San Bernardino adopts program to reduce homicides, Boyle Heights workshop builds bridge between community and police, should 17-year-olds be allowed to vote?
San Bernardino Police turn to tech to help prevent homicides
It's been a tough few years for the city of San Bernardino.
Five years ago, the city was mired in debt. So much so that it was forced to declare bankruptcy.
Then, late in 2015, a mass shooting left 14 dead, 22 seriously wounded, and an entire nation in shock.
Now, individual homicides in the city have soared to levels not seen in two decades, leading to headlines that claimed San Bernardino's murder rate was higher than Chicago's.
That has officials from the Inland Empire city looking to another California town as a model for change.
Five years ago, the city of Oakland began a new policing program designed to combat homicides, called Ceasefire. It combines community policing techniques with high-tech data gathering. And it seems to have worked: The murder rate in Oakland has dropped by 30 percent.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan hopes the program will work in his town, too. He spoke Tuesday with Take Two.
Highlights
Give us a sense of the situation in San Bernardino in regards to crime — specifically, homicide.
As many people know, the city of San Bernardino has struggled for many years with crime issues, dating back to long before my career started — dating back to the '80s, when the city started seeing a significant increase in crime, specifically violent crime, centered around gangs and drugs as the two primary factors. And that's never really stopped.
During the early '90s, it reached its height. I think during some of the years in the early '90s we had upwards of 80 homicides a year, and last year we had a little bit of a spike. We hit 62 last year.
When it comes to putting Ceasefire in action, what do you have to do? What will this look like in practice?
I'm a little concerned that people think that this is going to be an instant switch — that we're gonna employ these people, and we're going to start seeing some sudden reductions in crime.
The reality is that, during the opening months and even the majority of the first year, it really is about setting up the program and building the foundation for the program and doing a lot of data analysis to understand what those driving factors in violent crime are.
We know a lot of them. We certainly have our way of doing analytical work, but they look at it in a slightly different way where they try to identify the specific people, based on intelligence work and crime analysis data. Then, they build a program around addressing those particular people through a variety of things, whether it's roundtable-type things to put them into a scared-straight kind of situation or doing direct law enforcement work, targeting those particular people.
By specifically trying to target certain people that may be the driver for these things, aren't you saying, in a way, 'Look, we're worried that you might be doing something wrong in the future?'
In most cases, we see people that already have an extensive history with law enforcement and with the criminal justice system by the time they're reaching violent-crime status. These are not people who are new to the system.
Quite often they're on parole or probation or some status like that. We'll sit them down and say, "Hey, listen: you're headed down this path, and all the information and all the data and all the historical information we have available to us tell us that you're heading down the road to being involved in a violent crime involving a gun and you gotta stop. You gotta get off that train, and you gotta figure out another way."
Click on the blue bar above to listen to the entire interview.
(Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.)
Boyle Heights youth, police seek end to violence through dialogue
Amid long-running tension in East L.A.'s Ramona Gardens, youth and police are turning to dialogue to improve relations and stem violence.
The youth-led workshops began as a response to gang violence and heavy police presence and have since gained backing from some LAPD officials as an alternative way to build better community alliances. Starting this year, law enforcement and youth are taking steps to expand the program to other parts of the city.
But the fallout from a recent shooting hints at challenges still ahead.
A history of fraught relations
For decades, Ramona Gardens has drawn attention for gang activity. The public housing project, operated by the L.A. City Housing Authority, holds nearly 500 units and is wedged just north of the 10 freeway and bordered by railroad tracks. For years, a gang known as Big Hazard dominated the area, and has been subject to gang injunctions, according to LAPD maps. In 2010, the city moved to install surveillance cameras to monitor the area.
The situation has improved in recent years, some residents and police said, but at times violence still hits the community.
That's drawn action from federal authorities, such as a 2014 raid that involved the FBI and led to indictments for gang members.
This has all contributed to a tense atmosphere, where some of the buildings are painted in colorful murals that chronicle local residents who have been slain in police or gang-related shootings.
"There are generations of families who have had distrust with police and that’s not going to change overnight," said Robert Arcos, Deputy Chief for Operations at LAPD’s Central Bureau.
But the workshops are an opportunity for officers and youth to sit down away from the daily stress of the streets, where most interactions take place. Instead, parties with a long history of misunderstanding can ask questions of one another, dispel rumors and, most importantly, he said, find a constructive way to combat the violence that has plagued the community.
