It Could Happen Here - On The Ground In LA

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

James talks to Robert about the LA protests after spending Monday night on the ground in DTLA covering the protests and police response.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. On Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, you'll hear about these heroes and what their stories tell us about the nature of bravery. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the

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Welcome back to It Could Happen Here, a podcast that was originally about the theoretical possibility of mass civil conflict and coming militarized authoritarian regime, and is now about the reality of that happening to different communities at different speeds all around the country. And right now, Los Angeles is where we're focused on. As you've probably heard from the news or from the episode we did earlier this week, Los Angeles, California has been in a state of what the president declared insurrection, what most people would declare fairly small protests based on the overall size of the

city topping out at maybe four to 6,000 people on Sunday. And the president has called a National Guard, he's called in the Marines Marines and we called in James Stout to head up to Los Angeles and look at the scene. James. That's right. Yeah. Hi. It's me.

The alternative to the United States Marine Corps. Yeah. Yeah. So I've just got back from LA. I was there on Monday night, obviously covering the protests. I got there mid-morning, I guess, but at that point the SEIU were having a rally. Yeah. And the rally was for the release of David Huerta, who was released on bail, I believe, after that. Like, not while the rally was going on. And from

there, like, I basically sort of started walking around downtown LA, I guess. There was this really weird kind of phenomenon where you'd like go down to a place and you'd see 100 people shouting at cops, feds, troops, or some combination of the three, right? Pretty often around the federal building. It's weird at the front entrance, like where the entrance was, you had like a initial presence of like the frontline with National Guard with maybe, it looked like it was maybe like NCOs or something. You had loaded service weapons and then other soldiers had shields in and like old school wooden baton sticks, right?

Just, just a long, long ass stick basically. Around the other side, you had LAPD at the front and National Guard behind them. old school wooden baton sticks, right? Just a long, long ass stick basically. Around the other side, you had LAPD at the front and National Guard behind them. And then across the street from that, you had California Highway Patrol and their riot squad. And then in another location, I think it was at City Hall, you had LA sheriffs.

So literally every agency that can claim any jurisdiction, there was also DHS RPF, FPS, like, literally every every federal and local agency that could send cops sent cops. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that there were more than 1000 cops, like maybe it was hundreds, but it was hard to get a handle on because every street you went down, every corner you turned, you ran into another wall of cops right with 10 or 15 cars behind them. They were constantly driving around until you know, I stayed until about two in the morning. And it's

protest obviously like as I'll explain later kind of escalated I guess and as police violence escalated in the evening. You'd see these convoys of cop cars just hauling ass through downtown periodically every hour or so, like running lights and sirens. Like a dozen or so cop cars just booking it through downtown. Yeah. So it's very hard to get a sense of who they are, what they were doing. They closed all the freeway entrances and exits, which I took the train up trying to be a mass transiter, and it made it a fucking nightmare to get anywhere.

Right, yeah, that makes sense. Like, anyone who lives or works in downtown LA will have experienced this already, but like, and then throughout the fucking evening, right, you've got people coming up to you being like, hey, I live in little Tokyo. I can't get back because there's a wall of cops and they keep throwing tear gas grenades. Any suggestions? Yeah, I can't get back because there's a wall of cops and they keep throwing tear gas grenades. Any suggestions?

Yeah, I can't get home. Yeah, like, and unfortunately, like, you know, not much we can suggest. And then on top of that, because it's Southern California, or, you know, the United States, really, people who can't afford a place to live are sleeping on the street. And they're getting tear gas too, and they're getting flashbang too. I remember like we were up by LAPD HQ at one point and I seen this guy sleeping on a bench and the cops were pushing up the street and I was just trying to sort of take a position where I could take a photograph, you know, and I saw him sleeping and I was like, oh,

should I wake this guy, you know, I don't want him to get a nasty surprise and wake up to a wall of Robocops. And at that point the cops opened up with whatever they were shooting at that time. 40 millimeter, 37 millimeter. Yeah, most of what I've heard is a mix of pepper balls and yeah, 40 millimeter. Yeah. Yeah, grenades and rubber rounds, some foam. Yeah, some foam. I found some Safari Land 37 millimeter foam casings on the ground.

