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Life & Times Transcript
04/05/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- No one wants a sex offender living next door, but what can a landlord do about it? Ronda Kerwin>> Did you know there was a high-risk sex offender that moved into the community? How could you, Ronda? How could you move a high-risk sex offender on my community? How come you can't evict? Val Zavala>> And then, he's become a familiar fixture on United States military bases, but how did this unlikely impresario become a morale booster? 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>> Sex offenders as tenants. When it comes to renting to sex offenders, landlords cannot discriminate and yet, if someone should become a victim, the landlord can be sued. Is this fair? Hena Cuevas talked to one landlord who learned this the hard way. Hena Cuevas>> Ronda Kerwin has managed apartment buildings for the past eighteen years. She recently faced one of her biggest challenges. Last February, she rented an apartment to a tenant. Two days later, police knocked on her door. Ronda Kerwin>> We confirmed that the resident did live onsite and the police officer said, you know, are you aware that this is a high-risk sex offender, which we were not. Hena Cuevas>> According to Kerwin, the man who police told her liked to expose himself to children had requested a unit overlooking the pool. He was considered so dangerous that police asked to have three undercover officers onsite to keep an eye on him. Ronda Kerwin>> After he let us know that they have this undercover type team on the property, he actually gave me the statement that said it's not if he's going to offend. It's when he's going to offend, Ronda, and you need to be aware of that. Hena Cuevas>> Even with the agents watching, Kerwin worried about something happening to young tenants. Ronda Kerwin>> What if something happens to this seven year old that lives next door? What if he chooses to pick somebody up from our pool? What if he offends? What's going to happen? I am going to feel this overwhelming guilt that I didn't notify my residents. Hena Cuevas>> But as much as she wanted to, her hands were tied. By law, landlords cannot inform residents that a sex offender is living in the complex and it also prevents them from evicting offenders based on their record. Ronda Kerwin>> I'm in a catch-22 situation. If I notify the residents, then I have a high-risk sex offender who can sue my organization and sue me personally for a fair housing violation. If I don't notify, then I have residents that I've put in harm's way. Hena Cuevas>> But why didn't this man's conviction pop up during the application process? As a registered sex offender, his information is readily available on the internet on the Megan's Law website, a registry by the Office of the Attorney General of more than sixty-three thousand sex offenders. The law was named after Megan Kanka from New Jersey who was killed in 1994 by a twice-convicted sex offender. In 2004, the registry went online, making it easier for parents to know if any sex offenders were living in their area. So why didn't Kerwin use the site to make her decision? Debra Carlton>> Rental property owners cannot use the Megan's Law database to make decisions about housing. Hena Cuevas>> Debra Carlton is with the California Apartment Association. Debra Carlton>> When the legislature created this statute, they sent the public message that these guys pose a risk. But at the same time, they said the database cannot be used by rental property owners or managers to make a decision about housing. Hena Cuevas>> Landlords can evict tenants with thirty days' notice without giving them a reason. However, if the sex offender challenges the eviction and takes the landlord to court, the landlord needs to show that his or her decision wasn't based on anything they found on the website. If it is shown that they were influenced by information from the internet, they could be fined up to twenty-five thousand dollars. In Kerwin's case, the offender's new address hit the site twenty-four hours after he updated it. She immediately got barraged with questions from angry residents. Ronda Kerwin>> Did you know there was a high-risk sex offender that moved into the community? How could you, Ronda? How could you move a high-risk sex offender on my community? How come you can't evict? I can tell you that, out of the fifteen individuals, fifteen residents, that I actually spoke to regarding this situation, not one of them understood that. Not one. Hena Cuevas>> Within a month, four tenants moved out. That's why Carlton and her group want to modify the law so landlords can deny tenancy or evict a sex offender. Debra Carlton>> We don't want these high-risk sex offenders to have the ability to claim that they are a protected class so then, when rental property owners use the database to evict them, they claim fair housing laws or they've