Speaker 1: Thank you, mister President, for giving us some time and
Speaker 1: some flexibility in today's agenda to make a very special
Speaker 1: and important presentation. A year after Emory's death, her case
Speaker 1: was still unsolved and someone new became interested. Los Angeles
Speaker 1: City Council Member Josehuis from District fourteen. He presented a
Speaker 1: motion to the City Council, which is broadcast on LA's
Speaker 1: local government channel. Emory's family lined up behind him with
Speaker 1: a portrait of Emory. This was back in two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven. I am presenting a motion to renew a
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars reward that we put out a few
Speaker 1: months ago for any information leading to the arrest of
Speaker 1: the individual or individuals who are responsible for the death
Speaker 1: of a beautiful fourteen year old girl, Emory Munos. Josehisa
Speaker 1: asked the LA City Council to renew a reward for
Speaker 1: any information in her case. The family is seeking answers,
Speaker 1: the family is seeking justice. His speech was a plea
Speaker 1: for information, but it also had an underlying message. We
Speaker 1: have reason to believe or the LAPD has told us
Speaker 1: that the death of Emory Munos might have been related
Speaker 1: to raid parties or fly parties. That drop up on
Speaker 1: young people. His speech was a rallying cry for the
Speaker 1: city of Los Angeles to crack down on party crews.
Speaker 1: The young people who go to these parties are not
Speaker 1: necessarily bad kids. It's any one of our kids who
Speaker 1: go to these parent parties who are allured by the
Speaker 1: excitement of fun and enjoyment. But we have to put
Speaker 1: everyone on notice that these parties may and can be dangerous,
Speaker 1: and the city should between more to staff. These from
Speaker 1: my heart Michael Bura Podcast Network, Vice and Elia Studios.
Speaker 1: This is Party Cruz, The Untold Story. I'm Jannas Amilca.
Speaker 1: I have a few memories of police raiding our parties.
Speaker 1: One time, I remember the lights, music, smoke machine, everything
Speaker 1: shutting off. The entire backyard went dark. Kids started running
Speaker 1: through any exit, trying to hide behind cars on the
Speaker 1: street to avoid getting a ticket. Cops with flashlights were
Speaker 1: shining them in our faces, forming in the back to
Speaker 1: clear out the house. I remember running away. I was
Speaker 1: wearing sandals and my feet got wet because of the
Speaker 1: dewey grass, but I never got caught. Even when the
Speaker 1: parties didn't get rated, the cops were always in the
Speaker 1: back of our minds, and that's because we were on
Speaker 1: their minds. Generation like gang members, is emerging from the
Speaker 1: underground party scene. Oh they don't start violent, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't take them along to get there. The people who
Speaker 1: throw these kind of parties are called party crews, but
Speaker 1: police say they're very similar to gangs. LAPD wasn't just
Speaker 1: shutting down our parties. It was way more than that.
Speaker 1: It felt like they saw our party crews as just
Speaker 1: another version of a gang. It is a La City
Speaker 1: gang that started off as a tag banging gang. They
Speaker 1: are morphing into a traditional Hispanic turf gang. Law enforcement
Speaker 1: officials say they're coordinating on every level to attack the problem.
Speaker 1: For us, dealing with the cops was just part of
Speaker 1: being in the scene. Sometimes ten and fifteen cop cars
Speaker 1: blocking off the street. Our first party a bunch of
Speaker 1: cop tames, and of course we would hide the Naud tank.
Speaker 1: If the owner of the house was there there, we'll
Speaker 1: give them the tickets. Sometimes, if they were like those
Speaker 1: massive warehouse parties, that would be helicopters, they'll take the
Speaker 1: amplifiers and the Sarato and then they'll give a D
Speaker 1: a citation too. You lose your gear and you have
Speaker 1: a court date. Way back before Emery's death, the police
Speaker 1: were already on a mission to shut down flyer parties,
Speaker 1: but the two thousands marked a new era in the
Speaker 1: battle between cops and kids. In this episode, I talked
Speaker 1: to the people who try to shut us down. I'm
Speaker 1: Captain j Roberts, James Roberts, I go by Jay. This
Speaker 1: is Captain James Roberts. He's currently the commanding officer of
Speaker 1: Rampart Area. Back in the two thousands, he used to
Speaker 1: bust flyer parties. I sat down with him in an
Speaker 1: LPD press room. In the tape, you can hear the
Speaker 1: squeaking of Jay's belt which held his gun and a flashlight.
