June 10, 2025 • 31 mins
ICYMI: Hour One of ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – PART TWO of Mo’Kelly’s special in-depth coverage of the fourth straight day of protests against the ICE raids in Los Angeles & Orange County with KFI Reporter Michael Monks - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app & YouTube @MrMoKelly
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Forty KIM six mo Kelly here, as we continue to
follow the live events of what's happening downtown and in
Santa Ana, and for what it's worth, we always try
to put context in this as far as how people
are characterizing what's going on, what we see, what it
(00:26):
looks like. It may lead to just this is anecdotal,
but KTLA has left its coverage of what's going on
downtown and in Santa Ana. K CAL has stayed with it.
So nothing is happening at this moment. There is a
police line still in downtown LA at this moment, it
(00:47):
is not advancing. There has been no new information about
any type of order to disperse. There definitely hasn't been
any information about a curfew. And I would assume at
this point, and I think it's a reasonablest pump that
if we haven't received anything at this point, it's going
to have to escalate considerably for there to be a curfew,
(01:08):
because why we're we're looking at it. You know, it's
tit after eight already, after a point, it almost like me,
what's the point, because we'll be in the middle of
the night after a certain point that hasn't happened.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
There doesn't seem to be any escalation.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
In fact, I can't find any television coverage correct me
if I'm wrong, Twela television coverage of anything going on
in Santa Anna at this point.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
No, I don't really see anything happening anywhere, just protests.
People are out there, peaceful and police presence for now.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, we can tell you what's happening now. We can't
tell you what it will look like in forty five minutes.
I mean, when forty five minutes rolls around and we
get there, we can tell you what it looks like,
but we can't tell you what it might be, what
might happen. But at this moment, there is no escalation,
and I think that's what all.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Of us are hoping for, or at least what I'm
hoping for.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Again, I try to remind people, and I was going
back and forth with people on my social media and
if you go to my Facebook page at mister bo
Kelly or at Lady with mo Kelly, I was giving
you my thoughts about this.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I have no dog in this fight.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I have not talked about this in the sense of
any narrative.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I try to give you some history. I try to
give you some context.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I try to compare it to other events which are similar,
other events which have been not characterized as a riot,
even though the same things have been happening. Oh, I'll
give you a perfect example. After the super Bowl in February,
there were six people who were arrested for assaults on
(02:49):
police officers. There were at least fifty people arrested in totality.
There was looting, there were cars set on fire, there
was a big bonfire in the street. There were two
people shot. That's after the super Bowl. It was deemed
a celebration violence for violence. It's not unlike what we've
(03:12):
seen in LA as of Saturday. No telling what is
going to happen in the future, but as of Saturday,
there were comparable events. In fact, there was more which
happened in Philadelphia, and that was called a celebration. That's
why I think we should be very very careful about
how we characterize these events for our personal or political purposes,
(03:32):
or how what I call wish casting, what you would
like them to be, or how you want them perceived.
And I want to reiterate that it's not. When you
try to talk about these things in absolutes, you'll probably
be absolutely wrong. There is a level of nuance if
we're responsible, that we can apply to this. Anyone who
(03:53):
tries to tell you that this was a holy, peaceful
protest is I don't want to say they're lying. Some
people are lying, but it's factually untrue. There are too
many incidents and things that we can point to to
dispel that myth or characterization. It has not been wholly
peaceful and it hasn't been a riot. Now, there have
(04:13):
been things which people think like because well, if you
set a waybo on fire, that's that's a that's a riot.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I mean there are it's still under control. What is
happening now. Things happened, and you saw what happened to
the WAYMO and you saw like the the scooters that
they were throwing off the freeway on the police cars.
But again credit to LAPD, credit to La County Sheriff's Department,
(04:42):
they kept it all contained, they did, and there was
no real further escalation beyond that. What happens tonight we
will see if we can keep that positive momentum going
but it hasn't been wholly peaceful. It has not. Have
there been at of course, have there been people who
(05:03):
have with their own agendas and their own motivations. Absolutely,
but we have to be careful not to be reckless
with our rhetoric. I can't speak for you toal because
I don't know what you've been listen to. But I've
been hearing people throw around words like invasion. It's like, no,
it's not an invasion. It's not. It's not some sort
of war which is going on.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
There are some really questionable activities going on out there,
and yes, there has been violence against police officers. Not
pushing that aside, but we have to be very careful
to keep it in its context and not reach for
terminology and reach for imagery because we want to cast
it a certain way.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Kf I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app I'm Okelly as
we continue our coverage of what's going on downtown, and also,
I guess to a lesser degree in Santa Ana, we
are not seeing the same reports or coverage of that.
But if it should change and direction will have that
for you.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
You're listening to later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty six.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Mo Kelly here, as we continue our live covers of
the ongoing events to protest downtown and in Santa Anna.
There seems to be some movement downtown. It seems the
police line is beginning to move forward again. There is
vehicle activity where police you know what, Stephan, let's bring
(06:38):
up the audio on cake House. We can get some
context of what's happening there.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
He's been watching protesters go by as well.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Tom hither Suzy.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
So we moved actually because we saw all those officers.
There's voter officers zooming up first streets. So we came
up to City Hall. That's where we are right now,
right outside of the City Hall, and you can see, uh,
there's a sort of scattered amount of crowd there, people
kind of lingering here, and then there's a very like
solid line of police in you know, heavily armed, got
(07:07):
their right gear, their shields, all all kinds of things
there that they're equipped with, and they are standing in
stage here right now, and you know, doesn't look like
there's that sort of tense, volatile situation that we've seen
playing out in the last few days we you know,
we as we've been talking about, this crowd is very
much sort of dispersed, and it's scattered and there's just
(07:31):
remnants in little pockets of people here and there and
kind of just wandering around, I think, people trying to
figure out maybe what to do, where, where to go.
But you know, LAPD their strategy seems to have worked,
which was to kind of break up the crowd, create
kind of a situation where there was no real place
to reconstitute a crowd. So by you know, either by
(07:54):
closing down streets or by you know, by placing you know,
a high concentration of officers in different spots, and so
it just kind of created this, like I think for
the people who are out here, a bit of chaos
and a bit of inability to kind of create some continuity.