"That gets us in the door and if we get in the door, we get a chance to maybe sit at the table," said Arcos. "I think that gets at the whole foundation of relationship policing and connecting."
'Enough is enough'
Growing up in Ramona Gardens, Eddie Licon often witnessed the heavy police and gang presence in the blocks around his house. To him, things weren't getting better, so he and his friends decided to try a different approach.
"Enough was enough already," said Licon. "We’ve seen this play out our entire lives and we figured that something needed to be done."
Licon and two of his friends – Marlene Arazo and Amanda Gutierrez – called a meeting between police and youth. It was 2011. All three were 16 at the time.
"That was the first ever time that we brought these two groups together," said Licon.
The goal, in Licon's words, was to "look at the problem deeper in order to find a lasting solution as opposed to just booking people and putting them into prisons."
The idea for a meeting evolved into a more formal workshop, led by youth facilitators that involved specific activities and guided conversation aimed at addressing the roots of the problems. And they came up with a name: Through Our Eyes.
Still there was pushback from some of their peers.
"My homies said 'You're a sellout'," said Arazo, of the criticism she heard from other teens. Many of them, she said, could describe negative experiences with local police, which had led to deep distrust. They questioned why she would be in the same room with officers.
But she stuck with it.
"Better than anyone, youth know what they want and youth know what other youth need to succeed," she said.
"A lot of times, youth see the police in the worst times in their lives," said Stacey Vandersall, a sergeant with the LAPD who worked at Ramona Gardens. "They only experience the police in those types of settings: emergency, escalated situations."
Vandersall was first assigned to Ramona Gardens in 2011 as part of an effort from the LAPD and the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles to foster better relations through a program called Community Safety Partnership. The program opened with 40 spots for officers assigned to specific housing projects across the city. Vandersall was one of them.
"At first when we first went in, it was difficult," she said. "We heard a lot of rumors, a lot of stories, there was a lot of history, so we were apprehensive."
But at that first workshop, which she attended, she saw an opening for change.
"You would listen to the youth and they would have such a negative perception of the law enforcement, that you thought, you would never be able to change it," she said. "But when you build that relationship, when you go there and you show up and you say hello to people and you listen to what they have to say, people change their minds."
Taking the dialogue citywide
"When I was growing up, there was no communication with the officers," said Lou Calanche, executive director of the community group Legacy LA, where the workshops take place. She grew up in Ramona Gardens in the 1990s. "We just didn’t talk to the police and stayed away."
But when the three youth – Arazo, Licon and Gutierrez – approached her with the idea to start the workshops, she saw an opportunity to make a fresh start.
"Police officers can’t solve all the community’s problems," she said. "We need to invest in young people. Not just in Ramona Gardens, but in other areas."
Since the first workshop in 2011, the youth have revamped the curriculum, changing some of the language and dropping parts that didn't work. Earlier this year, they completed an 18-page training manual for other youth facilitators.
That's drawn the support from the LAPD.
"When you listen to the title of the program, 'Through Our Eyes,' it hits you right at the core," said the LAPD's Robert Arcos. "That is exactly it."
It's a chance, he said, for officers to correct misconceptions about their daily work as well as for them to listen directly to what youth have to say about how they experience policing. And he's pledged some of the nuts and bolts to try to make it work: training hours for officers and opening up other stations to try it out.
"We realize that communication is a two-way street," said Licon, now 20 and a third-year student at the University of Southern California. "We really need to work together to create any type of change."
Still the road ahead has its share of obstacles.
At a workshop earlier this month at the Legacy LA offices, Amanda Gutierrez said it had been a struggle to keep the meeting on track. Two weeks before, a friend was shot and killed and some of the youth had dropped out.
"I’ve been in pain and it’s really draining," said Gutierrez. "At times, I felt like not doing this workshop, just cause I felt like I can’t see eye to eye with officers because I feel confused."
Next to her Marlene Arazo wore a white t-shirt with their friend’s name, Jonathan Valdovinos, and the dates of his birth and death. According to police, an assailant shot and killed Valdovinos, 23, around 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 25 on Murchison Street, a path that leads into Ramona Gardens. Police are investigating it as a homicide. His friends said he was shot walking home from a market while carrying his lunch in his hands. The shooting – in broad daylight – and arrests that took place after a memorial put the community on edge.
