March 14, 2023 • 32 mins
A year after Emmery’s death, a now-notorious Los Angeles City Council member became interested in her unsolved case and led a rallying cry for LA to crack down on party crews. But the battle between the city and party crews wasn’t new. In this episode, we learn of LAPD’s strategies in the 2000s to police party crews and attempt a citywide crackdown. For the kids, dealing with the cops was just part of being in the scene.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Thank you, mister President, for giving us some time and
some flexibility in today's agenda to make a very special
and important presentation. A year after Emory's death, her case
was still unsolved and someone new became interested. Los Angeles
City Council Member Josehuis from District fourteen. He presented a
(00:27):
motion to the City Council, which is broadcast on LA's
local government channel. Emory's family lined up behind him with
a portrait of Emory. This was back in two thousand
and seven. I am presenting a motion to renew a
fifty thousand dollars reward that we put out a few
months ago for any information leading to the arrest of
(00:51):
the individual or individuals who are responsible for the death
of a beautiful fourteen year old girl, Emory Munos. Josehisa
asked the LA City Council to renew a reward for
any information in her case. The family is seeking answers,
the family is seeking justice. His speech was a plea
(01:12):
for information, but it also had an underlying message. We
have reason to believe or the LAPD has told us
that the death of Emory Munos might have been related
to raid parties or fly parties. That drop up on
(01:33):
young people. His speech was a rallying cry for the
city of Los Angeles to crack down on party crews.
The young people who go to these parties are not
necessarily bad kids. It's any one of our kids who
go to these parent parties who are allured by the
excitement of fun and enjoyment. But we have to put
(01:53):
everyone on notice that these parties may and can be dangerous,
and the city should between more to staff. These from
(02:26):
my heart Michael Bura Podcast Network, Vice and Elia Studios.
This is Party Cruz, The Untold Story. I'm Jannas Amilca.
(03:12):
I have a few memories of police raiding our parties.
One time, I remember the lights, music, smoke machine, everything
shutting off. The entire backyard went dark. Kids started running
through any exit, trying to hide behind cars on the
street to avoid getting a ticket. Cops with flashlights were
(03:33):
shining them in our faces, forming in the back to
clear out the house. I remember running away. I was
wearing sandals and my feet got wet because of the
dewey grass, but I never got caught. Even when the
parties didn't get rated, the cops were always in the
back of our minds, and that's because we were on
their minds. Generation like gang members, is emerging from the
(03:56):
underground party scene. Oh they don't start violent, but it
doesn't take them along to get there. The people who
throw these kind of parties are called party crews, but
police say they're very similar to gangs. LAPD wasn't just
shutting down our parties. It was way more than that.
It felt like they saw our party crews as just
another version of a gang. It is a La City
(04:18):
gang that started off as a tag banging gang. They
are morphing into a traditional Hispanic turf gang. Law enforcement
officials say they're coordinating on every level to attack the problem.
For us, dealing with the cops was just part of
being in the scene. Sometimes ten and fifteen cop cars
(04:42):
blocking off the street. Our first party a bunch of
cop tames, and of course we would hide the Naud tank.
If the owner of the house was there there, we'll
give them the tickets. Sometimes, if they were like those
massive warehouse parties, that would be helicopters, they'll take the
amplifiers and the Sarato and then they'll give a D
a citation too. You lose your gear and you have
(05:05):
a court date. Way back before Emery's death, the police
were already on a mission to shut down flyer parties,
but the two thousands marked a new era in the
battle between cops and kids. In this episode, I talked
to the people who try to shut us down. I'm
(05:28):
Captain j Roberts, James Roberts, I go by Jay. This
is Captain James Roberts. He's currently the commanding officer of
Rampart Area. Back in the two thousands, he used to
bust flyer parties. I sat down with him in an
LPD press room. In the tape, you can hear the
squeaking of Jay's belt which held his gun and a flashlight.
(05:53):
Who can afford it? So Jay was ready for our interview. No,
but I mean I actually had filed the party related stuff,
and in front of all the back he had pulled
out all the files that he had related to flyer parties.
(06:15):
As a team, I would have never had the chance
to interview or talk to an officer like this. Unequal footing. Now,
all these years later, I'm sitting across from someone who
patrolled the scene that was a part of I was curious,
how did he remember this? Time. I don't think party
crews were attracted any attention had they not been wildly
(06:38):
successful with hundreds of people showing up. Busting parties ended
up being a major part of his job. It was
a big deal and I had a big role in it.
Jay used to work as a sergeant at the Foothill Division,
which serves the Northern Valley, the Pacoima to Hunga area.
He says they'd get a lot of phone calls from
(06:58):
the community. Were forty three thousand party related calls in
the city of la for two thousand and three. Leading
that was that Foothill area. It had three thousand, four
hundred and four party calls. We were the party capital
of Los Angeles. And in the early two thousands, his
(07:19):
division would respond to these phone calls by going out
to parties, knocking on the door and say, hey, you
need to turn your music down. Here's your warning slip.
And then if I have to come back, I'll have
to impound some sound equipment or you know, write somebody
a ticket. The black and white police cars that were
sent out to do this, they were referred to as
(07:39):
party cars. Literally, it's like the opposite of a party bus.
These cars were trying to prevent parties, but they weren't working. Well,
you'd never come back because you know, the person who
called the police in the first place is so frustrated
because nothing was done, and they won't call back. But
if it did call back, by the time we got
back around it was two in the morning, the party
(08:00):
was already over, so completely ineffective. Jay remembers one party
in particular in two thousand and four that he says
sparked a change in his division. It's a birthday party
for a kid ended up being a flyer party to
put flyers out. The party was on a Saturday, and
two kids were shot, you know, and I think they
(08:23):
were in their twenties, one from Panorama City and went
from Somar. That sort of began, at least as far
as the LAPD went, a shift in how we dealt
with just allowed or unlawful parties to begin with. We
had a press conference afterwards with the city Attorney's office saying, Okay,
here's the deal. You know, we're now going to respond
(08:44):
to these And it was my job at the time
to do something about it. So they switched it up.
