June 30, 2023 • 31 mins
The decline of the San Fernando Valley. Penny Peyser comes on the show to talk about the passing of Alan Arkin. Deputy DA John Lewin comes on the show to talk about the suspects who broke into the home of Mayor Karen Bass going to jail.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Caf I Am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John and Ken Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Doug McIntyre in for John and Ken. We're here till
four when Timmy comes along. We hope you have a
great Fourth of July if you're heading out of town,
and hopefully you won't have too much trouble on the
roads or in the air or however you go, wagon train,
whatever you doing. And we got a busy hour for
you here. In fact, tim will join us in a bit.
We're gonna give you a chance to win some money.
(00:31):
John Lewin's gonna join us. LA Deputy dish Attorney is
going to talk about that mysterious case of the people
who broke into mayor at the time candidate but Mayor
Karen Bass's house and stole two guns and they go
to the Who's Gow, and he's gonna talk to us
about why that's happening. And of course Narkan has become
a staple of American life, which is tragic, and yet
(00:54):
it's a life saver, so I suppose it's a good thing.
But how did we get to the point where it's
going to be sold commercial stores and stored as part
of school supplies.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Like band aids.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
And you know that's where we're at right now with
this terrible opioid addiction. And the missus Penny Piter will
join join us in just a bit to talk about
the late great Alan Arkins. She played Alan Arkins daughter
in The in Law is one of the classic AFI
fifty greatest comedies ever made. Wonderful actor. So we get
it all that, but I wanted to talk about something.
(01:27):
A couple of weeks ago, I drove to Van Nuy's
Sherman Oaks Park I mentioned early in the show.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
I play old man softball, so we had a pickup game.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I left the house at eight in the morning, which
should have been plenty of time to reach my destination. Unfortunately,
the one on one was extra groucy, so ways sent
me meandering through a labyrinth of surface streets, including a
long jog north to Sherman Way before heading south on
Van Nuys Boulevard now Vanuy's Boulevard. At one point in
our distant past was sort of like the postcard of
(01:59):
life in the San Fernanda Valley of southern California. It's
where people cruised on weekend nights, and teenagers went out
to make out in cars, and there was shops and
elegant people buying handbags, and men were wearing snap brim hats. Now,
this is a long time ago, and I want to
qualify all of this by saying I'm not a nostalgic person.
I mean, as a general, I don't think that we're
(02:20):
ever going back to some golden era in the past.
And by the way, nobody thought it was a golden
era in the past when we were there. Everybody in
the fifties were waiting for Russian nuclear bombs to wipe
us out. You know, it wasn't a golden pass if
you were a person of color. There were lots and
lots of things about the past that sucked. Okay, But
(02:42):
with that said, there's lots of things about today that suck.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
And this was an eye opener for me.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So I'm heading down Van Eys Boulevard on a weekday morning,
and the ride down Van Eys was a journey through
a dystopian gauntlet of boarded up storefronts. Abandoned sofas were
flowing trash cans, homeless shanties abutting, graffiti splattered cinderblocks and plywood.
What was once the epicenter of commerce and culture in
(03:09):
the sand of of an alley is now it's a
depressed it's so depressing.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And this was the real eye opener. There's an X ray.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
There's a dirty bookstore on the corner of I think
Victory and Van Nuys.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
You know what it is, right, aver, I went and
I went to school. I know exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
But my X rated video store was there. It's boarded up,
it's closed down. Now when the dirty bookstore, when a
neighborhood is two city cedy for a dirty bookstore, that's
more than a cry for help, all right.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
They can't even get perverts.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
To go there.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
So, being a man of certain years and having chugged
three large coffees before I got stuck in hideous traffic,
I need to see us the men's room pronto. When
I got to Van ey Sherman Oaks Park for my game,
and the porta potties at the park are not fit
for humans, so I went to the Senior Citizen Center
next door to use the men's room. Now stick with
(04:09):
me on this. Here's the first defense. Nobody at the
Senior Citizen Center said how old are you? They waved
me in and asked if I wanted wanted the Shepherd's Pie,
and what I like to sign up for the ten
o'clock Macroma class. So I go into the men's room.
I'm wearing softball, there's no side pockets. I'm holding my
(04:30):
car keys. The urinal is broken, so I have to
use the regular toilet in the stall. I flushed the toilet,
and as I flush the toilet, I dropped my car
keys and they go right down The toilet gone gone instantly.
All right, Now, I got to call the wife, and
I gotta tell you, you got to come down here in
the same traffic I just drove in to bring the
extra set of keys that went over.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Real.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, now here's the reason that I'm telling you this story.
Had the traffic not been awful, I might not have
had the urgent need of a bathroom. Had the porta
potties at the park not been biohazards, I might not
have gone to the Senior Citizen Center. If I knew
how to Macromay, I might have taken the class and
not gone in at all. Right, So there's a hundred
(05:13):
things that could have gone differently, that would have prevented
me from flushing my car keys down the toilet. And
that's exactly how Van Nuys Boulevard ended up the way
it is right now. It's not one thing, it's a
hundred things that led to Van Eys Boulevard looking like
it currently does.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Back in the.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
American graffiti days of car and sockhops, Vannays Boulevard, as
I said, was where the cool kids congregated for burgers
and cokes, cruising and kissing. Men shop for slacks and fedoras,
women tried on shoes and lunched with the ladies. The
trendy shops are long gone, replaced by bodegas selling beer
and lottery, tickets and bongs for rent. Signs and multiple
(05:51):
languages have yet to produce any takers. Everything's for rent,
nobody's moving in and why would they. Well, like my
men's room disaster, lots of things undid Van Eys Boulevard
and countless other thriving neighborhoods. This is not just a
San Fernando Valley issue. This is happening all over California,
and frankly, it's happening all over America. And you know
(06:13):
urban decay. We've been talking about this for fifty years,
maybe more. I remember being in Utica, New York, Upstate
New York and the Rust Belt having to take an
Amtrak train and the ceiling of the train station had
collapsed and no one cared. There was just rain water
coming right into the terminal. So this is a big problem.
But how does it happen? Well, lots of things caused
(06:36):
Vannays Boulevard, for instance. Kids started going to the mall.
Taste change, demographics change, the gallery is open, the Westfield's open,
so they started going to the malls instead of main streets.
