[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to a thousand natural shocks about with money podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host Gabe Dunn and with me today We have Idaho is running for city attorney in 2026 in Los Angeles.

[SPEAKER_01]: I met Idaho through Instagram because I saw her commenting on a lot of progressive pages and Anytime somebody is running for office and I can see that in their handle.

[SPEAKER_01]: I click and I want to know what they're about [SPEAKER_01]: and we grabbed a coffee and I just really enjoyed her unabashed commitment to the causes that she's been working on for years and years.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll give you an example.

[SPEAKER_01]: She sent me testimony that she had given against a Chevron plant in El Segundo.

[SPEAKER_01]: and she gave all of these, it's like at a city council, I think, and she gave all of these reasons and the audio shows that she is saying, you know, this is not going to be good for us and is giving warnings based on her research and all of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And about a month ago, that same Chevron plant and also Gundot exploded.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I messaged her about that because she had sent me that audio.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, oh my God, I think like literally that it was like years ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so that also caused me to be intrigued by how committed she has been to this work.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then on top of that, I had been going to City Council and this is not Ida saying this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying this and she is not, this is not her opinion, this is mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I have dealt a lot with her underlings at city council.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't care, they don't listen, they suck.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I was very interested in what a city attorney actually does and what I does plan is for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: So take a listen, again, this is just my opinion, but she's a really cool activist and you should know what your city attorney is doing because they have a lot of power.

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of lights are bad at cheating men Is it because you when they got you to believe in Thumb and finger health With their foreheads in an hell show Trapped in a cavern A sales game Let's fight back in I've seen talks about class In the past Because of the disaster But the fascists Not spank at your palms It's a thousand natural shocks A bad but money podcast [SPEAKER_01]: Hello and welcome to a thousand natural shocks about with money podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host Gabe Dunn.

[SPEAKER_01]: And with me today, I did you wanna tell my audience who you are and what you do.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hi everybody, my name is Ida Shuri.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a public interest attorney and a human rights advocate.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm running for Los Angeles City Attorney.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tell my audience what a city attorney is and does.

[SPEAKER_02]: The city turning Los Angeles is a prosecutor and someone who sees and defense lawsuits.

[SPEAKER_02]: So they have a pretty powerful position in the city in the sense that they also advise the mayor, the city council, all of the departments and commissions.

[SPEAKER_02]: as well as the port of Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power, and the airports on the law.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that can rain from like employment law to issues with climate change, to criminal justice.

[SPEAKER_02]: They also defend the LAPD, and they also defend the city from lawsuit.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that means that that the handle settlements [SPEAKER_02]: And the most important I think rules well is they handle all the prosecution of every single misdemeanor in the city of Los Angeles.

[SPEAKER_02]: The vast majority of arrests that LAPD do are actually misdemeanors.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so they have a tremendous impact on the lives of Angelinos at every level and they have five offices just for prosecuting misdemeanors in the city of LA.

[SPEAKER_01]: we were speaking about this another time and what would it mean to have someone who is very progressive in that office?

[SPEAKER_02]: I think that the city attorney's office is like a kind of like a sleeper position in the sense that it has so much vast potential to change our city for the good and the bonus is that the city attorney is an independent position.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it's kind of like the mayor in the sense that that position decides what kind of policies they want to implement, like in terms of criminal justice reform, how they want to advise a city council, and they're not trying to like city council, you have to work with, you know, to pass emotion, you have to get other people to pass it with you.

[SPEAKER_02]: But the city attorney can create their own policies and positions.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so if we actually had someone progressive, we could see vast amounts of change.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm not a progressive but experienced and actually has solved platforms and ideas.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's was important.

[SPEAKER_02]: because you can go into this office, and if you don't know what you're doing, you're not going to have a structure to really implement change, because this is a very big office with so many different moving parts.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think that the most important thing is, well, there's a few things.

[SPEAKER_02]: One, obviously, is a criminal justice reform aspect.

[SPEAKER_02]: We just had Gasko and we lost him to a right-wing Republican [SPEAKER_02]: And that's Nathan Hachman.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so having someone to counter that at the city level is very powerful.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that, you know, position would be allowed to not criminalize poverty, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like we should be focusing all our resources on crimes of violence, crimes that are actually affecting people's lives.

