November 5, 2024 • 55 mins
This week, Theo checks in with two candidates for judge we spoke with earlier this year -- George Turner and Erika Wiley. We discuss what's changed with the Grants Pass decision, the journey to the ballot box, and the pressing need for local politicians that are advocating for the unhoused.
Learn more about George here:
https://georgeaturner4judge.com/
Learn more about Erika here:
https://www.wileyforjudge.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Previously on Weedian House.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
People will like bring their trucks out and they'll rub
their engines and like, I probably meet a new person
every week who's been hit by a car on purpose.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
They drove away.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You know, they have all of these like things coming
at them, whether it's the city or the police or
the nimbi's Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
After validating someone, circling back to the conversation where I say,
at this present moment, these are the tools that we have,
and it sounds like what you're saying is your voice
is missing. You are missing from this process. You are
not seen, you are not heard, and so actually we're
saying the same thing.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Welcome to Weedian House. I'm your host, Theo Henderson. Happy
Election Day. Our last episode focused on how unhoused voting matters.
Continuing on this theme this week, we'll be talking with
returning guests California candidates for judge, George Turner and Erica Wiley.
(01:18):
But first on House News. First, an update from last
episode's guests Jetti, who we spoke to concerning grants pass
consequences in Eugene, Oregon. She has updated us that unhoused
people are missing. Since we're left open. Bikes were still there,
(01:42):
but people had vanished. A mass sweepest plan to take
place soon on a piece of land where forty five
to one hundred unhoused people live. At the time of
his recording, there was also a mass arrest, but the
number of unhoused people rested is not yet known. Our
(02:02):
top story this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom awarded eighteen
communities with nearly one hundred and thirty one million dollars
to clear unhouse encampments. The Encampment Resolution Funding Program is
a new program that these funds are coming from. Its
goal is to permanently house one thousand, five hundred and
(02:27):
sixty five people and help three thousand, three hundred and
sixty four people living in encampments. Communities included in ERF
awards were Los Angeles and San Bernardigo, who both received
over eleven million dollars, Berkeley, which received over five million,
and San Francisco received over seven million. The city of
(02:50):
Norwalk was not awarded the Encampment Resolution Funding Program because
recently they voted on a ban on creating house of
shelters in their city. Our next story also centers around
Governor Newsom, who has opened more than two dozen properties
to store told RV's A new RV law was signed
(03:12):
by the governor to pressure the unhoused to enter car
strul shelters. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also sponsors this bill,
along with Assemblymen Rick Chavez Zabor, who carried the legislation.
This legislation gives Los Angeles access to twenty five Caltran
parcels under or near freeways.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And that's on House News.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
When we come back, we talk about the stakes of
this election in a roundtable discussion with George Turner and
Erica WiLAN.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Welcome back to Whedian House.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
Our two guests today are no stranger to Wedian House,
Erica Wiley and George Turner, over who am a running
for jet seats in California. If you want to listen
to our first talk around the primers earlier this year,
you can find our full conversations in the episode The
Ballot or Business as Usual. I'm back in February, but
(04:18):
as a refresher, here's George Turner.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Hi.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
I I'm George Turner. I'm ready for Los Angeles County
Superior Court Judge seat number thirty nine.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
And thank you for joining us in the studios today. So, George,
tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
So.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
I'm born and raised in the city of Inglewood. I
went to a public school my whole life. Went to
Morningside High School. Then I went on to UCLA major
in political science with a focus on race class agender.
Then I went on to UCLA Law School, where I
graduated with the concentration in critical race studies. You know,
(04:53):
I'm a bit of a local dude. You know, you
can catch me at a local costco. Father of three,
happily man married and someone who just revels in my
community and being a part of it.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And now here's Erica Wiley.
Speaker 7 (05:07):
Hi everybody, and thank you so much THEO for having me.
I am Erica Wiley and I'm a candidate for Superior
Court Judge. I have been a deputy public defender in
Los Angeles County since two thousand, but a public defender
since nineteen ninety nine. I started in Merced County and
this is work that I really love, helping people. Sometimes
(05:28):
I'm the only person in the courtroom to be there
for that person, and I love this work. I've been
defending individuals charged with crimes from as minor as traffic
infractions all the way up to capital murder now in
the most recent years. So again this has worked is
very near and dear to my heart. I started off
(05:48):
in my legal career doing eviction defense for the Legal
Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. So every job that I
have has been on behalf of individuals who didn't have
the opportunity or resource to hire a lawyer. This, like
I said, this work working on behalf of people who
have no other options is very near and dear to
(06:09):
my heart. So that's who I am, someone who really
loves to help people.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
But a lot has happened since the primaries, and I
was eager to speak with Erica and Georgia again to
discuss how much has changed for the un housed since
we last spoke, and how they're feeling about their campaigns.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Without for reredo.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Here's my discussion with Erica and George. This interview is
going to be a little more relaxed. It's not like
it's not the inquisition. Everyone has known who you are.
You guys took the time to really talk about your platform,
but we're going to do have the side of you
(06:50):
that's a little bit more merry or more conversation with relating.
And I want to welcome you guys, and I wanted
to say I am because in so many respects, this
election cycle has been a very If there is a
metaphor for me, as my English teaching has taught me,
(07:12):
would have to be chaotic, becazophrenic, but also invigorating and
also revelatory. So hopefully this is going to be not
too burdensome for you guys, and hopefully enjoyable.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
No doubt. I mean.
Speaker 8 (07:26):
And what I appreciate about your show, and really about
both of our campaigns is that we are really focusing
on what it is historically being considered low propensity voters, right,
So you know, and I don't consider the low propensity voters.
I consider them community members. These are folks who laws
have a direct deffect on it. And that's kind of
(07:47):
the reason why we're running, is because we want to
be sort of held accountable by folks who are actually
in the community, because we're in the community, like many
of the concerns that folks have are the exact same. Yeah,
So we're meet people where they are because it's where
we are.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Absolutely well said.
Speaker 9 (08:05):
Yeah, that's very true. I actually echo that.
Speaker 10 (08:08):
I think that, you know, people are interested in our
campaigns because you know, for the first time people running
for judge are actually talking about things that affect them
or talking at all.
Speaker 11 (08:17):
So I relished doing that because I think it's long overdue.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
And it's also I want to point out too, it's like,
particularly in the unhoused community, because I had a couple
of episodes recent episode about on house voting rights and
getting them also, which they are talking by the way,
but it's like it's just a new thing in many
respects that the election cycle lends itself now, which because
if we could go turn the clock back maybe five
(08:42):
or six years ago, the conversations that I knew I
remember having with on house people was hit or miss.
They some were really plugged in and some were just
survival mode or just trying to keep their head down
and really did not know what their rights were. But secondly,
most importantly, they didn't feel a connection. That was no
(09:05):
concerted effort to include them in the process. Case in point,
I know you've probably heard about it, but I wanted
to get your viewpoint on it. On the recent Supreme
Court ruling of Grant's Pass. And if you don't know
what that is, I allow me to elucidate on it,
but let me get see what you guys think on it.
Speaker 10 (09:24):
Yeah, I'm familiar with Grant's Pass, and the way that
I understand it is it's Supreme Court decision that basically
allows local jurisdictions.
Speaker 12 (09:35):
To criminalize homelessness. I mean succinctly, that's the way I
see it, absolutely, Yeah, And I think it's really devastating.
Speaker 9 (09:45):
I mean I see that.
Speaker 10 (09:47):
It really just as an extension of what I see
has been happening in the community for many years, people
who are houseless, just being faced with everything that's out there,
including the the police and sweeps and you know, just
the elements. And to criminalize, you know, sleeping on the
(10:10):
street when it's very clear in a lot of cases
that there's nowhere else for people to go. I think
just is you know, definitely going to take us back
to this system creating systems and feeding systems that that
support mass incarceration, that you know, criminalize people who are
(10:31):
most marginalized, rather than dealing with you know, why it
is that that they're in these circumstances.
Speaker 11 (10:36):
And I just think that it's it's really unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's interesting.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
You know, for years that particular community of households, they
weren't just they weren't just unhoused. They were heard, right,
it was it was it was to ignore them, you know,
act like you don't see them when you when when
you're walking down the street. And over the last like
you said, four to five years, there's really been a
(11:05):
concerted effort in Los Angeles to to sort of acknowledge
the situation and to try to make some inroads and
not just like in talk, but actually in resources and
laws and so this federal this Supreme Court decision is
extremely troubling but really speaks to how people contextualize or
(11:29):
think about what PRIME is. I was listening to a
discussion where, you know, there was a young man saying, well,
if you look at PRIME stats, they're going down across
the particularly in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
And the person.
Speaker 8 (11:46):
Responded that, well, you know, with all of these homeless
people on the street, they're doing things like listening to
music and getting rid of their trash and making noise,
and it leads to chaos, disorder and trying to make
that into crime. The concern that I have is we
(12:06):
really have to get a very clear definition of what
of what crime is. I mean, as someone is living
outside and they're quote making noise that they're not that's
not a crime, right, Sitting down is not a crime,
Sleeping is not a crime. And so we really have
to really get a very clear understanding of what crime is.
(12:30):
And of course we are hindered by by judicial cannons
about opining about cases that will potentially come before our court.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
But you know, I don't I don't see the nexus between.
Speaker 8 (12:43):
Someone sitting down or walking or enjoying themselves outside and
particularly in a place like Los Angeles, how that could
be criminalized. It has always troubled me, and it almost
reminds me of the sort of old world law about.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Loitering right where it was.
Speaker 8 (13:02):
You know, the term loitering is used to sort of
incriminate the average black person walking down the street in
the South, right, So you know, it's it's it.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Troubles me that that that we're going back to that place.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
And also I want to point out too, even because
I'm from the Midwest, there were laws, for example, that
was targeted for black particularly black males I'm from Chicago.
Is that you cannot have there cannot be three people
standing on the corner, right, so they would jump out
and tell us to give the corner or they will
have a probable cause to arrest the use or tassle them.
(13:38):
So you know, there was there's that kind of thing,
not only just in the South, which also which you
many people don't know, is like you know, there are
those signs are vestiges from those uh racist Jim Crow
kind of policies that are still out like you know,
no no loitering or what was the other one that
(13:59):
I can't forget it.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
It escapes me for.
