Law Enforcement Gangs, Movie Pass REALLY Gone 3.23.21

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello the Internet, and welcome to Season one, seventy six,
Episode two of Len Guys to production of My Heart Radio.
This is a podcast where we take a deep dive
into America's share consciousness. It's Tuesday, March one. My name
is Jack O'Brien a k A. Trip me once, shame

(00:21):
on you trip me twice. I can't get tripped again.
That is of Red George's reference to me claiming that
I was untrippable. I believe last week. And I'll introduce
my co host, and then I have a story that
that happened to me that very night. I'm thrilled to

(00:43):
be joined as always by my co host, Mr Miles Grass,
Miles Gray, a K Horonomous Washed a k NBA All Star,
Chris Washed a k A. Daniel wash of Washed two
point oh or Washed point no or at Star washeda
Baron Cohen a K A from the visionary director J. J.

(01:04):
Abrams the hit TV show Wash. Shout out to Christie
Alma Gucci May for you know. I guess he he
cluded in he got glued into the fact that we
were dealing with our where we where we stood on
the time space, time continue and taste. I love when
we give them just a little inch, a little like

(01:25):
we're like, we're washed, and then there's like twenty fucking washed.
It's true. We are old as fuck. We are also
thrilled to be joined in our third seat by the brilliant,
the talented Cerise Castle. Welcome. Hi, Hi, thanks for stopping by. Hey,

(01:47):
thanks for having me on What's what's what's what's good
in your part of town? You're in l A, right,
I am in l A. Yes, Yeah, weather's okay, weather
over there, little fold because it could always be warmer
in my opinion, Yeah, what is it? Jack has a
theory that it's the houses just not insulated properly. That's
why when it's cold, all the houses stay cold here.

(02:10):
I believe it. Yeah, I don't know. It just seems
like it gets colder at higher temperatures here inside houses.
Or are we just so you know, sensitive to things
not being around seventy degrees that it's like, oh my god,
I think something's wrong with this house. We're a population
of people who moved for the most part, miles. I
don't I don't wanna be an annoying local erasure of locals,

(02:34):
but there's a lot of people here, who who moved
here to pursue a world that is always seventy two degrees? Uh,
so maybe that's maybe there's some sampling error there, But
real quick, I did want to mention that I think
the very day that we recorded the episode about how
I am impossible to trip, that wasn't what the whole

(02:57):
episode wasn't that sperience, but it was something that I
absolutely bragged about for some reason. That night, I was
walking downstairs grab my wife a snack that she could
consume in our bed and get crumbs everywhere, and I
slipped on the top step and uh, in such a

(03:18):
cartoonish fashion that I threw my phone up in the
air and it fell all the way down over the
banister and shattered. So I was without a phone all weekend. Uh.
And it was like literally like Mr Bean combined with

(03:38):
the woman from that commercial about how iPhones new iPhones
are unbreakable or whatever, but she only dropped it from
like shoulder height down. I dropped it, Uh, you know,
a whole story down, and you gave us some added
hype I throwing it up first, Yeah I did. I
did make that sound. And my wife said, you're so

(04:01):
old as at when I accounted that to her. So
it combines both a k S I'm washed as fucked
and incredibly tripable easy to trip. I'm I might be
one of the more easy to trip people in the world. Uh. Anyways, series,
we're going to get to know you a little bit
better in a moment. First, we're gonna tell our listeners

(04:23):
a couple of the things we're talking about. We're gonna
talk about that uh Cloak and Dagger club that was
open in l A that was like basically, you know,
used goth trappings and uh eyes, wide shut vibes too, cloak,
what was essentially an old fashioned toxic rape culture. UM.

(04:46):
So we'll talk about that. We'll talk about the police
in Atlanta, how they treated one of the murder victims
husbands compared to how they treated the murderer. Uh. And
we're gonna talk about series's peace a tradition of violence,
the history of deputy gangs in the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department, which is the first three parts of a

(05:09):
thirteen part series came out Monday morning, uh, and mind
blowing chips. So we're gonna talk about that. We're gonna
talk about Spring break in Miami. We're gonna talk about
that college scandal getting the obligatory streaming documentary. Uh, kind
of a dramatic film like woven in There. Also real

(05:33):
easy on the parents. Oh yeah, uh, and on the institutions.
It's just like this guy what a what a huckster? Huh,
but you kind of gotta kind of gotta appreciate his hustle. Anyways,
we'll talk about all of that plenty more. But first three,
we like to ask our guests, what is something from
your search history that is revealing about who you are,

(05:55):
what you're up to? Uh, that sort of thing. Oh god,
I mean my search history is all just like deputy
gang ship for a Google search, because I saw you
like on your Twitter too, you have like all of
as of now known affiliates, uh of within the l

(06:15):
s D that are gang affiliated. And how what does
a Google search like if you were trying to begin
to do they just be like share deputy blah blah
blah gang or what's sort of the methodology in like
sort of doing that kind of research using Google and stuff? Yeah? Um,
so generally when I use Google, um for that sort
of thing, I have already identified a deputy, and I'm

(06:38):
trying to find out, um, what they're up to in
their current life. Probably the best one that I found
is a man named Cliff Yates who was responsible for
at least one death that we know of, a man
who was beaten to death inside of Men's Central Jail.
This guy is now trying to be an actor. So

(06:58):
when you pull him up on Google Goal, you get
his website, you get his head shots, you get his
motivational YouTube channel. Um, you get books that he's written
about becoming a vegan, and you also get the book
that he's written about being a law enforcement officer for
thirty five years, called Deputy. And that's where a book
in which he describes police work as quote hunting for humans.

(07:20):
I am on Cliff Yates dot com right now, uh
and uh, I mean I think that also speaks to
just the idea, even like in the first part of
this series of Protected Class, what that even means to
be a law enforcement and clearly like the after when
you're out, even though the way you look back and

(07:40):
describe your work with such arrogance or like the idea
that there's no accountablit like, yeah, that was my job
to haunt humans is do we know? Does he is
he actually working as an actor? Um, he's put on
a few comedy shows regular. Of course, it's some common
fun that he's a regular at the comedy store. He was, yes.

