November 18, 2022 • 57 mins
Cerise Castle shares about her dope work uncovering the corruption of law enforcement gangs and the impacts on Survivors of Crime.
About Oya:
Oya L Sherrills is a survivor, a lived experience leader in her field, an advocate, and an organizer. Author of "Musings of a Rascal", she works to create a culture where healing practices are centered and valued. Oya likes to pave paths that connect past and future ancestors in efforts to prioritize peace and community-driven solutions that break cycles of violence and address trauma. She's creative, she's a mama, and she's for the trees.
Links:
Find Cerise's new podcast, A Tradition of Violence on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Content morning. This episode will discuss a lot of heavy
topics such as harassment, surveillance, and police brutality. Please be
kind to yourself, prepare yourself with before and or after care,
and remember, if you're a loved one is going through it,
you can call the a c l U the Emergencivil
Liberties Union at two two five. Thank you. Join us
(00:39):
to explore the stories, policies and practices and idea survivor's models.
This is with your host. Oh yeah, welcome, good people.
This is your host at L Charell's and today we
(01:02):
will be speaking with Ceris Castle, an investigative journalists and
host of the podcast Tradition of Violence. It's a podcast
that you can find on the I Heart app or
wherever you get your podcasts. As an advocate for survivors
of crime, we know that all crimes are not treated
equal and all survivors do not have equal access to
(01:23):
healing resources. That's saying the least when it comes to
survivors of police violence and those seeking support to help
very loved ones murdered by law enforcement. A bill called
SP two nine Victim Compensation and Use of Force by
a Law Enforcement Officer sought to change that, but the
(01:43):
bill was not signed into law, so the fight continues.
My guest and I discuss what brought us to these conditions,
how to seek healing in the midst, and what policies
and practices can help us in the battle. Listen in, Hi, welcome, Hi,
Thanks for having me. Can you introduce yourself and tell
(02:06):
us about the work that you do. Yeah, my name
is Cerise Castle. I am a independent freelance journalist and
I cover a lot of different things. Um this past year,
I have spent pretty much, uh ninety five percent of
my time covering gangs inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
(02:28):
Your work with not l A includes a fifteen part
investigative series that tells the history of deputy gangs. Not
to mention, you have a database of known deputy gang
associates and numerous articles documenting police misconduct and police violence
of all kinds. You're behind the Google elis the Gangs campaign,
(02:51):
and for those listening, make sure you do so. Although
we have jumped right in, I just want to note
that this is episode two entitled I'm Surviving Killer Cops,
and this is the Survivor's Heel podcast with your host,
Oya al Charels. We are a project of I Heart
Radio's Next Up initiative, and again we are here with
(03:15):
the brilliant and talented Cerise Castle, who has put herself
in harm's way just to make sure that the people
know the truth. And so can I just start off
by checking in with you? Of course? Yeah, I'm so.
This week I found out, Um, I had always suspected
that there was some monitoring going on of my personal
(03:38):
life by the Sheriff's department, and this week I got
confirmation that that is happening. I found out through a
public records request that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
tasked what appears to be a team of so called
crime analysts to monitor my social media for this is
their words, potential doxing purposes. Yeah. Like I said, it
(04:02):
was something that I suspected was going on, But seeing
that in writing on you know, county letterhead, it doesn't
get any less shocking than that. I'm still processing it.
I think this is just something that I learned about
a couple of days ago. But yeah, it's it's an
unfortunate reality that a lot of people have to deal with,
(04:23):
you know, I'm just I'm one of you know, probably
hundreds of people that are going through something like this,
and even just the monitoring of my social media that's
so minimal compared to what so many other families and
individuals experience on a daily basis. My monitor my monitoring
exists in the digital space. Many people are monitored, you know,
(04:48):
going to the grocery store, picking their kids up from school,
driving to put gas in the car, and are pulled over,
taken out of their cars, arrested for no reason, or
very flimsy ones at best. So I'm lucky that it
hasn't escalated to that point, but you know, that doesn't
(05:10):
make it any less appropriate. Absolutely, and I do want
to just highlight the process that you went through in
order to confirm that was happening, because sometimes I feel
like we activists, if I might say, or street historians
(05:31):
right that an advocates as well, like we get ridiculed
and called paranoid and all this kind of thing, you know,
when we're like, I'm suspecting that you know, we're being
unduly investigated or watched or buy it on. And sometimes
it's like for for many of us, there is not
(05:52):
that there's never that confirmation, you know, and if if
it is confirmed, it's not confirmed in a way that
is so tangible as like on county letterhead. You know
what I mean. And so I just want to highlight
that you did a p r A public records I
did request, right, I did, Yes, And that information I've
(06:14):
posted on my social media and I'll say it here.
If anyone is interested in, you know, learning from me
how to do that, I do have a template that
I am anxious to share with people. I'm trying to
find a platform that's best to have that accessible to people.
But yes, if anyone is interested in getting this template
that I use for public records, that request, like, please
(06:34):
reach out to me. It's available for the public, and
I want people to have this information and know how
to do this. Yeah, that's super dope because I feel
like so the organization that I work for, the Reverence Project,
what we like to do was to introduce alternative ways
to heal, right, And I feel like tools like the
(06:55):
one that you just talked about, the p r A,
those those are actually tools for healing because they allow
us to hold people accountable and they also allow us
to in some cases just confirm what our intuition tells us,
you know, And it's really important, you know, to not
(07:16):
have to continuously be in doubt, you know, and to
be able to to say definitively like hey, like I
know what you guys are doing. I feel that is
also true of investigative reporting that you've done, like that
that has created a way for people who have been
(07:39):
the survivors of police violence, a way to say, you
know what, it's true, you know, and here is fifty
years of proof, you know. Can you also tell us,
like what it was really that sparked your interest in
doing this story in particular? Yeah, so, I mean I've
(08:00):
always been interested in deputy gangs. I grew up here
in southern California, and growing up I would hear from
my peers in school, my older brother, my mom, teachers
even about deputy gangs, just sort of as like cautionary anecdotes,
(08:21):
A watch out for white bald headed sheribs because they're
likely vikings and you know, they'll beat you up, they'll
take you to jail for no reason. And it was
sort of like, you know, one of those things, like
I guess, like an urban folklore, like there's truth to it,
but you really don't know anything beyond those little snippets
(08:42):
that you hear, and I always wanted to know more.
I've always been just sort of a naturally inquisitive person,
and I've always really loved the library and looking into history.
So I remember, like as a kid, trying to go
to the library and find out stuff about these deputy gangs,
but there was never anything substantial. I would find articles
(09:06):
here and there in different local papers, but there wasn't
ever really any uh, deep in investigative projects that really
looked into who these people were, where they came from,
and what what exactly their agenda was. And it was
a question that I kept coming back to at different
(09:27):
points in my life, and there were never any answers there.
So yeah, fast forward to the summer. I was working
at a local radio station here in l A. And
I was covering the protests and uprisings that were happening
in response to the murder of George Floyd. And in
(09:48):
the course of doing that boarding I was shot by
the Los Angeles Police Department with a less lethal immunition.
I was standing on the sidewalk holding my press badge
above my head and I actually caught in a series
of photographs UM a police officer turning, pointing his gun
at me and pulling the trigger, and the resulting injuries
(10:12):
of that placed me on better rest for six months.
I couldn't walk, I could I was in a air cast,
I had to use crutches to get around, and I
was basically told to just sit on my couch and
take it easy for the next six months. And that
really that really bothered me. I didn't want to do that,
(10:33):
especially in the in the moment that we were in.
Just sort of sitting back and standing by didn't really
it didn't really sit well with me. I knew I
had to find some way to keep doing my work. UM.
A couple of days after I was shot with the
(10:54):
les lethal undress, Guard Atto was killed by two death
be d Sheriff's in the Compton area. He was an
eighteen year old security guard and they chased him into
an alley and shot him as he was on his knees.
I remember that really awful, awful, awful shooting, and it's
(11:16):
still making its way through the courts right now. One
of the deputies has sort of disappeared. He left the country.
No one really knows where he is didn't know that. Yeah,
it's this stuff is just allowed to happen. Criminal charges
are who knows that they're going to get filed. We're
still waiting to see there's a civil suit making its
(11:37):
way through the court in any case, I saw that
happening pretty quickly after Undress was killed. It came out
that the two deputies that participated in that shooting were
prospects of a deputy gang. And when I heard that,
I was just like, okay, Like this is something I've
been thinking about for literally my entire life. Let's see
(11:59):
how much I can find out about deputy gangs in
these six months. Like, I'm going to put all of
my time and resources into reporting this out from my couch.
And I started doing that, and I started filing public
records Acts requests again, and after a few requests, I
was able to turn up a list of litigation that
(12:22):
the County of Los Angeles keeps of civil cases related
to deputy gangs. It's quite literally a spreadsheet that lists
the case, the deputy gang affiliated with it, and the
dollar amount m on that list. They totaled fifty million.
I used that list as a roadmap, but I was
(12:43):
able to find even more cases, and what I found
was that these deputy gangs have killed at least nineteen people.
Four of them were suffering a mental health crisis. These
were all men of color, and it has cost county
taxpayers at least one hundred million dollars of settlement payments alone.
(13:03):
Nine times out of ten these cases settle, and when
they settle, that means they get the settlement award, which
is that hundred billion that I'm talking about. But one
dollar amount that I haven't been able to track down
is how much the attorney's costs. When you settle, you
have to pay for not just your attorney fees, but
the attorney fees for the other person. So that number
(13:25):
of a hundred million is probably a lot higher. And
shares department, shace deputies, they don't pay for any of that.
