June 9, 2025 • 40 mins
Armed agents in tactical gear threw flash-bang grenades to disperse a crowd in Los Angeles’s Fashion District. Later, agents fired less-than-lethal ammunition at protesters outside a detention center.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hi, good afternoon, Chris Merrill.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
I AM six forty more stimulating talk today is just
about covering the protests. So we did kind of a
breaking news show earlier. Came out of the air at
noon as protesters are sort of showing up at that
federal building at Alameda and one on one kind of
by Union station. And at the time, Michael Monks was
there and he said about one hundred people.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And now we've got i'd say, there's a couple.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Of thousand there there right now, about I'd say, as
we got closer and closer, like by one o'clock, there
were probably a few hundred people there. And then at
one o'clock, all of a sudden, it was like all
hell broke loose, and Michael Monks was in the middle
of what felt like a war zone, and I hear
this pop go off, this loud bang, and I didn't
(00:51):
know what it was. I don't know if there was
a flash bang that went off. I didn't know if
there was a canister that went off, but it sounded
like it sounded like a shot of some sort. But I,
you know, I'm on the other end. Listen you you
could have heard it as well as I could. I'm
just sitting in a studio listening to the guy report,
so I don't I can't see anything. And then he
all of a sudden stopped and I said, Michael, y okay.
(01:15):
I mean there was this pause, and I was just dumbfounded.
And one of the things about Michael Monks is that
he's so incredibly talented that I found myself just listening
to him telling the story, painting the scene.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
He did such a tremendous job.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
And you know, my job is to sit here and
try to think of what the next question is to ask,
and all I could think of was I'm just listening
to him tell the story.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
He was so good.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So when this bang goes off, I just said, Michael,
you okay. I don't even know what I was just
thinking I was just going to play out. And then
I realized, oh, dummy, I'm the one that has to
actually find out not I have to determine how it's
going to play out. So fortunately he was okay, and
then things sort of tamed down a little bit, and
(01:58):
we found out that the National Guard was pushing protesters away,
so that they could bring this, uh, this caravan of
vehicles in and as they as they start coming in,
we hear all this other noise and you can hear
sirens and and and Michael is sort of talking about it,
and all of a sudden he went from yeah, okay,
(02:18):
well you know we had this, we had this, we
had this incident. And then it sort of calmed down,
and he went, wait a minute, it's popping off again.
And there were there was this sort of chaotic feeling
and you could hear people screaming, and then you heard
these engines revving. They were just raw, they were so loud,
and and these sirens going off, and then Michael's going
in that they're they're pushing people again.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
They're pushing people again, and there's a smoke in the air,
and then there's just nothing. It's just silent, and we
didn't know what happened.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
And and again here I am in the studio and
I'm supposed to be going, well, we'll get back with Michael,
who it seems that we've lost our connection, But I'm going, oh,
my god, is he okay? Did did he just get shot?
And this is really what's going through my mind. I
have no idea, and I have a clue, right, I'm
thinking that he catch you know. But then I thought, okay,
(03:09):
well if he had, if something can happen to him physically,
then his connection should still be I should hear the microphone, right,
And I didn't hear that, So then I thought, okay, well,
maybe it's just technically, maybe there was just disconnected cell phones.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Got cut off or something. I didn't know, right.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So fortunately, then I start getting a text message. I
get text messages almost immediately afterwards. As you know, I'm
sort of playing a little bit, going, uh, I don't
know what's happening, and uh. And so I started getting
these text messages from Michael and he's saying, get me
back on the air, get me back on I'll call in.
(03:46):
And so I'm there's this part of me that's super
relieved because okay, good, he's you know, didn't get shot.
And then he said I got tear gassed. Oh my gosh,
And I gotta be totally honest. He texted me this,
and in my mind, I'm thinking he's tear gassed. He
can't go on the air. The guy's got he's got
these you know, you can't see anything and he can't
(04:08):
breathe and he can't talk. But then I realized he
was texting, so he must have been able to see
his cell phone screen. Genuinely, this is what's going through
my mind. He must be able to see a cell
phone screen, so he's probably got the wherewithal to be
able to go back on the air. And so, you know,
he called into the station. We did. We talked for
a little while via a cell phone until he could
get the whatever it was with his equipment hammered out.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So that was at one o'clock.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Today, and then it's almost as if things started going awry.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And I don't know how the word got spread.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I don't know if it was people listening to us
or other radio, if it was people watching what was
going on on their televisions, or.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
If it was just a social media and so you had.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
People live streaming this chaos as it was developing, or
if it was people that were calling their friends going
it's popping off down here?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Am I using that word right? Kayla? It's popping off?
Am I saying that right? Okay? Thank you?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I've got confirmation I am. I am sounding hip. It's
popping off? So I don't know if they were calling
and saying it's it's you know, something's going on down
here what?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
But I was freaked out.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
And and then all of a sudden, the crowd just
started ballooning in size, almost instantly.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And they they already had this.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
They had this plan anyway to have a protest at
City Hall at two o'clock, and I think that pretty
well got scrapped because everybody said, the action is is
here at at.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
The Federal building. So now, and I apologize.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
If I'm just rambling on here, but this was this
was a wild morning, I guess early afternoon.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So now they did start.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
The police did form a line, and I don't know
it was not National Guard. I don't know if it
was LAPD or not, but they started slowly pushing the
crowd back and getting them away from that that federal building,
the detention center right there. The thing is is they
were pushing people back and people started smirt dispersed. It's
like they circled around and now they're all over the
(06:23):
bridge where the bridge is I guess I should say,
over the one on one And so that is a
bit of a bit of a mess.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Are you there, Kayla? I don't hear you. I hear you. Okay,
that wasn't That wasn't me.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
I don't know whose voice that was.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
You heard that? Uh yeah, I'm just I'm hearing you.
Now hey, traffic.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Traffic, okay, great, yes, traffic.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Traffic, traffic.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
So I'm looking at the disaster that is the one
on one right now, Lucy this, Uh, I am too
what I'm thinking of now, I know it's closed, and
I know that there's some people trying to exit off
the one on one that maybe get the word stay
away from downtown. Take the longest route around. It's still
gonna be faster than trying to take the one on one.
But I'm also thinking of all the cars that are
(07:07):
stuck there as people became as they started to disperse,
they made their way onto the one on one, or
they're covered the bridges on Spring Street and Maine and
Los Angeles and obviously Alameda. And then I'm saying that
there are still some cars that are sort of stuck
behind those protesters on one on one and they've been
there for a long.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Time, yes they have. And CHP is on the scene
right there too, okay, helping out. I mean, the thing is.
I would just say for anyone, just stay away from downtown.
I mean, if you're not gonna, if you're not planning
to be in the protest, just stay away. It's it's
not really rocket science, is it.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
No, No, you're.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Right, but but but there's a there's a bit of
a thrill factor. There's people who want to come in
and see what's going on. It's like, oh, let me
see what's gone. You know, this is like live TV,
which it is, so, but I would just say stay away.
It's not worth it now.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Even if you do want to go see what's going on,
like you want to take in and be a part
of it in some way, shape or form, you can't
get close in your car.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
You can't know.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
So there's there's no reason for you to h to
even get in the car and get down there, because
it's too late. If you weren't there early to see
this stuff, you're not going to be a part of it.
You're just gonna be stuck in traffic. And I ain't
got time on a Sunday to be stuck in traffic. True, right,
that's true. Yeah, We're gonna check with Michael Monks, who
has been covering this all day long.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
He uh, he was out early.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
He was out this morning doing some uh some reports
from city hall. Then he made his way down to
the Federal building at Alameda. We'll check with him and
get the latest from him. I think he was on foot,
so I don't think he got necessarily stuck in this
traffic because it is just it's it's just a mess.
Don't don't even go close to it. Don't even go
close to it. It's yeah, right, he just walked to it,
(08:52):
didn't he. Bro He just walked the whole thing, didn't he.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, he lives really close, so he's in. He's in
the thick of it.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Well, I hope things calm down so he can get
some even those have to listen to sirens and you know,
pepper bowl shots all night.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
No bueno.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
All right, Well, check with him in just a second.