[SPEAKER_02]: and holding people accountable who, you know, are destroying our city.

[SPEAKER_02]: But we shouldn't be criminalizing things that have our result of, you know, just being poor.

[SPEAKER_02]: And because, you know, misdemeanors, though they're not felonies, they can also push people into homelessness.

[SPEAKER_02]: They can push people to be not eligible for housing assistance and student loans, things like that, or jobs, so they can be very impactful.

[SPEAKER_02]: The other thing that the City Attorney can do besides criminal justice reform in terms of changing the prosecution power is how we advise all of our departments.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if we have someone who is actually, you know, knowledgeable, like, furniture's climate change, we don't have, and do, have we heard a single thing about climate change it from our city, like, don't even, like, have we heard a single, like, action that they're doing?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's a response, it's reactionary, it's the Palisade's fire, it's all, it's not proactive, it's reactive.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And even then, when they react, it's often in terms of the benefits of the wealthy and not in terms of benefits for everyone.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that there's so many things on the basic local level regarding climate change, we can address at the city level.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's linked to like transportation, for instance, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like if we had more bus lanes and bike lanes, [SPEAKER_02]: we would have better air quality because we wouldn't be relying on cars, our city attorney, we already passed a law saying we have to build bus lanes and bike lanes when we repave streets in high-endry network areas.

[SPEAKER_02]: And right now, the city is trying to avoid implementing that law.

[SPEAKER_02]: The city attorney, and also Metro, is trying to avoid applying that law.

[SPEAKER_02]: But the city attorney can go and like know you have to do this.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're required to do this.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it's a very powerful position in the sense that like, [SPEAKER_02]: Not only implementing that law, but we are sued because people are getting injured on our streets, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: So the situation can go in in these settlements and advise these departments that you need to fix [SPEAKER_02]: this area of the road like we don't have any restricted left turn light so pedestrians are are gambling on their lives when they're walking across the street while someone is waiting to make a left turn light and actually on the neighbor council i've already tried to do this you know fixing our streets making them safer you know there's just so much we can do on the advice on level and then the third thing is you know telling you know telling everybody what to do [SPEAKER_02]: You know, who doesn't love wanting to be in that position of telling the mayor what to do and telling the mayor, you need a climate change policy telling the city council need to stop advocating for policies that, you know, are are increasing vehicles and are blocking, you know, bus and bike lanes or whatever.

[SPEAKER_02]: How amazing, you know, we would all love to be that position, and that's possible, you know, as a progressive and we could have a champion in that position doing that for us.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then the third thing is the defending lawsuits, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: That's also an opportunity to push the city into a better direction.

[SPEAKER_02]: So many of our lawsuits come from the police, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And I hear so many times people are saying, well, we need to reduce liabilities.

[SPEAKER_02]: We need to reduce liabilities.

[SPEAKER_02]: What does that even mean, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like when we say that, liabilities, we're talking about settlements, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like somebody is sued the city because something happened.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then the city has settled instead of going to trial, or even if they go to trial, there's an award, and the city has to pay that person who sued the city.

[SPEAKER_02]: But no one is talking about the fact, why do they even see the city in the first place?

[SPEAKER_02]: The city screwed up, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: The some officer or somebody in the police, you know, beat someone up or killed somebody, or [SPEAKER_02]: like a couple of years ago, somebody in the SWAT team reported that there was a gang culture in the SWAT unit.

[SPEAKER_02]: They were acting with impunity, hurting people, harming people, going after people, and when he reported it in the police, instead of doing something about it, they made his life miserable.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.

[SPEAKER_02]: So he ended up, you know, I think getting fired and he sued.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then there's another person who who was just visiting L.A.

from DC, visiting family.

[SPEAKER_02]: He was a taste of death by the L.A.

P.D.

[SPEAKER_02]: who pulled him over for a hidden run investigation.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he was put whole held down by five different officers.

[SPEAKER_02]: This was 2023.

[SPEAKER_02]: His family's suing the city for $50 million.

