WEBVTT - Ep. 5 - Shattering The System: "The Wild Wild West... Hollywood" 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:03.360 In this podcast, we're going to talk frankly but sensitively 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:07.480 about issues some people might find disturbing, including rape and suicide. 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:10.800 If you or someone you know is suicidal in the 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:14.640 US down nine eight eight, check out this podcast notes 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:18.440 page for information on LGBT plus mental health resources in 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:19.239 your community. 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:21.520 Let's recap where we are in this story. 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:21.720 Now. 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.079 I need to remind you that two gay black men 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:27.120 have been found dead eighteen months apart in the same 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.920 West Hollywood apartment. Jamel Moore and Timothy Dean both died 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:36.200 of meth overdoses at one two three four North Laurel Avenue. Now, initially, 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.760 both desks were ruled accidental overdoses. Ed Buck, a gay 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:44.879 white man who was fairly well known around town, rented 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:49.080 that apartment in West Hollywood. Now that's two overdoses at 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.280 the exact same address, in the exact same apartment in 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.720 less than two years. Yet ed Buck was still free, 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.279 and he was still persuading men to cross this threshold 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.560 and enter into what some might have called ed Bucks 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:10.600 gates of health. It's important if we're going to understand 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.120 what happened in ed Bucks apartment, we have to understand 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.520 where this all happened when we started looking at the 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.000 story of Jamel Moore and Timothy Dean, we realized that 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.240 not a whole lot has been written about the history 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:27.120 of West Hollywood specifically, so we thought we'd stepped back 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.960 from the specific aspects of the crimes of that book 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.280 to take a look at the place where ed Bucks 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:41.280 crimes were made possible. I'm scenario Glennon. This is shattering 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.760 the system the true crime podcasts. That's about more than 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:48.120 crowd on this episode, Come as you are, the story 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.120 of West Hollywood and its rise from a wallless, mob 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:55.240 run railroad town to a modern gay mecca. More after 0:01:55.280 --> 0:02:10.519 this break Well, I just got off the bus in 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.680 the center of West Hollywood's Boystown area on Santa Monica 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:19.400 and Robertson, and I'm headed towards the abbey. Now it's 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.760 not a church, it has no religious affiliation. If not 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.840 quite a sacred space, it's supposed to be a safe space. 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.240 It started off as a coffee shop, but in the 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:31.839 more than thirty years since it's opened to stores, it's 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.840 become one of the most important bars in the whole 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.600 gay world. The motto of the bar might as well 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:41.079 be the motto of the city of West Hollywood, come 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:49.519 as you are. Let me tell you a short story that, 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.160 whether than true or not, has become a local legend. 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.520 In the fifties, the police in this area were known 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.160 for doing stings on places where gay men gathered. On 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:02.359 one particular, the police showed up to raid a gay 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.639 bar and the most famous movie actress of the time 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.200 was there. Elizabeth Taylor strolled to the door and informed 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:13.720 the police that there was nothing to see here. The 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:19.320 police sheepishly left empty handed. Think about that for a moment, police, 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:24.480 gay people, celebrity, and what it says about power and 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:30.360 this place. Hank Scott is a pioneering journalist. He's worked 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.320 at the New York Times, he ran Out magazine, and 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:35.280 he's one of the many people we've interviewed not just 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:37.680 about the case of Ed Buck, but about the city 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:42.440 of West Hollywood, gay life, and local politics. West Hollywood 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.040 is the gayest city in the country, but Hank Scott 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.800 says the city has a mixed reputation in the gay world. 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.920 He learned that when he started the newspaper Wehovill. 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.800 I reached out to publishers of leading gay publications around 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.760 the country and asked them in ten words or less 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:01.520 to describe West Hollywood. 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:03.760 Scott thought it would be a good idea and a 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:04.480 fun story. 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:06.720 Oh how wrong he was. 