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Life & Times Transcript
02/09/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- The whole neighborhood watched as gang members killed him, so why hasn't anyone been arrested? Wes McBride>> These people have lived with these gangs. They live in this neighborhood and they know better. It's not so much as they come up and say "Don't testify" because that's already been done for years. Val Zavala>> And then, the inside story on race riots in Los Angeles County jails not this week, but five years ago. Has anything changed since then? These stories and more next 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>> He was a beloved uncle and a family man and he was murdered by gang members in the middle of the day. The killers are still at large. That begs the question: why do so many murders go unsolved and what can we do to keep our neighborhoods from being taken over by gangs? Hena Cuevas has the story of one woman who lost her beloved uncle. Hena Cuevas>> As this Los Angeles police unit goes out on its daily rounds, the signs of gang activity are everywhere and it's a growing problem that's affecting even those who have nothing to do with gangs, like seventy-three year old Tony Kovos. >> He was a very, very nice man. Hena Cuevas>> Last October, Kovos was killed as he was defending his twenty-one year old grandson, Daniel. Because of how he died, his niece asked us not to use her name. >> Because my uncle was murdered by gang members who were trying to get his grandson and they're still out there. They'd been harassing them for three years and I don't want the same thing to happen to myself or to anybody in my family. I just don't want to put anybody in harm's way. Hena Cuevas>> Kovos and his family moved to Walnut Park three years ago. The neighborhood is just south of downtown near Huntington Park and Southgate. It's an area known for its gang activities. Kovos's niece says gang members started to harass the family as soon as they moved in. >> My cousin's son, Daniel, is the one that started being harassed. Over the last three years, the gang members that lived in the apartment building catty corner to their house were always harassing him and just telling him, "Oh, you belong in the Valley. What are you doing here?" Hena Cuevas>> She says Daniel, who was not a gang member, tried to ignore them, but that only made it worse. >> They would do things to my uncle's car. They would just do all kinds of things. They would report it to the Sheriff and nothing would happen. Hena Cuevas>> Your uncle was aware that there were gang members and there was this violence. Had he thought about moving? >> Unfortunately, he was murdered on Friday and they were set to leave on Saturday to go and check out somewhere else and move because the harassment on Daniel had escalated so much. Unfortunately, things happened too quickly. They threatened to kill him, to kill the family, on the 5th and, on the 7th, they made good on their threats. Hena Cuevas>> That Friday, October 7, she says, four gang members attacked Daniel as he was walking home. According to Kovos's daughter, they tried to push him into a white SUV. That's when Tony Kovos jumped in front of the car to stop them. >> My uncle went around the front and the guy just drove the Escalade into him and then, as if that wasn't bad enough already, he took the big, huge wheels of the Escalade and just spun them out on my uncle's body. So his body was just mangled and just horrible. Hena Cuevas>> Tony Kovos died less than half an hour later. >> We've never had anyone in our family murdered, so this was just horrible. My uncle was such a wonderful person and kind. Hena Cuevas>> The driver of the SUV has been identified, but no one has been arrested. The house Kovos had been planning to leave now sits vacant. After Tony Kovos's death, the family decided to leave the house, leave the neighborhood and move out of state because they said they feared for their lives. That's a feeling that's shared by many in this neighborhood and that, police say, is one of the biggest challenges of trying to investigate gang-related crimes like this one. People just aren't willing to come forward as witnesses. Wes McBride>> Gangs kill communities just like their bullets kill people. Hena Cuevas>> Wes McBride is the President of the California Gang Investigators Association. He says it's difficult to resolve these crimes because people who live with that kind of violence learn to look the other way. Wes McBride>> These people have lived with these gangs. They live in this neighborhood and they know better. It's not so much as they come up and say "Don't testify" because that's already been done for years. I would describe it like a haze in the community. It's just there, you know, and they breath it all the time. They know better. Hena Cuevas>> And Kovos's niece knows just how frustrating that can be. >> And the neighbors said, "See? If you guys would have just kept your mouth shut." But is that how you're supposed to live your life? That these gangs just take control over your whole neighborhood, so you can't say anything? It seems like your hands are tied. You can't do anything because then they're going to get you. Hena Cuevas>> It's estimated Los Angeles County has over a thousand gangs and nearly eighty thousand members. That's about the size of the population of Newport Beach. And last year, gang-related murders were up thirty percent in the areas under the Sheriff's jurisdiction. [Film Clip] Hena Cuevas>> Lieutenant Ralph Ornelas is a member