Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We've got another hour together on this Mother's Day week,
and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.
A couple of guys who did not treat their mom
well are a little closer to freedom. Big hearing this
coming week. Lyle and Eric Menndez. You may remember they
(00:27):
blasted their mother and father with shotguns back in nineteen
eighty nine in their home in Beverly Hills, and they've
been in prison for decades. But they have been pushing
a few different avenues to become freemen again. The simplest
would be clemency from Governor Newsom, but that hasn't happened.
They've also asked for a new trial that's not happened yet,
despite their claims of new evidence proving they were victims
(00:48):
of sexual abuse at the hands of their father. The
third avenue is the one that has gained serious momentum.
Friday van nis A Courthouse, the La County DA's office
in the Menindez Brothers legal time they appeared over a
motion to have the DA's office remove from the case.
Defense attorney Mark Garregos has claimed DA Nathan Hawkman and
(01:08):
his crew are boised against the convicted killers and won't
give them a fair shake. Well, Garrigos and company withdrew
that motion because they are ready to get to the
resentencing hearing. They say it's now scheduled for this coming week,
but there is one possible piece of evidence to consider.
ABC's Alex Stone explains.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
In the court room, La County DA Nathan Hawkman revealed
the intel now confidential contents of a Parole Board risk
assessment that was done on the brothers on the risk
they would be to the community if they got out
of prison. The parole board report finding them to be
a moderate risk. Most of their violations were for things
like having cell phones in prison. Based on that level
of offense or Attorney Mark Garrigo says.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
The presumption is that they should be resetting.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
But the DA disagrees. It'll be argued during a two
day hearing next week.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
A Hawkman thinks this thing is important and relevant to
the proceedings. Here's what he said about it on Friday.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
He will decide that the final conclusion of whether or
not he will accept the report and it's admissible for
what purposes, what part of the report, and what weight
he will give it. We have this additional new information
coming in from the Border Parole senior psychologists that have
assessed that risk as a moderate risk, not a high risk,
(02:28):
not a low risk, but a moderate risk.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And Mark Gerrigos is optimistic that freedom is near for
Eric and Lyle.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
We have the utmost faith in Judge Jessic to do
the right thing that next Wednesday or Tuesday that they
will be re sentenced and hopefully they will then go
back to where they belong, which is where they're family
and everybody else.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
The Menindez brothers attended that hearing Friday in Van Nis
via video feed. They're still in prison obvious and San
Diego serving their life sentence. That re sentencing hearing is
set for two days Tuesday and Wednesday, and KFI will
have it covered for you. Couple other criminal news that
I would share from the week that caught my eye.
These two guys from Southgate who are now facing federal charges.
(03:17):
They're accused of committing more than a dozen armed robberies
targeting the winnings of people leaving local casinos. The names
are Juan Gonzales he's twenty two, and Derek Lopez, he's
twenty one. They've been charged in federal court with multiple
counts of interference and attempted interference with commerce by robbery
that's known as a Hobbes Act crime, and Lopez is
(03:40):
also charged with account of being a felon in possession
of firearms and ammunition. This is what this indictment says
about these guys who were targeting lucky people who suddenly
became unlucky as soon as they left the casino. Lopez
and Gonzales would go into these casinos under fake names
and would hunt down gamblers who appeared to be winning
(04:00):
or cashing in a large number of chips. So Lopez,
Gonzales and some others would follow these victims' cars from
the casino and ambush them on the highway, pull out
their guns, smash the car windows, and demand the money
or the chips, and then run off. The US Attorney's
(04:24):
Office says Lopez, Gonzalas and their associates allegedly robbed or
attempted to rob individuals leaving casinos on at least fifteen occasions,
including three and one night before one of those incidents,
Lopez is seen on a casino surveillance video celebrating a
gambling victory with a victim he was scouting, including high
(04:46):
fiving the victim after that win, and then within an hour,
he and his co conspirators had allegedly blocked her car,
pulled out guns, and stole twenty one thousand dollars in cash.
Then there was another time, I'm Lopez, Gonzales and their
crew stole at least one hundred and thirty thousand dollars
in casino winnings. They say. Lopez is also charged with
(05:09):
being a felon in position of three firearms and over
thirty rounds of ammunition found at his home in December
of twenty twenty three. He's not legally permitted to possess
a firearm or ammunition because his criminal history includes a
conviction in San Bernardino Superior Court for grand theft back
in November of twenty three. If convicted, they face up
to life in federal prison. My goodness, what a scam
(05:32):
that was. But another scam that caught my eye this
week involved a yacht and a house and an old
man who lost them both. A guy from Hawaii pleaded
guilty in federal court to scamming an elderly man in
Irvine out of one point eight million dollars. John McCabe
(05:52):
of Hawaii, by the way, pleaded guilty to account of
wire fraud. And here's what they say he did, and
now he has admitted to doing. This guy McCabe says
he would help this seventy eight year old man sell
a yacht, but instead McCabe falsified documents to transfer the
ownership of that boat to himself, and he then pocketed
(06:14):
the profits and spent the money on himself. But it
gets worse because McCabe also persuaded this seventy eight year
old man to transfer his one million dollar house in
Irvine to a company that is controlled by guess who,
mister McCabe. The scam was apparently McCabe telling this guy, look,
(06:39):
it would pay off in tax benefits if you just
transfer ownership of your one million dollar house to a
company which, by the way, I control. So what happened
next was McCabe took out a million dollars in loans
on that house. What does that mean? All the equity
in that house is now gone, and then McCabe naturally
(07:01):
defaulted on the loans. The house had to be sold
in foreclosure. That's seventy eight year old man homeless. The
total loss added up to one point eight million dollars
according to prosecutors. I mean, you really just can't leave
the house anymore. But coming up next, there's somebody fighting
(07:24):
back against crime, even if he feels like he's not
getting help from police or investigators. You've heard stories about
these roving gangs of teenagers on bikes terrorizing stores, ripping
off stores, beating people up. Well, it happened at a
Ralph store in South LA and they attacked a couple
outside this store after robbing some products from the store,
including booze. This guy's had enough. He's launched a website
(07:48):
and he is joining us next to talk about why
he is fed up with these kids on these bikes
running around town on check. That's up next when Michael
Monks Reports continues Here on KFI A six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you for the rest of the hour. Play
(08:25):
that's the sound of a gay couple in South la
after their car was surrounded and attacked by a group
of teenagers on bikes. The kids apparently robbed liquor from
the raff store nearby and then crowded Ryan Benson and
his husband as they were trying to leave. It escalates
from there. Now Benson is seeking justice. He's created labike
(08:45):
Teens dot Com, trying to hold these roving bike gangs
accountable after many reports of attacks and robberies all over
the city. He joins us now to talk about it. Hey, Ryan,
thanks so much for taking some time to chat with us.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I mean that was a pretty jarring scene that I
saw on your social media, on your TikTok. Tell us
exactly where you were and what happened.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (09:07):
So I was at the Ralphs at Vermont and Adams,
just picking up some flowers for a video. So interesting
to just go get some flowers. I didn't think that
I was going to come across a group of teens
like I think they call it flash mob robbery.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
What they did at Ralph's.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
They came in, they stole a bunch of buzzballs, and
then they pepper sprayed back into the store. They got
in some kind of argument with the staff or with
someone at the door. Everyone inside started coughing, and when
we went to try to get in our car and
get out of there, they created another incident in the
parking lot where they started to attack me and my husband.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Okay, well, let's start with the ralph situation, because I mean,
there was a lot going on in this video. It
seems like multiple crimes were committed. First of all, how
many teens are we talking about on these bikes?
