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Okay, BLA Talk fifteen eighty. Good morning and God bless
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I'm Dominique de Prima. The show is called First Things
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First and my very first thing every day. I know
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you know this given thanksgiving, praises and asking for blessings
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from God, asking for the blessings of the ancestors and
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the elders. And let's go. Man. We got a busy
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day around here today, and let me tell you that's
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always a good thing in my opinion. So the way
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we do things on a wealth building Wednesday hour one,
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we look local, what's going on on the left coast
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around here, this side of town, Pacific Ocean Way. Our two,
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we go national, international, and beyond. And in the third
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hour we do a hot topic or a deep dive
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on a thing that is happening today. We are right
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on point with all of that, and we have some
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wealth building Wednesday information at the top of the second
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hour as per usual. So today in the third hour,
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we'll be talking with the national President of the Southern
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Christian Leadership Conference, doctor Mark Liggins Senior, and also Attorney
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Charles Brooks will join us to talk about what is
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going on with the legacy of Martin Luther King, the
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release of those papers, the files, and they're going toe
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to toe with the Trump administration around that, the Department
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of Justice. And we'll open up the phone lines an
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hour two whatever you want to talk about. But you know,
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we got a list, but joining me right now, we're
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starting off. Shout out of Acannon. She's the forty third
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Los Angeles City Attorney. She was elected in November of
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twenty twenty two, sworn in in December, and she's the
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city's general council. She serves as a legal advisor to
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the mayor, the City Council, and all the boards and
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departments and officers and entities that make up the City
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of Los Angeles City Attorney Attorney Heidi Feldstein Soto welcome.
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Thank you so much. It's so nice to be back
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here with you. Dominic.
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Yeah, it's great to see you. I know that it's
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a really differ for an environment than it is it
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was last time we talked in the country, which means,
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of course, in our city.
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It's extraordinary. What has happened twenty twenty five has been
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a year of multiple challenges on every front. It was
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not on my predictioned predictions or my Bingo card, to
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have wildfires on January seventh, to have the budget crisis
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that we spilled into in March, or to have four
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thousand National Guards people and eight hundred Marines on our
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streets and by June, and that's just the first half
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of the year.
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Yeah, And of course with all of those things come
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legal issues, not to mention the ones that we have
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ongoing before any of that happened.
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The legal issue, the primary legal issues with the Trumpet
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administration fall into three categories, and we've taken action rather
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forcefully on all three. The first one is affronts to
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the city's own sovereignty, having the National Guard deployed and
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having the Marines deployed on our streets, having the kinds
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of tactics that they were using, which are really tactics
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designed for external force, for warfare, and not consistent with
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the policies that we enforce or try to enforce on
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civil and local law enforcement.
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I mean, which is the whole concept of posse comitatis. Right,
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you don't use the military on your citizens.
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I agree with that one hundred and fifty percent. You shouldn't.
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But it's more than just the posse committatis It's also
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the fact that the National Guard, for the first time,
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I think in modern history, was called up without the
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request of local authorities. So this was a federalization of
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the National Guard. It was not called up by the governor.
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And you know, kudos to Attorney General Rob Bonta, because
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he was the guy who has the governor as his client.
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Load full transcript
He brought a lawsuit in Northern California with respect to
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the deployment of the National Guard, arguing that the federalation
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was unconstitutional. He won at the district court level. The
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City of Los Angeles filed in amekus brief and we
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submitted a declaration to help in that lawsuit. But ultimately
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the Supreme Court stayed that temporary restraining order, and so
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the federalization issue has not been decided on the merits,
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the fight is not over.
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We also Robonta, for those who don't follow along with
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all the politics stuff, is the attorney state Attorney General
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amicus brief explained what that is.
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That's a friend of the court. The City of Los
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Angeles did not become a party to the lawsuit in
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Northern California, and we thought about it long and hard,
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and the fact was that at that time in June
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and July, LA was ground zero. We were really where
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the Trump administration first deployed the kinds of tactics that
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they've now been deploying across the country.
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Right which the mayor predicted. She said were the test case.
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And yes she did. That was her perspective from the beginning.
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But rather than going to a distant court where people
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couldn't get to, what I did was I led the
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formation of a coalition of twenty two cities in the
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county to fight the Trump administration. Here we intervened in
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a lawsuit that was brought by the ACLU and Public
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Council on behalf of living, breathing human beings, individuals who
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had been subjected to the tactics of ice. And they
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can assert their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, but we
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as a city are asserting our own sovereign government rights
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with control over our streets.
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And some people were disappointed that the City of La
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chose not to be part of the suit that Bonta brought.
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It wasn't that we chose not to be. I spoke
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to Rob. I'm sorry. I spoke to the Attorney General
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on Saturday, June seventh. I believe it was.
June sixth
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was a Friday, and he typically does not partner with cities,
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so our ability to join in that lawsuit was limited.
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It wasn't something where he wanted to do it collaboratively. Typically,
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our attorney Guneral partners with attorney generals across the country.
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And so one of the things that we did in
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looking at the courts down here is it gives us
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a better forum. It allows the people to come to
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court and see justice being done, and it allows us
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more readily to have our own witnesses in the courtroom.
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Very difficult to fly a lot of witnesses up to
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Northern California for a courtroom there, and so I think
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that it's actually worked out quite well. We have submitted
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evidence in Northern California, and we have submitted legal briefing.
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Even though we're not the place where we are a
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party is down here. We are also a party to
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about thirteen lawsuits at this point against the Trump administration.
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And it isn't just the National Guard and the Marines.
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Very happy by the way that the Marines are gone
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and more than half of the National Guard is gone.
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The work's not done, but it's far along.
