Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six.
Speaker 2: Forty KIM six mo Kelly here, as we continue to
Speaker 2: follow the live events of what's happening downtown and in
Speaker 2: Santa Ana, and for what it's worth, we always try
Speaker 2: to put context in this as far as how people
Speaker 2: are characterizing what's going on, what we see, what it
Speaker 2: looks like. It may lead to just this is anecdotal,
Speaker 2: but KTLA has left its coverage of what's going on
Speaker 2: downtown and in Santa Ana. K CAL has stayed with it.
Speaker 2: So nothing is happening at this moment. There is a
Speaker 2: police line still in downtown LA at this moment, it
Speaker 2: is not advancing. There has been no new information about
Speaker 2: any type of order to disperse. There definitely hasn't been
Speaker 2: any information about a curfew. And I would assume at
Speaker 2: this point, and I think it's a reasonablest pump that
Speaker 2: if we haven't received anything at this point, it's going
Speaker 2: to have to escalate considerably for there to be a curfew,
Speaker 2: because why we're we're looking at it. You know, it's
Speaker 2: tit after eight already, after a point, it almost like me,
Speaker 2: what's the point, because we'll be in the middle of
Speaker 2: the night after a certain point that hasn't happened.
Speaker 3: There doesn't seem to be any escalation.
Speaker 2: In fact, I can't find any television coverage correct me
Speaker 2: if I'm wrong, Twela television coverage of anything going on
Speaker 2: in Santa Anna at this point.
Speaker 3: No, I don't really see anything happening anywhere, just protests.
Speaker 3: People are out there, peaceful and police presence for now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we can tell you what's happening now. We can't
Speaker 2: tell you what it will look like in forty five minutes.
Speaker 2: I mean, when forty five minutes rolls around and we
Speaker 2: get there, we can tell you what it looks like,
Speaker 2: but we can't tell you what it might be, what
Speaker 2: might happen. But at this moment, there is no escalation,
Speaker 2: and I think that's what all.
Speaker 3: Of us are hoping for, or at least what I'm
Speaker 3: hoping for.
Speaker 2: Again, I try to remind people, and I was going
Speaker 2: back and forth with people on my social media and
Speaker 2: if you go to my Facebook page at mister bo
Speaker 2: Kelly or at Lady with mo Kelly, I was giving
Speaker 2: you my thoughts about this.
Speaker 3: I have no dog in this fight.
Speaker 2: I have not talked about this in the sense of
Speaker 2: any narrative.
Speaker 3: I try to give you some history. I try to
Speaker 3: give you some context.
Speaker 2: I try to compare it to other events which are similar,
Speaker 2: other events which have been not characterized as a riot,
Speaker 2: even though the same things have been happening. Oh, I'll
Speaker 2: give you a perfect example. After the super Bowl in February,
Speaker 2: there were six people who were arrested for assaults on
Speaker 2: police officers. There were at least fifty people arrested in totality.
Speaker 2: There was looting, there were cars set on fire, there
Speaker 2: was a big bonfire in the street. There were two
Speaker 2: people shot. That's after the super Bowl. It was deemed
Speaker 2: a celebration violence for violence. It's not unlike what we've
Speaker 2: seen in LA as of Saturday. No telling what is
Speaker 2: going to happen in the future, but as of Saturday,
Speaker 2: there were comparable events. In fact, there was more which
Speaker 2: happened in Philadelphia, and that was called a celebration. That's
Speaker 2: why I think we should be very very careful about
Speaker 2: how we characterize these events for our personal or political purposes,
Speaker 2: or how what I call wish casting, what you would
Speaker 2: like them to be, or how you want them perceived.
Speaker 2: And I want to reiterate that it's not. When you
Speaker 2: try to talk about these things in absolutes, you'll probably
Speaker 2: be absolutely wrong. There is a level of nuance if
Speaker 2: we're responsible, that we can apply to this. Anyone who
Speaker 2: tries to tell you that this was a holy, peaceful
Speaker 2: protest is I don't want to say they're lying. Some
Speaker 2: people are lying, but it's factually untrue. There are too
Speaker 2: many incidents and things that we can point to to
Speaker 2: dispel that myth or characterization. It has not been wholly
Speaker 2: peaceful and it hasn't been a riot. Now, there have
Speaker 2: been things which people think like because well, if you
Speaker 2: set a waybo on fire, that's that's a that's a riot.
