December 23, 2024 • 33 mins
LA crime with Dennis Zine.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am six forty.
Speaker 3 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We're on every day.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
From one until four and then after four o'clock. If
you missed parts of the show, or god forbid, the
whole show, you go to the iHeartRadio app John Cobel
Show on demand. It's the podcast same as the radio show.
And we have a special guest. We haven't seen it
in a while. That is Zi, former La City councilman.
(00:29):
He's been with LAPD for many decades. He's still a
reserve officer.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Right, carrying a gun and protecting society.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
What kind of natural disaster would have to happen for
them to call you out after I mean, you're what
seventy seven years.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Old, seventy seven gonna be seventy eight and lugus twenty
eighty three from one hundred.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
What could you do out there if there was some
kind of threat?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I worked uniform and they can't discriminate against your age,
your sex, whatever the case may be, all right. As
long as I can jump and fire a weapon and
protect society, they're doing it all right.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And Dennis has been on our show over the years
and it's coming on to talk about the new LAPD chief,
Jim McDonald, who used to be La County Sheriff and
Long Beach Police chief as well. And wet's talk about
the crime because there's a great divide between officials and
government who think the crime isn't so bad and the public,
(01:24):
which sees their toothpaste locked up in drug stores. So
there's a big disconnect and that's what Dennis and I,
among other things, are going to talk about. Dennis, welcome again,
Thank you, it's good to see you again. All right,
So what do you know about about crime in Los Angeles?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
What do you think is going on?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well, I joined the LAPD in nineteen sixty eight. I've
been with them ever since, so I know about crime
patterns and how it goes up and down, and the
politics involved, serving on the city Council for twelve years
a charter commission before that. I have a son who's
a captain with LAPD, so I'm well connected with it
as far as crime goes. There's a citywide profile that
they publish and as of eleven nine, twenty twenty four,
(02:03):
we have eight thousand, seven hundred ninety police officers. Now
when I talk about police officers. That's everyone from the
chief of police to the recruiting academy, detectives, people on vacation,
people are injured, on doing whatever the case can be.
There's eight thousand, seven and ninety protecting the massive population
in the city of Los Angele.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
That's a very low number.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Historically it should be about ten thousand, So there's a
desperate need for more personnel. I encourage them to sign
if they're looking at law enforcement. But when we look
at the numbers, the actual numbers of homicide, rape, robbery,
agaby assault, and total person crimes, if I compare it
twenty twenty two to twenty twenty four, they're all down.
(02:43):
For example, homicide in twenty twenty two there were three
hundred and forty six. Twenty twenty four there's two hundred
and forty three. So if you look at the categories homicide, rape,
rob reactivated assault, total person crimes, they're down. The numbers
have come down. Why it's not that crime is not happening,
it's that people have given up on most part and
(03:04):
not reporting. There's many people who have been victims of
crime and they haven't reported it because they don't think
that report's important, That report is critical. That's how they
deploy officers, that's how they get detectives to do the
follow up. Every single crime needs to be reported. But
people say, well, nothing's going to happen. We call nine
one to one, no one answers, We wait in line.
Nobody cares. People care, and law enforcement cares. But it's
(03:28):
incumbent upon the public. When your house is broken into,
when your car is stolen, when you're robbed, when you're attacked,
to report that to the police department. They need to
have that documentation. But when I look at the statistics,
we say crime is down. I'm sure it's up, but
people aren't reporting it. And we go by the number
of reported crimes. That's how they judge the factors of
(03:48):
crime and prevention.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, but it.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Doesn't represent the reality, as you just pointed out, and
people react to the reality.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I mean, I know a lot.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Of people who said they have seen trespassers, they report burglaries,
break insto their house, all the theft that's gone on
retail stores, venience stories, drug stores, right, massive theft. Nobody
in those stories calls it in because they say the
cops don't even show up.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well, you've got fifteen year olds on bicycles that go
to a seven to eleven and loot the place. I mean,
it's incredible. We've had the street takeovers. We used to
have street racing, but now they take over the intersection
and do the donuts, and yeah, people get injured and killed, etc.
But you have what happens becomes a lawless society. And
when they call the police, they don't have anyone to
dispatch because the shorter personnel, they're shorter dispatchers. Many times
(04:36):
when you call nine one one, that phone will ring
and there's no one answering that phone. True, and say
where are the people who's supposed to serve us? When
I say, we're desperately shorter personnel, not only sworn police officers,
but the civilian part. That's very critically important if people
are looking for a career, not only LAPD, but you
have it throughout Los Angeles County where they're shorter police officers.
(04:57):
And maybe these apartments hire officers from lap and they
give them a huge signing bonus when they go to
those other department because they're already trained.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So well, the bottom fell out in twenty twenty with
the anti police protests to fund the police. Black Lives
Matter and Eric Garcetti calling them killers killers and taking
a knee worshiping in front of the BLM protesters and
a lot of police quit.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Did they not, Well, they found other places to go.
There's other cities in La County and other places in
California where they do support law enforcement, where they strongly
support law enforcement. You go to Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills
supports a law enforcement You're never going to hear their
council or the mayor or the police chief saying anything negative.
They want something in Beverly Hills Basically every intersection Beverly
Hills under video surveillance. They got drones that they launched
(05:42):
on calls. Beverly Hills and many of these small cities
fund their police officers, respect their police officers, and support them.
But when you've got wackle council members who are socialist Democrats,
they do everything they can to undermine the law enforcement.
You've got council members that voted against the chief of
police than McDonald. Why would you vote against the man
who wants to protect and serve These people get elected
(06:04):
by the public that wants to be saved and then
they have their ownly agenda. The socials Democrats in the
city Council or a disgrace. They don't protect their constituents,
they don't protect anything there collecting the paycheck, and they
condemned the police, and then two of them that were
in council voted against Chief McDonald. I went down and
testified at the request of the Mayor before council, and
(06:24):
I couldn't believe the conduct of the audience. They were
cursing at will. It's like, is there any decorum and
city council There used to be when I was there.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
It's these activist groups that are important to disrupt the
council meetings and they do it, and they do it.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
When I was there, we used to have two uniformed
officers protecting the council, maintaining order in the council chambers.
They now have twenty that's ten police cars that are
pulled off the streets in Los Angeles to protect the
council when they're conducting their meetings at City Hall. It's
really a sad situation how it's deteriorated, but there's no respect.
The comments are absolutely outrageous. I have not been to
(07:01):
council since I left, and it's been almost twelve years.
Last time I was in council chambers, I was appalled
when I saw the conduct taking place and I heard
the F bomb constantly. It's like, what is going on here?
It's a whole different environment. And I talked to the officers,
how many are you here? With twenty twenty twenty offices?
That's ten police cars that we would have two officers
(07:21):
in a car patrolling. So the city has to be protected,
but you need elected officials. And I'm going to give
the mayor credit. The mayor is trying, but she doesn't
have full support of the city council. And it was
clear when two council members voted against Jim McDonald, who's
a wonderful man, a lot of experience. Why he wants
to after he left LAPD goes to Long Beast, goes
the ship. Why he wants to do this at this
point in life. I really give him credit because he
(07:44):
wants to do it for the right reason. He's not
there for the money of the glory. He wants to
make Los Angeles say, but you can't do it without
the support of the council that gives you appropriations to
make sure that the officers could do their job to
protect and serve. Why is the public voting in these
democratic socialists. I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I mean they come from the poor neighborhoods, yes, and
I don't understand because those areas, that's where you have
a lot of these people are victims of crimes. They're
putting up with all the chaos, Yes, that happened. Why
do they want I mean this new woman who's replacing
Kevin de Leon, Yes, you know her campaign slogan was
at the.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Police well and she admitted and I heard an interview
she did on the radio she's a socialist Democrat.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, that means what that group.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
That means she's not for what law enforcement, what LAPED
professional officers want to do. They want to protect and serve.