They had to develop new strategies, to assess parties, like
sending undercover cops to check them out. A couple plane
clothes cops in a plane car. Two low key assess,
(09:06):
low p talk to whoever, no uniform, no scary cop presence.
And if the party had to be shut down and
it moved to another place, they were in the loop.
They were party goers too. Office, there's an everyday close
with a regular car. They just needed to blend in period.
(09:28):
They would provide intel, like if a party moved locations
to avoid the cops, would it be a young undercover cop.
How would you like go under the radar of a well,
would it would be somebody would baby face? Yeah, somebody
you know that could pass. We have twenty something cops,
We had young cops. They could do that. But you're right,
they did have to belue legitimate. Were they people up like?
(09:49):
Were they Latinos? Like? Were they in Pacoima? I would
undercover cops. Yes, absolutely, I would say the fifty percent
of our officers were Latino. Most of the guys in
that detail, we're Latino officers. It was the beginning of
what LAPD referred to as the Party Suppression Team the
(10:12):
PST for short, Having parties, even really big, out of
control ones is a normal part of teenage life. But
whether the cops show up and slap you on the
wrist when the neighbors call, or create entire teams devoted
to targeting your parties clearly has a lot to do
(10:33):
with where you live and who you are. And when
it came to us Latin X teams in LA, these
undercover cops would actually go out and assess when our
parties were dangerous and when they were in their opinion, okay,
we'd go out and we'd have undercover units that would
just look and if it was just a key signor
(10:55):
birthday party, family barbecue, make contact, you know, say hey,
can you guys keep the music down, you know, make
sure you're mindful of your neighbors. And then they'd say, hey,
we got one over here. Let's respond over here, and
the black and whites will respond and they would deal
with it in whatever way, whether it be you know,
we got here too late, there's already three hundred people
(11:17):
here and we need to shut it down. They even
started coordinating with Los Angeles schools. I appeared in front
of the school board to educate them on what a
flyer party was they're just clueless as to what the
kids are doing, so just putting on their radar. When
you see this strangely written you know, graphic, and somebody
(11:38):
slaps it up on the school wall or bulletsin board,
or leaves it underneath the windshell wipers of all the
cars in the high school parking lot, you'll know what
this is. Officers were scouring the internet too. Remember in
the early two thousands, party promotion was also happening online.
We would also start to monitor or the internet. Back then,
(12:01):
it wasn't so much social media, but it was the Internet.
Cops would monitor sites like drunken Faded dot com and
club events dot com. Social media was pretty new at
the time. My Space was a big player. They searched
online with keywords like underground parties, rave and flyer parties.
And they also monitored the phone numbers listed on the
(12:24):
back of the flyers, the info lines that were updated
with directions on the day of the party. We started
calling in the lines, We started finding out when the
parties would be, We started showing up, We started nimping
him in the bud and they started, you know, getting
more evasive, and so you know, cat and Mouse. Cat
and Mouse kids got really creative avoiding the cops. You know,
(12:45):
when you're at a party, you're in the backyard and
the police coming and the music cutsdown. I kid you not.
We would always start seeing happy birthday. This is Max,
a Flyer partygoer in the sangyearbro Valley. Our senior producer,
Sophia polisa Are spoke to him on the phone. We'd
always think happy birthday. It's so stupid, right, what is
(13:06):
that would work? No? It never worked, It never worked.
Oh my god. We'd always think happy birthday when the
police walked in, like it was some stupid birthday party
and not a freaking flor party. It wasn't black and white.
This is Jay again talking about the party suppression team.
(13:29):
There were party crews that were loosely associated groups of people.
There were people in it for the money. There were
tag bangers that were associated that sometimes didn't get along
with the cruise. The cruise you know, where everything from
just good kids and trying to have fun all the
way over to criminal enterprises. You know, that was also
what made it difficult. How do we figure out what's
(13:52):
going on here and deal with it appropriately? You I
mentioned criminal enterprise. I wanted to know, like what you
mean by that. Well, it's it's illegal to charge. It's
illegal obviously to sell, you know, alcohol, illegal to sell
nitrosotic side balloons, and that's the level I'm talking about.
(14:12):
Once there's money involved. I'm curious, like, how would you
or like people on your team make the distinctions between
like whether a party was violent or not, Like, how
would you decide that if there was the presence of
gang members or a clear commercial enterprise. If it was
(14:34):
you know, ten kids getting together that call themselves a
party crew and weren't charging anything, we'd still probably shut
it down because because it's well, I take that back,
it would depend. That's that's that fine line right there.
If there was no no commercial end to it, it
would depend, you know, when you see it. Somebody asked
(14:58):
the definition of poor graphy once to somebody and their
answer was, I can't define it, but I know I
want to see it. It was you knew you could
feel it whether this was going to be a safe
environment or a dangerous environment. I was going to mention,
like gang members also go to kas Like they're also
(15:19):
like going to wedding you know, they're part of the community,
and so that's not to say there there there aren't.
You know, these elements weren't a part of other parties.
You know, there were plenty of you know, family gatherings
that weren't fine, and then there were other family gatherings
for that reason that didn't go fine. I wanted him
(15:40):
to know from my own experience as a team that yeah,
the parties could get out of control, but the cops
showing up and the way they went about it, that
could feel violent too, at least like my experience, Like
there was a lot of parties, There were a lot
of parties, they got broken up, and it was like,
really it was like a scary on both though scary
(16:00):
because they were shootings, but there was also scary because
the police would storm in there, Like I don't know,
like it's scary, Like it's scary for a fifteen year
old helicopters, Yeah, to like hide in a closet. It
is like kind of it's scary now that I'm an
adult and I can understand the danger is that we
were in, but like as a child, it's scary right now.