(08:06):
Oh shit, man, If anyone if annys like getting has
witnessed the comedic stylings of Cliff Yates hit us up
on social I'm curious. What is routine? Is what feeling
very disconnected from any kind of reality most humans are living? Wow? Um,
what is something you think is overrated? Hm? Hmmm, something

(08:30):
I think is overrated? I would say tooth gems tooth
jee like having to putting the little jewel like on
the front of your tooth. Yeah, are you do? You
know a lot of tooth gemmers. When I was um

(08:52):
investigating um illegal COVID parties a few months ago, I
was coming across a lot of tooth jummers And I've
seen it blow up a lot um on social media,
Like in quarantine, people wearing tooth gems. I just think
they're like ugly. Personally, I'm big on wearing grills girls,

(09:16):
but like gluing it to the tooth, I don't know
something about that. It's just like I don't know too far.
Maybe I don't know what it is up teeth as
a kid, so I had old school metal braces. I
do not want to revisit fixing things to my teeth anymore,
Like I want I want grills on my cannines, on
my size or teeth. It's been a thing I've always

(09:38):
wanted since I think method Man. Method Man had it
in the Source I think Source magazine cover and he
was like this, and I was like, yes, I'm in
l A and I want to look like from New York,
from Staten Island. But I knew that he had those
before I even saw a picture of him, because because
he was like off his grills. But yeah, that ship

(10:00):
looks I would definitely picture, especially because there's so many
different types of braces, and like a lot of them
are like the glued on like little dots on the teeth.
That's exactly That's what I would think tooth gems were.
That's pretty much what they are. Sometimes they're like you
can get like little logos. I've seeing people with like

(10:20):
the Nike check that's weird. I don't I get to
see again this is where I'm washed. I'm like, I
remember what he used to be gold in not fucking logos,
like on your fucking teeth, like the fuck. I also
love the overlap of COVID party throwers and gemmers, and

(10:42):
it's just a circle. It's just like, you know, I
have a feeling it's if you've got tooth gems, chances
are you're throwing or have been too many illegal COVID parties.
Probably was this like sort of in that era when
you were investigating it, like when the city was having
like shut power off to like certain homes and things. Yeah,

(11:02):
but from what I uncovered in my reporting, that was
really only done a like, um probably like less than
ten houses that games to my knowledge, um, and the
city the last I checked, they hadn't prosecuted anyone for
violating any of those rules. So, you know, so just

(11:23):
a lot of hot air. Huh pretty much? What did
you uh? Like? What what was the scene like? Was
there anything that surprised you about the scene? Was? Was
it all like I think my understanding was that it
was all like TikTok houses and ship those were the
people that were getting the shutdowns. Yeah, the parties, Um,
it was a lot of the same people that you

(11:46):
see at the underground parties outside of covid um unfortunately. Um,
there were a lot of people that I spoke to
in the scene that like, you know, had make it,
had taken a public stance too, not party um while
we were shut down. But you know a lot of
the same people that you hear mutterings about for you know,

(12:07):
bad behavior on other things are the same people throwing
these events. So you know it's the same people that
you would expect, right, Is there like sort of the
same mechanisms within that scene like protecting these people or
it's accepted or you know, like what is it that
allows someone like that to sort of continually operate? Yeah?
I think the same things that allow people like that

(12:29):
to operate in any other sam influence and whatever and
proximity to that is enough for people to just sort
of not rock the boat, I think. So. Yeah. And
how wide spread was it, like you we heard about
the ones that were shut down, was it pretty all?
Was it kind of all over the place? Um? Most
of the ones that I know about were never shut down. Um.

(12:52):
And they still continue to operate to this day, and
celebrities like go to them, like the game hosted and
at one of these clubs last night, you know, so
they operate pretty openly and no one really seems to
care do anything about it. L A was I was
listening to the radio this weekend, uh for the first

(13:13):
time in years because my phone was broken. Uh, and
the radio like had all these contests that were about
like winning money because l A was opening back up
and like this is like the opening back up weekend,
so like, win your money so you can get back
out there. Like it was just openly assumed that like,
all right, guys, pandemic over, let's uh starter gun, let's

(13:37):
let's all get back out there. It was pretty wild. Yeah,
not helpful given given the situation that we're in in
the world. But I now know all the words to
driver's license, so that is good because that song is
played every I think that song is one fourth of
all songs that are played on one that ample. I

(13:58):
was going to guess, what are you listening to? Like him? Right,
because yeah, my kids like the pop music, so children
is that a tale of a isn't I was my partner,
her majesty, was explaining the lyrics of that song. She's like,
it's the biggest song right now. I'm like, I don't
know what this is about, Like it's about real drama,
Like I think this guy was with someone. I'm like,

(14:19):
I don't, I don't know. Is this like River? Yeah,
it's a little like crimey River, But she like references
a song he wrote about her, So I think that's
like more there's like a little bit more explicitness about
like who she's talking about. Uh, And then it's just
catchy and I will sing for you guys during the

(14:41):
commercial break. What is uh something you think is underrated?
Deputy Games mm hmmm, say more. Yeah, I mean it's
it's just pretty much it's been an open secret and
Lot Angeles County for the past fifty years. Um, people

(15:04):
in government from the local level all the way up
until the federal level have known about it, um, dating
back to at least the nineties. And you know, there
haven't been any significant internal investigations or policy changes. Um.
You know, if anything, police officers and law enforcement officials
have seen their rights continually protected and beefed up. And

(15:26):
you know, it's something that we really don't talk about
as much as we should. I think I think a
lot of people, um are sort of aware it functions
like an open secret, right, we know about it, but
it's not really something we like talk about or engage with.
And I'm hoping that, you know, by writing this series
and talking more to people about it, Um, it's something
that we think about more and hopefully do some things

(15:48):
to change because a lot of people have died. Yeah. Yeah,
and it's it's wild too because I remember my first
thing growing up in l A. Was hearing about like
the Bandidos gang and being like, what my cops are
in gang? Like you know, there's like a younger kid
that like and it was like a story for a second,
and then I'm sure whatever screws they turn up from

