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Life & Times Transcript
09/27/06 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, the broken promise of King/Drew Medical Center. How a hospital for the most needy failed its community. Plus, remembering Ralph Story. These stories and more 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>> 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>> The top of 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 officer 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. Narrator>> "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. Stacy Lim>> "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 and the doctors gave her family grim news. Stacy Lim>> I was on a hundred percent life support. They brought 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 -- Officer>> "There is an amber alert." Sam Louie>> -- to tense family disturbances. Officer>> "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>> King/Drew Medical Center near Watts opened up in the 1970s. It was in response to the riots. And the idea was to give a poor minority community quality health care. Well, fast forward thirty-five years and King/Drew has been plagued with health violations and even patient deaths and is in jeopardy of closing. Charles Ornstein is part of the investigative team at the Los Angeles Times that won a Pulitzer Prize for their reports on King/Drew Medical Center. They looked into patient deaths, health hazards and mismanagement that have plagued the hospital for a decade. I talked with him about how such a promising venture for a needy community went wrong. Charles Ornstein>> We first started reporting about King/Drew in August of 2003 and it was after two women who were connected to cardiac monitors died and their vital signs deteriorated and no one noticed. So that was the first sign of real problems at the hospital. Since then, we've written more than a hundred articles about problems at the hospital, about inspections, failed inspections, attempts to fix it, consulting firms being brought in to fix it, reports about problems at the hospital and responses that really haven't taken hold. Val Zavala>> So do you think, over the course of the last three years, that King/Drew has had a fair opportunity to reform itself? Charles Ornstein>> The federal government, in the form of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has given King/Drew more chances than any other hospital in the nation would receive. Val Zavala>> Really? Charles Ornstein>> I mean, if you look at it, King/Drew is a very historic hospital and it's historic not just because it arose after the Watts riots, but it's also a symbol for minority communities. It's a training ground for African American and other minorities' physicians and it's one of the few access points for patients who live in South Los Angeles that don't have many other hospitals to choose from. So that was a major point that everybody was well aware of and focused on and knew that to close King/Drew would be to take away an important access point for the community and nobody wanted to do that. So they gave King/Drew many chances. Federal inspectors were in the hospital fifteen times over the past thirty-two months to try to give King/Drew chance after chance and, most recently, before the make it or break it review, they actually held sessions for hospital staff to prepare them for the inspection, to tell them what they'd be looking for, to tell them how to pass the exam, to tell them exactly what they would be doing, and still they failed. Val Zavala>> I once heard somebody who's familiar with King/Drew describing it not as a hospital, but as a job bank for the community, just basically a place for people to go to get jobs. Charles Ornstein>> Well, from the beginning, King/Drew was more than just a hospital. It was an opportunity for members of the community to get jobs in the community. So I don't know that I'd call it a job bank, but it was an important employer in the region and it still is. That said, you know, King/Drew kind of developed a culture of entitlement in which some of the employees felt that they were entitled to their jobs instead of something that they were serving. They felt that this was a job that they were entitled to. They didn't necessarily need to serve patients and serve their needs. Unfortunately, consultants that came in to the hospital repeatedly over a number of years found that there was a lack of mission to the hospital and that some of the employees had -- they used the phrase -- retired in place. They were there, but they really weren't there. Val Zavala>> So what does this mean for the community around King/Drew? Because despite the problems, there's a lot of loyalty there. People take their kids there and get, you know, the arms in the cast. I mean, they are helping people still. Charles Ornstein>> This is a devastating loss and a devastating decision for the community. We talked about how the community relies on the hospital. There are few other hospitals that serve the South Los Angeles community. The private hospitals have pulled back in terms of what services they offer, so they rely on King/Drew. They didn't bring this about. The patients didn't bring about the problems, so they're being penalized for it. Community advocates have long said, you know, it was important to save King/Drew. "Save King/Drew" was the rallying cry any time there was an attempt to make changes at the hospital and I think now we're going to see some subtle changes. As opposed to "Save King/Drew", it's going to be to save access medical care to this very impoverished community. Val Zavala>> So if the goal now is just to continue to somehow or other give this poor, very needy community access to health care, what are the options? Charles Ornstein>> The Board of Supervisors have