September 15, 2023 • 30 mins
UAW goes on strike. What does it mean to YOU?! A union representing nearly 150,000 autoworkers launched a strike early this morning against the Big 3 U.S. automakers. A man was caught inside of a Toyota dealership after attempting to steal a car and plowing into a Beverly Hills Lambo dealership. Crime is seemingly on the rise in SoCal.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
CAMF I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John and Ken Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
We'm Chris merrill in for John and Ken today. Pleasure
being with you always a pleasure. It really is an
honor to be to be with you anytime I get
the chance. Want to start with what is really the
big national news and it will affect you? And really
that's that's what That's what we all want to know.
Whenever we hear the big stories, and in this case
is the UAW strike. Whenever you hear the big stories,
(00:29):
you go, what does this? What does this do for me?
And it may have a couple of different implications for
southern California. The first and most obvious would be any
sort of inventory issues that our dealers have right that
has some obvious and direct implications to a lot of people.
The other thing, which may be a little more difficult
to gauge, is what this does as far as the
(00:53):
overall labor movement in America. I was watching News Nation
today and they had a guy on Submarinean. Submarinean is
his name. He's a reporter with the Yahoo Finances there,
their auto reporter there and they asked him about, you know,
what does this mean to people who are not in
the UAW, this strike that was authorized last night. I
(01:14):
thought this was I thought this was more universal. This
really hits home as to how this could affect us
in southern California, especially considering how many of our neighbors,
our friends, and maybe you are on the picket lines,
you know.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
For this country. For most Americans, they're seeing that labor
is sort of having a moment here in this country.
And we're talking about you know, team starts taking on
as the UPS, SAG and WJA taking on Hollywood, and
I think we're watching here the UAW asking for nearly
forty percent in wage hikes, a defined pension plan adjustment,
inflation adjustments, things like that, Americans asking themselves, why don't
I have that? So we'll see, you know, right as
(01:50):
of right now, the UEW the strikes are very popular
amongst Americans. Three quarters of Americans are actually supporting.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The UAW here.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
But we'll see how that goes as this continues on.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
That's part of the reason that we've seen so many
of these strikes of late, so many of the different
collective bargaining agreements that have talked about here are the
wages now, next year, the year after, and so forth.
What they're doing is trying to build in cost of
living increases to compensate for what's gone on with inflation.
Now employers are saying, wow, we just got hit with
this inflation too. And it is a delicate balance because
(02:21):
while our household incomes are all dropping, you and I
are making less money today than we were a year ago,
and far less money than we were two years ago.
If we haven't had a raise, just based on what
our spending power is, we're making less. The numbers are
the same, but the buying power is dropped, right, So
we're saying, well, we want we want a cost of
living increase a cola. And that's what the UAW is
(02:43):
looking for, is they're looking for that in writing what
is our cost of living increase? They used to have that,
but back when we had the Great Recession, the UAW
took concessions because you remember the Big Three we're all
toast and we had have bail outs for General motors
and for what is now Stillantis. That's a Chrysler, Dodge,
(03:05):
Jeep and Fiat. It's gone through all this. It used
to be dime Leer, and it used to be whatever
used to be Chrysler or whatever. So now we're seeing that.
The UAW is saying, listen, we took one for the
team when we had to, and since then you've seen
profits go up. Your C suite is making forty percent more,
(03:25):
but we're not. We have less as far as our
buying power goes. And the employers not just automakers. I'll
leave them a little bit separate here, and I'll also
leave the studios out of this because they can. But
for employers, they're going I'm talking largely mom and pop stores,
main street, small business. This is where things are hurting
(03:46):
right now. So they had supply chain issues. Finally supply
chain opens up and all of a sudden inflation hits
and so the stores have less buying power. Their prices
are going up in order to try to maintain their inventory,
and they're getting hit with it costs that they didn't
have in the past. And now their employers are saying, yeah,
but we need to make more money to keep doing
this too, And the employers are thinking, man, our bottom
(04:08):
line can't handle this. I don't have nearly as much
sympathy for places like studios who are seeing the streaming revolution.
I have very little sympathy for the studios. I don't
have a whole lot of sympathy for the automakers. I don't,
And I've heard critics that are that are saying, well,
the union's being greedy. They're trying to get a forty
(04:28):
percent raise and they want to work thirty two hours
a week, and that's just greedy. And I thought some
of these demands are what we would call in negotiating
opening salvos, right they're just we're gonna throw it out
there so we can back off of it later. And
they already backed off of like the wage thing. They
asked for forty percent increases, it's down to thirty six
percent now, it'll come down to thirty percent at some point.
(04:52):
But why shouldn't they Why shouldn't they try to be
greedy right now? The c suite is making a killing,
the profits of the automakers are up. And as much
as they're saying, well, we have to be ready for
the the EV's, and the EV's are going to be
costly and all this other stuff, they are positioning themselves
right now. Your GMS, your ford's, your your Stilantis, Chrysler, Fiat, Daimler,
(05:15):
whatever you wanna call them. They are positioning themselves to
be at the forefront of this EV revolution. And when
you think about it, they only have competition from one
other company when it comes to EV's and that's obviously Tesla.
No other EV brand is uh is making waves at all.
So why shouldn't the workers demand their slice of the pie?
(05:39):
And why shouldn't they say, listen, as the pie grows,
we just want our slice to grow the same at
the same rate. And none of this what's good for
business is good for me. Garbage is only good for
me if I actually see the benefits. If if Netflix
is seeing profit but they're not paying the writers anymore,
then how is that good for everybody? If Ford is
(06:01):
seeing the profits but the workers on the line are
not seeing the benefits, then how is that? How is
that rising tide lifting all ships? It's not. It's not.
And it almost makes me think. Been a lot of
complaints over the years, right about executives getting too much,
(06:22):
that their pay raises are going up higher, and there's
this equity divide, right, had the C suite not taken
forty percent pay raises at the Big three automakers. Would
the union be asking for forty percent? No, So the
Big Three seem to be okay with offering twenty percent. Yeah,
(06:45):
they've been offers that when they've started negotiating and said, well,
we'll give you a seventeen we'll give you a twenty
percent pay raise. Well, why would that not have been
good enough for the executives? Why is it that the executives, Well, listen,
if you want me to keep being your chief financial officer,
you're gonna have give me forty more. And the company
goes okay. Meanwhile, you got a guy in the LAS said, hey,
(07:06):
if you want me to keep instelling dashboards, you gotta
give me forty percent more. They're like, oh, dare you
you greedy? Soob, we can get somebody else to come
in here and do that for less. Well, guess what.