But when you have a council that's divided, Not all
council members are that way. Bob Bloomfield and other council
members are very supportive, John Lee very supportive. But when
you only have a small group of elected officials that
make those decisions, and now all of a sudden, immigration
(08:48):
is a big issue. If LAPD want to go out
and enforce immigration laws, they do not have the personnel
to do it. I wouldn't worry about them. Enfortunate they
don't have the personnel to have ale radio calls.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Leave it on enforcement, abrac about it's because they an
internal memo surface today from Homeland Security and Venezuelan gang
Trent Diarragua. They're in sixteen states. They're in Los Angeles.
Joseah Bara who raped and killed Lake and Riley in Athens, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
He was a member of that group.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
So they're here and LAPD can't do anything to arrest them,
to get them deported, to cooperate with the federal government.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
They can't. If it's strictly immigration. LAPD is banned for
years officers doing that. But even if they were to
do that, they don't have the people to do it. Again,
they don't have enough officers handling the radio calls for service.
Leave alone, go out and do an immigration enforcement. And
when you make a report, now body camera. Every time
you stop someone for a traffic violation, most of the
listeners will see there's no traffic enforcement. People are speed
(09:46):
and running red lights. You've got very few officers doing
traffic enforcement. You've got to write a report. When you
write a tritation, it's all on bodycam. I mean, it's
become so cumbersome for the officers. Basically they'll handle a
radio call, but the problem is there's more radio call
that there are officers to handle him. So the frustration
goes to the public. And I hope Jim McDonald gets
the support he needs from the council. I know the
(10:07):
mayor is going to support him. The Olympics are coming,
major events coming. You need to number one, boast of
the police department with personnel at the same time, do
you give them the tools to do their job and
don't pick on them and make them feel bad for
doing the job of protecting and serving the people of
Los Angeles?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Can you stay for another segment?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I will stay all day if you want. I know
you had.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
'ron every day from one until four and then after
four o'clock John Cobelt's show on demand on the iHeart app.
We continue with Dennis Sign, former LA City Councilman LAPD
since nineteen sixty eight, still a reserve officer and he's
talking about we're talking about the perception of crime versus
the reality of crime. So I know if you heard.
(10:55):
But earlier this year we had Dominic troy On. He
was the enterim LAPD chief, yes, until McDonald finally took over.
I guess this week, yes, but he came in and
he had a bunch of statistics saying crime is down,
and then he said that he thinks people are just
watching too much news and too much social media.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That pissed off the audience.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
You know, the audience, like I was saying before, goes
to the store and it takes you an hour to
get out of CVS because so many things are locked up.
So clearly we're not imagining this. And he's not the
only one though. There's this been this condescending attitude from politicians,
although we up to Gavin Newsom where they treat us
like little children and saying now now you just had
(11:40):
a bad dream.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
It's really not so terrible out there. Why do they
do that?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I don't know why they do that, But what I
do know is that stores are locking up merchandise. I
was at a major store recently and I was talking
to the manager and I said what's the story when
theft takes place? He said, the company policy at our store,
I'm going to tell you what story is. But it's
a major store. It is not to interfere with someone stealing.
I said, what if they're taking this kind of huge,
(12:07):
expensive we can't do anything. We have to let them
walk out the door. I said, you've got to be kidding.
That's a corporate policy. So they basically condone people stealing items.
He said, you see the cage there with all the
items in the cage. I said, this is not cost
go by the way, because they do have security. He said,
we lock it up so people can't take it. But
I said, if someone takes this or that they can
do it, we don't do anything about it. Do you
(12:29):
make a police report? No, we don't do. That's exact policy.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That's another theft. That's hackling that no one is responding
to the police talking about Gable.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
That that's why makes everybody crazy is the businesses gave up.
They don't file any police reports, and then the police
come and tell us that everything is fine.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
It's like the hell with all of.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
You crimes down crime. I got the statistics right here.
You don't make a report, it shows no crime.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
And then the La Times has this is almost like
a prayer that they put in every crime story saying, well,
actually crime is down. It's like the stupid reporters don't
know any better.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, well, all like Times going through some crisis. Yeah,
but then let me you mentioned Gaven Newsom. He is
uprooting from Fair Oaks to a nine point one million
dollar home in Marine County. He's going to a nine
point one million dollar home. This is the man who
takes care of the California people. Nine point women dollar home. Gavenuwsom.
His salaries two hundred and three thousand dollars. He's he
(13:22):
affording a nine million dollar home and the thing's not
even in his name. And this gas price increase.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Oh yeah, it's going to be ninety cents a gallon
next year.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
What the hell is going on?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
And many gallons you're take, we're going to pay four
dollars plus in the four dollar range, so now you'd
be paying five dollars. It's ridiculous, But that's that's what
our elected leaders. When people vote, they need to look
at the person. What do they represent, what do they
want to do for society, for the homeowner, for the
business person. I know many business people that have a
hard time making any kind of profit because of the regulations.
(13:57):
For example, restaurant owners. I have a friend who has
a restaurant in the San Fernento Valley, a very popular restaurant,
and he says, you've got these street vendors that are
selling food on the street competing with him. He's got
to pay minimum wage, he's got to have insurance, he's
got to have health inspection. Even catering trucks have health inspection.
But you set up a little stand on the street,
no regulation, know nothing. You're taking away from a business
(14:20):
that has to pay all kinds of taxes, utilities. Things
are not working as they should. No, there's so much
disorder it is. And then look at the homeless population.
I mean, if you look at why do they tolerate
the homeless population?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And the voters spend.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Millions and millions and millions of dollars and they vote
these measures in and it's not getting any better, it's
getting worse. Well, there's your money, folks, wake up and
look at reality. You're spending money and you have a
poor quality of life in the city. Of the Angels.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
What is wrong with voters in Los Angeles and in California.
I mean, the gas is two dollars more a gallon
because of Newsom in the legislature. The crime is crazy
because of Newsom in the legislature.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
The homeless situation. No other state has any.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Of this, none, none. But I'll tell you what. People
who work for the city of La You look at
where they are when they retire. They're out of California.
They're out of Los Angeles. That's what happens. They're taking
those pension dollars with us our tax money, our tax pensions. Well,
they deserve that pension. They work for it, they receive that,
but they're the chief of police.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
They work for it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
With the Tennessee what the tenant, Well he went to Tennessee. Yeah,
So you know, no begrudging. You can do that. You
can live anywhere you want. But the fact of the
matter is our voters are not recognizing what they're dealing with.
So what's wrong.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Is there some kind of magical spell that people are
living under, you know, as a virus infected their minds.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
There's something that's affecting the voting population. Clearly, the voting
population is not in tune to reality. Reality is you
have an understaffed police department. Do you have a city
council that votes against polical issues that they need to
have if they want to if they want to have
a new tool to protect society, the council votes against it,
not all of them. But you've got this growing group
(16:05):
that does not support law enforcement as far as the dsas, Yes,
you go, Soda Martinez, Nthia Rahman, you this is Hernandez
and this new woman Hurrado, I forget his last name
is Isabelhado. She's a member and she said she's a
member of that group. And that group is anti police.
And if they're anti police, then they're pro criminal. You
can't be you can't be anti criminal and anti police.
(16:28):
You got to be pro police and anti criminal. But
when you're a victim and your car stolen, your cattle
of the converter, it's that stolen. You're going to pay
over one thousand dollars to get the replace. Just remember
if you would have had more police officers maybe arresting
these people and doing something about it, or how about
the street lights their state taking the wires out so
you don't have street lights at night, and you're still
paying on your property tax for street lighting. It's happening everywhere,
(16:52):
you know.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
They wander around people's ring cameras, neighbors ring cameras, pick
up these guys in the middle of the night dressed
in black hoodies. Next day it's like, why is it
so dark?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right?
