July 9, 2025 • 33 mins
Micheal Monks joins Mo Kelly to talk about the lawsuit brought on by L.A against Trump administration’s Immigration raids. Comicon updates with Heather Brooker! L.A. on pace to see lowest homicide total in nearly 60 years as killings plummet.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Want to be upfront. I love my conversations with Michael Monks.
If you listen to me on later with Mo Kelly,
Michael Monks, kfi's own Michael Monks usually comes in and
we'll discuss all things Los Angeles, specifically the Metro. We
have this, this relationship now we understand each other. Michael
Monks is good to see.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
You this morning.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Hey, it's good to see you too. And you know
today is Metro State of the Agency presentation that's coming
up at one o'clock. So I might have to connect
on your show tomorrow night if you're back. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm not gonna do my show tonight. Sorry, that was
on from seven to ten last night. Now nine am
the one pm today, I'm not. I'm trying to get
a little time on.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Get that over time.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
The reason why I'm talking today is because the City
of Los Angeles has moved to join this lawsuit against
Immigration RAIS. And this lawsuit, which was filed last week
by the ACLU of Southern California, has accused ICE and
other federal agencies of usually profiling tactics, conducting warrantless arrests,
denying people access to lawyers, and holding those arrested in
(01:06):
poor conditions. Those are the allegations LA is joining other
cities like Culver City, LA County, Montabello, Monterey Park, Pasadena,
People Rivera, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Big picture, what does this mean.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Well, that's the foundation of the argument here. Because the
local governments cannot stop federal immigration enforcement. They can impede
it with some local policies like sanctuary city status. They're
not necessarily cooperating with the federal enforcement, but they can't
physically block the actions. They can't bar the officials from
being here. You're seeing some movement at the state level
(01:43):
and even at the local level to have some of
these federal agents take their mask off. They don't necessarily
have that authority. That will be for courts to decide.
The argument that these municipalities in the county are making
is these federal immigration agents have often violated the Fourth
Amendment of the Institution. They are targeting people based solely
on their race, and they are targeting people without due process.
(02:06):
They don't necessarily have warrants in many of these cases.
So what is prompting these folks to stop? What's the
probable cause? Street vendors, people working at the car wash
if they don't have a warrant specific to somebody on
that property.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We also know that this is running parallel to Senator
Alex Badia, who's pushing a bill in Congress as far
as forcing ice agents to identify themselves. How much though
from where you sit, seems more like theater or actually
something with teeth that might gain traction.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
You see a lot of passion at La City Hall
about what's happening in the city because you've got a
city council and a mayor who are highly sympathetic to
the illegal immigrant population here in Los Angeles and southern California.
So you have seen tears from public officials here. You've
seen great concern about them. But a lot of it
has to be theater because of what we just talked about.
(02:58):
They don't have the authority to do what they really
want to do. You hear Mayor Bass flat out say it,
we want these ice raids to stop.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Well, but I can't do anything. So all I can
do is express my desires.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
It's the old phrase want in one hand and you
know what in the other, and series one falls up faster, right,
So she can't I mean she can ask, but she
can't demand it. As far as theater goes, though, I
think the greatest show that we've seen since all of
this started in early June was in MacArthur Park on Monday,
and that truly was theater full of production miss.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Both sides, because you had the show of force but
nobody detained, and then you have the mayor showing up
and doing nothing except getting on a phone with an
unnamed individual, and it seemed like neither side, my characterization,
accomplished anything.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
It almost seemed as if there was no plan to
accomplish anything. On the federal government side, it's still unclear
what exactly they were doing there, why the nature of
that presentation, the horseback, the military vehicles, and a place
that is known for having a high population of immigrants,
probably of varying statuses. But there's also the suspicion on
(04:08):
behalf of the federal government that that area MacArthur Park
is the site of manufacturing and distribution of fake IDs
for illegal immigrants. So that's where a lot of people go.
So if that's what brought them down, they certainly didn't
pursue anyone but for the mayor to show up as
quickly as she did, especially when she was supposed to
be somewhere else. The governor was here in town. They
were noting the six month mark since the wildfires. She
(04:30):
did not end up going to that press conference at all.
She did a b line for MacArthur Park and calls
the scene that she did and probably agree or disagree
with what her position is. She may have won some
political points from supporters and people who may be sympathetic
to her position because it did have the air that
mahor Bash showed up and the federal people turned around
and left.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Optics are a large part of politics, but also a
part of what I call the political theater. Are these
public pronouncements that there may be an attempt to arrest
the mayor, and the mayor has basically said, yeah, I
would like to see you try in so many words.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Now, I always wonder where is that line?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Do we understand where the line is between asking and
actually obstructing?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Well, there's also the line of what is too far,
what is too much? If they arrest Karen Bass. I
know there are a lot of people people who may
be listening to us right now, who would love to see.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
When that goes back to want and exactly right.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I mean, whether there are actual enforceable charges to put
against her and to put her in handcuffs irrelevant to
whether some people would enjoy seeing that, agreed, But you
know who else might enjoy seeing that Karen Bass and
her supporters for the same reason that she might have
scored political points on Monday. Can you imagine being handcuffed
and taken to jail for the cause that you believe in.
(05:47):
I mean, that's the Look how much political capital President
Trump got when his mugshot way came out. Yes, you know,
there were people who longed to see a president mugshot
because they believed he committed so many crimes. Well that
it comes out now he's back in the White House.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Well, let's not forget Karen Bass.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Mayor Bass is running for re election presently, and that
election is less than a year away.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
She is somebody politically damaged by the wildfires, regardless of
the merits of the criticism about the fact that she
was on a diplomatic voyage to Ghana when it happened,
she wasn't going to join the bucket brigade.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I think reasonable people can understand.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
But she had some miscues and some misfires during the
fires from a communication standpoint, politically damaged. You see some
you know, the sharks are circling to jump into this race,
possibly like Rick Caruso for example, who they have a
case to run against her now based on that She's
got this issue now and she is going to.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Play it politically as best she can.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
That's not to say that her position is disingenuous, but
there are political victories to be had with what she's doing,
and that is probably one of the main reasons you
saw at MacArthur Park, because the more that supporters and
would be supporters see her on the front lines, especially
if she gets handcuffed and hauled away, the more they're.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Going to run to find a mishandle exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I know you're not necessarily here in a law capacity
or a legal capacity, but I do want to get
your thoughts about these these lawsuits which seemingly never go anywhere,
seemingly never change anything, seemingly don't move the needle in
any way.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Sometimes they do.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
You know, there are certainly politically motivated lawsuits. We see
this no matter who is in the White House. You
might see red oriented states suing the attorney general of
the president all the time over this or that policy.
Right now, there's a Republican in the White House, So
there are a lot of Democratic states, namely California, that
are very lawsuit happy right now against those policies. Sometimes
injunctions are granted on those issues. I think it's important
(07:43):
to keep in mind the strategy and what we know
about this lawsuit, which by the way, was originally filed
by the ACLU on these constitutional grounds, and these municipalities
locally are joining that. They're focused. They're not saying you
can't do immigration enforcement. They're saying you cannot do it.