Speaker 6 (09:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (09:58):
I think the number that I ca hearing from related
incidents was thirty to forty.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
I would say that this incident, at least in.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
The parking lot, maybe not all involved, but resent fifty
sixty Wow, So yeah, quite a few teens on bikes.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Okay, So if I'm seeing fifty to sixty kids on bike,
maybe because I'm old now, I don't know, but I'm
starting to get nervous. I'm thinking something is up. When
did you get the sense that maybe seeing that many
kids convened in sort of an unauthorized way was probably trouble.
Speaker 7 (10:30):
Immediately because I didn't see them until they were stealing
from the store.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Okay, so all these kids make their way into the
store or just like part of the group. Did They
seem to have some sort of modus operandi where there
were some kids were left outside, some went in do
the deed.
Speaker 7 (10:45):
Yeah, well, so I noticed because I was I was
near the door, and I saw like ten fifteen of
them running out out of the door with their shirts
full of buzzballs. And so I saw like a small
group of teens stealing at first, and then I noticed
they were way more outside of the doors, just watching.
So yeah, there was a group inside doing things, and
(11:06):
then a larger group outside just doing nothing.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
We've said buzzballs a couple of time, just for the
sake of the audience, Why don't we say what that is?
Obviously I'm very cool in hip and know all the terms,
but I'll let you explain what a buzz ball is.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Yeah, I mean, I've never had one.
Speaker 7 (11:21):
I just know that it's like a bottom shelf type
alcohol drink in an orb that's like an orb shape.
They're very popular among these kids. This is not the
first time they've stolen them okay. So it's something that
you can drink quickly and maybe get a quick buzz from.
And these kids don't look like they're old enough to
buy alcohol much less consuming. Tell us about the chaos
(11:43):
inside the raups when everything started going down.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
Yeah, so we were.
Speaker 7 (11:49):
Checking out and we started to hear someone yell, oh,
they're stealing, they're stealing. So the whole store turns toward
and at this Ralph, the checkout lanes are right by
the exit, so we're right by this whatever's happening. All
of the yelling and the running that we hear, and.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
Like we hear a commotion. I didn't really see it.
Speaker 7 (12:06):
Later I was told that there was an incident where
they started like it was a verbal fight between one
of the kids and a customer that they had left
and then came back and decided that they were going
to fight them.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
I didn't know.
Speaker 7 (12:18):
That that's what happened was happening. I just saw pepper spray.
I heard yelling. The security was involved. People were screaming,
locked the doors, lock the doors. It was pretty chaotic.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So the pepper spray did that come from security or
the teens?
Speaker 7 (12:30):
Unclear, but it sounds like it came from the teens
because it I don't think that a ralph security guard
would have deployed that inside the store when he was
right next to the door.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
I think he would have gone outside. I'm pretty sure
it was.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
Deployed into the store because people were coughing, hiding their faces,
they were sneezing. It was pretty recklessly deployed.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
But it gets worse for you because you complete a
transaction at Ralph's and leave and what do you see
outside as you're heading to your car. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:01):
So also, at least important for me to know or
to say, is that I was at Ralph's grabbing things
for a video I needed to shoot, so I needed
to go home. So I go to my car where
they are all they're pretty much in the entrance area
of the parking lot. They're blocking traffic in the parking lot.
They're blocking entrance an extra exit out of the parking lot.
Speaker 6 (13:22):
They were behind our car, and so I noticed that.
Speaker 7 (13:25):
Once we got in and I turned my review or
reverse camera on, I could see like, oh, there's kids there.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
I can't move.
Speaker 7 (13:31):
So I honked to get them out of the way,
and they did not like that. They were pretty already
unhappy with me, and so they were yelling stuff at
us as we were just trying to leave, and that's
when we started to hear like, oh, they're not just
upset of O the parking spot. They're yelling homophobic slurs
at us.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Okay, did they surround your car prevent you from leaving? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (13:51):
So they got We were pulled nose into a spot
and they were behind the car, so we honked, they moved,
we pulled out, and then they were in.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
Front of the car.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
We were like, okay, you're still in the way, like move,
and that's when we started to hear them yell homophobic slurs,
which we were just not interested in being called out
like that in our grocery store parking lot.
Speaker 6 (14:13):
So we said, yeah, we are, like, do you have
a problem with that? They did. They screamed loud enough
that all of.
Speaker 7 (14:18):
Their other friends heard, and then within seconds they were kicking, hitting,
punching the car, throwing their body at it, throwing bottles, rocks.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
It was insane. It was watching a hive mind takeover.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Okay, so now they're damaging your car. Now, did you
at any point feel fear beyond the anger?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (14:36):
I mean immediately, I was like, there is a child
throwing themselves out my car.
Speaker 6 (14:40):
This is insane, Like they just just started this.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, I mean it's one thing, Like I mean to
be a grown man and maybe you get harassed by
a teen Like if this comes to blows, I'm probably
gonna win this fight. I hope it doesn't happen, but like,
I can handle this, But you're talking about dozens of kids.
I definitely want to talk about the experience with the police.
But let's talk about how you handled the situation. And
you weren't alone. You were with a partner or a spouse. Yeah, okay,
(15:07):
you were with your spouse. And did you ever get
out of the car to try to run these kids off.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
Yeah, we both got out of the car and they
scrambled pretty quickly.
Speaker 7 (15:18):
So we also, we know of these groups of kids
we live around the area. We've had them take over
the street in front of us before. We've had them
drive their bike way too close to our car and
scare us before. So when we saw them, we were like, okay,
we need to just get them away from us. So
we did get out of the car and we did
initially scare them off.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
So they did run away when you got out of
the car. That's interesting because there was so many of
them and they were so tough when you were in
the car, but they did flee after you stepped out
of the car.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
Well, yeah, so when we first opened our doors, they
did run away. They waited until we turned our backs
to then throw more things at us. So there was
a time when I was walking back to the car
that I felt a glass bottle shatter behind me and
hit my back and leggs. So there it was very uh,
which which follows with these stories that you see they
kick a man while they're down. These kids aren't necessarily
(16:09):
equipped to take down people in in an extremely aggressive
or violent way, but they do take advantage of you
turning your back. They take advantage of you trying to
defend yourself and strike in those moments, which is sickening.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I know you got the police involved. I know you're
not thrilled with the response. I also know that you
have started a campaign to find these teenagers. You are
not the only victim of this type of situation. We're
going to talk about that next stick around. Teen BikeE
gangs terrorizing la on KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Kf I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monk's Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you. To lead into this hour, we've been
talking about the teen bike gangs assaulting people, robbing stores.
Guy who was a victim wants to stop it. He
started a website to track them down labike Teens dot com.
We continue now with Ryan Benson. Okay, Ryan, when last
(17:09):
we left you, you had managed to scare off the kids,
but obviously you witnessed a crime take place inside the
grocery store with the theft of that alcohol. You may
have seen an assault take place with the pepper spray
deployed and the security being involved. And then you yourself
became a victim of a crime directly when these kids
surrounded your car, would not let you leave until you
(17:32):
stepped out of the car and somehow managed to scare
them off. What happened next? You call the police?