Oh, nice. Yeah. And yeah, mostly what it was, you know, LAPD have those green 40 millimeter launches with the EOTechs on top. And that was what it looks down the barrel of a few times. And so as the evening went on, right, you'd get larger groups and they become like, you know, more vocal, I guess, and they're protesting. At one point, people having like a street dance party. Occasionally, people would would throw a firework or set off a firework.

And then sporadically, and like without really any clear kind of signal. At some point, clearly the whole area was declared an lawful assembly, I'm guessing. Like it's very hard to actually hear when they're saying stuff on the LRAD, unless it's directly like pointed at you. But I heard some kind of LRAD, an Orphan assembly announcement at some point. And yeah, periodically, you'd come around a three corner and there'd be like 100, 150, 200 people protesting, right? And then the cops would toss a flashbang or a tear gas, loose off a few rounds,

a flashbang or a tear gas, lose off a few rounds, push 30 yards and then stop and then do that again, 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes later. And they keep doing that. And then they push people back past these various buildings, which had cops like stationed in place, like on the parapet of the building or in the courtyard outside, who would then also fire at them. So the protests never really got a chance to centralize. People protests never really got a chance to centralize. People didn't really get a chance to centralize in one place. And, you know, like to have a sense of how many numbers of protesters there were was hard, because every tornado you turned, there were more people and there were more cops. So like it was a bit broken apart.

And I think that was the goal of the policing operation, right? To flood the city with cops, to shut it all down, to make it hard to get there, and make it hard to gather there. I still don't get the sense, and this is what it sounds like from what you've said, that most of what is being done effectively is not the National Guard and certainly not the Marines. It's the federal and local police. and their game plan here is if they, assuming things calmed out in Los Angeles, which I think is probably the safe bet right now, every time they get over a certain threshold of protesters, a couple of hundred, a thousand

or so in a city, you know, do the same thing, right? Like deploy the military national or federalize the National Guard, get them out there, right? Like that's, that's where they're headed. Yeah, I think so. deploy the military, national or federalize the National Guard, get them out there, right? That's where they're headed. Yeah, I think so. I don't know if LA will back down to be clear. LA is a city of what, like four million people? And 18, 19 million in the greater Los Angeles metro area.

Yeah, like it's... I had good conversations with a lot of people who are out there protesting. One thing I should add is that we were really well received by everyone, which was nice. It wasn't the same crowd as folks I've seen in 2020. No one was in Black Block. Right, of course. And then it was very young people and a number of them approached. I was for a time I was with Charles McBride and some other colleagues and friends. People yeah, colleagues and friends. Like people I've known for years, right?

We cover the same kind of shit and people will come up to us and just be like, Hey, it's good that you guys are here. Thank you for staying here after we got fucking tear gassed. Like people should understand that was happening. Like the unprompted people would would come and say thank you, which was nice. You know, and like we didn't really face any, any hostility for being there. But people, when I spoke to them, like, there was a lot of, a lot of people I spoke to were very young, and they would say that they were the citizen kid of parents who either were,

you know, permanent residents or visa holders or, you know, they're very, I'm sure some of them had undocumented parents. I can't remember speaking to anyone who said that, but I'm sure that given the numbers of people and the number of times I heard, like, I'm the citizen child, so I should be here showing up for my family and my community. Right. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And like, it's gonna be hard to back those people down because they were fucking angry. Yeah. A real palpable sense of like, fuck you, was like very present throughout. People were also afraid.

Like, it's not people who are necessarily used to this, right? And like you said, the police response is an overwhelming use of violence. Right. Indiscriminately. Shooting at people from what's the, what's the furthest distance you were seeing them fire at people from? I mean, I probably saw them taking 100 meter shots, I'm guessing. Yeah, like, which is very long range for this sort of stuff. Yeah, I mean, so at one point when we got pushed back past LAPD HQ there, they had the whole sort of front face of it, and they let off a bunch of shots towards myself and some others. I just sort

of got down behind some cover there and started filming. And then there was a group of young people who were in one of those kind of classic LA three quarter open quad mall things. Yeah. So they're basically in a U shaped container, right? With only one way in and one way out. And right, there's glass stores around it. Like, you know, those are all the shopping bits. People go shopping and there's pillars in the middle. And the cops are just unloading from a distance of maybe 100 meters from LAPD HQ, I think, into these people who are effectively like, like fish in a barrel, right? They're in a container where the only way out is the direction the cops are shooting from. There was a small outlet on the other side, which eventually