It's this you cannot violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution,
and that is what the legal experts and the judges
(08:06):
will have to distermine.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
My cynicism aside for this issue, I was wondering if
you could hang around for one more segment so we
could discuss La Metro and this recent survey that they
publish that Metro writers supposedly are more concerned about sanitary
conditions than they are their own personal safety.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
I brought in notes just in case you asked.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
My brother, my friend Michael Monks joins us in studio.
It's Gary and Shannon and Mo Kelly in for Gary
and Shannon KFI AM six forty live everywhere in the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Forty and I'm right in the middle of a conversation
with kfi's own Michael Monks, and Michael and I when
we sit on my show later with Mo Kelly, we
often talk about La Metro and to give someone some backstory,
I talk often about La Metro, and they evidently hear
that I talk about La Metro often, and La Metro
(09:02):
has reached out to you, Michael Monks, trying to somehow
have you be their go between with me to soften
how I may speak of La Metro. So that just
further incensed me and encouraged me to go in on
La Metro the latest.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I talked about this a little bit last night.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I want to get your thoughts La Metro users, according
to La Metro and their app, as far as you know,
their suggestions box want increase frequency and improve cleanliness, but
less spent on policing.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I call that fake news BS last night.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Well, it may be real news because it is the
actual results of this survey. But there is a difference
between just collecting feedback from people that you've solicited and
a scientific survey that balances for race and income and
different types of demographics and wit certain ideologies. You know,
like you see in presidential polling. That's not what happened here.
(09:56):
And La is a city that, if anything, has a
lot of activists in it who are well organized and
well oiled. We see it with the immigration protest. These
folks are fast, they know what to do, they know
where to be, they have a plant. You have a
lot of activists in this community who are one against
any expansion of policing and against policing in a lot
(10:19):
of ways in general. You also have a lot of
advocates on behalf of the transit system. That's a great
point who probably when this solicitation came out. Please give
your feedback to La Metro, send out the bullet to
all of their people and urge them to reply. These
are folks who don't want police on Metro who want
(10:39):
the fairs to be free, and who seem when I
hear them speak at board meetings, and those sorts of
things often seem truly ignorant of the experience of regular
Angelinos who may not be advocates but rely on the system.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
But that included you, it did and does, how should
I My cynicism is just overflowing right now when Metro
puts something out like this and is in stark contrast
to the news that not only we report, but everyone
else reports and what's highlighted at their own press conferences.
(11:13):
When I'm talking about what's going on at Metro, it
usually has to do with someone getting shanked, someone getting killed,
some homeless person being assaulted, some regular person being assaulted
every single day, someone dying on the tracks.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
I mean, well, look, this is why they get mad
at you, because it's not every single day. But here's
what does happen every day. And we've talked about this.
Someone's not getting murdered. It's happened, God knows it's happened, yes,
but it is often an environment where you feel like
someone might be you know what I mean. That's what
(11:46):
I don't hear a lot about from the officials is
how do you change not just the perception of Mo
Kelly in a studio in Burbik, how do you change
the perception of the abuela who is writing to Azusa
because that's where she works, who feels like something bad
is about to happen on this train. It doesn't mean
that something has or will, but as long as there
(12:07):
is a drug activity taking place, as long as there
are folks who are threatening or having manic episodes, that
does happen every single day on the Metro system. And
that's why you hear folks saying we do need more
policing there. And you know who's heard that message, Metro.
So in spite of the survey that shows a plurality
(12:28):
or a majority of people saying we don't want more policing,
not only is there going to be more policing, it's
not going to be the LAPED, it's not going to
be the Sheriff's department, it's not going to be Long Beach.
It's going to be Metro's own police department because they
have heard the complaints and said it's time to bring
back our own police force.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And it's not just Metro trains. We're talking about buses. Absolutely,
we're talking about platforms. And as a former writer of Metro,
I know that there are a lot of platforms which
are just open to the general public. You're not going
through a turnstyle, you're not using a tap fare card
to have access to a Metro plat form.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
You are exposed.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And if you were when I was riding Metro, yeah,
you would see La County Sheriff's Department often the distance
sitting in their car. I guess if you started screaming,
they might be able to get out of their car
and run a good four hundred yards to where you are.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
But that's not a serious answer. No.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
And when I first moved here in twenty twenty three,
and it was exclusively a transit user, the trains and
the buses, I had to buy a knife, you know
I did.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Can you say that on the radio? I hope so
as at my breaking is just spot a knife. I
didn't use it. Yeah, you didn't use it.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
I'm not a suspect and in the crime. But I
was riding the A Line to Long Beach and it
was the only time really since I moved here. In
spite of those feelings like yeah, something bad could happen.
It feels weird. It was the only time I was
truly scared because some tough looking dude with no shirt
on gets on the train and is clearly high on
(13:54):
drugs yes, and is expressing violent thoughts at me. Out
of all the past in the car, I'm the guy
that he singled out, and I thought, if he comes
towards me, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And
I realized I don't want to be in that position again.
I'm gonna have to be armed. What concerns me is
because there there were no securities and the Metro Ambassadors,
they're nice at giving you directions to which train you
(14:17):
should get on, the exactly they if you're having an
if you're suffering an overdose, they know how to do
the the what do they call it, the overdose reversal.
But they're not armed. They're not going to protect me
from that guy. And I thought, I'm never going to
be in that position again where I feel defenseless. I'm
not gonna be able to take down a cracked out
(14:37):
dude who's targeted me for some reason. I'm gonna have
to have a weapon. Now they have put weapons detection
in place at Union Station and a few other stations,
and they may expand that. So I thought, I don't
know if I'll be able to take my knife oh
on board anymore, because I'll look like a guy trying
to bring a weapon on the train.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I carried with me at all times. And I have
no problems saying this, No problem say this non metal weapons.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah, but you know.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Martial arts too, Like I wouldn't mess with you, No, no, no,
but I'd probably get a hit in I'll tell you
I would probably.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Arts is thinking about things before they happen. It's about
avoiding physical confrontation, because a physical confrontation means someone gets hurt.
You might get killed, even if you win, you might
get sued, you might get injured. There are too many
variables that you cannot control. But I do carry non
metal weapons with me, and I have no problem saying that,
if only because one, I'm not a physical, physically large guy,
(15:32):
and I need something to even out the circumstances in
a given situation. Yeah, So what's a non metal weapon?
Can I see when we say that, I don't want
to get in trouble. I don't know all the rules. Yeah, well,
the Korean terminology for it is called a dan bam,
which is like a short stick, and it's blunts.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
It's not blated. I bet you would beat the hell
out of somebody with that.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Oh I would. I would, And I know how to
use it, I have no doubt. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
And it's a blunt object. It's about maybe five inches long.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
And if I came at.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
You, because I was joking about being able to strike,
and I know I wouldn't, But if I came at
you and I'm on drugs and you're on the bus
and I've decided Moe Kelly's my problem right now, and
I'm coming at you, and I might not have a weapon,
but I'm gonna hit you.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I'm gonna do something to you. How quickly am I
going to feel that stick? Oh? Immediately?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
If you for me, I know we got to go
to break and go to debor Mark. Let me just
say this for me, A physical confrontation has begun.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
The fight has begun.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
The moment I feel that you might be able to
reach me, if you are close enough to strike me,
the actual fight has already begun.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I probably told you.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I need you to step back at that point and
if you step into my space, the fight has already begun. Yeah,
and I probably used the Dan Bungle straight to your throat.