(16:21):
Out of all the new strategies, the biggest change that
the party Suppression Team made was to site people right away,
don't knock on the door and warn them. Instead, give
people a ticket for loud music or selling alcohol without
a license right away. Jay says his team wanted to
find the parties and shut them down before they could
(16:43):
get big, especially before a helicopter gets sent out. This
sort of more strategic, surgical way of dealing on a
more low key way wouldn't involve tons of police cars
and a big presence and a helicopter with a night
sunlight over. That's how things were dealt with when things
had gone bad already. In this model, we try to
(17:05):
avoid that. We're not just gonna warrant anymore. We're going
to say, hey, this is illegal and unlawful and there's
a high potential of violence. Here's your ticket right now,
or this thing's shut. That's what changed. In two thousand
and four, Jay says, the party Suppression Team was seen
as a beacon of success. Jay remembers presenting their strategy
(17:28):
to Alihiti higher ups. I made a presentation at that
meeting and that became part of the citywide response. The
recommendation that if you have a problem with regard to
flyer parties, rave parties, crew parties. This is a best practice.
This on how to deal with them. This party suppression
team concept and the idea that you assess parties for
(17:49):
their violence potential. Our department policy changed in two thousand
and seven to allow for that immediate sighting or arresting
upon the first response if the situation warranted it, whereas
before it was always a warning and it was so
effective that it became a thing and was adopted citywide.
(18:13):
That's after the break. This program will provide you with
(18:35):
basic information to assist you in your duties. Identify flyer parties,
understand the drug and alcohol use common at flyer parties.
By the end of two thousand and four, LPD created
a training video for the entire department on how to
handle flyer parties based on the Party Suppression Team. These
are clips from the video. The most effective tool that
(18:56):
can be used by law enforcement in the policing of
flyer parties is rapid response. What started small with just
the Foothill Division woodspread. These are a few of the
points that should be considered from the Foothill Party Suppression Plan.
Maintain zero tolerance for loud or unlawful parties. Gather intail before, during,
(19:19):
and after parties have been identified, identify, assess, terminate, deploy
a party suppression team or a party car. We obtain
the training video through a public records request. Watching it
reminds me of how much we are being watched and
studied and how we had no idea, or at least
(19:40):
I had no idea. Inside these locations and during the party,
promoters go the distance to provide a stimulating mix of drugs, alcohol,
and music that encourage it dancing, competition, and promiscuity. The
video features greeny footage from fire parties with the this
blurred out, and pictures of flyers. One of the parties
(20:04):
had the name Reggaeton versus Hip Hop Part three. The
video also showed partygoers inhaling NAZ from balloons. Nitrous oxide
stations are set up to feed the crowd with a
mind altering substance that can create a volatile situation. Actually,
NAS was a big part of the training video. You
can arrest someone for nitros oxide as long as they're
(20:25):
possessing it with the intent to consume. When I see
stuff like this, I can't help but think, but they
become part of the permanent record, traces of my teenage years,
examined and filed away by their nature. Flyer parties include
elements that create a fertile environment for violence. They become history,
(20:48):
at least one version of it, one version of us.
We took an interest because that may have been the
most island a year of flyer or raved parties in
our history. I mean, there seemed like they were going
(21:08):
every month, somebody was being shot or injured. BERNARD'SI. Parks
was a chief of the LPD in the late nineties.
He was the chief during the Rampart Scandal, the investigation
into an anti gang unit in the Rampart Division that
was accused of massive corruption. He later became a city
council member. He represented the eighth district for over ten years,
(21:31):
which serves South la. We had of what appeared to
be almost every weekend, even though they may not have
been a shooting, there were these activities that were unsupervised
and people were taking advantage of abandoned houses, of abandoned buildings.
In two thousand and four, the same time Captain J.
Roberts was setting up the Party Suppression Team, council member
(21:54):
BERNARD'SI Parks put out a motion to create a party
task force. According to the motion, thirteen people died from
gunshot wounds at flyer parties in La County. He wrote
that quote party crews advertise wet T shirt and g
string contests or hot women, or that quote parties act
(22:16):
as nightclubs, though without fire codes, security checks, and dorman
asking for idea. During our interview, the only time Bernard
really got excited was explaining to me how he would
go after party crews by citing people for things like
putting up a flyer. People use other people's properties, such
(22:38):
as city lighting poles and telephone poles to advertise something
that they're getting a financial benefit, which is illegal. And
then the other issue is is who cleans them up
when the party's over. No one, and so it's not
like they go and post them and then go tear
(22:59):
them down after the party. I never knew that you
couldn't put a flyer on a city pole or a
lamp a lamp post, So all those concert posters I
see off the freeway are like they're illegal. It wasn't
the first time illegal raves or underground parties were brought
to the attention of the city Council. In nineteen ninety six,
(23:23):
council Member Richard Aracon filed emotion ask him for a
few things, including recommendations on how to crack down on
illegal parties. Then in two thousand and four, Bernard filed
his motion and base of the files we found that
was the last time flyer parties were brought up in
(23:43):
the city Council until three years later two thousand and seven,
the year that Jose we Said brought Emory's case to
the council. Joshi said is someone you may have heard of,
especially if you live in La Breaking New La City
Council and Jose Weezar has been charged with a thirty
four count federal grand jury indictment alleging wide ranging political corruption.