(16:09):
the sheriff's department, like on the news channels are just
like okay, And then we talked about it once. Um.
But then to actually, like, as time goes on and
my awareness increases about this sort of trend and you
actually see how organized it is, it really is sort
of shocking to think, how do we let this exist
at all? But I mean there are so many things

(16:29):
that should know they should not be uh existing, or
systems of oppression that exists, but they continue to. But yeah,
really looking forward to talking more about that later on Yeah.
There there's a person at one point in one of
your first three articles that calls to report a I
think they say, like a gang beating, and then like

(16:51):
halfway through the call like realized that it's the police,
And like, I just think that people when they picture
this sort of thing that are like, well, it's like,
like we've talked recently on the show about Den of Thieves,
that Gerard Butler movie, And even though the movie is
like these guys are real bad dudes, Uh, they're like

(17:15):
doing it with some like code attached to it, and
it's like a means to an end. And I just
think like people, unless you've experienced it or read reporting
like you're doing here, it's hard for people to fully
conceive that, no, this is just this is just straight

(17:35):
up like criminality and murder that is happening that people
are getting away with, like because of institutional corruption, like
that's all it is, or like the times you see
it in media, it's like, well, they're the gangs have gangs,
so yeah, maybe the police are kind of doing their
thing to like also be a gang. Like that's such
a fucked up presentation of it. But most of the

(17:58):
most of the presentation of any kind of law enforcement
is straight up propaganda anyway. But yeah, this that movie
especially was one where it's like, I mean, like at
least there's like camaraderie in this like cop gang that
they're just violating the law, like they're also criminals. Huh yeah,
s Gerard Butler. So it's an actual movie. Yeah, fire
with fire. That seems to be like the the motto

(18:22):
and that. Have you you've seen that movie series? Oh yeah,
I have, yes, And you know in that movie they
talk about actually one of the gangs that we write
about or that I wrote about in this series on
the Regulators. Mhm. Right, even then, like they're they're aware
enough to know about it, but still just be like

(18:42):
and then we'll call out a real gang but not
have any sort of real commentary on it. And they
have tattoos in the in the movie, Like I think
they just like borrowed, they like fictionalized a gang, but
it was like pulled from details of actual actual gangs
and decided to make them the protagonists. All right, let's

(19:04):
take a quick break and we'll be right back. And
we're back, and there is a l A Times report
about Cloak and dagger Um, which was a sort of

(19:26):
like gothy private club um that was in the back
of a whistle, Yeah, a popular bar in Hollywood called
Pig Hum Whistle. It was like intentionally cloaked in this
this mystery and this like you know, they people got

(19:48):
tattoos of a cloak and like there were initiation rituals
and it was very uh like, if you hear somebody
talking about it, then then you have to tell us
so we can kick them out because nobody like air
of secrecy. And then it just sounds like behind the
scenes it was these two like fifty something uh, white

(20:09):
dudes who were using it as an opportunity to like
hit on the women who worked for them, uh and
just enabling sexually abusive behavior by celebrities and just like
by people who they wanted to be friends with. It
seems like Thomas middle Ditch from Silicon Valley is implicated

(20:31):
in this report for what sounds like, by all accounts,
sexual assaulities, groping women without their consent. But yeah, it's
it just seems like all of the kind of ship
you would expect from a frat house, but because it
was with an air of goth like they got away

(20:54):
with it for years. Was it also just like I
mean it sounds like just another play where wealthy people
or money people could just go to do whatever they
wanted to, uh, without you know, any interruption from people
or control who was coming in and out to sort
of perpetuate whatever was going on. Yeah, I think that's

(21:16):
DOCO have always had weird vibes, just always did. Oh yeah,
I mean I never went, but I have friends that
went UM and I have friends that UM new people
that worked there back before COVID. I mean, like it's
it's sort of like perpendicular to the scene that I
would go out and participate in. But you know, there

(21:38):
were always whispers like that's a weird place, don't go there,
rape vibes, right, So I wasn't surprised by that reporting. Yeah,
it's I mean just seeing like the like list of
the people that go there, Like it truly was like
a lot like Diplo with DJ there. You have Thomas
middle just going there and it's just all people we

(22:00):
know that how weird vibes stories circling around them, which
is weird. How like it goes from people being like that,
you know, the evolution of being able to call something
for what it is because at first you hear things
like oh that I hear he's creepy, middle ditches, weird
or grasshole or things like that, and then over time

(22:20):
then you have the reporting where we have this way
of not knowing how to describe something for what it
is sometimes and or rapey vibes and things like that,
and then you come to and you're like, no, this
place was enabling. Yeah there was actual sexual assault going
right right. And I think when people say like weird vibes,

(22:41):
like it's easy to be like, yeah, well, it's like
people in cloaks, and you know, there's like all these
rituals of course, you know, like mistake what the you know,
assume assumed that. Okay, So that's the weird part, and
the weird part is or the you know, problematic part
is and credibly common, and it's the it's the thing

(23:02):
you see in institutions all over the place that especially
ones that are able to like you know, cultivate an
air of exclusivity and secrecy. Like anytime that's happening, you've
got to be extra extra worried, you know, from the
Catholic Church to college fraternities too. Whatever it is, like, uh,

(23:24):
corporations like on on corporate retreats, fucking pandex Press corporate
retreat We just heard that somebody was abused during a
corporate retreat, during like a team building exercise. So yeah,
and then like the l A Times story like ties
it to the reckoning for l A goth Um and

(23:48):
Marilyn Manson, They're like, well, the figurehead of Los Angeles
goth Marilyn Manson, is finally facing some consequences. But that
that seems it's given him a lot of credit. And
I think that this has been a long time coming
thanks to the brave people who have decided to speak up.