Can you show me how to use that?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Absolutely? At friend and family rate.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Absolutely, I wish I had one in here. If you
hang around for a bit, we got to do like
a video.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah we will. Yeah, let's do that. Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
When we come back, we want to also speak to Heather.
She has some information and some interesting tidbits about Comic Con,
which is coming up in just a week or so.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
KFI AM six forty Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I'm in for Gary and Shannon today until one pm.
And something that we do discuss on my show. We
talk about all things movies. Sometimes we talk about Comic
Con and in different festivals. We were just talking about
the big controversy as far as the new Superman movie
and how it is being received by those who are
(17:36):
looking at it through a political lens, all sorts of conversations.
So I'm looking forward to this next conversation with kfi's
own Heather Brooker, who is just in the newsroom.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
Just in the newsroom and now you're in the main studio.
That's right, I'm moving up. I'm moving up.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Comic Con is coming up very soon now.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
From what I know, it may be a very different
Comic Con because I've been hearing a lot of the
major studios are not having formal presentations this year.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Well I've heard those rumors too, but I'm not sure
that's entirely true. I think that's what a lot of
fans are saying, Oh, there's not gonna be a big
Marvel movie. Well there is no big you know. I mean,
you've got Fantastic four, but I don't know that, which
is after Comic Con. Yeah, so there isn't a big
Marvel movie sort of that comes out right before Comic Con.
(18:26):
I feel like Disney has pulled back in years, and
Marvel's pulled back in the past few years because at
San Diego Comicon, because of their presence at their own
fan convention, D twenty three, they're really trying to beef
up D twenty three and make that the go to
con for all things Marvel and Disney and all the
Disney properties.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
But Comic Con.
Speaker 6 (18:45):
Itself is still going to be very much Comic Con
in the way that we know it. There's gonna be
your cosplay contest, There's gonna be fashion shows, there's gonna
be lots of panels. Some of the shows that are
going to be there. I whant to make sure I
I mentioned these. Abbott Elementary is doing something really fun
this year. There's going to be access and stars from
(19:06):
The Boys, Fallout, star trek Oh.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
It's so good. It's so good, it's so dark.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
For those who don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
The Boys is on Amazon Prime and it imagines the
world with superheroes who are all a holes and under
this corporate god, the Vaut Company, and they've been engineered.
It's like what would happen if superheroes were capitalism based?
Speaker 6 (19:29):
Right, It's a capitalistic superhero society and we're all at
the mercy of these superheroes and they're whims if you will.
But Comic Con this year is it starts in two
weeks July twenty fourth through the twenty seventh. I had
the opportunity to talk to David David Glanzer, who is
a spokesperson for sd Comic Con, and he tells me
there's going to be over one hundred and fifty panels
(19:51):
this year.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Of course, major.
Speaker 6 (19:52):
Studios are going to be their prime video, AMC, Paramount
Disney will be there. Disney Television is going to have
a large presence. He told me, you know, I'm excited
to be talking with you about this because I know
you are an expert in Comic Con and this is
you know, your your lane.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
I know you love this. Also, did you notice I
brought in this cup?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Do you know what this is from?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yes, that's from the TVA of season one or two
of Loki.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
That's right, I'm so nerdy.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
And I was like, I'm so glad I'd be talking
to Mo today because I have my Loki coffee cup
with me. But David said that the thing to keep
in mind this year is so many of the activations
are happening outside as well as inside. So if you
don't have your passes, if you don't have access or
a way to get in the convention center, there's a
(20:42):
lot happening outside. Abbot Elementary is having a very Abbot
Block party, which sounds like a lot of fun. They're
gonna have authentic Philly water, ice, lawn games, a ferris wheel.
Alien Earth is going to be there. That's FX's show
Alien Earth the Wreckage. They're going to have an immersive
sci fi activation outside the Hilt bayfront. King of the
Hill is having a yard cookout. Hank, Yeah, Hank, and
(21:05):
Percy Jackson. There's gonna be the Percy Jackson Experience. There
is going to be you can wander in the Sea
of Monsters missed. And then there's gonna be a ton
of TV panels and celebrities there thirteen major panels. You know,
you've got Phineas and Ferb. Phineas and Ferb's gonna be
there with the cast and the creators. There just a
lot of fun, a lot of things happening down in
(21:26):
Comic Con. And one hundred and thirty thousand people go
to that event every year.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
It's not wild.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It is wild, but it is a great time. And
you made a great point I think should be highlighted.
You think, well, I don't have a badge. I can't
get into the main the convention center. What's there for
me if you've never been, let me explain like this,
it's a campus. It takes over a lot of that area.
Going into gas Lamp. There are plenty things to do
(21:54):
and you need not have a badge to enjoy them.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
Yeah, absolutely, And I think just being there, like if
you're a fan of you know, this kind of thing
of pop culture, comic con culture. Just being there and
being in the presence of other fans, there's something fun
and exciting. There's an energy to it. My family and
I have gone for many years. We won't be able
to go this year though, which makes me sad. But
(22:18):
there's an energy to it and energy to the event,
and it's certainly a spectacle too.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
I love people watching when you go down there. You
love to people watch.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I love to people watch. And costume wants, yes, yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
People spend a lot of money and time on creating
their costumes for comic Con, and that's why they have
the big cosplay contest. You know, have you ever dressed
up when you go to comic Con?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I did. The first time I went to Comic Con.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I was Afro Samurai if you know that, as an
anome character played by Samuel L. Jackson, voiced by Samuel Jackson.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yep. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
And so you don't dress up anymore, You're like, no,
I'm just gonna it is a certain.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Effort, it's an effort to get down there it's an
effort to get hotel accommodations. It's an effort to walk
through you know, if you're trying to get from one
place to another, and it's like, Okay, at nine fifteen,
I want to see this panel, well, but at nine
forty five, I want to see this other panel.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
You have to plan in advance because you're not going
to see both you do.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
You have to pick and choose what you want to see,
what panels you want to go to. And on the
hotel front, when I spoke to David today, he said
that it's getting more and more challenging for people to
get hotel rooms. I know I've talked to Swala about
this before. I think you and I have talked about
this before. Securing a hotel room, especially through the con
itself where they have like those discounted rates and they're
(23:31):
not price surging like a lot of the hotels are.
Is an Olympic sport, and this year they're getting even
fewer discounted hotels rooms from the hotel partners and that's
a frustration for the organizers there because they're like, we
we are.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
A fan driven event. We need fans to be able
to come here.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
And afford to come here and not have to drop
three or four thousand dollars on a room.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Oh you're being nice. It's straight up price gouging. It
is percent.