[SPEAKER_02]: As someone who might be thinking, oh, we need to reduce settlements and whatnot, you know, as an activist, they should be suing the city, the city messed up, they killed somebody or they're just, you know, they're allowing corruption, it's not about to me, it's not about reducing labels.

[SPEAKER_02]: How do we fix the city?

[SPEAKER_02]: How do we fix these problems that are causing people to sue?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because if you don't have a reason to sue, if the city's not messing up, why would they sue in the first place, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: So the issue is really how, who's gonna be holding police accountable?

[SPEAKER_02]: to enforce reforms so that way they address these issues, who's going to be telling the streets L.A.

that they need to fix these streets.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, the next cycle is not going to get thrown off their bike and, you know, injure their, um, [SPEAKER_02]: leg or whatever, or become disabled.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's really the most important thing in a way for us to create changes by through these lawsuits, you can actually put in what's called injunctions, and it's basically telling the city or the department that they have to change things.

[SPEAKER_02]: in their policies.

[SPEAKER_02]: So there's these three areas are immensely powerful, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like you can you you as a prosecutor you have so much control over someone's life just by filing a case.

[SPEAKER_02]: So having a progressive in their controlling what what cases we file are not can change someone's life.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then by advising these people, you know, advising the mayor, advising the city council what they [SPEAKER_02]: We act as a spokesperson for the community of what we want to see, what changes we want to see and tell them what to do.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then the third part, the lawsuits, we act as a negotiator between like the injured party and the department of like how we can really change and prevent this from happening again.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the city attorney has so much potential and power if we get the [SPEAKER_01]: What's wild is how much I've learned about how the mayor doesn't really have that much power like these positions that are forward facing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't have as much power as like random, like government officials in sort of these positions we never think about.

[SPEAKER_01]: You worked for the city attorney, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like how what is your background?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thank you for asking me that, and like, I will definitely want to get to the, you know, the issues with the limitations on the mayor, but, um, [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I've been, I've been an activist for a really long time.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I started being an activist when I was 17 and I was very much on the groundwork politics wise, like community organizing, you know, union organizing, working as a human right to advocate with migrants rights organizations in DC and the UN abroad.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then I, you know, I became a lawyer and I got involved in immigrant rights work and then I ended up working at the city attorney's office after I clerked at the immigration course of the Department of Justice and they have a special trial program where you can get trial experience and work on cases.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's where I first was exposed to the office where I, you know, receive some training on trial work and then they just kind of threw us in and literally we would sit in the hallways of the court and they would text us and they would say you have 15 minutes to report to this trial.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hannah, you have here's a case file.

[SPEAKER_02]: and it was pretty wild and not something that I think should ever be done again because you don't want to put people's lives in hands of some people who don't really know much about the case, but it reflects the fact of like we need someone that understands this system and not just [SPEAKER_02]: and or training area for people.

[SPEAKER_02]: But it gave me a good glimpse of understanding the different areas of the office.

[SPEAKER_02]: The fact that there's a general council that writes the laws that the city has ordinances.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I got to work on one of them that was like a [SPEAKER_02]: in response to a Trump one of the Trump threats many threats that he made of, you know, again, cities.

[SPEAKER_02]: It helped advise on like we had an immigration pro bono program that was defunded recently, but I helped advise on that at the time.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then again, I was working on like, [SPEAKER_02]: criminal, uh, misdemeanor cases like domestic violence cases DUI cases, prosecuting those.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I got to know the office very well working in these different divisions.

[SPEAKER_02]: We also had a neighborhood prosecutor program, which was good because on the ground, they were involved in, like, direct relations with community members, with issues.

[SPEAKER_02]: And a lot of the stuff was resolved without, you know, court.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was just mediation or speaking through things, which is what we want to see happen.

[SPEAKER_02]: I also was on the neighborhood council in Los Feliz, so I got to see, you know, a different side of things, and I think there's something very different about Los Angeles compared to other places and [SPEAKER_02]: I think this is an issue of the United States, you know, in a lot of places where local cities have a lot of power to control your life, even also often I think more than federal because they can control like where an apartment building is built.