Speaker 8 (14:01):
Them, it's sort of like freedom to associate almost, It's
really I mean, you know, it's funny because I've been
on the campaign trails talking to a lot of young folks,
a lot of college students, and like, you know, when
you talk to them about even the ninety two uprising
again Los Angeles or Prop two oh nine, they have
no knowledge of what that is. And I'm like, the
(14:22):
reason why is because they were born in the mid
two thousands. So when you begin to explain to them
these things like arresting someone for being unhived literally for
walking down the street or sitting down or sleeping. They
have no idea that I could even be criminalize, and
so it's just troubling that we will go back there.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
It's you know, it's really really troubling.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
I want to reach out with a yarn and try
to connect the yarn that people are not conceptualizing when
they agree to these gym cop type policies. I like
the book that Michelle Alexander had wrote about the New
Gym Crow, and I do believe that a section about
like forty one eighteen, these newer laws like the Grants Pass,
(15:10):
has a place in this conversation. But I want to
wint out something. And I don't know if anyone has
been following too much because so much has been going on.
But the hurricane and the flooding that was going on
in Florida, the flooding that was over in Ashville, North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Horrible, devastating.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
People that had places to stay are now displaced, houseless,
if you will. And I have been stating this, of
course a lot of people look at me side eyes,
and I say this because of the recent Grants Past
ruling and also hearkening back to how people were displaced
during Katrina, and the people that I have that are
(15:51):
in house, that I've interviewed, that had homes and that
was displaced in Louisiana, and these laws are now applying
to them, I want to reach back and say, what
do you think and when do you think the the
I want to say, the performative empathy will dry up
and then the grants passed legislation or ruling will start
(16:13):
to impact via housed Because Florida just put has a
recent in October first answer and House laws that are
on the books now that are very, very punitive. So
it begs the question will that still extend to those
displaced and unhoused people.
Speaker 10 (16:34):
Well, you know, I think that that what you're talking
about is certainly inevitable THEO.
Speaker 9 (16:39):
I mean, I think that that if.
Speaker 10 (16:41):
It follows the pattern of what happens across the country.
Speaker 9 (16:44):
I mean, there's there's interest. It's paid for a period
of time when there's.
Speaker 10 (16:49):
Something like you said, a hurricane or a natural disaster,
or you know, like an election season, where people start
to you know, really gear up and talk aboutlessness in
a way that sounds sympathetic and empathetic because they understand
that the community recognizes the marginalized community that needs help
(17:11):
and not to be victimized. So you know, maybe the
cynic in me says that that it's just a matter
of time before the attention that's paid to, you know,
rebuilding those communities and assisting those communities unfortunately leaves those
behind who haven't been able to achieve homes at a
level of stability after some time when the attention, you know,
(17:33):
wears off, And so you know, I'm.
Speaker 9 (17:36):
Just hoping that that's not the case.
Speaker 10 (17:38):
I mean, just the devastation of having lost everything you've
worked for and now be placed in a situation where.
Speaker 9 (17:44):
The ability to to sort.
Speaker 10 (17:47):
Of climb out of that is diminished by now becoming
a criminal or somebody convicted of a crime for simply
just trying to get access to your basic needs is
just unthinkable. But you know, I think that it's going
to happen when the intention wears off.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
And we will be right back with more of our
election day roundtable with Erica Wiley and George Turner.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Welcome back.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Let's jump back into my roundtable discussion with Canada's George
Turner and Erica Wiley.
Speaker 8 (18:22):
I do worry, you know about the direction we are
going in. It's one of the reasons why I chose
to work with the particular population I work with right now.
You know, I'm the head of a small unit that
helps unhoused folks get directors cleared because I believe that
being close to an issue helps you to identify solutions
(18:47):
to it. And I think that ultimately in talking to folks,
I think it's time to really rethink how we even
imagine what it means to be unhoused. You know, when
I talk to people that you know they think of
many people think of being unhoused as someone who's made
(19:07):
poor decisions and they're reaping the consequences of those poor decisions.
And there are a myriad of examples of people who
literally have not made poor decisions, but their housing situation
is a result of circumstances that are truly beyond their control.
So you know, when I think about housing, for instance,
(19:30):
in Los Angeles, rich is thirty two hundred dollars a month, right,
and if you if you compare that to what the
minimum wage is, you don't get to that amount.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Right.
Speaker 8 (19:45):
So when I tell when I tell folks, you know
that that a one bedroom apartment is thirty two hundred dollars,
or that in some places KAI is thirty five hundred dollars.
If you do the math on that, if you're making
sixty thousand a year, you're unhoused.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yep.
Speaker 8 (20:04):
I mean you're getting up every day going to work,
you know, and you're unhoused. Or how about this the
context that I put it in, I said, when I
started as a public defender, I was making sixty eight
thousand dollars a year, right, and this is after four
years of education, four years of an undergrad, three years
of law school, doing very.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Well in school, following all the rules.
Speaker 8 (20:27):
If if I had to go and get an apartment
making that amount of money, it would have been impossible.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I would have been unhoused.
Speaker 8 (20:35):
I would have had to rely, as a whole professional
on the on the support of my mother or father,
and if I didn't have access to that, I.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Would be on house.
Speaker 8 (20:44):
I would have to get another full time job doing
everything right. So, really reimagining that the very concept of
what it means to be un housed, I think, is
where we can sort of change hearts and minds. You know,
when I when I talk to my colleagues and friends
of it. They say, oh wow, I never even thought
of it like that, and I'm like, well, it's They
can't even imagine that someone would work forty hours a
(21:07):
week and be unhoused. And I say, I talk to
people like this every day at work. This is not
my imagination, this is my lived experience. I'm not telling
you this from a perspective of someone who made it
up or read it in a book.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I'm telling you telling you.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
This from the perspective of someone who talks to people
in this situation every day.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I bear witness.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
I have an undergraduate degree as well, and I was
an educator, and I had the worst of most experience.
I wasn't married and have a wife or kids anything,
but I had a medical emergency that sustained and took
over my entire financial and my career, and I couldn't
be able to sustain it, particularly with the rent's going up.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
And trying to do the recoup to things that I
needed to do.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
And I became unhoused, and my eyes open at the
level of how sustained to be displaced can be, and
how quick it can happen, and how devastating. I mean,
it's like the first few nights of being in house,
I have to say I was like a zombie. I
was in a state of shock because I could not
(22:11):
believe that there was no way for me to find
purchase to get out of the situation. It was always like,
you know, maybe I have another job, but then you know,
even trying to which is another conversation, is trying to
find even work. Being in that kind of financial insecurity,
it's still difficult because you're not going to get a
(22:33):
house right there, because there is a whole new avenue
of you got to have a decent credit. You're going
to have to have first last month friend, you got
to find place where you can afford. Then you got
to make sure that you were able to find a
job that was going to be able to be on
public transportation or be able to get to and fro.
It becomes a whole cascade event that you don't conceptualize.
(22:55):
If you have you're not in the know, or you
don't have to live the experience. And when you do
have the lived experience, it's humbling as scary. But also
what sometimes is daunting is the conversational propaganda or the
propaganda that's out there about houselessness It's like when I
would tell people that I was in house and they were,
(23:16):
you know, well, you speak so well, you sound so educated,
you could just get a magical I said, if it
was that fricking easy, I would not be sitting here.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Tell you I was in the house.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
I mean, you know, I bet doctors I've met, you know,
I said, two lawyers and you know people that were
in a couple of people that had masters and social
work and things like that. That it's like, you know,
once we realize that, you know, there is a swath
of people that we are all shapes, and houselessness is
(23:45):
not a monolitht We have so many branches or so
many areas that people don't understand and how houselessness impacts
us all. And it's not because we did something dilatorious.
You spend amount of time to shuffle things around, to
move things in your schedule, just to do launder. I'm
just telling you what I know. And then if you
have illness or you have a disability, oh my god,
(24:08):
that's just another stone, a sissifying task that you have
to you know, manage or juggle. People just think you
just get a job and you just be able to
just you know, go out on the street and sing
a happy song. That's just you know, that's just simply
not true.
Speaker 8 (24:23):
Yeah, it's the idea that people say, well, they just
kind of enjoy being out there. The response is always, well,
we had a place in society where they have so
many other options. That's literally a choice, thank you, like,
meaning that they literally have decided that I have access
to housing, but I literally choose not to.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
And we aren't there yet.
Speaker 8 (24:48):
So when we when we get to the point where
everyone has access to housing, then you can make the
argument that there are people who choose quote choose to
be out there, but until we get there, the it's
kind of a it's a hobs' choice, it's not really
a choice exactly right.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Because here's the thing too.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
They were trying to tell me to go to shelters
when I got recently was stabbed and then we had
to go and do recoupitive care. I said, you know,
I don't think that's going to be a good idea
because safety is an issue either the cars or rude
and I don't think people understand It's like, for example,
let's say, for example that you are looking for a
(25:27):
place to stay and you're not in house, you have
some coin in the bank, and reasonably you're going to
look for places that you want to stay that meets
your budget, meets where the neighborhood that you like to
stand your transport to work would be. You know, an
issue the community that you want to.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Thrive in or live in. You know it plays a part.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
But for some reason, when we talk about when on
house people to get in in housing or get placement,
these conversations evaporate. People don't realize human beings. For example,
you know, unhoused people with children. So when they're saying,
where is it near the school that the kids go to? No,
then you know, don't you are a service resistant When
you become a house you're devoid of any experiences or
(26:14):
any realities, or any kind of joy or any kind
of consideration for the same choices that you would make
if you were looking for home, or you're looking to
place for your children to be able to academically thrive
or to stay with, you know, like where kids like
to stay with their friends or their friends that they know,
or families. It's a reasonable conversation point. But when we
(26:37):
have this conversation about unhoused and trying to find places.
The reason why it becomes much more tenuous is because
of our society and our community that don't want the
unhoused community in their neighborhoods, which is the then big
question that really would like to tackle any thoughts erkor.
Speaker 9 (26:54):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's absolutely righty.
Speaker 10 (26:55):
Even when you know, are confronted with people in the
community who haven't understanding of the struggles.
Speaker 11 (27:02):
Of houseless people and what they're going through.
Speaker 10 (27:06):
They still don't want them anywhere near where they are, right,
I don't want to drive past you on the way
out of my community or or you know, at my
local store. So it really is a struggle for people
to really make an impact in the lives of people
and put aside their personal you know, discomfort with seeing
(27:26):
people homeless in the community to really try to make
a change.
Speaker 9 (27:30):
And it's interesting, I mean what you were talking.
Speaker 11 (27:32):
About, I see that. I mean, I definitely see.