So now which you have is just a lot of
(08:14):
people just kind of wandering around, looking like, well, what
do we do next? It doesn't seem like there is
a lot of organization out here. It certainly did not
seem that organized earlier either.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
We just sort of huge.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Boom a few blocks away that could have been fireworks
or any number of things, but it was a very
large boom sound.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Maybe that's in the area where Lori Perez is.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
But yeah, so you know, obviously some people are kind
of you know, making comments and saying some some insulting
some of the officers here, but for the most part,
others sort of standing there looking at them and just yeah,
they're The posturing is definitely different than it was. You know,
we we've seen the situation play out where you have
(09:03):
protesters in some cases, you know, trying to antagonize federal
officers or police officers, either verbally or you know, throwing
things at them, you know, walking up to them with
their cell phones and you know, saying things to them.
But while that's happening on a smaller scale right now,
it's nothing compared to what we saw, and it doesn't
(09:24):
seem like we're in that sort of hair trigger situation,
you know, where one little thing could happen and then
the whole situation explodes and there's clashes.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It just it seems different.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
And obviously, you know, given what we've seen in the
last few.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Nights, I think, okay, I'm going to jump in there
and if you just only heard a snippet of that,
let me just kind of recap what the reporter was
saying for ke Cow, it's dissipating. People are walking away
largely orderly. If you check out our YouTube, you can
see some of the video where police are moving fullar
(10:00):
and it's not like they're encountering as much resistance as
maybe an hour and a half ago. There has not
been an order officially to disperse from what I know.
And this kind of goes back to what LAPD Chief
Jim McDonald was talking about, because obviously LAPD has a
plan and it was unclear not only to me as
(10:21):
a layperson, but also was unclear to Chief McDonald as
far as what role the Marines would play when obviously
you had the National Guard guarding the Federal building. What
the hundreds of other marines were going to add? Do
you have that statement in front of you, by chance, Mark,
which one exactly from Jim McDonald. I had it just
(10:42):
a second ago. It will give me, well, I'll give
you some time, but it's I think it's interesting here.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
We are all right, go ahead.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
LAPD Chief Jim McDonald has issued a statement saying the
possible arrival of federal military forces in La absent clear
coordination presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those
of US charged with safeguarding the city.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
If well, I not even say if.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Since more National Guard have been sent now by President
Trump to the area, you got to ask the question,
does this help or hinder the management of the protests.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Well, we know that the LAPD isn't exactly pro dirty
hippie protesters, and they've been saying all weekend that they
had the situation under control. If you were on top
of that stuff. They do not seem thrilled with the
extra help. They didn't want it.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Well, when I say they were on top of it,
I'm characterized if someone doesn't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
But I guess they know better than Jim McDonald as well.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
Well, and we're also hearing now that in Washington, legislators
are scrambling to deal with how the military would be
deployed because then we're getting into posse comitatis area there.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Well, let's explain that for folks.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And basically the law is you cannot use the armed
forces as a law enforcement group.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, they're a very narrow circumstance. Is that allow that?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
But from the way it's being presented, it seems that
the Marines would be in a law enforcement position.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Yeah, so we're getting into some dicey territory here, and
I want to remind people be really cautious consumers of news,
especially if you're getting it from social media. Click through
to the source, make sure that it's not just influencers
and propagandas. Look for credentialed news professionals that you're getting
your information from, because situations like this, it's rife with
(12:31):
misinformation and you don't want that to color how you
look at this situation.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
This is when we talk about Oh, I should say,
we do talk about media literacy a lot, but this
is one of those times where it's really really important.
And I understand the Customarily, I'm not working in a
news capacity.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
I'm on air personality. I'm giving opinion and editorial.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I try to keep it more to the facts of
information during breaking news like this, because it's very very
important not to push people in an unknown necessary direction
about how I feel or my politics.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
And I keep trying to remind folks I do not
have a dog in this fight. I do not.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I try to give you some history. Let's compare this
to twenty twenty. Let's compare this to nineteen ninety two
after the Rodney King, Stacy Kuhn Lawrence Powell verdict. But
I'm not trying to tell you or how you know,
what I think about Donald Trump threatening to arrest Gavin Newsom.
That's not the news of the day. That's not what's
really important. That's not going to impact your lives right now.
(13:31):
In other words, is this going to impact you if
there is a greater conflagration, if there is an escalation
that impacts you. You know, so we can talk about
some of the underlying issues. We can do that, but
I'm not here to talk about politics.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
It used to be a.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Mark Rono remembers this, and I know Taala Sharp remembers this.
Before there was cable news, you just had broadcast news
and you'd have the who, what, win, where, why?
Speaker 5 (13:56):
How?
Speaker 3 (13:56):
That was it? That was it?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
There was no really no editorial, and if so, there
would be a whole segment what they told you this
is an editorial and made it very clear that the
anchor was giving his or her opinion. We have lost
that now because we have cable news, which is not
governed by any rules. Actually, you don't have the rules
of news reporting on cable news.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
That's why.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
MSNBC is really no different than Comedy Central. And I'm
being serious, because you can have someone deliver quote unquote
their thoughts on the news. Sometimes it could be comedic
like Comedy Central in the Daily Show, or it could
be in a news and editorial format like Lawrence o'donald
or something. And people don't really understand that distinction because
(14:44):
we don't teach media literacy anymore. So to Mark's point,
you have to be very judicious about where you get
the facts, the who, what, where, when, why and how.
Most of the time we don't get that in our
news coverage. We just start with how I feel that
hearing Bass messed this up. That's where people start, and
that's not actually news coverage, that's just opinion and editorial.
(15:09):
So what is happening tonight? We're telling you as it's happening.