several options, but small changes are not one of them. The federal government now wants major reform and they want complete restructuring and they've made it clear that, if King/Drew were to regain funding, it would be in a radically different state than exists today. Another option would be to convert it into an outpatient center and to partner with either private hospitals or Harbor-UCLA which is a medical center in Torrance to take some of the patients that King/Drew currently sees, but to still have medical care on the site of King/Drew. Val Zavala>> So if one of the options is to basically transfer or absorb the patients that are at King/Drew into other hospitals, how many patients are we talking about? Charles Ornstein>> King/Drew treats about eleven thousand patients actually in the hospital every year. Val Zavala>> Eleven thousand? Charles Ornstein>> Eleven thousand. Val Zavala>> That's a lot to be absorbed. Charles Ornstein>> It's a lot to be absorbed, but I think the greater concern is the emergency room actually. Because of the fragile state of the emergency room network in Los Angeles County with the closure of other emergency rooms recently, they're much more concerned about how to handle the forty to fifty thousand patients that seek emergency care at King/Drew every year. They feel that the inpatients can be handled at other hospitals perhaps, but it's really the emergency room that scares health officials in this community. What do you do? What do those people who have broken a leg, who've had a heart attack, where do they go? Val Zavala>> So King/Drew has done a lot of good for the community and it's also put a lot of patients at risk. Do you think, in the long run, what seems to be will be a closure of King/Drew? Do you think that's a good thing in the long run? Charles Ornstein>> Well, I think this decision makes us very sad. It makes, you know, the reporters that have covered this story very sad because we felt that somehow through exposing the problems of the hospital, the hospital would correct itself and that it would get better and that we would kind of rejoice in the day that we would be able to put a front page story on saying that King/Drew is no longer in danger. King/Drew has kept it's federal funds. It's back on track and the hospital is finally serving the community and giving the community what it deserves. So the fact that we aren't going to have that opportunity is really, really tragic. Val Zavala>> Well, Charlie Ornstein, thank you and your team for some superb reporting and we appreciate your time. Charles Ornstein>> Thank 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. Val Zavala>> Tonight we remember Ralph Story. Ralph was one of a kind, a man whose manner and words were as inviting and comfortable as your favorite armchair. He passed away at age eighty-six after a struggle with emphysema. Ralph Story>> "Tell you what. I'll put five gallons of Flying A in the Studebaker. You get a couple of jelly donuts..." Val Zavala>> In the mid-1990s, Ralph hosted two of KCET's most memorable programs that looked back at our fun and unusual local history, a history that Ralph was part of. Ralph Story>> "My name is Ralph Story and, on January 7, 1948, I parked my Studebaker right there and I walked into this building to begin forty years of talking, first on radio and then on television. My first job was to sign on KNXT at six o'clock in the morning. I had to learn to say (Spanish)." Val Zavala>> He went on to host the very popular "Ralph Story's Los Angeles" that ran on KNXT, now KCBS, from 1963 to 1970. Then he hosted a morning show called "A.M. Los Angeles" on KABC. But we here at KCET remember him best from "Things That Aren't Here Anymore". Ralph Story>> "I'm not just making a pun when I say that Los Angeles has had its ups and downs, literally and figuratively, but probably the most successful and famous is this little trolley car behind me. Its name is Olivette and it has an identical twin named Sinai. Those are biblical names chosen by the church-going lady who lives up on Bunker Hill. This wonderful old adobe is the last memento we have to a big, tall, artsy tycoon named Earl Gilmore. And we're back at the famous corner of Sunset and Vine, except you look around here today and you say, "What's so famous?" Val Zavala>> Ralph Story was an Emmy-winning reporter. He and other pioneering broadcasters gave television journalism a good name and a great start. Ralph Story>> "This is the Los Angeles headquarters of the National Broadcasting Company. Big complex of radio studios that look like the Starship Enterprise and all they produced was sound." Val Zavala>> Memorabilia from those early days are still kept at the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters Clubroom. Ralph Story>> "And, you know, there are other treasure troves like this all over Los Angeles. People are saving little bits and pieces of the past for the future." Val Zavala>> News of his passing came from his beloved wife, Diana. Ralph Story died at his home in the Santa Ynez Valley where he enjoyed watching sunsets from his front porch. We'll miss him dearly. Ralph Story>> "Let's see if this thing still works. Ralph Story here for KCET. Good evening, Los Angeles." Val Zavala>> She's not exactly a household name, but judging from her credits, she should be. Suzan-Lori Parks has won a Pulitzer Prize, a Macarthur Foundation Genius Grant, plus she heads up the playwrighting program at Cal Arts. Recently, Parks published her first novel. So why don't more people know who she is? Well, here's your chance. Vicki Curry introduces us to one of the busiest writers in town. Vicki Curry>> Her career was hailed before it began, an utterly astounding and beautiful creature who may become one of the most valuable artists of our time. That's how her teacher, author James Baldwin, described her