Speaker 6 (23:56):
Yeah, yeah, it is one hundred percent price gouging from
the hotels and things that down there. So if you
can find a way to buddy up share a room
with somebody or a couple of people like, that's generally
what a lot of people going to the cons do now,
and that way you can save just a little bit
of money.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Can I make one other recommendation now this point year,
I actually took the train down and drove down each
day because the cost of gas and the time spent
was less than having to deal with the hotel aspect
and paying the hundreds, if sometimes thousands of dollars more.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
Yeah, it's definitely.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
And from la here it's really convenient to jump on
the train at Union Station and then head straight down Inturner.
There you go, and that's one easy way to get
down there. The con starts in two weeks from today.
I talked to David Glanzer today and you can listen
to the entire interview and conversation that we had on
the entertainment podcast. It was such a blast and got
(24:53):
a little He shared a few more of his insider.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
Tips as well. Heather Brooker is always great to talk
to me. You too, well, thank you when we come.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Back to talk about La.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
And get this, the murder rate has gone in a extremely.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Downward motion.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I'm Okelly in for Gary and Shannon. Just today It's like,
oh my god, what's this guy?
Speaker 3 (25:21):
What is this guy on the radio today? He sounds black?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Allow this?
Speaker 5 (25:29):
What's the number of KFI?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I need to call in? This needs to stop. I
love you too. Let's talk about La.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I've been a resident of La or its unincorporated areas
for all of my life, the actual city of La
or unincorporated La, all of my life, with exception of
going to college in Washington, DC. And I've seen it
the ups and downs. I fully acknowledged the warts and
(26:00):
it's shortcomings. But as Randy Newman said, I love LA.
And when you love LA, you love it in spite
of itself. Sometimes you love it knowing good and well.
Like let's say, if you've been married, you love your
sport your spouse. But sometimes your spouse gets on your
damn nerves. Let's be honest. Sometimes you love your spouse
(26:22):
in spite of themselves. And I would say that's my
relationship with La. I'm born in La. I was born
in La California Hospital downtown, and I've lived all my
life in LA except for college. I'm in Angelino through
and through. There's nothing anyone can tell me about La
that I don't already know, living in various neighborhoods from
(26:42):
Studio City to West La to Harbor City to now
in the city of La itself. LA is on pace
to see its lowest homicide rate in nearly sixty years.
In other words, that's just a little bit longer than
how long I've been alive. Was homicide rate possibly in
(27:04):
my lifetime. And homicides across LA City, not talking county
fell by more than twenty percent in the first half
of the year thus far, and it's on pace to
end twenty twenty five with its lowest total for that
crime category in nearly sixty years. And this is according
to the LAPD. And crime is not one size fits all.
(27:27):
I mean, you can talk about homicides and that doesn't
negate the other forms of violent crime. And also, although
violent crime is persisting in parts of the city, according
to the story, homicides have dropped numerically one hundred and
sixteen as of June twenty eighth compared to one hundred
and fifty two same period last year. And there's no
(27:49):
amount which is acceptable. And I know that's what some
people say.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
It should not be even over one.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I agree, I agree, But this actually goes back to
a conversation I was having with Michael Monks when he
was in studio with me, and we're talking about the
Metro and the idea of safety.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Hey, Ken, is that a video up yet?
Speaker 5 (28:08):
I am fixing it up right now.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Michael Monks and I as an aside, we were in
the hallway and he had asked me near the end
of the segment what I would do if someone approached
me on a Metro subway train, and I said, I
always carry a non lethal, non metal weapon on me
that I can use it any time. And I was
demonstrating some things with him with just a marker an
(28:30):
actual highlighter in the hallway. We're going to post that video,
but the point was safety oftentimes has to do with
how you feel. Talk about feel safe. It's not about statistics.
You can give me any number of statistics about how
crime is down on the Metro. It all comes down
(28:52):
to whether I feel safe on the Metro, and that
varies from person to person, and that's true here. It's
like I can celebrate the statistics of there being fewer
homicides in the city of Los Angeles, and a reasonable
person will agree, Yes, it's always good when homicides are down.
When homicides are fewer this year than last year, that
(29:14):
is better for everyone. That has nothing to do with politics.
That has to do with good common sense. Fewer homicides
is better than more homicides. Now we can go back
and forth as to the reasons why, we can go
back and forth as to who might deserve the credit. Well,
all I'm saying is homicides are down and that is
a good thing. But as far as how people feel,
(29:36):
I don't necessarily feel any differently. And I say that
because I've lived in this city for all of my life.
Safety has to do with how someone feels. In other words,
if I didn't see the story, if I didn't see
these numbers, if I didn't know the stats, would my
feeling about LA be any different, because that's what's most important.
(30:00):
It's not like you're going to leave your doors unlocked
because you saw a story.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Hey, robberies are down this year. I think I could
leave my house and let my doors be.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Unlocked because robberies are down, burglaries are down. I have
nothing to worry about. No, it doesn't work that way.
We don't live our lives relative to statistics. We live
our lives relative to our general experiences and how we feel.
And I tell my wife all the time, hey, I
don't feel comfortable with you walking the dogs in certain
areas and neighborhoods. And they're no statistics which are going
(30:32):
to change that. I have a responsibility for my wife,
my family, and those who depend on me, and I'm
not going to hold a piece of paper in front
of her face and say, hey, deer, honey, homicides are down.
I think you should be okay. Now you can go
ahead and walk outside at two am, even.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Take the dogs with you. No, that's not how safety works.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Safety is about preparing for the possibility, and safety is
not putting yourself in positions where you are more vulnerable.
The reason I'm talking about this things can have multiple meanings.
We can celebrate the fact that there are fewer homicides
here in the city of Los Angeles, and we can
(31:21):
and should celebrate that with no respect to who gets
the credit or who gets the blame.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Because often, and this goes back to.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
The very first conversation we had today at the top
of the show, people are more focused on assessing blame,
parsing blame, or someone getting credit.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
If the stock market goes.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Up, ah so and so gets the credit, or stock
market goes down, ah so and so president gets the blame.
Because those were our motivations, we start with a conclusion
and then work our way back, as a friend told me,
because we want the end result to align with our worldview.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Me.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I try to be a little more distant. I try
to look at the stats for what they are. It's like,
oh that's nice, Oh that's good. It gives us a
quantitative analysis of sometimes of the amount of crime in
Los Angeles. But that's about where it ends. Homicides are
down in LA. Let's all put our hands together and
clap yeah, ya yay. Fewer people are getting merked in
(32:21):
the city. Of La, Yeah, yay, yay, I don't care
who gets the credit. May have just been random, It
may have been luck. It may have been a function
of the weather. It may have been a function of
people weren't driving as much because gas was higher.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Who knows who cares.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
But it's something that we can look at over a
larger period of time and see if there's a continuing
trend where it continues to decline, and then we can say, hey,
maybe we're in a better place now than maybe two
or three years ago. So on one hand, you can
say take it for what it's worth, but it's not
the whole world.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
La.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I love you with all my heart, but you can
still do better. It's the Gary and Shannon Show. I'm
o Kelly in for Gary and Shannon. We're gonna find
out what's happening in the swamp when we come back.