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So you said your three areas that you're dealing with
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the Trump administration is sovereignty, which is kind of where
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we just went off talking about the troops on the ground. Here.
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Two is funding. We're trying to protect the grant dollars
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from unconstitutional conditions, from saying that they won't give us
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even our block grant allocations, never mind discretionary funding, unless
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we certify that we're not currently engaged in DEI efforts,
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unless we certify that we're not doing things to help
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on climate change. They're trying to effectuate a far right
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MAGA agenda through the withholding of federal dollars that they're
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not entitled to withhold. So we have joined any number
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of lawsuits on grant funding. And the third area is
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protection of our communities and our immigrant communities, mixed status
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communities in particular, and so we have joined the lawsuit
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on snap benefits, We have joined the lawsuit on reproductive
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rights in defense of planned parenthood. We have been very,
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very active in the areas that most directly affect the
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city of Los Angeles and all of our residents.
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Okay, so we can go a little deeper into those
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areas because you know, interested to hear about these different
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thirteen lawsuits and what that really means, protection of communities
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and what can be done on a local level about
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grant dollars, which is a national problem. I mean, what
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we're talking about is the usurping of the power of
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the purse, which is Congress's privileged. Congress is superpower. And
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those funds are already allocated. So we're not in a
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budget cycle where they're saying, no, we're not going to
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we're not going to ask Congress to approve those allocations.
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They've already been approved. So what can a city really do.
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We'll look at all of those things and more when
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we come forward. Our city attorney is in the building.
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It's KBLA Talk fifteen to eighty. Now. Los Angeles City
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Attorney Heidi Feldstein Soto is with me in the studio,
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and we're talking about today. We said we would focus
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on what we are doing, or what the city is
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doing to push back on some of the policies of
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the Trump administration, which seem to particularly be problematic for
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our city, which is huge, diverse, and you know, has
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been seemingly targeted. We you know, those of us on
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these talk radio mikes feel that the president is targeting
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cities with black mayors, and certainly our city fits that description.
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But also because of the image of the city I
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think being and the reality being a place where there
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are a lot of immigrant workers and various communities.
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And a city that is welcoming to immigrants, a city
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that acknowledges the contribution that our
immigrants have made to
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our economy, to our country, a city that celebrates diversity
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and embraces differences. And that's kind of anathma I think
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to this administration.
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So when you're let's let's go talk a little bit
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about the funding first, When when this federal government is
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withholding funding from the city for basic services or whatever
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that they're withholding, which is probably money they got from
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California to begin with, how can they do that based
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on DEI when DEI is not actually illegal.
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Let's take the probably out of it. It is money
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they got from California. The state of California contributes more
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to the public FISK at a federal level then we
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get back even in any given year, if you add
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up all of the allocation grants and all of the
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discretionary grants, we still are a net contributor to the
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federal fisks.
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Right, which means if we just kept our own money,
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we wouldn't have these problems. But that's another conversation for
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another day.
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I'm not going to talk secessions today. We're not talking
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about want to, but I'm not gonna right, So.
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How can but how can they do that based on
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things that are not illegal? They're based on policy agendas? Right?
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The short answer is I don't believe they can, which
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is why we're fighting the good fight. First of all,
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the current administration has done this by executive order, and
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they've done it by putting conditions on grants. There is
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there are different nuances in the legal arguments, and I
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don't really know how much you want me to get
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into the weeds. I tend to talk like a lawyer sometimes.
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But there's two kinds of grants, right. One is block allocation.
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That's basically the money goes back to the States. Congress
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is allocated it it is done. You can't just dip
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in and take that back. And you said at the break,
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and I agree with you, Okay, the public the public
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budget is very much within the power of the legislature.
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It is not something that the administration can turn around
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and do. But if you go all the way back
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to the first Trump in minute, when he was busy
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calling my birthplace the island of Puerto Rico from whence
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I come right an island of garbage that was across
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big water. So he didn't want to deliver hurricane dollars.
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It's a trick that he tried and that worked. In
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the first administration, Congress appropriated ninety three billion dollars for
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hurricane relief. In the first Trump administration, I think less
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than twenty billion made it there. I don't know what
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happened to the rest of it. And so if you
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look at the block grants now, it's the same sort
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of tactics. He's just doing it. And the only way
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we know of to stop it is to go to court.
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That's what we can do. That's my only tool. I
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don't have superpowers. All I can do is bring the
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arguments to the court. And what's different this time, Dominic,
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and what is scary this time is that all three
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branches of the federal government seem to have collapsed into one.
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There is only the executive branch that is acting decisively.
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Only the executive branch that is leading the way. There
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is only the executive branch that is imposing its will,
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and the usual checks and balances of our government aren't
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working well.
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I mean we I guess we could have seen that
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coming when we when we saw the way that the
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Supreme Court was, you know, configured, the way that all
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of the Shenanigans that went on to get the super
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majority that they now have. And as soon as you
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have a Supreme Court that hands a president immunity, that
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kind of sets the tone for the next four years.
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Yes, it does.
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So you say, fight the good fight, the city goes
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to court, or we take legal action, and what
happens
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if we lose? I mean, some folks say, well, you know,
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now you're an even bigger target.
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You know, I heard that argument from January through June,
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and I think all of us did our best to
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try to hold our breath to see if elections would
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change things before there was too much damage. But that
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isn't the way it's played out. We're already as big
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a target as we can tolerate. This administration is already
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trying to destroy our economy. They're trying to terrify our communities,
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They're trying to get our people to self deport there.