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And the whole block for several blocks around all over
They got all the wires.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
All over the place and it's getting worse. And then say,
we don't have the resources, we don't have the personnel,
we don't have that, we can't buy the wire to
put it.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Back together, and the budget is bigger than ever and
they're and they're they're broke.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
And they're having a problem because of the liability. Because
the city attorney needs to wake up and say, how
am I going to handle the liability that's affecting the
City of Los Angeles. Because every time an officer does something,
they're gonna get criticized, ridiculed. They wear body camps to
justify what they're doing. My heart goes out. The officer's
working radio cars and dealing with this on a daily basis,
and the taxpayers need to wake up and say let's
put people in office who are going to protect us,
(17:38):
our business and our community. LA was not always the
way it is now, but it's getting worse.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Was it like this even ten years ago? I know,
all right, Dennis, it was good scene. Hey, I'm not
going to hurry, but I'll say, huh, I'm not going
to hurry. All right, you want to stay one more?
I think it's fun. Okay, A lot that people know reality.
I'm here pret reality. I'm with you on the We're
on the same team. All right, one more secment. Dennis
Vines coming on, Dennis zign You're.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
He can follow us at John Cobelt Radio and we're
looking to get to twenty thousand followers by the end
of the year. We got that designed with us former
Los Angeles City councilmen, back when councilmen were grown men,
rational people, and the city was run well. And he
also has been with LAPD since nineteen sixty eight, still
(18:26):
as a reserve officer, and he's got a lot of
common sense, a lot of logic, a lot of obvious
truths that he's telling here. All right, let's talk about
Neither one of them is a new player on the scene,
but they have new jobs. Jim McDonald, you mentioned him
a couple of times already. What can we expect from
Jim McDonald being the new LAPD chief? How's life going
(18:48):
to get better?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
You can expect he will be a strong leader and
he's not a pushover. He smiles a lot. He's from Boston.
He has a nice smile, very cordial, but he is
a professional member of law enforcement, not only here but
Long Beach Delly sheriff for five years. He knows it
inside and out. You can't pull your roll over Jim's eyes.
And what you're going to find is with the World Cup,
(19:11):
the Super Bowl, the Olympics, eyes are going to be
on Los Angeles. He's going to put together this organization.
There will be a lot of retirement's taking place, and
we need to boaster the numbers, but he's going to
put together a winning operation because he wants to shine
and make Los Angeles shine, and we want to make
Los Angeles Police Department shine. I was a member of
the eighty four Olympics team and it was a wonderful
experience as a law enforcement also to do that. He's
(19:34):
going to bring new environment with his leadership because the
people he puts in place, his command staff, are going
to be delivering what he demands, and he demands excellence.
He doesn't accept anything out of than excellence.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
And I'm glad he's going to do that, and I
know that's something Karen Bass is preaching. What irritates me
is that everybody's geared up to try to clean up
the city for the Olympics, and we've been living in
manure for the ten years.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Literal, I want to use the s word.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
We've been living walking around in people's feces right and
needles for ten years. Why is everyone interested now in
cleaning up for the world stage and no one's interested
in what we have to live with, you know, all
the ordinary tax payers.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
It should have been that way a long time ago.
I know, back in the early sixties when I came
on the late sixties, it was a different world. We
didn't have the homeless population we have now, and it's
been ignored for you know, they closed the mental hospitals,
and Ronald Reagan and this and that, but that's all history.
They need to address it now. But we legalize drugs.
We make it very easy. The day I went down
to City Council to testify before the council about the chief,
(20:44):
I'm walking on City Hall property and what do I see?
A hype needle? A hype needle there on the steps
of city Hall. So you've got people that have given
up on themselves, But we as a society don't need
to give up on them. We need to address it
and be very vigorous. Like San Francisco they cleaned place up.
When foreign dignitaries come to town. It needs to be
done on a regular basis and not Why won't they
(21:06):
There's a there's a tendency to just ignore it and
uh and come why you know, like someone come, let's
cover it with a sheet and then we'll ignore.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
But did they end up walking through all this film
they do just to get the city Hall?
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I know?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
You know we had my wife and I were just
downtown last week. It is terrifying. You know, we come
out of an event, our car is a half a
block away, and we've got to like lay out a
battle plan. You know. All right, I'll go left, you
go right. Wait, there's a weirdo on a bike coming.
Wait there's another guy who's stumbling down the sidewalk. How
do we zigzag around the two of them at the
(21:39):
same time. Okay, I'll unlock the door and you jump in,
and then you lock the door, and then I'll unlock
it again so I can jump in.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We actually had this conversation.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Because you don't feel safe, and now we weren't safe.
Reality is you're not. And that's why so many people
have applied for ccwsurrig and see what they want to
get me a gun to protect themselves. But it's like
like the celebrity he gets his catalytic converter stone, he
gets shot and murdered.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yes, well that's what I'm afraid of. Fifteen city council
members and a mayor. Why don't they get up every
morning and say enough of the crazy people, enough of
the filth, enough of the criminals.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Because many of them say, some of them soldierst Democrats
cater to them, like the park where they take the
fence down and they open it up to the people
who've destroyed the place. This is the problem. You've got
elected officials who don't care. They only cater to certain groups,
not to the masses that pay taxes. The people that
(22:34):
pay taxes deserve better and deserve more. I will say
Karen bass is trying, but she can't do it without
the support of the council. Many cities have a council
working with the mayor with the police. Sadly, Los Sanders
doesn't have that attitude, and we've got knuckleheads on the
city council that create this negative environment that we all
as taxpayers suffer. I don't leave my house. I don't
(22:56):
leave my house. I don't take a walk without protecting myself.
That's how I feel safe in the city of Los Angeles.
People need to realize there is crime that's not reporting.
There's criminals that are running free. And you look at
the district attorney gas gone. Thank god, he's gone. He
will be gone soon. He's let so many cases pile
up that are sitting getting ignored. You've got a new one,
(23:18):
Nathan Hockman, coming in and I've met with him a
number of times. He's going to be wonderful. But you
have a team. You got a new police chief, You're
gonna have a new DA and we're gonna get back
to what we call basics to make it a safe environment.
For the families, for the kids, so your car is
not broken into your catalytic conversion, so you can go
to the market at night and not worry about being accosted.
This is going to be an experience that people are
(23:38):
going to be looking for, and that's what they deserve
and that's what they're paying for. And those knucklehead council members,
which I call crazy people, need to somehow understand either
buckle up and get in line or move on to
something else, because Los Angeles wasn't always what it is,
and it's because of the ignorance, and it's because of
ignoring is why we're in this predicular situation that needs
(23:59):
to change, and it needs to change before the Olympics
and the World Cup and all these other experiences.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
That are going to come to Los Angeles. Yeah, I know,
it actually enrages me. It's like, oh, by twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
What about now? What about now you're paying taxes? Now
your street lights are out because they're seeing the wire.
Well wait a second city, put it back together. Do
what you need to do. Karen Bass wants to clean
up MacArthur Park. You went to Langers, you know what
it was that the owner of Langers nor My why no. Personally, yeah,
he got a ton of publicity. I mean his twenty
seven dollars cornby sandwich wonderful. But he got a tremendous
(24:32):
amount of free publicity. But you know, he's still in place,
and the place is still a disaster. Except the sidewalk
where you line up to go in the restaurant that's
cleaned up. The rest of it still looks like hell.
It's been neglected, and the council member there has done nothing,
nothing to miss it. N this is Hernandez. Yes, they
don't have any pride. They have no pride. I don't
know why they're in public office. I don't know why
the people elect these people to public office. It's a
(24:54):
disgrace to the taxpayers, the good, honorable taxpayers, the women
and children to tolerate this environment. And then let's talk
about Metro. I ride on the Metro. That's a Metro disaster.
We can do a host show on Metro. That's another disaster.