It's US county taxpayers that pick up that bill. So essentially,
for the past fifty years, we've been funding these payoffs
for these murders. Well, that is just very chilling to hear,
(13:49):
especially coming from the place of having to fight for
survivors of crime to receive compensation and having the funds
for survivors actually baby set by law enforcement for them
to be the ones to say whether or not somebody
(14:10):
is or is not a survivor, you know, it has
just been incredibly inappropriate and something that has to change.
And there has been some policies that have, you know,
begun to turn the tide. And I would say that
even even now in the case of law enforcement gangs.
(14:32):
I know that there was a article out last year
where Mayor Agia Brown was talking about, like her, her
run ins with these folks. There was an article out
last year where the former mayor of Compton, age of Brown,
(14:53):
was talking about her run ins with the sheriffs. The
story comes from an ABC seven news broadcast in August
where there is an eyewitness news investigation highlighting the alleged
sheriff's deputy gang that has branded its members the Executioners.
(15:14):
The city leaders and Compton said they were fed up.
They were calling for a federal investigation, and the former
mayor of Compton herself spoke out about her own harrowing experience.
She said that they terrorissed the community and then they
covered their tracks, and she said the sheriff's gang's behavior
was unacceptable. This broadcast asked the question, is the Compton
(15:39):
sheriff station being run by the executioners, a gang of
rogue deputies with matching tattoos. Of course, Sheriff alex Via Nueva,
maybe former sheriff, denied it, but the former um mayor
of Compton, Agia Brown, shared her own experience of being
pulled over by Compton deputies in June of twenty nineteen.
(16:01):
She said she rolled down the window and asked why
she was being pulled over. Within seconds, almost seven to
nine Sheriff's deputies vehicles descended upon the scene. She said,
they ordered her out of her vehicle. They asked her
to put her hands on top of the police vehicle
so they could search her as if she was a criminal.
And that was just the piece of what Compton's former mayor,
(16:24):
Aga Brown had gone through. The City of Compton is
actually suing the Sheriff's department now for money laundering, essentially
billing four hours and services that the city contends were
never completed. Instead, what was completed was the systemic harassment
of the residents of Compton, their children, and the deaths
(16:49):
of many community members that were killed by these deputy
gang members. It's really unfortunate, I mean the Compton Police
Department was shut down for a lot of the same reasons.
I mean, there was systemic abuse going on in the
Compton Sheriff's department, you know, again, like services not happening,
and the thought was that by shutting them down and
(17:10):
bringing in the sheriffs, things would be better. But we
know that there is this fifty year history of abuse
in the sheriff's department as well, and it's really metastasized
to one of the most dangerous deputy gangs in Los
Angeles County. Right, and are you familiar with some of
the legislation that has recently passed banning law enforcement gangs. Yeah, yeah,
(17:34):
I'm familiar with that bill. I believe that was the
Representative Mike Gibson that authored that. So back in November,
Mike Gibson Assemblyman Mike Gibson, he was on a podcast
called Sectown Talks, and I'm actually going to share a
whole quote from him about Assembly bill. It's pretty long,
(18:00):
but I want you guys to be able to like
really hear what he had to say about this bill.
So he said, quote that in my own city in
which I represent, I represent Watts Compton, Carson Wilmington, North
Long Beach, Lynwood, Guardina, and also Torrance, but specifically in
the city of Compton, there was a police officer, a
(18:22):
deputy sheriff, who for five years was bullied, harassed, left
unprotected as a deputy sheriff because he refused to be
a part of a law enforcement gang or sheriff's gang
click that exists. There were the Executioners, there were the Vikings,
and other different names they named this gang that was
(18:43):
a secret society within the sheriff's department. So we went
to work after this deputy sheriff a bold statement by
saying enough is enough and it's too much, and he
came out publicly and we had to address and we
had to do something. So we went to work and
we created Bill A b which is banning police or
(19:07):
law enforcement gangs. And so if you are found to
be a part of a gang any law enforcement agency
in the state of California, it is a terminable offense
now and you will now because of another piece of
legislation that I voted on, which is Senate Bill Too,
it will cause you to be decertified. So this Bill
(19:28):
A Bight was signed into law banning law enforcement from
having any kind of gangs, because we know that even
like a streak gang, a thug streak gang, like the
curbs and Bloods for the cowards that they are, we
know that you in order for you to be a
part of that, you have to put in work. You
have to kill someone, you have to abuse someone. Well,
(19:50):
the same principle and law enforcement, you have to use
deadly force or unnecessary force. And so in order to
be a part of this law enforcement and so we
say that this is no place in law enforcement in
the state of California. There's no place for this. This
Governor Gavin knewso he signed this bill into law prohibiting
(20:14):
law enforcement gangs existing in the state. And I've had
and I want to underscore, a number of chiefs of
police and other law enforcement throughout the state of California
call me anonymously sharing the information saying we can't get
rid of these deputy sheriffs or these police officers because
the gang gets too strong and powerful. And I'm going
(20:36):
in the right direction. And so we did this with
the support of those individuals who cannot reveal themselves but
certainly support this piece of legislation so that they can
now have the ammunition to, once they find someone that's
a part of the gang, get rid of them and
cause them to never be law enforcement in the state
of California. Again in yeah, I'm good that that stuff
(21:03):
is passing, Like, I definitely think that's a step in
the right direction. Unfortunately, here in Los Angeles County, where
we have now probably the most documented issues of deputy gangs,
we have a sheriff that says time and time again
that he picks and chooses which laws he's going to
enforce and which rules that he's going to enforce for
(21:24):
his own staff. So I'm not particularly confident that that
law will make any difference in our sheriff's department because
our sheriff is so open about choosing to, you know,
follow the rules that he personally approves of. He he
also routinely denies that deputy gang exists in his department.
(21:48):
Calls them benign clicks, sub groups, I mean, click as
mean girls at your high school subgroups groups, right, I
don't I'm not really sure that is that sounds like
sports or something. I'm not sure these are gangs. These
are gangs. They commit crimes, they work as a criminal enterprise.
To call them anything else is really irresponsible and incredibly
(22:12):
insulting and disrespectful to the hundreds of people that have
experienced and survived violence perpetuated by these groups, right, absolutely.
Do you have any thoughts about the fact that like
Gibson is a former law enforcement and you know, being
the author of the band, then the unenforcement gangs will Yeah,
(22:37):
I mean, yeah, I think that's a lot about like
how the bill was written, because we know that these
people they don't they don't write the bills themselves, right,
they'd get it from advocacy groups that come to them
with legislation. So I think that like that definitely plays
a role in like how that bill was written. Like
I wouldn't necessarily want a police union to write the
(22:57):
rules for how potentially like gang members can conduct themselves
because those same unions have been protecting those people for
the past fifty years. I'm happy that it exists. Um, Luckily,
like we live in a country and a state where
you can continue to tinker with things after they've been
(23:19):
passed m past like amendments, and that gives me hope.
But yeah, I mean, it's not great that a cop
wrote that law. I would have loved for it to
come from one of these, like many many advocacy groups
that have been engaged in the space for much longer
than I have, and much longer than my Gibson has. Frankly,
(23:39):
there have been activists doing this work for generations, and
I'm sure they had plenty of ideas that could have
accomplished this in a way that is a lot more
more stringent. I suppose more strict and just like with
a framework that would actually give like a community more
power as opposed to structures exists that have been protecting
(24:01):
these things for so long. Do you have any ideas
about how we would actually be able to make a
change in terms of the gangs in law enforcement? Wow?
I think at the minimum and an independent investigation is warranted.
(24:22):
I think an injunction would be a good thing to
think about. I think it's been fifty years at this point.
I like, personally speaking, like, I think, I don't know
if you can say this department, like if if if
I funk up on my job like twice, I'm like
chance of getting fired, like fifty years of sucking up
(24:43):
like killing people costing millions of taxpayer dollars, Like I
don't know if there's coming back from that. I really don't.
I'm not, um, you know, I'm not a policy expert.
I'm not you know, an elected official, but as a
taxpayer in Los Angeles County, I am not feeling great
(25:04):
about what we have in place right now, and I
think that a change is definitely needed. And hold that thought.
We will be right back after a word from all responsors.
(25:29):
Earlier we discussed you being shot by police at a
protest inspired on We also just heard about former mayor
of Compton, Agia Brown, being harassed, and so I'm I'm
curious for those who may be in similar situations like
right now, you know what is there is there any
(25:51):
advice that you would give them in terms of how
to survive. Yeah, that's a really tough question, I mean,
and how to survive police violence. Ah, It's that's really tough.
I mean, just because police really have like carte blanche
to do whatever they want to. I don't know if
(26:13):
this will help you survive, but I think these things
will make it easier for people like me to protect you,
other journalists, activists, advocates. I think if you're experiencing like
any sort of like police harassment, or targeting. It's really
important to have a body camera of your own to
(26:36):
record everything, a dash cam, a camera facing out of
the back of your car as well. Because they love
to follow people. I would say locking your social media
now that we know that they follow people and track
your movements that way, lock it. You know, getting an
attorney if you're like financially able, that's always a great step,
(26:59):
just to have someone that is documenting this stuff and
like filing it with the court, with the government and
those appropriate measures, so it is what you're experiencing is
logged and there is an official record of it. Because
you know, of course, we can't trust these agencies to
take records of this. I would say not not going
(27:20):
anywhere alone, really, especially to places where there's a chance
that there could be a law enforcement presence. Like I
have to go to court pretty regularly to pick up
different court documents related to reporting that I'm doing, and
because there's such a big sheriff's presence at the courts,
(27:41):
I don't go by myself anymore. And it's the same
thing like if I'm going to interview a source in
an area where there's a lot of sheriffs, I don't
go alone, and I do have that camera turned on.