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I mean there are it's still under control. What is
Speaker 2: happening now. Things happened, and you saw what happened to
Speaker 2: the WAYMO and you saw like the the scooters that
Speaker 2: they were throwing off the freeway on the police cars.
Speaker 2: But again credit to LAPD, credit to La County Sheriff's Department,
Speaker 2: they kept it all contained, they did, and there was
Speaker 2: no real further escalation beyond that. What happens tonight we
Speaker 2: will see if we can keep that positive momentum going
Speaker 2: but it hasn't been wholly peaceful. It has not. Have
Speaker 2: there been at of course, have there been people who
Speaker 2: have with their own agendas and their own motivations. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: but we have to be careful not to be reckless
Speaker 2: with our rhetoric. I can't speak for you toal because
Speaker 2: I don't know what you've been listen to. But I've
Speaker 2: been hearing people throw around words like invasion. It's like, no,
Speaker 2: it's not an invasion. It's not. It's not some sort
Speaker 2: of war which is going on.
Speaker 3: It's not.
Speaker 2: There are some really questionable activities going on out there,
Speaker 2: and yes, there has been violence against police officers. Not
Speaker 2: pushing that aside, but we have to be very careful
Speaker 2: to keep it in its context and not reach for
Speaker 2: terminology and reach for imagery because we want to cast
Speaker 2: it a certain way.
Speaker 3: Kf I am six forty.
Speaker 2: We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app I'm Okelly as
Speaker 2: we continue our coverage of what's going on downtown, and also,
Speaker 2: I guess to a lesser degree in Santa Ana, we
Speaker 2: are not seeing the same reports or coverage of that.
Speaker 2: But if it should change and direction will have that
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 1: You're listening to later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty six.
Speaker 2: Mo Kelly here, as we continue our live covers of
Speaker 2: the ongoing events to protest downtown and in Santa Anna.
Speaker 2: There seems to be some movement downtown. It seems the
Speaker 2: police line is beginning to move forward again. There is
Speaker 2: vehicle activity where police you know what, Stephan, let's bring
Speaker 2: up the audio on cake House. We can get some
Speaker 2: context of what's happening there.
Speaker 3: He's been watching protesters go by as well.
Speaker 1: Tom hither Suzy.
Speaker 4: So we moved actually because we saw all those officers.
Speaker 4: There's voter officers zooming up first streets. So we came
Speaker 4: up to City Hall. That's where we are right now,
Speaker 4: right outside of the City Hall, and you can see, uh,
Speaker 4: there's a sort of scattered amount of crowd there, people
Speaker 4: kind of lingering here, and then there's a very like
Speaker 4: solid line of police in you know, heavily armed, got
Speaker 4: their right gear, their shields, all all kinds of things
Speaker 4: there that they're equipped with, and they are standing in
Speaker 4: stage here right now, and you know, doesn't look like
Speaker 4: there's that sort of tense, volatile situation that we've seen
Speaker 4: playing out in the last few days we you know,
Speaker 4: we as we've been talking about, this crowd is very
Speaker 4: much sort of dispersed, and it's scattered and there's just
Speaker 4: remnants in little pockets of people here and there and
Speaker 4: kind of just wandering around, I think, people trying to
Speaker 4: figure out maybe what to do, where, where to go.
Speaker 4: But you know, LAPD their strategy seems to have worked,
Speaker 4: which was to kind of break up the crowd, create
Speaker 4: kind of a situation where there was no real place
Speaker 4: to reconstitute a crowd. So by you know, either by
Speaker 4: closing down streets or by you know, by placing you know,
Speaker 4: a high concentration of officers in different spots, and so
Speaker 4: it just kind of created this, like I think for
Speaker 4: the people who are out here, a bit of chaos
Speaker 4: and a bit of inability to kind of create some continuity.