You can find somebody else on LinkedIn to be your
CFO for less than a forty percent increase, can't you.
It seems that this greed has consequences, and they're coming
home to roost.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
We'll talk with our technology reporter from ABC and we'll
talk a little bit about what these strikes are and
why the strikes. They're not just striking everywhere, they're what
they're calling targeted walkouts. That is next. I'm Chris Meryllan
for Janakin kf I AM sixty. We're live everywhere on
your iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Mike Deboski Dubuski excuse me, is our ABC News tech
reporter and Mike. I was just talking about the the
UAW strike and one of the commentators I saw from
Yahoo Finance said that this is really labor is having
a moment, so to speak. I was thinking about the
repercussions of the UAW strike as well as the SAG strike,
(08:13):
the WGA strike. You know, the Teamsters almost struck. You know,
you and I talked about that briefly yesterday, and it
does seem as though there may be some momentum for
some union right now, whereas a few years ago it
looked like that momentum had pretty much gone away.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah. Absolutely, it's a really interesting moment for American labor.
Strike summer is a term that people throw around. You
mentioned the dual strikes in Hollywood, ups threatened to strike.
I actually spoke to a guy yesterday in Detroit who
is a member of the UAW, but he actually doesn't
work for the Big Three. He worked for Blue Shield,
Blue Cross or Blue Cross blue Shield excuse me. Yeah,
(08:49):
And they're also striking. They're out on the picket lines
demanding much the same things that the UAW auto workers
are demanding. They see these record profits enjoyed at the
top of their companies, and they have seen the blue
collar level of their companies not see proportional gains in
that regard, and that's what they're trying to correct with
(09:11):
these union strikes and these demands that they're putting forward.
I think you see that show up in the auto industry.
You see a show up in the Blue Cross Blue Shield,
a strike that going on in Detroit right now and beyond.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, we've got Kaiser looking at things here, and we've
had hotel workers in southern California as well. I see
that the head of the UAW there is saying that
the automakers collectively have made twenty one billion dollars in
the first half of the year and billions more in
recent years without giving hourly workers their quote unquote fair share.
After they gave big wage concessions back in two thousand
(09:46):
and nine when General Motors what was Chrysler, Daimler, Fiat
Nut Stillantis, they were all going through bankruptcy and they
they gave, they took one for the team at the time.
Now they're saying, look, we got it. You know, we're
behind twelve years, thirteen, fourteen years here.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
We have to make it up to do Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
they want to recoup the losses that they see as
having missed out since the Great Recession. Now, of course
it's worth mentioning the automaker's point of view here. They're
facing sort of dual challenges here, Chris. One is that
they are facing competition from automakers that build cars here
in the United States that don't employ union labor forces. BMW, Mercedes, Honda, Toyota,
(10:29):
Nissan all has plants here in the United States that
don't use union labor forces. They say that if they
are the Big three, say, if they are to accede
to the uaw's demands, that they're not going to be
competitive with those car makers anymore. The other part of
this is the transition to electric vehicles. Both California and
the European Union have mandated that twenty thirty five is
(10:49):
the year that we have to make the switch over
to gas from gas to electric vehicles, and that is
a multi billion dollars worth of development that the automakers
are facing down. So they say, yes, we have enjoyed
record profits and revenues, but we're going to need every
penny of that if that's going to happen. So the automakers,
you know, make that argument. The UAW makes the argument
(11:10):
that their you know, profits are still outsized, especially when
it comes to the executive level salaries. We're going to
have to see how this plays out here on day
one of the strikes.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Mike Debuski is our ABC News Tech reporter. We're covering
the UAW strike. How close are we? I know that
there has been some negotiation, there's been some offers, but
it seems like we are a ways away on this.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, definitely. So the latest that we have is that
the UAW is sticking to it's about thirty six percent
wage increase demand. Most recently we saw movement from General
motors and this was two days ago. Now they're now
offering twenty percent wage increases. Matches what Ford was offering
earlier in the week, stillantis keeping to seventeen and a
(11:52):
half percent wage increases. There are other offers that they're
making with regards to pension plans and retirement funds, the
lengths of certain work weeks. But if you listen to
certain auto executives like Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford,
he says there's a limit to this, right, we can
only go so far before this does not become economically
feasible for us. One estimate said that this could cost
(12:13):
over the course of the four year contract eighty billion
dollars to the Big three American automakers if they are
to give the union what it wants. They're doing well,
They're not doing that well. So we'll have to see
again how this plays out. It's you know, you can
look at these numbers thirty six and twenty and they're
they're pretty far apart, so you know, we'll have.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
To see it long ways. Yeah, yeah, then Mike, why
not strike all the plants all at once? They just
did a selective strikes or targeted strikes of three plans,
one for each of the Big three automakers.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yes, that's right, So there is a general Motors plant
in Wentsville, Missouri, a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, and
a Stilantis plant in Toledo, Ohio that have all been
stroke or are all striking today. Everything else is up
and running. And it's also worth mentioning that those three
plants are not crucial operations to the Big three. The
GM plant makes the Chevy Colorado. It'spech companies like ninth
(13:10):
best seller the pickup truck Forward. The plants that they
shut down makes the Bronco and the Ranger popular vehicles,
but not you know, overly popular vehicles. And then the
Slantis plant makes the jeep Wrangler, which is a very popular,
valuable vehicle for them. But the thinking is that dealers
have a month's long supply of Wranglers on the lot
(13:31):
and this actually won't hurt them that much, at least
in the short term. So it's an interesting strategy. The
goal here is to make a dent in automakers makers
profits and and you know, the supply of of the
vehicles that they have on dealer lots, but maybe not
to completely shut everything down. The other part of this
is that the UAW has a strike fund, right They
(13:54):
have this big bucket of money that you know would
be depleted more quickly if everyone were to walk off
the job at the same time. By select targeting certain
plants and certain facilities, that extends the life of that
strike fund and potentially allows the UAW to extend this
strike for longer, if that's indeed what they want to do.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
All right, Mike Debuski, our ABC News Tech reporter, Mike,
great to catch up with you. Thank you so much.
Have a great weekend. Let's hope that this comes to
an end soon. Thanks mane Yes, take care banks. All right. Yeah,
So if you can't get a vehicle, what do you do? Well,
if you're one dude in Hollywood, do you decide I'll
just take one? But the cops were watching and he
(14:37):
did it anyway, and it took him forever to catch him.