(24:09):
This is something that's been going on, Like there have
been shitty people in the l AGAs scene for a
long time. It's another one of those open secrets. And
I'm happy that, um, the women and the other people
that have been abused by these people are you know,
feeling safe enough to talk about it. And I, you know,
I always think that sunshine is the best medicine, so

(24:32):
I'm hoping that just can fix fix that scene. Yeah,
all right, let's let's talk about just another detail that's
emerging from the mass murder in Atlanta last week. Um,
the so we we've already discussed that. Um, the police
were willing to you know, extend the empathy to the shooter,

(24:56):
to talk about how he was having a bad day.
Just a detail that came out over the weekend is
that is the account of Mario Gonzalez, who was with
his wife Delna Ashley you on, at a massage parlor.
They got a babysitter for their infant daughter to you know,

(25:16):
go do something together as a couple. They we're getting
massages in separate rooms. He heard the shooting, but was
you know, too afraid to leave his room. The police
showed up and basically arrested him, kept him in cuffs
in a patrol car for four hours. Uh, He's Mexican,
thinks that that might have had something to do with it,

(25:38):
And they wouldn't tell him what had happened to his
wife until they got confirmation that he was her husband,
at which point they told her that she had been killed. So,
you know, not quite as concerned about him having a
bad day or what what he was going through during
during that process. Just I mean, just just all the

(26:03):
energy even to coming from conservative media to obscure like
what this was, um, and what the what you know,
what ills of our country? This is actually exposing to
just kind of pivot to well, it's not this, it's
this other thing. And if it is that, who knows?
In any way? What why don't we talk about sex addiction?
But maybe not in a way that actually is going
to address any kind of issue we have with maybe

(26:25):
our this like puritanical culture that the United States has
as well, where people are looking at their own sexuality
is like this devant thing or and acting it out
in problematic ways. Or if we're not going to call
it a hate crime against Asian people, then what about
is it against women? Is it sex workers? Are we
then going to have a conversation about how we create

(26:47):
a new way of communicating, of looking at people with
more empathy, um in that sense, But no, it's just
sort of let's just argue about the labels first, to
not do anything substantive, and it's just it's just yeah,
it's it happens every time, happens every single time. UM,
And it's it's starting to feel you know, I don't know,

(27:08):
it's already just it's just compounding a NonStop year of
shitty events. You all right, let's talk, uh sis about
about the piece you are reporting for knock l A.
Is that uh you can you talk a little bit
first of all about that publication and like how how

(27:29):
the peace came came about? Yeah, definitely. UM. So knock
l A is the journalism arm of a nonprofit here
in l A called ground Game UM. And they do
organizing around UM, you know, like voter registration, UM. They
help people get the vaccine. UM. They did some mutual
aid at the beginning of the pandemic and I believe

(27:52):
that's still ongoing. So they're great. And they have this
journalism outfit that is doing some really great work. As
far as independent media in the Los Angeles UM landscape,
there isn't too much of that, so they're a great addition.
I reached out to them with a list that I

(28:13):
had got my hands on through some public records actual
requests UM. And it's a list that the County of
Los Angeles keeps of litigation that they've been involved in
where deputy gangs have been involved. And I went to
knock and I said, hey, like this is UM. I
think this list could turn into you know, a pretty

(28:34):
big project, UM, and I'd love to work with you
to use this to sort of create a history of
what we know about deputy gangs in the Los Angeles
County Sheriff's Department. And they said, yes, of course, let's
get started. And they were really great, UM with helping
me first of all, pay for everything. UM. Although all

(28:56):
of this stuff is public record, you do have to
pay for it, and that adds up very quickly. This
series cost over three thousand dollars to just research. They
were really great with providing me with some research assistance
to get through quite literally tens of thousands of pages
of documents UM in the past six months. And they

(29:19):
gave me a great home for the website. And they
are helping me build a database of all of the
law enforcement officials that we have identified that have an
affiliate with a deputy gang, which will be available for
the public to use and it will be a living
document that we will be updating for years to come.
That's awesome. So, I mean, for I think a lot

(29:42):
of people they've heard us talk about deputy gangs before
on this show. We've referenced it, We've talked about like
any time. Maybe it becomes a slight news story and
then vanishes pretty quickly. We like to touch on it,
but can you kind of just walk us through the
evolution of the like the gangs within the Sheriff's department

(30:02):
in Nelly County, Yeah, definitely. So the gangs in the
Los Angeles County Sheriff's apartment have existed at least since
the nineteen seventies, starting with a gang called the Little
Devils that was based out of the East Los Angeles station.
There was a huge event in the seventies called the
Chicano Moratorium, which I'm sure you've talked about on this

(30:23):
show as well, Um, which was a demonstration of about
people in East Los Angeles, a heavy the Latin next area,
demonstrating against the Vietnam War. And this event, it's alleged
that Little Devils were a part of a group of
deputies that brutalized people at this demonstration. Um, you know

(30:44):
the photos from what happened that they are atrocious. A
journalist was even killed by a deputy who shot a
can of tear gas at him. His name was Ruben Salazar.
So after that happened, a investigation was done, or I'll
say investigation invitations. Yeah, so it was the chief was

(31:07):
asked to identify members of the Little Devils and a
list was made. But that's that's all that really happened
with that, as far as we know, they were put
on a list, and from that point, I mean, deputy
gangs were pretty much allowed to flourish. Um. The sheriff
at that time, Sherman Block, he said um that he
thought gang members probably got a kick out of deputies

(31:29):
being in a gang and flashing gang signs at them.
At that time, we know of at least um, let's see,
following the nineteen seventies, we know of probably four gangs
that were functioning between the eighties and the nineties. Those
are the Wayside Whities in the Wayside Honor Rancher Jail,
the cave Men, which was sort of like a second

(31:50):
generation of the Little Devils at the East Los Angeles Station.
And there were the Linwood Vikings, which is probably the one,
um we know the most about. They were based in
the Linwood Station and they were identified as a white
supremacist gang by a US federal judge. Um, you know,

(32:11):
that didn't mean they were exclusively white. They had several
um Latino and black members. Um, they're Viking tattoos. They
would change the horns to signify their ethnic identity. And
you know, they would just essentially go out and terrorize people.
They would you know, hold families at gunpoint, um and

(32:32):
execute unauthorized searches. They chased people and shot them. They
murdered people. One investigator that I spoke to, he believes
that a deputy is responsible for the murder of a
client of his that he represented in a class action
suit against the Sheriff's Department in the Linwood station that
was called Darren Thomas versus Los Angeles that he was

(32:55):
settled in the nineties. But that's how we got a
lot of information about the vikings was as a results
of that case. And in terms of like gangs, right,
we use the term gang and a lot of people
if you're thinking of a street gang, like they're involved
in you know, drugs or whatever other kind of racket, racketeering,
whatever kind of activities. First, what are the activities of

