June 14, 2025 • 33 mins
Neil Saavedra kicks off The Fork Report with breaking coverage of LA’s “No Kings Day” protests, where chaos spilled onto freeways and into neighborhoods. From bizarre arrests to blocked traffic, Neil breaks down how the disruption intersected with local events—including closures, rerouted food trucks, and shaken-up weekend plans.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savedra.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You're listening to KFI EM six forty the four Report
on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday
to you. A lot going on news wise today, so
a little different of a show.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We will get into.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Some food news stuffs and hopefully even have a guest
later on in the program, But with so much going
on locally, we really want to focus on the news,
make sure that everybody knows what's going on on the
freeways and all of these things. Because I noticed some
freeways on the way in light as hell. Others going
(00:34):
in different directions, like on the one oh one. If
you're going through downtown, it's a holy hell of a mess.
But to start with this and get a good on
the ground view of things, our very own Michael Monks
from KFI News is out there yet again giving you
a perspective that you can only get through his eyes.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Michael, how are you.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hey, Neil? I do hope you get to talk about
some food today and that things stay relatively calm. But boy,
today has started off so poorly and so busily.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, I mean to be waking up to the assassination
attempted assassination of political leaders, and then to know that
we have the No Kings protest. Everything you know, tends
to be aoka during the day sort of, but can
ramp up? Do you have any estimation? It is so
(01:25):
hard to gauge looking. All I know is that the
crowd has been growing and doubling and quadrupling pretty.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Often, So it's kind of steady flow of people coming in.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
It's a steady flow in and out.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I mean I didn't walk over to this protest until
about eleven thirty this morning. I think it was scheduled
to start at ten in the civic center area around
City Hall, round Grand Park and the County building and
all of the government buildings in that part of downtown.
And even at that moment, I was seeing what a
here to be people leaving? I thought, what did I
miss this thing? Already they had their signs, they look
(02:05):
like they were heading in the opposite direction. But by
the time I turned the corner to where City Hall is,
it was a pretty massive crowd. And then a larger
crowd had already been marching down the street. Now from
our friends and the helicopter crews above the ground, they're
estimating this to be about twenty thousand people, and I
have to say, having meandered my way through that massive people,
(02:26):
that could be accurate. I mean, I'm trying to picture
that many people in maybe a basketball arena, and it
would be filled. There's no question about it. Just a
ton of people downtown. What's interesting about what's happening today
compared to some of the protests that we had seen
in the days leading up to today, is that, in
spite of the fact that this is the largest crowd
we've seen downtown since all of these protests started, it
(02:48):
is pretty much peaceful. It's disruptive certainly, you know, to
the freeways, this doesn't have a lot of good traffic
control on the surface streets downtown. People are pouring into
a Broadway, Spring, Temple Hill. Just a flood of people
in those streets without any stoppage on the car front.
So some cars are still trying to make their way through.
It's probably best if you're not coming to this to
(03:09):
avoid downtown in the meantime. But yeah, just a ton
of people right now participating in this No King's March.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
What are the.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Messages you're seeing that I saw some anti fascism and
basic signs like that. Is it a crossover between this
specific concern of immigration and the raids is based on
the tactics that are being used. Any specific message that
(03:38):
you think is cohesive out there to day.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
This was scheduled before the immigration raids and detainments had
started here in Los Angeles County. And while you certainly
see a lot of pro immigration messaging, you're seeing a
lot of just general Democrat liberal messaging diversity, health care,
no fascism, no oligarchy, those types of messages. What I
(04:04):
was telling Conway in the previous couple of hours was
that this event is different than what you might see
of the crew that might bark at the National Guard
or take on the police in the streets.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
These are more of your traditional.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Democrats and liberals who felt like they wanted to come
out and make their voices heard against the president. That's
why it's called No King's Day. You've got the military
parade in Washington, d C. They liken that to something
that only a king would do. And so you're seeing
a lot of anti President Trump messaging today, and it
is a massive crowd, as I noted, but you're not
(04:38):
seeing a lot of jawing or chirping with the police
or the military who are still present downtown. I saw
many uniformed officers protecting federal property and personally, and while
they're probably more, I only saw one woman trying to
engage the Marines who were standing downtown in a negative way.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
So what was it, Gosh, Now, now, a couple months
maybe when we had the hands off protests that if
you remember this kind of similar people were gathering in
places to like hands off, you know, the administration, hands off,
you know, their bodies, hands off, medicare hands off, all
(05:18):
of these things. And that sounded to me what you
described now is kind of your everyday generic, different aged
Democrats rather than I don't know, purple haired, nose ring
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I Well, there's a reason for that, Neil, and it's
because it's the same organizers. It's the same groups that
were behind the hands off things that motivated this thing nationwide.
Now there are protests taking place across the country, and
there are multiple not King's protests across southern California to
in La County, Orange County, riverside San Bernardino, but the
downtown one appears to.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Be the centerpiece.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Locally, it is again a very very large crowd, but
you're right, this is a crowd of folks who have
a lot of resentment towards various policies that are coming
out of the White House. So while this is sort
of a compliment to the anti ice messaging, it lacks
that sort of violent enthusiasm that we are seeing from
a smaller segment that comes out because they come out
(06:19):
for a lot of different protests in Los Angeles. If
it's Palestine, if it's Black lives matters, if it's any
sort of thing that involves policing. That's really who these
folks like to target. These more antagonistic folks, these agitators
that love to take on the police here in Los Angeles,
and the folks who have just blasted businesses and residential
(06:39):
properties down here in graffiti, broken windows. And then there's
the criminal element that probably doesn't feel one way or
the other about the politics, but they're just taking advantage
to run into a Nike store, to destroy the Apple
store for some reason, break into a sushi restaurant down
here as well. I'll know you're a food guy, you
know food in Los Angeles and there's a lot of
great you know, Mexican Central American food here. The vibe
(07:04):
downtown is off, it's been off since all of this started, and.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You know, hang on that hang on that note, because
I'd love to bring you back. We're gonna get a
quick update and then come back if we can. Michael
Monks is with us. I want to talk to you
about that, the storefronts, the businesses, things like that you've given.
