August 3, 2025 • 37 mins
The tsunami we were alerted to earlier in the week never really materialized in any significant way, but an LA City councilman says there was a silver lining: The alerts and warning system worked. Also, Immigration enforcement in SoCal will be limited as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules against the Trump administration in favor of the ACLU and local governments who sued. Plus, why the City of LA wants folks to "Just Say Hello."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM sixty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This
is Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News,
here with you for the next couple of hours. Apologize
for that late jump. I got swept up in the
Christopher Cross. How can you not fall prey to the
(00:25):
yacht rock on a beautiful summer night like this in
southern California. But my goodness, I finally gave in today,
had to flip on that ac. We have been spoiled
in much of the Southland. I know there are parts
where some of you crazy people live, where you just
drip and drip and drip all summer long. But in
(00:47):
Metro La Orange County, even the valleys San Fernando and
San Gabriel, it's been pretty nice. But here in Burbank,
I'm sweating. I was sweating down town today and next
week it's gonna get worse, and I'm not happy about it.
I don't know how you feel about it. You're probably
(01:07):
accustomed to it. You deal with it. We all find
a way to deal with it, I suppose. But this
forecast is showing that the honeymoon is over. Summer is
coming back with a vengeance. The forecast for La starts
to show highs in the upper seventies and eighties by Monday,
but we'll see the lower nineties starting on Wednesday, mid nineties, Thursday,
(01:34):
mid nineties Friday. Let me see, is Brigida listening to
me right now? I know she's got that forecast ready.
I'm sorry to get you off guard there, but I
know you've been saying the forecast all day. What's it
going to be like in the high desert, the low desert,
the big valleys. It's gonna be hotter out there, isn't
it tomorrow? I mean for the week ahead. Is it
looking pretty rough?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yes, I mean tomorrow is starting with one hundred, and
I think it's just warming up for oh mess.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And I live in the valley, so it is hot. Yeah.
So I'm hoping that this is temporary, but I you know,
I know the reality. I know that we are in
for it, and uh, we're already getting a little taste
of it today. So I put the air on. I
don't know if you've had your air on, but I
mean all summer, I think I've only flipped it on
two or three times, and my windows just stay open
(02:24):
almost entirely all year. I love the winter in Los Angeles.
It's so hot in the summer, though, and that air
is on. Let's hope that this is temporary. That's all
I can say, speaking of weather and natural disasters and
(02:45):
that sort of thing. What a weird event we endured
just this week.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
I have been generated by this birthplace, and it could
be destructive of coastal areas. Insomulates impact estimated pretious survival
of the first tsunami wave is zero seven one pm well.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
A tsunami watch is now in place for California or
again in Washington State, with impact times expected late tonight
into tomorrow morning. A tsunami warning is in place for
Alaska's Solution Islands and Hawaii. The first tsunami wave, if
it hits, would be after seven to fifteen pm local
time in Hawaii. All of the shores of the islands
are said to be at risk. People on the Hawaiian
(03:27):
Islands are being told urgent action should be taken.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Okay, So that was the deal. Earlier this week. We
didn't know exactly what was going to happen. An earthquake
off the coast of Russia, pretty significant one. Luckily it
wasn't closer to land, because I mean, that was a
massive quake. They certainly felt it in Russia. But what
was happening after that is what was great cause for
(03:52):
concern on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, Japan, Russia, Hawaii,
the other islands floating out there, and here on the
West coast all the way up to Alaska, that a
tsunami could be materializing. And you know, when you get
a warning like this, you don't really know what to do, right,
(04:15):
I mean, it's difficult to forecast how big is this
thing going to be when it reaches us. And I know,
because we're good people, we were more concerned about our
friends in Hawaii and other parts of the world that
were likely to be more susceptible to this possibility. We
(04:35):
were expecting some significant waves, but how significant it's pretty scary.
Well it turned out for us, fortunately, not to be
much of anything.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
In many areas now, like in Hawaii, tsunami warnings have
been downgraded and evacuation warnings have been dropped. Early this morning,
people began going home. At this point, there is no
known damage in the US, and there was no massive
wave or series of waves like you think of in
Fukushima and twenty eleven or in Southeast Asia in two
thousand and four. Sensors have picked up some waves of
(05:10):
like four or five feet, but they've been mostly very small.
There will be an assessment done in places like Crescent
City in far northern California near the Oregon border that's
often prone to tsunami damage in that area because of geography,
but so far no damage is being reported anywhere in
the US. With the threat of the tsunami now over,
Los Angeles County announcing its beaches are open again. Restrooms,
(05:33):
parking lots, and access waves are open. But while the
beaches are open, there are worries strong dangerous currents will
remain an issue from the tsunami waves for a while
produced by the earthquake off the coast of Russia. In
some areas, people are being told they should stay out
of the water. So that was a pretty big sigh
of relief. I was watching a lot of coverage of this,
not sure what twixs I mean.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I'm a newsguy. I need to be ready to mobilize
in case the proverbial s hits the proverbial F. So
I'm watching to see if things get hairy for us,
and I bet a lot of you were tuned into
us or flipping on the television. I was watching various
feeds on YouTube to see what was going on with
this potential tsunami, and thankfully, not much came of it
(06:17):
really anywhere, and that's great news. But there is good
news locally beyond that. La City Council and timic Oscar
explained this at a city council meeting this week. By
the way, the La City Council is back from its
annual month long break from regular meetings, so this happened
to fall the day after all of this stuff was happening.
(06:38):
So council in timick Oscar, who incidentally represents the fifteenth
Council district, wishes much of the South Bay, the Harbor
area San Pedro. Wish has a lot of industry obviously
at the port, and a lot of business going on
on the waterfront. Here is what he had to say
about the way southern California mobilized, in the way city systems.
Speaker 6 (06:58):
Worked, and I want to command our emergency operations center
and all of the folks that do emergency operations for us.
We had an exercise that could have been very real,
and it was real for folks in Hawaii and for
folks farther up the coast for us of a tsunami
warning to hit the California coast and La County. And
(07:22):
I think it's important to acknowledge when the monitors work.
The announcement went out, the Mayor's office activated, the EOC
opened at a certain level. Calls came in to our
respective offices who have constituents on the coast. The tsunami advisory.
(07:44):
It was at first in a tsunami watch, which is
the lowest form, and then it was an advisory, which
is the next level. We were able to get information
out to our constituents. Folks in La County who were
live aboard on boats were able to make a decision
whether they want to etched their boats and not stay
over the night. Workers very importantly, workers who worked at
(08:05):
the waterline were given notification.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So it sounds like the message got out that if
we were going to be pounded by significant waves from
this earthquake off the coast of Russia, that we were
all notified appropriately. A little bit scary, not sure what
was going to happen, but the system apparently worked in
this case, and I know that is important to us
(08:28):
in southern California, where we are susceptible to fires, where
earthquakes happen, and there are warning systems in place for
all those. We don't get as much advanced notice yet
unfortunately for earthquakes, but it is nice to know, at
least according to city Council and Tim Mcoscar, that these
systems in place in the City of Los Angeles worked
(08:49):
as we were living in this momentary uncertainty related to
a tsunami. So none of us got too wet that day, thankfully,
But should that happen again, let's hope that we are
appropriately warned so that we can do the right thing.