they were able to take. That meant they had to cross across like a four lane road while being shot out by the cops. And the cops just kept shooting at them there. Like it wasn't like they shot a couple of times. They clearly shot, reloaded, shot, reloaded. And I was filming from the other side, but you could see these projectiles whacking out like reinforced glass in the front of these businesses at head height. Not breaking the glass and falling on the ground, punching a hole straight through. They get coming with serious force, even at that distance. And like those people weren't presenting a threat 21, right? Like they had retreated into that building after the cops shot their first volley and the cops just kept shooting at them.

I saw a lot of that throughout the night. Like it didn't seem like, you know, anyone was like, okay, now it's the time for you guys to fire. You know, they just just sporadic pot shots throughout the evening. Yeah. Well, we're going to continue talking about what's going on in Los Angeles and what we think is going to happen next. But first, here's some ads. Fuck. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results.

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Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up, so what are they gonna do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago.

Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back

or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeart ReadyWAP Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable,

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first black sailor to be awarded the medal, to Daniel Daley, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor, going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind VoiceOver, the movement that exploded in 2024.

VoiceOver is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days, I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that are being naked together. How we love our family.

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they start utilizing force at range. And the other is that there's certain ways they're supposed to use these munitions. Like for example, you're not supposed to shoot people with rubber bullets. You're supposed to bounce them off of the ground and into people because otherwise they're not really less than lethal.

Yeah. We're seeing a lot of cases of people who've had at least several that I can count, I think three, people having surgically removed different like rubber and foam rounds. And it doesn't look like they're abiding by kind of any of the rules by which per their own documentation they're supposed to practice. Right. I mean, yeah, that's what I saw. Some of them even have EOTechs like on their launches,

which I don't know why you'd want an EOTech if you were skipping off the ground. Yeah. I don't know, maybe there's a different round they're using, but like, yeah, the overwhelming, what I saw was just like zero to 100, right? Like they push, they throw a tear gas or a flash bang, and then you just hear like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Yeah, as a bunch of them are loaded. And like raising the 40 millimeter launcher to the shoulder and pointing it at someone two feet away like like i saw a lot of that yeah you know we'd be going down these streets trying to find a different angle trying

to find where we could stand and and do our jobs as press right and uh come around a corner and just just get a 40 millimeter pointed at you i didn't see any skipping shit off the ground yeah i did see businesses getting their windows punched out by things that the police were shooting at people. Yeah, which I'm sure will wind up getting blamed on protesters. Yeah, exactly, right? I mean, I saw CNN last night was picking up fucking

phone baton rounds and being like, these are what they're throwing at the cops. Yeah. Like, it's just remarkable. I mean, I did see LASD and National Guard with rifles, with magazines in the magwell. They had a round chamber, doesn't matter, does it? No, you're a second away from chambering around, right?

Exactly, yeah. The IDF carries with an empty chamber and hasn't stopped them killing a whole lot of people, has it? The presence of lethal force was closer than I've seen before. Yeah. I'm familiar with seeing Overwatch at these things, right? Someone with what you would colloquially refer to as a sniper on a rooftop. But it's not Overwatch if you're just in the back of a pickup truck with an M4.

Right. Like an un-magnified optic, like you're not Overwatching shit. You just have lethal force right there. And I saw that a number of times, right, from the National Guard and then LASD. They did the whole LRAD, like, go home, this has been declared an unlawful assembly thing, but then there wasn't that kind of scaled use of force that, like you say, is supposed to be there. There wasn't really much in the way of like, we're going to start shooting now. And like, of course, that means that if you're an unhoused person, if you've arrived late, if you're if you're a local person, just trying to get home,

it's very possible you can just walk past and get tear gassed. Like at one point, right, they were opening up and like, I had been looking for a place to use the bathroom for a while, because fucking Southern California, right? Like this there are no public bathrooms. Yes, which is you know, increasingly every major city Yeah, that was an issue people got people got arrested by the feds for like peeing on federal property in Portland Yeah, great when like there was really nowhere else to go. Yeah. Yeah, exactly and like some some kindly local guy Invited us into his building and asked that you know, let us use the bathroom. But yeah, then we stepped out and suddenly we're like confronted by cops again. Like, you know, I could have been someone who was there and just go and have to get a slice of pizza.