Just taking steps. I mean, this is really this is
really dark. But I think taking steps like have like
a complete record of everything that you did in the
event that you're not able to speak for yourself, is
(28:04):
is ultimately what what will help people advocate on your
behalf if should that need a rise? H. Yeah, that
is really actually thorough and helpful. I know that it's
going to speak two folks, you know, so I really
appreciate such a thoughtful response also, So it just reminded me,
(28:31):
brought up for me, like the part in the article
where you were talking about the the gentleman that was
at a Vietnam protest. Oh or maybe it was maybe
maybe not the Vietnam protest, it was the Chicano moratorium. Yeah,
(28:52):
and he felt already, if I'm not mistaken, it's the
last name of Salazar. Yeah, so he felt already that
he was being investigated and he ended up being a
victim of police violence, you know. And and so what
you shared, the last part that you shared about having
(29:14):
a record of what you're doing, you know, like is
important because even for him he shared with friends, you know,
like hey, this is this is what's going on. This
is what's happening. And I would say, like for those
friends and family that you know, have folks who are
doing like the kind of courageous work that you're doing.
(29:35):
Like in order for us to have like a healing culture,
you know, we have to believe one another, you know.
And when folks are saying, hey, I think that this
is happening, and I think that you know, the police
are the ones that are doing it, even as dangerous
as that you know, sounds like, do some of these things,
(29:56):
you know what I mean, take some of these steps.
Don't let your folks go anywhere alone when that you know,
when they start to say that these are the things
that are happening in their lives, you know, and you know,
help them to document things like a like also to
get a get a camera, like get a body cam, yes,
(30:16):
you know, if you can, and just it is if
we're if we're building a culture that is around safety,
if we're building a culture that's around healing, then all
of these things are just as important, you know as
um as like meditating and praying and you know, the
things that folks traditionally believe is about healing, Like you know,
(30:41):
healing is also these things. Healing is also like taking
a stance and understanding that, you know, while it's important
to have policies on the books, in the real world
and in our daily lives, that there's also an importance
for for practical ways to protect ourselves, you know. I also,
I was definitely by the Gravel Institute piece that you
(31:06):
did on YouTube and you spoke about having to wear
a bulletproof vest at times. Yeah, So I mean, how
is that? I mean, just like it's just my grandmother worried.
It's uh yeah, I mean it's it's not something that
(31:27):
I thought I would experience, like in this country as
a journalist, Like I've worked in other regions where you
know that that seems like more of a tangible threat,
if that makes sense. Like I've you know, worked on
stories where people are going to like you know, meet
with like drug traffickers and human smugglers that work for
(31:49):
a cartewel, that kind of situation, Like it seems more
like makes sense like me, you know, covering a protest
here in Los Angeles, like wearing a bullet proof est
that it's just not something that like I saw for
my life. But unfortunately, like yes, I have been shot
at a protest, Like, yes, I am being monitored by
(32:12):
the police. Like that's it's become my reality now. It's
not what I expected. And yeah, it doesn't get any
less shocking, I suppose, Yeah, I mean, and it is
and it is shocking. And I think that the part
of the reason that you know, folks have I'm going
to say missed. You know this, this reality that folks
(32:33):
are in is because of the communities that have to
daily contend with the contestants, right, and so in the
communities that I am a part of, like in particular,
like in Watts and South Central, these areas, like there's
all of these programs, right in order to reduce violence
(32:57):
in a lot of them get high act by law enforcement.
And one of the one of the things that has
been really popular is to buy back guns. Oh my gosh,
the gun bube, let's talk about right, Oh my good man.
And it's funny. I'm like, I think that like and
(33:18):
and supposedly law enforcement buying that guns from civilians is
to increase our safety. You know when in the past
five years police killed more folks running away from them
than the total number of cops shot and killed on duty. Also,
since law enforcement killed three times more black folks then
(33:40):
cops were killed by anyone, like, for law enforcement to
be trying to buy back guns, you know, it's ridiculous
to me. And the reason why I bring that up
is because I'm like, if they really were trying to
like support people's safety, baby giving out bulletproof vest you
know what I mean, not only not only because of
(34:02):
the level of violence that unfortunately happens within our community,
but because of being safe from them, like you know,
for when when one of them gets a wild hair,
you know, if they're asked and decides that they're going
to be trigger happy, you know, Unfortunately, Like we just
we just had a series of youth share about how
(34:26):
the police harassment in the community, like the way that
they actually are actively raising tensions between uh different street
gang in neighborhoods. Right, and I have a kind of
unique upbringing as I'm the child of a family of
(34:46):
folks who transformed their gang membership into peacemaking activities, right
and they put together the peace treaty between the Bloods
and the Cripts and Watts. Right. The I also grew
up on the stories knowing that the police actively resisted
that and actually would dress up, you know, as rival
(35:10):
members and do drive guys and then told them just
like bold faced lee, like you know, uh, we benefit
off of you guys killing each other. You know, we
get over time. Whenever you guys are acting stupid, they
get grants, they got new toys. Right, It's a business
to keep us killing each other, right, And so anybody
(35:34):
actively working to you know, to to decrease the violence
for real, you know, not just like trying to buy
back guns like to then redistribute in the same time.
Oh yeah, and that happens all the time. Like how
many scandals have we seen where law enforcement officers are
found going into the evidence room, going into these like
(35:54):
places where these guns are taken, taking them and selling
them on the street. We've had scandal after a scandal.
So for example, there's a story from September a CBS
broadcast where they found a former manager for the Los
Angeles Police Academies Guns store was accused of stealing twenty
(36:17):
one guns. The l A County District Attorney's Office says
thirty four year old Archie Duaneas took the guns from
the police revolver and athletic club over a two year
period then sold them. And I was wondering also, like
because you you in your reporting, like you spoke about
(36:38):
too how there has been like all these documented points
of officers like framing people. Can you can you tell
us more about that too. Well, there are actually two
officers that are currently facing criminal charges for lying about
a assault that took place during a arrest. And these
(37:02):
are two deputy gang associates from the East Los Angeles station.
That's one case where they face criminal charges. But yeah,
I mean again, it's it's another thing that happens constantly,
and that's um. One of the hallmarks of these deputy
gangs is targeting black and brown people in low income
(37:23):
areas for a stop that will turn into a beating
or a death. We're going to take a short break
to hear from our sponsors. The point that I'm trying
(37:45):
to make is it's like it's part of just sort
of the culture and like function of policing, like in
and of itself. I've spoken to many deputies who tell me,
like there is an insane amount of pressure and require
and even ironments sometimes to go out and they call
it hunting, go out and hunt young men of color
(38:09):
to increase these statistics. These are a statistics, these you know,
numbers that they can point to and say, look, we're
needed in this area. We need to work more over time.
We need that grant, that five million dollar grant to
form a new team or task force to continue policing
(38:32):
this community. We need those new guns, We need that
new armored vehicle. Um, we need a sheriff's department budget
increase to three point five billion with a B dollars. Yeah,
it's it's it's really a business. And I think that's
like the most like gross and insidious part of it. Oh,
you can say that again. Like, um, I think that
(38:56):
as survivors of crime in a little in come communities,
there's been this tail right that says that, Okay, we
have the highest levels of crime, right, but ultimately we
have received the lowest amount of resources, you know, And
(39:17):
it's like and part and part of that has been
because of barriers within law enforcement. And then also I
know that you you did a you did a piece
around the ways that there are law enforcement folks who
have attempted to just do their actual job right, and
(39:40):
then these gangs within the law enforcement actually start to
harass those folks. And I feel like I I'm constantly
in my life bringing up Christopher Dorner. But and it's
like it's a really unpopular things to do around my
(40:02):
community because there are some really kind of high up
folks who you know, we're on his list on his memory. Yeah,
and so I, um, you know, I appreciate the Dave
Chappelle's even though he's on he's under fire right now,
but because he's he spoke about, you know, Christopher Dorner
(40:23):
and how you know the police told him like, hey,
you know, like be careful when you come wreak about here.
He's like, why do I have to be careful? Like
you guys are the ones who are who have a
pattern of abuses, and you have you have an officer
here who was saying like, hey, you know, I'm gonna
(40:43):
blow the whistle on beating up mentally incapacitated and mentally
unwell folks. You know, and you know there was there
was suppression, you know. Can you tell me and tell
us more about just which you found in your investigation
around the interdynamics of police harassments. Yeah, I mean there
(41:09):
there is like a brotherhood of policing that I think
that exists across departments, and that is why a lot
of this stuff is kept so quiet. Most law enforcement
officers believe it's a cardinals send to do any sort
of hustle, boring or telling on their brothers. They're so
called brothers. The very few that do that do take
(41:33):
a stand. Generally they are either one pushed out by
false investigations. A lot of times they'll say they saw
something wrong, someone beating up someone during an arrest. Sometimes
they will get mysterious investigations that they actually did something
(41:53):
wrong during an arrest, and they'll get suspended. They'll get
terminated sometimes even for things that necessarily didn't happen. Sometimes
their lives are threatened for this kind of stuff. They'll
have guns pointed out them, They'll have people driving by
their house at night and leaving dead animals in their
(42:16):
front lawn. It's really they very much have a target
put on their back for speaking up about this kind
of stuff. Yeah, it's very dangerous for them. It's and
I think that culture being present, it really discourages anyone
from becoming like the proverbial good cop. Right, You see
that this is what happens to those people, and that's
(42:38):
really important to say. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like we uh,
we run a program Community Sentinels Leadership Academy where we
are wanting to train the next generation of community based
public safety professionals, right and and be you the youth
(43:01):
with understanding of like civic engagement, house systems work and
just like some practical skills around like really like awareness,
like community awareness, community education in history. Sometimes we invite
law enforcement to come out, and we had one law
enforcement officer, a black officer who I won't say her
(43:25):
name right now, but she spoke very passionately about the
fact that when she first joined the force back in
the eighties, it was so it was like so palpable,
soul visceral that they did not want black officers and
they definitely did not want black female officers, you know,
(43:46):
and that and like it's like there has been like
this harassment that they had to you know, contend with
like their entire careers, and not only that, just in
order for them to get on the force back in
the eighties, they have to sue. And so this is
like you said, this is the culture and this is
and this is California. So when I We're not talking
(44:08):
about Louisiana when I talking about Mississippi or Michigan, you
know what I mean. I mean, so this is the
culture of policing in America, you know, and and we're
having to survive this ship. You know, do you know
much about like community based public safety efforts? Like there's
(44:32):
like a lot of groups that you know, stand on
the shoulders of folks like the Black Panthers and the
Brown Berets and you know, like folks who have come
from the mindset of taking what they have, the resources
that they have, and doing the best that they can
in order to provide a sense of protection within the
(44:54):
community and to reduce the violence. There is um a
concerted effort from law enforcement to even discredit them and
then on the other hand, to know, to bolster them up,
but only as a like like as a punchline almost
like like you could you could have them, you know,
these former gang members and these criminals of your community,
(45:18):
or you could have us like you know that kind
of criminals of your community. Gang members and criminals. I'll
take the ones I know and that haven't killed my family.
