Karen Bass (00:00):
… Reporting from the community, especially the immigrant rights organizations that have formed the Rapid Response Network. That is usually how we hear about a raid taking place. As far as we know, there might be one rally today, but we don't believe there's going to be a series of them, and we don't have a lot of information about that one rally. I do want to say that at 6:00 tonight though, there will be an interfaith prayer vigil, of which I will be honored to attend, and it will be at 6:00, Calling for Peace, Calling for Unifying our Community, Calling for Supporting Immigrant Angelenos.
(00:38)
So let me just say now, commenting about last night, the violence we saw last night, there is no way to view it as unacceptable. So I do not believe that individuals that commit vandalism and violence in our city really are in support of immigrants, they have another agenda. If you support immigrants and the rights of immigrants to be in our city, you would not be tearing the city apart or vandalizing it. And I do want to say, especially for our national audiences, that those of us in Los Angeles understand that the unrest that has happened are a few blocks within the downtown area. It is not all of downtown, and it is not all of the city. Unfortunately, the visuals make it seem as though our entire city is in flames, and it is not the case at all, and I think it's important to say that.
(01:31)
Now, having said that, though, the violence and the damage is unacceptable, it is not going to be tolerated, and individuals will be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And no individual that is involved in vandalism should think because they went home that night that they're off scot-free, because investigations will take place and I am assured by the police department that there will be follow up and arrests.
(01:59)
The extensive vandalism downtown, especially of the graffiti that is just blanketing a number of blocks, has been extensive. We are one year away from the World Cup. This is about beautifying our city and bringing our city together. And so I am calling on business leaders, community leaders, faith leaders, to come together downtown in the next few days to talk about how we are going to clean up the city. Obviously, city workers are already out there removing the graffiti, but this is so extensive, it's going to take community-wide involvement. We had launched a program called Shine LA a couple of months ago in preparation for the World Cup, and now we are called on to direct that city-wide. We need people from all over the city to come to downtown and to help with this effort. The staff, the mayoral staff standing behind me represent the best of our organizers and community liaisons, and they will be leading that effort.
(03:03)
I do want to go back and say that, just go back in time a minute. On Thursday of last week, Los Angeles was peaceful. There was nothing going on here that warranted the federal intervention that took place the very next day. If we want to look at the cause of what is happening here, I take it back to raids that took place on Friday and the uncertainty and the fear, and the fact that families across the city are terrified that they don't know if they should go to work, they don't know if they should go to school. We have people that were detained, we don't even know the exact numbers of the people that were detained. We have people that have not had contact with legal representation, nor have they even had contact with their families. And so there is a awful lot of concern.
(03:50)
When the administration started, they said that this was about crime. They were going to go after violent felons, drug dealers, and I don't know how that matches with the scenes that we saw of people in Home Depot running through the parking lot because they were afraid that they were going to get arrested. You are talking about people who are trying to survive day-by-day, which is what a day laborer is doing, and why they would be considered as part of a problem as opposed to contributing to our economy is very difficult for me to understand.
(04:23)
We've also received reports of people who were here legally, who were showing up for their annual appointment at the immigration office, and maybe even showing up with their family, and getting detained. This is just absolutely unnecessary. People have asked me, what are the Marines going to do when they get here? That's a good question. I have no idea. The National Guard that are here now have one assignment, and that is to protect one building, which is the Federal Building downtown. The second building, which is the Federal Building on Westwood Boulevard, and as far as I know, nothing has happened in Westwood at all. So this was not needed, the idea that the administration would usurp the authority of our state government, take it away from our Governor, Gavin Newsom. The Governor knows that if we put a request in for the National Guard and it went to him, he would comply. There was never an issue there because we were never thinking about calling upon the National Guard.
(05:23)
So I do want you to know that the violence that has happened has required LAPD to ask for additional assistance, but not from the federal government. We are a county of 88 cities, there's a number of police departments in those cities, and we have the sheriff's department. And so we have received assistance from the California Highway Patrol. I mentioned the sheriffs from Orange County, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Ventura County, and a number of law enforcement departments around the county. So with them being fully deployed now, we're establishing a unified command under LAPD and Chief McDonald, which will accelerate our ability to respond to hot spots when people splinter off and create pockets of trouble.
(06:09)
So I do want to thank all the officers who've been working tirelessly and putting themselves at risk to keep our city safe, but the real solution of all of this is for the administration to stop the raids. We have heard that these raids might take place for the next 30 days. We don't know how many are going to take place in a given day, and you just think about the disruption to families and the disruption to our local economy. You might have a mother who goes to work in someone's home doing childcare or taking care of the household, a father who is the gardener or doing landscaping, people who are working in factories, and people without documents who are running small businesses, contributing to our economy in every step of the way.