Speaker 10 (27:36):
That when there are people, well meaning people in the
community who want to help our houseless neighbors, that there's
this idea of just take what we're giving you, just
take it right, because you have nothing.
Speaker 9 (27:49):
You should be happy to take this.
Speaker 10 (27:51):
But when you look logistically at things like the things
that you talked about, how is my kid going to
get to school? If you want to, you know, give
me a place to stay in the valley and my
kids go to school in Pasadena or South central LA.
Speaker 11 (28:05):
It means to uplift my entire life to be able to.
Speaker 9 (28:10):
Accept this, you know, supposed gift that you're giving me
of a home.
Speaker 10 (28:14):
And I think that that there does need to be
a more pointed and deliberate assistance to people in our
in our communities as opposed to, you know, feeling like
they should just be happy to take what it is
that they're given.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
And also you mentioned something very point too as an
educator dealing with the conversation, and point we forget children
need stability because imagine if they are in the valley
and they have to go all the way to Pasadena.
I remember I hated it when my mother used to
wake me up and to get up to school early.
I mean, you know, I was very creative in trying
(28:48):
to get those extra five minutes. Now, let's be realistic
being out and having kids that are kids, you know,
having them that that means they will have to be
up at two or three in the morning where there
are no transportation as available, but they have to be
in a position to be at school at a certain time.
And then let's you know, as you know how the
teachers and the administration if the kids is not on
(29:10):
time or losing studies or not keeping up, that plays
a part into the academic success as well.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So these things that when you hear them talk about,
which really.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Cooks my grits, is what my remos used to say,
is that when you hear people talk about unhouse people
near children or near schools, they're unhoused family members that
are nearby, not because it's the cool thing to do.
It's because the kids go to school there. You know,
they love their kids just like house people do. And
the thing, it's like a concept that's very difficult for
(29:41):
some community members to really wrap their head around.
Speaker 8 (29:45):
You know, It's interesting because ultimately what we're talking about
is agency for the people who are unhoused, you know,
being able to see someone as a whole human being
through their story and their experience, and not some outside
(30:05):
person who doesn't know or can't relate to the experience.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
And I mean, I think that that.
Speaker 8 (30:12):
Comes with an overarching concept of what community is is
being able to see the people in your community as
human beings.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Community is more than a space or a place.
Speaker 8 (30:27):
It is the collection of humans trying to work to
self actualize itself. And you know, the goal, the goal
in my court is should have become a judge, and
really the goal of all courts, and my humble opinion
should be to make you know, the party that come
before the court heard and maybe the opportunity for them
(30:48):
to become a whole or the closest to the hole
that they can become.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
And we kind of get away from that too often.
Speaker 8 (30:54):
It becomes a place where people set their fears right
and you know, you go there and you let your
fears run wide, or you know, you let logic escape you,
you let practice the practicalness of a situation escape you
because of the building or because of the circumstances. And
(31:15):
I think that it is important to have folks, all
folks voices be heard truly and three dimensionally heard, because
I do believe, like I said, having conversations like this
and having conversations with folks who are unhoused.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
We get the solutions.
Speaker 8 (31:33):
I mean, hearing your story or hearing the story of
unhoused children in Los Angeles County.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
You can begin to create the solutions in.
Speaker 8 (31:42):
Your head right then and there. But if you think that,
you know, oh well, the answer is that you just
got to get these people, these people a home any
place in Los Angeles County, you realize how how short
that is of a solution, if it is if it
even amounts to an actual So it doesn't really amount
to an actual solution. It just kind of it's kind
(32:04):
of just a response. So I'm happy to have the
sort of conversation that that that, you know, it's kind
of my passion.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
So I wanted to ask, where do you see you're
a judgeship point, how do you feel about the campaign
so far?
Speaker 9 (32:19):
I feel really good about mine and George's.
Speaker 10 (32:23):
You know, obviously we're we're campaigning out here together, and
I have just been really surprised to see the number
of people who are here that we're public defenders and
are excited about that. Right understand the difference first of
all between what a DA does and what a public
(32:45):
defender does and sees. You know that our perspective and
our work is something that would be a welcome change
on the bench, you know, working with the many organizations
and clubs and associations that have endorsed us and are
welcoming of our message and our desire to apply the
knowledge that we have about you know, the need to
(33:08):
get at the underlying causes of crime as opposed to
just locking everybody up. You know, that's really been welcomed
in a great many spaces with open arms. So I am,
you know, cautiously optimistic about the the outcome in both
of our races. And I can say for myself that
I think it's been going really well and at the
(33:29):
support that we've gotten from Law of Defense is immeasurable
and something that I think is going to result in
an amazing outcome for both of us.
Speaker 8 (33:41):
I am also cautiously optimistic. To be honest with you,
I am very humble and grateful. You know, I've been
a public defender of my entire career. I chose this
profession not because I thought that they would make me
popular or cool.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
I did the work because as I knew the work
needed to be done.
Speaker 8 (34:02):
And you know, we've all heard discussions about what public
defenders are and how they act and their quality of work,
and so to sort of go out and hear folks
be excited that you're a public defender and being able
to tie the work that you do as a public
defender in a steem position like a judge is it's
(34:22):
really really humbling, and that I think that humbleness and
gratefulness is something that's kind of motivated me to put
in the work that I've been putting in because it
is it is no doubt tiring, you know, being a
full working, full time and having a family and campaigning.
That's three full time jobs and only twenty four hours
(34:43):
a day. So but you know when I when I
get tired, or you know when I'm when I'm trying
to put together my schedule for the for the next
couple of days or the last few months, you know,
I just I'm really humbled at literally the opportunity. And
I will say I think part of the reason why
I am cautiously optimistic is that I know that I
(35:06):
didn't have to turn into a different person to become
a politician, right.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
I didn't have to tell.
Speaker 8 (35:12):
Someone else's story or lie about my experiences on the
campaign trail, and I was, you know, surrounded and supported
by people who were actually supported by story, and was
that was intul with my moral compass, and you know
that that's the thing that he can be going that
(35:33):
if it was anything else to tell there were a
lot of opportunities to say, you know, not not today,
not tonight, I'm not going, or you know, just to
oparticipation all together.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
So I'm gonna keep going, and.
Speaker 8 (35:45):
Regardless of the outcome, I can say that I'm proud
of the race that I ran. But I hope that
that we can take this message to the bench and
actually have some substantive results for the folks who supported
the campaign.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
We'll finish this conversation after the break and we're back.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
I find it interesting that people are so receptive for
now getting away with law and order. And I do
notice that, for example, one of the elections of George
Gascon there is this propensity or this back draft that
they are trying to recreate that because I also noticed
as a society, in some respects we are trying to
(36:28):
move away from that that conversation because I remember growing
up hearing everyone heard about the Willie Horton and the
back draft of that and the backlash of that, and
how anytime there was any kind of conversation of empathy
or looking at the whole person. It was meant immediately
and with the swiftness you're soft on crime or you
(36:50):
just want criminals to just run amok. And it definitely
squashed a lot of substantive conversation. And so now that
this is going on, now that you know, I'm an
older person now and also have the platform I have
really pushing for houselessness and empathy and to show the
(37:12):
houselessness in its whole entirety instead of it being siloed
into you know, substance usage or mental health. And like
I said, you know, there are myriads of well seasoned,
educated on people that are unhoused. There's an uptick, and
women that are being on housed, there's an uptick with elderly,
and we definitely overshadow of the unhoused children that are
(37:35):
in the school systems that are displaced and unhoused. But
also we are needing to keep a watchful eye on
the new aspects of houselessness dealing with disasters and displacement
like i e.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Florida disasters.
Speaker 5 (37:49):
And how are we going to turn back or beat
back those criminal, punitive, criminal ideas about houselessness and criminalized.
So while all of this is going on with the
backdrop of the election cycle, I do think, you know,
keeping an eye on these kind of actions and behaviors
that's going on is paramount.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
It is very important for us to do that.
Speaker 10 (38:14):
I agree.
Speaker 9 (38:15):
I think that we need to definitely in this community.
Speaker 10 (38:19):
Not create or continue to create a community you know,
disposable people. Right as long as we don't see them
or they're not around our area, then their needs obviously
have been met and they're not significant.
Speaker 9 (38:35):
But you know, I agree.
Speaker 10 (38:37):
I think after this election cycle, where you know, these
conversations sort of take center stage because people are trying
to achieve a certain result, that there really needs to
be a continued effort to you know, assist those in
our community, you know, and the heartbreaking and devastating consequences
(38:59):
that result from show run in this situation, that we
need to continue to make sure to the best of
our ability and from from the positions where we are.
Speaker 9 (39:08):
That we're not being a part of the problem.
Speaker 10 (39:11):
And and that's why one of the reasons why I'd
like to expand the work that I'm doing on behalf
of individuals to the bench because it's just so often
that I'm that I encounter a bench officer who just
really you know, I hesitate to say doesn't care because
I don't think that that's that's the case, but just
(39:31):
really doesn't have the full understanding of how those decisions
or the decisions that judge is making as a.
Speaker 9 (39:41):
Bench officer impacts people.
Speaker 10 (39:43):
I'll just given us as an example of you know,
often we have cases where there's an issue of domestic
violence and so immediately the perpetrator of that man or woman.
Most of the time it's it's a it's a man
that's accused is met with a restraining order. You can't
go home, you can't live in the house with your
wife and your children. And even when there is a
(40:06):
request from the family, from the mother of the children,
the children, you know, our father has you know, gone
into counseling, has you know, dealt with their maybe substance
use alcoholism, is getting help for that, and we want
this person to be.
Speaker 9 (40:26):
Able to have contact with us to come home.
Speaker 10 (40:29):
You know, bench officers, in a very paternalistic way often
say this is not something that I'm going to allow.
Speaker 9 (40:37):
And I know that things are taken on a case
by case basis.
Speaker 10 (40:39):
But there's some bench officers who have a blanket rule
that user can't be here, and I've seen those situations
really deteriorate. And even when I bring to the mind
of the judge, listen, this person who you are not
allowing to come to the house is the main breadwinner
for this house, right He's the person working and paying
the rent. And so now the circumstance of being homeless
(41:03):
threatens the entire family and the judges, you know, following
this rule, this bright line rule, in every case that
we will not allow these people to have contact or
this person to position himself so that he can support
his family and have a place to stay. And I
think that, you know, it's very important that people with
(41:24):
backgrounds like George and I, who've seen this happen from
the inside out and how it destroys families, you know,
take the position of being able to do something about it,
being able to say, I see you, I see that
there are other alternatives. This is what we can do
instead of me following this bright line rule that doesn't
recognize your individual human circumstances. And I think that that's
(41:47):
what's important about people of different backgrounds getting on the bench.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
You know, it's one of those things they used to
say when I was in school.