of Operation Safe Streets, the Sheriff's anti-gang unit. Lieutenant Ralph Ornelas>> Can I give myself an A rating right now? No, because I wish we didn't have any murders at all. But that's our mission. That's our goal. Hena Cuevas>> It's a lofty goal because the department has to distribute scarce resources among the unincorporated areas of the county. Over half its deputies are contracted to work in specific cities and can't be moved. That leaves a limited number to cover trouble spots. Lieutenant Ralph Ornelas>> And it doesn't mean we vacate any area at all to the rest of the contract cities or the Los Angeles County area. It's just that we have to prioritize and we have to, you know, put those people, our deputies, where we need them right now. Hena Cuevas>> The shortage of deputies is one reason Kovos's niece believes she hasn't gotten any answers. >> What happens, I think, with the Sheriff, they just have so many cases and they only have limited personnel. I don't know that they are actively working on the case. They probably wait to see if they get any leads or anything. That's where it's kind of frustrating. If I had the money, I'd hire a private investigator. I'd hire somebody to find this guy. Hena Cuevas>> McBride, who's retired from Operation Safe Streets, says his group found that across the nation gang units are usually the first to go during cutbacks. Wes McBride>> One of the biggest threats we found was the disillusionment of gang details, of the downsizing, after 9/11. They turned them into terrorist-hunting organizations. Well, we've only had a couple of terrorist attacks. We lose thousands of people every year in gang fights. Hena Cuevas>> But even before 9/11, gang units were shrinking. Scandals and abuses in the 1990s led to some units being disbanded at the Los Angeles Police Department. But LAPD officer, Paul Vernon says that, since Chief William Bratton took over in 2002, he has increased the number of officers assigned to fight gangs. Paul Vernon>> Each station now has its own gang unit and those gang units are based upon the needs of the station. The captain has some discretion in being able to decide how much emphasis he needs to put on the gang enforcement. Hena Cuevas>> Last year, the number of gang-related crimes in LAPD areas went down to some of their lowest levels, but numbers don't matter to victims like Kovos's niece. Her priority now is to find this man, Jorge Alverto Vasquez, identified as the driver of the SUV. >> I'm just hoping that they can find the guy that killed my uncle. I mean, we know who he is and we just need to find him. Hena Cuevas>> Once he's caught, she says, he'll be one less gang member roaming the streets of Los Angeles. I'm Hena Cuevas 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, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> Los Angeles County jails are erupting in violence. The problem? Racial tension. The entire system is in lockdown, but the problem is nothing new. Five years ago, Life and Times went inside the Pitchess Detention Center and talked with Latino and black inmates. Noah Nelson has this report. Noah Nelson>> Inside the county's Pitchess Detention Center, these days the only things you hear are the subdued sounds of ten thousand men waiting for something to happen, but it's a quiet that everyone, guards and inmates, knows is deceiving because just below the calm is the ever-present mistrust between blacks and Latinos set to flare up again the way it did last April. The rioting, caught on jail surveillance cameras, show clashes between the two groups and the huddling of black inmates who, in some cases, were outnumbered by Latinos eight to one. This is the area they call the yard. It’s where inmates try to beat the boredom of jail with a little sports or some sun. Though hundreds of men are on the yard at any one time, what you see are clusters of inmates. Blacks sticking with other blacks and Latinos sticking to themselves, creating the segregation that many inmates here say they prefer. There’s an animosity that’s always just below the surface. Capt. Dave Betke>> This is a society inside of a society where they’re vying for control of the jail. Who’s going to control the dorm? That’s what drives them. You know, whether it’s over tables or phones or who’s going to watch the TVs and that kind of thing. That’s what they’re struggling for. Noah Nelson>> Some inmates say this all runs much deeper with cultural differences and gang-related rivalries fueling hostilities. In some ways, Pitchess resembles a school with its long hallways, reference library and computer learning center, but its purpose is to incarcerate ten thousand men who are already sentenced or awaiting trial. From the moment a man gets here, he must choose the side he belongs to. Frank Gonzales>> Once somebody comes in the system, you stick to one race and you start picking up their mentality. Noah Nelson>> Latino inmates, Carlos Calderone, Frank Gonzales and Jose Machado, say negative racial attitudes held on the streets only get heated up when mixed with the aggressiveness of jail culture. Frank Gonzales>> Let’s say there’s a couple friends on the streets. They’re black and Hispanic. They get busted together. When they come in the system, even though they’ll communicate with each other, they still have to be with their own kind and go by their rules and regulations. Noah Nelson>> Whose rules and regulations are those? Jose Machado>> It’s the system. Noah Nelson>> What he means is that, in here, racial allegiance means more than personal relationships. Jose