Mass Shootings Loom At Latino Conference, Union-Tribune’s Gun Legislation Editorial, Criminal Justice Reform

Speaker 1: 00:00 Five is the top Democratic candidates for president found a platform in San Diego, mundane to air their reactions to the tragic mass shootings over the weekend. They spoke at the [inaudible] conference at the Convention Center. According to the Pew Research Center, Latinos will be the largest racial minority group in the electorate in 2020 with 32 million registered voters. KPBS report them. Hoffman was at the conference Monday. Matt, thanks so much for joining us. Hey Allison. So before we get into what the presidential candidates had to say, tell us a bit more about you need us, us. Speaker 2: 00:31 Yeah. So you need those us, it's billed as the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights organization. Every year they put on a new conference. This year it was in San Diego. I next year it's coming up in Vegas. Um, it's a lot of movers and shakers, so to speak, in the Latino community. Um, it draws thousands of people that are there. Basically they're advocating for what Latinos want. And as a, you mentioned there were presidential candidates there and they get, they sort of ask them questions about how they would benefit the Latino community Speaker 1: 00:57 and you need us, USA used to be called the National Council of La Rasa. A lot of us remember it as that. So now tell us which of the Democratic candidates attended the conference and what was their message? Speaker 2: 01:08 Sure. Yeah. So we had former vice president, Joe Biden, senators, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris and former secretary of housing and urban development. Uh, Julio and Castro. Um, they all talked about a variety of different things, but they all took time at the beginning, uh, to touch on the recent, uh, shootings in Ohio and Texas Speaker 3: 01:27 as long time, long past time that we in fact call out for what it is. This is white nationalism, this is white supremacy. This is about hate. This is about what happened in the border community. And today I say to Donald Trump, stop your anti immigrant rhetoric. Stop the hatred and no, Mr President, as he said after Charlottesville, there are not two sides to an issue. When the other side is the Ku Klux Klan and white nationalists, there is only one side and that side is what unites us. That side is United States of America. This is a country that was founded and built by immigrants. Unless you are native American or your ancestors were kidnapped and brought over on a slave ship. Your people are immigrants. Speaker 2: 02:28 The attack two days ago was and attack on the Latino community. It was an attack on immigrants. It was an attack on Mexicans and Mexican Americans. And that is no accident Speaker 2: 02:44 that is due in part to the climate that this president has set. And that was former housing secretary Holian Castro. We also heard from Vice President Joe Biden and senators, Bernie Sander, Amy Klobuchar and uh, uh, Camilla Harris. Um, it's worth noting that Camilla Harris didn't directly speak about the shootings. I mean she did talk about the racial divide that we have here in this country, but the candidates, I mean this was a kind of a forum for, um, Latino voters to get a better idea of who they are. Um, so they talked about a variety of other things and we're talking about like housing, uh, health care, uh, immigration reform and jobs. Speaker 1: 03:17 Were there any particular candidates that the audience responded to particularly? Yeah. Speaker 2: 03:21 Um, well, obviously you have a Joe Biden's, your a Combo Harris's who got a big draw because they're very well known. Uh, but then, uh, Julio and Castro definitely had the most and the loudest support there. Um, you need those. U S said, uh, after, um, he of did his introduction that they were, uh, very proud to have Latino running, which got a big roar from the crowd. Speaker 1: 03:40 Mm. So now the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell is coming under fire for not taking up the house, has gun reform legislation on background checks. What specific solutions did the candidates offer, uh, to address gun violence? Was there any difference between the candidates and what they said they would push for if elected? Speaker 2: 03:56 Right. Uh, it was a sort of similar, but not everybody touched on it. Um, during their time at the, at the conference, Biden talked about banning assault weapons and it's something that, um, Sanders talked about taking on the NRA and also ending the sale, uh, of assault rifles, club Char, a called out Mitch McConnell directly, uh, saying that, uh, we need to vote on this gun reform. He needs to bring this. Um, but the NRA is too strong and it's keeping people like him from bringing this forward. And, and the president, um, Harrison Castro didn't specifically touch on, uh, the issue of guns or this debate with Mitch McConnell. Speaker 1: 04:29 How about the rise of white supremacy? Did they talk about how they would counter basically, you know, domestic Speaker 2: 04:35 terrorism, right. Yeah, that was a big topic that most of them touched on when they were talking about the shootings. Um, particularly in El Paso, Texas, a Biden talked said that white and white nationalism is growing and we need to stand up to it. Confronted, call it out for what it is. Um, Bernie said a similar thing. Um, he talked about how Trump is scapegoating immigrants and we need to change that narrative. Immigrants built this country, a club, a char, um, said that we need to take this head on and condemn hate when we see it instead of just letting it go by. Harris, um, also had a similar message as club Char. She was, she said that this was a country that was founded and built by immigrants. Uh, she actually was the only candidate up there that called Trump a racist. Um, and says that what he say matters and the people listen, we need to be more aware of that. Castro, um, said that the president has made this a climate of division and it's no accident that these shootings are happening. Speaker 1: 05:25 No. As we mentioned earlier, Hispanics are going to be a very large proportion of the eligible voters in the coming election. 