They take a lady who's former FBI, who's former military,
and they fire her and they don't put anybody in place.
(25:14):
It's like, wait a second, what are you doing to
protect I go on the metro once in a while,
but I don't go on unless I'm armed and protecting
myself and whoever I'm with. This is not the way
the City of the Angel should be, and God help
us to change it. Before the eighty four Olympics. At
eighty four Olympics, I was there at the eighty four Olympics,
right before the next Olympics. Don't coming around. It needs
to change, but it won't change until people wake up
(25:36):
and start saying we want a difference, we want it better,
and we want it now. We don't want to wait.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
They woke up in San Francisco and Oakland. They got
rid of the mayor in both cities. They got rid
of the district attorney in both cities.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I mean, and here, I mean got rid of the dea.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
You got rid of the day.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
But we're still sunk with this idiot city council.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Well, they're the ones who set the tone. But the
people put those people in and they do ballot harvest
you all kinds of things. And what's happening is our
good law buying taxpayers and our good law abiding police
officers and firefighters. When they get that pension, they seem
to go to other places where it's safe and secure.
We got great weather, we've got great environment. We can
make it a great place, but we need to work
(26:15):
together to make it happen, and God help us if
it doesn't get better.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Eric, you got that that audio?
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Are we come back on to play the audio and
I want you to react to a Dentis sign about
this neighborhood homeless camp and what's going on. It's been
there a while and it's in the neighborhood where Eric's
family lives.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Ron every day from one until four and then after
four o'clock John Cobelt's show on demand on the iHeart app.
That design is with us former La City councilman, member
of the LAPD for fifty five years now, and he's
been involved in public service for a long time and
like all of let's fed up with the direction LA
(27:03):
has gone. I want to play you this news story.
We just got a couple minutes. This is going on
where Eric's parents live in Tarzana. Lauren Leicster KTLA Channel five.
Listen to the story about this homeless encampment in a
residential neighborhood.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
About a dozen residents speaking out to us saying they
want more help from this city. They say homelessness in
this area of Bessemer and Rosita has become a major problem,
and with it drug use and safety issues. A Tarzana
resident capturing these photos at a bus stop depicting what
appears to be illegal drug use in broad daylight, right
out in the open. Just a few examples of what
(27:42):
neighbors we spoke to tell us they want to see stopped.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
We've been suffering from the homeless encampments in the area.
They've been doing fires, graffiti the majority.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
Of the time that you can see groups gathered using
drugs or obviously in fualse wing out of it.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
They formed an online group with seventy members, several of
them showing up to talk to us, saying they've been
meeting with local officials and trying to figure out how
to solve the issue.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
They want to see more action.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
In the meantime, there's a lot of issues with us
being afraid to walk down the street.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
I've considered selling my house because I just don't feel
safe in my neighborhood.
Speaker 7 (28:19):
You know, We're all working really hard to live in
this neighborhood, and so to not feel like I can
access my local corner store is quite annoying and disturbing.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
With a short walk, it didn't take us long to
find a group of people next to the Metro Orange
Line bus lane appearing to be using drugs, a few
telling us they used to live in an encampment in
this wooded area next to the bus lane until it
caught fire.
Speaker 7 (28:43):
You stay in the wares sort of the burned down
they can now we're just kind of have nowhere to go.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Limbo that fire butting up to homes like this one,
These people saying they now stay on the streets here,
hoping to get into a nearby tiny home village, but
claiming outreach workers haven't been able to connect them with shelter. Melissa,
who says she is addicted to fentanyl and methamphetamine, says
she does understand neighbor's concerns.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Only so many places we too go And yeah, I
understand the whole.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
It's interesting because realistically it is we live to They
have no idea what it's like to be in our food.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
I mean, what would they do if.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
They didn't have that to keep on.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
In a statement, LA City Councilman Bob Blumenfield's office telling
us in part, they are well aware of this location
and have been partnering with law enforcement to help remedy it,
saying the council members secured overtime funding to increase patrols
around the area, calling the alleged outdoor drug use here
beyond unacceptable. The homeless people I spoke to say they
want housing, and the people who do live here at
(29:40):
home say they want more police presidents to deter the
criminal behavior and also crack down on it. And they
also say they'd like to see more services for those
struggling out here with addiction.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
How could this possibly exist for more than a day.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
And then you get the council in Bloomingfeld, Aw, we're
working with the police. This has been going on for
quite some time. What's wrong? What breaks down in the system?
Speaker 1 (30:04):
System?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Turn on is my?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Turn on is mine? The system has collapsed in many areas.
And Bob Bloomfield, who I know has the district that
I used to have, tries hard. But the problem is
it's not accomplishing anything. And Bob Bloomfield, what.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Is trying hard is calling the police and everybody gets
rounded up and taken out of the neighborhood. Well, this
isn't basic residential neighborhood exactly, and this is duplicated in
many areas. So they need to say we're done with
it and we're going to clean it up once and
for all, and not they cleaned it up, it comes
back cleaned up.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
It's a merry go around. Like the motor homes. They
don't want to have the motor homes because no one
claims them in the motor that they toe company gets
stuck with it. They need to come out with a
budget because the city's billions of dollars and we're going
to eliminate, eradicate. That's what they need to do and
concentrate and get rid of it instead of the mary
it's a merry go round. They'll send something out there,
they'll do something, it comes back. It's like they keep
(30:55):
coming back to the same environment and the people are
fed up. The taxpayers deserve better and it can be accomplished,
but it's got to be consistent.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
So there's one resident says they meet with the councilman
Bob Bloomenfield and a senior lead officer with LAPD and
was told there's some gray area regarding jurisdiction and what
can be enforced.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
What the hell does that mean? There's no gray area
when it comes to that. The gray area is what
they want to create. But Bob Bloomfield, I know them personally,
wants to be responsive to the constituents and the police department.
The senior lead officer has their hands full to try
and make it happen. It can't be ignored forever. But
they need to eradicate it and not just do it.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
But why don't they get up in the morning and
do it. They know what to do. They need to
bring in their resources to get it done.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
And you can't say, well, we're not going to do
it today, we'll do it tomorrow. You got to do
it now. But this is duplicated all over, this all
over the city of Los Angeles, all over. This is
not just one area. This is a continuing problem. That's
why put your pressure on the council member. Let the
council member they have discretionary funds, use those funds to
do these details to get rid of the problem once
and for all and not tolerated. But we've become so
(32:02):
open hearted and so sympathetic to the homeless. Most of
the homeless either mentally ill or on drugs. The bottom
line is mentally ill or drugs. If they're mentally ill,
there's hospitals for them. If they're drugs, lock them up.
But we continually make excuses and destroy neighborhood after neighborhood.
So I don't want to condemn Bob Bloomfield. He wants
to try, and they'll seemly, but he's got to get
it done. He's got to get it done. The bottom
(32:23):
line is to get it done. They can get it done.
Put forth the initiative, put forth the effort. Again. Our
taxpayers in Los Angeles spending billions, not millions, billions on
the homeless, and it's a merry go round because there's
a lot of people making money on it, and it's
not solving the problem. Those billions of dollars are feeding
a lot of organizations. That's what's happening with the money.
It's not solving the problem. Denny, let me close with this. Yes,
(32:46):
I was one of the few council members that was
never interviewed by the FBI when I was on council.
I want to add that as the closes.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Now we got what like four of them in prison,
are going to prison.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Well, there's a lot of them, man, Yeah, I'm standing by.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
The hell goes. What is going on.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Corruption is corruption. You got to have the rotten morals
and the right standards to do the right thing and
protect the people. The people are paying dearly. We need
to provide those services and get rid of the problem.
All right.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
They don't make guys like you anymore. No, they fine,
We'll talk again.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I love it coming on and seeing you.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
All right, let's go.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
To Debra Mark Live in the CAFI twenty four hour News. Hey,
you've been listening to The John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI AM six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Can't.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am six forty.
