January 13, 2025 • 42 mins
LA County DA Nathan Hochman holds a press conference announcing the first looting charges associated with the fires burning in the LA area. LADWP CEO Janisse Quinones said she wants DWP to view everything through an "equity lens". Newsom was on Meet The Press and was taking more shots at Trump over the fires. Why are the DWP and LA Fire obsessed with DEI?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't find AM six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobalt podcast on the iHeartRadio apps. All right, we're listening
to Nathan Hakman give the latest information on the wildfires
in Los Angeles and keep.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Us safe and secure during these tragic times. With over
two hundred thousand Angelino's cooperating with evacuation.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Orders in order to make sure that they get out.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Of harm's way, allow firefighters and first responders in law
enforcements do their business. There have been certain people that
we have given a warning to because we anticipated that
this was going to happen, and these are the criminals.
These are the people who are seeking to exploit this
tragedy for their own benefit. These are people who have
(00:47):
engaged in looting arson. We've also investigated price gouging, will
be investigating internet scams and the like. Today we're here
to announced that the promise that we made when we
started this that these criminals would be arrested, they would
be prosecuted, and they will be maximally punished, is a
(01:10):
promise we are keeping.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
As we announced.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Today the charges being filed on ten different individuals, nine
of them for looting in both the Palisades and the
Eden fires, and one for arson in arson, by the way,
not connected with the origination of the major fires, but
in arson that occurred in Azusa. These felony charges are
(01:34):
the result of a multi agency collaboration. There's been nothing
short of incredibly impressive to be able to bring these
charges this quickly. This collaboration includes the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles
County Fire Arson Unit, the US Attorney's Office, the Federal
(01:57):
Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, all tobacco, firearms
and explosives, the ATF, Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, and
all our related cities that you'll hear about that have
done incredible work under enormously stressful times in order to
bring these culprits to justice. I'll go through the various
(02:20):
charges that have been filed to date. The first set
of charges are against two individuals exculd ME three individuals,
Martrell Peoples, Damari Bell, and Travin Coleman. What two of
these individuals did is on the night of both January
(02:44):
eighth and the early morning hours of January ninth, they
went ahead and committed residential first degree residential burglary and
looting during an emergency and evacuation situation in a house
in Mandeville Canyon. They have been charged with first degree
residential burglary. They've been charged with looting. They've been charged
(03:07):
with grand theft. They stole over two hundred thousand dollars,
as been alleged by the charging documents.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
And by the way, with.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Respect to the charges I'm going to announce, please know this,
the charges themselves are not evidence. Everyone that I'm going
to describe today is presumed guilty until and orless they
are proven guilt. Their guilt is proven by the government
beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm sure, excuse me, presumed innocent,
(03:39):
Thank you for the change. Presumed innocent until and aless
their guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. So back
with mister Peeples and mister Bell. They went ahead and
committed these crimes. And when they committed these crimes, as
you're going to see on this TV screen right here
to my left, it was caught on a ring camera
(04:00):
if you can play that as we're speaking, and the
LAPD through again such impressive investigation worked with various leads
and tracked mister Peoples and mister Bell to an apartment
in Koreatown. Surveillance was then conducted. When they attempted to leave,
(04:24):
they were then apprehended and items of a number of
these stolen items from that residence was found with mister
Peoples and mister Bell. Mister Peoples is a second is
committed to prior violent or serious felonies. This is his
third as a three strike. As a potential three strike person,
(04:48):
he is looking at life life in prison and mister Bell,
as a second strike individual, will be looking at twenty
two years and eight months in prison if convicted. Mister
Coleman accompanied mister Bell and mister Peoples out of that
apartment building in Koreatown, went into a second car, and
(05:14):
when mister Peoples and mister Bell were stopped, that second car,
driven by mister Coleman, kept going. It went through a
light a crash into another vehicle. That innocent person in
the other vehicle suffered a concussion. So mister Coleman has
been charged with one count felony hit and run causing
(05:35):
great bodily injury. As also a potential third strike case.
He is looking at a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The second case that we'll talk about involves Rudy Salazar
and Lucia Hilara Perez.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
They have been charged with.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Two counts of each of first degree residential burglary in
connection with an Altadena looting incident. On the night of
again January eighth, they went ahead and entered two different
houses in the Altadena area, stealing property in each of
(06:17):
the houses, and they were apprehended by the police, and
they are looking at six years maximum on each one
of the residential burglary counts. The third set of charges
is against Roy Simms, Ryan Simms, Nikwan Dewey Reddicks, and
Pieri Obannon. They are each charged with one count of
(06:40):
first degree residential burglary in connection with their crimes where
they went into a house in Altadena in the early
morning hours and sole a number of a variety of
different personal property from the owners of that house. If
we can show some of that property and the resident
(07:01):
and the burglary tools that were seized, we do not
have that. Among the property that you'll see that was
stolen in that particular incident was actually the Emmy.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Award of the resident who lived there.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
That was.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
The police worked incredibly quickly in that situation, stopped these
individuals and were able to apprehend them and recover most
of the stolen property. The fourth incident is an arson
incident in which Jose Harado Escobar has been charged.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
We have that ready. This is an incident that occurred
in Azusa.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Where mister Escobar has been charged with three different arson charges.
He is looking at nine years in state prison. This
is arson that occurred at Pioneer Park in the city
of Azusa. It was investigated by the Azuza Police Department,
who acted very effectively and very efficiently in apprehending mister Escobar.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Mister Escobar as well has.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Now he's been charged, but he has set for arraiment today.
So again with respect to all these charges, as I
said before, these charges are not evidence and they are
presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
But this shows the effectiveness of law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So when I said, and I have been saying over
the that past couple of days, the question is not if,
but when you will be caught if you engage in
these crimes. The ten charges or ten different individuals that
have been charged today are evidence of that fact and
the warning shot remains.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Do not go ahead and engage in looting, engage.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
In internet scams, engage in price gouging, do not violate
evacuation orders, and do not commit any of these crimes
in which people are trying to profit from the tragedy
of the people who have suffered from these various fires.
What I'd like to now do is introduce both Los
(09:22):
Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Blake Chow and Los Angeles
Police Department Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton provide further words.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Good afternoon. My name is Blake Chell, to be lak
e C. How you know. I just want to say
on behalf of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
If you've followed this.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Whole incident all week, we've been standing together as a
regional team of the sheriff just took attorney. Thank you,
mister Hawkman, City attorney, Supervisors, city council members. Because the
only way we're going to have an impact and keep
our community safe is if we stand together and we
operate as a team. And I will tell you in
the Palisades area and the fires that we've experienced in
(10:06):
Los Angeles, isn't it bad enough? We have forty thousand
people potentially that have been evacuate from an area, and
then we get a handful of people that want to
come up with activity to go victimize them. It's not
enough that they have to worry about their properties and
rebuilding and things like that.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
But now we're gonna go trade out here. Nathan Hawkman
was just on and they're going after thieves and arsonists.
I know you couldn't see it, but they He had
some pretty frightening video of a gang of young men
in somebody's home and walking up the stairs, really nice
(10:43):
looking home, and they were there to steal a lot.
And if you notice, several of the suspects, they already
have criminal records. They already had two felony strikes against them,
but of course they were let out. This is what
I'm saying, What do you think is going to happen?