13%. So after attending the conference, you get a sense of what they're looking for in a candidate. Speaker 2: 05:36 Right. And before the conference, I [inaudible] they released a numbers of some polling that they did and they found a few things. Um, they one, they found that, uh, there, according, this is according to their own internal poll that they've done with, uh, Latinos, uh, is that, uh, people, uh, the immigration, uh, is a huge topic for voters and many are about how the president, the current president, Donald Trump speaks to, and his attitude toward Latinos and they're thinking that that could get worse. Um, so they want somebody who can sort of change that narrative. There's also a, they found that there's like three big things that are on voters minds, uh, which are jobs, uh, healthcare and immigration are, are things that they're looking out for this upcoming year. Thanks, Matt. Thanks Alison. KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman. Speaker 1: 00:00 No. During his visit to San Diego, Senator Bernie Sanders spoke to about a thousand people at a town hall in Vista. He also sat down with KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen, to talk about his 2020 presidential campaign. Speaker 2: 00:13 You were here in San Diego for the [inaudible] US conference. What's your message to Latinos in this mess in this campaign? My message is that we have got to stand to go though and stop from epic to divide us up based on where we will born with the language that we speak or the color of our skin. This is the United States of America and the function of a president is bring people together, not forced the hatred and prejudice and bigotry. We heard just this morning from Juanita sus about polling results that they've done and they found that a strong majority of Latino, 74% won a presidential candidate who is willing to work with both parties and compromise to get things done. Now your Medicare for all bill has far from enough support in Congress to actually get passed. How would you negotiate with Congress if you're elected president and, and are you willing to compromise on healthcare to get something where you're looking at somebody who wouldn't, he was in the house, actually got more amendments passed working with Republicans than any other person you're looking at. Speaker 2: 01:12 Somebody who just recently for the first time in 45 years, passed a resolution to get the United States out of the war in Yemen, working with Republicans using the war powers act, uh, passed the major veterans bill working with John McCain. So of course I have a record of working with Republicans. Uh, but I think in terms of healthcare, you will be very surprised to find that not only Democrats and independence support a medicare for all single payer program, but so do many Republicans. And the reason for that is they understand that the current system in which 87 million people are uninsured or under insured, 500,000 people go bankrupt every year because the campaign medical bills at 30,000 people die because they don't get to a doctor all the time. This is not a system that we have got to continue. We need to do what every other major country on earth does guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right. Speaker 2: 02:06 Not a privilege function of health care, quality care for all, not making $100 billion in profit for the drug companies and the insurance companies. One of the hottest political issues here locally in San Diego and also in the State of California is homelessness and housing affordability. Some of your opponents in this race have put forward platforms and policy ideas about how to address that. What would you do as president? Well, you're right, it is a terrible, terrible problem. And it's not only the fact that we have some 500,000 homeless people in America today, but you have millions of people who are spending 45, 50, 60% of their limited incomes on housing. I am very proud when we, as mayor of Burlington, we initiated a community land trust concept, which is now spread not only all over America, but all over the world along with representative Bob or League of San Fran of Oakland. Speaker 2: 02:54 Uh, we passed the national, uh, low income housing trust fund. First major piece of legislation passed to provide low income rental units. We have a major crisis and as president of the United States, I will work with communities all over this country and invest the billions of dollars that we need to build the millions of units that this country absolutely requires. We should not be having people sleep out on the street. We should not be having people spend 50% of their limited incomes in housing. We need to build housing. We need to combat gentrification, which is destroying working class communities. We need to make sure that we have a policy that works for all people, not just real estate