(09:10):
Speaking of earthquakes, there was a legal earthquake late last night.
You may have noticed in recent weeks, immigration efforts across
southern California have dwindled to virtually nothing, certainly nothing like
we were seeing in early June and beyond, and that's
(09:32):
because of a legal challenge first filed by the ACLU
and other groups in a case that was later joined
by local governments, including the city and County of Los Angeles,
Santa Ana and Orange County, and other smaller cities across
La County. They won at the district court level, and
then this case went to the appeals court. This case
(09:53):
saying that immigration agents are targeting people based solely on
their race, their language spoken, and where they are working,
among other issues, and that this is discriminatory, that these
agents do not have proper cause to stop these folks.
Late last night, the appeals court made its decision.
Speaker 7 (10:12):
On Friday night, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued
a ruling to uphold a lower court's temporary order blocking
the Trump administration from conducting immigration enforcement in southern California.
The ruling affirms the order issued last month that granted
the restraining order requested by immigrant advocates. The ruling applies
to Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara,
(10:34):
and San Louis Obispo Counties. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass
said it was a victory for rule of law and
for the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
So I'm going to take you to the courtroom where
the arguments were heard earlier this week, and you will
hear for yourself some of the challenges that the Trump
administration faces in arguing its own position. You will hear
from the judges. We're going to get into that next,
and you'll also hear from me so liberatory LA Mayor
Karen Bass, who's very happy about this decision that's coming
(11:05):
up next.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News will be together till nine o'clock tonight. A federal
appeals court has ruled to uphold a lower court's temporary
order blocking the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate in immigration
stops and arrest across southern California. This was a decision
(11:34):
out of the ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals. They
held a hearing on Monday where you heard a White
House attorney argue on behalf of the Trump Administration's immigration
policies and a lawyer for the ACLU. In a case
that also involves the City of Los Angeles, the County
of Los Angeles, various other LA cities, LA County cities
(11:54):
as well as Santa Ana in Orange County. They argued
that immigration agents are targeting folks based on their race,
their language spoken, where they might be working, specifically areas
like car washes. They say that immigration agents do not
have just cause to go into these places, that they
are only going in there because they see Latinos working,
(12:17):
or they hear Spanish being spoken, or it's a workplace
that attracts immigrants. They don't have any facts necessarily supporting
that argument. Now, clearly they have found suspected illegal immigrants
in these places because we have seen the arrest. The
Trump administration says, we're not We're not doing it that way.
That's not the way we're doing it at all. I
want to take you to the courtroom on Monday. You're
(12:39):
going to hear first the Trump administration attorney and then
one of the judges.
Speaker 7 (12:45):
And there's definitely no policy of conducting detentions without reasonable suspicion.
Speaker 8 (12:50):
I don't think there was. I mean, yeah, there's no
policy that says we're going to conduct expressly, you know,
stop without reasonable suspicion. But I think the argument or
the allegation is that there is a policy of conducting
detentive stops based solely on some combination of apparent race
(13:14):
or ethnicity, specifically Hispanic or Latin, the language speaking Spanish
or speaking English with an accent, locations in the area, which,
according to your own declarations, are chosen based on information
that in the past some unspecified number of illegal aliens
(13:39):
have used or found work in that location or that
type of location.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So you can kind of hear that the judge is
not entirely buying the argument from the Trump administration. Now,
the way the Court of Appeals works, there are three judges,
but weird questions from all of them that were similar
of the arguments from the plaintiff side. A lawyer for
the ACLU and now by extension, local governments says, these
(14:10):
immigration agents they've got quotas, they've got orders, and they
are doing this indiscriminately.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
They have said that they want to push the envelope,
you know, turn the creativity knob up to eleven. They
have said, if it ends in handcuffs, go out there
and do it.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Now, they're not going to say, go out and violate
the law. But there's been a wink at a nod
from leadership. Two agents on the ground that said to them,
that says, you know what, dispatch with the ordinary rigors
of the law and go out there and snatch anybody up.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Now, again, the Trump administration says, that's not the way
that we're doing it. But one of the judges says, well,
if that's not the way you're doing it, then how
are you here in this court saying that this order,
this decision by a lower court has harmed your f.
Speaker 8 (15:02):
You're actually doing what the district court found you to
be doing then and has enjoined you from doing, then
there should be no harm. There's they're only actually constrained
if you're doing what she found you to be doing
and is telling you to not do, which you're either
(15:22):
it's unclear, denying that you're doing it all, or you're
saying it's lawful. So if you know, but if it
seems on the evidentiary issue you have to be saying
we're not doing that, then you'll have the opportunity to
show that. But if you're if you're not doing that,
then you're not actually affected.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
So that was when I felt, as somebody watching this
hearing that the appeals court was probably going to side
with the local governments and the ACLU, and and that
is exactly what happened.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
Now.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I know there's been some commentary out there that these, uh,
these three judges were all appointed by democratic presidents. It's
it's true that partisan judicial appointees are selected because the
hope is that they will see the law the same
way as that president. But we all know that's not
always the case. It is maybe more often than not
(16:13):
the case, or most of the time the case. But
you see judicial appointees fairly frequently rule in a way
that you might not have expected based on the president
who appointed them. In fact, it was this very court,
different judges, but this very court that handed a loss,
a big l to Governor Newsom when he sued the
(16:36):
Trump administration over the National Guard being deployed here in June.
Governor Newsom won at the lower court level the same
way this case did. By the time it was appealed
to the Ninth Circuit, President Trump won same court. Now,
it is rare to hear from Mayor Karen Bass on
(16:58):
a Friday night, but this ruling came down so late
that she held a press conference outside the Mayor's residence
in Hancock Park, and she was pretty jubilant over the decision.
Speaker 10 (17:08):
This is a victory upholding the constitution. The people of
Los Angeles stood strong, and this court order affirms that
federal immigration officers or the mask people, because in many
cases we weren't sure who they were, cannot stop people
(17:29):
based solely on their appearance, the race or ethnicity, the
language that they speak, being present at certain locations, or
the type of work that they do. We were concerned
that the temporary restraining order was put in place but
was going to be appealed and overturned at the Ninth
(17:50):
District because that is what happened to the governor in
this instance. The Ninth District Court upheld the temporary restraining order,
and so that means that people cannot be snatched off
the street by mask men like we had experienced for
almost two months in this city.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So the next stop for this case could be the
Supreme Court. If you were listening to Tiffany Hobbs before now,
she mentioned that there is a big recruitment effort going
for immigration agents. In fact, White House advisor Stephen Miller
posted on x what used to be called a quote tweet.