If guys with felony strikes are let out, they're gonna
(11:05):
steal more stuff. Boy, this is dramatically different from the
horrible dark gascon years. I'll tell you that that was
that was really good to hear. So Nathan Hawkman was
laying out the first round of arrests and potential prosecutions
and we'll we'll tell you more about that later on,
(11:27):
but we just wanted to have a taste that that,
you know, there's some people now who are taking over
in government and things are gonna be different, whether it's
Tracy Park on the west side, the councilman replacing that
idiot Mike Bonnen or hawkman replacing the idiot George Gascon.
Next is the mayor. We've we've Karen Bass has to
be forced to resign and and that that petition could
(11:52):
help here. This is one of the few times maybe
an online symbolic petition might have some some worth. We
have over one hundred and twenty six thousand signatures demanding
the resignation of Mayor Karen Bass. Go to change dot org.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I want to play for you now. I spent most
of the for about half the first hour on the
Genie Kinone is the CEO of the LADWP and that
empty reservoir in the Palisades. One hundred and seventeen million
gallons of water normally could fill that that reservoir. It
(12:34):
was empty. It was drained because they have a cover
on it to protect the water. It's used this drinking
water too, and there was a tear in the cover
and so the water would get contaminated. They had to
fix the tear, and it should have been done in
a month, well eleven months after they closed the reservoir
(12:55):
in February of last year. Eleven months later it was
still closed. And there's no excuse for this. It should
have taken a month and you absolutely should should have
had it ready for the fire season. Okay, despite what
Newsom says, the fire season is not all year round.
The fire season starts in the fall when you have
(13:17):
Santa Ana wins. Santa Ana wins are very common in January.
We've had other major fires in January. All right, there's
no excuse for this. You certainly don't don't have it
closed for September, October, November, December, all right, and January.
You don't have that closed. You have the problem fixed
and you have the water available. And if you're afraid
(13:37):
the water's contaminated, contaminated water can water contaminated with bird
droppings can still put out a fire. I mean, I
cannot believe the quotes that I'm seeing in these news
articles from these seats, bone headed, blockheaded, lying bureaucrats and
political officials. Yes, would have had a huge effect. Yes,
(13:58):
it would have saved a lot of homes. Everybody knows
that this is how bad the lying and the gas
lightings become. They try to convince you that one hundred
and seventeen million gallons of water isn't going to put
out anybody's home. Oh, for goodness sake, stop it. I'd
like to dump one hundred and seventeen million gallons on
the offices of the DWP and then they can come
(14:20):
back and tell me it has no effect. The CEO
of the LEDWP Ganise Kenones, and I'm said this several
times already. I'm gonna keep saying it. She's got two jobs.
Make sure water gets transported, make sure power gets transported.
But you know that's that's a boring business, isn't it.
That's not fun to tell people these days. Not fashionable,
(14:41):
not cool, not woke. It's not trendy, right, Delivering water
and power sounds pretty dry, except this is what civilizations
are built on. Dry, boring technical details that nobody wants
to do anymore because they want to be cool and
trending and be on the right side of history and
be woke, and so transporting water to people who live
(15:09):
in Los Angeles was not her main priority, nor is
transporting the power. I'm gonna play you a clip here.
It's about a minute. Hope you can take it. She
made a recent appearance on a radio station kb LA
fifteen eighty. It's also a podcast. I understand. Listen to
Janice Z explain what's important to her. You call it
(15:31):
powered by equity, and I know that it's been really
important for the DWP to put an equity lens on everything.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
Yes. Yeah, and that's the number one thing that attracted
me to this role, coming from the communities that I
seeing what I've seen through my career and utilities and
through the military. I've been in the Coast Guard nineteen
and a half years now, so I got six more
months to qualify for my twenty years, which was my
original goal.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Wow.
Speaker 7 (15:58):
Congratulations and thank.
Speaker 8 (15:59):
You for your service.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
Thank you, thank you. It's important to me that everything
we do it's with an equitted lens and social justice
and making sure that we right the wrongs that we've
done in the past. From an infrastructure perspective, and that
we involve the community in that process. And this utility
is serious about it, is authentic about it, and so
(16:23):
I'm just super excited to be part of that movement.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Do you believe that? Does it make your stomach sick?
Does it make you wildly out of control, violently angry?
If you used to live in Pacific Palisades? The head
of the DWP say, and I wrote this down while
she was saying it. The number one thing that attracted
(16:49):
me to this job was equity, that everything would be
through an equity lens. In fact, here's your quote. Everything
we do is through an equity lens for social justice.
I don't even know what that means. You deliver water
and you deliver power. What the what the f does it?
(17:12):
What is an equity lens? Did anyone ever hear of
that term before twenty twenty? What the hell does it mean?
What does that have to do with keeping a reservoir full?
All you have to do is transport water down a
pipe and fill a reservoir? What the what the f
(17:36):
is an equity lens and social justice? Oh? You achieve
social justice? I guess huh achieved equity? Everybody in that
section of the Palisades had their home destroyed. This is
(17:58):
what's running the LEDWP. This hired by Karen Bass and
paid seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars seven hundred fifty
thousand dollars. That was three hundred grand more than the
last guy who had the job. He made four fifty.
(18:21):
How did she get seven fifty? And again and Eric,
when you get a chance, isolate this quote. The number
one thing that attracted me to this role was equity. Denise,
you know, nas, Why is she still getting a paycheck?
(18:43):
Karen Bass hired her? Why is she still in office?
Why are these people running things? What the hell is
going on? When I left home, I got three days
of no power. There are criminals in my neighborhood. There
are people starting trash fires and tree fires. There are
(19:07):
no police. Whoever was directing the fire department Friday night
was way way late by hours getting to the Palisades,
and she's looking through her equity lens. What does that
look like? What do you see through your equity lens?
(19:28):
Pacific Palisades burning to the ground, arsonists running amok. You
listen to her. You just heard Nathan Hakman go on
for fifteen minutes about he's gonna put these guys in prison.
Which way do you want to go? Here? This should
be it? Honestly, if you've looked for a progressive politician,
(19:49):
I said this last hour, one of us has to go,
either you or me. I do not want to live
in a city or a county or a state where
a progressive politicians rule. If that's the way it's going
to be, then I gotta go. O. This can't go
on anymore. This is an absurd, absurd, stupid, embarrassing, destructive, horrible,
(20:11):
horrible situation to be living through. It's all for progressive policies.
Don't anyone lie to you, don't let anybody gaslight you,
don't let anybody f with your head. These are progressive
policies that God us here. She let a reservoir lie
empty and vacant for eleven months. All they had to
(20:33):
do was fix a cover would take a month. Think
of like a gigantic pool cover. They had to fix
it so the bird droppings wouldn't get in. Not a
big deal, fix it, I but you didn't fix it.
It's badly about equity.
Speaker 6 (20:55):
Play that little thing again, the number one thing that
attracted me to this role coming from the communities that
I see, what I've seen through my career and utilities
and through the military. I've been in the coastcard nineteen
and a half years now, so I got six more
months to qualify for my twenty years, which was my
original goal.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
WO congratulation, Thank you for your service.
Speaker 6 (21:17):
Thank you, thank you. It's important to me that everything
we do it's with an equivalence and social justice and
making sure that we right the wrongs that we've done
in the past from an infrastructure perspective, and that we
involve the community in that process.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Are you going to write this?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Chris?