Speaker 3 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel Podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We're on every day.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
From one until four and then after four o'clock. If
you missed parts of the show, or god forbid, the
whole show, you go to the iHeartRadio app John Cobel
Show on demand. It's the podcast same as the radio show.
And we have a special guest. We haven't seen it
in a while. That is Zi, former La City councilman.
(00:29):
He's been with LAPD for many decades. He's still a
reserve officer.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Right, carrying a gun and protecting society.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
What kind of natural disaster would have to happen for
them to call you out after I mean, you're what
seventy seven years.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Old, seventy seven gonna be seventy eight and lugus twenty
eighty three from one hundred.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
What could you do out there if there was some
kind of threat?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I worked uniform and they can't discriminate against your age,
your sex, whatever the case may be, all right. As
long as I can jump and fire a weapon and
protect society, they're doing it all right.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And Dennis has been on our show over the years
and it's coming on to talk about the new LAPD chief,
Jim McDonald, who used to be La County Sheriff and
Long Beach Police chief as well. And wet's talk about
the crime because there's a great divide between officials and
government who think the crime isn't so bad and the public,
(01:24):
which sees their toothpaste locked up in drug stores. So
there's a big disconnect and that's what Dennis and I,
among other things, are going to talk about. Dennis, welcome again,
Thank you, it's good to see you again. All right,
So what do you know about about crime in Los Angeles?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
What do you think is going on?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well, I joined the LAPD in nineteen sixty eight. I've
been with them ever since, so I know about crime
patterns and how it goes up and down, and the
politics involved, serving on the city Council for twelve years
a charter commission before that. I have a son who's
a captain with LAPD, so I'm well connected with it
as far as crime goes. There's a citywide profile that
they publish and as of eleven nine, twenty twenty four,
(02:03):
we have eight thousand, seven hundred ninety police officers. Now
when I talk about police officers. That's everyone from the
chief of police to the recruiting academy, detectives, people on vacation,
people are injured, on doing whatever the case can be.
There's eight thousand, seven and ninety protecting the massive population
in the city of Los Angele.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
That's a very low number.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Historically it should be about ten thousand, So there's a
desperate need for more personnel. I encourage them to sign
if they're looking at law enforcement. But when we look
at the numbers, the actual numbers of homicide, rape, robbery,
agaby assault, and total person crimes, if I compare it
twenty twenty two to twenty twenty four, they're all down.
(02:43):
For example, homicide in twenty twenty two there were three
hundred and forty six. Twenty twenty four there's two hundred
and forty three. So if you look at the categories homicide, rape,
rob reactivated assault, total person crimes, they're down. The numbers
have come down. Why it's not that crime is not happening,
it's that people have given up on most part and
(03:04):
not reporting. There's many people who have been victims of
crime and they haven't reported it because they don't think
that report's important, That report is critical. That's how they
deploy officers, that's how they get detectives to do the
follow up. Every single crime needs to be reported. But
people say, well, nothing's going to happen. We call nine
one to one, no one answers, We wait in line.
Nobody cares. People care, and law enforcement cares. But it's
(03:28):
incumbent upon the public. When your house is broken into,
when your car is stolen, when you're robbed, when you're attacked,
to report that to the police department. They need to
have that documentation. But when I look at the statistics,
we say crime is down. I'm sure it's up, but
people aren't reporting it. And we go by the number
of reported crimes. That's how they judge the factors of
(03:48):
crime and prevention.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, but it.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Doesn't represent the reality, as you just pointed out, and
people react to the reality.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I mean, I know a lot.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Of people who said they have seen trespassers, they report burglaries,
break insto their house, all the theft that's gone on
retail stores, venience stories, drug stores, right, massive theft. Nobody
in those stories calls it in because they say the
cops don't even show up.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well, you've got fifteen year olds on bicycles that go
to a seven to eleven and loot the place. I mean,
it's incredible. We've had the street takeovers. We used to
have street racing, but now they take over the intersection
and do the donuts, and yeah, people get injured and killed, etc.
But you have what happens becomes a lawless society. And
when they call the police, they don't have anyone to
dispatch because the shorter personnel, they're shorter dispatchers. Many times
(04:36):
when you call nine one one, that phone will ring
and there's no one answering that phone. True, and say
where are the people who's supposed to serve us? When
I say, we're desperately shorter personnel, not only sworn police officers,
but the civilian part. That's very critically important if people
are looking for a career, not only LAPD, but you
have it throughout Los Angeles County where they're shorter police officers.
(04:57):
And maybe these apartments hire officers from lap and they
give them a huge signing bonus when they go to
those other department because they're already trained.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So well, the bottom fell out in twenty twenty with
the anti police protests to fund the police. Black Lives
Matter and Eric Garcetti calling them killers killers and taking
a knee worshiping in front of the BLM protesters and
a lot of police quit.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Did they not, Well, they found other places to go.
There's other cities in La County and other places in
California where they do support law enforcement, where they strongly
support law enforcement. You go to Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills
supports a law enforcement You're never going to hear their
council or the mayor or the police chief saying anything negative.
They want something in Beverly Hills Basically every intersection Beverly
Hills under video surveillance. They got drones that they launched
(05:42):
on calls. Beverly Hills and many of these small cities
fund their police officers, respect their police officers, and support them.
But when you've got wackle council members who are socialist Democrats,
they do everything they can to undermine the law enforcement.
You've got council members that voted against the chief of
police than McDonald. Why would you vote against the man
who wants to protect and serve These people get elected
(06:04):
by the public that wants to be saved and then
they have their ownly agenda. The socials Democrats in the
city Council or a disgrace. They don't protect their constituents,
they don't protect anything there collecting the paycheck, and they
condemned the police, and then two of them that were
in council voted against Chief McDonald. I went down and
testified at the request of the Mayor before council, and
(06:24):
I couldn't believe the conduct of the audience. They were
cursing at will. It's like, is there any decorum and
city council There used to be when I was there.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
It's these activist groups that are important to disrupt the
council meetings and they do it, and they do it.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
When I was there, we used to have two uniformed
officers protecting the council, maintaining order in the council chambers.
They now have twenty that's ten police cars that are
pulled off the streets in Los Angeles to protect the
council when they're conducting their meetings at City Hall. It's
really a sad situation how it's deteriorated, but there's no respect.
The comments are absolutely outrageous. I have not been to
(07:01):
council since I left, and it's been almost twelve years.
Last time I was in council chambers, I was appalled
when I saw the conduct taking place and I heard
the F bomb constantly. It's like, what is going on here?
It's a whole different environment. And I talked to the officers,
how many are you here? With twenty twenty twenty offices?
That's ten police cars that we would have two officers
(07:21):
in a car patrolling. So the city has to be protected,
but you need elected officials. And I'm going to give
the mayor credit. The mayor is trying, but she doesn't
have full support of the city council. And it was
clear when two council members voted against Jim McDonald, who's
a wonderful man, a lot of experience. Why he wants
to after he left LAPD goes to Long Beast, goes
the ship. Why he wants to do this at this
point in life. I really give him credit because he
(07:44):
wants to do it for the right reason. He's not
there for the money of the glory. He wants to
make Los Angeles say, but you can't do it without
the support of the council that gives you appropriations to
make sure that the officers could do their job to
protect and serve. Why is the public voting in these
democratic socialists. I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I mean they come from the poor neighborhoods, yes, and
I don't understand because those areas, that's where you have
a lot of these people are victims of crimes. They're
putting up with all the chaos, Yes, that happened. Why
do they want I mean this new woman who's replacing
Kevin de Leon, Yes, you know her campaign slogan was
at the.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Police well and she admitted and I heard an interview
she did on the radio she's a socialist Democrat.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, that means what that group.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
That means she's not for what law enforcement, what LAPED
professional officers want to do. They want to protect and serve.
