Ep. 5 Cat & Mouse

and seven. I am presenting a motion to renew a fifty thousand dollars reward that we put out a few months ago for any information leading to the arrest of the individual or individuals who are responsible for the death of a beautiful fourteen year old girl, Emory Munos. Josehisa asked the LA City Council to renew a reward for any information in her case. The family is seeking answers, the family is seeking justice. His speech was a plea

for information, but it also had an underlying message. We have reason to believe or the LAPD has told us that the death of Emory Munos might have been related to raid parties or fly parties. That drop up on young people. His speech was a rallying cry for the city of Los Angeles to crack down on party crews. The young people who go to these parties are not necessarily bad kids. It's any one of our kids who go to these parent parties who are allured by the

excitement of fun and enjoyment. But we have to put everyone on notice that these parties may and can be dangerous, and the city should between more to staff. These from my heart Michael Bura Podcast Network, Vice and Elia Studios. This is Party Cruz, The Untold Story. I'm Jannas Amilca. I have a few memories of police raiding our parties. One time, I remember the lights, music, smoke machine, everything

shutting off. The entire backyard went dark. Kids started running through any exit, trying to hide behind cars on the street to avoid getting a ticket. Cops with flashlights were shining them in our faces, forming in the back to clear out the house. I remember running away. I was wearing sandals and my feet got wet because of the dewey grass, but I never got caught. Even when the parties didn't get rated, the cops were always in the back of our minds, and that's because we were on

their minds. Generation like gang members, is emerging from the underground party scene. Oh they don't start violent, but it doesn't take them along to get there. The people who throw these kind of parties are called party crews, but police say they're very similar to gangs. LAPD wasn't just shutting down our parties. It was way more than that. It felt like they saw our party crews as just another version of a gang. It is a La City gang that started off as a tag banging gang. They

are morphing into a traditional Hispanic turf gang. Law enforcement officials say they're coordinating on every level to attack the problem. For us, dealing with the cops was just part of being in the scene. Sometimes ten and fifteen cop cars blocking off the street. Our first party a bunch of cop tames, and of course we would hide the Naud tank. If the owner of the house was there there, we'll

give them the tickets. Sometimes, if they were like those massive warehouse parties, that would be helicopters, they'll take the amplifiers and the Sarato and then they'll give a D a citation too. You lose your gear and you have a court date. Way back before Emery's death, the police were already on a mission to shut down flyer parties, but the two thousands marked a new era in the battle between cops and kids. In this episode, I talked to the people who try to shut us down. I'm

Captain j Roberts, James Roberts, I go by Jay. This is Captain James Roberts. He's currently the commanding officer of Rampart Area. Back in the two thousands, he used to bust flyer parties. I sat down with him in an LPD press room. In the tape, you can hear the squeaking of Jay's belt which held his gun and a flashlight.

Who can afford it? So Jay was ready for our interview. No, but I mean I actually had filed the party related stuff, and in front of all the back he had pulled out all the files that he had related to flyer parties. As a team, I would have never had the chance to interview or talk to an officer like this. Unequal footing. Now, all these years later, I'm sitting across from someone who patrolled the scene that was a part of I was curious,

how did he remember this? Time. I don't think party crews were attracted any attention had they not been wildly successful with hundreds of people showing up. Busting parties ended up being a major part of his job. It was a big deal and I had a big role in it. Jay used to work as a sergeant at the Foothill Division, which serves the Northern Valley, the Pacoima to Hunga area. He says they'd get a lot of phone calls from the community. Were forty three thousand party related calls in

the city of la for two thousand and three. Leading that was that Foothill area. It had three thousand, four hundred and four party calls. We were the party capital of Los Angeles. And in the early two thousands, his division would respond to these phone calls by going out to parties, knocking on the door and say, hey, you need to turn your music down. Here's your warning slip. And then if I have to come back, I'll have to impound some sound equipment or you know, write somebody

