BHS - 7A – Next LAPD Chief Search | ‘Appeal to Heaven’ Flag

Who should be the next LAPD chief? Alito flew it in front of his house and speaker Mike Johnson flies it in front of his office… ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag meaning. Restaurant menus go analog again after QR code backlash. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demandfrom KFI AM six forty. You are
listening to the Bill Handle Show.And this is KFI AM six forty Bill
Handle Here. It is a Mondaymorning, June third. Some of the

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big stories we're looking at Cara ClaudiaScheinbaum. We talked about her last week.
At the end of the week,she has been elected the new president
of Mexico. She was a frontrunner, no surprise, fifty eight percent.
That's it's close to a landslide.If not, the word handily elected
is certainly to be used. AndHunter Biden goes on trial today for gun

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related charges because when he got agun on the application he said I'm not
doing drugs, and he was doingdrugs at the time. He may have
actually been snorting cocaine as he walkedin to the gun store right there to
buy the gun. Now, ChiefMichael Moore resigned and so the search now

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for a new LAPD chief is on. And I don't know how this job
can be done by anybody. Why, because what is now required of a
chief is impossible. You just can'tdo it. The way it works,
you have a police Commission, civiloversight of police and that happened as a

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result of LAPD being very controversial.Everybody knows about the LAPD, everybody,
and so it's gone from being themost racist to the most modern and probably
the most Well, you've got acouple of chiefs. William Parker probably one

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of the most racist chiefs we've everhad, certainly in the fifty and then
he had Chief Daryl Gates, whowas around for fifteen years, and he
kind of made one or two mistakes, particularly after the Rodney King acquittal of
those four cops in nineteen ninety two. The boy I remember those days.
And so today, what does anLPD chief have to do? Well,

(02:20):
Karen Bass, who makes the finalselection after the police Commission, says,
these are the finalists. And soshe and her the people on her staff
are making this huge search and they'rehaving town meetings, virtual town meetings,
asking virtually everybody, asking members ofthe community, asking activists, asking cops,

(02:50):
asking victims of crime, legislators,police experts. I mean, it
goes all the way down the line. And here's what a new chief has
to do. Look at what anew chief has to deal with the back
Black Lives Matter movement. Right policeare way, way too aggressive. You've

(03:12):
got the police themselves and the dasnot aggressive enough. You've got folks that
want to take away budget from thepolice department because we don't need police,
we need de escalation. You've gota budget that's falling apart. What do
a police do with that? One? You've got dealing with homelessness? How
do the police deal with homelessness?And quite often they're at odds. You've

(03:38):
got folks that want more police presence, and I'm one of those where the
more cops, the less crime.That's the only, by the way connection
that they've been able to make realscientific let's look at it connection, more
cops equals less crime. However,more cops becomes a police state. So

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we want fewer cops. Then youwant morale amongst the police officers. The
rank and file will hold on asecond. To have morale means that you
have to be pro rank and file. How about those who think cops are
too powerful, cops use excessive force, cops aren't cognizant enough of the community.
Every one of these positions contradict theother position. It becomes virtually impossible.

(04:28):
Darryl Gates considered either the best orthe worst police chief we've had.
And he used to be on KFIby the way, after he had to
resign or he got tossed. Actuallyafter the Rodney King riots. If you
remember nineteen ninety two, Rodney King, the cops who beat him up,
they were acquitted in a trial andboy and the riots exploded. Well,

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Darryl Gates didn't anticipate what was goingto happen, got nails for that and
didn't react appropriately. On the topof Darryl Gates, he was the first
police chief to incorporate or come upwith air support. No other police force
had done it. It was DarrylGates with the air support. I think

(05:13):
he also came up with SWAT.He also well, he got armored personnel
carriers and put these huge ramming deviceson the front of the on the front
of these armored personnel carriers and effectivelythey were tanks. And he would just

(05:33):
run into buildings where there were drugdealers. He didn't get into fights.
I mean there were no you know, police didn't surround them. He just
went right through him. We onlygot into a lot of trouble for that,
you know, needless to say,And but the rank and file loved
him, cops loved him. Andthen because of that, I remember Willie

(05:55):
Williams, the worst chief we've everhad, and they had to bring in
someone who was totally opposite. Sothey had so they brought in Willie Williams,
who was a park ranger, hadnever been a cop in his life.
He wasn't even allowed to carry agun, was no because he couldn't
pass the post exam. He couldn'tpass the exam that police officers have to