Yeah. The force was like sporadic and unpredictable throughout the evening. And then as were these convoys of vehicles that would just come hauling ass through downtown, obviously not stopping at red lights, etc. It was weird. Sometimes a green light would happen, so the cars would start going, and then this cop convoy would come, and some of them would turn right, and some of them would assume the cars would stop and go straight on. And so you had this situation where the cops were nearly hitting each other, and it seemed

utterly chaotic. And I don't know what they were doing other than just driving around at high speed for fun. Once they did manage to cattle some groups of people right like they uh again folks maybe who haven't been at these events before will not be familiar with the way these things work but like the police would move in from both sides and then suddenly you're like oh shit there's nowhere to. And then I did see them put up in a school bus to take a presumably to detain those people and take them to process them. But yeah, the tactics were like, I mean, it's, they're cops is what you expect.

You know, we've both been doing this for a while. Do you expect them to use those weapons in a way that can inflict the most damage and harm to people that unfortunately like that does seem to be happening again? Yeah. Well, in terms of where things are right now, Gavin Newsom is trying to thread the needle, it looks like, between letting the LAPD do whatever they, and he, to be fair, I don't think he has any issue with people getting fucked up with Riot Musicians, what to do, while also not ceding responsibility for security of his state to the federal government,

which has been an interesting line for him to walk. Yeah. I mean, his stance seems to be like the LAPD can fuck up these kids just fine. We don't need your help. Yes. Which, I mean, they literally can. Like I will say, that's not incorrect, right? I'm not talking at a moral level.

I'm just saying like, yes, the LAPD has sufficient force for the protests that have existed. Yeah, I mean, the LAPD, then, the first nights were caught off guard, I think. Right, right. And so was ICE, and there was a lot of debate about, because like, you know, LAPD not coming in initially to support ICE when they got surrounded,

and those are the kind of things you get when the authorities are taken off balance. But if the numbers don't keep increasing, and they have to increase pretty exponentially as they move in federal agents and the National Guard and mobilize the whole police force in a city like LA, then this situation becomes basically impossible for protesters to regain the initiative.

And I don't know if I'd say it's impossible right now, but unless there's some sort of like massive sea change is what's happening, that does seem kind of like where things are going to go. And to be clear here, we're talking about primarily Compton, Paramount, some protests, and then downtown Los Angeles some protests. This is a handful of city blocks and one of the largest metro areas in the entire country. Yeah. Um, this is not Los Angeles all collapsed, you know?

Yeah, it's not like the rights that occurred after, after Rodney King, right? Right, right. Not even a little bit. Yeah. No. Yet, right? Like, uh, I mean, people are pissed off, obviously, like, like, and maybe that, you know, we'll get that sort of thing you had important, right? What were more people came as the protest continued, and as more and more feds turned up, like, there were people who might not have showed up at first just being like, upset at the presence of feds in their

city. I don't know. But yeah, it seems like right now that their move is to flood the city. I mean, crazy volumes of cops shutting all the exits on the 110 today. Yeah. National Guard, like the National Guard folks were mostly around the federal building from what I saw, but like, yeah, just a huge volume of cops and no particular plan other than a vast number of police and I guess, you know, massive detentions, massive use of riot munitions, massive use of violence to dissuade protest. But then I've seen like, obviously, it's interesting, right? Like,

I'm sure you've experienced this, Robert, like, you can be like nose to the grindstone in a conflict zone or at a protest and Clue what's happening and have to go on on Twitter or blue sky to work out what the fuck's going on, right? You can tell kind of what's happening in front of you and even then you you sometimes See something or you're looking left and the thing happens on the right and you get three different stories about what happened Yep, totally and so like, you know, we, we found out David Twelter had been released when Mia sent a message saying that. Like, and then likewise, folks were finding out that there were

protests in other areas of the country, which, you know, is always, I think gives a little morale boost. And yeah, so like there's a chance I've, I mean, I'm seeing more and more. I saw a big protest in New York tonight. They, they, they can't deploy the Marines everywhere. I mean, right. There are, there are I saw a big protest in New York tonight. They can't deploy the Marines everywhere. I mean, right. There are a lot of Marines, but not that many. I know it's in one sense, like, and I know that this is maybe a strange