And if you look at the imagery on k CAL
nine right now, I can't quantify it, but I can
qualify it.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
A lot of the people have gone home.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
There is not this mass demonstration what it looked like
it was going to turn into two hours ago. We're
not there. And kudos to the LAPD for what they've
managed to do. And also you know they obviously had
a plan and they've stuck to it. Now, there were
questions that I had, and there are questions that Michael
(15:43):
Monks had, and will continue to watch this because it
could turn on a dime. If you know history, you
know it could turn on a dime. But it's moving
in a direction where it seems to be de escalating,
not escalating. If I am six forty, I'm O Kelly.
We're going to continue to follow this wherever it goes,
wherever it leads. We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
K IF I am sixty Kelly here live everywhere in
the iHeartRadio app. And this is I guess nervous time
because the sun is down and most of the what
I would call the legitimate protesters are going home. This
is when, unfortunately, we will see the knuckleheads. This is
when we'll see the agitators. This is when we'll see
the folks who have no business being out there other
(16:40):
than to cause trouble. But up until now, it has
been well managed it has been disciplined. As far as
LAPD and its approach, they are slowly moving forward. And
I guess there's still no curfew, there's still no official
order to disperse. And these are just some random thoughts
have just been bumping around my head during the break.
(17:04):
If we take a larger view, we pull out and
look at the macro view of these ICE protests. Now
we know that ICE they usually do their arrests in
the early portion of the day. We know that everything
started on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. In the early portion of
the day, ICE they would go to their set locations,
(17:26):
their predetermined locations, and they would enact their arrests. They're
not doing it now. In other words, and Twale, you
made a great point. There's nothing to protest now. LAPD
is not ICE. LAPD has not been assisting in these
arrests on behalf of ICE. So if you're out there
(17:50):
now protesting in the dark against nobody in particular related
to the actual ICE arres and raids, however you want
to characterize them, then you're obviously not there in good faith.
And I know there are a lot of bad faith
actors out there. And look, I try to look at
(18:11):
this through the lens of the constitution. I personally don't
see the value in waving a Mexican flag if you're
trying to protest, I personally don't see it. But constitutionally
I support your right to do it. You know, I
don't think it gains you anything. But at the same time,
as a wave a Mexican flag right now looking on
k Cow, yes, that's your right to I'll just say
(18:36):
cloud the issue, to confuse the issue, to make it
seem like you're not here for the right reason.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
But here's something else we need to consider.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
This is most definitely what some have called like the
beta testing for what's going to happen in other cities.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
What is happening right now.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
When I say what is happening right now, this is
inclusive of the ice raids. You're going to see it
in other cities, other major cities. And this is the
only politics I really mentioned tonight. They will happen in
democratically run cities capital d In other words, if there's
a democratic mayor, you can expect these particular raids and
(19:17):
procedures to be followed.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
I expect to see this in Miami.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I expect to see this in New York, I expect
to see this in Chicago, and out of that, I
expect a similar response. You will see a similar response
from the community. And what you're seeing now, you're going
to see another spots around the community. And from a
political standpoint, this is nothing bad for President Trump. This
is exactly what he wants. This is exactly what he
(19:45):
is looking for. These are the optics that he would prefer.
This is what he ran on. And as far as
what he's going to say about it, you know, these
are promises that he made, and these are promises that
he is fulfilling. So he is just fine with these
ice raids. And if there should violence, have more violence breakout,
I'm quite sure he would support that as well, because
(20:06):
the optics favor what he has been looking for. You know,
this is something that he ran on, this is something
that he was elected on.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So it's not like there's going to be fewer of these. No, If.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Politically it serves his purpose, his purposes here in LA,
then that means politically it's going to serve his purposes
in Miami, Chicago, New York, and maybe Houston and some
other border cities. And I'll say southern states as well,
or even the southwest portion of the United States, We're
(20:42):
going to see more of this. I think that's just
a reasonable assumption, not necessarily a politicization of what's happening
right now. It's hard to look at this without acknowledging
the larger immigration discussion here in America. This is something
which has been front and center of our politics, I
(21:05):
want to say since maybe two thousand and eight, because
Barack Obama did run on immigration reform for his first
and second term, didn't get it done, and we know
within private citizen Trump when he came down the escalator
in twenty fifteen, made it a central part of his
(21:26):
would be campaign. So this has been an America's conscience
for at least a good seventeen years. And that's saying
nothing of going back to Reagan and the Immigration Amnesty
Act of nineteen eighty six. So this is something that
our nation has been wrestling with for quite some time,
and we're coming to one of those inflection points where
(21:50):
we're going to have to go through this, and we're
going to go through it together, and hopefully we'll go
through it non violently, and hopefully we'll go through it
and come out on the other side better. But we're
gonna have to get through this right now, right now.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It's La.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
There will be other cities, and we will have this
conversation again with those other cities, and you will probably
see the National Guard sent in those other cities. You
may see marines sent in in those other cities. Because
this will be the playbook going forward. Like it, loath it,
if you may not agree with it, but this is
where it is headed.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
K IF I AM six forty. I'm O Kelly. We're
live everywhere the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
You're listening to Later with Mo Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
KFI AM six forty, We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
As we continue to follow the events of downtown and
Santa Ana. I want to check back in one more
time with kfi's own Michael Monks, who's pretty much on scene. Michael,
I get the sense if I look at just television coverage.
Kick Hal has pulled back, Katla has pulled back. There's
(23:02):
really not much to see from a television standpoint from
where you are.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
What's the move.
Speaker 6 (23:08):
Well, it looks like we're hearing from the police chief
right now. My understanding is that they did order folks
to disperse, and the people who refuse to do so
have been kettled. As they say that is surrounded by police.
There's a few dozen people there apparently that have been
kettled by police and now face arrests. That includes some
(23:30):
members of the press, according to one report that I've seen.
But I now understand that members of the media will
be able to leave that kettling and then those few
dozen folks will face arrests. And I believe police Chief
Jim McDonald may be speaking now on this issue. So
we talk about the media pulling back because things seem
to be a bit calmer, and that seems to be
(23:53):
because the police did not pull back this time. They
wanted to nip this in the bud a little more quickly,
and we're not messing around when they issued those orders
to disperse.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
At this point, I know we can't predict what's going
to happen five minutes from now or two hours from now.