You've given us a great description of what's going on
now and the difference between the genuine chaos. I would
say that one's fueled by immediacy with raids and the like,
(07:33):
and then one's fueled by kind of a not as
sooteric but more of a broad brush we don't like
this guy, and that's a little different and a little
less heated. But I will come back to what's going
on downtown with the No Kings protest.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I've been doing them since I was a kid. We
call them July fourth. But this is a little different.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right now seems peaceful, our own Michael Monks is down
there and we'll talk more when we return.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Today a little different.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
We will get into some fork ish type stuff as
we go throughout the show, but there's just too much
news and I want you, hopefully to hear a friendly
voice that you can hang out with today that's going
to give you information with some of the best of
the best, with Mark Runner here and of course Michael
Monks and Robin on the board. It is a normal
(08:33):
weekend for Michael Monks, but not for the rest of us,
because you never sleep, Michael, and we appreciate you being
out in the thick of it.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
You say, somewhere near.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Twenty thousand ish people, not all congregated in the same
spot there around City Hall, but ish in that area.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Oh yeah, And it's been interesting because I don't know
what the order of events was, or if there was
an order of events, if it was just come out,
walk around and make your presence and your voice known.
Because this thing from the very beginning when I showed
up around City Hall, some people were milling about in
city halls lawns, some people were milling about in Grand Park,
(09:20):
some were marching around Broadway and Hill Street. And then
that sort of morphed into a larger march. People kind
of congregated together and did a big, massive march around
a few blocks. But like I told you before, we
went to break as early as eleven thirty, I saw
people already leaving this thing and more people coming in.
So it's just been a fluctuation of people since I
(09:41):
guess late this morning until now. I'll tell you that
in addition to the crowds that have mobilized together to
speak out against the president, the Grand Central Market, for example,
was hopping, so I know it's been a boon to
business there. Those cash registers were ringing. It was incredibly
busy in there. I dipped in and grabbed a sandwich
in a doughnut because I don't get there enough. But
(10:03):
they're hugely, hugely popular right now. But a lot of
the other businesses, especially the retail businesses downtown, are are shut.
And here in the fashion district where I've I've moved
to at this point in the conversation, it's a ghost
town down here. And on a day like this, a
beautiful Saturday afternoon, where you would typically see a lot
of those fashion districts, santi style vendors with the cheap
(10:27):
clothes frankly, or the cheap bags and the cheap phone covers,
and all the street vendors selling you know, stuff that
fell off whatever truck I don't know, and the food
vendors and all of that.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Times.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, they're all gone.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I was looking at Santi Ali yesterday the and it
was empty.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And I think that there are a couple of things
that play here. Won The curfew, which doesn't go into
effect until eight o'clock tonight, and each night that it's
been in effects has impacted businesses because a lot of
places are closing well before that so that they can
get out of downtown. But the protests have vandalized a
lot of businesses. There are very few walls left down
(11:08):
here Neil that haven't been spray painted with some sort
of messaging either against Ice, against the president, you know,
various maybe left wing messages all over all over, and
so many businesses are boarded up just for protection. I mean,
if you go to seventh and Fig, where the target
downtown is, all those national brands that have locations there,
(11:29):
they got.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
The wood over their windows.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
So seven of the Fig is right off of the
one ten freeway there, and you can see the.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
You know, you can see it right there.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
It's kind of a main place of gathering together and
getting your shopping and stuff, so the restaurants there as well.
That being I mean, it's like hurricane season.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
It reminds me of COVID because it's got that air
of uncertainty to it as well, like, well, what is
tomorrow going to bring? We don't know, and yet we're
apart from each other because we can't congregate that. That's
sort of the vibe that I was getting last night
at about nine thirty. Keep in mind, I live in
the curfew zone, so I'm down here in this but
residents are supposed to have I guess, special access. And
(12:17):
I was like, I gotta I gotta get something to eat.
I mean, it's stressful. Let me just run over to wherever.
And I jumped in the car and drove and everything
was closed, gas stations.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Fast food.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I had to leave pretty well out of downtown to
find something and then come back. But streets completely deserted.
And this is an economy down here that's frankly already
hanging by a thread. Downtown is gorgeous, you know, in
spite of itself in a lot of ways, sure, fantastic food.
I love my business is she's butt, you know. But
(12:52):
it's a little ikey, right, I mean, it's just generally
a little icky anyway. And now you have this happening
on top of it, an area that still hasn't recovered
from COVID is now kind of going through that again.
I don't know what the future holds for us down here.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
On a personal note, I'm on the eastern side, as
you know, so I'm not that far from you. If
you need anything, buddy, don't hesitate. I'll come drive you
and pick you up or grab something and bring it
to you.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Zero seriously, I know.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
But it was just one of those nights. I wasn't
like starving in here.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
It was just laziness and like just general p shitteriness,
like I gotta get out of here.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I gotta go fine, I gotta get out of here.
I don't offer that, Willie Neely. I'm being absolutely serious.
I appreciate something. I have a truck, I'll roll over people.
I'm kiddy, No, I will get it to you though.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
But yes, on that note, there is a Mermaid down there,
many many other restaurants and bars have been hitting me up,
you know, changing every day, going okay, we're doing brunch service,
or we're doing this or a special menu or you know,
making all these things that they because they have to
(14:02):
close a eight.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah, mostly eight.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
To eleven or six to eleven is where you make
most of your money downtown.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
If you're a dinner place, if you're a place that's
trying to make money off cocktails, absolutely those are the hours.
And like you said, some are trying to like capitalize
on happy hour. But when you have a sense of
urgency hanging over the city, like you got to get
out of here. It's not like we're just closing. You
are legally not allowed to be here. People aren't I
don't think taking the chance too because people are being arrested.
(14:30):
There have been hundreds arrested in recent day since the
curfew went into effect, mostly for failure to disperse for
their participation in the demonstrations. But there have been no
fewer than four dozen citations for curfew violations.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, and what they were doing the other day is
they were moving out. They went into Ktown and we're
on Vermont. I think someone went out on Virgil and
they just left the one mile curfew area.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
And that's a question for law enforcement here who said
yesterday and this morning, we're very well prepared for the
mass demonstrations taking place today.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
But as we've.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Noted, the one today is I guess it's certainly less antagonistic.
They've got their message. They are against the president, and
they're marching in huge numbers, but they're not antagonistic. They're
not vandalizing anything, they're not trying to engage the National
Guard or the police in any negative way. So what
happens though, after today, when we get back to what
has become normal for the past several days.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Or even the regularning right exactly? Yeah, this changes as
the sun goes down.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I mean, I'm reading about Native American drum circles and
informal yoga sessions this morning at Grand Park. Be honest,
I know that you were, you know, bombarded with tear
gas the other day. Have you been smelling petually oil?
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
That is my least favorite scent. And I love essential
oils and all that, but peturely.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I just love it. That's what I hear when I
hear drum circles.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah, that's the vibe and Look, everybody needs a good
stretch every now and then, Neil.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
But that's kind of the vibe down here right now. Interesting.
