The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 1.09 The Troubling Gypsy Rose Blanchard Problem | PDS

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

Transform your style statement at  http://www.vessi.com/defranco  for their best deals of the year! Free shipping to CA, US, AU, JP, TW, KR, SGP. –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Gypsy Rose Rises to Social Media Fame After Prison Release 5:27 - “Flying Felon” To Face Same Judge From Viral Video 7:47 - Sponsored by Vessi 8:41 - NYC Police and Synagogue Clash Over Secret Tunnel 11:07 - Homeless Population in Montana Attacked Amid Anti-Homeless Ordinance ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #GypsyRose #NewYork ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. You're watching the second Philip DeFranco show of 2024. We've got a lot of news to talk about today. We have this concerning Gypsy Rose Blanchard situation. A lot of people panic. The truth around that viral flying felon video. An ultra-Orthodox Jewish group's taken on the NYPD over secret tunnels in New York.

And then there's even more. So buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we need to talk about today is this Gypsy Rose Blanchard situation. Right, Gypsy says Blanchard situation. Right, Gypsy says that she never wanted to be famous, but a recent release from prison has made her one of the biggest stars on the internet.

Like, it felt like everything on the internet was either Gypsy Rose or Cat Williams related for a little bit. You know, with the Gypsy Rose situation, of course, it's important to remind everyone, like, how everything started. You know, she's the victim of a form of abuse known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

Her mom, when she was at a very, very young age, convinced her that she suffered from a variety of health disorders, even pulling her out of school to undergo serious procedures, forcing her to use a wheelchair, shaving her head, even though Gypsy was actually totally fine. And that continued until Gypsy was in her 20s. She started catching on to some of her mom's manipulation. She was like aware that she could walk. And then she met a guy on a dating site and that escalated to her planning her escape and deciding to murder her mom. So one night, Gypsy let this boyfriend into the house and he stabbed her mom to death. And while he was sentenced to life and they're no longer together, Gypsy Rose pled guilty to her role in the crime and was sentenced to only 10 years in prison.

She ended up only having to serve eight of those years after being released around two weeks ago. Though you've already probably been to a varying degree kind of familiar with this situation. Because it was an incredibly high profile one. It got big media coverage. there were major TV adaptations. So when she got released from prison, there was a major media frenzy. And ahead of getting out, she told People magazine that she wishes that the murder actually never happened.

Explaining, I was desperate to get out of that situation. Nobody will ever hear me say I'm glad she's dead or I'm proud of what I did. I regret it every single day. Though in general, the public has been very much on her side. Because the abuse was so insane and severe, a lot of people have sympathy for her, which is also why the spectacle and reaction to this has been so massive. Like every media outlet wanted in on this. She's already made appearances on Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, The View, The Cover of

People. She's been on podcasts. She's everywhere. The only thing I haven't seen is her popping on Rogan to talk about elk meat and DMT. And all of this is very much expected to continue. You know, a lot of this appears to be connected to, you know, an ebook and a lifetime documentary just being released, both of which have had press tours and have come up during those interviews. You know, with this huge cultural fascination around her, you have people putting out thing pieces like Slate. Writing Gypsy Rose is charming. She's cute, she's funny, and she's currently living one of the most unique lives on planet Earth. And I'm going out on a limb here, I don't think she's ever going to assist in a murder ever again. America is home to so many disreputable scammers

who find a second life on social media like Anna Delvey and OJ Simpson. Gypsy Rose, meanwhile, is a million times more sympathetic than all those low lives, and she should be allowed to enjoy the fruits of her fame. But this is others are a bit more concerned, because as interview clips of her are going viral on TikToks or other posts asking things like,

Watching that happen has truly been like watching a dystopian movie. I kind of feel like we should just leave her alone, but she also doesn't want to be left alone. But also I'm like, maybe she doesn't really know what she wants. It's just weird. I just feel like people are going to be going after her like vultures. Though there is no doubt that people care and are interested. Gypsy now having 8 million followers on Instagram, another 9 million on TikTok.