Can you see whether law enforcement is pulling back? In
other words, do they have the same number of units
and officers on scene now as they did two hours ago,
or is there slightly less.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
That tactical alert is still in effect as of right now,
is my understanding, which means that all officers who were
on duty when that call went out earlier today were
to remain on duty until further notice. So the LAPD
is trying to keep as much strength as they can.
The images that I can see indicate a pretty significant
(24:42):
law enforcement presence. So what motivated this change in strategy,
I'm not sure. I do know that the protest downtown
today was not able to get to be as large
as it had been over the past couple of days
leading up to this, and that has to do with
an adjust in strategy. They shut down all of those
(25:02):
entrance ramps and exit ramps so you could not get
in or out of the Civic Center area of downtown
Los Angeles. They were blocking access to a lot of
surface streets, so while there were a lot of protesters downtown,
they were never really allowed to converge together as one.
So the strategy by the LAPED this time around appears
to have kept folks separated, and now they've got the
(25:25):
folks that have refused to leave the scene and that
they may now face arrest.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
From what you can see, has there been any movement
of the National Guard? Are there fewer in number? Are
they just going to ride out the whole night guarding
the federal building? And any word on when Marines the
Marines might arrive on scene.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
We don't know exactly when the Marines are supposed to
arrive because it's not a local jurisdiction, but it is
supposed to be within the next twenty four hours. We
know that there's about seven hundred Marines deployed to one
thousand additional National Guard troops deployed. The ones who are
on the ground, Those California National guardsmen who are on
the ground now have pretty much kept to their original assignment,
(26:10):
which is around that Federal building at Alameda Street. Another
key difference for tonight's protests compared to yesterday certainly is
nobody was getting near that federal building. They kept people
far away from that. So all of the action that
we're seeing so far today seems to just involve either
the LAPD, maybe some sheriff's folks, and then the CHP,
the California Highway Patrol blocking some of those freeway exits.
(26:33):
So it is clear mo that the LAPD decided they
needed to adjust their strategy here, and we may see
an end to any unrest a little bit earlier than
we have in previous days.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Nobody shot you, huh, It's still early in downtown Los Angeles, man,
I got to keep three eyes open.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
I am pulling for you.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I can say I've had pepper spray, you know, shot
around me, and you don't even need to be next
to the You can be like thirty feet away and
pepper spray will say hello to you. I can't speak
for tear gas, but if you were to describe it,
I know you know there's nothing good about it is
all the way horrible. But as best you can describe
(27:14):
the feeling, is it eyes burning, nausea?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:18):
It was really interesting.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
You know, when you're in the news as long as
we have been, tear gas is something we write about
or mentioned that. Maybe it was deployed because some suspect
in some crime had holed up in a property and
so they deployed tear gas and flash bangs and that
sort of thing, and it does often lead to their
exit because it is such an irritant. My first experience
(27:42):
yesterday in tasting it close and personal, was interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
It was immediate.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
Coughing fits. As soon as you inhale it, it wants
to get out of your Your body wants it out,
so you're choking, you're coughing.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
It's disgusting.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
About a minute, maybe two minutes later, it's hard to
remember exactly in real time how it worked. You start
to feel the burning in the eyes and it's extraordinarily irritating,
and then the water starts, and that's why they call
it tear gas, and you are crying. I mean, there
are tears coming out, flowing out of your eyes. I
managed to turn away from it fast enough to not
(28:19):
have a direct hit.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I certainly suffered from it.
Speaker 6 (28:21):
It got me good, but some of my colleagues in
the media got it much worse and looked like hell afterwards,
a lot of spit coming out of their mouths. But
people mobilized because by now, with all the protests we've
experienced over the past half decade and the tear gas
that can even hit us in the media, folks seem
to turn to milk as a remedy for this.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
So a lot of times.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
You'll see protest even before the s hits the fan
that there's just kind of milk about just an anticipation
of this taking place and knowing that you need to
douse yourself in it. A lot of folks dumping water.
I was fortunate I really didn't need to put any
liquid on my face. What helped me was I went
(29:05):
under an overpass or a bridge or something, and the
shade blocking the sun really helped, and then I was
just able to kind of dab from my shirt and
get the irritant out. What was really interesting about the
tear gas is how long it felt like it lingered,
because you know, a couple more hours would pass after
this solitary incident involving the direct tear gas, and I'd
(29:28):
be walking around the protest scene and suddenly I'd get
another whiff of it, and it's like it's still in
the air. I mean, that stuff hangs out for a while.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
I guess you got a good story to tell you
kids or grandkids.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
My cat didn't seem so interesting. It's just me and
AM sitting here monitoring all these screens tonight. I'll tell
you didn't want to hear about it all. I just
wanted to treat.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
You and Mark must be like brothers from another mother.
Something dis similarities between your lifestyles and your history. Yeah,
tear gas in common.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
It really is hard to tell us apart now what
you're gonna find when you get home, Michael, that you
got to take off all your clothes because they're all
gonna smell like tear gas.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
You're gonna have to watch the hell out of everything
that you've been wearing.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Oh, you know, it was laundry day yesterday and I
couldn't do it because it ended up being such a
long day, so that that jacket still stinks a little bit.
But it is true, Marca, you and I do have
a certain surly nature and gray hair.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And okay, let's not get too personal here. I'm trying
to get you down town about it.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Well, Michael, first, thank you for all your reporting, and yes,
you were in harm's way. We may have a laugh
about it, but it does not belie the danger, the
actual danger that you were in. And we appreciate you
reporting despite the danger and remaining as safe as possible
so you can give us the facts of what was
(30:50):
going on.
Speaker 6 (30:51):
Well, I appreciate you saying that. I do think we
need to be clear though, the federal government is not
going to slow down these raids. They are going to
execute the immigration policy that this president ran on, and
this is a place that they are targeting for that.
So while maybe tonight is fizzling out, thankfully hopefully as
(31:14):
uneventful relative to the previous days, there could be many
more days ahead and we'll be here to keep an
eye on and I know you will, and I will,
and even Runner will.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Even Mark Ronner, thank you. Get some rests, Michael Monks.