What in the heck is going on next? Chris merrill
in for John and Ken k IF I am six forty.
We're live everywhere in your iHeartRadio AP.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I'm Chris Maryland for Johnny Ken IF I AM six forty.
Quite the saga last night is this dude is wandering
around inside a Tesla dealership looking for keys, and he's
very nonchalant. Lights are on, lots of people outside watching
what's going on. Police helicopter overhead, shutting the light down.
(15:16):
Guy is just going through the the key box and
he's pushing the unlocked button to see which car. Nah,
I don't think I want the Tacoma I want. I
don't want the Tender. Do I want that? I like
the pres but it feels a little small. Oh, Corolla, No,
I don't want that. That's a cliche. Finally, he settles
(15:37):
on one of the newer model Toyotas and he goes
out there and is anybody capturing him?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
No?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
No, just goes into a lot, grabs a car, speeds off,
but I say speeds off. But he ends up running
into one of those fences. And it's not like the movies.
If you ram into a fence at a low speed,
uh in a Toyota, you don't burst through right away.
You actually have to back up, but do it a
few times. And that's exactly what happened. So Channel seven
had the story on this as they were live on
(16:05):
the scene. I'm live on the scene and as you
can see behind me a fence.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
This is that chain leak fence where the suspect actually
tried to ram his car through and was able to
make a getaway. Some investigators are just coming out here
earlier this morning and closing in. I want to take
a moment to show you what that looked like. Listen
to this.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
She's gonna show us. Listen. It is pretty impressive because
the guy rams the fence and then doesn't get through,
throws it in reverse. Okay at that point, so he
(16:46):
goes through the fence and it's one of those places
got the cars in a fenced in area, and then
he drives the car outside the fenced in area, and
then he's behind a gate, right, so there's another barrier
and he rams into that and he doesn't get through.
He rams it again. Finally he's able to break through,
and you hear as soon as he hits the street.
Then I don't know why he wasn't stopped first. He Listen.
(17:12):
This is not criticism because I know I don't have
the full story, but I do know that there was
a helicopter overhead, there was a crime in progress. There
were about a gajillion witnesses this is going to be
all over the Twitter machine with all the photos and
it's going to be viral. And the guy just gets
out and speeds away, takes off out of there. I
(17:35):
have thoughts. I'll continue though.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
For a moment you could see the suspect ramming the
car through the dealership fence multiple times before making his getaway. Now,
this all started around eleven thirty last night at the
Toyota dealership on Hollywood Boulevard. Police responded to a break
in at the dealership and found the suspect inside.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Okay, so police responded, they see the guy inside, feels
like you're on a crime in progress. I don't know.
Maybe they're waiting on backup. Could be.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Now, officers asked the suspect to exit, and instead he
stole a car. You could even see him going through
the keys in the lock box trying to decide which
one to take.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, I wasn't exaggerating. He was taking the keys and
boo do I want that one? Nah, rifles through another.
That's I didn't really want that in a blue oh
just attracts attention. Let's see what, Oh, a white one.
I like that one. I'm not joking. That's exactly what
(18:37):
he did.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
He took off in this white sedan, driving through that
chain link fence and then ramming through the security gate.
This suspect me to get away on Hollywood Boulevard and
that's when a pursuit ensued.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
I don't know. Again, I don't know why the pursuit
ensued instead of he's ramming through the gate. Can't you
stop him from ramming through the gate at the time,
And maybe there weren't cars on scene or something. I
don't know, but I feel like there's more of the
story that not only do I not know, but we
should know. It should be revealed.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Officers tried several times to stop him before he attempted
to break into this Lamborghini dealership, this one in Beverly Hills,
and officers responded to vaccine and the suspect was tased
during the standoffs. Around two am, he was finally taken
into custody.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Wait a minute, guy breaks into a Toyota dealership in
Hollywood and they sit back and they watch and they're like, well,
you know, if he comes out, then we'll go after him.
Tries to get into a Lambeau dealership in Beverly Hills,
and all of a sudden.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
A.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Swap responds. Swap respond, all units, all units. We have
a young black male inside a Lambeau dealership in Beverly Hills.
All units priority one move, move, move, and then they
get him. I told you I thoughts. Don't steal a
car off a lot. Aside from the whole moral legal,
(19:57):
you're an idiot. Everybody hates you, unproductive member of society,
throw away the key, all that stuff. It's just dumb.
You see. Criminals are not smart generally, and what happens
is they go and they steal a car off the
dealer lot, which is behind different gates, has security systems,
and those cars very rarely have any gas in them.
(20:18):
So if you get out and there's a hot pursuit
Roscoe p you're not going very far unless it's an evy.
Maybe you can go a little further than if it's charged.
But if you're going to go steal a Lamborghini, why
did you start at the Toyota dealership.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
That's a very good question.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Don't you believe Deborah that in his mind he was
thinking I'm gonna steal this Toyota and then he got
out on the street and he's police are chasing it, right,
and he's thinking, crap, I need a faster car, and
there's no gas in this one, because they don't put
more than about a gallon or two into these cars
at any given time anyway. So then he goes, I know,
(21:00):
I need a Lambo then I'll be able to get
away because obviously he saw Cannonball run. So he goes
to the Lambeau dealership and then thinks he's going to
get a fast car there. And that's when you really,
you really.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
You're giving this guy a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I just think it was spur of the moment.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
I really you really think he thought those thoughts though
when he was going through the process.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
I mean, that's no I thincause he.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Was getting away, he was like, crap, this was the
wrong car to steal. I need a faster car, and
that's when he went to the Lambou.
Speaker 7 (21:27):
What I'm getting at is, I think these crooks are
ding dongs, and so I don't think he really thought
things through, and I just maybe he just happened to
pass a lamb.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
What is he tim ding dong? Oh, it's not the
smartest person in the world.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I mean, come on, you're so he passed the Lambeau
dealership and that's where he's.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
Like, oh hey, right, and really you think you're going.
Speaker 7 (21:52):
To get away, as you said Beverly Hills, you're going
to be able to get away with.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
Stealing a lamborgh be So this guy is not the
sharp stool in the shed.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
No, and now it'll be he'll be a dull tool
in prison, is what he's gonna be.
Speaker 6 (22:05):
Eating ding dogs, eating ding dogs, all right.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Listen while we talk about these the police chase ding
dongs that are stealing cars. There's more smashes and grabs
that there's a jeweler in Newport Beach. Guys came in
twenty five seconds. They smashed everything up and took off
with about about a buttload of watches thousands of dollars worth.