But when you have a council that's divided, Not all
council members are that way. Bob Bloomfield and other council
members are very supportive, John Lee very supportive. But when
you only have a small group of elected officials that
make those decisions, and now all of a sudden, immigration
(08:48):
is a big issue. If LAPD want to go out
and enforce immigration laws, they do not have the personnel
to do it. I wouldn't worry about them. Enfortunate they
don't have the personnel to have ale radio calls.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Leave it on enforcement, abrac about it's because they an
internal memo surface today from Homeland Security and Venezuelan gang
Trent Diarragua. They're in sixteen states. They're in Los Angeles.
Joseah Bara who raped and killed Lake and Riley in Athens, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
He was a member of that group.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
So they're here and LAPD can't do anything to arrest them,
to get them deported, to cooperate with the federal government.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
They can't. If it's strictly immigration. LAPD is banned for
years officers doing that. But even if they were to
do that, they don't have the people to do it. Again,
they don't have enough officers handling the radio calls for service.
Leave alone, go out and do an immigration enforcement. And
when you make a report, now body camera. Every time
you stop someone for a traffic violation, most of the
listeners will see there's no traffic enforcement. People are speed
(09:46):
and running red lights. You've got very few officers doing
traffic enforcement. You've got to write a report. When you
write a tritation, it's all on bodycam. I mean, it's
become so cumbersome for the officers. Basically they'll handle a
radio call, but the problem is there's more radio call
that there are officers to handle him. So the frustration
goes to the public. And I hope Jim McDonald gets
the support he needs from the council. I know the
(10:07):
mayor is going to support him. The Olympics are coming,
major events coming. You need to number one, boast of
the police department with personnel at the same time, do
you give them the tools to do their job and
don't pick on them and make them feel bad for
doing the job of protecting and serving the people of
Los Angeles?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Can you stay for another segment?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I will stay all day if you want. I know
you had.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
'ron every day from one until four and then after
four o'clock John Cobelt's show on demand on the iHeart app.
We continue with Dennis Sign, former LA City Councilman LAPD
since nineteen sixty eight, still a reserve officer and he's
talking about we're talking about the perception of crime versus
the reality of crime. So I know if you heard.
(10:55):
But earlier this year we had Dominic troy On. He
was the enterim LAPD chief, yes, until McDonald finally took over.
I guess this week, yes, but he came in and
he had a bunch of statistics saying crime is down,
and then he said that he thinks people are just
watching too much news and too much social media.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That pissed off the audience.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
You know, the audience, like I was saying before, goes
to the store and it takes you an hour to
get out of CVS because so many things are locked up.
So clearly we're not imagining this. And he's not the
only one though. There's this been this condescending attitude from politicians,
although we up to Gavin Newsom where they treat us
like little children and saying now now you just had
(11:40):
a bad dream.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
It's really not so terrible out there. Why do they
do that?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I don't know why they do that, But what I
do know is that stores are locking up merchandise. I
was at a major store recently and I was talking
to the manager and I said what's the story when
theft takes place? He said, the company policy at our store,
I'm going to tell you what story is. But it's
a major store. It is not to interfere with someone stealing.
I said, what if they're taking this kind of huge,
(12:07):
expensive we can't do anything. We have to let them
walk out the door. I said, you've got to be kidding.
That's a corporate policy. So they basically condone people stealing items.
He said, you see the cage there with all the
items in the cage. I said, this is not cost
go by the way, because they do have security. He said,
we lock it up so people can't take it. But
I said, if someone takes this or that they can
do it, we don't do anything about it. Do you
(12:29):
make a police report? No, we don't do. That's exact policy.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That's another theft. That's hackling that no one is responding
to the police talking about Gable.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
That that's why makes everybody crazy is the businesses gave up.
They don't file any police reports, and then the police
come and tell us that everything is fine.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
It's like the hell with all of.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
You crimes down crime. I got the statistics right here.
You don't make a report, it shows no crime.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
And then the La Times has this is almost like
a prayer that they put in every crime story saying, well,
actually crime is down. It's like the stupid reporters don't
know any better.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, well, all like Times going through some crisis. Yeah,
but then let me you mentioned Gaven Newsom. He is
uprooting from Fair Oaks to a nine point one million
dollar home in Marine County. He's going to a nine
point one million dollar home. This is the man who
takes care of the California people. Nine point women dollar home. Gavenuwsom.
His salaries two hundred and three thousand dollars. He's he
(13:22):
affording a nine million dollar home and the thing's not
even in his name. And this gas price increase.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Oh yeah, it's going to be ninety cents a gallon
next year.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
What the hell is going on?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
And many gallons you're take, we're going to pay four
dollars plus in the four dollar range, so now you'd
be paying five dollars. It's ridiculous, But that's that's what
our elected leaders. When people vote, they need to look
at the person. What do they represent, what do they
want to do for society, for the homeowner, for the
business person. I know many business people that have a
hard time making any kind of profit because of the regulations.
(13:57):
For example, restaurant owners. I have a friend who has
a restaurant in the San Fernento Valley, a very popular restaurant,
and he says, you've got these street vendors that are
selling food on the street competing with him. He's got
to pay minimum wage, he's got to have insurance, he's
got to have health inspection. Even catering trucks have health inspection.
But you set up a little stand on the street,
no regulation, know nothing. You're taking away from a business
(14:20):
that has to pay all kinds of taxes, utilities. Things
are not working as they should. No, there's so much
disorder it is. And then look at the homeless population.
I mean, if you look at why do they tolerate
the homeless population?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And the voters spend.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Millions and millions and millions of dollars and they vote
these measures in and it's not getting any better, it's
getting worse. Well, there's your money, folks, wake up and
look at reality. You're spending money and you have a
poor quality of life in the city. Of the Angels.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
What is wrong with voters in Los Angeles and in California.
I mean, the gas is two dollars more a gallon
because of Newsom in the legislature. The crime is crazy
because of Newsom in the legislature.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
The homeless situation. No other state has any.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Of this, none, none. But I'll tell you what. People
who work for the city of La You look at
where they are when they retire. They're out of California.
They're out of Los Angeles. That's what happens. They're taking
those pension dollars with us our tax money, our tax pensions. Well,
they deserve that pension. They work for it, they receive that,
but they're the chief of police.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
They work for it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
With the Tennessee what the tenant, Well he went to Tennessee. Yeah,
So you know, no begrudging. You can do that. You
can live anywhere you want. But the fact of the
matter is our voters are not recognizing what they're dealing with.
So what's wrong.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Is there some kind of magical spell that people are
living under, you know, as a virus infected their minds.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
There's something that's affecting the voting population. Clearly, the voting
population is not in tune to reality. Reality is you
have an understaffed police department. Do you have a city
council that votes against polical issues that they need to
have if they want to if they want to have
a new tool to protect society, the council votes against it,
not all of them. But you've got this growing group
(16:05):
that does not support law enforcement as far as the dsas, Yes,
you go, Soda Martinez, Nthia Rahman, you this is Hernandez
and this new woman Hurrado, I forget his last name
is Isabelhado. She's a member and she said she's a
member of that group. And that group is anti police.
And if they're anti police, then they're pro criminal. You
can't be you can't be anti criminal and anti police.
(16:28):
You got to be pro police and anti criminal. But
when you're a victim and your car stolen, your cattle
of the converter, it's that stolen. You're going to pay
over one thousand dollars to get the replace. Just remember
if you would have had more police officers maybe arresting
these people and doing something about it, or how about
the street lights their state taking the wires out so
you don't have street lights at night, and you're still
paying on your property tax for street lighting. It's happening everywhere,
(16:52):
you know.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
They wander around people's ring cameras, neighbors ring cameras, pick
up these guys in the middle of the night dressed
in black hoodies. Next day it's like, why is it
so dark?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right?