Machado>> Being part of the group. There are certain things that, you know, you have to follow, like a code of conduct, rules, regulations. Especially the way it is within the groups. Frank Gonzales>> All races are all human beings, but let’s say something did happen while we’re all in here. What would he do? Can he still look at that black individual as a human being or would he have to put his fists up to defend himself? Noah Nelson>> Blacks and Latinos put up their fists and more during a series of riots at Pitchess last April. Dozens of the outnumbered black inmates say they were injured in the brawls which continued sporadically for several days. As jail commander, Steven Day, makes his rounds, he says he can sense when a dorm is about to explode or “jump off”, as it’s called here. Cmdr. Steven Day>> It’s just a sense you get after you work in the jail system for a while. You see the action of the inmates. You see inmates laying in their beds with their shoes on. You see them gathering around in groups. You see them whispering. There’s things that you look for and you get word from other inmates. Most of these inmates don’t want to get involved in anything. We’ll have inmates come up and whisper to us, “Hey, something’s brewing. Keep an eye on this.” Noah Nelson>> Black inmates claim they reported things were about to jump off prior to the April riots, but were ignored by jail personnel. Inmates Willie Martin, Leroy Weston and Eric Traylor say blacks are forced to cover each other’s backs because of continuing Latino threats. Leroy Weston>> I don’t sleep well. That’s a big problem because you’re not knowing if whatever key or whatever started this crap is going to start again. One minute everything’s all calm, cool and collected and you’re sitting here having prayer call, which everybody comes in groups together. Blacks, whites, Mexicans, everybody comes together and they pray to god, asking the blessings, you know what I’m saying? They break up, hug, the whole nine yards. Then here comes the next morning, everybody’s trying to kill each other? You know, you’re laying in the bed sleeping and here’s somebody pounding on you? No, you’re not going to be safe. I mean, it’s kind of hard for a person to even think of safety. Noah Nelson>> Inmates claim there have been several unreported brawls since the April disturbances. The attorney representing nearly two hundred injured black inmates in a class action suit against the Sheriff’s Department calls the stresses here cruel and unusual punishment. Leon Jenkins>> You can’t turn your back on something that you know is going to happen and then say I’m not responsible. What we have here is that we have the Sheriff’s Department and the county turning their backs, when all the signs are there, that there’s going to be a riot. That there is going to be a riot between the Latinos and the blacks with the Latinos basically being the aggressors. Noah Nelson>> Jenkins contends that the county acted with deliberate indifference toward the pleas of black inmates for protection. The Sheriff’s Department says that’s not true. Cmdr. Steven Day>> The deputies I know that work for the Sheriff’s Department wouldn’t do that. As far as once the fighting starts, deputies are peace officers and they are not going to sit back just to watch people hurt each other. Noah Nelson>> Jail officials report that things at Pitchess are back to normal these days, but normalcy can crack when weighted down by anger and prejudice. Frank Gonzales>> We’re all sitting here doing time. We’re doing time. That’s bad enough, but then you got to fight for your people, for your race, which I have a problem doing. But what did he do to me? Why am I fighting him? What did he ever do to me for me to punch him or him punch me back or him put a blade in me or vice versa? What? Nothing. It all comes down to the color of the skin. I’ll tell you what, we’re just destroying ourselves. We’re destroying ourselves. 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. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. First up this week is the comedy, "The Pink Panther", starring Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Lael Loewenstein of Variety and Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com. Henry, please start us off and give us your thoughts on this remake of "The Pink Panther". Henry Sheehan>> Well, this is a stain on the honor of Inspector Clouseau. It's none of the original people. Obviously, Peter Sellers is dead, and director Blake Edwards who, you know, is responsible for enlivening traditional slapstick with wonderful variations is also gone, replaced by Shawn Levy, who just doesn't seem to have a clue. It's a prequel. It's about Kevin Kline playing the Herbert Lom part, bringing Clouseau to Paris from the provinces to have him fail on a case of the Pink Panther diamond multiple murders. It's kind of a take-off on "A Shot in the Dark", but it just makes you miss "A Shot in the Dark". Steve Martin is a terrible Clouseau. He really just can't come up with the right funny accents. I mean, it's too broad. It's too much of a parody. Sellers' mispronunciations were actually bathed in English pronunciations of different words and Martin is just doing, you know, just trying to make a funny noise. None of the setups and payoffs work. It's just real drudgery, really awful, really sad. Larry Mantle>> Lael, what did you think? That bad? Lael Loewenstein>> Not as bad as all that and I will add that my mother, who came with me, was laughing uproariously the whole time. So there are redeeming features to it. Martin, of course, originally started out doing a lot of physical comedy, if we think back to his "King Tut" days. I thought he did an okay job. It did, of course, make me miss Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards and all of that and there was a certain kind of delicacy, if you can call it that, to the physical humor that Sellers used to do, almost a Keaton-esque, Chaplin-esque kind of a thing going on. This was much broader and much more slapstick. I was not laughing uproariously, but I did chuckle a few times and I found it somewhat enjoyable. Larry Mantle>> Our second film is the thriller, "Firewall", which stars Harrison Ford. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Lael, what did you think of "Firewall"? Lael Loewenstein>> Well, this was pretty much warmed-over Harrison Ford kind of "man in jeopardy" material. Sort of if you think of "Air Force One" with a much more passive hero being menaced by, in this case, Paul Bettany. Ford plays a security expert at a bank whose family is kidnapped by Bettany and his henchmen. His wife is played by Virginia Madsen. The real problem with the film, to me, was that it gets sort of stuck in this high-techy kind of labyrinthine situation where you don't ever really feel that the family is in peril. Ford gives such a passive performance that I didn't really feel engaged in the story as much as I would have liked to have. Also, I felt that, even though the action scenes were okay, they weren't too bad, this movie suffered from a kind of PG13-itis in that the villains were really kind of too watered down to the point where I really never felt like the family was in jeopardy. Larry Mantle>> Henry, do you agree? Henry Sheehan>> Yeah. I mean, I think it was even worse. I mean, I thought it was dull and formulaic and the only way I got through the movie, through the screening, I was sitting with a friend and we just predicted everything that was going to happen and what everybody was going to say and the attitudes they were going to take. I think all I would add specifically is that, you know, in the olden days if an actor was an alcoholic, they never shot him in the afternoon because, you know, he wouldn't have anything. I think with Harrison Ford, it's the opposite. You can't shoot him in the morning because he hasn't woken up yet. He just kind of stumbles and slumbers his way through this movie. I mean, he's been playing this part since "Patriot Games", so I understand why he's bored with it, but please don't bore us with this somnambulistic acting. Larry Mantle>> Director Michael Winterbottom's new film is "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story". [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Lael, what did you think of "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story"? Lael Loewenstein>> Well, it's a surprisingly entertaining movie. It's a movie about a book that everyone thought was completely inadaptable because it's rambling and incoherent and it's really sort of the first book for people with ADD essentially (laughter). The movie itself is about the making of the movie, "Tristram Shandy", so there are several levels of story that go on within it. One about the star himself, Steve Coogan, who plays a guy named Steve Coogan who, in the movie, plays both Tristram Shandy and his father. So there's these different levels of relationships that are enacted. The best part of it is really the post-modern part that refers back to the filmmaking itself and the in-jokes that are going on about Coogan and his cast-mates among and between them, so that part was entertaining. I thought it was actually a pretty effective job done by Michael Winterbottom. Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, the documentary "Darwin's Nightmare". [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Henry, your thoughts on "Darwin's Nightmare"? Henry Sheehan>> Well, I think this is a movie that everybody should see. It takes the issue of ecological deterioration, economic globalization and the stories of people who get caught up in this matrix and puts them all together in a remarkably articulate and moving way. The film is shot on the coast of Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, which is now turning into a dead hole in the ground because somebody introduced perch, a non-native species, in there and it's eating everything else. It's been eating all the other fish and, when it runs out of other fish to eat, it cannibalizes its own young. In the meantime, as the lake is dying, it's become a market for Europeans who eat perch, so there's a huge temporary industry. Planes flying in empty and leaving with perch. But the filmmaker, Hubert Sauper, becomes suspicious. Are these planes empty or are they bringing in weapons for the local wars? He gets close to a Ukrainian air crew and tries to find out what they're up to. It's all personalized in wonderful ways in talking to the Africans who live there. It's a great film. It's hard to get happy after it, but I think everyone should see it. Larry Mantle>> We thank you for joining us for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC for our critics, Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com and Lael Loewenstein of Variety, inviting you to join us next week at this same time for our next FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> KPCC public radio broadcasts a full hour of FilmWeek Friday mornings at eleven a.m. 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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