All right, Well, keep us posted. We are here.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
You jump in anytime, my friend. Be safe and no joke.
If you need anything or you need to get out
of dodge.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
We're not far. I appreciate you and you we'll see
you soon.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Michael Monks out there KFI News in the thick of
it right now, it sounds like things are a okay
and for this No Kings protest intensifying across the region.
I mean, you've got Hollywood, Pastina, Santa Monica, Glendale, Culver
sitting Long Beach, all kinds of stuff, the anti authority
terry and stuff going on today. But there's much in
(16:42):
the news and we're going to keep you a post
of it, abreast of it as we go.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Forty slightly modified as show today, as we do when
there's big news. As much as I love the sanctuary
concept of the Fork and I'm proud of it that
we get three hours on a Saturday to shake off
the heaviness of the news and come together and celebrate food,
the people that make it, the culture behind it. That
today is a big day, A lot going on here
(17:12):
in southern California and across the nation, and it just
is worthy of our attention to know not only what's
going on on the streets, how the flow of traffic, businesses,
a lot of them restaurants being affected by all of this.
And of course Mark Ronner's here as well. Mark the
the parade, the two hundred and fiftieth celebration birthday celebration
(17:36):
of America's Army takes place at what about three o'clock
our time?
Speaker 5 (17:42):
About three thirty are okay, so six thirty their time,
a little under an hour from now. I'm assuming that
there's going to be massive protests out that way, for sure.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
If you look at a map of the protests planned
across the country, it's covered with there are at least
two thousand protests planned around the country and around.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
The world as well.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
I'm seeing at least fifty in countries around the world.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Wow. So this is obviously this is.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
An intense situation because you're dealing with a lot going
on right now. The concept of anti fascism and I
know that these words are thrown around a lot. I'm
a rationalist. I don't belong to a political party. I
think a two party system is horrible. I think by
its very nature it causes negativity. And if you had
(18:35):
two football teams, one from the east side of the
country one from the west side, I guarantee more people
would die at football games. It's just the nature of humanity.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Well, we know our founding fathers were against parties as well.
And factionalism, yes, which is factionalism is a great term.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Mark Runner.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
That is actually I was talking to my wife today
because it's a lot of this has been bumming me out.
My father was born here in the United States to
parents who were here on work visas from Mexico. My
family is from Wuanauato on my father's side. My mother's
side is English, Irish and Scottish, and I love both
(19:18):
sides equally.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
There is no oh on this.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I'm that However, I do what identify and always have
identified as an adult as a Latino. I get the
benefit of both those worlds. I have the same frustration
as Selena and her family in the movies.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
You're not You're never good enough.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
For either side, But you know, so I have my own,
you know, deep hurts and places.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
I have said this before on the program.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I believe at the bare minimum, we grow Daca, we
grow a system of friends and neighbors, you know, good
friends and neighbors process with Mexico and anyone that we
share borders with, to allow and cover gaps and situations
and allow people to enjoy the fruits of this great country.
(20:16):
I think the vast, vast, vast majority of the people
that come here are coming to do good and right
by their family and the like.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Yeah, I agree with you, and I tend also not
to look at something like this in terms of right
or left, although I know a lot of people do.
I've been thinking of it through the lens of Rod
Serling lately because I'm a huge Twilight Zone fan and
I've written a lot of Twilight Zone in comics myself.
And just this morning I reposted something from Rod Serling's
(20:48):
daughter and I a quote about him and protesters, and
he always struck me as somebody who was a fundamentally
decent man who was outraged by the indecency he saw.
And that's what strikes me as the crux of these protests.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, indecency is a good word.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Being freed from the bondage of a political party normally
is wonderful lately. You know, I told my wife. She
nailed it. My wife's a therapist and she nailed it.
That I feel lonely in times like this because I'm
a rationalist and this is nothing but emotion. For the
(21:25):
most part, it's emotion. And that doesn't mean that there
aren't legitimate causes, because there are. But I mean the overflow,
the angst, the ugliness, the if you say, like I would,
I didn't vote for Donald Trump. I don't care for
the man personally. However, to tell me that someone's ideas
are always bad because of who they are is wrong.
I mean, if the devil came to me and said
(21:46):
the two plus two is four, I'd have to agree.
So I try and defend ideas and not a person.
And so it's funny here on radio. Everybody thinks when
you defend one idea on this side that you're you know,
it's that eurie for me or against me. And if
you're christ you can get away with that. But if
you're anyone, Yeah, it's a very short list of who
(22:08):
can get away with saying, hey, I'm so pure that
if you disagree with me, there's a problem. But it
really breaks my heart because I see people being torn
apart and I don't think that's okay, especially for most
of the time it being civil infractions. When you are
deported and come back, that's that is a felony, and
(22:29):
there's a problem and there's an issue there.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
So there, I think a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
And then you using the no King's concept. I think
it's very easy for both sides to use forced perspective
in a little different way than we enjoy the Disney Castle,
but force perspective on what's going on depending on what
they show, what they say, how they phrase it. And
of course ed editorializing is just rampant.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Mark. You've got to hear that yourself.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Oh, I'm a massive news consumer and a consumer of
media criticism, so yeah, you bet. And you know, life
is full of nuance, and if you're the kind of
person who just wants to stick to the facts when
everybody else is picking sides and going with their tribe,
you're going to be on the outs with a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Tell me about it, and it's seriously.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
It makes me it It alienates me and makes me
not want to converse with anybody because the minute you
say something reasonable. And I was taught in my studies
when I studied logic, they oftentimes would say, if you
make people think they're thinking, they will love you, if
you make people actually think they will hate you.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
It's a grievous insult. I didn't know you had that
kind of background. One of my degrees is in philosophy
as well.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Oh love philosophy, and I'm a big fan. What's the
other one. If you want to offend a smart man,
tell him a lie. If you want to offend a
dumb man, tell him the truth.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
That rings true. Ye Twain say that?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Maybe you know that does sound like Twain to me.
But yeah, so I'm in a weird place where I'm
probably more diplomatic than people like on both sides. I
think people like to say, are you on my team
or not on my team? And I said, no, I
have to stick by truth. That's the only that's the
only floor that is stable enough for me to stand on.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
That is a lonely path.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
It turns out, well, we'll get a drink after the show.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Sir, that's good to me.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
You've been listening to the Fork Report. You can always
hear us live on KFI AM six forty two to
five pm on Saturday and anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app. Thanks for hanging out today. A lot going on,
so we've shifted things just a little bit and broke
broken format as we want to make sure that we
are covering what is now so far a peaceful protest.
