August 21, 2025 • 29 mins
7:05 - Former LA Fire Chief accuses Mayor Bass of Defamation
7:20 - LA touts using unarmed civilians over cops for some emergencies.
7:35 - Most LA city employee layoffs averted by beal with unions.
7:50 - Is there such a thing as a "good life?" Yes, according to science.
7:20 - LA touts using unarmed civilians over cops for some emergencies.
7:35 - Most LA city employee layoffs averted by beal with unions.
7:50 - Is there such a thing as a "good life?" Yes, according to science.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from kf I
am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Can't fine am six forty handled here on a really
hot Thursday. And another event, Neil and I are going
to be out.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
We had a lot of stuff going on this summer.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And that is Saturday, September sixth, the Wild for in
Long Beach, two o'clock. Neil is going to be broadcasting
and I will be there. And here's how you win.
You show up.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's easy. That is really easy.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And we're gonna have samples and we're going to have
giveaways and one year anniversary at that location, Zelman's, and
we are going to have the time of our lives.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
And second and yeah, it's going to be great. They'll
be all kinds of good stuff. Yep.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
So that's Saturday. Keep calendar that one, Saturday, September sixth,
right around the corner.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Okay, guys, by the way, do we have an echo
going here?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
No? Because I got my door open because it's so
hot in here in the studio.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
All right, guys, let's move on. Great story now.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I love lawsuits for defamation and this one has been
filed by Christine Crowley, former police chief of Los Angeles,
and she is suing the mayor the city also because
that's the fun one.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's where the deep pockets are.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
For orchestrating a campaign of misinformation, defamation, retaliation. And this
has to do with the Palisades fire. Kristin Crowley accuses
Bass of ousting her, repeatedly defaming her as a Bass
shot to shift the blame away from the city as
(01:44):
to how she handled the handle of the Palisades fire,
and she concealed, according to this lawsuit, the extent of
which the fire department basically undermined public safety with cuts
to the fire department budget. It's one finger pointing the
other finger. Karen Bass, you screwed up, Crowley. You screwed up,
(02:06):
and here's why, because you, Kristin Crowley, did not have
enough firefighters there. You could have done something about it.
You kept a thousand firefighters at home. You didn't send
out enough equipment. You did not anticipate what the fire is,
what the fire was going to do. Okay, that's Karen
(02:28):
Bass's position. Now, Kristin Crowley's position is you're sitting there
in Ghana at some event, by the way, after you
promised you would never leave Los Angeles once you're mayor.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But that's besides the point.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
You're in Ghana knowing the fire danger because we were
warned that it was a life threatening fire danger. Wins
up to one hundred miles an hour and dry as hell,
and you're sitting at some bar mitzvah in Ghana and
that is not cool.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
So it's your fault.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Well, by the way, the reason we didn't have the
equipment that you said we should have had is you
cut the budget.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's the problem. And there wasn't enough water.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And the issue was that reservoir that was up in
the Palisades that had X million gallons of water that
was empty because repairs are being done and repairs take
a year, so I think it boils down to in
the end. Could have that fire been averted? If it
(03:37):
could have been averted, yes, blame is going to fly
all over the place. If it could not, then you
can accuse everybody of everything, and it doesn't matter. This
is a fire that they could not stop. Matter of fact,
it got to the point where fire experts are saying,
not only could the firefighters not get anywhere near the fire,
(04:01):
they had to run for their lives when they try
to fight the fire. There was no stopping this, which
is why the palisades. How many structures to what eleven
thousand structures burned down or sixteen thousand and thousands of
homes so and on top of that was Edison. I
(04:24):
think Edison is the utility there, and correct me if
I'm wrong. They didn't do enough because it sparked with
one of their transmission lines, and so far PG and
E has been hit big time with exactly that issue,
and billions of numbers had gone.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
You don't think Kristin Crowley, former LA fire chief, was
was scapegoaded.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Oh I think she was. Of course she was. It
seems so obvious to me. It does.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah, but it's dusting display of Mayor Bass, Yeah, use
of our authority.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well, may Or Bass is a political creature. It's that simple.
She's all politics. And she got elected because she's all politics.
She got elected because she's part of the democratic machine.
And you had Rick Caruso, who spent one hundred million
dollars on his campaign, a businessman who I believe knows
(05:22):
how to run an organization, a bureaucracy, and a bureacracy.
Not in the negative sense of bureaucracy simply because it's
a huge entity and we.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Didn't elect him. We didn't elect him.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Why because we in California, Southern California, we just follow.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
We literally just follow the political line.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You know. We complain about Donald Trump and how MAGA
supporters follow no matter what he says.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Well, guess what on the other side, the same thing.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
If someone is a Democrat, a liberal liberal Democrat, it
doesn't matter what he or she is about. So this
is going to be a lotawsuit for defamation. Do I
think there was defamation?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Karen Bass did cut millions of dollars from the budget
and as far as not enough equipment was brought to
the Palisades fire, They didn't have enough people for maintenance.