(06:17):
pass in order to be a peaceofficer allowed to carry a weapon. So
he had to get a permit fromLa County, a concealed weapons permit.
The worst guy we've ever had,We've gone from Michael Moore pretty good.
So now we have to find whowho's going to be the next police police

(06:39):
chief. It is an impossible job, impossible, and they they have applicants
all over the place. It's agood gig. You know, you get
paid a lot of money. Howmuch is that and how much does a
police chief get? I mean it'sit's a healthy chunk of money. And
the pension is just fabulous. Andyou know that people who are in the

(07:01):
hierarchy of the LAPD it is sowell regarded by other police departments that you
have deputy chiefs who are about toleave or they've been around for a while,
they're actually recruited by other police forces. Steve Gregory had I forgot the
guy's name. I used to knowhim, but I forget everybody's name.

(07:24):
And he left. He never hewas never chief. He was I think
the PIO, who is a publicinformation officer. He went to become the
police chief of Green Bay, greenBay, Wisconsin. So the LAPD is
an interesting organization. And you're gonnawhat is the amount of money police chief
gets. I'm seeing one hundred andthirty thousand. Oh no, no,

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no, it's far more than that. Three four that's impossible. That's impossible.
Never mind Ann because you're I knowyou're reading it, but that's impossible.
I have to look it up.Cops make more than that. Cops
on the street that make more thanone hundred thirty thousand dollars. All right,
So much for that. Now,let's go to the story of Supreme

(08:07):
Court. Just as Samuel Alito andhe flew the American flag outside of his
home in Washington, d c.Upside down for days and he was asked
to be by Congress. He saidyou got to. They said you got
to recuse yourself because the American flagupside down two things. Number one,
it is only used in distress,extreme distress. And number two, it

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is used by the far right.And you saw those in the January sixth
resurrection. You saw those among thecrowd, or saw it among the crowd.
And he says one of two things. I didn't do it. My
wife did it. And I didn'treally know it was up there for several
days until I saw it now walkinginto his front door. It's right there

(08:54):
on I think the left of thatentrance. And he never saw walking in
the door. Okay. Oh,and he refuse to recuse himself. He
says that not that doesn't leave meetthe level of the recusal, which they
have a judicial code of conduct,but every judge can completely ignore it.

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Judges are appointed for life and theycan do any damn thing they want.
There is no oversight on judges.So with that being said, you've got
two issues. One American flag upsidedown. Okay, that's controversial enough because
the upside down flag has been attributedto the far right, and it's not

(09:39):
used in anything other than distress andthe right wing, far right wing who
have used it in demonstrations and certainlyJanuary sixth, so that one, I
think is unforgivable. There is noquestion about it. There are two other
flags one and there is kind ofan argument here that at least you can

(10:07):
use this flag, you can flythis flag, and it makes sense as
matter of fact, not only didAledo have this on his vacation home beach
house, but Mike Johnson uses it. Speaker of the House flies this flag
over his office in the Capitol.And so what is it about. It's

(10:30):
called the appeal to Heaven flag,and it has been used not only by
the far right, but by Republicanlawmakers. Now I don't know Republican lawmakers
who have flown the flag upside downanywhere, because that is so blatant.
But this appeal to Heaven flag hasa bunch of meetings, meanings. It's

(10:52):
been used in all kinds of differentways. Matter of fact, it goes
back to George Washington days was usedas a naval flag in Massachusetts until nineteen
seventy one, flew outside San FranciscoCity Hall with other flags, and it's
the pine tree and the appeal toheaven. It's known as the pine tree

(11:15):
flag, and it is well,here's the problem. It has been co
opted by the far right. Theupside down flag has also been co opted
by the far right. And themost obvious measure is look at the Look
at the attacks on the Capitol ofJanuary sixth. You'll see that flag.

(11:39):
You'll also see the American flag.And that's another one because now, unfortunately
the American flag is now connected tothe far right, and that is such
a shame. For example, inmy new place, there is on either
side of me, I don't flyAmerican flag. I just don't do it.

(12:03):
However, to the left and tothe right, and this is,
uh, it's kind of crazy.American flags are flying in homes more so
than not. And instantly when yousee an American flag today, you know
that's a Trump follower. Unfortunately,that's where it's except for maybe July fourth.