(24:44):
And I mean that, you know, from personal perspective and
not from the garbage that we hear when people are
looting and throwing things and we keep being told that
everything's peaceful. This is currently what's going on downtown in
the No King's protest. It seems to be intensifying. As
far as group Mark Ronner is with us. Mark, do
(25:07):
you see any changes in what has been a large
and ever growing group but seems peaceful so far?
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Yeah, I'm trying to keep an eye on it, and
I don't see any mayhem so far. It looks like
authorities have really prepared well for this, and I don't
know if you've got the message, but they're urging people
to be peaceful.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
What Yeah, hell with that? Break something? Friend?
Speaker 5 (25:32):
I don't know if this was too subtle for everybody,
but they would like you to be peaceful.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, that was a message from Conway earlier. And Conway
was on noon to two and he just kept coming
on in a heartfelt way and saying, hey, be peaceful
because he knows he's talking to that crowd.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Well, we've got lots of National Guard, lots of Marines
on US soil acting to protect, but we've never seen
marine he's activated against United citizens before to my knowledge.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
And yeah, I believe that nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
I believe yesterday was was the first photo that I've
seen of Marines detaining a citizen of the United States
on American soil.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Sorry, welcome to Los Angeles, sir. Nineteen ninety two, we
had them here. We had twice as many. We had
about fifteen hundred marines here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
I'm only here six years.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
He got to cut me a little slack on the
lifelong Angelino institutional knowledge.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
I'm a lifelong Angelino and I can tell you this
is not is it's rare.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Yes, Well, you're hearing experts, legal experts and constitutional experts
throwing around the term posse comittatis a lot, I know,
And that's what we're talking about here, the deployment of
US armed forces on US soil against US citizens. And
there's a very narrow range of circumstances that make that legal.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, and maybe the way it went it went, I mean,
the way it went down is different. But yes, in
ninety two you had about fifteen hundred so a little
over good times, good times, Oh no, it was very
very intense, you know. I also saw something that reminded
me that the other day I saw shopkeepers, shop owners
(27:20):
sitting with the lights on in their shop with shotguns
and rifles over their lap downtown and I haven't seen
that since that time either where you had it was crazy.
In downtown you had shop owners on top of their
buildings with rifles protecting there.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
It's not surprising. And this isn't my first rodeo. Even
though I wasn't here in ninety two, I covered I
was right in the thick of the wto riots. And
you know, you're gonna find those elements in every major
thing like this, because even if the vast majority of
the protests are peaceful, there's going to be some turns
in the punch bowl, Neil.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Oh, you know, I was, Oh, you and I are
going to show scars to each other right now, because
in nineteen ninety nine at the Democratic National Convention downtown,
there was a riot in which I was the only
talk show host in Los Angeles that was.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Out in the field.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
We were stationed inside at one point or no, we
were stationed on top of a building outside on Olympic
Boulevard with security. When everything went south, they had moved
some inside, but I was left outside. Both our security
guards armed guards were shot with rubber bullets and had
(28:39):
to go to the hospital. I was out there by myself.
I too had rubber bullets, and some of they had
these bounce, these big ones that they would shoot at
the ground and they bounce up and ricochet into the crowd.
But it's from my perspective on the skirmish line, it
was started not by law enforcement. It was started by
(29:02):
people urinating in bottles and throwing rocks and things like
that before it went south.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
But they actually read the Riot Act. I got to
hear it live and hear it.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Go go to those dog tags, those pressed dog tags
you have around your neck just became.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Paper and.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Rode on the back of a ups truck to get
around as they were trying to make their way through
the crowds.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
But I still to this day have a handful of
the little rubber bullets that they use.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
Yeah, this is like that scene in Jaws where Quint
they put their legs up on the table and talk
about their scars. I was shot with rubber bullets numerous times,
and I may hold the world's record for a journalist
getting tear gassed. But it's a contest nobody wents. Okay, okay,
because three I'm three, not a journalist by any stretch.
(29:56):
But I've been tear gas three times. I've been billy
club Okay, okay, you beat me on the billy clubbing.
I haven't been clubbed.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I have been in no fewer than I think about
five riots. I was a young punk rocker. They were
all back then. They would close down things all the time,
and they tear gass us and good times.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
Yeah, Well, you got to bear witness, and at least
you're doing it for a good reason.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
You were a journalist.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
I was just ye, you were just you thought you
were going to participate in a wild ding.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, so you still win. Okay, I know you're a
fan of films. Name one other film with a scene
this is a man and a woman showing scars to
each other.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Romeo is bleeding.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Where that's a good one. I wasn't thinking about.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Uh, Lena Olin asks Gary Oldman if he wants to
get it on with or without her prosthetic arm.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Oh my gosh, I was thinking.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Thinking of lethal weapon and when gosh, now I just
blinked her name and I adore her as an actress.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
She plays Thor's.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Mom, oh Reneyeah, where she and Riggs are showing each
other their their scars to each other as they start
to get romance. I think it's very easy for both
sides to use forced perspective in a little different way
than we enjoy the Disney Castle, but force perspective on
(31:25):
what's going on depending on what they show, what they say,
how they phrase it. And of course editorial editorializing is
just rampant.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Mark. You've got to hear that yourself.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
Oh, I'm a massive news consumer and a consumer of
media criticism, so yeah, you bet. And you know, life
is full of nuance and if you're the kind of
person who just wants to stick to the facts. When
everybody else is picking sides and going with their tribe,
You're going to be on the outs with a lot
of people.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Tell me about it, and it's seriously, it makes me.
It It alienate to me and makes me not want
to converse with anybody because the minute you say something reasonable.
And I was taught in my studies when I studied logic,
they oftentimes would say, if you make people think they're thinking,
they will love you, if you make people actually think
they will hate you.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
It's a grievous insult. I didn't know you had that
kind of background. One of my degrees is in philosophy
as well.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Oh love philosophy, and I'm a big fan. What's the
other one. If you want to offend a smart man,
tell him a lie. If you want to offend a
dumb man, tell him the truth that rings truth.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Ye Twain say that?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Maybe you know that does sound like Twain to me,
But yeah, So I'm in a weird place where I'm
probably more diplomatic than people like. On both sides. I
think people like to say, are you on my team
or not on my team? And I said, no, I
have to stick by truth. That's the only that's the
only floor that is stable enough for me to stand on.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
That is a lonely path.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
It turns out, well, we'll get a drink after the show, sir.