(33:16):
like a sheriff's deputy gang, Like, what what are the
act like what do we see them engage in that
is sort of specific to these organized groups within the department. Yeah,
I would say they functioned pretty much like a typical
criminal street gang. The California penal code um there are
a couple of signifiers that they look forward to categorize
something as a street gang, one of which is a

(33:37):
common hand sign, common tattoo. We've got that and engaged
in crimes. We've seen deputy gangs engage in, you know, drugs.
We've seen them engage in robberies. We've seen them engage in, yes,
drive by shootings, assaults, murders, so, you know, rape much

(34:00):
anything that a criminal streak gang does, the deputy gang does.
They're just doing it in uniform right and using the
authority of this state to justify the violence. And then
it seems like every time that they are uh, somebody
attempts to bring them to justice, and the police force

(34:20):
of the city tries to like deal with the gangs.
There's a pattern of it being so weak or so
ineffectual the penalties that the gangs almost seem entitled to
do more and do worse, like, at least so far
in your reporting the part that I'm up to, it

(34:41):
just seems like it's a pattern of them doing something unbelievably,
you know, out in the open brutal racist They get
brought up on that and there's either settlement, but there's
never any criminal repercussions, and and that seems to make

(35:02):
the gangs feel like, oh ship, we can we can
do this and more. Oh yeah, in terms of like
saying right, we have to bring things into the light
of day, right to try and sanitize the situation. What
are the current obstacles I mean, aside from you know,
systemic white supremacy that allows these sort of structures to

(35:26):
remain in place. Are what are the kinds of awareness
that we can bring to the public to obviously create
more public pressure or how do we how what is
what is the way to remedy this based on what
you've investigated? Yeah, um, well, there are a lot of
groups that have been involved in this work for a
long time, which longer than I've been investigating it. One

(35:46):
in particular that um I would like to point people
to is to check the SHAREFF Coalition. They work with
the a c l U that has been monitoring deputy
gangs for years um and they're organizing around a lot
of things that could change these policies. Like one thing
that I learned about that I didn't know about was
the peace Officer's Bill of Rights, which is a law

(36:09):
that exists in most states that gives UM law enforcement
officers the right to know everything about an investing a
criminal investigation that they are the subject of. They get
to meet with a union representative and a lawyer and
review all that before they talked to any investigators. The
investigation has to be completed within a year or they

(36:31):
cannot be charged. Um. And that's that's the case in
most states. Um, So this isn't. This isn't that's not
specifically just a Los Angeles problem. That's that's something that's
happening all over the country. But yeah, it's it seems
like this this is a problem, Like when you read
about reporting of corruption and NYPD, like there's all sorts

(36:53):
of well, it might not be like organized gangs with
hand signals like that. It seems like there's a very
common problem there. Yeah. I mean, it's just that it's
impossible to bring them to criminal justice under the current system,
and that of course they're going to feel entitled to

(37:16):
continue to I think the first your first report is
called the protected class um, which I think is fitting right.
Oh yeah, one other thing I'd want to mention is, UM,
when we're looking at l A specifically about this. UM,
another reason why you won't see a lot of these
deputies charged in these shootings. UM it goes back to

(37:39):
the district attorney. Right. The district attorney is the one
who decides whether or not they'll be prosecuted. The district
attorney and the sheriffs are now in the same union,
I believe, so you know, there's a really symbiotic relationship there. UM.
Oftentimes the police union, you know, they'll just straight up
threatened the district attorneys. UM, and they'll say, you know,

(38:00):
like if you're going to prosecute our guys, like, don't
count on us to show up and testify when you have,
you know, a high profile case, that type of thing.
The union will really hold people hostage. So there are
a lot of people involved in this, right Yeah. I
mean even over the summer, like when even the city
council here was even mulling over defunding the police department

(38:22):
or law enforcement like the show of force to be
like hey, we you know a very like very seemingly
innocent being like hey, we're all here together. But when
you see a group of people telling you, oh, man,
like who's going to protect you? Who's going to protect you?
And saying things like that to somebody who's possibly in
a position to bring accountability, like, yeah, you see that
there's many things at work that's a you know, propping

(38:45):
them up. Who's going to protect you from us? Right? Essentially?
For instance, yeah, the the Salads our story was wild, like, uh,
that's kind of where you're reporting starts, and so he
was a journalist who had been critical of law enforcement, right,
and then he gets you know, shot and killed by

(39:08):
a crowd controlled device, which is something we're still seeing
to this day, like maiming people. Yeah. Yeah, that story
was really hard for me, um to read because it's
it's like kind of like looking in a mirror, right,
like doing the same stuff now I've been shot um

(39:30):
with less than lethal ammunitions by police. Um, yeah, it's
the same things are happening today, right, Like the work
that you're doing is so important and something that to me,
I would immediately begin to shy away from, like you know,
just to be like the fear that I already have
in innately of police. But then for you, like and

(39:52):
the work that all people do activists around this, I
think is really impressive because yeah, like there are examples
of retaliation for those trying to bring them to account,
and like reading that on top of the history of
how these gangs operate, it's really just seems like a
like a like just a daunting task, but one that,
like you said, is absolutely necessary for people to become

(40:14):
aware of it because the more it just operates in secrecy,
then it's just gonna proliferate and flourish and we'll the
next thing, you know, we're like, wow, how did this
get here? Because we haven't brought the attention to it.
So for that, like, yeah, very grateful for the work
that you and many others do in that in that space,
because it helps us to sort of understand really what's
at stake in the city. The story about them, Um,

(40:38):
I think it's a person in the community that they murdered,
and then that when that man's child is like a teenager,
they threatened the child basically too, saying like we we
have our eye on you. Like it's like they're generationally
like cruel and uh talia tory against just anyone who

(41:03):
crosses them. Yeah, I was speaking to the family of Um,
a family member of Anthony Vargas yesterday and that's a
young man who was killed by the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's apartment UM Bendito s gang. And she was telling
me that, you know, the deputies will park outside of