Speaker 4: So now which you have is just a lot of
Speaker 4: people just kind of wandering around, looking like, well, what
Speaker 4: do we do next? It doesn't seem like there is
Speaker 4: a lot of organization out here. It certainly did not
Speaker 4: seem that organized earlier either.
Speaker 3: We just sort of huge.
Speaker 4: Boom a few blocks away that could have been fireworks
Speaker 4: or any number of things, but it was a very
Speaker 4: large boom sound.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's in the area where Lori Perez is.
Speaker 4: But yeah, so you know, obviously some people are kind
Speaker 4: of you know, making comments and saying some some insulting
Speaker 4: some of the officers here, but for the most part,
Speaker 4: others sort of standing there looking at them and just yeah,
Speaker 4: they're The posturing is definitely different than it was. You know,
Speaker 4: we we've seen the situation play out where you have
Speaker 4: protesters in some cases, you know, trying to antagonize federal
Speaker 4: officers or police officers, either verbally or you know, throwing
Speaker 4: things at them, you know, walking up to them with
Speaker 4: their cell phones and you know, saying things to them.
Speaker 4: But while that's happening on a smaller scale right now,
Speaker 4: it's nothing compared to what we saw, and it doesn't
Speaker 4: seem like we're in that sort of hair trigger situation,
Speaker 4: you know, where one little thing could happen and then
Speaker 4: the whole situation explodes and there's clashes.
Speaker 3: It just it seems different.
Speaker 4: And obviously, you know, given what we've seen in the
Speaker 4: last few.
Speaker 2: Nights, I think, okay, I'm going to jump in there
Speaker 2: and if you just only heard a snippet of that,
Speaker 2: let me just kind of recap what the reporter was
Speaker 2: saying for ke Cow, it's dissipating. People are walking away
Speaker 2: largely orderly. If you check out our YouTube, you can
Speaker 2: see some of the video where police are moving fullar
Speaker 2: and it's not like they're encountering as much resistance as
Speaker 2: maybe an hour and a half ago. There has not
Speaker 2: been an order officially to disperse from what I know.
Speaker 2: And this kind of goes back to what LAPD Chief
Speaker 2: Jim McDonald was talking about, because obviously LAPD has a
Speaker 2: plan and it was unclear not only to me as
Speaker 2: a layperson, but also was unclear to Chief McDonald as
Speaker 2: far as what role the Marines would play when obviously
Speaker 2: you had the National Guard guarding the Federal building. What
Speaker 2: the hundreds of other marines were going to add? Do
Speaker 2: you have that statement in front of you, by chance, Mark,
Speaker 2: which one exactly from Jim McDonald. I had it just
Speaker 2: a second ago. It will give me, well, I'll give
Speaker 2: you some time, but it's I think it's interesting here.
Speaker 3: We are all right, go ahead.
Speaker 5: LAPD Chief Jim McDonald has issued a statement saying the
Speaker 5: possible arrival of federal military forces in La absent clear
Speaker 5: coordination presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those
Speaker 5: of US charged with safeguarding the city.
Speaker 3: If well, I not even say if.
Speaker 2: Since more National Guard have been sent now by President
Speaker 2: Trump to the area, you got to ask the question,
Speaker 2: does this help or hinder the management of the protests.
Speaker 5: Well, we know that the LAPD isn't exactly pro dirty
Speaker 5: hippie protesters, and they've been saying all weekend that they
Speaker 5: had the situation under control. If you were on top
Speaker 5: of that stuff. They do not seem thrilled with the
Speaker 5: extra help. They didn't want it.
Speaker 2: Well, when I say they were on top of it,
Speaker 2: I'm characterized if someone doesn't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 3: But I guess they know better than Jim McDonald as well.
Speaker 5: Well, and we're also hearing now that in Washington, legislators
Speaker 5: are scrambling to deal with how the military would be
Speaker 5: deployed because then we're getting into posse comitatis area there.
Speaker 3: Well, let's explain that for folks.
Speaker 2: And basically the law is you cannot use the armed
Speaker 2: forces as a law enforcement group.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're a very narrow circumstance. Is that allow that?