It's Chris Merril KFI AM six forty. We are live
everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Well, good afternoon, my friends, Chris Merril KFI AM six
forty more stimulating talk and on demand anytime on the
iHeart Radio App. All right, So the protest that we've
been covering all day long here around the Federal Building Alameda,
which is the detention center as well. Those who have
largely been dispersed. The police have really set up an
entire blockade line I guess around around Alameda all the
(09:43):
way back to Temple Street. They have pretty well made
it so that there are no protesters near that detention
center any longer. The only people who are behind that
line basically law enforcement and some media doing some live.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Shots, some stand ups there.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
A guy who was there for most of today is
Michael Monks, and Michael out of the chaos a little
bit there, But it looks like most of the dispersion,
many of the people have just made their way into
stopping up one on one right now, and that's a mess.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Yeah, that's what it looks like. Some of the folks
who were at the protest and the march and the
rally have made their way on the freeway. That's not
atypical of protests in Los Angeles. It's also not a
way to win friends, that's for darn sure. We have
no trouble clogging up the freeways on our own, and
it's frustrating so for people trying to get home or
trying to go to work. This is going to be
(10:38):
very frustrating. The one oh one is already disaster every day,
and this is only going to make it worse. The
one ten also having some problems, and then some of
the surface streets downtown, but that seems to be the
last of the disruption. Is this massive disruption of traffic
flow through the area, because just a little while ago,
there were thousands of people in the streets of Los
(11:00):
Angeles as the protest outside the Federal Building was converged
with this other rally that was taking place at LA
City Hall. And it didn't last very long.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
It was a.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Big, massive statement of just population, a big number of
people who came down to LA City Hall, march down
to the Federal Building where a protest was already happening,
blocked long, thousands deep, and then a unlawful assembly was declared.
Police threatened to arrest people, and a lot of people
turn around and left.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, I saw that they did make They did detain
a few people who were you know, on the front
lines and were standing up to the police that were
trying to push their line back. And again it looks
like most of the coverage anyway, you know, the TV helicopters,
and I've got the monitor up here in the studio,
and it looks like they're really focusing on the stoppage
on the one oh one right now. That seems to
(11:53):
be where most of those protesters have made their way,
either onto the actual freeway itself or some of the overpasses,
whether Alameda or Los Angeles Street or Maine, or even
back to Spring Street. That seems to be where everything is.
So what in my mind, Michael Monks, You've been covering this,
this protest, but obviously many many more in Los Angeles
(12:14):
than than than I ever will. So in my mind,
I'm thinking, all right, maybe this is all over. I mean,
it was start, it was supposed to. The protest was
scheduled to start it too. Yet some people that got
there a little bit early, you know, there there's a
bit of a skirmish around one that you were a
part of. Of course, you had your KFI badge on
which we learned earlier is actually a tear gas magnet,
(12:35):
and so you were able to bring some of that
tear gas in. Uh, and then like you said, the
crowd it ballooned in size, but we didn't have the
kind of skirmishes like we did earlier on you know,
just three hours ago.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Is this This wasn't anything like the Black Lives Matters
protests from five years ago that we saw all over
the country, and I wasn't even in LA for those,
but they were happening everywhere and those turned pretty violent
and there were riots involved in those cases. Here, there
were multiple events taking place kind of at the same time.
They were overlapping and then they all converge. By the
(13:11):
time I got to the Federal Building at around eleven thirty,
there was word from LAPD they were monitoring that protest.
There was also one on Olbera Street at all Plblau,
and there was also a protest outside of one of
the LAPD division offices here in downtown Los Angeles, but
the one at the Federal Building was the one that
was the most intense. This has been the site of
(13:32):
protests since Friday, and it's because, you know, some of
the people taken into custody by ice are apparently seemed
pained in the car Soro facility there. And what was
different about today was it wasn't just federal police or
local police. The California National Guard was there, as ordered
by President Trump, and so that changed the dynamics of it.
(13:55):
When you and I started talking around twelve, there were
probably one hundred people into two hundred people by one
o'clock when that incident happened. The National Guard pushed people
into the streets quite violently and quite physically and using
tear gas and flash bangs and all that to make
way for some federal vehicles to go into the garage.
There After that, the crowd ballooned to about six or
(14:18):
seven hundred people by my account, and then around two
ten somebody got on a bullhorn and said, let's go
to City Hall. And that's about the time that rally
at City Hall was scheduled. But then the LAPD showed up.
They blocked off Temple Street so people could not go
from the Federal Building to City Hall. But what was
(14:40):
happening was the rally at City Hall morphed into a march,
and so all the people who had gathered there poured
into the streets of downtown La, marched down Temple Street,
took a left onto Alameda, and made their way right
back to the Federal Building. And there was probably, you know,
a little bit of drawing there. Some I know a
(15:00):
couple of LAPD officers were injured by motorcyclists apparently, but
that ended very quickly, and now the remnants of this
is what's happening on the freeways.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, so then it makes me wonder, since we saw
kind of that peak earlier in the afternoon, we're in
a bit of a valley now as far as the
enthusiasm or the excitement around the action goes, is there
any concern that this is going to ramp back up?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Is that sun starts to get lower in the sky.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
Absolutely. The LAPD has declared a tactical alert and so
what that means is all officers are to remain on duty.
Everybody should be at the ready to go out into
the field if they are so called. That has been
the case the past couple of days as well. So
the LAPD is mobilized to respond to anything that takes place.
But it was interesting as far as the LAPD goes,
(15:50):
because I didn't see LAPD on the street on Alameda
Street at all today until that march started and they
shut down the road in its entirety for the most part,
even while the protests were pouring into the street. Graphic
was still trying to make its way through there, and
so it lent itself to that conversation about what is
(16:11):
happening with the way law enforcement is supposed to deal
with this situation. Because we saw the National Guard, they're
ready to go. We saw the federal police, they're ready
to go. But what role can LAPD play Even if
they're not going to put themselves in a position to
help execute any type of civil immigration enforcement, what are
they supposed to do when the protests against those actions
(16:34):
pour into city streets. It was all very strange to watch.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, that's gonna be some questions that I think the
talking heads at city Hall are going to have to answer.
In fact, Mayor Bass is supposed to speak. Is what
I'm saying is that she's supposed to discuss this very soon.
So we'll see what she has to say about that. Hey, Michael,
great job. You know, here's the wall and we'll check
in with you again later on on the show if
need be my friend. Otherwise, you know, grab some food,
(16:59):
maybe a a nice meatball with some Sunday gravy.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
I appreciate it, you know, you and I we passed
like ships in the night. It's the first time I've
gotten to be on the show with you. I've got
to do that. I just want to talk about Michigan.
I thought we get to talk about Michigan a little bit.
You're a Michigan guy and I love Michigan.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, yeah, we can talk.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
We can talk Michigan, we can talk Michigan football. Whatever
you want to do, We'll talk all yeah. Happy to
do all right, all right, sounds like a date. I
love it, all right, Thanks buddy, Michael Monks. Can't fire
reporter who was at all the casts as it was
unfolding earlier today, No doubt about this politically charged. You
heard Michael talking about President Trump, is he called for
(17:38):
the National Guard. The governor, the mayor did not ask
for the national Guard. They're claiming that this is inflammatory,
that this this escalated things beyond where they needed to be.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Could have been a whole lot worse.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
You know, listening to Michael speak when we had flash
bangs and we had well, I guess flash bangs yesterday,
pepper balls yesterday, tear gas today, could have been a
whole lot worse. I am seeing some flashes of smoke
going off into the air. Right now as I'm watching
some of the again I'm a monitor in the studio.
I don't know if that's I don't know if that's
from the police. It looks more like maybe it's fireworks. Okay,
(18:13):
you're seeing fireworks too well for sure?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
And then a drone I see, I see drones that
are flying overhead. I don't think that's doing a whole
lot of good. And I don't know if that's TV
that's trying to get some grown drone footage, or if
that's a YouTuber trying to get really great drone footage.
But I'm sure that probably causes some unease on the
part of the law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I know what would if I were there. Both sides
are now closed as well.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, I see law enforcement is using the Is it
the northbound side that the law enforcement is on, and
that's it looks like they're trying to sort of stage
in an effort to get people off of the southbound side.
They don't seem to be in too much of a hurry.
I think they're kind of letting the protesters tucker themselves
out to some degree, trying not to escalate things any further. Well,
we'll give an update on this. We'll watch, we'll watch
(18:56):
what's going on. We'll get some of your talkbacks as well.