M So there you have it, I mean, because that
(45:41):
is the that is the contradiction here. And you know,
we have, like you stated, we've trusted law enforcement for
fifty years with our public funds. And yet when it
comes to folks who study their entire lives and put
their our entire lives with no badges, no batons, no guns,
(46:05):
no vest you know like that, and they go out
into their community. They're part of their community, they're invested
in the well being of their community. And folks from
on high are saying, well, you know, we can't trust
you with with the public funds, but we've trusted law
enforcement with public side. I definitely think that the amount
(46:30):
of money that we spend on law enforcement here in
Los Angeles and in compared especially when you look at
in comparisons to other services, it's it's ridiculous. You would
think that we were living in a war torn country
and we don't really see a lot of return on
that investment. We spend over three billion dollars on the
(46:53):
Sheriff's Department and they have a thirty five percent clearance
rate for homicides. That means that they only solve thirty
five percent. They they're constantly talking about the oh murders
are going up murders are going out, but they're not
solving them, They're not, you know, really doing anything to
prevent it, and they still want more money. They just
(47:13):
got a five million dollar grant and it really makes
me question, like, where where is this money going. I
looked at a budget for l a p D. They
recently had a really awful incident where four hundred officers
were called out to remove homeless people from a local park.
Journalists arm was broken. In the process of that. Over
(47:35):
a hundred and eighty people, including members of the press,
were arrested. And coming out of that, l a p
D said, you know what, to get better, we need
eighteen million more dollars, and a million dollars of that
I believe was for snacks. Yeah, snacks, yeah right, And
(47:56):
this right, and this is this is the this is
the current state of things. And so, as an advocate
for survivors of crime, when you know we're we're asking
for folks, you know, to be able to access dollars
to bury their loved ones murdered by police. The one
(48:20):
legislation that would have provided compensation of victims and survivors
in that predicament SP two nine nine, although it passed
the Senate committee. It was ultimately taken off the table.
So the fight continues. There are new models that are
out here, and you know, if we give them half
a chance, we can see things, you know, differently maybe.
(48:45):
You know. However, if we continue the way that we're going,
it will be another fifty years of folks, you know,
talking about how they're having to survive, you know, police
violence and killer cops. Like, you know, another point I
want to add to surviving. I want to tell people
like to vote. I mean, like I hate to be
(49:06):
like that cheesy person being like registered about would make
sure you vote, um, but voting I really look at
it as like harm reduction, Like, yes, this is like
it's a very flawed system. And like we're seeing that
right now in our redistricting redistricting process, right Like, these
are systems that are constantly changing to keep you know,
people that are affected by them the most, the most quiet,
(49:28):
but really you know, engaging civically. And we have how
many council members up? I think we have eight council
members up for reelection. Next year, we have an election
inside the Sheriff's department to elect a new sheriff. Like
community engagement on this stuff is key because these are
the people that decide on the city council and on
the supervisors. These are the people that decide where that
(49:50):
money goes and how much money they got, and the
policies that dictate how law enforcement can interact with the community.
When we're talking about electing a sheriff, the it's literally
the person that overseas everything. We currently have a sheriff
that has admitted to associating with deputy gangs. His under
sheriff is a tattooed member of a deputy gang, and
(50:11):
he denies the existence of deputy gangs. This is this
is incredibly dangerous. He constantly spent spreads misinformation, and we're
going to have an opportunity to change that. So I
really encourage everyone to, you know, tap in with their
civic engagement and like I said before, like make sure
you're doing that little bit of harm reduction, because if
(50:31):
we continue to do it and we work together, things
will get better. I promise. We just have to be
there to start the process. So I'm also just wondering,
what are some of the ways that you take care
of yourself. While I am starting to be a lot
more strict with myself about when I can and cannot
(50:52):
do work. I make sure that I carve out plenty
of time in my day to just be series and
do things that I enjoy. Hiking, well, I need to
start working out more regularly. Again, I sort of forget
how much I enjoy it when I get off of it.
But I think that's a lot of people. I do yoga. I, um,
I just moved. That's sort of tingentially related to the
(51:15):
stuff that I've been experiencing. So, you know, putting my
house together, that's fun, decorating. I read a lot about
lighter subjects. Well, I guess the book I'm reading right
now isn't so light. It's about it's about the the
Gucci family. Um, it's the book that the movie that's
(51:36):
coming out is based on. And there's a murder in that,
so it's not so light. But it's a lot about fashion.
So a little bit of a break, yeah, and just
like realizing that like it's okay to like take care
of myself. I felt a lot of when I was
reporting the series and in the months afterward, I felt
really that I couldn't take any time away or that
(51:58):
I couldn't that I had to go after like everything
that I was getting right in that moment that I
couldn't take time to live my own life. And I do.
I do therapy, and like, through therapy, I've really been
able to realize that that's not healthy for me or
the people that I am trying whose stories I'm trying
to tell. I have to be a well rounded person.
It can't all just be one thing. Um And that's
(52:21):
been very helpful as well. Oh, thank you so much
for sharing that, because it I think it is immensely
important to remember to live your life because a part
of the suppression and the oppression of the dominant culture
is they want to take our lives, you know, and
so um with in every way that we can reclaim
(52:45):
our lives and reclaim our time, we should do that,
you know. Yeah. I also just want to lift up
how important your voices. Thank you all of this, Thank you,
you know, like it's really courageous. How can we support you?
How can people support you? Yeah, sharing the stories, reading,
(53:05):
reading the articles, sending them to friends, family, talking about
this stuff. If you if you see something, if you
have a tip or something that you think I should
check out, please reach you out to me. You can
find me on my social media. I'm on Twitter at
Suri's Castle. Instagram is the same, And yeah, that's the
(53:26):
best way if you just sharing the work, and of
course if you if you see something, if you have
a question, I'm always available and here here to help.
Was there anything else that that you would share two survivors?
I don't know. I mean, that's a that's a big question.
I think I tend to listen to survivors because they
(53:49):
have They've been through things, a lot of things that
I can't I can't even imagine, and I'm always just
amazed by their strength and their ability to continue on
after going through some of these things. So yeah, I
mean I would answer that was like, what what do
the survivors have to have to say to us? I
(54:12):
concur which is why we are ending this episode hearing
from another survivor of Killer Cups. This audio is from
a b l M action that calls for the dissolution
of police associations, where you have Albert Corrado demanding justice
for his sister mel Corrado, who was murdered by police
(54:34):
in Silver Lake in In any case, thank you all
so much for joining us of voting and organizing. And
obviously you know I come to you as as Mellie's
brother first and foremost. Um, I am also running for
city council. But I'm not here to sell you on
why you should basically, but I wanted to mention that
(54:55):
so I can give you a little bit of context. Um,
When Mellie was killed and the city lied about it
and tried to cover it up and then had to
admit that it was police who killed her, I started
to get a peek into how this city works and
how everything in in city government works in concerts. So
the police are are you know, aided and vetted by
(55:18):
the mayor, by city council members who draft ordinances to
give police more power. The city fails people every single day.
It failed Mellie when it allowed two of their employees
to kill her. But there was something about the other
people on the other side who were who were doing
this that made me. It gave me the same feeling
(55:39):
that I got when I would hear the police chief
talk about Mellie, talk about the victims of violent crime,
of of of police violence. You know, it's it's they
want to tell you that they're the ones who have
all the answers that this is the only way that
anything is gonna get done, that the only way you
can be saved is by having a highly militarized police
(56:01):
force who works in tandem with the federal government to
get military grade weapons. This they're telling you, this is
the only way, the only way that this city functions
is if we basically round up and arrest and harass
every unhoused person. We're not going to address why people
end up intense, why people decide to live in intent.
(56:25):
It's not because they want to. No one wants to
do that. All of us, I hope in this crowd
gets to go home to a comfortable bed, to a house,
to some form of comfort. And a lot of people don't.
They have to live their lives in a in a
constant sense of panic, a constant sense of worry, and
we don't ever address that. We have to understand that
(56:46):
there is power to be had in these institutions. We
may derive them, we may say that they are imperfect,
because they are, and the money of you tomorrow, you
told me, hey, I want to get rid of the
electoral politics and all that, I'd say, hell yeah, let's
sucking do it. But unfortunately, we have to seize that power,
because no one is gonna come to your door and say, hey,
you know what, you're radical, You're you're an abolitionist, You're
(57:09):
you have really good ideas. Why don't you come do this.