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.640 It was so upsetting that I thought this isn't something 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.400 I should probably publish in my first week on the job. 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:21.280 Twink Town, Silly Go Go Boy. And it turns out 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.200 there's a lot more to West Hollywood than that. I realized. 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.400 There were a lot of stereotypes about West Hollywood, and 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.080 one of the things that I saw is my mission, 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:35.560 both with the Lejoville and West Hollywood Magazine is to 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.520 dig deep and find out what West Hollywood was really like. 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.120 West Hollywood is a lot of what people are imagining 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.640 when you think Hollywood. Just want to make sure that 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.839 folks understand that Hollywood is a neighborhood fully within the 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.400 boundaries of the city of Los Angeles. In the mid 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:56.039 twentieth century, what is now West Hollywood wasn't its own 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:00.240 city yet. It wouldn't be officially incorporated until nineteen eighty four. 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.599 The city is only about one point nine square miles, 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.599 hemmed in by Los Angeles to the north, south and 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.680 east and Beverly Hills to the west, and there are 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.279 about thirty six thousand people who were squeezed into this 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.360 less than two square miles, and that number can triple 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:19.120 or even quadruple on the weekend. How did we get 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.160 to here? Well, we need to step into the wayback 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.080 machine to help us understand what made it possible for 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:34.000 ed Buck to so brazenly commit crime for millennia. That 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.800 bright sunshine that brings people to southern California, well that 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.600 was a curse. The semi arid landscape and the insanely 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.680 large number of man eating bears meant that huge parts 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:47.520 of Los Angeles were sparsely populated. Now, the ancient people 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.880 lived here. The Tongva stalked deer in the Beverly Hills 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.600 and fished in what is now Malibu. All the places 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.080 where rich people live now are where people have kind 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:01.320 of always lived the terrifying California. The bear kept the 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:05.840 population low, but the Spanish and later the Americans massacred 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.159 the bears and decimated the native population. By the time 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.800 a huge deposit of oil was found in eighteen ninety two, 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.440 Native Americans in the area were decimated and divested of 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.200 their land, and by nineteen hundred Los Angeles had swelled 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.719 to more than one hundred thousand people. Now, while La 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.760 grew up, there was one area, a railroad town called Sherman, 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:28.480 that sprang up. 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.200 And it was the home of the Los Angeles. 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:35.080 Pacific Railroad, all its main shops, its main railroads, and 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:38.960 for decades a train ran down what is now the 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:42.599 Santa Monica Boulevard. Sherman was where railroad and oil workers 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.400 lived and played. It would become West Hollywood some time later. 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:51.359 Now fast forward to the nineteen twenties. Los Angeles is 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:55.599 one of the most important oil producing sites on the 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.919 planet and Sherman was the wide open town that attracted 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.839 lots of money. And while gambling was illegal in Los Angeles, 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:06.159 it was legal over in Sherman, and all that money 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:14.920 attracted bohemians, criminals, gays, hustlers, bohemians, and the mob. In 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:19.440 the mid nineteen thirties, Bugsy Seagull, famous East Coast mobster, 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.560 a hitman part of a group called Murder Incorporated. Well, 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.800 he moved to southern California and this man got into 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:31.280 almost every racket you can imagine, extorting the studios through 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:36.080 the unions, and gambling and prostitution. Bugsy Seagull is probably 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.920 though best known for helping build the Las Vegas Strip. Well, 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.720 he made the money and the connections. He needed to 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.960 do that in part because of the money and what 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:51.040 he learned from running the Sunset Strip, the Sunset Strip 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:54.160 that runs right through West Hollywood. Before it became a 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:58.320 tourist trap, it was a cash register for the mob. Now, 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.920 if you watch a mob movie Goodfellers of the Godfather, 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.200 they sort of weave out that a big racket for 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.320 the mob was gay bars. 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.080 You could pay off the Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies. 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.280 Hank Scott, the founder of jujo Vel. 