(06:50)
So I just want to conclude by saying we are 12 months away from the World Cup, we need the administration to help us prepare. They are talking about spending over $100 million with this deployment, which is why I say that I feel like we've all been, in Los Angeles, a part of a grand experiment to see what happens when the federal government decides they want to roll up on a state or roll up on a city and take over. So with that, I would open it up for questions, of which Zach will manage.
Zach (07:25):
We're going to start with Josh and then go to Craig.
Josh (07:25):
Thanks, Mayor Bass. I know that you're saying that some of the violence that we've seen, the chaos later in the evenings, that it's only limited to a few streets, but it does seem to be ramping up. There was a lot of looting last night spreading to other parts of downtown LA. I know you've said that the solution is to stop the raids, but the federal government has said that's not going to happen. What is your plan to bring calm to the city?
Karen Bass (07:46):
Well, first of all, when I say a few streets, I don't mean that to mean like it's very small, because the vandalism, especially the graffiti, has happened kind of outside of that. But nevertheless, I'm trying to counter the image that this is happening all over our city, because it is not. And so we do want law enforcement to respond aggressively. Anybody that is out committing crimes are not doing it in solidarity with immigrants, they are doing the exact opposite. So we have to enforce the law here.
(08:16)
I'm going to continue advocating with the federal government though, to see how disruptive this is. But there needs to be a call that says, "This is unacceptable, and if you engage in this behavior, you will be prosecuted." Now we're looking at things like curfews, we're looking at other aggressive response that we can have in case this violence breaks out again.
Josh (08:38):
Do you think there will be a curfew? And wouldn't you say that the LAPD is being aggressive?
Karen Bass (08:42):
Well, I do think that they are, but I do think that we need to be in terms of prevention, and I don't mean aggressive in terms of engaging with the crowd, but there's things that you can do to prevent. So I had a brief conversation with the chief this morning about a curfew, so we will be meeting about that later on today, and that's the type of aggressive tactic I was referring to.
Zach (09:03):
We're going to Craig and then Julia.
Craig (09:05):
Mayor, good morning. We have a reporting in KNX that this presence of Marines and/or National Guard could actually now go on for 60 days, is the new information.
Karen Bass (09:15):
The new information this minute. Go ahead.
Craig (09:17):
Yes, and so your response to that, it seems like despite the calls from you and the governor, the answers are going the opposite direction.
Karen Bass (09:24):
Well, that doesn't mean that I will stop, you know that I'm not going to give up. But on the other hand, you just said 60 days, somebody else is going to say 30, somebody's going to say 90. The bottom line is, we don't know. And that is consistent with ICE raids, of course, we never know when, we never know how long. But that very notion creates such a terrible sense of fear in our city, and it's just not right to do that to a population who's trying to survive. We are a city of immigrants.
Craig (09:53):
Let me ask one follow up. The price tags were put over, I think 130 million [inaudible 00:10:00] this deployment.
Karen Bass (09:59):
Right.
Craig (10:00):
Does the government, the federal government, at some point come back to the city for reimbursement of any part of this?
Karen Bass (10:05):
No, I think that was money, as I understand it, that they were going to spend on the troop mobilization. Maybe that's what you're referring to. They don't need to spend it themselves. So I could not even imagine that they would come here and ask us to reimburse their unnecessary expense. Just imagine what we could do with $130 million in terms of preparing our city for the World Cup.
Craig (10:28):
[inaudible 00:10:29].
Karen Bass (10:30):
Exactly. No, LA cannot afford. Yes.
Zach (10:35):
Julia, and then [inaudible 00:10:36].
Julia (10:35):
Similar but slightly different note. My understanding, and correct me if this is wrong, the city has not ever seen any reimbursement on prior money spent that it is expecting rom the federal government. I'm wondering as-
Karen Bass (10:48):
No, that is correct. But Julia, at this point in time, that would be really early.
Julia (10:54):
Well, [inaudible 00:10:55], so I'm going forward with this.
Karen Bass (10:58):
Oh, okay. Where are you going?
Julia (10:58):
Sorry. As tension [inaudible 00:10:58] with the federal government, are we worried that they will not follow through on expected reimbursement?
Karen Bass (11:03):
Let me just… I'm sorry, are you finished?
Julia (11:04):
Yeah.
Karen Bass (11:05):
Okay. I was worried about that before the ICE raids. I mean, that is a worry. I mean, the theme of the administration is uncertainty. And so I have been very hopeful and you know this, in terms of the fires and the cooperation we receive from the federal government, working well with the administration. And now the pendulum has swung in a whole other area.