If you're on the iHeart Radio app, feel ready to
give us a talk back. Just hit that little talk
back button and let us know what's going on in
your mind. Happy to hear what your thoughts on what's
happening today as well, and we'll continue with our coverage
of the protests in downtown. It's Chris Meryl CAFI AM
six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
All right, good after you.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Chris Merril KFI AM six forty more stimulating talk and
on demand anytime on the iHeart Radio App. Continuing to
monitor the situation going on downtown. Looks like, well, I
see a motorcycle that's not a ground there as I'm
watching the monitor in my studio. So the protests earlier today,
(19:42):
if we're joining us the protests earlier today at the
Federal Building Alameda and one on one basically just down
from Union Station, those got a little bit hectic a
little after one o'clock. You may have just heard the
promo that we were running with the Michael Monks I
was on the air with at the time, and I
heard that pop sound, and I gotta tell you what
(20:02):
my headphones on. It sounded like there was a sounded
like there was a gunshot, and I clinched a little.
If I'm being honest, I was, And then I got
nervous for the guy. And then he heard him start
coughing because he caught a little tear gas. As the
day went on, watching What's happening right now, though, as
things sort of dispersed, the crowds grew a couple thousand people.
I'd say, the crowd continues to grow. Now we've got well,
(20:27):
what is this? What are you Goober's doing? Okay, so
now I'm watching. Okay, the police now are trying to
get people off the freeway. So as the crowds dispersed,
they made their way to the freeway. Now the police
are firing looks like smoke bombs toward the crowd, and
then members of the crowd keep kicking the smoke bombs
(20:47):
back to the police or law enforcement I don't know.
I don't know which agency they're with, and then they
continue to kick them back into the crowd, and it
kind of looks like they're they're playing soccer.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I mean, I don't know how else to just describe it.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
The law enforcement throws the smoke bomb, the people kick
the smoke bomb back. Somebody kicks it back to the people,
the people kick it back. At one point it looked
like somebody was trying to run up and take a
penalty kick. I mean, it's honestly, it's a bit absurd,
but the police are trying now to push people off
(21:22):
the freeway. I do see officers with what appear to
be pepper guns, and I'm having trouble. I'm looking at
a split screen the monitor that I have in my studio,
and so it's tough for me to delineate which screen
is northbound on which one is southbound. Raoul, I'm not
sure what you're looking at. It looks like the police
have moved into that southbound lane where people were taking
(21:44):
up all of the road. They were really stopping all
the traffic, physically stopping the traffic that were on the
road northbound. Not so many protesters were on the actual freeway,
but authorities shut that down anyway just to keep everybody safe.
But for the most part, the protesters stayed on the
southbound side of the one on one at oh between
Los Angeles Street, Spring Street and Lameda. You heard Lucy
(22:07):
with the traffic update there in the last segment. It
does appear that they're using smoke grenades right now. I
don't know, maybe those maybe that's tear gas. I can't
smell it, you know, I'm not there, But again, that's
what the people and the officers were kicking back and forth,
almost like they were, you know, doing soccer practice.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Really bizarre situation.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
The other thing that I think is, I don't want
to say it's complicating this, but it is certainly indicative
of the age that we're in. The people on the
front of the protest lines are all carrying cameras, some
of them very high end, some of them not as
high end, But in every case they're trying to document this.
Some I believe are probably professional photographers, some are probably
(22:51):
professional journalists, and some I think are probably YouTubers. They're
on the note. Yeah, bring Lucy up if you would.
Is it the protesters on the northbound side or are
they just a police.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
In the northbounds, a police on the northbound side. It
looks like it now I'm looking at this camera shop,
the same one as you.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Probably, I don't have any idea that that it's a
helicopter that's spinning around, so I don't even know which
waves up right now.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, but I do.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Say that some protesters are engaging with the officers and
then they are tasting pavement and getting cuffs on their
on their hands real quick.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah, that looks like the northbound side to me, that's
the other way round.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah, okay, okay, good, whatever your vibe is, I'm gonna
I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Go with your vibe.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Yeah, I'm going with that vibe right now.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
That's good. That's very good.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Well, it does look like they're actually getting the protesters
off the freeway though, and it and that moved pretty quickly,
to be honest, because when we went to the commercial
break before we checked with you the last time here,
the protesters were still there. I even said it looked
like the officers were slowly making their way there and
formulating a game plan. But for the most part, they
were allowing the protesters to tire themselves out. Now it
looks like they've actually sort of boxed the protesters onto
(24:02):
the I guess it's an on ramp and trying to
walk them back up the on ramp right now.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
It's pretty clever actually peacefully, well, relatively yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Relatively peacefully.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I think the only people that are I think it's
really the pro You've got a few protesters that are
acting out, agitators, as you've heard Michael Munks call them
throughout the show, agitators who are acting out. For the
most part, though, Yeah, the police are just forming forming
a line and then slowly and closing that line, moving
it forward, and the people are slowly moving back. I
(24:35):
think there's a lot of people as I see kind
of lining the wall behind them that sort of looks
over the the on ramp. I think just a lot
of you know, my grandpa would have called them looky lose, right, Yeah,
I think they're largely there to see the spectacle. The
number of actually engaged protesters, I would say couple hundred
(24:59):
tops that are actually on the freeway or on that
that that on ramp.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah, serious protests is probably not that many.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah, and again many of those are carrying cameras and
they're they've decided they're going to get their YouTube clicks
out of it.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Exactly, yeah, exactly, right, But there's something going on right
there on the ground. I don't know whether you're looking
at the same camera shop, but there's some incident going
on right now.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I see somebody just got tag and put down in
the in the smoke, So if that is tear gas,
and again I can't see, but if that is tear gas,
then somebody who goes after the officers and then ends
up face down next to the tear gas canister is
going to have a bad day.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, that's that's not a great way to spend your
Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
They all, Yeah, that.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Looks like a highway patrol vehicle, so maybe a lot
of these officers. Again, I've had trouble distinguishing what the
agency is, but I just saw a high A.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Lot of agencies down there, aren't they?
Speaker 3 (25:54):
And what have you seen, Lucy, Yeah, I mean we've
seen National Guard was at the Federal building.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I haven't seen any National Guard on.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
The No, not in the freeway. I haven't seen them either. No,
but it's amazing the confluence of all the agencies that
are down there. I heard a report on CNN earlier
to that effect, and it's somewhat confused because of it,
it would appear to be. But right now they seem
to be clearing everything.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Well as long as lawenforcements not confused. It seems like
they seem to be coordinating actually pretty cleverly.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Now. Definitely, Yeah, they're taking someone away.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah, somebody's gonna have a bad day.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
All right, Lisia, We're gonna take our traffic with you
here in just a minute. We are trying to figure
out what the what the response is going to be
from our elected city officials, and some of you not
very happy with our elected city officials. Here you will
hear from our talk back here in just a few moments,
and the mayor is expected to speak at some point
as soon as she does, and want to be able
to take that live, so we will bring that to
(26:53):
you as soon as Mayor Bass has something to say.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Otherwise, it's a city under siege.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
I guess Mayor Basses is under from the Trump administration,
and the administration says it's under siege from people who
support illegal immigration. Hey, the only thing they take can
agree on is that there's some sort of a siege.
I just can't decide which team they're on. More on
this are continuing coverage of the protest downtown. I'm Chris
(27:18):
Merril KFI AM six forty. We're live everywhere in the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
All right, good.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Afternoon, Chris Merril KFI AM six forty. More stimulating talk. Oh,
watching the watching the gathering of protesters downtown, and I
have watched this all day long. We did a special
coverage on this starting at noon and over about one
hundred protesters and then it really got big, about five
(27:47):
hundred people by one o'clock. And then a little after
to the protests from city Hall, combined with the protests
that kept growing around the Federal building at on Alameda.
And now you've got a couple of thousand, which I
think is down a couple thousand from earlier. I'm terrible
(28:07):
at crowd estimations, but it looks to me like the
remainders are. You've got some agitators and they're still conflicting
with law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
That's there.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Law enforcement continues to push people back up the on
ramp and off of the the one to one freeway,
which was shut down earlier.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Law enforcement is.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Slowly backing them all back onto the surface streets and
the freeway doesn't look like it has any protesters left
there at all. Law enforcement continues to detain a few people,
take some people into custody. I'm gonna say that by
the end of the night, we're gonna have a couple dozen,
I don't know, maybe fifty people that will have been detained.
And honestly, this is one of those situations where even
(28:48):
if you wanted to go down and protest, you you
really had to mean it. You had to want to
get arrested to get arrested. The law enforcement was holding
off and giving everybody every opportunity to not be arrested.
They didn't want to waste their time with that. So
it really is the people who almost demanded and left
no choice that are getting arrested. That said, looking for
(29:09):
your thoughts on the talkback as always, as we do
every Sunday afternoon. If you're listening on the iHeartRadio app,
you just hit that little talkback button and let us
know what you think. Questions, comments, quips, quotes, criticism to
compliments always welcome.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
You might not like National guards on lay streets, but
this is the only way LA can be kept in peace.