(18:30):
I don't know what they call it. Anymore now that
the platform is X. But basically you take a comment
that was made by somebody else and you share it
with your own comment. Well he did that, and the
other person commenting was Mayor Bass, who was celebrating this
decision on what used to be Twitter, and Stephen Miller
was just referencing if you want to be an ICE
agent and to port illegals, he says, illegals from Los
(18:51):
Angeles basically, join Ice, get a fifty thousand dollars bonus
to make your family proud. So to me, I read
that as this fight is definitely not over yet. It
has been quiet, very quiet for several weeks based on
what we saw in early June, comparatively much quieter. But
will it get loud again? We shall see. Yesterday was
(19:13):
a good day for Mayor Bass based on this, but
it was a mixed week. Indeed, some trouble in the
valley in two different locations. We're going to dive into
that next. As Michael Monks continues here on KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks reports. I am Michael Monks from
KFI News, happy to be with you on a Saturday
night in southern California. Brace yourselves, it is going to
be getting hotter. By the middle of next week, we'll
be feeling it all over this Southland. So I told
(19:50):
you at the top of the show, I flipped on
my ac for the third time maybe this summer. Really
loved that streak of unseasonably the cool weather we were
enjoying in the Ling metro area. I know there are
folks out in the deserts that did not benefit at
all from that unseasonable weather, But we are all going
to be a desert here very very soon. So brace
(20:12):
yourselves for that and let's hope it passes quickly. I
was hoping for a cool, cool summer. I think we've
earned it. But in the meantime, let's get back to
the news. Mayor Bass was busy this week. You heard
from her in the last segment, celebrating late last night
on the front steps of the Mayor's mansion in Hancock Park.
This ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that
(20:34):
is keeping ice on ice right now. Basically, the immigration
raids as we knew them earlier in the summer have
grinded to a halt because of a lower court's decision
that has now been upheld at the appeals court level.
But the mayor has also been busy in the valley.
There are residents of Encino who are absolutely losing their
(20:55):
minds over the state of things. And originally it was
just a string of scary crimes, certainly burglaries that I
reported on last year. This was happening in Encino that
patrols were going to be picking up because there had
been so many burglaries in the Encino neighborhood, many of
(21:16):
which were believed to have been done by pured organized
criminal gangs, possibly from other countries. That's scary enough, but
it really culminated in a serious tragedy when a couple,
including an executive with the program American Idol, were murdered
inside their house by an intruder. So folks in Encino rightfully,
(21:41):
rightfully want to see some changes.
Speaker 11 (21:44):
One of those break ins turned deadly when American Idol
music supervisor Robin Ka and her musician husband Tom DeLuca
were killed by a burglar after he got a hold
of the couple's gun during a Zoom community safety meeting
with city and law enforcement officials. Residents demanded more actions
such as drones, more police patrols, automatic license plate readers.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
We owe it to Robin Tom and every frightened resident
in Encino to make sure this never happens again.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Things have to change.
Speaker 10 (22:12):
Why did they have to take a death in order
for us to have a meeting like this.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
The mayor and other city officials did meet virtually with
some of those concerned residents in Encino about this spike
in burglaries, But how quickly can there be action? Like
I said, I've reported last year that Encino residents had
(22:39):
taken to the streets themselves to organize patrols because they
did not think the police response was strong enough, so
they were out there themselves. I do remember in that
reporting last year that the LAPED did increase their efforts,
including I believe, aerial surveillance. But here we are, almost
(23:03):
a full year later, and Encino residents are yet again
incensed at the state of things. It's tough, and so
the Mayor's had her handful hands full with that situation.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
She also got.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Into it with some protesters in Van Nuys. You're probably
familiar with the mayor's Inside Safe program. This is her
signature homeless program. It's been very expensive. It has not
housed the number of homeless people that we were promised
that it would, despite the hundreds of million dollars that
have been funneled to it. It basically helps remove homeless camps,
(23:44):
or at least it intends to remove homeless camps from
all over the city, one at a time and place
those residents into temporary housing, usually motels. It's a very expensive,
inefficient operation. Even the mayor concedes that now this is
a very expensive, unsustainable program. But before we can get
(24:05):
to fully addressing the inefficiencies, let's call them for the
sake of politeness, with inside Safe. There was an inside
Safe operation in Van Nuys this week, a significant homeless
camp near the four or five freeway that had been
a source of significant problems. Problems that you typically see
(24:26):
at large homeless camps, a lot of trash, drug use,
criminal activity, and fires. So finally the inside Safe program
targeted this one, but some activists got wind of this.
Now LA is full of activists. They don't like a
lot of these policies that remove homeless people from the streets.
(24:47):
Remember it is illegal to sleep on the sidewalk. Public
camping is not allowed by law in the city of
Los Angeles, so remember that every time you see any
of these camps. I guess, for the sake of humanity,
they don't always enforce it. I know that's true in
(25:10):
my own neighborhood. But the city is within its right
to get these camps out of these public areas. There
are many many activists in Los Angeles who don't think
that's right, who think that the camps are communities, and
that if the housing being offered to them is only temporary,
(25:34):
it's not good enough. Regardless of what you think of
the merits of the inside Safe program, I feel like
most of us would agree a motel room would be
better than a dirty, old tent on the side of
the freeway. And the mayor was pretty fired up at
these protesters who had to be physically removed from the scene.
Speaker 12 (25:57):
The idea that people would prefer to live an absolute
squalor like this, that's what I don't understand. But I
think most people who advocate for maintaining these conditions do
not live like this. They're not sleeping here they're sleeping
someplace else comfortably, and they're trying to say to these people,
continue to live in squalor until a.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Building is built. I think that is atrocious. So she
was pretty ticked off. She showed up right at the
scene and talked to the press and said what a
lot of people would think, like, what do you think
the alternative should be? Let the folks stay? And where
are you protesters going back to after this to attend?
Probably not. Los Angeles is such a strange place, such
(26:42):
a strange place, indeed. But I'm wondering if you think
people in LA and southern California are appropriately nice. Sometimes
we're too nice when it comes to people in power
and not cleaning up the streets fast enough. But what
about just every day niceties. Do you say hello to
(27:03):
strangers and that sort of thing. Those are traits that
are maybe typically associated with other parts of the country.
But there is a campaign that is launched again here
in LA that wants folks just to say hello to
each other. We're going to talk about that next, will
be joined by a city representative to explain the just
(27:25):
Say Hello campaign. Just Say Hello, and we have a
huge eight o'clock hour I want you to stick around
for that. If you can't look us up at KFI
AM six forty dot com or the iHeartRadio app, you
can always get our two hour podcast listen to whichever
parts you want, and it's always free, and we'd love
for you to do that. But at eight o'clock we'll
talk to Elaine Colotti, who's from undercover billionaire at Palisades
(27:48):
resident and a developer who says it maybe time for
that neighborhood to leave the city of Los Angeles. How
about That will be joined by Senator Adam Schiff, who
will talk about a new piece of legislation that he
says will help people with mortgages in places like all
To Dena, Pacific, Palisades, Malibu that have been hit with
natural disasters like the wildfires. And a local elected official
has decided to run for statewide office. He says it's
(28:09):
time to restore people's trust in the voting system in California.
