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Life & Times Transcript
10/17/05 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- They have no place to go but the streets. Should the LAPD be doing more to protect the city's homeless? Capt. Andrew Smith>> During the month of July, we had two individuals that we caught that are now in custody. They were walking down the street with sticks and just beating on people randomly for no apparent reason. Val Zavala>> And then, we can't tell them apart, but the Keno twins tells Cris Franco how to tell the real from the faux. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> The homeless on Los Angeles's Skid Row have been the victims of a recent rash of attacks and that has advocates concerned. Would people really target our most vulnerable citizens and beat them up? Sam Louie takes a closer look at these disturbing crimes and the response. Sam Louie>> On any given night, seventy-three thousand people consider the streets of Los Angeles County their home, making up the largest homeless population in the country. The majority of the homeless here suffer from a physical disability, mental illness or drug or alcohol addiction, making them even more vulnerable to victimization, and in recent months, police have seen a disturbing trend: unprovoked attacks against the homeless. Capt. Andrew Smith>> During the month of July, we had two individuals that we caught that are now in custody who were walking down the street and beating on the tents and the people that were inside the tents that some of the homeless folks have down here. They were walking down the street with sticks and just beating on people randomly for no apparent reason. Sam Louie>> Los Angeles Police Captain Andrew Smith says, in this case, the injuries were limited. But the following month in August, more serious attacks occurred. Several homeless men were beaten with baseball bats. The most severe injuries were to a fifty-five year old man. Fortunately, someone saw the attack and called for help. Capt. Andrew Smith>> One of the witnesses was an ADT security officer and he reported that this apparently sleeping homeless man had just been or was being beaten by two individuals with baseball bats repeatedly about the head and body. When we went there, the victim's injuries were consistent with a severe beating with baseball bats. In fact, he's still in a coma in a hospital today. Sam Louie>> The victim's condition has now improved and he's in stable condition and two suspects have been arrested. They are young men, both nineteen years old, charged with attempted murder and assault. What's especially troubling, police say, is that both suspects are from middle-class families outside the Skid Row area. Capt. Andrew Smith>> It's fairly unusual because most of the crime we have involving assaults down here is generally one individual who lives on the streets against another individual. We don't generally see people coming from the outside and assaulting these folks for no reason. Sam Louie>> Smith believes their motivation for violence came after watching a controversial video known as "Bumfights" that is marketed to teenagers and young adults. Capt. Andrew Smith>> Apparently, they were inspired by viewing a videotape or a DVD of "Bumfights" where somebody pays homeless individuals or mentally ill individuals to fight out on the street. Apparently, they'd seen this and they were inspired by that, so they decided to come down here with baseball bats and beat on innocent homeless individuals. Sam Louie>> News of the crime spread quickly. Rick Mantley with the Los Angeles Community Action Network was incensed. Rick Mantley>> They are a group of the population that are perceived as being the other, as perceived of being worthless, as perceived of being people whose lives we don't need to care about, as people who don't have lives more or less. Sam Louie>> While he is shocked at the cruelty of the attacks, he's not surprised that the homeless were targeted. Rick Mantley>> We feel it is inevitable. As long as large numbers of human beings are allowed to sleep on the streets, that there are not programs in place to remove them from the streets, that someone will take it into their heads that, again, they are a population to be targeted for these kinds of actions. Sam Louie>> Mantley feels further attacks could be greatly discouraged if the public had a better understanding of who is homeless. Rick Mantley>> We just hear that the homeless people, again, are shiftless, lazy and never worked a day in their life. Sam Louie>> An estimated eleven thousand people live along Skid Row here in Los Angeles. Homeless advocates tell us what many people don't realize is that a lot of them have some high school education and work experience, but were displaced due