Speaker 6 (21:34):
Utility is serious about it, is authentic about it, and
so stop.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Right the wrongs. What are the people of Palisades do?
They just wanted their firefighters to have water to put
out their burning homes. What's that got to do with
social justice? What is she talking about? Is everybody insane?
And the host on this radio station KPLA is sitting
(22:03):
there nodding along because I've seen a little video of
the podcast. She's in the play an agreement. This is wonderful.
Did they talk about water at all? Or power? Just
can't be real? In the La Times says had DWP
(22:31):
held the water in the reservoir with a ripped cover,
the water would have been legally undrinkable except in emergencies. Well,
so we had a big emergency. You should have kept
the water in there, because if it was empty for
eleven months, nobody was drinking it anyway, it didn't exist.
(22:52):
The hell The Times claims that utility design the system
with redundancies and multiple sources of water. Where were they?
The firemen kept telling people were out of water. The
(23:13):
people kept saying the firemen. The firefighters were way late,
which means they weren't directed by somebody in management. Who
who's that person? All this was going on, Well, Bass
was in Africa. By the way, we have we have
(23:36):
red flag warnings again, extreme wins again. I hear she's
taken a plane to Indonesia? Is that true? She can
continue her world tour? Beck What did I read about
her today? When she took the job to be mayor,
she had to reluctantly admit that she wouldn't be able
to travel as much as she used to because she
(23:58):
really loves traveling guests. The urge to travel just overcame
her huh. She had to fly to Africa two days
after she got an extreme fire warning. When we come back,
here's another bumbling idiot. Gavin Newsom went on Meet the Press. Boy.
(24:28):
He just he just loves sticking his face right into
the bucket, doesn't he. You gotta have a big bucket
of pooh, and Gavin Newsom's willing to stick his head
in there trying to explain what happened. We'll play you
that when we come back.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Can't Fight a six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
John Cobelt's show We're on from one to four every day,
and then after four o'clock John cobelt Show on demand
on the iHeart app. Let's see here. I want to
play for you. Gavin Newsom going on Meet the Press
(25:16):
to talk about the Palisades fire and about the reservoir
being empty. We played you Genie Keez babbling about how
the number one thing that attracted her to the job
was to be able to look at things through an
equity lens and participate in social justice. Nothing about bringing
(25:39):
water to people or power to people or filling up
the reservoir, which geniee Keez has well, it's been empty
for eleven months because there was a tear in the
cover over the reservoir and they didn't want bird droppings
and other contaminants to get in. So the fire department
did not have access to one hundred and seventeen million gallons.
(26:00):
They only had access to three million gallons and that
was out in less than a day. So let's hear
Nesom what he has to say about the reservoir being empty.
Meet the press. NBC reporter Jacob Soboroff.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
We do know, though from reporting here locally, that that
one reservoir that serves the Palis Aids was not full.
Speaker 8 (26:18):
And that's exactly what triggered my desire to get the
investigation to understand what was happening with that local reservoir
that was not a state system reservoir which the President
elect was referring to as it relates to the Delta,
and somehow connecting the Delta smelt to this fire, which
is inexcusable because it's inaccurate, also incomprehensible to anyone that
(26:40):
understands water policy in the state.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
No, no, no, no, pivoted right to beating on Trump.
Trump's not the president, it's you, You're the governor. Notice
that he simultaneously put the blame on the local officials
and put the blame on Trump and somehow, well, he
has no responsibility. I thought they had these big meetings
(27:05):
where they preposition all their assets, all their resources, very prepositioned,
the resources prepositioned the well when you had these meetings,
if you had these meetings, remember, this is a guy
who is insisting to that Pacific Palisades mom that he
was literally on the phone with Joe Biden and he wasn't,
(27:28):
and she caught him lying. So it's that guy. Now,
all of a sudden, this is a local situation. In
other words, it's Karen Bass's or it's Trump. It's Trump
misidentifying the reservoir. It's a local reservoir, United state resident.
Had nothing to do with Trump. That's doe with you.
Did you sit at your your prepositioning meetings and did
(27:52):
anybody say, hey, who's bringing the water? You know, like
when you go on a picnic, as hey, who's bringing
the hot dogs, who's bringing the buns, who's bringing the beer?
When you have extreme fire warnings, from the freaking National
Weather Service. Doesn't somebody say, hey, did you pack water?
Speaker 8 (28:11):
Boy?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
That was that? That? That's what he's about, simultaneously dumped
on Bass and Trump he's the governor. He did he
know anything? Did he even know that reservoir existed? Did
somebody tell him? Did he say, what are the reservoirs?
(28:37):
Did he ask if they were full? Did he ask
why aren't they full? I bet you he didn't even
know there was a reservoir in the Palisades. Here's we'll
play cut five. Jacob sauberf NBC Meet the Press, asking
newsom if California's going to be ready to host the
Olympics in the World Cup.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
Over the course of the next several years, Los Angeles will
be host to the World Cup and the Super Bowl
and then the Olympics. With this rebuilding effort needing to
take place, is La going to be ready for all
of those global events?
Speaker 8 (29:08):
My humble position, And it's not just being naively optimistic.
That only reinforces the imperative moving quickly doing in the
spirit of collaboration, cooperation. President of the United States Donald Trump,
to his credit, was helpful in getting the Olympics to
the United States of America to get it down here
(29:29):
in LA. We thank him for that. This is an
opportunity for him to shine, for this country, to shine,
for California and this community to shine. The opportunity with
all of that and all that opportunity and that pride
and spirit that comes from not just hosting those three
iconic games and venues, but also the opportunity, I think,
to rebuild at the same time. And that's why we're
(29:50):
already organizing a Marshall plan, and we already have a
team of looking and reimagining LA two point zero, and
we're making sure everyone's included, not just the folks on
the coast, people here that were ravaged by this disaster.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Boy, was that a load of sloppy, smelly diarrhea? Why
didn't you imagine filling up a reservoir? No different than
filling up a really, really big swimming pool. Why didn't
you fill up the reservoir? You're going to reimagine the
entire city, but you couldn't fill a reservoir. He imagines
(30:31):
a lot of things, doesn't he He imagined he's talking
to Joe Biden when he's not. He's imagining. He's calling
Joe Biden when he's not sober off beat the press,
NBC pushes Newsom to be more specific.
Speaker 7 (30:50):
You just said you're organizing a Marshall plan for the
rebuilding of California.
Speaker 8 (30:53):
What is that Marshall force just starting to lay out?
I mean, we're still fighting these fires. So we're already
talking to city leaders, We're already talking to civic leaders.