Speaker 2: But from the way it's being presented, it seems that
Speaker 2: the Marines would be in a law enforcement position.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we're getting into some dicey territory here, and
Speaker 5: I want to remind people be really cautious consumers of news,
Speaker 5: especially if you're getting it from social media. Click through
Speaker 5: to the source, make sure that it's not just influencers
Speaker 5: and propagandas. Look for credentialed news professionals that you're getting
Speaker 5: your information from, because situations like this, it's rife with
Speaker 5: misinformation and you don't want that to color how you
Speaker 5: look at this situation.
Speaker 2: This is when we talk about Oh, I should say,
Speaker 2: we do talk about media literacy a lot, but this
Speaker 2: is one of those times where it's really really important.
Speaker 2: And I understand the Customarily, I'm not working in a
Speaker 2: news capacity.
Speaker 3: I'm on air personality. I'm giving opinion and editorial.
Speaker 2: I try to keep it more to the facts of
Speaker 2: information during breaking news like this, because it's very very
Speaker 2: important not to push people in an unknown necessary direction
Speaker 2: about how I feel or my politics.
Speaker 3: And I keep trying to remind folks I do not
Speaker 3: have a dog in this fight. I do not.
Speaker 2: I try to give you some history. Let's compare this
Speaker 2: to twenty twenty. Let's compare this to nineteen ninety two
Speaker 2: after the Rodney King, Stacy Kuhn Lawrence Powell verdict. But
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to tell you or how you know,
Speaker 2: what I think about Donald Trump threatening to arrest Gavin Newsom.
Speaker 2: That's not the news of the day. That's not what's
Speaker 2: really important. That's not going to impact your lives right now.
Speaker 2: In other words, is this going to impact you if
Speaker 2: there is a greater conflagration, if there is an escalation
Speaker 2: that impacts you. You know, so we can talk about
Speaker 2: some of the underlying issues. We can do that, but
Speaker 2: I'm not here to talk about politics.
Speaker 3: It used to be a.
Speaker 2: Mark Rono remembers this, and I know Taala Sharp remembers this.
Speaker 2: Before there was cable news, you just had broadcast news
Speaker 2: and you'd have the who, what, win, where, why?
Speaker 5: How?
Speaker 3: That was it? That was it?
Speaker 2: There was no really no editorial, and if so, there
Speaker 2: would be a whole segment what they told you this
Speaker 2: is an editorial and made it very clear that the
Speaker 2: anchor was giving his or her opinion. We have lost
Speaker 2: that now because we have cable news, which is not
Speaker 2: governed by any rules. Actually, you don't have the rules
Speaker 2: of news reporting on cable news.
Speaker 3: That's why.
Speaker 2: MSNBC is really no different than Comedy Central. And I'm
Speaker 2: being serious, because you can have someone deliver quote unquote
Speaker 2: their thoughts on the news. Sometimes it could be comedic
Speaker 2: like Comedy Central in the Daily Show, or it could
Speaker 2: be in a news and editorial format like Lawrence o'donald
Speaker 2: or something. And people don't really understand that distinction because
Speaker 2: we don't teach media literacy anymore. So to Mark's point,
Speaker 2: you have to be very judicious about where you get
Speaker 2: the facts, the who, what, where, when, why and how.
Speaker 2: Most of the time we don't get that in our
Speaker 2: news coverage. We just start with how I feel that
Speaker 2: hearing Bass messed this up. That's where people start, and
Speaker 2: that's not actually news coverage, that's just opinion and editorial.
Speaker 2: So what is happening tonight? We're telling you as it's happening.
Speaker 2: And if you look at the imagery on k CAL
Speaker 2: nine right now, I can't quantify it, but I can
Speaker 2: qualify it.
Speaker 3: A lot of the people have gone home.
Speaker 2: There is not this mass demonstration what it looked like
Speaker 2: it was going to turn into two hours ago. We're
Speaker 2: not there. And kudos to the LAPD for what they've
Speaker 2: managed to do. And also you know they obviously had
Speaker 2: a plan and they've stuck to it. Now, there were
Speaker 2: questions that I had, and there are questions that Michael
Speaker 2: Monks had, and will continue to watch this because it
Speaker 2: could turn on a dime. If you know history, you
Speaker 2: know it could turn on a dime. But it's moving
Speaker 2: in a direction where it seems to be de escalating,
Speaker 2: not escalating. If I am six forty, I'm O Kelly.