Speaker 7 (17:37):
Yeah, police actually encouraged us to go home and file
a report if we weren't willing to go back to
the scene where it happened.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
What is wait? Wait, wait wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
what do you mean did you call the police from
the grocery store?
Speaker 6 (17:51):
Yeah, so we called the police.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Right.
Speaker 7 (17:53):
So, we had driven off and pulled into a neighborhood
behind the store because I had pepper spray in my
eyes and I could no longer drive the car. So
we called from the neighborhood behind the store. We said,
this just happened. They robbed the store, they assaulted us,
they damaged our car. There was a helicopter above, so
we know that they were tracking the situation. They told
(18:14):
us that unless we were willing to go back to
the Ralphs for an in person report, we needed to
just make an online report for what happened.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
There was an LAPD helicopter above.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Correct. Okay, so I back to the scene. There were.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
Four University of USC public safety cars and one laped cruiser.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Did it look like any activity, any investigation, any arrest
were taking place.
Speaker 7 (18:39):
They did not seem that they had overlapped with the
teams at all.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
They knew where they were.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
They knew that they had gone down to Figueroa and
gotten on the freeway, which is confirmed by many of
the videos that these teens, the kids on the bikes
got on the freeway, correct, Yeah, they take over the
streets and the freeway regularly.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Okay. Is that something that you got from the police
that they are where, that these little roving teen bite
gangs are basically harassing people and blocking traffic all over town.
Speaker 7 (19:07):
Yeah, and it was said in nice terms, but I
know my husband was pretty upset because again, we know
that these kids do this. He straight up told an
officer like, hey, it's looking like these kids own you
right now. The officer laughed and said.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, let's talk about the internet then, because I know
we'll get back to the police response. You're still not
happy about it, but you're not the only one who
had video of this incident. I know you went to
Rouse sad day to get some props for a video.
You ended up getting a much more engaging video, perhaps
because of what went down.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
I think that this was the kind of video that
I'd be capturing today. It was supposed to be about flowers,
not necessarily like the vandalism to my car.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
But yes, it's la. Everything's an opportunity to create some
engaging content, even if you're the victim of it. But okay,
so you got a video of it, but so did
they They're so brazen. Not only are they doing this
in broad daylight, in front of security, in front of
crown of people, they are also creating social content out
of this. What did you find online?
Speaker 6 (20:05):
It's truly sickening.
Speaker 7 (20:07):
These kids make it a goal, a priority that when
they are on these outward, these these they call them rideouts,
their bike rideouts, when they're out riding their bikes with
their friends, they say no stealing, don't do anything stupid.
But there are a small group of these teams that
make it a priority to do something stupid, to steal
something so that they can get a good video clip,
and then they put it at the beginning of their
(20:28):
video of them doing bike tricks for their next Instagram post.
Speaker 6 (20:33):
So, like, as I've been.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
Looking into these teams, there's videos of them beating people
in the street used as a hook for you to
watch them do tricks on a bike.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Okay, so it's sort of a trick where you put
in the first frame something that's interesting, a fight, and
you want to know what's going on, and then after
you've seen a quick clip of the fight, then they're
just doing basic bike tricks.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
Yeah, and the fight is like them at usc assaulting
a security guard, or beating up a homeless person behind
some eleven, or beating up the seven eleven employee at
the front of the store.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
Like it's not good.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, we've seen these reports. We've had these reports in
our own newsroom about these bike gangs have gone into
seven elevens, for example, and created absolute havoc. Now, this
is a group that is brazen enough to do this
in the daylight to post online. But even leaving a
trail of evidence, volunteering all of this evidence hasn't led
(21:27):
to satisfaction for you specifically. I mean, how we're what
a couple of weeks removed from this incident, and have
you heard anything from the police?
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Yeah, I have not heard anything from the police.
Speaker 7 (21:39):
I had a detective reach out after I called the
mayor's office, and the mayor reached out to the LAPD,
who contacted a lieutenant who assigned one of his detectives
to call me back.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
So it was a very engineered.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
Process with the help of the mayor's office, which I'm
thankful for. But it's a bummer that I have to
reach out to the mayor's office to get a response
from the LAPD. They have not told me anything, but
I have offered them names, names, Instagram profiles, screen recordings
of everything that I've seen.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
I've given them the schools that they go to.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Oh you've done, You've done. You are the detective now?
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (22:13):
Yeah, no, And I know that these have led to
at least one interaction with police. They told me this,
but the kids post about it themselves when they get
in trouble, so they let the whole world know.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Have you had any direct interaction with these kids since Yeah.
Speaker 7 (22:26):
One of them, the kid who threw his body at
the car first in the attack, actually messaged me on
Instagram and say, I stay bashing on you f slur.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Oh.
Speaker 7 (22:36):
So they've doubled out on what they did and made
it clear that it was pretty hate motivated, which is
really unfortunate that there's teenagers out there doing this.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
To anyone and there's no consequences for it, and they
believe that there won't be a lot of their friends
are commenting LAPD isn't going to do anything. You know,
the LAPED is hiring. It sounds like you're a pretty
good detective. They could use you. But not only have
you found the kids and provided information to the detectives.
You've started a website, tell us what it is.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
Yeah, so I started a website because these crimes are linked.
There's more than fifteen of them. Some of them they're
robbing the same seven eleven the next day and then
they've posted a video of it and you can see them.
Their outfits match, their bikes match. So I started gathering
the photos at least from the incident that I experienced
and the other incidents that happen on the same day.
It's La Bike Teams dot com. If you're able to
(23:29):
spare that. I know that there's some sensitivity around these
children's age. I don't think that exempts them from the
actions that they've demonstrated. I've been trying to identify anyone
that was involved in the attack on me, the attack
on Ralphs, and then earlier they also robbed at seven
eleven just before.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Have you heard from other victims since launching this site.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
I have, and it's what's very unfortunate about that is
that there are many There are many who never filed
anything because they've gotten threats from the kids themselves afterwards
for speaking out. What's unfortunate too, is that there's a
large spread of these events because they happen sometimes in
Culver City, they happen in South LA, they happen in
(24:11):
Long Beach, they happen in Huntington Beach.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
A lot of times they're the same kids.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Though labike Teens dot Com you'll see more about Ryan's
story there. You can also provide tips if you recognize
any of these accused little culprits who last ripped off
of Ralph, stealing buzzballs and then surrounding Ryan and his
husband in their car not letting them leave. A lot
of violence these guys are engaging in, and so if
you've got information provided to the police and maybe the
(24:37):
police will eventually do something about it. Ryan, thank you
so much for taking the time to share this with us.
Good luck in your detective quest. I hope some justice
is brought to.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
You me too, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
President Trump's next tariff target, Hollywood. How's that going to work?
That's next? On Michael Monk's Reports here on KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
You're listening to KFI on demand k I AM.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This is
Michael Monks reports, I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. In
our last few moments together, let's talk about the President
and his new idea about tariffs and Hollywood. Hollywood doesn't
do very much of that business.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
To have the nice sign and everything's good, but they
don't do very much.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
A lot of it's been taken to other countries. So
it looks like the White House and its unpredictable tariff
policy is now pointed towards Hollywood and the film industry.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Are there nations, a lot of them.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
I've stulen on movie industry, and I'm saying, if they're
not willing to make a movie inside the United States
and we should have a tariff, one movie.