It's always been like that in LA. It's a crazy
town and you need national Guards to overwhelm otherwise all
your federal buildings would be burned by this morning without
(29:46):
national Guards.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
All right, Well, just to be clear, national Guard didn't
show up until this morning, So no, that's necessarily true
that it would have all been burned.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
All right? Oh yeah, Chris, all right, riddling this. LA
County does not have its own mayor. Okay, okay, screw.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Bass, all right, screw Bass, all right, and LA County
needs its own mayor, which I think would make it
the first county in America to have their own mayor.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
All right, we are waiting.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
I think Bass is supposed to speak, but has yet
to say much of anything.
Speaker 7 (30:22):
Talk back talk about National Guard came in crowds dispersing
the undocumented immigrants aka illegal aliens. Knew they were gonna
get their asses kicked, so they bailed out and all
their buddies bailed out with them. Maybe it might come
back tonight, But the National Guard definitely helps with the
presence just by looking at a man, they are needed
(30:46):
compared to the George Floyd riots in La.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yeah, I'm gonna respectfully disagree. And the reason I say
that is that National Guard had three hundred people.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I'm seeing many, many, many, many many.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
More police officers or Sheriff's officers or highway patrolmen that
are on the scene right now. In fact, I haven't
seen any National Guards people on any of our are
monitored shots in a very long time. Because remember, the
National Guard is restricted to the federal area. That's a
jurisdictional thing. So National Guard is covering the federal I
(31:27):
guess property, So they're offering security around the federal buildings.
Once we start talking about what's in the street, which
is where everything's moved now. And as those two protests
sort of combined, as they merged about quarter after two today,
it was all on the streets and that it was
all about LAPD.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
CHP.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
I don't know if the Sheriff's department is out there,
but at that point it wasn't about the federal enforcement. Now,
I understand you wanted to see the show of might
around the federal buildings.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
That's fine, but I.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
As far as actually enforcing things, I don't know how
much the National Guard actually did. Uh, But maybe that
show of Mike was was enough of a deterrent to
keep a number of people away from the federal building
to begin with. I don't know we can argue about
that until the cows come home. We'll never know because
that would be you know, it didn't happen.
Speaker 8 (32:19):
All right, go on, We're going on three days of
protests and chaos in downtown Los Angeles. Now, Mayor Bass,
Karen Bass can't get this under control. She needs to
get the hell out of office. In fact, she should
have never got elected. She can't handle herself. Even wiping
her own butt on the toilet.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Uh, can we get confirmation on that?
Speaker 4 (32:43):
I don't know how we know that information.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Well, Calen, that's up to you to find out as about.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
It, I want you to find out all right, Well,
I guess I'll email the.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Mayor see if you can get down to that press
conference and just put a microphone in there and say,
Mayor care to address the rumors that you can't wipe
your own push?
Speaker 8 (32:59):
First off, even wiping her own butt on the toilet?
Speaker 5 (33:02):
Ye?
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Like, but I'm gonna say wiping your but can he
wipe your butt on the toilet? Yes? He had aggressive? Yeah,
very good.
Speaker 8 (33:08):
Yeah, Karen Bass needs to get out of office leave now.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
So one of the issues that I have when we
talk about the political aspect is I'm gonna go out
on a limb and guess that that that.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
This caller who's upset with Karen Bass.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
And I'm not certainly not disagreeing with him or feel
like he's wrong, but was he ever a Karen Bass fan?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
It's like one of the one of the issues with
our biases nowadays, and it's always been there's a confirmation bias.
It's always been there, but it seems to be exacerbated
because of the I'm gonna call it social media.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I'm gonna call it the quick access.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
I'm gonna call it the instant gratification of our biases
that we're that we can seek out like opinions online,
on air, all these different places. So you kind of
go into an administration going they're going to screw it up.
I can't wait to watch Karen Bass screw it up,
and then I'm gonna be angry and my vote will
be justified because I'm gonna say she was a moron.
(34:08):
And likewise, if you voted for uh, if you voted
for Karen Bass, you go why is everybody being so
mean to Karen Bass. She's not the one that called
for the National Guard. Karen Bass is not the you
know what I mean. So all we're doing is just
expressing opinions that we've had all along, and we're just
plugging it. It's like a mad libs like Karen Bass
needs to go? Why and you go, well, it is
(34:30):
it today that I don't like about protests?
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Karen Bass needs to go? Why protests? Right? Karen Bass
is terrible? And why is it fires right now?
Speaker 3 (34:43):
I think she's been disastrous when it comes to a
number of different issues.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
I didn't vote for her either.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
But also it's like I always have to be cautious
when I hear people say, well this is this just
shows you how terrible she is. Like you know you
were always going to say she was terrible. I mean,
Karen baskets save a box full of puppies on.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
The side of the freeway. Sheean. Now you want to
take her, you would say, is she speaking? Well, right,
let's take her life.
Speaker 9 (35:14):
I want to play into the administration's hands. We're working
with officials, we're organizing resources, but what we're seeing in
Los Angeles is chaos. That is provoked by the administration.
When you raid home depot and workplaces, when you tear
parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans
through our streets, you cause fear and you cost panic,
(35:38):
and deploying federalized troops is a dangerous escalation. But we
need to be real about this. This is about another agenda.
It's not about public safety. There's clearly no plan and
there is clearly no policy. I want the people of
Los Angeles to know that we stand with all Angelinos,
(35:58):
no matter where you were born. The First Amendment right
gives you the ability again to protest peacefully, but it
does not give you the right to be violent, to
create chaos, or to vandalize property, and that will not
be tolerated. So I call on all Angelinos to continue
expressing your right, your anger, your outrage, but to do
(36:21):
it peacefully. And I just have to say that all
of you were there Friday. Everybody knows what happened Friday.
A workplace. Several workplaces were targeted and raids took place. Now,
in the beginning, the administration said they were just looking
for dangerous felons, violent people. It's hard to say that
that's what they found at a workplace, are in a
(36:44):
home depot, parking lot. When this happens, it terrifies people.
It sends a sense of fear and chaos in our city.
And you well remember a few years ago in the
last administration that kids were afraid to go to school,
parents were afraid to go to work. This impacts all
of our city. You can't terrify the workplace work for
(37:08):
and then expect for people to get the jobs done.
So if you think about a father that went into
a factory and now his family doesn't know where he is.
The detainees have not been allowed to speak to legal counsel.
That is a market departure from what has happened in
the past.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
When you think ad two Los Angeles, Orange County.
Speaker 9 (37:30):
Children on another side of town, that impacts that family
as well as her family. And so this is something
that I think should not be happening in our city.
And I join with the governor and appealing to the
administration to ressind the order to federalize the National Guard
and allow the National Guard to come back under the
(37:51):
control of the governor. So with that we can open
it up for questions, yes, protests, that were demonstrations I
should say, did start off peforele been here since right
in the morning, but then it's they scattered.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
And there moved right.
Speaker 9 (38:10):
Where is the LAPD in terms of being here to
be able to deal with that and maybe stop.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Them before they able to roll?
Speaker 9 (38:17):
Sure, well, I think that basically they were overrun. But
what is happening now is that the freeway is cleared.
The California Highway Patrol, as you know, is in charge
of the freeways, so they have moved all of the
protesters back. They still might be there, but they are
beginning to be dispersed. But LAPD is on the perimeter,
so lap is actively involved. You know that there were
(38:39):
hundreds of protesters on the freeway and thousands of protesters
off the freeway, so there is a joint collaboration going
with the CHP, the LAPD, and then frankly the National Guard.
But you also know that the National Guard is deployed
to protect federal property, so there is a National Guard
troops in Westwood at the Federal building and also here downtown.