We're already talking to business leaders and nonprofits, We're talking
to labor leaders. We're starting to organize how we can
put together a collection of individuals on philanthropy for recovery,
how we can organize the region, how we can make
(31:15):
sure that we are seeking federal assistance for the Olympics
more broadly, but also federal assistance for the recovery efforts,
and how we can galvanize the community, string with folks
that community to really develop a mindset the scale we're
dealing with the scope of this tragedy and responding to
(31:37):
it at scale with efficiency executive order. I talked about
time value of delivering cogency, addressing building codes, addressing perform
and moving forward to rebuilding and being more.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
I got a question, they're all talking about cutting red tape,
easing the permitting process. Why does it exist if you're
if you're going to get rid of all the red
tape and bureaucratic rules and the permitting issues and the
environmental investigations, why isn't it always like that? Apparently you
(32:10):
could rebuild thousands of homes without all those bureaucratic rules,
and he's confident everything's going to turn out fine. Well,
if everything's going to turn out fine, then why do
we have these rules. He's just announced we don't need
all the rules. We can rebuild thousands of homes in
the Pacific Palisades quickly if everybody just forgets all the regulations. Well,
(32:39):
he's completely confident that's going to work. So why do
they exist at all? Why have they ever existed? Doesn't
anybody think of that? If somebody tells you, hey, don't worry,
you're not going to have to deal with any of
these roadblocks anymore. Your applications to rebuild are going to
sail through, Well, how come on last week they couldn't
(33:00):
sail through last week? Me building a home is a
big problem, but this week it's not. Don't you have
all the Hey, look, if it's just they come up
with all these fake permits and fake reviews because they
want to charge you a lot of money. It's a
ransom you have to pay. Then, why don't you just
say up front? It's like, hey, you know, with them afia,
(33:21):
we're going to charge you a ransom. We're going to
demand a cut, a little extortion. Yeah, you're gonna pay
us one hundred thousand dollars to build your two million
dollar house. Okay, I guess that's the way life is.
But just say how much is that? How much? What
kind of a check do you want me to write? Well,
I go through years and years of regulations and reviews
(33:43):
and this and that and only stupid inspectors, only stupid
bureaucrats and all the paperwork, and you got to get
a lawyer. And they say in the end, Newsome is saying, hey,
you know what, all that stuff really doesn't matter. We
get approve the rebuild of five thousand homes in the Palisade,
snap of the fingers, executive order. They go, it's all good, Well,
what what's what's all this been about all these decades?
(34:07):
If it's just money you want, I'll pay you the money.
But could we expare the excruciating bureaucratic experience. Spare pretending
you're really doing this to protect the environment, and no
you're not. You just want the money and you like
controlling people's lives and making life difficult. That's what this
whole crowd lives for, warding over all of us. All Right,
(34:30):
we come back. Uh, we're gonna play you. Oh, it
looks like we have a retraction. We have an official
La Times retraction from the publisher regarding Karen Bass. You'll
like this.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Can't believe anything. What's going on here? I'm gonna play.
I'm gonna play you the La Times retracting something about
Karen Bass in just a moment. But I have found
a companion to our Genice Kennez clip Deenise Kenonnez is
the CEO of the LADWP Department of Order and Power.
(35:17):
She was the one in charge of the entire agency.
And they drained that seventeen one hundred and seventeen million
gallon reservoir in Pacific Palisades and never refilled it. They
had to fix a tear in the cover. As I've
been telling you, and she told us that the number
one thing that attracted us to the job was equity.
(35:43):
Everything we do is with an equity lens for social justice.
All right, here's another one. Well, this is Los Angeles
Fire Department Assistant Chief Christine Larson, and she oversees the
Department of Equity in Human Resources Bureau AH Equity. Again.
(36:08):
You want to hear this clip. You're gonna think we
made this one up. Play it.
Speaker 9 (36:12):
You want to see somebody that responds to your house,
your emergency, whether it's a medical call or a fire call,
that looks like you. It gives that person a little
bit more ease knowing that somebody might understand their situation better.
Is she strong enough to do this? Or you couldn't
carry my husband out of a fire? Which my response is,
he got himself in the wrong place. If I have
to carr him out of a fire.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
She actually said that this was a video that ran
on television. Her quote is and she's addressing criticism that
women aren't strong enough to be firefighters, and she says
she's asked, am I able to carry your husband out
of a fire? He got himself in the wrong place.
(36:58):
If I have to carry him out. Does she still
have a job? Is she still working? She's been there
for thirty three years. First African American woman to serve
as the Deputy Chief of the LAFD Overseas Equity and
Human Resources Bureau. Her role includes championing diversity, equity and
(37:20):
inclusion initiatives. DEI, So if I'm trapped in a burning house,
my wife is screaming for someone to come in, and
Christine Larson shows up and she goes, I'm sorry, ma'am,
he's too heavy for me to carry. He must have
(37:40):
gotten himself in the wrong place. I guess we're gonna
have to let him die. Can you imagine? You imagine
your husband's trying to save your baby, your dog. He trips,
he falls, he can't get up, he needs somebody to
carry him out. And it's like, you got Christine Larson.
Well she's a woman. Are you strong enough to carry
(38:03):
him out? Well, your husband got himself in the wrong place.
Huh what do you tell me he tripped down the
stairs trying to save your baby. Uh, wrong place, wrong time,
Sorry about that. I'm not strong enough. So I guess
what is she saying that women aren't strong enough to
be firefighters saying it's your fault if you need a
woman to pick you up. What if you're an elderly
(38:27):
man in a wheelchair, I don't know, looks like you
got too old, buddy, Sorry, Christine Larson, play that again.
First of all, you.
Speaker 9 (38:43):
Want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency,
whether it's a medical call or a fire call, that
looks like you. Against that person a little bit more ease,
knowing that somebody might understand their situation better. Is she
strong enough to do this? Or you couldn't carry my
husband out of a fire, which might responses he got
himself from the wrong place. If I have to carr
him out of.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
A fire, your husband got himself from the wrong place
if Christine Larson has to carry him out, And that
first part, play a first part again.
Speaker 9 (39:18):
You want to see somebody that responds to your house,
your emergency, whether it's a medical call or a fire call,
that looks like you.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Stop stop, no, I don't who's ever said that? Has
anyone ever thought that when your house is burning the
people in the palisades were they hoping somebody who looked
like them showed up? Are you nuts? She's actually spent
thirty three years in the fire department. She made it
(39:46):
to deputy chief. She thinks, when there's a fire, we
want somebody that looks like us to carry us out
of the house. She actually thinks that, I don't know
anybody that's ever occurred, that's ever occurred to I've seen
countless videos in my life of people rescued from fires
or whose homes were saved. We've talked to them. That's
(40:10):
never coming. What did he look like? Did he look
like you? What?
Speaker 2 (40:17):
So?
Speaker 1 (40:18):
If an eighty year old guy is stuck in a house,
he wants another eight year old guy to show up.
If a fifteen year old girl is trapped in a house,
does she want another fifteen year old fifteen year old
girl to come in? Are you serious? I'm worried about
the color of their skin. I'm worried about their ethnicity.
I'm worried about their sexual orientation. That's what I'm thinking
(40:38):
about as my house is burning. Do you think anybody
in the Pacific Palisades there must be at least ten
thousand people fifteen thousand people plus homeless in the Palisades,
do you think any of them worried about what the
firefighter looked like anybody that's insane. So she's deputy chief
(41:02):
of the fire department and this Kenonia's character is running
the DWP and she couldn't fill up the reservoir and
she's looking at everything through an equity landscape. Karen Dass
hired Kenon. Yes, Wow, let all this sinking, some moment
(41:25):
of silence. Let all this sinking. Don't wonder this happened.
It had to happen, right, You have people this absurd,
this ridiculous, this stupid running our city. Now when there's
finally the fire of the century. Of course this is
(41:49):
gonna happen. When we come back to my own state
representative from down in San Diego. He's asking news how
about a special session to slash the red tape. He
says the executive order is fake. Talk to him about it.