That's all ahead on Michael Monks Reports right here on
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI
News with you till nine o'clock tonight. How nice are
we here in southern California? Do you find yourself saying
hello to strangers? The City of LA would like you
to do it more. It's relaunched its annual just Say
(28:43):
Hello campaign, and here to talk with us about it
is the executive director of LA's Civil Rights Department, Kaprimattics. Kaprimatics.
Always a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for making
some time for KFI.
Speaker 9 (28:54):
Thank you for having me, Michael.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
You know, I'm one of those dreaded transplants to Los Angeles,
and I come from a part of the country where
it is pretty typical, regardless of politics or anything else,
that you make a little eye contact, You at least
give a head nod, you know, or you might say
hello in the elevator, You just offer general pleasantries. In
LA is one of those giant cities where that is
(29:16):
not necessarily part of your daily practice, and it seems
like this campaign from the LA Civil Rights Department is
to try to counter that a bit, to inspire people
to go out and just say hello. I mean, am
I wrong in that interpretation.
Speaker 9 (29:35):
You are absolutely right, Michael, and you should go. Although
I'm a Native Angelio, I've lived in Philadelphia, New Jersey,
and North Carolina, and in so many places people do
acknowledge your existence. And in LA it's a busy city,
fact city, and we want to make sure that people
acknowledge their neighbors and they may become your friends one day.
(30:00):
But definitely the human touch is missing in some parts
of Los Angeles, and LA Civil Rights is here to
make that make a change in that space.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I think if I were to give an honest assessment
of Los Angeles, I wouldn't say that people are necessarily
inherently rude or mean. I would say that they will
match your energy. And that is to say, if it's
a stranger, Let's say you walk into their shop or
you're passing them on the street and they are not
inclined to initiate a conversation, if you smile or if
(30:32):
you engage politely, I find more often than not that
you are met with the same. Is that your experience
as a native, that is my.
Speaker 9 (30:42):
Experience as a native. If you acknowledge someone and give
them that smile, they will smile back. However, I'm running
across people in younger generations. When you think about you know,
gen Z millennial, sometimes they look at you with a
(31:02):
puzzling looks like did you mean to say hello to me?
Or do I know you? So we want to make
sure that people have the license to know it's okay
to just say hello in the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, we do have social pressures beyond the historic ones.
We have these new communication tactics that don't necessarily lend
themselves to in person behaviors anyway. So that's just another challenge.
I don't know if we can overcome that with this campaign,
but it sounds like it's worth a try. This week
International Friendship Day, the City of LA and the Civil
Rights Department kicked off this just Say Hello campaign. I
(31:38):
know this is something you try to do every year.
What is it?
Speaker 9 (31:42):
Well, we want to be intentional to let people know
that hate has no home in the City of Los Angeles,
and hate and disclination and inequity actually thrives when people
do not acknowledge your existence as a fellow human being.
And we want it to be intentional to send a
(32:05):
strong message that we are here and we are united,
as Angeline knows when you think about the world is
coming to Los Angeles, so we need to be united,
to be welcoming to all, and.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
We just say hello. Campaign is part of a broader effort,
the LA for All initiative and tell us how that
plays into each other.
Speaker 9 (32:32):
Yes, so the LA for All campaign, some people can
find us at hashtag LA for All. You'll see artwork
and this hate crime prevention artwork to send a strong
message that we are united. As Angeline knows in our
signature message is LA is for Everyone. And that campaign
(32:54):
is actually in twenty one languages. Some folks saw it
in over ten thousand Asians in the city of Los Angeles.
We had t shirts, we had shops and windows, and
you may have even seen it on our metro buses,
sanitation trucks, et cetera. So this campaign is a follow
(33:14):
up of the LA Is for every One campaign, and
we actually have more hate crime prevention art campaigns to come.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
When you mentioned hate crime prevention, what are you seeing
in that area as far as trends, are we seeing
hate crimes in LA?
Speaker 9 (33:33):
Unfortunately, Michael, we are even in Los Angeles, California. Don't
let the Palm Treeze fool you. We do have a
rise in hate crimes, and there's some communities which are
more impacted than others. Unfortunately, we have had rise in
(33:56):
hate crimes almost every year over the last ten years,
almost and the communities impacted the most the Jewish community,
the LGBTQ plus community, and we did see a sharp
rise in hate crimes against the Asian Pacific Islander community
in twenty twenty as well. Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Well, I know that politics is a tough arena right now,
and it also feels like our individual politics are consuming
our lives in ways they used to not, and I
have a front row seat to that here at KFI.
Goodness knows we play our role in that. We try
to be smart and informative, but you know, we engage
(34:37):
in occasional yelling as well, and I know our audience
likes to engage in that from time to time while
also wanting to be informed. Is this climate different than
any other time in recent history as far as people
being able to connect with one another in spite of
the differences in opinion.
Speaker 9 (34:56):
Yes, people are more polarized now, that's just the reality.
And we at LA Civil Rights know that times are complex, right,
but we want to be intentional skill to let people
it's going to talk about neighbors. We saw the incredible
rocking people involved. We have fired in Alcadina and the Palisades, right,
(35:23):
but we want to let people know it's okay to
know who they were before there is a crisis. We
saw a number of people, you know, stand together in
unity as we dealt with the climate that we're dealing with,
knowledge that relates to immigration. However, people shouldn't have to
(35:44):
wait till until there's a crisis to you know, stand
together and to be unified, and just to have the
common decency of saying hello to your neighbor before there
is a crisis, like even just greeting someone in the
elevator or when you're out for a walk. And I
want people to do this when they feel safe, of course,
(36:04):
but I think it's important for people to simply just
say hello.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Look, it sounds a little corny. I mean, I'm not
going to ask you to concede that, but it sounds
a little corny. The City of la is launching a
just Say Hello campaign, and I bet there are a
lot of people rolling their eyes right now. And I
can understand that. But if you know of folks who
might be rolling their eyes or dismissing this out right,
what is your message that this is something worth thinking about.
Speaker 9 (36:32):
Yeah. Sure, it's a simple gesture just to acknowledge someone's existence.
And again, when you think about emergencies, when you think
about building the human connection even reducing stress in society,
we want to do all we can while we can.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
This is not.
Speaker 9 (36:56):
A big drain on city resources in this space. Encourage
people to do something friendly to build a better Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
You can learn more about this campaign at just Say
Hello dot org or follow LA Civil Rights on your
favorite social media platforms. Capri Maddox is the executive director
of the LA Civil Rights Department. Capri I am just
saying hello to you, and now it is time to
just say goodbye. I appreciate you coming on and talking
about the campaign.
