BHS - 8A – KFI Investigative Reporter Steve Gregory | Earlier with Mo Kelly

KFI investigative reporter Steve Gregory joins Bill to speak on medics saying police broke bones and drew blood at UCLA protests. LAPD and CHP are now investigating. Supreme Court to decide contentious issues amid ongoing criticism. Host of ‘Later with Mo Kelly’ closes the Bill Handel Show talking about Netflix set to stream Christmas Day NFL games for 3 years.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listenings KFI AM six forty thebill Handle Show on demand on the iHeartRadio
app. If you are listening tothe bill Handle Show, you see KFI

(00:29):
AM six forty bill Handle. Itis a Thursday morning, May sixteenth,
and a couple of the stories we'recovering. First of all, the Dow
is over forty thousand points for thefirst time. Oh, economy is well,
it's doing very well, and interestatesmay come down. And just remember
it's the worst economy in the historyof the United States. Just ask a

(00:54):
certain presidential candidate. Love it,just love it? Okay, So the
Biden Trump debate is on. It'sgoing to be in June. The first
one and a dozen pro Palace Indiandemonstrators were arrested at the UC Irvine and
they cleared an encampment. There wereseveral hundred there. As a matter of

(01:15):
fact, Steve, Steve Gregory,who was reporting on this. By the
way, Steve, I understand youjust won an Edward R. Murrow Award,
which is no small deal. Iwant to point out that Steve just
got sick of winning the Golden GlobesAward or the glid Mikes. I'm sorry,
go yeah, I'm sorry. TheGolden Mic Awards with over a hundred

(01:36):
of them and you just got bored. So now you are the Edward R.
Murrow Award, and that is avery very big deal. Well,
thank you, And I just wantto clarify it as a it's an Edward
R. Murrow Regional Award, sothat puts me in the running for a
national award. The regional award wewon in our category for all the Western

(01:57):
units, all the western states inthe US, so that was a pretty
big feat for us. And itwas for the documentary that Jacob and Nick
Pouli, Yucheni and I worked on. So yeah, I'm pretty proud of
that. Yeah, and you shouldbe for that. Yeah, and you
should be that is that's a huge, huge deal. And the reason we
don't talk too much about the GoldenMics because we're just sick of you winning
them every year. Listen, it'sChris Little, my news director, who

(02:23):
keeps telling me to enter every year. I go icond whatever, you know,
and he wins. So at thislast one where I was at.
So everybody gets a picture with theirone Golden Mic and they're just oh my
god, I finally got one.After eighteen years, I finally got one.
So Steve is holding on. Rememberthat picture of that woman who had

(02:44):
eight kids, Octo mom, Yeah, octomom, you know, holding all
eight kids. That's what you looklike with the golden mics. Well,
thank you. I would much ratherhave golden mics than eight kids. That's
probably true, all right, SoSteve, let's talk about what happened at
uc Irvine, and the big storyis it is now coming out, or

(03:07):
at least medics, I understand.Volunteer medics say that the police weapons did
draw blood, and they were bludgeoned, and the students and crack phones happened.
Yeah. So that story you're talkingabout is an article that appeared in
the USA Today and the Kaiser HealthNews, and it stems from a story

(03:30):
where a former UCLA student who's nowa medical resident says she was working in
a makeshift medical tent inside the encampmenton the UCLA campus and that the night
that all hell broke loose on Maysecond, she and some other medical volunteers
and these are her words, itfelt like they were a battlefield medic with

(03:51):
all the injuries coming in, includingbleeding wounds, head wounds, suspected broken
bones, and they blamed it onthe police's use of less lethal rounds.
And they said that the rubber bulletswere piercing and drawing blood and that the
other projectiles were causing head injuries.So I started to dig a little deeper

(04:14):
into this because those are, youknow, obviously some very serious allegations.
Because the way policies are among thelaw enforcement agencies in California, not just
Southernifornia, but throughout California, there'ssome very specific rules of engagement for agencies
to deploy less lethal rounds. Andif you remember, years ago, they
used to call it non lethal.That was the term they used to use.