KFI AM six forty one Life everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
You've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Want to be upfront. I love my conversations with Michael Monks.
If you listen to me on later with Mo Kelly,
Michael Monks, kfi's own Michael Monks usually comes in and
we'll discuss all things Los Angeles, specifically the Metro. We
have this, this relationship now we understand each other. Michael
Monks is good to see.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
You this morning.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Hey, it's good to see you too. And you know
today is Metro State of the Agency presentation that's coming
up at one o'clock. So I might have to connect
on your show tomorrow night if you're back. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm not gonna do my show tonight. Sorry, that was
on from seven to ten last night. Now nine am
the one pm today, I'm not. I'm trying to get
a little time on.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Get that over time.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
The reason why I'm talking today is because the City
of Los Angeles has moved to join this lawsuit against
Immigration RAIS. And this lawsuit, which was filed last week
by the ACLU of Southern California, has accused ICE and
other federal agencies of usually profiling tactics, conducting warrantless arrests,
denying people access to lawyers, and holding those arrested in
(01:06):
poor conditions. Those are the allegations LA is joining other
cities like Culver City, LA County, Montabello, Monterey Park, Pasadena,
People Rivera, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Big picture, what does this mean.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Well, that's the foundation of the argument here. Because the
local governments cannot stop federal immigration enforcement. They can impede
it with some local policies like sanctuary city status. They're
not necessarily cooperating with the federal enforcement, but they can't
physically block the actions. They can't bar the officials from
being here. You're seeing some movement at the state level
(01:43):
and even at the local level to have some of
these federal agents take their mask off. They don't necessarily
have that authority. That will be for courts to decide.
The argument that these municipalities in the county are making
is these federal immigration agents have often violated the Fourth
Amendment of the Institution. They are targeting people based solely
on their race, and they are targeting people without due process.
(02:06):
They don't necessarily have warrants in many of these cases.
So what is prompting these folks to stop? What's the
probable cause? Street vendors, people working at the car wash
if they don't have a warrant specific to somebody on
that property.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We also know that this is running parallel to Senator
Alex Badia, who's pushing a bill in Congress as far
as forcing ice agents to identify themselves. How much though
from where you sit, seems more like theater or actually
something with teeth that might gain traction.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
You see a lot of passion at La City Hall
about what's happening in the city because you've got a
city council and a mayor who are highly sympathetic to
the illegal immigrant population here in Los Angeles and southern California.
So you have seen tears from public officials here. You've
seen great concern about them. But a lot of it
has to be theater because of what we just talked about.
(02:58):
They don't have the authority to do what they really
want to do. You hear Mayor Bass flat out say it,
we want these ice raids to stop.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Well, but I can't do anything. So all I can
do is express my desires.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
It's the old phrase want in one hand and you
know what in the other, and series one falls up faster, right,
So she can't I mean she can ask, but she
can't demand it. As far as theater goes, though, I
think the greatest show that we've seen since all of
this started in early June was in MacArthur Park on Monday,
and that truly was theater full of production miss.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Both sides, because you had the show of force but
nobody detained, and then you have the mayor showing up
and doing nothing except getting on a phone with an
unnamed individual, and it seemed like neither side, my characterization,
accomplished anything.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
It almost seemed as if there was no plan to
accomplish anything. On the federal government side, it's still unclear
what exactly they were doing there, why the nature of
that presentation, the horseback, the military vehicles, and a place
that is known for having a high population of immigrants,
probably of varying statuses. But there's also the suspicion on
(04:08):
behalf of the federal government that that area MacArthur Park
is the site of manufacturing and distribution of fake IDs
for illegal immigrants. So that's where a lot of people go.
So if that's what brought them down, they certainly didn't
pursue anyone but for the mayor to show up as
quickly as she did, especially when she was supposed to
be somewhere else. The governor was here in town. They
were noting the six month mark since the wildfires. She
(04:30):
did not end up going to that press conference at all.
She did a b line for MacArthur Park and calls
the scene that she did and probably agree or disagree
with what her position is. She may have won some
political points from supporters and people who may be sympathetic
to her position because it did have the air that
mahor Bash showed up and the federal people turned around
and left.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Optics are a large part of politics, but also a
part of what I call the political theater. Are these
public pronouncements that there may be an attempt to arrest
the mayor, and the mayor has basically said, yeah, I
would like to see you try in so many words.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Now, I always wonder where is that line?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Do we understand where the line is between asking and
actually obstructing?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Well, there's also the line of what is too far,
what is too much? If they arrest Karen Bass. I
know there are a lot of people people who may
be listening to us right now, who would love to see.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
When that goes back to want and exactly right.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I mean, whether there are actual enforceable charges to put
against her and to put her in handcuffs irrelevant to
whether some people would enjoy seeing that, agreed, But you
know who else might enjoy seeing that Karen Bass and
her supporters for the same reason that she might have
scored political points on Monday. Can you imagine being handcuffed
and taken to jail for the cause that you believe in.
(05:47):
I mean, that's the Look how much political capital President
Trump got when his mugshot way came out. Yes, you know,
there were people who longed to see a president mugshot
because they believed he committed so many crimes. Well that
it comes out now he's back in the White House.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Well, let's not forget Karen Bass.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Mayor Bass is running for re election presently, and that
election is less than a year away.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
She is somebody politically damaged by the wildfires, regardless of
the merits of the criticism about the fact that she
was on a diplomatic voyage to Ghana when it happened,
she wasn't going to join the bucket brigade.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I think reasonable people can understand.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
But she had some miscues and some misfires during the
fires from a communication standpoint, politically damaged. You see some
you know, the sharks are circling to jump into this race,
possibly like Rick Caruso for example, who they have a
case to run against her now based on that She's
got this issue now and she is going to.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Play it politically as best she can.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
That's not to say that her position is disingenuous, but
there are political victories to be had with what she's doing,
and that is probably one of the main reasons you
saw at MacArthur Park, because the more that supporters and
would be supporters see her on the front lines, especially
if she gets handcuffed and hauled away, the more they're.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Going to run to find a mishandle exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I know you're not necessarily here in a law capacity
or a legal capacity, but I do want to get
your thoughts about these these lawsuits which seemingly never go anywhere,
seemingly never change anything, seemingly don't move the needle in
any way.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Sometimes they do.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
You know, there are certainly politically motivated lawsuits. We see
this no matter who is in the White House. You
might see red oriented states suing the attorney general of
the president all the time over this or that policy.
Right now, there's a Republican in the White House, So
there are a lot of Democratic states, namely California, that
are very lawsuit happy right now against those policies. Sometimes
injunctions are granted on those issues. I think it's important
(07:43):
to keep in mind the strategy and what we know
about this lawsuit, which by the way, was originally filed
by the ACLU on these constitutional grounds, and these municipalities
locally are joining that. They're focused. They're not saying you
can't do immigration enforcement. They're saying you cannot do it.