You know, between her social media posts and her interviews, the public has been learning everything about her. Her thoughts on her time in prison, to her favorite Taylor Swift era. And you get details on her getting married while she's in prison, then multiple stories about her sex life. And so with this, you have a lot of people noting

that this is a pretty big whirlwind for someone who just got out of prison barely two weeks ago. People concerned and saying, you have a lot of people noting that this is a pretty big whirlwind for someone who just got out of prison barely two weeks ago. Or people concerned and saying, this feels like a lot for a girl who presumably has a lot of childhood trauma to unpack. While not only having to adapt to the real world

after years of prison, but the unreal world of internet fame. But right now, she does appear to be rolling with it. I don't even comprehend it at this point. Really? Because for me, I'm just another face in the crowd. So when I came out of prison, I didn't expect this giant wave of social media. You know, I'm posting selfies just like the next person would or the next person not thinking anything of it. And before I know it,

it has two million views. It's an adjustment. Again, you have many concerned about the situation and Gypsy herself. One, because the public is a fickle bitch, they'll all be on your side for one moment and then completely switch. And two, you have people like Mark Feldman, a psychiatrist and expert on Munchausen by proxy, telling Insider, nobody really seems to be asking the question of what is best psychologically for Gypsy, and I wish more people would. And adding, you know, while she hasn't done anything to curtail this fame, he can't fault her for capitalizing on it either,

saying Gypsy is looking to become financially secure and to have her reputation redeemed. And adding, I think there's probably going to be a lot of pressure on her to accept every media opportunity and stay very involved with social media, because not only does she need to make money, but there are people around her who want to make money off her. But also adding here, you know, this can come with limitations. Arguing she has little education and no evident job skills, and I don't blame her for seeking money for her story, but I hope that she isn't surprised or upset when interest fades, as it eventually will. And then going on to say that any publicist that she is working with right now, they do not have her best interests at heart in the long run. You even have people like Patricia Arquette who played Gypsy's mom in a Hulu series, concerned about her social media rise, telling people, I think from someone who had a very specific, difficult childhood to come into this age of Instagram craziness, TikTok, I don't know. I hope it's not too much and I hope people are gentle on her and I hope she enjoys her freedom. You know, with this situation, I would love to know where you land on this. What are your thoughts on Gypsy's rise to fame since her release? Are you

concerned for her as well, or do you think the concerns are overblown? Or really, any thoughts on the situation? Because I know there are a number of different conversations that are happening right now. Are you happy about the fame? Are you one of the people that are disgusted by it? Any and all thoughts? I'd love to hear from you. The whys and why nots, please. And then I'd like you to meet Diobre Redden. Though many of you might actually already know him. You've just seen him from this moment and angle.

In accordance with the laws of state of. And because of that Superman impersonation, he has been dubbed the flying felon. But then when looking into the full story, it's a pretty intense one. Because the reason he was in front of Clark County District Judge Mary Kay Holthus was that he was facing prison time for beating someone with a baseball bat last year. Just his latest charge on an extensive rap sheet. And while Diopra was pleading guilty, he asked the judge to not send him to prison. Saying, hey, I'm going to be honest with you, judge. My violent past is behind me.

And he described himself as, quote, a person who never stops trying to do the right thing, no matter how hard it is. When the judge was like, beautiful story, still sending you to prison. The hard thing that he decided to do was to jump the judge. And he might not have been able to tell from that angle, but he ended up slamming her head into the wall. He then hit her. He also pulled out some of her hair before being pulled off. He also punched a corrections officer. The court reporter wound up with several cuts on his hand. And then while trying to stop the guy, the marshal in the courtroom dislocated his shoulder. Also ended up

with a head wound needing 25 stitches. Reportedly, after he got arrested, D'Obra said that the judge was evil, saying she had it out for him and then apologized to the marshal, saying, I'm sorry you guys had to see that. So as expected, things immediately went bad for D'Obra. The first thing is at that time, he was actually out of custody while awaiting sentencing. But because of this impromptu, unofficial high jump record, he was re-jailed with a bail of $54,000. Then yesterday, they gave Diobra the Hannibal Lecter treatment, brought him back into court. The judge then sentencing him to 19 to 48 months from the previous case with the baseball bat. But his rodeo ain't over because he's also now facing new charges, including extortion and coercion with force, battery on a protected person, and as of yesterday, attempted murder

of an older person, which according to the Nevada state law, if he's found guilty just to that last charge, it could mean up to 40 years in prison. And his defense isn't looking strong there because when he was being searched, he reportedly said that he just had a bad day and was trying to kill the judge. So he ended up just making this bad situation so much worse for himself. And while most everyone has kind of just dunked on this guy, there's also now been a separate aspect of the story that's been gaining some traction. That's his family coming out and saying,