We have to take that power. No one is gonna
is gonna go to your door and ask you to
do that, because the moment that more of us who
believe in what we believe in, more radical abolitionists, and
and and we we believe in radical love and and
justice and all, that is the moment they lose their
stranglehold that they have on on our city, on our society,
(57:32):
and and that to them is scary disclaim where my views, beliefs,
and opinions on my own and do not necessarily reflect
the views of my guests, resource organizations, or sources shared
Content morning. This episode will discuss a lot of heavy
topics such as harassment, surveillance, and police brutality. Please be
kind to yourself, prepare yourself with before and or after care,
and remember, if you're a loved one is going through it,
you can call the a c l U the Emergencivil
Liberties Union at two two five. Thank you. Join us
(00:39):
to explore the stories, policies and practices and idea survivor's models.
This is with your host. Oh yeah, welcome, good people.
This is your host at L Charell's and today we
(01:02):
will be speaking with Ceris Castle, an investigative journalists and
host of the podcast Tradition of Violence. It's a podcast
that you can find on the I Heart app or
wherever you get your podcasts. As an advocate for survivors
of crime, we know that all crimes are not treated
equal and all survivors do not have equal access to
(01:23):
healing resources. That's saying the least when it comes to
survivors of police violence and those seeking support to help
very loved ones murdered by law enforcement. A bill called
SP two nine Victim Compensation and Use of Force by
a Law Enforcement Officer sought to change that, but the
(01:43):
bill was not signed into law, so the fight continues.
My guest and I discuss what brought us to these conditions,
how to seek healing in the midst, and what policies
and practices can help us in the battle. Listen in, Hi, welcome, Hi,
Thanks for having me. Can you introduce yourself and tell
(02:06):
us about the work that you do. Yeah, my name
is Cerise Castle. I am a independent freelance journalist and
I cover a lot of different things. Um this past year,
I have spent pretty much, uh ninety five percent of
my time covering gangs inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
(02:28):
Your work with not l A includes a fifteen part
investigative series that tells the history of deputy gangs. Not
to mention, you have a database of known deputy gang
associates and numerous articles documenting police misconduct and police violence
of all kinds. You're behind the Google elis the Gangs campaign,
(02:51):
and for those listening, make sure you do so. Although
we have jumped right in, I just want to note
that this is episode two entitled I'm Surviving Killer Cops,
and this is the Survivor's Heel podcast with your host,
Oya al Charels. We are a project of I Heart
Radio's Next Up initiative, and again we are here with
(03:15):
the brilliant and talented Cerise Castle, who has put herself
in harm's way just to make sure that the people
know the truth. And so can I just start off
by checking in with you? Of course? Yeah, I'm so.
This week I found out, Um, I had always suspected
that there was some monitoring going on of my personal
(03:38):
life by the Sheriff's department, and this week I got
confirmation that that is happening. I found out through a
public records request that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
tasked what appears to be a team of so called
crime analysts to monitor my social media for this is
their words, potential doxing purposes. Yeah. Like I said, it
(04:02):
was something that I suspected was going on, But seeing
that in writing on you know, county letterhead, it doesn't
get any less shocking than that. I'm still processing it.
I think this is just something that I learned about
a couple of days ago. But yeah, it's it's an
unfortunate reality that a lot of people have to deal with,
(04:23):
you know, I'm just I'm one of you know, probably
hundreds of people that are going through something like this,
and even just the monitoring of my social media that's
so minimal compared to what so many other families and
individuals experience on a daily basis. My monitor my monitoring
exists in the digital space. Many people are monitored, you know,
(04:48):
going to the grocery store, picking their kids up from school,
driving to put gas in the car, and are pulled over,
taken out of their cars, arrested for no reason, or
very flimsy ones at best. So I'm lucky that it
hasn't escalated to that point, but you know, that doesn't
(05:10):
make it any less appropriate. Absolutely, and I do want
to just highlight the process that you went through in
order to confirm that was happening, because sometimes I feel
like we activists, if I might say, or street historians
(05:31):
right that an advocates as well, like we get ridiculed
and called paranoid and all this kind of thing, you know,
when we're like, I'm suspecting that you know, we're being
unduly investigated or watched or buy it on. And sometimes
it's like for for many of us, there is not
(05:52):
that there's never that confirmation, you know, and if if
it is confirmed, it's not confirmed in a way that
is so tangible as like on county letterhead. You know
what I mean. And so I just want to highlight
that you did a p r A public records I
did request, right, I did, Yes, And that information I've
(06:14):
posted on my social media and I'll say it here.
If anyone is interested in, you know, learning from me
how to do that, I do have a template that
I am anxious to share with people. I'm trying to
find a platform that's best to have that accessible to people.
But yes, if anyone is interested in getting this template
that I use for public records, that request, like, please
(06:34):
reach out to me. It's available for the public, and
I want people to have this information and know how
to do this. Yeah, that's super dope because I feel
like so the organization that I work for, the Reverence Project,
what we like to do was to introduce alternative ways
to heal, right, And I feel like tools like the
(06:55):
one that you just talked about, the p r A,
those those are actually tools for healing because they allow
us to hold people accountable and they also allow us
to in some cases just confirm what our intuition tells us,
you know, And it's really important, you know, to not
(07:16):
have to continuously be in doubt, you know, and to
be able to to say definitively like hey, like I
know what you guys are doing. I feel that is
also true of investigative reporting that you've done, like that
that has created a way for people who have been
(07:39):
the survivors of police violence, a way to say, you
know what, it's true, you know, and here is fifty
years of proof, you know. Can you also tell us,
like what it was really that sparked your interest in
doing this story in particular? Yeah, so, I mean I've
(08:00):
always been interested in deputy gangs. I grew up here
in southern California, and growing up I would hear from
my peers in school, my older brother, my mom, teachers
even about deputy gangs, just sort of as like cautionary anecdotes,
(08:21):
A watch out for white bald headed sheribs because they're
likely vikings and you know, they'll beat you up, they'll
take you to jail for no reason. And it was
sort of like, you know, one of those things, like
I guess, like an urban folklore, like there's truth to it,
but you really don't know anything beyond those little snippets
(08:42):
that you hear, and I always wanted to know more.
I've always been just sort of a naturally inquisitive person,
and I've always really loved the library and looking into history.
So I remember, like as a kid, trying to go
to the library and find out stuff about these deputy gangs,
but there was never anything substantial. I would find articles
(09:06):
here and there in different local papers, but there wasn't
ever really any uh, deep in investigative projects that really
looked into who these people were, where they came from,
and what what exactly their agenda was. And it was
a question that I kept coming back to at different
(09:27):
points in my life, and there were never any answers there.
So yeah, fast forward to the summer. I was working
at a local radio station here in l A. And
I was covering the protests and uprisings that were happening
in response to the murder of George Floyd. And in
(09:48):
the course of doing that boarding I was shot by
the Los Angeles Police Department with a less lethal immunition.
I was standing on the sidewalk holding my press badge
above my head and I actually caught in a series
of photographs UM a police officer turning, pointing his gun
at me and pulling the trigger, and the resulting injuries
(10:12):
of that placed me on better rest for six months.
I couldn't walk, I could I was in a air cast,
I had to use crutches to get around, and I
was basically told to just sit on my couch and
take it easy for the next six months. And that
really that really bothered me. I didn't want to do that,
(10:33):
especially in the in the moment that we were in.
Just sort of sitting back and standing by didn't really
it didn't really sit well with me. I knew I
had to find some way to keep doing my work. UM.
A couple of days after I was shot with the
(10:54):
les lethal undress, Guard Atto was killed by two death
be d Sheriff's in the Compton area. He was an
eighteen year old security guard and they chased him into
an alley and shot him as he was on his knees.
I remember that really awful, awful, awful shooting, and it's
(11:16):
still making its way through the courts right now. One
of the deputies has sort of disappeared. He left the country.
No one really knows where he is didn't know that. Yeah,
it's this stuff is just allowed to happen. Criminal charges
are who knows that they're going to get filed. We're
still waiting to see there's a civil suit making its
(11:37):
way through the court in any case, I saw that
happening pretty quickly after Undress was killed. It came out
that the two deputies that participated in that shooting were
prospects of a deputy gang. And when I heard that,
I was just like, okay, Like this is something I've
been thinking about for literally my entire life. Let's see
(11:59):
how much I can find out about deputy gangs in
these six months. Like, I'm going to put all of
my time and resources into reporting this out from my couch.
And I started doing that, and I started filing public
records Acts requests again, and after a few requests, I
was able to turn up a list of litigation that
(12:22):
the County of Los Angeles keeps of civil cases related
to deputy gangs. It's quite literally a spreadsheet that lists
the case, the deputy gang affiliated with it, and the
dollar amount m on that list. They totaled fifty million.
I used that list as a roadmap, but I was
(12:43):
able to find even more cases, and what I found
was that these deputy gangs have killed at least nineteen people.
Four of them were suffering a mental health crisis. These
were all men of color, and it has cost county
taxpayers at least one hundred million dollars of settlement payments alone.
(13:03):
Nine times out of ten these cases settle, and when
they settle, that means they get the settlement award, which
is that hundred billion that I'm talking about. But one
dollar amount that I haven't been able to track down
is how much the attorney's costs. When you settle, you
have to pay for not just your attorney fees, but
the attorney fees for the other person. So that number
(13:25):
of a hundred million is probably a lot higher. And
shares department, shace deputies, they don't pay for any of that.
It's US county taxpayers that pick up that bill. So essentially,
for the past fifty years, we've been funding these payoffs
for these murders. Well, that is just very chilling to hear,
(13:49):
especially coming from the place of having to fight for
survivors of crime to receive compensation and having the funds
for survivors actually baby set by law enforcement for them
to be the ones to say whether or not somebody
(14:10):
is or is not a survivor, you know, it has
just been incredibly inappropriate and something that has to change.