It's this you cannot violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution,
and that is what the legal experts and the judges
(08:06):
will have to distermine.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
My cynicism aside for this issue, I was wondering if
you could hang around for one more segment so we
could discuss La Metro and this recent survey that they
publish that Metro writers supposedly are more concerned about sanitary
conditions than they are their own personal safety.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
I brought in notes just in case you asked.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
My brother, my friend Michael Monks joins us in studio.
It's Gary and Shannon and Mo Kelly in for Gary
and Shannon KFI AM six forty live everywhere in the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Forty and I'm right in the middle of a conversation
with kfi's own Michael Monks, and Michael and I when
we sit on my show later with Mo Kelly, we
often talk about La Metro and to give someone some backstory,
I talk often about La Metro, and they evidently hear
that I talk about La Metro often, and La Metro
(09:02):
has reached out to you, Michael Monks, trying to somehow
have you be their go between with me to soften
how I may speak of La Metro. So that just
further incensed me and encouraged me to go in on
La Metro the latest.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I talked about this a little bit last night.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I want to get your thoughts La Metro users, according
to La Metro and their app, as far as you know,
their suggestions box want increase frequency and improve cleanliness, but
less spent on policing.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I call that fake news BS last night.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Well, it may be real news because it is the
actual results of this survey. But there is a difference
between just collecting feedback from people that you've solicited and
a scientific survey that balances for race and income and
different types of demographics and wit certain ideologies. You know,
like you see in presidential polling. That's not what happened here.
(09:56):
And La is a city that, if anything, has a
lot of activists in it who are well organized and
well oiled. We see it with the immigration protest. These
folks are fast, they know what to do, they know
where to be, they have a plant. You have a
lot of activists in this community who are one against
any expansion of policing and against policing in a lot
(10:19):
of ways in general. You also have a lot of
advocates on behalf of the transit system. That's a great
point who probably when this solicitation came out. Please give
your feedback to La Metro, send out the bullet to
all of their people and urge them to reply. These
are folks who don't want police on Metro who want
(10:39):
the fairs to be free, and who seem when I
hear them speak at board meetings, and those sorts of
things often seem truly ignorant of the experience of regular
Angelinos who may not be advocates but rely on the system.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
But that included you, it did and does, how should
I My cynicism is just overflowing right now when Metro
puts something out like this and is in stark contrast
to the news that not only we report, but everyone
else reports and what's highlighted at their own press conferences.
(11:13):
When I'm talking about what's going on at Metro, it
usually has to do with someone getting shanked, someone getting killed,
some homeless person being assaulted, some regular person being assaulted
every single day, someone dying on the tracks.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
I mean, well, look, this is why they get mad
at you, because it's not every single day. But here's
what does happen every day. And we've talked about this.
Someone's not getting murdered. It's happened, God knows it's happened, yes,
but it is often an environment where you feel like
someone might be you know what I mean. That's what
(11:46):
I don't hear a lot about from the officials is
how do you change not just the perception of Mo
Kelly in a studio in Burbik, how do you change
the perception of the abuela who is writing to Azusa
because that's where she works, who feels like something bad
is about to happen on this train. It doesn't mean
that something has or will, but as long as there
(12:07):
is a drug activity taking place, as long as there
are folks who are threatening or having manic episodes, that
does happen every single day on the Metro system. And
that's why you hear folks saying we do need more
policing there. And you know who's heard that message, Metro.
So in spite of the survey that shows a plurality
(12:28):
or a majority of people saying we don't want more policing,
not only is there going to be more policing, it's
not going to be the LAPED, it's not going to
be the Sheriff's department, it's not going to be Long Beach.
It's going to be Metro's own police department because they
have heard the complaints and said it's time to bring
back our own police force.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And it's not just Metro trains. We're talking about buses. Absolutely,
we're talking about platforms. And as a former writer of Metro,
I know that there are a lot of platforms which
are just open to the general public. You're not going
through a turnstyle, you're not using a tap fare card
to have access to a Metro plat form.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
You are exposed.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And if you were when I was riding Metro, yeah,
you would see La County Sheriff's Department often the distance
sitting in their car. I guess if you started screaming,
they might be able to get out of their car
and run a good four hundred yards to where you are.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
But that's not a serious answer. No.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
And when I first moved here in twenty twenty three,
and it was exclusively a transit user, the trains and
the buses, I had to buy a knife, you know
I did.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Can you say that on the radio? I hope so
as at my breaking is just spot a knife. I
didn't use it. Yeah, you didn't use it.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
I'm not a suspect and in the crime. But I
was riding the A Line to Long Beach and it
was the only time really since I moved here. In
spite of those feelings like yeah, something bad could happen.
It feels weird. It was the only time I was
truly scared because some tough looking dude with no shirt
on gets on the train and is clearly high on
(13:54):
drugs yes, and is expressing violent thoughts at me. Out
of all the past in the car, I'm the guy
that he singled out, and I thought, if he comes
towards me, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And
I realized I don't want to be in that position again.
I'm gonna have to be armed. What concerns me is
because there there were no securities and the Metro Ambassadors,
they're nice at giving you directions to which train you
(14:17):
should get on, the exactly they if you're having an
if you're suffering an overdose, they know how to do
the the what do they call it, the overdose reversal.
But they're not armed. They're not going to protect me
from that guy. And I thought, I'm never going to
be in that position again where I feel defenseless. I'm
not gonna be able to take down a cracked out
(14:37):
dude who's targeted me for some reason. I'm gonna have
to have a weapon. Now they have put weapons detection
in place at Union Station and a few other stations,
and they may expand that. So I thought, I don't
know if I'll be able to take my knife oh
on board anymore, because I'll look like a guy trying
to bring a weapon on the train.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I carried with me at all times. And I have
no problems saying this, No problem say this non metal weapons.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah, but you know.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Martial arts too, Like I wouldn't mess with you, No, no, no,
but I'd probably get a hit in I'll tell you
I would probably.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Arts is thinking about things before they happen. It's about
avoiding physical confrontation, because a physical confrontation means someone gets hurt.
You might get killed, even if you win, you might
get sued, you might get injured. There are too many
variables that you cannot control. But I do carry non
metal weapons with me, and I have no problem saying that,
if only because one, I'm not a physical, physically large guy,
(15:32):
and I need something to even out the circumstances in
a given situation. Yeah, So what's a non metal weapon?
Can I see when we say that, I don't want
to get in trouble. I don't know all the rules. Yeah, well,
the Korean terminology for it is called a dan bam,
which is like a short stick, and it's blunts.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
It's not blated. I bet you would beat the hell
out of somebody with that.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Oh I would. I would, And I know how to
use it, I have no doubt. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
And it's a blunt object. It's about maybe five inches long.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
And if I came at.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
You, because I was joking about being able to strike,
and I know I wouldn't, But if I came at
you and I'm on drugs and you're on the bus
and I've decided Moe Kelly's my problem right now, and
I'm coming at you, and I might not have a weapon,
but I'm gonna hit you.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I'm gonna do something to you. How quickly am I
going to feel that stick? Oh? Immediately?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
If you for me, I know we got to go
to break and go to debor Mark. Let me just
say this for me, A physical confrontation has begun.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
The fight has begun.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
The moment I feel that you might be able to
reach me, if you are close enough to strike me,
the actual fight has already begun.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I probably told you.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I need you to step back at that point and
if you step into my space, the fight has already begun. Yeah,
and I probably used the Dan Bungle straight to your throat.