Speaker 9 (37:27):
Thank you, Michael, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM sixty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This
is Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News,
here with you for the next couple of hours. Apologize
for that late jump. I got swept up in the
Christopher Cross. How can you not fall prey to the
(00:25):
yacht rock on a beautiful summer night like this in
southern California. But my goodness, I finally gave in today,
had to flip on that ac. We have been spoiled
in much of the Southland. I know there are parts
where some of you crazy people live, where you just
drip and drip and drip all summer long. But in
(00:47):
Metro La Orange County, even the valleys San Fernando and
San Gabriel, it's been pretty nice. But here in Burbank,
I'm sweating. I was sweating down town today and next
week it's gonna get worse, and I'm not happy about it.
I don't know how you feel about it. You're probably
(01:07):
accustomed to it. You deal with it. We all find
a way to deal with it, I suppose. But this
forecast is showing that the honeymoon is over. Summer is
coming back with a vengeance. The forecast for La starts
to show highs in the upper seventies and eighties by Monday,
but we'll see the lower nineties starting on Wednesday, mid nineties, Thursday,
(01:34):
mid nineties Friday. Let me see, is Brigida listening to
me right now? I know she's got that forecast ready.
I'm sorry to get you off guard there, but I
know you've been saying the forecast all day. What's it
going to be like in the high desert, the low desert,
the big valleys. It's gonna be hotter out there, isn't
it tomorrow? I mean for the week ahead. Is it
looking pretty rough?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yes, I mean tomorrow is starting with one hundred, and
I think it's just warming up for oh mess.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And I live in the valley, so it is hot. Yeah.
So I'm hoping that this is temporary, but I you know,
I know the reality. I know that we are in
for it, and uh, we're already getting a little taste
of it today. So I put the air on. I
don't know if you've had your air on, but I
mean all summer, I think I've only flipped it on
two or three times, and my windows just stay open
(02:24):
almost entirely all year. I love the winter in Los Angeles.
It's so hot in the summer, though, and that air
is on. Let's hope that this is temporary. That's all
I can say, speaking of weather and natural disasters and
(02:45):
that sort of thing. What a weird event we endured
just this week.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
I have been generated by this birthplace, and it could
be destructive of coastal areas. Insomulates impact estimated pretious survival
of the first tsunami wave is zero seven one pm well.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
A tsunami watch is now in place for California or
again in Washington State, with impact times expected late tonight
into tomorrow morning. A tsunami warning is in place for
Alaska's Solution Islands and Hawaii. The first tsunami wave, if
it hits, would be after seven to fifteen pm local
time in Hawaii. All of the shores of the islands
are said to be at risk. People on the Hawaiian
(03:27):
Islands are being told urgent action should be taken.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Okay, So that was the deal. Earlier this week. We
didn't know exactly what was going to happen. An earthquake
off the coast of Russia, pretty significant one. Luckily it
wasn't closer to land, because I mean, that was a
massive quake. They certainly felt it in Russia. But what
was happening after that is what was great cause for
(03:52):
concern on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, Japan, Russia, Hawaii,
the other islands floating out there, and here on the
West coast all the way up to Alaska, that a
tsunami could be materializing. And you know, when you get
a warning like this, you don't really know what to do, right,
(04:15):
I mean, it's difficult to forecast how big is this
thing going to be when it reaches us. And I know,
because we're good people, we were more concerned about our
friends in Hawaii and other parts of the world that
were likely to be more susceptible to this possibility. We
(04:35):
were expecting some significant waves, but how significant it's pretty scary.
Well it turned out for us, fortunately, not to be
much of anything.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
In many areas now, like in Hawaii, tsunami warnings have
been downgraded and evacuation warnings have been dropped. Early this morning,
people began going home. At this point, there is no
known damage in the US, and there was no massive
wave or series of waves like you think of in
Fukushima and twenty eleven or in Southeast Asia in two
thousand and four. Sensors have picked up some waves of
(05:10):
like four or five feet, but they've been mostly very small.
There will be an assessment done in places like Crescent
City in far northern California near the Oregon border that's
often prone to tsunami damage in that area because of geography,
but so far no damage is being reported anywhere in
the US. With the threat of the tsunami now over,
Los Angeles County announcing its beaches are open again. Restrooms,
(05:33):
parking lots, and access waves are open. But while the
beaches are open, there are worries strong dangerous currents will
remain an issue from the tsunami waves for a while
produced by the earthquake off the coast of Russia. In
some areas, people are being told they should stay out
of the water. So that was a pretty big sigh
of relief. I was watching a lot of coverage of this,
not sure what twixs I mean.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I'm a newsguy. I need to be ready to mobilize
in case the proverbial s hits the proverbial F. So
I'm watching to see if things get hairy for us,
and I bet a lot of you were tuned into
us or flipping on the television. I was watching various
feeds on YouTube to see what was going on with
this potential tsunami, and thankfully, not much came of it
(06:17):
really anywhere, and that's great news. But there is good
news locally beyond that. La City Council and timic Oscar
explained this at a city council meeting this week. By
the way, the La City Council is back from its
annual month long break from regular meetings, so this happened
to fall the day after all of this stuff was happening.
(06:38):
So council in timick Oscar, who incidentally represents the fifteenth
Council district, wishes much of the South Bay, the Harbor
area San Pedro. Wish has a lot of industry obviously
at the port, and a lot of business going on
on the waterfront. Here is what he had to say
about the way southern California mobilized, in the way city systems.
Speaker 6 (06:58):
Worked, and I want to command our emergency operations center
and all of the folks that do emergency operations for us.
We had an exercise that could have been very real,
and it was real for folks in Hawaii and for
folks farther up the coast for us of a tsunami
warning to hit the California coast and La County. And
(07:22):
I think it's important to acknowledge when the monitors work.
The announcement went out, the Mayor's office activated, the EOC
opened at a certain level. Calls came in to our
respective offices who have constituents on the coast. The tsunami advisory.
(07:44):
It was at first in a tsunami watch, which is
the lowest form, and then it was an advisory, which
is the next level. We were able to get information
out to our constituents. Folks in La County who were
live aboard on boats were able to make a decision
whether they want to etched their boats and not stay
over the night. Workers very importantly, workers who worked at
(08:05):
the waterline were given notification.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So it sounds like the message got out that if
we were going to be pounded by significant waves from
this earthquake off the coast of Russia, that we were
all notified appropriately. A little bit scary, not sure what
was going to happen, but the system apparently worked in
this case, and I know that is important to us
(08:28):
in southern California, where we are susceptible to fires, where
earthquakes happen, and there are warning systems in place for
all those. We don't get as much advanced notice yet
unfortunately for earthquakes, but it is nice to know, at
least according to city Council and Tim Mcoscar, that these
systems in place in the City of Los Angeles worked
(08:49):
as we were living in this momentary uncertainty related to
a tsunami. So none of us got too wet that day, thankfully,
But should that happen again, let's hope that we are
appropriately warned so that we can do the right thing.