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I don't know how much worse it can get from
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the standpoint of at some point you draw the line
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and you say the answer is just no, and you
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continue to shine a light on it, you continue to
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make arguments that cannot be ignored. One of the things
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that terrified me, but it's only so far, Justice Kavanaugh,
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is that in the opinion of the Supreme Court that
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in effect dissolved the stay over some of the illegal
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ice activities here in La. Judge Kavanaugh wrote a separate
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Justice Kavanah, I'm sorry, I wrote a separate concurrence which,
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for the first time in the modern history of the
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Supreme Court approved of validated racial profiling. It basically says
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that if you speak Spanish and if you look Latino,
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guess what, that's enough for a stop and frisk. That's
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enough to stop in question.
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You're black and they think that you look foreign. I mean,
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we know that a lot of the racial profiling that
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goes on at least on the left coast, you know,
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but obviously nationally is targeting black people, and we have
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plenty of black immigrants. So basically, for whatever purpose they want,
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they now have the green light.
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Yes, and they've targeted Haitians in Florida and Somalians in Minnesota.
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I mean it is not limited to Latinos. The twenty
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two city coalition that I formed includes majority AAPI cities,
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and it includes cities that have African American mayors or
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larger African American So Rex Richardson of Long Beach, I
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was proud to stand beside him, Art Flores of Highland
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Park came. Monterey Park was part of our coalition. And
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so by building coalitions, by building cities, by building across
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and drawing on our diversity and our unity, I do
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think that we can continue to resist. I smile at
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the image of a Southern grandmother in her pajamas holding
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a gun at an Ice agent on her front lawn
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to protect her next door neighbor.
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Okay, so we were talking about funding and now you're kind
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of talking about sovereignty. Right. We saw people in Chicago,
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Chicago pushing back. We've seen New York pushing back hard.
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But many of us were asking the question, why don't
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if the local law enforcement job is to protect and
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serve us, why are they protecting and serving the military
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who is being illegally deployed in our city, and then
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when we protest against that, we're the ones that go
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to jail. We're the ones that get beat up. We're
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the ones as journalists who are being attacked by our
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own law enforcement. They're taking the side of ice, and
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no one in city government seems to be pushing back
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against that.
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I'm going to how do I say this. I'm in
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the middle of litigation on some of these issues, and
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I'm happy to talk about the position and litigation. I
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do think that there are factual differences in a number
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of the specific instances, and that's not something I'm well
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versed in. That's what courtrooms are for. Some of what
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has occurred since June is an escalation of violence at
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just about every level that needs to be dealt with
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from my perspective, and I'm happy, as you know, I'm
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always happy to talk about the difficult issues on the table,
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So rather than dancing around it, I'm happy to talk
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about to the
extent that I can, about the La
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Press club case, which is what I assume you're referring to.
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Yeah, I mean, it's one of the things I'm referring to.
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I think it's the press being have been you know,
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attack disparaged and even like people holding a press pass
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which you have to get from the LAPD, which, by
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the way, I think is a terrible idea. I mean,
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why are the people that have to cover law enforcement
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required to go to law enforcement to get the permit
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to cover the law enform? That doesn't make sense. That
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should be in another office. It should be in I
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don't know what, but not in the police.
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I don't necessarily have a problem with that. What I
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have a problem with is anybody who says I'm a
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journalist without prequalification, without background checks, without clearance, without a
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press pass, can somehow now get behind this skirmish line
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in a protest. That is a problem.
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I mean maybe theoretically, but in real life you're going
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to get beat up. You might get you know, supposedly
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not less lethal weapons shot at you. I mean, it's
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not like you get just mosey over there. I've gone
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out with a press pass, which you have to get
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by going to the LAPD and submitting your information to
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them and letting them do whatever it is they do
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until they decide to give you that pass. So there's that.
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You're talking more like social media people, people that are
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kind of freelance, you know, reporters. Now everyone has a
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mic and a camera, but still it's not something you
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can just mosey over there and do.
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Okay, I deal with laws and policies. I deal with
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what is in writing.
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Okay.
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I am not on the front lines. I am not
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in the middle of the incident to say yes, you
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can do that, No you can't. I'm in the unenviable
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position seriously of looking at the policies at the front
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end and
making sure that they're written in a way
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that it's constitutional and that protects the right to peaceful protest,
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while also implementing procedures to ensure public safety and the
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safety of our officers. So you can send me safety.
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Of the press for sure, yes, Because I mean when
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officers can shoot rubber bullets at press people and it's
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no big deal, then we're a third world country. Then
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we're a banana republic where the press doesn't have the
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freedom to report what's actually happening on the ground.
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Or we are losing one of the most important checks
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and balances that we have on our system of government.
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I don't know that it's necessarily third world banana. It
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could easily be a dictatorship. But wherever we are, we
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are not in a constitutional democracy. Okay, so let's not
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quarrel about how we characterize it. Right, We're not in
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disagreement on the values or on the underlying substance of it.
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But again, I want to explain my job. My job
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is to make sure that the letter of the law
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is correct, that the letter of the law protects everybody. Yes,
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freedom of the press, and yes, the ability of the
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press to have access and report appropriately. And yes, the
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ability of our peace officers to protect themselves and to
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protect bystanders and to protect peaceful protesters.
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Well, that thought, we've got news, traffic, and sports hard
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stop at the bottom of the hour. But we'll continue
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when we come forward with our city attorney, Heidi Feldstein Soto,
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I KBLA, Top fifteen eighty. Our city attorney is here,
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City Attorney, Heidi Feldstein Soto. She loves to come in
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here and talk with me. Agreed, disagree, And I love that.
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You know, a lot of folks don't want to come
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and sit face to face and chop it up, So
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I appreciate that. And people are so controlling right now.
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I don't know if it's because we're in the social
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media era, you know, where any clip can go viral
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that they, you know, have all these restrictions. So thank
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you for speaking freely, and I know some things you
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can't talk about, so fine, I'm still gonna ask the question.
