 |
HOME |  |
SCHEDULE | |
PROGRAMS | |
KIDS & FAMILY | |
LOCAL | |
SUPPORT KCET | |
ABOUT US | |
SHOP KCET |  |
| About Us | Contact Us | |
 |
|
 |
          |
|
|
 |
 |
||
|
|
Life & Times Transcript
08/17/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- When it's a matter of life and death, can police training make the difference? Stacy Lim>> "You need to put that gun down now." The more familiar we are with situations, the more comfortable we are, the better we are able to articulate, the more options that we have, the less likely that we'll use force. Val Zavala>> And then, it's all done with smoke and mirrors, but will "The Illusionist" fool our critics? 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. With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Val Zavala>> It seems to be a part of police culture, controversial shootings where someone gets killed because the officer pulled the trigger too quickly and yet whether or not to shoot is often a split second decision. So how do we train our officers to make the right split-second decision? Well, that's where a new high-tech training simulator comes in and, as Sam Louie tells us, it puts officers to the test before it's a matter of life or death. Sam Louie>> In July of 2005, an LAPD Swat Team responded to a call in South Los Angeles. The suspect, Jose Pena, was high on drugs. Surveillance cameras caught him using his own daughter as a human shield while shooting at police. There was crossfire between Pena and the Swat Team. Pena was killed along with his nineteen month old daughter, Susie. Luis Carrillo>> Her skull was taken off by that high-velocity, high-powered rifle. Sam Louie>> Luis Carrillo is the Pena family attorney. He believes that police should have spent more time negotiating with the father instead of resorting to deadly force. Luis Carrillo>> Extremely dangerous ill-conceived tactics which put a baby's life at risk and ultimately took her life. Sam Louie>> He'd like to see the LAPD lessen its grip on lethal force. Luis Carrillo>> That police officers must be highly trained, competent and be able to discern a situation where deadly force is called for and where it's not called for. Sam Louie>> But how do you train officers to make the right decision under pressure? Stacy Lim>> "You need to put that gun down now." Sam Louie>> Stacy Lim is a training officer. She's tweaking the department's latest training tool. It's a $1.5 million dollar computerized simulation system. Stacy Lim>> The more familiar we are with situations, the more comfortable we are, the better we are able to articulate, the more options that we have, the less likely that we'll use force. Sam Louie>> The system is designed to give both recruits and current officers a more realistic feel for what they're likely to encounter in the field. The simulator offers more than two hundred pre-recorded scenarios. >> "You are responding to a call of domestic dispute." Sam Louie>> This one teaches officers how to de-escalate an argument between a husband and a wife. >> "Sir, you need to put the baby down. Hand the baby to your wife." Sam Louie>> The simulator also allows officers to use a variety of weapons from their arsenal, everything from high-powered rifles to pepper spray. Stacy Lim>> The more scenario training that the officers are allowed to participate in, the less likely that they'll use deadly force. Sam Louie>> Carrillo says that the simulators are a step in the right direction, but believes more training is needed to ensure the public's safety. Luis Carrillo>> That the training standards within the Los Angeles Police Department be improved so that there will be no more highly reckless, incompetent tactics utilized which costs the innocent life of a civilian. Sam Louie>> Sergeant Tim Surrette did not speak about the incident directly, but says the simulator addresses tactics and strategies. Sergeant Tim Surrette>> First of all, we feel, you know, very bad for the family. Any time there's a death involved, you know, that's not what we want, okay? With the appropriation of this equipment, we hope to try and train every officer in every facet that we can to make them better prepared for the field. Sam Louie>> Solid training doesn't just protect citizens. It can also protect officers. Stacy Lim>> Every officer in the city of Los Angeles will generally draw their weapon numerous times, sometimes on a daily basis, depending on where you're working. Sam Louie>> Officer Stacy Lim knows this firsthand. Sixteen years ago, while off duty, she was followed home at night by gang members. They wanted to steal her truck. Stacy Lim>> As I stepped out of my car, he was standing there pointing a gun at me. I raised my pistol, my weapon, tried to identify myself as a police officer. As soon as I said police, he fired one round. Sam Louie>> Stacy returned fire. One man was killed and the others ran away, but the bullet that hit her went right through her chest. Stacy Lim>> It shattered my spleen, put a hole in the base of my heart and cracked my rib and went out my back. It left about a tennis ball size hole in my back. Sam Louie>> Her heart stopped twice during the surgery. The doctors gave her family grim news. Stacy Lim>> I was on a hundred percent life support. They got my family in and said, you know, in about two hours, her body's going to shut down, so you need to prepare yourselves. Sam Louie>> Miraculously, she survived. She attributes her quick response to training, although at the time the department had a much older system. Stacy Lim>> If you have to think about everything you need to do, generally