(04:36):
But they realized that they had toshift policies over the years because those
quote unquote non lethal rounds could belethal. I mean, if you get
a foam projectile or even you know, some sort of a pepper ball into
the temple for instance, or anywherein the head area, you could cause
serious injury or death. And sothey they over the years had softened the

(05:00):
term to less lethal, more accurate, and these less lethal munitions, and
I'm going to talk about the LAPDfor instance, these are the only less
lethal munitions in their arsenal they usea forty millimeter foam projectile, So imagine
a nerf ball of the ed ofthe tip of a projectile. And it's
a dome shaped projectile that I believe. It's blue in color. It's spongy

(05:26):
on the front, but when itcomes at you at a pretty high speed,
it's meant as a deterrent to slowyou down. That's one, So
the forty millimeter projectile. They alsouse pepper spray, which is pretty standard
among all law enforcement. And theyhave a bean bag round, and a
bean bag round is all of theselittle tiny buckshot or little tiny pellets,

(05:47):
little bebies, if you will,miniature bbes inside of a little canvas bag
or a burlap bag, tiny burlapbag that's stuffed into a shotgun shell.
And those are not used in crowds, despite what allegations there have been among
students or the professional agitators on campus. They don't use shotguns. They don't

(06:11):
use those being back projectiles in crowds. That's an laped policy. They don't
even bring them out. Those areused for directional tactical use only. So
this story keeps using the term rubberbullets the LAPD doesn't even own rubber bullets.
Rubber bullets are something that's used inEurope. They're not used in the
majority of the departments in the UnitedStates, especially in California. So the

(06:32):
story's a little misleading, and Ithink it bears clarification. So let's talk
about less than lethal. First ofall, was hey, Bill, Yes,
I have a quick question for Steve. Back in nineteen ninety nine,
I was out at the riots atthe Democratic Convention in downtown Los Angeles.

(06:53):
We took on fire me personally,I was out there, took on rubber
bullet fire. I have them stillto this day. So did our security
guards from LAPD. What two ofno, no, no to no.
I still have the rubber bullets.You have the bullets? Okay, yeah,
I still have the rubber bullets,and our security guards took on fire
and were hospitalized for it. Thatwas LAPD. Is the rubber bullet thing

(07:18):
new or newer? What do youmean newer? Well, you say that
they don't use them, they didit. They haven't used them in decades.
They haven't used them in decades,mean that? Okay? So that
was the standard, that was thestandard. Yeah, twenty twenty five years
ago when you went through that,and uh, but the rubber bullet actually
started in Europe. That was somethingthat that I believe is Germany and Germany

(07:43):
and Spain I think started the rubberbullet. Uh, when those were first
invented created. But the technology overthe years and research, obviously it all
evolves. And when they started torealize that again back then it was called
non lethal as I mentioned before,and that they realized that there's no such

(08:03):
thing as non lethal. Every weaponhas the potential of being lethal. And
oh yeah, you know Steve standingout there, and I remember the LA
Times at the time called to talkabout it, and when I said that
the cops were in their right becausepeople were throwing massive rocks and urine filled
bottles, they never quoted me.I will tell you when you're in those

(08:26):
situation, well, no joke.I was like, listen, I was
out there and deserved it as muchas anybody else once they read the Riot
Act. But I will tell youthat often doesn't get reported that they're her
you know, throwing massive bottles filledwith urine and rocks. Oh you can
see it now, you can seeit a lot of it on video.

(08:46):
Now it's kind of yeah, here'sthe thing, and Neal brings up a
really good point the police, andthis was also mischaracterized because I was in
the in the protests and riots intwenty twenty and I've covered many riots in
my twenty years. Here can andI can tell you the police departments don't
roll up, jump out and justindiscriminately opened fire. I have never,

(09:07):
in my entire career ever seen policedo that. They have to have a
reason, and the rules of engagementare very specific. Do mistakes happen absolutely.
The May of two thousand and six, the so called May First melee,
when my colleagues, eleven of mycolleagues were plowed over by a skirmish
line of LAPD and they were beatenwith batons and things like that. That

(09:28):
was the rules of engagement. Mistake, blunder. That cost twenty two officers
their job. So mistakes happen,and then we move on, and then
they develop new strategies. In thisparticular case, the forty millimeters sponge round
is the most common use or themost common less lethal projectile in use today
CHP they use a variation of that, and it's called a foam baton.