been discriminated against. Hena Cuevas>> But potential lawsuits don't stop there. Megan's Law says that, if a landlord fails to protect a resident from a known risk, the resident could sue the landlord and the landlord could be liable. And yet, allowing landlords to use the sex offender site would violate the original intent of the law, which is only to inform and not discriminate. Scott Ciment is an attorney who is against the idea of expanding the use of the website. Scott Ciment>> The problem saying that we're going to allow landlords to not rent to somebody who has to register is that it's going to be pretty difficult to find a place to live. Hena Cuevas>> Ciment works for California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, one of the few groups protecting the rights of sex offenders. Scott Ciment>> They're not getting special privileges. Because we're not allowed to throw stones at them as they walk down the street doesn't mean that they're a protected class. Hena Cuevas>> He says, in California, certain safeguards were included in the law precisely to make sure offenders weren't discriminated against. Scott Ciment>> When they came up with the database, there was a lot of concerns about, well, is there going to be vigilantism based on making this information publicly available and what are some of the ramifications of doing this? Hena Cuevas>> The website provides the name and address of the offender as well as the crime and some of the descriptions are chilling. "Lewd or lascivious acts with a child under fourteen". "Oral copulation with person under fourteen". "Annoy and molest children". But Ciment is quick to point out those other penal code listings as legal speak and may sound worse than the actual offense. Scott Ciment>> And these things aren't explained. Annoying a child is a misdemeanor, annoying or molesting a child in California. It doesn't necessarily involve bodily contact at all. Hena Cuevas>> And that's one of the criticisms of the Megan's Law website. It lumps high-risk and low-risk sex offenders together. Not only that, but there are no dates listed, no way of knowing if the offense happened two years or twenty years ago. That's the case for Paul, a registered sex offender whose single offense happened back in 1988. Paul>> People don't even know if you did it one time or if you did it ten times. So they have no way of knowing if he's a problem or not. If they see you on the website, they assume that you're the same type of person that attacked and killed Megan. Scott Ciment>> The process for getting off the Megan's Law database is so convoluted and so difficult that it essentially doesn't exist. Hena Cuevas>> So basically, once you get on the list, you're on for life. Scott Ciment>> You're on the list, oh, yeah, except for certain low-level offenses. In misdemeanor sex offenses, you can apply to get off the database, but you have to go through a very difficult process to get off. Hena Cuevas>> Paul, who had kept his offenses secret for two decades, never had a problem finding a place to live until now. Just three months after he moved into an apartment in Orange County, his information was posted online. After residents complained, he was asked to move. He did. Now it's happening again at his new place, but this time, the new landlord is paying him to leave. Paul>> It's not enough money because what you're buying is my right to live anywhere I want and I don't know if I can find another place equal to or better than the place I'm at right now. Hena Cuevas>> Paying offenders to move is how most landlords are taking care of the problem. That's what Kerwin eventually did. Ronda Kerwin>> So after six thousand dollars, we were able to negotiate with him to move off the property with a signed stipulation. Hena Cuevas>> Six thousand dollars, she says, is a small price to pay for some peace of mind. 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>> Another baseball season is underway and the question is, will Barry Bonds break the homerun record? Yet Blacks as baseball fans will not set an attendance record. In fact, they are deserting our ballparks in droves. Why is that? NewsHour correspondent, Jeffrey Kaye, has the story. Jeffrey Kaye>> Jackie Robinson struck an historic blow against the color barrier in American sports when, in 1947, he became the first Black to play major league baseball. Others soon batted and ran in his wake. By 1978, one in four professional baseball players was African-American, but in the years since and despite their growing dominance in other sports, American-born Black athletes have become an increasingly rare sight on major league playing fields. Today only ten percent of big league athletes are African-American. That's the lowest percentage since 1960. The trend disturbs baseball officials such as Jimmie Lee Solomon, Senior Vice President of Major League Baseball. Jimmie Lee Solomon>> We feel that one of the reasons for our declining