Then the Internet came along and they crushed what was
left of the Mom and pops and, by the way,
put a torpedo into the malls too. So why fight
(06:56):
traffic at risk a ticket at a parking meter? Why
get hit up by panhandler who's begging? Why fall victim
to an unprovoked attack by a tragic lost soul who
should be at a mental hospital or rehab facility but
has been condemned to the streets and he's swinging a
belt over his head. Customers just stop shopping. They started,
you know, stop cruising. The stores started failing, and the
(07:18):
landlords lost their shirts, buildings started to decay, and our
city councilors and our mayors ignored it all. They ignored
the pleas for help, first at English, then they ignored
the police for help in Spanish, and now they ignored
the police for help in every language. They just let
it happen. And the irony is Vannys Boulevard. There's all
(07:39):
kinds of city offices. There's a big courtroom building as
a county, the Marvin Browdie building is there. But you
go one block north of where they go, and it's
hell and it's embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Somebody from out of town driving down Vannuys Boulevard. This
represents America's second largest city. It wasn't one thing did
in Van Eyes Boulevard, just it isn't one thing causing
name brands like Whole Foods and Nordstrums to pull out
of downtown San Francisco and everyone but junkies to bail
on downtown Portland, Oregon. The disaster Domino's tumble one after
(08:13):
the other, and La Mayor Karen Bess should take the
same drive that I took. She should go up to
Sherman Way and then drive down Van Eys Boulevard at
nine in the morning on a weekday and take a
look at it all the way to the Government Center.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
But here's the problem.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
If the mayor takes us up on this and she
goes for that, right, I hope she sits in the
front seat of the show for driven suv because the
city of La and America in general looks way different
when you're in the back with the tinted windows on
either side. All right, Penny Pies are coming up. We're
can talk about Alan Arkt. It's KFIAM six forty live
everywhere and on the IHRP radio app.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
All right, in a little.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Bit, we're gonna talk with LA District Deputy Dish Attorney
John Lewin about the peculiar Karen Bass case where someone
broke into her house and stole a couple of handguns.
Those guys are going to jail, and the question is
why are they going to jail? No one else seems
to go to jail in La. So get into that,
and we'll also talk about narcn in stores, run down
(09:16):
and pick up some cotton balls and some narcan when
you're at the local Walgreens or CVS. Meanwhile, the word
came last night that the great Alan Arkin died at
eighty nine years of age. And you may have seen
him recently in The Kamiski Method, but he starred over
a very very long career in just a remarkable string,
(09:37):
an incredible body of work, including one of the great
comedies ever made in the nineteen seventies, The in Laws,
which just played as one of the featured films at
the Turner Classic Movie Film Festival at the Chinese Theater.
And as it turns out, he's always been sort of
personal in our house because my wife Penny Peyser was
(09:57):
one of the stars of The in Laws and she
worked without Ellen and remained friends with Alan over his
long and great career, and she's with us to share
some memories of him right now.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Welcome aboard, Penny.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
Piezer, Hi, Doug, how you doing good?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Thanks for being with us, and you know of all
the things that you did, Penny, all the President's Men,
The Frisco Kid, which is another film that's very popular
they've held up. The in Laws is a top fifty
all time Great comedy as selected by AFI, and we
just saw it playing on those that big screen at
the Chinese Theater with an audience a lot of people
(10:32):
had not seen the film back in the seventies, and
they it just killed big laughs.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
Yeah, yeah, it really. It was just one of those
one of those little miracles, and it was a little
miracle that I got to participate.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So well, let's start with that story, because it's a
good story. You auditioned for that movie and you didn't
get the part.
Speaker 6 (10:54):
I didn't get the part, which surprised me because it
was one of those very few times where I auditioned
and I thought, huh, well, I think I'm going to
book this, which I almost never feel. And I didn't
get it, and I went, okay, moving on, and then
I suddenly got a phone call. I don't know, months
two months later, don't remember. Oh, actually I got a
(11:14):
beep on my beeper and I ran to a phone
boost and called my agent and they said, you've.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Got to get down with Warner Brothers right away.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
They want you on the in Laws set tomorrow at
five am, and you've got to go in and get
a fitting for a wedding dress, and I was like, yikes.
So I ran ran from where I was dirty hair
and jeans and all, and met Arthur Hiller and Alan Arkin,
and you know, I said to them, you know, I
thought you were going to cast me, and Arthur Hiller said, yeah,
(11:44):
I did too, but oh well but anyway, so it
was great. I was thrilled. You know, one actress's loss
was my game.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Because they started shooting the movie.
Speaker 6 (11:57):
They did start shooting the movie.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Well said I say, yeah, sure, it's fun.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
Okay, well it was my union president, Fran Dresser.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
So Dresher was supposed to play the part. But you
got the part.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
And then your work with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin
and folks, if you haven't seen the movie, as a
tribute to Alan, go rent the movie tonight, go go.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
You'll find it online. Just watch it.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
Uh so, yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
So you're working with these two masters. Talk to us
a little bit about what Alan was like.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
To work with.
Speaker 6 (12:27):
Well, Alan was just he was just a joy. He
was available. He was not you know, he was not
someone who I mean, I was very green at the time.
I had done some work, but you know, I was
not you know, someone with a lot of film notches
on her belt, and he just he just was was
(12:48):
lovely and we you know, we'd do things like I mean,
he let it be. You know, he kept his guitar
on the set, so you know, he was saying, you know,
we should play. So I brought my guitar and sat
around in our pjs one day when were we had
spent a couple days in our pajama shooting some of
the scenes, and so we would sit outside playing our
(13:09):
guitars and singing, waiting for the setup. And then there
was a word game called Boggle that was very popular
at that time, and Alan sat there forever with us
playing Boggle in the living room. I mean, it was
just it was just so it was just very homey,
very homey and wonderful and a lot of laughs on
(13:31):
and off set. And I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
We're talking with actress Penny Piser, who has a new
book out, by the way called Sons from Suburbia More
Candles Than Cake, which is available at Amazon dot com.
And Alan actually wrote an endorsement for your.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
Book, Yes he did. I mean, he he's a writer himself,
and I think he's even written some poetry and he
looked at I guess I had gone down to visit
him on the set of The Kaminsky Method because my
friend Donald Petrie was directing, and I told him a
little bit about my sonnets that I was writing at
(14:06):
the time, and I had a YouTube channel, which is
a very little scene YouTube channel where I made videos
of my sonnets and he checked it out and he
was kind of enthusiastic about it. And so when I
was getting ready for my book to be published, I
got in touch with him, because you know, unknown writers
need testimonials are very important, and I asked him if
(14:28):
he would have a read and if he felt comfortable,
you know, write something for my book jacket, and he said, well,
I don't know. I don't know if I'm really qualified,
and I said, you're qualified. So he read it and
then he wrote something lovely for me, which is on
the back of my book, and I'm just so happy
(14:51):
to have that memento.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Now, this is a really bizarre story too, because Alan,
whose career span like seven dec including The Great Russians
Are Coming, Russians Are Coming from nineteen sixty seven, The
Heart is a lonely hunter. He's a second city veteran,
and you know, I didn't realize this.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
I just read this in is oh bit.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
He directed the original production of The Sunshine Boys, Neil
Simon's classic comedy on Broadway, which I had never.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
Gotten that too. I had no idea it is today.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
So that's kind of amazing.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
And what's also amazing is he ended up in our
living room doing an acting class.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
How did that happen?
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Well, I was in an acting class taught by my
friend Andy Block, who was also a good friend of Alan's.
He was actually in the production the play Room Service
that Alan directed in New York, and that's how they
became friends. And Alan was in town and at that
point in time, gosh, I remember what decade that was.