(09:52):
So imagine a little cylindric foam that'sfolded up inside of a shell, and
then when it shoots out, thatlittle foam projectile will hit you. No
officer is trained to shoot center masslike they are with a gun. Less
lethal is designed to be used inthe lower torso area, no growing area,
only thighs and belly button. Thoseare the two targeted areas for Leslieth.

(10:13):
Well, yeah, that's kind youcan miss pretty quickly. I mean
that's you know, you go betweenthe two. But let me ask again
which we didn't yet to, andthat is is there such thing as a
non or less than lethal weapon thatcan't kill you? No? And that's
I said that before there is anything, and I want to go beyond that,
and that is to say that anykind of weapon it seems to be

(10:37):
that's used in crowd control all ofa sudden, is being used to really
hurt people. And the point ofit is not to stop them or move
them away or to stop I legalaction. It's to hurt people. Like
this story where these volunteer medics,as you said, came in and saw
and dealt with people who had brokenbones and wounds and puncture wounds. Will

(11:01):
You would think that there'd be videoof that, wouldn't you. Well,
that's when I was looking at thestory that your producer An sent me,
and I was reading through and lookingat all the photos. There were plenty
of photos of the medical tan andthe medical setup, and the volunteers and
the medics and all these other things, but there wasn't one photo or one
clip of video that shows that theseless lethal rounds were causing the injuries that

(11:24):
were listed in this story. Sothat's why I looked at it. So
I just got off the phone withHP. I've been on the phone last
night with LAPD. I was onthe film with Sheriff's Apartment. There the
only variation in the use of lesslethal in southern California. I was just
saying in the La area, theLa County Sheriff's Apartment uses pepper balls.
They do use pepper balls. LAPDdoes not use pepper balls. And the

(11:46):
pepperball is filled with the same capsicumlike the pepper spray, but it's in
the little plastic ball is designed toburst on impact and put out a bit
of a small area of gas.It's a directional weapon. The bean bag
is a directional weapon. Those arenot typically used in close contact in crowds.
Those are used from a distance,typically where they can aim, Like

(12:07):
if a guy has a knife inthe middle of the street, they're going
to use a bean bag to deployand to stop or stunt the advancement of
that individual. But in these crowdsituations, those forty millimeters ones as have
a larger mass area, They candeploy them in a much closer kind of
a closer formation, and they're designedto again hold the line back or deter

(12:28):
people from advancing. So end batons. Batons are another less lethal as I
mentioned, taser, pepper spray,and then the CHP uses an aerial distraction
like what they were calling flash bangs. That's sort of the colloquial term for
it. But those are the thingsthey shoot into the air, they explode,

(12:48):
and it's meant to scare. It'sbasically meant to tell people to stay
back. So, Steve, howdoes USA today even cover a story in
which there's not a shred of proofthat this happened as an allegation by people
who are clearly on one side,clearly or biased. Yeah, So I
was looking at that and in USAtoday basically reprinted a story from the Kaiser

(13:11):
Health News, which is I readmore and more into it. It clearly
has, you know, it hasit has a particular angle that it wants
to put out there, or ifyou will, it's a particular version of
events. But they were careful touse words like appeared to be or might
have been, so they don't eversay it with any definitive proof. They

(13:37):
just say it appears that the injuriescame from this, It appears that it
happened from that. They're sort ofsaving themselves, but at the same time
they're putting it out there that thebasically the police come rolling in there and
just started opening fire and then allthe you know, and then when they
were using the term battlefield that thesestudents. First of all, there's been
no evidence that these people at theseprotests were students all students. That has