(24:10):
Not the most popular Angelino anyway, long before we saw
it made headlines. In two thousand and seven, he brought
the motion to the City Council asking for them to
renew the reward for fifty thousand dollars for any information
in Emory's case. He also asked the city council to
crack down on flyer parties and party crews. This is
(24:32):
part of his motion, which was read to the room
by his Chief of Staff, Joseph Abila, at a public
safety committee meeting. The Los Angeles Police Department believes that
Emory is one of many young people who died as
a consequence of the violence that surrounds flyer or rave parties,
as they're sometimes known. Over the last few years, police
(24:53):
have made attempts to crack down on these parties by
enforcing state and local criminal laws, but unfortunately, hundreds of
young adults continue to and these parties. Again a reminder
that there was and is no actual evidence that we
know of of Emory's murder being directly tied to a
flyer party. LPD responded to we sat his motion with
(25:16):
various ideas to combat parties. They suggested working with the
Los Angeles School District to make pamphlets for parents and kids,
and even lesson plans for high school health classes on
the dangers of flyer parties, including substance abuse. They also
suggested looking into stricter penalties for promoters who violated the law,
(25:40):
or making them reimburse the city for any costs if
police had to intervene. The city attorney looked into it
and ultimately reported that there were already enough laws on
the books and that LPD just needed to use them
to stop the parties and all the problems that come
with them. There is a responsibility on the part of
owners to secure vacant properties. That's on the books, and
(26:03):
the finds associated with that are actually the maximum allowable
under the municipal code one thousand dollars and or six
months in jail. But what I heard in these recordings
of committee meetings is that it wasn't so simple. I'd
like to see that. At the same time, the caution
is that when you start talking about homeowners having events
(26:24):
where money changes hands, if people are often a certain
it's in the same neighborhoods having charity fundraisers, They're having
all sorts of events where people are making contributions, and
that's allowed to do that in your own home, And
so it's a it's a real thin line. It's a
real thin line, a real thin line between what city
(26:48):
council or LPD saw as a legitimate party and what's
not or more like, who is allowed to hold these
events homeowners having charity fundraisers. I know it's a small detail,
but it feels like it's not noise or exchange of
money they were taking issue with, but the actual people
(27:08):
who were partying, What did you think was the best
solution to stopping violence from happening? And like what safe
parting could look like in like two thousand and four,
let's say, yeah, that's that's a good question. I don't know.
I knew that safe partying would look like family gatherings
and not party crew gatherings. This is Captain j Roberts again.
(27:34):
Party crew gatherings created the environment for violence to evolve.
Family parties less so. But then again, who wants to
go to the family party when they're a thirteen year old?
You know? So I didn't have that answer. This is
just an age old problem. You know. Young kids need
(27:56):
to burn off steam, need to dance, need to have fun,
need to hell at the movie. Where can they do
that safely? And where can somebody from a community with
less resources to do that safely? It's tougher for some
of the folks in this neighborhood to find something to
do legally and lawfully because it costs more. I'm kind
of surprised to hear that he's articulating an idea. I
(28:20):
think about a lot. How can kids who have a
need to let loose do it in a safe way.
I also asked Bernard's Parks, the former city council member,
about this. Like house parties, legal house parties, they might
not have the resources to get those permits or rent
out of space or pay for security, and those things
(28:44):
are important, but what if they lack the resources to
even begin to do it the right way? Just like
anything else, if you don't have the money to go
in business, you can't go in business. But the thing
is the mainful because of the party crew scene wasn't
about being in business. Some people did earn money organizing,
(29:06):
but that wasn't the main goal. Historically, the term safe
space has been used to describe the spaces in which
movements are organized, like college campuses or churches, like the
anti Vietnam War movement or the civil rights movement. The
way we talk about safe spaces today, we often mean
(29:27):
spaces in which people can express their identity freely, like
at a gay bar or a black student union. For me,
when I think about party crews, it's in these spaces
that I was able to let loose and try things
out and be myself. Still, I have to recognize that
just because it was safe for me to be myself
(29:49):
doesn't mean it was necessarily physically safe, at least not
all the time. The policing, city council. All this was
happening around us while we were trying to live in
the moment and create our own approximation of a safe
space exist in our bubble. Like lots of people do.
Our bubble happened to be made up of party crews,
(30:11):
the parties, all the partygoers. That was our community, and
we were good at creating that community, so good that
we found ways of connecting with party crews all across
the city and county, and we soon realized that our
world was bigger than we had ever imagined. What was
the moment where you were like, oh shit, this is
(30:33):
like this is getting bigger than I thought. Or when
was that when people start asking me to post a
flier on the site, When the servers begin to crash
right because there's just so many people trying to log in,
that's next time. This episode was written, reported, and hosted
(31:04):
by me Janashimoka. Our show is produced and reported by
Sofia Pelissa car Victoria Lejandro, and Kyle Chang, and edited
by Antonia Seedhido additional editing by Annie Abulis, fact checking
by Nidia Vautista, sound design and original music composition by
(31:25):
Kyle Murdoch. Our supervising producer is Janet Les, Art by
Julie Ruiz and Victuakllon. Our executive producer from Vice Audio
is Kay Osbourne. Our executive producers from Elias Studios are
Antonia Seedhido and Leo gi. Our vice president of Podcasts
from Elias Studios is Shane and Naomi Kracmal. Special thanks
(31:49):
to the UCLA Department of Communication Archive for access to
their news collection Party Cruz. The Untold Story is a
production of Elias Studios and Vice Audio in partship with
iHeart Mica Budha podcast Network. For more podcasts, listen to
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. And Hey, were you and a party crew?
(32:12):
Send us your party flyers or photos. I'd love to
see them, even a voice message about your memories. Anything.