Speaker 8 (41:56):
It's like the definition of insanity is doing the exact
same thing and expecting a different result, right, And so
I think that it is very important that we are
aware of the steps that have already been taken and
that have failed miserably. An assessment for things that, like
the steps that we've already taken in public safety, that
(42:17):
it failed in the past. Right, So We've tried to
criminalize a drug addiction. It didn't work, right, it led
to massive incarceration.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
You know. We've tried to criminalize houselessness.
Speaker 8 (42:28):
It failed miserably, and it caused an increase in houselessness
and didn't address it didn't lead it to the end
of hous it.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Led to more massive incarceration. So these are things that
we tried, right.
Speaker 8 (42:42):
It's not like this is something new, right, And it's
not even something that happened a long time ago. We're
talking about things that happened literally five to seven years ago.
And I just can't believe that our collective consciousness is
that short, that short of an attention span.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
You know.
Speaker 8 (43:03):
It's funny because when I talk to the college students like,
I can understand why they wouldn't know something that happened
in the eighties and the nineties and early two thousands
because they weren't born. But to talk to someone my
age or even a little younger and they're like, oh,
what are you talking about. Yes, we tried to criminalize
these sort of things. It failed miserably. So then my
(43:23):
idea of not criminalizing and addressing the issues isn't just
morally right. I'm talking pragmatically. You have to do something different,
you have to try another way. And I think that
that's one of the messages that really really resonated the
campaign trail is that, you know, our ideas seem much
(43:46):
more logical when taking in the context of the world, right,
you know, addressing houselessness in this way, considering the fact
that climate change is becoming real, so natural disasters are
going to become more prevalent, considering the fact that the
cost of living is is skyrock anticuing the skyrock old
(44:11):
story of the of the person making poor decisions end
up in and up of house is it makes less
and less sense when you consider the context. And so
you need to have people who are decision makers who
have already sort of experience and have direct experience in
this situation to be ready to make decisions.
Speaker 5 (44:32):
Two things that really needs to be talked about more,
and I do try to do my best to do
it is the unhoused children. But the second thing is
that which I find I used to have a lot
of heartache and hard times with, is the elderly population
that believed that all you needed to do was work,
(44:53):
save your money, and everything was going to work out.
There's a high elderly population that's here on the streets now.
We cannot deny no matter how much you did your
job and how much you worked, you know, thirty or
forty years, you are not going to get that go
watch and the cost of living is so ridiculous that
you're now out on the street and you have to
face reality. It has nothing to do with your personal achievement.
(45:17):
It is how things are being set up. And the
reality is that, you know, we need to really have
a hard to heart conversation on how can we stop
this before it gets to that we see all most
of our grandparents out here on the streets or parents,
and you know, you can't just say, you know, you
need to go get a job, because seventy eighty years old,
(45:37):
you know, or it's the minimal which we're seeing they
can get a job, or then you know they're in
various stages of health decline. You know, that's just not
going to be a very coaching argument to keep saying.
You know, these people just made, you know, bad choices.
Idreen had when I was speaking in one community and
one community member was talking about these were.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
The elderly people that were on drugs, and ISA like, okay,
now you got to stop, which it was so yeah.
Speaker 5 (46:06):
I was like, these seventy eighty year old conservative people,
now all of them were on drugged out and they
out here on the street. That don't make any sense.
But it's like it showed me how pernicious this propaganda is.
They cannot they couldn't even they couldn't even divorce that
these people, you know, were not, you know, doing something bad,
but they had to stick to that because it makes
(46:28):
sense to them because that's what they were told.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
But it was so ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (46:32):
I was really Grandma was out here toting up and
and and that's why she's out on the street.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Okay, well all right, you should have responded.
Speaker 9 (46:39):
That, you know, that they're gone on drugs. They're on
social security, right.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
To paying the right.
Speaker 5 (46:54):
Right choice between their medication and this exploding writ that
I don't know what drug is going to be able
to stop that.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
But you know they're not they're not on drugs there.
I mean, maybe they are.
Speaker 8 (47:06):
They're on their medication, right, their medication, but.
Speaker 5 (47:11):
Not not quite a well, well, they may not even
be on their medication because you know the cause how
much expensive it is. But oh yeah, so that it's
a pernicious kind of propaganda that people just do not
or that they're saying that, you know, which again that
broad swath like the majority of unhoused people are mentally ill.
I'm like, no, that's that's that's not true either because
(47:31):
like you know, like I said, we being on house
is not a monolith. But I think people are afraid
in some respects to really break it down because they're
going to find themselves in the conversation, they're going to
find themselves maybe at risk of being housed absolutely, and
when they know that, it's disconcerting and it also breaks
(47:54):
that idea of them being deserving of services or deserving
to be treated a certain way. As what they have
been conditioned to believe that they have the worthy poor
or if they had the worthy people to be helped,
and these other people just missed out because of poor decisions.
Speaker 10 (48:10):
Absolutely, And like I said, it's really important to be
a person who is seeing these things happen in your
life to be able to have the correct perspective to
make good decisions to positively impact people. I mean, I
have to say from my mom, who's you know, going
to be seventy eight years old, whose income is a
small income from her pension as a teacher and social security,
(48:36):
that I can say, and just handling her her business
and assisting her as her daughter. She didn't have the
assistance of my brothers. And you know, financially, you know,
someone who's worked her entire life would really be struggling,
struggling seriously to make ends.
Speaker 9 (48:52):
Meet, would have very very little at the end of
the month.
Speaker 10 (48:55):
And if anything happened like what you talked about THEO
and suffering a medical emergency over any period of time,
than everything that you built with problem without support. So
I think, like you said, you know, it hits too
close to home for people to admit that the society
that we live in, especially here in LA has made
(49:15):
things so dire in terms of us living paycheck to
paycheck that you know, the loss of even some small
part of your stability can can crumble your.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
Whole world absolutely at well poot, Yeah, you know.
Speaker 8 (49:29):
One of the things that is discussed is is the
cost literally the talks of living for folks who are
who are elderly. We're talking about in some cases one
hundred maybe two hundred thousand dollars a year for a
one bedroom with very minimal services. And even if you've
been quote unquote responsible and worked for your entire life
(49:52):
and you know, worked until you earn a retirement, people
are living longer and you know, the money that they
have planned to live on in their retirement is has
run out. And there is a significant portion of people
who are running into that situation. And it's not about
individual choices, or if it is about individual choices, the
(50:15):
individual choice that you have to see someone in that
situation and sort of blame them, right, So we all
have choices, right, So if a person can say it's
their individual choice to be on how, you could also
say it's your indivision individual choice to see someone on
how and not provide support. Right, So, you know, it's interesting,
(50:38):
it's interesting, you know the perspective that we have, and
it really is about changing parts of minds through discussion,
through storytelling, through the experience of actual people on the ground.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
Because you know those old stories, you know, they may
have worked.
Speaker 8 (50:56):
In another generation and another place at another time, but
in twenty twenty four, they just they just don't apply.
They simply don't apply. Yes, it's just that they simply
don't apply. It's like someone telling you a story that
may have been applicable at another time.
Speaker 3 (51:13):
It's space, but it's it's just defferent.
Speaker 5 (51:16):
And even if that's the case, because I was looking
back on how the destitute were dealing with the effects
of the depression, and it was like their solution was
everyone needed a job. And then you know, there was
very little conversation about the depressive side of it, the
issues with families, and you know, all of those conversations
(51:37):
were just siloed or packaged in a way that the
reason why everyone was out in the street was yes,
it was due to the economic downturn, but there were
also other extenuating circumstances with people. Know, we are dealing
with a myriad of things going on from exploding rents,
stagnant wages like you said, climate climate change, and as
(51:59):
well as environmental upheavals in many respects from societal you know,
there's conflicts overseas that are displacing people in Sedan, and
there's conflicts that are displacing people within the congo. I
mean it's displacement. It seems like it's going to be
a conversation or buzzwork for many years to come moving forward.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
That I noticed, which I bring up the question too.
Speaker 5 (52:24):
If I'm at I'm going to imagine that I am
at the ballot box and this question is it hinges
mister Turner on your response to this question, Batman or
I wanted to thank you guys, and I don't want
to keep you too long, but I want to thank you.
Miss Wiley. Is there anything that you would like to say,
(52:46):
any of you guys want to lead any parting thoughts,
please let me know.
Speaker 12 (52:50):
Well.
Speaker 10 (52:50):
I would just say that it's important to research your
candidates in every race and to not ignore us at
the bottom of your ballot, because you're more likely to
run into a judge than you are your congressman and
certainly your president. And it's important to have people with
real lived experience making decisions that affect our community.
Speaker 9 (53:13):
So do your research and vote for me.
Speaker 1 (53:18):
Definitely, very well, put mister Turner anything else.
Speaker 8 (53:21):
Absolutely. I want to say that they are a variety
of different ways to vote. You know, growing up, I
thought that you had to wait until November fifth, But
if you got access to your ballot via male, you
can fill it out and drop it off at a
variety of different polling places. I'm going to drop mine
off today right in front of the park where my
kids are going to be playing. So fill out your
(53:43):
ballot box. Definitely vote for George Turner seat number thirty
nine and Erica Whitey's seat number forty eight. Your ballot
will be counted. And thanks for the opportunity to have
this conversation. Maybe we can have a longer discussion about
Marvel versus d C, of course, and you know I
want I want to continue the discussion about our issues
(54:07):
around our other house neighbors.
Speaker 3 (54:09):
So thank you for the chance, man, Thank you.
Speaker 5 (54:11):
Very much again for coming out on your business schedules
to talk with us so much talking to thank you
so much to George and Erica for that time. You
can learn more about their campaigns and policies at George
Turner for Judge dot com and wileyfo Judge dot com.
(54:34):
We will include links in the description and thank you
for joining us. Remember that unhoused voting matters and we
will see you at the ballot box. And as always,
please like and subscribe, and if you'd like to share
your story on Median House, please reach out to me
at Wiedianhouse on Instagram or email me at Weedenhouse at
(54:54):
gmail dot com. Thank you again for listening and may
we again meet in the lif of understanding. Wheedian Howes
is a production of iHeartRadio. It is written, boasted, and
created by me Theo Henderson, our producers Jbie Loftus, Kaily Fager,
Katie Fischle, and Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam Wand
(55:18):
and our local art is also by Katie Fischal.
