LAPD expected to adopt new use-of-force policies, new book "City of Dream" tells the story of Dodge Stadium and Los Angeles, Downtown LA's Astro Doughnuts
LAPD expected to adopt new shooting policy
The Los Angeles Police Commission Tuesday is expected to approve a new shooting policy that would require LAPD officers to try to de-escalate confrontations before opening fire on a suspect. The move follows a nationwide uproar over police shootings and a campaign by the panel's president to drive down the number of these incidents at a department with a long history of controversial killings.
The proposed change is simple - just 31 words added to the 1,100 word use of force policy contained within the department's manual of policies and procedures: "Officers shall attempt to control an incident by using time, distance, communications and available resources in an effort to de-escalate the situation, whenever it is safe and reasonable to do so."
The department already trains officers extensively on how to defuse situations; it does so in the academy with fresh recruits and it conducts ongoing training as it did in the wake of the shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Ezell Ford in South L.A. in 2014.
But altering the use of force policy means Chief Charlie Beck and the five-member civilian board of police commissioners would mean officers could be disciplined or even fired for failing to try to de-escalate a situation before using deadly force.
Police union leaders are unhappy with the proposed policy change. They worry this stricter approach could prompt officers to hesitate in life-or-death situations. Union leaders also don’t like that it could expose more officers to disciplinary action.
Police Commission President Matthew Johnson has said officers should still use deadly force when confronted by armed suspects. But he also has said he would expect the new policy to result in fewer shootings and/or more officers being found out of policy because they didn’t try to de-escalate.
The policy falls short of the fundamental changes needed at the LAPD, said Black Lives Matter organizer Melina Abdullah. She pointed out more than one-third of people shot are mentally ill.
"So wouldn’t it be forward thinking if the police commission recommended, for instance, that mental health workers be the first responders to mental health crisis rather than police," said Abdullah.
Take Two's A Martinez spoke with KPCC's Frank Stoltze for more on the impetus behind the new policy and what it means for law enforcement in Los Angeles.
To listen to the interview with Frank Stoltze, click on the blue Media Player above.
First 3 months of 2017 sees huge uptick in ICE immigration arrests of non-criminals
New numbers are out on activity to deport people here without authorization.
They show that in the first three months of the Trump Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 21,362 immigrants, mostly convicted criminals.
That’s a little over 5,000 more arrests from the same time last year and the numbers continue to increase for people with no criminal records.
It’s something Washington Post’s immigration reporter, Maria Sacchetti has been looking into. She joined A Martinez to talk about the numbers and what they mean.
To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button above.
How Dodger Stadium helped create a 'City of Dreams'
Spring is here. Baseball season is back and for a lot of us that means time to buy a ticket to watch the Dodgers play in what Tommy Lasorda has described as "Blue Heaven on Earth."
Believe it or not, Dodger Stadium is now the 3rd oldest in baseball behind two icons, Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston.
But Dodger Stadium's past is complicated. It's full of political, racial, social and financial implications that are still being felt today.
But it's present and future could serve as a model for establishing the ideal relationship for stadiums and the communities they serve.
Jerald Podair's new book is all about that. It's called City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
On the Lot: Writers strike looms, Fast and Furious booms
Tomorrow, members of the Writers Guild are expected to approve a strike authorization plan. Their contract runs out on May 1, and if they can't reach agreement with producers, they'll walk off the job the next day.
Vanity Fair's Rebecca Keegan says, if that happens, the first evidence will be in the late night talk shows. During the last writers strike, ten years ago, most of them shut down production and went into reruns. If the writers stay out for most of the summer, it could effect everything from the fall network TV premieres, to productions on popular streaming services.
The eighth film in the Fast and Furious franchise broke records in its opening weekend, and it was also the biggest opening weekend for a film directed by an African-American. Helmed by F. Gary Gray, The Fate of the Furious succeeded by appealing to a demographically broad swath of movie-goers. Still, after eight movies, some argue it's time for the street racers to park their muscle cars and move on.
And even though the title is The Last Jedi, it seems pretty unlikely that Disney will be parking the X-Wing fighters any time soon. A trailer for the Christmas Star Wars movie popped up this weekend, and fans are busy pouring over it for clues. Try it yourself.
Peak LA pairings: Crème brûlée doughnuts with fried chicken
In the pantheon of food and eating, many pairings have become classics:
Peanut butter and jelly.
Macaroni and cheese.
Lox and bagels.
But a new shop just a stone's throw from Pershing Square in downtown L.A. is hoping to add another duo to that list.
It's called Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken.
We've already got chicken and waffles, so chicken and doughnuts aren't that much of a stretch. But it's important to note the story to how these two foods came together at Astro's.
The pairing itself was first developed in D.C. The two founders of the company were hockey players and because they were on the road a lot, they ate a LOT of doughnuts. So, they decided to open a shop.
But one of the owners pointed out, "Doughnuts are a great morning food. But how do we keep this shop open all day?" That's when the answer came to them.
Chicken.
The rest is culinary history.
Take Two's
and
headed downtown to check it out.
The donuts come out west
Astro made a name for itself in D.C., but once Art Levitt saw the restaurant's potential, he brought it out to the West Coast. Levitt is the operating partner for Astro D.C. here in Los Angeles and he was the guide for Take Two's grand tour.
The shop in DTLA is a small one, and in the two weeks that it's been open, there's almost always a line out the door. As they wait in the queue, customers can catch a glimpse of the kitchen from the street and there – laid out for all to see– are rows and rows of their most popular treat: the crème brûlée doughnut.