(14:01):
yet to be determined, and yetyou have to be vetted. And so
if these are professional agitators or professionalprotesters, as a lot have also claimed,
you know, these people are usedto this kind of rules of engagement
and they know exactly which buttons topush. But back to your point about
this story, all I can tellyou is that this is a version of
events that is out there. Ican't put myself in the in the shoes

(14:22):
of the writer or the people thatsay they were out there. I can
only tell you based on my experience. Hey, So, let's say you're
carrying the story, you know,because it's let's say it's a big story
in and of itself. Do youpoint out that there's no evidence that has
been established to prove the point?I mean, is that part of the
reporting. Well, I'm putting aswe speak, and I'm writing the story
for today. I'm actually doing astory for k if I new it is

(14:43):
based on our conversation, and I'musing I'm putting out there what was asserted
in this story, and then I'malso putting out what was told to me
by a deputy chief of the LosAngeles Police Department. Okay, so I'm
going to have the balance in there. And that's that's what we do.
That's what you do. That's whyyou got that borrow ward, which is
well, I don't know if that'swhy you got it, but yeah,
but congratulations, well deserved, welldeserved. Okay, thank you. Hey,

(15:07):
before we go on, because Ihave a surprise guest just walked in
the door and I said, Hey, come on and sit down, Neil.
You want to talk about the Disneylandtickets that we're giving away. Sure,
I always like talking about Disneyland tickets. Yeah, he's gonna, you

(15:28):
know, passes. He goes fivetimes a week. What why are you
doing this now? What do youmean why you asked me to do this
now when you have a special guest? Oh? Because you I just want
to really we could either and nowwe're interrupt mode. So if you can
just take thirty seconds to plug whatwe're giving away, you got it.
Pal. KFIM six forty wants togive you a chance to celebrate friendship and

(15:50):
beyond at the Disneyland Resort picks ourfestus back now through August fourth. Keep
listening to KFIM six forty for yourchance to win a four pack of one
day one park tickets to Disneyland Parkor Disney California Adventure Park. And they
got a lot going on there.They're better together, Pixar, Pal Celebration

(16:10):
Club, Pixar and my favorite festivalmarketplaces. They got a bunch of market
places there at Disneyland California adventure.Yeah, and we're about to have a
mortgage company do a commercial because it'sa good segue taking out a mortgage to
buy tickets for Disneyland. Well you'rea smart Alec, but I will tell
you still the best value for yourmoney is we talked about it, and
yeah, you've talked about it andyou make a lot of sense. So

(16:30):
anyway, Matt Money has just walkedthrough the door. Oh you left it
open. Yeah, I did leaveit opened. So Matt is filling in
for Gary and Shannon today, andso Matt of course is heard down the
hall at KLACAM five seventy usually twelveto three today three to six with Petros

(16:53):
and Money, and Petros sometimes fillsin for you, Neil, and Petro's
completely insane. So she is,so Matt, what this is great?
Because, uh, general talk andI can't wait for So what do you
have? Any idea? Went upup in class? I'm a quarter horse
bill and now I'm running with thethoroughbreds. There you are. That's what
I'm doing today. So do youknow what topics you're gonna do? Yeah,

(17:14):
well you know, Shannon's still here, so she's gonna drive the She's
gonna fly the plane. We'll takeoff the cruise. I don't know if
we can land in, but i'lltry. I you know, I consume
the news. Yeah, what doyou do? So I think that's I
think it's just like somebody that wouldfill in to do sports. We all
consume sports. So I'll do mybest, okay, And I know the
big stories. I'm doing something onSupreme Court. And you're going to talk
about who the best hitter is onthe Supreme Court and question also Biden and

(17:41):
Trump the debate and who would getthe best who would get the most RBIs
and it gets how we're gonna.I like to phrase everything in sports metaphors.
Yeah, gonna do. And Iactually asked you a question about the
Supreme Court. So I'm fascinated withthe Supreme Court. Do you do you
believe this was the original intention forthe originalists out there of what we thought
what the Supreme Court was supposed tobe actually what it is. Yeah,