Speaker 2: We're going to continue to follow this wherever it goes,
Speaker 2: wherever it leads. We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: K IF I am sixty Kelly here live everywhere in
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app. And this is I guess nervous time
Speaker 2: because the sun is down and most of the what
Speaker 2: I would call the legitimate protesters are going home. This
Speaker 2: is when, unfortunately, we will see the knuckleheads. This is
Speaker 2: when we'll see the agitators. This is when we'll see
Speaker 2: the folks who have no business being out there other
Speaker 2: than to cause trouble. But up until now, it has
Speaker 2: been well managed it has been disciplined. As far as
Speaker 2: LAPD and its approach, they are slowly moving forward. And
Speaker 2: I guess there's still no curfew, there's still no official
Speaker 2: order to disperse. And these are just some random thoughts
Speaker 2: have just been bumping around my head during the break.
Speaker 2: If we take a larger view, we pull out and
Speaker 2: look at the macro view of these ICE protests. Now
Speaker 2: we know that ICE they usually do their arrests in
Speaker 2: the early portion of the day. We know that everything
Speaker 2: started on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. In the early portion of
Speaker 2: the day, ICE they would go to their set locations,
Speaker 2: their predetermined locations, and they would enact their arrests. They're
Speaker 2: not doing it now. In other words, and Twale, you
Speaker 2: made a great point. There's nothing to protest now. LAPD
Speaker 2: is not ICE. LAPD has not been assisting in these
Speaker 2: arrests on behalf of ICE. So if you're out there
Speaker 2: now protesting in the dark against nobody in particular related
Speaker 2: to the actual ICE arres and raids, however you want
Speaker 2: to characterize them, then you're obviously not there in good faith.
Speaker 2: And I know there are a lot of bad faith
Speaker 2: actors out there. And look, I try to look at
Speaker 2: this through the lens of the constitution. I personally don't
Speaker 2: see the value in waving a Mexican flag if you're
Speaker 2: trying to protest, I personally don't see it. But constitutionally
Speaker 2: I support your right to do it. You know, I
Speaker 2: don't think it gains you anything. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: as a wave a Mexican flag right now looking on
Speaker 2: k Cow, yes, that's your right to I'll just say
Speaker 2: cloud the issue, to confuse the issue, to make it
Speaker 2: seem like you're not here for the right reason.
Speaker 3: But here's something else we need to consider.
Speaker 2: This is most definitely what some have called like the
Speaker 2: beta testing for what's going to happen in other cities.
Speaker 3: What is happening right now.
Speaker 2: When I say what is happening right now, this is
Speaker 2: inclusive of the ice raids. You're going to see it
Speaker 2: in other cities, other major cities. And this is the
Speaker 2: only politics I really mentioned tonight. They will happen in
Speaker 2: democratically run cities capital d In other words, if there's
Speaker 2: a democratic mayor, you can expect these particular raids and
Speaker 2: procedures to be followed.
Speaker 3: I expect to see this in Miami.
Speaker 2: I expect to see this in New York, I expect
Speaker 2: to see this in Chicago, and out of that, I
Speaker 2: expect a similar response. You will see a similar response
Speaker 2: from the community. And what you're seeing now, you're going
Speaker 2: to see another spots around the community. And from a
Speaker 2: political standpoint, this is nothing bad for President Trump. This
Speaker 2: is exactly what he wants. This is exactly what he
Speaker 2: is looking for. These are the optics that he would prefer.
Speaker 2: This is what he ran on. And as far as
Speaker 2: what he's going to say about it, you know, these
Speaker 2: are promises that he made, and these are promises that
Speaker 2: he is fulfilling. So he is just fine with these
Speaker 2: ice raids. And if there should violence, have more violence breakout,
Speaker 2: I'm quite sure he would support that as well, because
Speaker 2: the optics favor what he has been looking for. You know,
Speaker 2: this is something that he ran on, this is something
Speaker 2: that he was elected on.