(42:15):
Coming up. Deborah Mark is off and we have Briginia
Degistino live in the KFI twenty four hour News Center. Hey,
you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI Am six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course anytime on demand. On the iHeartRadio app,
Can't find AM six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobalt podcast on the iHeartRadio apps. All right, we're listening
to Nathan Hakman give the latest information on the wildfires
in Los Angeles and keep.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Us safe and secure during these tragic times. With over
two hundred thousand Angelino's cooperating with evacuation.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Orders in order to make sure that they get out.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Of harm's way, allow firefighters and first responders in law
enforcements do their business. There have been certain people that
we have given a warning to because we anticipated that
this was going to happen, and these are the criminals.
These are the people who are seeking to exploit this
tragedy for their own benefit. These are people who have
(00:47):
engaged in looting arson. We've also investigated price gouging, will
be investigating internet scams and the like. Today we're here
to announced that the promise that we made when we
started this that these criminals would be arrested, they would
be prosecuted, and they will be maximally punished, is a
(01:10):
promise we are keeping.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
As we announced.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Today the charges being filed on ten different individuals, nine
of them for looting in both the Palisades and the
Eden fires, and one for arson in arson, by the way,
not connected with the origination of the major fires, but
in arson that occurred in Azusa. These felony charges are
(01:34):
the result of a multi agency collaboration. There's been nothing
short of incredibly impressive to be able to bring these
charges this quickly. This collaboration includes the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles
County Fire Arson Unit, the US Attorney's Office, the Federal
(01:57):
Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, all tobacco, firearms
and explosives, the ATF, Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, and
all our related cities that you'll hear about that have
done incredible work under enormously stressful times in order to
bring these culprits to justice. I'll go through the various
(02:20):
charges that have been filed to date. The first set
of charges are against two individuals exculd ME three individuals,
Martrell Peoples, Damari Bell, and Travin Coleman. What two of
these individuals did is on the night of both January
(02:44):
eighth and the early morning hours of January ninth, they
went ahead and committed residential first degree residential burglary and
looting during an emergency and evacuation situation in a house
in Mandeville Canyon. They have been charged with first degree
residential burglary. They've been charged with looting. They've been charged
(03:07):
with grand theft. They stole over two hundred thousand dollars,
as been alleged by the charging documents.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
And by the way, with.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Respect to the charges I'm going to announce, please know this,
the charges themselves are not evidence. Everyone that I'm going
to describe today is presumed guilty until and orless they
are proven guilt. Their guilt is proven by the government
beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm sure, excuse me, presumed innocent,
(03:39):
Thank you for the change. Presumed innocent until and aless
their guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. So back
with mister Peeples and mister Bell. They went ahead and
committed these crimes. And when they committed these crimes, as
you're going to see on this TV screen right here
to my left, it was caught on a ring camera
(04:00):
if you can play that as we're speaking, and the
LAPD through again such impressive investigation worked with various leads
and tracked mister Peoples and mister Bell to an apartment
in Koreatown. Surveillance was then conducted. When they attempted to leave,
(04:24):
they were then apprehended and items of a number of
these stolen items from that residence was found with mister
Peoples and mister Bell. Mister Peoples is a second is
committed to prior violent or serious felonies. This is his
third as a three strike. As a potential three strike person,
(04:48):
he is looking at life life in prison and mister Bell,
as a second strike individual, will be looking at twenty
two years and eight months in prison if convicted. Mister
Coleman accompanied mister Bell and mister Peoples out of that
apartment building in Koreatown, went into a second car, and
(05:14):
when mister Peoples and mister Bell were stopped, that second car,
driven by mister Coleman, kept going. It went through a
light a crash into another vehicle. That innocent person in
the other vehicle suffered a concussion. So mister Coleman has
been charged with one count felony hit and run causing
(05:35):
great bodily injury. As also a potential third strike case.
He is looking at a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The second case that we'll talk about involves Rudy Salazar
and Lucia Hilara Perez.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
They have been charged with.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Two counts of each of first degree residential burglary in
connection with an Altadena looting incident. On the night of
again January eighth, they went ahead and entered two different
houses in the Altadena area, stealing property in each of
(06:17):
the houses, and they were apprehended by the police, and
they are looking at six years maximum on each one
of the residential burglary counts. The third set of charges
is against Roy Simms, Ryan Simms, Nikwan Dewey Reddicks, and
Pieri Obannon. They are each charged with one count of
(06:40):
first degree residential burglary in connection with their crimes where
they went into a house in Altadena in the early
morning hours and sole a number of a variety of
different personal property from the owners of that house. If
we can show some of that property and the resident
(07:01):
and the burglary tools that were seized, we do not
have that. Among the property that you'll see that was
stolen in that particular incident was actually the Emmy.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Award of the resident who lived there.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
That was.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
The police worked incredibly quickly in that situation, stopped these
individuals and were able to apprehend them and recover most
of the stolen property. The fourth incident is an arson
incident in which Jose Harado Escobar has been charged.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
We have that ready. This is an incident that occurred
in Azusa.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Where mister Escobar has been charged with three different arson charges.
He is looking at nine years in state prison. This
is arson that occurred at Pioneer Park in the city
of Azusa. It was investigated by the Azuza Police Department,
who acted very effectively and very efficiently in apprehending mister Escobar.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Mister Escobar as well has.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Now he's been charged, but he has set for arraiment today.
So again with respect to all these charges, as I
said before, these charges are not evidence and they are
presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
But this shows the effectiveness of law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So when I said, and I have been saying over
the that past couple of days, the question is not if,
but when you will be caught if you engage in
these crimes. The ten charges or ten different individuals that
have been charged today are evidence of that fact and
the warning shot remains.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Do not go ahead and engage in looting, engage.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
In internet scams, engage in price gouging, do not violate
evacuation orders, and do not commit any of these crimes
in which people are trying to profit from the tragedy
of the people who have suffered from these various fires.
What I'd like to now do is introduce both Los
(09:22):
Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Blake Chow and Los Angeles
Police Department Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton provide further words.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Good afternoon. My name is Blake Chell, to be lak
e C. How you know. I just want to say
on behalf of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
If you've followed this.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Whole incident all week, we've been standing together as a
regional team of the sheriff just took attorney. Thank you,
mister Hawkman, City attorney, Supervisors, city council members. Because the
only way we're going to have an impact and keep
our community safe is if we stand together and we
operate as a team. And I will tell you in
the Palisades area and the fires that we've experienced in
(10:06):
Los Angeles, isn't it bad enough? We have forty thousand
people potentially that have been evacuate from an area, and
then we get a handful of people that want to
come up with activity to go victimize them. It's not
enough that they have to worry about their properties and
rebuilding and things like that.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
But now we're gonna go trade out here. Nathan Hawkman
was just on and they're going after thieves and arsonists.
I know you couldn't see it, but they He had
some pretty frightening video of a gang of young men
in somebody's home and walking up the stairs, really nice
(10:43):
looking home, and they were there to steal a lot.
And if you notice, several of the suspects, they already
have criminal records. They already had two felony strikes against them,
but of course they were let out. This is what
I'm saying, What do you think is going to happen?