(18:03):
you know, it's it's crazy.It's really interesting. Well, it's I
don't know how crazy it is.First of all, the support of the
Supreme Court and the reputation they haveis in the toilet. It's never been.
It's never been so low. Andyou have the liberal liberals going,
look how conservative, Look how horribleit is. You know, the warrant
Court was insanely liberal, right,and you have the conservatives them going out

(18:23):
of their minds. So now it'sswitched and they're going to tell you as
much as I think the court isNoticlarly Clarence Thomas, who's out of his
mind, it's this is the wayit works. You know, it's a
president, right, who nominates theSenate confirmed? So you had a conservative
president, you had a conservative Senate, and he got his way, and
it's just the way it works.So, you know, while I'm not

(18:45):
happy with it, and I thinkit has gone political for much more political
it's ever been. By the way, the original intent, that's what I
was asking, the origin. Theyweren't supposed to have They amend the Constitution.
Well, that's what they do essentiallyin many cases. No, it's
interpretation, interpretation. Whether you arean originalist, which you look at the

(19:06):
four corners of the document, thisis the way the founding fathers wanted it
to be very limited, or thisis the template for a very open society.
We just use it as basically allowingus to interpret a living document.
Yeah, and you look at andhere's a little bit of a factoid for
you. This is Gerbil City eighteeno three. Marborie versus Madison was the

(19:30):
first case in which the Court gaveitself the power much more power to interpret
the Supreme Court in a major way, interpret all the laws. It was
up in the air. Is thatthe martial court? Yes, yes,
yes, And that was eighteen ohthree, and then since then it's gotten
enormous powers. And now the accusationis that it's not just conservative versus a

(19:52):
liberal court like the war in courtwas when you talk about Miranda Brown versus
Board of Education. So it's nolonger interpreting. It is straight out politics.
That's the accusation now. And that'sand by the way, so they're
nine justices. Who do you thinkis the best hitter? If I had
to guess, I'm going to gowith Amy, I'm gonna go with I'm

(20:15):
gonna go with Amy because she's gotmore of an athletic bill, you know.
I think she looks like the mostspry of all the judges. I
think Alito would be like the bestcloser to bring in to close out a
game, like he's the kind ofguy that would throw it high and tight
get you to back up off theplate. To me, Thomas, he's
the guy that, like Boots thegrounder and says, oh, the grass
was too long. I would havetotally feelded that. So yeah, hopefully

(20:37):
that works so great. So anyway, Matt, So that's today starting in
just a few minutes. Yes,I'm going to do the Supreme Court story
tomorrow because I had too much funwith you. All right, We're gonna
come back, and that's today,nine o'clock. The man that's right,
all right, it's gonna be alot of fun, and he's gonna take
a difference spin and Shannon's gonna behere. So it's going to be two

(20:57):
sports people talking about I'm sorry,Shannon. Oh I just said that.
I just said that, Shannon.That was my fault, Shannon. I
just said. And Shannon is hereand I'm just kidding. Okay, did
you hear it? Did you hearme? Say no? No, because
you were in the hall. Yeah, okay, he ignores everything. Yeah,

(21:21):
four hours all right. Mo Kelly, who is heard every evening from
seven to ten pm. The showis later with mo Kelly and the segment
he does with us. It isearlier with mo Kelly. Very clever,
isn't it, because we do itin the morning. Good morning, Moe,
Good morning my patient friend. Yeah. Oh that's me. God,
I go through these those calls.I scream at people. I really do.

(21:45):
I mean, I even you know, I got come on, you
know how many? How many levelsof idiocy I'm screaming at people. I
mean, just completely nuts? Allright? So Mo, here is the
question I want you to talk aboutit. Netflix, which is the monster
when it comes to streaming, ispicking up two NFL games on Christmas Day,

(22:07):
which has never happened before. Imean, they've done sort of specials
and kind of stupid stuff, youknow, they well, not so much
stupid. They did a thing onquarterbacks, and I think they did anything
on wide receivers or runners. Butthis is the first time a NFL game
is shown on Netflix. Your take? And I didn't think they paid that