a ticket. The black and white police cars that were sent out to do this, they were referred to as party cars. Literally, it's like the opposite of a party bus. These cars were trying to prevent parties, but they weren't working. Well, you'd never come back because you know, the person who called the police in the first place is so frustrated because nothing was done, and they won't call back. But if it did call back, by the time we got back around it was two in the morning, the party

was already over, so completely ineffective. Jay remembers one party in particular in two thousand and four that he says sparked a change in his division. It's a birthday party for a kid ended up being a flyer party to put flyers out. The party was on a Saturday, and two kids were shot, you know, and I think they were in their twenties, one from Panorama City and went from Somar. That sort of began, at least as far as the LAPD went, a shift in how we dealt

with just allowed or unlawful parties to begin with. We had a press conference afterwards with the city Attorney's office saying, Okay, here's the deal. You know, we're now going to respond to these And it was my job at the time to do something about it. So they switched it up. They had to develop new strategies, to assess parties, like sending undercover cops to check them out. A couple plane

clothes cops in a plane car. Two low key assess, low p talk to whoever, no uniform, no scary cop presence. And if the party had to be shut down and it moved to another place, they were in the loop. They were party goers too. Office, there's an everyday close with a regular car. They just needed to blend in period. They would provide intel, like if a party moved locations to avoid the cops, would it be a young undercover cop. How would you like go under the radar of a well,

would it would be somebody would baby face? Yeah, somebody you know that could pass. We have twenty something cops, We had young cops. They could do that. But you're right, they did have to belue legitimate. Were they people up like? Were they Latinos? Like? Were they in Pacoima? I would undercover cops. Yes, absolutely, I would say the fifty percent of our officers were Latino. Most of the guys in

that detail, we're Latino officers. It was the beginning of what LAPD referred to as the Party Suppression Team the PST for short, Having parties, even really big, out of control ones is a normal part of teenage life. But whether the cops show up and slap you on the wrist when the neighbors call, or create entire teams devoted to targeting your parties clearly has a lot to do

with where you live and who you are. And when it came to us Latin X teams in LA, these undercover cops would actually go out and assess when our parties were dangerous and when they were in their opinion, okay, we'd go out and we'd have undercover units that would just look and if it was just a key signor birthday party, family barbecue, make contact, you know, say hey, can you guys keep the music down, you know, make sure you're mindful of your neighbors. And then they'd say, hey,

we got one over here. Let's respond over here, and the black and whites will respond and they would deal with it in whatever way, whether it be you know, we got here too late, there's already three hundred people here and we need to shut it down. They even started coordinating with Los Angeles schools. I appeared in front of the school board to educate them on what a flyer party was they're just clueless as to what the

kids are doing, so just putting on their radar. When you see this strangely written you know, graphic, and somebody slaps it up on the school wall or bulletsin board, or leaves it underneath the windshell wipers of all the cars in the high school parking lot, you'll know what this is. Officers were scouring the internet too. Remember in the early two thousands, party promotion was also happening online.

We would also start to monitor or the internet. Back then, it wasn't so much social media, but it was the Internet. Cops would monitor sites like drunken Faded dot com and club events dot com. Social media was pretty new at the time. My Space was a big player. They searched online with keywords like underground parties, rave and flyer parties. And they also monitored the phone numbers listed on the back of the flyers, the info lines that were updated

with directions on the day of the party. We started calling in the lines, We started finding out when the parties would be, We started showing up, We started nimping him in the bud and they started, you know, getting more evasive, and so you know, cat and Mouse. Cat and Mouse kids got really creative avoiding the cops. You know, when you're at a party, you're in the backyard and the police coming and the music cutsdown. I kid you not. We would always start seeing happy birthday. This is Max,

a Flyer partygoer in the sangyearbro Valley. Our senior producer, Sophia polisa Are spoke to him on the phone. We'd always think happy birthday. It's so stupid, right, what is that would work? No? It never worked, It never worked. Oh my god. We'd always think happy birthday when the police walked in, like it was some stupid birthday party and not a freaking flor party. It wasn't black and white. This is Jay again talking about the party suppression team.