Julia (11:27):
What would that mean for the city if that money isn't reimbursed?
Karen Bass (11:30):
Well, you know what it would mean. I mean, you know that we came off of a very difficult budget year, but you also, it's very important to understand that it takes FEMA a long time. We're still looking for some reimbursements from COVID, and that didn't have anything to do with this administration.
Zach (11:43):
[inaudible 00:11:45].
Speaker 6 (11:46):
Madam Mayor, there are reports that LAUSD will deploy school police and set up safe zones around campus graduations amid the ICE raids. The superintendent did not rule out the potential for a standoff involving school police if federal officers attempted to enter the school or on campus. Have you been coordinated with LAPD? What sort of response-
Karen Bass (12:11):
With LAPD? Uh-huh.
Speaker 6 (12:13):
With LAPD, would LAPD be a part of any response, should the federal government invade [inaudible 00:12:22]?
Karen Bass (12:21):
No, well, yeah, let me just say that I have been… A close coordination has not been necessary right now, but I have been in conversation with Superintendent Carvalho. We spoke the other day, and what he is deciding to do, I know he's deciding to protect the children. You know that a month ago or two months ago, ICE agent showed up to an elementary school to do a welfare check on some kids. It's very interesting that you would send federal officers in to check on elementary school kids, but I know he's also dealing with the fear from the parents.
(12:56)
So for example, at my grandson's school yesterday, there was ICE that was visible, and you have parents who are dropping off and picking up their kids. Well, how do you think they feel? You know? I mean, it's a sense of intimidation and fear that is just so unnecessary and so corrosive to our city.
Julia (13:15):
[inaudible 00:13:17].
Speaker 6 (13:18):
[inaudible 00:13:18]. Is there a fear that this could be a confrontation between local law enforcement and the Fed on school campuses?
Karen Bass (13:27):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
[inaudible 00:13:31].
Karen Bass (13:30):
I can't imagine that there would be a conflict between local and federal police. From the LAPD perspective, that will not happen.
Zach (13:39):
[inaudible 00:13:39], then over to you.
Speaker 7 (13:40):
Mayor Bass, has there been any communication between federal authorities, the Marines and local enforcement, like LAPD, to your knowledge?
Karen Bass (13:48):
No. No, I do not. I mean, I talked to the chief an hour ago. No, we're not notified of anything. I will tell you that Saturday night when there was definitely some vandalism downtown, not what happened in the morning, which was in Paramount, but downtown Saturday night, and the President tweeted out that it was because he sent in the National Guard that the violence was stopped and he congratulated the National Guard on Saturday. The National Guard didn't arrive in the city until Sunday.
Zach (14:24):
All right, we're coming right here, and then we're going to go to [inaudible 00:14:27].
Speaker 8 (14:26):
Mayor Bass, two questions. The President from the Oval Office said that he is taking credit for stopping the violence in Los Angeles, that by extension, by sending the National Guard. And the second question, he also is calling some of the people who became agitators. Do we have any indication that that's actually-
Karen Bass (14:38):
Absolutely not. I mean, my guess is, is that you have social media phenomena that calls for parties, that calls for street takeovers, and I think it's in the same vein. What I do believe very strongly is that the groups that are vandalizing downtown are not a part of the immigrant rights movement, are not concerned about immigrants, are concerned about wrecking havoc and are immigrant rights organizations that have been institutions, well established, well respected institutions in our city for decades are used to doing protests. They're very well organized and coordinated, and they don't tolerate the violence. Yesterday's demonstration that was put on by labor, especially in solidarity with David Huerta, they had a system there where they wouldn't let people in a certain area if they had a mask on. My point is, is that we know how to take care of these issues ourself.
(15:36)
And then when you said about how the reason why things have gotten under control because of the National Guard, I gave you an example where the National Guard wasn't even here and he was tweeting that out. The other thing is, is that if you want to know what the National Guard is doing, drive by the federal building, they are stationary at the federal building protecting the building. They are not out doing crowd control or anything like that. So I don't know how he could say that the National Guard is who saved the day. Who saved the day are our local law enforcement agencies.
Zach (16:07):
We're going to Sean, and then we'll go right here with [inaudible 00:16:10]. Sean.
Speaker 9 (16:13):
Madam Mayor, can you just walk us through a little bit about what you knew and when you knew about the raids on Friday? How did it go down? When did you first get the sense that something was awry, and when did you first get the sense that the president might be deploying the National Guard?