before she even finished college and, with that, Suzan-Lori Parks became a writer. Suzan-Lori Parks>> Being a writer actually comes from having a certain kind of illness which is alleviated somewhat by writing. You have some kind of a funny thing and you feel better when you write. Vicki Curry>> Suzan-Lori Parks is a playwright, screenwriter, songwriter and novelist. Words and music frame her world and they always have. Suzan-Lori Parks>> We're supposed to be practicing the piano -- we had this, you know, baby grand piano -- and I would hang out under the piano and write. I thought it was just the normal thing that you do. You know, you sit under the piano or wherever and write a novel (laughter). Before I was writing novels, you know, fifth grade or fourth grade novels, I was writing songs. You know, everything had a song to it, you know? You know, "here we are doing an interview and it's a lot of fun." Vicki Curry>> Her father was in the Army, so the family moved around a lot. A high school teacher once told her she shouldn't major in English because she was a bad speller. So when she went to Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, she started out as a chemistry major. Suzan-Lori Parks>> When she said, you know, don't be an English major, I said, okay, I won't. I mean, it wasn't anything to me. I didn't care because someday I was going to be a rocket scientist, so it didn't matter. I was going to get into outer space either way (laughter). Vicki Curry>> Luckily, her college education brought her back to her first love. Suzan-Lori Parks>> There I was being a chemistry major, you know, in the lab and kind of going ugh and I had to take a required English course. I took English whatever-whatever and we had to read Virginia Wolff's "To The Lighthouse" and it was just like the door went open and I thought, yeah, this is, you know, this is where I want to be. I want to make something like this because this is great. Vicki Curry>> At Holyoke, she had the chance to take a creative writing class with the acclaimed author, James Baldwin. The class changed the course of her career. Suzan-Lori Parks>> When it was my turn to read, you know, instead of going, you know, da-da-da, reading like that, I would sort of act out what I'd written. He said, you know, have you ever thought about writing plays? Vicki Curry>> Parks followed that advice and her second play, "Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom" won an Obie award in 1989. Critics soon praised her original and imaginative style, a style which used her old weakness to her advantage. Suzan-Lori Parks>> The language of my first plays, in all my plays actually, is very thick and inventive. So when you really don't know how to spell and you're really into the sounds of words -- because I was relating to the sounds of words -- you are very much into the physical aspect of language and you're not into the meaning of words. You're more into the sound of them and what sounds good. Vicki Curry>> She's since written over a dozen plays, including "The America Play, "Venus" and "In the Blood". Then in 2001, she won the Macarthur Genius Grant and topped that in 2002 with the prize every writer dreams of: the Pulitzer for "Topdog/Underdog". [Film Clip] Suzan-Lori Parks>> There is writing and there is rewriting and it's like triceps and biceps. Those are the two kinds of courage you have to develop as a writer. I think that one, you have to listen to the voices and take what comes and be open, then next you have to pick up your sword of discrimination and you have to go back and you have to edit and cut away what isn't appropriate or working. I've always been really good at that. Vicki Curry>> Parks shares that editing talent with future writers. She's been teaching for years and now she heads the playwrighting program at the California Institute of the Arts. Suzan-Lori Parks>> I just say, you know, go with your impulses and edit, but don't edit in terms of meaning. Like what am I trying to say? Oh, tell a good story. Give us some great characters and let the literary critics make meaning of it. Let the audiences make meaning of it. Vicki Curry>> She recently applied her storytelling skills to a new medium, the novel. Her first book? "Getting Mother's Body". Suzan-Lori Parks>> I knew it wasn't a play, you know, because it's about place. It's very much about landscape. It's very much about the interior thoughts of the characters, which you can get in a play from a soliloquy, but it's really not the same. [Film Clip] Vicki Curry>> Parks has thrown another element into her work: music. After those early years of impromptu composing, Parks wrote several songs for her novel. [Film Clip] Suzan-Lori Parks>> Because there are points in the characters' lives where regular language will not express what they're feeling. Vicki Curry>> At her book signing, she reads a few chapters and then performs the songs. Suzan-Lori Parks>> I never played guitar in front of people before. I actually had a great time. I said, this is going to be fun. It doesn't have to be perfect. Let's just have a good time, sing and play the guitar. Vicki Curry>> A Genius Grant, a Pulitzer. It's clear that Parks can handle any challenge she takes on. Her latest projects include several screenplays and a stage musical. Whatever the story or its format, Suzan-Lori Parks was born to write. Suzan-Lori Parks>> I don't care if it's a play, a movie, a poem, a song. It's just the writing of it that makes me feel better. I just feel like, yea, I'm lucky. It really is a joy. Val Zavala>> Suzan-Lori Parks' 1990 play, "The America Story", is making it's Los Angeles premier at Boston Court in Pasadena. For details, go to their website at bostoncourt.com. It's playing through November 19. 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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