You can send us a message or a picture at
Party Crews at Elias Studios dot com. Support for this
podcast is made possible by Gordon and Donna Crawford, who
believe the quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place
to live. This program is made possible in part by
(32:35):
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by
the American people.
Thank you, mister President, for giving us some time and
some flexibility in today's agenda to make a very special
and important presentation. A year after Emory's death, her case
was still unsolved and someone new became interested. Los Angeles
City Council Member Josehuis from District fourteen. He presented a
(00:27):
motion to the City Council, which is broadcast on LA's
local government channel. Emory's family lined up behind him with
a portrait of Emory. This was back in two thousand
and seven. I am presenting a motion to renew a
fifty thousand dollars reward that we put out a few
months ago for any information leading to the arrest of
(00:51):
the individual or individuals who are responsible for the death
of a beautiful fourteen year old girl, Emory Munos. Josehisa
asked the LA City Council to renew a reward for
any information in her case. The family is seeking answers,
the family is seeking justice. His speech was a plea
(01:12):
for information, but it also had an underlying message. We
have reason to believe or the LAPD has told us
that the death of Emory Munos might have been related
to raid parties or fly parties. That drop up on
(01:33):
young people. His speech was a rallying cry for the
city of Los Angeles to crack down on party crews.
The young people who go to these parties are not
necessarily bad kids. It's any one of our kids who
go to these parent parties who are allured by the
excitement of fun and enjoyment. But we have to put
(01:53):
everyone on notice that these parties may and can be dangerous,
and the city should between more to staff. These from
(02:26):
my heart Michael Bura Podcast Network, Vice and Elia Studios.
This is Party Cruz, The Untold Story. I'm Jannas Amilca.
(03:12):
I have a few memories of police raiding our parties.
One time, I remember the lights, music, smoke machine, everything
shutting off. The entire backyard went dark. Kids started running
through any exit, trying to hide behind cars on the
street to avoid getting a ticket. Cops with flashlights were
(03:33):
shining them in our faces, forming in the back to
clear out the house. I remember running away. I was
wearing sandals and my feet got wet because of the
dewey grass, but I never got caught. Even when the
parties didn't get rated, the cops were always in the
back of our minds, and that's because we were on
their minds. Generation like gang members, is emerging from the
(03:56):
underground party scene. Oh they don't start violent, but it
doesn't take them along to get there. The people who
throw these kind of parties are called party crews, but
police say they're very similar to gangs. LAPD wasn't just
shutting down our parties. It was way more than that.
It felt like they saw our party crews as just
another version of a gang. It is a La City
(04:18):
gang that started off as a tag banging gang. They
are morphing into a traditional Hispanic turf gang. Law enforcement
officials say they're coordinating on every level to attack the problem.
For us, dealing with the cops was just part of
being in the scene. Sometimes ten and fifteen cop cars
(04:42):
blocking off the street. Our first party a bunch of
cop tames, and of course we would hide the Naud tank.
If the owner of the house was there there, we'll
give them the tickets. Sometimes, if they were like those
massive warehouse parties, that would be helicopters, they'll take the
amplifiers and the Sarato and then they'll give a D
a citation too. You lose your gear and you have
(05:05):
a court date. Way back before Emery's death, the police
were already on a mission to shut down flyer parties,
but the two thousands marked a new era in the
battle between cops and kids. In this episode, I talked
to the people who try to shut us down. I'm
(05:28):
Captain j Roberts, James Roberts, I go by Jay. This
is Captain James Roberts. He's currently the commanding officer of
Rampart Area. Back in the two thousands, he used to
bust flyer parties. I sat down with him in an
LPD press room. In the tape, you can hear the
squeaking of Jay's belt which held his gun and a flashlight.
(05:53):
Who can afford it? So Jay was ready for our interview. No,
but I mean I actually had filed the party related stuff,
and in front of all the back he had pulled
out all the files that he had related to flyer parties.
(06:15):
As a team, I would have never had the chance
to interview or talk to an officer like this. Unequal footing. Now,
all these years later, I'm sitting across from someone who
patrolled the scene that was a part of I was curious,
how did he remember this? Time. I don't think party
crews were attracted any attention had they not been wildly
(06:38):
successful with hundreds of people showing up. Busting parties ended
up being a major part of his job. It was
a big deal and I had a big role in it.
Jay used to work as a sergeant at the Foothill Division,
which serves the Northern Valley, the Pacoima to Hunga area.
He says they'd get a lot of phone calls from
(06:58):
the community. Were forty three thousand party related calls in
the city of la for two thousand and three. Leading
that was that Foothill area. It had three thousand, four
hundred and four party calls. We were the party capital
of Los Angeles. And in the early two thousands, his
(07:19):
division would respond to these phone calls by going out
to parties, knocking on the door and say, hey, you
need to turn your music down. Here's your warning slip.
And then if I have to come back, I'll have
to impound some sound equipment or you know, write somebody
a ticket. The black and white police cars that were
sent out to do this, they were referred to as
(07:39):
party cars. Literally, it's like the opposite of a party bus.
These cars were trying to prevent parties, but they weren't working. Well,
you'd never come back because you know, the person who
called the police in the first place is so frustrated
because nothing was done, and they won't call back. But
if it did call back, by the time we got
back around it was two in the morning, the party
(08:00):
was already over, so completely ineffective. Jay remembers one party
in particular in two thousand and four that he says
sparked a change in his division. It's a birthday party
for a kid ended up being a flyer party to
put flyers out. The party was on a Saturday, and
two kids were shot, you know, and I think they
(08:23):
were in their twenties, one from Panorama City and went
from Somar. That sort of began, at least as far
as the LAPD went, a shift in how we dealt
with just allowed or unlawful parties to begin with. We
had a press conference afterwards with the city Attorney's office saying, Okay,
here's the deal. You know, we're now going to respond
(08:44):
to these And it was my job at the time
to do something about it. So they switched it up.