hey, he's been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. And specifically his foster mom saying, no disrespect, we're not denying what he did, but adding that he just snapped and it's a chemical imbalance. And saying, I don't think sending him to prison will help. Though this is your people pushing back saying, hey, court records indicate that he was found

fit to stand trial. And then there's more news we got to talk about today after I take a second to pay some bills. Cause you know, I just spent time back East over the break. You know, the big thing is when I leave the SoCal bubble, you end up getting reminded, oh, that's right. People have weather. And sometimes it's unpredictable, especially back East this time of year. You know, there are days that you head out and you don't know what the weather's going to be like at the end of the day, which means I need something that's going to look good throughout the day, but also be able to withstand the weather, especially because I like to travel light. I want to bring multiple pairs, right? I need something easy, functional, but also looked good. And so I want to give a huge thanks to our fantastic partner, Vessi, because they make

great looking shoes that I can wear in any weather. And the only shoes I brought with me this time were my Vessis. When I was walking around the city, rain or shine, I knew I was going to be okay, and I can still wear those same shoes to a nice restaurant later. Or my Vessi Alta high tops, get my feet warm and dry, looking good. And all Vessis look great, right? They come in light and dark colorways. They're super comfortable, keeping your feet dry. Fit your foot like a sock.

And you know, it's a new year. So go get yourself a new pair of sneakers. Just go to Vessi.com slash DeFranco to get 15% off your first order. That's Vessi.com slash DeFranco. Get them now while they still have your size. And then we're going to talk about this craziness involving ultra-Orthodox Jews, secret tunnels, and the NYPD. Because as it turns out, in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world, you got these secret tunnels. And specifically, the group that we're talking about is the Chabad Lubavitch community, which is actually

the largest ascetic group of Jews in the world. And also, what we've seen online is this whole tunnel situation leading to many, many conspiracy theories online. Unsurprisingly, many of them just anti-Semitic in general. But the reality here appears to be far simpler, where a subsect of Chabad was just trying to connect with their main synagogue to a closed down Jewish bathhouse for women in order to expand it. And the tunnel was actually discovered late last year when you had neighbors saying, hey, I hear weird sounds coming from the ground. And then city plumbing crews laying new lines discovered it. So obviously, the authorities not thrilled. There's a lot of reasons not to be pumped about a secret tunnel underneath the city and buildings.

The first being their concerns that it could destabilize the buildings above it, which is one of the reasons you had construction crews there to try to fill in the tunnel. A situation that was then made worse because of members of the Chabad movement. They started acting out. They started messing with the concrete pouring equipment. Some of their people even decided to make their way into the tunnels to try and stop the crews from doing their work. Then the police eventually happened to be called in, which is when they then clash with young men

both inside and outside of the building. That then leading to arrest, though it's not clear how many exactly. We do know that at least 10 got criminal misdemeanor charges. And as of recording, it appears that construction crews have been able to get back to work. But this whole thing, right,

it extends past this immediate situation, because it's been very polarizing in the greater Chabad community. Online, we've seen some support the students who were trying to stop the police, but we've also seen leaders far less enthusiastic about their actions, with one rabbi saying, We have a group of people not appointed by anyone take the reign and control of the holy shul of 770, then going on to urge all Jewish people to condemn the destructive students for so-called defacing the synagogue.

Now, if you've seen any footage from the scene, it's clear that defacing might be understating it. Right beyond the tunnel, these young Jewish men were doing things like tearing down wood paneling, destroying bricks, and throwing pews around in anger. Notably, those actions were also noticed by the chairman of the Chabad movement. His buildings right above the synagogue, and he said in a statement, the Chabad community is pained by the vandalism of a group of young agitators who damaged the synagogue below the Chabad headquarters. And adding these odious actions will be investigated and the sanctity of the synagogue will be restored. Our thanks to the NYPD for their professionalism and sensitivity. Other members of the organization even calling the young men extremists,

although at the same time sympathizing with their desire to get a hold of the bathhouse, because the movement has apparently been trying to get rights to it for years at court. But all of this is still developing. There are a number of questions that hopefully we'll have answers to soon. Things like, will there be more charges for actually building the tunnels? How did the leadership actually have no idea that this happened, even though it's literally right under them? But for now, we'll wait to see how this plays out. And then there's an anti-homeless campaign playing out in Montana right now,