We'll check with Blake Trolli here in just a few
(22:29):
moments and find out what in the world is happening
with these robberies. And there was one in Chinatown that's
left a woman, an elderly woman in the hospital with
her eyes swomen.
Speaker 6 (22:39):
Did you see her face?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Horrible story I did. It is devastating. That is next
KFI AM six forty we're live everywhere in your iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
The Crime Wave, and we're talking about the crimes across
southern California and break ins all over, smashing, grabs at
the jewelry store and such. Blake Trolley is joining us
right now from the KFI newsroom, and Blake, I guess
I should say you're on the street with your reporting today.
There was one of these horrible incidents of crime where
(23:21):
we actually had some violence occur with a woman in Chinatown.
Speaker 8 (23:24):
Yeah, and you know what, Chris, this isn't even the
first time that we're seeing violence with all this brazen
theft that we're now starting to see across southern California.
Just a little bit of a recap before we get
into this latest incident. Within the last few weeks, we've
seen a jewelry store owner in Pasadena be attacked with
bear spray and including the woman, the elderly woman. He
(23:45):
was walking out of the door. So the thieves came
up to the door. It's a remote door, they timed it,
sprayed hand sprayed the woman that he was walking out
the door, and then proceeded to ransack his store. Not
long after that, again in the same Gabriel Valley. This
time we're in Almani. A thief pepper sprayed the security
guard of the at the front of a jewelry store,
(24:06):
went inside.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Pepper sprayed three.
Speaker 8 (24:08):
Employees, and those employees began fighting back. They I'm sure
you saw the video. It was viral. The staff members
were hitting the guy with a stick and chasing him
down the street and police have identified that guy. So
here we are, you know, within a month, another violent
attack on somebody working. A smoke shop employee was brutally
(24:31):
attacked in LA's Chinatown yesterday. The woman's eyes have been
left swollen shut. This robber walked into the store yesterday,
begins stealing stuff. She goes to confront him and he
pushes her to the ground. She gets up again. This
is all caught on video. By the way, she gets
up again to confront him again, and this time he
(24:52):
punches her in the face, leaving her bloody. So she
has been taken to a hospital. The store's owners say
they're hoping she were covers. The store's owner says the
guy was actually in the store before this happened, and
he says that he notified security, Hey there's this guy
that's you know, been floating around to keep an eye
on him, but security was unfortunately not there yesterday. But yeah,
(25:15):
I mean three violent incidents just off the top of
my head, all here in La County within the last month.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, listen, a lot of these are making, you know,
their high profile. They're all caught on camera. In this case,
I saw the photos of the woman and it is heartbreaking.
I mean, it was a real beating. Like you said,
they're hoping she's going to be okay, it was bad.
It was really really bad. What's the what's the feedback?
I know, whenever we talked to law enforcement, they say, well,
(25:43):
we're doing what we can. Well, we're gonna we're gonna
get better on this. And now I see that the
governor is going to allocate a couple hundred million dollars
to try to really crack down on crime. But it
seems like there's a lot of platitudes by politicians and
not a lot of action.
Speaker 8 (25:55):
Well, I think what people want to see his policy change, right,
People really want to see stiffer punishments for thieves. A
lot of the sentiment that we get, especially when you know,
not so much with the governor's latest announcement, but with
the Retail Crimes Task Force, is people they know, you know,
they know that a lot of people that are being
arrested aren't facing stiff prosecution. Now, prosecutors have fired back
(26:16):
saying that a lot of this stuff is not the
type of stuff that people are going to walk on.
But that said, I think there's just this general feeling
that with the current state of the legal system, it
has emboldened criminals to get to the point that we're
at now. And as to this employee, you know, this
is something that I know was a concern of some people,
(26:39):
was that employees are going to start trying to stand
up to these criminals themselves and they're going to get hurt.
You know, in Almani, you have a success story there, right,
they were able to chase the guy down the street,
beat him up with a stick after all of them
were pepper spray. But in this case, this woman tries
confronting the thief and she's overpowered, you know, she's a
(26:59):
sixty year old woman. So the guy pushes her down.
She tries to get back up and he punches her
in the face. And I know that that has really
been a concern with people getting involved with these so.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Blake Trilli, I can't find new his reporter as we
talk about policy, and I know some people are pointing
fingers at our Dat Gascone, And yet Gascone is now
being sued for catering to people on the right. And
so the people on the right can't stand what he's
doing with crime. People on the left don't like what
he was doing when he came to looking into election interference.
(27:33):
What's the latest on this lawsuit?
Speaker 6 (27:35):
It's fight.
Speaker 8 (27:35):
Yeah, just reading the lawsuit. If you had told me
two years ago that Da Gascone would be wrapped up
in such a lawsuit, I would have never believed that
in a million years.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Right.
Speaker 8 (27:47):
Da gascones being sued by the owner of a Michigan
based software company who says he was wrongfully targeted. Chris
I was at the press conference where the DA announced
the arrest of Eugene u Over in Michigan. The lawsuit
alleges that Da Gascon and members of his staff recklessly
relied on a tip from a Texas based election denial group.
(28:09):
In the case, Eugenieu again. He was arrested last year
in Michigan for allegedly storing election workers' personal information on
servers in China. About a month later, charges against you
were dropped. Other charges were filed, then those charges were dropped. Well,
You says all of this action has led to nearly
(28:30):
half of his clients leaving, costing him eighty million dollars
in business or roughly eighty million dollars in business. The
lead prosecutor at the time when all these charges went down,
he was put on leave. The DA's office has denied
to answer any of my questions about this lawsuit. A
couple of those, where did you use any other evidence
(28:51):
besides this tip that you apparently used from this election
based denial group. The other question that I had was
is that lead prosecutor what is his status with the office.
So those are all questions we're working to get to
the bottom of, but definitely not something I think will
(29:11):
we all forecasted?
Speaker 1 (29:13):
No, none of us did. All right, Blake, thanks for
the hard work this entire week. Great job, my friend,
and thank you for thanks for carrying the water for
me on this show. I appreciate that John and Can
appreciate you not letting it slip through the cracks too.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
All right, Chris, thank you, Thanks Blake.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Blake Trolley KFI News. In just a few moments. There
is an effort to say no new taxes and try
to make it even harder to raise taxes. Well, some
are trying to make it easier to raise taxes. We'll
find out what this is next. I Chris Merril and
for John of Kent today. Kay if I am six
forty We're live everywhere on your iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Hey, you've been listening to the John and Ken Show.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
You can always hear us live on k if I
AM six forty one pm to four pm every Monday
through Friday, and of course anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app.