They couldn't maintain the fire equipment they had because there
wasn't enough money. So there is a fight and both
(06:26):
sides are saying it don't matter, it's your fault, it's
your fault, it's your fault, and that this is typical stuff.
In the end, I don't know if Kristen Crowley's going
to win. It depends on where the trial is going
to be, if it goes to trial or the city settles.
And if it's downtown LA, I mean downtown La is
(06:51):
where O. J.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Simpson was acquitted, because there is.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
You can't argue with democratic politics, you can't. All right,
we're done with that, matter of fact. Let's do a
story about LA again. And how about those unarmed civilians
over cops. When there is a mental issue and nine
(07:20):
to one one is called, you don't have to send
the police. We'd rather have civilians who are trained. We'd
rather have them shot. It's just easier. We'll be back
with that, heaf. I am a six forty handle here
on a Thursday morning, August twenty one, hotter than hell
out there today. Heat wave is here. Now, it's not
(07:43):
going to be a schitz. It is going to be hot.
This is a story I want to share with you
because we've been talking about this for a while. So
here in Los Angeles, it doesn't matter where. You call
nine to one to one. And let's say a person
is in the throes of a mental health crisis.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
So what happens you call nine to one to one
and who shows up?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Well, police officers show up, usually in groups of two,
and firefighters also show up. I remember I had to
go to the hospital once and they call the ambulance
and a fire crew comes out a truck with a
couple of firemen. And as I'm being dragged off in
(08:30):
the ambulance, I asked the firefighter, what are you guys
doing here? I have a medical issue here, and he goes,
just in case we need help, just in case you
weigh four hundred pounds, just in case we have to
break through a door.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So it gets really expensive. So there's a new report.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Out that a third option actually is holding promise for
the future. And for the past year Los Angeles been
testing the program that dispatches specially bring civilians who do
not carry guns in response to certain calls for help,
and early results are encouraging. Now there's some issues here
(09:11):
that I'm going to give you as soon as I
read this article La Times, of course, because LA Times
is the one is the organization that actually analyze all
of this, and I'm going to talk immediately. I said,
wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, there's
some real issues here. So these people, when deployed to
non violent, non urgent calls for service, unarmed crisis responders
(09:36):
have actually been shown to minimize the potential for escalation
address the critical mental health emergencies in such a way
that it prioritizes compassion and safety, and police think in
a different way.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
These people are not armed.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
They don't even think of attacking or I guess even
defending themselves. These are unarmed crisis responders. They're called and
a report just was released and it found that not
only do this specialized care given to people who need help,
it allows l APD more time to focus on traditional
(10:20):
law enforcement efforts.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
So it's a win win according to these programs.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Because cops are not there to respond to these mental health,
mental health crises, drug addiction crises, it's these volunteers, in
some cases, these paid civilians unarmed, so cops can go
out and do their thing and shoot up bad guys
(10:46):
and deal with burglaries and whatever it is that cops do,
and in certain cases defend themselves and blow people's brains
out when there's a risk, and in some cases shoot
people who don't deserve to be shot.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I mean, we've gone through those stories.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
So the pilot program is going on licensed clinicians, social workers,
community workers, therapists who work in pairs and they respond
to calls seven days a week around the clock. The
first year of the program handled more than sixty seven
hundred calls, mainly to conduct welfare checks and respond to
(11:29):
reports of public intoxication indecent exposure. Why wouldn't you let
someone keep on exposing himself for herself? Come on, that's
entertainment with a capital E. Now, I mean they're not
a risk. Go ahead now, especially if there are no
kids involved. And so right now, roughly forty calls a
(11:50):
day is just a fraction of what the LAPD handles.
But according to the report, cops have already saved nearly
seven thousand hours of patrol time, leaving them to do
cop stuff and at this point, the city's police force
struggling to fill its ranks, I mean, it is short
of cops. Such programs could have a larger role, and
(12:12):
one hundred of these across the country, And the report
doesn't report on what teams had, what kind of impact
these teams had on low level crimes, And so the
outreach workers conduct follow up visits after certain calls, offer
services to people who are willing to accept them mental
(12:33):
health treatment, drug rehab program and the program is known
as the unarmed model of crisis response, umser not to
be confused with mumser and you can look that one up.
What is yes, exactly Neil, who I think knows what
a mumser is?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
The report found that fewer than four point one percent
of calls end up requiring police backup, typically involving individuals
who insisted on having an officer present that then the
cops will show up, or who turned out to have weapons.
Now here's my question. Someone who is having a mental
(13:17):
health crisis, no weapon visible, going out there, where someone
is in a fight with someone else or appears to
be drunk, and out they go. They're unarmed and they're
to de escalate. What happens when a weapon comes out?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
What do they do? How do they know there's no weapon?
What chance? Cops get shot and killed?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
And they are trained when people produce guns or knives
and start to attack them. These are police officers and
they have the vests. Unarmed civilians. Now as good as
there's the idea, this is because I love it, because
it's civilians and they think a different way than police
(14:05):
officers do. Even though the cops are trained in de escalation,
it's not to this extent. Because this is what they
do This is it wait till somebody gets their brains
blown out. Just wait until one of these civilians is killed,
and all of a sudden, Wow, how do we respond?