(15:51):
He was he was going around the country running improv
workshops and they were usually like full blown two day seminars,
but he was going to be in town and Andy
said that he was willing to just do a one
day thing, and so we gathered about ten actors together
and Alan agreed to come over to the house and
(16:13):
we made a day of it, and it was it
was just I mean, that's a dream, you know, Alan
Arkins in our living rooms and.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Where was I by the way, I got kicked out
of the house for eight hours.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
You got I'm sorry, honey, you got banished? Yeah, you
kind of you kind of did.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Oh, well, it was for it was for a greater,
greater good.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Well.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
He was one of the classics, really genuinely classic actors
for drama or comedy, stage or film and television. Worked
all the time, and a wonderful person. And we thank
you for coming on and sharing those memories with us.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
And don't I get pleasure If.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
You want to get Penny's book Amazon dot com Sounds
from Suburbia more Candles than Cake and can read Alan's endorsement.
Thanks so much, Penny appreciated. Coming up, we're gonna go
back to this Karen Bass story. Her house was robbed
two guns star and they're sending the criminals to the
Who's GAO and we're going to talk about why are
they going to jail? John Lewin's going to join us
LA Deputy dis Attorney.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Forty KFIAM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app Tube.
Conway Junior coming up at four o'clock and if you're
heading out of town, have a safe and glorious Fourth
of July. Come back with all your fingers and your eyebrows, please,
all right, ladies and gentlemen. On September ninth, burglars broke
(17:33):
into then candidate she was congressman candidate for mayor Karen Bass,
and they stole two handguns identified as thirty eight caliber revolvers.
They left buying cash and electronics. I thought, well, this
is strange. And then a few days later there was
an announcement that purps had been arrested. People have interested
been arrested, and then nothing until the news broke that
(17:55):
they have sentenced Patricio Munez and Juan Espinosa to prison,
with Munyez getting two years in jail and Espinosa, who
had a prior conviction for burglary, He was sentenced to
thirty two months in the slammer. Now here's the question.
The question is why these guys, Why are they going
to jail? It seems like everybody else is out on
(18:16):
the street, and this often before the cop is fi
finished filling out the paperwork to explain this to us.
It's a pleasure to welcome LA Deputy dishct attorney, the
man who put Robert Durst away, amongst many many others.
It's a pleasure to welcome the show, John Lewin, John,
how are you.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I'm doing well, Doug. So let me ask your question
very simply. The reason why they went to prison is
because it's politically expedient for George gas going to send
them there. He follows his policies as long as they
are a politically expedient. When they're not, he will disregard them.
(18:51):
In a normal case, nobody goes to prison. Trust me,
I run a calendar ever since I was the subject
of a retaliator transfer. I now reside in Inglewood, where
I handle a calendar every day after twenty years in
Major Crimes Division. So I'm running a calendar and I'm
seeing how actually the sausage gets made. It's not pretty.
(19:14):
And what happens day after day after day is George
Gascon's policies. And I want to be clear what his
policies are when he came in. His policies are number one, everybody,
the presumptive is no bail, you get out. It's so bad, Doug,
that if you literally were already out on bail, and
(19:34):
you commit a crime while out on bail, we're not
allowed to add the allegation that says you committed this
crime while out on bail. It's just absolutely insane. So
everyone gets out on bail. Now, what's interesting is my understanding,
and I'm only going with what's been reported in the news.
Apparently the bail in this case originally was one hundred
(19:56):
thousand dollars for one defendant and two hundred thousand for
the other. You never see that, but of course this
is the case where the media is watching and George
Gascon wants to pretend that he's tough on crime. In fact,
when they eventually ended up going being sent to prison,
which is completely out of the normal, he says, quote
(20:17):
many of these stolen guns are then used to commit
violent crimes, violent crimes which George Gascon will not, as
a policy, charge extra time for using a firearm. So
he is a hypocrite, he is incompetent. He is absolutely
a danger to our county.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Now, John, one of the mysteries about this case is,
I mean, it just screams that there's some kind of
an inside job. Maybe in the trial it was explained,
but it certainly hasn't been reported that these guys break
into the house of a congresswoman who's running for mayor
of Los Angeles, and so they knew exactly where the
guns were. They went to a closet, they took the guns,
(20:59):
they buy I passed cash, jewelry and electronics, which is
not what burglars usually do. It just screams of an
inside job. Do we know anything about Did they do
it on their own initiative? Were they sent by somebody
else to get them?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Doug, I have no information whatsoever regarding how this crime
was committed or what the motives are. I can tell
you though, particularly in the inner city and communities of color,
crime is rampant. Individuals who just want to be safe
in their own homes have to worry about burglars coming in,
(21:34):
They have to worry about gangsters walking down the street.
Because George Gascon won't file any gang allegations, because George
Gascon doesn't want to put anybody in prison. You decapitate
your two children, decapitate them, cut their heads off. George
Gascon says no special circumstances. His view is anybody should
be eligible for a reevaluation of the prison sends after
(21:56):
fifteen years, and he's brought in a bunch of public
defenders who he's made put in senior positions in violation
of civil service rules, which our association is going after
right now. There are promotions that happen today and I'm
waiting to see if his public defenders are going to
be the ones promoted to the highest civil service rank
(22:19):
in our office. Individuals who until coming over had never
prosecuted a case. Tell who I'm still haven't personally prosecuted
any cases.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
So this is.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
George gascon Doug. This is who he is, this is
what he does, and this is why our county right
now is an absolute war zone. And we'd love to
tell George about it. But he never shows up for work.
You don't see him. His chief deputy apparently commutes from
San Francisco at least a part of the week. He's
got an X grade two, a guy who had four
(22:50):
trials and was in his early thirties when he was
named the chief deputy in the office. He appears to
be running things.
Speaker 6 (22:57):
As chief of staff.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
That's when he's not getting a arrested. As you're aware,
this was publicized, getting arrested for an incident where he
says police committed misconduct, he has a videotape, and then
he never turns that videotape over, even though under the
law it is a felony for us if we have
that type of Brady exculpatory evidence and do not turn
(23:19):
it over. It's been two years now when George Gascon
won't answer any questions. He has an Instagram thing. He
loves social media, and he has an Instagram thing called
ask the da. I've asked thirty questions. Any guests, doug
on how many questions have been answered?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
I'm guessing he's like the New York Mets offense over thirty.
Speaker 6 (23:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Well, listen, even the Mets, even the Mets in their
worst years, get more hits than this guy does. He
had no response, nothing, absolutely zero. Now on the plus side,
I do hear from George Gasco I want to bush prisons.
I had the nerve to apparently repeat what they've said,
(24:00):
and they are now accusing me of racial animus. So
that's the world we live in.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Yeah, No, it's it's quite a world. It's an amazing world.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
John.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
When the person who is the mayor of the city
of Los Angeles can have the house broken into, a
weapon stolen, and we literally have no reporting.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
On what the nature of the actual crime was.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
You'd think that people would want that information in addition
to an actual justice system that produces justice. John, thanks
so much for all you do. We appreciate you being
with us. That's John Lewin, LA Deputy, just an attorney
calling on his own time.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
By yeahud Doug. We got to get John McKinney elected
District Attorney of this county. This is an African American
Democrat who can turn this county and this office around.