Speaker 1: Who can afford it? So Jay was ready for our interview. No,
Speaker 1: but I mean I actually had filed the party related stuff,
Speaker 1: and in front of all the back he had pulled
Speaker 1: out all the files that he had related to flyer parties.
Speaker 1: As a team, I would have never had the chance
Speaker 1: to interview or talk to an officer like this. Unequal footing. Now,
Speaker 1: all these years later, I'm sitting across from someone who
Speaker 1: patrolled the scene that was a part of I was curious,
Speaker 1: how did he remember this? Time. I don't think party
Speaker 1: crews were attracted any attention had they not been wildly
Speaker 1: successful with hundreds of people showing up. Busting parties ended
Speaker 1: up being a major part of his job. It was
Speaker 1: a big deal and I had a big role in it.
Speaker 1: Jay used to work as a sergeant at the Foothill Division,
Speaker 1: which serves the Northern Valley, the Pacoima to Hunga area.
Speaker 1: He says they'd get a lot of phone calls from
Speaker 1: the community. Were forty three thousand party related calls in
Speaker 1: the city of la for two thousand and three. Leading
Speaker 1: that was that Foothill area. It had three thousand, four
Speaker 1: hundred and four party calls. We were the party capital
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles. And in the early two thousands, his
Speaker 1: division would respond to these phone calls by going out
Speaker 1: to parties, knocking on the door and say, hey, you
Speaker 1: need to turn your music down. Here's your warning slip.
Speaker 1: And then if I have to come back, I'll have
Speaker 1: to impound some sound equipment or you know, write somebody
Speaker 1: a ticket. The black and white police cars that were
Speaker 1: sent out to do this, they were referred to as
Speaker 1: party cars. Literally, it's like the opposite of a party bus.
Speaker 1: These cars were trying to prevent parties, but they weren't working. Well,
Speaker 1: you'd never come back because you know, the person who
Speaker 1: called the police in the first place is so frustrated
Speaker 1: because nothing was done, and they won't call back. But
Speaker 1: if it did call back, by the time we got
Speaker 1: back around it was two in the morning, the party
Speaker 1: was already over, so completely ineffective. Jay remembers one party
Speaker 1: in particular in two thousand and four that he says
Speaker 1: sparked a change in his division. It's a birthday party
Speaker 1: for a kid ended up being a flyer party to
Speaker 1: put flyers out. The party was on a Saturday, and
Speaker 1: two kids were shot, you know, and I think they
Speaker 1: were in their twenties, one from Panorama City and went
Speaker 1: from Somar. That sort of began, at least as far
Speaker 1: as the LAPD went, a shift in how we dealt
Speaker 1: with just allowed or unlawful parties to begin with. We
Speaker 1: had a press conference afterwards with the city Attorney's office saying, Okay,
Speaker 1: here's the deal. You know, we're now going to respond
Speaker 1: to these And it was my job at the time
Speaker 1: to do something about it. So they switched it up.
Speaker 1: They had to develop new strategies, to assess parties, like
Speaker 1: sending undercover cops to check them out. A couple plane
Speaker 1: clothes cops in a plane car. Two low key assess,
Speaker 1: low p talk to whoever, no uniform, no scary cop presence.
Speaker 1: And if the party had to be shut down and
Speaker 1: it moved to another place, they were in the loop.
Speaker 1: They were party goers too. Office, there's an everyday close
Speaker 1: with a regular car. They just needed to blend in period.
Speaker 1: They would provide intel, like if a party moved locations
Speaker 1: to avoid the cops, would it be a young undercover cop.
Speaker 1: How would you like go under the radar of a well,
Speaker 1: would it would be somebody would baby face? Yeah, somebody
Speaker 1: you know that could pass. We have twenty something cops,
Speaker 1: We had young cops. They could do that. But you're right,
Speaker 1: they did have to belue legitimate. Were they people up like?
