A look at what LAPD policies changed after death of Ezell Ford, "SPOT" airport security measure under fire, show features stories of ‘doomed’ valentines
Why the 9th Circuit Court is such an attractive target for Republican lawmakers
President Donald Trump wasn't pleased with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on Thursday.
SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017
The panel decided unanimously that a stay on his controversial immigration ban will remain in place for now.
But even before the decision was even made, Republican lawmakers took aim at the San Francisco-based court, introducing a bill to break up the 9th Circuit. The court hears cases that involve California and eight other Western states that, taken together, make up about 20 percent of the nation's population.
But critics say the 9th Circuit is too big, too slow — and too liberal. So, why do they think that, and do they have a point?
Take Two put those questions to Andrew Bradt. He's an assistant professor of law at the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Highlights
The 9th Circuit is the largest federal appeals court by far. It's also been a headache for conservative lawmakers for some time. I want to figure out how it got that way. So let's talk about the criticisms one by one. First: how did it get so big?
Well, basically because of population growth. The 9th Circuit was created in 1891, and it includes all the states west of Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. At the time, those states were simply not terribly populated. Because of that, there weren't too many cases. If the area became more populated, that means more cases, which requires more judges.
The sense of splitting the 9th Circuit has a bit of a 'here we go again' quality to it. There have been efforts to split the court up, going all the way back to 1941.
How much of a difference is there in size?
It's much larger in terms of size, and it's much larger in terms of the number of cases. About a third of the appellate cases come out of the 9th Circuit. Just to give you a sense, there are 94 Federal Court of Appeals judges, and 25 of those currently sit in the 9th Circuit.
How did it get the reputation for being so left-leaning?
It's natural over time. If you look at those 25 sitting judges, 18 of those were appointed by Democratic presidents. Only seven of those were appointed by Republican presidents.
You also have the tradition of senatorial courtesy, which held that judges were not appointed over the objection of one of the state's senators. So when you're talking about relatively liberal states, with relatively liberal senators, what you have is a significantly Democratic-leaning judge court.
Arizona Senator John McCain is one of the sponsors of the bill to break up the 9th Circuit. The court had tangled with Arizona in the past when it tried to pass a law that made it a state crime to be in the country illegally. Where else have we seen the 9th Circuit get in the way of Republican initiatives?
It's really been all over the map since the 1960s. One of the major early areas where the 9th Circuit was thought to be more liberal than the rest of the country was in the environmental law category.
We've also seen it in cases involving relaxation of the laws on medical marijuana and marijuana generally. The famous Pledge of Allegiance case. And also, this series of other cases involving immigration, election law, rights to criminal defendants.
Is there some merit to the thought that it's too big, too bloated, too slow?
There is merit to that argument. It is the largest by far. Cases do take a fair bit of time to wind their way through, this week's rapid activity notwithstanding.
One of the unique characteristics of the court is that, unlike all of the other courts, there are so many judges, the court isn't able to sit as a full court.
It's not unprecedented for Congress, who is in charge of the creation and size of the courts, to break them up. The 8th and 10th Circuit in the west was broken up in 1929. And the 5th Circuit was broken up in 1981, so it wouldn't be an unprecedented move.
Would breaking it up weaken the court's ability to challenge Republican policies or executive orders from the Trump White House?
The devil will be in the details. It's hard to say whether or not things will move more quickly. It's probably fair to say that they will move a little bit more quickly if the circuit is broken up into two, as the House and Senate bills suggest.
If you break up the court into two, that may mean new judgeships. Those new judgeships would be filled by the Republican Senate with nominees proposed by a Republican president. There certainly is a political piece to this.
In the near-term, the California part of the 9th Circuit at least, and maybe Washington and Oregon, would still be places where there would be courts in which to challenge President Trump's orders.
In the long term, breaking up the 9th Circuit and reducing its power would certainly reduce the liberal counterweight effect that the court is sometimes able to play.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Popular security measure called ineffective, how do we make airports safe?
At the heart of President Trump's travel ban is the idea that terrorists are planning to sneak into the country under the guise of refugees. And, like a lot of our concern about terrorism, the travel ban has been playing out at our nation's airports. Even before September 11th, there was a concern. Over the years, there have been a wide variety of efforts to increase airport security.
This week, a controversial program aimed at making airports safer is coming under fire. A T.S.A. security measure called Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques program, or SPOT is designed to observe travelers and identify possible terrorists. But according to a new report by the ACLU, research reveals the program is ineffective and often devolves into racial profiling.
So, would actually make an airport safer?