Do all of a sudden the volunteers. I don't know
(14:27):
if they're paid or not. The report didn't talk about that.
But do they turn around or do we rethink the program?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
I'll bet you we do.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
More than half the calls involves some kind of disturbance.
Reports of a prowler or a trespasser is a common call.
That's another one. Somebody who is trespassing or a prowler
is around. You're going to show up and try to
de escalate. I'm not going to go there. I'm not
(14:59):
going to volunteer. And here's a good one you call.
It takes about twenty eight minutes for these people to
show up. You think they have the time to leave
twenty eight minutes and they spend about twenty five minutes
with the either the victim or the perpetrator of the crime.
(15:24):
So the argument is cops are not always equipped to
handle mental health calls. Now the new cops, i'm assuming,
are trained to do so, and they have that kind
of thinking brand new police officers, and I'm assuming part
of the psychological testing that they do. And by the way,
police departments, particularly LAPD, even though they are short of
(15:46):
cops and doing everything they can to get police officers
into the academy into the force, the requirements are still
way way up there, and most people are bounced because
of psychological reasons. They do not want shoot them up cops.
They want cops that are calm, that want to de
escalate and will only take their weapons out if and
(16:09):
when there's a real danger. So so far, twenty twenty
five LAPD officers have shot twenty seven people, and a
third of those involves someone who's experience a behavioral crisis,
according to the Times analysis. And once again I make
a point, when does someone pull out a weapon? Because
(16:31):
as soon as a weapon is brought out, okay, back
they go and they call.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
The police, who shows up.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Well, it's working so far, But as I said, wait
till one or two of these people get shot.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Okay, here's a go.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
We have a lot of la stuff going on today,
you know, but a lot of this also is Orange County.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
I mean that just follows.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I happen to live in La so I talk about
that more or I did live in LA and I
now live in Nebraska. I just wanted to point that
out because I needed to.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Get out of Dodge. All right, layoffs?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Why is that certain people get laid off from the
city or the county and others don't. And there's a
method to this madness, And there's one word that explains
all of it, and I'll share that with you. And
Joel Larsguard up at the top of the hour with
how to money on a hot, hot, hot Thursday.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty, and this is Campinej'll handle here a Thursday.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Morning, August twenty one, hot Thursday morning, August twenty one,
and I'm gonna throw some figures at you. And then
I'm gonna throw a figure at you. That is kind
of stunning, all right. Nearly three hundred LA City employees
are saved from being laid off after two major unions
signed off. LA Police protectively represents eighty seven hundred cops,
(18:09):
agreed to a voluntary program where its members can take
days off in exchange for some of the overtime that
affects two hundred and twenty two civilian LAPD employees. Okay,
clerk's administrative support workers. No sworn LAPD officers were slated
to be laid off.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Karen Bass, my favorite mayor, says, we're contributing. We're continuing
to do everything we can to bring layoff numbers down,
and I want everyone to know we're still working and
we anticipate this number to get even lower. Meanwhile, the
union that has six thousand members, Engineers and Architects Association,
(18:50):
they're going to take as many as five unpaid vacation days. Effectively,
it's a two percent pay cut. Now, that deal saved
the job of sixty three members city planner, analyst, civilian investigator.
That's a union. The city administrative officers, who oversees labor
(19:13):
negotiations at city Hall, said that the money freed up
took that number down to seventy five layoffs instead of
sixty three layoffs.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
See how good that is. Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
In her proposed budget, Bass said a sixteen hundred layoffser
part of a strategy to eradicate a billion dollar shortfall.
And then weeks later, the city Council reduced the number
of layoffs by half. So now we're dealing with eight
hundred total layoffs and to close a budget shortfall, the
(19:50):
council decided to slow down police hiring, although.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
That was announced that that's not going to happen because
we need the police.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
So the other good news is hundreds of workers have
either left city employment or transferred to bishop to other
positions because there is attrition. And with attrition and there's
no hiring to fill those positions, well then you have
a cut no matter what. So one of the council
(20:22):
members who chairs the City Budget Committee, Katie Aeroslavsky, said,
even in a tough budget year, we are ensured there
will not be a single LAPD civilian layoffice. It's always
been our goal, but never guaranteed. And it's only possible
because the Union Engineers and Architects Association, the police department,
(20:44):
and city leadership worked in partnership to keep officers on
the street and protect public safety. So we are talking
about layoffs down to about seven or eight hundred total
because the city works so hard to make that number possible.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Okay, here's the figure I'm gonna throw at you.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
These few hundred layoffs and twice that have been saved.