They had to develop new strategies, to assess parties, like
sending undercover cops to check them out. A couple plane
clothes cops in a plane car. Two low key assess,
(09:06):
low p talk to whoever, no uniform, no scary cop presence.
And if the party had to be shut down and
it moved to another place, they were in the loop.
They were party goers too. Office, there's an everyday close
with a regular car. They just needed to blend in period.
(09:28):
They would provide intel, like if a party moved locations
to avoid the cops, would it be a young undercover cop.
How would you like go under the radar of a well,
would it would be somebody would baby face? Yeah, somebody
you know that could pass. We have twenty something cops,
We had young cops. They could do that. But you're right,
they did have to belue legitimate. Were they people up like?
(09:49):
Were they Latinos? Like? Were they in Pacoima? I would
undercover cops. Yes, absolutely, I would say the fifty percent
of our officers were Latino. Most of the guys in
that detail, we're Latino officers. It was the beginning of
what LAPD referred to as the Party Suppression Team the
(10:12):
PST for short, Having parties, even really big, out of
control ones is a normal part of teenage life. But
whether the cops show up and slap you on the
wrist when the neighbors call, or create entire teams devoted
to targeting your parties clearly has a lot to do
(10:33):
with where you live and who you are. And when
it came to us Latin X teams in LA, these
undercover cops would actually go out and assess when our
parties were dangerous and when they were in their opinion, okay,
we'd go out and we'd have undercover units that would
just look and if it was just a key signor
(10:55):
birthday party, family barbecue, make contact, you know, say hey,
can you guys keep the music down, you know, make
sure you're mindful of your neighbors. And then they'd say, hey,
we got one over here. Let's respond over here, and
the black and whites will respond and they would deal
with it in whatever way, whether it be you know,
we got here too late, there's already three hundred people
(11:17):
here and we need to shut it down. They even
started coordinating with Los Angeles schools. I appeared in front
of the school board to educate them on what a
flyer party was they're just clueless as to what the
kids are doing, so just putting on their radar. When
you see this strangely written you know, graphic, and somebody
(11:38):
slaps it up on the school wall or bulletsin board,
or leaves it underneath the windshell wipers of all the
cars in the high school parking lot, you'll know what
this is. Officers were scouring the internet too. Remember in
the early two thousands, party promotion was also happening online.
We would also start to monitor or the internet. Back then,
(12:01):
it wasn't so much social media, but it was the Internet.
Cops would monitor sites like drunken Faded dot com and
club events dot com. Social media was pretty new at
the time. My Space was a big player. They searched
online with keywords like underground parties, rave and flyer parties.
And they also monitored the phone numbers listed on the
(12:24):
back of the flyers, the info lines that were updated
with directions on the day of the party. We started
calling in the lines, We started finding out when the
parties would be, We started showing up, We started nimping
him in the bud and they started, you know, getting
more evasive, and so you know, cat and Mouse. Cat
and Mouse kids got really creative avoiding the cops. You know,
(12:45):
when you're at a party, you're in the backyard and
the police coming and the music cutsdown. I kid you not.
We would always start seeing happy birthday. This is Max,
a Flyer partygoer in the sangyearbro Valley. Our senior producer,
Sophia polisa Are spoke to him on the phone. We'd
always think happy birthday. It's so stupid, right, what is
(13:06):
that would work? No? It never worked, It never worked.
Oh my god. We'd always think happy birthday when the
police walked in, like it was some stupid birthday party
and not a freaking flor party. It wasn't black and white.
This is Jay again talking about the party suppression team.
(13:29):
There were party crews that were loosely associated groups of people.
There were people in it for the money. There were
tag bangers that were associated that sometimes didn't get along
with the cruise. The cruise you know, where everything from
just good kids and trying to have fun all the
way over to criminal enterprises. You know, that was also
what made it difficult. How do we figure out what's
(13:52):
going on here and deal with it appropriately? You I
mentioned criminal enterprise. I wanted to know, like what you
mean by that. Well, it's it's illegal to charge. It's
illegal obviously to sell, you know, alcohol, illegal to sell
nitrosotic side balloons, and that's the level I'm talking about.
(14:12):
Once there's money involved. I'm curious, like, how would you
or like people on your team make the distinctions between
like whether a party was violent or not, Like, how
would you decide that if there was the presence of
gang members or a clear commercial enterprise. If it was
(14:34):
you know, ten kids getting together that call themselves a
party crew and weren't charging anything, we'd still probably shut
it down because because it's well, I take that back,
it would depend. That's that's that fine line right there.
If there was no no commercial end to it, it
would depend, you know, when you see it. Somebody asked
(14:58):
the definition of poor graphy once to somebody and their
answer was, I can't define it, but I know I
want to see it. It was you knew you could
feel it whether this was going to be a safe
environment or a dangerous environment. I was going to mention,
like gang members also go to kas Like they're also
(15:19):
like going to wedding you know, they're part of the community,
and so that's not to say there there there aren't.
You know, these elements weren't a part of other parties.
You know, there were plenty of you know, family gatherings
that weren't fine, and then there were other family gatherings
for that reason that didn't go fine. I wanted him
(15:40):
to know from my own experience as a team that yeah,
the parties could get out of control, but the cops
showing up and the way they went about it, that
could feel violent too, at least like my experience, Like
there was a lot of parties, There were a lot
of parties, they got broken up, and it was like,
really it was like a scary on both though scary
(16:00):
because they were shootings, but there was also scary because
the police would storm in there, Like I don't know,
like it's scary, Like it's scary for a fifteen year
old helicopters, Yeah, to like hide in a closet. It
is like kind of it's scary now that I'm an
adult and I can understand the danger is that we
were in, but like as a child, it's scary right now.