We took this question to a leading expert on terror prevention. Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Brian Michael Jenkins, a senior adviser with the RAND Corporation and Director of transportation security at the Mineta Transportation Institute.
What does the SPOT program aim to do?
If you look at an airport security checkpoint, that in a sense is our last line of defense. That is the metal detectors, the x-ray machines, and so on. If something gets beyond that, then we're in a response mode. We're either depending on air marshals or frightened passengers attempting to overpower a hijacker if he gets into the airplane.
So the idea was, could it be possible to push back that moment of detection of terrorist intent, enabling some kind of an earlier intervention? This has been a quest of current research. It really looks at that narrow time frame between the final commitment to action, when the attacker is on the way to the target, armed, poised to attack, and the attack itself.
It's based upon the notion that there are some obvious indicators of criminal intent but there may be some more subtle indicators. Displays of nervousness, or evasive actions, or other things that could be detected by trained observers.
How can we determine if a security measure is effective?
In terms of deeming it ineffective, here we have to be careful. This is not an issue we're dealing with like shoplifting. And the reason I bring shoplifting up is that shoplifting is a high volume crime. It takes place all the time. We now have sophisticated ways of measuring inventory shrinkage. We can put in security programs at department stores whether it's cameras or RFID tags, and we can measure the effects very, very quickly and make precise calculations about effectiveness.
In the case of terrorism, and this sounds perverse, but we don't have enough terrorists. That is, you can say, well how many hijackers have there been in the United States since 9/11? And the answer is, zero. So it is difficult with any of these security measures aimed at terrorism to come up with an empirical basis for saying they work or they don't work.
What else could be done to improve airport security?
Certainly we have done everything and the country has invested heavily, especially since 9/11 to make sure that bombs and weapons don't get on the airplanes. And this is a distinction we have to make, whether we're keeping weapons off of airplanes or whether we're protecting the airport. Until one goes through the security checkpoint, the airport, like a train station, like a bus depot, is a public place. And the question is, what can we do to improve the security of that public place? And indeed, what can we do to protect the security of any place where people may assemble. That's a real challenge.
People have argued that we should create a second perimeter— an outer perimeter at the entrance to the airport itself. That is, before one would even enter the terminal, one would go through some kind of security scrutiny. That has been done at some airports overseas. It's an option but the concern is that is you set up an outer security perimeter, then you create lines of people waiting to go through even further out. And those lines themselves become vulnerable targets for terrorism.
Quotes edited for clarity.
To listen to the interview, click on the blue Media Player above.
LAPD Ezell Ford shooting prompted changes, though incident remains hotly debated
With the Los Angeles City Council’s decision to pay the family of Ezell Ford $1.5 million this week, another chapter closed on one the most controversial shootings in recent city history. The only remaining question is whether Officers Sharlton Wampler and Antonio Villegas will be disciplined by Chief Charlie Beck.
His decision, unless leaked to the media, is supposed to remain confidential under a broad ranging state law that is designed to protect law enforcement officers called the Peace Officers Bill of Rights. Last year, they sued the city alleging racial bias because they have remained on desk duty since the shooting. They said if Ford, who was black, had been another race, the department would have put them back on the streets.
While they remained on desk duty for at least two years, Beck defended their actions in an opinion to the Los Angeles Police Commission, the five member civilian body that oversees the LAPD. He pointed out there was DNA evidence that strongly supported Wampler’s claim that Ford, 25, was trying to grab his gun and that he was in a fight for his life. The commission overruled I'm, saying the shooting should not have occurred because the officers’ lacked reasonable suspicion to try to detail Ford.
It was a controversial decision that the LA Police Protective League – the union that represents rank and file cops – strongly denounced. It’s since called this commission, which has changed membership but pushed for reforms – anti-cop.
Councilman Joe Buscaino, once a full-time LAPD officer and now a reserve officer, called the officer's actions "righteous."
(It should be noted the District Attorney said the officers had reasonable suspicion to detain Ford, who officers said was walking away from a group of gang members in an area where drugs are sold and quicken his pace when officers tried to stop him. He end up crouching in a driveway as if to hide, said the officers.)
Both Wampler and Villegas shot Ford to death in the Summer of 2014 – just two days after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Because of its proximity to that shooting, the killing of Ford became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles. It was another example, leaders said, of LAPD officers caring little for the life of a black man.
While Beck and police union leaders called the shooting justified, it and the national uproar over policing prompted a series of changes at the department. In a rare move, the department required all nearly 10,000 cops to go through a ten-hour training that focused on four areas:
- Building public trust by partnering with the community and recognizing your own implicit racial biases on the streets.