CAMF I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John and Ken Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
We'm Chris merrill in for John and Ken today. Pleasure
being with you always a pleasure. It really is an
honor to be to be with you anytime I get
the chance. Want to start with what is really the
big national news and it will affect you? And really
that's that's what That's what we all want to know.
Whenever we hear the big stories, and in this case
is the UAW strike. Whenever you hear the big stories,
(00:29):
you go, what does this? What does this do for me?
And it may have a couple of different implications for
southern California. The first and most obvious would be any
sort of inventory issues that our dealers have right that
has some obvious and direct implications to a lot of people.
The other thing, which may be a little more difficult
to gauge, is what this does as far as the
(00:53):
overall labor movement in America. I was watching News Nation
today and they had a guy on Submarinean. Submarinean is
his name. He's a reporter with the Yahoo Finances there,
their auto reporter there and they asked him about, you know,
what does this mean to people who are not in
the UAW, this strike that was authorized last night. I
(01:14):
thought this was I thought this was more universal. This
really hits home as to how this could affect us
in southern California, especially considering how many of our neighbors,
our friends, and maybe you are on the picket lines,
you know.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
For this country. For most Americans, they're seeing that labor
is sort of having a moment here in this country.
And we're talking about you know, team starts taking on
as the UPS, SAG and WJA taking on Hollywood, and
I think we're watching here the UAW asking for nearly
forty percent in wage hikes, a defined pension plan adjustment,
inflation adjustments, things like that, Americans asking themselves, why don't
I have that? So we'll see, you know, right as
(01:50):
of right now, the UEW the strikes are very popular
amongst Americans. Three quarters of Americans are actually supporting.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The UAW here.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
But we'll see how that goes as this continues on.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
That's part of the reason that we've seen so many
of these strikes of late, so many of the different
collective bargaining agreements that have talked about here are the
wages now, next year, the year after, and so forth.
What they're doing is trying to build in cost of
living increases to compensate for what's gone on with inflation.
Now employers are saying, wow, we just got hit with
this inflation too. And it is a delicate balance because
(02:21):
while our household incomes are all dropping, you and I
are making less money today than we were a year ago,
and far less money than we were two years ago.
If we haven't had a raise, just based on what
our spending power is, we're making less. The numbers are
the same, but the buying power is dropped, right, So
we're saying, well, we want we want a cost of
living increase a cola. And that's what the UAW is
(02:43):
looking for, is they're looking for that in writing what
is our cost of living increase? They used to have that,
but back when we had the Great Recession, the UAW
took concessions because you remember the Big Three we're all
toast and we had have bail outs for General motors
and for what is now Stillantis. That's a Chrysler, Dodge,
(03:05):
Jeep and Fiat. It's gone through all this. It used
to be dime Leer, and it used to be whatever
used to be Chrysler or whatever. So now we're seeing that.
The UAW is saying, listen, we took one for the
team when we had to, and since then you've seen
profits go up. Your C suite is making forty percent more,
(03:25):
but we're not. We have less as far as our
buying power goes. And the employers not just automakers. I'll
leave them a little bit separate here, and I'll also
leave the studios out of this because they can. But
for employers, they're going I'm talking largely mom and pop stores,
main street, small business. This is where things are hurting
(03:46):
right now. So they had supply chain issues. Finally supply
chain opens up and all of a sudden inflation hits
and so the stores have less buying power. Their prices
are going up in order to try to maintain their inventory,
and they're getting hit with it costs that they didn't
have in the past. And now their employers are saying, yeah,
but we need to make more money to keep doing
this too, And the employers are thinking, man, our bottom
(04:08):
line can't handle this. I don't have nearly as much
sympathy for places like studios who are seeing the streaming revolution.
I have very little sympathy for the studios. I don't
have a whole lot of sympathy for the automakers. I don't,
And I've heard critics that are that are saying, well,
the union's being greedy. They're trying to get a forty
(04:28):
percent raise and they want to work thirty two hours
a week, and that's just greedy. And I thought some
of these demands are what we would call in negotiating
opening salvos, right they're just we're gonna throw it out
there so we can back off of it later. And
they already backed off of like the wage thing. They
asked for forty percent increases, it's down to thirty six
percent now, it'll come down to thirty percent at some point.
(04:52):
But why shouldn't they Why shouldn't they try to be
greedy right now? The c suite is making a killing,
the profits of the automakers are up. And as much
as they're saying, well, we have to be ready for
the the EV's, and the EV's are going to be
costly and all this other stuff, they are positioning themselves
right now. Your GMS, your ford's, your your Stilantis, Chrysler, Fiat, Daimler,
(05:15):
whatever you wanna call them. They are positioning themselves to
be at the forefront of this EV revolution. And when
you think about it, they only have competition from one
other company when it comes to EV's and that's obviously Tesla.
No other EV brand is uh is making waves at all.
So why shouldn't the workers demand their slice of the pie?
(05:39):
And why shouldn't they say, listen, as the pie grows,
we just want our slice to grow the same at
the same rate. And none of this what's good for
business is good for me. Garbage is only good for
me if I actually see the benefits. If if Netflix
is seeing profit but they're not paying the writers anymore,
then how is that good for everybody? If Ford is
(06:01):
seeing the profits but the workers on the line are
not seeing the benefits, then how is that? How is
that rising tide lifting all ships? It's not. It's not.
And it almost makes me think. Been a lot of
complaints over the years, right about executives getting too much,
(06:22):
that their pay raises are going up higher, and there's
this equity divide, right, had the C suite not taken
forty percent pay raises at the Big three automakers. Would
the union be asking for forty percent? No, So the
Big Three seem to be okay with offering twenty percent. Yeah,
(06:45):
they've been offers that when they've started negotiating and said, well,
we'll give you a seventeen we'll give you a twenty
percent pay raise. Well, why would that not have been
good enough for the executives? Why is it that the executives, Well, listen,
if you want me to keep being your chief financial officer,
you're gonna have give me forty more. And the company
goes okay. Meanwhile, you got a guy in the LAS said, hey,
(07:06):
if you want me to keep instelling dashboards, you gotta
give me forty percent more. They're like, oh, dare you
you greedy? Soob, we can get somebody else to come
in here and do that for less. Well, guess what.