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.720 If you were gay, you serious problems if you were 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.720 in the city of Los Angeles, seriously persecuted. But there 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.760 were gay bars that could pay off sheriff's deputies and survive. 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.240 And you know what the game was, Hollywood. 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:31.600 They thrived in this town where a prostitute, a speak easy, 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:33.960 a casino, a gay bar, a mobster, or a drag 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:38.120 queen was just left alone. The gin, the drugs, and 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.280 the sex have always been easy in West Hollywood. That 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:47.200 image actually no, that reality stuck, and traces of West 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:53.280 Hollywood's very complicated history persist to this very day. This 0:08:53.559 --> 0:09:14.839 is shattering the system. More after this break, if you're 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:17.320 at a name a nightclub that you've heard of in 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:21.280 the LA area, it is probably in West Hollywood or 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:23.920 incredibly close. Now I'm going to read you a list. 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.800 See if you recognize any of these CEO's. That's where 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.600 Sammy Davis became a star. Cafe Chocadero, the Rainbow Room, 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:33.559 the Viper Room, that's where if River Phoenix died outside, 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:37.640 Chateau Momanc, The Troubadour where Elton John first played the US, 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.640 The House of Blues, the Roxy, the Comedy Store. If 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:42.360 you were to look up any of those names, you 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.600 would have a pretty decent history of the nightlife in America. 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:50.000 While West Hollywood clubs in its social scene would continue 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:54.720 the thrive, ordinary people began to suffer. Rints began to rise, 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.959 and affordable housing was being demolished and replaced with big 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:03.840 hotels for tourists and expensive apartment towers. Here's journalist Hank 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:04.360 Scott again. 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.559 What happened was Los Angeles Board of Supervisors had become 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:14.599 dominated by Republicans who were not interested in preserving a 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:19.520 portable housing for people and the elderly people In once Hollywood, a. 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:23.040 Group called the Coalition for Economic Survival was formed to 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:24.280 fight gentrification. 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:28.839 Russian Jewish immigrants were struggling to pay rent, so they 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:33.480 really pulled things together. But then the Coalition also decided 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:37.000 to engage the gay community, which was smart because this 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.200 was a community that wanted to live in a city 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.360 where their rights were understood and protected. 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.000 This was the eighties, when the gay world was essentially 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:55.200 reaching peak. Activist HIV and AIDS hit West Hollywood like 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.880 a nuclear explosion. A monster you hear from the men 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:02.560 who survived that in West Hollywood is that lesbian women 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:07.320 were the superheroes. And when West Hollywood finally became its 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:11.360 own city in nineteen eighty four, Valerie Tarrigdo became its 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.880 first mayor. That made history. She was the first lesbian 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.000 to be elected mayor of any incorporated municipality in the 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.920 United States, and to paraphrase President Joe Biden, it was 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:23.920 a big fucking deal. 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.360 Do solemnly swear. 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.320 One of her first official acts was to march to 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.520 a popular straight bar and remove a sign in the 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:37.520 window that read no faggots. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:40.160 This is going to be a turning point and look 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.160 back at some of the oppression. Gays and lesbians have 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.319 felt and say, why were we doing that? This makes 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:48.160 absolutely no sense or just people. It took time in 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:52.480 every oppressed class for that consciousness to be raised to say, well, 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:56.480 we're all alike here, and those those class distinctions, whether 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:01.880 it be women, men, blacks, Hispanics, it's all irrelevant. 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.120 She helped pass one of the strongest rent control laws 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.079 in the country, and under Tarigno, the city became the 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:12.480 second US city to legally recognize same sex partnerships and 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:17.360 offer domestic partner benefits. This is in the nineteen eighties, 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:23.719 but everything in West Hollywood has two sides. On March sixteenth, 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:28.520 nineteen eighty six, Valerie Trignau was convicted of embezzling. She 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.559 resigned from the West Hollywood government after being sentenced to 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:38.000 sixty days for embezzling public funds. The very first mayor 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:47.800 West Hollywood went to jail. West Hollywood by the eighties 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:51.800 transformed itself from that little railroad town to a progressive mecca. 