- Use of force and de-escalation techniques, including taking cover and creating distance from suspects to buy time to talk to them and call for back-up.
- How best to identify and approach mentally ill people.
- Basic laws of arrest, including reasonable suspicion and probable cause.
De-escalation was always taught, but its emphasized more now, said Dr. Luann Pannell, a psychologist who is director of training and education at the LAPD’s academy. “De-escalation can come in many forms – its not always just slowing things down. Sometimes, its best to move in on a person quickly to end a situation before it escalates.”
The department wrote a new training directive on de-escalation that covers all the techniques, starting with officers discussing how to approach a situation as they are on their way to a radio call.
Instructors also told rank and file officers to be prepared to take no for an answer when they approached somebody to ask them questions and they don’t want to talk. If the officers don’t have reasonable suspicion a crime has been committed, the should not pursue the person.
It’s hard for law enforcement officers who are trained to take control of a situation to slow things down and sometimes walk away.
“We have close to ten-thousand officers,” said Pannell. “Even when incidents occur, it’s hard to implement training that will turn the department on a dime.”
The department is adding a mandatory training refreshing constitutional policing principals and other skills about a year after cops are first on the streets and also plan to add other training during their first five years on the job. Its bought more Tasers so that every officer will have one – thought they are not required to wear it.
In addition, Beck created a new Community Relationship Division to provide opportunities for officers to have positive interactions with residents. “The best antidote to implicit bias is contact theory,” said Pannell. You don’t want all your contacts with residents to be negative.
Beck also created a “Preservation of Life” Award for officers who could have used deadly force but avoided it. The police union called it dangerous because officers might hesitate when they are facing a life-threatening situation.
The police commission, led for the past 18 months by attorney Matthew Johnson, managing partner of the powerful entertainment law firm Ziffren Brittenham, also has pushed for changes.
- In December, it held a four hour meeting focused on implicit bias and pushed Beck to do more to train officers to be aware of it.
- The commission has asked for a new shooting policy that includes a mandate officers try to de-escalate situations before firing, if possible.
- The panel has ordered the department to put officers through more scenario based training to reemphasize how to approach residents without resorting to force.
- And the civilian board has asked the department to draw up a policy that would get more information to the public more quickly after a shooting.
Department brass are in the process of coming up with these policies - brought on by intense protests across the country and in Los Angeles.
In addition, the commission plans to hold a series of public meetings asking people to weigh in on when they think video from body worn cameras, dashboard cameras, and security surveillance video should be released to the public. It’s a reversal from when the panel accepted Beck’s recommendation that video never be released unless in extreme circumstances where a shooting provoke riots.
Again, the police union opposes any change, arguing releasing video could compromise officers’ and residents’ privacy and jeopardize investigations.
There remains at the department a level of tension between the union and the commission, and sometimes between the chief and the commission, as different reform agendas move forward.
While the chief has gone along with and initiated a number of changes, he also dramatically expanded the Metropolitan Division doubling its ranks to nearly 500.
These are highly trained officers who don’t answer radio calls but ride around in unmarked cars looking for suspicion activist.
They often are good spotting bad guys – metro units deployed to South LA to stop a crime spike seized more than 300 guns off the streets during one recent six-month period. But they do little community policing.
“Law enforcement has many obligations,” said Captain Andrew Neiman, a spokesman for the department. “We are pulled in many directions and it’s a delicate balance.”
Activists have argued for more efforts like the Community Safety Partnership programs - where officers stay in housing projects in Watts and elsewhere for five years and are rewarded for building relationships and preventing crime. Its called relationship policing. If there had been something like that in the neighborhood where Ford was shot, the argument goes, the officers may have known him, may have been aware he was bipolar, and handled him differently.
LAPD officials say they don’t have the resources to do what they do in Watts across the nearly 503 square miles of Los Angeles.
“We have to police from vehicles most of the time,” said Neiman.
Props M and N: Your chance to choose how marijuana is regulated in LA
Even though Californians just voted on legal marijuana in November, coming up on March 7, those in the city of Los Angeles will have two more pot-related decisions to make. That's because the upcoming ballot has two marijuana Propositions: M and N.
Here's what you need to know about both.
Didn't we just vote on marijuana in November?
Yes. Statewide, voters did legalize marijuana, that's true, but the whole industry is on hold because laws and regulations at the state and local levels are being worked out right now.
Every marijuana business will have to get a license from the state to operate. But, to get a license from the state, first they have to get a license from their city or county.