Speaker 1 (55:22):
Thanks for listening
Previously on Weedian House.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
People will like bring their trucks out and they'll rub
their engines and like, I probably meet a new person
every week who's been hit by a car on purpose.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
They drove away.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You know, they have all of these like things coming
at them, whether it's the city or the police or
the nimbi's Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
After validating someone, circling back to the conversation where I say,
at this present moment, these are the tools that we have,
and it sounds like what you're saying is your voice
is missing. You are missing from this process. You are
not seen, you are not heard, and so actually we're
saying the same thing.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Welcome to Weedian House. I'm your host, Theo Henderson. Happy
Election Day. Our last episode focused on how unhoused voting matters.
Continuing on this theme this week, we'll be talking with
returning guests California candidates for judge, George Turner and Erica Wiley.
(01:18):
But first on House News. First, an update from last
episode's guests Jetti, who we spoke to concerning grants pass
consequences in Eugene, Oregon. She has updated us that unhoused
people are missing. Since we're left open. Bikes were still there,
(01:42):
but people had vanished. A mass sweepest plan to take
place soon on a piece of land where forty five
to one hundred unhoused people live. At the time of
his recording, there was also a mass arrest, but the
number of unhoused people rested is not yet known. Our
(02:02):
top story this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom awarded eighteen
communities with nearly one hundred and thirty one million dollars
to clear unhouse encampments. The Encampment Resolution Funding Program is
a new program that these funds are coming from. Its
goal is to permanently house one thousand, five hundred and
(02:27):
sixty five people and help three thousand, three hundred and
sixty four people living in encampments. Communities included in ERF
awards were Los Angeles and San Bernardigo, who both received
over eleven million dollars, Berkeley, which received over five million,
and San Francisco received over seven million. The city of
(02:50):
Norwalk was not awarded the Encampment Resolution Funding Program because
recently they voted on a ban on creating house of
shelters in their city. Our next story also centers around
Governor Newsom, who has opened more than two dozen properties
to store told RV's A new RV law was signed
(03:12):
by the governor to pressure the unhoused to enter car
strul shelters. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also sponsors this bill,
along with Assemblymen Rick Chavez Zabor, who carried the legislation.
This legislation gives Los Angeles access to twenty five Caltran
parcels under or near freeways.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And that's on House News.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
When we come back, we talk about the stakes of
this election in a roundtable discussion with George Turner and
Erica WiLAN.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Welcome back to Whedian House.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
Our two guests today are no stranger to Wedian House,
Erica Wiley and George Turner, over who am a running
for jet seats in California. If you want to listen
to our first talk around the primers earlier this year,
you can find our full conversations in the episode The
Ballot or Business as Usual. I'm back in February, but
(04:18):
as a refresher, here's George Turner.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Hi.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
I I'm George Turner. I'm ready for Los Angeles County
Superior Court Judge seat number thirty nine.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
And thank you for joining us in the studios today. So, George,
tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
So.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
I'm born and raised in the city of Inglewood. I
went to a public school my whole life. Went to
Morningside High School. Then I went on to UCLA major
in political science with a focus on race class agender.
Then I went on to UCLA Law School, where I
graduated with the concentration in critical race studies. You know,
(04:53):
I'm a bit of a local dude. You know, you
can catch me at a local costco. Father of three,
happily man married and someone who just revels in my
community and being a part of it.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And now here's Erica Wiley.
Speaker 7 (05:07):
Hi everybody, and thank you so much THEO for having me.
I am Erica Wiley and I'm a candidate for Superior
Court Judge. I have been a deputy public defender in
Los Angeles County since two thousand, but a public defender
since nineteen ninety nine. I started in Merced County and
this is work that I really love, helping people. Sometimes
(05:28):
I'm the only person in the courtroom to be there
for that person, and I love this work. I've been
defending individuals charged with crimes from as minor as traffic
infractions all the way up to capital murder now in
the most recent years. So again this has worked is
very near and dear to my heart. I started off
(05:48):
in my legal career doing eviction defense for the Legal
Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. So every job that I
have has been on behalf of individuals who didn't have
the opportunity or resource to hire a lawyer. This, like
I said, this work working on behalf of people who
have no other options is very near and dear to
(06:09):
my heart. So that's who I am, someone who really
loves to help people.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
But a lot has happened since the primaries, and I
was eager to speak with Erica and Georgia again to
discuss how much has changed for the un housed since
we last spoke, and how they're feeling about their campaigns.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Without for reredo.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Here's my discussion with Erica and George. This interview is
going to be a little more relaxed. It's not like
it's not the inquisition. Everyone has known who you are.
You guys took the time to really talk about your platform,
but we're going to do have the side of you
(06:50):
that's a little bit more merry or more conversation with relating.
And I want to welcome you guys, and I wanted
to say I am because in so many respects, this
election cycle has been a very If there is a
metaphor for me, as my English teaching has taught me,
(07:12):
would have to be chaotic, becazophrenic, but also invigorating and
also revelatory. So hopefully this is going to be not
too burdensome for you guys, and hopefully enjoyable.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
No doubt. I mean.
Speaker 8 (07:26):
And what I appreciate about your show, and really about
both of our campaigns is that we are really focusing
on what it is historically being considered low propensity voters, right,
So you know, and I don't consider the low propensity voters.
I consider them community members. These are folks who laws
have a direct deffect on it. And that's kind of
(07:47):
the reason why we're running, is because we want to
be sort of held accountable by folks who are actually
in the community, because we're in the community, like many
of the concerns that folks have are the exact same. Yeah,
So we're meet people where they are because it's where
we are.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Absolutely well said.
Speaker 9 (08:05):
Yeah, that's very true. I actually echo that.
Speaker 10 (08:08):
I think that, you know, people are interested in our
campaigns because you know, for the first time people running
for judge are actually talking about things that affect them
or talking at all.
Speaker 11 (08:17):
So I relished doing that because I think it's long overdue.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
And it's also I want to point out too, it's like,
particularly in the unhoused community, because I had a couple
of episodes recent episode about on house voting rights and
getting them also, which they are talking by the way,
but it's like it's just a new thing in many
respects that the election cycle lends itself now, which because
if we could go turn the clock back maybe five
(08:42):
or six years ago, the conversations that I knew I
remember having with on house people was hit or miss.
They some were really plugged in and some were just
survival mode or just trying to keep their head down
and really did not know what their rights were. But secondly,
most importantly, they didn't feel a connection. That was no
(09:05):
concerted effort to include them in the process. Case in point,
I know you've probably heard about it, but I wanted
to get your viewpoint on it. On the recent Supreme
Court ruling of Grant's Pass. And if you don't know
what that is, I allow me to elucidate on it,
but let me get see what you guys think on it.
Speaker 10 (09:24):
Yeah, I'm familiar with Grant's Pass, and the way that
I understand it is it's Supreme Court decision that basically
allows local jurisdictions.
Speaker 12 (09:35):
To criminalize homelessness. I mean succinctly, that's the way I
see it, absolutely, Yeah, And I think it's really devastating.
Speaker 9 (09:45):
I mean I see that.
Speaker 10 (09:47):
It really just as an extension of what I see
has been happening in the community for many years, people
who are houseless, just being faced with everything that's out there,
including the the police and sweeps and you know, just
the elements. And to criminalize, you know, sleeping on the
(10:10):
street when it's very clear in a lot of cases
that there's nowhere else for people to go. I think
just is you know, definitely going to take us back
to this system creating systems and feeding systems that that
support mass incarceration, that you know, criminalize people who are
(10:31):
most marginalized, rather than dealing with you know, why it
is that that they're in these circumstances.
Speaker 11 (10:36):
And I just think that it's it's really unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's interesting.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
You know, for years that particular community of households, they
weren't just they weren't just unhoused. They were heard, right,
it was it was it was to ignore them, you know,
act like you don't see them when you when when
you're walking down the street. And over the last like
you said, four to five years, there's really been a
(11:05):
concerted effort in Los Angeles to to sort of acknowledge
the situation and to try to make some inroads and
not just like in talk, but actually in resources and
laws and so this federal this Supreme Court decision is
extremely troubling but really speaks to how people contextualize or
(11:29):
think about what PRIME is. I was listening to a
discussion where, you know, there was a young man saying, well,
if you look at PRIME stats, they're going down across
the particularly in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
And the person.
Speaker 8 (11:46):
Responded that, well, you know, with all of these homeless
people on the street, they're doing things like listening to
music and getting rid of their trash and making noise,
and it leads to chaos, disorder and trying to make
that into crime. The concern that I have is we
(12:06):
really have to get a very clear definition of what
of what crime is. I mean, as someone is living
outside and they're quote making noise that they're not that's
not a crime, right, Sitting down is not a crime,
Sleeping is not a crime. And so we really have
to really get a very clear understanding of what crime is.
(12:30):
And of course we are hindered by by judicial cannons
about opining about cases that will potentially come before our court.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
But you know, I don't I don't see the nexus between.
Speaker 8 (12:43):
Someone sitting down or walking or enjoying themselves outside and
particularly in a place like Los Angeles, how that could
be criminalized. It has always troubled me, and it almost
reminds me of the sort of old world law about.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Loitering right where it was.
Speaker 8 (13:02):
You know, the term loitering is used to sort of
incriminate the average black person walking down the street in
the South, right, So you know, it's it's it.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Troubles me that that that we're going back to that place.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
And also I want to point out too, even because
I'm from the Midwest, there were laws, for example, that
was targeted for black particularly black males I'm from Chicago.
Is that you cannot have there cannot be three people
standing on the corner, right, so they would jump out
and tell us to give the corner or they will
have a probable cause to arrest the use or tassle them.
(13:38):
So you know, there was there's that kind of thing,
not only just in the South, which also which you
many people don't know, is like you know, there are
those signs are vestiges from those uh racist Jim Crow
kind of policies that are still out like you know,
no no loitering or what was the other one that
(13:59):
I can't forget it.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
It escapes me for.