(12:26):
That's such crap. I mean,it is not crap. Is not
crap. I fly my flag allthe time. I'm not a Trump supporter.
And how many people in your neighborhoodfly an American flag daily? In
LA With that, I'm not arguingthat what I'm saying is you fly your
flag? Why you've never flown yourflag? I know, No, I'm

(12:48):
just not one of those people thatfly I'm just one of those people,
not one of those people that flyyour flag. How about people who have
flag poles in their front yard andthe American flag is flying? A couple
of those very few. But thepoint is, and I think, by
the way, I'm not saying thatthat people who fly the flag very rarely.
Are they not Trump supporters? Thereis I'm just telling you today the

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flag, the flag that is flying, is now associated with the far right,
and it is unfair. It's Neil, It's unfair of those very few
people who actually fly the flag becauseof non for non political reasons. I
am saying for flag, it's allo our flag. I don't want to

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yield to that, right, don't, Neil. I'm just Neil. I
would love to have the stats.I would love to have a survey in
front of me. The point I'mmaking is the flag, the upside down
flag. You know, you don'tthink of it as being co opted.
The appeal they have in flag hasbeen co opted because everybody who actually use

(13:58):
the flag, and I think legitimatelyhas brought it down. And you're talking
about the far right being left.It has. Everything's become politicized everything,
Neil, everything there. You can'tgo to McDonald's and order a big macmeal
without it becoming politicized. But Ido believe that this flag is a political

(14:20):
statement, there is no question about. Much like the flag. I have
someone who is very close to mehas her flag, uh, and there's
a little banner in front. Webelieve in LGBTQ rights, we believe in
women's rights. It's one of thoseyou've seen those banners. Okay, ask

(14:41):
me if that person voted for DonaldTrump, asked me, or is going
to of course not. That's apolitical statement. Yeah, I get all
that. I just don't think theflag should be right. It shouldn't be,
Neil, It shouldn't be should representgay rights, yeah about, but
it doesn't. But it doesn't.It doesn't. And by the way,

(15:01):
I will just let you know thisperson who is near and dear to me,
okay, who has or had thatLGBTQ rights in a neighborhood where American
flags were going. Unfortunately, herhouse was torched and it's it's very unfortunate
okay, okay. Now I wantto spend a couple of segments with Neil,

(15:26):
and this has to do with restaurants. And whenever restaurants come into the
conversation, of course, Neil joins, I rely on him a lot two
to five every Saturday with Fork Report. And this one has to do with
QR codes at restaurants. And Ihave been to restaurants. Once I go

(15:46):
to those restaurants where I ask fora menu and they go just check out
the QR code. We don't havemenus now. Sometimes when the waiter female
or a male waiter says there's aQR code, and I say, I
would like a paper or like oneof your plastic menus, and they bring

(16:10):
it out. I'm okay with that, if you have a choice. The
places that say we only have aQR code drive me nuts because when I
walk in, I don't know that. And when I'm told there's a QR
code code and that's the only wayyou have a menu, I go out
of my mind. I mean Igo crazy. And I'm not alone to

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the point now where restaurants are goingthe other way because of the backlash of
QR codes. Neil, we're goingto have you talk in the next segment
because I'm going to finish this upand then we're going to talk. And
it makes a lot of sense tonot have well, not paper paper makes
sense. Paper menus, plastic menus. There are lots of issues with plastic

(16:59):
menus because well, because people's handsare all over them and you go to
the bathroom. You see people goto the bathroom and don't wash their hands
or I don't know where they've been, they have cooties, and they have
communicable diseases, and they are fingeringthe menus. And you know what restaurants

(17:21):
don't do is sanitize those menus.They just throw them back on the pile.
And it makes all the sense inthe world for them not to have
plastic menus because it or you notto use a plastic menu because it's so
disgusting. The other thing that isan advantage, this is where the restaurants
love this, and that is theydon't reprint QR code menus. They just

(17:47):
change it on their their I guessphone menu. What do they call QR
code menus? I guess QR codemenus. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Okay, thanks to Yeah, thankyou a digital menu and that's easy
to change, where if you're printinga menu, especially a plastic menu,
those are not cheap. And whenyou change the prices, you have to

