California is letting out yet another monster on Elder Parole

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Speaker 1: And we continue at what five in the afternoon on the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy wangs in Culver City.

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Speaker 2: John, there was quite a brawl at Lax where a drunk Australian man tried to beat up a TSA agent because he thought he stole his bag. And it turns out the bag was at the bar that he left it at. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Oh boy. It's a rough time to be a TSA agent. They're not getting paid, they're getting beat up on the job.

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Speaker 2: What's next?

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Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one? Eight hundred two two two five two two two. Well, the state of California made national news not long ago for letting a violent sexual predator, voting to let a violent sexual predator out of prison early due to a state law that says that elderly inmates should be released from prison if.

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Speaker 2: The parole board v to do so.

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Speaker 1: Well, that's exactly happened. What happened with one pervert and Randy They keep doing it.

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Speaker 2: The California Parole Board has decided to grant elder parole to another absolute monster. And this is one of those stories where it's really hard to hear what's being alleged here, But you need to know the actions of somebody that the California Parole Board said, yes, this person is deemed to be safe to re enter society because they're over fifty. I can only imagine what we're about to hear. For more. Here's ABC ten in Sacramento, and again, this one's kind of hard to hear.

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Speaker 3: And now the decision to release Seha has sparked outrage from prosecutors and the victim's family.

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Speaker 4: ABC ten's Nazy Jov joins us now after talking with the survivor and uncovering the sturbing new details from the parole hearing nausey. This must come as a horrific shock. How is she feeling about all this?

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Speaker 5: Oh?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know who the parole board doesn't care about at all, the victims of these crimes, of course.

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Speaker 1: And don't let Gavin fool you. Gavin will say I didn't do it. Don't blame me. Guess who appoints the parole boards.

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Speaker 6: Truthfully, she was crying for most of our phone call. And at the center of this case is that survivor. She tells me she just found out about this today and now She's being forced to relive everything all over again. Her case is really highlighting a controversial part of California law, which allows some inmates, including those convicted of sex crimes, to be considered for early release based on age and time serve.

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Speaker 2: And by the way, in case you want to buy that, Gavin Newsom has nothing to do with this. Gavin Newsom signed the bill in twenty twenty one lowering the age for elder parole from sixty five to fifty and from thirty years to twenty years. Thanks Gavin, the.

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Speaker 6: District attorney says, this case is different. It points to years of horrific abuse and the lasting trauma left behind.

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Speaker 7: We have a man who was convicted of molesting his stepdaughter, raping her violently for nearly a decade in the nineties to the early two thousands.

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Speaker 6: A man sentenced to one hundred and thirty nine years in prison now recommended for release.

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Speaker 2: I don't think he's served all one hundred and thirty nine.

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Speaker 5: Nope, a man sentenced to what's the point.

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Speaker 2: Of having these insane number sentences If they don't count.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't matter because the State of California will not keep anyone in prison and this is why people say, oh, the death penalty, that's the easy way out. Life in prison is so much worse. Well, guess what, in this state, there is no such thing as life in prison, So don't kid yourself health.

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Speaker 6: A man sentenced to one hundred and thirty nine years in prison now recommended for release.

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Speaker 7: His name was Israel Seha and the victim was a little girl when he started to rape her.

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Speaker 6: A childhood taken over years of abuse. We spoke with the survivor who just found out the parole board recommended her rapist for early release under the elderly parole law.

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Speaker 5: That I'd have to see him begin, you know, he may walk around with make kids we tolu about, She says.

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Speaker 6: The abuse.

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Speaker 2: Seriously, who is on this parole board.

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Speaker 1: They're just doing what Gavin told them to do. Don't forget. This is a George Floyd thing where they believe that the prisons are violent, so we need to let everyone out of prison. And what's crazy is they did this out of quote unquote equity because they think that the prisons are racist and they think that this is about releasing more black people from prison. Well, guess what, these people aren't even black, and that is the motivation for them to pass this legislation in the first place, some sort of weird bastardization.

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Speaker 2: Of what equity looks like.

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Speaker 1: They're trying to be color blind, or they're trying to right past wrongs, whatever the case may be. But what they're doing is they're letting people out of prison who have demonstrated that they cannot live in polite society, they cannot play by the rules. And these people are being put back out into the communities so that this woman now has to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder.