to some unforeseen circumstance. Fifty-three year old Robert Brooks, for example, has been living on the streets for the past twenty years. He says he has a high school diploma and some community college, but developed schizophrenia and went through a terrible loss. Robert Brooks>> Well, why am I ain't working and why I ain't supporting myself? Well, see, I went through a traumatize. I went through a real trauma where I lost three kids and one little boy and one grandson because of a car accident in a mini-van and that left me just drinking for like almost six months straight. Sam Louie>> When asked about the beatings, Robert admits that he's worried. That fear is why some places like the Union Rescue Mission started adding more beds to their shelters. Andy Bales>> "There's some open beds." Sam Louie>> The Rescue Mission gives temporary housing to close to one thousand homeless each night. Since the beatings, more homeless are seeking refuge here. Andy Bales>> We've increased the capacity on our women's and children's side especially because women and children are often the prey of people out on the streets, so right away we took steps to increase the capacity for women and children. We probably advanced that by about seventy-five beds and we're currently working on adding beds on the men and the women's side. Sam Louie>> But after the recent attacks, the Rescue Mission has noticed an increase in weapons. This table full of knives, clubs and other weapons is just a sample of what they've confiscated from the homeless in the past few weeks, a reflection of their growing anxiety. Andy Bales>> You know, they're going to protect themselves. They're not going to go easy. You know, things like that, and arm themselves with knives and clubs and scissors. Even the big guys, if you get them alone, they'll admit that, you know, they're concerned. Sam Louie>> To alleviate some of those concerns, the LAPD is stepping up patrols and plan to add extra officers to walk the beat on Skid Row. Sgt. Tanza Smalls>> I've got to say, when I first came here to Central Division, I was shocked and surprised at the homeless, that there's as many homeless that there is, you know. Sam Louie>> While police will keep an eye out on the homeless, they'll also crack down on drug dealers. Capt. Andrew Smith>> What we're seeing is a lot of folks that come from outside of the area down here to buy narcotics and to use narcotics. We have individuals that aren't homeless, but they blend in with the homeless community down here because it affords them an opportunity to commit crimes anonymously. Those crimes include sales of narcotics and use of narcotics. Sam Louie>> Central Precinct makes the largest number of drug arrests with close to six thousand last year, even though the precinct covers the smallest geographic area in the city. The LAPD and some of the local businesses are also installing forty new security cameras to downtown street corners to help deter crime. Capt. Andrew Smith>> Well, they're very high-quality cameras. They beam the pictures to the police station and are recorded in real time. So what can happen is, say we get a heroine dealer. We catch him dirty with heroine, he's sold to an undercover officer or we watched him make a transaction. We can record that sale of heroine and present it at court later for prosecution purposes. Sam Louie>> While these additional safeguards are welcomed, some advocates say that we must view the violence against the homeless in more than just physical terms. Rick Mantley>> The real violence is not physical. The real violence is systemic. The real violence done against homeless people is denying them their humanity and denying them a place to call home. That's a violence that is much more deadly and does a great deal more damage than a baseball bat can ever do. Sam Louie>> I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> It's beautiful, it's unusual and it's something you will probably never see again. A giant cornfield is growing near downtown Los Angeles. Saul Gonzalez went to find out what it's all about. Saul Gonzalez>> Think of downtown Los Angeles and what likely comes to mind are distinctly urban images, soaring skyscrapers, centers of high culture and government and the hurly-burly of street life. What you don't expect to see in this landscape of steel and concrete, pavement and people is anything quite like this: an enormous, emerald green cornfield that looks like a patch of Iowa has landed in Los Angeles. Walk among the stalks and the din of the city beyond quickly fades, replaced by the soft strum of rustling leaves. Maya Emsden>> It's beautiful. When we first got out, it was really quiet and all you could hear really were the leaves of the corn kind of rubbing against one another and, if you didn't look out and see