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So you were in the middle of responding to my inquiry.
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It was really about why don't the police protect us
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from Ice, whether it's the press or the protesters, And
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that's not how they're While LAPD and the sheriff are
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not snatching people off the street and kidnapping them like
387
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Ice does, they are also not stopping that activity from happening.
388
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It's very hard when you have a federal government that
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is at this point in LA largely protecting federal property. Okay,
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they are mostly on their own property or protecting what
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they deem to be federal enforcement activity. It puts our
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officers in harm's way. The way law enforcement works in
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this country is they work together on mutual aid, so
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different levels of law enforcement will assist one another. Unfortunately,
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when you're talking about you know, the California Highway Patrol
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versus the Sheriff's office versus the federal agents versus the
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LAPD it's not realistic to think that they're going to
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go up against other law enforcement agencies acting in their
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official capacity. At the end of the day, the solution
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to that really is electoral politics. It's changing the people
401
00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:24.759
directing those ice agents to act in ways that are inappropriate, unconstitutional,
402
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And it's in the courts. We need to get back
403
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our courts. We need to get back our judges, and
404
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more importantly, we need to develop respect for the orders
405
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that are judges issue.
406
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Yeah, well that part, and I don't know what legal
407
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action could make that happen. I'm trying everything back to election,
408
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back to electoral politics.
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No, because federal judges are appointed for life, so that's
410
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not an electoral process. What happens is that, as designed,
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the federal judiciary was supposed to be a
political It
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was really supposed to be about the law and about
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applying the law with constitutional para.
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Mean, technically, so is the Supreme.
415
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Court right, yes, technically, And it has all become incredibly politicized.
416
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And anytime you inject that kind of results oriented philosophy
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into someone who is supposed to adjudicate right and not punish.
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I mean, what the courts are supposed to do is
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resolve issues that come before them that are real, live
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cases or controversies that can be resolved under the law.
421
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They're not supposed to be out there trying to operate
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in a punitive way or trying to further a particular agenda.
423
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So now you said the work is not done when
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you're talking about the city sovereignty, the question of whether
425
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or not military troops should even be in our streets
426
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unless when they're not called upon by the governor. Right,
427
00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:05.160
it's still that's not a settled, settled case.
428
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No, it's not.
429
00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:10.039
And we're still looking at the targeting of specific cities,
430
00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:12.799
which started with la Right.
431
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Did we ground zero? As Mayor Bess said.
432
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I thought it was very interesting that they were going
433
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to San Francisco and then a couple you know, there
434
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were some conversation behind the scene, conversations with Tech Burroughs.
435
00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:27.000
And also they don't have a black mayor.
436
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London Breed is no longer the mayor. That's correct.
437
00:25:29.480 --> 00:25:32.160
Yeah, maybe they didn't get that update, and so they
438
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backed off that and decided to go to Oakland instead.
439
00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:39.599
Wor guess what, there's a black mayor. They went to
440
00:25:39.640 --> 00:25:43.359
eight cities, Okay, and the eight cities that they went
441
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to all have black mayors. That's not I mean, that's
442
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just a fact. You can draw whatever conclusions you want
443
00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:53.079
to draw from it. And if you look at some
444
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of the I don't know what to call it, dismantling
445
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of the federal government and the areas that are being
446
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dismantled all not all of them. Many of the areas
447
00:26:05.400 --> 00:26:12.519
being dismantled are disproportionately affecting services and opportunities that are
448
00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:16.079
particular importance to the Black community as well as to
449
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Latino communities and other communities of color, but especially to
450
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the Black community. Historically, education has been a path forward
451
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for everyone in this country, but I think the Black
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00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:33.759
community more than so many have placed and justifiably so,
453
00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:39.880
reliance on the educational opportunities. The Department of Education is
454
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almost gone. We were just getting to the point where
455
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our healthcare and our coverage and our research was really
456
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taking into account the disproportionate health impacts that some of
457
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our policies have had in the Black community. And guess
458
00:26:54.839 --> 00:26:59.240
what happens. We're dismantling the CDC. We are dismantling all
459
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of the expertise key that has been built up in
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that federal Civil Service, and I don't know how we
461
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replace it. I don't know how you get back decades
462
00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:13.200
of experience in doctors and in researchers and in scientists
463
00:27:13.960 --> 00:27:16.519
once they've gone out and been spread out and gone
464
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into private employment. And that is the most lasting damage
465
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to me of this administration.
466
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And not one I mean, is there anything you can
467
00:27:24.920 --> 00:27:28.559
do that do about that? From a legal standpoint, I
468
00:27:28.559 --> 00:27:31.160
mean we're saying, well, the President doesn't have the power
469
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to dismantle the Department of Education. The President doesn't have
470
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the power to, you know, take down or all of
471
00:27:37.640 --> 00:27:41.920
these usaid programs, et cetera, et cetera. But he does it,
472
00:27:42.200 --> 00:27:44.160
and then we have to put the genie back in
473
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the bottle.
474
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:47.480
I'm not going to say no, there's nothing I can
475
00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:52.559
do about it. We're actively exploring and looking at everything. Okay,
476
00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:57.680
there's been a number of novel lawsuits brought the snap laws.
477
00:27:57.759 --> 00:28:00.480
It was not something that was on any buddy's been
478
00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:03.839
go card as of two months ago, and we've now
479
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:07.279
joined that, so we are looking at all kinds of alternatives.
480
00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:10.759
Talk to me about that lawsuit. What is the goal
481
00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:11.079
of it?
482
00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:16.519
Well, the benefits, I mean, that's for Food Insecurity SNAP
483
00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:17.799
is the program to call.