You can find somebody else on LinkedIn to be your
CFO for less than a forty percent increase, can't you.
It seems that this greed has consequences, and they're coming
home to roost.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
We'll talk with our technology reporter from ABC and we'll
talk a little bit about what these strikes are and
why the strikes. They're not just striking everywhere, they're what
they're calling targeted walkouts. That is next. I'm Chris Meryllan
for Janakin kf I AM sixty. We're live everywhere on
your iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Mike Deboski Dubuski excuse me, is our ABC News tech
reporter and Mike. I was just talking about the the
UAW strike and one of the commentators I saw from
Yahoo Finance said that this is really labor is having
a moment, so to speak. I was thinking about the
repercussions of the UAW strike as well as the SAG strike,
(08:13):
the WGA strike. You know, the Teamsters almost struck. You know,
you and I talked about that briefly yesterday, and it
does seem as though there may be some momentum for
some union right now, whereas a few years ago it
looked like that momentum had pretty much gone away.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah. Absolutely, it's a really interesting moment for American labor.
Strike summer is a term that people throw around. You
mentioned the dual strikes in Hollywood, ups threatened to strike.
I actually spoke to a guy yesterday in Detroit who
is a member of the UAW, but he actually doesn't
work for the Big Three. He worked for Blue Shield,
Blue Cross or Blue Cross blue Shield excuse me. Yeah,
(08:49):
And they're also striking. They're out on the picket lines
demanding much the same things that the UAW auto workers
are demanding. They see these record profits enjoyed at the
top of their companies, and they have seen the blue
collar level of their companies not see proportional gains in
that regard, and that's what they're trying to correct with
(09:11):
these union strikes and these demands that they're putting forward.
I think you see that show up in the auto industry.
You see a show up in the Blue Cross Blue Shield,
a strike that going on in Detroit right now and beyond.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, we've got Kaiser looking at things here, and we've
had hotel workers in southern California as well. I see
that the head of the UAW there is saying that
the automakers collectively have made twenty one billion dollars in
the first half of the year and billions more in
recent years without giving hourly workers their quote unquote fair share.
After they gave big wage concessions back in two thousand
(09:46):
and nine when General Motors what was Chrysler, Daimler, Fiat
Nut Stillantis, they were all going through bankruptcy and they
they gave, they took one for the team at the time.
Now they're saying, look, we got it. You know, we're
behind twelve years, thirteen, fourteen years here.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
We have to make it up to do Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
they want to recoup the losses that they see as
having missed out since the Great Recession. Now, of course
it's worth mentioning the automaker's point of view here. They're
facing sort of dual challenges here, Chris. One is that
they are facing competition from automakers that build cars here
in the United States that don't employ union labor forces. BMW, Mercedes, Honda, Toyota,
(10:29):
Nissan all has plants here in the United States that
don't use union labor forces. They say that if they
are the Big three, say, if they are to accede
to the uaw's demands, that they're not going to be
competitive with those car makers anymore. The other part of
this is the transition to electric vehicles. Both California and
the European Union have mandated that twenty thirty five is
(10:49):
the year that we have to make the switch over
to gas from gas to electric vehicles, and that is
a multi billion dollars worth of development that the automakers
are facing down. So they say, yes, we have enjoyed
record profits and revenues, but we're going to need every
penny of that if that's going to happen. So the automakers,
you know, make that argument. The UAW makes the argument
(11:10):
that their you know, profits are still outsized, especially when
it comes to the executive level salaries. We're going to
have to see how this plays out here on day
one of the strikes.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Mike Debuski is our ABC News Tech reporter. We're covering
the UAW strike. How close are we? I know that
there has been some negotiation, there's been some offers, but
it seems like we are a ways away on this.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, definitely. So the latest that we have is that
the UAW is sticking to it's about thirty six percent
wage increase demand. Most recently we saw movement from General
motors and this was two days ago. Now they're now
offering twenty percent wage increases. Matches what Ford was offering
earlier in the week, stillantis keeping to seventeen and a
(11:52):
half percent wage increases. There are other offers that they're
making with regards to pension plans and retirement funds, the
lengths of certain work weeks. But if you listen to
certain auto executives like Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford,
he says there's a limit to this, right, we can
only go so far before this does not become economically
feasible for us. One estimate said that this could cost
(12:13):
over the course of the four year contract eighty billion
dollars to the Big three American automakers if they are
to give the union what it wants. They're doing well,
They're not doing that well. So we'll have to see
again how this plays out. It's you know, you can
look at these numbers thirty six and twenty and they're
they're pretty far apart, so you know, we'll have.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
To see it long ways. Yeah, yeah, then Mike, why
not strike all the plants all at once? They just
did a selective strikes or targeted strikes of three plans,
one for each of the Big three automakers.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yes, that's right, So there is a general Motors plant
in Wentsville, Missouri, a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, and
a Stilantis plant in Toledo, Ohio that have all been
stroke or are all striking today. Everything else is up
and running. And it's also worth mentioning that those three
plants are not crucial operations to the Big three. The
GM plant makes the Chevy Colorado. It'spech companies like ninth
(13:10):
best seller the pickup truck Forward. The plants that they
shut down makes the Bronco and the Ranger popular vehicles,
but not you know, overly popular vehicles. And then the
Slantis plant makes the jeep Wrangler, which is a very popular,
valuable vehicle for them. But the thinking is that dealers
have a month's long supply of Wranglers on the lot
(13:31):
and this actually won't hurt them that much, at least
in the short term. So it's an interesting strategy. The
goal here is to make a dent in automakers makers
profits and and you know, the supply of of the
vehicles that they have on dealer lots, but maybe not
to completely shut everything down. The other part of this
is that the UAW has a strike fund, right They
(13:54):
have this big bucket of money that you know would
be depleted more quickly if everyone were to walk off
the job at the same time. By select targeting certain
plants and certain facilities, that extends the life of that
strike fund and potentially allows the UAW to extend this
strike for longer, if that's indeed what they want to do.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
All right, Mike Debuski, our ABC News Tech reporter, Mike,
great to catch up with you. Thank you so much.
Have a great weekend. Let's hope that this comes to
an end soon. Thanks mane Yes, take care banks. All right. Yeah,
So if you can't get a vehicle, what do you do? Well,
if you're one dude in Hollywood, do you decide I'll
just take one? But the cops were watching and he
(14:37):
did it anyway, and it took him forever to catch him.
What in the heck is going on next? Chris merrill
in for John and Ken k IF I am six forty.