the city, you would think you're in Kansas or, you know, somewhere else very peaceful. Saul Gonzalez>> What this thirty-two acre cornfield wedged between Chinatown and the neighborhood of Lincoln Heights isn't is a farm. It's an arts project, a kind of organic sculpture created by Los Angeles artist, Lauren Bon. Lauren Bon>> When you dream something, the reality of it can be so immensely humbling because it never occurred to me how fantastically beautiful this kind of cornfield would be. Just like the Emerald City in the "Wizard of Oz" with the sort of yellow brick road going through it being dirt. It just lifts the spirit. Saul Gonzalez>> The artist is a trustee of the Annenberg Foundation which funded this three million dollar project. She's titled her creation "Not a Cornfield". Why not a cornfield when that's what it is? Lauren Bon>> The corn is an aspect of what activates the piece. The rest is about people wandering through this path and meeting each other. It's about bringing people here because the corn will go, but the energy is what the piece is about which is, again, why it's called "Not a Cornfield". It's about making this space return to something without defining it by a design project. Saul Gonzalez>> The corn started sprouting back in June with the planting of nearly a million seeds. However, long before then, this patch of land, once a major railroad yard that had been abandoned, was already known as the Cornfield, although no one knows for certain how it got that name. The property now belongs to the state which is drawing up plans to turn the land into an urban park. Since those ideas are still under development, Lauren Bon and her colleagues were given permission to plant their artwork. The artist acknowledges that she's encountered skepticism from some local residents and community activists. You had people who were very suspicious of you, right? Lauren Bon>> Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Saul Gonzalez>> Rightfully so, do you think? Lauren Bon>> I think rightfully so. So the only way to really combat it was with the truth. Yeah, it sounds strange. And you're going to have to trust me on this one. Number one, it's going to be magical and, number two, I'm going to leave. There's no second agenda. Saul Gonzalez>> This project was also created as a way to honor corn's role in human culture and history. Corn was first cultivated over five thousand years ago in ancient Mexico and it was considered a sacred crop, so sacred that the Mayans believed their gods used corn dough to create humanity. Jaime Lopez>> These things that you see here are the tassels. That's the male part of the plant. Saul Gonzalez>> Jaime Lopez is the cornfield's gardener. He's in charge of planting and tending unusual and rare varieties of corn in what's called the eye of the field. These are types of corn that are vanishing from many rural lands because of industrial farming practices which favor planting consumer-friendly sweet corn. Jaime Lopez>> There's a lot of genetic knowledge being lost. Saul Gonzalez>> What do you mean by that? Jaime Lopez>> There's a lot of corn strands that aren't being planted anymore. If a family that has a particular strand of corn which is really well adapted to the direct environment where they live stop planting that corn for one generation or for a couple of years, then it is lost because the seed is only viable for a certain amount of time. Saul Gonzalez>> That kind of corn essentially goes extinct? Jaime Lopez>> Yes. Saul Gonzalez>> Like an animal goes? Jaime Lopez>> Um-hum. Saul Gonzalez>> In addition to the corn itself, organizers have also turned the field into a crossroads of corn and culture by hosting musical performances, storytelling sessions and film screenings. However, the chief attraction remains the corn. Ron Budd>> I'm from Pennsylvania originally. I'm from farm country, so it's very typical of the midwest, of course. You know, it's great to have here. Yeah, it's unusual here. You don't see this too often. Thirty-five acres of corn in the middle of Los Angeles right outside of Chinatown? That's true. Yeah, that's great. Saul Gonzalez>> It's, of course, hard to tell how many people who visit here will really learn lasting lessons about either art or agriculture. Yet this field, however fleetingly, does offer big city residents the simple pleasures of being someplace green and growing. Ed Asiano>> Everywhere you look, you just feel growth and, you know, that's something that I think Los Angeles can always use, you know. You never want to stagnate. You always want to be growing. Saul Gonzalez>> It's nice to be here around so much life. Ed Asiano>> Yeah, exactly. Saul Gonzalez>> Such abundance, huh? Ed Asiano>> Yeah, exactly. Saul Gonzalez>> Ironically, little of the corn grown here will ever be eaten. That's because of fears that toxins in the ground left from the days when this land was a railroad yard might have contaminated the corn. When picked in November and December, the estimated two million ears of corn maturing on these stalks will be put on display at the nearby Capital Milling Plant. Then it's hoped the corn will be turned into biodegradable packaging material. Until then, the cornfield remains a temporary oasis offering visitors quiet and calm in the midst of the metropolis. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> They are the Keno twins and they're well known from the "Antiques Roadshow". So when the Roadshow was here recently in Los Angeles, Life and Times commentator, Cris Franco, got a chance to size up the Keno twins. Cris Franco>> Now listen, I want to know, is it not true that basically you guys don't know that much? You just got the vocabulary? Leigh Keno>> How'd you know that? Leslie Keno>> You're absolutely right. Leigh Keno>> Shhh, don't say anything about it. He figured it out. Cris Franco>> If they just throw in finial, patina -- Leigh Keno>> Oh, yeah. Veneer, veneer -- Cris Franco>> Like anything can have a veneer. Like you can say the veneer on that tie is very rococo. Is it rococo or rococo? Leigh Keno>> Well, it's either way. It's whatever you say, Cris. You say it and you're on TV, then it's real. Cris Franco>> Absolutely. And then you can say stuff like, well, I think that the finish on this like a French thing is of a classic finial. Leigh Keno>> That's it, exactly. And I would say this is an abstract on this. Leslie>> Doesn't it just make him sound like an expert? Leigh Keno>> We want to get you on the Roadshow, though, appraising. I mean, you know, I might take a break. Do you want to appraise in my spot? Can you do that? Cris Franco>> Before you do, I want you to appraise something I brought. I'm very proud of this. Okay, now I notice that everything is broken up into categories, right? If you'd like to open this up, let's take a look. Leslie Keno>> A Liberace collection. Very special. Wait, drum roll. Cris Franco>> It's got even a little tufted thing here. Leslie Keno>> Oh, this is special. Leigh Keno>> Don't let him know. We're trying to keep it cool. Cris Franco>> Did you check the finial on it? Did you check the finial? Leslie Keno>> The finial, the patina. This is authentic. Cris Franco>> The patina of it all. Leslie Keno>> I am absolutely -- I'm going to do cartwheels. I'm just going to -- I don't know, Leigh. It smells like Liberace. Let's read this. This says Liberace. Let's see, Liberace. Cris Franco>> You know that everything that Liberace owned had to be music. Leigh Keno>> You know what these are worth? Cris Franco>> No. That's why I came here. Leslie Keno>> I mean, can you get security, Leigh? Get security. Cris Franco>> Call security. Leslie Keno>> We need to escort you out because we want to make sure you're now followed. Cris Franco>> No, I have my bodyguards. Leigh Keno>> Whatever you do, don't use them because, once you do, they're not valuable. Cris Franco>> So don't use them. I don't use soap ever. Leigh Keno>> Whatever you do, don't lose this protective wrapping. This is rare. Cris Franco>> How much would you say per bar or is just the set? I got to break up the set? Leslie Keno>> No, it's twenty thousand a bar. I'm so excited. A hundred thousand a bar. A hundred thousand for the whole set. It's only twenty thousand a bar, since you have all three. Cris Franco>> Thank you. All three. I want to know, why isn't soap a category? I don't see much soapwork here. Leigh Keno>> He is a soap specialist. He just doesn't get any attention. Leslie Keno>> People take baths. That's the whole thing. Hygiene is important. It gets used. Leigh Keno>> There is a soap expert. If you look over there, it says, "Jewelry, Furniture, Soap". But the guy, nobody visits him, so he'd love it if you'd visit him. Cris Franco>> He's like the Maytag guy. He's the loneliest appraiser in town. But you know what I notice about his finial on his patina? He rocks. Leigh Keno>> That's getting pretty racy, now. Cris Franco>> And the ephemera of it. It's very ephemera. Leigh Keno>> The ephemera of it all. Cris Franco>> And I've got one more item. If you gents would like to -- they bought it for my little sister. My GI Joe got sent to Vietnam and my parents said you can play with your sister's Ken doll. Leigh Keno>> How do you feel? Has this affected you? I mean, how do you feel today? Your life -- Cris Franco>> -- I've sort of patterned my life after Ken. You can see I've got the little racket. It's got this scuba gear. Leslie Keno>> I've always wanted a Ken doll. Oh, my gosh. Leslie Keno>> You need to get into boxing. Cris Franco>> Yeah. Work out. Leslie Keno>> I'm admitting this now on television. I've always