Can you show me how to use that?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Absolutely? At friend and family rate.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Absolutely, I wish I had one in here. If you
hang around for a bit, we got to do like
a video.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah we will. Yeah, let's do that. Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
When we come back, we want to also speak to Heather.
She has some information and some interesting tidbits about Comic Con,
which is coming up in just a week or so.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
KFI AM six forty Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I'm in for Gary and Shannon today until one pm.
And something that we do discuss on my show. We
talk about all things movies. Sometimes we talk about Comic
Con and in different festivals. We were just talking about
the big controversy as far as the new Superman movie
and how it is being received by those who are
(17:36):
looking at it through a political lens, all sorts of conversations.
So I'm looking forward to this next conversation with kfi's
own Heather Brooker, who is just in the newsroom.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
Just in the newsroom and now you're in the main studio.
That's right, I'm moving up. I'm moving up.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Comic Con is coming up very soon now.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
From what I know, it may be a very different
Comic Con because I've been hearing a lot of the
major studios are not having formal presentations this year.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Well I've heard those rumors too, but I'm not sure
that's entirely true. I think that's what a lot of
fans are saying, Oh, there's not gonna be a big
Marvel movie. Well there is no big you know. I mean,
you've got Fantastic four, but I don't know that, which
is after Comic Con. Yeah, so there isn't a big
Marvel movie sort of that comes out right before Comic Con.
(18:26):
I feel like Disney has pulled back in years, and
Marvel's pulled back in the past few years because at
San Diego Comicon, because of their presence at their own
fan convention, D twenty three, they're really trying to beef
up D twenty three and make that the go to
con for all things Marvel and Disney and all the
Disney properties.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
But Comic Con.
Speaker 6 (18:45):
Itself is still going to be very much Comic Con
in the way that we know it. There's gonna be
your cosplay contest, There's gonna be fashion shows, there's gonna
be lots of panels. Some of the shows that are
going to be there. I whant to make sure I
I mentioned these. Abbott Elementary is doing something really fun
this year. There's going to be access and stars from
(19:06):
The Boys, Fallout, star trek Oh.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
It's so good. It's so good, it's so dark.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
For those who don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
The Boys is on Amazon Prime and it imagines the
world with superheroes who are all a holes and under
this corporate god, the Vaut Company, and they've been engineered.
It's like what would happen if superheroes were capitalism based?
Speaker 6 (19:29):
Right, It's a capitalistic superhero society and we're all at
the mercy of these superheroes and they're whims if you will.
But Comic Con this year is it starts in two
weeks July twenty fourth through the twenty seventh. I had
the opportunity to talk to David David Glanzer, who is
a spokesperson for sd Comic Con, and he tells me
there's going to be over one hundred and fifty panels
(19:51):
this year.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Of course, major.
Speaker 6 (19:52):
Studios are going to be their prime video, AMC, Paramount
Disney will be there. Disney Television is going to have
a large presence. He told me, you know, I'm excited
to be talking with you about this because I know
you are an expert in Comic Con and this is
you know, your your lane.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
I know you love this. Also, did you notice I
brought in this cup?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Do you know what this is from?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yes, that's from the TVA of season one or two
of Loki.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
That's right, I'm so nerdy.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
And I was like, I'm so glad I'd be talking
to Mo today because I have my Loki coffee cup
with me. But David said that the thing to keep
in mind this year is so many of the activations
are happening outside as well as inside. So if you
don't have your passes, if you don't have access or
a way to get in the convention center, there's a
(20:42):
lot happening outside. Abbot Elementary is having a very Abbot
Block party, which sounds like a lot of fun. They're
gonna have authentic Philly water, ice, lawn games, a ferris wheel.
Alien Earth is going to be there. That's FX's show
Alien Earth the Wreckage. They're going to have an immersive
sci fi activation outside the Hilt bayfront. King of the
Hill is having a yard cookout. Hank, Yeah, Hank, and
(21:05):
Percy Jackson. There's gonna be the Percy Jackson Experience. There
is going to be you can wander in the Sea
of Monsters missed. And then there's gonna be a ton
of TV panels and celebrities there thirteen major panels. You know,
you've got Phineas and Ferb. Phineas and Ferb's gonna be
there with the cast and the creators. There just a
lot of fun, a lot of things happening down in
(21:26):
Comic Con. And one hundred and thirty thousand people go
to that event every year.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
It's not wild.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It is wild, but it is a great time. And
you made a great point I think should be highlighted.
You think, well, I don't have a badge. I can't
get into the main the convention center. What's there for
me if you've never been, let me explain like this,
it's a campus. It takes over a lot of that area.
Going into gas Lamp. There are plenty things to do
(21:54):
and you need not have a badge to enjoy them.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
Yeah, absolutely, And I think just being there, like if
you're a fan of you know, this kind of thing
of pop culture, comic con culture. Just being there and
being in the presence of other fans, there's something fun
and exciting. There's an energy to it. My family and
I have gone for many years. We won't be able
to go this year though, which makes me sad. But
(22:18):
there's an energy to it and energy to the event,
and it's certainly a spectacle too.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
I love people watching when you go down there. You
love to people watch.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I love to people watch. And costume wants, yes, yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
People spend a lot of money and time on creating
their costumes for comic Con, and that's why they have
the big cosplay contest. You know, have you ever dressed
up when you go to comic Con?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I did. The first time I went to Comic Con.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I was Afro Samurai if you know that, as an
anome character played by Samuel L. Jackson, voiced by Samuel Jackson.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yep. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
And so you don't dress up anymore, You're like, no,
I'm just gonna it is a certain.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Effort, it's an effort to get down there it's an
effort to get hotel accommodations. It's an effort to walk
through you know, if you're trying to get from one
place to another, and it's like, Okay, at nine fifteen,
I want to see this panel, well, but at nine
forty five, I want to see this other panel.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
You have to plan in advance because you're not going
to see both you do.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
You have to pick and choose what you want to see,
what panels you want to go to. And on the
hotel front, when I spoke to David today, he said
that it's getting more and more challenging for people to
get hotel rooms. I know I've talked to Swala about
this before. I think you and I have talked about
this before. Securing a hotel room, especially through the con
itself where they have like those discounted rates and they're
(23:31):
not price surging like a lot of the hotels are.
Is an Olympic sport, and this year they're getting even
fewer discounted hotels rooms from the hotel partners and that's
a frustration for the organizers there because they're like, we
we are.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
A fan driven event. We need fans to be able
to come here.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
And afford to come here and not have to drop
three or four thousand dollars on a room.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Oh you're being nice. It's straight up price gouging. It
is percent.