[SPEAKER_02]: They can control where your parks are built.

[SPEAKER_02]: Whether or not you have parks, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Whether or not you have buses or bike lanes.

[SPEAKER_02]: The Trump has something to do with that.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he might give money for that, but he can't control those things.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think people don't know how much control local government is, but that's really more so your city council member.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what's frustrating, and I think like goes to your point.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's why we also have a charter reform commission.

[SPEAKER_02]: It is a great way to get involved in that is our mayor veto anything the city council member does.

[SPEAKER_02]: So in a way, they're like little kings, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Or queens of their fiefdom.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's why you'll see the sunset bike lane.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you're getting close to downtown, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's because Gilsa Deo didn't want it in his district.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's it, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Just like one dude controlling all our lives, just because of whatever fancies he has.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's a problem also with politics, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like people are appeasing their special interests so much that you rarely see real change with our two-party corporate capitalist system.

[SPEAKER_02]: The mayor does have a lot of power in the sense that she proposes the budget.

[SPEAKER_02]: Which like, once you get to city council level, it's kind of like [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I want to say it should show, but it's just kind of like they should show.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you rarely see much change because by then it's like how much, you know, you want to rewrite it, you know, and take out all the funding or like put back all the funding for, you know, housing and and on arm crisis response and like, you know, job development, [SPEAKER_02]: Um, you don't want to see it in just policing, which is now at like astronomical numbers, like half of our budget is going to that now, which I haven't seen in years, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And, um, in mirrors is a federal budget, which is half of it's going to military.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right, and it's wild because it's like we complain about Trump, but then like what's happening at home?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, don't even get me don't even get me fucking started on on Karen Bass and all of that Because I'm speaking to you on October 17th tomorrow is October 18th, which is no Kings 2.0 And the amount of [SPEAKER_01]: I can't even get into it.

[SPEAKER_01]: The amount of insanity regarding the LAPD and no kings tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, like, let's get into it.

[SPEAKER_01]: They put out a thing that is like, hey, you know how you said we can't attack journalists.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we want to actually put a pause on that and we want to actually for tomorrow be able to attack journalists.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is that okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: And the city was like, sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: like that's that's why I have such a disdain for the mayor and city council because that they put on one face and then they don't do anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe me listen you don't have to tell me I I didn't even know about the position of city attorney and then when I started going to city council and seeing city attorney stuff happening I was like oh man this is my [SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know how to explain that this whole thing that happened post 2020, which was like, just getting involved locally is like only so doable.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's touch on a few things.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like first, the police, let's say called no kings day, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I'm gonna be frank, I am not surprised.

[SPEAKER_02]: To be honest, we have to look at the history, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, let's go back to like, made a about 20 years ago in how that actually I almost almost there at that protest.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I was late and then the officer was like screaming at me to leave and I couldn't even enter in the area and I was like, dude, I'm just walking.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want to explain that a little bit?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so maybe I forgot what park it was.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was a very peaceful protest and just out of nowhere, the police just started firing foam bullets and, you know, other projectiles at the crowd.

[SPEAKER_02]: And this was recorded on video that they started physically attacking journalists and just pulling there was a female journalist who just like pulled on the ground and assaulted her and this was a very famous case because it was all caught on video of just people just like literally just standing there and just all of a sudden they just started being very aggressive and violent [SPEAKER_02]: And there's all these questions right right after like what were the orders that we're given like how did this even happen.

[SPEAKER_02]: It also resulted in a massive lawsuit and a massive settlement in like tens of millions of dollars as a result of these actions.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the LAPD was also under a consent decree, I think it ended in 2000 before this happened, I think, because again, they're actions against journalists and other activity.

[SPEAKER_02]: So this has been kind of a long ongoing issue.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think the big problem is obviously, we have Trump, we have ICE, [SPEAKER_02]: that are acting with complete impunity, but then we also have leadership like you said that are not doing anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: That like, they say they are, but they're not.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't even know if they say they are.

[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like they're just like, they're just like, I feel like they're saying like, oh yeah, this is bad.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's a bad.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah full stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know.