Karen Bass (16:34):
Well, on Friday I was notified when the raids were happening. I was notified there were three raids in the City of Los Angeles. There might've been some others I've heard about that were outside of the city that day. And I heard about it when the Rapid Response Network began notifying people that a raid was taking place. And then at that point, the family members know, hey, my son, my father, my spouse is working at this place, and then they start showing up. So that's when I heard about it.
(17:08)
And then shortly after that, you began hearing from the administration. The National Guard issue came into play on Friday, as well as Saturday, that's when I was talking to officials with the Trump Administration, including Tom Homan. I spoke to him maybe about an hour before he said if I got out of line or the governor did, we'd both be arrested.
Zach (17:32):
Right here on the blue, and then right there in the dark.
Speaker 10 (17:35):
Mayor Bass, I know the pictures that are being taken here are being shown around the world, [inaudible 00:17:40], they do give people an image. Have you contacted people, I'm not talking about Casey Wasserman, but people at the IOC in Switzerland, trying to calm down any fears that they might have about what they're seeing [inaudible 00:17:54]?
Karen Bass (17:54):
I appreciate that question. Ironically, the IOC was here last week, and so I met with them directly. We did actually a panel with them, and we were talking then about how vast our city is and how if something happens in one area, it doesn't mean it's happening all around the city. So it's a little ironic we were having that conversation. I have not talked to them directly since then. Needless to say, my focus has been on keeping Angelenos safe and protected here.
Speaker 10 (18:21):
And the second question. The curfew idea, obviously, that happened many years ago with the Rodney King situation and it did calm things down. What would the parameters be? Would it be a localized, limited area type curfew? At least what you're thinking right now.
Karen Bass (18:39):
What I'm thinking is yes, because there's no need for it to be anything other than that. It's just important to reiterate that what is happening is not happening, it's not even happening in the entire downtown area. So there would be no need for a citywide curfew. But again, this is just preliminary discussions. It's one thing to say a curfew, then you have to enforce it.
Zach (19:00):
Over here in the dark blue, and-
Speaker 11 (19:01):
Mayor Bass, what message do you give to businesses in these impacted areas just on what steps do you want to take to help them still keep their doors open and not have to worry about the graffiti or the living?
Karen Bass (19:14):
Well, I wish I could say and not have to worry about, but we're coming together. I spoke to business leaders this morning saying that we need to come together not just to talk, but come together with a plan on how we're going to repair the damage that has taken place. And understand that it's going to take everybody, it's going to take the private sector, obviously the city, the city workers are already out there and they've been out there for hours and they've been out there for the last couple of days. But I know if you've driven around downtown, you know how massive this is. So the city workers are going to need assistance as well, but also, general citizens. I think everybody is concerned about downtown. I think people need to come from all different parts of the city to join us in repairing the damage that has taken place.
Zach (20:03):
Right here in the white.
Speaker 12 (20:04):
Mayor, Bass, I wanted to ask you, what's your explanation of why this is happening in Los Angeles? I live in Miami, I've been all over the country. I haven't seen this in any other place. Why is it happening here? Many people think that Los Angeles is a pretty brave city to say things that others are ignoring. Why here? Why did it happen here?
Karen Bass (20:23):
To be honest with you, I don't know, especially considering the relationship that was developing before this. The only thing I can think of, and that's why I keep going back to, I think we're an experiment. Because if you can do this to the nation's second-largest city, maybe the administration is hoping that this will be a signal to everybody everywhere to fear them. That your federal government that historically has protected you can come in and take over.
Speaker 12 (20:51):
Mayor Bass [inaudible 00:20:53].
Zach (20:52):
A few more. We're going to go right here in the light.
Speaker 12 (20:54):
Have you talked to President Trump?
Karen Bass (20:58):
No. No, but I'm going to put out a call to him today. I have been talking to-
Speaker 12 (21:01):
What are you going to tell him?
Karen Bass (21:03):
I want to tell him to stop the rates. I want to tell him that this is a city of immigrants. I want to tell him that if you want to devastate the economy of the City of Los Angeles, then attack the immigrant population. I want to tell him, "Don't you want the World Cup to be a success, a success for you? Well, if that's what you want, give us help. Give us the $130 million that are being used for no reason, wasting taxpayers' money. Give us that money so that we can get prepared for the World Cup next year."
Zach (21:32):
Right here in the white.
Speaker 13 (21:39):
It sounds like you've been trying to, have you been trying to reach them? Last week, it sounds like you were talking to the federal government on Friday, and that kind of stops, but focus is elsewhere, but are they ignoring your calls?
Karen Bass (21:46):
No, no, no, no, no, no. What I said is that I have not, period, reached out directly to President Trump. My conversations with people either in the administration or close to the administration, have been continuing. I've not spoken to Mr. Homan again, but I think those conversations are still going on.