This is in a city where there are forty five
thousand employees and they were able to save three hundred
and boy, let's stand up and cheer for that one
(21:31):
because that.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Has such impact.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Out of forty five thousand employees and a budget shortfall
of a billion dollars, they averted a layoff of several
hundred people. Yipie, welcome to local government. Oh here's a
fun one coming up. What is a good life? And
(21:57):
that's in quotes. Well, science is now looking at that
to determine to define what is a good life. And
I'll come back with that at the top of the hour.
We got Joe Larsgard. Kay, fine, am six forty handle here.
It is a hot Thursday, August twenty one, Tomorrow at
eight thirty it's ask handle anything where I answer all
(22:18):
kinds of personal questions, usually humiliating and embarrassing ones. And
we can't do it without you. And what does that mean?
That means you have to ask the questions. And here's
how you do it. During the course of the show.
You go too the iHeartRadio app. Click on the bill
handle show upper right hand corner microphone, click on that
and we record your question fifteen twenty seconds. I don't
(22:42):
care about your opinion or anything questions. And that's because
everybody asks me about everybody else here on the show,
and I ask everybody, what's everybody else like? That made
no sense. In the meantime, go ahead and ask or
ask the question.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
We record it.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I hear at the same time everybody else does, so
it's a spontaneous answer. Now, science, actually this is forty
plus years of research trying to define what a good
life is. This is all psychologists to do this. They
found that mainly there are two answers. A good life
(23:21):
is a happy life, pursuing comfort, satisfaction, more joy than sadness.
Number two is a meaningful life grounded by purpose connection
making the world better. Recently, a third answer was proposed.
Good life is psychologically a psychologically rich life marked by
(23:43):
novel experience, perspective shifting, shifting insights, and complexity, but also
has discomfort and has challenges. Usually you don't think of
discomfort as part of a good life. A psychologist the
Universsey of Chicago who did a lot of this, we
(24:03):
wanted to capture more explorative, adventurous, creative types of good life. Happiness,
he said, can be thought of a batting average, it
goes up, it goes down, good and bad experience. Psychological
richness is more akin to career highlights, interesting stories.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Experiences over a lifetime.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's from maybe travel, meeting interesting people, reading books, overcoming
challenging circumstances. Now, a psychologically rich life asks us to
leave our comfort zones, and we're open to changing our minds.
As a social psychologist who looked at this and that
(24:45):
is well looking at life one way and saying, okay,
I'm wrong, I just blew it, or I thought one way,
now I'm thinking another way and put another way. Each
path may sound different when summed up on your deathbed.
The last words a person who has had a happy
(25:06):
life might be it was fun. Someone who's lived a
meaningful life might say I made a difference. Psychologically rich
life can come through a midlife crisis. Okay, by the way,
(25:27):
someone who lived a psychologically rich life would.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Say, what a journey I had. Now. Tombstones are kind
of interesting.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
My best friend Savo, who's a very successful businessman, has
already written his tombstone, and on his tombstone is going
to be written, I spent too much time with my family,
And that is absolutely true. I'm not exaggerating on this one.
My tombstone may read I never met a meal I
(25:54):
didn't like Will Handle as opposed to Will Rogers, and
what is I'll tell you what happiness is. Where I
find happiness. Let's say I'm walking down the street and
a homeless guy comes up and this has happened before,
(26:15):
and says, hey, mister, do you have some extra change?
And I reached into my pocket and I happen to
have some change, and I jingle it and I go,
why yes, I do? And then I keep on walking.
That is a happy life. That to be is a
meaningful life.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
So do I have a meaningful life? You know? I
don't know. I don't know. You know.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Do I make a difference? I don't think so. I
don't take myself too seriously. I mean, I enjoy teaching,
and a lot of this show is about teaching. The
three years that I taught law school was tremendous. I
loved every minute of it. Yeah, Neil mean life. Are
you a happy camper? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Okay, I don't. I'm very happy. Okay, I don't believe that. Amy.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Do you consider yourself a happy person, a meaningful life?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
A happy person? Not necessarily a meaningful life. All right.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I agree with that, and I don't necessarily believe the
happy part either, because I am a cynic amy happy.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Meaningful No, I already answered. I'm sorry, Anne, I apologize.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Ann. I always get the two of you confused. I
conflate the two of you because we've only been doing
this for years. And yeah, meaningful, happy not really good that.
I completely believe you and I are on the same page.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
One.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
That's honesty, and will Cole Schreiber let me answer for you.
No meaning, no happiness, no underlying satisfaction.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Is that fair? There you go?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Okay, So it boils down to here is the study,
all right?
Speaker 1 (28:07):
There are two kinds of people in this world.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
And those who think they are happy and have meaningful
lives and are liars. Then there are the other ones
who accept the fact that there is no meaning to
their lives and they are not happy. Neil, of all
the people I know, and now I am being very serious,
(28:33):
I think you think that you have a very meaningful
life because of Tracy and Max.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Yeah, that's delusional. I will tell you this.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Though I'm not a fan of the term happy, I
believe happy is like momentary feelings of joy due to
something that happened. And that joy is something that can
take place even if I'm sad.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
It's something I.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Orgasm for example. Oh boy, anything else you'd like to add?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Now you ruined it. You made it gross, per huge,
All right? Coming up, Joel.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
This is real science, by the way, the meaningful happy
stuff it is. I just just make fun of it
because I make fun of it. Joe Larsgard is coming up.