(16:21):
Out of all the new strategies, the biggest change that
the party Suppression Team made was to site people right away,
don't knock on the door and warn them. Instead, give
people a ticket for loud music or selling alcohol without
a license right away. Jay says his team wanted to
find the parties and shut them down before they could
(16:43):
get big, especially before a helicopter gets sent out. This
sort of more strategic, surgical way of dealing on a
more low key way wouldn't involve tons of police cars
and a big presence and a helicopter with a night
sunlight over. That's how things were dealt with when things
had gone bad already. In this model, we try to
(17:05):
avoid that. We're not just gonna warrant anymore. We're going
to say, hey, this is illegal and unlawful and there's
a high potential of violence. Here's your ticket right now,
or this thing's shut. That's what changed. In two thousand
and four, Jay says, the party Suppression Team was seen
as a beacon of success. Jay remembers presenting their strategy
(17:28):
to Alihiti higher ups. I made a presentation at that
meeting and that became part of the citywide response. The
recommendation that if you have a problem with regard to
flyer parties, rave parties, crew parties. This is a best practice.
This on how to deal with them. This party suppression
team concept and the idea that you assess parties for
(17:49):
their violence potential. Our department policy changed in two thousand
and seven to allow for that immediate sighting or arresting
upon the first response if the situation warranted it, whereas
before it was always a warning and it was so
effective that it became a thing and was adopted citywide.
(18:13):
That's after the break. This program will provide you with
(18:35):
basic information to assist you in your duties. Identify flyer parties,
understand the drug and alcohol use common at flyer parties.
By the end of two thousand and four, LPD created
a training video for the entire department on how to
handle flyer parties based on the Party Suppression Team. These
are clips from the video. The most effective tool that
(18:56):
can be used by law enforcement in the policing of
flyer parties is rapid response. What started small with just
the Foothill Division woodspread. These are a few of the
points that should be considered from the Foothill Party Suppression Plan.
Maintain zero tolerance for loud or unlawful parties. Gather intail before, during,
(19:19):
and after parties have been identified, identify, assess, terminate, deploy
a party suppression team or a party car. We obtain
the training video through a public records request. Watching it
reminds me of how much we are being watched and
studied and how we had no idea, or at least
(19:40):
I had no idea. Inside these locations and during the party,
promoters go the distance to provide a stimulating mix of drugs, alcohol,
and music that encourage it dancing, competition, and promiscuity. The
video features greeny footage from fire parties with the this
blurred out, and pictures of flyers. One of the parties
(20:04):
had the name Reggaeton versus Hip Hop Part three. The
video also showed partygoers inhaling NAZ from balloons. Nitrous oxide
stations are set up to feed the crowd with a
mind altering substance that can create a volatile situation. Actually,
NAS was a big part of the training video. You
can arrest someone for nitros oxide as long as they're
(20:25):
possessing it with the intent to consume. When I see
stuff like this, I can't help but think, but they
become part of the permanent record, traces of my teenage years,
examined and filed away by their nature. Flyer parties include
elements that create a fertile environment for violence. They become history,
(20:48):
at least one version of it, one version of us.
We took an interest because that may have been the
most island a year of flyer or raved parties in
our history. I mean, there seemed like they were going
(21:08):
every month, somebody was being shot or injured. BERNARD'SI. Parks
was a chief of the LPD in the late nineties.
He was the chief during the Rampart Scandal, the investigation
into an anti gang unit in the Rampart Division that
was accused of massive corruption. He later became a city
council member. He represented the eighth district for over ten years,
(21:31):
which serves South la. We had of what appeared to
be almost every weekend, even though they may not have
been a shooting, there were these activities that were unsupervised
and people were taking advantage of abandoned houses, of abandoned buildings.
In two thousand and four, the same time Captain J.
Roberts was setting up the Party Suppression Team, council member
(21:54):
BERNARD'SI Parks put out a motion to create a party
task force. According to the motion, thirteen people died from
gunshot wounds at flyer parties in La County. He wrote
that quote party crews advertise wet T shirt and g
string contests or hot women, or that quote parties act
(22:16):
as nightclubs, though without fire codes, security checks, and dorman
asking for idea. During our interview, the only time Bernard
really got excited was explaining to me how he would
go after party crews by citing people for things like
putting up a flyer. People use other people's properties, such
(22:38):
as city lighting poles and telephone poles to advertise something
that they're getting a financial benefit, which is illegal. And
then the other issue is is who cleans them up
when the party's over. No one, and so it's not
like they go and post them and then go tear
(22:59):
them down after the party. I never knew that you
couldn't put a flyer on a city pole or a
lamp a lamp post, So all those concert posters I
see off the freeway are like they're illegal. It wasn't
the first time illegal raves or underground parties were brought
to the attention of the city Council. In nineteen ninety six,
(23:23):
council Member Richard Aracon filed emotion ask him for a
few things, including recommendations on how to crack down on
illegal parties. Then in two thousand and four, Bernard filed
his motion and base of the files we found that
was the last time flyer parties were brought up in
(23:43):
the city Council until three years later two thousand and seven,
the year that Jose we Said brought Emory's case to
the council. Joshi said is someone you may have heard of,
especially if you live in La Breaking New La City
Council and Jose Weezar has been charged with a thirty
four count federal grand jury indictment alleging wide ranging political corruption.