developers. What's the most important lesson that you learned from your 2016 campaign and what's different this time around? I'll tell you what the most important lesson was, is that when you speak truth to the American, people are coming forward with ideas that at the time seemed very unpopular. Speaker 2: 03:49 It is amazing how quickly you change the conversation. When I talked about making public colleges and universities tuition free. Oh, Bernie radical idea can't be done. Well, that's what they've done in Los Angeles, San Francisco, in many parts of New York state, Tennessee, and other parts of the world. When I talked about climate change being the major national security crisis that we face, people that are really laughed at me, they're not laughing now. So I think the lesson that I learned is if you have the guts to tell the truth and to take on very powerful, special interest, the American people will respond and other politicians will follow your lead. That's my lesson. Senator Bernie Sanders. Thank you so much for sticking with us. Thank you. Speaker 3: 04:31 [inaudible]. Speaker 1: 00:00 The editorial in the San Diego Union Tribune following the shootings in El Paso and Dayton did not mince words. The editorial stated quote, if candidates won't support sensible gun legislation, don't vote for them. If sitting politicians don't support sensible gun legislation, vote them out. If the president won't decry white terrorism, elect one who will unquote. The editorial also says, enough is enough. But why such strong sentiments now when the nation has been through so many shootings and the response has been far more moderate. Joining me to answer that as Matt Hall editorial and Opinion Director at the San Diego Union Tribune and Matt, welcome to the program. Thanks for having me today. So why now? How have the shootings in El Paso, Dayton and even Gilroy tipped the balance into urgency for the ut editorial board? Speaker 2: 00:54 Yeah, well I think, uh, as you can see from the size and the design of today's editorial, a full page editorial, which is pretty rare for us, this is a moment where we needed to stand up and say important things. But I will emphasize it. We've said many of these things before. We've been pretty strong advocates for sensible gun legislation for years. And pretty famously, uh, on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine anniversary had another, uh, similarly unusual and powerful editorial where we used people's names and ages, people who had been killed in mass shootings on school campuses to spell out the word enough with, uh, those letters. And it was very powerful statement. It's something we've been advocating for a long time, but we wanted to, this seemed like a moment almost like post parkland where people were frustrated by what had happened and needed to do something and didn't think anything was going to happen. Congress wasn't going to do anything. And all of a sudden, those student activists, that Parkland really stood up and said, well, wait a second. This has gone on too long. There's been too much bloodshed. It's time to do something. Their voices mattered. And we thought that this was a moment where our voice could matter. Speaker 1: 02:08 What do you think is the responsibility of editorials to help shape public sentiment about an issue like this? Speaker 2: 02:14 One of the approaches that I've taken with our a editorial board is to foster conversation, not necessarily to end it, right? I mean, I think too often editorial boards are like, it's our way or the highway. Our editorial board under me has been, I think more receptive to other views. We've printed other people's perspectives on our op-eds section and our letters section. But we've also had strong opinions and our editorials and you know, our opinions have changed over the years on gun legislation though we think as we reiterated today that a so-called assault weapons ban is smart limiting magazine capacity is smart and certainly standing up and calling out racism, uh, is essential. That's, I think what has shifted in this conversation and what you're seeing emerge, especially from the El Paso shooting, is that was the biggest murder of, uh, Hispanics. Uh, in this country. Someone walked into what is essentially billed as the UN of Walmarts with a, a weapon of mass destruction and killed, uh, Latinos killed six Mexican nationals simply because, uh, of their skin color. And that is unacceptable. That is not a the America that any of us should want to live in. Speaker 1: 03:36 Speaking of the kind of conversation that you're hoping to engender with the, this editorial, what kind of response have you gotten? Speaker 2: 03:43 A lot of people are saying, thanks for saying what I was thinking. Thanks for saying what we all, most of us, many of us are thinking, um, you know, I think one of the things that an editorial board has that, that normal citizens don't is a platform. We can call this out. And I think this is a moment where we need to say racism is unacceptable and we need to make that loud and clear. Speaker 1: 04:06 What about people who don't want restrictions on responsible gun ownership? Speaker 2: 04:10 It's all in framing and it's all in the argument, right? Responsible means maybe there's some common ground where both sides can agree. As we've seen and as we've shared our frustrations over the years, there hasn't been a lot of progress made. Uh, Dianne Feinstein's assault weapons ban for example, was in play for 10 years and then lapsed. And uh, now she and others want to try to bring it back. But