Propositions M and N are meant to begin the process of writing the rules about marijuana in the city of L.A.
What does Proposition M do?
A few things:
- It empowers the L.A. City Council to make the rules about how to regulate the legal marijuana industry within the city. They’ll be able to decide things like how the industry should be taxed, where businesses should be allowed to operate and the sorts of penalties that should be levied against those who violate the law. It also considers licensing for cultivators, manufacturers and distributors.
- It allows for the replacement of Proposition D, which voters passed in 2013. Proposition D limited the number of shops that can operate in the city to 135. That means that the City Council will be able to decide how many shops should be allowed in the city.
- It prioritizes those 135 compliant shops to receive licenses first when L.A. issues them. The shop owners argue that since they've been paying taxes and operating in compliance with the law, that they should be first in line.
Proposition M has been backed by the City Council, the mayor and by multiple marijuana advocates and industry trade groups. In the voter information pamphlet distributed by the county, there are no arguments against Proposition M.
What about Proposition N?
This is where it gets a little confusing. First off, you need to know that no one currently supports Proposition N.
It was originally written by the UCBA Trade Association, which represents some of the Proposition D compliant shops. It covers some of the same things as Proposition M in that it determines how the city should regulate the marijuana industry.
However, opponents of Proposition N argued that it unfairly favored those Proposition D compliant shops. Eventually, the UCBA was persuaded to support Proposition M by other marijuana industry groups in the city.
At the end of the day, the separate industry groups agreed to support the one measure, but it was too late to take Proposition N off the ballot, even though the UCBA pulled their support.
"Once city council has taken action in these measures and it’s placed on the ballot, there’s no way of removing a ballot measure," said Cecilia Gomez Reyes, Media Coordinator for the Office of the City Clerk for the City of Los Angeles.
In the voter information pamphlet, voters are urged to vote no on Proposition N and to vote yes on Proposition M by the authors.
What happens if both Proposition N and M fail to pass?
According to City Councilmember Herb Wesson's office, the council can still repeal Proposition D, since it was initially sponsored by the city. The Council can still begin to determine L.A.'s marijuana laws, but they're limited in what they can do when it comes to deciding how to tax the industry.
When are L.A.'s marijuana laws going to be in place?
Assuming Proposition M passes, there's a deadline of Sept. 30, 2017 for submitting new guidelines. It's unclear when the Council will settle on and approve the new regulations.
At the state level, California's state government is aiming to have their regulations finalized by January 2018.
Do you have any clever way for me to remember this?
I don't know about clever, but I did come up with a HighQ haiku:
No one likes Proposition N
It's Proposition M, just think Munchies
To regulate pot
Series: High-Q: Your California pot questions answered
This story is part of Take Two's look at the burgeoning, multi-billion dollar marijuana industry in California, with audience Q&As, explorations of personal narratives and an examination of how the industry is changing the world around our audience.
Read more in this series and call or text us your questions at (929) 344-1948 or
Attention star gazers: How to best view Friday night's comet, eclipse and snow moon
For all you star gazers out there, there are a few cool things to see in tonight's sky. You just have to know how to find them.
Three celestial events can be seen at different times tonight. "You can see these, its just very, very subtle", said Bruce Betts, Director of Science and Technology at the Planetary Society. Take Two's A Martinez sat down with Bruce Betts to learn more about what's happening in the heavens and how to best view them.
Check out the "Snow Moon" (no telescope required)
Full moons get names often derived from Native American terms, at least in North America. And in this case, that is true with the ‘Snow Moon’ being the February full moon. That tends to be the time where there's a lot of snow. There are also less popular names such as the ‘Hunger Moon’ because everyone was getting hungry in the winter. And you can look forward to ‘Worm Moon’ coming up because that's when, in the North East, the worms started coming up out of the ground.
If you look hard you can see a lunar eclipse (telescope recommended)
Tonight, there is a penumbral lunar eclipse. And that's opposed to an umbral lunar eclipse. Basically, it means the moon is just entering the edge of the Earth's shadow. As a result, it doesn't dim very much so most people can kind of hope for is a subtle dimming on the side of the Moon. But wait, it gets harder. If you're living on the West Coast— because the Moon rises around the time it's already passed mid eclipse. And with the Sun setting on the other side, it gets even more subtle.
Peak eclipse if 4:44 PM Pacific Time so can probably go to about 6:15 hoping to see some subtle darkening on the moon.