(41:24):
her house and talk to her nieces and nephews and
threaten um Anthony's older brother. So you know this, like
I said, that story that you were talking about, Jack,
that happened thirty years ago, but these same tactics like
that that that was going on this week. Unbelievable. All right, Well,

(41:44):
hopefully we can have you back as the as more
parts of the story are published. All right, let's take
a quick break and we'll be right back, and we're back,

(42:06):
and before we move on three. So I was just
curious because I I think, you know, heading into uh,
I guess, the my adult life. I assumed that the
mainstream media was like doing was like good enough, you know, uh,
sufficient to you know, fulfill the obligation of journalism and

(42:30):
in our country, into our society, and that like you know,
weeklies or alternative papers, all weeklies when I was becoming
an adult, is what they were like. That that was
you know, just additional stuff, but if it was like
really important that the mainstream media would kind of report
on it. So I was just curious to hear you

(42:53):
talk about like how you made the decision to kind
of go to publish this report through uh, you know,
ground Game, as opposed to like l A Times with
the New York Times, which seems like you should be
reporting on this front page. Definitely, Um, And I'll just
make a quick distinction of Knock is like technically separate

(43:14):
from ground Game. They're they're friends, but technically separate. I Yeah. So,
I mean this is a story that I've wanted to
do for years. And this is a story that you know,
a lot of those organizations that you just shout it out,
The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, this is
something that they've known about for longer than I've been alive. Frankly, Um,

(43:35):
there were articles that I read, um from papers like
that where they would put in like two paragraphs about
you know, these deputy gangs and then move on and
forget about it. Frankly, it's just not something that they're
interested in. I've worked in newsrooms in places like that,
and I recently had a very public reckoning with one

(43:56):
of them, Casey or w where I spoke about the
racism that I faced. So, you know, frankly, in my opinion,
this just isn't something that mainstream news rooms are interested in.
One because it affects low income people of color, which
they don't think is a community worth investing in or
worth covering. UM. Secondly, a lot of mainstream organizations just

(44:19):
like don't want to take this stuff seriously UM stories
that go on in places like that. I can't tell
you how many times I have pitched stories UM focusing
in brown and black, low income communities that are passed
over again and again and again. So this story didn't
happen before because of systemic racism. And I chose to
go with an independent news outlet because they were the

(44:41):
ones that We're willing to spend money that they frankly
didn't have, and time that people were volunteering their time
to help me with us. They knew that it was
something worth investing in. And frankly, I think that that's
really where good reporting happens, because mainstream use rooms just
frankly don't give a ship. They have their own agendas

(45:04):
and it's just to be complicit in upholding the facto
white supremacy or whatever, and any story that gets near
something that would bring awareness that could precipitate some change,
like is it worth it is? It's something we're interested in.
Will people read it without actually thinking of, like fundamentally,
how you're supposed to operate journalistic, like in terms of

(45:24):
a journalist or an outlet to inform the public about
what is happening where they live. And that's that advocation
of responsibilities. Yeah, it's sucked up. And then we're left
to having to a think of like where our news
comes from, and I think most people aren't able to
even think critically of where their news is coming from
and how it's being presented and why it's being presented

(45:45):
a certain way. Yeah, alright, Uh so we are gonna
make that the very first link where people can read
a traditional violence the history of Deputy Gangs in the
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in the foot notes. But um,
and people need to check it out because it's frankly
better than anything I've ever read in the New York

(46:08):
Times or Los Angeles Times, And thank you so much.
I've been rejected from both both of those newsrooms. UM
uh yeah, so thank you for that compliment. Yeah, that's
what's so upsetting for us to to talk about like
always what's in the news, and we're like, there's so

(46:28):
many things that are in the news that are not
in the news, you know what I mean. Um, And
it takes like having to be like, Okay, well we're
not going to count in fucking MSNBC. They're gonna talk
about this ship. Um. So you know, people have to
constantly look and remind ourselves about like truly like what
what the news is trying to get people to think

(46:48):
about their own world at times. Yeah, I try to
actively avoid uh, MSNBC, CNN, New York Times, like just
because I think that that is the sort of of
mainstream narrative that our listeners probably encounter the most. And yeah,
it's incredibly biased. Let me say something else about the

(47:10):
New York Times now that since we're airing them out.
I once at a meeting with an editor at the
New York Times, um for a story, and it was
a story that had been covered before by a smaller outlet,
and you know, I I went into the meeting saying,
you know, this is this has been done by a
smaller outlet. But you know, don't worry. I've got I've
got another angle. It's different. And they said, huh, okay,

(47:32):
so done, buy a smaller outlet. Hut. And I start
panicking a little bit, you know, like, oh God, like
they're going to kill my pitch. And she says, New
York Times hasn't done. It hasn't happened yet. And that's
that's truly the attitude that they have any and like,
we see how many how many journalists do we see
saying I wrote this story six months ago, and now
The New York Times is running it like it's a
brand new thing. That's that's their bread and butter. It's

(47:52):
what they do that in normalizing Nazis. Yes, they're like,
oh my god, this Nazi likes fucking I can't believe
it's not butter spray? Would you believe it? Anyway? Alright,
let's talk about spring Break, which was going off over

(48:15):
the weekend in Miami on Miami Beach. The videos we're
pretty wild, just a ton of kids doing I don't know.
I I have a hard time putting myself in their
position because I never had a full year of my uh,
young life just swallowed by a pandemic. But I certainly

(48:35):
understandable that they're, you know, wanting to get out there.
I think it's just there's just so many elements too,
Like one, you have Florida that's like, hey, baby, it's
wide open down here, because Rhonda Santis is like being like,
I don't we don't know about COVID. Really forget that
we have the highest concentrations of the B seven variant

(48:55):
in the state. But there's a lot of like there's
just I've seen all so too. Um, just the vaccine
rollout has definitely contributed for many people that begin like
operating a new sort of headspace of perceived safety when
I'm not quite sure there actually is. I mean, it's
it's fantastic the vaccine is being rolled out, but not
to the extent I see and hear people discuss like

(49:17):
what they think the world is at the moment. So
in the Mayor of Miami had to set a curfew
from eight pm to six am for the next three weeks.
Um just trying to just trying to discourage people on
spring break from coming down there. But I think it's, yeah,
it's tough. You've got a generation of kids who are
like in their prime partying years, and I try and

(49:40):
put myself in the mindset of an eighteen to twenty
two year old person, and I'm like, I don't know
if I kind of I'm fucking reckless. I don't know
what you want to say. But we're adding layers of like,
you know, there's responsibility to others in the community you're
entering the party that isn't quite there. But yeah, just
it's a just an overall, you know, trend, I think
in general, not just Miami itself. Like I'm saying, like

(50:03):
the vaccine rollout is as I see, it feels like
a very yeah, like has this false sense of safety
that a lot of people are just like immediately buying into,
even when they themselves are like I'm not gonna get
the vaccine yet though. But the the like the sound
bites from some of the kids, they were just saying
like we will not like I will not stop partying. Um.