Speaker 7 (25:43):
Should come in.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Democratic Congressman Ted Lew who represents LA of the West
Side and some coastal cities. He says the idea was surprising.
Speaker 6 (25:50):
No one in Hollywood was asking four hundred percent tariff.
It just seems like another random idea that he put
out there.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
It apparently wasn't entirely random. Actor John Voight, the president
and special envoy to Hollywood, reportedly pitched this idea that
this would help the industry these tariffs. Ellie Mayor Bass.
She disagrees. She tells Fox eleven's Alex Michaelson, she spoke
with John Voyd.
Speaker 6 (26:12):
You met with him right.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
I had lunch with him last week.
Speaker 8 (26:14):
It was a wonderful meeting and talking about what we
can do to improve and save our industry. This is
one of our foundational industries. Now, I've not talked to
him since the President came out with this potential new proposal,
but I tell you I will be reaching out to
him to say, please call your friend, because we don't
want to put a tax on US companies who film
(26:37):
overseas for a variety of reasons.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
The city has already tried a couple things. The state
is also moving on some things. So let's get that
perspective and reaction from the film industry. Kfi's Heather Brooker
is with us now, Hello Heather.
Speaker 9 (26:51):
Hello.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
So I know that the industry itself was probably caught
off guard by this announcement from President Trump. At ay,
we're gonna put tariffs on movies made overseas, because, Holly,
what's a big industry. Of course, there's a call to
have movies made in LA again, but these same companies
do make movies overseas, So what are they saying.
Speaker 9 (27:12):
They do make them overseas, and they make them for
a pretty good price. That's why they originally went overseas
in the first place. They're saving millions, tens of millions,
sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars by going to other
countries to make these big budget films. So I think
the overall feeling is a little bit of shock and
confusion to most tariffs, and you know, which is what
(27:35):
President Trump is proposing here is one hundred percent tariff
on movies made outside of the United States. There's so
many questions that come here, what are we putting tariffs
on the physical film itself, the equipment that's being used overseas,
on the actors, Like, because the film industry is not
a goods it's not an item that you can put
(27:56):
a tariff on. It is a service.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
So they're not pulling up at the port of Long
Beach with a bunch of.
Speaker 9 (28:02):
Run and pulling off, you know, taking movies off of
the boat. Like it's hard to quantify and narrow it down.
So I think the general consensus is that people are
confused as to how this would work.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
But these are corporations also, and yes, scenery and I
guess honest storytelling, perhaps authentic storytelling is a motivator for
a creative time. But these companies are looking at the
bottom line, how much can we make off of this movie?
How much do we have to put into it in
order to make that amount? And so the main driver
for going not just outside of California to other states
(28:37):
but all around the world, it's because they're getting tax breaks.
Speaker 9 (28:40):
It's money. I mean, listen, Hollywood is a business. They
don't call it show story or show creativity. It's show business.
And at its core, it's about the bottom line. Are
these studios going to make their money back? Are they
going to make above and beyond their money back to
make their investors happy and their boards happy, and you
know all of that. So they're looking at how much
(29:02):
money they're going to say, no matter where they're filming.
So in theory, this is a great idea, and I
think what happened is people started saying, how are we
going to make this happen in practice? So Governor k
Newso responded because you know, California is dealing with its
own issues right now with trying to bring filming back
into the state of California, and he immediately called the President,
(29:23):
reached out to the White House and said, Okay, you
want to put tariffs on movies, why don't we actually
create a tax credit seven and a half billion dollar
tax credit from the federal government to encourage filmmakers to
come back nationwide. And as far as I know, the
last time I checked, the White House had not responded
to that call from Governor Newsom. So here we are,
(29:46):
it's this back and forth of what are we going
to do? You know, the state of California itself is
still working towards its own film and tax TV credit,
film and TV tax credit to bring filmmakers back into California.
It is moving its way through the lawmakers and the
legislature here in California.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So those seem to be the policies that are responsive
to what the industry is saying. We've seen it at
the city level. They've talked to Hollywood folks. I mean,
Hollywood is in the city of Los Angeles geographically, obviously,
the industry itself has spread out much further in the region.
But they are saying the industry says they need tax breaks,
they need tax breaks they need tax breaks, and more
than anything, we need to make sure that not just
(30:24):
big time actors are protected, all of the workers, that's
the fourth this industry.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Are also protectors.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
So I can't imagine that. I guess I forget sometimes
and maybe a lot of us forget. Donald Trump is
branded as a business guy. Sure, yeah, but really he's
a Hollywood guy. I mean, he's been a celebrity for
a long time and in this century. I mean it's
not the nineteen eighties, it's not the nineteen nineties. In
(30:50):
this century. He made his fortune in Hollywood with NBC's
The Apprentice. Yes, yeah, so I mean what type of
relationship can Hollywood expect with them? They made this guy, they.
Speaker 9 (31:04):
Did, they made an iteration of who he is now
and what we see today. For sure, I think he's
also still very heavily influenced by Hollywood, and I think
he genuinely wants to still be loved by Hollywood. And
that's why he's assembled this sort of Hollywood posse around
him of people he's reaching out to and asking for
advice on what to do. And it's also why he's
(31:28):
talking about with his tariffs. He said, you know, everybody
is going to get tariffs on movies except the James
Bond movie because he's a big fan of the James
Bond movie, so they will not be impacted by But.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Why did you see that? And there was an article
about that. Yes, it seemed a little odd, but he
loved Sean Connery as James Bond. And he says when
he was putting his golf course in Scotland, he was
having a hard time with zoning and Sean Connery apparently
made a couple of calls and got.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
That just helped him.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Isn't that crazy? He is so transactional.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
He is.
Speaker 9 (32:00):
But I think ultimately he sees himself as a star.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Yeah, he does, no question.
Speaker 9 (32:06):
He wants that star treatment and he wants to be
the hero I think of.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
The Hollywood story.
Speaker 9 (32:12):
So I don't know if he's going to respond to
this call for a federal film and tax credit. I
think he's making these terriff proposition to make it seem
like he is trying to help and trying to save Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
I thought it would be curious because just to stereotype
people by industry, you don't think of Hollywood as a
bastion of Trump is. But if President Trump were able
to do whatever it is that eventually saves the film
industry and restores it. Boy, wouldn't that put those folks
in an awkward essential.
Speaker 9 (32:41):
I think certain people might, you know, eat.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
A little crow, eat a little crow.
Speaker 9 (32:45):
I don't know if they'd admit it, but it would
certainly be awkward.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Well, we shall see. The show must go on. Heather
Brooker from KFI News, Thanks so much for being with us, Michael,
but this show is finished. I'm grateful for the time
you gave today. Hope you're also taking some time for
the moms in your life and wishing them the best
Mother's Day. I certainly do. This has been Michael Monks's reports.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. Catch me doing the
(33:10):
news here every day and tune in every Saturday night
at seven for another edition of this show, or find
it on the iHeartRadio app. We'll talk again soon. Thanks
for joining us here at KFI AM six forty
Speaker 1 (33:23):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We've got another hour together on this Mother's Day week,
and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.