[SPEAKER_02]: But like I mean, there was this, you know, a city council member that was literally interviewed about this issue.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, they were interviewed by the fact that LAPD was handing over data to ice.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, and that's another issue that City Council can do something about they still haven't done right they could at a minimum do it like a investigation or a quarter something and her response was I'm not prepared for this I didn't I didn't get elected like or didn't run for this type of stuff she I just thought I was going to fix pot holes, which is that you need to know oh you can't say who it is okay, okay [SPEAKER_02]: She's a neighbor of unisses.

[SPEAKER_02]: She's a newer council member, but I'm gonna look it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: It'll go in the show notes.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's what really pisses me off is even like other candidates or current people in office.

[SPEAKER_02]: Their lack of preparedness and experience on top of like not even trying to improve that once they get in office.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like I will sit in on meetings and they'll be a council member that hasn't even read the bill that we're being.

[SPEAKER_02]: that's being discussed.

[SPEAKER_02]: And to me, I would be so embarrassed, but look, it's like you're elected.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's your job.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like you still haven't even read the bill and all you're doing is asking questions about what's in the bill.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, but this is the thing, Eida, is that like, okay, I say, oh, if I was on City Council, I would do X, Y, and these people run and they make promises, [SPEAKER_01]: what happens in between them being idealistic and making promises and then them not even reading the bill.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think a few things and I think a lot of it has to do with how terrible or quote unquote democracy system is and this state is and it's totally controlled by money and the fact that like the people you actually see on the ballot [SPEAKER_02]: are actually reflective of funders, and other people in parties that have been around for a long time.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so the election process is not something that's open to everybody really in my practice, I would say.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've had people who are part of progressive campaigns that tell me, I don't even talk to anybody unless you already have $60,000 fundraise.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, who's going to have this much money, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Think about it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Who's going to know the people that have this much money?

[SPEAKER_02]: Either people who already are establishment Democrats or linked establishment Democrats or people who have rich friends.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's already like the filtering of people in that level.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then you have the marketing that comes with politics.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you're going to be marketed a lot of great catchy words.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I want to I want to take down the system like I want to fight for working class people.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want to do this.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want to do that.

[SPEAKER_02]: But then ask them, wait, how are you going to do that though?

[SPEAKER_02]: And then they're going to give you a really, really high level general response that has no impact whatsoever.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's the disconnect is we don't have any where the forums and debates, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: There's like basically no opportunity right now for us to hold these people accountable and even if there are opportunities, usually they're going to only include the cameras with the most money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's interesting because I think even if I go to because I've had the the access to candidates because of my social media following the other people perhaps haven't.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even when they do get into these granular ideas of how to make progressive change, and it is good and interesting, that it just goes to the wayside.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just like all of a sudden, like, you know, certain city council members were buddy buddy while they're running and I'm giving them all these ideas.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then now they don't even answer my emails or like look up when I'm at city council.

[SPEAKER_01]: So like I'm mostly like what were they bad the whole time?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm fooled or like what's going on?

[SPEAKER_02]: That also goes to the fact that we're lighting people who are picked by special interest and don't have the background of like standing up for values.

[SPEAKER_02]: Their background is working with like, you know, these organizations.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think so when we elect people, they're not, they're not.

[SPEAKER_02]: they're necessarily the stand-up for your rights and that's not what they're equipped with.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're equipped with, like, how do I, how do I satisfy my special interests?

[SPEAKER_02]: So they keep me in office.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's when we see the same patterns of, you know, people who just kind of fall in line and want to be part of the democratic clicker, whatever.

[SPEAKER_02]: If we elect people who are actually like, you know what, I'm going to stick to my values and that's what I've always done and I'm always going to stand up to these powerful people and look at like all my like in my entire background.