There were party crews that were loosely associated groups of people. There were people in it for the money. There were tag bangers that were associated that sometimes didn't get along with the cruise. The cruise you know, where everything from just good kids and trying to have fun all the way over to criminal enterprises. You know, that was also what made it difficult. How do we figure out what's going on here and deal with it appropriately? You I

mentioned criminal enterprise. I wanted to know, like what you mean by that. Well, it's it's illegal to charge. It's illegal obviously to sell, you know, alcohol, illegal to sell nitrosotic side balloons, and that's the level I'm talking about. Once there's money involved. I'm curious, like, how would you or like people on your team make the distinctions between like whether a party was violent or not, Like, how would you decide that if there was the presence of

gang members or a clear commercial enterprise. If it was you know, ten kids getting together that call themselves a party crew and weren't charging anything, we'd still probably shut it down because because it's well, I take that back, it would depend. That's that's that fine line right there. If there was no no commercial end to it, it would depend, you know, when you see it. Somebody asked the definition of poor graphy once to somebody and their answer was, I can't define it, but I know I

want to see it. It was you knew you could feel it whether this was going to be a safe environment or a dangerous environment. I was going to mention, like gang members also go to kas Like they're also like going to wedding you know, they're part of the community, and so that's not to say there there there aren't. You know, these elements weren't a part of other parties. You know, there were plenty of you know, family gatherings that weren't fine, and then there were other family gatherings

for that reason that didn't go fine. I wanted him to know from my own experience as a team that yeah, the parties could get out of control, but the cops showing up and the way they went about it, that could feel violent too, at least like my experience, Like there was a lot of parties, There were a lot of parties, they got broken up, and it was like, really it was like a scary on both though scary because they were shootings, but there was also scary because

the police would storm in there, Like I don't know, like it's scary, Like it's scary for a fifteen year old helicopters, Yeah, to like hide in a closet. It is like kind of it's scary now that I'm an adult and I can understand the danger is that we were in, but like as a child, it's scary right now. Out of all the new strategies, the biggest change that the party Suppression Team made was to site people right away,

don't knock on the door and warn them. Instead, give people a ticket for loud music or selling alcohol without a license right away. Jay says his team wanted to find the parties and shut them down before they could get big, especially before a helicopter gets sent out. This sort of more strategic, surgical way of dealing on a more low key way wouldn't involve tons of police cars and a big presence and a helicopter with a night sunlight over. That's how things were dealt with when things

had gone bad already. In this model, we try to avoid that. We're not just gonna warrant anymore. We're going to say, hey, this is illegal and unlawful and there's a high potential of violence. Here's your ticket right now, or this thing's shut. That's what changed. In two thousand and four, Jay says, the party Suppression Team was seen as a beacon of success. Jay remembers presenting their strategy to Alihiti higher ups. I made a presentation at that

meeting and that became part of the citywide response. The recommendation that if you have a problem with regard to flyer parties, rave parties, crew parties. This is a best practice. This on how to deal with them. This party suppression team concept and the idea that you assess parties for

their violence potential. Our department policy changed in two thousand and seven to allow for that immediate sighting or arresting upon the first response if the situation warranted it, whereas before it was always a warning and it was so effective that it became a thing and was adopted citywide. That's after the break. This program will provide you with basic information to assist you in your duties. Identify flyer parties, understand the drug and alcohol use common at flyer parties.

By the end of two thousand and four, LPD created a training video for the entire department on how to handle flyer parties based on the Party Suppression Team. These are clips from the video. The most effective tool that can be used by law enforcement in the policing of flyer parties is rapid response. What started small with just the Foothill Division woodspread. These are a few of the points that should be considered from the Foothill Party Suppression Plan.