Speaker 8 (14:01):
Them, it's sort of like freedom to associate almost, It's
really I mean, you know, it's funny because I've been
on the campaign trails talking to a lot of young folks,
a lot of college students, and like, you know, when
you talk to them about even the ninety two uprising
again Los Angeles or Prop two oh nine, they have
no knowledge of what that is. And I'm like, the
(14:22):
reason why is because they were born in the mid
two thousands. So when you begin to explain to them
these things like arresting someone for being unhived literally for
walking down the street or sitting down or sleeping. They
have no idea that I could even be criminalize, and
so it's just troubling that we will go back there.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
It's you know, it's really really troubling.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
I want to reach out with a yarn and try
to connect the yarn that people are not conceptualizing when
they agree to these gym cop type policies. I like
the book that Michelle Alexander had wrote about the New
Gym Crow, and I do believe that a section about
like forty one eighteen, these newer laws like the Grants Pass,
(15:10):
has a place in this conversation. But I want to
wint out something. And I don't know if anyone has
been following too much because so much has been going on.
But the hurricane and the flooding that was going on
in Florida, the flooding that was over in Ashville, North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Horrible, devastating.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
People that had places to stay are now displaced, houseless,
if you will. And I have been stating this, of
course a lot of people look at me side eyes,
and I say this because of the recent Grants Past
ruling and also hearkening back to how people were displaced
during Katrina, and the people that I have that are
(15:51):
in house, that I've interviewed, that had homes and that
was displaced in Louisiana, and these laws are now applying
to them, I want to reach back and say, what
do you think and when do you think the the
I want to say, the performative empathy will dry up
and then the grants passed legislation or ruling will start
(16:13):
to impact via housed Because Florida just put has a
recent in October first answer and House laws that are
on the books now that are very, very punitive. So
it begs the question will that still extend to those
displaced and unhoused people.
Speaker 10 (16:34):
Well, you know, I think that that what you're talking
about is certainly inevitable THEO.
Speaker 9 (16:39):
I mean, I think that that if.
Speaker 10 (16:41):
It follows the pattern of what happens across the country.
Speaker 9 (16:44):
I mean, there's there's interest. It's paid for a period
of time when there's.
Speaker 10 (16:49):
Something like you said, a hurricane or a natural disaster,
or you know, like an election season, where people start
to you know, really gear up and talk aboutlessness in
a way that sounds sympathetic and empathetic because they understand
that the community recognizes the marginalized community that needs help
(17:11):
and not to be victimized. So you know, maybe the
cynic in me says that that it's just a matter
of time before the attention that's paid to, you know,
rebuilding those communities and assisting those communities unfortunately leaves those
behind who haven't been able to achieve homes at a
level of stability after some time when the attention, you know,
(17:33):
wears off, And so you know, I'm.
Speaker 9 (17:36):
Just hoping that that's not the case.
Speaker 10 (17:38):
I mean, just the devastation of having lost everything you've
worked for and now be placed in a situation where.
Speaker 9 (17:44):
The ability to to sort.
Speaker 10 (17:47):
Of climb out of that is diminished by now becoming
a criminal or somebody convicted of a crime for simply
just trying to get access to your basic needs is
just unthinkable. But you know, I think that it's going
to happen when the intention wears off.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
And we will be right back with more of our
election day roundtable with Erica Wiley and George Turner.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Welcome back.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Let's jump back into my roundtable discussion with Canada's George
Turner and Erica Wiley.
Speaker 8 (18:22):
I do worry, you know about the direction we are
going in. It's one of the reasons why I chose
to work with the particular population I work with right now.
You know, I'm the head of a small unit that
helps unhoused folks get directors cleared because I believe that
being close to an issue helps you to identify solutions
(18:47):
to it. And I think that ultimately in talking to folks,
I think it's time to really rethink how we even
imagine what it means to be unhoused. You know, when
I talk to people that you know they think of
many people think of being unhoused as someone who's made
(19:07):
poor decisions and they're reaping the consequences of those poor decisions.
And there are a myriad of examples of people who
literally have not made poor decisions, but their housing situation
is a result of circumstances that are truly beyond their control.
So you know, when I think about housing, for instance,
(19:30):
in Los Angeles, rich is thirty two hundred dollars a month, right,
and if you if you compare that to what the
minimum wage is, you don't get to that amount.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Right.
Speaker 8 (19:45):
So when I tell when I tell folks, you know
that that a one bedroom apartment is thirty two hundred dollars,
or that in some places KAI is thirty five hundred dollars.
If you do the math on that, if you're making
sixty thousand a year, you're unhoused.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yep.
Speaker 8 (20:04):
I mean you're getting up every day going to work,
you know, and you're unhoused. Or how about this the
context that I put it in, I said, when I
started as a public defender, I was making sixty eight
thousand dollars a year, right, and this is after four
years of education, four years of an undergrad, three years
of law school, doing very.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Well in school, following all the rules.
Speaker 8 (20:27):
If if I had to go and get an apartment
making that amount of money, it would have been impossible.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I would have been unhoused.
Speaker 8 (20:35):
I would have had to rely, as a whole professional
on the on the support of my mother or father,
and if I didn't have access to that, I.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Would be on house.
Speaker 8 (20:44):
I would have to get another full time job doing
everything right. So, really reimagining that the very concept of
what it means to be un housed, I think, is
where we can sort of change hearts and minds. You know,
when I when I talk to my colleagues and friends
of it. They say, oh wow, I never even thought
of it like that, and I'm like, well, it's They
can't even imagine that someone would work forty hours a
(21:07):
week and be unhoused. And I say, I talk to
people like this every day at work. This is not
my imagination, this is my lived experience. I'm not telling
you this from a perspective of someone who made it
up or read it in a book.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I'm telling you telling you.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
This from the perspective of someone who talks to people
in this situation every day.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I bear witness.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
I have an undergraduate degree as well, and I was
an educator, and I had the worst of most experience.
I wasn't married and have a wife or kids anything,
but I had a medical emergency that sustained and took
over my entire financial and my career, and I couldn't
be able to sustain it, particularly with the rent's going up.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
And trying to do the recoup to things that I
needed to do.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
And I became unhoused, and my eyes open at the
level of how sustained to be displaced can be, and
how quick it can happen, and how devastating. I mean,
it's like the first few nights of being in house,
I have to say I was like a zombie. I
was in a state of shock because I could not
(22:11):
believe that there was no way for me to find
purchase to get out of the situation. It was always like,
you know, maybe I have another job, but then you know,
even trying to which is another conversation, is trying to
find even work. Being in that kind of financial insecurity,
it's still difficult because you're not going to get a
(22:33):
house right there, because there is a whole new avenue
of you got to have a decent credit. You're going
to have to have first last month friend, you got
to find place where you can afford. Then you got
to make sure that you were able to find a
job that was going to be able to be on
public transportation or be able to get to and fro.
It becomes a whole cascade event that you don't conceptualize.
(22:55):
If you have you're not in the know, or you
don't have to live the experience. And when you do
have the lived experience, it's humbling as scary. But also
what sometimes is daunting is the conversational propaganda or the
propaganda that's out there about houselessness It's like when I
would tell people that I was in house and they were,
(23:16):
you know, well, you speak so well, you sound so educated,
you could just get a magical I said, if it
was that fricking easy, I would not be sitting here.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Tell you I was in the house.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
I mean, you know, I bet doctors I've met, you know,
I said, two lawyers and you know people that were
in a couple of people that had masters and social
work and things like that. That it's like, you know,
once we realize that, you know, there is a swath
of people that we are all shapes, and houselessness is
(23:45):
not a monolitht We have so many branches or so
many areas that people don't understand and how houselessness impacts
us all. And it's not because we did something dilatorious.
You spend amount of time to shuffle things around, to
move things in your schedule, just to do launder. I'm
just telling you what I know. And then if you
have illness or you have a disability, oh my god,
(24:08):
that's just another stone, a sissifying task that you have
to you know, manage or juggle. People just think you
just get a job and you just be able to
just you know, go out on the street and sing
a happy song. That's just you know, that's just simply
not true.
Speaker 8 (24:23):
Yeah, it's the idea that people say, well, they just
kind of enjoy being out there. The response is always, well,
we had a place in society where they have so
many other options. That's literally a choice, thank you, like,
meaning that they literally have decided that I have access
to housing, but I literally choose not to.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
And we aren't there yet.
Speaker 8 (24:48):
So when we when we get to the point where
everyone has access to housing, then you can make the
argument that there are people who choose quote choose to
be out there, but until we get there, the it's
kind of a it's a hobs' choice, it's not really
a choice exactly right.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Because here's the thing too.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
They were trying to tell me to go to shelters
when I got recently was stabbed and then we had
to go and do recoupitive care. I said, you know,
I don't think that's going to be a good idea
because safety is an issue either the cars or rude
and I don't think people understand It's like, for example,
let's say, for example that you are looking for a
(25:27):
place to stay and you're not in house, you have
some coin in the bank, and reasonably you're going to
look for places that you want to stay that meets
your budget, meets where the neighborhood that you like to
stand your transport to work would be. You know, an
issue the community that you want to.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Thrive in or live in. You know it plays a part.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
But for some reason, when we talk about when on
house people to get in in housing or get placement,
these conversations evaporate. People don't realize human beings. For example,
you know, unhoused people with children. So when they're saying,
where is it near the school that the kids go to? No,
then you know, don't you are a service resistant When
you become a house you're devoid of any experiences or
(26:14):
any realities, or any kind of joy or any kind
of consideration for the same choices that you would make
if you were looking for home, or you're looking to
place for your children to be able to academically thrive
or to stay with, you know, like where kids like
to stay with their friends or their friends that they know,
or families. It's a reasonable conversation point. But when we
(26:37):
have this conversation about unhoused and trying to find places.
The reason why it becomes much more tenuous is because
of our society and our community that don't want the
unhoused community in their neighborhoods, which is the then big
question that really would like to tackle any thoughts erkor.
Speaker 9 (26:54):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's absolutely righty.
Speaker 10 (26:55):
Even when you know, are confronted with people in the
community who haven't understanding of the struggles.
Speaker 11 (27:02):
Of houseless people and what they're going through.
Speaker 10 (27:06):
They still don't want them anywhere near where they are, right,
I don't want to drive past you on the way
out of my community or or you know, at my
local store. So it really is a struggle for people
to really make an impact in the lives of people
and put aside their personal you know, discomfort with seeing
(27:26):
people homeless in the community to really try to make
a change.
Speaker 9 (27:30):
And it's interesting, I mean what you were talking.
Speaker 11 (27:32):
About, I see that. I mean, I definitely see.
Speaker 10 (27:36):
That when there are people, well meaning people in the
community who want to help our houseless neighbors, that there's
this idea of just take what we're giving you, just
take it right, because you have nothing.
Speaker 9 (27:49):
You should be happy to take this.