And there has been some policies that have, you know,
begun to turn the tide. And I would say that
even even now in the case of law enforcement gangs.
(14:32):
I know that there was a article out last year
where Mayor Agia Brown was talking about, like her, her
run ins with these folks. There was an article out
last year where the former mayor of Compton, age of Brown,
(14:53):
was talking about her run ins with the sheriffs. The
story comes from an ABC seven news broadcast in August
where there is an eyewitness news investigation highlighting the alleged
sheriff's deputy gang that has branded its members the Executioners.
(15:14):
The city leaders and Compton said they were fed up.
They were calling for a federal investigation, and the former
mayor of Compton herself spoke out about her own harrowing experience.
She said that they terrorissed the community and then they
covered their tracks, and she said the sheriff's gang's behavior
was unacceptable. This broadcast asked the question, is the Compton
(15:39):
sheriff station being run by the executioners, a gang of
rogue deputies with matching tattoos. Of course, Sheriff alex Via Nueva,
maybe former sheriff, denied it, but the former um mayor
of Compton, Agia Brown, shared her own experience of being
pulled over by Compton deputies in June of twenty nineteen.
(16:01):
She said she rolled down the window and asked why
she was being pulled over. Within seconds, almost seven to
nine Sheriff's deputies vehicles descended upon the scene. She said,
they ordered her out of her vehicle. They asked her
to put her hands on top of the police vehicle
so they could search her as if she was a criminal.
And that was just the piece of what Compton's former mayor,
(16:24):
Aga Brown had gone through. The City of Compton is
actually suing the Sheriff's department now for money laundering, essentially
billing four hours and services that the city contends were
never completed. Instead, what was completed was the systemic harassment
of the residents of Compton, their children, and the deaths
(16:49):
of many community members that were killed by these deputy
gang members. It's really unfortunate, I mean the Compton Police
Department was shut down for a lot of the same reasons.
I mean, there was systemic abuse going on in the
Compton Sheriff's department, you know, again, like services not happening,
and the thought was that by shutting them down and
(17:10):
bringing in the sheriffs, things would be better. But we
know that there is this fifty year history of abuse
in the sheriff's department as well, and it's really metastasized
to one of the most dangerous deputy gangs in Los
Angeles County. Right, and are you familiar with some of
the legislation that has recently passed banning law enforcement gangs. Yeah, yeah,
(17:34):
I'm familiar with that bill. I believe that was the
Representative Mike Gibson that authored that. So back in November,
Mike Gibson Assemblyman Mike Gibson, he was on a podcast
called Sectown Talks, and I'm actually going to share a
whole quote from him about Assembly bill. It's pretty long,
(18:00):
but I want you guys to be able to like
really hear what he had to say about this bill.
So he said, quote that in my own city in
which I represent, I represent Watts Compton, Carson Wilmington, North
Long Beach, Lynwood, Guardina, and also Torrance, but specifically in
the city of Compton, there was a police officer, a
(18:22):
deputy sheriff, who for five years was bullied, harassed, left
unprotected as a deputy sheriff because he refused to be
a part of a law enforcement gang or sheriff's gang
click that exists. There were the Executioners, there were the Vikings,
and other different names they named this gang that was
(18:43):
a secret society within the sheriff's department. So we went
to work after this deputy sheriff a bold statement by
saying enough is enough and it's too much, and he
came out publicly and we had to address and we
had to do something. So we went to work and
we created Bill A b which is banning police or
(19:07):
law enforcement gangs. And so if you are found to
be a part of a gang any law enforcement agency
in the state of California, it is a terminable offense
now and you will now because of another piece of
legislation that I voted on, which is Senate Bill Too,
it will cause you to be decertified. So this Bill
(19:28):
A Bight was signed into law banning law enforcement from
having any kind of gangs, because we know that even
like a streak gang, a thug streak gang, like the
curbs and Bloods for the cowards that they are, we
know that you in order for you to be a
part of that, you have to put in work. You
have to kill someone, you have to abuse someone. Well,
(19:50):
the same principle and law enforcement, you have to use
deadly force or unnecessary force. And so in order to
be a part of this law enforcement and so we
say that this is no place in law enforcement in
the state of California. There's no place for this. This
Governor Gavin knewso he signed this bill into law prohibiting
(20:14):
law enforcement gangs existing in the state. And I've had
and I want to underscore, a number of chiefs of
police and other law enforcement throughout the state of California
call me anonymously sharing the information saying we can't get
rid of these deputy sheriffs or these police officers because
the gang gets too strong and powerful. And I'm going
(20:36):
in the right direction. And so we did this with
the support of those individuals who cannot reveal themselves but
certainly support this piece of legislation so that they can
now have the ammunition to, once they find someone that's
a part of the gang, get rid of them and
cause them to never be law enforcement in the state
of California. Again in yeah, I'm good that that stuff
(21:03):
is passing, Like, I definitely think that's a step in
the right direction. Unfortunately, here in Los Angeles County, where
we have now probably the most documented issues of deputy gangs,
we have a sheriff that says time and time again
that he picks and chooses which laws he's going to
enforce and which rules that he's going to enforce for
(21:24):
his own staff. So I'm not particularly confident that that
law will make any difference in our sheriff's department because
our sheriff is so open about choosing to, you know,
follow the rules that he personally approves of. He he
also routinely denies that deputy gang exists in his department.
(21:48):
Calls them benign clicks, sub groups, I mean, click as
mean girls at your high school subgroups groups, right, I
don't I'm not really sure that is that sounds like
sports or something. I'm not sure these are gangs. These
are gangs. They commit crimes, they work as a criminal enterprise.
To call them anything else is really irresponsible and incredibly
(22:12):
insulting and disrespectful to the hundreds of people that have
experienced and survived violence perpetuated by these groups, right, absolutely.
Do you have any thoughts about the fact that like
Gibson is a former law enforcement and you know, being
the author of the band, then the unenforcement gangs will Yeah,
(22:37):
I mean, yeah, I think that's a lot about like
how the bill was written, because we know that these
people they don't they don't write the bills themselves, right,
they'd get it from advocacy groups that come to them
with legislation. So I think that like that definitely plays
a role in like how that bill was written. Like
I wouldn't necessarily want a police union to write the
(22:57):
rules for how potentially like gang members can conduct themselves
because those same unions have been protecting those people for
the past fifty years. I'm happy that it exists. Um, Luckily,
like we live in a country and a state where
you can continue to tinker with things after they've been
(23:19):
passed m past like amendments, and that gives me hope.
But yeah, I mean, it's not great that a cop
wrote that law. I would have loved for it to
come from one of these, like many many advocacy groups
that have been engaged in the space for much longer
than I have, and much longer than my Gibson has. Frankly,
(23:39):
there have been activists doing this work for generations, and
I'm sure they had plenty of ideas that could have
accomplished this in a way that is a lot more
more stringent. I suppose more strict and just like with
a framework that would actually give like a community more
power as opposed to structures exists that have been protecting
(24:01):
these things for so long. Do you have any ideas
about how we would actually be able to make a
change in terms of the gangs in law enforcement? Wow?
I think at the minimum and an independent investigation is warranted.
(24:22):
I think an injunction would be a good thing to
think about. I think it's been fifty years at this point.
I like, personally speaking, like, I think, I don't know
if you can say this department, like if if if
I funk up on my job like twice, I'm like
chance of getting fired, like fifty years of sucking up
(24:43):
like killing people costing millions of taxpayer dollars, Like I
don't know if there's coming back from that. I really don't.
I'm not, um, you know, I'm not a policy expert.
I'm not you know, an elected official, but as a
taxpayer in Los Angeles County, I am not feeling great
(25:04):
about what we have in place right now, and I
think that a change is definitely needed. And hold that thought.
We will be right back after a word from all responsors.
(25:29):
Earlier we discussed you being shot by police at a
protest inspired on We also just heard about former mayor
of Compton, Agia Brown, being harassed, and so I'm I'm
curious for those who may be in similar situations like
right now, you know what is there is there any
(25:51):
advice that you would give them in terms of how
to survive. Yeah, that's a really tough question, I mean,
and how to survive police violence. Ah, It's that's really tough.
I mean, just because police really have like carte blanche
to do whatever they want to. I don't know if
(26:13):
this will help you survive, but I think these things
will make it easier for people like me to protect you,
other journalists, activists, advocates. I think if you're experiencing like
any sort of like police harassment, or targeting. It's really
important to have a body camera of your own to
(26:36):
record everything, a dash cam, a camera facing out of
the back of your car as well. Because they love
to follow people. I would say locking your social media
now that we know that they follow people and track
your movements that way, lock it. You know, getting an
attorney if you're like financially able, that's always a great step,
(26:59):
just to have someone that is documenting this stuff and
like filing it with the court, with the government and
those appropriate measures, so it is what you're experiencing is
logged and there is an official record of it. Because
you know, of course, we can't trust these agencies to
take records of this. I would say not not going
(27:20):
anywhere alone, really, especially to places where there's a chance
that there could be a law enforcement presence. Like I
have to go to court pretty regularly to pick up
different court documents related to reporting that I'm doing, and
because there's such a big sheriff's presence at the courts,
(27:41):
I don't go by myself anymore. And it's the same
thing like if I'm going to interview a source in
an area where there's a lot of sheriffs, I don't
go alone, and I do have that camera turned on.