Maintain zero tolerance for loud or unlawful parties. Gather intail before, during, and after parties have been identified, identify, assess, terminate, deploy a party suppression team or a party car. We obtain the training video through a public records request. Watching it reminds me of how much we are being watched and studied and how we had no idea, or at least

I had no idea. Inside these locations and during the party, promoters go the distance to provide a stimulating mix of drugs, alcohol, and music that encourage it dancing, competition, and promiscuity. The video features greeny footage from fire parties with the this blurred out, and pictures of flyers. One of the parties had the name Reggaeton versus Hip Hop Part three. The video also showed partygoers inhaling NAZ from balloons. Nitrous oxide stations are set up to feed the crowd with a

mind altering substance that can create a volatile situation. Actually, NAS was a big part of the training video. You can arrest someone for nitros oxide as long as they're possessing it with the intent to consume. When I see stuff like this, I can't help but think, but they become part of the permanent record, traces of my teenage years, examined and filed away by their nature. Flyer parties include

elements that create a fertile environment for violence. They become history, at least one version of it, one version of us. We took an interest because that may have been the most island a year of flyer or raved parties in our history. I mean, there seemed like they were going every month, somebody was being shot or injured. BERNARD'SI. Parks was a chief of the LPD in the late nineties.

He was the chief during the Rampart Scandal, the investigation into an anti gang unit in the Rampart Division that was accused of massive corruption. He later became a city council member. He represented the eighth district for over ten years, which serves South la. We had of what appeared to be almost every weekend, even though they may not have been a shooting, there were these activities that were unsupervised and people were taking advantage of abandoned houses, of abandoned buildings.

In two thousand and four, the same time Captain J. Roberts was setting up the Party Suppression Team, council member BERNARD'SI Parks put out a motion to create a party task force. According to the motion, thirteen people died from gunshot wounds at flyer parties in La County. He wrote that quote party crews advertise wet T shirt and g string contests or hot women, or that quote parties act as nightclubs, though without fire codes, security checks, and dorman

asking for idea. During our interview, the only time Bernard really got excited was explaining to me how he would go after party crews by citing people for things like putting up a flyer. People use other people's properties, such as city lighting poles and telephone poles to advertise something that they're getting a financial benefit, which is illegal. And then the other issue is is who cleans them up when the party's over. No one, and so it's not like they go and post them and then go tear

them down after the party. I never knew that you couldn't put a flyer on a city pole or a lamp a lamp post, So all those concert posters I see off the freeway are like they're illegal. It wasn't the first time illegal raves or underground parties were brought to the attention of the city Council. In nineteen ninety six, council Member Richard Aracon filed emotion ask him for a few things, including recommendations on how to crack down on

illegal parties. Then in two thousand and four, Bernard filed his motion and base of the files we found that was the last time flyer parties were brought up in the city Council until three years later two thousand and seven, the year that Jose we Said brought Emory's case to

the council. Joshi said is someone you may have heard of, especially if you live in La Breaking New La City Council and Jose Weezar has been charged with a thirty four count federal grand jury indictment alleging wide ranging political corruption. Not the most popular Angelino anyway, long before we saw it made headlines. In two thousand and seven, he brought the motion to the City Council asking for them to renew the reward for fifty thousand dollars for any information

in Emory's case. He also asked the city council to crack down on flyer parties and party crews. This is part of his motion, which was read to the room by his Chief of Staff, Joseph Abila, at a public safety committee meeting. The Los Angeles Police Department believes that Emory is one of many young people who died as a consequence of the violence that surrounds flyer or rave parties,

as they're sometimes known. Over the last few years, police have made attempts to crack down on these parties by enforcing state and local criminal laws, but unfortunately, hundreds of young adults continue to and these parties. Again a reminder that there was and is no actual evidence that we know of of Emory's murder being directly tied to a flyer party. LPD responded to we sat his motion with

various ideas to combat parties. They suggested working with the Los Angeles School District to make pamphlets for parents and kids, and even lesson plans for high school health classes on the dangers of flyer parties, including substance abuse. They also suggested looking into stricter penalties for promoters who violated the law, or making them reimburse the city for any costs if

police had to intervene. The city attorney looked into it and ultimately reported that there were already enough laws on the books and that LPD just needed to use them to stop the parties and all the problems that come with them. There is a responsibility on the part of owners to secure vacant properties. That's on the books, and the finds associated with that are actually the maximum allowable under the municipal code one thousand dollars and or six