Speaker 10 (27:51):
But when you look logistically at things like the things
that you talked about, how is my kid going to
get to school? If you want to, you know, give
me a place to stay in the valley and my
kids go to school in Pasadena or South central LA.
Speaker 11 (28:05):
It means to uplift my entire life to be able to.
Speaker 9 (28:10):
Accept this, you know, supposed gift that you're giving me
of a home.
Speaker 10 (28:14):
And I think that that there does need to be
a more pointed and deliberate assistance to people in our
in our communities as opposed to, you know, feeling like
they should just be happy to take what it is
that they're given.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
And also you mentioned something very point too as an
educator dealing with the conversation, and point we forget children
need stability because imagine if they are in the valley
and they have to go all the way to Pasadena.
I remember I hated it when my mother used to
wake me up and to get up to school early.
I mean, you know, I was very creative in trying
(28:48):
to get those extra five minutes. Now, let's be realistic
being out and having kids that are kids, you know,
having them that that means they will have to be
up at two or three in the morning where there
are no transportation as available, but they have to be
in a position to be at school at a certain time.
And then let's you know, as you know how the
teachers and the administration if the kids is not on
(29:10):
time or losing studies or not keeping up, that plays
a part into the academic success as well.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So these things that when you hear them talk about,
which really.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Cooks my grits, is what my remos used to say,
is that when you hear people talk about unhouse people
near children or near schools, they're unhoused family members that
are nearby, not because it's the cool thing to do.
It's because the kids go to school there. You know,
they love their kids just like house people do. And
the thing, it's like a concept that's very difficult for
(29:41):
some community members to really wrap their head around.
Speaker 8 (29:45):
You know, It's interesting because ultimately what we're talking about
is agency for the people who are unhoused, you know,
being able to see someone as a whole human being
through their story and their experience, and not some outside
(30:05):
person who doesn't know or can't relate to the experience.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
And I mean, I think that that.
Speaker 8 (30:12):
Comes with an overarching concept of what community is is
being able to see the people in your community as
human beings.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Community is more than a space or a place.
Speaker 8 (30:27):
It is the collection of humans trying to work to
self actualize itself. And you know, the goal, the goal
in my court is should have become a judge, and
really the goal of all courts, and my humble opinion
should be to make you know, the party that come
before the court heard and maybe the opportunity for them
(30:48):
to become a whole or the closest to the hole
that they can become.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
And we kind of get away from that too often.
Speaker 8 (30:54):
It becomes a place where people set their fears right
and you know, you go there and you let your
fears run wide, or you know, you let logic escape you,
you let practice the practicalness of a situation escape you
because of the building or because of the circumstances. And
(31:15):
I think that it is important to have folks, all
folks voices be heard truly and three dimensionally heard, because
I do believe, like I said, having conversations like this
and having conversations with folks who are unhoused.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
We get the solutions.
Speaker 8 (31:33):
I mean, hearing your story or hearing the story of
unhoused children in Los Angeles County.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
You can begin to create the solutions in.
Speaker 8 (31:42):
Your head right then and there. But if you think that,
you know, oh well, the answer is that you just
got to get these people, these people a home any
place in Los Angeles County, you realize how how short
that is of a solution, if it is if it
even amounts to an actual So it doesn't really amount
to an actual solution. It just kind of it's kind
(32:04):
of just a response. So I'm happy to have the
sort of conversation that that that, you know, it's kind
of my passion.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
So I wanted to ask, where do you see you're
a judgeship point, how do you feel about the campaign
so far?
Speaker 9 (32:19):
I feel really good about mine and George's.
Speaker 10 (32:23):
You know, obviously we're we're campaigning out here together, and
I have just been really surprised to see the number
of people who are here that we're public defenders and
are excited about that. Right understand the difference first of
all between what a DA does and what a public
(32:45):
defender does and sees. You know that our perspective and
our work is something that would be a welcome change
on the bench, you know, working with the many organizations
and clubs and associations that have endorsed us and are
welcoming of our message and our desire to apply the
knowledge that we have about you know, the need to
(33:08):
get at the underlying causes of crime as opposed to
just locking everybody up. You know, that's really been welcomed
in a great many spaces with open arms. So I am,
you know, cautiously optimistic about the the outcome in both
of our races. And I can say for myself that
I think it's been going really well and at the
(33:29):
support that we've gotten from Law of Defense is immeasurable
and something that I think is going to result in
an amazing outcome for both of us.
Speaker 8 (33:41):
I am also cautiously optimistic. To be honest with you,
I am very humble and grateful. You know, I've been
a public defender of my entire career. I chose this
profession not because I thought that they would make me
popular or cool.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
I did the work because as I knew the work
needed to be done.
Speaker 8 (34:02):
And you know, we've all heard discussions about what public
defenders are and how they act and their quality of work,
and so to sort of go out and hear folks
be excited that you're a public defender and being able
to tie the work that you do as a public
defender in a steem position like a judge is it's
(34:22):
really really humbling, and that I think that humbleness and
gratefulness is something that's kind of motivated me to put
in the work that I've been putting in because it
is it is no doubt tiring, you know, being a
full working, full time and having a family and campaigning.
That's three full time jobs and only twenty four hours
(34:43):
a day. So but you know when I when I
get tired, or you know when I'm when I'm trying
to put together my schedule for the for the next
couple of days or the last few months, you know,
I just I'm really humbled at literally the opportunity. And
I will say I think part of the reason why
I am cautiously optimistic is that I know that I
(35:06):
didn't have to turn into a different person to become
a politician, right.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
I didn't have to tell.
Speaker 8 (35:12):
Someone else's story or lie about my experiences on the
campaign trail, and I was, you know, surrounded and supported
by people who were actually supported by story, and was
that was intul with my moral compass, and you know
that that's the thing that he can be going that
(35:33):
if it was anything else to tell there were a
lot of opportunities to say, you know, not not today,
not tonight, I'm not going, or you know, just to
oparticipation all together.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
So I'm gonna keep going, and.
Speaker 8 (35:45):
Regardless of the outcome, I can say that I'm proud
of the race that I ran. But I hope that
that we can take this message to the bench and
actually have some substantive results for the folks who supported
the campaign.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
We'll finish this conversation after the break and we're back.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
I find it interesting that people are so receptive for
now getting away with law and order. And I do
notice that, for example, one of the elections of George
Gascon there is this propensity or this back draft that
they are trying to recreate that because I also noticed
as a society, in some respects we are trying to
(36:28):
move away from that that conversation because I remember growing
up hearing everyone heard about the Willie Horton and the
back draft of that and the backlash of that, and
how anytime there was any kind of conversation of empathy
or looking at the whole person. It was meant immediately
and with the swiftness you're soft on crime or you
(36:50):
just want criminals to just run amok. And it definitely
squashed a lot of substantive conversation. And so now that
this is going on, now that you know, I'm an
older person now and also have the platform I have
really pushing for houselessness and empathy and to show the
(37:12):
houselessness in its whole entirety instead of it being siloed
into you know, substance usage or mental health. And like
I said, you know, there are myriads of well seasoned,
educated on people that are unhoused. There's an uptick, and
women that are being on housed, there's an uptick with elderly,
and we definitely overshadow of the unhoused children that are
(37:35):
in the school systems that are displaced and unhoused. But
also we are needing to keep a watchful eye on
the new aspects of houselessness dealing with disasters and displacement
like i e.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Florida disasters.
Speaker 5 (37:49):
And how are we going to turn back or beat
back those criminal, punitive, criminal ideas about houselessness and criminalized.
So while all of this is going on with the
backdrop of the election cycle, I do think, you know,
keeping an eye on these kind of actions and behaviors
that's going on is paramount.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
It is very important for us to do that.
Speaker 10 (38:14):
I agree.
Speaker 9 (38:15):
I think that we need to definitely in this community.
Speaker 10 (38:19):
Not create or continue to create a community you know,
disposable people. Right as long as we don't see them
or they're not around our area, then their needs obviously
have been met and they're not significant.
Speaker 9 (38:35):
But you know, I agree.
Speaker 10 (38:37):
I think after this election cycle, where you know, these
conversations sort of take center stage because people are trying
to achieve a certain result, that there really needs to
be a continued effort to you know, assist those in
our community, you know, and the heartbreaking and devastating consequences
(38:59):
that result from show run in this situation, that we
need to continue to make sure to the best of
our ability and from from the positions where we are.
Speaker 9 (39:08):
That we're not being a part of the problem.
Speaker 10 (39:11):
And and that's why one of the reasons why I'd
like to expand the work that I'm doing on behalf
of individuals to the bench because it's just so often
that I'm that I encounter a bench officer who just
really you know, I hesitate to say doesn't care because
I don't think that that's that's the case, but just
(39:31):
really doesn't have the full understanding of how those decisions
or the decisions that judge is making as a.
Speaker 9 (39:41):
Bench officer impacts people.
Speaker 10 (39:43):
I'll just given us as an example of you know,
often we have cases where there's an issue of domestic
violence and so immediately the perpetrator of that man or woman.
Most of the time it's it's a it's a man
that's accused is met with a restraining order. You can't
go home, you can't live in the house with your
wife and your children. And even when there is a
(40:06):
request from the family, from the mother of the children,
the children, you know, our father has you know, gone
into counseling, has you know, dealt with their maybe substance
use alcoholism, is getting help for that, and we want
this person to be.
Speaker 9 (40:26):
Able to have contact with us to come home.
Speaker 10 (40:29):
You know, bench officers, in a very paternalistic way often
say this is not something that I'm going to allow.
Speaker 9 (40:37):
And I know that things are taken on a case
by case basis.
Speaker 10 (40:39):
But there's some bench officers who have a blanket rule
that user can't be here, and I've seen those situations
really deteriorate. And even when I bring to the mind
of the judge, listen, this person who you are not
allowing to come to the house is the main breadwinner
for this house, right He's the person working and paying
the rent. And so now the circumstance of being homeless
(41:03):
threatens the entire family and the judges, you know, following
this rule, this bright line rule, in every case that
we will not allow these people to have contact or
this person to position himself so that he can support
his family and have a place to stay. And I
think that, you know, it's very important that people with
(41:24):
backgrounds like George and I, who've seen this happen from
the inside out and how it destroys families, you know,
take the position of being able to do something about it,
being able to say, I see you, I see that
there are other alternatives. This is what we can do
instead of me following this bright line rule that doesn't
recognize your individual human circumstances. And I think that that's
(41:47):
what's important about people of different backgrounds getting on the bench.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
You know, it's one of those things they used to
say when I was in school.