If guys with felony strikes are let out, they're gonna
(11:05):
steal more stuff. Boy, this is dramatically different from the
horrible dark gascon years. I'll tell you that that was
that was really good to hear. So Nathan Hawkman was
laying out the first round of arrests and potential prosecutions
and we'll we'll tell you more about that later on,
(11:27):
but we just wanted to have a taste that that,
you know, there's some people now who are taking over
in government and things are gonna be different, whether it's
Tracy Park on the west side, the councilman replacing that
idiot Mike Bonnen or hawkman replacing the idiot George Gascon.
Next is the mayor. We've we've Karen Bass has to
be forced to resign and and that that petition could
(11:52):
help here. This is one of the few times maybe
an online symbolic petition might have some some worth. We
have over one hundred and twenty six thousand signatures demanding
the resignation of Mayor Karen Bass. Go to change dot org.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I want to play for you now. I spent most
of the for about half the first hour on the
Genie Kinone is the CEO of the LADWP and that
empty reservoir in the Palisades. One hundred and seventeen million
gallons of water normally could fill that that reservoir. It
(12:34):
was empty. It was drained because they have a cover
on it to protect the water. It's used this drinking
water too, and there was a tear in the cover
and so the water would get contaminated. They had to
fix the tear, and it should have been done in
a month, well eleven months after they closed the reservoir
(12:55):
in February of last year. Eleven months later it was
still closed. And there's no excuse for this. It should
have taken a month and you absolutely should should have
had it ready for the fire season. Okay, despite what
Newsom says, the fire season is not all year round.
The fire season starts in the fall when you have
(13:17):
Santa Ana wins. Santa Ana wins are very common in January.
We've had other major fires in January. All right, there's
no excuse for this. You certainly don't don't have it
closed for September, October, November, December, all right, and January.
You don't have that closed. You have the problem fixed
and you have the water available. And if you're afraid
(13:37):
the water's contaminated, contaminated water can water contaminated with bird
droppings can still put out a fire. I mean, I
cannot believe the quotes that I'm seeing in these news
articles from these seats, bone headed, blockheaded, lying bureaucrats and
political officials. Yes, would have had a huge effect. Yes,
(13:58):
it would have saved a lot of homes. Everybody knows
that this is how bad the lying and the gas
lightings become. They try to convince you that one hundred
and seventeen million gallons of water isn't going to put
out anybody's home. Oh, for goodness sake, stop it. I'd
like to dump one hundred and seventeen million gallons on
the offices of the DWP and then they can come
(14:20):
back and tell me it has no effect. The CEO
of the LEDWP Ganise Kenones, and I'm said this several
times already. I'm gonna keep saying it. She's got two jobs.
Make sure water gets transported, make sure power gets transported.
But you know that's that's a boring business, isn't it.
That's not fun to tell people these days. Not fashionable,
(14:41):
not cool, not woke. It's not trendy, right, Delivering water
and power sounds pretty dry, except this is what civilizations
are built on. Dry, boring technical details that nobody wants
to do anymore because they want to be cool and
trending and be on the right side of history and
be woke, and so transporting water to people who live
(15:09):
in Los Angeles was not her main priority, nor is
transporting the power. I'm gonna play you a clip here.
It's about a minute. Hope you can take it. She
made a recent appearance on a radio station kb LA
fifteen eighty. It's also a podcast. I understand. Listen to
Janice Z explain what's important to her. You call it
(15:31):
powered by equity, and I know that it's been really
important for the DWP to put an equity lens on everything.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
Yes. Yeah, and that's the number one thing that attracted
me to this role, coming from the communities that I
seeing what I've seen through my career and utilities and
through the military. I've been in the Coast Guard nineteen
and a half years now, so I got six more
months to qualify for my twenty years, which was my
original goal.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Wow.
Speaker 7 (15:58):
Congratulations and thank.
Speaker 8 (15:59):
You for your service.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
Thank you, thank you. It's important to me that everything
we do it's with an equitted lens and social justice
and making sure that we right the wrongs that we've
done in the past. From an infrastructure perspective, and that
we involve the community in that process. And this utility
is serious about it, is authentic about it, and so
(16:23):
I'm just super excited to be part of that movement.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Do you believe that? Does it make your stomach sick?
Does it make you wildly out of control, violently angry?
If you used to live in Pacific Palisades? The head
of the DWP say, and I wrote this down while
she was saying it. The number one thing that attracted
(16:49):
me to this job was equity, that everything would be
through an equity lens. In fact, here's your quote. Everything
we do is through an equity lens for social justice.
I don't even know what that means. You deliver water
and you deliver power. What the what the f does it?
(17:12):
What is an equity lens? Did anyone ever hear of
that term before twenty twenty? What the hell does it mean?
What does that have to do with keeping a reservoir full?
All you have to do is transport water down a
pipe and fill a reservoir? What the what the f
(17:36):
is an equity lens and social justice? Oh? You achieve
social justice? I guess huh achieved equity? Everybody in that
section of the Palisades had their home destroyed. This is
(17:58):
what's running the LEDWP. This hired by Karen Bass and
paid seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars seven hundred fifty
thousand dollars. That was three hundred grand more than the
last guy who had the job. He made four fifty.
(18:21):
How did she get seven fifty? And again and Eric,
when you get a chance, isolate this quote. The number
one thing that attracted me to this role was equity. Denise,
you know, nas, Why is she still getting a paycheck?
(18:43):
Karen Bass hired her? Why is she still in office?
Why are these people running things? What the hell is
going on? When I left home, I got three days
of no power. There are criminals in my neighborhood. There
are people starting trash fires and tree fires. There are
(19:07):
no police. Whoever was directing the fire department Friday night
was way way late by hours getting to the Palisades,
and she's looking through her equity lens. What does that
look like? What do you see through your equity lens?
(19:28):
Pacific Palisades burning to the ground, arsonists running amok. You
listen to her. You just heard Nathan Hakman go on
for fifteen minutes about he's gonna put these guys in prison.
Which way do you want to go? Here? This should
be it? Honestly, if you've looked for a progressive politician,
(19:49):
I said this last hour, one of us has to go,
either you or me. I do not want to live
in a city or a county or a state where
a progressive politicians rule. If that's the way it's going
to be, then I gotta go. O. This can't go
on anymore. This is an absurd, absurd, stupid, embarrassing, destructive, horrible,
(20:11):
horrible situation to be living through. It's all for progressive policies.
Don't anyone lie to you, don't let anybody gaslight you,
don't let anybody f with your head. These are progressive
policies that God us here. She let a reservoir lie
empty and vacant for eleven months. All they had to
(20:33):
do was fix a cover would take a month. Think
of like a gigantic pool cover. They had to fix
it so the bird droppings wouldn't get in. Not a
big deal, fix it, I but you didn't fix it.
It's badly about equity.
Speaker 6 (20:55):
Play that little thing again, the number one thing that
attracted me to this role coming from the communities that
I see, what I've seen through my career and utilities
and through the military. I've been in the coastcard nineteen
and a half years now, so I got six more
months to qualify for my twenty years, which was my
original goal.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
WO congratulation, Thank you for your service.
Speaker 6 (21:17):
Thank you, thank you. It's important to me that everything
we do it's with an equivalence and social justice and
making sure that we right the wrongs that we've done
in the past from an infrastructure perspective, and that we
involve the community in that process.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Are you going to write this?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Chris?
Speaker 6 (21:34):
Utility is serious about it, is authentic about it, and
so stop.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Right the wrongs. What are the people of Palisades do?