(24:10):
Not the most popular Angelino anyway, long before we saw
it made headlines. In two thousand and seven, he brought
the motion to the City Council asking for them to
renew the reward for fifty thousand dollars for any information
in Emory's case. He also asked the city council to
crack down on flyer parties and party crews. This is
(24:32):
part of his motion, which was read to the room
by his Chief of Staff, Joseph Abila, at a public
safety committee meeting. The Los Angeles Police Department believes that
Emory is one of many young people who died as
a consequence of the violence that surrounds flyer or rave parties,
as they're sometimes known. Over the last few years, police
(24:53):
have made attempts to crack down on these parties by
enforcing state and local criminal laws, but unfortunately, hundreds of
young adults continue to and these parties. Again a reminder
that there was and is no actual evidence that we
know of of Emory's murder being directly tied to a
flyer party. LPD responded to we sat his motion with
(25:16):
various ideas to combat parties. They suggested working with the
Los Angeles School District to make pamphlets for parents and kids,
and even lesson plans for high school health classes on
the dangers of flyer parties, including substance abuse. They also
suggested looking into stricter penalties for promoters who violated the law,
(25:40):
or making them reimburse the city for any costs if
police had to intervene. The city attorney looked into it
and ultimately reported that there were already enough laws on
the books and that LPD just needed to use them
to stop the parties and all the problems that come
with them. There is a responsibility on the part of
owners to secure vacant properties. That's on the books, and
(26:03):
the finds associated with that are actually the maximum allowable
under the municipal code one thousand dollars and or six
months in jail. But what I heard in these recordings
of committee meetings is that it wasn't so simple. I'd
like to see that. At the same time, the caution
is that when you start talking about homeowners having events
(26:24):
where money changes hands, if people are often a certain
it's in the same neighborhoods having charity fundraisers, They're having
all sorts of events where people are making contributions, and
that's allowed to do that in your own home, And
so it's a it's a real thin line. It's a
real thin line, a real thin line between what city
(26:48):
council or LPD saw as a legitimate party and what's
not or more like, who is allowed to hold these
events homeowners having charity fundraisers. I know it's a small detail,
but it feels like it's not noise or exchange of
money they were taking issue with, but the actual people
(27:08):
who were partying, What did you think was the best
solution to stopping violence from happening? And like what safe
parting could look like in like two thousand and four,
let's say, yeah, that's that's a good question. I don't know.
I knew that safe partying would look like family gatherings
and not party crew gatherings. This is Captain j Roberts again.
(27:34):
Party crew gatherings created the environment for violence to evolve.
Family parties less so. But then again, who wants to
go to the family party when they're a thirteen year old?
You know? So I didn't have that answer. This is
just an age old problem. You know. Young kids need
(27:56):
to burn off steam, need to dance, need to have fun,
need to hell at the movie. Where can they do
that safely? And where can somebody from a community with
less resources to do that safely? It's tougher for some
of the folks in this neighborhood to find something to
do legally and lawfully because it costs more. I'm kind
of surprised to hear that he's articulating an idea. I
(28:20):
think about a lot. How can kids who have a
need to let loose do it in a safe way.
I also asked Bernard's Parks, the former city council member,
about this. Like house parties, legal house parties, they might
not have the resources to get those permits or rent
out of space or pay for security, and those things
(28:44):
are important, but what if they lack the resources to
even begin to do it the right way? Just like
anything else, if you don't have the money to go
in business, you can't go in business. But the thing
is the mainful because of the party crew scene wasn't
about being in business. Some people did earn money organizing,
(29:06):
but that wasn't the main goal. Historically, the term safe
space has been used to describe the spaces in which
movements are organized, like college campuses or churches, like the
anti Vietnam War movement or the civil rights movement. The
way we talk about safe spaces today, we often mean
(29:27):
spaces in which people can express their identity freely, like
at a gay bar or a black student union. For me,
when I think about party crews, it's in these spaces
that I was able to let loose and try things
out and be myself. Still, I have to recognize that
just because it was safe for me to be myself
(29:49):
doesn't mean it was necessarily physically safe, at least not
all the time. The policing, city council. All this was
happening around us while we were trying to live in
the moment and create our own approximation of a safe
space exist in our bubble. Like lots of people do.
Our bubble happened to be made up of party crews,
(30:11):
the parties, all the partygoers. That was our community, and
we were good at creating that community, so good that
we found ways of connecting with party crews all across
the city and county, and we soon realized that our
world was bigger than we had ever imagined. What was
the moment where you were like, oh shit, this is
(30:33):
like this is getting bigger than I thought. Or when
was that when people start asking me to post a
flier on the site, When the servers begin to crash
right because there's just so many people trying to log in,
that's next time. This episode was written, reported, and hosted
(31:04):
by me Janashimoka. Our show is produced and reported by
Sofia Pelissa car Victoria Lejandro, and Kyle Chang, and edited
by Antonia Seedhido additional editing by Annie Abulis, fact checking
by Nidia Vautista, sound design and original music composition by
(31:25):
Kyle Murdoch. Our supervising producer is Janet Les, Art by
Julie Ruiz and Victuakllon. Our executive producer from Vice Audio
is Kay Osbourne. Our executive producers from Elias Studios are
Antonia Seedhido and Leo gi. Our vice president of Podcasts
from Elias Studios is Shane and Naomi Kracmal. Special thanks
(31:49):
to the UCLA Department of Communication Archive for access to
their news collection Party Cruz. The Untold Story is a
production of Elias Studios and Vice Audio in partship with
iHeart Mica Budha podcast Network. For more podcasts, listen to
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. And Hey, were you and a party crew?
(32:12):
Send us your party flyers or photos. I'd love to
see them, even a voice message about your memories. Anything.
You can send us a message or a picture at
Party Crews at Elias Studios dot com. Support for this
podcast is made possible by Gordon and Donna Crawford, who
believe the quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place
to live. This program is made possible in part by
(32:35):
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by
the American people.
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