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Speaker 6: She says the abuse started when she was just a child, continuing for years inside her home. It's rokay, I feel like I'm Loukaion.

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Speaker 8: It's not.

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Speaker 2: And I just thought it would get overe everything that was going to be okay, I have to relave it all over again.

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Speaker 6: The DA says at least some of the incidents happened on this backcountry road at home where the family lived back in nineteen ninety nine here in Winters.

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Speaker 2: On one occasion, he tried to Okay, let me just warn you once again, some of these details are really difficult to process, but it's important because this is who Gavin Newsom, through his parole board, is letting out.

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Speaker 7: On one occasion, he tried to push her out of a truck to cause injury. On another occasion, he pointed a gun at her and he pulled the trigger and the gun either misfired or was empty.

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Speaker 6: The crimes were discovered in nineteen ninety nine when she collapsed in public and was taken to the hospital. She was pregnant. DNA confirmed Israel Seha was the father.

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Speaker 7: This little girl was impregnated by this monster.

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Speaker 6: It started when I was nine, and I got pregnant by him when I was fifteen. Prosecutor Save. The abuse escalated, including attempts to force a miss carriage. You actually maybe jump off the roof of the house.

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Speaker 5: He took me to.

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Speaker 6: I guess like a witch doctor or something, and she tried to massage a got of me.

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Speaker 2: He was just trying to get rid of it, and really weird. Seriously, who in their right mind would say that this person should be free?

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Speaker 1: Okay, this is why I'm never doing jury duty again. When I sat on jury duty for that full month, what you're hearing now is a PG version of what we had to sit through. For a full month and they go through it in all of the glory details, over and over and over again. That was the worst month of my life.

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Speaker 3: And really we're kind of, you know, maybe meddleingers.

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Speaker 6: And in two thousand he was sentenced over a century in prison. Prosecutors say they believed he would never get out, but now the das as the State Parole Board, has recommended his release, saying he met the qualifications for elderly parole. Good lord, the DA says one commission.

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Speaker 2: And the qualifications are you've served twenty years and you're over fifty, because you know how when you're fifty, you're elderly.

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Speaker 1: You know what's funny to go back to the trial when I was on the jury, the defendant in that case was ninety years of age. If your brain is wired to be attracted to children, and that violent sex with children is something that turns you on, it doesn't matter how old you are. That doesn't go away Until we can figure out how to reprogram these people's brains. You're not going to change them. So what you have to do is you have to separate them from society so they can't hurt other people. That's what prison is for, and that's what the judge decided, and that's what the jury decided. The fact that we're not going to respect the sentence and the verdict that the judge and the jury came down with after sitting through what I'm sure was a horrific month of testimony, and they came to this conclusion, you're going to let this person out who is almost certainly a threat to society, so that this now has the chance to happen again is beyond my ability to comprehend.

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Speaker 6: The DA says. One commissioner, Neil Schneider, called him an excellent citizen.

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Speaker 2: This is what they think.

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Speaker 1: This is not something that slipped through the cracks, by the way, this is what Gavin Newsom and company believe.

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Speaker 2: This is not an accident, This is not a one off. This is what they think.

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Speaker 6: And the DA tells me that he made some disturbing comments in that hearing. They said that he admitted to having thoughts still of little girl, and when asked how he would handle those, he said that he would pray. Thede says, that's just unacceptable. He's submitting a letter to Governor k Newsom urging him to take action and have the decision recommending parole for this convicted child rapist reviewed and reversed. I did reach out to the Governor's office and parole board. The Governor's office did just get back to me. They say they have not received it for review yet and they cannot comment on pending cases.

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Speaker 3: Back to you, my goodness, Nasi. And we should point out as well that according to state law, all reviews must be done within one hundred and twenty days from the hearing, or May twenty ninth. His actual release date is unknown, but he's currently being held at San Quin's State Prison.

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Speaker 5: Stay with us for updates.

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Speaker 2: So there you go, another absolute monster that should be spending the rest of his life in prison getting out because of elder parole in California.

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Speaker 1: But the people in California hate Trump and that's how they voted in the gubernatorial election.

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Speaker 2: So this is what we have.

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Speaker 1: Nothing is going to change until you start voting differently. And I just don't understand how people go out and vote for this guy and then they complain about something like this.

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Speaker 2: He's not the problem.