People need to get angry, and they need to get active,
and they need to do it yesterday.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
All right, John having me, thanks for coming on with us.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
A Let me, because I'm running out of time here,
let me thank everybody here at KFI, Ray Lopez and
Eric and the whole gang, Debra Mark, everybody in the
newsroom for making it possible for me to come in
here and squat for a couple of days. And you know,
the court order just came in. The Supreme Court also
ruled I have to leave, so I'll be out of
(25:22):
here after this. But it's been really fun getting a
chance to sit in here and play with all of
you and appreciate it very much.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
By the way, if you want to come out and.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Say hello, I'm going to be at Barnes and Noble
right at the Grove Farmers Market in the middle of
LA on July sixteenth, my debut novel, Frank's Shadow. We'll
be doing a reading and a book signing, so come
on out and say hello from seven to nine pm.
If you can't make that, I'll be at Gatspiz in
Long Beach on July twenty second at noon, Pages a
bookstore on July twenty sixth, and Barnes and Noble at
(25:52):
the Irvine Spectrum in August second, and Romans in Pasadena
on August ninth. And you can always buy it at
Amazon dot Com or Barnes and Noble. This is a
fascinating story. It's a sad commentary on how far we
have sunk as a people. San Francisco could become the
first city in the country to require every pharmacy within
its boundaries to always carry narcon, you know, the anti
(26:16):
overdose drug attributable to the fentanyl epidemic. Over seventy percent
of the six hundred and forty seven accidental deaths in
San Francisco in twenty two were attributable to fentanyl.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
This is happening everywhere. It's a catastrophe.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
And I don't know what it is about modern life
in this country that makes so many people destroy their
lives on these clearly lethal drugs, and we get away
with it. The opioid addiction, whether it's Purdue Pharma, or
the open borders or Lucy Goosey district attorneys that let
people out of jail. It's a catastrophe that's killing more
(26:53):
people every year than we lost in ten years in Vietnam,
and we just allow it to happen.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
It's outrageous. Speaking of outrageous, thank you, buddy.
Speaker 7 (27:03):
Well, you're an ex smoker, right, so you come from
that perspective of you know, I got my life together,
you should too, right, well, preachy on that.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I tug back and tired.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Well, I think the word is hypocrisy. No Ah, timmy good?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Are you?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Man?
Speaker 7 (27:20):
I hope a million people show up to buy that book.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Ears, I'll settle for five, Is that right?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
All right? Bet? You're all over the place of that book, though.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Well I got to it took me twenty five years
to get the damn thing published.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
So here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
How been writing it?
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Literally? I started in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
Oh so you had to go in and che and
read and reverse and check references.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Well you know what happens, because you.
Speaker 7 (27:41):
Can get you can get canceled for crap, you said
ninety eight.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
No, but here's the thing. It's set in nineteen ninety eight,
so I could do whatever I want. But here's the thing.
Because it took me a quarter century to finish it.
Whatever it said about me as a novelist prolific is
not going to be one of us. Because my next book,
the next book, it's going to debut it far as Lawn.
Speaker 7 (28:01):
I'll tell you a quick story about writing a book.
My dad wrote a book after being years of hounded
and hounded.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
I have it.
Speaker 7 (28:06):
Oh, good for you, okay, And he sold out so quickly,
and he sold so many of them that they asked
for a second book.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Right, a second book. They're gonna write a second book.
So my dad said, a good idea.
Speaker 7 (28:18):
So he sits down in his typewriter and he writes
for a week and he gives it to Charlene, my stepmother,
and she's the greatest critic because she'll tell him if
it sucks, orf, it's great, whatever, And she said, it's fantastic,
it's it's the greatest some of the greatest stuff you've
ever written. One downside though it's all in your first book.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Yeah, he wrote it twice. He wrote the same book twice.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
So he said he had a great point.
Speaker 7 (28:39):
Here's look, if I don't remember it's in the book,
then the people buying you aren't gonna remember.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Son.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
How do you argue with that?
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yes, so you just put another cover on it and
let it go.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Well, maybe my next book will be called Earl's Shadow,
just cross out all the Franks.
Speaker 7 (28:53):
What is this book about? Well, since you have a
huge audience, I k if I can tell us.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
I had a friend whose dad the same day Frank
Sinatra died. Oh, and they were approximately the same age.
And I started to think about and you're the perfect
person to talk about this because you're a very famous father.
That's right, the way the way we value lives. That
one death was satellite news ricocheting around the world, and
the other guy's death was in the back of the
(29:19):
paper by the racing results of mattress Ads, and they
had to pay to put him there. So that's really
what the book started. Bout I wrote a story about
a guy who goes home to bury his dad and
he realizes a tasked with the obiti with the eulogy,
that he knows everything about Frank Sinatra down to he
was a Forceps baby, but he knows nothing about really
his own father, and he tries to go discover who is.
But you know, we had this in the house because Penny,
(29:41):
my wife, Penny Peyser, was friends with Alan Arkins. So
we learned that Alan Arkin died on the news, right,
you know, And that's what happens with fame. It's an
odd in this town in particular, we have a strange
relationship with fame because you know a lot of people.
You can easily know people who are famous personally.
Speaker 7 (29:58):
And then during the pandemic, you didn't have time to
read about other people's desks because people in your house
were dying.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
That's absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
In fact, it's funny you should say that because I
remember having this conversation with a couple of friends that
that that.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
The pandemic, COVID devalued.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Yeah right, yeah right, you know, like legends like Carl
Reiner died during the pandemic. If Carl Reiner had died
under normal times, the town would have shut down. We
would have seen memorial services and everywhere else. But now
grandmother died, you're you know, people were dining all over
the place. So it kind of just became this fatalistic acceptance.
Speaker 7 (30:35):
And then you read articles now, or you read stuff
about celebrities and they'll say, like, for instance, like Adam
Ridged the kid on eight is enough and.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
You go, oh, I wonder what he's doing. Look, oh
he's dead.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Yeah, they just vanished he.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Died during the pandemic. I didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Now I got to vanish. What do you got coming
up in the show?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I don't know what did they do to do any.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Show prep at all, anything other than.
Speaker 7 (30:56):
Parlex Alex Michaelson's coming on Hannah.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
She's a kid Belly, is that right?
Speaker 7 (31:03):
That's that kid who we had in here and she
was like eight or nine years old.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Now she's become like a big singer.
Speaker 7 (31:08):
Yes, And we literally had on the show like thirteen
or fourteen.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
You launched a career. Clearly, I could she owes it
all to you.
Speaker 7 (31:15):
If there were two girls in here and said one
of them is hand, I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I can't tell them and I don't know. I have
no idea who that is.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Well, you gotta find out.