484
00:28:17.720 --> 00:28:21.319
Food stamps well familiar. I had them when I was little.
485
00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:26.160
Many people did. They were not available in Puerto Rico.
486
00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:26.759
So there you go.
487
00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:28.880
They don't have SNAP in Puerto Rico.
488
00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:31.799
They didn't when I was growing yup, it wasn't there.
489
00:28:32.039 --> 00:28:33.480
And I'm sixty seven.
490
00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:35.319
Okay, it was a long time ago.
491
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:42.720
It's a lawsuit where the federal government suspended what I
492
00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:45.440
view as one of the most essential forms of eight
493
00:28:45.480 --> 00:28:48.599
to our own people. I mean, we send food overseas,
494
00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:52.599
we send a overseas, right, so first he cuts it
495
00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:55.240
off to other countries, and now he's cutting it off
496
00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:59.200
inside of our own country. And so the lawsuit really argued,
497
00:28:59.640 --> 00:29:03.480
and it's now I think going to be moved because
498
00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:06.720
they've agreed in budget negotiations, and the budget negotiations restore
499
00:29:06.759 --> 00:29:11.400
the SNAP benefits. But come November first, there were a
500
00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:14.759
number of Agelinos who couldn't count on getting their SNAP benefits,
501
00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:17.119
and so we joined the lawsuit because there was specific
502
00:29:17.160 --> 00:29:19.759
harm to our city and we didn't think that the
503
00:29:19.799 --> 00:29:23.119
president had the power to redirect, Well, do pay this.
504
00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:26.839
We're going to spend extra on overtime for bounty hunters
505
00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:29.839
to do ICE activities and bring the border patrol up,
506
00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:32.480
but we're not going to feed hungry children.
507
00:29:32.839 --> 00:29:37.279
Now, speaking of bounty hunters, how do we stay safe
508
00:29:37.319 --> 00:29:39.920
from people who aren't even ICE, that are just posing
509
00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:40.400
as ICE.
510
00:29:42.440 --> 00:29:45.640
There's a huge difference in how the federal agencies enforce
511
00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:51.759
immigration laws ICE typically and the Department of Homeland Security typically,
512
00:29:51.759 --> 00:29:54.559
if you ask them for identification, we'll provide it, they
513
00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:58.920
have it. When you bring up the border patrol. The
514
00:29:58.960 --> 00:30:01.559
border patrol is a custom to a very different set
515
00:30:01.599 --> 00:30:04.880
of rules. And I shouldn't have used the word bounty
516
00:30:04.920
--> 00:30:08.680
hunter because I don't know. Okay, that's just that's really
517
00:30:08.759 --> 00:30:13.319
more what I've heard, and I'm not going to adopt
518
00:30:13.319 --> 00:30:17.680
a Trump that says some people are saying, okay, and
519
00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:22.279
stated is fact. But certainly when you have masked armed
520
00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:30.119
force for performative theater, whether it's in MacArthur Park or
521
00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:34.720
it's outside my window at City Hall East, those are
522
00:30:34.759 --> 00:30:37.319
tactics that that isn't just ICE. I mean, those are
523
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:42.400
tactics designed to terrify communities, designed I was terrified, yeah,
524
00:30:42.599 --> 00:30:48.079
and right right.
525
00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:54.680
So when we talk about the sanctuary cities lawsuit, explain
526
00:30:54.759 --> 00:30:57.160
that what I mean they're suing us.
527
00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:00.640
Yes they are, and they're suing us without any basis.
528
00:31:00.680 --> 00:31:06.000
As far as I'm concerned. When the election was occurring
529
00:31:06.039 --> 00:31:11.480
in November, city Council, specifically under Council President Marquis Harris
530
00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:18.680
Dawson and under Mayor Karen Bass, prioritized the passage of
531
00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:25.000
our Sanctuary City ordinance. It is consistent, it is completely
532
00:31:25.039 --> 00:31:28.319
consistent with state law. And it doesn't say that the
533
00:31:28.359 --> 00:31:31.119
federal government can enforce immigration law. Okay, that's not what
534
00:31:31.160 --> 00:31:33.759
it does. It doesn't declare secession from the United States
535
00:31:33.759 --> 00:31:37.519
and national immigration law. That would not be enforceable. But
536
00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:41.160
my office worked with our electeds to craft an ordinance
537
00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:44.359
that very carefully toes the line and is clearly constitutional.
538
00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:47.400
What it says is we are not going to devote
539
00:31:48.079 --> 00:31:50.960
our resources as a city. Remember, we're in a fiscal
540
00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:55.119
crisis ourselves, and we're not going to have our limited
541
00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:58.839
resources dedicated to doing the federal government's job for them. Okay,
542
00:31:58.880 --> 00:32:02.559
We're not going to be helping in the enforcement of
543
00:32:03.240 --> 00:32:07.200
the country's immigration laws. That's not our law enforcement's job,
544
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:11.400
that's not our civil servants job. And so I am
545
00:32:11.559 --> 00:32:14.680
very comfortable with the language of the ordinance. All it
546
00:32:14.759 --> 00:32:18.960
says is we don't spend our money, we don't dedicate
547
00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:24.559
our employees to immigration law enforcement. That is not to
548
00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:28.839
say that immigration agents cannot operate in public spaces in
549
00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:31.599
the city of la Of course they can. We can't
550
00:32:31.599 --> 00:32:34.440
prevent that. But what we can say is we don't
551
00:32:34.519 --> 00:32:38.480
have to give them access without a warrant to spaces
552
00:32:38.480 --> 00:32:40.400
that are not generally open to the public.