it's difficult because you know, the second amendment is the second amendment for a reason and people use it, um, and hold it up as something that should not be taken away and it shouldn't be taken away. That's why when we say sensible and responsible gun legislation, that's what we mean. It's a nod to the fact that the second amendment exists, but it's also a nod to the fact that you know, you don't need a weapon that can kill nine people and wound dozens of others in a single minute as it happened has happened in, in Dayton. Speaker 1: 05:05 Now the editorial doubts, the president's sincerity, when he said yesterday, hate has no place in our country. Why don't you believe him? Speaker 2: 05:14 It's one thing for the president to give a speech like that. I think if he had done that without the words that he had used, uh, over the last three or four years without a career that you can trace on paper and through his comments, that would be one thing. But we have here a president who has used 2100 times the word invasion in Facebook ads. This campaign alone to describe a immigration. Now the immigrants that I know that are not invaders, they're coming to this country because they want a better life because they see a chance to grab something. Um, and, and to pursue a dream. And that is not an invasion any stretch. So by the president's own words and history of language, what he said yesterday, you know, you Americans should take that with a, with a big, big grain of salt because it's too late. Uh, and I think the, the weight of his words really hangs around him. Uh, at this point, Speaker 1: 06:16 you must have to consider an awful lot of different things when you're sitting down to write an editorial like this. And one of the things that occurred to us is that researchers have found that people get led into radical beliefs because they begin to distrust mainstream media. That's one of the things they've found. So an editorial like this may actually alienating the people who need it the most. Is that something that concerns you? Speaker 2: 06:42 Yeah, that's an interesting point. And, you know, I, I, uh, assume the reigns a of this position during the 2016 election and people who follow me on Facebook, it can show, can tell you stories of the, of the, uh, interesting, uh, letters to the editor I got where people would cut out the editorials and take out their sharpies and write things that are probably can't be said on this radio program. Um, you know, we want to reach those people. But I think part of this editorial was saying that all of us need to stand up. That it's not enough to be silent, especially if you are in politics and especially if you are in Washington d c at this moment, we need a collective voice. We need to push back against this because what happened in El Paso is horrific. Uh, and I hope it doesn't happen again in other cities. Speaker 1: 07:33 I've been speaking with Matt Hall, editorial and Opinion Director at the San Diego Union Tribune. Matt, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Speaker 1: 00:00 The number of young people in juvenile detention and San Diego testing positive for illicit drugs is at a 19 year high. This is according to the latest data from the San Diego County Substance Abuse Monitoring Program, or Sam. Dr Is Cynthia Burke, head of the sandbags criminal justice research division. Spoke to KPBS evening edition Anchor Ebony Monet about those disturbing numbers. Speaker 2: 00:26 Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. How did you collect this data? So this used to be a part of a large national study when locally when that funding ended, we were the only site that's been able to continue to talk to both juveniles and adults who are arrested and booked into our juvenile hall or our local jails. Um, as part of that, they would have to admit on the street within the past 48 hours because we do get a urine sample. Um, we go in there a few months out of the year and it's all voluntary, confidential, anonymous. We're trying to get some objective data about drug use trends and other risk factors over time. Your research found that about 57% of participants, um, reported abusing prescription drugs with tranquilizers being the number one choice of that. Um, how is this different from previous years? It's up since 2014, it was 35%. Speaker 2: 01:15 So we've seen a steady increase. Those youth who say that they've abused the prescription drugs, which means they took a prescription drug that was not prescribed for them. Many of them are saying it's easy to get. They're either being given it by and in another individual or about a one in three are saying they're taking it from somebody. It's either a family member, a stranger. So I think it's important for people to take advantages to get rid of those prescription drugs that they're not using. Many of the youth that we talk to who have abused prescription drugs are also saying they're using street drugs. So it's not just one or the other. So one thing that surprised me was the, the age reported from the participants about when they first experimented or try to list the drugs. Could you talk about those findings? Yeah. Um, so, uh, we know that 96% of these youth to try to at least one drug, 68% had tried at least one of the gateway drugs, which has alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, most of those are trying alcohol or marijuana. Speaker 2: 02:06 First. The average age was under 13, around 12. Um, for both those who tried marijuana and alcohol first, I think that's an important message whether