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Speaker 1: You're the problem because you voted for him knowing that this is how he sees the world. He regards criminals as a protected class, which means his judges, the Attorney General who he appointed, his parole boards, and everyone in the system sees it that way too. So don't act surprised when they act on their beliefs. That's what they think. You knew that when you voted for him, not this audience, but the people of California. And now this monster is coming to a community near you. Lock your doors.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: There is movement in the legislature to try to repeal this monster.

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Speaker 2: Today. They want to change this law because well, it doesn't make anybody look good in an election year, or maybe, just maybe some of the electeds in Sacramento have a conscience. For more on the possible changes to the elder parole law that, by the way, Newsom was just asked about and he said he does support. Here is Fox forty in Sacramento. We need change.

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Speaker 8: That's what Assembly Member Stephanie Wynn is calling for in California's elderly parole program. As a stance today, the program allows prisoners fifty years or older who've served at least twenty years of their sentence to apply for early release from state prison.

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Speaker 9: We need to do a better job at putting standards on this program.

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Speaker 8: Win, a Democrat from the Sacramento area, says the issue is especially urgent following a recent decision by the state boarder Parole Hearings to grant elderly release for sixty four year old David Funston. He was sentenced in nineteen ninety nine to three consecutive life terms for kidnapping and sexually assaulting seven young children.

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Speaker 2: Hey, rather, this law has been on the book since twenty twenty one. That's when it was expanded to fifty years old. It's because this case was so outrageous that people started paying attention to this. How many of these predators have been released over the last four years. Well, think about it.

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Speaker 1: It has to be something truly, truly, truly eye popping to make the news. Because you think about the war and iron, You've got the heat wave coming to town, You've got March madness on the horizon.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of noise in the world.

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Speaker 1: For something like this to pop into the papers, it has to take something extraordinary, which means I think you're probably right, Randy. It's happened many, many, many, many, many times, but just not in a way that can force its way on the front page of the newspaper.

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Speaker 8: He was sentenced in nineteen ninety nine to three consecutive life terms for kidnapping and sexually assaulting seven young children. Governor Gavin Knwsom disagreed with the Parole Board's decision, but the board ultimately move forward with it, saying Fundston no longer posed what it called an unreasonable risk to public safety upon his scheduled release, though last month, Fundstan was transferred back into custody in Plaster County to face new charges in a separate child sex assault case dating back to the nineteen nineties.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was an interesting one where the day he was getting out, because this guy committed a hell of a lot more crimes that were never ever adjudicated, Plaster County who decided not to file charges for a case they had against him because they thought, oh, he's going away for life. They realized they were still within the statutal limitations and they refiled the case from the nineties And that's why that monster is still behind bars.

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Speaker 1: But this is a fluke where some Republican sheriff can come save the day. That's not always the case with these guys.

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Speaker 8: And lawmaker say he's not the only case they're concerned about. The board on Wednesday will consider parole for fifty seven year old Gregory Vogelslang, sentenced to three hundred and fifty years from arresting multiple young boys in the nineteen nineties.

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Speaker 2: Twenty years of a three hundred and fifty year sentence, that sounds great.

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Speaker 1: I wonder if they realize how ridiculous this looks. I realize here in the insane asylum, the people that voted for them are just, I guess, looking at this as business as usual. But if someone's visiting this state from Florida or Iowa or Japan or someplace like that, and they hear this, they think we're all on drugs.

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Speaker 9: I can't believe that we would allow somebody like that to be re released out in the community.

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Speaker 10: Again, admitting that you're still attracted to children is not enough to deny parole.

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Speaker 11: Then what is now?

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Speaker 8: Winn hopes to bring change to the elderly parole program with her new bill, ABE twenty seven to twenty seven. If signed, it would raise the elderly parole eligibility age from fifty to seventy five before someone can even be considered for early release.

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Speaker 2: At all because seventy five is actually elderly.

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Speaker 8: The proposal would also increase the minimum time served to thirty years and require them to undergo a screening by the Department of State Hospitals on top of that.

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Speaker 2: So what half of this bill is is just undoing the damage that the legislature and Gavin did by reducing these thresholds in twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom is one of the most destructive things that's ever happened in the state of California. It's going to take us decades to undo the damage that he has.