553
00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:43.440
I know you're not counsel for the county. The state
554
00:32:43.480 --> 00:32:47.920
of California, however, did pass this law that they have
555
00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:50.960
to show their faces. They can't just that the ICE
556
00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:55.839
agents can't cover their faces, and I think you know
557
00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:02.680
the county is taking a similar measure, but they actually
558
00:33:03.720 --> 00:33:06.880
have precedence over our laws, right, I mean, the federal
559
00:33:06.960 --> 00:33:12.160
law trumps our law in that sense, doesn't it pun intended?
560
00:33:12.440 --> 00:33:15.920
I guess sadly, yes, I understand.
561
00:33:16.480 --> 00:33:19.319
There isn't a law, a federal law that says that
562
00:33:19.400 --> 00:33:22.799
ICE agents can mask up. So no, I don't view
563
00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:27.279
it as preemption or as federal prerogative. Congress has not
564
00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:31.240
passed a law that says ICE agents have a right
565
00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:34.880
to be massed. So it will be a very interesting
566
00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:43.200
time when the state law and the federal law come
567
00:33:43.240 --> 00:33:45.960
to a head if they do. I mean, from my
568
00:33:46.079 --> 00:33:48.480
vantage point, I think that the State of California is
569
00:33:48.599 --> 00:33:52.000
entirely and legitimately within our rights to say, if you're
570
00:33:52.039 --> 00:33:55.359
going to carry a badge or a gun or a
571
00:33:55.400 --> 00:33:58.160
license to stop and arrest, you must show your face.
572
00:33:59.119 --> 00:33:59.599
You have to.
573
00:33:59.720 --> 00:34:03.119
I mean our LAPD where's body cameras for crying out loud?
574
00:34:03.160 --> 00:34:05.799
And no, they don't run around mast except I do
575
00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:09.599
understand and protest. They were riot gear to protect themselves.
576
00:34:09.639 --> 00:34:11.960
But it's you know, typical patrol isn't going to run
577
00:34:12.039 --> 00:34:16.000
around mask. They don't run around with large rifles, and
578
00:34:16.039 --> 00:34:20.079
they don't typically round people up. I mean, when I
579
00:34:20.119 --> 00:34:23.159
saw what the federal agents were doing in downtown LA,
580
00:34:23.559 --> 00:34:26.559
because it literally I watched it from my window, it
581
00:34:26.599 --> 00:34:28.400
reminded me of I don't know, if you've ever seen
582
00:34:28.440 --> 00:34:32.159
humpback whales when they go fishing and they form a
583
00:34:32.159 --> 00:34:35.880
bubble net and they kind of go around the smaller
584
00:34:35.920 --> 00:34:39.119
fish and then
come up and swallow whatever and whoever
585
00:34:39.239 --> 00:34:42.639
is there. I mean, that's how the federal troops were
586
00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:45.440
being deployed in our streets. It was outrageous.
587
00:34:47.639 --> 00:34:50.159
Wow, time flies when you're on the radio, our city
588
00:34:50.159 --> 00:34:52.679
attorneys here, we said we were going to talk about
589
00:34:53.239 --> 00:34:56.519
the planned parenthood case. We said we were going to
590
00:34:56.639 --> 00:35:00.679
talk about a lot of things. We'll continue the conversation
591
00:35:01.239 --> 00:35:03.159
when we come forward. I think for me, the bottom
592
00:35:03.239 --> 00:35:05.800
line is the people want to know how we're pushing
593
00:35:05.840 --> 00:35:10.639
back and is that pushback as aggressive as it could be?
594
00:35:12.159 --> 00:35:14.199
And so I'm sure you have a lot to say
595
00:35:14.239 --> 00:35:17.840
about that and more. Our city attorneys in the building
596
00:35:17.920 --> 00:35:22.119
KBLA talk fifteen to eighty. The attorney Heidi Feldstein Soto
597
00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:31.559
is here. Stein Soto. Let me get it right, attorney,
598
00:35:31.679 --> 00:35:33.320
we you have a lot on your plate right now.
599
00:35:33.440 --> 00:35:35.519
I mean, and we and we as a nation and
600
00:35:35.559 --> 00:35:38.800
as a city do But the other thing we said
601
00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:39.960
we were going to get to, and I want to
602
00:35:39.960 --> 00:35:43.280
make sure we start there, because the clock is ticking.
603
00:35:43.639 --> 00:35:47.239
Is the bills that you wanted to talk about that
604
00:35:48.280 --> 00:35:50.320
you have been advocating for.
605
00:35:50.559 --> 00:35:52.920
I am very proud to say that this year I
606
00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:56.960
sponsored three bills that were signed by the governor. I
607
00:35:57.599 --> 00:35:59.639
was had a hand in authoring a couple of others,
608
00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:03.599
but the three bills that the City Attorney's office is
609
00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:09.239
on as a sponsor or. AB five thirty five, which
610
00:36:09.400 --> 00:36:12.519
we co sponsored with District Attorney Nathan Hoffman and was
611
00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:16.960
authored by assembly Member Pilar Chiavo. And that bill really
612
00:36:18.079 --> 00:36:20.440
took the invitation of the Supreme Court to say that
613
00:36:20.519 --> 00:36:25.199
when someone intimidates a witness from testifying at trial, that
614
00:36:25.400 --> 00:36:29.400
is in and of itself separate criminal conduct. It particularly
615
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:33.679
helps victims of domestic violence, who often are intimidated by
616
00:36:33.800 --> 00:36:38.199
their intimate partner into not coming to court and not testifying.