Speaker 7 (31:25):
On the tim COT's right, said Billy Ray is coming
out to talk about the strike.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Whow the how fascinating.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
I got to talk to you about that. All right,
ladies and gentlemen, thank you. I'm getting out of here
back time.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
You're great.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
There's kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Hey, you've been listening to the John and Ken Show.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
You can always hear us live on kf I AM
six forty one pm to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Caf I Am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John and Ken Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Doug McIntyre in for John and Ken. We're here till
four when Timmy comes along. We hope you have a
great Fourth of July if you're heading out of town,
and hopefully you won't have too much trouble on the
roads or in the air or however you go, wagon train,
whatever you doing. And we got a busy hour for
you here. In fact, tim will join us in a bit.
We're gonna give you a chance to win some money.
(00:31):
John Lewin's gonna join us. LA Deputy dish Attorney is
going to talk about that mysterious case of the people
who broke into mayor at the time candidate but Mayor
Karen Bass's house and stole two guns and they go
to the Who's Gow, and he's gonna talk to us
about why that's happening. And of course Narkan has become
a staple of American life, which is tragic, and yet
(00:54):
it's a life saver, so I suppose it's a good thing.
But how did we get to the point where it's
going to be sold commercial stores and stored as part
of school supplies.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Like band aids.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
And you know that's where we're at right now with
this terrible opioid addiction. And the missus Penny Piter will
join join us in just a bit to talk about
the late great Alan Arkins. She played Alan Arkins daughter
in The in Law is one of the classic AFI
fifty greatest comedies ever made. Wonderful actor. So we get
it all that, but I wanted to talk about something.
(01:27):
A couple of weeks ago, I drove to Van Nuy's
Sherman Oaks Park I mentioned early in the show.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
I play old man softball, so we had a pickup game.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I left the house at eight in the morning, which
should have been plenty of time to reach my destination. Unfortunately,
the one on one was extra groucy, so ways sent
me meandering through a labyrinth of surface streets, including a
long jog north to Sherman Way before heading south on
Van Nuys Boulevard now Vanuy's Boulevard. At one point in
our distant past was sort of like the postcard of
(01:59):
life in the San Fernanda Valley of southern California. It's
where people cruised on weekend nights, and teenagers went out
to make out in cars, and there was shops and
elegant people buying handbags, and men were wearing snap brim hats. Now,
this is a long time ago, and I want to
qualify all of this by saying I'm not a nostalgic person.
I mean, as a general, I don't think that we're
(02:20):
ever going back to some golden era in the past.
And by the way, nobody thought it was a golden
era in the past when we were there. Everybody in
the fifties were waiting for Russian nuclear bombs to wipe
us out. You know, it wasn't a golden pass if
you were a person of color. There were lots and
lots of things about the past that sucked. Okay, But
(02:42):
with that said, there's lots of things about today that suck.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
And this was an eye opener for me.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So I'm heading down Van Eys Boulevard on a weekday morning,
and the ride down Van Eys was a journey through
a dystopian gauntlet of boarded up storefronts. Abandoned sofas were
flowing trash cans, homeless shanties abutting, graffiti splattered cinderblocks and plywood.
What was once the epicenter of commerce and culture in
(03:09):
the sand of of an alley is now it's a
depressed it's so depressing.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And this was the real eye opener. There's an X ray.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
There's a dirty bookstore on the corner of I think
Victory and Van Nuys.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
You know what it is, right, aver, I went and
I went to school. I know exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
But my X rated video store was there. It's boarded up,
it's closed down. Now when the dirty bookstore, when a
neighborhood is two city cedy for a dirty bookstore, that's
more than a cry for help, all right.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
They can't even get perverts.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
To go there.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
So, being a man of certain years and having chugged
three large coffees before I got stuck in hideous traffic,
I need to see us the men's room pronto. When
I got to Van ey Sherman Oaks Park for my game,
and the porta potties at the park are not fit
for humans, so I went to the Senior Citizen Center
next door to use the men's room. Now stick with
(04:09):
me on this. Here's the first defense. Nobody at the
Senior Citizen Center said how old are you? They waved
me in and asked if I wanted wanted the Shepherd's Pie,
and what I like to sign up for the ten
o'clock Macroma class. So I go into the men's room.
I'm wearing softball, there's no side pockets. I'm holding my
(04:30):
car keys. The urinal is broken, so I have to
use the regular toilet in the stall. I flushed the toilet,
and as I flush the toilet, I dropped my car
keys and they go right down The toilet gone gone instantly.
All right, Now, I got to call the wife, and
I gotta tell you, you got to come down here in
the same traffic I just drove in to bring the
extra set of keys that went over.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Real.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well, now here's the reason that I'm telling you this story.
Had the traffic not been awful, I might not have
had the urgent need of a bathroom. Had the porta
potties at the park not been biohazards, I might not
have gone to the Senior Citizen Center. If I knew
how to Macromay, I might have taken the class and
not gone in at all. Right, So there's a hundred
(05:13):
things that could have gone differently, that would have prevented
me from flushing my car keys down the toilet. And
that's exactly how Van Nuys Boulevard ended up the way
it is right now. It's not one thing, it's a
hundred things that led to Van Eys Boulevard looking like
it currently does.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Back in the.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
American graffiti days of car and sockhops, Vannays Boulevard, as
I said, was where the cool kids congregated for burgers
and cokes, cruising and kissing. Men shop for slacks and fedoras,
women tried on shoes and lunched with the ladies. The
trendy shops are long gone, replaced by bodegas selling beer
and lottery, tickets and bongs for rent. Signs and multiple
(05:51):
languages have yet to produce any takers. Everything's for rent,
nobody's moving in and why would they. Well, like my
men's room disaster, lots of things undid Van Eys Boulevard
and countless other thriving neighborhoods. This is not just a
San Fernando Valley issue. This is happening all over California,
and frankly, it's happening all over America. And you know
(06:13):
urban decay. We've been talking about this for fifty years,
maybe more. I remember being in Utica, New York, Upstate
New York and the Rust Belt having to take an
Amtrak train and the ceiling of the train station had
collapsed and no one cared. There was just rain water
coming right into the terminal. So this is a big problem.
But how does it happen? Well, lots of things caused
(06:36):
Vannays Boulevard, for instance. Kids started going to the mall.
Taste change, demographics change, the gallery is open, the Westfield's open,
so they started going to the malls instead of main streets.