Speaker 13 (22:08):
Mayor Bass, [inaudible 00:22:10]-
Zach (22:08):
[inaudible 00:22:10].
Speaker 14 (22:10):
Thank you. Mayor Bass, I know that you talked about getting business leaders to come together to clean up and help the downtown area, but some talked to us about their concerns about just protecting their business.
Karen Bass (22:20):
Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 14 (22:21):
And some have even said, "Could we get even the National Guard to protect us?" Your thoughts on that?
Karen Bass (22:26):
Well, first of all, again, the National Guard's mission is to protect the federal building. That's why I said that we're in discussion as to whether or not there should be a curfew. All of those things will help their business.
Zach (22:38):
Right here in the blue.
Speaker 15 (22:39):
Thank you very much. Mayor Bass, obviously you brought up border czar, Tom Homan. He's always admonished sanctuary cities. I'm wondering if you feel as if Los Angeles is being targeted because of the sanctuaries. And in that same vein, if you have a message for Boston, Denver, Chicago, who could experience the exact same thing you're going through right now.
Karen Bass (22:59):
Well, first of all, the State of California is a sanctuary state. So this could have happened basically to any of the cities. Now, cities, some have adopted the policy, but it is state policy. And so yes, my concern with those cities that you named is, "Look out, this could happen to you." And if I'm not mistaken, at least a couple of those cities, I think it's Denver and Boston, have already been hauled in to congressional hearings.
Zach (23:26):
Final question today.
Dave (23:29):
I know you said that your office is not being given a heads up about these raids. We were hearing reports yesterday that ICE went to Exposition Park yesterday and took some street vendors into custody. This is a public property, the city has a swimming pool there. Can either you or your staff tell us what you know about this? Is it in fact true? And if it's true, what caution is the city taking to safeguard the public at Exposition Park or any other public facility?
Karen Bass (23:57):
Well, Dave, one of the, yes, we did know about it like anything else, when it was occurring, we knew about it. Well, just what you said. I mean, the same information I have as well, that street vendors were arrested, that they went in and arrested or detained street vendors. But in terms of what the city can do to protect public properties, you know that we have no idea where they're going. We would not have the capacity to have LAPD at every public facility. And so I was in a room yesterday, yesterday morning, meeting with the immigrant rights organizations, and all of a sudden, everybody's cell phones started blowing up. That's when we all heard about a raid that was taking place in Whittier. So, part of the uncertainty and the instability that this creates is that we don't know. It's kind of like whack-a-mole. So if the city hears of something, they will go to it, but you know there is no capacity that we could monitor all of the public facilities.
Dave (24:58):
But for our understanding, for example, if ICE shows up at the city side, the aquatic center, whatever, does the city ask them to produce a warrant? Do they ask if they have a warrant to go onto the property?
Karen Bass (25:06):
Well, we can ask that, but at the end of the day, it would be very difficult for city staff to tell armed ICE agents that they can't come in somewhere. Nick? Mm-hmm, oh, sorry. I'm going to call on you.
Speaker 9 (25:23):
Yeah, the military is right now-
Speaker 17 (25:23):
Sorry. Oh, I was going to say, yeah, the federal military is now confined. What would be the implications if they step beyond the federal building protection? And what would you tell those troops to think about before they took an order or if they were ordered to do something like that?
Karen Bass (25:42):
Well, I don't think I'm going to tell them. What I would tell them is, "Go back and guard the building." That's what I would tell them, but obviously, I have no authority over federal troops.
Speaker 17 (25:51):
But what would be the implications for the city, if-
Karen Bass (25:55):
Well, the implication, it depends on what they would do. Again, there's nothing happening. So if they wanted to just march up and down the street, then that's one thing, but there's nothing going on right now. And when there is something going on, our law enforcement has the capacity to address it. Yes. Wrap us up.
Speaker 18 (26:13):
Yeah. I wanted to ask you about the Australian journalist who was shot earlier this week to the rubber bullet. The Australian Prime Minister has spoken with the Trump Administration about the incident, but I wanted to know, how do you feel about foreign media workers being [inaudible 00:26:27]-
Karen Bass (26:28):
Well, I mean, I think it's terrible. I think it sends a terrible message. As you said, the prime minister of the country had to respond. The President of Mexico has responded. Again, I know, or maybe I don't, that these countries look at this, and I don't think they thought there was some grand thing happening here that required ICE agents to come and disrupt workplaces or chase people through Home Depot parking lots.
(26:54)
Thank you very much, everyone.
Zach (26:55):
Thank you so much, everyone.
Julia (26:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (26:55):
Thank you.