(22:29):
much money for it either. Theydidn't. It's listed at about seventy five
million dollars per game. It's goingto be Christmas games for twenty twenty four,
twenty twenty five, and twenty twentysix. If you've been reading the
tea leaves, you saw Netflix kindof creep into the sports space for the
past year, so it also liveevents. You had the Chris Rock response
which was shown live. You hadthe Tom Brady roast last week which was

(22:53):
live, and you could tell they'removing more and more into sports. And
now they're fully into sports with thisNFL package where they'll do these two games
on Christmas Day. They'll have theirown announcers. But you can tell Netflix
is trying to head try to stayahead of this evolutionary change of streaming where
they wants to be a full serviceoutlet. Hey, well, let me

(23:17):
ask you. I'm a subscriber toNetflix and started when it was what four
ninety nine a month, and nowit's what one hundred and sixty dollars a
month? Something completely crazy. Ithink they're the most expensive out there,
if I'm not mistaken. Twenty twoninety nine top tier. It's just unbelievable.
And I am top tier because Irefuse to watch commercials on streaming.
I just won't do it. I'drather not watch TV. Here's my question.

(23:42):
I don't do commercials, and ifI watch the game, am I
going to have commercials that I haveto look at. That is a great
question. I would have to assumeyes, if only because there are too
many dead spots. Yeah, ina broadcast, you just can't have the
announcers vamping and riffing for five andsix minutes at a time. I don't
know if that works. Yeah,I'm just having really curious about it.

(24:03):
Because if you go to a game, which by the way, I don't
I've been to a couple of threeNFL games, I just think I hate
that. I mean, it's niceambience, et cetera, but the parking
and the walking and you don't seewhat's going on, and there's no analysis,
and I mean all of that.You go to a game and it's
surprising how long those breaks are.It's and I think it's the case where

(24:26):
they purposely take a timeout. Notimeouts or timeouts, but I'm talking.
You're correct, Bill, there areTV timeouts in an NFL game. You
are absolutely correct. Wow, Andthen it seems a lot longer. They
could huddle much quicker than they do. And obviously they're cow taling to the

(24:47):
broadcast because of course they get billionsand billions of dollars. So we're gonna
be four and we pay I paytwenty three dollars a month and I'm gonna
be watching commercials. Well, here'sthe thing. It's not clear whether it's
going to be part of your subscriptionpackage or you would have to pay extra
fee for the game because it's aspecial event. Oh that hasn't been divulged.

(25:08):
Oh yeah, I know. That'sthe other thing. You boxing,
You pay just a fortune to watcha boxing event, or used to on
HBO. And the wrestling. Imean, I've never understood the wrestling at
all. They know who's going towin. They it's choreographed, and you're
still paying eighty bucks ahead to gosee it. It is great entertainment.

(25:29):
You have heroes, you have heels, villains. It is great. It's
almost like watching a movie. Howyou know the good guy is going to
win in the end, or youknow that the bad guy is gonna win
on this occasion, and then youwant to stick around for the next episode
to see if the good guy comesout on top. Well, I think
it's a great idea. I reallydo. Christmas Day football games perfect for
Jews. They watch football and goat the Chinese restaurants. Okay on Christmas

(25:53):
Day. I mean you can't beatit, you really can't. I'll take
your work for it, all right, mo I will see you or hear
you tonight from seven to ten pm. Have a good one. Take care
of my friend. All right.We are done with the show. Quick
reminder, I'm taking phone calls offthe air. You can call in right
now. Legal Advice eight seven sevenfive to zero eleven fifty. Marginal Legal

(26:15):
Advice for marginal legal questions at eightseven seven five to zero eleven fifty.
Coming up. It's Matt money Smithfilling it for Gary working with Shannon.
Can't wait for that one either.See tomorrow, everybody. Neil feel better
okay, he's waving, thanks buddy. Yeah, okay, and wake up.
Call tomorrow morning at five am withAmy King and then we come aboard

(26:38):
from six to right now. Thisis KFI AM six forty live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. You've been listeningto the Bill Handle Show. Catch my
show Monday through Friday, six amto nine am, and anytime on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.