Just taking steps. I mean, this is really this is
really dark. But I think taking steps like have like
a complete record of everything that you did in the
event that you're not able to speak for yourself, is
(28:04):
is ultimately what what will help people advocate on your
behalf if should that need a rise? H. Yeah, that
is really actually thorough and helpful. I know that it's
going to speak two folks, you know, so I really
appreciate such a thoughtful response also, So it just reminded me,
(28:31):
brought up for me, like the part in the article
where you were talking about the the gentleman that was
at a Vietnam protest. Oh or maybe it was maybe
maybe not the Vietnam protest, it was the Chicano moratorium. Yeah,
(28:52):
and he felt already, if I'm not mistaken, it's the
last name of Salazar. Yeah, so he felt already that
he was being investigated and he ended up being a
victim of police violence, you know. And and so what
you shared, the last part that you shared about having
(29:14):
a record of what you're doing, you know, like is
important because even for him he shared with friends, you know,
like hey, this is this is what's going on. This
is what's happening. And I would say, like for those
friends and family that you know, have folks who are
doing like the kind of courageous work that you're doing.
(29:35):
Like in order for us to have like a healing culture,
you know, we have to believe one another, you know.
And when folks are saying, hey, I think that this
is happening, and I think that you know, the police
are the ones that are doing it, even as dangerous
as that you know, sounds like, do some of these things,
(29:56):
you know what I mean, take some of these steps.
Don't let your folks go anywhere alone when that you know,
when they start to say that these are the things
that are happening in their lives, you know, and you know,
help them to document things like a like also to
get a get a camera, like get a body cam, yes,
(30:16):
you know, if you can, and just it is if
we're if we're building a culture that is around safety,
if we're building a culture that's around healing, then all
of these things are just as important, you know as
um as like meditating and praying and you know, the
things that folks traditionally believe is about healing, Like you know,
(30:41):
healing is also these things. Healing is also like taking
a stance and understanding that, you know, while it's important
to have policies on the books, in the real world
and in our daily lives, that there's also an importance
for for practical ways to protect ourselves, you know. I also,
I was definitely by the Gravel Institute piece that you
(31:06):
did on YouTube and you spoke about having to wear
a bulletproof vest at times. Yeah, So I mean, how
is that? I mean, just like it's just my grandmother worried.
It's uh yeah, I mean it's it's not something that
(31:27):
I thought I would experience, like in this country as
a journalist, Like I've worked in other regions where you
know that that seems like more of a tangible threat,
if that makes sense. Like I've you know, worked on
stories where people are going to like you know, meet
with like drug traffickers and human smugglers that work for
(31:49):
a cartewel, that kind of situation, Like it seems more
like makes sense like me, you know, covering a protest
here in Los Angeles, like wearing a bullet proof est
that it's just not something that like I saw for
my life. But unfortunately, like yes, I have been shot
at a protest, Like, yes, I am being monitored by
(32:12):
the police. Like that's it's become my reality now. It's
not what I expected. And yeah, it doesn't get any
less shocking, I suppose, Yeah, I mean, and it is
and it is shocking. And I think that the part
of the reason that you know, folks have I'm going
to say missed. You know this, this reality that folks
(32:33):
are in is because of the communities that have to
daily contend with the contestants, right, and so in the
communities that I am a part of, like in particular,
like in Watts and South Central, these areas, like there's
all of these programs, right in order to reduce violence
(32:57):
in a lot of them get high act by law enforcement.
And one of the one of the things that has
been really popular is to buy back guns. Oh my gosh,
the gun bube, let's talk about right, Oh my good man.
And it's funny. I'm like, I think that like and
(33:18):
and supposedly law enforcement buying that guns from civilians is
to increase our safety. You know when in the past
five years police killed more folks running away from them
than the total number of cops shot and killed on duty. Also,
since law enforcement killed three times more black folks then
(33:40):
cops were killed by anyone, like, for law enforcement to
be trying to buy back guns, you know, it's ridiculous
to me. And the reason why I bring that up
is because I'm like, if they really were trying to
like support people's safety, baby giving out bulletproof vest you
know what I mean, not only not only because of
(34:02):
the level of violence that unfortunately happens within our community,
but because of being safe from them, like you know,
for when when one of them gets a wild hair,
you know, if they're asked and decides that they're going
to be trigger happy, you know, Unfortunately, Like we just
we just had a series of youth share about how
(34:26):
the police harassment in the community, like the way that
they actually are actively raising tensions between uh different street
gang in neighborhoods. Right, and I have a kind of
unique upbringing as I'm the child of a family of
(34:46):
folks who transformed their gang membership into peacemaking activities, right
and they put together the peace treaty between the Bloods
and the Cripts and Watts. Right. The I also grew
up on the stories knowing that the police actively resisted
that and actually would dress up, you know, as rival
(35:10):
members and do drive guys and then told them just
like bold faced lee, like you know, uh, we benefit
off of you guys killing each other. You know, we
get over time. Whenever you guys are acting stupid, they
get grants, they got new toys. Right, It's a business
to keep us killing each other, right, And so anybody
(35:34):
actively working to you know, to to decrease the violence
for real, you know, not just like trying to buy
back guns like to then redistribute in the same time.
Oh yeah, and that happens all the time. Like how
many scandals have we seen where law enforcement officers are
found going into the evidence room, going into these like
(35:54):
places where these guns are taken, taking them and selling
them on the street. We've had scandal after a scandal.
So for example, there's a story from September a CBS
broadcast where they found a former manager for the Los
Angeles Police Academies Guns store was accused of stealing twenty
(36:17):
one guns. The l A County District Attorney's Office says
thirty four year old Archie Duaneas took the guns from
the police revolver and athletic club over a two year
period then sold them. And I was wondering also, like
because you you in your reporting, like you spoke about
(36:38):
too how there has been like all these documented points
of officers like framing people. Can you can you tell
us more about that too. Well, there are actually two
officers that are currently facing criminal charges for lying about
a assault that took place during a arrest. And these
(37:02):
are two deputy gang associates from the East Los Angeles station.
That's one case where they face criminal charges. But yeah,
I mean again, it's it's another thing that happens constantly,
and that's um. One of the hallmarks of these deputy
gangs is targeting black and brown people in low income
(37:23):
areas for a stop that will turn into a beating
or a death. We're going to take a short break
to hear from our sponsors. The point that I'm trying
(37:45):
to make is it's like it's part of just sort
of the culture and like function of policing, like in
and of itself. I've spoken to many deputies who tell me,
like there is an insane amount of pressure and require
and even ironments sometimes to go out and they call
it hunting, go out and hunt young men of color
(38:09):
to increase these statistics. These are a statistics, these you know,
numbers that they can point to and say, look, we're
needed in this area. We need to work more over time.
We need that grant, that five million dollar grant to
form a new team or task force to continue policing
(38:32):
this community. We need those new guns, We need that
new armored vehicle. Um, we need a sheriff's department budget
increase to three point five billion with a B dollars. Yeah,
it's it's it's really a business. And I think that's
like the most like gross and insidious part of it. Oh,
you can say that again. Like, um, I think that
(38:56):
as survivors of crime in a little in come communities,
there's been this tail right that says that, Okay, we
have the highest levels of crime, right, but ultimately we
have received the lowest amount of resources, you know, And
(39:17):
it's like and part and part of that has been
because of barriers within law enforcement. And then also I
know that you you did a you did a piece
around the ways that there are law enforcement folks who
have attempted to just do their actual job right, and
(39:40):
then these gangs within the law enforcement actually start to
harass those folks. And I feel like I I'm constantly
in my life bringing up Christopher Dorner. But and it's
like it's a really unpopular things to do around my
(40:02):
community because there are some really kind of high up
folks who you know, we're on his list on his memory. Yeah,
and so I, um, you know, I appreciate the Dave
Chappelle's even though he's on he's under fire right now,
but because he's he spoke about, you know, Christopher Dorner
(40:23):
and how you know the police told him like, hey,
you know, like be careful when you come wreak about here.
He's like, why do I have to be careful? Like
you guys are the ones who are who have a
pattern of abuses, and you have you have an officer
here who was saying like, hey, you know, I'm gonna
(40:43):
blow the whistle on beating up mentally incapacitated and mentally
unwell folks. You know, and you know there was there
was suppression, you know. Can you tell me and tell
us more about just which you found in your investigation
around the interdynamics of police harassments. Yeah, I mean there
(41:09):
there is like a brotherhood of policing that I think
that exists across departments, and that is why a lot
of this stuff is kept so quiet. Most law enforcement
officers believe it's a cardinals send to do any sort
of hustle, boring or telling on their brothers. They're so
called brothers. The very few that do that do take
(41:33):
a stand. Generally they are either one pushed out by
false investigations. A lot of times they'll say they saw
something wrong, someone beating up someone during an arrest. Sometimes
they will get mysterious investigations that they actually did something
(41:53):
wrong during an arrest, and they'll get suspended. They'll get
terminated sometimes even for things that necessarily didn't happen. Sometimes
their lives are threatened for this kind of stuff. They'll
have guns pointed out them, They'll have people driving by
their house at night and leaving dead animals in their
(42:16):
front lawn. It's really they very much have a target
put on their back for speaking up about this kind
of stuff. Yeah, it's very dangerous for them. It's and
I think that culture being present, it really discourages anyone
from becoming like the proverbial good cop. Right, You see
that this is what happens to those people, and that's
(42:38):
really important to say. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like we uh,
we run a program Community Sentinels Leadership Academy where we
are wanting to train the next generation of community based
public safety professionals, right and and be you the youth
(43:01):
with understanding of like civic engagement, house systems work and
just like some practical skills around like really like awareness,
like community awareness, community education in history. Sometimes we invite
law enforcement to come out, and we had one law
enforcement officer, a black officer who I won't say her
(43:25):
name right now, but she spoke very passionately about the
fact that when she first joined the force back in
the eighties, it was so it was like so palpable,
soul visceral that they did not want black officers and
they definitely did not want black female officers, you know,
(43:46):
and that and like it's like there has been like
this harassment that they had to you know, contend with
like their entire careers, and not only that, just in
order for them to get on the force back in
the eighties, they have to sue. And so this is
like you said, this is the culture and this is
and this is California. So when I We're not talking
(44:08):
about Louisiana when I talking about Mississippi or Michigan, you
know what I mean. I mean, so this is the
culture of policing in America, you know, and and we're
having to survive this ship. You know, do you know
much about like community based public safety efforts? Like there's
(44:32):
like a lot of groups that you know, stand on
the shoulders of folks like the Black Panthers and the
Brown Berets and you know, like folks who have come
from the mindset of taking what they have, the resources
that they have, and doing the best that they can
in order to provide a sense of protection within the
(44:54):
community and to reduce the violence. There is um a
concerted effort from law enforcement to even discredit them and
then on the other hand, to know, to bolster them up,
but only as a like like as a punchline almost
like like you could you could have them, you know,
these former gang members and these criminals of your community,
(45:18):
or you could have us like you know that kind
of criminals of your community. Gang members and criminals. I'll
take the ones I know and that haven't killed my family.