(09:10):
Speaking of earthquakes, there was a legal earthquake late last night.
You may have noticed in recent weeks, immigration efforts across
southern California have dwindled to virtually nothing, certainly nothing like
we were seeing in early June and beyond, and that's
(09:32):
because of a legal challenge first filed by the ACLU
and other groups in a case that was later joined
by local governments, including the city and County of Los Angeles,
Santa Ana and Orange County, and other smaller cities across
La County. They won at the district court level, and
then this case went to the appeals court. This case
(09:53):
saying that immigration agents are targeting people based solely on
their race, their language spoken, and where they are working,
among other issues, and that this is discriminatory, that these
agents do not have proper cause to stop these folks.
Late last night, the appeals court made its decision.
Speaker 7 (10:12):
On Friday night, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued
a ruling to uphold a lower court's temporary order blocking
the Trump administration from conducting immigration enforcement in southern California.
The ruling affirms the order issued last month that granted
the restraining order requested by immigrant advocates. The ruling applies
to Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara,
(10:34):
and San Louis Obispo Counties. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass
said it was a victory for rule of law and
for the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
So I'm going to take you to the courtroom where
the arguments were heard earlier this week, and you will
hear for yourself some of the challenges that the Trump
administration faces in arguing its own position. You will hear
from the judges. We're going to get into that next,
and you'll also hear from me so liberatory LA Mayor
Karen Bass, who's very happy about this decision that's coming
(11:05):
up next.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News will be together till nine o'clock tonight. A federal
appeals court has ruled to uphold a lower court's temporary
order blocking the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate in immigration
stops and arrest across southern California. This was a decision
(11:34):
out of the ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals. They
held a hearing on Monday where you heard a White
House attorney argue on behalf of the Trump Administration's immigration
policies and a lawyer for the ACLU. In a case
that also involves the City of Los Angeles, the County
of Los Angeles, various other LA cities, LA County cities
(11:54):
as well as Santa Ana in Orange County. They argued
that immigration agents are targeting folks based on their race,
their language spoken, where they might be working, specifically areas
like car washes. They say that immigration agents do not
have just cause to go into these places, that they
are only going in there because they see Latinos working,
(12:17):
or they hear Spanish being spoken, or it's a workplace
that attracts immigrants. They don't have any facts necessarily supporting
that argument. Now, clearly they have found suspected illegal immigrants
in these places because we have seen the arrest. The
Trump administration says, we're not We're not doing it that way.
That's not the way we're doing it at all. I
want to take you to the courtroom on Monday. You're
(12:39):
going to hear first the Trump administration attorney and then
one of the judges.
Speaker 7 (12:45):
And there's definitely no policy of conducting detentions without reasonable suspicion.
Speaker 8 (12:50):
I don't think there was. I mean, yeah, there's no
policy that says we're going to conduct expressly, you know,
stop without reasonable suspicion. But I think the argument or
the allegation is that there is a policy of conducting
detentive stops based solely on some combination of apparent race
(13:14):
or ethnicity, specifically Hispanic or Latin, the language speaking Spanish
or speaking English with an accent, locations in the area, which,
according to your own declarations, are chosen based on information
that in the past some unspecified number of illegal aliens
(13:39):
have used or found work in that location or that
type of location.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So you can kind of hear that the judge is
not entirely buying the argument from the Trump administration. Now,
the way the Court of Appeals works, there are three judges,
but weird questions from all of them that were similar
of the arguments from the plaintiff side. A lawyer for
the ACLU and now by extension, local governments says, these
(14:10):
immigration agents they've got quotas, they've got orders, and they
are doing this indiscriminately.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
They have said that they want to push the envelope,
you know, turn the creativity knob up to eleven. They
have said, if it ends in handcuffs, go out there
and do it.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Now, they're not going to say, go out and violate
the law. But there's been a wink at a nod
from leadership. Two agents on the ground that said to them,
that says, you know what, dispatch with the ordinary rigors
of the law and go out there and snatch anybody up.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Now, again, the Trump administration says, that's not the way
that we're doing it. But one of the judges says, well,
if that's not the way you're doing it, then how
are you here in this court saying that this order,
this decision by a lower court has harmed your f.
Speaker 8 (15:02):
You're actually doing what the district court found you to
be doing then and has enjoined you from doing, then
there should be no harm. There's they're only actually constrained
if you're doing what she found you to be doing
and is telling you to not do, which you're either
(15:22):
it's unclear, denying that you're doing it all, or you're
saying it's lawful. So if you know, but if it
seems on the evidentiary issue you have to be saying
we're not doing that, then you'll have the opportunity to
show that. But if you're if you're not doing that,
then you're not actually affected.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
So that was when I felt, as somebody watching this
hearing that the appeals court was probably going to side
with the local governments and the ACLU, and and that
is exactly what happened.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
Now.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I know there's been some commentary out there that these, uh,
these three judges were all appointed by democratic presidents. It's
it's true that partisan judicial appointees are selected because the
hope is that they will see the law the same
way as that president. But we all know that's not
always the case. It is maybe more often than not
(16:13):
the case, or most of the time the case. But
you see judicial appointees fairly frequently rule in a way
that you might not have expected based on the president
who appointed them. In fact, it was this very court,
different judges, but this very court that handed a loss,
a big l to Governor Newsom when he sued the
(16:36):
Trump administration over the National Guard being deployed here in June.
Governor Newsom won at the lower court level the same
way this case did. By the time it was appealed
to the Ninth Circuit, President Trump won same court. Now,
it is rare to hear from Mayor Karen Bass on
(16:58):
a Friday night, but this ruling came down so late
that she held a press conference outside the Mayor's residence
in Hancock Park, and she was pretty jubilant over the decision.
Speaker 10 (17:08):
This is a victory upholding the constitution. The people of
Los Angeles stood strong, and this court order affirms that
federal immigration officers or the mask people, because in many
cases we weren't sure who they were, cannot stop people
(17:29):
based solely on their appearance, the race or ethnicity, the
language that they speak, being present at certain locations, or
the type of work that they do. We were concerned
that the temporary restraining order was put in place but
was going to be appealed and overturned at the Ninth
(17:50):
District because that is what happened to the governor in
this instance. The Ninth District Court upheld the temporary restraining order,
and so that means that people cannot be snatched off
the street by mask men like we had experienced for
almost two months in this city.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So the next stop for this case could be the
Supreme Court. If you were listening to Tiffany Hobbs before now,
she mentioned that there is a big recruitment effort going
for immigration agents. In fact, White House advisor Stephen Miller
posted on x what used to be called a quote tweet.