your child is in the system or not, but just to maybe have some of those conversations earlier than a parent might think that they need to. And especially with prescription drugs, I know that there's been some blue pills out there who have, you know, some very tragic consequences. So with a lot of these substances nowadays, you don't know what you're taking. So that was surprising to me as a researcher. Any surprises? Um, you know, I think the, uh, we've seen a big shift, um, in marijuana perception, uh, in 2018, which is the year that we collected this data, only 11% of the juveniles thought that marijuana could have any harmful consequence. And we know that's not the case. When you know that there's higher levels of THC and the drug people are now dabbing in vaping it using very high concentrations of the drug and that's changed from 42% in 2007. Speaker 2: 02:58 They uh, so they 11% thought it was bad, 33% thought alcohol could be bad, 60% for tobacco. So there's been a real shift in what you think how harmful marijuana can be for them. That was one of the biggest things. The other thing that we saw that was um, I think interesting and is actually a positive finding with spice as a synthetic marijuana marijuana. And we saw a number of deaths from that. The um, number of jurisdictions tried to take steps to try to prevent the distribution sale at that. And we saw only 14% of the youth who tried spice last year. And at his height it was a 48% over half, um, around half. So, and this study also tracked risk factors, which were the most common, well, so we use these data, we think it's important to be able to understand the needs of the youth in the system as well as what factors might could be preventative once truancy about four and five of those youth we talked to have been true from school. Speaker 2: 03:49 Um, many of them have parents who have justice system contact or who you've abused drugs too. So I think when you're looking at dealing with it's important to maybe think about family units and looking at individuals who have those underlying needs and how do we address family units who may be at greater risk to, to change a trajectory for a youth before it may be too late. And there really is a serious addiction. Um, there, we know many of the youth may be running away, running away, used to be a status fence that could get them in to juvenile hall. So I think at looking at some of those underlying factors of why is a youth acting out, I'm CPS contact by the family and we also know about one in five. Also said that they had Su, uh, suicidal ideations. They had thought seriously about suicide. Speaker 2: 04:29 We know that, um, substance abuse and juveniles or adults, they may want to self medicate cause they have underlying issues there. It's kind of the chicken or the egg, what comes first, mental health issues or substance abuse. So I think it's really important to look at individuals and family units as a whole. And as you mentioned, even after the federal funding dried up, SANDAG felt it was important enough to continue with this research to continue. Why do you find that it's so important to continue this research? How does this information, this data help help us help the children? Right. So, um, the funding that we get comes from our federal law enforcement partners as well as from the county of San Diego. And I think this has important information both for prevention, um, for treatment and for law enforcement because we're able to track trends over time. Speaker 2: 05:14 Any other data that you see is self report, so we don't have that urine sample. Being able to objectively know what drug use is going up and down over time. I think that people could say, well, how does this, you know, relate to my youth, my child who's not in the system? It is important for us to know about the youth in the system and their underlying needs. But I think a lot of these drug use behaviors that might be by youth who have more risk taking behavior could be a precursor, be able to say, okay, if it's going on with this population, it could be coming down the line for other groups. So how do we get ahead of it? Dr. Cynthia Burke, thank you so much. Thank you. And she was speaking to KPBS is Ebony Monet. Speaker 1: 00:00 After I run for San Diego County district attorneys, you don't have, you have Jones right, is embarking on a new project this week. The organization she founded called motivation and action will launch a criminal justice reform speaker series called Transformational Tuesdays. The first topic we'll explore the role of sheriffs in our criminal justice system. She spoke with midday edition cohost Jade Hindman. Here's that interview Speaker 2: 00:24 [inaudible] thanks so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me jade. So first, what inspired you to launch this speaker series on criminal justice reform? Well, as you just noted, I ran for district attorney and so a very big passion of mine is criminal justice reform and I wanted to provide the opportunity and space for community members to come together to talk about the issues, to engage with experts in their respective fields, to engage with forward thinking, people who may be everyday people working but have been impacted or who are making policies or who are uncovering things in the criminal justice system. And I felt that this series would be the perfect way to do that. And the first topic discussed at Transformational Tuesdays will be sheriffs. What role do they play in the criminal justice system and how do you think that role should be