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.400 The city was becoming as progressive or as left as 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:59.960 any American city, with stances on almost every single internet 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.000 national issue you can imagine. Meanwhile, West Hollywood has more 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:08.120 than its fair share of illegal straight massage parlors, which 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.280 has been a part of recent things, and human trafficking, 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.679 which is a problem of epic proportions in Los Angeles, 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.439 has one of its centers in West Hollywood. West Hollywood 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.920 was also a center for the legal and illegal marijuana trade, 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.480 alongside a massive illegal drug trade. 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.000 It's one point nine square miles of the most fun 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:30.560 you'll ever have. 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.680 Lindsay Horvat, she was the second woman mayor of the 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:37.360 City of West Hollywood. As a city prospered because of development, 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:39.880 it also struggled with its identity. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:44.319 It is the Sunset Strip, it is Melrose and Beverly 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:49.680 and the design districts and creative district businesses like the 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:54.559 Pacific Design Center. There's the Rainbow District with all of 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:59.160 the LGBT nightlife, including some of the shows that you 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:01.800 see on TV. Pump and Sir and you know, the 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:04.720 vander Pumper Rules World is all of there is all 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:06.520 located there on Santa Monica Boulevard. 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:07.760 Group sixty six. 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:10.200 Like what makes what makes West Hollywood special? 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:15.160 So old or there's some weird, there's some pecuriarities beyond 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:16.679 just you know, being gay, but. 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:21.920 Sure, city sure so there, I think, especially because of 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:27.040 the LGBTQ identity of the city, a lot of people 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.320 expect the mayor to make statements or take positions on 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:32.800 LGBTQ issues. 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:33.400 Writ Large. 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:37.000 I met Lindsay Horrvath in her office in downtown Los Angeles. 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.080 She's now on the La County Board of Supervisors. 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.120 It's one point nine square miles thirty six thousand people, 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:45.240 so a very densely populated city. 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.360 Somebody described the city as the no man's land between 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:51.960 Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.560 I don't know that anybody would call it no man'stown today, 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.320 but I think once upon a time there it was 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:02.000 certainly known that the share Griff's Department sort of looked 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.400 the other way at behavior that was going on in 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.720 this one point nine square mile enclave. And that's where 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.400 you know, sort of the gangsters on the Sunset Strip 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:16.720 would go to many of the historic venues on the 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:20.720 Sunset Trip. You know, they went there because they knew 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:22.800 that it would be a safe place for them to 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.280 go about as many people were paying attention, So it 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:27.080 let people kind of live and let live. 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.080 So before West Hollywood became a city of its own. 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.360 It was an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County, and 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.440 it used the LA County Sheriff's Department for police protection. 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.320 This is a system that's called the Lakewood Plan, which 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:44.320 was developed where small towns can stay independent but also 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:48.440 provide services like police and fire without the costs of say, 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:52.280 starting your own police force from scratch. And when West 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:56.080 Hollywood was incorporated, the city founders stuck with the sheriff. 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.680 I asked Lindsay Horvav, the former mayor, about the historic 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.240 relateationship between the City of West Hollywood and the LA 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:04.600 County Sheriff's Department. 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:10.320 It's been a colorful history, as you might imagine. The 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:15.280 Sheriff's Department, as many law enforcement agencies did, had a 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:22.040 pretty fraught relationship with the LGBTQ community. There was, and 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:26.840 some are you continues to be a very difficult relationship 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:31.160 between law enforcement and lgbt community members just wanting to 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:37.000 live their lives out freely and safely. And there were 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:42.560 many raids on gay bars in West Hollywood that created 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.560 a very tense and hostile relationship between law enforcement and 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:47.600 the community. 