(39:03):
May have you reached after the federal government where they
been doing though right now with me at your no,
my disappointment. As I've been talking to the federal government
for days, I was hoping to prevent this situation from that,
You're going.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
To continue to take questions.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
That's Mayor Karen Bass who's addressing the protests that have
gone on today. The roads being blocked up. One on
one was shut down, continues to be shut down. However,
the protesters that were on one on one seem to
be back completely, back up off the freeway and onto
the surface streets. We'll continue with coverage and get a
few more of your thoughts as we uh focus in
on the protests that have gone on downtown today, the
(39:43):
third day of protests for people who are protesting ice
and in the immigration crackdown that's happening around Los Angeles
and the rest of the country. To be honest, Chris
Merril KFI AM six forty, We're live everywhere in the
iHeartRadio app kf I AM six Demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hi, good afternoon, Chris Merrill.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
I AM six forty more stimulating talk today is just
about covering the protests. So we did kind of a
breaking news show earlier. Came out of the air at
noon as protesters are sort of showing up at that
federal building at Alameda and one on one kind of
by Union station. And at the time, Michael Monks was
there and he said about one hundred people.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And now we've got i'd say, there's a couple.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Of thousand there there right now, about I'd say, as
we got closer and closer, like by one o'clock, there
were probably a few hundred people there. And then at
one o'clock, all of a sudden, it was like all
hell broke loose, and Michael Monks was in the middle
of what felt like a war zone, and I hear
this pop go off, this loud bang, and I didn't
(00:51):
know what it was. I don't know if there was
a flash bang that went off. I didn't know if
there was a canister that went off, but it sounded
like it sounded like a shot of some sort. But I,
you know, I'm on the other end. Listen you you
could have heard it as well as I could. I'm
just sitting in a studio listening to the guy report,
so I don't I can't see anything. And then he
all of a sudden stopped and I said, Michael, y okay.
(01:15):
I mean there was this pause, and I was just dumbfounded.
And one of the things about Michael Monks is that
he's so incredibly talented that I found myself just listening
to him telling the story, painting the scene.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
He did such a tremendous job.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
And you know, my job is to sit here and
try to think of what the next question is to ask,
and all I could think of was I'm just listening
to him tell the story.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
He was so good.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
So when this bang goes off, I just said, Michael,
you okay. I don't even know what I was just
thinking I was just going to play out. And then
I realized, oh, dummy, I'm the one that has to
actually find out not I have to determine how it's
going to play out. So fortunately he was okay, and
then things sort of tamed down a little bit, and
(01:58):
we found out that the National Guard was pushing protesters away,
so that they could bring this, uh, this caravan of
vehicles in and as they as they start coming in,
we hear all this other noise and you can hear
sirens and and and Michael is sort of talking about it,
and all of a sudden he went from yeah, okay,
(02:18):
well you know we had this, we had this, we
had this incident. And then it sort of calmed down,
and he went, wait a minute, it's popping off again.
And there were there was this sort of chaotic feeling
and you could hear people screaming, and then you heard
these engines revving. They were just raw, they were so loud,
and and these sirens going off, and then Michael's going
in that they're they're pushing people again.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
They're pushing people again, and there's a smoke in the air,
and then there's just nothing. It's just silent, and we
didn't know what happened.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
And and again here I am in the studio and
I'm supposed to be going, well, we'll get back with Michael,
who it seems that we've lost our connection, But I'm going, oh,
my god, is he okay? Did did he just get shot?
And this is really what's going through my mind. I
have no idea, and I have a clue, right, I'm
thinking that he catch you know. But then I thought, okay,
(03:09):
well if he had, if something can happen to him physically,
then his connection should still be I should hear the microphone, right,
And I didn't hear that, So then I thought, okay, well,
maybe it's just technically, maybe there was just disconnected cell phones.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Got cut off or something. I didn't know, right.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So fortunately, then I start getting a text message. I
get text messages almost immediately afterwards. As you know, I'm
sort of playing a little bit, going, uh, I don't
know what's happening, and uh. And so I started getting
these text messages from Michael and he's saying, get me
back on the air, get me back on I'll call in.
(03:46):
And so I'm there's this part of me that's super
relieved because okay, good, he's you know, didn't get shot.
And then he said I got tear gassed. Oh my gosh,
And I gotta be totally honest. He texted me this,
and in my mind, I'm thinking he's tear gassed. He
can't go on the air. The guy's got he's got
these you know, you can't see anything and he can't
(04:08):
breathe and he can't talk. But then I realized he
was texting, so he must have been able to see
his cell phone screen. Genuinely, this is what's going through
my mind. He must be able to see a cell
phone screen, so he's probably got the wherewithal to be
able to go back on the air. And so, you know,
he called into the station. We did. We talked for
a little while via a cell phone until he could
get the whatever it was with his equipment hammered out.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So that was at one o'clock.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Today, and then it's almost as if things started going awry.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And I don't know how the word got spread.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I don't know if it was people listening to us
or other radio, if it was people watching what was
going on on their televisions, or.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
If it was just a social media and so you had.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
People live streaming this chaos as it was developing, or
if it was people that were calling their friends going
it's popping off down here?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Am I using that word right? Kayla? It's popping off?
Am I saying that right? Okay? Thank you?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I've got confirmation I am. I am sounding hip. It's
popping off? So I don't know if they were calling
and saying it's it's you know, something's going on down
here what?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
But I was freaked out.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
And and then all of a sudden, the crowd just
started ballooning in size, almost instantly.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And they they already had this.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
They had this plan anyway to have a protest at
City Hall at two o'clock, and I think that pretty
well got scrapped because everybody said, the action is is
here at at.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
The Federal building. So now, and I apologize.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
If I'm just rambling on here, but this was this
was a wild morning, I guess early afternoon.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So now they did start.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
The police did form a line, and I don't know
it was not National Guard. I don't know if it
was LAPD or not, but they started slowly pushing the
crowd back and getting them away from that that federal building,
the detention center right there. The thing is is they
were pushing people back and people started smirt dispersed. It's
like they circled around and now they're all over the
(06:23):
bridge where the bridge is I guess I should say,
over the one on one And so that is a
bit of a bit of a mess.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Are you there, Kayla? I don't hear you. I hear you. Okay,
that wasn't That wasn't me.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
I don't know whose voice that was.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
You heard that? Uh yeah, I'm just I'm hearing you.
Now hey, traffic.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Traffic, okay, great, yes, traffic.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Traffic, traffic.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
So I'm looking at the disaster that is the one
on one right now, Lucy this, Uh, I am too
what I'm thinking of now, I know it's closed, and
I know that there's some people trying to exit off
the one on one that maybe get the word stay
away from downtown. Take the longest route around. It's still
gonna be faster than trying to take the one on one.
But I'm also thinking of all the cars that are
(07:07):
stuck there as people became as they started to disperse,
they made their way onto the one on one, or
they're covered the bridges on Spring Street and Maine and
Los Angeles and obviously Alameda. And then I'm saying that
there are still some cars that are sort of stuck
behind those protesters on one on one and they've been
there for a long.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Time, yes they have. And CHP is on the scene
right there too, okay, helping out. I mean, the thing is.
I would just say for anyone, just stay away from downtown.
I mean, if you're not gonna, if you're not planning
to be in the protest, just stay away. It's it's
not really rocket science, is it.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
No, No, you're.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Right, but but but there's a there's a bit of
a thrill factor. There's people who want to come in
and see what's going on. It's like, oh, let me
see what's gone. You know, this is like live TV,
which it is, so, but I would just say stay away.
It's not worth it now.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Even if you do want to go see what's going on,
like you want to take in and be a part
of it in some way, shape or form, you can't
get close in your car.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
You can't know.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
So there's there's no reason for you to h to
even get in the car and get down there, because
it's too late. If you weren't there early to see
this stuff, you're not going to be a part of it.
You're just gonna be stuck in traffic. And I ain't
got time on a Sunday to be stuck in traffic. True, right,
that's true. Yeah, We're gonna check with Michael Monks, who
has been covering this all day long.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
He uh, he was out early.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
He was out this morning doing some uh some reports
from city hall. Then he made his way down to
the Federal building at Alameda. We'll check with him and
get the latest from him. I think he was on foot,
so I don't think he got necessarily stuck in this
traffic because it is just it's it's just a mess.
Don't don't even go close to it. Don't even go
close to it. It's yeah, right, he just walked to it,
(08:52):
didn't he. Bro He just walked the whole thing, didn't he.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, he lives really close, so he's in. He's in
the thick of it.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Well, I hope things calm down so he can get
some even those have to listen to sirens and you know,
pepper bowl shots all night.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
No bueno.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
All right, Well, check with him in just a second.