Speaker 3: So it's not like there's going to be fewer of these. No, If.
Speaker 2: Politically it serves his purpose, his purposes here in LA,
Speaker 2: then that means politically it's going to serve his purposes
Speaker 2: in Miami, Chicago, New York, and maybe Houston and some
Speaker 2: other border cities. And I'll say southern states as well,
Speaker 2: or even the southwest portion of the United States, We're
Speaker 2: going to see more of this. I think that's just
Speaker 2: a reasonable assumption, not necessarily a politicization of what's happening
Speaker 2: right now. It's hard to look at this without acknowledging
Speaker 2: the larger immigration discussion here in America. This is something
Speaker 2: which has been front and center of our politics, I
Speaker 2: want to say since maybe two thousand and eight, because
Speaker 2: Barack Obama did run on immigration reform for his first
Speaker 2: and second term, didn't get it done, and we know
Speaker 2: within private citizen Trump when he came down the escalator
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, made it a central part of his
Speaker 2: would be campaign. So this has been an America's conscience
Speaker 2: for at least a good seventeen years. And that's saying
Speaker 2: nothing of going back to Reagan and the Immigration Amnesty
Speaker 2: Act of nineteen eighty six. So this is something that
Speaker 2: our nation has been wrestling with for quite some time,
Speaker 2: and we're coming to one of those inflection points where
Speaker 2: we're going to have to go through this, and we're
Speaker 2: going to go through it together, and hopefully we'll go
Speaker 2: through it non violently, and hopefully we'll go through it
Speaker 2: and come out on the other side better. But we're
Speaker 2: gonna have to get through this right now, right now.
Speaker 3: It's La.
Speaker 2: There will be other cities, and we will have this
Speaker 2: conversation again with those other cities, and you will probably
Speaker 2: see the National Guard sent in those other cities. You
Speaker 2: may see marines sent in in those other cities. Because
Speaker 2: this will be the playbook going forward. Like it, loath it,
Speaker 2: if you may not agree with it, but this is
Speaker 2: where it is headed.
Speaker 3: K IF I AM six forty. I'm O Kelly. We're
Speaker 3: live everywhere the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Mo Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty, We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: As we continue to follow the events of downtown and
Speaker 2: Santa Ana. I want to check back in one more
Speaker 2: time with kfi's own Michael Monks, who's pretty much on scene. Michael,
Speaker 2: I get the sense if I look at just television coverage.
Speaker 2: Kick Hal has pulled back, Katla has pulled back. There's
Speaker 2: really not much to see from a television standpoint from
Speaker 2: where you are.
Speaker 3: What's the move.
Speaker 6: Well, it looks like we're hearing from the police chief
Speaker 6: right now. My understanding is that they did order folks
Speaker 6: to disperse, and the people who refuse to do so
Speaker 6: have been kettled. As they say that is surrounded by police.
Speaker 6: There's a few dozen people there apparently that have been
Speaker 6: kettled by police and now face arrests. That includes some
Speaker 6: members of the press, according to one report that I've seen.
Speaker 6: But I now understand that members of the media will
Speaker 6: be able to leave that kettling and then those few
Speaker 6: dozen folks will face arrests. And I believe police Chief
Speaker 6: Jim McDonald may be speaking now on this issue. So
Speaker 6: we talk about the media pulling back because things seem
Speaker 6: to be a bit calmer, and that seems to be
Speaker 6: because the police did not pull back this time. They
Speaker 6: wanted to nip this in the bud a little more quickly,
Speaker 6: and we're not messing around when they issued those orders
Speaker 6: to disperse.
Speaker 2: At this point, I know we can't predict what's going
Speaker 2: to happen five minutes from now or two hours from now.
Speaker 2: Can you see whether law enforcement is pulling back? In
Speaker 2: other words, do they have the same number of units
Speaker 2: and officers on scene now as they did two hours ago,
Speaker 2: or is there slightly less.
Speaker 6: That tactical alert is still in effect as of right now,
Speaker 6: is my understanding, which means that all officers who were
Speaker 6: on duty when that call went out earlier today were
Speaker 6: to remain on duty until further notice. So the LAPD
Speaker 6: is trying to keep as much strength as they can.