opinion or stance or what have you, but like, in a sense, it gives me hope to see these things, like at a protest protest or you know, like a big action like that. Like I always feel kind of very cared for and in a strange way, because like the only thing that matters is taking care of each other, right, and trying, trying not to get hurt and then for folks who are in the street to try and remain there, right. And like, it's quite a, like you have this kind of disaster community, right, the same thing that you sometimes find in conflict zones or after natural disasters. And like, right, it's always beautiful to see that,

right? Like, you know, I'm vegan, and I could not find any fucking vegan food for a while. And like, people were bringing me snacks. And I thought that was really sweet. And like, you know, I saw people taking care of strangers when they got tear gassed or taking care of strangers when they get shot or like, just folks who had bought snacks and like, wanted to give them to unhoused people who were there. Right. So all that stuff is just a reminder that like, you know, actually, you know, if you were consuming this sort of fucking New York Times, right, you'd think that people were looting and burning the city and I can't see anyone steal shit. I did see people take care of one another. Yeah, and that's a beautiful thing. And, you know, maybe people need to be in the streets to find one another right now. Because, you know, every, every year, people, it gets harder to go outside and easier to stay on the internet.

Right. People get more atomized. Yeah. And like, it was cool to see like, young Mexican folks, young Salvadorian folks, Guatemalan, you know, people of different extractions who are now Americans, in addition, obviously, to their identities and backgrounds showing up, and then like, young Black folks showing up with them and being like yeah you know like fuck the police and like it was cool to see maybe folks who are a little bit more liberal like I definitely had folks who have like oh we're not here for the riot we're just here for the peaceful protest in so much as you know and no one wants to get shot in the face with a 40 millimeter right no one's there to know absolutely not and so it's cool to see those people making those connections. And we need to

make those connections now, right? We need to talk to people and talk to each other. I didn't see people beefing with each other. I didn't really see the like, optics police threat. If you were again, if you were consuming this on blue fucking blue sky, which can be intolerably lib sometimes, like seeing people being like, you know, because I personally disagree with the optics of this one person's decision, the whole protest is therefore flawed. Yeah, the whole protest is fucked. And let's just let ICE steal their fucking children. Like, yeah, people will let people be and deal with the consequences of their own actions

instead of being condescending. No, and I mean, I'm looking at Twitter right now where half of the comments are about someone who drove through a crowd in LA and people either, this is what happens when America gets fed up or what other option did he have? You know, you're getting a mix of that sort of thing. Yeah. Shit. Are people okay?

Look, I'm not aware of any like serious injuries or fatalities. Certainly. Butalities. Certainly. But yeah, yeah. That was the other weird thing. Like vehicles throughout, let me tell everyone's driving all the time, but there were vehicles like constantly just moving through. Yep. Yeah, I know. It's LA, right?

So people coming out to do their donuts and stuff. But like, yeah, it is a risk. Like if someone we've shared a car bomb, Robert. Yeah. Oh, yeah, we sure did. I've seen a few car bombs and always freaked me out when a big crowd like that. And then you've got these cars around like potential for vehicular violence. Yeah, it's not great. Yeah. Again, we have the quote unquote public safety forces deployed in massive

numbers and no one's no one's stopping that. No. And, you know, also just a note to people, the only realistic way to stop cars in this situation is with a barrier made of other cars, right? Is you, you block off the route of March with vehicles. There's no other realistic tool at your disposal as somebody who's a part of a protest to stop a full ass vehicle. We're going to talk a little bit more with a couple of updates from the ground and then close out.

But first, here's our last bit of ads. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned

Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and reexamining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad free

on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait, head to Apple podcasts and subscribe today. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John, who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon.

This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son. Even though it was promised to us, now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead. But I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they gonna do to get those millions back? That's so unfair.

Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret,

even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back, or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeart Ready Web, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it. I'm JR Martinez.

I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself, and I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, from Pushkin Industries and I Heart podcast. From Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received

the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. Voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times, it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days, I'm interested

in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that are being naked together. How we love our family.

I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts So we're back and James, while you were leaving the Mayor of Los Angeles, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put your fucking hand on the pad. So we're back and James, while you were leaving, the mayor of Los Angeles declared a curfew in place from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for the 110 to the west I-5 to the east. Yeah, 110 to south I-5 and 110 to north.