It's Chris Merril KFI AM six forty. We are live
everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Well, good afternoon, my friends, Chris Merril KFI AM six
forty more stimulating talk and on demand anytime on the
iHeart Radio App. All right, So the protest that we've
been covering all day long here around the Federal Building Alameda,
which is the detention center as well. Those who have
largely been dispersed. The police have really set up an
entire blockade line I guess around around Alameda all the
(09:43):
way back to Temple Street. They have pretty well made
it so that there are no protesters near that detention
center any longer. The only people who are behind that
line basically law enforcement and some media doing some live.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Shots, some stand ups there.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
A guy who was there for most of today is
Michael Monks, and Michael out of the chaos a little
bit there, But it looks like most of the dispersion,
many of the people have just made their way into
stopping up one on one right now, and that's a mess.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Yeah, that's what it looks like. Some of the folks
who were at the protest and the march and the
rally have made their way on the freeway. That's not
atypical of protests in Los Angeles. It's also not a
way to win friends, that's for darn sure. We have
no trouble clogging up the freeways on our own, and
it's frustrating so for people trying to get home or
trying to go to work. This is going to be
(10:38):
very frustrating. The one oh one is already disaster every day,
and this is only going to make it worse. The
one ten also having some problems, and then some of
the surface streets downtown, but that seems to be the
last of the disruption. Is this massive disruption of traffic
flow through the area, because just a little while ago,
there were thousands of people in the streets of Los
(11:00):
Angeles as the protest outside the Federal Building was converged
with this other rally that was taking place at LA
City Hall. And it didn't last very long.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
It was a.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Big, massive statement of just population, a big number of
people who came down to LA City Hall, march down
to the Federal Building where a protest was already happening,
blocked long, thousands deep, and then a unlawful assembly was declared.
Police threatened to arrest people, and a lot of people
turn around and left.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, I saw that they did make They did detain
a few people who were you know, on the front
lines and were standing up to the police that were
trying to push their line back. And again it looks
like most of the coverage anyway, you know, the TV helicopters,
and I've got the monitor up here in the studio,
and it looks like they're really focusing on the stoppage
on the one oh one right now. That seems to
(11:53):
be where most of those protesters have made their way,
either onto the actual freeway itself or some of the overpasses,
whether Alameda or Los Angeles Street or Maine, or even
back to Spring Street. That seems to be where everything is.
So what in my mind, Michael Monks, You've been covering this,
this protest, but obviously many many more in Los Angeles
(12:14):
than than than I ever will. So in my mind,
I'm thinking, all right, maybe this is all over. I mean,
it was start, it was supposed to. The protest was
scheduled to start it too. Yet some people that got
there a little bit early, you know, there there's a
bit of a skirmish around one that you were a
part of. Of course, you had your KFI badge on
which we learned earlier is actually a tear gas magnet,
(12:35):
and so you were able to bring some of that
tear gas in. Uh, and then like you said, the
crowd it ballooned in size, but we didn't have the
kind of skirmishes like we did earlier on you know,
just three hours ago.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
Is this This wasn't anything like the Black Lives Matters
protests from five years ago that we saw all over
the country, and I wasn't even in LA for those,
but they were happening everywhere and those turned pretty violent
and there were riots involved in those cases. Here, there
were multiple events taking place kind of at the same time.
They were overlapping and then they all converge. By the
(13:11):
time I got to the Federal Building at around eleven thirty,
there was word from LAPD they were monitoring that protest.
There was also one on Olbera Street at all Plblau,
and there was also a protest outside of one of
the LAPD division offices here in downtown Los Angeles, but
the one at the Federal Building was the one that
was the most intense. This has been the site of
(13:32):
protests since Friday, and it's because, you know, some of
the people taken into custody by ice are apparently seemed
pained in the car Soro facility there. And what was
different about today was it wasn't just federal police or
local police. The California National Guard was there, as ordered
by President Trump, and so that changed the dynamics of it.
(13:55):
When you and I started talking around twelve, there were
probably one hundred people into two hundred people by one
o'clock when that incident happened. The National Guard pushed people
into the streets quite violently and quite physically and using
tear gas and flash bangs and all that to make
way for some federal vehicles to go into the garage.
There After that, the crowd ballooned to about six or
(14:18):
seven hundred people by my account, and then around two
ten somebody got on a bullhorn and said, let's go
to City Hall. And that's about the time that rally
at City Hall was scheduled. But then the LAPD showed up.
They blocked off Temple Street so people could not go
from the Federal Building to City Hall. But what was
(14:40):
happening was the rally at City Hall morphed into a march,
and so all the people who had gathered there poured
into the streets of downtown La, marched down Temple Street,
took a left onto Alameda, and made their way right
back to the Federal Building. And there was probably, you know,
a little bit of drawing there. Some I know a
(15:00):
couple of LAPD officers were injured by motorcyclists apparently, but
that ended very quickly, and now the remnants of this
is what's happening on the freeways.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, so then it makes me wonder, since we saw
kind of that peak earlier in the afternoon, we're in
a bit of a valley now as far as the
enthusiasm or the excitement around the action goes, is there
any concern that this is going to ramp back up?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Is that sun starts to get lower in the sky.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
Absolutely. The LAPD has declared a tactical alert and so
what that means is all officers are to remain on duty.
Everybody should be at the ready to go out into
the field if they are so called. That has been
the case the past couple of days as well. So
the LAPD is mobilized to respond to anything that takes place.
But it was interesting as far as the LAPD goes,
(15:50):
because I didn't see LAPD on the street on Alameda
Street at all today until that march started and they
shut down the road in its entirety for the most part,
even while the protests were pouring into the street. Graphic
was still trying to make its way through there, and
so it lent itself to that conversation about what is
(16:11):
happening with the way law enforcement is supposed to deal
with this situation. Because we saw the National Guard, they're
ready to go. We saw the federal police, they're ready
to go. But what role can LAPD play Even if
they're not going to put themselves in a position to
help execute any type of civil immigration enforcement, what are
they supposed to do when the protests against those actions
(16:34):
pour into city streets. It was all very strange to watch.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, that's gonna be some questions that I think the
talking heads at city Hall are going to have to answer.
In fact, Mayor Bass is supposed to speak. Is what
I'm saying is that she's supposed to discuss this very soon.
So we'll see what she has to say about that. Hey, Michael,
great job. You know, here's the wall and we'll check
in with you again later on on the show if
need be my friend. Otherwise, you know, grab some food,
(16:59):
maybe a a nice meatball with some Sunday gravy.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
I appreciate it, you know, you and I we passed
like ships in the night. It's the first time I've
gotten to be on the show with you. I've got
to do that. I just want to talk about Michigan.
I thought we get to talk about Michigan a little bit.
You're a Michigan guy and I love Michigan.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, yeah, we can talk.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
We can talk Michigan, we can talk Michigan football. Whatever
you want to do, We'll talk all yeah. Happy to
do all right, all right, sounds like a date. I
love it, all right, Thanks buddy, Michael Monks. Can't fire
reporter who was at all the casts as it was
unfolding earlier today, No doubt about this politically charged. You
heard Michael talking about President Trump, is he called for
(17:38):
the National Guard. The governor, the mayor did not ask
for the national Guard. They're claiming that this is inflammatory,
that this this escalated things beyond where they needed to be.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Could have been a whole lot worse.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
You know, listening to Michael speak when we had flash
bangs and we had well, I guess flash bangs yesterday,
pepper balls yesterday, tear gas today, could have been a
whole lot worse. I am seeing some flashes of smoke
going off into the air. Right now as I'm watching
some of the again I'm a monitor in the studio.
I don't know if that's I don't know if that's
from the police. It looks more like maybe it's fireworks. Okay,
(18:13):
you're seeing fireworks too well for sure?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
And then a drone I see, I see drones that
are flying overhead. I don't think that's doing a whole
lot of good. And I don't know if that's TV
that's trying to get some grown drone footage, or if
that's a YouTuber trying to get really great drone footage.
But I'm sure that probably causes some unease on the
part of the law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I know what would if I were there. Both sides
are now closed as well.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, I see law enforcement is using the Is it
the northbound side that the law enforcement is on, and
that's it looks like they're trying to sort of stage
in an effort to get people off of the southbound side.
They don't seem to be in too much of a hurry.
I think they're kind of letting the protesters tucker themselves
out to some degree, trying not to escalate things any further. Well,
we'll give an update on this. We'll watch, we'll watch
(18:56):
what's going on. We'll get some of your talkbacks as well.