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And the whole block for several blocks around all over
They got all the wires.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
All over the place and it's getting worse. And then say,
we don't have the resources, we don't have the personnel,
we don't have that, we can't buy the wire to
put it.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Back together, and the budget is bigger than ever and
they're and they're they're broke.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
And they're having a problem because of the liability. Because
the city attorney needs to wake up and say, how
am I going to handle the liability that's affecting the
City of Los Angeles. Because every time an officer does something,
they're gonna get criticized, ridiculed. They wear body camps to
justify what they're doing. My heart goes out. The officer's
working radio cars and dealing with this on a daily basis,
and the taxpayers need to wake up and say let's
put people in office who are going to protect us,
(17:38):
our business and our community. LA was not always the
way it is now, but it's getting worse.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Was it like this even ten years ago? I know,
all right, Dennis, it was good scene. Hey, I'm not
going to hurry, but I'll say, huh, I'm not going
to hurry. All right, you want to stay one more?
I think it's fun. Okay, A lot that people know reality.
I'm here pret reality. I'm with you on the We're
on the same team. All right, one more secment. Dennis
Vines coming on, Dennis zign You're.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
He can follow us at John Cobelt Radio and we're
looking to get to twenty thousand followers by the end
of the year. We got that designed with us former
Los Angeles City councilmen, back when councilmen were grown men,
rational people, and the city was run well. And he
also has been with LAPD since nineteen sixty eight, still
(18:26):
as a reserve officer, and he's got a lot of
common sense, a lot of logic, a lot of obvious
truths that he's telling here. All right, let's talk about
Neither one of them is a new player on the scene,
but they have new jobs. Jim McDonald, you mentioned him
a couple of times already. What can we expect from
Jim McDonald being the new LAPD chief? How's life going
(18:48):
to get better?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
You can expect he will be a strong leader and
he's not a pushover. He smiles a lot. He's from Boston.
He has a nice smile, very cordial, but he is
a professional member of law enforcement, not only here but
Long Beach Delly sheriff for five years. He knows it
inside and out. You can't pull your roll over Jim's eyes.
And what you're going to find is with the World Cup,
(19:11):
the Super Bowl, the Olympics, eyes are going to be
on Los Angeles. He's going to put together this organization.
There will be a lot of retirement's taking place, and
we need to boaster the numbers, but he's going to
put together a winning operation because he wants to shine
and make Los Angeles shine, and we want to make
Los Angeles Police Department shine. I was a member of
the eighty four Olympics team and it was a wonderful
experience as a law enforcement also to do that. He's
(19:34):
going to bring new environment with his leadership because the
people he puts in place, his command staff, are going
to be delivering what he demands, and he demands excellence.
He doesn't accept anything out of than excellence.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
And I'm glad he's going to do that, and I
know that's something Karen Bass is preaching. What irritates me
is that everybody's geared up to try to clean up
the city for the Olympics, and we've been living in
manure for the ten years.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Literal, I want to use the s word.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
We've been living walking around in people's feces right and
needles for ten years. Why is everyone interested now in
cleaning up for the world stage and no one's interested
in what we have to live with, you know, all
the ordinary tax payers.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
It should have been that way a long time ago.
I know, back in the early sixties when I came
on the late sixties, it was a different world. We
didn't have the homeless population we have now, and it's
been ignored for you know, they closed the mental hospitals,
and Ronald Reagan and this and that, but that's all history.
They need to address it now. But we legalize drugs.
We make it very easy. The day I went down
to City Council to testify before the council about the chief,
(20:44):
I'm walking on City Hall property and what do I see?
A hype needle? A hype needle there on the steps
of city Hall. So you've got people that have given
up on themselves, But we as a society don't need
to give up on them. We need to address it
and be very vigorous. Like San Francisco they cleaned place up.
When foreign dignitaries come to town. It needs to be
done on a regular basis and not Why won't they
(21:06):
There's a there's a tendency to just ignore it and
uh and come why you know, like someone come, let's
cover it with a sheet and then we'll ignore.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
But did they end up walking through all this film
they do just to get the city Hall?
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I know?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
You know we had my wife and I were just
downtown last week. It is terrifying. You know, we come
out of an event, our car is a half a
block away, and we've got to like lay out a
battle plan. You know. All right, I'll go left, you
go right. Wait, there's a weirdo on a bike coming.
Wait there's another guy who's stumbling down the sidewalk. How
do we zigzag around the two of them at the
(21:39):
same time. Okay, I'll unlock the door and you jump in,
and then you lock the door, and then I'll unlock
it again so I can jump in.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We actually had this conversation.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Because you don't feel safe, and now we weren't safe.
Reality is you're not. And that's why so many people
have applied for ccwsurrig and see what they want to
get me a gun to protect themselves. But it's like
like the celebrity he gets his catalytic converter stone, he
gets shot and murdered.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yes, well that's what I'm afraid of. Fifteen city council
members and a mayor. Why don't they get up every
morning and say enough of the crazy people, enough of
the filth, enough of the criminals.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Because many of them say, some of them soldierst Democrats
cater to them, like the park where they take the
fence down and they open it up to the people
who've destroyed the place. This is the problem. You've got
elected officials who don't care. They only cater to certain groups,
not to the masses that pay taxes. The people that
(22:34):
pay taxes deserve better and deserve more. I will say
Karen bass is trying, but she can't do it without
the support of the council. Many cities have a council
working with the mayor with the police. Sadly, Los Sanders
doesn't have that attitude, and we've got knuckleheads on the
city council that create this negative environment that we all
as taxpayers suffer. I don't leave my house. I don't
(22:56):
leave my house. I don't take a walk without protecting myself.
That's how I feel safe in the city of Los Angeles.
People need to realize there is crime that's not reporting.
There's criminals that are running free. And you look at
the district attorney gas gone. Thank god, he's gone. He
will be gone soon. He's let so many cases pile
up that are sitting getting ignored. You've got a new one,
(23:18):
Nathan Hockman, coming in and I've met with him a
number of times. He's going to be wonderful. But you
have a team. You got a new police chief, You're
gonna have a new DA and we're gonna get back
to what we call basics to make it a safe environment.
For the families, for the kids, so your car is
not broken into your catalytic conversion, so you can go
to the market at night and not worry about being accosted.
This is going to be an experience that people are
(23:38):
going to be looking for, and that's what they deserve
and that's what they're paying for. And those knucklehead council members,
which I call crazy people, need to somehow understand either
buckle up and get in line or move on to
something else, because Los Angeles wasn't always what it is,
and it's because of the ignorance, and it's because of
ignoring is why we're in this predicular situation that needs
(23:59):
to change, and it needs to change before the Olympics
and the World Cup and all these other experiences.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
That are going to come to Los Angeles. Yeah, I know,
it actually enrages me. It's like, oh, by twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
What about now? What about now you're paying taxes? Now
your street lights are out because they're seeing the wire.
Well wait a second city, put it back together. Do
what you need to do. Karen Bass wants to clean
up MacArthur Park. You went to Langers, you know what
it was that the owner of Langers nor My why no. Personally, yeah,
he got a ton of publicity. I mean his twenty
seven dollars cornby sandwich wonderful. But he got a tremendous
(24:32):
amount of free publicity. But you know, he's still in place,
and the place is still a disaster. Except the sidewalk
where you line up to go in the restaurant that's
cleaned up. The rest of it still looks like hell.
It's been neglected, and the council member there has done nothing,
nothing to miss it. N this is Hernandez. Yes, they
don't have any pride. They have no pride. I don't
know why they're in public office. I don't know why
the people elect these people to public office. It's a
(24:54):
disgrace to the taxpayers, the good, honorable taxpayers, the women
and children to tolerate this environment. And then let's talk
about Metro. I ride on the Metro. That's a Metro disaster.
We can do a host show on Metro. That's another disaster.
They take a lady who's former FBI, who's former military,
and they fire her and they don't put anybody in place.