This is from the public safety alert, texted out to people in Los Angeles. So people are allowed to travel to and from work to seek or to give emergency care. EMS people are exempt. No one else is exempt as far as I'm aware. But yeah, that's the situation. So part of why Mayor Karen Bass has issued a curfew is that it gives the police extra kind of freedom to take people into custody, right? Yeah. Oh, credential media are exempt. Yeah, that's what I was told.

Yeah, people tuned from work, credential media, emergency and medical personnel, law enforcement are the limited exemptions. So that's what we've got going on right now. Yeah, and if you are out there working as a journalist, like it's important to carry your press pass, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, if you are out there working as a journalist, like it's important to carry your press pass, right? Oh yeah, yeah. That won't stop you from getting shot with impact munitions because they've done that to a lot of people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and like, you know, I had a large blue press badge on my plate carrier like I always do and like it's, yeah, it's not gonna make you bulletproof. No. Yeah, there's a curfew tonight which, like you say, just gives

them the means to use more coercive force and to charge people more harshly. They'll continue doing that helicopter shit, right? They had probably four or five helicopters. They really love putting them out in L.A. and especially now that they got the military. Yeah, man. It had a real kind of Blade Runner vibe to be in this like dark city at night with these helicopters circling, spotlighting people from above and like little fires happening across the city. And then occasional clouds of like spicy air floating towards you. I have seen some speculation that they were using some kind of other chemical irritant instead of tear gas.

I think that the most likely explanation is just they were using tear gas that was older. Yeah, it tastes different when it's older. The shit the feds use is often different from the shit state or local police use. Like you know, you get different sort of mixes, but I'm not aware. Like it's, it's, I'm certain it's just tear gas, right? Yeah. Yeah.

I think it's just a bit different, different variants and ages of tear gas. And then sometimes there's take on different appearances too. And they weren't really fogging the tear gas. Not that I saw they were just tossing, tossing out the grenades. You can get that like wall of tear gas that you guys are familiar with in Portland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But it took on like the protest aesthetic, like didn't see as many people with half masks or hard hats or goggles, any of that stuff.

So like, yeah. And in one sense, people, it's great to see people coming out and like engaging their right to protest. Yeah. And coming from where they are as they are showing up to show out for something. Leaving work or whatever. Yeah. Yeah.

It makes me worried for them. Yeah. It makes me worried for them. Like, you know, I've been around the block a few times and I'm worried that people are going to get fucked up. So yeah, it's curfew tonight. It's curfew tonight. There's still, the Marine numbers are still at around 700. There's about 4,000 National Guard troops. So the number of military deployed significantly outnumbers demonstrators at this point.

Mayor Karen Bass has stated that, or sorry, the Pentagon has stated that it's costing about $134 million, this deployment. So yeah, it's like, I'd say it's not a pointless escalation. The point of the escalation is that they want to keep using the military, right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And to sort of establish a precedent that domestic unrest can be dealt with by the military, right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And to sort of establish a precedent that domestic unrest can be dealt with by the military, which it to be clear, like by is important not to normalize this again, like, you don't have to be like a blue haired Antifa to be like, this is fucked up.

And I think I definitely spoke to a few people, like folks who have come out of church and stuff and just like, yeah, we had, they had sent the Marines here. So we just, we just came on down cause that's not okay. And that's good to see. Yeah. And those are conversations that people who are invested in not living in a country where your first amendment rights don't matter anymore because you can get shot by an 18 year old Marine who hasn't had the time to really morally and ethically consider that decision. Yeah.

Like it's important to have those talks with people now, because like, it is very concerning. Yeah, you know, you and I have, have attended a few civil wars. I don't want to be like this country spinning towards civil wars that you know, I think we have a long, long way from that. stands in front of a bunch of enlisted men at Fort Bragg and talks about how they're Using the military to restore order to an American city that's been invaded There's no longer an argument that those comparisons are an escalation or exaggeration, right? Like hyperbolic like yeah, like we're in the shit right now folks Yeah, man, like show me a thing that Assad wouldn't have said today, right? Right, right. And what you don't have is an actual insurrection going on. No. What you don't have is anyone actually fighting the government.