617
00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:40.679
So I was proud that that passed. The other one
618
00:36:40.960 --> 00:36:45.559
is SB six't eighty, which was sponsored by well by
619
00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:49.119
my office and then authored by Senator Susan Rubio. It
620
00:36:49.239 --> 00:36:52.320
closes a loophole that arose out of the work that
621
00:36:52.360 --> 00:36:55.679
we've been doing on the trafficking of miners along the
622
00:36:55.679 --> 00:36:58.079
figure or a quarter. You and I have talked about
623
00:36:58.119 --> 00:37:02.199
that before. So SB six eighty finally says that if
624
00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:04.840
there's an adult male at least ten years older than
625
00:37:04.840 --> 00:37:07.639
a fourteen to seventeen year old female, he will be
626
00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:10.679
treated as a sex offender just as if he were
627
00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:15.159
conducting committing anal sex or oral sex. So illegal sexual
628
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:19.880
intercourse now means automatically automatic Tier one registration.
629
00:37:20.119 --> 00:37:23.639
If they're ten years or older, yes, which I am
630
00:37:23.679 --> 00:37:28.159
assuming is meant to exclude high school and yeah, high
631
00:37:28.199 --> 00:37:30.079
school and college kind.
632
00:37:29.880 --> 00:37:33.119
Of or sexual exploration between two kids. I mean, we're
633
00:37:33.119 --> 00:37:35.440
not trying to get at that. And then the third
634
00:37:35.480 --> 00:37:39.400
bill is AB twelve ninety nine, which was authored by
635
00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:43.199
assembly Member Isaac Bryan, and believe it or not, it
636
00:37:43.239 --> 00:37:45.400
grows out of the work that we've been doing on
637
00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:47.719
Community Outreach Court. I think, I don't know if I've
638
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:52.280
mentioned to you, I, in conjunction with Supervisor Salise Mayor
639
00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:56.079
Bass the Superior Court in the Public Defender's Office, we
640
00:37:56.159 --> 00:37:59.280
opened an outdoor court because if you think about folks
641
00:37:59.280 --> 00:38:02.599
who are unshell altered, their biggest obstacle to getting rid
642
00:38:02.639 --> 00:38:06.079
of old tickets and getting rid of their legal problems,
643
00:38:06.079 --> 00:38:09.199
which they need to deal with in order to qualify
644
00:38:09.280 --> 00:38:11.760
for a number of services and in order to get
645
00:38:11.800 --> 00:38:16.119
into housing or job training, one of their largest obstacles
646
00:38:16.239 --> 00:38:19.599
is actually coming into a court room, leaving their belongings outside,
647
00:38:19.679 --> 00:38:23.159
leaving their pets outside, leaving their children outside. And so
648
00:38:23.760 --> 00:38:26.440
we formed a group that brought court to the people,
649
00:38:27.079 --> 00:38:29.960
and the Community Outreach Court takes place on skid Row
650
00:38:30.239 --> 00:38:32.599
from nine to noon on the third Thursday of every
651
00:38:32.599 --> 00:38:36.280
month and out of As a result of that work,
652
00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:40.480
we found that we desperately needed an amendment to state
653
00:38:40.559 --> 00:38:45.800
law
tickets, especially old parking tickets, old traffic tickets, because
654
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:48.440
someone goes from housing to an RV to the street,
655
00:38:49.039 --> 00:38:52.159
and so often they have thousands of dollars in unpaid
656
00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:55.559
parking fines for the RV, yeah.
657
00:38:55.079 --> 00:38:58.079
Or for the car they were living in their car.
658
00:38:58.239 --> 00:39:01.199
And so it's all governed by the it's all state law,
659
00:39:01.800 --> 00:39:06.119
and state law didn't permit a local jurisdiction to forgive tickets.
660
00:39:06.639 --> 00:39:10.000
You could impose community service or forced labor, you could
661
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:13.320
do an installment plan, but you couldn't just forgive the
662
00:39:13.360 --> 00:39:16.039
ticket and give someone a fresh start. And so I'm
663
00:39:16.159 --> 00:39:19.119
very proud to have sponsored a bill AB twelve ninety
664
00:39:19.199 --> 00:39:22.559
nine that in effect allows a local jurisdiction. It doesn't
665
00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:26.159
affect local control. LA would have to opt in, but
666
00:39:26.199 --> 00:39:29.199
I think LA will, and it allows us to wipe
667
00:39:29.239 --> 00:39:31.880
the slate clean and give someone a fresh start. And
668
00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:34.360
those three bills got signed by Governor Newsom, and I'm
669
00:39:34.400 --> 00:39:37.119
very proud of that work as well. The fact that
670
00:39:37.360 --> 00:39:39.880
we're fighting the Trump administration doesn't mean that the work
671
00:39:39.880 --> 00:39:41.159
at home stops.
672
00:39:41.239 --> 00:39:45.960
Right, Yeah, And I mean I haven't done enough you know,
673
00:39:46.039 --> 00:39:49.119
research on those bills to really opine on them. But
674
00:39:50.239 --> 00:39:55.639
certainly creating pathways for people to be able to get
675
00:39:55.679 --> 00:40:00.800
out from under the enormous debt and penalty that not
676
00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:04.599
just for unhoused people, but for people trying to you know,
677
00:40:04.920 --> 00:40:08.960
low income, low resource folks trying to stay in their places,
678
00:40:10.280 --> 00:40:11.239
is really important.
679
00:40:11.679 --> 00:40:13.599
And that will all come as a result of a
680
00:40:13.639 --> 00:40:16.719
local ordinance that we'll be working on. The local ordinance
681
00:40:16.760 --> 00:40:19.679
will be the opt into, but we pass the bill
682
00:40:19.719 --> 00:40:25.039
in Sacramento that enables the city to establish the pathway
683
00:40:25.079 --> 00:40:28.000
forward for everybody as a matter of local law. Before
684
00:40:28.039 --> 00:40:28.840
now we were barred.