We're live everywhere in your iHeartRadio AP.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I'm Chris Maryland for Johnny Ken IF I AM six forty.
Quite the saga last night is this dude is wandering
around inside a Tesla dealership looking for keys, and he's
very nonchalant. Lights are on, lots of people outside watching
what's going on. Police helicopter overhead, shutting the light down.
(15:16):
Guy is just going through the the key box and
he's pushing the unlocked button to see which car. Nah,
I don't think I want the Tacoma I want. I
don't want the Tender. Do I want that? I like
the pres but it feels a little small. Oh, Corolla, No,
I don't want that. That's a cliche. Finally, he settles
(15:37):
on one of the newer model Toyotas and he goes
out there and is anybody capturing him?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
No?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
No, just goes into a lot, grabs a car, speeds off,
but I say speeds off. But he ends up running
into one of those fences. And it's not like the movies.
If you ram into a fence at a low speed,
uh in a Toyota, you don't burst through right away.
You actually have to back up, but do it a
few times. And that's exactly what happened. So Channel seven
had the story on this as they were live on
(16:05):
the scene. I'm live on the scene and as you
can see behind me a fence.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
This is that chain leak fence where the suspect actually
tried to ram his car through and was able to
make a getaway. Some investigators are just coming out here
earlier this morning and closing in. I want to take
a moment to show you what that looked like. Listen
to this.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
She's gonna show us. Listen. It is pretty impressive because
the guy rams the fence and then doesn't get through,
throws it in reverse. Okay at that point, so he
(16:46):
goes through the fence and it's one of those places
got the cars in a fenced in area, and then
he drives the car outside the fenced in area, and
then he's behind a gate, right, so there's another barrier
and he rams into that and he doesn't get through.
He rams it again. Finally he's able to break through,
and you hear as soon as he hits the street.
Then I don't know why he wasn't stopped first. He Listen.
(17:12):
This is not criticism because I know I don't have
the full story, but I do know that there was
a helicopter overhead, there was a crime in progress. There
were about a gajillion witnesses this is going to be
all over the Twitter machine with all the photos and
it's going to be viral. And the guy just gets
out and speeds away, takes off out of there. I
(17:35):
have thoughts. I'll continue though.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
For a moment you could see the suspect ramming the
car through the dealership fence multiple times before making his getaway. Now,
this all started around eleven thirty last night at the
Toyota dealership on Hollywood Boulevard. Police responded to a break
in at the dealership and found the suspect inside.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Okay, so police responded, they see the guy inside, feels
like you're on a crime in progress. I don't know.
Maybe they're waiting on backup. Could be.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Now, officers asked the suspect to exit, and instead he
stole a car. You could even see him going through
the keys in the lock box trying to decide which
one to take.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, I wasn't exaggerating. He was taking the keys and
boo do I want that one? Nah, rifles through another.
That's I didn't really want that in a blue oh
just attracts attention. Let's see what, Oh, a white one.
I like that one. I'm not joking. That's exactly what
(18:37):
he did.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
He took off in this white sedan, driving through that
chain link fence and then ramming through the security gate.
This suspect me to get away on Hollywood Boulevard and
that's when a pursuit ensued.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
I don't know. Again, I don't know why the pursuit
ensued instead of he's ramming through the gate. Can't you
stop him from ramming through the gate at the time,
And maybe there weren't cars on scene or something. I
don't know, but I feel like there's more of the
story that not only do I not know, but we
should know. It should be revealed.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Officers tried several times to stop him before he attempted
to break into this Lamborghini dealership, this one in Beverly Hills,
and officers responded to vaccine and the suspect was tased
during the standoffs. Around two am, he was finally taken
into custody.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Wait a minute, guy breaks into a Toyota dealership in
Hollywood and they sit back and they watch and they're like, well,
you know, if he comes out, then we'll go after him.
Tries to get into a Lambeau dealership in Beverly Hills,
and all of a sudden.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
A.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Swap responds. Swap respond, all units, all units. We have
a young black male inside a Lambeau dealership in Beverly Hills.
All units priority one move, move, move, and then they
get him. I told you I thoughts. Don't steal a
car off a lot. Aside from the whole moral legal,
(19:57):
you're an idiot. Everybody hates you, unproductive member of society,
throw away the key, all that stuff. It's just dumb.
You see. Criminals are not smart generally, and what happens
is they go and they steal a car off the
dealer lot, which is behind different gates, has security systems,
and those cars very rarely have any gas in them.
(20:18):
So if you get out and there's a hot pursuit
Roscoe p you're not going very far unless it's an evy.
Maybe you can go a little further than if it's charged.
But if you're going to go steal a Lamborghini, why
did you start at the Toyota dealership.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
That's a very good question.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Don't you believe Deborah that in his mind he was
thinking I'm gonna steal this Toyota and then he got
out on the street and he's police are chasing it, right,
and he's thinking, crap, I need a faster car, and
there's no gas in this one, because they don't put
more than about a gallon or two into these cars
at any given time anyway. So then he goes, I know,
(21:00):
I need a Lambo then I'll be able to get
away because obviously he saw Cannonball run. So he goes
to the Lambeau dealership and then thinks he's going to
get a fast car there. And that's when you really,
you really.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
You're giving this guy a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I just think it was spur of the moment.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
I really you really think he thought those thoughts though
when he was going through the process.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
I mean, that's no I thincause he.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Was getting away, he was like, crap, this was the
wrong car to steal. I need a faster car, and
that's when he went to the Lambou.
Speaker 7 (21:27):
What I'm getting at is, I think these crooks are
ding dongs, and so I don't think he really thought
things through, and I just maybe he just happened to
pass a lamb.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
What is he tim ding dong? Oh, it's not the
smartest person in the world.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I mean, come on, you're so he passed the Lambeau
dealership and that's where he's.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
Like, oh hey, right, and really you think you're going.
Speaker 7 (21:52):
To get away, as you said Beverly Hills, you're going
to be able to get away with.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
Stealing a lamborgh be So this guy is not the
sharp stool in the shed.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
No, and now it'll be he'll be a dull tool
in prison, is what he's gonna be.
Speaker 6 (22:05):
Eating ding dogs, eating ding dogs, all right.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Listen while we talk about these the police chase ding
dongs that are stealing cars. There's more smashes and grabs
that there's a jeweler in Newport Beach. Guys came in
twenty five seconds. They smashed everything up and took off
with about about a buttload of watches thousands of dollars worth.