reformed? Speaker 2: 01:19 So the sheriffs in San Diego County have a very big role. They transport prisoners and pretrial detainees. The sheriff is in charge of all of our county jails and the sheriff's staff, our courtrooms as bailiffs. The role of the sheriff can differ across counties across the nation. But in San Diego particularly, we've seen a lot of issues within our county jails with suicides that were successful. Also ones that were simply attempted. We see a lot of issues surrounding the inmates in our county jails dealing with mental health and how they're not being provided with good mental health services. And yet the jails under the watch of the sheriff provides the most mental health treatment in the county. And so I really want it to focus on the role of the sheriff and how we can rethink the role of the sheriff, how the sheriff's could do the job better, more humane, and with more compassion. Speaker 2: 02:20 And you work as a public defender. Is that where your insight on this comes from? I actually left the public defender's office three weeks ago. I am the legal director for Panna, which is the partnership for the advancement of new Americans. And being a public defender is still so much a part of my identity. I was with the San Diego public defenders for 13 years. Before that I was with the Riverside public defender's office. And so I will always have a PD heart and it is with that heart and with that insight that I'm able to go beneath the surface and to have relationships with people and to ask these questions and to go inside of the jails and look and see what's happening. And so that is a very big part of why I have this perspective and how I obtain this perspective. Working in that capacity. Speaker 2: 03:07 Did you hear these personal stories of abuses in jails? Is that where, where this comes from and how prevalent is it? It is actually very prevalent and we have to understand that a lot of people are scared to come forward with complaints. So they may never file a formal complaint because they are complaining against the people who are charged with watching them, keeping them and they're quote unquote safety. And so when you complain about abuses that are exact upon you by the person who has the authority over your very life, you are not very prone to come forward. But I have had clients who have written me, I have had folks who were not my clients who heard about me, especially during the race. I got a lot of mail from people who are incarcerated right here in San Diego talking to me about abuses and asking me for help. Speaker 2: 04:01 And it really is a very, very sad situation. And unfortunately I don't think that the light has been shined enough. One this issue, we have inmates who are just not believed. We have some inmates who folks believe are just the lowest of the low and so they get whatever they have coming to them and we cannot continue to have that sort of thought process. Have you spoken to the sheriff's department about any of the reforms you'd like to see? I try to be communicative and to talk and discuss issues with people like Sheriff Gore. There are some things unfortunately that some things you just have to move on because it's already been discussed and diplomacy isn't going to work and sometimes the community just has to rise up after they've been educated and enlightened. You know, criminal justice is, it's a broad, it's really broad. Uh, because it tackles an entire system. Speaker 2: 04:53 Which areas do you think require immediate reform? We have to talk about innocent people who are still incarcerated. We have to talk about folks who have done the requisite amount of time that a case was worth but are still behind bars. So we need to talk about d incarceration and we also have to talk about the policies that are still with us today that continue this machine of mass incarceration. And so that is a big thing in and of itself. But I really do think that we have to take small bites at it and it comes in the form of policymaking legislation and been people who are in those positions that we'll make the right decisions. In what ways do you see transformational Tuesdays Helping San Diego? What the community can look forward to, and what my goal is, is that community members will come out of the transformational Tuesday series no matter what event they attend, enlightened, inspired, and empowered and very educated in that they will go out and be Speaker 1: 05:58 more civically involved. No, a little more talk to their neighbors about the issues that we talked about and through these conversations that entire streets and neighborhoods, districts, cities, counties will be transformed. That is the goal. I've been speaking with Genevia Jones, right? Founder of motivation in action. Genovia. Thanks so much. Thank you. And you speaking to midday edition cohost Jade Hindman, we reached out to the San Diego County sheriff's department for a response to the call for reform. They sent a statement which reads in part quote, our goal is to provide a safe and healthy environment for those within our jail facilities. In addition to providing services with dignity and respect, we are constantly evaluating and improving medical and mental health services to fit the needs of our population. That was the sheriff's statement Speaker 3: 06:50 [inaudible]. Speaker 1: 00:00 Immigrants and asylum seekers that come to the United States often head to places where they know people and in Oakland there's a growing community from rural Guatemala that speaks an indigenous language called Moan