If you're on the iHeart Radio app, feel ready to
give us a talk back. Just hit that little talk
back button and let us know what's going on in
your mind. Happy to hear what your thoughts on what's
happening today as well, and we'll continue with our coverage
of the protests in downtown. It's Chris Meryl CAFI AM
six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
All right, good after you.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Chris Merril KFI AM six forty more stimulating talk and
on demand anytime on the iHeart Radio App. Continuing to
monitor the situation going on downtown. Looks like, well, I
see a motorcycle that's not a ground there as I'm
watching the monitor in my studio. So the protests earlier today,
(19:42):
if we're joining us the protests earlier today at the
Federal Building Alameda and one on one basically just down
from Union Station, those got a little bit hectic a
little after one o'clock. You may have just heard the
promo that we were running with the Michael Monks I
was on the air with at the time, and I
heard that pop sound, and I gotta tell you what
(20:02):
my headphones on. It sounded like there was a sounded
like there was a gunshot, and I clinched a little.
If I'm being honest, I was, And then I got
nervous for the guy. And then he heard him start
coughing because he caught a little tear gas. As the
day went on, watching What's happening right now, though, as
things sort of dispersed, the crowds grew a couple thousand people.
I'd say, the crowd continues to grow. Now we've got well,
(20:27):
what is this? What are you Goober's doing? Okay, so
now I'm watching. Okay, the police now are trying to
get people off the freeway. So as the crowds dispersed,
they made their way to the freeway. Now the police
are firing looks like smoke bombs toward the crowd, and
then members of the crowd keep kicking the smoke bombs
(20:47):
back to the police or law enforcement I don't know.
I don't know which agency they're with, and then they
continue to kick them back into the crowd, and it
kind of looks like they're they're playing soccer.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I mean, I don't know how else to just describe it.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
The law enforcement throws the smoke bomb, the people kick
the smoke bomb back. Somebody kicks it back to the people,
the people kick it back. At one point it looked
like somebody was trying to run up and take a
penalty kick. I mean, it's honestly, it's a bit absurd,
but the police are trying now to push people off
(21:22):
the freeway. I do see officers with what appear to
be pepper guns, and I'm having trouble. I'm looking at
a split screen the monitor that I have in my studio,
and so it's tough for me to delineate which screen
is northbound on which one is southbound. Raoul, I'm not
sure what you're looking at. It looks like the police
have moved into that southbound lane where people were taking
(21:44):
up all of the road. They were really stopping all
the traffic, physically stopping the traffic that were on the
road northbound. Not so many protesters were on the actual freeway,
but authorities shut that down anyway just to keep everybody safe.
But for the most part, the protesters stayed on the
southbound side of the one on one at oh between
Los Angeles Street, Spring Street and Lameda. You heard Lucy
(22:07):
with the traffic update there in the last segment. It
does appear that they're using smoke grenades right now. I
don't know, maybe those maybe that's tear gas. I can't
smell it, you know, I'm not there, But again, that's
what the people and the officers were kicking back and forth,
almost like they were, you know, doing soccer practice.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Really bizarre situation.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
The other thing that I think is, I don't want
to say it's complicating this, but it is certainly indicative
of the age that we're in. The people on the
front of the protest lines are all carrying cameras, some
of them very high end, some of them not as
high end, But in every case they're trying to document this.
Some I believe are probably professional photographers, some are probably
(22:51):
professional journalists, and some I think are probably YouTubers. They're
on the note. Yeah, bring Lucy up if you would.
Is it the protesters on the northbound side or are
they just a police.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
In the northbounds, a police on the northbound side. It
looks like it now I'm looking at this camera shop,
the same one as you.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Probably, I don't have any idea that that it's a
helicopter that's spinning around, so I don't even know which
waves up right now.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, but I do.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Say that some protesters are engaging with the officers and
then they are tasting pavement and getting cuffs on their
on their hands real quick.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah, that looks like the northbound side to me, that's
the other way round.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah, okay, okay, good, whatever your vibe is, I'm gonna
I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Go with your vibe.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Yeah, I'm going with that vibe right now.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
That's good. That's very good.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Well, it does look like they're actually getting the protesters
off the freeway though, and it and that moved pretty quickly,
to be honest, because when we went to the commercial
break before we checked with you the last time here,
the protesters were still there. I even said it looked
like the officers were slowly making their way there and
formulating a game plan. But for the most part, they
were allowing the protesters to tire themselves out. Now it
looks like they've actually sort of boxed the protesters onto
(24:02):
the I guess it's an on ramp and trying to
walk them back up the on ramp right now.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
It's pretty clever actually peacefully, well, relatively yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Relatively peacefully.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I think the only people that are I think it's
really the pro You've got a few protesters that are
acting out, agitators, as you've heard Michael Munks call them
throughout the show, agitators who are acting out. For the
most part, though, Yeah, the police are just forming forming
a line and then slowly and closing that line, moving
it forward, and the people are slowly moving back. I
(24:35):
think there's a lot of people as I see kind
of lining the wall behind them that sort of looks
over the the on ramp. I think just a lot
of you know, my grandpa would have called them looky lose, right, Yeah,
I think they're largely there to see the spectacle. The
number of actually engaged protesters, I would say couple hundred
(24:59):
tops that are actually on the freeway or on that
that that on ramp.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah, serious protests is probably not that many.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah, and again many of those are carrying cameras and
they're they've decided they're going to get their YouTube clicks
out of it.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Exactly, yeah, exactly, right, But there's something going on right
there on the ground. I don't know whether you're looking
at the same camera shop, but there's some incident going
on right now.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I see somebody just got tag and put down in
the in the smoke, So if that is tear gas,
and again I can't see, but if that is tear gas,
then somebody who goes after the officers and then ends
up face down next to the tear gas canister is
going to have a bad day.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, that's that's not a great way to spend your
Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
They all, Yeah, that.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Looks like a highway patrol vehicle, so maybe a lot
of these officers. Again, I've had trouble distinguishing what the
agency is, but I just saw a high A.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Lot of agencies down there, aren't they?
Speaker 3 (25:54):
And what have you seen, Lucy, Yeah, I mean we've
seen National Guard was at the Federal building.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I haven't seen any National Guard on.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
The No, not in the freeway. I haven't seen them either. No,
but it's amazing the confluence of all the agencies that
are down there. I heard a report on CNN earlier
to that effect, and it's somewhat confused because of it,
it would appear to be. But right now they seem
to be clearing everything.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Well as long as lawenforcements not confused. It seems like
they seem to be coordinating actually pretty cleverly.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Now. Definitely, Yeah, they're taking someone away.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah, somebody's gonna have a bad day.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
All right, Lisia, We're gonna take our traffic with you
here in just a minute. We are trying to figure
out what the what the response is going to be
from our elected city officials, and some of you not
very happy with our elected city officials. Here you will
hear from our talk back here in just a few moments,
and the mayor is expected to speak at some point
as soon as she does, and want to be able
to take that live, so we will bring that to
(26:53):
you as soon as Mayor Bass has something to say.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Otherwise, it's a city under siege.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
I guess Mayor Basses is under from the Trump administration,
and the administration says it's under siege from people who
support illegal immigration. Hey, the only thing they take can
agree on is that there's some sort of a siege.
I just can't decide which team they're on. More on
this are continuing coverage of the protest downtown. I'm Chris
(27:18):
Merril KFI AM six forty. We're live everywhere in the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
All right, good.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Afternoon, Chris Merril KFI AM six forty. More stimulating talk. Oh,
watching the watching the gathering of protesters downtown, and I
have watched this all day long. We did a special
coverage on this starting at noon and over about one
hundred protesters and then it really got big, about five
(27:47):
hundred people by one o'clock. And then a little after
to the protests from city Hall, combined with the protests
that kept growing around the Federal building at on Alameda.
And now you've got a couple of thousand, which I
think is down a couple thousand from earlier. I'm terrible
(28:07):
at crowd estimations, but it looks to me like the
remainders are. You've got some agitators and they're still conflicting
with law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
That's there.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Law enforcement continues to push people back up the on
ramp and off of the the one to one freeway,
which was shut down earlier.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Law enforcement is.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Slowly backing them all back onto the surface streets and
the freeway doesn't look like it has any protesters left
there at all. Law enforcement continues to detain a few people,
take some people into custody. I'm gonna say that by
the end of the night, we're gonna have a couple dozen,
I don't know, maybe fifty people that will have been detained.
And honestly, this is one of those situations where even
(28:48):
if you wanted to go down and protest, you you
really had to mean it. You had to want to
get arrested to get arrested. The law enforcement was holding
off and giving everybody every opportunity to not be arrested.
They didn't want to waste their time with that. So
it really is the people who almost demanded and left
no choice that are getting arrested. That said, looking for
(29:09):
your thoughts on the talkback as always, as we do
every Sunday afternoon. If you're listening on the iHeartRadio app,
you just hit that little talkback button and let us
know what you think. Questions, comments, quips, quotes, criticism to
compliments always welcome.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
You might not like National guards on lay streets, but
this is the only way LA can be kept in peace.