Sounds good to me.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Sevedra on
demand from KFI a M six forty
Hey, it's Neil Savedra.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You're listening to KFI EM six forty the four Report
on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday
to you. A lot going on news wise today, so
a little different of a show.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We will get into.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Some food news stuffs and hopefully even have a guest
later on in the program, But with so much going
on locally, we really want to focus on the news,
make sure that everybody knows what's going on on the
freeways and all of these things. Because I noticed some
freeways on the way in light as hell. Others going
(00:34):
in different directions, like on the one oh one. If
you're going through downtown, it's a holy hell of a mess.
But to start with this and get a good on
the ground view of things, our very own Michael Monks
from KFI News is out there yet again giving you
a perspective that you can only get through his eyes.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Michael, how are you.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hey, Neil? I do hope you get to talk about
some food today and that things stay relatively calm. But boy,
today has started off so poorly and so busily.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, I mean to be waking up to the assassination
attempted assassination of political leaders, and then to know that
we have the No Kings protest. Everything you know, tends
to be aoka during the day sort of, but can
ramp up? Do you have any estimation? It is so
(01:25):
hard to gauge looking. All I know is that the
crowd has been growing and doubling and quadrupling pretty.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Often, So it's kind of steady flow of people coming in.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
It's a steady flow in and out.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I mean I didn't walk over to this protest until
about eleven thirty this morning. I think it was scheduled
to start at ten in the civic center area around
City Hall, round Grand Park and the County building and
all of the government buildings in that part of downtown.
And even at that moment, I was seeing what a
here to be people leaving? I thought, what did I
miss this thing? Already they had their signs, they look
(02:05):
like they were heading in the opposite direction. But by
the time I turned the corner to where City Hall is,
it was a pretty massive crowd. And then a larger
crowd had already been marching down the street. Now from
our friends and the helicopter crews above the ground, they're
estimating this to be about twenty thousand people, and I
have to say, having meandered my way through that massive people,
(02:26):
that could be accurate. I mean, I'm trying to picture
that many people in maybe a basketball arena, and it
would be filled. There's no question about it. Just a
ton of people downtown. What's interesting about what's happening today
compared to some of the protests that we had seen
in the days leading up to today, is that, in
spite of the fact that this is the largest crowd
we've seen downtown since all of these protests started, it
(02:48):
is pretty much peaceful. It's disruptive certainly, you know, to
the freeways, this doesn't have a lot of good traffic
control on the surface streets downtown. People are pouring into
a Broadway, Spring, Temple Hill. Just a flood of people
in those streets without any stoppage on the car front.
So some cars are still trying to make their way through.
It's probably best if you're not coming to this to
(03:09):
avoid downtown in the meantime. But yeah, just a ton
of people right now participating in this No King's March.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
What are the.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Messages you're seeing that I saw some anti fascism and
basic signs like that. Is it a crossover between this
specific concern of immigration and the raids is based on
the tactics that are being used. Any specific message that
(03:38):
you think is cohesive out there to day.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
This was scheduled before the immigration raids and detainments had
started here in Los Angeles County. And while you certainly
see a lot of pro immigration messaging, you're seeing a
lot of just general Democrat liberal messaging diversity, health care,
no fascism, no oligarchy, those types of messages. What I
(04:04):
was telling Conway in the previous couple of hours was
that this event is different than what you might see
of the crew that might bark at the National Guard
or take on the police in the streets.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
These are more of your traditional.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Democrats and liberals who felt like they wanted to come
out and make their voices heard against the president. That's
why it's called No King's Day. You've got the military
parade in Washington, d C. They liken that to something
that only a king would do. And so you're seeing
a lot of anti President Trump messaging today, and it
is a massive crowd, as I noted, but you're not
(04:38):
seeing a lot of jawing or chirping with the police
or the military who are still present downtown. I saw
many uniformed officers protecting federal property and personally, and while
they're probably more, I only saw one woman trying to
engage the Marines who were standing downtown in a negative way.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
So what was it, Gosh, Now, now, a couple months
maybe when we had the hands off protests that if
you remember this kind of similar people were gathering in
places to like hands off, you know, the administration, hands off,
you know, their bodies, hands off, medicare hands off, all
(05:18):
of these things. And that sounded to me what you
described now is kind of your everyday generic, different aged
Democrats rather than I don't know, purple haired, nose ring
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I Well, there's a reason for that, Neil, and it's
because it's the same organizers. It's the same groups that
were behind the hands off things that motivated this thing nationwide.
Now there are protests taking place across the country, and
there are multiple not King's protests across southern California to
in La County, Orange County, riverside San Bernardino, but the
downtown one appears to.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Be the centerpiece.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Locally, it is again a very very large crowd, but
you're right, this is a crowd of folks who have
a lot of resentment towards various policies that are coming
out of the White House. So while this is sort
of a compliment to the anti ice messaging, it lacks
that sort of violent enthusiasm that we are seeing from
a smaller segment that comes out because they come out
(06:19):
for a lot of different protests in Los Angeles. If
it's Palestine, if it's Black lives matters, if it's any
sort of thing that involves policing. That's really who these
folks like to target. These more antagonistic folks, these agitators
that love to take on the police here in Los Angeles,
and the folks who have just blasted businesses and residential
(06:39):
properties down here in graffiti, broken windows. And then there's
the criminal element that probably doesn't feel one way or
the other about the politics, but they're just taking advantage
to run into a Nike store, to destroy the Apple
store for some reason, break into a sushi restaurant down
here as well. I'll know you're a food guy, you
know food in Los Angeles and there's a lot of
great you know, Mexican Central American food here. The vibe
(07:04):
downtown is off, it's been off since all of this started, and.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You know, hang on that hang on that note, because
I'd love to bring you back. We're gonna get a
quick update and then come back if we can. Michael
Monks is with us. I want to talk to you
about that, the storefronts, the businesses, things like that you've given.