I certainly will, Thanks so much. We'll talk tomorrow. If
I am six forty, I'm Kelly. We're live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
As FI and KOs T HD two Los Angeles, Orange County.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
More stimulating talk
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Forty KIM six mo Kelly here, as we continue to
follow the live events of what's happening downtown and in
Santa Ana, and for what it's worth, we always try
to put context in this as far as how people
are characterizing what's going on, what we see, what it
(00:26):
looks like. It may lead to just this is anecdotal,
but KTLA has left its coverage of what's going on
downtown and in Santa Ana. K CAL has stayed with it.
So nothing is happening at this moment. There is a
police line still in downtown LA at this moment, it
(00:47):
is not advancing. There has been no new information about
any type of order to disperse. There definitely hasn't been
any information about a curfew. And I would assume at
this point, and I think it's a reasonablest pump that
if we haven't received anything at this point, it's going
to have to escalate considerably for there to be a curfew,
(01:08):
because why we're we're looking at it. You know, it's
tit after eight already, after a point, it almost like me,
what's the point, because we'll be in the middle of
the night after a certain point that hasn't happened.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
There doesn't seem to be any escalation.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
In fact, I can't find any television coverage correct me
if I'm wrong, Twela television coverage of anything going on
in Santa Anna at this point.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
No, I don't really see anything happening anywhere, just protests.
People are out there, peaceful and police presence for now.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, we can tell you what's happening now. We can't
tell you what it will look like in forty five minutes.
I mean, when forty five minutes rolls around and we
get there, we can tell you what it looks like,
but we can't tell you what it might be, what
might happen. But at this moment, there is no escalation,
and I think that's what all.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Of us are hoping for, or at least what I'm
hoping for.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Again, I try to remind people, and I was going
back and forth with people on my social media and
if you go to my Facebook page at mister bo
Kelly or at Lady with mo Kelly, I was giving
you my thoughts about this.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I have no dog in this fight.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I have not talked about this in the sense of
any narrative.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I try to give you some history. I try to
give you some context.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I try to compare it to other events which are similar,
other events which have been not characterized as a riot,
even though the same things have been happening. Oh, I'll
give you a perfect example. After the super Bowl in February,
there were six people who were arrested for assaults on
(02:49):
police officers. There were at least fifty people arrested in totality.
There was looting, there were cars set on fire, there
was a big bonfire in the street. There were two
people shot. That's after the super Bowl. It was deemed
a celebration violence for violence. It's not unlike what we've
(03:12):
seen in LA as of Saturday. No telling what is
going to happen in the future, but as of Saturday,
there were comparable events. In fact, there was more which
happened in Philadelphia, and that was called a celebration. That's
why I think we should be very very careful about
how we characterize these events for our personal or political purposes,
(03:32):
or how what I call wish casting, what you would
like them to be, or how you want them perceived.
And I want to reiterate that it's not. When you
try to talk about these things in absolutes, you'll probably
be absolutely wrong. There is a level of nuance if
we're responsible, that we can apply to this. Anyone who
(03:53):
tries to tell you that this was a holy, peaceful
protest is I don't want to say they're lying. Some
people are lying, but it's factually untrue. There are too
many incidents and things that we can point to to
dispel that myth or characterization. It has not been wholly
peaceful and it hasn't been a riot. Now, there have
(04:13):
been things which people think like because well, if you
set a waybo on fire, that's that's a that's a riot.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I mean there are it's still under control. What is
happening now. Things happened, and you saw what happened to
the WAYMO and you saw like the the scooters that
they were throwing off the freeway on the police cars.
But again credit to LAPD, credit to La County Sheriff's Department,
(04:42):
they kept it all contained, they did, and there was
no real further escalation beyond that. What happens tonight we
will see if we can keep that positive momentum going
but it hasn't been wholly peaceful. It has not. Have
there been at of course, have there been people who
(05:03):
have with their own agendas and their own motivations. Absolutely,
but we have to be careful not to be reckless
with our rhetoric. I can't speak for you toal because
I don't know what you've been listen to. But I've
been hearing people throw around words like invasion. It's like, no,
it's not an invasion. It's not. It's not some sort
of war which is going on.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
There are some really questionable activities going on out there,
and yes, there has been violence against police officers. Not
pushing that aside, but we have to be very careful
to keep it in its context and not reach for
terminology and reach for imagery because we want to cast
it a certain way.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Kf I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app I'm Okelly as
we continue our coverage of what's going on downtown, and also,
I guess to a lesser degree in Santa Ana, we
are not seeing the same reports or coverage of that.
But if it should change and direction will have that
for you.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
You're listening to later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty six.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Mo Kelly here, as we continue our live covers of
the ongoing events to protest downtown and in Santa Anna.
There seems to be some movement downtown. It seems the
police line is beginning to move forward again. There is
vehicle activity where police you know what, Stephan, let's bring
(06:38):
up the audio on cake House. We can get some
context of what's happening there.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
He's been watching protesters go by as well.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Tom hither Suzy.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
So we moved actually because we saw all those officers.
There's voter officers zooming up first streets. So we came
up to City Hall. That's where we are right now,
right outside of the City Hall, and you can see, uh,
there's a sort of scattered amount of crowd there, people
kind of lingering here, and then there's a very like
solid line of police in you know, heavily armed, got
(07:07):
their right gear, their shields, all all kinds of things
there that they're equipped with, and they are standing in
stage here right now, and you know, doesn't look like
there's that sort of tense, volatile situation that we've seen
playing out in the last few days we you know,
we as we've been talking about, this crowd is very
much sort of dispersed, and it's scattered and there's just
(07:31):
remnants in little pockets of people here and there and
kind of just wandering around, I think, people trying to
figure out maybe what to do, where, where to go.
But you know, LAPD their strategy seems to have worked,
which was to kind of break up the crowd, create
kind of a situation where there was no real place
to reconstitute a crowd. So by you know, either by
(07:54):
closing down streets or by you know, by placing you know,
a high concentration of officers in different spots, and so
it just kind of created this, like I think for
the people who are out here, a bit of chaos
and a bit of inability to kind of create some continuity.