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Speaker 8: Done and require them to undergo a screening by the Department of State Hospitals. On top of that, the bill would completely bar anyone convicted of the most serious sexual offenses from qualifying for elderly parole at all. Those offenses include aggravated sexual assault of a child and certain sex crimes involving victims ten years old or younger.

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Speaker 9: We need to ensure that something passes to protect our communities.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 8: The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said they want to make a few things clear here in a statement. They said, in part quote commissioners for the Board of Parole hearings take many factors into consideration when determining a candidate's release suitability.

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Speaker 1: This really whenever they say, oh, it's really complicated, most things in this world are not really complicated.

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Speaker 2: Most things are really easy to understand.

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Speaker 1: And if you are saying that something like this is complicated, what you're trying to do is you're trying to defend the indefensible.

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Speaker 8: This includes the comprehensive risk assessment, the candidate's central file plans, and impact statements at the state Capitol. Covering local news that matters a Tom Wallace, Fox forty News.

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Speaker 2: So this is one where we can't ignore it. We have to pay attention to it. And as this thing goes through the legislature, it's important to have your voice head that your local member in the Assembly, in the state Senate passes this and it gets to Gavin's desk, because we have to. Now that people are paying attention, maybe we can undo this damage. But this is maybe the worst law ever passed in the state of California, and that's saying something.

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Speaker 1: Now, Gavin Newsom is running for president, and the conventional wisdom is that he's going to get there because women are going to vote for him. Women think he's attractive, women think that he's slick, women think that he's smart. How any woman could vote for him after he did all this is crazy. Let's open up the phone lines now at eight hundred two to two two five two two two that many of you have very strong feelings about this. I want to talk to the ladies in particular. Gavin Newsom thinks that you're the ones that are going to put them in the White House.

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Speaker 2: What say you?

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Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two one eight hundred two two two five two two two. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is the cellphone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com and Randy. If you want to listen to us on Saturdays on KMJ and Fresno, that's easy to do.

00:19:37
Speaker 2: They're calling it the most heavily promoted best of in radio history. Find out what all the fuss is about as we put on a best of the Fixed California Hours Saturdays at noon in Fresno on our sister station, the Big KMJ. That is a massive station in Fresno and Bakersfield.

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Speaker 5: It is.

00:19:57
Speaker 2: It is a great radio station. So make sure you check it out every Saturday at noon so you can hear what all the fuss is about. You can stream it at kmjnow dot com. You can get it on the radio five eighty on the AM dial one oh five point nine on the FM dial, or stream it at kmjnow dot com. That's kmjnow dot com. The fixed California Hour replay Saturdays at noon on k m J now. Randy.

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Speaker 1: There are those in Sacramento who are also looking to change the mental health diversion. So here's another bizarre loophole that is letting people back out onto the streets, and that is a law passed a couple of years ago called the California Mental Health Diversion Law, where if you self attest that you are suffering from any mental illness, including things as depression or ADHD, with out even a judge making the decision, you can qualify for instead of going to prison, going to mental health treatment. And it qualifies for all kinds of violent crimes, oh mine. So there's been a push for two years now to change this. This is something that Secondmenter Sarah Jim Cooper has been trying to get people to pay attention to. It didn't make it out of committee last year. It just passed a crucial committee this year. But this is yet another law that was in the name of criminal justice reform that is being exploited that we need to fix. For more on the mental health diversion law and efforts to change that one, Here's CASERA.

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Speaker 12: A bill aimed at titan California's mental health diversion program is taking a major step forward. Case Hearing three's Jason Marx is here now to explain what this bill does and how it pertains to mental health.

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Speaker 5: With area judges, district attorneys, and also law enforcement, and everyone agrees that something needs to be done to sort tighten the levers here on mental health diversion, and today that process is taking a big step with AB forty six. Mental Health Diversion is a program signed into law in twenty eighteen. And what it does it allows some who have committed crimes with mental health issues to get treatment instead of going to jail, and.

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Speaker 2: You can say whatever the mental health issue is and you don't have any you don't need to have any documentation to prove it. And public defenders up and down the state know this and are using it all the time.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's like what happened in San Francisco when you had people who were here illegally who were accused of crimes, and they would all say that they were being persecuted in their country of origin and they can't go back. Well, specifically, what the drug dealers from Honduras would say when they were put on trial by Brooke Jenkins, the district attorney, is they're victims of human trafficking. And for a long time that was working.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And what it.