Speaker 1: Were they Latinos? Like? Were they in Pacoima? I would
Speaker 1: undercover cops. Yes, absolutely, I would say the fifty percent
Speaker 1: of our officers were Latino. Most of the guys in
Speaker 1: that detail, we're Latino officers. It was the beginning of
Speaker 1: what LAPD referred to as the Party Suppression Team the
Speaker 1: PST for short, Having parties, even really big, out of
Speaker 1: control ones is a normal part of teenage life. But
Speaker 1: whether the cops show up and slap you on the
Speaker 1: wrist when the neighbors call, or create entire teams devoted
Speaker 1: to targeting your parties clearly has a lot to do
Speaker 1: with where you live and who you are. And when
Speaker 1: it came to us Latin X teams in LA, these
Speaker 1: undercover cops would actually go out and assess when our
Speaker 1: parties were dangerous and when they were in their opinion, okay,
Speaker 1: we'd go out and we'd have undercover units that would
Speaker 1: just look and if it was just a key signor
Speaker 1: birthday party, family barbecue, make contact, you know, say hey,
Speaker 1: can you guys keep the music down, you know, make
Speaker 1: sure you're mindful of your neighbors. And then they'd say, hey,
Speaker 1: we got one over here. Let's respond over here, and
Speaker 1: the black and whites will respond and they would deal
Speaker 1: with it in whatever way, whether it be you know,
Speaker 1: we got here too late, there's already three hundred people
Speaker 1: here and we need to shut it down. They even
Speaker 1: started coordinating with Los Angeles schools. I appeared in front
Speaker 1: of the school board to educate them on what a
Speaker 1: flyer party was they're just clueless as to what the
Speaker 1: kids are doing, so just putting on their radar. When
Speaker 1: you see this strangely written you know, graphic, and somebody
Speaker 1: slaps it up on the school wall or bulletsin board,
Speaker 1: or leaves it underneath the windshell wipers of all the
Speaker 1: cars in the high school parking lot, you'll know what
Speaker 1: this is. Officers were scouring the internet too. Remember in
Speaker 1: the early two thousands, party promotion was also happening online.
Speaker 1: We would also start to monitor or the internet. Back then,
Speaker 1: it wasn't so much social media, but it was the Internet.
Speaker 1: Cops would monitor sites like drunken Faded dot com and
Speaker 1: club events dot com. Social media was pretty new at
Speaker 1: the time. My Space was a big player. They searched
Speaker 1: online with keywords like underground parties, rave and flyer parties.
Speaker 1: And they also monitored the phone numbers listed on the
Speaker 1: back of the flyers, the info lines that were updated
Speaker 1: with directions on the day of the party. We started
Speaker 1: calling in the lines, We started finding out when the
Speaker 1: parties would be, We started showing up, We started nimping
Speaker 1: him in the bud and they started, you know, getting
Speaker 1: more evasive, and so you know, cat and Mouse. Cat
Speaker 1: and Mouse kids got really creative avoiding the cops. You know,
Speaker 1: when you're at a party, you're in the backyard and
Speaker 1: the police coming and the music cutsdown. I kid you not.
Speaker 1: We would always start seeing happy birthday. This is Max,
Speaker 1: a Flyer partygoer in the sangyearbro Valley. Our senior producer,
Speaker 1: Sophia polisa Are spoke to him on the phone. We'd
Speaker 1: always think happy birthday. It's so stupid, right, what is
Speaker 1: that would work? No? It never worked, It never worked.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. We'd always think happy birthday when the
Speaker 1: police walked in, like it was some stupid birthday party
Speaker 1: and not a freaking flor party. It wasn't black and white.
Speaker 1: This is Jay again talking about the party suppression team.
Speaker 1: There were party crews that were loosely associated groups of people.