So now which you have is just a lot of
(08:14):
people just kind of wandering around, looking like, well, what
do we do next? It doesn't seem like there is
a lot of organization out here. It certainly did not
seem that organized earlier either.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
We just sort of huge.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Boom a few blocks away that could have been fireworks
or any number of things, but it was a very
large boom sound.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Maybe that's in the area where Lori Perez is.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
But yeah, so you know, obviously some people are kind
of you know, making comments and saying some some insulting
some of the officers here, but for the most part,
others sort of standing there looking at them and just yeah,
they're The posturing is definitely different than it was. You know,
we we've seen the situation play out where you have
(09:03):
protesters in some cases, you know, trying to antagonize federal
officers or police officers, either verbally or you know, throwing
things at them, you know, walking up to them with
their cell phones and you know, saying things to them.
But while that's happening on a smaller scale right now,
it's nothing compared to what we saw, and it doesn't
(09:24):
seem like we're in that sort of hair trigger situation,
you know, where one little thing could happen and then
the whole situation explodes and there's clashes.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It just it seems different.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
And obviously, you know, given what we've seen in the
last few.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Nights, I think, okay, I'm going to jump in there
and if you just only heard a snippet of that,
let me just kind of recap what the reporter was
saying for ke Cow, it's dissipating. People are walking away
largely orderly. If you check out our YouTube, you can
see some of the video where police are moving fullar
(10:00):
and it's not like they're encountering as much resistance as
maybe an hour and a half ago. There has not
been an order officially to disperse from what I know.
And this kind of goes back to what LAPD Chief
Jim McDonald was talking about, because obviously LAPD has a
plan and it was unclear not only to me as
(10:21):
a layperson, but also was unclear to Chief McDonald as
far as what role the Marines would play when obviously
you had the National Guard guarding the Federal building. What
the hundreds of other marines were going to add? Do
you have that statement in front of you, by chance, Mark,
which one exactly from Jim McDonald. I had it just
(10:42):
a second ago. It will give me, well, I'll give
you some time, but it's I think it's interesting here.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
We are all right, go ahead.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
LAPD Chief Jim McDonald has issued a statement saying the
possible arrival of federal military forces in La absent clear
coordination presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those
of US charged with safeguarding the city.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
If well, I not even say if.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Since more National Guard have been sent now by President
Trump to the area, you got to ask the question,
does this help or hinder the management of the protests.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Well, we know that the LAPD isn't exactly pro dirty
hippie protesters, and they've been saying all weekend that they
had the situation under control. If you were on top
of that stuff. They do not seem thrilled with the
extra help. They didn't want it.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Well, when I say they were on top of it,
I'm characterized if someone doesn't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
But I guess they know better than Jim McDonald as well.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
Well, and we're also hearing now that in Washington, legislators
are scrambling to deal with how the military would be
deployed because then we're getting into posse comitatis area there.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Well, let's explain that for folks.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And basically the law is you cannot use the armed
forces as a law enforcement group.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, they're a very narrow circumstance. Is that allow that?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
But from the way it's being presented, it seems that
the Marines would be in a law enforcement position.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Yeah, so we're getting into some dicey territory here, and
I want to remind people be really cautious consumers of news,
especially if you're getting it from social media. Click through
to the source, make sure that it's not just influencers
and propagandas. Look for credentialed news professionals that you're getting
your information from, because situations like this, it's rife with
(12:31):
misinformation and you don't want that to color how you
look at this situation.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
This is when we talk about Oh, I should say,
we do talk about media literacy a lot, but this
is one of those times where it's really really important.
And I understand the Customarily, I'm not working in a
news capacity.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
I'm on air personality. I'm giving opinion and editorial.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I try to keep it more to the facts of
information during breaking news like this, because it's very very
important not to push people in an unknown necessary direction
about how I feel or my politics.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
And I keep trying to remind folks I do not
have a dog in this fight. I do not.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I try to give you some history. Let's compare this
to twenty twenty. Let's compare this to nineteen ninety two
after the Rodney King, Stacy Kuhn Lawrence Powell verdict. But
I'm not trying to tell you or how you know,
what I think about Donald Trump threatening to arrest Gavin Newsom.
That's not the news of the day. That's not what's
really important. That's not going to impact your lives right now.
(13:31):
In other words, is this going to impact you if
there is a greater conflagration, if there is an escalation
that impacts you. You know, so we can talk about
some of the underlying issues. We can do that, but
I'm not here to talk about politics.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
It used to be a.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Mark Rono remembers this, and I know Taala Sharp remembers this.
Before there was cable news, you just had broadcast news
and you'd have the who, what, win, where, why?
Speaker 5 (13:56):
How?
Speaker 3 (13:56):
That was it? That was it?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
There was no really no editorial, and if so, there
would be a whole segment what they told you this
is an editorial and made it very clear that the
anchor was giving his or her opinion. We have lost
that now because we have cable news, which is not
governed by any rules. Actually, you don't have the rules
of news reporting on cable news.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
That's why.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
MSNBC is really no different than Comedy Central. And I'm
being serious, because you can have someone deliver quote unquote
their thoughts on the news. Sometimes it could be comedic
like Comedy Central in the Daily Show, or it could
be in a news and editorial format like Lawrence o'donald
or something. And people don't really understand that distinction because
(14:44):
we don't teach media literacy anymore. So to Mark's point,
you have to be very judicious about where you get
the facts, the who, what, where, when, why and how.
Most of the time we don't get that in our
news coverage. We just start with how I feel that
hearing Bass messed this up. That's where people start, and
that's not actually news coverage, that's just opinion and editorial.
(15:09):
So what is happening tonight? We're telling you as it's happening.
And if you look at the imagery on k CAL
nine right now, I can't quantify it, but I can
qualify it.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
A lot of the people have gone home.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
There is not this mass demonstration what it looked like
it was going to turn into two hours ago. We're
not there. And kudos to the LAPD for what they've
managed to do. And also you know they obviously had
a plan and they've stuck to it. Now, there were
questions that I had, and there are questions that Michael
(15:43):
Monks had, and will continue to watch this because it
could turn on a dime. If you know history, you
know it could turn on a dime. But it's moving
in a direction where it seems to be de escalating,
not escalating. If I am six forty, I'm O Kelly.