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Speaker 5: Does it allows some who have committed crimes with mental health issues to get treatment instead of going to jail. Supporters of ABE forty six say they agree with the goal of diversion, but they also believe there are people taking advantage of it simply to avoid staying behind bars. They're also citing high profile.

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Speaker 2: Key Also, shouldn't there have to be I don't know some kind of connection how your mental illness caused you to bump off of seven to eleven.

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Speaker 1: What this is is this is just another tool to get them out of prison early. They don't want anyone locked up, and they're looking for any excuse to let them out early.

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Speaker 2: Oh they have a mental illness. Oh they're elderly. Oh it's this, Oh it's that.

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Speaker 1: Let's just create a long list of excuses so that the parole board has some to hang their decision on and say, oh, we had to let him out because they were mentally ill, we had to let him out because they.

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Speaker 2: They're too old whatever. Well, and this goes even further than that, because the diversion means you don't even go to prison in lieu of prison. You go to this program and there's no sentence. You just have to complete the treatment, and usually it's outpatient, and usually they're not even following up on you.

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Speaker 5: They're also citing high profile cases in which criminals reoffended after they were released on diversion. One judge we talk with says he feels like his hands are tied and says, the way that the law is worded, it makes it difficult to deny someone the program once they requested.

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Speaker 2: That's right, you self attest to this. The judge doesn't even have a say if you qualify for this or not because of the way this law was written.

00:24:55
Speaker 1: It's just it's unbelievable that this is allowed to happen. It makes the entire criminal justice system a complete joke.

00:25:04
Speaker 2: In California, it is.

00:25:07
Speaker 5: ABE forty six was introduced by Assembly Member Stephanie to Win in twenty twenty four. It would give judges more discretion when handing out mental health diversion.

00:25:16
Speaker 2: By the way, this Stephanie wins. She's also the one trying to revise alta parole. She's great. If only we could get the rest of the legislature to go with the common sense on these issues and realize that the public is not with them on this. You need to get to a majority. Well, and you remember what happened though this was important last year. Another Democrat, Maggie Crell, who was a former prosecutor in Sacramento. She's the one that put forth the bill to make it a felony to purchase a child for the purposes of sex. And it wasn't already a felony thanks to California laws, and that one was about to get killed in committee until people started paying attention. People started sharing the story on social media, they started calling their elected representatives, and it went for being killed in committee to becoming law because they realized that the public was not with them on that.

00:26:14
Speaker 1: But she created a lot of enemies in the process, a lot of enemies in the legislature. They were eventually shamed into moving forward with it, but they didn't want to do it, and believe me, the knives are out for her.

00:26:28
Speaker 5: It would give judges more discretion when handing out mental health diversion. That bill was heard today by the Senate Public Safety Committee. At the hearing, the Public Defenders Association spoke against AB forty six, saying it.

00:26:41
Speaker 2: Was of course they did, because that's what they do. Have you seen what's going on with the public defender in San Francisco. He claims he's so overwhelmed that he's just not going to take cases. And you know what happens when a public defender says we're not going to take cases. The cases just get dismissed. Oh no, it's been a complete nightmare. And at this point we're all sure it's a tactic that the public defender just wants people to get out, and this is the technicality, saying this is why, and we have to remind people this every election year. You don't know a lot about the people running for judge, but if it says on their ballot designation that they are a public defender, you don't want them as a judge run for the hills.

00:27:28
Speaker 5: Saying it would be a step backward for criminal justice. In the end, AB forty six got out of the committee with a unanimous vote.

00:27:36
Speaker 2: I'm telling you the temperature has changed on some of these issues because people pay attention.

00:27:43
Speaker 1: Situationally, yes, but unless everyone's paying attention to it and collectively outraged, the bad stuff still gets through.

00:27:52
Speaker 9: I want to be clear that we are not in any way eliminating.

00:27:57
Speaker 2: The program what we should. But okay, see this is also what they have to do. Even if they.

00:28:04
Speaker 1: Move the ball forward, they still have to pay lip service to the bad policy.

00:28:11
Speaker 9: What we're strictly, what we're doing is strictly just putting guardrails around it so that it is clear that if a judge bills that the individual poses a public safety threat, that the judge has the opportunity to deny the mental health day version.

00:28:27
Speaker 2: Program, which is something unless you're you know, the crazy judges in San Francisco who let everybody out, and there's a lot of them.