A couple of guys who did not treat their mom
well are a little closer to freedom. Big hearing this
coming week. Lyle and Eric Menndez. You may remember they
(00:27):
blasted their mother and father with shotguns back in nineteen
eighty nine in their home in Beverly Hills, and they've
been in prison for decades. But they have been pushing
a few different avenues to become freemen again. The simplest
would be clemency from Governor Newsom, but that hasn't happened.
They've also asked for a new trial that's not happened yet,
despite their claims of new evidence proving they were victims
(00:48):
of sexual abuse at the hands of their father. The
third avenue is the one that has gained serious momentum.
Friday van nis A Courthouse, the La County DA's office
in the Menindez Brothers legal time they appeared over a
motion to have the DA's office remove from the case.
Defense attorney Mark Garregos has claimed DA Nathan Hawkman and
(01:08):
his crew are boised against the convicted killers and won't
give them a fair shake. Well, Garrigos and company withdrew
that motion because they are ready to get to the
resentencing hearing. They say it's now scheduled for this coming week,
but there is one possible piece of evidence to consider.
ABC's Alex Stone explains.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
In the court room, La County DA Nathan Hawkman revealed
the intel now confidential contents of a Parole Board risk
assessment that was done on the brothers on the risk
they would be to the community if they got out
of prison. The parole board report finding them to be
a moderate risk. Most of their violations were for things
like having cell phones in prison. Based on that level
of offense or Attorney Mark Garrigo says.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
The presumption is that they should be resetting.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
But the DA disagrees. It'll be argued during a two
day hearing next week.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
A Hawkman thinks this thing is important and relevant to
the proceedings. Here's what he said about it on Friday.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
He will decide that the final conclusion of whether or
not he will accept the report and it's admissible for
what purposes, what part of the report, and what weight
he will give it. We have this additional new information
coming in from the Border Parole senior psychologists that have
assessed that risk as a moderate risk, not a high risk,
(02:28):
not a low risk, but a moderate risk.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And Mark Gerrigos is optimistic that freedom is near for
Eric and Lyle.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
We have the utmost faith in Judge Jessic to do
the right thing that next Wednesday or Tuesday that they
will be re sentenced and hopefully they will then go
back to where they belong, which is where they're family
and everybody else.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
The Menindez brothers attended that hearing Friday in Van Nis
via video feed. They're still in prison obvious and San
Diego serving their life sentence. That re sentencing hearing is
set for two days Tuesday and Wednesday, and KFI will
have it covered for you. Couple other criminal news that
I would share from the week that caught my eye.
These two guys from Southgate who are now facing federal charges.
(03:17):
They're accused of committing more than a dozen armed robberies
targeting the winnings of people leaving local casinos. The names
are Juan Gonzales he's twenty two, and Derek Lopez, he's
twenty one. They've been charged in federal court with multiple
counts of interference and attempted interference with commerce by robbery
that's known as a Hobbes Act crime, and Lopez is
(03:40):
also charged with account of being a felon in possession
of firearms and ammunition. This is what this indictment says
about these guys who were targeting lucky people who suddenly
became unlucky as soon as they left the casino. Lopez
and Gonzales would go into these casinos under fake names
and would hunt down gamblers who appeared to be winning
(04:00):
or cashing in a large number of chips. So Lopez,
Gonzales and some others would follow these victims' cars from
the casino and ambush them on the highway, pull out
their guns, smash the car windows, and demand the money
or the chips, and then run off. The US Attorney's
(04:24):
Office says Lopez, Gonzalas and their associates allegedly robbed or
attempted to rob individuals leaving casinos on at least fifteen occasions,
including three and one night before one of those incidents,
Lopez is seen on a casino surveillance video celebrating a
gambling victory with a victim he was scouting, including high
(04:46):
fiving the victim after that win, and then within an hour,
he and his co conspirators had allegedly blocked her car,
pulled out guns, and stole twenty one thousand dollars in cash.
Then there was another time, I'm Lopez, Gonzales and their
crew stole at least one hundred and thirty thousand dollars
in casino winnings. They say. Lopez is also charged with
(05:09):
being a felon in position of three firearms and over
thirty rounds of ammunition found at his home in December
of twenty twenty three. He's not legally permitted to possess
a firearm or ammunition because his criminal history includes a
conviction in San Bernardino Superior Court for grand theft back
in November of twenty three. If convicted, they face up
to life in federal prison. My goodness, what a scam
(05:32):
that was. But another scam that caught my eye this
week involved a yacht and a house and an old
man who lost them both. A guy from Hawaii pleaded
guilty in federal court to scamming an elderly man in
Irvine out of one point eight million dollars. John McCabe
(05:52):
of Hawaii, by the way, pleaded guilty to account of
wire fraud. And here's what they say he did, and
now he has admitted to doing. This guy McCabe says
he would help this seventy eight year old man sell
a yacht, but instead McCabe falsified documents to transfer the
ownership of that boat to himself, and he then pocketed
(06:14):
the profits and spent the money on himself. But it
gets worse because McCabe also persuaded this seventy eight year
old man to transfer his one million dollar house in
Irvine to a company that is controlled by guess who,
mister McCabe. The scam was apparently McCabe telling this guy, look,
(06:39):
it would pay off in tax benefits if you just
transfer ownership of your one million dollar house to a
company which, by the way, I control. So what happened
next was McCabe took out a million dollars in loans
on that house. What does that mean? All the equity
in that house is now gone, and then McCabe naturally
(07:01):
defaulted on the loans. The house had to be sold
in foreclosure. That's seventy eight year old man homeless. The
total loss added up to one point eight million dollars
according to prosecutors. I mean, you really just can't leave
the house anymore. But coming up next, there's somebody fighting
(07:24):
back against crime, even if he feels like he's not
getting help from police or investigators. You've heard stories about
these roving gangs of teenagers on bikes terrorizing stores, ripping
off stores, beating people up. Well, it happened at a
Ralph store in South LA and they attacked a couple
outside this store after robbing some products from the store,
including booze. This guy's had enough. He's launched a website
(07:48):
and he is joining us next to talk about why
he is fed up with these kids on these bikes
running around town on check. That's up next when Michael
Monks Reports continues Here on KFI A six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you for the rest of the hour. Play
(08:25):
that's the sound of a gay couple in South la
after their car was surrounded and attacked by a group
of teenagers on bikes. The kids apparently robbed liquor from
the raff store nearby and then crowded Ryan Benson and
his husband as they were trying to leave. It escalates
from there. Now Benson is seeking justice. He's created labike
(08:45):
Teens dot Com, trying to hold these roving bike gangs
accountable after many reports of attacks and robberies all over
the city. He joins us now to talk about it. Hey, Ryan,
thanks so much for taking some time to chat with us.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I mean that was a pretty jarring scene that I
saw on your social media, on your TikTok. Tell us
exactly where you were and what happened.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (09:07):
So I was at the Ralphs at Vermont and Adams,
just picking up some flowers for a video. So interesting
to just go get some flowers. I didn't think that
I was going to come across a group of teens
like I think they call it flash mob robbery.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
What they did at Ralph's.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
They came in, they stole a bunch of buzzballs, and
then they pepper sprayed back into the store. They got
in some kind of argument with the staff or with
someone at the door. Everyone inside started coughing, and when
we went to try to get in our car and
get out of there, they created another incident in the
parking lot where they started to attack me and my husband.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Okay, well, let's start with the ralph situation, because I mean,
there was a lot going on in this video. It
seems like multiple crimes were committed. First of all, how
many teens are we talking about on these bikes?