We're going to continue to follow this wherever it goes,
wherever it leads. We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
K IF I am sixty Kelly here live everywhere in
the iHeartRadio app. And this is I guess nervous time
because the sun is down and most of the what
I would call the legitimate protesters are going home. This
is when, unfortunately, we will see the knuckleheads. This is
when we'll see the agitators. This is when we'll see
the folks who have no business being out there other
(16:40):
than to cause trouble. But up until now, it has
been well managed it has been disciplined. As far as
LAPD and its approach, they are slowly moving forward. And
I guess there's still no curfew, there's still no official
order to disperse. And these are just some random thoughts
have just been bumping around my head during the break.
(17:04):
If we take a larger view, we pull out and
look at the macro view of these ICE protests. Now
we know that ICE they usually do their arrests in
the early portion of the day. We know that everything
started on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. In the early portion of
the day, ICE they would go to their set locations,
(17:26):
their predetermined locations, and they would enact their arrests. They're
not doing it now. In other words, and Twale, you
made a great point. There's nothing to protest now. LAPD
is not ICE. LAPD has not been assisting in these
arrests on behalf of ICE. So if you're out there
(17:50):
now protesting in the dark against nobody in particular related
to the actual ICE arres and raids, however you want
to characterize them, then you're obviously not there in good faith.
And I know there are a lot of bad faith
actors out there. And look, I try to look at
(18:11):
this through the lens of the constitution. I personally don't
see the value in waving a Mexican flag if you're
trying to protest, I personally don't see it. But constitutionally
I support your right to do it. You know, I
don't think it gains you anything. But at the same time,
as a wave a Mexican flag right now looking on
k Cow, yes, that's your right to I'll just say
(18:36):
cloud the issue, to confuse the issue, to make it
seem like you're not here for the right reason.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
But here's something else we need to consider.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
This is most definitely what some have called like the
beta testing for what's going to happen in other cities.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
What is happening right now.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
When I say what is happening right now, this is
inclusive of the ice raids. You're going to see it
in other cities, other major cities. And this is the
only politics I really mentioned tonight. They will happen in
democratically run cities capital d In other words, if there's
a democratic mayor, you can expect these particular raids and
(19:17):
procedures to be followed.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
I expect to see this in Miami.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I expect to see this in New York, I expect
to see this in Chicago, and out of that, I
expect a similar response. You will see a similar response
from the community. And what you're seeing now, you're going
to see another spots around the community. And from a
political standpoint, this is nothing bad for President Trump. This
is exactly what he wants. This is exactly what he
(19:45):
is looking for. These are the optics that he would prefer.
This is what he ran on. And as far as
what he's going to say about it, you know, these
are promises that he made, and these are promises that
he is fulfilling. So he is just fine with these
ice raids. And if there should violence, have more violence breakout,
I'm quite sure he would support that as well, because
(20:06):
the optics favor what he has been looking for. You know,
this is something that he ran on, this is something
that he was elected on.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So it's not like there's going to be fewer of these. No, If.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Politically it serves his purpose, his purposes here in LA,
then that means politically it's going to serve his purposes
in Miami, Chicago, New York, and maybe Houston and some
other border cities. And I'll say southern states as well,
or even the southwest portion of the United States, We're
(20:42):
going to see more of this. I think that's just
a reasonable assumption, not necessarily a politicization of what's happening
right now. It's hard to look at this without acknowledging
the larger immigration discussion here in America. This is something
which has been front and center of our politics, I
(21:05):
want to say since maybe two thousand and eight, because
Barack Obama did run on immigration reform for his first
and second term, didn't get it done, and we know
within private citizen Trump when he came down the escalator
in twenty fifteen, made it a central part of his
(21:26):
would be campaign. So this has been an America's conscience
for at least a good seventeen years. And that's saying
nothing of going back to Reagan and the Immigration Amnesty
Act of nineteen eighty six. So this is something that
our nation has been wrestling with for quite some time,
and we're coming to one of those inflection points where
(21:50):
we're going to have to go through this, and we're
going to go through it together, and hopefully we'll go
through it non violently, and hopefully we'll go through it
and come out on the other side better. But we're
gonna have to get through this right now, right now.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It's La.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
There will be other cities, and we will have this
conversation again with those other cities, and you will probably
see the National Guard sent in those other cities. You
may see marines sent in in those other cities. Because
this will be the playbook going forward. Like it, loath it,
if you may not agree with it, but this is
where it is headed.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
K IF I AM six forty. I'm O Kelly. We're
live everywhere the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
You're listening to Later with Mo Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
KFI AM six forty, We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
As we continue to follow the events of downtown and
Santa Ana. I want to check back in one more
time with kfi's own Michael Monks, who's pretty much on scene. Michael,
I get the sense if I look at just television coverage.
Kick Hal has pulled back, Katla has pulled back. There's
(23:02):
really not much to see from a television standpoint from
where you are.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
What's the move.
Speaker 6 (23:08):
Well, it looks like we're hearing from the police chief
right now. My understanding is that they did order folks
to disperse, and the people who refuse to do so
have been kettled. As they say that is surrounded by police.
There's a few dozen people there apparently that have been
kettled by police and now face arrests. That includes some
(23:30):
members of the press, according to one report that I've seen.
But I now understand that members of the media will
be able to leave that kettling and then those few
dozen folks will face arrests. And I believe police Chief
Jim McDonald may be speaking now on this issue. So
we talk about the media pulling back because things seem
to be a bit calmer, and that seems to be
(23:53):
because the police did not pull back this time. They
wanted to nip this in the bud a little more quickly,
and we're not messing around when they issued those orders
to disperse.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
At this point, I know we can't predict what's going
to happen five minutes from now or two hours from now.
Can you see whether law enforcement is pulling back? In
other words, do they have the same number of units
and officers on scene now as they did two hours ago,
or is there slightly less.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
That tactical alert is still in effect as of right now,
is my understanding, which means that all officers who were
on duty when that call went out earlier today were
to remain on duty until further notice. So the LAPD
is trying to keep as much strength as they can.