How the money right here? KF I am six.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from kf I
am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Can't fine am six forty handled here on a really
hot Thursday. And another event, Neil and I are going
to be out.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
We had a lot of stuff going on this summer.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And that is Saturday, September sixth, the Wild for in
Long Beach, two o'clock. Neil is going to be broadcasting
and I will be there. And here's how you win.
You show up.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's easy. That is really easy.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And we're gonna have samples and we're going to have
giveaways and one year anniversary at that location, Zelman's, and
we are going to have the time of our lives.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
And second and yeah, it's going to be great. They'll
be all kinds of good stuff. Yep.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
So that's Saturday. Keep calendar that one, Saturday, September sixth,
right around the corner.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Okay, guys, by the way, do we have an echo
going here?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
No? Because I got my door open because it's so
hot in here in the studio.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
All right, guys, let's move on. Great story now.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I love lawsuits for defamation and this one has been
filed by Christine Crowley, former police chief of Los Angeles,
and she is suing the mayor the city also because
that's the fun one.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's where the deep pockets are.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
For orchestrating a campaign of misinformation, defamation, retaliation. And this
has to do with the Palisades fire. Kristin Crowley accuses
Bass of ousting her, repeatedly defaming her as a Bass
shot to shift the blame away from the city as
(01:44):
to how she handled the handle of the Palisades fire,
and she concealed, according to this lawsuit, the extent of
which the fire department basically undermined public safety with cuts
to the fire department budget. It's one finger pointing the
other finger. Karen Bass, you screwed up, Crowley. You screwed up,
(02:06):
and here's why, because you, Kristin Crowley, did not have
enough firefighters there. You could have done something about it.
You kept a thousand firefighters at home. You didn't send
out enough equipment. You did not anticipate what the fire is,
what the fire was going to do. Okay, that's Karen
(02:28):
Bass's position. Now, Kristin Crowley's position is you're sitting there
in Ghana at some event, by the way, after you
promised you would never leave Los Angeles once you're mayor.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But that's besides the point.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
You're in Ghana knowing the fire danger because we were
warned that it was a life threatening fire danger. Wins
up to one hundred miles an hour and dry as hell,
and you're sitting at some bar mitzvah in Ghana and
that is not cool.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
So it's your fault.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Well, by the way, the reason we didn't have the
equipment that you said we should have had is you
cut the budget.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's the problem. And there wasn't enough water.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And the issue was that reservoir that was up in
the Palisades that had X million gallons of water that
was empty because repairs are being done and repairs take
a year, so I think it boils down to in
the end. Could have that fire been averted? If it
(03:37):
could have been averted, yes, blame is going to fly
all over the place. If it could not, then you
can accuse everybody of everything, and it doesn't matter. This
is a fire that they could not stop. Matter of fact,
it got to the point where fire experts are saying,
not only could the firefighters not get anywhere near the fire,
(04:01):
they had to run for their lives when they try
to fight the fire. There was no stopping this, which
is why the palisades. How many structures to what eleven
thousand structures burned down or sixteen thousand and thousands of
homes so and on top of that was Edison. I
(04:24):
think Edison is the utility there, and correct me if
I'm wrong. They didn't do enough because it sparked with
one of their transmission lines, and so far PG and
E has been hit big time with exactly that issue,
and billions of numbers had gone.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
You don't think Kristin Crowley, former LA fire chief, was
was scapegoaded.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Oh I think she was. Of course she was. It
seems so obvious to me. It does.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah, but it's dusting display of Mayor Bass, Yeah, use
of our authority.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well, may Or Bass is a political creature. It's that simple.
She's all politics. And she got elected because she's all politics.
She got elected because she's part of the democratic machine.
And you had Rick Caruso, who spent one hundred million
dollars on his campaign, a businessman who I believe knows
(05:22):
how to run an organization, a bureaucracy, and a bureacracy.
Not in the negative sense of bureaucracy simply because it's
a huge entity and we.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Didn't elect him. We didn't elect him.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Why because we in California, Southern California, we just follow.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
We literally just follow the political line.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You know. We complain about Donald Trump and how MAGA
supporters follow no matter what he says.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Well, guess what on the other side, the same thing.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
If someone is a Democrat, a liberal liberal Democrat, it
doesn't matter what he or she is about. So this
is going to be a lotawsuit for defamation. Do I
think there was defamation?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Karen Bass did cut millions of dollars from the budget
and as far as not enough equipment was brought to
the Palisades fire, They didn't have enough people for maintenance.
They couldn't maintain the fire equipment they had because there
wasn't enough money. So there is a fight and both
(06:26):
sides are saying it don't matter, it's your fault, it's
your fault, it's your fault, and that this is typical stuff.
In the end, I don't know if Kristen Crowley's going
to win. It depends on where the trial is going
to be, if it goes to trial or the city settles.