months in jail. But what I heard in these recordings of committee meetings is that it wasn't so simple. I'd like to see that. At the same time, the caution is that when you start talking about homeowners having events where money changes hands, if people are often a certain it's in the same neighborhoods having charity fundraisers, They're having all sorts of events where people are making contributions, and that's allowed to do that in your own home, And

so it's a it's a real thin line. It's a real thin line, a real thin line between what city council or LPD saw as a legitimate party and what's not or more like, who is allowed to hold these events homeowners having charity fundraisers. I know it's a small detail, but it feels like it's not noise or exchange of money they were taking issue with, but the actual people who were partying, What did you think was the best

solution to stopping violence from happening? And like what safe parting could look like in like two thousand and four, let's say, yeah, that's that's a good question. I don't know. I knew that safe partying would look like family gatherings and not party crew gatherings. This is Captain j Roberts again. Party crew gatherings created the environment for violence to evolve. Family parties less so. But then again, who wants to go to the family party when they're a thirteen year old?

You know? So I didn't have that answer. This is just an age old problem. You know. Young kids need to burn off steam, need to dance, need to have fun, need to hell at the movie. Where can they do that safely? And where can somebody from a community with less resources to do that safely? It's tougher for some of the folks in this neighborhood to find something to do legally and lawfully because it costs more. I'm kind of surprised to hear that he's articulating an idea. I

think about a lot. How can kids who have a need to let loose do it in a safe way. I also asked Bernard's Parks, the former city council member, about this. Like house parties, legal house parties, they might not have the resources to get those permits or rent out of space or pay for security, and those things are important, but what if they lack the resources to even begin to do it the right way? Just like anything else, if you don't have the money to go

in business, you can't go in business. But the thing is the mainful because of the party crew scene wasn't about being in business. Some people did earn money organizing, but that wasn't the main goal. Historically, the term safe space has been used to describe the spaces in which movements are organized, like college campuses or churches, like the

anti Vietnam War movement or the civil rights movement. The way we talk about safe spaces today, we often mean spaces in which people can express their identity freely, like at a gay bar or a black student union. For me, when I think about party crews, it's in these spaces that I was able to let loose and try things out and be myself. Still, I have to recognize that just because it was safe for me to be myself doesn't mean it was necessarily physically safe, at least not

all the time. The policing, city council. All this was happening around us while we were trying to live in the moment and create our own approximation of a safe space exist in our bubble. Like lots of people do. Our bubble happened to be made up of party crews, the parties, all the partygoers. That was our community, and we were good at creating that community, so good that we found ways of connecting with party crews all across the city and county, and we soon realized that our

world was bigger than we had ever imagined. What was the moment where you were like, oh shit, this is like this is getting bigger than I thought. Or when was that when people start asking me to post a flier on the site, When the servers begin to crash right because there's just so many people trying to log in, that's next time. This episode was written, reported, and hosted

by me Janashimoka. Our show is produced and reported by Sofia Pelissa car Victoria Lejandro, and Kyle Chang, and edited by Antonia Seedhido additional editing by Annie Abulis, fact checking by Nidia Vautista, sound design and original music composition by Kyle Murdoch. Our supervising producer is Janet Les, Art by Julie Ruiz and Victuakllon. Our executive producer from Vice Audio is Kay Osbourne. Our executive producers from Elias Studios are

Antonia Seedhido and Leo gi. Our vice president of Podcasts from Elias Studios is Shane and Naomi Kracmal. Special thanks to the UCLA Department of Communication Archive for access to their news collection Party Cruz. The Untold Story is a production of Elias Studios and Vice Audio in partship with iHeart Mica Budha podcast Network. For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. And Hey, were you and a party crew?

Send us your party flyers or photos. I'd love to see them, even a voice message about your memories. Anything. You can send us a message or a picture at Party Crews at Elias Studios dot com. Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Donna Crawford, who believe the quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.