The images that I can see indicate a pretty significant
(24:42):
law enforcement presence. So what motivated this change in strategy,
I'm not sure. I do know that the protest downtown
today was not able to get to be as large
as it had been over the past couple of days
leading up to this, and that has to do with
an adjust in strategy. They shut down all of those
(25:02):
entrance ramps and exit ramps so you could not get
in or out of the Civic Center area of downtown
Los Angeles. They were blocking access to a lot of
surface streets, so while there were a lot of protesters downtown,
they were never really allowed to converge together as one.
So the strategy by the LAPED this time around appears
to have kept folks separated, and now they've got the
(25:25):
folks that have refused to leave the scene and that
they may now face arrest.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
From what you can see, has there been any movement
of the National Guard? Are there fewer in number? Are
they just going to ride out the whole night guarding
the federal building? And any word on when Marines the
Marines might arrive on scene.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
We don't know exactly when the Marines are supposed to
arrive because it's not a local jurisdiction, but it is
supposed to be within the next twenty four hours. We
know that there's about seven hundred Marines deployed to one
thousand additional National Guard troops deployed. The ones who are
on the ground, Those California National guardsmen who are on
the ground now have pretty much kept to their original assignment,
(26:10):
which is around that Federal building at Alameda Street. Another
key difference for tonight's protests compared to yesterday certainly is
nobody was getting near that federal building. They kept people
far away from that. So all of the action that
we're seeing so far today seems to just involve either
the LAPD, maybe some sheriff's folks, and then the CHP,
the California Highway Patrol blocking some of those freeway exits.
(26:33):
So it is clear mo that the LAPD decided they
needed to adjust their strategy here, and we may see
an end to any unrest a little bit earlier than
we have in previous days.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Nobody shot you, huh, It's still early in downtown Los Angeles, man,
I got to keep three eyes open.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
I am pulling for you.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I can say I've had pepper spray, you know, shot
around me, and you don't even need to be next
to the You can be like thirty feet away and
pepper spray will say hello to you. I can't speak
for tear gas, but if you were to describe it,
I know you know there's nothing good about it is
all the way horrible. But as best you can describe
(27:14):
the feeling, is it eyes burning, nausea?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:18):
It was really interesting.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
You know, when you're in the news as long as
we have been, tear gas is something we write about
or mentioned that. Maybe it was deployed because some suspect
in some crime had holed up in a property and
so they deployed tear gas and flash bangs and that
sort of thing, and it does often lead to their
exit because it is such an irritant. My first experience
(27:42):
yesterday in tasting it close and personal, was interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
It was immediate.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
Coughing fits. As soon as you inhale it, it wants
to get out of your Your body wants it out,
so you're choking, you're coughing.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
It's disgusting.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
About a minute, maybe two minutes later, it's hard to
remember exactly in real time how it worked. You start
to feel the burning in the eyes and it's extraordinarily irritating,
and then the water starts, and that's why they call
it tear gas, and you are crying. I mean, there
are tears coming out, flowing out of your eyes. I
managed to turn away from it fast enough to not
(28:19):
have a direct hit.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I certainly suffered from it.
Speaker 6 (28:21):
It got me good, but some of my colleagues in
the media got it much worse and looked like hell afterwards,
a lot of spit coming out of their mouths. But
people mobilized because by now, with all the protests we've
experienced over the past half decade and the tear gas
that can even hit us in the media, folks seem
to turn to milk as a remedy for this.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
So a lot of times.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
You'll see protest even before the s hits the fan
that there's just kind of milk about just an anticipation
of this taking place and knowing that you need to
douse yourself in it. A lot of folks dumping water.
I was fortunate I really didn't need to put any
liquid on my face. What helped me was I went
(29:05):
under an overpass or a bridge or something, and the
shade blocking the sun really helped, and then I was
just able to kind of dab from my shirt and
get the irritant out. What was really interesting about the
tear gas is how long it felt like it lingered,
because you know, a couple more hours would pass after
this solitary incident involving the direct tear gas, and I'd
(29:28):
be walking around the protest scene and suddenly I'd get
another whiff of it, and it's like it's still in
the air. I mean, that stuff hangs out for a while.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
I guess you got a good story to tell you
kids or grandkids.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
My cat didn't seem so interesting. It's just me and
AM sitting here monitoring all these screens tonight. I'll tell
you didn't want to hear about it all. I just
wanted to treat.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
You and Mark must be like brothers from another mother.
Something dis similarities between your lifestyles and your history. Yeah,
tear gas in common.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
It really is hard to tell us apart now what
you're gonna find when you get home, Michael, that you
got to take off all your clothes because they're all
gonna smell like tear gas.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
You're gonna have to watch the hell out of everything
that you've been wearing.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Oh, you know, it was laundry day yesterday and I
couldn't do it because it ended up being such a
long day, so that that jacket still stinks a little bit.
But it is true, Marca, you and I do have
a certain surly nature and gray hair.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And okay, let's not get too personal here. I'm trying
to get you down town about it.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Well, Michael, first, thank you for all your reporting, and yes,
you were in harm's way. We may have a laugh
about it, but it does not belie the danger, the
actual danger that you were in. And we appreciate you
reporting despite the danger and remaining as safe as possible
so you can give us the facts of what was
(30:50):
going on.
Speaker 6 (30:51):
Well, I appreciate you saying that. I do think we
need to be clear though, the federal government is not
going to slow down these raids. They are going to
execute the immigration policy that this president ran on, and
this is a place that they are targeting for that.
So while maybe tonight is fizzling out, thankfully hopefully as
(31:14):
uneventful relative to the previous days, there could be many
more days ahead and we'll be here to keep an
eye on and I know you will, and I will,
and even Runner will.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Even Mark Ronner, thank you. Get some rests, Michael Monks.
I certainly will, Thanks so much. We'll talk tomorrow. If
I am six forty, I'm Kelly. We're live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
As FI and KOs T HD two Los Angeles, Orange County.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
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