Then the Internet came along and they crushed what was
left of the Mom and pops and, by the way,
put a torpedo into the malls too. So why fight
(06:56):
traffic at risk a ticket at a parking meter? Why
get hit up by panhandler who's begging? Why fall victim
to an unprovoked attack by a tragic lost soul who
should be at a mental hospital or rehab facility but
has been condemned to the streets and he's swinging a
belt over his head. Customers just stop shopping. They started,
you know, stop cruising. The stores started failing, and the
(07:18):
landlords lost their shirts, buildings started to decay, and our
city councilors and our mayors ignored it all. They ignored
the pleas for help, first at English, then they ignored
the police for help in Spanish, and now they ignored
the police for help in every language. They just let
it happen. And the irony is Vannys Boulevard. There's all
(07:39):
kinds of city offices. There's a big courtroom building as
a county, the Marvin Browdie building is there. But you
go one block north of where they go, and it's
hell and it's embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Somebody from out of town driving down Vannuys Boulevard. This
represents America's second largest city. It wasn't one thing did
in Van Eyes Boulevard, just it isn't one thing causing
name brands like Whole Foods and Nordstrums to pull out
of downtown San Francisco and everyone but junkies to bail
on downtown Portland, Oregon. The disaster Domino's tumble one after
(08:13):
the other, and La Mayor Karen Bess should take the
same drive that I took. She should go up to
Sherman Way and then drive down Van Eys Boulevard at
nine in the morning on a weekday and take a
look at it all the way to the Government Center.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
But here's the problem.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
If the mayor takes us up on this and she
goes for that, right, I hope she sits in the
front seat of the show for driven suv because the
city of La and America in general looks way different
when you're in the back with the tinted windows on
either side. All right, Penny Pies are coming up. We're
can talk about Alan Arkt. It's KFIAM six forty live
everywhere and on the IHRP radio app.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
All right, in a little.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Bit, we're gonna talk with LA District Deputy Dish Attorney
John Lewin about the peculiar Karen Bass case where someone
broke into her house and stole a couple of handguns.
Those guys are going to jail, and the question is
why are they going to jail? No one else seems
to go to jail in La. So get into that,
and we'll also talk about narcn in stores, run down
(09:16):
and pick up some cotton balls and some narcan when
you're at the local Walgreens or CVS. Meanwhile, the word
came last night that the great Alan Arkin died at
eighty nine years of age. And you may have seen
him recently in The Kamiski Method, but he starred over
a very very long career in just a remarkable string,
(09:37):
an incredible body of work, including one of the great
comedies ever made in the nineteen seventies, The in Laws,
which just played as one of the featured films at
the Turner Classic Movie Film Festival at the Chinese Theater.
And as it turns out, he's always been sort of
personal in our house because my wife Penny Peyser was
(09:57):
one of the stars of The in Laws and she
worked without Ellen and remained friends with Alan over his
long and great career, and she's with us to share
some memories of him right now.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Welcome aboard, Penny.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
Piezer, Hi, Doug, how you doing good?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Thanks for being with us, and you know of all
the things that you did, Penny, all the President's Men,
The Frisco Kid, which is another film that's very popular
they've held up. The in Laws is a top fifty
all time Great comedy as selected by AFI, and we
just saw it playing on those that big screen at
the Chinese Theater with an audience a lot of people
(10:32):
had not seen the film back in the seventies, and
they it just killed big laughs.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
Yeah, yeah, it really. It was just one of those
one of those little miracles, and it was a little
miracle that I got to participate.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So well, let's start with that story, because it's a
good story. You auditioned for that movie and you didn't
get the part.
Speaker 6 (10:54):
I didn't get the part, which surprised me because it
was one of those very few times where I auditioned
and I thought, huh, well, I think I'm going to
book this, which I almost never feel. And I didn't
get it, and I went, okay, moving on, and then
I suddenly got a phone call. I don't know, months
two months later, don't remember. Oh, actually I got a
(11:14):
beep on my beeper and I ran to a phone
boost and called my agent and they said, you've.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Got to get down with Warner Brothers right away.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
They want you on the in Laws set tomorrow at
five am, and you've got to go in and get
a fitting for a wedding dress, and I was like, yikes.
So I ran ran from where I was dirty hair
and jeans and all, and met Arthur Hiller and Alan Arkin,
and you know, I said to them, you know, I
thought you were going to cast me, and Arthur Hiller said, yeah,
(11:44):
I did too, but oh well but anyway, so it
was great. I was thrilled. You know, one actress's loss
was my game.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Because they started shooting the movie.
Speaker 6 (11:57):
They did start shooting the movie.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Well said I say, yeah, sure, it's fun.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
Okay, well it was my union president, Fran Dresser.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
So Dresher was supposed to play the part. But you
got the part.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
And then your work with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin
and folks, if you haven't seen the movie, as a
tribute to Alan, go rent the movie tonight, go go.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
You'll find it online. Just watch it.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
Uh so, yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
So you're working with these two masters. Talk to us
a little bit about what Alan was like.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
To work with.
Speaker 6 (12:27):
Well, Alan was just he was just a joy. He
was available. He was not you know, he was not
someone who I mean, I was very green at the time.
I had done some work, but you know, I was
not you know, someone with a lot of film notches
on her belt, and he just he just was was
(12:48):
lovely and we you know, we'd do things like I mean,
he let it be. You know, he kept his guitar
on the set, so you know, he was saying, you know,
we should play. So I brought my guitar and sat
around in our pjs one day when were we had
spent a couple days in our pajama shooting some of
the scenes, and so we would sit outside playing our
(13:09):
guitars and singing, waiting for the setup. And then there
was a word game called Boggle that was very popular
at that time, and Alan sat there forever with us
playing Boggle in the living room. I mean, it was
just it was just so it was just very homey,
very homey and wonderful and a lot of laughs on
(13:31):
and off set. And I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
We're talking with actress Penny Piser, who has a new
book out, by the way called Sons from Suburbia More
Candles Than Cake, which is available at Amazon dot com.
And Alan actually wrote an endorsement for your.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
Book, Yes he did. I mean, he he's a writer himself,
and I think he's even written some poetry and he
looked at I guess I had gone down to visit
him on the set of The Kaminsky Method because my
friend Donald Petrie was directing, and I told him a
little bit about my sonnets that I was writing at
(14:06):
the time, and I had a YouTube channel, which is
a very little scene YouTube channel where I made videos
of my sonnets and he checked it out and he
was kind of enthusiastic about it. And so when I
was getting ready for my book to be published, I
got in touch with him, because you know, unknown writers
need testimonials are very important, and I asked him if
(14:28):
he would have a read and if he felt comfortable,
you know, write something for my book jacket, and he said, well,
I don't know. I don't know if I'm really qualified,
and I said, you're qualified. So he read it and
then he wrote something lovely for me, which is on
the back of my book, and I'm just so happy
(14:51):
to have that memento.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Now, this is a really bizarre story too, because Alan,
whose career span like seven dec including The Great Russians
Are Coming, Russians Are Coming from nineteen sixty seven, The
Heart is a lonely hunter. He's a second city veteran,
and you know, I didn't realize this.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
I just read this in is oh bit.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
He directed the original production of The Sunshine Boys, Neil
Simon's classic comedy on Broadway, which I had never.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
Gotten that too. I had no idea it is today.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
So that's kind of amazing.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
And what's also amazing is he ended up in our
living room doing an acting class.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
How did that happen?
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Well, I was in an acting class taught by my
friend Andy Block, who was also a good friend of Alan's.
He was actually in the production the play Room Service
that Alan directed in New York, and that's how they
became friends. And Alan was in town and at that
point in time, gosh, I remember what decade that was.