M So there you have it, I mean, because that
(45:41):
is the that is the contradiction here. And you know,
we have, like you stated, we've trusted law enforcement for
fifty years with our public funds. And yet when it
comes to folks who study their entire lives and put
their our entire lives with no badges, no batons, no guns,
(46:05):
no vest you know like that, and they go out
into their community. They're part of their community, they're invested
in the well being of their community. And folks from
on high are saying, well, you know, we can't trust
you with with the public funds, but we've trusted law
enforcement with public side. I definitely think that the amount
(46:30):
of money that we spend on law enforcement here in
Los Angeles and in compared especially when you look at
in comparisons to other services, it's it's ridiculous. You would
think that we were living in a war torn country
and we don't really see a lot of return on
that investment. We spend over three billion dollars on the
(46:53):
Sheriff's Department and they have a thirty five percent clearance
rate for homicides. That means that they only solve thirty
five percent. They they're constantly talking about the oh murders
are going up murders are going out, but they're not
solving them, They're not, you know, really doing anything to
prevent it, and they still want more money. They just
(47:13):
got a five million dollar grant and it really makes
me question, like, where where is this money going. I
looked at a budget for l a p D. They
recently had a really awful incident where four hundred officers
were called out to remove homeless people from a local park.
Journalists arm was broken. In the process of that. Over
(47:35):
a hundred and eighty people, including members of the press,
were arrested. And coming out of that, l a p
D said, you know what, to get better, we need
eighteen million more dollars, and a million dollars of that
I believe was for snacks. Yeah, snacks, yeah right, And
(47:56):
this right, and this is this is the this is
the current state of things. And so, as an advocate
for survivors of crime, when you know we're we're asking
for folks, you know, to be able to access dollars
to bury their loved ones murdered by police. The one
(48:20):
legislation that would have provided compensation of victims and survivors
in that predicament SP two nine nine, although it passed
the Senate committee. It was ultimately taken off the table.
So the fight continues. There are new models that are
out here, and you know, if we give them half
a chance, we can see things, you know, differently maybe.
(48:45):
You know. However, if we continue the way that we're going,
it will be another fifty years of folks, you know,
talking about how they're having to survive, you know, police
violence and killer cops. Like, you know, another point I
want to add to surviving. I want to tell people
like to vote. I mean, like I hate to be
(49:06):
like that cheesy person being like registered about would make
sure you vote, um, but voting I really look at
it as like harm reduction, Like, yes, this is like
it's a very flawed system. And like we're seeing that
right now in our redistricting redistricting process, right Like, these
are systems that are constantly changing to keep you know,
people that are affected by them the most, the most quiet,
(49:28):
but really you know, engaging civically. And we have how
many council members up? I think we have eight council
members up for reelection. Next year, we have an election
inside the Sheriff's department to elect a new sheriff. Like
community engagement on this stuff is key because these are
the people that decide on the city council and on
the supervisors. These are the people that decide where that
(49:50):
money goes and how much money they got, and the
policies that dictate how law enforcement can interact with the community.
When we're talking about electing a sheriff, the it's literally
the person that overseas everything. We currently have a sheriff
that has admitted to associating with deputy gangs. His under
sheriff is a tattooed member of a deputy gang, and
(50:11):
he denies the existence of deputy gangs. This is this
is incredibly dangerous. He constantly spent spreads misinformation, and we're
going to have an opportunity to change that. So I
really encourage everyone to, you know, tap in with their
civic engagement and like I said before, like make sure
you're doing that little bit of harm reduction, because if
(50:31):
we continue to do it and we work together, things
will get better. I promise. We just have to be
there to start the process. So I'm also just wondering,
what are some of the ways that you take care
of yourself. While I am starting to be a lot
more strict with myself about when I can and cannot
(50:52):
do work. I make sure that I carve out plenty
of time in my day to just be series and
do things that I enjoy. Hiking, well, I need to
start working out more regularly. Again, I sort of forget
how much I enjoy it when I get off of it.
But I think that's a lot of people. I do yoga. I, um,
I just moved. That's sort of tingentially related to the
(51:15):
stuff that I've been experiencing. So, you know, putting my
house together, that's fun, decorating. I read a lot about
lighter subjects. Well, I guess the book I'm reading right
now isn't so light. It's about it's about the the
Gucci family. Um, it's the book that the movie that's
(51:36):
coming out is based on. And there's a murder in that,
so it's not so light. But it's a lot about fashion.
So a little bit of a break, yeah, and just
like realizing that like it's okay to like take care
of myself. I felt a lot of when I was
reporting the series and in the months afterward, I felt
really that I couldn't take any time away or that
(51:58):
I couldn't that I had to go after like everything
that I was getting right in that moment that I
couldn't take time to live my own life. And I do.
I do therapy, and like, through therapy, I've really been
able to realize that that's not healthy for me or
the people that I am trying whose stories I'm trying
to tell. I have to be a well rounded person.
It can't all just be one thing. Um And that's
(52:21):
been very helpful as well. Oh, thank you so much
for sharing that, because it I think it is immensely
important to remember to live your life because a part
of the suppression and the oppression of the dominant culture
is they want to take our lives, you know, and
so um with in every way that we can reclaim
(52:45):
our lives and reclaim our time, we should do that,
you know. Yeah. I also just want to lift up
how important your voices. Thank you all of this, Thank you,
you know, like it's really courageous. How can we support you?
How can people support you? Yeah, sharing the stories, reading,
(53:05):
reading the articles, sending them to friends, family, talking about
this stuff. If you if you see something, if you
have a tip or something that you think I should
check out, please reach you out to me. You can
find me on my social media. I'm on Twitter at
Suri's Castle. Instagram is the same, And yeah, that's the
(53:26):
best way if you just sharing the work, and of
course if you if you see something, if you have
a question, I'm always available and here here to help.
Was there anything else that that you would share two survivors?
I don't know. I mean, that's a that's a big question.
I think I tend to listen to survivors because they
(53:49):
have They've been through things, a lot of things that
I can't I can't even imagine, and I'm always just
amazed by their strength and their ability to continue on
after going through some of these things. So yeah, I
mean I would answer that was like, what what do
the survivors have to have to say to us? I
(54:12):
concur which is why we are ending this episode hearing
from another survivor of Killer Cups. This audio is from
a b l M action that calls for the dissolution
of police associations, where you have Albert Corrado demanding justice
for his sister mel Corrado, who was murdered by police
(54:34):
in Silver Lake in In any case, thank you all
so much for joining us of voting and organizing. And
obviously you know I come to you as as Mellie's
brother first and foremost. Um, I am also running for
city council. But I'm not here to sell you on
why you should basically, but I wanted to mention that
(54:55):
so I can give you a little bit of context. Um,
When Mellie was killed and the city lied about it
and tried to cover it up and then had to
admit that it was police who killed her, I started
to get a peek into how this city works and
how everything in in city government works in concerts. So
the police are are you know, aided and vetted by
(55:18):
the mayor, by city council members who draft ordinances to
give police more power. The city fails people every single day.
It failed Mellie when it allowed two of their employees
to kill her. But there was something about the other
people on the other side who were who were doing
this that made me. It gave me the same feeling
(55:39):
that I got when I would hear the police chief
talk about Mellie, talk about the victims of violent crime,
of of of police violence. You know, it's it's they
want to tell you that they're the ones who have
all the answers that this is the only way that
anything is gonna get done, that the only way you
can be saved is by having a highly militarized police
(56:01):
force who works in tandem with the federal government to
get military grade weapons. This they're telling you, this is
the only way, the only way that this city functions
is if we basically round up and arrest and harass
every unhoused person. We're not going to address why people
end up intense, why people decide to live in intent.
(56:25):
It's not because they want to. No one wants to
do that. All of us, I hope in this crowd
gets to go home to a comfortable bed, to a house,
to some form of comfort. And a lot of people don't.
They have to live their lives in a in a
constant sense of panic, a constant sense of worry, and
we don't ever address that. We have to understand that
(56:46):
there is power to be had in these institutions. We
may derive them, we may say that they are imperfect,
because they are, and the money of you tomorrow, you
told me, hey, I want to get rid of the
electoral politics and all that, I'd say, hell yeah, let's
sucking do it. But unfortunately, we have to seize that power,
because no one is gonna come to your door and say, hey,
you know what, you're radical, You're you're an abolitionist, You're
(57:09):
you have really good ideas. Why don't you come do this.
We have to take that power. No one is gonna
is gonna go to your door and ask you to
do that, because the moment that more of us who
believe in what we believe in, more radical abolitionists, and
and and we we believe in radical love and and
justice and all, that is the moment they lose their
stranglehold that they have on on our city, on our society,
(57:32):
and and that to them is scary disclaim where my views, beliefs,
and opinions on my own and do not necessarily reflect
the views of my guests, resource organizations, or sources shared
Host
Oya L. Sherrills
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