00:28:36
Speaker 5: So Aby forty six cleared a major hurdle getting out of the Public Safety Committee. Assembly Member to Win is pretty confident that soon Gavin Newsom will have this bill in front of him to sign. That's the latest here in Sacramento. Jason Marks, in case you're a three.

00:28:50
Speaker 12: News Well people against changing the law prefer treatment over jail time, saying it can be very effective. The bill now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

00:28:59
Speaker 2: There are there's so many examples of this law being used in the last few years, and Jim Cooper has pointed out a lot of these where somebody commits a horrific crime, blames it on their ADHD, doesn't go to prison, and then they reoffend. Yet we call this program a success. No, it's a rigged system. It's a rigged game, and the game is rigged to benefit the criminals. Let's go to Lisa in San Jose. Lisa, Hello, Hello, hi there, Hi.

00:29:31
Speaker 13: I was about Gavin Newsom. Yes, yes, he makes me want to throw up in my mouth.

00:29:39
Speaker 2: Actually I did, I'm sorry.

00:29:46
Speaker 13: Yeah, any woman that votes for him based on his looks. That makes men think we're stupid, because voting for someone based on their looks shows that you're unintelligent.

00:30:05
Speaker 1: I can't imagine how anyone could look at his record and think to themselves, Oh, yeah, he's going to be good for women, letting all these sex offenders out of prison early. You think that's good for women or children?

00:30:18
Speaker 2: These people have lost their minds.

00:30:22
Speaker 13: No, it's not. He can have them for neighbors or let him let them watch his kids.

00:30:30
Speaker 2: All right, thank you for the call. Let's go to John and Long Beach.

00:30:33
Speaker 14: John, Welcome, gentlemen, good afternoon. I think that if anyone realistically was half a brain looked at Gavin Newsom's record, how in the world could they vote for him. But you know, obviously there's a lot of people who don't think about what they're voting for. They just think about what someone looks like. And I had told this on your before.

00:31:00
Speaker 11: I had a friend who went to college with him, and she told me, and I still am friends with her. She told me that he was exactly like he is now in college, and all he talked about was political office and someday he wanted to be president of the United States, and he was always the pretty boy like he is. So you know, if anybody votes for him, uh, they got to be they got to be drinking some kind of kool aid that I don't want.

00:31:30
Speaker 5: I can tell you that much.

00:31:33
Speaker 1: All right, thank you for the call. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one. Eight hundred two two two five two two two. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one. Eight hundred two two two five two two two. Spencer Pratt, candidate for mayor in Los Angeles, joins is tomorrow and he is pulling second in recent public polls and the race for mayor of Los Angeles just the incumbent Karen Bass, who's sitting at twenty percent, which is pathetic for any incumbent running for reelection. Karen Bass knows the heat is on, so now she's trying to clear out homeless encampments to show that her project Inside Safe is working.

00:32:17
Speaker 2: John, What did we say about promoting Spencer Pratt bang on the kiss of death. Yes, every time you say someone's coming on, they cancel. So just remember that if that happens, so fault. When Karen Bass ran and won the la Mayor's job. In twenty twenty two, she promoted something called Project Insight Safe, where she would work to dismantle encampments and move everyone into motels. And what she said at the time is, we will make sure these encampments never come back. Well, an encampment that she cleared in Venice is back. Surprise, surprise. For more, here's ABC seven Eyewitness News.

00:33:04
Speaker 10: Some Venice residents are voicing their frustration after a homeless encampment cleared by Mayor Karen Bass's Inside Safe program has returned. This one is located at Rose Avenue and Hampton Drive. Eyewitness sues supporter.

00:33:16
Speaker 2: Oh boy, that's one of the old Bonnen encampments going way back.

00:33:21
Speaker 10: This one is located at Rose Avenue and Hampton Drive. Eyewitness new supporter Josh Haskell explaining what the mayor plans to do now.

00:33:30
Speaker 15: Over three years ago, ABC seven was in Venice when one of the most notorious homeless encampments was cleared by Mayor Karen Bass and Councilwoman Tracy Park the city's second Inside Safe operation. The encampment was located on Hampton Drive between Sunset Avenue and Rose Avenue. Residents and businesses applauded the action and continued outreach that housed over one hundred people. But the encampment is now back.