And if it's downtown LA, I mean downtown La is
(06:51):
where O. J.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Simpson was acquitted, because there is.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
You can't argue with democratic politics, you can't. All right,
we're done with that, matter of fact. Let's do a
story about LA again. And how about those unarmed civilians
over cops. When there is a mental issue and nine
(07:20):
to one one is called, you don't have to send
the police. We'd rather have civilians who are trained. We'd
rather have them shot. It's just easier. We'll be back
with that, heaf. I am a six forty handle here
on a Thursday morning, August twenty one, hotter than hell
out there today. Heat wave is here. Now, it's not
(07:43):
going to be a schitz. It is going to be hot.
This is a story I want to share with you
because we've been talking about this for a while. So
here in Los Angeles, it doesn't matter where. You call
nine to one to one. And let's say a person
is in the throes of a mental health crisis.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
So what happens you call nine to one to one
and who shows up?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Well, police officers show up, usually in groups of two,
and firefighters also show up. I remember I had to
go to the hospital once and they call the ambulance
and a fire crew comes out a truck with a
couple of firemen. And as I'm being dragged off in
(08:30):
the ambulance, I asked the firefighter, what are you guys
doing here? I have a medical issue here, and he goes,
just in case we need help, just in case you
weigh four hundred pounds, just in case we have to
break through a door.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So it gets really expensive. So there's a new report.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Out that a third option actually is holding promise for
the future. And for the past year Los Angeles been
testing the program that dispatches specially bring civilians who do
not carry guns in response to certain calls for help,
and early results are encouraging. Now there's some issues here
(09:11):
that I'm going to give you as soon as I
read this article La Times, of course, because LA Times
is the one is the organization that actually analyze all
of this, and I'm going to talk immediately. I said,
wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, there's
some real issues here. So these people, when deployed to
non violent, non urgent calls for service, unarmed crisis responders
(09:36):
have actually been shown to minimize the potential for escalation
address the critical mental health emergencies in such a way
that it prioritizes compassion and safety, and police think in
a different way.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
These people are not armed.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
They don't even think of attacking or I guess even
defending themselves. These are unarmed crisis responders. They're called and
a report just was released and it found that not
only do this specialized care given to people who need help,
it allows l APD more time to focus on traditional
(10:20):
law enforcement efforts.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
So it's a win win according to these programs.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Because cops are not there to respond to these mental health,
mental health crises, drug addiction crises, it's these volunteers, in
some cases, these paid civilians unarmed, so cops can go
out and do their thing and shoot up bad guys
(10:46):
and deal with burglaries and whatever it is that cops do,
and in certain cases defend themselves and blow people's brains
out when there's a risk, and in some cases shoot
people who don't deserve to be shot.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I mean, we've gone through those stories.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
So the pilot program is going on licensed clinicians, social workers,
community workers, therapists who work in pairs and they respond
to calls seven days a week around the clock. The
first year of the program handled more than sixty seven
hundred calls, mainly to conduct welfare checks and respond to
(11:29):
reports of public intoxication indecent exposure. Why wouldn't you let
someone keep on exposing himself for herself? Come on, that's
entertainment with a capital E. Now, I mean they're not
a risk. Go ahead now, especially if there are no
kids involved. And so right now, roughly forty calls a
(11:50):
day is just a fraction of what the LAPD handles.
But according to the report, cops have already saved nearly
seven thousand hours of patrol time, leaving them to do
cop stuff and at this point, the city's police force
struggling to fill its ranks, I mean, it is short
of cops. Such programs could have a larger role, and
(12:12):
one hundred of these across the country, And the report
doesn't report on what teams had, what kind of impact
these teams had on low level crimes, And so the
outreach workers conduct follow up visits after certain calls, offer
services to people who are willing to accept them mental
(12:33):
health treatment, drug rehab program and the program is known
as the unarmed model of crisis response, umser not to
be confused with mumser and you can look that one up.
What is yes, exactly Neil, who I think knows what
a mumser is?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
The report found that fewer than four point one percent
of calls end up requiring police backup, typically involving individuals
who insisted on having an officer present that then the
cops will show up, or who turned out to have weapons.
Now here's my question. Someone who is having a mental
(13:17):
health crisis, no weapon visible, going out there, where someone
is in a fight with someone else or appears to
be drunk, and out they go. They're unarmed and they're
to de escalate. What happens when a weapon comes out?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
What do they do? How do they know there's no weapon?
What chance? Cops get shot and killed?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
And they are trained when people produce guns or knives
and start to attack them. These are police officers and
they have the vests. Unarmed civilians. Now as good as
there's the idea, this is because I love it, because
it's civilians and they think a different way than police
(14:05):
officers do. Even though the cops are trained in de escalation,
it's not to this extent. Because this is what they
do This is it wait till somebody gets their brains
blown out. Just wait until one of these civilians is killed,
and all of a sudden, Wow, how do we respond?