It's always been like that in LA. It's a crazy
town and you need national Guards to overwhelm otherwise all
your federal buildings would be burned by this morning without
(29:46):
national Guards.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
All right, Well, just to be clear, national Guard didn't
show up until this morning, So no, that's necessarily true
that it would have all been burned.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
All right? Oh yeah, Chris, all right, riddling this. LA
County does not have its own mayor. Okay, okay, screw.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Bass, all right, screw Bass, all right, and LA County
needs its own mayor, which I think would make it
the first county in America to have their own mayor.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
All right, we are waiting.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
I think Bass is supposed to speak, but has yet
to say much of anything.
Speaker 7 (30:22):
Talk back talk about National Guard came in crowds dispersing
the undocumented immigrants aka illegal aliens. Knew they were gonna
get their asses kicked, so they bailed out and all
their buddies bailed out with them. Maybe it might come
back tonight, But the National Guard definitely helps with the
presence just by looking at a man, they are needed
(30:46):
compared to the George Floyd riots in La.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yeah, I'm gonna respectfully disagree. And the reason I say
that is that National Guard had three hundred people.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I'm seeing many, many, many, many many.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
More police officers or Sheriff's officers or highway patrolmen that
are on the scene right now. In fact, I haven't
seen any National Guards people on any of our are
monitored shots in a very long time. Because remember, the
National Guard is restricted to the federal area. That's a
jurisdictional thing. So National Guard is covering the federal I
(31:27):
guess property, So they're offering security around the federal buildings.
Once we start talking about what's in the street, which
is where everything's moved now. And as those two protests
sort of combined, as they merged about quarter after two today,
it was all on the streets and that it was
all about LAPD.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
CHP.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
I don't know if the Sheriff's department is out there,
but at that point it wasn't about the federal enforcement. Now,
I understand you wanted to see the show of might
around the federal buildings.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
That's fine, but I.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
As far as actually enforcing things, I don't know how
much the National Guard actually did. Uh, But maybe that
show of Mike was was enough of a deterrent to
keep a number of people away from the federal building
to begin with. I don't know we can argue about
that until the cows come home. We'll never know because
that would be you know, it didn't happen.
Speaker 8 (32:19):
All right, go on, We're going on three days of
protests and chaos in downtown Los Angeles. Now, Mayor Bass,
Karen Bass can't get this under control. She needs to
get the hell out of office. In fact, she should
have never got elected. She can't handle herself. Even wiping
her own butt on the toilet.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Uh, can we get confirmation on that?
Speaker 4 (32:43):
I don't know how we know that information.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Well, Calen, that's up to you to find out as about.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
It, I want you to find out all right, Well,
I guess I'll email the.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Mayor see if you can get down to that press
conference and just put a microphone in there and say,
Mayor care to address the rumors that you can't wipe
your own push?
Speaker 8 (32:59):
First off, even wiping her own butt on the toilet?
Speaker 5 (33:02):
Ye?
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Like, but I'm gonna say wiping your but can he
wipe your butt on the toilet? Yes? He had aggressive? Yeah,
very good.
Speaker 8 (33:08):
Yeah, Karen Bass needs to get out of office leave now.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
So one of the issues that I have when we
talk about the political aspect is I'm gonna go out
on a limb and guess that that that.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
This caller who's upset with Karen Bass.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
And I'm not certainly not disagreeing with him or feel
like he's wrong, but was he ever a Karen Bass fan?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
It's like one of the one of the issues with
our biases nowadays, and it's always been there's a confirmation bias.
It's always been there, but it seems to be exacerbated
because of the I'm gonna call it social media.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I'm gonna call it the quick access.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
I'm gonna call it the instant gratification of our biases
that we're that we can seek out like opinions online,
on air, all these different places. So you kind of
go into an administration going they're going to screw it up.
I can't wait to watch Karen Bass screw it up,
and then I'm gonna be angry and my vote will
be justified because I'm gonna say she was a moron.
(34:08):
And likewise, if you voted for uh, if you voted
for Karen Bass, you go why is everybody being so
mean to Karen Bass. She's not the one that called
for the National Guard. Karen Bass is not the you
know what I mean. So all we're doing is just
expressing opinions that we've had all along, and we're just
plugging it. It's like a mad libs like Karen Bass
needs to go? Why and you go, well, it is
(34:30):
it today that I don't like about protests?
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Karen Bass needs to go? Why protests? Right? Karen Bass
is terrible? And why is it fires right now?
Speaker 3 (34:43):
I think she's been disastrous when it comes to a
number of different issues.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
I didn't vote for her either.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
But also it's like I always have to be cautious
when I hear people say, well this is this just
shows you how terrible she is. Like you know you
were always going to say she was terrible. I mean,
Karen baskets save a box full of puppies on.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
The side of the freeway. Sheean. Now you want to
take her, you would say, is she speaking? Well, right,
let's take her life.
Speaker 9 (35:14):
I want to play into the administration's hands. We're working
with officials, we're organizing resources, but what we're seeing in
Los Angeles is chaos. That is provoked by the administration.
When you raid home depot and workplaces, when you tear
parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans
through our streets, you cause fear and you cost panic,
(35:38):
and deploying federalized troops is a dangerous escalation. But we
need to be real about this. This is about another agenda.
It's not about public safety. There's clearly no plan and
there is clearly no policy. I want the people of
Los Angeles to know that we stand with all Angelinos,
(35:58):
no matter where you were born. The First Amendment right
gives you the ability again to protest peacefully, but it
does not give you the right to be violent, to
create chaos, or to vandalize property, and that will not
be tolerated. So I call on all Angelinos to continue
expressing your right, your anger, your outrage, but to do
(36:21):
it peacefully. And I just have to say that all
of you were there Friday. Everybody knows what happened Friday.
A workplace. Several workplaces were targeted and raids took place. Now,
in the beginning, the administration said they were just looking
for dangerous felons, violent people. It's hard to say that
that's what they found at a workplace, are in a
(36:44):
home depot, parking lot. When this happens, it terrifies people.
It sends a sense of fear and chaos in our city.
And you well remember a few years ago in the
last administration that kids were afraid to go to school,
parents were afraid to go to work. This impacts all
of our city. You can't terrify the workplace work for
(37:08):
and then expect for people to get the jobs done.
So if you think about a father that went into
a factory and now his family doesn't know where he is.
The detainees have not been allowed to speak to legal counsel.
That is a market departure from what has happened in
the past.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
When you think ad two Los Angeles, Orange County.
Speaker 9 (37:30):
Children on another side of town, that impacts that family
as well as her family. And so this is something
that I think should not be happening in our city.
And I join with the governor and appealing to the
administration to ressind the order to federalize the National Guard
and allow the National Guard to come back under the
(37:51):
control of the governor. So with that we can open
it up for questions, yes, protests, that were demonstrations I
should say, did start off peforele been here since right
in the morning, but then it's they scattered.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
And there moved right.
Speaker 9 (38:10):
Where is the LAPD in terms of being here to
be able to deal with that and maybe stop.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Them before they able to roll?
Speaker 9 (38:17):
Sure, well, I think that basically they were overrun. But
what is happening now is that the freeway is cleared.
The California Highway Patrol, as you know, is in charge
of the freeways, so they have moved all of the
protesters back. They still might be there, but they are
beginning to be dispersed. But LAPD is on the perimeter,
so lap is actively involved. You know that there were
(38:39):
hundreds of protesters on the freeway and thousands of protesters
off the freeway, so there is a joint collaboration going
with the CHP, the LAPD, and then frankly the National Guard.
But you also know that the National Guard is deployed
to protect federal property, so there is a National Guard
troops in Westwood at the Federal building and also here downtown.
(39:03):
May have you reached after the federal government where they
been doing though right now with me at your no,
my disappointment. As I've been talking to the federal government
for days, I was hoping to prevent this situation from that,
You're going.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
To continue to take questions.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
That's Mayor Karen Bass who's addressing the protests that have
gone on today. The roads being blocked up. One on
one was shut down, continues to be shut down. However,
the protesters that were on one on one seem to
be back completely, back up off the freeway and onto
the surface streets. We'll continue with coverage and get a
few more of your thoughts as we uh focus in
on the protests that have gone on downtown today, the
(39:43):
third day of protests for people who are protesting ice
and in the immigration crackdown that's happening around Los Angeles
and the rest of the country. To be honest, Chris
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