(25:14):
It's like, wait a second, what are you doing to
protect I go on the metro once in a while,
but I don't go on unless I'm armed and protecting
myself and whoever I'm with. This is not the way
the City of the Angel should be, and God help
us to change it. Before the eighty four Olympics. At
eighty four Olympics, I was there at the eighty four Olympics,
right before the next Olympics. Don't coming around. It needs
to change, but it won't change until people wake up
(25:36):
and start saying we want a difference, we want it better,
and we want it now. We don't want to wait.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
They woke up in San Francisco and Oakland. They got
rid of the mayor in both cities. They got rid
of the district attorney in both cities.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I mean, and here, I mean got rid of the dea.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
You got rid of the day.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
But we're still sunk with this idiot city council.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Well, they're the ones who set the tone. But the
people put those people in and they do ballot harvest
you all kinds of things. And what's happening is our
good law buying taxpayers and our good law abiding police
officers and firefighters. When they get that pension, they seem
to go to other places where it's safe and secure.
We got great weather, we've got great environment. We can
make it a great place, but we need to work
(26:15):
together to make it happen, and God help us if
it doesn't get better.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Eric, you got that that audio?
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Are we come back on to play the audio and
I want you to react to a Dentis sign about
this neighborhood homeless camp and what's going on. It's been
there a while and it's in the neighborhood where Eric's
family lives.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Ron every day from one until four and then after
four o'clock John Cobelt's show on demand on the iHeart app.
That design is with us former La City councilman, member
of the LAPD for fifty five years now, and he's
been involved in public service for a long time and
like all of let's fed up with the direction LA
(27:03):
has gone. I want to play you this news story.
We just got a couple minutes. This is going on
where Eric's parents live in Tarzana. Lauren Leicster KTLA Channel five.
Listen to the story about this homeless encampment in a
residential neighborhood.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
About a dozen residents speaking out to us saying they
want more help from this city. They say homelessness in
this area of Bessemer and Rosita has become a major problem,
and with it drug use and safety issues. A Tarzana
resident capturing these photos at a bus stop depicting what
appears to be illegal drug use in broad daylight, right
out in the open. Just a few examples of what
(27:42):
neighbors we spoke to tell us they want to see stopped.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
We've been suffering from the homeless encampments in the area.
They've been doing fires, graffiti the majority.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
Of the time that you can see groups gathered using
drugs or obviously in fualse wing out of it.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
They formed an online group with seventy members, several of
them showing up to talk to us, saying they've been
meeting with local officials and trying to figure out how
to solve the issue.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
They want to see more action.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
In the meantime, there's a lot of issues with us
being afraid to walk down the street.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
I've considered selling my house because I just don't feel
safe in my neighborhood.
Speaker 7 (28:19):
You know, We're all working really hard to live in
this neighborhood, and so to not feel like I can
access my local corner store is quite annoying and disturbing.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
With a short walk, it didn't take us long to
find a group of people next to the Metro Orange
Line bus lane appearing to be using drugs, a few
telling us they used to live in an encampment in
this wooded area next to the bus lane until it
caught fire.
Speaker 7 (28:43):
You stay in the wares sort of the burned down
they can now we're just kind of have nowhere to go.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Limbo that fire butting up to homes like this one,
These people saying they now stay on the streets here,
hoping to get into a nearby tiny home village, but
claiming outreach workers haven't been able to connect them with shelter. Melissa,
who says she is addicted to fentanyl and methamphetamine, says
she does understand neighbor's concerns.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Only so many places we too go And yeah, I
understand the whole.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
It's interesting because realistically it is we live to They
have no idea what it's like to be in our food.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
I mean, what would they do if.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
They didn't have that to keep on.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
In a statement, LA City Councilman Bob Blumenfield's office telling
us in part, they are well aware of this location
and have been partnering with law enforcement to help remedy it,
saying the council members secured overtime funding to increase patrols
around the area, calling the alleged outdoor drug use here
beyond unacceptable. The homeless people I spoke to say they
want housing, and the people who do live here at
(29:40):
home say they want more police presidents to deter the
criminal behavior and also crack down on it. And they
also say they'd like to see more services for those
struggling out here with addiction.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
How could this possibly exist for more than a day.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
And then you get the council in Bloomingfeld, Aw, we're
working with the police. This has been going on for
quite some time. What's wrong? What breaks down in the system?
Speaker 1 (30:04):
System?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Turn on is my?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Turn on is mine? The system has collapsed in many areas.
And Bob Bloomfield, who I know has the district that
I used to have, tries hard. But the problem is
it's not accomplishing anything. And Bob Bloomfield, what.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Is trying hard is calling the police and everybody gets
rounded up and taken out of the neighborhood. Well, this
isn't basic residential neighborhood exactly, and this is duplicated in
many areas. So they need to say we're done with
it and we're going to clean it up once and
for all, and not they cleaned it up, it comes
back cleaned up.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
It's a merry go around. Like the motor homes. They
don't want to have the motor homes because no one
claims them in the motor that they toe company gets
stuck with it. They need to come out with a
budget because the city's billions of dollars and we're going
to eliminate, eradicate. That's what they need to do and
concentrate and get rid of it instead of the mary
it's a merry go round. They'll send something out there,
they'll do something, it comes back. It's like they keep
(30:55):
coming back to the same environment and the people are
fed up. The taxpayers deserve better and it can be accomplished,
but it's got to be consistent.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
So there's one resident says they meet with the councilman
Bob Bloomenfield and a senior lead officer with LAPD and
was told there's some gray area regarding jurisdiction and what
can be enforced.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
What the hell does that mean? There's no gray area
when it comes to that. The gray area is what
they want to create. But Bob Bloomfield, I know them personally,
wants to be responsive to the constituents and the police department.
The senior lead officer has their hands full to try
and make it happen. It can't be ignored forever. But
they need to eradicate it and not just do it.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
But why don't they get up in the morning and
do it. They know what to do. They need to
bring in their resources to get it done.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
And you can't say, well, we're not going to do
it today, we'll do it tomorrow. You got to do
it now. But this is duplicated all over, this all
over the city of Los Angeles, all over. This is
not just one area. This is a continuing problem. That's
why put your pressure on the council member. Let the
council member they have discretionary funds, use those funds to
do these details to get rid of the problem once
and for all and not tolerated. But we've become so
(32:02):
open hearted and so sympathetic to the homeless. Most of
the homeless either mentally ill or on drugs. The bottom
line is mentally ill or drugs. If they're mentally ill,
there's hospitals for them. If they're drugs, lock them up.
But we continually make excuses and destroy neighborhood after neighborhood.
So I don't want to condemn Bob Bloomfield. He wants
to try, and they'll seemly, but he's got to get
it done. He's got to get it done. The bottom
(32:23):
line is to get it done. They can get it done.
Put forth the initiative, put forth the effort. Again. Our
taxpayers in Los Angeles spending billions, not millions, billions on
the homeless, and it's a merry go round because there's
a lot of people making money on it, and it's
not solving the problem. Those billions of dollars are feeding
a lot of organizations. That's what's happening with the money.
It's not solving the problem. Denny, let me close with this. Yes,
(32:46):
I was one of the few council members that was
never interviewed by the FBI when I was on council.
I want to add that as the closes.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Now we got what like four of them in prison,
are going to prison.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Well, there's a lot of them, man, Yeah, I'm standing by.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
The hell goes. What is going on.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Corruption is corruption. You got to have the rotten morals
and the right standards to do the right thing and
protect the people. The people are paying dearly. We need
to provide those services and get rid of the problem.
All right.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
They don't make guys like you anymore. No, they fine,
We'll talk again.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I love it coming on and seeing you.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
All right, let's go.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
To Debra Mark Live in the CAFI twenty four hour News. Hey,
you've been listening to The John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI AM six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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