Catch a comet as it flies by Earth (telescope required)
The comet is close by cosmic standards but it's still millions of kilometers away. It's like 30 times the Earth moon distance. It will be its closest approach tonight. This is comet 45P Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková. (Comets are traditionally named after their discoverers and this had three co-discoverers). The ‘P’ indicates that it's a periodic comet, meaning it doesn't go way, way out. It orbits every 5 1/2 years around the Sun.
It's gotten a lot of press party because of its green color. Comets are fun because its hard to predict what you'll see. It had a long tail before it went around the Sun, but seems to have lost its tail. It's dimmed so you will not see it with just your eye. You need binoculars or a telescope.
From California, you need to go out in the wee hours so, 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. Look in the constellation Hercules. If you're going to do this, look online and find a finder chart for where to look with your binoculars. With a telescope, you will probably see a green or pale fuzzy blob.
Those lights in the sky aren't stars, they're planets! (no telescope required)
You can easily see Venus if it isn't cloudy. Over in the west after sunset, that super bright thing? That's Venus looking like a star. And to its upper left, much dimmer is Mars.
*Quotes edited for clarity
Note: for the best star gazing, take a ride away from the city lights.
And speaking of comets, you can see Bruce Betts and other experts at the KPCC InPerson event, Incoming! Studying and avoiding near-Earth asteroids and comets on February 16th, 2017 at 7:30 PM.
To hear the full interview, click on the media player above.
Your go-to guide for the weekend in SoCal
Aladdin in Boyle Heights? Dual language musical takes you to a whole new world
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH5WwPsH5fg
Sound familiar?
Yes, it's from Disney's Aladdin but, as you can tell, there's a twist.
In this version Jasmine only speaks Spanish. Aladdin only speaks English...and the rest of Agrabah is lost in translation.
“It’s beautifully interposed the way they include the bilingualism. We have royal translators who kind of translate for the people of the palace and you have sidekicks like Abu and Rajah who also kind of make sure that you’re not lost at sea.”
That explanation courtesy Daniel Martinez. He plays Aladdin in the "Dual language" edition of the tale. It was adapted in 2005 complete with the Genie and royal advisor Jafar but has only now found its way to L.A. You can catch it at the Casa 0101 theater in Boyle Heights.
Take Two Producer Lori Galarreta recently caught up with the entire cast and crew of the show, starting with Jose Cruz Gonzalez. He's the professor at Cal State L.A. who penned the adaptation. He spoke about the role theater can play in bringing communities together.
"I've been across this country and I've seen the big cities to little little places, little towns where there's an artist there trying to create art. And that's something that we really need more of today for communities to come together."
Casa 0101 is the perfect venue to carry out this sentiment. It was founded 17 years ago by Josefina Lopez, the author of "Real Women have Curves" with the mission to bring arts and theater to the community she grew up in, Boyle Heights.
Gonzalez's adaptation of the Aladdin story strikes a chord with the predominantly Latino community of Boyle Heights. In the dual language edition, the city of Agrabah is suffering through language and cultural divides a theme which, Gonzalez notes, is particularly appropriate in the present.
"In this piece you have one culture, the kingdom speaking only Spanish and then of course you have the common people only speaking English and Jafar is this sort of bad dude who has manipulated that to happen until the Genie arrives and is able to help restore order and balance in these communities and it resonates on so many levels I didn't even imagine 2005 that would have that kind of resonance now seeing it again with the landscape that we are dealing with here in this country today."
Sarah Kennedy plays Princess Jasmin, who is the same headstrong princess we all know, just with her name pronounced slightly different. She spoke about the importance of bringing the arts to communities like Boyle Heights.
"Doing a show like this, in an area such as Boyle Heights where there's a very high population of Latinos, it's really cool because they get to see a show a theatrical production in their language and so it means a little bit more and we're kind of showing the youth and people in this community that you know, theater is for everybody and this story and the magic is for everybody."
The added layer of two languages and the inability for the characters to understand one another echoes a lot of the feelings our nation is experiencing. This is a point touched on by Gonzalez and something Kennedy highlighted as well, including the notion of using the arts as an outlet.
"The theme of this show with class divide and culture divide with the different languages, it's very very relevant right now, especially with the news of the recent election. Art is such a great way to channel whatever frustrations and anger you have about the current situation of the world and so just being able to be here with such a diverse cast and to perform with them every weekend is such a blessing. We have such an amazing opportunity here in Los Angeles specifically it's so so diverse and so to share the stage with people from so many different walks of life and to be able to tell one story that's universal to everybody is probably the greatest blessing."
"Aladdin, Dual Language Edition" will be playing at Casa 0101 through Sunday March 5, for more information, click here.