(50:26):
I think one of the quotes was we will continue
to rage. So I mean, like, what do you how
do you look at it, like in terms of seeing
spring Breakers right now series and like the party scene
you were covering, like the mentality is it? Is it nihilistic?
Is it pure ignorance? Like how what what sort of

(50:48):
like the fuel from from how you see it? Yeah,
I mean the kids that I spoke to in the
party saying they really didn't believe that COVID was dangerous, right. Um.
A lot of them were telling me that they thought
that the government was lying to them about, you know,
how many people had died and the death rates and

(51:10):
that stuff like that, and they sort of finished it
off with, you know like, I you know, I'm young,
I haven't gotten sick, and none of my friends have
gotten sick. Um, so whatever. There, they really weren't um
so much thinking about people around them and how it
might affect them. Yeah. I really don't think they really

(51:31):
care about others. Um, that was my takeaway. Yeah, yeah,
I mean I'm trying to think of like two year
old person that actually does care about others at that stage. Um,
So as you ship, like when you're coming into a
world that's like societally reflecting back to you that no
one gives a funk about you, So you know, like

(51:53):
it's just that you know that I can totally see
how that feeds the mentality of like nobody gives a
funk about We don't live in the country where people
give a funk about each other, So what the funk?
Why are we now trying to give a funk about
each other? Yeah? Yeah, And it's hard to like the
this disease in particular when the people who are so

(52:13):
who are UM more at risk are not the young
people who are of like spring break partying age, like A.
I think it's just even though it's should be simple
to just be like, yeah, but you're killing old people.
I feel like that that is a population that's uniquely

(52:37):
ill suited to give a shit about that, unfortunately, and
they're killing young people to write. I mean there was
that I forgot that athlete that collapsed after having COVID,
Like yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And even now, like
you even look at l A, like what overt of
the people that are in the hospital coming from people

(52:58):
under fifty although the deaths are happening for people over fifty,
but right now people under fifty or a majority of
the hospitalization. So like that. I remember early in the pandemic,
everyone's like, it's an old people's disease, like the old UM.
But yeah, I guess it's hard to like inform people
when and you could get like long COVID too if

(53:18):
you're young. That's that's the other I think that's even
scarier than dying. YEA, Yeah, I feel like why didn't
they do like a fucking you know, this is your
brain on drugs type campaign about COVID, like you know
what I mean, because everything I had to like seek
out like medical like journal things that we're talking about
purely like really what the long term effects could be

(53:42):
that we're like I think touched on and like a
sentence or two in a normal like a news article
like online, But like, those are the moments that really
had me very much concerned about my safety or what
it meant to be careless about what I think, how
contagious it is or isn't, because yeah, I mean we had,
you know, one of our guy who flew in the
pandemic to go back home to the UK because the

(54:03):
borders were closing. She caught COVID on the flight, and
she was talking about to this day. How you know
she's she's in her early thirties, not like you know,
no real health conditions, but still has like you know,
the brain fog and moments of like real deep fatigue
and things like that, and that's really something to consider.
But I guess, you know, again, we all have different calculus.

(54:25):
We're going into it with our own, you know, risk
assessment models. Yeah. Um, all right, let's talk about the
Netflix documentary about the college admission scandal. I don't know
if uh you guys had a chance to watch that yet.
I watched over the weekend. Is it a like a

(54:47):
just feature length documentary documentary. The second I heard they
weren't going in on everybody as hard as they could,
I was like, this isn't the thing I want to see,
Like I wanted to do that version of it. It
basically focuses on the the white haired guy that you
saw in all the articles, like the mug shots of him. Um,

(55:09):
and to the point that they have Matthew Modine like
dramatize a bunch of the conversations. They have transcripts for, um,
just give Matthew Modein like a terrible haircut and they're like, yeah,
that'll do. And the conversations like they edited them down,
but it's you know, they're sort of boring, but they

(55:31):
do give you a really good understanding of just like
how rich people think about the world and how little
they think about the ethics of what they're doing, or
how it affects people who have been less, who have
been given less than they have, Like that's just completely

(55:53):
not a consideration, uh, for any of the people. It
seems like during some of the conversations it's going to
be and then they're like, look, I don't give a
shit about the ethics here. I'm just worried, like what
if people find out about this? Um, yeah that sounds right. Yeah,
I mean, I mean that's the way. That's the path
to like ultra wealth is like I don't give a

(56:14):
funk about the ethics, Like I can get it right
and then fuck it. If there's accountability, I'll just fucking
just say, fucking I'm rich. I don't I'm insulated from
all this ship. Yeah. It's also was it really that
jarring to hear how these people would talk? Because I
feel like in a way you're like, yeah, of course, yeah,
not jarring at all, not jarring at all, just more

(56:34):
of like a a interesting collage of that where you're
just like, man, these motherfucker's and like just little details
of how they speak and like what they like. There
are some conversations where one of the moms is like,
you know, my older sister, yeah, or my older daughter,
Like she doesn't give a shit about any like any

(56:55):
of this, so she's not like worried at all. But
my younger one is actually smart, and it's pretty brutal,
like how just kind of distance, yeah, detachment as a
parent to your own children as well. Like there's the
older one that's kind of a weirdo loser, and then

(57:15):
the younger one though that one's smart. I forget her name,
But then because it's yeah, it's more important to them
than it is to the kids obviously, and I think
more important to them from a like appearance's perspective than
it is to uh, like what what benefits they think
they're the kids are getting. The big thing is that