Speaker 6 (09:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (09:58):
I think the number that I ca hearing from related
incidents was thirty to forty.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
I would say that this incident, at least in.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
The parking lot, maybe not all involved, but resent fifty
sixty Wow, So yeah, quite a few teens on bikes.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Okay, So if I'm seeing fifty to sixty kids on bike,
maybe because I'm old now, I don't know, but I'm
starting to get nervous. I'm thinking something is up. When
did you get the sense that maybe seeing that many
kids convened in sort of an unauthorized way was probably trouble.
Speaker 7 (10:30):
Immediately because I didn't see them until they were stealing
from the store.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Okay, so all these kids make their way into the
store or just like part of the group. Did They
seem to have some sort of modus operandi where there
were some kids were left outside, some went in do
the deed.
Speaker 7 (10:45):
Yeah, well, so I noticed because I was I was
near the door, and I saw like ten fifteen of
them running out out of the door with their shirts
full of buzzballs. And so I saw like a small
group of teens stealing at first, and then I noticed
they were way more outside of the doors, just watching.
So yeah, there was a group inside doing things, and
(11:06):
then a larger group outside just doing nothing.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
We've said buzzballs a couple of time, just for the
sake of the audience, Why don't we say what that is?
Obviously I'm very cool in hip and know all the terms,
but I'll let you explain what a buzz ball is.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Yeah, I mean, I've never had one.
Speaker 7 (11:21):
I just know that it's like a bottom shelf type
alcohol drink in an orb that's like an orb shape.
They're very popular among these kids. This is not the
first time they've stolen them okay. So it's something that
you can drink quickly and maybe get a quick buzz from.
And these kids don't look like they're old enough to
buy alcohol much less consuming. Tell us about the chaos
(11:43):
inside the raups when everything started going down.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
Yeah, so we were.
Speaker 7 (11:49):
Checking out and we started to hear someone yell, oh,
they're stealing, they're stealing. So the whole store turns toward
and at this Ralph, the checkout lanes are right by
the exit, so we're right by this whatever's happening. All
of the yelling and the running that we hear, and.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
Like we hear a commotion. I didn't really see it.
Speaker 7 (12:06):
Later I was told that there was an incident where
they started like it was a verbal fight between one
of the kids and a customer that they had left
and then came back and decided that they were going
to fight them.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
I didn't know.
Speaker 7 (12:18):
That that's what happened was happening. I just saw pepper spray.
I heard yelling. The security was involved. People were screaming,
locked the doors, lock the doors. It was pretty chaotic.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So the pepper spray did that come from security or
the teens?
Speaker 7 (12:30):
Unclear, but it sounds like it came from the teens
because it I don't think that a ralph security guard
would have deployed that inside the store when he was
right next to the door.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
I think he would have gone outside. I'm pretty sure
it was.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
Deployed into the store because people were coughing, hiding their faces,
they were sneezing. It was pretty recklessly deployed.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
But it gets worse for you because you complete a
transaction at Ralph's and leave and what do you see
outside as you're heading to your car. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:01):
So also, at least important for me to know or
to say, is that I was at Ralph's grabbing things
for a video I needed to shoot, so I needed
to go home. So I go to my car where
they are all they're pretty much in the entrance area
of the parking lot. They're blocking traffic in the parking lot.
They're blocking entrance an extra exit out of the parking lot.
Speaker 6 (13:22):
They were behind our car, and so I noticed that.
Speaker 7 (13:25):
Once we got in and I turned my review or
reverse camera on, I could see like, oh, there's kids there.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
I can't move.
Speaker 7 (13:31):
So I honked to get them out of the way,
and they did not like that. They were pretty already
unhappy with me, and so they were yelling stuff at
us as we were just trying to leave, and that's
when we started to hear like, oh, they're not just
upset of O the parking spot. They're yelling homophobic slurs
at us.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Okay, did they surround your car prevent you from leaving? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (13:51):
So they got We were pulled nose into a spot
and they were behind the car, so we honked, they moved,
we pulled out, and then they were in.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
Front of the car.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
We were like, okay, you're still in the way, like move,
and that's when we started to hear them yell homophobic slurs,
which we were just not interested in being called out
like that in our grocery store parking lot.
Speaker 6 (14:13):
So we said, yeah, we are, like, do you have
a problem with that? They did. They screamed loud enough
that all of.
Speaker 7 (14:18):
Their other friends heard, and then within seconds they were kicking, hitting,
punching the car, throwing their body at it, throwing bottles, rocks.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
It was insane. It was watching a hive mind takeover.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Okay, so now they're damaging your car. Now, did you
at any point feel fear beyond the anger?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (14:36):
I mean immediately, I was like, there is a child
throwing themselves out my car.
Speaker 6 (14:40):
This is insane, Like they just just started this.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, I mean it's one thing, Like I mean to
be a grown man and maybe you get harassed by
a teen Like if this comes to blows, I'm probably
gonna win this fight. I hope it doesn't happen, but like,
I can handle this, But you're talking about dozens of kids.
I definitely want to talk about the experience with the police.
But let's talk about how you handled the situation. And
you weren't alone. You were with a partner or a spouse. Yeah, okay,
(15:07):
you were with your spouse. And did you ever get
out of the car to try to run these kids off.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
Yeah, we both got out of the car and they
scrambled pretty quickly.
Speaker 7 (15:18):
So we also, we know of these groups of kids
we live around the area. We've had them take over
the street in front of us before. We've had them
drive their bike way too close to our car and
scare us before. So when we saw them, we were like, okay,
we need to just get them away from us. So
we did get out of the car and we did
initially scare them off.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
So they did run away when you got out of
the car. That's interesting because there was so many of
them and they were so tough when you were in
the car, but they did flee after you stepped out
of the car.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
Well, yeah, so when we first opened our doors, they
did run away. They waited until we turned our backs
to then throw more things at us. So there was
a time when I was walking back to the car
that I felt a glass bottle shatter behind me and
hit my back and leggs. So there it was very uh,
which which follows with these stories that you see they
kick a man while they're down. These kids aren't necessarily
(16:09):
equipped to take down people in in an extremely aggressive
or violent way, but they do take advantage of you
turning your back. They take advantage of you trying to
defend yourself and strike in those moments, which is sickening.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I know you got the police involved. I know you're
not thrilled with the response. I also know that you
have started a campaign to find these teenagers. You are
not the only victim of this type of situation. We're
going to talk about that next stick around. Teen BikeE
gangs terrorizing la on KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Kf I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monk's Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you. To lead into this hour, we've been
talking about the teen bike gangs assaulting people, robbing stores.
Guy who was a victim wants to stop it. He
started a website to track them down labike Teens dot com.
We continue now with Ryan Benson. Okay, Ryan, when last
(17:09):
we left you, you had managed to scare off the kids,
but obviously you witnessed a crime take place inside the
grocery store with the theft of that alcohol. You may
have seen an assault take place with the pepper spray
deployed and the security being involved. And then you yourself
became a victim of a crime directly when these kids
surrounded your car, would not let you leave until you
(17:32):
stepped out of the car and somehow managed to scare
them off. What happened next? You call the police?