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:52.320 Now, remember West Hollywood contracts the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.640 which has about two dozen patrol stations across the region 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.120 to provide law enforcement services. West Hollywood doesn't have a 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.200 lot of leverage when it comes to policing its own. 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.119 Police force as a city that has nearly fifty percent 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.520 of the community identify as LGBTQ plus. There are cultural 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:14.120 sensitivity trainings and cultural competencies that are required in order 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:21.159 to keep people safe, and so the relationship then improved 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.199 and there are now some community members who still to 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:28.800 this day feel very strongly that the Sheriff's Department station 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.760 in West Hollywood is different than the broader department and 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.480 cares for the West Hollywood community quite effectively. There are 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.399 folks who do not believe that, and very much believe 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:45.359 that the Sheriff's Department hasn't done enough to understand and 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.960 appropriately serve and keep safe the LGBTQ plus community. 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:53.480 Were you satisfied with the Sheriff's Department when you were 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:54.160 in the city. 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:59.000 I think that the Sheriff's Department in many ways did 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:03.080 a great job. In many ways was very challenged to 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:07.200 have a city of thirty six thousand people that could 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.159 on any given night quadruple just because of who was 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.720 coming in to go to the night life. That makes 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:19.639 your job and your responsibilities very difficult. It's not like 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:27.520 you're patrolling bedroom community of thirty six thousand people that 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:30.480 goes to sleep at ten o'clock at night. But I 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:32.600 will also say because of that, they had to be 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:37.640 prepared for a different kind of experience. And I think 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.560 there were ways that the department fell short in terms 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:44.120 of the expectations of the community as it related especially 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:45.640 to cultural competency. 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.480 And there's no like, oh, in order to come the 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.920 west out Like in my mind there would be like, oh, 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:55.840 there is this sort of special training or maybe why 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.399 I want to know this, But there's none of that 0:18:58.480 --> 0:18:59.480 in your shade. 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:04.160 You shugar head requirements. No, there there was discussion that 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.159 certain trainings happened, and I asked that question at a 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:13.439 public meeting, and I just asked someone from the station 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:16.760 who was a sergeant, what sort of training he had 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:22.960 had as it related to LGBTQ plus cultural competency. And 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.800 he said that he had been trained on the flags. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:29.320 That was literally his answer. 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:31.680 Oh, trained on the flag. 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:35.639 Literally the flags, that was his answer. And so he 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.080 didn't even say pride flags he just said the flags. 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:42.360 So when that is an answer that you get from 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:47.480 a sheriff sergeant who is dedicated to the West Hollywood station, 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:53.560 it is troubling to think that not everyone at the 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:57.360 station could receive the kind of training one might expect 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:00.960 in order to properly serve the lgbt Q plus community 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:02.080 and keep people safe. 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:06.040 Members of the community like Jamel Moore and Timothy Dean, 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:10.120 this is shattering the system. The True Crime podcast that's 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:19.239 about more than crime more after this break. If you've 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.280 paid any attention to the news of pop culture in 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:26.719 the last I don't know, fifty sixty years, you understand 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:30.119 that the LAPD, the police for the city of Los Angeles, 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:35.560 have historically been the symbol of police brutality and aggression. Well, 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.720 the LA Sheriff is like the cousin that doesn't get 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:42.240 quite as much attention. There really aren't any PBS documentaries 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.320 about the LA Sheriff, though there should be right now. 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:48.640 For instance, there's a group of whistleblowers and you cannot 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.400 make this up. A group of LA County sheriffs who 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:55.520 are claiming that some of their own colleagues other sheriffs, 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.920 were members of the gang called the Bandidos. The plaintiffs 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.640 claim that the Bandido's gangs that these are police officers. 