you won't have time to do it. It's mostly on a reaction time. That's why you train. You prepare your mind for what your body may have to do. Commentator>> "For the officers of the LAPD, it's all in a day's work." Sam Louie>> For police officers, the streets of Los Angeles can be slow-going one moment and chaotic the next. This promotional video shows potential recruits what they may face, everything from kidnapping -- >> "There is an amber alert." Sam Louie>> -- to tense family disturbances. >> "We've got time to work this out." >> "Shut up!" Sam Louie>> Sometimes deadly force is their only option. But how do you train officers to react correctly under stressful situations? Surrette says that the beauty of the simulators is that the department can tailor them to their specifications. Sergeant Tim Surrette>> What's so impressive about this system is we can author our own scenario. We can make our own incidents anywhere in the city, any building, any location, day or night. Sam Louie>> Another feature is a camera that records an officer's move and can be played back for evaluation. Stacy Lim>> You can go through and you can actually watch where they're at, so if an officer's perception was incorrect, if they felt they used cover when they really didn't or they drew their gun prematurely, when they do the playback, it will show a picture in picture the real play of the scenario that they're going in and their actual action. Sam Louie>> So can all of this simulated training lead to real-life results? Will innocent lives like Susie Pena be spared in the future? The LAPD is optimistic, but others like Connie Rice believe much more improvement is needed. Connie Rice>> I've been a civil rights litigator for twenty-five years and a lot of my cases involved police departments. I've sued the Sheriff's Department. I've sued the Riverside Police. I've sued LAPD quite a bit and other police departments around the country. Sam Louie>> Rice says that the department has improved over the years, moving from a paramilitary style of policing to one that's more community oriented. Connie Rice>> It's not about the number of arrests. It's not about how aggressive you are. It's not about amplifying your power and making people afraid of you. It's about getting the community to back you, to help you solve crimes. Sam Louie>> However, Rice would like to see new recruits in the academy gain a better understanding of the history and culture of LAPD. Connie Rice>> Most officers are never told about LAPD's past, so they have no idea what the baggage is. They don't know what the history is. They don't know why people are angry at them. Sam Louie>> Still, the department believes the simulators are a great tool to improve the reflexes of their officers. Sergeant Tim Surrette>> You can over-train your body, but you can't over-train your mind. We feel that the better prepared an officer is in the classroom, hopefully he'll be better prepared to make the right decision in the field. Connie Rice>> The simulator may improve their snap judgments under pressure. The real truth, though, is that the only thing that improves snap judgments when you're making a life and death decision is to go through several of them. It's just the real-life thing. Sam Louie>> The LAPD plans to install the simulators in twenty geographic areas over the next several months. The goal is to have all officers use the simulators on an ongoing basis to eventually close the gap between training and real life, and no one is better qualified to train officers for tough, split-second decisions than an officer who almost lost hers. 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, 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>> Since the early 1990s, crime has been dropping across America and that includes Los Angeles and yet there's one kind of crime that we seem never to be able to get a handle on and that's gang violence. Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton is nearing the end of his first five-year term. I sat down with the chief and asked him what it will take to bring Los Angeles's street gangs under control. Now crime rates overall have dropped, especially serious crimes, but it seems as though it's the gangs that are still the crux of the problem causing the majority of serious crimes? Chief William Bratton>> The good news is that the gang problem in Los Angeles, as bad as it is in the city and county, is significantly improved over what it was in the early 1990s, that the overall crime in the city is down fifty or sixty percent from those bad old days. Inasmuch as gang violence accounts for about fifty to sixty percent of our violent crime, any improvement we can make in gang violence helps the overall crime rate. We've had some continued improvement over the four years I've been police chief. Each of those four years, we've seen decline in crime. So while gang problems remain our most significant problem, the good news is that we've been able to make improvements even in that seemingly attractive problem. Val Zavala>> Now you came from New York. You've been here in Los Angeles now for almost five years. Is there any aspect of the job that's really surprised you? Chief William Bratton>> I did not fully anticipate how the small size of this department would impact on the ability to police the city in the way it should be policed. I came from New York where taxpayers in that city had long ago decided that they wanted a safer city. So in the early 1990s, they passed tax bills to raise their taxes to hire seven thousand more police officers and what did they get? The safest