Still, Gutierrez and the other youth went forward with the workshop, with seven teens and eight officers. At times it was tense, but it ended up lasting nearly two hours.
Coming so soon after the death of a neighborhood friend, it was a sign of what was possible, said Gutierrez.
"Reflecting back on our whole mission, it empowers me to move forward," she said.
Legal deans and students push to change California's bar exam
Nobody said the pursuit of a law career would be easy, but some lawyers argue it's too hard for law school grads to pass the California bar exam.
It's so hard that the state bar is now considering lowering the minimum score needed to put up a shingle.
David Faigman, chancellor and dean of UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, spoke with Take Two's A Martinez to explain why he believes the California bar scores need a serious cross-examination.
On who's voiced their disapproval of California's current way of approving prospective lawyers
Twenty of the 21 ABA-accredited deans sent a letter to the California Supreme Court, which has authority to supervise the California bar. The Cal-accredited schools sent a letter supporting the deans. The California Assembly's judiciary committee sent a letter to the California Supreme Court supporting the dean's letter. I think it's a general sense in the state that having a pass-rate for the ABA-accredited schools that is so substantially below what every other state in the country does is just unreasonable and doesn't seem to have any firm basis.
On how California's law school system compares to other states
New York this year had an 83 percent pass rate for comparable students. California had a 62 percent pass rate. The reason why there's a difference is not because New York takers are better than California takers. In fact, the National Conference of Bar Examiners and the Cal Bar Statisticians recalculated the California pass-rate based on the New York standard and found that where New York had an 83 percent pass rate, California would have had an 87 percent pass rate.
On how law students are graded
California uses what's called the cut score. The question of where the cut score is, is essentially a judgment call. When you're in 6th grade it might be a 65, but what California [law schools] use is a 144 cut score. New York uses a 133 cut score. So that's a big difference. California has the hardest, highest cut score of any state in the nation, but one. But consistently, over time, California is the worst offender when it comes to setting a cut score. The problem is that there is no justification for choosing a cut score that is so high.
Answers have been edited for clarity.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
Could lowering California's voting age to 17 equal better voter engagement?
Turnout for the March 7 election in Los Angeles was low. Really low. Less than 13% of voters actually cast a ballot, according to the latest count.
Lawmakers and voter engagement advocates continue looking at a handful of innovations to boost numbers at the polls. Already in the works: establishing more easily accessible voting centers, automatic voter registration through the DMV, and moving local election years to match up with state and federal elections.
Now, there's another proposal: lower the voting age in California to 17 years old.
The intention is aligned with a bill last season that didn't make it through the legislature, making the argument that if young voters are engaged concurrent with their high school government classes, and while they're still in the stability of their families' homes, they're more likely to be consistent voters later on.
This time around, though, instead of a bill, the idea has taken the form of an amendment to the state constitution known as ACA-10. If approved by two-thirds of the legislature, it would appear as a ballot measure for voters to decide in 2018. If approved by voters, 17-year-olds would be allowed to vote in federal elections as well, despite the national threshold age of 18. "We really need bold ideas to reinvigorate our democracy," the amendment's author, Assembly member Evan Low, said in an interview with Take Two.
Low, a former teacher, argues that education is a key component. "When we have 17-year-olds captured in the classroom, we can engage with them in a relevant way where they feel like they can participate, and instill a lifelong habit of voting," Low said. "So, it's also about this civics component. About how we ensure that understanding beyond just a theoretical understanding of government, that they have a role to play."
When pressed if 17-year-olds can handle the responsibility of voting, Low and his supporters contend that the age group is underestimated. "As a millennial, I think oftentimes ... younger generations get a bad rap that they are not participating or evolved," Low said. The proposal is also supported by the legislative caucus "Millennial Action Project," a bipartisan organization.
Low is also advocating to make Election Day a state holiday. He says lowering the voting age is "just one arrow in the quiver to encourage more participation."
"I think kids our age are old enough to vote," said Gabrielino High School student Ethan Tan. "I think we have enough information in our classes that gives us enough information to fill out a ballot." Tan said that with all that students are learning in school, youths his age may actually be "more educated" on the issues than other voters.