and it's gotten insane. Like if there was a nationwide contest, let's come up with the worst idea to solve homelessness. Kalispell, Montana might take gold. You know, because in recent years, we've seen a lot of places across the country struggling to take in a large unhoused population. Federal data last month showing that homelessness has actually reached a record high of more than 650,000 people, which by itself is already a big number, but that's 12% higher than a year ago. Like y'all, the last time the numbers were this high was the Great Recession of 2007, when the housing people problem was that the literal housing market had crashed. This time we're seeing it's due to a number of factors. Rising house costs, the opioid epidemic, the expiration of pandemic welfare

measures. But then also, if you talk about small and mid-sized communities, they've been hit especially hard because of an invasion of remote workers. Right, lifetime or long-time city people escaping, being cooped up in the city, trying to be away from the virus, have a close proximity to nature. And the scenic mountains of northwestern Montana, very popular. You got lakes, forests, ski slopes. Even saying it out loud right now, I feel like I'm convincing myself. But you know, then we look to Kalispell. People start getting priced out of their homes, right, housing costs skyrocketing.

And this is another part of the situation is getting worse because there are funding cuts to mental illness and addiction services, as well as seeing the closure of long-term hotels, which are crucial for residents between more permanent housing slots. And in 2022, they had 319 homeless residents, second only to Missoula, which is 325.

Though if I left you there, that's just kind of misleading and minimizing about how bad things are in Kalispell. Because Missoula only had six more people, despite their population being three times larger. And as far as how Kalispell has tried to deal with this situation, it's just been aggression. City leaders passing ordinance to punish people who give money or supplies to panhandlers. They also shut off water and electricity at a city park where a lot of homeless people are. And at the peak of all this, last January, all three county commissioners wrote an open letter warning residents to not enable homeless people, saying, make no mistake, it is

a lifestyle choice for some. In fact, many of the homeless encountered in our park's streets and alleys consist of a progressive network community who have made the decision to reject help and live unmoored. It is our hope that our community will be unified in rejecting all things that empower the homeless lifestyle. And according to homeless people and advocates, that letter basically unleashes wave of vigilante violence against them. People telling the outlet Flathead Beacon stories of people in cars running down homeless people in parking lots. Lit firecrackers being tossed into cars where you had sleeping people. Teens harassing homeless tent encampments in the middle of the night.

And you have situations like that of Christina Nelson. She's a 57-year-old lifelong Kalispell resident. She ended up homeless after a divorce a few years ago. You had her sharing stories of these groups of young people just pulling up to her and someone else, and they just pelted them with eggs. They yelled, go home, you lazy bastards. You also had a 62-year-old woman who said that she and her husband became homeless after they missed rent. They got shot by young people with paintball guns. And on a different night, you had a guy saying this aggressive crowd woke him from his tent. They punched him. They pointed a rope saying they wanted to tie him to a tree. But luckily, he ended up escaping. And he should consider himself lucky. Because back in June, you had

police officers finding a homeless man, 60-year-old Scott Bryan, lying behind a gas station, his head severely beat. And they later pronounced him dead at the hospital. And with this, a 19-year-old actually got charged for deliberate homicide. At the same time, you have people saying, well, it's also the police themselves causing problems. With people pointing to last month where the police told a food kitchen that opens up in a park during the winter months that it needs to pay for a permit to remain open. The organizer then having to get the money from GoFundMe,

just yet another hurdle. And this is, you know, groups like this are especially needed now when some people have had limbs amputated due to frostbite. The situation has gotten so bad that you have places like Flathead Warming Center where they offer beds during the cold months. They're having to frequently turn people away because they just

don't have enough room. This is, you know, that open letter last year, it blamed them for the increase in homelessness. I mean, that homeless people heard about it through smartphones and social media, and they just flocked to the city. There you have the shelter's director saying 90% of those getting services in Kalispell have been in Montana for at least a year. And so for now, I mean, we'll have to wait to see what happens because these aggressive tactics, right, it hasn't really affected the homeless population. It hasn't caused it to drop. And all we've kind of really seen is the city becoming more and more hostile.

And while I won't act like I have all the solutions, it really does feel like we have swapped out the idea of there being some sort of social safety net with removing the net and replacing it with spikes. That is increasingly being viewed as a viable solution. But that is where I'm going to end today's show. As always, thank you for being a part of these daily dives into the news. It's good to have you back. And just remember, my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.