Speaker 8 (41:56):
It's like the definition of insanity is doing the exact
same thing and expecting a different result, right, And so
I think that it is very important that we are
aware of the steps that have already been taken and
that have failed miserably. An assessment for things that, like
the steps that we've already taken in public safety, that
(42:17):
it failed in the past. Right, So We've tried to
criminalize a drug addiction. It didn't work, right, it led
to massive incarceration.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
You know. We've tried to criminalize houselessness.
Speaker 8 (42:28):
It failed miserably, and it caused an increase in houselessness
and didn't address it didn't lead it to the end
of hous it.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Led to more massive incarceration. So these are things that
we tried, right.
Speaker 8 (42:42):
It's not like this is something new, right, And it's
not even something that happened a long time ago. We're
talking about things that happened literally five to seven years ago.
And I just can't believe that our collective consciousness is
that short, that short of an attention span.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
You know.
Speaker 8 (43:03):
It's funny because when I talk to the college students like,
I can understand why they wouldn't know something that happened
in the eighties and the nineties and early two thousands
because they weren't born. But to talk to someone my
age or even a little younger and they're like, oh,
what are you talking about. Yes, we tried to criminalize
these sort of things. It failed miserably. So then my
(43:23):
idea of not criminalizing and addressing the issues isn't just
morally right. I'm talking pragmatically. You have to do something different,
you have to try another way. And I think that
that's one of the messages that really really resonated the
campaign trail is that, you know, our ideas seem much
(43:46):
more logical when taking in the context of the world, right,
you know, addressing houselessness in this way, considering the fact
that climate change is becoming real, so natural disasters are
going to become more prevalent, considering the fact that the
cost of living is is skyrock anticuing the skyrock old
(44:11):
story of the of the person making poor decisions end
up in and up of house is it makes less
and less sense when you consider the context. And so
you need to have people who are decision makers who
have already sort of experience and have direct experience in
this situation to be ready to make decisions.
Speaker 5 (44:32):
Two things that really needs to be talked about more,
and I do try to do my best to do
it is the unhoused children. But the second thing is
that which I find I used to have a lot
of heartache and hard times with, is the elderly population
that believed that all you needed to do was work,
(44:53):
save your money, and everything was going to work out.
There's a high elderly population that's here on the streets now.
We cannot deny no matter how much you did your
job and how much you worked, you know, thirty or
forty years, you are not going to get that go
watch and the cost of living is so ridiculous that
you're now out on the street and you have to
face reality. It has nothing to do with your personal achievement.
(45:17):
It is how things are being set up. And the
reality is that, you know, we need to really have
a hard to heart conversation on how can we stop
this before it gets to that we see all most
of our grandparents out here on the streets or parents,
and you know, you can't just say, you know, you
need to go get a job, because seventy eighty years old,
(45:37):
you know, or it's the minimal which we're seeing they
can get a job, or then you know they're in
various stages of health decline. You know, that's just not
going to be a very coaching argument to keep saying.
You know, these people just made, you know, bad choices.
Idreen had when I was speaking in one community and
one community member was talking about these were.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
The elderly people that were on drugs, and ISA like, okay,
now you got to stop, which it was so yeah.
Speaker 5 (46:06):
I was like, these seventy eighty year old conservative people,
now all of them were on drugged out and they
out here on the street. That don't make any sense.
But it's like it showed me how pernicious this propaganda is.
They cannot they couldn't even they couldn't even divorce that
these people, you know, were not, you know, doing something bad,
but they had to stick to that because it makes
(46:28):
sense to them because that's what they were told.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
But it was so ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (46:32):
I was really Grandma was out here toting up and
and and that's why she's out on the street.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Okay, well all right, you should have responded.
Speaker 9 (46:39):
That, you know, that they're gone on drugs. They're on
social security, right.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
To paying the right.
Speaker 5 (46:54):
Right choice between their medication and this exploding writ that
I don't know what drug is going to be able
to stop that.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
But you know they're not they're not on drugs there.
I mean, maybe they are.
Speaker 8 (47:06):
They're on their medication, right, their medication, but.
Speaker 5 (47:11):
Not not quite a well, well, they may not even
be on their medication because you know the cause how
much expensive it is. But oh yeah, so that it's
a pernicious kind of propaganda that people just do not
or that they're saying that, you know, which again that
broad swath like the majority of unhoused people are mentally ill.
I'm like, no, that's that's that's not true either because
(47:31):
like you know, like I said, we being on house
is not a monolith. But I think people are afraid
in some respects to really break it down because they're
going to find themselves in the conversation, they're going to
find themselves maybe at risk of being housed absolutely, and
when they know that, it's disconcerting and it also breaks
(47:54):
that idea of them being deserving of services or deserving
to be treated a certain way. As what they have
been conditioned to believe that they have the worthy poor
or if they had the worthy people to be helped,
and these other people just missed out because of poor decisions.
Speaker 10 (48:10):
Absolutely, And like I said, it's really important to be
a person who is seeing these things happen in your
life to be able to have the correct perspective to
make good decisions to positively impact people. I mean, I
have to say from my mom, who's you know, going
to be seventy eight years old, whose income is a
small income from her pension as a teacher and social security,
(48:36):
that I can say, and just handling her her business
and assisting her as her daughter. She didn't have the
assistance of my brothers. And you know, financially, you know,
someone who's worked her entire life would really be struggling,
struggling seriously to make ends.
Speaker 9 (48:52):
Meet, would have very very little at the end of
the month.
Speaker 10 (48:55):
And if anything happened like what you talked about THEO
and suffering a medical emergency over any period of time,
than everything that you built with problem without support. So
I think, like you said, you know, it hits too
close to home for people to admit that the society
that we live in, especially here in LA has made
(49:15):
things so dire in terms of us living paycheck to
paycheck that you know, the loss of even some small
part of your stability can can crumble your.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
Whole world absolutely at well poot, Yeah, you know.
Speaker 8 (49:29):
One of the things that is discussed is is the
cost literally the talks of living for folks who are
who are elderly. We're talking about in some cases one
hundred maybe two hundred thousand dollars a year for a
one bedroom with very minimal services. And even if you've
been quote unquote responsible and worked for your entire life
(49:52):
and you know, worked until you earn a retirement, people
are living longer and you know, the money that they
have planned to live on in their retirement is has
run out. And there is a significant portion of people
who are running into that situation. And it's not about
individual choices, or if it is about individual choices, the
(50:15):
individual choice that you have to see someone in that
situation and sort of blame them, right, So we all
have choices, right, So if a person can say it's
their individual choice to be on how, you could also
say it's your indivision individual choice to see someone on
how and not provide support. Right, So, you know, it's interesting,
(50:38):
it's interesting, you know the perspective that we have, and
it really is about changing parts of minds through discussion,
through storytelling, through the experience of actual people on the ground.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
Because you know those old stories, you know, they may
have worked.
Speaker 8 (50:56):
In another generation and another place at another time, but
in twenty twenty four, they just they just don't apply.
They simply don't apply. Yes, it's just that they simply
don't apply. It's like someone telling you a story that
may have been applicable at another time.
Speaker 3 (51:13):
It's space, but it's it's just defferent.
Speaker 5 (51:16):
And even if that's the case, because I was looking
back on how the destitute were dealing with the effects
of the depression, and it was like their solution was
everyone needed a job. And then you know, there was
very little conversation about the depressive side of it, the
issues with families, and you know, all of those conversations
(51:37):
were just siloed or packaged in a way that the
reason why everyone was out in the street was yes,
it was due to the economic downturn, but there were
also other extenuating circumstances with people. Know, we are dealing
with a myriad of things going on from exploding rents,
stagnant wages like you said, climate climate change, and as
(51:59):
well as environmental upheavals in many respects from societal you know,
there's conflicts overseas that are displacing people in Sedan, and
there's conflicts that are displacing people within the congo. I
mean it's displacement. It seems like it's going to be
a conversation or buzzwork for many years to come moving forward.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
That I noticed, which I bring up the question too.
Speaker 5 (52:24):
If I'm at I'm going to imagine that I am
at the ballot box and this question is it hinges
mister Turner on your response to this question, Batman or
I wanted to thank you guys, and I don't want
to keep you too long, but I want to thank you.
Miss Wiley. Is there anything that you would like to say,
(52:46):
any of you guys want to lead any parting thoughts,
please let me know.
Speaker 12 (52:50):
Well.
Speaker 10 (52:50):
I would just say that it's important to research your
candidates in every race and to not ignore us at
the bottom of your ballot, because you're more likely to
run into a judge than you are your congressman and
certainly your president. And it's important to have people with
real lived experience making decisions that affect our community.
Speaker 9 (53:13):
So do your research and vote for me.
Speaker 1 (53:18):
Definitely, very well, put mister Turner anything else.
Speaker 8 (53:21):
Absolutely. I want to say that they are a variety
of different ways to vote. You know, growing up, I
thought that you had to wait until November fifth, But
if you got access to your ballot via male, you
can fill it out and drop it off at a
variety of different polling places. I'm going to drop mine
off today right in front of the park where my
kids are going to be playing. So fill out your
(53:43):
ballot box. Definitely vote for George Turner seat number thirty
nine and Erica Whitey's seat number forty eight. Your ballot
will be counted. And thanks for the opportunity to have
this conversation. Maybe we can have a longer discussion about
Marvel versus d C, of course, and you know I
want I want to continue the discussion about our issues
(54:07):
around our other house neighbors.
Speaker 3 (54:09):
So thank you for the chance, man, Thank you.
Speaker 5 (54:11):
Very much again for coming out on your business schedules
to talk with us so much talking to thank you
so much to George and Erica for that time. You
can learn more about their campaigns and policies at George
Turner for Judge dot com and wileyfo Judge dot com.
(54:34):
We will include links in the description and thank you
for joining us. Remember that unhoused voting matters and we
will see you at the ballot box. And as always,
please like and subscribe, and if you'd like to share
your story on Median House, please reach out to me
at Wiedianhouse on Instagram or email me at Weedenhouse at
(54:54):
gmail dot com. Thank you again for listening and may
we again meet in the lif of understanding. Wheedian Howes
is a production of iHeartRadio. It is written, boasted, and
created by me Theo Henderson, our producers Jbie Loftus, Kaily Fager,
Katie Fischle, and Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam Wand
(55:18):
and our local art is also by Katie Fischal.
Speaker 1 (55:22):
Thanks for listening
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