numbers in African-American participation is because of a lack of exposure because baseball, at the lower levels, is becoming a suburban sport, if you will. Jeffrey Kaye>> While Black participation has declined, the numbers of Latin-American and Asian athletes in pro baseball is growing. Latinos now account for over a quarter of all major league players because of aggressive recruitment in Latin America where baseball is popular. Jimmie Lee Solomon>> What we need to do is get baseball back to as many people in the country as we can, including African-Americans, and that exposure will also tend to make more African-American fans and more African-American players. Jeffrey Kaye>> But that's a daunting challenge, for it's no secret that basketball, not baseball, has long been the sport of choice in many African-American neighborhoods. At this South Los Angeles playground, athletic allegiances are clear. You don't like baseball? >> No, not really. Jeffrey Kaye>> Why? >> I just don't. It's too slow. >> Baseball is cool, but you know, it ain't that much action, you know what I'm saying? There's so many times you can hit the ball, but in basketball you got multiple players, people that could double-team and stuff, you know what I'm saying? It's a lot. Team effort. Jeffrey Kaye>> Sports marketing expert, David Carter, says major league baseball's problem with young people, especially young African-Americans, is the sport's old-school conservative image. David Carter>> Major league baseball has not captured the attention of younger people. It's not fun, it's not sexy. It's the sport, if you will, that your grandparents followed. It's got to dig out of that and it's got to become a sport that's followed and revered by young people again and that's a real issue for the sport. Jeffrey Kaye>> But restoring baseball's popularity will be difficult, says Carter, because other sports, especially basketball, have trounced baseball in marketing their game to young African-Americans. David Carter>> The NBA's been packaged and sold as entertainment and people are buying it as entertainment. [Film Clip] Jeffrey Kaye>> Chuck McPherson, who often shoots hoops with kids in his Los Angeles neighborhood, says there are also solid dollars and cents reasons for changing sports tastes in America's inner cities. Chuck McPherson>> Basketball is a cheap sport. If you play baseball, you got to get a catcher's uniform, you got to get all kinds of expensive gloves, all kinds of bats, all kinds of cleats. With basketball, you don't have nothing. Just a ball. It's easily accessible. With baseball, you need a field to play on. You got to have grass. All you need with basketball is a hoop and a net and some guys that want to play. So a lot of it is economics. At least in the Black community, it's economics or else we'd be playing hockey too. Jeffrey Kaye>> Economics also encourages cash-strapped Parks and Recreation Departments to favor building basketball courts over baseball diamonds, says Solomon. Jimmie Lee Solomon>> They find it much more inexpensive, much easier to put a blacktop slab of asphalt down with a basketball goal and call that they're recreational component. A baseball field will take much more space and would be much more costly from a maintenance standpoint. And then as soon as the kids knock a window out across the street, they'll shut them down. Jeffrey Kaye>> And major league baseball, Solomon complains, that even if inner city youngsters do develop a passion for the game, opportunities to play and prosper in the sport beyond their neighborhoods are paltry. Colleges, for instance, are offering fewer baseball scholarships compared to football and basketball, scholarships that help to hone talent and serve as a gateway to the major leagues. And as major league baseball sees the number of Black players dwindle, it's also seeing fewer Black fans in the bleachers. A recent marketing survey found only six percent of people who attend major league games are African-American. That's a troubling number for a game that's in evermore ferocious business competition against other sports from traditional rivals to a new generation of high-adrenaline extreme sports. David Carter>> You have to fight for every customer at a time when other sports are sexier and they can ill afford to disenfranchise any fan, any hyphenated fan, whether that is going to be African-American or Latin American or whomever. Jeffrey Kaye>> To cultivate a new generation of African-American baseball players and fans, major league ball has invested millions of dollars into a program called "RBI", or Reviving Baseball in the Inner City. It's a national youth baseball and softball program for a hundred twenty thousand youngsters between twelve and eighteen years of age. John Young>> What we've got to do as baseball people is educate the kids. Baseball is a lot of fun if you play it properly. Jeffrey Kaye>> RBI's founder is former major league scout, John Young, who