You have people who are like angry and yelling and some folks who throw through rocks. You do not have a militant uprising against federal power. They're just kind of acting like it. Yeah, like if you have an insurrection in this country, this country has a shit ton of guns. You don't know if there's an insurrection because people will be using them. Like that's not happening. Yeah, it's young people in the street waving flags and shouting and like saying fuck the police is a

constitutionally protected right in this country. Like yes it is. You should not get hurt for exercising your First Amendment rights, right? Yeah, man, like I'm I'm proud of all those people who showed up. I'm proud of them for taking care of each other. Yeah. And I hope that they stay there, and I hope that they, you know, as they stay there, they become more astute. Yeah.

They learn some stuff. I saw a lot of running 200 yards away from the cops in a very straight line, straight down a straight street. Yeah. Like, which is not the move, right? Like, you want to be, you want to be I'm up piece He's me. I'm down. Yeah serpentine serpentine You do the worm that's how that's how you get him

Yeah, there is some polling out early polling. This is from G. Elliott Morris formerly of 538 but conducted June 10th by you gov of 4309 adults Do you approve or disapprove of deploying National Guard soldiers to the Los Angeles area to respond to protests over the federal government? conducted June 10th by Ugov of 4,309 adults. Do you approve or disapprove of deploying National Guard soldiers to the Los Angeles area to respond to protests over the federal government's immigration enforcement? 38% approve, 45% disapprove, and 19% are not sure.

Do you approve or disapprove of deploying Marines to the Los Angeles area? 34% approve, 47% disapproved, 19% not sure. So, you know, these aren't popular measures, although they're also not as unpopular as you would hope. Yeah, that's not great. I'd like to see more. I mean, yeah, you got Tom Cotton doing his, I forget it's Wall Street Journal, Washington Post op-ed. Right. Send in the troops for real this time.

Oh, was that, I thought that was the Times. Was it the Times? I think, I forget exactly. Yeah, they're somewhat indistinguishable these days, especially in their Oped pages. You're right, Robert, it was the Times. No, no, that was the 2020 Oped. Oh. The 2025 Oped was in the Wall Street Journal.

Oh, he got a new one, okay, that's good. He wrote, in 2020, Robert, he wrote send in the troops. In 2025, he wrote send in the troops, comma, for real. For real. Okay, well, he got it. Yep. Yeah, I mean, he got what he wanted. Well done. Ranger Tom, guy who lied about being an army ranger.

Yes. Not a Ranger Tom. Yeah, not a Ranger Tom. Yeah, I mean, you see this in the UK a lot. I'm very familiar with this kind of, oh, send in the powers. Yeah. Maybe that's a good place for us to end. If you are in the US military on the National Guard, if you or someone you love is in the military of the National Guard, now is a good time to read up about Bloody Sunday.

Yeah. Happened in Ireland, and now is a good time to look at what's currently happening, what has been happening to those soldiers, because it took a long time for those people to stand trial. And it's not officers who are standing trial, right? It's soldiers, it's paratroopers in this case, because those are always going to be the fingers on the trigger, right? Yep. Because those are always going to be the fingers on the trigger, right? Yep. And so, you know, no one knows which direction history is moving in. But like, things don't feel morally right.

You know, there are things that the GI rights hotline, but I think people should be aware what happens when countries use their militaries to oppress protest and what has happened to some of the soldiers who have been ordered to do that. Yeah. Well, look up Bloody Sunday, folks. And what has happened to some of the soldiers who have been ordered to do that? Yeah Well, look up bloody Sunday folks Maybe we'll cover that in the not too distant future because yeah, that's that's that's just gonna get more relevant Don't listen to you too. If you can avoid it, but just look it up. Yeah, avoid you two not the song Sunday No, bloody Sunday. But yeah. All right, everybody. Well, this has been It Could Happen Here. We will be back tomorrow. We'll see if Gavin Newsom has been arrested yet.

All right. Thanks, James. Yeah, thanks, Robert. That's an episode. Bye. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonedMedia.com, or check

us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. On Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, you'll hear about these heroes and what their stories tell us about the nature of bravery.

Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process.

Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie.

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DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John, who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your Not the Father Week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes that my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us.

He's trying to give it to his irresponsible son, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up, they could lose their family and millions of dollars? Yep. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.