Speaker 7 (17:37):
Yeah, police actually encouraged us to go home and file
a report if we weren't willing to go back to
the scene where it happened.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
What is wait? Wait, wait wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
what do you mean did you call the police from
the grocery store?
Speaker 6 (17:51):
Yeah, so we called the police.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Right.
Speaker 7 (17:53):
So, we had driven off and pulled into a neighborhood
behind the store because I had pepper spray in my
eyes and I could no longer drive the car. So
we called from the neighborhood behind the store. We said,
this just happened. They robbed the store, they assaulted us,
they damaged our car. There was a helicopter above, so
we know that they were tracking the situation. They told
(18:14):
us that unless we were willing to go back to
the Ralphs for an in person report, we needed to
just make an online report for what happened.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
There was an LAPD helicopter above.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Correct. Okay, so I back to the scene. There were.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
Four University of USC public safety cars and one laped cruiser.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Did it look like any activity, any investigation, any arrest
were taking place.
Speaker 7 (18:39):
They did not seem that they had overlapped with the
teams at all.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
They knew where they were.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
They knew that they had gone down to Figueroa and
gotten on the freeway, which is confirmed by many of
the videos that these teens, the kids on the bikes
got on the freeway, correct, Yeah, they take over the
streets and the freeway regularly.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Okay. Is that something that you got from the police
that they are where, that these little roving teen bite
gangs are basically harassing people and blocking traffic all over town.
Speaker 7 (19:07):
Yeah, and it was said in nice terms, but I
know my husband was pretty upset because again, we know
that these kids do this. He straight up told an
officer like, hey, it's looking like these kids own you
right now. The officer laughed and said.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, let's talk about the internet then, because I know
we'll get back to the police response. You're still not
happy about it, but you're not the only one who
had video of this incident. I know you went to
Rouse sad day to get some props for a video.
You ended up getting a much more engaging video, perhaps
because of what went down.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
I think that this was the kind of video that
I'd be capturing today. It was supposed to be about flowers,
not necessarily like the vandalism to my car.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
But yes, it's la. Everything's an opportunity to create some
engaging content, even if you're the victim of it. But okay,
so you got a video of it, but so did
they They're so brazen. Not only are they doing this
in broad daylight, in front of security, in front of
crown of people, they are also creating social content out
of this. What did you find online?
Speaker 6 (20:05):
It's truly sickening.
Speaker 7 (20:07):
These kids make it a goal, a priority that when
they are on these outward, these these they call them rideouts,
their bike rideouts, when they're out riding their bikes with
their friends, they say no stealing, don't do anything stupid.
But there are a small group of these teams that
make it a priority to do something stupid, to steal
something so that they can get a good video clip,
and then they put it at the beginning of their
(20:28):
video of them doing bike tricks for their next Instagram post.
Speaker 6 (20:33):
So, like, as I've been.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
Looking into these teams, there's videos of them beating people
in the street used as a hook for you to
watch them do tricks on a bike.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Okay, so it's sort of a trick where you put
in the first frame something that's interesting, a fight, and
you want to know what's going on, and then after
you've seen a quick clip of the fight, then they're
just doing basic bike tricks.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
Yeah, and the fight is like them at usc assaulting
a security guard, or beating up a homeless person behind
some eleven, or beating up the seven eleven employee at
the front of the store.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
Like it's not good.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, we've seen these reports. We've had these reports in
our own newsroom about these bike gangs have gone into
seven elevens, for example, and created absolute havoc. Now, this
is a group that is brazen enough to do this
in the daylight to post online. But even leaving a
trail of evidence, volunteering all of this evidence hasn't led
(21:27):
to satisfaction for you specifically. I mean, how we're what
a couple of weeks removed from this incident, and have
you heard anything from the police?
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Yeah, I have not heard anything from the police.
Speaker 7 (21:39):
I had a detective reach out after I called the
mayor's office, and the mayor reached out to the LAPD,
who contacted a lieutenant who assigned one of his detectives
to call me back.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
So it was a very engineered.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
Process with the help of the mayor's office, which I'm
thankful for. But it's a bummer that I have to
reach out to the mayor's office to get a response
from the LAPD. They have not told me anything, but
I have offered them names, names, Instagram profiles, screen recordings
of everything that I've seen.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
I've given them the schools that they go to.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Oh you've done, You've done. You are the detective now?
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (22:13):
Yeah, no, And I know that these have led to
at least one interaction with police. They told me this,
but the kids post about it themselves when they get
in trouble, so they let the whole world know.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Have you had any direct interaction with these kids since Yeah.
Speaker 7 (22:26):
One of them, the kid who threw his body at
the car first in the attack, actually messaged me on
Instagram and say, I stay bashing on you f slur.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Oh.
Speaker 7 (22:36):
So they've doubled out on what they did and made
it clear that it was pretty hate motivated, which is
really unfortunate that there's teenagers out there doing this.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
To anyone and there's no consequences for it, and they
believe that there won't be a lot of their friends
are commenting LAPD isn't going to do anything. You know,
the LAPED is hiring. It sounds like you're a pretty
good detective. They could use you. But not only have
you found the kids and provided information to the detectives.
You've started a website, tell us what it is.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
Yeah, so I started a website because these crimes are linked.
There's more than fifteen of them. Some of them they're
robbing the same seven eleven the next day and then
they've posted a video of it and you can see them.
Their outfits match, their bikes match. So I started gathering
the photos at least from the incident that I experienced
and the other incidents that happen on the same day.
It's La Bike Teams dot com. If you're able to
(23:29):
spare that. I know that there's some sensitivity around these
children's age. I don't think that exempts them from the
actions that they've demonstrated. I've been trying to identify anyone
that was involved in the attack on me, the attack
on Ralphs, and then earlier they also robbed at seven
eleven just before.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Have you heard from other victims since launching this site.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
I have, and it's what's very unfortunate about that is
that there are many There are many who never filed
anything because they've gotten threats from the kids themselves afterwards
for speaking out. What's unfortunate too, is that there's a
large spread of these events because they happen sometimes in
Culver City, they happen in South LA, they happen in
(24:11):
Long Beach, they happen in Huntington Beach.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
A lot of times they're the same kids.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Though labike Teens dot Com you'll see more about Ryan's
story there. You can also provide tips if you recognize
any of these accused little culprits who last ripped off
of Ralph, stealing buzzballs and then surrounding Ryan and his
husband in their car not letting them leave. A lot
of violence these guys are engaging in, and so if
you've got information provided to the police and maybe the
(24:37):
police will eventually do something about it. Ryan, thank you
so much for taking the time to share this with us.
Good luck in your detective quest. I hope some justice
is brought to.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
You me too, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
President Trump's next tariff target, Hollywood. How's that going to work?
That's next? On Michael Monk's Reports here on KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
You're listening to KFI on demand k I AM.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This is
Michael Monks reports, I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. In
our last few moments together, let's talk about the President
and his new idea about tariffs and Hollywood. Hollywood doesn't
do very much of that business.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
To have the nice sign and everything's good, but they
don't do very much.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
A lot of it's been taken to other countries. So
it looks like the White House and its unpredictable tariff
policy is now pointed towards Hollywood and the film industry.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Are there nations, a lot of them.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
I've stulen on movie industry, and I'm saying, if they're
not willing to make a movie inside the United States
and we should have a tariff, one movie.