Just behind the doughnuts sits a deep fryer and where the co-star of the restaurant gets made: the chicken.
Lots of care and precision go into each item on the menu at Astros. The crème brûlée doughnut has to be cut from the dough ... into a square. And if you don't do it right, you can't use it. Like any skill, it has to be mastered. Levitt explains:
You wouldn't think it's as difficult or as hard as it is but we make the dough in batches 24 hours in advance. We make everything from scratch to our own specifications ... and once the dough is set then we use certain kinds of fillings with pastry cream that our chefs make here in house.
And then it's topped with the sugary substance that then you can flame torch, to get that crust in every single bite. It gives you a mixture the soft and thick creamy filling and the crunch surface. So, there's a lot of work that goes into it.
The chicken is pretty special too, as is James Brice, the guy who makes it.
Our dark meat goes for 14 minutes … and then we come back and shake it and season with our special blend … I can't give you the blend … but you have to taste it when it's done.
So, while the chicken was in the pressure cooker, Levitt led the Take Two team back to the kitchen to show us where all the magic happens.
Levitt: "Dough is laid out here. They'll cut it and bring it here. They fry them and use chopsticks. They take them here and they get filled, then all of these glazes are applied to the top of the donut … And these are the crème brûlée."
The mythical crème brûlée doughnut. What's the most exciting part? That flamed sugar on top. It becomes this hard, smokey shell which is a VERY important factor Astro Doughnuts tries to replicate from actual crème brûlée.
You can almost feel the flames.
But first, chicken.
Now, if you've ever tried chicken breast, you know it's hard. You undercook and it's pink … you overcook and it's dry. So, they took a leaf out of the Colonel Sanders cookbook and use a pressure cooker.
Brice: "It seals juices … it's a little darker than the open fire but the inside is so moist … I don't eat breasts but I eat from here because it's tender and juicy."
The verdict
First, the crème brûlée doughnuts. Now, these creme-filled versions are not like the ones you know. An informal poll on the Take Two team revealed that most people actually don't like cream-filled donuts. But this one's different.
It's crunchy, it's creamy and the best of both desserts. Pro tip: Eat while warm.
Now, the chicken. It's crispy, a little spicy, salty and MOIST. It'll make even those full of doubt white-meat believers.
Be sure to flip through the slideshow to see some of the other doughnut selections. They feature such flavors like peanut butter and jelly and Meyer lemon.
To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button above.
One car per green: LA on-ramp lights turn 50
The phrase "one car per green" turned 50 last week. Don't all get up to celebrate at once.
California got its very first ramp meter April 11, 1967 on Sunset Boulevard at the 101 Freeway. Their purpose was simple: To help decrease bottlenecking and to cut down on pollution.
But even though on-ramp lights have been around longer than most of today's motorists have been driving, they continue to frustrate and confuse even the fiercest of road warriors.
Experts, however, contend they're an effective way to keep traffic flowing smoothly.
One such expert is Wahib Jreij, acting senior transportation engineer for Caltrans. He joined Take Two to talk about it.
Highlights
When ramp meters were originally put in place, what was the theory behind them?
The purpose of ramp meters is to help the freeway mainline traffic.
It's easy to understand when you think of water: If you have a river that's flowing very smoothly and you have a lot of streams coming into the river, you can see where another input comes in there will be trouble in some of the water. When water comes from the side, it creates a wave and turbulence in the stream. It's the same with traffic.
If you stop this flow of cars, you're going to ease immersion and help alleviate that bottleneck or turbulence.
Looking at the big picture: How have ramp meters affected traffic flow in California since that day in 1967?
After 1967, we noticed it was a great success, and since then we decided that we were going to install ramp meters on all L.A. freeways because that's the way to make traffic flow better.
But we learned that ramp meters do stop vehicles, but they also have to be traffic responsive, meaning that they have to work only when they're needed to work. We don't want to stop cars when there's no need to stop cars.
To do that, we had to install loops on the freeway. So every on-ramp that comes into the freeway had detectors on the mainline freeway adjacent to the light. Those detectors detect the vehicle's volume and occupancy on the mainline.
If you have a freeway that's moving at 70 miles an hour or better, a lot of times your light will be green. When the freeway's congested with speeds falling below 50 to 40 miles an hour, you need to stop and wait for a cycle to go green. So now all our ramp meters on the L.A. freeway system are called "local traffic responsive."
What would happen if Caltrans decided to dump the ramp meter thing tomorrow?
I think for sure we would have a lot more congestion. I have no doubt on that.
There was a study done in Minnesota in the 2000s. The Twin Cities in Minnesota installed ramp meters and people were so upset. Jesse Ventura was the governor of Minnesota, and he said 'OK. We're going to turn these ramp meters off for six weeks, and we're going to do an evaluation study to see if they work.' And that's what they did.
They turned off all ramp meters in the Twin Cities — about 400 of them — and they found out that without ramp meters, the level of congestion was higher, accidents were dramatically higher, and travel-ability was off.
Without ramp meters, it was hard to predict how long it would take to get to work. Some days it took an hour, sometimes it took an hour and a half. It always took longer, but it sometimes took way longer, sometimes just a bit longer. Accidents rose by quite a bit, especially sideswipe accidents. People were just merging without looking. Also, congestion was way up.
When you improve freeway speed, even by one or two miles an hour, you move a lot of vehicles through one point. Even if you might not notice, it makes a big difference for the overall traffic flow.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
(Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.)