as part of our California dream collaboration. KQ Edis for Rita, Jia Bula Romero went to a class where English and Spanish speakers are learning the mon language Speaker 2: 00:23 and then a call that the [inaudible] a handful of adults said in the Latin x Cultural Center at Laney Community College. They practice saying, good afternoon and mum with teacher Henry Sallis. Carl later salads writes on the whiteboard, let's go eat and show students word by word. Cool. [inaudible] oh, the students laugh at themselves through practice. I mean there they're Nina. Yeah. What is taking the class? She volunteers at a Sunday school where many of the kids only speak mom and I want them to hear me speak mom so that they see that I'm also learning and trying hard to learn a different language because that's what they're doing. She wants the kids to feel proud of their language and culture. I say bondish left for good afternoon. I hope. I said that right. And then it's really easy cause that's, thank you. And we always tried to teach the kids, um, good manners after we give them their snacks and helps the kids open up. She says they trust her more. And even the parents too, if I greet them and in mom they smile and I think they feel, uh, that I'm, I care more about them. There's no official count of mom people in Oakland, but the community has grown rapidly to at least several thousand. And as more moms speakers come, the city needs more people able to talk with them, to connect them to schools and services Speaker 1: 01:57 as there so many newcomers, they're having a great need to, to, to serve those people. And what they have found out is that they don't speak Spanish necessarily. Speaker 2: 02:06 Arturo Davila is a Spanish professor that coordinates the Latin x Cultural Center at Laney. He says they've gotten requests for mom interpreters, Speaker 1: 02:15 interpreters for medical clinics or legal clinics. Speaker 2: 02:18 The first waves of mom Guatemalans began arriving in Oakland in the 1980s during that country's civil war. Today, mom are leaving with Amala because of gang violence and crushing poverty. In some ways, they're finding Oakland more accepting of their indigenous culture than their home country says, mom, teacher Henry. Sally's. Now that I'm here, I understand my rights and I understand like who we are and now I feel proud and I will teach anyone who would like to learn to live, which yes, it's not easy for mom speakers new to the city. It's expensive. Families crammed together in small apartments. It can be hard to navigate if you speak English or Spanish, but Silas thinks he and this class can help change that. I love it. I love connecting communities. At the end of class, [inaudible] writes down the phrase for any questions, one word has four consonants together at them, but then after practice they get it in Oakland and Friday that Java Romero. Speaker 1: 00:00 It's a celebration of Surf and cinema. The ninth annual Oceanside International Film Festival begins tomorrow night. This year. The festivals, independent films come from France, Australia, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, as well as a showcase for local film makers. KPBS arts reporter, Beth Hulk. Amando sat down with the festivals, managing director Lou Niles to preview the festivals. Full slate of movies. Speaker 2: 00:27 Lou, you are returning to run the ocean side film festival. So what are any particular challenges you've had Speaker 3: 00:35 this year? Um, well it's always a challenge putting together the events, getting together with the filmmakers, seeing who you know, once, once have all been decided and the judges have chosen, uh, which films will be in the festival, uh, coordinating with who could, who could be there, who, or what are some of the special events we can plan to kind of anchor, uh, the week of the festival. And that's a, that's a lot of organizing. Yes. Speaker 2: 00:59 And I take it you've just had a confirmation that you're adding a one on one kind of session with Joanna Kasey. Speaker 3: 01:06 Yeah. So really excited and honored to have Joanna Cassidy, a star in legend of television. And Film. Uh, she's been a, she was a mainstay on six feet under for a long time. She, of course is as very famous as Zuora, the replicant in blade runner, the snake lady and a recently on a, a pretty buzzing hit, a mini series on Amazon prime called the too old to die young. Speaker 2: 01:30 Now San Diego has a lot of film festivals. We have the Latino Film Festival, the Asian Film Festival. How does the ocean side film festival kind of distinguished itself? Or what kind of a personality would you say it has? Speaker 3: 01:42 Well, I think it's evolving. Uh, obviously with me coming on board, bringing a little bit of music to it. Um, Marconi youth last year and this year, uh, Mrs Henry's last waltz. Um, so I'd like to have that kind of flavor with a Carly starved millenials coming on board, there's going to be a little more Hollywood, uh, added to it. But we try to keep some local, we try to keep some surf because of ocean side being right there on the coast and having a lot of surf culture and we just sprinkle in these different kind of edgy things, surf, skate, music, and then of course all the regular film zonules from animation, the whore to a drama documentary and romantic comedy and others. Speaker 2: 02:26 Yeah, you mentioned surf. You are going to have a special program with Taylor steel and this is not just a screening of a film. So explain what people can expect from this. Speaker 3: 02:34 Right. It's real. I'm