[SPEAKER_02]: For better or worse, I've always stood up for my values.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I've seen for better or worse in the sense that sometimes there's consequences where you don't get reelected because you stand up for Palestinians or you or you get in trouble, you know, for speaking up about race issues.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, but that's important in your life.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's like you want to be able to sleep at night.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to take a position, you know, simply in order to, you know, satisfy someone who [SPEAKER_02]: might be more powerful than me or something because what's important is how am I how am I improving the lives of people not necessarily is this person going to give me money the next election cycle or not?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah and I think that's where we we have that disconnect is we don't have those people in office we have the people who are like working with organizations [SPEAKER_02]: And we need to elect more people who are willing to continue the fight, you know, that have been doing this, you know, like even before getting into law school, like I was organizing food service workers on my college campus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you had told me about working on free Palestine stuff 15 years ago.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, longer than that, like 20 years ago, but like, yeah, I mean, I was in my undergrad, we were organizing like, I mean, first was like anti rock war, anti muslim service surveillance, you know, back in early 2000s anti deportation of muslims by Bush and Gontanamo and [SPEAKER_02]: And as well, like on our campus, we've had lots of, you know, a support on demonstrations for Palestine, as well as against the Iraq War.

[SPEAKER_02]: I debated the college Republicans on the Iraq War, I remember, and that was interesting.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we won, of course, but like, oh, those college Republicans.

[SPEAKER_02]: That was a type.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, what a weird thing to even like have to debate, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Um, yeah, but uh, yeah, what was amazing is my undergrad was such a [SPEAKER_02]: propoused on campus we actually created a like a replica of the wall and Palestine and we put it on our like we called it ring road and there be a little door in the middle you have to pass through it so you get kind of that feeling of being separated and like seeing this wall and it was just so.

[SPEAKER_02]: amazing to be on a campus that was like that what was interesting is the first year that was up somebody had burned it at night and so that they required the Muslim student union to take it down every night after the and one yeah but one day they were driving with the tractor trailer and they saw this car following them.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it was all blacked out and then my friend got out of the car and was like trying to see who it was and the car all of a sudden, like sped off and almost hit him and he got called into the police office the next day and he said and they told them that was actually the FBI they have an office on our campus and they've been monitoring.

[SPEAKER_02]: Um, the Muslims Union.

[SPEAKER_02]: And this was like early 2000s under Bush.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it was a very scary time to be an activist.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I was with the students for Beach and Justice and we were organized when we were still very concerned because I had a friend who had, you know, was visited by the Secret Service at his mosque.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like this was a real time where people were literally being disappeared and the FBI, you know, was infiltrating religious spaces, monitoring Muslims and so when what's happening now with Trump.

[SPEAKER_02]: And people are like, I'm not prepared and blah blah blah.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, well, this is not new.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like, we've been here before.

[SPEAKER_02]: We need to go back to those times.

[SPEAKER_02]: What, what did we learn from that time?

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like, how can we apply that to now?

[SPEAKER_02]: And at the same time, can we actually stop this for once?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because Obama didn't do anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know.

[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like I'm going on the rabbit hole of all this stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, I mean this leads to my next question, which is you're running as an independent and also as a socialist and we're in the [SPEAKER_01]: you know, leading up era where the Democrats are just like not even, they're, they're refusing to endure some, um, Mondani and like, it's just crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so can you talk a bit about like, what that means?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I was surprised also, you're talking about running as an independent how, uh, you're, you're kind of searching for these endorsements, and it's become, it's like a [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think LA politics is really unique in this sense that it's very clicky.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's very much like you got to be in with the in-group and like being someone who's an activist, I've always criticized the powerful, criticized politicians and demanded more from them.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it's hard for me to compromise that in order to just, [SPEAKER_02]: reach a goal, you know, I don't want to compromise my values basically.

[SPEAKER_02]: My goal is always to center human rights, and I think Mom Donnie really is inspiring, and not just that he's running like as a democratic socialist, he's running, you know, as a democrat, and I think at the mayor level, you know, it's hard to be independent, but what inspires me more is that he is running with his [SPEAKER_02]: And that's my background and I heard him say this, you know, some beautiful speeches about his faith and like I didn't grow up religious, but I still heard all the anti Muslim rhetoric, anti Iran rhetoric, you know, living in this country, and it's always scary running as someone from that background because you don't know what kind of hate.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to be targeted with and for him to put everything at the forefront was very empowering to me.