00:33:55
Speaker 2: We need to not I'm shocked.

00:33:58
Speaker 1: It's almost as Yeah, if they don't want to be in the motel rooms, they want to be on the streets, in the encampments where all the drugs in fun are.

00:34:07
Speaker 12: We need to not have to keep having a land war like every few months in the same place.

00:34:12
Speaker 5: Once we win it, we should win it. The law is not enforced. It goes and it comes. I wish it was a stick, it would make it easier for the PIDI.

00:34:20
Speaker 15: We visited the encampment and witnessed it being cleaned, outreach taking place, but instead of those living at the encampment excepting shelter, we saw the opposite. In just a few hours, crews cleared the encampment that was here on Rose in Hampton, near Main Street. But those who were living at this encampment tell us that they just moved around the corner and once the crews leave, they planned to return.

00:34:44
Speaker 2: They're sticking their claims. Talk about a game of whack a mole. Do you want to get off the street? Yeah, we're right every I don't want a stereotype, but every single time, whether it's in Oakland or Lost Angelus, the local news interview. As a person living in these encampments, you can hear the meth in their voice.

00:35:09
Speaker 15: Do you want to get off the street?

00:35:10
Speaker 16: Yeah, we're trying.

00:35:11
Speaker 2: So where are you going to set up your ten?

00:35:13
Speaker 5: And where a you're going to sleep tonight?

00:35:15
Speaker 16: Right back where I was until I get housing.

00:35:17
Speaker 2: Every single time, like clockwork.

00:35:22
Speaker 16: Because I'm not running away, there's nothing to hopen.

00:35:24
Speaker 2: Was the state really worse off when we used to put meth heads in jail?

00:35:30
Speaker 14: Oh?

00:35:31
Speaker 2: That was much better. That was much better.

00:35:35
Speaker 1: If we could snap our fingers and go back to that, we would do it in a heartbeat. The problem is we're not putting anyone in jail now.

00:35:46
Speaker 16: Because I'm not running away.

00:35:47
Speaker 5: There's nothing to hide.

00:35:48
Speaker 2: What are they doing exactly?

00:35:51
Speaker 16: Making our lives a lot harder Because the reason my bag gets stolen is because of a.

00:35:56
Speaker 2: Cleanup crew my back That doesn't sound paranoid at all. Nope.

00:36:01
Speaker 16: My backpack, everything in it, my ideas, my birth certificate, everything was stolen.

00:36:06
Speaker 5: So I can't make it anywhere.

00:36:08
Speaker 16: Because everyone wants an id.

00:36:09
Speaker 1: For a job.

00:36:10
Speaker 2: I don't think it's the backpack that's pindering you from getting a job, lady, No, I think it's the math.

00:36:17
Speaker 15: According to Countcslwomen Parks Office, those who live at this encampment have picked an area that's in between two forty one eighteen.

00:36:24
Speaker 2: Zones, so that is legalize for the breaucracy is real? Come on, Tracy, you know better.

00:36:33
Speaker 15: According to counts A Woman Parks Office, those who live at this encampment have picked an area that's in between two forty one eighteen zones areas where encampments are prohibited. And a statement Mayor basses off.

00:36:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, but Karen Bass said no one's ever coming back, and that was bs.

00:36:51
Speaker 1: They're always coming back until you put them in an institution or until you put them in jail. They're going right back to the encampment.

00:37:00
Speaker 15: Statement Mayor Bass's office set in part, we have known this is an extremely attractive area for encampments, but we will not be deterred.

00:37:07
Speaker 2: Also the encampment and why are you allowing it? Because inside safe doesn't work.

00:37:16
Speaker 15: Also, the encampment surrounds a currently vacant building, the historic Rose Restaurant, which has been in Venice for over forty years, and a statement the company that operates the Rose Sprout LA set in part, we have been repeatedly vandalized, that's equity, burglarized and harassed. Despite all this, we believe in the strength of this community and are committed to an eventual reopening.

00:37:41
Speaker 1: I figure, yes, when there's a new mayor, it's really amazing that she's even running for reelection with as bad of a job as she has done. Wouldn't you just say, Okay, I don't have the skill set for this, I'm going to do something else with my time.

00:37:57
Speaker 2: Well, and this is news for the Bay Area. As dumb as you think California voters are, LA voters might be the dumbest