Tan's fellow debate-team member, Michael Hong, disagrees with having a lower voting age. Although he would exercise the right to vote if he had it, he's concerned with the overall maturity of his age group. "At least anecdotally, people my age tend to be more impulsive than making decisions off of rational behavior," Hong said. "As a result, I think that would heavily influence elections in one way or another."
California, 21 other states and the District of Columbia currently allow voting at 17 in primaries if the voter will be 18 by the date of their respective general election.
To hear the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Income tax proposed to alleviate California's teacher shortage
California has a problem in education — a pretty severe teacher shortage.
School districts across the state have been struggling to find enough educators. Three-fourths of them report they've come up short this year.
But a bill working its way through the state senate has a pretty unique idea to attract new teachers and keep veterans in the classroom. The Teacher Recruitment and Retention Act of 2017 proposes income tax relief for teachers at financially critical points in their careers — the first program in the country of its kind.
The bill's c0-author, state Senator Henry Stern of Agoura Hills, joined Take Two's A Martinez.
Interview Highlight
It's a decade long program. We're trying to not just lift up the teaching profession, but stimulate California's economy by an across-the-board pay increase, essentially. It's going to increase take home pay on average between 5 to 7 percent for the entirety of the teaching workforce.
We're going to be looking at the first five years of teaching. Those who are going through their credentialing for a tax credit. And then beyond that, we're looking at an income tax exemption. The idea is that we're not only looking at those in the early stages of their teaching profession. Really the big ‘donut-hole’ is those who are teaching beyond five years. Thirty percent of the teachers in the workforce are leaving the profession after five years.
It's hard to keep up with the cost of living in California, and this is an effort to fix it.
To hear the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Les Amazones d’Afrique, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and more
If you love music, but don't have the time to keep up with what's new, you should listen to Tuesday Reviewsday.
Every week our critics join our hosts in the studio to talk about what you should be listening to, in one short segment, and this week, music journalist
oins the show to give his picks and reviews.
STEVE'S PICKS
Artist: Les Amazones d’Afrique
Album: “République Amazone”
It wasn’t just November’s election that started it. Well before that, there seemed to be a sense bubbling up via more and more musicians of a desire to, well, say something. That’s manifest in three dramatically different ways in three new albums, one from the West African women’s music all-star project dubbed Les Amazones d’Afrique, one from bold young jazz trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and one from Texas folk-soul-gospel veteran Ruthie Foster, each taking distinctly different forms of musical expression, but each tapping into a need to connect with meaningful themes.
Long before women put on pink knit hats and marched through our cities, a group of strong-voiced women came together to present a forceful message:
"Men, listen to us
This song we’ll sing goes to you
Our troubles and sorrows are our weapons
And we women want to share them with you ..."
The women who wrote and sang that song, “I Play the Kora,” are a multi-generational, multi-cultural West African supergroup fully deserving of the name they’ve chosen, Les Amazones d’Afrique, honoring the women warriors who protected cultures in that region for hundreds of years.
from
on Vimeo.
The words quoted above were sung, in the Banbara language, by Malian artist Rokia Koné, followed in subsequent verses with equally pointed, pain-into-action lines from young Nigerian rebel-rapper Nneka, Mouneissa Tandina, Kandia Kouyate, Mamani Keita, Mariam Doumbia and Mariam Koné (all from Mali) and Pamela Badjogo (of Gabon).
Les Amazones first came about a couple of years ago, sparked by French music agent Valerie Malot hoping to shine a light on the violence, oppression and inequities facing African women. All of these women, established and/or rising stars in modern African music, have dealt with various aspects of that in their own lives, and proceeds from “I Play the Kora” go to the Panzi Foundation, based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and dedicated to helping women, particularly those who have been victims of sexualized violence. The song itself artistically addresses the endemic place of women as second-class citizens — women have historically been prohibited from playing the kora, the harp-like instrument that is at the foundation of the song and story traditions that are core to the peoples of West Africa. Just saying, “I play the kora,” for a woman, is a dramatic statement of pride and defiance.