Do all of a sudden the volunteers. I don't know
(14:27):
if they're paid or not. The report didn't talk about that.
But do they turn around or do we rethink the program?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
I'll bet you we do.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
More than half the calls involves some kind of disturbance.
Reports of a prowler or a trespasser is a common call.
That's another one. Somebody who is trespassing or a prowler
is around. You're going to show up and try to
de escalate. I'm not going to go there. I'm not
(14:59):
going to volunteer. And here's a good one you call.
It takes about twenty eight minutes for these people to
show up. You think they have the time to leave
twenty eight minutes and they spend about twenty five minutes
with the either the victim or the perpetrator of the crime.
(15:24):
So the argument is cops are not always equipped to
handle mental health calls. Now the new cops, i'm assuming,
are trained to do so, and they have that kind
of thinking brand new police officers, and I'm assuming part
of the psychological testing that they do. And by the way,
police departments, particularly LAPD, even though they are short of
(15:46):
cops and doing everything they can to get police officers
into the academy into the force, the requirements are still
way way up there, and most people are bounced because
of psychological reasons. They do not want shoot them up cops.
They want cops that are calm, that want to de
escalate and will only take their weapons out if and
(16:09):
when there's a real danger. So so far, twenty twenty
five LAPD officers have shot twenty seven people, and a
third of those involves someone who's experience a behavioral crisis,
according to the Times analysis. And once again I make
a point, when does someone pull out a weapon? Because
(16:31):
as soon as a weapon is brought out, okay, back
they go and they call.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
The police, who shows up.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Well, it's working so far, But as I said, wait
till one or two of these people get shot.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Okay, here's a go.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
We have a lot of la stuff going on today,
you know, but a lot of this also is Orange County.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
I mean that just follows.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I happen to live in La so I talk about
that more or I did live in LA and I
now live in Nebraska. I just wanted to point that
out because I needed to.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Get out of Dodge. All right, layoffs?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Why is that certain people get laid off from the
city or the county and others don't. And there's a
method to this madness, And there's one word that explains
all of it, and I'll share that with you. And
Joel Larsguard up at the top of the hour with
how to money on a hot, hot, hot Thursday.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty, and this is Campinej'll handle here a Thursday.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Morning, August twenty one, hot Thursday morning, August twenty one,
and I'm gonna throw some figures at you. And then
I'm gonna throw a figure at you. That is kind
of stunning, all right. Nearly three hundred LA City employees
are saved from being laid off after two major unions
signed off. LA Police protectively represents eighty seven hundred cops,
(18:09):
agreed to a voluntary program where its members can take
days off in exchange for some of the overtime that
affects two hundred and twenty two civilian LAPD employees. Okay,
clerk's administrative support workers. No sworn LAPD officers were slated
to be laid off.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Karen Bass, my favorite mayor, says, we're contributing. We're continuing
to do everything we can to bring layoff numbers down,
and I want everyone to know we're still working and
we anticipate this number to get even lower. Meanwhile, the
union that has six thousand members, Engineers and Architects Association,
(18:50):
they're going to take as many as five unpaid vacation days. Effectively,
it's a two percent pay cut. Now, that deal saved
the job of sixty three members city planner, analyst, civilian investigator.
That's a union. The city administrative officers, who oversees labor
(19:13):
negotiations at city Hall, said that the money freed up
took that number down to seventy five layoffs instead of
sixty three layoffs.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
See how good that is. Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
In her proposed budget, Bass said a sixteen hundred layoffser
part of a strategy to eradicate a billion dollar shortfall.
And then weeks later, the city Council reduced the number
of layoffs by half. So now we're dealing with eight
hundred total layoffs and to close a budget shortfall, the
(19:50):
council decided to slow down police hiring, although.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
That was announced that that's not going to happen because
we need the police.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
So the other good news is hundreds of workers have
either left city employment or transferred to bishop to other
positions because there is attrition. And with attrition and there's
no hiring to fill those positions, well then you have
a cut no matter what. So one of the council
(20:22):
members who chairs the City Budget Committee, Katie Aeroslavsky, said,
even in a tough budget year, we are ensured there
will not be a single LAPD civilian layoffice. It's always
been our goal, but never guaranteed. And it's only possible
because the Union Engineers and Architects Association, the police department,
(20:44):
and city leadership worked in partnership to keep officers on
the street and protect public safety. So we are talking
about layoffs down to about seven or eight hundred total
because the city works so hard to make that number possible.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Okay, here's the figure I'm gonna throw at you.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
These few hundred layoffs and twice that have been saved.
This is in a city where there are forty five
thousand employees and they were able to save three hundred
and boy, let's stand up and cheer for that one
(21:31):
because that.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Has such impact.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Out of forty five thousand employees and a budget shortfall
of a billion dollars, they averted a layoff of several
hundred people. Yipie, welcome to local government. Oh here's a
fun one coming up. What is a good life? And
(21:57):
that's in quotes. Well, science is now looking at that
to determine to define what is a good life. And
I'll come back with that at the top of the hour.