(18:30):
I don't know what they call it. Anymore now that
the platform is X. But basically you take a comment
that was made by somebody else and you share it
with your own comment. Well he did that, and the
other person commenting was Mayor Bass, who was celebrating this
decision on what used to be Twitter, and Stephen Miller
was just referencing if you want to be an ICE
agent and to port illegals, he says, illegals from Los
(18:51):
Angeles basically, join Ice, get a fifty thousand dollars bonus
to make your family proud. So to me, I read
that as this fight is definitely not over yet. It
has been quiet, very quiet for several weeks based on
what we saw in early June, comparatively much quieter. But
will it get loud again? We shall see. Yesterday was
(19:13):
a good day for Mayor Bass based on this, but
it was a mixed week. Indeed, some trouble in the
valley in two different locations. We're going to dive into
that next. As Michael Monks continues here on KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks reports. I am Michael Monks from
KFI News, happy to be with you on a Saturday
night in southern California. Brace yourselves, it is going to
be getting hotter. By the middle of next week, we'll
be feeling it all over this Southland. So I told
(19:50):
you at the top of the show, I flipped on
my ac for the third time maybe this summer. Really
loved that streak of unseasonably the cool weather we were
enjoying in the Ling metro area. I know there are
folks out in the deserts that did not benefit at
all from that unseasonable weather, But we are all going
to be a desert here very very soon. So brace
(20:12):
yourselves for that and let's hope it passes quickly. I
was hoping for a cool, cool summer. I think we've
earned it. But in the meantime, let's get back to
the news. Mayor Bass was busy this week. You heard
from her in the last segment, celebrating late last night
on the front steps of the Mayor's mansion in Hancock Park.
This ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that
(20:34):
is keeping ice on ice right now. Basically, the immigration
raids as we knew them earlier in the summer have
grinded to a halt because of a lower court's decision
that has now been upheld at the appeals court level.
But the mayor has also been busy in the valley.
There are residents of Encino who are absolutely losing their
(20:55):
minds over the state of things. And originally it was
just a string of scary crimes, certainly burglaries that I
reported on last year. This was happening in Encino that
patrols were going to be picking up because there had
been so many burglaries in the Encino neighborhood, many of
(21:16):
which were believed to have been done by pured organized
criminal gangs, possibly from other countries. That's scary enough, but
it really culminated in a serious tragedy when a couple,
including an executive with the program American Idol, were murdered
inside their house by an intruder. So folks in Encino rightfully,
(21:41):
rightfully want to see some changes.
Speaker 11 (21:44):
One of those break ins turned deadly when American Idol
music supervisor Robin Ka and her musician husband Tom DeLuca
were killed by a burglar after he got a hold
of the couple's gun during a Zoom community safety meeting
with city and law enforcement officials. Residents demanded more actions
such as drones, more police patrols, automatic license plate readers.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
We owe it to Robin Tom and every frightened resident
in Encino to make sure this never happens again.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Things have to change.
Speaker 10 (22:12):
Why did they have to take a death in order
for us to have a meeting like this.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
The mayor and other city officials did meet virtually with
some of those concerned residents in Encino about this spike
in burglaries, But how quickly can there be action? Like
I said, I've reported last year that Encino residents had
(22:39):
taken to the streets themselves to organize patrols because they
did not think the police response was strong enough, so
they were out there themselves. I do remember in that
reporting last year that the LAPED did increase their efforts,
including I believe, aerial surveillance. But here we are, almost
(23:03):
a full year later, and Encino residents are yet again
incensed at the state of things. It's tough, and so
the Mayor's had her handful hands full with that situation.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
She also got.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Into it with some protesters in Van Nuys. You're probably
familiar with the mayor's Inside Safe program. This is her
signature homeless program. It's been very expensive. It has not
housed the number of homeless people that we were promised
that it would, despite the hundreds of million dollars that
have been funneled to it. It basically helps remove homeless camps,
(23:44):
or at least it intends to remove homeless camps from
all over the city, one at a time and place
those residents into temporary housing, usually motels. It's a very expensive,
inefficient operation. Even the mayor concedes that now this is
a very expensive, unsustainable program. But before we can get
(24:05):
to fully addressing the inefficiencies, let's call them for the
sake of politeness, with inside Safe. There was an inside
Safe operation in Van Nuys this week, a significant homeless
camp near the four or five freeway that had been
a source of significant problems. Problems that you typically see
(24:26):
at large homeless camps, a lot of trash, drug use,
criminal activity, and fires. So finally the inside Safe program
targeted this one, but some activists got wind of this.
Now LA is full of activists. They don't like a
lot of these policies that remove homeless people from the streets.
(24:47):
Remember it is illegal to sleep on the sidewalk. Public
camping is not allowed by law in the city of
Los Angeles, so remember that every time you see any
of these camps. I guess, for the sake of humanity,
they don't always enforce it. I know that's true in
(25:10):
my own neighborhood. But the city is within its right
to get these camps out of these public areas. There
are many many activists in Los Angeles who don't think
that's right, who think that the camps are communities, and
that if the housing being offered to them is only temporary,
(25:34):
it's not good enough. Regardless of what you think of
the merits of the inside Safe program, I feel like
most of us would agree a motel room would be
better than a dirty, old tent on the side of
the freeway. And the mayor was pretty fired up at
these protesters who had to be physically removed from the scene.
Speaker 12 (25:57):
The idea that people would prefer to live an absolute
squalor like this, that's what I don't understand. But I
think most people who advocate for maintaining these conditions do
not live like this. They're not sleeping here they're sleeping
someplace else comfortably, and they're trying to say to these people,
continue to live in squalor until a.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Building is built. I think that is atrocious. So she
was pretty ticked off. She showed up right at the
scene and talked to the press and said what a
lot of people would think, like, what do you think
the alternative should be? Let the folks stay? And where
are you protesters going back to after this to attend?
Probably not. Los Angeles is such a strange place, such
(26:42):
a strange place, indeed. But I'm wondering if you think
people in LA and southern California are appropriately nice. Sometimes
we're too nice when it comes to people in power
and not cleaning up the streets fast enough. But what
about just every day niceties. Do you say hello to
(27:03):
strangers and that sort of thing. Those are traits that
are maybe typically associated with other parts of the country.
But there is a campaign that is launched again here
in LA that wants folks just to say hello to
each other. We're going to talk about that next, will
be joined by a city representative to explain the just
(27:25):
Say Hello campaign. Just Say Hello, and we have a
huge eight o'clock hour I want you to stick around
for that. If you can't look us up at KFI
AM six forty dot com or the iHeartRadio app, you
can always get our two hour podcast listen to whichever
parts you want, and it's always free, and we'd love
for you to do that. But at eight o'clock we'll
talk to Elaine Colotti, who's from undercover billionaire at Palisades
(27:48):
resident and a developer who says it maybe time for
that neighborhood to leave the city of Los Angeles. How
about That will be joined by Senator Adam Schiff, who
will talk about a new piece of legislation that he
says will help people with mortgages in places like all
To Dena, Pacific, Palisades, Malibu that have been hit with
natural disasters like the wildfires. And a local elected official
has decided to run for statewide office. He says it's
(28:09):
time to restore people's trust in the voting system in California.