(15:51):
He was he was going around the country running improv
workshops and they were usually like full blown two day seminars,
but he was going to be in town and Andy
said that he was willing to just do a one
day thing, and so we gathered about ten actors together
and Alan agreed to come over to the house and
(16:13):
we made a day of it, and it was it
was just I mean, that's a dream, you know, Alan
Arkins in our living rooms and.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Where was I by the way, I got kicked out
of the house for eight hours.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
You got I'm sorry, honey, you got banished? Yeah, you
kind of you kind of did.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Oh, well, it was for it was for a greater,
greater good.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Well.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
He was one of the classics, really genuinely classic actors
for drama or comedy, stage or film and television. Worked
all the time, and a wonderful person. And we thank
you for coming on and sharing those memories with us.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
And don't I get pleasure If.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
You want to get Penny's book Amazon dot com Sounds
from Suburbia more Candles than Cake and can read Alan's endorsement.
Thanks so much, Penny appreciated. Coming up, we're gonna go
back to this Karen Bass story. Her house was robbed
two guns star and they're sending the criminals to the
Who's GAO and we're going to talk about why are
they going to jail? John Lewin's going to join us
LA Deputy dis Attorney.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI
AM six.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Forty KFIAM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app Tube.
Conway Junior coming up at four o'clock and if you're
heading out of town, have a safe and glorious Fourth
of July. Come back with all your fingers and your eyebrows, please,
all right, ladies and gentlemen. On September ninth, burglars broke
(17:33):
into then candidate she was congressman candidate for mayor Karen Bass,
and they stole two handguns identified as thirty eight caliber revolvers.
They left buying cash and electronics. I thought, well, this
is strange. And then a few days later there was
an announcement that purps had been arrested. People have interested
been arrested, and then nothing until the news broke that
(17:55):
they have sentenced Patricio Munez and Juan Espinosa to prison,
with Munyez getting two years in jail and Espinosa, who
had a prior conviction for burglary, He was sentenced to
thirty two months in the slammer. Now here's the question.
The question is why these guys, Why are they going
to jail? It seems like everybody else is out on
(18:16):
the street, and this often before the cop is fi
finished filling out the paperwork to explain this to us.
It's a pleasure to welcome LA Deputy dishct attorney, the
man who put Robert Durst away, amongst many many others.
It's a pleasure to welcome the show, John Lewin, John,
how are you.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I'm doing well, Doug. So let me ask your question
very simply. The reason why they went to prison is
because it's politically expedient for George gas going to send
them there. He follows his policies as long as they
are a politically expedient. When they're not, he will disregard them.
(18:51):
In a normal case, nobody goes to prison. Trust me,
I run a calendar ever since I was the subject
of a retaliator transfer. I now reside in Inglewood, where
I handle a calendar every day after twenty years in
Major Crimes Division. So I'm running a calendar and I'm
seeing how actually the sausage gets made. It's not pretty.
(19:14):
And what happens day after day after day is George
Gascon's policies. And I want to be clear what his
policies are when he came in. His policies are number one, everybody,
the presumptive is no bail, you get out. It's so bad, Doug,
that if you literally were already out on bail, and
(19:34):
you commit a crime while out on bail, we're not
allowed to add the allegation that says you committed this
crime while out on bail. It's just absolutely insane. So
everyone gets out on bail. Now, what's interesting is my understanding,
and I'm only going with what's been reported in the news.
Apparently the bail in this case originally was one hundred
(19:56):
thousand dollars for one defendant and two hundred thousand for
the other. You never see that, but of course this
is the case where the media is watching and George
Gascon wants to pretend that he's tough on crime. In fact,
when they eventually ended up going being sent to prison,
which is completely out of the normal, he says, quote
(20:17):
many of these stolen guns are then used to commit
violent crimes, violent crimes which George Gascon will not, as
a policy, charge extra time for using a firearm. So
he is a hypocrite, he is incompetent. He is absolutely
a danger to our county.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Now, John, one of the mysteries about this case is,
I mean, it just screams that there's some kind of
an inside job. Maybe in the trial it was explained,
but it certainly hasn't been reported that these guys break
into the house of a congresswoman who's running for mayor
of Los Angeles, and so they knew exactly where the
guns were. They went to a closet, they took the guns,
(20:59):
they buy I passed cash, jewelry and electronics, which is
not what burglars usually do. It just screams of an
inside job. Do we know anything about Did they do
it on their own initiative? Were they sent by somebody
else to get them?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Doug, I have no information whatsoever regarding how this crime
was committed or what the motives are. I can tell
you though, particularly in the inner city and communities of color,
crime is rampant. Individuals who just want to be safe
in their own homes have to worry about burglars coming in,
(21:34):
They have to worry about gangsters walking down the street.
Because George Gascon won't file any gang allegations, because George
Gascon doesn't want to put anybody in prison. You decapitate
your two children, decapitate them, cut their heads off. George
Gascon says no special circumstances. His view is anybody should
be eligible for a reevaluation of the prison sends after
(21:56):
fifteen years, and he's brought in a bunch of public
defenders who he's made put in senior positions in violation
of civil service rules, which our association is going after
right now. There are promotions that happen today and I'm
waiting to see if his public defenders are going to
be the ones promoted to the highest civil service rank
(22:19):
in our office. Individuals who until coming over had never
prosecuted a case. Tell who I'm still haven't personally prosecuted
any cases.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
So this is.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
George gascon Doug. This is who he is, this is
what he does, and this is why our county right
now is an absolute war zone. And we'd love to
tell George about it. But he never shows up for work.
You don't see him. His chief deputy apparently commutes from
San Francisco at least a part of the week. He's
got an X grade two, a guy who had four
(22:50):
trials and was in his early thirties when he was
named the chief deputy in the office. He appears to
be running things.
Speaker 6 (22:57):
As chief of staff.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
That's when he's not getting a arrested. As you're aware,
this was publicized, getting arrested for an incident where he
says police committed misconduct, he has a videotape, and then
he never turns that videotape over, even though under the
law it is a felony for us if we have
that type of Brady exculpatory evidence and do not turn
(23:19):
it over. It's been two years now when George Gascon
won't answer any questions. He has an Instagram thing. He
loves social media, and he has an Instagram thing called
ask the da. I've asked thirty questions. Any guests, doug
on how many questions have been answered?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
I'm guessing he's like the New York Mets offense over thirty.
Speaker 6 (23:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Well, listen, even the Mets, even the Mets in their
worst years, get more hits than this guy does. He
had no response, nothing, absolutely zero. Now on the plus side,
I do hear from George Gasco I want to bush prisons.
I had the nerve to apparently repeat what they've said,
(24:00):
and they are now accusing me of racial animus. So
that's the world we live in.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Yeah, No, it's it's quite a world. It's an amazing world.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
John.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
When the person who is the mayor of the city
of Los Angeles can have the house broken into, a
weapon stolen, and we literally have no reporting.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
On what the nature of the actual crime was.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
You'd think that people would want that information in addition
to an actual justice system that produces justice. John, thanks
so much for all you do. We appreciate you being
with us. That's John Lewin, LA Deputy, just an attorney
calling on his own time.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
By yeahud Doug. We got to get John McKinney elected
District Attorney of this county. This is an African American
Democrat who can turn this county and this office around.