[SPEAKER_02]: At the same time, I think running as an independent is more true to my values as someone who, you know, as a human right-centered person.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think, you know, we've been robbed of democracy.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that it's just like, you know, we're moving to the right because of Trump.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've had the history of other political parties, socialists, and want to literally being deported, being executed, being jailed, during the red scare and what not, that we don't even have the opportunity to vote for those people.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like other countries like Denmark and Belgium and Netherlands and Spain have those parties, [SPEAKER_02]: you know and and everybody embies them.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh look, they have all this great public transportation.

[SPEAKER_02]: Look at their health care system.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, well, why do you think they have that?

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like it's not because they're focused on capitalism.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're focused on making sure that everyone is taking care of.

[SPEAKER_02]: And and that's so important because I feel like the Democratic Party [SPEAKER_02]: is still the capitalist party.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's, and you're, and like at great the mom Donnie's breaking through it with these ideas, but I still think it's really hard.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that we should be focusing on third parties because we need to have, it's not about salvaging the Democrat party, because [SPEAKER_02]: And I hate when people say like, you know, we need to vote for the lesser of two evils or, you know, like, they're not that bad.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, don't you want to be passionately, you know, in support of something?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, why are you making your like, it's like, if someone is is hurting someone else, [SPEAKER_02]: You're not gonna make excuses.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're gonna be like that person needs to be held accountable, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: For their harm that they created.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like why are you guys making excuses for this group?

[SPEAKER_02]: We should, you know, like, when people join political parties in other countries, they're like, oh, I totally support this group because I believe in its values, you know?

[SPEAKER_02]: The fact that they have a card party is just like, I'm sure they have some good social platforms, but seriously, like they've been in power how many times they still didn't legalize abortion.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that part right like I just feel like we need more parties and we need and and right now we're the Republicans are just you know they're just fascists right like we don't even know what they are anymore and the Democrats have gone after the Republican voters so they know right so it's like why are we why are we still like.

[SPEAKER_02]: going after breadcrumbs.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's try to create something better and but yeah, but it's hard to be the outsider, the underdog, the person who's like dedicated her entire life to this, but like has a set of foot into a democratic, you know, clubs meeting before.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's really hard to do [SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, I would rather vote for someone that has the experience in the knowledge and isn't aligned, isn't like beholden to a group that's going to water down my platform or ask me to tone it down, like in terms of like, [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, we don't really want to do, you know, not criminalizing poverty because like there's people who want to be tough on crime.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, no, that's not really like what who I am, though, or like people who like, I don't want to talk about Palestine, you know, it's going to ruffle feathers, you know, you should really tone that down because, um, I think Mom Donnie is showing like you can talk about that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And this is a time to be harnessing this sort of like the stain for Democrats for not delivering.

[SPEAKER_02]: And this is literally from a headline recently and a study and also the push to acknowledge what's going on in Palestine because [SPEAKER_02]: You know, Palestine has been around for this issue with, you know, colonization and Palestine has been around for decades, but this type of, you know, attention and favorability of and understand the issue and a better light has not been around.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we need to harness this energy and go as hard as we can to change a system.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's stop settling for people who, you know, like, [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, well, somebody actually, the same guy who told me about $60,000 that he's like, I was like, why are you guys supporting this candidate that doesn't have the experience or the platform and they're like, well, we just want somebody in the office that's going to listen to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I was about to say is that they don't want a thorn in their side.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't want people who ask questions.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't want people who are gonna be like independent and be causing any disturbances or ask any questions.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't want to answer like, they don't want that person like in office.