It was the project’s first single and now is just one of the highlights of a full album, “République Amazone,” which even apart from the sharp messages is a dynamic offering. Co-produced by the women with Irish musician Liam Farrell (a.k.a. Doctor L, who previously produced the sparkling Kinshasa outfit Mbogwana Star), the album is dense with intertwined traditional and modern sounds, the serious topics always propelled by spirited music. It’s not looking for pity, but always pushing for progress. So strong is it that the presence of Benin-born global star Angelique Kidjo in the lead singer and lyricist role on rousing opening song “Dombolo” is just a nice bonus, a way to bring a bit more attention. And each song, each performance stands tall on its own, from Keita’s sinewy “Doona” to Nneka’s funk-soul “La Dame et Ses Valises” (“The Lady and Her Luggage”) to the roiling “Full Moon” (featuring Koné and Keita). But at all turns this is really about the collective strength of a community that is compelled to speak up — and even if we don’t understand the language in which they are speaking, it comes through clearly.
Artist: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah
Album: “Ruler Rebel”
It can be hard enough to get the full message of topical songs when the words are in a language you don’t understand. Harder still, of course, when there are no words. If you heard the brash and bold new music from trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah without knowing anything about it, would you get right off that it tackles, in the words of the press material, “a litany of issues that continue to plague our collective experiences,” including “Slavery in America via the Prison Industrial Complex, Food Insecurity, Xenophobia, Immigration, Climate Change, Sexual Orientation, Gender Equality, Fascism and the return of the Demagogue?”
Here he is performing for NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert."
Did we say brash and bold? Well, it takes that to put oneself alongside some others who have brought truly original vision to jazz as a vehicle for such ideas, a roster that includes such giants as John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Archie Shepp and Miles Davis. Audaciousness and arrogance too, both terms that have been applied to Adjuah, that he seems to court. But he backs it up with accomplishment. This new album builds on themes he’d explored in 2012’s “Christian aTunde Adjuah” (which introduced the adoption of his African-rooted name) and 2014’s “Stretch Music.” But it’s also the first of “The Centennial Trilogy,” marking the 100 year anniversary of the very first jazz recording, with the next two set for release later this year, at once drawing on all the developments of those years and projecting new routes for the future. Well, an NPR critic did proclaim him as ushering in “a new era of jazz” with his fusion of new and old approaches he has termed “Stretch Music.” (He recently hosted what he billed as the first annual Stretch Music Festival at New York’s Harlem Stage, spotlighting young jazz innovators.)
So what do we hear on “Ruler Rebel”? We hear the past and, if not the future, then a vivid, dynamic present, Miles Davis via finely applied hip-hop sensibilities, atmospheric trumpet and glitchy rhythms. On the title song and the closing piece “The Reckoning” he paints that picture of the issues — historic and right-now — spelled out in the promo material, an expressive, abstractive swirl of righteous anger with intense, determined, pointed calm. But other emotions come into play too, explicitly in “New Orleans Love Song” — two versions, a relatively straightforward rendition tied to and inspired by mentors and masters of the past, a remix with a very modern pulse. Each stands on its own, statements by an artist trying to capture the moment, but in for the long haul. Brash and bold. Here he is again, performing “The Reckoning” from a November concert:
Album: “Joy Comes Back”
And finally, Ruthie Foster is hardly the first person to take on Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” The thudding Viet Nam era anti-military-industrial-complex screed is something of a standard in some circles. But it’s a good bet she’s the first Texas-rooted folk-soul-gospel singer to give it a go. And what a go she gives it. Foster, a veteran performer with a knack for finding ways to add heart to message songs, and messages to heart songs, hits a surprising sweet spot with this, balancing out the bitter tone inherent to Ozzy’s attack with a deeply human touch.
That formula marks the album as a whole, not about the contrasts of emotions but the complements, via the works of various ace songwriters. Chris Stapleton’s “What Are You Listening To?” opens as an affectionate invitation to and invocation of the power of music, and the personal nature of it, followed by Grace Pettis’ tribute to the “Working Woman.” “War Pigs” is followed by, enhanced by, Stevie Wonder’s “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever,” in turn followed by Mississippi John Hurt’s venerable “Richland Woman Blues.”
And “War Pigs” not withstanding, this is an album of hope, of, as Foster’s own “Open Sky” presents, possibilities. Of course, it’s right there in the album title, and the gospel-y title song, written by Sean Staples and here featuring the slinky slide guitar mastery of guest Derek Trucks (as well as Foster and album producer Daniel Barrett on “clogs and stiletto heels”). Here is the ultimate message Foster wants us to hold: Joy comes back. No matter the troubles, no matter the darkness, joy comes back.
(click on the blue arrow to hear the entire segment)