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:08.240 Mind you, we're harassing and intimidating and even physically attacking 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:10.840 other sheriffs. So I don't think we have the greatest 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:12.679 leadership right now and West how A Day got rid 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:14.840 of several sheriffs which were getting rid. 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.600 Of the bad apple since there's bad cops at discriminating 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:19.760 against people for because of their ethnicity. 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.920 A special Council report that was published in early twenty 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:28.880 twenty three indicates that gangs within La County Sheriff's Department 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.320 have existed for decades and that quote members not only 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:36.520 use gang like symbols, but engaging gang type and criminal 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:43.320 behavior directed against the public and other department members. Some 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:45.840 of the accused sheriffs have been fired, and the county 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:50.119 denies the allegations that the internal gangs act with impunity. 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:52.920 We reached out to the Sheriff's office for this podcast, 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:59.159 but they decline. This is the sheriff's office that was 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:02.000 in charge, the one that showed up to ed Buck's 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:06.159 apartment when on two different occasions they had countered the 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:12.439 lifeless bodies of Jamel Moore and Timothy Dean. There is 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.399 a huge divide in West Hollywood between renters and homeowners, 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.760 between woke gays and often older, wealthy white men, and 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:22.680 there has been a click of older white men who 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:26.920 have been on the city council for decades. No shame 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:29.760 on my home for more than a decade, but some 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:33.560 are Paradoxically, all these smart people in West Hollywood do 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:37.479 not pay attention to local politics, and until recently it 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.040 wasn't unusual to get less than twenty percent in a 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:44.520 local election. There's a great saying all politics is local. Well, 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:47.040 if all politics is local, then at least some of 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:49.840 the power eils should be right. So I am standing 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:53.080 right across the street from the West Hollywood City Hall, 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:56.359 and I'm going to see just how much local residents 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:59.119 know about local politics and local power. 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:00.639 Do you mind if I ask your quick questions? 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:03.720 Do you live in West Hollywood? 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:05.080 I don't think he does. 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:07.679 Would you know who the mayor of West Hollywood is? 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:11.040 N s I shouldn't like me. 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:15.719 I don't know Gavin Newsom. 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:16.399 No. 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:19.160 Right now, off the top of my head. 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:21.720 In Maryland, this is the West Hollywood that Ed Buck 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:24.600 chose to move to. And once he got here, he 0:23:24.800 --> 0:23:26.360 jumped right into the. 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:28.960 Mix of things. He showed up to city. 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:32.199 Council meetings advocating for animal rights. He became part of 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:36.200 the Gay Democrats, and he gave the money. He would 0:23:36.240 --> 0:23:40.879 end up giving nearly five hundred thousand dollars to politicians 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:42.880 over the course of his time in Wee Home. 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:44.600 Now, that might not seem like a. 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:48.680 Lot, but a few thousand dollars goes a long way 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:52.199 in West Hollywood, where in some municipal elections only a 0:23:52.200 --> 0:24:04.040 few thousand people show up. So I'm back at the abbey, 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:08.120 and inside the bar there is a portrait of Liz Taylor. 0:24:08.640 --> 0:24:12.000 It reads, this was the last place that Liz Taylor 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:15.320 was seen in public. Now, I tell you something, if 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:18.400 you sit here long enough, you'll see the new kids 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:19.320 just off the bus. 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:23.040 I'm afraid that a lot of people come here dreaming 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:27.000 of becoming musicians, actors, and then they easily get lost 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:32.040 in alcoholism and drugs, and then they run out of money. 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:35.679 That's Otavio today. He was Timothy Dean's roommate. He's a 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:38.920 straight Italian actor and dancer. He's been in the US 0:24:38.960 --> 0:24:43.240 for nearly a decade. The beginning of Otavio's story sounds 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:47.679 like a version of I don't know nearly every Hollywood story. 0:24:47.800 --> 0:24:51.840 When I arrived, I slept in a hostel by Hollywood Boulevard, 0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:53.600 by the Walk of Fame. 0:24:54.080 --> 0:24:57.280 So many people arrived with the dreams of stardom, just 0:24:57.400 --> 0:25:00.879 like Otavio. But if you can imagine what he experienced 0:25:00.920 --> 0:25:01.800