We'll check with Blake Trolli here in just a few
(22:29):
moments and find out what in the world is happening
with these robberies. And there was one in Chinatown that's
left a woman, an elderly woman in the hospital with
her eyes swomen.
Speaker 6 (22:39):
Did you see her face?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Horrible story I did. It is devastating. That is next
KFI AM six forty we're live everywhere in your iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
The Crime Wave, and we're talking about the crimes across
southern California and break ins all over, smashing, grabs at
the jewelry store and such. Blake Trolley is joining us
right now from the KFI newsroom, and Blake, I guess
I should say you're on the street with your reporting today.
There was one of these horrible incidents of crime where
(23:21):
we actually had some violence occur with a woman in Chinatown.
Speaker 8 (23:24):
Yeah, and you know what, Chris, this isn't even the
first time that we're seeing violence with all this brazen
theft that we're now starting to see across southern California.
Just a little bit of a recap before we get
into this latest incident. Within the last few weeks, we've
seen a jewelry store owner in Pasadena be attacked with
bear spray and including the woman, the elderly woman. He
(23:45):
was walking out of the door. So the thieves came
up to the door. It's a remote door, they timed it,
sprayed hand sprayed the woman that he was walking out
the door, and then proceeded to ransack his store. Not
long after that, again in the same Gabriel Valley. This
time we're in Almani. A thief pepper sprayed the security
guard of the at the front of a jewelry store,
(24:06):
went inside.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Pepper sprayed three.
Speaker 8 (24:08):
Employees, and those employees began fighting back. They I'm sure
you saw the video. It was viral. The staff members
were hitting the guy with a stick and chasing him
down the street and police have identified that guy. So
here we are, you know, within a month, another violent
attack on somebody working. A smoke shop employee was brutally
(24:31):
attacked in LA's Chinatown yesterday. The woman's eyes have been
left swollen shut. This robber walked into the store yesterday,
begins stealing stuff. She goes to confront him and he
pushes her to the ground. She gets up again. This
is all caught on video. By the way, she gets
up again to confront him again, and this time he
(24:52):
punches her in the face, leaving her bloody. So she
has been taken to a hospital. The store's owners say
they're hoping she were covers. The store's owner says the
guy was actually in the store before this happened, and
he says that he notified security, Hey there's this guy
that's you know, been floating around to keep an eye
on him, but security was unfortunately not there yesterday. But yeah,
(25:15):
I mean three violent incidents just off the top of
my head, all here in La County within the last month.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, listen, a lot of these are making, you know,
their high profile. They're all caught on camera. In this case,
I saw the photos of the woman and it is heartbreaking.
I mean, it was a real beating. Like you said,
they're hoping she's going to be okay, it was bad.
It was really really bad. What's the what's the feedback?
I know, whenever we talked to law enforcement, they say, well,
(25:43):
we're doing what we can. Well, we're gonna we're gonna
get better on this. And now I see that the
governor is going to allocate a couple hundred million dollars
to try to really crack down on crime. But it
seems like there's a lot of platitudes by politicians and
not a lot of action.
Speaker 8 (25:55):
Well, I think what people want to see his policy change, right,
People really want to see stiffer punishments for thieves. A
lot of the sentiment that we get, especially when you know,
not so much with the governor's latest announcement, but with
the Retail Crimes Task Force, is people they know, you know,
they know that a lot of people that are being
arrested aren't facing stiff prosecution. Now, prosecutors have fired back
(26:16):
saying that a lot of this stuff is not the
type of stuff that people are going to walk on.
But that said, I think there's just this general feeling
that with the current state of the legal system, it
has emboldened criminals to get to the point that we're
at now. And as to this employee, you know, this
is something that I know was a concern of some people,
(26:39):
was that employees are going to start trying to stand
up to these criminals themselves and they're going to get hurt.
You know, in Almani, you have a success story there, right,
they were able to chase the guy down the street,
beat him up with a stick after all of them
were pepper spray. But in this case, this woman tries
confronting the thief and she's overpowered, you know, she's a
(26:59):
sixty year old woman. So the guy pushes her down.
She tries to get back up and he punches her
in the face. And I know that that has really
been a concern with people getting involved with these so.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Blake Trilli, I can't find new his reporter as we
talk about policy, and I know some people are pointing
fingers at our Dat Gascone, And yet Gascone is now
being sued for catering to people on the right. And
so the people on the right can't stand what he's
doing with crime. People on the left don't like what
he was doing when he came to looking into election interference.
(27:33):
What's the latest on this lawsuit?
Speaker 6 (27:35):
It's fight.
Speaker 8 (27:35):
Yeah, just reading the lawsuit. If you had told me
two years ago that Da Gascone would be wrapped up
in such a lawsuit, I would have never believed that
in a million years.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Right.
Speaker 8 (27:47):
Da gascones being sued by the owner of a Michigan
based software company who says he was wrongfully targeted. Chris
I was at the press conference where the DA announced
the arrest of Eugene u Over in Michigan. The lawsuit
alleges that Da Gascon and members of his staff recklessly
relied on a tip from a Texas based election denial group.
(28:09):
In the case, Eugenieu again. He was arrested last year
in Michigan for allegedly storing election workers' personal information on
servers in China. About a month later, charges against you
were dropped. Other charges were filed, then those charges were dropped. Well,
You says all of this action has led to nearly
(28:30):
half of his clients leaving, costing him eighty million dollars
in business or roughly eighty million dollars in business. The
lead prosecutor at the time when all these charges went down,
he was put on leave. The DA's office has denied
to answer any of my questions about this lawsuit. A
couple of those, where did you use any other evidence
(28:51):
besides this tip that you apparently used from this election
based denial group. The other question that I had was
is that lead prosecutor what is his status with the office.
So those are all questions we're working to get to
the bottom of, but definitely not something I think will
(29:11):
we all forecasted?
Speaker 1 (29:13):
No, none of us did. All right, Blake, thanks for
the hard work this entire week. Great job, my friend,
and thank you for thanks for carrying the water for
me on this show. I appreciate that John and Can
appreciate you not letting it slip through the cracks too.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
All right, Chris, thank you, Thanks Blake.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Blake Trolley KFI News. In just a few moments. There
is an effort to say no new taxes and try
to make it even harder to raise taxes. Well, some
are trying to make it easier to raise taxes. We'll
find out what this is next. I Chris Merril and
for John of Kent today. Kay if I am six
forty We're live everywhere on your iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Hey, you've been listening to the John and Ken Show.
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