wanted a Ken doll. Cris Franco>> Well, now that you've touched it, isn't it worth more? Leslie Keno>> It's worth less now, but this is so complete. This is great. Cris Franco>> Yeah, this is my childhood in a box basically. So you're basically assessing my life. But don't feel too much pressure. It's going to profoundly affect my self concept, but please be harsh. Be harsh. Leigh Keno>> The only thing I'd criticize is the color. It's a little bit that light violet thing. But you know something? Cris Franco>> It's very la-la from the Teletubbies, if you know what I mean. It's a little la-la. Leslie Keno>> It brings out your gentle side. Cris Franco>> Thank you, thank you. Leslie Keno>> Cris, this is special. You shared it with us. Cris Franco>> Thank you. Listen, group hug, group hug. I've had the best time. You know, this has been a really wonderful moment and now that I know the Keno twins approve of my soap and my Ken doll, I think it's -- Leslie Keno>> It's okay. Cris Franco>> Thank you very much, guys. Love you. Group hug. Val Zavala>> It's every child's fantasy, a chance to get down, get dirty and play in the mud. Well, Roger Cooper found a place in Huntington Beach where kids' fantasies come true. Roger Cooper>> Cleanliness is next to Godliness, we're told. Not in this place. Here in this spot in the heart of Huntington Beach, mud rules and the name of the game is getting dirty. [Film Clip] Roger Cooper>> What is this place? Mark Hoxie>> This is a playground for kids approximately five to twelve year olds, but we don't turn anybody away because of their age. It's just that we're more appropriate for that age group. Roger Cooper>> Adventure Playground is operated by the city of Huntington Beach each summer. Mark Hoxie may be the city's Program Coordinator for Community Services, but you can tell he's a kid at heart. Mark Hoxie>> We have a tire swing. They slide down the tire. It goes down the cable for about fifty feet or so and they bounce around. [Film Clip] Roger Cooper>> Being here is like entering Mark Twain's mind, to watch Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Becky at play. Mark Hoxie>> We have a pond with rafts in it. They push themselves around kind of like Tom Sawyer. We have a rope bridge going over the pond. We have a building area where the kids can check out hammers and saws and then we also have a mud slide which they slide down a hill. We squirt them with a hose as they go down and then they land in a hole of muddy water. [Film Clip] Roger Cooper>> What do you think the fun of this is to a kid? Mark Hoxie>> It's a place where kids can do things that they can't do anywhere else. In Orange County and Los Angeles County, there's not a whole lot of open land in the cities, so it's a place where they can go and get dirty. They can build with hammers and nails and the parents don't worry about it. Roger Cooper>> Everyone needs a chance to hit the nail on the head. [Film Clip] Roger Cooper>> This is done by the city? Mark Hoxie>> Yeah, it's part of the Community Services Department of Huntington Beach. Roger Cooper>> How long have you been here? Mark Hoxie>> It's been in this location since 1983 and the original one, which was right across the street from us, was started in about 1974. Roger Cooper>> Do you know why it got started? Mark Hoxie>> From what I've seen, there was a man from Europe who had noticed in the wreckage of World War II that the kids were playing in that and having as much fun with that as they were having with their toys, so he came up with the idea of having a place where there was just junk to play with. Roger Cooper>> How do they get back home once they get dirty? Mark Hoxie>> We have a shower and we have a couple of changing rooms. They're not real fancy, but they can at least get rinsed off, a little bit cleaner, a little drier and then not mess up the cars as they go home. Roger Cooper>> When you were a kid, would you like to have had this? Mark Hoxie>> I grew up in Huntington Beach here and I was aware of the original one, but I was never able to get over there. I wish I had because it was a lot different than this. I came here to this one as a volunteer. I was about nineteen years old and we had a great time. I was one of those adults who was doing all the kid stuff at the time. Roger Cooper>> So you've been in the mud yourself? Mark Hoxie>> Yes. We also have a tradition on the last day that the staff will go around and do all the stuff and have a little crazy time. Roger Cooper>> It's the old swimming hole that most of us had or would love to have had when we were kids, and it's alive and well in Huntington Beach. In Orange County, I'm Roger Cooper for Life and Times. Val Zavala>> And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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