We got Joe Larsgard. Kay, fine, am six forty handle here.
It is a hot Thursday, August twenty one, Tomorrow at
eight thirty it's ask handle anything where I answer all
(22:18):
kinds of personal questions, usually humiliating and embarrassing ones. And
we can't do it without you. And what does that mean?
That means you have to ask the questions. And here's
how you do it. During the course of the show.
You go too the iHeartRadio app. Click on the bill
handle show upper right hand corner microphone, click on that
and we record your question fifteen twenty seconds. I don't
(22:42):
care about your opinion or anything questions. And that's because
everybody asks me about everybody else here on the show,
and I ask everybody, what's everybody else like? That made
no sense. In the meantime, go ahead and ask or
ask the question.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
We record it.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I hear at the same time everybody else does, so
it's a spontaneous answer. Now, science, actually this is forty
plus years of research trying to define what a good
life is. This is all psychologists to do this. They
found that mainly there are two answers. A good life
(23:21):
is a happy life, pursuing comfort, satisfaction, more joy than sadness.
Number two is a meaningful life grounded by purpose connection
making the world better. Recently, a third answer was proposed.
Good life is psychologically a psychologically rich life marked by
(23:43):
novel experience, perspective shifting, shifting insights, and complexity, but also
has discomfort and has challenges. Usually you don't think of
discomfort as part of a good life. A psychologist the
Universsey of Chicago who did a lot of this, we
(24:03):
wanted to capture more explorative, adventurous, creative types of good life. Happiness,
he said, can be thought of a batting average, it
goes up, it goes down, good and bad experience. Psychological
richness is more akin to career highlights, interesting stories.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Experiences over a lifetime.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's from maybe travel, meeting interesting people, reading books, overcoming
challenging circumstances. Now, a psychologically rich life asks us to
leave our comfort zones, and we're open to changing our minds.
As a social psychologist who looked at this and that
(24:45):
is well looking at life one way and saying, okay,
I'm wrong, I just blew it, or I thought one way,
now I'm thinking another way and put another way. Each
path may sound different when summed up on your deathbed.
The last words a person who has had a happy
(25:06):
life might be it was fun. Someone who's lived a
meaningful life might say I made a difference. Psychologically rich
life can come through a midlife crisis. Okay, by the way,
(25:27):
someone who lived a psychologically rich life would.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Say, what a journey I had. Now. Tombstones are kind
of interesting.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
My best friend Savo, who's a very successful businessman, has
already written his tombstone, and on his tombstone is going
to be written, I spent too much time with my family,
And that is absolutely true. I'm not exaggerating on this one.
My tombstone may read I never met a meal I
(25:54):
didn't like Will Handle as opposed to Will Rogers, and
what is I'll tell you what happiness is. Where I
find happiness. Let's say I'm walking down the street and
a homeless guy comes up and this has happened before,
(26:15):
and says, hey, mister, do you have some extra change?
And I reached into my pocket and I happen to
have some change, and I jingle it and I go,
why yes, I do? And then I keep on walking.
That is a happy life. That to be is a
meaningful life.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
So do I have a meaningful life? You know? I
don't know. I don't know. You know.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Do I make a difference? I don't think so. I
don't take myself too seriously. I mean, I enjoy teaching,
and a lot of this show is about teaching. The
three years that I taught law school was tremendous. I
loved every minute of it. Yeah, Neil mean life. Are
you a happy camper? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Okay, I don't. I'm very happy. Okay, I don't believe that. Amy.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Do you consider yourself a happy person, a meaningful life?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
A happy person? Not necessarily a meaningful life. All right.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I agree with that, and I don't necessarily believe the
happy part either, because I am a cynic amy happy.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Meaningful No, I already answered. I'm sorry, Anne, I apologize.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Ann. I always get the two of you confused. I
conflate the two of you because we've only been doing
this for years. And yeah, meaningful, happy not really good that.
I completely believe you and I are on the same page.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
One.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
That's honesty, and will Cole Schreiber let me answer for you.
No meaning, no happiness, no underlying satisfaction.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Is that fair? There you go?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Okay, So it boils down to here is the study,
all right?
Speaker 1 (28:07):
There are two kinds of people in this world.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
And those who think they are happy and have meaningful
lives and are liars. Then there are the other ones
who accept the fact that there is no meaning to
their lives and they are not happy. Neil, of all
the people I know, and now I am being very serious,
(28:33):
I think you think that you have a very meaningful
life because of Tracy and Max.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Yeah, that's delusional. I will tell you this.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Though I'm not a fan of the term happy, I
believe happy is like momentary feelings of joy due to
something that happened. And that joy is something that can
take place even if I'm sad.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
It's something I.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Orgasm for example. Oh boy, anything else you'd like to add?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Now you ruined it. You made it gross, per huge,
All right? Coming up, Joel.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
This is real science, by the way, the meaningful happy
stuff it is. I just just make fun of it
because I make fun of it. Joe Larsgard is coming up.
How the money right here? KF I am six.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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