People need to get angry, and they need to get active,
and they need to do it yesterday.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
All right, John having me, thanks for coming on with us.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
You're listening to John and Ken on demand from KFI.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
A Let me, because I'm running out of time here,
let me thank everybody here at KFI, Ray Lopez and
Eric and the whole gang, Debra Mark, everybody in the
newsroom for making it possible for me to come in
here and squat for a couple of days. And you know,
the court order just came in. The Supreme Court also
ruled I have to leave, so I'll be out of
(25:22):
here after this. But it's been really fun getting a
chance to sit in here and play with all of
you and appreciate it very much.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
By the way, if you want to come out and.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Say hello, I'm going to be at Barnes and Noble
right at the Grove Farmers Market in the middle of
LA on July sixteenth, my debut novel, Frank's Shadow. We'll
be doing a reading and a book signing, so come
on out and say hello from seven to nine pm.
If you can't make that, I'll be at Gatspiz in
Long Beach on July twenty second at noon, Pages a
bookstore on July twenty sixth, and Barnes and Noble at
(25:52):
the Irvine Spectrum in August second, and Romans in Pasadena
on August ninth. And you can always buy it at
Amazon dot Com or Barnes and Noble. This is a
fascinating story. It's a sad commentary on how far we
have sunk as a people. San Francisco could become the
first city in the country to require every pharmacy within
its boundaries to always carry narcon, you know, the anti
(26:16):
overdose drug attributable to the fentanyl epidemic. Over seventy percent
of the six hundred and forty seven accidental deaths in
San Francisco in twenty two were attributable to fentanyl.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
This is happening everywhere. It's a catastrophe.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
And I don't know what it is about modern life
in this country that makes so many people destroy their
lives on these clearly lethal drugs, and we get away
with it. The opioid addiction, whether it's Purdue Pharma, or
the open borders or Lucy Goosey district attorneys that let
people out of jail. It's a catastrophe that's killing more
(26:53):
people every year than we lost in ten years in Vietnam,
and we just allow it to happen.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
It's outrageous. Speaking of outrageous, thank you, buddy.
Speaker 7 (27:03):
Well, you're an ex smoker, right, so you come from
that perspective of you know, I got my life together,
you should too, right, well, preachy on that.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I tug back and tired.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Well, I think the word is hypocrisy. No Ah, timmy good?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Are you?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Man?
Speaker 7 (27:20):
I hope a million people show up to buy that book.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Ears, I'll settle for five, Is that right?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
All right? Bet? You're all over the place of that book, though.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Well I got to it took me twenty five years
to get the damn thing published.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
So here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
How been writing it?
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Literally? I started in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
Oh so you had to go in and che and
read and reverse and check references.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Well you know what happens, because you.
Speaker 7 (27:41):
Can get you can get canceled for crap, you said
ninety eight.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
No, but here's the thing. It's set in nineteen ninety eight,
so I could do whatever I want. But here's the thing.
Because it took me a quarter century to finish it.
Whatever it said about me as a novelist prolific is
not going to be one of us. Because my next book,
the next book, it's going to debut it far as Lawn.
Speaker 7 (28:01):
I'll tell you a quick story about writing a book.
My dad wrote a book after being years of hounded
and hounded.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
I have it.
Speaker 7 (28:06):
Oh, good for you, okay, And he sold out so quickly,
and he sold so many of them that they asked
for a second book.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Right, a second book. They're gonna write a second book.
So my dad said, a good idea.
Speaker 7 (28:18):
So he sits down in his typewriter and he writes
for a week and he gives it to Charlene, my stepmother,
and she's the greatest critic because she'll tell him if
it sucks, orf, it's great, whatever, And she said, it's fantastic,
it's it's the greatest some of the greatest stuff you've
ever written. One downside though it's all in your first book.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Yeah, he wrote it twice. He wrote the same book twice.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
So he said he had a great point.
Speaker 7 (28:39):
Here's look, if I don't remember it's in the book,
then the people buying you aren't gonna remember.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Son.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
How do you argue with that?
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yes, so you just put another cover on it and
let it go.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Well, maybe my next book will be called Earl's Shadow,
just cross out all the Franks.
Speaker 7 (28:53):
What is this book about? Well, since you have a
huge audience, I k if I can tell us.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
I had a friend whose dad the same day Frank
Sinatra died. Oh, and they were approximately the same age.
And I started to think about and you're the perfect
person to talk about this because you're a very famous father.
That's right, the way the way we value lives. That
one death was satellite news ricocheting around the world, and
the other guy's death was in the back of the
(29:19):
paper by the racing results of mattress Ads, and they
had to pay to put him there. So that's really
what the book started. Bout I wrote a story about
a guy who goes home to bury his dad and
he realizes a tasked with the obiti with the eulogy,
that he knows everything about Frank Sinatra down to he
was a Forceps baby, but he knows nothing about really
his own father, and he tries to go discover who is.
But you know, we had this in the house because Penny,
(29:41):
my wife, Penny Peyser, was friends with Alan Arkins. So
we learned that Alan Arkin died on the news, right,
you know, And that's what happens with fame. It's an
odd in this town in particular, we have a strange
relationship with fame because you know a lot of people.
You can easily know people who are famous personally.
Speaker 7 (29:58):
And then during the pandemic, you didn't have time to
read about other people's desks because people in your house
were dying.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
That's absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
In fact, it's funny you should say that because I
remember having this conversation with a couple of friends that
that that.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
The pandemic, COVID devalued.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Yeah right, yeah right, you know, like legends like Carl
Reiner died during the pandemic. If Carl Reiner had died
under normal times, the town would have shut down. We
would have seen memorial services and everywhere else. But now
grandmother died, you're you know, people were dining all over
the place. So it kind of just became this fatalistic acceptance.
Speaker 7 (30:35):
And then you read articles now, or you read stuff
about celebrities and they'll say, like, for instance, like Adam
Ridged the kid on eight is enough and.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
You go, oh, I wonder what he's doing. Look, oh
he's dead.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Yeah, they just vanished he.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Died during the pandemic. I didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Now I got to vanish. What do you got coming
up in the show?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I don't know what did they do to do any.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Show prep at all, anything other than.
Speaker 7 (30:56):
Parlex Alex Michaelson's coming on Hannah.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
She's a kid Belly, is that right?
Speaker 7 (31:03):
That's that kid who we had in here and she
was like eight or nine years old.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Now she's become like a big singer.
Speaker 7 (31:08):
Yes, And we literally had on the show like thirteen
or fourteen.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
You launched a career. Clearly, I could she owes it
all to you.
Speaker 7 (31:15):
If there were two girls in here and said one
of them is hand, I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I can't tell them and I don't know. I have
no idea who that is.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Well, you gotta find out.
Speaker 7 (31:25):
On the tim COT's right, said Billy Ray is coming
out to talk about the strike.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Whow the how fascinating.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
I got to talk to you about that. All right,
ladies and gentlemen, thank you. I'm getting out of here
back time.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
You're great.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
There's kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Hey, you've been listening to the John and Ken Show.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
You can always hear us live on kf I AM
six forty one pm to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
The John Kobylt Show News
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John Kobylt
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