You've given us a great description of what's going on
now and the difference between the genuine chaos. I would
say that one's fueled by immediacy with raids and the like,
(07:33):
and then one's fueled by kind of a not as
sooteric but more of a broad brush we don't like
this guy, and that's a little different and a little
less heated. But I will come back to what's going
on downtown with the No Kings protest.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I've been doing them since I was a kid. We
call them July fourth. But this is a little different.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right now seems peaceful, our own Michael Monks is down
there and we'll talk more when we return.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Today a little different.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
We will get into some fork ish type stuff as
we go throughout the show, but there's just too much
news and I want you, hopefully to hear a friendly
voice that you can hang out with today that's going
to give you information with some of the best of
the best, with Mark Runner here and of course Michael
Monks and Robin on the board. It is a normal
(08:33):
weekend for Michael Monks, but not for the rest of us,
because you never sleep, Michael, and we appreciate you being
out in the thick of it.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
You say, somewhere near.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Twenty thousand ish people, not all congregated in the same
spot there around City Hall, but ish in that area.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Oh yeah, And it's been interesting because I don't know
what the order of events was, or if there was
an order of events, if it was just come out,
walk around and make your presence and your voice known.
Because this thing from the very beginning when I showed
up around City Hall, some people were milling about in
city halls lawns, some people were milling about in Grand Park,
(09:20):
some were marching around Broadway and Hill Street. And then
that sort of morphed into a larger march. People kind
of congregated together and did a big, massive march around
a few blocks. But like I told you before, we
went to break as early as eleven thirty, I saw
people already leaving this thing and more people coming in.
So it's just been a fluctuation of people since I
(09:41):
guess late this morning until now. I'll tell you that
in addition to the crowds that have mobilized together to
speak out against the president, the Grand Central Market, for example,
was hopping, so I know it's been a boon to
business there. Those cash registers were ringing. It was incredibly
busy in there. I dipped in and grabbed a sandwich
in a doughnut because I don't get there enough. But
(10:03):
they're hugely, hugely popular right now. But a lot of
the other businesses, especially the retail businesses downtown, are are shut.
And here in the fashion district where I've I've moved
to at this point in the conversation, it's a ghost
town down here. And on a day like this, a
beautiful Saturday afternoon, where you would typically see a lot
of those fashion districts, santi style vendors with the cheap
(10:27):
clothes frankly, or the cheap bags and the cheap phone covers,
and all the street vendors selling you know, stuff that
fell off whatever truck I don't know, and the food
vendors and all of that.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Times.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, they're all gone.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I was looking at Santi Ali yesterday the and it
was empty.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And I think that there are a couple of things
that play here. Won The curfew, which doesn't go into
effect until eight o'clock tonight, and each night that it's
been in effects has impacted businesses because a lot of
places are closing well before that so that they can
get out of downtown. But the protests have vandalized a
lot of businesses. There are very few walls left down
(11:08):
here Neil that haven't been spray painted with some sort
of messaging either against Ice, against the president, you know,
various maybe left wing messages all over all over, and
so many businesses are boarded up just for protection. I mean,
if you go to seventh and Fig, where the target
downtown is, all those national brands that have locations there,
(11:29):
they got.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
The wood over their windows.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
So seven of the Fig is right off of the
one ten freeway there, and you can see the.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
You know, you can see it right there.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
It's kind of a main place of gathering together and
getting your shopping and stuff, so the restaurants there as well.
That being I mean, it's like hurricane season.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
It reminds me of COVID because it's got that air
of uncertainty to it as well, like, well, what is
tomorrow going to bring? We don't know, and yet we're
apart from each other because we can't congregate that. That's
sort of the vibe that I was getting last night
at about nine thirty. Keep in mind, I live in
the curfew zone, so I'm down here in this but
residents are supposed to have I guess, special access. And
(12:17):
I was like, I gotta I gotta get something to eat.
I mean, it's stressful. Let me just run over to wherever.
And I jumped in the car and drove and everything
was closed, gas stations.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Fast food.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I had to leave pretty well out of downtown to
find something and then come back. But streets completely deserted.
And this is an economy down here that's frankly already
hanging by a thread. Downtown is gorgeous, you know, in
spite of itself in a lot of ways, sure, fantastic food.
I love my business is she's butt, you know. But
(12:52):
it's a little ikey, right, I mean, it's just generally
a little icky anyway. And now you have this happening
on top of it, an area that still hasn't recovered
from COVID is now kind of going through that again.
I don't know what the future holds for us down here.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
On a personal note, I'm on the eastern side, as
you know, so I'm not that far from you. If
you need anything, buddy, don't hesitate. I'll come drive you
and pick you up or grab something and bring it
to you.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Zero seriously, I know.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
But it was just one of those nights. I wasn't
like starving in here.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
It was just laziness and like just general p shitteriness,
like I gotta get out of here.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I gotta go fine, I gotta get out of here.
I don't offer that, Willie Neely. I'm being absolutely serious.
I appreciate something. I have a truck, I'll roll over people.
I'm kiddy, No, I will get it to you though.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
But yes, on that note, there is a Mermaid down there,
many many other restaurants and bars have been hitting me up,
you know, changing every day, going okay, we're doing brunch service,
or we're doing this or a special menu or you know,
making all these things that they because they have to
(14:02):
close a eight.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah, mostly eight.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
To eleven or six to eleven is where you make
most of your money downtown.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
If you're a dinner place, if you're a place that's
trying to make money off cocktails, absolutely those are the hours.
And like you said, some are trying to like capitalize
on happy hour. But when you have a sense of
urgency hanging over the city, like you got to get
out of here. It's not like we're just closing. You
are legally not allowed to be here. People aren't I
don't think taking the chance too because people are being arrested.
(14:30):
There have been hundreds arrested in recent day since the
curfew went into effect, mostly for failure to disperse for
their participation in the demonstrations. But there have been no
fewer than four dozen citations for curfew violations.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, and what they were doing the other day is
they were moving out. They went into Ktown and we're
on Vermont. I think someone went out on Virgil and
they just left the one mile curfew area.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
And that's a question for law enforcement here who said
yesterday and this morning, we're very well prepared for the
mass demonstrations taking place today.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
But as we've.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Noted, the one today is I guess it's certainly less antagonistic.
They've got their message. They are against the president, and
they're marching in huge numbers, but they're not antagonistic. They're
not vandalizing anything, they're not trying to engage the National
Guard or the police in any negative way. So what
happens though, after today, when we get back to what
has become normal for the past several days.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Or even the regularning right exactly? Yeah, this changes as
the sun goes down.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I mean, I'm reading about Native American drum circles and
informal yoga sessions this morning at Grand Park. Be honest,
I know that you were, you know, bombarded with tear
gas the other day. Have you been smelling petually oil?
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
That is my least favorite scent. And I love essential
oils and all that, but peturely.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I just love it. That's what I hear when I
hear drum circles.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah, that's the vibe and Look, everybody needs a good
stretch every now and then, Neil.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
But that's kind of the vibe down here right now. Interesting.
All right, Well, keep us posted. We are here.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
You jump in anytime, my friend. Be safe and no joke.