685
00:40:29.880 --> 00:40:32.800
Are we going hard enough at the Trump administration? I
686
00:40:32.840 --> 00:40:36.000
mean I've heard accusations that are city is slow walking
687
00:40:36.880 --> 00:40:40.320
these you know, the pushback that we're not doing enough.
688
00:40:40.559 --> 00:40:41.280
What
do you say to that?
689
00:40:43.920 --> 00:40:46.360
I would sometimes say, if you ask an alcoholic, are
690
00:40:46.400 --> 00:40:50.079
you drinking enough? They'll always say more. There's no winning
691
00:40:50.159 --> 00:40:54.159
that argument. At some level. We are doing everything we
692
00:40:54.199 --> 00:40:59.000
can to be effective, not just aggressive. It's not performative.
693
00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:03.480
We are thoughtful in our approach. We form coalitions, we
694
00:41:03.519 --> 00:41:06.119
are on solid legal ground and we move forward in
695
00:41:06.159 --> 00:41:09.119
such a way that makes it extraordinarily difficult for the
696
00:41:09.159 --> 00:41:12.639
court to say no. So far we have been victorious.
697
00:41:12.639 --> 00:41:15.119
We are in the process of dealing with discovery against
698
00:41:15.119 --> 00:41:17.559
the federal government for what they have been doing in
699
00:41:17.599 --> 00:41:20.599
the Perdomo case. They've been trying to limit our twenty
700
00:41:20.639 --> 00:41:24.760
two cities to just two representatives at depositions or just
701
00:41:24.760 --> 00:41:27.000
a set number of questions. And the fact is that
702
00:41:27.039 --> 00:41:29.400
the harm is different for each city, and so we
703
00:41:29.440 --> 00:41:32.719
are pushing back very hard to have our seat at
704
00:41:32.719 --> 00:41:35.400
the table and to ensure that each of our cities,
705
00:41:35.400 --> 00:41:38.840
whether it's Panorama City, or it's Camo Rillo, or its
706
00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:42.559
Anaheim or its Los Angeles, has the opportunity to tell
707
00:41:42.639 --> 00:41:47.719
our story and protect our residence in unity with one another.
708
00:41:49.079 --> 00:41:54.559
What do you think is probably the most important issue
709
00:41:54.599 --> 00:41:57.840
facing you as city attorney and that thus our city
710
00:41:58.920 --> 00:42:04.000
in the maybe six months ahead.
711
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:06.760
If you had asked me that question last year, I
712
00:42:06.760 --> 00:42:09.280
never would have said wildfires. If you had asked me
713
00:42:09.320 --> 00:42:11.480
that question last year, I never would have said the budget.
714
00:42:12.159 --> 00:42:14.480
So the short answer is, I don't have a crystal ball.
715
00:42:14.639 --> 00:42:15.360
You don't know I.
716
00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:19.519
You know when the Russian ballet used to come to
717
00:42:19.960 --> 00:42:22.920
Los Angeles, Okay, in the mid seventies. If you look
718
00:42:22.920 --> 00:42:27.280
at an American ballerina, American ballerinas dance while spotting. Their
719
00:42:27.320 --> 00:42:30.480
head moves at a different speed than their body. It
720
00:42:30.559 --> 00:42:32.639
stops them from getting dizzy. If you look at a
721
00:42:32.719 --> 00:42:36.400
Russian ballerina, she twirls like a doll on a music box.
722
00:42:36.440 --> 00:42:39.639
And someone said to a Russian ballerina, diva, you know,
723
00:42:39.679 --> 00:42:41.840
don't you get dizzy? And she said, well, yes, of course.
724
00:42:42.320 --> 00:42:44.159
And they said, well how do you dance? And she
725
00:42:44.199 --> 00:42:47.239
shrugged and said, we learned to dance dizzy. And so
726
00:42:47.280 --> 00:42:50.599
it's a metaphor for me in this job. No matter
727
00:42:50.639 --> 00:42:52.639
what I think my day is going to look like, Dominie,
728
00:42:52.639 --> 00:42:55.079
I come in and there's three gifts on my desk,
729
00:42:55.599 --> 00:42:58.199
and sometimes they're full of stars in magic and light,
730
00:42:58.559 --> 00:43:01.480
and sometimes they are little bags of dog poop. And
731
00:43:01.519 --> 00:43:03.559
I do the best I can to respond.
732
00:43:04.360 --> 00:43:05.679
And yet you love your job.
733
00:43:08.199 --> 00:43:11.760
I feel useful. Do you know how important that is?
734
00:43:11.840 --> 00:43:14.559
I mean, I feel as if my life has meaning.
735
00:43:15.320 --> 00:43:18.079
I get up every day, I have an opportunity to
736
00:43:18.119 --> 00:43:24.400
do good. That is my intention every day, and I
737
00:43:24.440 --> 00:43:27.360
hope that my actions follow my intention. And I hope
738
00:43:27.360 --> 00:43:29.920
that when I make a mistake, I step forward and
739
00:43:29.960 --> 00:43:34.760
I admit it. But I do feel useful, I feel energized,
740
00:43:35.079 --> 00:43:38.719
and I look forward to the election in November where
741
00:43:38.719 --> 00:43:40.039
we're going to take back the house.
742
00:43:41.480 --> 00:43:46.280
Your mouth's are God's ears. City Attorney Heidi Feldstein Soto,
743
00:43:46.400 --> 00:43:48.079
thank you so much for coming in.
744
00:43:48.320 --> 00:43:49.920
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
745
00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:53.239
And we'll keep the conversation going news, traffic, in sports,
746
00:43:53.360 --> 00:43:55.920
and then more on KBLA Talk fifteen eighty