speaker 9: just stay the hell away from one Way.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the thousands of people who are just now,
Speaker 2: you're right, it's the ripple effect is like one of
Speaker 2: those things. You do want to stay away from that area.
Speaker 2: So Chris again called in off the bench to save
Speaker 2: the universe. He'll be with us through the afternoon and
Speaker 2: the evening hours.
Speaker 3: Merrill.
Speaker 2: I don't know how you do it, but it is
Speaker 2: great that you do it. So wishing you the best,
Speaker 2: my friend, Thank you, sir, thank you. I have a
Speaker 2: wonderful rest of your evening. Stay safe. I'll be listening
Speaker 2: kf I AM six forty. We are live everywhere on
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty on demand