Speaker 6 (23:56):
Yeah, yeah, it is one hundred percent price gouging from
the hotels and things that down there. So if you
can find a way to buddy up share a room
with somebody or a couple of people like, that's generally
what a lot of people going to the cons do now,
and that way you can save just a little bit
of money.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Can I make one other recommendation now this point year,
I actually took the train down and drove down each
day because the cost of gas and the time spent
was less than having to deal with the hotel aspect
and paying the hundreds, if sometimes thousands of dollars more.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
Yeah, it's definitely.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
And from la here it's really convenient to jump on
the train at Union Station and then head straight down Inturner.
There you go, and that's one easy way to get
down there. The con starts in two weeks from today.
I talked to David Glanzer today and you can listen
to the entire interview and conversation that we had on
the entertainment podcast. It was such a blast and got
(24:53):
a little He shared a few more of his insider.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
Tips as well. Heather Brooker is always great to talk
to me. You too, well, thank you when we come.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Back to talk about La.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
And get this, the murder rate has gone in a extremely.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Downward motion.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I'm Okelly in for Gary and Shannon. Just today It's like,
oh my god, what's this guy?
Speaker 3 (25:21):
What is this guy on the radio today? He sounds black?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Allow this?
Speaker 5 (25:29):
What's the number of KFI?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I need to call in? This needs to stop. I
love you too. Let's talk about La.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I've been a resident of La or its unincorporated areas
for all of my life, the actual city of La
or unincorporated La, all of my life, with exception of
going to college in Washington, DC. And I've seen it
the ups and downs. I fully acknowledged the warts and
(26:00):
it's shortcomings. But as Randy Newman said, I love LA.
And when you love LA, you love it in spite
of itself. Sometimes you love it knowing good and well.
Like let's say, if you've been married, you love your
sport your spouse. But sometimes your spouse gets on your
damn nerves. Let's be honest. Sometimes you love your spouse
(26:22):
in spite of themselves. And I would say that's my
relationship with La. I'm born in La. I was born
in La California Hospital downtown, and I've lived all my
life in LA except for college. I'm in Angelino through
and through. There's nothing anyone can tell me about La
that I don't already know, living in various neighborhoods from
(26:42):
Studio City to West La to Harbor City to now
in the city of La itself. LA is on pace
to see its lowest homicide rate in nearly sixty years.
In other words, that's just a little bit longer than
how long I've been alive. Was homicide rate possibly in
(27:04):
my lifetime. And homicides across LA City, not talking county
fell by more than twenty percent in the first half
of the year thus far, and it's on pace to
end twenty twenty five with its lowest total for that
crime category in nearly sixty years. And this is according
to the LAPD. And crime is not one size fits all.
(27:27):
I mean, you can talk about homicides and that doesn't
negate the other forms of violent crime. And also, although
violent crime is persisting in parts of the city, according
to the story, homicides have dropped numerically one hundred and
sixteen as of June twenty eighth compared to one hundred
and fifty two same period last year. And there's no
(27:49):
amount which is acceptable. And I know that's what some
people say.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
It should not be even over one.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I agree, I agree, But this actually goes back to
a conversation I was having with Michael Monks when he
was in studio with me, and we're talking about the
Metro and the idea of safety.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Hey, Ken, is that a video up yet?
Speaker 5 (28:08):
I am fixing it up right now.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Michael Monks and I as an aside, we were in
the hallway and he had asked me near the end
of the segment what I would do if someone approached
me on a Metro subway train, and I said, I
always carry a non lethal, non metal weapon on me
that I can use it any time. And I was
demonstrating some things with him with just a marker an
(28:30):
actual highlighter in the hallway. We're going to post that video,
but the point was safety oftentimes has to do with
how you feel. Talk about feel safe. It's not about statistics.
You can give me any number of statistics about how
crime is down on the Metro. It all comes down
(28:52):
to whether I feel safe on the Metro, and that
varies from person to person, and that's true here. It's
like I can celebrate the statistics of there being fewer
homicides in the city of Los Angeles, and a reasonable
person will agree, Yes, it's always good when homicides are down.
When homicides are fewer this year than last year, that
(29:14):
is better for everyone. That has nothing to do with politics.
That has to do with good common sense. Fewer homicides
is better than more homicides. Now we can go back
and forth as to the reasons why, we can go
back and forth as to who might deserve the credit. Well,
all I'm saying is homicides are down and that is
a good thing. But as far as how people feel,
(29:36):
I don't necessarily feel any differently. And I say that
because I've lived in this city for all of my life.
Safety has to do with how someone feels. In other words,
if I didn't see the story, if I didn't see
these numbers, if I didn't know the stats, would my
feeling about LA be any different, because that's what's most important.
(30:00):
It's not like you're going to leave your doors unlocked
because you saw a story.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Hey, robberies are down this year. I think I could
leave my house and let my doors be.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Unlocked because robberies are down, burglaries are down. I have
nothing to worry about. No, it doesn't work that way.
We don't live our lives relative to statistics. We live
our lives relative to our general experiences and how we feel.
And I tell my wife all the time, hey, I
don't feel comfortable with you walking the dogs in certain
areas and neighborhoods. And they're no statistics which are going
(30:32):
to change that. I have a responsibility for my wife,
my family, and those who depend on me, and I'm
not going to hold a piece of paper in front
of her face and say, hey, deer, honey, homicides are down.
I think you should be okay. Now you can go
ahead and walk outside at two am, even.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Take the dogs with you. No, that's not how safety works.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Safety is about preparing for the possibility, and safety is
not putting yourself in positions where you are more vulnerable.
The reason I'm talking about this things can have multiple meanings.
We can celebrate the fact that there are fewer homicides
here in the city of Los Angeles, and we can
(31:21):
and should celebrate that with no respect to who gets
the credit or who gets the blame.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Because often, and this goes back to.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
The very first conversation we had today at the top
of the show, people are more focused on assessing blame,
parsing blame, or someone getting credit.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
If the stock market goes.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Up, ah so and so gets the credit, or stock
market goes down, ah so and so president gets the blame.
Because those were our motivations, we start with a conclusion
and then work our way back, as a friend told me,
because we want the end result to align with our worldview.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Me.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I try to be a little more distant. I try
to look at the stats for what they are. It's like,
oh that's nice, Oh that's good. It gives us a
quantitative analysis of sometimes of the amount of crime in
Los Angeles. But that's about where it ends. Homicides are
down in LA. Let's all put our hands together and
clap yeah, ya yay. Fewer people are getting merked in
(32:21):
the city. Of La, Yeah, yay, yay, I don't care
who gets the credit. May have just been random, It
may have been luck. It may have been a function
of the weather. It may have been a function of
people weren't driving as much because gas was higher.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Who knows who cares.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
But it's something that we can look at over a
larger period of time and see if there's a continuing
trend where it continues to decline, and then we can say, hey,
maybe we're in a better place now than maybe two
or three years ago. So on one hand, you can
say take it for what it's worth, but it's not
the whole world.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
La.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I love you with all my heart, but you can
still do better. It's the Gary and Shannon Show. I'm
o Kelly in for Gary and Shannon. We're gonna find
out what's happening in the swamp when we come back.
KFI AM six forty one Life everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
You've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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