really excited about this too. I'm a Taylor Steele is a, is a real legend in, in surf film making is award winning, uh, extremely influential in, in the genre. He started off his career filming a lot of his footage. They're in north county. I'm with local Surf Stars like Rob Machado or Jack Johnson and Taylor Knox. And those films were kind punky and had skits and costumes and weird themes to them. Speaker 4: 03:05 Two years in the making Speaker 2: 03:08 best surfers in the world. But what if they never served? Speaker 3: 03:14 And then he suddenly, he evolved into this very international cinematic film maker and really influenced the genre of what we see today. You know, kind of an out of focus, a wave in the background and in Morocco or Iceland, things like that. And he came out with these amazing set of films. I like castles in the sky and sipping jet jet streams and the drifter about Rob Machado. So, uh, it, it's amazing to have him come and he's going to hand select clips from his three decades of film making and talk different stories about, you know, behind the scenes or tell something about a special clip that's going to be really interesting to see what he has to say. Special guest, Taylor Knox and Kalani. Rob will be there as well to tell some stories. Speaker 2: 03:57 Now this was one of the things that I really enjoy about film festivals is it's not merely seeing a film, but it's this opportunity to interact with some of the filmmakers that have, are bringing their film. So are you having other filmmakers as well? Speaker 3: 04:10 Yes. Yeah, absolutely. On Wednesday night, we've got animal kingdom and the star from a animal kingdom, Shauna toes, he plays pope a is directing another episode and his bringing, Speaker 4: 04:22 not everything you do is for you. What the hell have you given me? Keep me in the loop. Stay everything you have, everyone you've ever loved. I'm going to take it off Speaker 3: 04:46 on Thursday night. We've got a, a mix of films from around the country and some local films. Uh, emerita products is showing us some called, we are islands, all these different genres. And then of course we have the director of cities champions on Saturday morning, which is about the San Diego City basketball team. And their run to the championship by a bunch of basketball players will be there as well. Um, and it's a small theater. It's really intimate. There'll be Q and A's after a lot of the uh, film blocks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And it gives you an opportunity to meet some of the people that acted in the films, maybe shot the films, edited them, directed them or, and possibly wrote them. Um, there'll be right there for the Q and a and then in the lobby afterwards too. It's really nice. Speaker 2: 05:34 And another one of the films that you have that's a documentary is all about Tony Alva. Speaker 3: 05:38 Well, Tony Alva is a cultural icon. Sure, sure. He's a famous skater from, you know, if you're familiar with Dogtown or vans, uh, shoes, really brash. Uh, not everybody likes him, but, uh, he's had a full ride up and down and back again. Um, and he had a in Oceanside for about three years, lived in Oceanside, uh, surfboards and skateboards and, uh, van's is presenting the Tony Alvis stories, kind of chronicles. It's like everybody is in this film. Uh, you know, from Tony Hawk to Henry Rollins is in the film talking about, um, what an icon Tony Alvez. So the film's only shown once before at the Newport beach film festival. Uh, so we get to show it, uh, for the second time only publicly. Uh, the film is not going to be released until later in the winter. Uh, so we're really excited to have that film and, and have it only be the second opportunity for people to see it. The San Diego premiere Speaker 2: 06:34 in programming the festival, you have sidebars with animation, with short films. Do you kind of set up the programming based on the entries you get or do you kind of seek out certain kinds of film to create that programming? Speaker 3: 06:47 Yeah, a little bit of both. I mean, I, since coming on board, we are trying to seek out special, you know, like I, I s I sought Taylor Steele and discuss with them I want to do something special. I don't want to just show one of your films or on an anniversary of your film or something like that. Let's create something special. And we created that kind of talking story with Taylor Steele. And then, um, as the films come in, it's the hard job of Carly star Brulin Niles and the wonderful sterling ano to kind of formulate these blocks and find these box of films. And I think it's a really fun way to see a film festival to you buy one ticket, you can go for the animation block, like animations and documentaries, then you, you seek that out and you go see a, you may be, you're even targeting one film, but you go for the whole block and you see a, some other animation or documentaries or romantic comedies that you want to see. So I think it's a really fun way so far it's working and, uh, we try to find special things, you know, whether it be the Marconi youth or animal kingdom, which is TV, not film, but it's shot. Uh, a lot of it's shot in Oceanside. So that's the tie in there. I'm trying to find these special events to kind of anchor it, make it exciting, and bring people in to experience something new and see some films that maybe they wouldn't go target. Normally. Speaker 2: 08:07 That was Beth Armando speaking with Lou Niles, the ocean side International Film Festival runs tomorrow through Sunday at the Sunshine Brooks Theater.