started the program in South Los Angeles in 1989. Young says that even the toughest inner city kids can be intimidated by baseball. John Young>> The toughest thing to do in sports is hit a baseball. You know, so many kids who haven't played are actually afraid of the ball. I mean, we gets kids coming into this program that are really -- a lot of these kids are really from tough neighborhoods. You know, they see a lot of gang violence, you know. They're kids that are tough kids that are afraid of baseball. They're afraid of getting hit by a baseball. Kevin Brown>> "You guys know how to throw four-seamers and two-seamers?" Jeffrey Kaye>> Stopwatch-toting major league scouts were also here to look for talent. Bill Mele>> We're talking about, you know, looking for five tools: speed, hit, hit with power, throwing and defense. [Film Clip] Jeffrey Kaye>> Los Angeles Dodgers scout, Bob Merriweather, says his presence here is proof that his team, like the rest of pro ball, is committed to finding and developing baseball talent in America's inner cities. Bob Merriweather>> We're looking for athletes, but we're also looking for athletes that can play the game and we're looking for people that want to play the game. If I don't go out there and look for talent and I don't go out there and try to help these kids get better, where are we going to find the players? We've got to find the players from somewhere, so why don't we try to find them everywhere we can and this is one of the areas where we know we have athletes. Jeffrey Kaye>> Efforts like RBI haven't stopped the decline in African-American participation in baseball. During RBI's fourteen-year history, the number of Black pro ball players has fallen by seven percent. Jimmie Lee Solomon>> We are working hard to do the things that we need to do to get our fan base expanded. It's just that it takes time. It's not an easy thing to do and you can't just fix it overnight. Jeffrey Kaye>> To win over action-craving younger sports fans, including African-Americans, major league baseball is experimenting with ways to make the game more fast-paced, like reducing delays between pitches in games. I'm Jeffrey Kaye for Life and Times. 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>> It would only take you a moment to realize that Robert Rosenthal is not short on passion or personality and he has put both of those into bringing topnotch musical talent to military bases across the country. His free concerts raise the spirits of GIs and their families like this one at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. [Film Clip] Val Zavala>> Rosenthal's office in Burbank is filled with souvenirs and thank-yous for his Spirit of America Tour. Robert Rosenthal, you're a nice Jewish boy from New York. What are you doing putting on country music concerts at military bases? Robert Rosenthal>> Well, I had the perfect nice Jewish boy from New York background. I worked for three summers as a cowboy on a ranch in Arizona. You know, typical bar mitzvah present. My dad knew somebody who owned a dude ranch and he got me a job there and I loved it and I've always loved country music. It's music that I can understand. It's my generation's music and I adore it. Val Zavala>> But it was still a rather long route because you went to business school. Robert Rosenthal>> Right. Val Zavala>> You were in the Army. Robert Rosenthal>> Right. Val Zavala>> A little bit of film experience. Robert Rosenthal>> Right, yes. Val Zavala>> Law school. Robert Rosenthal>> That's correct. Val Zavala>> So, still no concerts? Robert Rosenthal>> No, never did a concert until I started this. When 9/11 came up, my wife and I wanted to do something for America and we knew the USO brought shows overseas. My wife, who lived through the Blitz, remembered the military people who used to come into the neighborhood for companionship -- Val Zavala>> -- in London. Robert Rosenthal>> In London. And I said let's do something for the military. I went on the internet -- thank God for the internet -- and I found out that no one was bringing entertainment on an organized basis to America's stateside military bases. Robert Rosenthal>> "Every one of these shows, the entertainer just like Clint Black tonight has volunteered to come to a military base and show their support for the military. They are not paid to come here and let you know how much we in the entertainment industry appreciate what you are doing for the greatest country in the world." Robert Rosenthal>> We got a chance to do Clint Black. We had fifteen thousand screaming men and women in uniform for Clint Black and that was the last show of the year. Twenty-one shows we did last year. [Film Clip] Robert Rosenthal>> We've had Charlie Daniels, Clint Black, Jo Dee Messina, Dennis Miller, Lee Greenwood, The Oakridge Boys. We've had Patty Lovelace. We've had Billy Ray Cyrus. Val Zavala>> Although talent is notorious for being fussy at times and wanting this and wanting