If you need anything or you need to get out
of dodge.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
We're not far. I appreciate you and you we'll see
you soon.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Michael Monks out there KFI News in the thick of
it right now, it sounds like things are a okay
and for this No Kings protest intensifying across the region.
I mean, you've got Hollywood, Pastina, Santa Monica, Glendale, Culver
sitting Long Beach, all kinds of stuff, the anti authority
terry and stuff going on today. But there's much in
(16:42):
the news and we're going to keep you a post
of it, abreast of it as we go.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Forty slightly modified as show today, as we do when
there's big news. As much as I love the sanctuary
concept of the Fork and I'm proud of it that
we get three hours on a Saturday to shake off
the heaviness of the news and come together and celebrate food,
the people that make it, the culture behind it. That
today is a big day, A lot going on here
(17:12):
in southern California and across the nation, and it just
is worthy of our attention to know not only what's
going on on the streets, how the flow of traffic, businesses,
a lot of them restaurants being affected by all of this.
And of course Mark Ronner's here as well. Mark the
the parade, the two hundred and fiftieth celebration birthday celebration
(17:36):
of America's Army takes place at what about three o'clock
our time?
Speaker 5 (17:42):
About three thirty are okay, so six thirty their time,
a little under an hour from now. I'm assuming that
there's going to be massive protests out that way, for sure.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
If you look at a map of the protests planned
across the country, it's covered with there are at least
two thousand protests planned around the country and around.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
The world as well.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
I'm seeing at least fifty in countries around the world.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Wow. So this is obviously this is.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
An intense situation because you're dealing with a lot going
on right now. The concept of anti fascism and I
know that these words are thrown around a lot. I'm
a rationalist. I don't belong to a political party. I
think a two party system is horrible. I think by
its very nature it causes negativity. And if you had
(18:35):
two football teams, one from the east side of the
country one from the west side, I guarantee more people
would die at football games. It's just the nature of humanity.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Well, we know our founding fathers were against parties as well.
And factionalism, yes, which is factionalism is a great term.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Mark Runner.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
That is actually I was talking to my wife today
because it's a lot of this has been bumming me out.
My father was born here in the United States to
parents who were here on work visas from Mexico. My
family is from Wuanauato on my father's side. My mother's
side is English, Irish and Scottish, and I love both
(19:18):
sides equally.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
There is no oh on this.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I'm that However, I do what identify and always have
identified as an adult as a Latino. I get the
benefit of both those worlds. I have the same frustration
as Selena and her family in the movies.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
You're not You're never good enough.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
For either side, But you know, so I have my own,
you know, deep hurts and places.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
I have said this before on the program.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I believe at the bare minimum, we grow Daca, we
grow a system of friends and neighbors, you know, good
friends and neighbors process with Mexico and anyone that we
share borders with, to allow and cover gaps and situations
and allow people to enjoy the fruits of this great country.
(20:16):
I think the vast, vast, vast majority of the people
that come here are coming to do good and right
by their family and the like.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Yeah, I agree with you, and I tend also not
to look at something like this in terms of right
or left, although I know a lot of people do.
I've been thinking of it through the lens of Rod
Serling lately because I'm a huge Twilight Zone fan and
I've written a lot of Twilight Zone in comics myself.
And just this morning I reposted something from Rod Serling's
(20:48):
daughter and I a quote about him and protesters, and
he always struck me as somebody who was a fundamentally
decent man who was outraged by the indecency he saw.
And that's what strikes me as the crux of these protests.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, indecency is a good word.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Being freed from the bondage of a political party normally
is wonderful lately. You know, I told my wife. She
nailed it. My wife's a therapist and she nailed it.
That I feel lonely in times like this because I'm
a rationalist and this is nothing but emotion. For the
(21:25):
most part, it's emotion. And that doesn't mean that there
aren't legitimate causes, because there are. But I mean the overflow,
the angst, the ugliness, the if you say, like I would,
I didn't vote for Donald Trump. I don't care for
the man personally. However, to tell me that someone's ideas
are always bad because of who they are is wrong.
I mean, if the devil came to me and said
(21:46):
the two plus two is four, I'd have to agree.
So I try and defend ideas and not a person.
And so it's funny here on radio. Everybody thinks when
you defend one idea on this side that you're you know,
it's that eurie for me or against me. And if
you're christ you can get away with that. But if
you're anyone, Yeah, it's a very short list of who
(22:08):
can get away with saying, hey, I'm so pure that
if you disagree with me, there's a problem. But it
really breaks my heart because I see people being torn
apart and I don't think that's okay, especially for most
of the time it being civil infractions. When you are
deported and come back, that's that is a felony, and
(22:29):
there's a problem and there's an issue there.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
So there, I think a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
And then you using the no King's concept. I think
it's very easy for both sides to use forced perspective
in a little different way than we enjoy the Disney Castle,
but force perspective on what's going on depending on what
they show, what they say, how they phrase it. And
of course ed editorializing is just rampant.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Mark. You've got to hear that yourself.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Oh, I'm a massive news consumer and a consumer of
media criticism, so yeah, you bet. And you know, life
is full of nuance, and if you're the kind of
person who just wants to stick to the facts when
everybody else is picking sides and going with their tribe,
you're going to be on the outs with a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Tell me about it, and it's seriously.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
It makes me it It alienates me and makes me
not want to converse with anybody because the minute you
say something reasonable. And I was taught in my studies
when I studied logic, they oftentimes would say, if you
make people think they're thinking, they will love you, if
you make people actually think they will hate you.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
It's a grievous insult. I didn't know you had that
kind of background. One of my degrees is in philosophy
as well.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Oh love philosophy, and I'm a big fan. What's the
other one. If you want to offend a smart man,
tell him a lie. If you want to offend a
dumb man, tell him the truth.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
That rings true. Ye Twain say that?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Maybe you know that does sound like Twain to me.
But yeah, so I'm in a weird place where I'm
probably more diplomatic than people like on both sides. I
think people like to say, are you on my team
or not on my team? And I said, no, I
have to stick by truth. That's the only that's the
only floor that is stable enough for me to stand on.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
That is a lonely path.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
It turns out, well, we'll get a drink after the show.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Sir, that's good to me.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
You've been listening to the Fork Report. You can always
hear us live on KFI AM six forty two to
five pm on Saturday and anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app. Thanks for hanging out today. A lot going on,
so we've shifted things just a little bit and broke
broken format as we want to make sure that we
are covering what is now so far a peaceful protest.