They just wanted their firefighters to have water to put
out their burning homes. What's that got to do with
social justice? What is she talking about? Is everybody insane?
And the host on this radio station KPLA is sitting
(22:03):
there nodding along because I've seen a little video of
the podcast. She's in the play an agreement. This is wonderful.
Did they talk about water at all? Or power? Just
can't be real? In the La Times says had DWP
(22:31):
held the water in the reservoir with a ripped cover,
the water would have been legally undrinkable except in emergencies. Well,
so we had a big emergency. You should have kept
the water in there, because if it was empty for
eleven months, nobody was drinking it anyway, it didn't exist.
(22:52):
The hell The Times claims that utility design the system
with redundancies and multiple sources of water. Where were they?
The firemen kept telling people were out of water. The
(23:13):
people kept saying the firemen. The firefighters were way late,
which means they weren't directed by somebody in management. Who
who's that person? All this was going on, Well, Bass
was in Africa. By the way, we have we have
(23:36):
red flag warnings again, extreme wins again. I hear she's
taken a plane to Indonesia? Is that true? She can
continue her world tour? Beck What did I read about
her today? When she took the job to be mayor,
she had to reluctantly admit that she wouldn't be able
to travel as much as she used to because she
(23:58):
really loves traveling guests. The urge to travel just overcame
her huh. She had to fly to Africa two days
after she got an extreme fire warning. When we come back,
here's another bumbling idiot. Gavin Newsom went on Meet the Press. Boy.
(24:28):
He just he just loves sticking his face right into
the bucket, doesn't he. You gotta have a big bucket
of pooh, and Gavin Newsom's willing to stick his head
in there trying to explain what happened. We'll play you
that when we come back.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Can't Fight a six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
John Cobelt's show We're on from one to four every day,
and then after four o'clock John cobelt Show on demand
on the iHeart app. Let's see here. I want to
play for you. Gavin Newsom going on Meet the Press
(25:16):
to talk about the Palisades fire and about the reservoir
being empty. We played you Genie Keez babbling about how
the number one thing that attracted her to the job
was to be able to look at things through an
equity lens and participate in social justice. Nothing about bringing
(25:39):
water to people or power to people or filling up
the reservoir, which geniee Keez has well, it's been empty
for eleven months because there was a tear in the
cover over the reservoir and they didn't want bird droppings
and other contaminants to get in. So the fire department
did not have access to one hundred and seventeen million gallons.
(26:00):
They only had access to three million gallons and that
was out in less than a day. So let's hear
Nesom what he has to say about the reservoir being empty.
Meet the press. NBC reporter Jacob Soboroff.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
We do know, though from reporting here locally, that that
one reservoir that serves the Palis Aids was not full.
Speaker 8 (26:18):
And that's exactly what triggered my desire to get the
investigation to understand what was happening with that local reservoir
that was not a state system reservoir which the President
elect was referring to as it relates to the Delta,
and somehow connecting the Delta smelt to this fire, which
is inexcusable because it's inaccurate, also incomprehensible to anyone that
(26:40):
understands water policy in the state.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
No, no, no, no, pivoted right to beating on Trump.
Trump's not the president, it's you, You're the governor. Notice
that he simultaneously put the blame on the local officials
and put the blame on Trump and somehow, well, he
has no responsibility. I thought they had these big meetings
(27:05):
where they preposition all their assets, all their resources, very prepositioned,
the resources prepositioned the well when you had these meetings,
if you had these meetings, remember, this is a guy
who is insisting to that Pacific Palisades mom that he
was literally on the phone with Joe Biden and he wasn't,
(27:28):
and she caught him lying. So it's that guy. Now,
all of a sudden, this is a local situation. In
other words, it's Karen Bass's or it's Trump. It's Trump
misidentifying the reservoir. It's a local reservoir, United state resident.
Had nothing to do with Trump. That's doe with you.
Did you sit at your your prepositioning meetings and did
(27:52):
anybody say, hey, who's bringing the water? You know, like
when you go on a picnic, as hey, who's bringing
the hot dogs, who's bringing the buns, who's bringing the beer?
When you have extreme fire warnings, from the freaking National
Weather Service. Doesn't somebody say, hey, did you pack water?
Speaker 8 (28:11):
Boy?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
That was that? That? That's what he's about, simultaneously dumped
on Bass and Trump he's the governor. He did he
know anything? Did he even know that reservoir existed? Did
somebody tell him? Did he say, what are the reservoirs?
(28:37):
Did he ask if they were full? Did he ask
why aren't they full? I bet you he didn't even
know there was a reservoir in the Palisades. Here's we'll
play cut five. Jacob sauberf NBC Meet the Press, asking
newsom if California's going to be ready to host the
Olympics in the World Cup.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
Over the course of the next several years, Los Angeles will
be host to the World Cup and the Super Bowl
and then the Olympics. With this rebuilding effort needing to
take place, is La going to be ready for all
of those global events?
Speaker 8 (29:08):
My humble position, And it's not just being naively optimistic.
That only reinforces the imperative moving quickly doing in the
spirit of collaboration, cooperation. President of the United States Donald Trump,
to his credit, was helpful in getting the Olympics to
the United States of America to get it down here
(29:29):
in LA. We thank him for that. This is an
opportunity for him to shine, for this country, to shine,
for California and this community to shine. The opportunity with
all of that and all that opportunity and that pride
and spirit that comes from not just hosting those three
iconic games and venues, but also the opportunity, I think,
to rebuild at the same time. And that's why we're
(29:50):
already organizing a Marshall plan, and we already have a
team of looking and reimagining LA two point zero, and
we're making sure everyone's included, not just the folks on
the coast, people here that were ravaged by this disaster.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Boy, was that a load of sloppy, smelly diarrhea? Why
didn't you imagine filling up a reservoir? No different than
filling up a really, really big swimming pool. Why didn't
you fill up the reservoir? You're going to reimagine the
entire city, but you couldn't fill a reservoir. He imagines
(30:31):
a lot of things, doesn't he He imagined he's talking
to Joe Biden when he's not. He's imagining. He's calling
Joe Biden when he's not sober off beat the press,
NBC pushes Newsom to be more specific.
Speaker 7 (30:50):
You just said you're organizing a Marshall plan for the
rebuilding of California.
Speaker 8 (30:53):
What is that Marshall force just starting to lay out?
I mean, we're still fighting these fires. So we're already
talking to city leaders, We're already talking to civic leaders.