(18:11):
reprint everything. And I want tobring Neil in this because Neil, you're
more much more in tuned with restaurantsout there. Is this a thing now
that QR codes are disappearing? Yeah, and good written. I don't like
them either. I want to holdthe menu in my hand sometimes I want
to keep it at the table.I don't want to read it off of

(18:33):
my tiny little phone. And ifyou remember, maybe near the end of
last year, that some evil doerswere taking their own QR codes, making
them stickers and putting them over theQR codes at the table and putting malware
on people's phones and stuff like that. So I didn't know that. Yeah,

(18:56):
I know that, so it there'sactually there's a lot of problems with
QR codes. Actually, I likethe tech. I think it's pretty cool.
I think I have come across peoplewho have them on their phone now
instead of business cards. They justhold up their phone with the QR code,
You grab it and then you havetheir information in your phone. Now

(19:17):
there's really great stuff to use thetechnology, but I think part of the
experience is going to be that tactile sitting in a restaurant, having the
whole experience. It's almost like thepersonality of the restaurant is in the menu
as well, if done right,and it's one of your first experiences of

(19:40):
the evening is to hold that inyour hand. Well, and to your
point is the other hassle. AndI'm surprised that the restaurants didn't catch this
very early and say, okay,we're done with QR codes. I know
it's convenient as hell for them.They don't have to print anything. They
can change their prices anytime. Butyou're looking at the menu per our conversation.
As you said, it's on yourphone, and you have to scroll

(20:06):
through. First you have the appetizers, and then you have the main meal
and the desserts, and you can'tlook and try to put your meal together,
which people do. What kind ofappetizer do I want? And the
print usually is so small, Ihave to expand the print and now I

(20:29):
get half a sentence or I geta third of the sentence, and it
makes it all most impossible to doa decent job of reading a menu and
restaurants, why would restaurants make itharder for you to choose? Do you
know what changed with that? Becauseof the very thing you just stated,

(20:52):
ten percent of your average check wasknocked off. So sales went down by
ten percent because using QR codes forthe very reason you said, people wouldn't
scroll all the way through, sothey would just pick something rather than looking
at the full menu and really findingsomething they like. So with ten percent

(21:15):
going down with each ticket, thenthat means less tips, less everything.
So it it It hasn't helped it. You know. The fact is there
are so many other things that areless hygienic in life, you know,
opening the door for example, orany of those things. And quite honestly,

(21:37):
after the pandemic or during the pandemic, I think as a whole,
most restaurants got really good and theirstaff got really good at sanitizing things,
because menus used to be one ofthe worst things ever. I have been
to many a restaurant where the menugoes right on that pile and then it
goes right back to people with thetable. Uh paper Menus I think are

(22:03):
great because they're used effectively once uh, sometimes not sometimes they're used again.
But in general, I to thisday, I cannot see why any restaurant
would use a QR code. Uh. It's easier for them, but it's
infinitely more of a hassle and moredifficult, uh than that the customer is

(22:26):
dealing with. H they're going away. People don't like them, They don't
They didn't like them then, theycertainly don't like them now the pandemic,
uh, even with new variants poppingup that people people don't care. They
want to also describing describing the mealsbecause of course restaurants understand. You know,

(22:47):
for example, a garden fresh saladuh picked you know, the lettuce
ingredients just picked, and you havea whole explanation. And I mean there's
science there too. There's the wordsalad and and there's the word garden fresh,
and it makes a difference. Andby the way, absolutely yeah,
there is garden fresh as the gardenfresh salad. Well, you know,

(23:10):
a lot this is a big dealwith a lot of rest chef driven restaurants
is they have whether it's on theroof of the building or somewhere nearby,
they have their own gardens. Nowthat's how fresh things are it's pretty fresh?
And do they have their own cattlefor example? Yeah, they walk
it through on a little leash.This is Bessie. And how about a

(23:33):
part of that rump? Yeah,you know, was it Morton's that used
to have that cart that it wouldroll and they'd show you the steak.
Yep, the tout said it wouldbe wrapped in uh saran wrapper or cellophane,
and they'd walk it through and they'dpoint to it, and then they'd
bring the lobster out with its clawstied as well, I tell you.

(23:57):
And well, I'm not gonna Idon't want to say anything disparaging about Morton's.
It has gone straight downhill. KFIAM six forty live everywhere on the
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