Speaker 1: There were people in it for the money. There were
Speaker 1: tag bangers that were associated that sometimes didn't get along
Speaker 1: with the cruise. The cruise you know, where everything from
Speaker 1: just good kids and trying to have fun all the
Speaker 1: way over to criminal enterprises. You know, that was also
Speaker 1: what made it difficult. How do we figure out what's
Speaker 1: going on here and deal with it appropriately? You I
Speaker 1: mentioned criminal enterprise. I wanted to know, like what you
Speaker 1: mean by that. Well, it's it's illegal to charge. It's
Speaker 1: illegal obviously to sell, you know, alcohol, illegal to sell
Speaker 1: nitrosotic side balloons, and that's the level I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Once there's money involved. I'm curious, like, how would you
Speaker 1: or like people on your team make the distinctions between
Speaker 1: like whether a party was violent or not, Like, how
Speaker 1: would you decide that if there was the presence of
Speaker 1: gang members or a clear commercial enterprise. If it was
Speaker 1: you know, ten kids getting together that call themselves a
Speaker 1: party crew and weren't charging anything, we'd still probably shut
Speaker 1: it down because because it's well, I take that back,
Speaker 1: it would depend. That's that's that fine line right there.
Speaker 1: If there was no no commercial end to it, it
Speaker 1: would depend, you know, when you see it. Somebody asked
Speaker 1: the definition of poor graphy once to somebody and their
Speaker 1: answer was, I can't define it, but I know I
Speaker 1: want to see it. It was you knew you could
Speaker 1: feel it whether this was going to be a safe
Speaker 1: environment or a dangerous environment. I was going to mention,
Speaker 1: like gang members also go to kas Like they're also
Speaker 1: like going to wedding you know, they're part of the community,
Speaker 1: and so that's not to say there there there aren't.
Speaker 1: You know, these elements weren't a part of other parties.
Speaker 1: You know, there were plenty of you know, family gatherings
Speaker 1: that weren't fine, and then there were other family gatherings
Speaker 1: for that reason that didn't go fine. I wanted him
Speaker 1: to know from my own experience as a team that yeah,
Speaker 1: the parties could get out of control, but the cops
Speaker 1: showing up and the way they went about it, that
Speaker 1: could feel violent too, at least like my experience, Like
Speaker 1: there was a lot of parties, There were a lot
Speaker 1: of parties, they got broken up, and it was like,
Speaker 1: really it was like a scary on both though scary
Speaker 1: because they were shootings, but there was also scary because
Speaker 1: the police would storm in there, Like I don't know,
Speaker 1: like it's scary, Like it's scary for a fifteen year
Speaker 1: old helicopters, Yeah, to like hide in a closet. It
Speaker 1: is like kind of it's scary now that I'm an
Speaker 1: adult and I can understand the danger is that we
Speaker 1: were in, but like as a child, it's scary right now.
Speaker 1: Out of all the new strategies, the biggest change that
Speaker 1: the party Suppression Team made was to site people right away,
Speaker 1: don't knock on the door and warn them. Instead, give
Speaker 1: people a ticket for loud music or selling alcohol without
Speaker 1: a license right away. Jay says his team wanted to
Speaker 1: find the parties and shut them down before they could
Speaker 1: get big, especially before a helicopter gets sent out. This
Speaker 1: sort of more strategic, surgical way of dealing on a
Speaker 1: more low key way wouldn't involve tons of police cars
Speaker 1: and a big presence and a helicopter with a night
Speaker 1: sunlight over. That's how things were dealt with when things
Speaker 1: had gone bad already. In this model, we try to
Speaker 1: avoid that. We're not just gonna warrant anymore. We're going
Speaker 1: to say, hey, this is illegal and unlawful and there's
Speaker 1: a high potential of violence. Here's your ticket right now,
Speaker 1: or this thing's shut. That's what changed. In two thousand
Speaker 1: and four, Jay says, the party Suppression Team was seen
Speaker 1: as a beacon of success. Jay remembers presenting their strategy
Speaker 1: to Alihiti higher ups. I made a presentation at that
Speaker 1: meeting and that became part of the citywide response. The
Speaker 1: recommendation that if you have a problem with regard to
Speaker 1: flyer parties, rave parties, crew parties. This is a best practice.
Speaker 1: This on how to deal with them. This party suppression
Speaker 1: team concept and the idea that you assess parties for
Speaker 1: their violence potential. Our department policy changed in two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven to allow for that immediate sighting or arresting
Speaker 1: upon the first response if the situation warranted it, whereas
Speaker 1: before it was always a warning and it was so
Speaker 1: effective that it became a thing and was adopted citywide.