Speaker 6: The images that I can see indicate a pretty significant
Speaker 6: law enforcement presence. So what motivated this change in strategy,
Speaker 6: I'm not sure. I do know that the protest downtown
Speaker 6: today was not able to get to be as large
Speaker 6: as it had been over the past couple of days
Speaker 6: leading up to this, and that has to do with
Speaker 6: an adjust in strategy. They shut down all of those
Speaker 6: entrance ramps and exit ramps so you could not get
Speaker 6: in or out of the Civic Center area of downtown
Speaker 6: Los Angeles. They were blocking access to a lot of
Speaker 6: surface streets, so while there were a lot of protesters downtown,
Speaker 6: they were never really allowed to converge together as one.
Speaker 6: So the strategy by the LAPED this time around appears
Speaker 6: to have kept folks separated, and now they've got the
Speaker 6: folks that have refused to leave the scene and that
Speaker 6: they may now face arrest.
Speaker 2: From what you can see, has there been any movement
Speaker 2: of the National Guard? Are there fewer in number? Are
Speaker 2: they just going to ride out the whole night guarding
Speaker 2: the federal building? And any word on when Marines the
Speaker 2: Marines might arrive on scene.
Speaker 6: We don't know exactly when the Marines are supposed to
Speaker 6: arrive because it's not a local jurisdiction, but it is
Speaker 6: supposed to be within the next twenty four hours. We
Speaker 6: know that there's about seven hundred Marines deployed to one
Speaker 6: thousand additional National Guard troops deployed. The ones who are
Speaker 6: on the ground, Those California National guardsmen who are on
Speaker 6: the ground now have pretty much kept to their original assignment,
Speaker 6: which is around that Federal building at Alameda Street. Another
Speaker 6: key difference for tonight's protests compared to yesterday certainly is
Speaker 6: nobody was getting near that federal building. They kept people
Speaker 6: far away from that. So all of the action that
Speaker 6: we're seeing so far today seems to just involve either
Speaker 6: the LAPD, maybe some sheriff's folks, and then the CHP,
Speaker 6: the California Highway Patrol blocking some of those freeway exits.
Speaker 6: So it is clear mo that the LAPD decided they
Speaker 6: needed to adjust their strategy here, and we may see
Speaker 6: an end to any unrest a little bit earlier than
Speaker 6: we have in previous days.
Speaker 2: Nobody shot you, huh, It's still early in downtown Los Angeles, man,
Speaker 2: I got to keep three eyes open.
Speaker 3: I am pulling for you.
Speaker 2: I can say I've had pepper spray, you know, shot
Speaker 2: around me, and you don't even need to be next
Speaker 2: to the You can be like thirty feet away and
Speaker 2: pepper spray will say hello to you. I can't speak
Speaker 2: for tear gas, but if you were to describe it,
Speaker 2: I know you know there's nothing good about it is
Speaker 2: all the way horrible. But as best you can describe
Speaker 2: the feeling, is it eyes burning, nausea?
Speaker 3: What is it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: It was really interesting.
Speaker 6: You know, when you're in the news as long as
Speaker 6: we have been, tear gas is something we write about
Speaker 6: or mentioned that. Maybe it was deployed because some suspect
Speaker 6: in some crime had holed up in a property and
Speaker 6: so they deployed tear gas and flash bangs and that
Speaker 6: sort of thing, and it does often lead to their
Speaker 6: exit because it is such an irritant. My first experience
Speaker 6: yesterday in tasting it close and personal, was interesting.
Speaker 3: It was immediate.
Speaker 6: Coughing fits. As soon as you inhale it, it wants
Speaker 6: to get out of your Your body wants it out,
Speaker 6: so you're choking, you're coughing.
Speaker 3: It's disgusting.
Speaker 6: About a minute, maybe two minutes later, it's hard to
Speaker 6: remember exactly in real time how it worked. You start
Speaker 6: to feel the burning in the eyes and it's extraordinarily irritating,
Speaker 6: and then the water starts, and that's why they call
Speaker 6: it tear gas, and you are crying. I mean, there
Speaker 6: are tears coming out, flowing out of your eyes. I
Speaker 6: managed to turn away from it fast enough to not
Speaker 6: have a direct hit.
