Latino students at Glendale school scared straight? Attorney General Eric Holder subpoenaed again in Fast & Furious probe. Larry is joined by KPCC film critics Wade Major and Claudia Puig to review this week’s films, including Footloose, The Thing, The Big Year, Father of Invention and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
Latino students at Glendale school scared straight?
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California is suing Glendale Unified administrators and three law enforcement agencies over a "textbook case of racial profiling." That's how the ACLU describes what happened on a September day at Hoover High last year.
They claim 55 Latino students were rounded up during lunch, then searched and interrogated by police. The students were questioned about gang affiliations, tattoos and scars. Glendale school officials said the racial profiling charge is "ridiculous."
Spokesman Steven Frasher described it as an educational effort to deter students from falling into gangs. "We are going to try and do all we can to protect any student we fear is going to be at risk for being sucked into a criminal lifestyle," Frasher said. The suit also names Glendale and Los Angeles police departments and the L.A. County Probation Department.
Why did police show up at Hoover High that day? Did school officials and police break the law by detaining students without specific cause? Were all the detained students Latino? If so, why? What is the situation with gangs at this school?
Guests:
David Sapp, staff attorney, ACLU of Southern California; one of the lead attorneys working on the case
Steve Frasher, public information officer, Glendale Unified School District
Attorney General Eric Holder subpoenaed again in "Fast & Furious" probe
The House's investigative committee is digging deeper into the ATF's troubled gun-walking operation. Yesterday, it issued a lengthy subpoena to Attorney General Holder demanding unredacted documents related to "Operation Fast & Furious."
Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says top Justice Department officials, including Holder, know more about the operation than they have testified to.
At a May 3 hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Holder was asked when he first knew of the program. Holder said, "I probably heard about it in the last few weeks."
However, DOJ memos dating back to July 2010 discussing the Fast and Furious program were recently revealed. Holder has since acknowledged the memos were sent, but said he does not and cannot read memos cover-to-cover.
The operation was run by the DOJ's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The goal was to trace weapons sold in Arizona to drug cartels in Mexico. Law enforcement officials allowed middle men for drug cartels to buy thousands of weapons from American gun shops, but weren't able to trace about 1,400 of 2,000 guns. Some of those weapons have been recovered at crime scenes in Mexico, including the murder scene of U.S. border patrol agent, Brian A. Terry.
WEIGH IN:
Who had command and control for Fast and Furious? At what level did authorization come from? Who knew what and when did they know it? Why does it matter? Is Congress the right investigating body or should a special prosecutor be assigned? The ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, said the subpoenas are "a deep-sea fishing expedition and gross abuse of the Committee's authority." Does he have a point? How much political damage has Holder suffered?
Guest:
Josh Gerstein, White House reporter, POLITICO
FilmWeek: Footloose, The Thing, The Big Year, Father of Invention and more
KPCC film critics Wade Major and Claudia Puig join Larry to review this week’s films, including "Footloose," "The Thing," "The Big Year," "Father of Invention" and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
Guests:
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and boxoffice.com
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and USA Today