Speaker 1: That's after the break. This program will provide you with
Speaker 1: basic information to assist you in your duties. Identify flyer parties,
Speaker 1: understand the drug and alcohol use common at flyer parties.
Speaker 1: By the end of two thousand and four, LPD created
Speaker 1: a training video for the entire department on how to
Speaker 1: handle flyer parties based on the Party Suppression Team. These
Speaker 1: are clips from the video. The most effective tool that
Speaker 1: can be used by law enforcement in the policing of
Speaker 1: flyer parties is rapid response. What started small with just
Speaker 1: the Foothill Division woodspread. These are a few of the
Speaker 1: points that should be considered from the Foothill Party Suppression Plan.
Speaker 1: Maintain zero tolerance for loud or unlawful parties. Gather intail before, during,
Speaker 1: and after parties have been identified, identify, assess, terminate, deploy
Speaker 1: a party suppression team or a party car. We obtain
Speaker 1: the training video through a public records request. Watching it
Speaker 1: reminds me of how much we are being watched and
Speaker 1: studied and how we had no idea, or at least
Speaker 1: I had no idea. Inside these locations and during the party,
Speaker 1: promoters go the distance to provide a stimulating mix of drugs, alcohol,
Speaker 1: and music that encourage it dancing, competition, and promiscuity. The
Speaker 1: video features greeny footage from fire parties with the this
Speaker 1: blurred out, and pictures of flyers. One of the parties
Speaker 1: had the name Reggaeton versus Hip Hop Part three. The
Speaker 1: video also showed partygoers inhaling NAZ from balloons. Nitrous oxide
Speaker 1: stations are set up to feed the crowd with a
Speaker 1: mind altering substance that can create a volatile situation. Actually,
Speaker 1: NAS was a big part of the training video. You
Speaker 1: can arrest someone for nitros oxide as long as they're
Speaker 1: possessing it with the intent to consume. When I see
Speaker 1: stuff like this, I can't help but think, but they
Speaker 1: become part of the permanent record, traces of my teenage years,
Speaker 1: examined and filed away by their nature. Flyer parties include
Speaker 1: elements that create a fertile environment for violence. They become history,
Speaker 1: at least one version of it, one version of us.
Speaker 1: We took an interest because that may have been the
Speaker 1: most island a year of flyer or raved parties in
Speaker 1: our history. I mean, there seemed like they were going
Speaker 1: every month, somebody was being shot or injured. BERNARD'SI. Parks
Speaker 1: was a chief of the LPD in the late nineties.
Speaker 1: He was the chief during the Rampart Scandal, the investigation
Speaker 1: into an anti gang unit in the Rampart Division that
Speaker 1: was accused of massive corruption. He later became a city
Speaker 1: council member. He represented the eighth district for over ten years,
Speaker 1: which serves South la. We had of what appeared to
Speaker 1: be almost every weekend, even though they may not have
Speaker 1: been a shooting, there were these activities that were unsupervised
Speaker 1: and people were taking advantage of abandoned houses, of abandoned buildings.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and four, the same time Captain J.
Speaker 1: Roberts was setting up the Party Suppression Team, council member
Speaker 1: BERNARD'SI Parks put out a motion to create a party
Speaker 1: task force. According to the motion, thirteen people died from
Speaker 1: gunshot wounds at flyer parties in La County. He wrote
Speaker 1: that quote party crews advertise wet T shirt and g
Speaker 1: string contests or hot women, or that quote parties act
Speaker 1: as nightclubs, though without fire codes, security checks, and dorman
Speaker 1: asking for idea. During our interview, the only time Bernard
Speaker 1: really got excited was explaining to me how he would
Speaker 1: go after party crews by citing people for things like
Speaker 1: putting up a flyer. People use other people's properties, such
Speaker 1: as city lighting poles and telephone poles to advertise something
Speaker 1: that they're getting a financial benefit, which is illegal. And
Speaker 1: then the other issue is is who cleans them up
Speaker 1: when the party's over. No one, and so it's not
Speaker 1: like they go and post them and then go tear
Speaker 1: them down after the party. I never knew that you
Speaker 1: couldn't put a flyer on a city pole or a
Speaker 1: lamp a lamp post, So all those concert posters I
Speaker 1: see off the freeway are like they're illegal. It wasn't
Speaker 1: the first time illegal raves or underground parties were brought
Speaker 1: to the attention of the city Council. In nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: council Member Richard Aracon filed emotion ask him for a
Speaker 1: few things, including recommendations on how to crack down on
Speaker 1: illegal parties. Then in two thousand and four, Bernard filed
Speaker 1: his motion and base of the files we found that
Speaker 1: was the last time flyer parties were brought up in
Speaker 1: the city Council until three years later two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: the year that Jose we Said brought Emory's case to
Speaker 1: the council. Joshi said is someone you may have heard of,
Speaker 1: especially if you live in La Breaking New La City
Speaker 1: Council and Jose Weezar has been charged with a thirty
Speaker 1: four count federal grand jury indictment alleging wide ranging political corruption.