Speaker 3: I certainly suffered from it.
Speaker 6: It got me good, but some of my colleagues in
Speaker 6: the media got it much worse and looked like hell afterwards,
Speaker 6: a lot of spit coming out of their mouths. But
Speaker 6: people mobilized because by now, with all the protests we've
Speaker 6: experienced over the past half decade and the tear gas
Speaker 6: that can even hit us in the media, folks seem
Speaker 6: to turn to milk as a remedy for this.
Speaker 3: So a lot of times.
Speaker 6: You'll see protest even before the s hits the fan
Speaker 6: that there's just kind of milk about just an anticipation
Speaker 6: of this taking place and knowing that you need to
Speaker 6: douse yourself in it. A lot of folks dumping water.
Speaker 6: I was fortunate I really didn't need to put any
Speaker 6: liquid on my face. What helped me was I went
Speaker 6: under an overpass or a bridge or something, and the
Speaker 6: shade blocking the sun really helped, and then I was
Speaker 6: just able to kind of dab from my shirt and
Speaker 6: get the irritant out. What was really interesting about the
Speaker 6: tear gas is how long it felt like it lingered,
Speaker 6: because you know, a couple more hours would pass after
Speaker 6: this solitary incident involving the direct tear gas, and I'd
Speaker 6: be walking around the protest scene and suddenly I'd get
Speaker 6: another whiff of it, and it's like it's still in
Speaker 6: the air. I mean, that stuff hangs out for a while.
Speaker 3: I guess you got a good story to tell you
Speaker 3: kids or grandkids.
Speaker 6: My cat didn't seem so interesting. It's just me and
Speaker 6: AM sitting here monitoring all these screens tonight. I'll tell
Speaker 6: you didn't want to hear about it all. I just
Speaker 6: wanted to treat.
Speaker 2: You and Mark must be like brothers from another mother.
Speaker 2: Something dis similarities between your lifestyles and your history. Yeah,
Speaker 2: tear gas in common.
Speaker 5: It really is hard to tell us apart now what
Speaker 5: you're gonna find when you get home, Michael, that you
Speaker 5: got to take off all your clothes because they're all
Speaker 5: gonna smell like tear gas.
Speaker 3: You're gonna have to watch the hell out of everything
Speaker 3: that you've been wearing.
Speaker 6: Oh, you know, it was laundry day yesterday and I
Speaker 6: couldn't do it because it ended up being such a
Speaker 6: long day, so that that jacket still stinks a little bit.
Speaker 6: But it is true, Marca, you and I do have
Speaker 6: a certain surly nature and gray hair.
Speaker 3: And okay, let's not get too personal here. I'm trying
Speaker 3: to get you down town about it.
Speaker 2: Well, Michael, first, thank you for all your reporting, and yes,
Speaker 2: you were in harm's way. We may have a laugh
Speaker 2: about it, but it does not belie the danger, the
Speaker 2: actual danger that you were in. And we appreciate you
Speaker 2: reporting despite the danger and remaining as safe as possible
Speaker 2: so you can give us the facts of what was
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 6: Well, I appreciate you saying that. I do think we
Speaker 6: need to be clear though, the federal government is not
Speaker 6: going to slow down these raids. They are going to
Speaker 6: execute the immigration policy that this president ran on, and
Speaker 6: this is a place that they are targeting for that.
Speaker 6: So while maybe tonight is fizzling out, thankfully hopefully as
Speaker 6: uneventful relative to the previous days, there could be many
Speaker 6: more days ahead and we'll be here to keep an
Speaker 6: eye on and I know you will, and I will,
Speaker 6: and even Runner will.
Speaker 2: Even Mark Ronner, thank you. Get some rests, Michael Monks.
Speaker 2: I certainly will, Thanks so much. We'll talk tomorrow. If
Speaker 2: I am six forty, I'm Kelly. We're live everywhere on
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Speaker 3: More stimulating talk