We're already talking to business leaders and nonprofits, We're talking
to labor leaders. We're starting to organize how we can
put together a collection of individuals on philanthropy for recovery,
how we can organize the region, how we can make
(31:15):
sure that we are seeking federal assistance for the Olympics
more broadly, but also federal assistance for the recovery efforts,
and how we can galvanize the community, string with folks
that community to really develop a mindset the scale we're
dealing with the scope of this tragedy and responding to
(31:37):
it at scale with efficiency executive order. I talked about
time value of delivering cogency, addressing building codes, addressing perform
and moving forward to rebuilding and being more.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
I got a question, they're all talking about cutting red tape,
easing the permitting process. Why does it exist if you're
if you're going to get rid of all the red
tape and bureaucratic rules and the permitting issues and the
environmental investigations, why isn't it always like that? Apparently you
(32:10):
could rebuild thousands of homes without all those bureaucratic rules,
and he's confident everything's going to turn out fine. Well,
if everything's going to turn out fine, then why do
we have these rules. He's just announced we don't need
all the rules. We can rebuild thousands of homes in
the Pacific Palisades quickly if everybody just forgets all the regulations. Well,
(32:39):
he's completely confident that's going to work. So why do
they exist at all? Why have they ever existed? Doesn't
anybody think of that? If somebody tells you, hey, don't worry,
you're not going to have to deal with any of
these roadblocks anymore. Your applications to rebuild are going to
sail through, Well, how come on last week they couldn't
(33:00):
sail through last week? Me building a home is a
big problem, but this week it's not. Don't you have
all the Hey, look, if it's just they come up
with all these fake permits and fake reviews because they
want to charge you a lot of money. It's a
ransom you have to pay. Then, why don't you just
say up front? It's like, hey, you know, with them afia,
(33:21):
we're going to charge you a ransom. We're going to
demand a cut, a little extortion. Yeah, you're gonna pay
us one hundred thousand dollars to build your two million
dollar house. Okay, I guess that's the way life is.
But just say how much is that? How much? What
kind of a check do you want me to write? Well,
I go through years and years of regulations and reviews
(33:43):
and this and that and only stupid inspectors, only stupid
bureaucrats and all the paperwork, and you got to get
a lawyer. And they say in the end, Newsome is saying, hey,
you know what, all that stuff really doesn't matter. We
get approve the rebuild of five thousand homes in the Palisade,
snap of the fingers, executive order. They go, it's all good, Well,
what what's what's all this been about all these decades?
(34:07):
If it's just money you want, I'll pay you the money.
But could we expare the excruciating bureaucratic experience. Spare pretending
you're really doing this to protect the environment, and no
you're not. You just want the money and you like
controlling people's lives and making life difficult. That's what this
whole crowd lives for, warding over all of us. All Right,
(34:30):
we come back. Uh, we're gonna play you. Oh, it
looks like we have a retraction. We have an official
La Times retraction from the publisher regarding Karen Bass. You'll
like this.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Can't believe anything. What's going on here? I'm gonna play.
I'm gonna play you the La Times retracting something about
Karen Bass in just a moment. But I have found
a companion to our Genice Kennez clip Deenise Kenonnez is
the CEO of the LADWP Department of Order and Power.
(35:17):
She was the one in charge of the entire agency.
And they drained that seventeen one hundred and seventeen million
gallon reservoir in Pacific Palisades and never refilled it. They
had to fix a tear in the cover. As I've
been telling you, and she told us that the number
one thing that attracted us to the job was equity.
(35:43):
Everything we do is with an equity lens for social justice.
All right, here's another one. Well, this is Los Angeles
Fire Department Assistant Chief Christine Larson, and she oversees the
Department of Equity in Human Resources Bureau AH Equity. Again.
(36:08):
You want to hear this clip. You're gonna think we
made this one up. Play it.
Speaker 9 (36:12):
You want to see somebody that responds to your house,
your emergency, whether it's a medical call or a fire call,
that looks like you. It gives that person a little
bit more ease knowing that somebody might understand their situation better.
Is she strong enough to do this? Or you couldn't
carry my husband out of a fire? Which my response is,
he got himself in the wrong place. If I have
to carr him out of a fire.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
She actually said that this was a video that ran
on television. Her quote is and she's addressing criticism that
women aren't strong enough to be firefighters, and she says
she's asked, am I able to carry your husband out
of a fire? He got himself in the wrong place.
(36:58):
If I have to carry him out. Does she still
have a job? Is she still working? She's been there
for thirty three years. First African American woman to serve
as the Deputy Chief of the LAFD Overseas Equity and
Human Resources Bureau. Her role includes championing diversity, equity and
(37:20):
inclusion initiatives. DEI, So if I'm trapped in a burning house,
my wife is screaming for someone to come in, and
Christine Larson shows up and she goes, I'm sorry, ma'am,
he's too heavy for me to carry. He must have
(37:40):
gotten himself in the wrong place. I guess we're gonna
have to let him die. Can you imagine? You imagine
your husband's trying to save your baby, your dog. He trips,
he falls, he can't get up, he needs somebody to
carry him out. And it's like, you got Christine Larson.
Well she's a woman. Are you strong enough to carry
(38:03):
him out? Well, your husband got himself in the wrong place.
Huh what do you tell me he tripped down the
stairs trying to save your baby. Uh, wrong place, wrong time,
Sorry about that. I'm not strong enough. So I guess
what is she saying that women aren't strong enough to
be firefighters saying it's your fault if you need a
woman to pick you up. What if you're an elderly
(38:27):
man in a wheelchair, I don't know, looks like you
got too old, buddy, Sorry, Christine Larson, play that again.
First of all, you.
Speaker 9 (38:43):
Want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency,
whether it's a medical call or a fire call, that
looks like you. Against that person a little bit more ease,
knowing that somebody might understand their situation better. Is she
strong enough to do this? Or you couldn't carry my
husband out of a fire, which might responses he got
himself from the wrong place. If I have to carr
him out of.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
A fire, your husband got himself from the wrong place
if Christine Larson has to carry him out, And that
first part, play a first part again.
Speaker 9 (39:18):
You want to see somebody that responds to your house,
your emergency, whether it's a medical call or a fire call,
that looks like you.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Stop stop, no, I don't who's ever said that? Has
anyone ever thought that when your house is burning the
people in the palisades were they hoping somebody who looked
like them showed up? Are you nuts? She's actually spent
thirty three years in the fire department. She made it
(39:46):
to deputy chief. She thinks, when there's a fire, we
want somebody that looks like us to carry us out
of the house. She actually thinks that, I don't know
anybody that's ever occurred, that's ever occurred to I've seen
countless videos in my life of people rescued from fires
or whose homes were saved. We've talked to them. That's
(40:10):
never coming. What did he look like? Did he look
like you? What?
Speaker 2 (40:17):
So?
Speaker 1 (40:18):
If an eighty year old guy is stuck in a house,
he wants another eight year old guy to show up.
If a fifteen year old girl is trapped in a house,
does she want another fifteen year old fifteen year old
girl to come in? Are you serious? I'm worried about
the color of their skin. I'm worried about their ethnicity.
I'm worried about their sexual orientation. That's what I'm thinking
(40:38):
about as my house is burning. Do you think anybody
in the Pacific Palisades there must be at least ten
thousand people fifteen thousand people plus homeless in the Palisades,
do you think any of them worried about what the
firefighter looked like anybody that's insane. So she's deputy chief
(41:02):
of the fire department and this Kenonia's character is running
the DWP and she couldn't fill up the reservoir and
she's looking at everything through an equity landscape. Karen Dass
hired Kenon. Yes, Wow, let all this sinking, some moment
(41:25):
of silence. Let all this sinking. Don't wonder this happened.
It had to happen, right, You have people this absurd,
this ridiculous, this stupid running our city. Now when there's
finally the fire of the century. Of course this is
(41:49):
gonna happen. When we come back to my own state
representative from down in San Diego. He's asking news how
about a special session to slash the red tape. He
says the executive order is fake. Talk to him about it.
(42:15):
Coming up. Deborah Mark is off and we have Briginia
Degistino live in the KFI twenty four hour News Center. Hey,
you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI Am six
forty from one 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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