Speaker 1: Not the most popular Angelino anyway, long before we saw
Speaker 1: it made headlines. In two thousand and seven, he brought
Speaker 1: the motion to the City Council asking for them to
Speaker 1: renew the reward for fifty thousand dollars for any information
Speaker 1: in Emory's case. He also asked the city council to
Speaker 1: crack down on flyer parties and party crews. This is
Speaker 1: part of his motion, which was read to the room
Speaker 1: by his Chief of Staff, Joseph Abila, at a public
Speaker 1: safety committee meeting. The Los Angeles Police Department believes that
Speaker 1: Emory is one of many young people who died as
Speaker 1: a consequence of the violence that surrounds flyer or rave parties,
Speaker 1: as they're sometimes known. Over the last few years, police
Speaker 1: have made attempts to crack down on these parties by
Speaker 1: enforcing state and local criminal laws, but unfortunately, hundreds of
Speaker 1: young adults continue to and these parties. Again a reminder
Speaker 1: that there was and is no actual evidence that we
Speaker 1: know of of Emory's murder being directly tied to a
Speaker 1: flyer party. LPD responded to we sat his motion with
Speaker 1: various ideas to combat parties. They suggested working with the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles School District to make pamphlets for parents and kids,
Speaker 1: and even lesson plans for high school health classes on
Speaker 1: the dangers of flyer parties, including substance abuse. They also
Speaker 1: suggested looking into stricter penalties for promoters who violated the law,
Speaker 1: or making them reimburse the city for any costs if
Speaker 1: police had to intervene. The city attorney looked into it
Speaker 1: and ultimately reported that there were already enough laws on
Speaker 1: the books and that LPD just needed to use them
Speaker 1: to stop the parties and all the problems that come
Speaker 1: with them. There is a responsibility on the part of
Speaker 1: owners to secure vacant properties. That's on the books, and
Speaker 1: the finds associated with that are actually the maximum allowable
Speaker 1: under the municipal code one thousand dollars and or six
Speaker 1: months in jail. But what I heard in these recordings
Speaker 1: of committee meetings is that it wasn't so simple. I'd
Speaker 1: like to see that. At the same time, the caution
Speaker 1: is that when you start talking about homeowners having events
Speaker 1: where money changes hands, if people are often a certain
Speaker 1: it's in the same neighborhoods having charity fundraisers, They're having
Speaker 1: all sorts of events where people are making contributions, and
Speaker 1: that's allowed to do that in your own home, And
Speaker 1: so it's a it's a real thin line. It's a
Speaker 1: real thin line, a real thin line between what city
Speaker 1: council or LPD saw as a legitimate party and what's
Speaker 1: not or more like, who is allowed to hold these
Speaker 1: events homeowners having charity fundraisers. I know it's a small detail,
Speaker 1: but it feels like it's not noise or exchange of
Speaker 1: money they were taking issue with, but the actual people
Speaker 1: who were partying, What did you think was the best
Speaker 1: solution to stopping violence from happening? And like what safe
Speaker 1: parting could look like in like two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: let's say, yeah, that's that's a good question. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I knew that safe partying would look like family gatherings
Speaker 1: and not party crew gatherings. This is Captain j Roberts again.
Speaker 1: Party crew gatherings created the environment for violence to evolve.
Speaker 1: Family parties less so. But then again, who wants to
Speaker 1: go to the family party when they're a thirteen year old?