That's all ahead on Michael Monks Reports right here on
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI
News with you till nine o'clock tonight. How nice are
we here in southern California? Do you find yourself saying
hello to strangers? The City of LA would like you
to do it more. It's relaunched its annual just Say
(28:43):
Hello campaign, and here to talk with us about it
is the executive director of LA's Civil Rights Department, Kaprimattics. Kaprimatics.
Always a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for making
some time for KFI.
Speaker 9 (28:54):
Thank you for having me, Michael.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
You know, I'm one of those dreaded transplants to Los Angeles,
and I come from a part of the country where
it is pretty typical, regardless of politics or anything else,
that you make a little eye contact, You at least
give a head nod, you know, or you might say
hello in the elevator, You just offer general pleasantries. In
LA is one of those giant cities where that is
(29:16):
not necessarily part of your daily practice, and it seems
like this campaign from the LA Civil Rights Department is
to try to counter that a bit, to inspire people
to go out and just say hello. I mean, am
I wrong in that interpretation.
Speaker 9 (29:35):
You are absolutely right, Michael, and you should go. Although
I'm a Native Angelio, I've lived in Philadelphia, New Jersey,
and North Carolina, and in so many places people do
acknowledge your existence. And in LA it's a busy city,
fact city, and we want to make sure that people
acknowledge their neighbors and they may become your friends one day.
(30:00):
But definitely the human touch is missing in some parts
of Los Angeles, and LA Civil Rights is here to
make that make a change in that space.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I think if I were to give an honest assessment
of Los Angeles, I wouldn't say that people are necessarily
inherently rude or mean. I would say that they will
match your energy. And that is to say, if it's
a stranger, Let's say you walk into their shop or
you're passing them on the street and they are not
inclined to initiate a conversation, if you smile or if
(30:32):
you engage politely, I find more often than not that
you are met with the same. Is that your experience
as a native, that is my.
Speaker 9 (30:42):
Experience as a native. If you acknowledge someone and give
them that smile, they will smile back. However, I'm running
across people in younger generations. When you think about you know,
gen Z millennial, sometimes they look at you with a
(31:02):
puzzling looks like did you mean to say hello to me?
Or do I know you? So we want to make
sure that people have the license to know it's okay
to just say hello in the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, we do have social pressures beyond the historic ones.
We have these new communication tactics that don't necessarily lend
themselves to in person behaviors anyway. So that's just another challenge.
I don't know if we can overcome that with this campaign,
but it sounds like it's worth a try. This week
International Friendship Day, the City of LA and the Civil
Rights Department kicked off this just Say Hello campaign. I
(31:38):
know this is something you try to do every year.
What is it?
Speaker 9 (31:42):
Well, we want to be intentional to let people know
that hate has no home in the City of Los Angeles,
and hate and disclination and inequity actually thrives when people
do not acknowledge your existence as a fellow human being.
And we want it to be intentional to send a
(32:05):
strong message that we are here and we are united,
as Angeline knows when you think about the world is
coming to Los Angeles, so we need to be united,
to be welcoming to all, and.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
We just say hello. Campaign is part of a broader effort,
the LA for All initiative and tell us how that
plays into each other.
Speaker 9 (32:32):
Yes, so the LA for All campaign, some people can
find us at hashtag LA for All. You'll see artwork
and this hate crime prevention artwork to send a strong
message that we are united. As Angeline knows in our
signature message is LA is for Everyone. And that campaign
(32:54):
is actually in twenty one languages. Some folks saw it
in over ten thousand Asians in the city of Los Angeles.
We had t shirts, we had shops and windows, and
you may have even seen it on our metro buses,
sanitation trucks, et cetera. So this campaign is a follow
(33:14):
up of the LA Is for every One campaign, and
we actually have more hate crime prevention art campaigns to come.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
When you mentioned hate crime prevention, what are you seeing
in that area as far as trends, are we seeing
hate crimes in LA?
Speaker 9 (33:33):
Unfortunately, Michael, we are even in Los Angeles, California. Don't
let the Palm Treeze fool you. We do have a
rise in hate crimes, and there's some communities which are
more impacted than others. Unfortunately, we have had rise in
(33:56):
hate crimes almost every year over the last ten years,
almost and the communities impacted the most the Jewish community,
the LGBTQ plus community, and we did see a sharp
rise in hate crimes against the Asian Pacific Islander community
in twenty twenty as well. Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Well, I know that politics is a tough arena right now,
and it also feels like our individual politics are consuming
our lives in ways they used to not, and I
have a front row seat to that here at KFI.
Goodness knows we play our role in that. We try
to be smart and informative, but you know, we engage
(34:37):
in occasional yelling as well, and I know our audience
likes to engage in that from time to time while
also wanting to be informed. Is this climate different than
any other time in recent history as far as people
being able to connect with one another in spite of
the differences in opinion.
Speaker 9 (34:56):
Yes, people are more polarized now, that's just the reality.
And we at LA Civil Rights know that times are complex, right,
but we want to be intentional skill to let people
it's going to talk about neighbors. We saw the incredible
rocking people involved. We have fired in Alcadina and the Palisades, right,
(35:23):
but we want to let people know it's okay to
know who they were before there is a crisis. We
saw a number of people, you know, stand together in
unity as we dealt with the climate that we're dealing with,
knowledge that relates to immigration. However, people shouldn't have to
(35:44):
wait till until there's a crisis to you know, stand
together and to be unified, and just to have the
common decency of saying hello to your neighbor before there
is a crisis, like even just greeting someone in the
elevator or when you're out for a walk. And I
want people to do this when they feel safe, of course,
(36:04):
but I think it's important for people to simply just
say hello.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Look, it sounds a little corny. I mean, I'm not
going to ask you to concede that, but it sounds
a little corny. The City of la is launching a
just Say Hello campaign, and I bet there are a
lot of people rolling their eyes right now. And I
can understand that. But if you know of folks who
might be rolling their eyes or dismissing this out right,
what is your message that this is something worth thinking about.
Speaker 9 (36:32):
Yeah. Sure, it's a simple gesture just to acknowledge someone's existence.
And again, when you think about emergencies, when you think
about building the human connection even reducing stress in society,
we want to do all we can while we can.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
This is not.
Speaker 9 (36:56):
A big drain on city resources in this space. Encourage
people to do something friendly to build a better Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
You can learn more about this campaign at just Say
Hello dot org or follow LA Civil Rights on your
favorite social media platforms. Capri Maddox is the executive director
of the LA Civil Rights Department. Capri I am just
saying hello to you, and now it is time to
just say goodbye. I appreciate you coming on and talking
about the campaign.
Speaker 9 (37:27):
Thank you, Michael, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
KFI AM six forty on demand
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