(24:44):
And I mean that, you know, from personal perspective and
not from the garbage that we hear when people are
looting and throwing things and we keep being told that
everything's peaceful. This is currently what's going on downtown in
the No King's protest. It seems to be intensifying. As
far as group Mark Ronner is with us. Mark, do
(25:07):
you see any changes in what has been a large
and ever growing group but seems peaceful so far?
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Yeah, I'm trying to keep an eye on it, and
I don't see any mayhem so far. It looks like
authorities have really prepared well for this, and I don't
know if you've got the message, but they're urging people
to be peaceful.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
What Yeah, hell with that? Break something? Friend?
Speaker 5 (25:32):
I don't know if this was too subtle for everybody,
but they would like you to be peaceful.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, that was a message from Conway earlier. And Conway
was on noon to two and he just kept coming
on in a heartfelt way and saying, hey, be peaceful
because he knows he's talking to that crowd.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Well, we've got lots of National Guard, lots of Marines
on US soil acting to protect, but we've never seen
marine he's activated against United citizens before to my knowledge.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
And yeah, I believe that nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
I believe yesterday was was the first photo that I've
seen of Marines detaining a citizen of the United States
on American soil.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Sorry, welcome to Los Angeles, sir. Nineteen ninety two, we
had them here. We had twice as many. We had
about fifteen hundred marines here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
I'm only here six years.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
He got to cut me a little slack on the
lifelong Angelino institutional knowledge.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
I'm a lifelong Angelino and I can tell you this
is not is it's rare.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Yes, Well, you're hearing experts, legal experts and constitutional experts
throwing around the term posse comittatis a lot, I know,
And that's what we're talking about here, the deployment of
US armed forces on US soil against US citizens. And
there's a very narrow range of circumstances that make that legal.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, and maybe the way it went it went, I mean,
the way it went down is different. But yes, in
ninety two you had about fifteen hundred so a little
over good times, good times, Oh no, it was very
very intense, you know. I also saw something that reminded
me that the other day I saw shopkeepers, shop owners
(27:20):
sitting with the lights on in their shop with shotguns
and rifles over their lap downtown and I haven't seen
that since that time either where you had it was crazy.
In downtown you had shop owners on top of their
buildings with rifles protecting there.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
It's not surprising. And this isn't my first rodeo. Even
though I wasn't here in ninety two, I covered I
was right in the thick of the wto riots. And
you know, you're gonna find those elements in every major
thing like this, because even if the vast majority of
the protests are peaceful, there's going to be some turns
in the punch bowl, Neil.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Oh, you know, I was, Oh, you and I are
going to show scars to each other right now, because
in nineteen ninety nine at the Democratic National Convention downtown,
there was a riot in which I was the only
talk show host in Los Angeles that was.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Out in the field.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
We were stationed inside at one point or no, we
were stationed on top of a building outside on Olympic
Boulevard with security. When everything went south, they had moved
some inside, but I was left outside. Both our security
guards armed guards were shot with rubber bullets and had
(28:39):
to go to the hospital. I was out there by myself.
I too had rubber bullets, and some of they had
these bounce, these big ones that they would shoot at
the ground and they bounce up and ricochet into the crowd.
But it's from my perspective on the skirmish line, it
was started not by law enforcement. It was started by
(29:02):
people urinating in bottles and throwing rocks and things like
that before it went south.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
But they actually read the Riot Act. I got to
hear it live and hear it.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Go go to those dog tags, those pressed dog tags
you have around your neck just became.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Paper and.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Rode on the back of a ups truck to get
around as they were trying to make their way through
the crowds.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
But I still to this day have a handful of
the little rubber bullets that they use.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
Yeah, this is like that scene in Jaws where Quint
they put their legs up on the table and talk
about their scars. I was shot with rubber bullets numerous times,
and I may hold the world's record for a journalist
getting tear gassed. But it's a contest nobody wents. Okay, okay,
because three I'm three, not a journalist by any stretch.
(29:56):
But I've been tear gas three times. I've been billy
club Okay, okay, you beat me on the billy clubbing.
I haven't been clubbed.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I have been in no fewer than I think about
five riots. I was a young punk rocker. They were
all back then. They would close down things all the time,
and they tear gass us and good times.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
Yeah, Well, you got to bear witness, and at least
you're doing it for a good reason.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
You were a journalist.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
I was just ye, you were just you thought you
were going to participate in a wild ding.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, so you still win. Okay, I know you're a
fan of films. Name one other film with a scene
this is a man and a woman showing scars to
each other.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Romeo is bleeding.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Where that's a good one. I wasn't thinking about.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Uh, Lena Olin asks Gary Oldman if he wants to
get it on with or without her prosthetic arm.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Oh my gosh, I was thinking.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Thinking of lethal weapon and when gosh, now I just
blinked her name and I adore her as an actress.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
She plays Thor's.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Mom, oh Reneyeah, where she and Riggs are showing each
other their their scars to each other as they start
to get romance. I think it's very easy for both
sides to use forced perspective in a little different way
than we enjoy the Disney Castle, but force perspective on
(31:25):
what's going on depending on what they show, what they say,
how they phrase it. And of course editorial editorializing is
just rampant.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Mark. You've got to hear that yourself.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
Oh, I'm a massive news consumer and a consumer of
media criticism, so yeah, you bet. And you know, life
is full of nuance and if you're the kind of
person who just wants to stick to the facts. When
everybody else is picking sides and going with their tribe,
You're going to be on the outs with a lot
of people.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Tell me about it, and it's seriously, it makes me.
It It alienate to me and makes me not want
to converse with anybody because the minute you say something reasonable.
And I was taught in my studies when I studied logic,
they oftentimes would say, if you make people think they're thinking,
they will love you, if you make people actually think
they will hate you.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
It's a grievous insult. I didn't know you had that
kind of background. One of my degrees is in philosophy
as well.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Oh love philosophy, and I'm a big fan. What's the
other one. If you want to offend a smart man,
tell him a lie. If you want to offend a
dumb man, tell him the truth that rings truth.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Ye Twain say that?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Maybe you know that does sound like Twain to me,
But yeah, So I'm in a weird place where I'm
probably more diplomatic than people like. On both sides. I
think people like to say, are you on my team
or not on my team? And I said, no, I
have to stick by truth. That's the only that's the
only floor that is stable enough for me to stand on.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
That is a lonely path.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
It turns out, well, we'll get a drink after the show, sir.
Sounds good to me.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Sevedra on
demand from KFI a M six forty
The Fork Report w Neil Saavedra News
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