Speaker 1: You know? So I didn't have that answer. This is
Speaker 1: just an age old problem. You know. Young kids need
Speaker 1: to burn off steam, need to dance, need to have fun,
Speaker 1: need to hell at the movie. Where can they do
Speaker 1: that safely? And where can somebody from a community with
Speaker 1: less resources to do that safely? It's tougher for some
Speaker 1: of the folks in this neighborhood to find something to
Speaker 1: do legally and lawfully because it costs more. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of surprised to hear that he's articulating an idea. I
Speaker 1: think about a lot. How can kids who have a
Speaker 1: need to let loose do it in a safe way.
Speaker 1: I also asked Bernard's Parks, the former city council member,
Speaker 1: about this. Like house parties, legal house parties, they might
Speaker 1: not have the resources to get those permits or rent
Speaker 1: out of space or pay for security, and those things
Speaker 1: are important, but what if they lack the resources to
Speaker 1: even begin to do it the right way? Just like
Speaker 1: anything else, if you don't have the money to go
Speaker 1: in business, you can't go in business. But the thing
Speaker 1: is the mainful because of the party crew scene wasn't
Speaker 1: about being in business. Some people did earn money organizing,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't the main goal. Historically, the term safe
Speaker 1: space has been used to describe the spaces in which
Speaker 1: movements are organized, like college campuses or churches, like the
Speaker 1: anti Vietnam War movement or the civil rights movement. The
Speaker 1: way we talk about safe spaces today, we often mean
Speaker 1: spaces in which people can express their identity freely, like
Speaker 1: at a gay bar or a black student union. For me,
Speaker 1: when I think about party crews, it's in these spaces
Speaker 1: that I was able to let loose and try things
Speaker 1: out and be myself. Still, I have to recognize that
Speaker 1: just because it was safe for me to be myself
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it was necessarily physically safe, at least not
Speaker 1: all the time. The policing, city council. All this was
Speaker 1: happening around us while we were trying to live in
Speaker 1: the moment and create our own approximation of a safe
Speaker 1: space exist in our bubble. Like lots of people do.
Speaker 1: Our bubble happened to be made up of party crews,
Speaker 1: the parties, all the partygoers. That was our community, and
Speaker 1: we were good at creating that community, so good that
Speaker 1: we found ways of connecting with party crews all across
Speaker 1: the city and county, and we soon realized that our
Speaker 1: world was bigger than we had ever imagined. What was
Speaker 1: the moment where you were like, oh shit, this is
Speaker 1: like this is getting bigger than I thought. Or when
Speaker 1: was that when people start asking me to post a
Speaker 1: flier on the site, When the servers begin to crash
Speaker 1: right because there's just so many people trying to log in,
Speaker 1: that's next time. This episode was written, reported, and hosted
Speaker 1: by me Janashimoka. Our show is produced and reported by
Speaker 1: Sofia Pelissa car Victoria Lejandro, and Kyle Chang, and edited
Speaker 1: by Antonia Seedhido additional editing by Annie Abulis, fact checking
Speaker 1: by Nidia Vautista, sound design and original music composition by
Speaker 1: Kyle Murdoch. Our supervising producer is Janet Les, Art by
Speaker 1: Julie Ruiz and Victuakllon. Our executive producer from Vice Audio
Speaker 1: is Kay Osbourne. Our executive producers from Elias Studios are
Speaker 1: Antonia Seedhido and Leo gi. Our vice president of Podcasts
Speaker 1: from Elias Studios is Shane and Naomi Kracmal. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to the UCLA Department of Communication Archive for access to
Speaker 1: their news collection Party Cruz. The Untold Story is a
Speaker 1: production of Elias Studios and Vice Audio in partship with
Speaker 1: iHeart Mica Budha podcast Network. For more podcasts, listen to
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. And Hey, were you and a party crew?
Speaker 1: Send us your party flyers or photos. I'd love to
Speaker 1: see them, even a voice message about your memories. Anything.
Speaker 1: You can send us a message or a picture at
Speaker 1: Party Crews at Elias Studios dot com. Support for this
Speaker 1: podcast is made possible by Gordon and Donna Crawford, who
Speaker 1: believe the quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place
Speaker 1: to live. This program is made possible in part by
Speaker 1: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by
Speaker 1: the American people.