(57:38):
the university is kind of there. There's like one storyline
where they look at the sailing coach from Stanford who
never took any bribes, like directly they all went to
I think the sailing program and the athletic department, and
they kind of make the case that like Stanford was

(57:59):
you know, complete us it and the whole thing. But
it really is like I don't know, the the whole
thing seems to be the the universities like these are
all just people exploiting a wildly corrupt system where you know,
if you give them enough money, like your kid gets
in over somebody more deserving of an education than them,

(58:21):
or of that spot than them, right, Yeah, and giving
it to someone who isn't gonna then enter the world
and use any of that knowledge. They'll just rest on
the fact that they have wealth to rely on versus
people who are trying to get educated for a promobility.
And I think, yeah, just more of you know, as
we talk about like wealthy kids and like how much

(58:42):
the like their parents wealth enables like their lack of
like evolution as an adult. And yeah, you get to
this point it's like, yeah, you want to go to
college or you might learn something, or do you want
to go for appearances not something substantive because we're here
in the optics economy, we're not here for actual comes,
which I think goes across the board. I think for

(59:02):
people who think like that and use their wealth for
good or whatever the funk it is, it's just for appearances,
is not about substantive change, and I love them. Yeah, alright.
And lastly, just an update from a story that we
I think had mentioned on one of the trending episodes
last week that movie Pass had a website up that
was a countdown to the movies starting again or some

(59:26):
ship and it seemed like movie Pass was going to relaunch.
That was a it was a prank. Movie Pas is dead.
Uh and apparently like it was. It might have been
part of a attempt to like kind of pump up
their parent companies stock, which did temporarily blip up too

(59:50):
near one sent to near one penny, so somebody might
have made uh dozens on that one. Yeah, the timer
hit zero yesterday. Uh. Nothing, nothing happened except when you
go to the website, it downloads the text file to
your computer. So don't go to the website. Uh, it's

(01:00:10):
don't don't open whatever it is. One of the people
who was tracking the story did open it and it
just said, okay, sorry. This website was made with around
twenty dollars with no purpose other than two full friends
tweet out by a Twitter user who we have no
affiliation with. The media media did pick it up and

(01:00:33):
say official movie Pass website, which was completely fabricated by
those journalists. So, um, you can say journalists at that journalists. Yeah.
I looked at the U r L. It had the
word movie pass in there, so yeah, thank you. Also,

(01:00:53):
I went to Yale School of Journalism because my parents
gave them seven exactly. Um, now I write blocks well series.
It has been such a pleasure having you on TDZ.
Where can people find you? Read you? Follow you? Yeah,
you can find me um on Twitter and Instagram. Um,

(01:01:17):
just by my name's Serres Castle Um. And I would
love it if your listeners are so inclined to check
out knock l a where my series A tradition of
violence is living. And if they're so inclined, please shoot
us a dollar or two on the knock Patreon because,
like I said this, this research was really expensive and

(01:01:37):
I'd like to keep doing it. Yeah, do that? Is
there a tweeter some of the work of social media
you've been enjoying, Oh, a work of social media that
I've been enjoying. Yes, and I love that baby video,
the video of the baby who sees a video of
her self crying and it's just like, I like becomes

(01:01:58):
like self aware sort of. Yes, Oh baby sees video
of self crying. Oh, there's just download a file to
your website here. No, yeah, I did a text file,
but I just I just saw I just see a
still image of this baby going like this, what's going on?

(01:02:19):
But it looked like they fooled me with that. That
that's still because it definitely looked like a baby being like,
what the fuck is wrong with you? Me? Miles? Where
can people find you? What the tweet you've been enjoying? Twitter, Instagram,
Miles of Gray. Also the other podcast for twenty Day
Fiance where we just kind of blow some steam off
talk about that trash reality show content. Some tweets that

(01:02:43):
I like. First one is from you know Another Value
Local Molly Lambert at Molly Lambert is tweeting, well, I
walked through the Echo Park thrift and everything was from
the two thousands and one girl told her friend a
skirt was quote so y two K so bury me
at sea. I guess over all feeling the washedness come

(01:03:06):
up from us. Another one uh from trash Jones at
Jay Zucks, tweeting if you hear me telling the same
story twice, just let it go. I only have like
six memories and they all take turns, Welcome to podcasting,
and finally at young thug w y n G t
h g W tweets what wtf is quote burning c ds?

(01:03:35):
I love it. I love it. I'm here. Um in
my mind I was like, what are you talking about? Man?
I was burning CDs in two thousand, man, nineteen years right? Okay?
Especially just swapping playlist now on Spotify and ship yea.
A couple of tweets I have been enjoying. Uh live

(01:03:59):
p tweeted, baby, are you okay? You hardly responded to
the Instagram story I posted for the sole purpose of
getting a response from you, and h Calathia tweeted, has
anyone noticed that you park in a driveway but cry
in a Walgreens bathroom? Uh? You can find me on

(01:04:21):
Twitter at Jack Underscore. O'Brien, you can find us on
Twitter at daily Zeykegeist. Were at the Daily Zekeeist on Instagram.
We have a Facebook fan page and a website, Daily
zygeist dot com, where we post our episodes. On our
foot notes, y linkoff to the information that we talked
about in today's episode, as well as a song that

(01:04:42):
we recommend you go check out and enjoy. Vibes. Uh,
specifically this track vibes is right by legendary dance hall
reggae artist Barrington Leave Uh. This just has It's a
track that, like for being reggae, You're expecting, like the
rhythms to drop in, but it doesn't. And still Barrington

(01:05:02):
Levy just scrooning with that voice of his and the
vibes is right that the title does not deceive. And
if you don't know Barrington Levy is, I don't know.
Maybe if you like shine from bad Boy into early
two thousands, if you remember Sidney what Little Liz good
Lie wha um, that was Barrington Levy. If not, you
know what, this is a neworts for you to check out.
So check that one out. I'm too young to know

(01:05:24):
what you're talking about. The Daily is like ice production
of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
visit Yeah I Heart Radio, app, Apple Podcast or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. That's gonna do it
for this morning. We are back this afternoon to tell
you what's trending and we'll talk to you all then
Bye bye

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