Speaker 7 (25:43):
Should come in.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Democratic Congressman Ted Lew who represents LA of the West
Side and some coastal cities. He says the idea was surprising.
Speaker 6 (25:50):
No one in Hollywood was asking four hundred percent tariff.
It just seems like another random idea that he put
out there.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
It apparently wasn't entirely random. Actor John Voight, the president
and special envoy to Hollywood, reportedly pitched this idea that
this would help the industry these tariffs. Ellie Mayor Bass.
She disagrees. She tells Fox eleven's Alex Michaelson, she spoke
with John Voyd.
Speaker 6 (26:12):
You met with him right.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
I had lunch with him last week.
Speaker 8 (26:14):
It was a wonderful meeting and talking about what we
can do to improve and save our industry. This is
one of our foundational industries. Now, I've not talked to
him since the President came out with this potential new proposal,
but I tell you I will be reaching out to
him to say, please call your friend, because we don't
want to put a tax on US companies who film
(26:37):
overseas for a variety of reasons.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
The city has already tried a couple things. The state
is also moving on some things. So let's get that
perspective and reaction from the film industry. Kfi's Heather Brooker
is with us now, Hello Heather.
Speaker 9 (26:51):
Hello.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
So I know that the industry itself was probably caught
off guard by this announcement from President Trump. At ay,
we're gonna put tariffs on movies made overseas, because, Holly,
what's a big industry. Of course, there's a call to
have movies made in LA again, but these same companies
do make movies overseas, So what are they saying.
Speaker 9 (27:12):
They do make them overseas, and they make them for
a pretty good price. That's why they originally went overseas
in the first place. They're saving millions, tens of millions,
sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars by going to other
countries to make these big budget films. So I think
the overall feeling is a little bit of shock and
confusion to most tariffs, and you know, which is what
(27:35):
President Trump is proposing here is one hundred percent tariff
on movies made outside of the United States. There's so
many questions that come here, what are we putting tariffs
on the physical film itself, the equipment that's being used overseas,
on the actors, Like, because the film industry is not
a goods it's not an item that you can put
(27:56):
a tariff on. It is a service.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
So they're not pulling up at the port of Long
Beach with a bunch of.
Speaker 9 (28:02):
Run and pulling off, you know, taking movies off of
the boat. Like it's hard to quantify and narrow it down.
So I think the general consensus is that people are
confused as to how this would work.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
But these are corporations also, and yes, scenery and I
guess honest storytelling, perhaps authentic storytelling is a motivator for
a creative time. But these companies are looking at the
bottom line, how much can we make off of this movie?
How much do we have to put into it in
order to make that amount? And so the main driver
for going not just outside of California to other states
(28:37):
but all around the world, it's because they're getting tax breaks.
Speaker 9 (28:40):
It's money. I mean, listen, Hollywood is a business. They
don't call it show story or show creativity. It's show business.
And at its core, it's about the bottom line. Are
these studios going to make their money back? Are they
going to make above and beyond their money back to
make their investors happy and their boards happy, and you
know all of that. So they're looking at how much
(29:02):
money they're going to say, no matter where they're filming.
So in theory, this is a great idea, and I
think what happened is people started saying, how are we
going to make this happen in practice? So Governor k
Newso responded because you know, California is dealing with its
own issues right now with trying to bring filming back
into the state of California, and he immediately called the President,
(29:23):
reached out to the White House and said, Okay, you
want to put tariffs on movies, why don't we actually
create a tax credit seven and a half billion dollar
tax credit from the federal government to encourage filmmakers to
come back nationwide. And as far as I know, the
last time I checked, the White House had not responded
to that call from Governor Newsom. So here we are,
(29:46):
it's this back and forth of what are we going
to do? You know, the state of California itself is
still working towards its own film and tax TV credit,
film and TV tax credit to bring filmmakers back into California.
It is moving its way through the lawmakers and the
legislature here in California.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So those seem to be the policies that are responsive
to what the industry is saying. We've seen it at
the city level. They've talked to Hollywood folks. I mean,
Hollywood is in the city of Los Angeles geographically, obviously,
the industry itself has spread out much further in the region.
But they are saying the industry says they need tax breaks,
they need tax breaks they need tax breaks, and more
than anything, we need to make sure that not just
(30:24):
big time actors are protected, all of the workers, that's
the fourth this industry.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Are also protectors.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
So I can't imagine that. I guess I forget sometimes
and maybe a lot of us forget. Donald Trump is
branded as a business guy. Sure, yeah, but really he's
a Hollywood guy. I mean, he's been a celebrity for
a long time and in this century. I mean it's
not the nineteen eighties, it's not the nineteen nineties. In
(30:50):
this century. He made his fortune in Hollywood with NBC's
The Apprentice. Yes, yeah, so I mean what type of
relationship can Hollywood expect with them? They made this guy, they.
Speaker 9 (31:04):
Did, they made an iteration of who he is now
and what we see today. For sure, I think he's
also still very heavily influenced by Hollywood, and I think
he genuinely wants to still be loved by Hollywood. And
that's why he's assembled this sort of Hollywood posse around
him of people he's reaching out to and asking for
advice on what to do. And it's also why he's
(31:28):
talking about with his tariffs. He said, you know, everybody
is going to get tariffs on movies except the James
Bond movie because he's a big fan of the James
Bond movie, so they will not be impacted by But.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Why did you see that? And there was an article
about that. Yes, it seemed a little odd, but he
loved Sean Connery as James Bond. And he says when
he was putting his golf course in Scotland, he was
having a hard time with zoning and Sean Connery apparently
made a couple of calls and got.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
That just helped him.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Isn't that crazy? He is so transactional.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
He is.
Speaker 9 (32:00):
But I think ultimately he sees himself as a star.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Yeah, he does, no question.
Speaker 9 (32:06):
He wants that star treatment and he wants to be
the hero I think of.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
The Hollywood story.
Speaker 9 (32:12):
So I don't know if he's going to respond to
this call for a federal film and tax credit. I
think he's making these terriff proposition to make it seem
like he is trying to help and trying to save Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
I thought it would be curious because just to stereotype
people by industry, you don't think of Hollywood as a
bastion of Trump is. But if President Trump were able
to do whatever it is that eventually saves the film
industry and restores it. Boy, wouldn't that put those folks
in an awkward essential.
Speaker 9 (32:41):
I think certain people might, you know, eat.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
A little crow, eat a little crow.
Speaker 9 (32:45):
I don't know if they'd admit it, but it would
certainly be awkward.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Well, we shall see. The show must go on. Heather
Brooker from KFI News, Thanks so much for being with us, Michael,
but this show is finished. I'm grateful for the time
you gave today. Hope you're also taking some time for
the moms in your life and wishing them the best
Mother's Day. I certainly do. This has been Michael Monks's reports.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. Catch me doing the
(33:10):
news here every day and tune in every Saturday night
at seven for another edition of this show, or find
it on the iHeartRadio app. We'll talk again soon. Thanks
for joining us here at KFI AM six forty
Speaker 1 (33:23):
KFI AM six forty on demand
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