large city in America. Residents in this city have fought tooth and nail against tax increases for this police department for many, many years and what do they get? One of the most violent cities in the United States, the worst gang problems of any city in the United States. What they did get, however, was a small police force that was working very hard. The department has an unofficial motto. The official motto is "To Protect and to Serve". The unofficial motto is "Too few who for too long who've been asked to do too much for too little". The problem has been politics, political leadership that was not there to support this police department, and the public which also did not support this department in terms of giving them the number of officers to make officers' lives safer and, in return, public lives safer. We've got a very good police department, but it's too small. It's proportionately one of the smallest police departments in America and that translates into not being able to do all that we're capable of doing. Val Zavala>> So the police department has worked really hard and crime has gone down, but some people would say that other factors have caused crime to go down. Demographics, economy. Chief William Bratton>> The police are still the most significant factor in crime going down. It doesn't go down by itself. Val Zavala>> Demographics don't make a difference? Chief William Bratton>> Demographics are an influence. The economy is an influence. All the old things that were thought to cause crime have influences. The thing that causes crime is behavior, individual behavior, breaking the law, a moment of emotion or passion. One of the things we do know and is our experience is that police can't control behavior to such an extent that we change it. Gang injunctions help us to control the behavior of gangs. Enough cops help us to control the behavior of gangs because we can be there to prevent a lot of their activities. So in some respects, Los Angeles has been ignoring for fifty years the most obvious solution to its crime problem, which is more police. And I can guarantee, as we acquire more police, the crime of this city will continue to go down, but they are fortunate that they've got a first-rate police department that, over the last four years, has been able to continue to lower the crime rate. It has nothing to do with demographics or the economy or the weather. It's largely due to the police and the relationship we have with the community. Many of our communities work very closely with us in helping us to identify who the problems are in their area as well as helping us to prioritize what is making them fearful. It's a huge city. No two neighborhoods are alike. In the Valley, people are not as fearful of the violent crime that is so prevalent in the south side of the city. In the west bureau, they're more concerned with burglary issues than in other areas of the city. We have a high number of burglaries in a very wealthy part of the city, so we the police have to be prepared to effectively prioritize our services to the individual needs of the community. That's the beauty of the community policing model that we follow, the philosophy. Community policing is all about working in partnership with the community to identify what are their particular problems and, to the best of our ability, to prevent those problems from reoccurring. Val Zavala>> So you've made it through one term as police chief and now you have to decide whether you're going to apply for a second term. Are you? Chief William Bratton>> Oh, that's already been decided and I'm very interested in staying. My wife and I love this town and love this department, certainly, and I made it quite clear that it's my intention to notify the Police Commission. I have to do it four and a half years in of my intention to seek another term. I'm very, very comfortable that that will happen. Val Zavala>> Chief Bratton, thank you very much for your time and your hard work. Chief William Bratton>> Thank you. Good being with you. 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. The film, "Trust the Man" is written and directed by Bart Freundlich and it stars his real-life wife, Julianne Moore. David Duchovny, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Billy Crudup are also in the cast. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Ella Taylor, film critic for the L.A. Weekly, and Scott Foundas, film editor for the L.A. Weekly. Ella, what did you think of "Trust the Man"? Ella Taylor>> "Trust the Man" is written and directed by Bart Freundlich who significantly is Julianne Moore's husband. Without that connection, I suspect the film would never have been distributed. It's about two couples. One has lots of sex and no babies and one has the babies, but no sex. It is such a psychologically slight film that I was taking my walk every four minutes. It has a good cast, including Julianne Moore, David Duchovny Maggie Gyllenhaal is actually very good and Billy Crudup unfortunately is dressed up in this very unfortunate goatee. He's a kind of wastrel type who's the only one you can get remotely interested in in the entire movie. It's a rip on early Woody Allen and an extremely unsuccessful one. Larry Mantle>> Scott, what did you think? Scott Foundas>> I thought it was unbearable. There's something incredible about it because the David Duchovny character is this guy who's put his own career on hold to raise his kids, who's married to a successful actress played by Julianne Moore, and the film is sort of this celebration of, you know, why that guy isn't really a total loser like