that. Have you dealt with that much? Robert Rosenthal>> Never had a problem, never had a problem. The kind of people who want to entertain at a military base fully understand they're not going to get red jelly beans in a tray in their dressing room. They're even lucky they have a dressing room. We'll get them a shower. You know, we'll get them a shower, a shave and a place to sit. But they're not going to get the kind of things they expect to get at the Universal Amphitheatre or at Radio City Musical Hall when they go to a military base. Military bases are a little on the primitive side. [Film Clip] Val Zavala>> Not just anyone could pull off a major concert like this one, but Rosenthal was on the board of the Western Music Association and had all the right contacts. He held a luncheon in Nashville and brought together dozens of agents, publicists, managers and top brass from each of the military branches. Robert Rosenthal>> And then I made the pitch. I said, if you have a gap in your schedule that your entertainer can't fill and you're like in Oklahoma City and his next date is Dallas and you've got two days, hey, why don't you stop at Fort Sill and do a show? We'll pay your expenses, but the entertainer must volunteer. And at the end of the lunch, I was amazed that agents and managers were walking up to me and saying "Jo Dee Messina will do one of your shows." "We'll get Charlie Daniels to do a show." "Lee Greenwood will do a show." We did eighteen shows that year. Clint Black>> "I called my agent and I said, you know, I really want to get out there and play a military base and say thank you. He was already in gear. All we had to do was show up and be the musicians that we are." Robert Rosenthal>> "Clint, how about one more song?" Clint Black>> "I think we know a few more songs." [Film Clip] Robert Rosenthal>> We give them a professional sound and light system and the base provides the staging and they have a ball. The ones that really have a good time are the ones that say, hey, I'll get there three hours earlier and I want to do a meet and greet. I want to go out and meet the enlisted men, shake some hands, do some photo ops. They are so thrilled when they leave that I have never had an entertainer not say I definitely will do a show for you next year. Val Zavala>> But on top of that, you're dealing with the military. Talk about bureaucracy. How do you make things happen with them? Robert Rosenthal>> I use a very large razor blade. When we made the initial approach to the Department of Defense, I made it very clear that life was too short to bother with their bureaucracy. I said I'm not really interested in their egos or my ego. Here's my offer. We'll do free shows on your base. I want one person from each service to be my contact. Val Zavala>> Rosenthal launched the Spirit of America Tour in 2002. That year they put on five concerts. Robert Rosenthal>> In 2004, last year, we did twenty-one shows. My favorite story is Yuma, Arizona. We always say that the shows are for not only the military personnel, but for the families which includes mom and dad, the kids, civilians on the base. We did a show at Yuma, Arizona, the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma. It was on the parade grounds and a lot of the Marines stationed at that base were in Iraq and Afghanistan. We noticed that, after the show started, the stage was surrounded by six, seven, eight, ten year old kids. They were looking up. They were sitting on the apron of the stage. One little girl climbed up on the stage and started standing right next to Chad Brock and finally held onto his hand. Chad Brock reached down and picked her up and that, to me, is the epitome of what we do. It's not only to boost the morale of the enlisted people and the officers who are there, but to let the families know that they are appreciated for the sacrifice they are making. [Film Clip] Val Zavala>> So what's ahead? Do you expect to be doing this for many years to come? Robert Rosenthal>> Oh, I'm having a ball. We've already booked the first two shows for 2005. Carrot Top, that fabulous comedian, he's going to play the Naval Air Station in Nevada, which is the Top Gun school now since they moved out of Miramar, and the Naval Base in Ventura County in Oxnard which is where the Seabees train. He's going to do two shows in March. We've already got commitments. I'm going to definitely do this for five more years. I'm having a ball. >> "Robert, putting together this Spirit of America Tour, Clint, you and your band coming here and entertaining us on Veterans Day, it doesn't get any better than that, and we salute you for that." [Film Clip] Val Zavala>> Since that story first aired, the Spirit of America Tour is going strong. Rosenthal has brought more than sixty concerts to military bases across the country with seven more scheduled for next year. 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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