everybody seems to think he is. You feel like you're watching Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich's extensive home movies for two hours. I mean, this film is up there with the most narcissistic of all husband and wife filmmaker-actor works in the history of cinema. Larry Mantle>> The movie, "The Illusionist", is set in 1900s Vienna. It's written and directed by Neil Burger and it stars Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Scott, your thoughts on "The Illusionist"? Scott Foundas>> Well, this is a film set in Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century right around the same period of time from Robert Musil's novel, "The Man Without Qualities". The empire is teetering on the verge of collapse and a stage magician called Eisenheim captivates the public with his seemingly miraculous feats of illusion. He's played by Edward Norton. Eventually, he sort of becomes such a phenomenon that the crown prince who's sort of plotting a hostile takeover of his father's empire, played by Rufus Sewell, gets a little bit nervous and sends his chief investigator, played by Paul Giamatti, out to find out if this guy really has supernatural powers or not. Now that question which the film is so obsessed with, I found incredibly uninteresting the first time that I saw this movie at the Sundance Film Festival this year. I thought that basically the movie played sort of a high-end Masterpiece Theater production that was about as suspenseful as watching paint dry. Now I went back and saw the movie again and I think, if you look at it already knowing the answer to whether or not the Edward Norton character has supernatural powers, it's actually a lot more entertaining because you're sort of looking for all of the director, Neil Burger's, elaborate slight of hand which is sometimes brought off quite skillfully. I still don't quite think the movie works, but Paul Giamatti does give a really terrific performance as the guy who, somewhat like Eisenheim itself, comes from meager beginnings and has, through sheer tenacity, worked himself up to a place of influence in the empire. The way Giamatti plays that, a kind of a small man with great power, it's very interesting to watch. Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, "Factotum", a film that's based on a novel by Charles Bukowski and a semi-autobiographical one at that. The movie stars Matt Dillon. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Well, Scott, "Factotum"? Scott Foundas>> Well, this is based on the second novel written by Charles Bukowski and featuring his alter-ego protagonist, Henry Chinaski, who's played here by Matt Dillon and who was played by Mickey Rourke in the movie, "Barfly", about fifteen years ago. Matt Dillon gives an absolutely terrific performance in this picture. He's sort of just getting high on his total self-destructiveness. He's playing Chinaski as an aspiring writer that's based on Bukowski's life before he made it as a published author when he was sort of rolling around from one odd job to the next. This is expressed in the film as being a delivery man for an ice company (laughter) or being a night cleaner in a newspaper building and getting fired his first night on the job. All those little moments have a really kind of absurdist bent to them and they're very fun to watch. The movie is also a kind of tragedy. It's about desperate, lonely people like Chinaski and like the woman that he has an on again-off again affair with played by Lili Taylor who are just sort of passing in and out of each other's orbit like ships in the night and, for one reason or another, can't really connect. The film is very episodic by nature and, as I say, a stellar performance at the center. Larry Mantle>> What did you think of it, Ella? Ella Taylor>> It's a very well directed film and I agree with Scott that Matt Dillon's performance is absolutely superb. I mean, he just gets better and better. I really loved him in "Crash" too. Perhaps no more should be said (laughter). It is a wonderful performance that perhaps saves the movie. My problem with it is that the whole conceit of the movie just has a terrible attack of the Ernest Hemingway's. That's a myth on so many levels that I find very difficult to buy, that really the true artists are those who, you know, are into drugs and drink and write their best work while they're drinking and on drugs as a writer. I fail to see -- Larry Mantle>> -- it doesn't work for you. Ella Taylor>> It doesn't work for me and I'm not sure it worked for Hemingway either. I think there is so much self-mythologizing there as there is here. I have not read Bukowski, so I don't want to comment on his actual work. But it's the aura that goes around it that I find juvenile and perhaps self-deluded as well. Added to that, or perhaps as part of that, it just made me sad to see somebody like Lili Taylor, who's so good, walking around in her underpants being drunk and disorderly. Larry Mantle>> Well, thanks for joining us for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC joined by critics Scott Foundas of the L.A. Weekly and, also with the L.A. Weekly, Ella Taylor. Please join us again next week for the next FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> You can hear a full hour of FilmWeek Friday mornings at eleven at KPCC 89.3. 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. With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Sponsored in part by:  | |
|
Home | Features | Arts | Health/Science | OC Edition | L&T Blog | Archives | About Us | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use |