[SPEAKER_01]: I also think that, you know, it's interesting.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's so backwards to say, oh, we're gonna do, we're gonna get these donors and then we're gonna do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: The donors want because I think, [SPEAKER_01]: If you are someone who has stuck to your guns in a lot of ways and have that history of sticking to your guns, then the donors will come to you because I, and this is maybe naive, but it's like, okay, so then there'll be a lot of movement around that person, and then hopefully the donors then go because they're like, oh, this is a winning ticket.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's very idealistic of me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I, you know, that could have happened with Bernie and it sort of didn't.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the, that's the idealism that I came into this race.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I say, like, I'm like, oh my god, I have all this experience and and like, I know exactly what I want to do because of that and like, [SPEAKER_02]: But it's odd because that kind of deflects people because they actually want someone that they can have a general, yeah, and have a general empty platform that they'll just do what they kind of are following and also they don't want competition so like I feel like I kind of are in this space where it's like I'm [SPEAKER_02]: striving to be heard because I'm not getting as much of the or the same opportunities or the same platform and like and it's in it's very difficult because even like on social media you know on Instagram I feel like I'm being like shadow band because of the post on activism TikTok is I've gotten way more interaction but then now we have a you know somebody who's a [SPEAKER_02]: Billionaire, who's just, who's getting TikTok handed to him.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I don't know what the future of that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, and most of our media is controlled, you know, by corporations.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so it's really hard to get your name out.

[SPEAKER_02]: For even people to know your message, I think, to, to get there.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I do think whenever I do meet people, I mean like the fact that like you saw, you know, my socials and then whenever I speak to people at events or like, wow, you know, I really want to help and I totally believe in what you're saying, but it's like getting there is difficult, but we're we're getting there, you know, like, [SPEAKER_02]: I love talking to people, and I love canvassing, actually.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's like, oddly one of my favorite things to do.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because like, you're on the ground, and like, this is what matters.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's beginning to just people, your neighbors, and knowing what's concerning them, like, when I ran for neighbor counseling, canvassing my entire district, I knocked out every single door.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I learned about how people like, like, there was a delivery driver who was concerned about safety because he uses bike to deliver, you know, and and like seeing all the like black lives and matter signs, you know, this was like I was camsing during COVID, which was crazy and 95 mask and so, but, but it's it's so important because [SPEAKER_02]: We're missing that community aspect right now, more than ever.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we are living in a city that is constantly in a country that constantly reinforces car culture, that further isolates us.

[SPEAKER_02]: And actually, reduces democracy because we don't have the plaza as you see in Mexico City where people can flood in or the UK or London, we're gonna flood in and be together [SPEAKER_02]: protest.

[SPEAKER_02]: We have, you know, we have City Hall and downtown where no one's at on the weekend.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just like, you know, and there's no plaza really.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then we are separated by all these freeways that were purposely built in, you know, communities of color to destroy and their networks.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we're fighting against not just like the money, but this kind of machine that is designed to support capitalists and capitalist ideology, and but the way we counter that is just on the ground, like connecting with people, going to what I'm doing, like almost all the meetings I can go to, [SPEAKER_01]: posting as much as I can on socials and spite of the shadow banning no i found you because you were commenting on so many things uh like all these you know groups that i follow and i would just see commenting on every single one and i was like who is this [SPEAKER_01]: And then I was like, oh, city attorney 2026 like the election is June 2nd and I was like, oh, okay, city attorney interesting.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know what that is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's how I message to you because there's so many I see so many little.

[SPEAKER_01]: things popping up now like that girl Sydney for America who's like a gen Z, but she's gonna run for president.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's like already campaigning no joke like she has she's like yeah she's like as already like my goal is to run for president here's my stuff I think as her name is Sydney for America and I'm like seeing more and more of that people that are coming like you said from you know not [SPEAKER_01]: you know, I don't know, by interest or by the two parties.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's that is a big power of social media.

[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, it's amazing how it connects us.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I do have a lot of opinions, so I do put comments.

[SPEAKER_02]: I have to be careful, though, now that I have an account office.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I mean, there's just so much out there, I guess.

[SPEAKER_02]: but at the same time I guess like it's also driving division in a way because people are are we're too stuck on it too.

[SPEAKER_02]: We also want to be out of it and like be on the ground with community.

[SPEAKER_02]: We just how I started as an activist is like we would wheat paste our protest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then we would um yeah and at the most there was like maybe emails and [SPEAKER_02]: But it was also in a way protected us, right, because we're not putting all the information out there on socials.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's a weird, we're in a weird state where corporations are purposely putting things out there.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we put all our information out there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Even dating apps are now being connected to data gathering, which is like wild.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so I would like to see us.

[SPEAKER_02]: Communion more, you know, in person on the ground and like that's something I want to do with my campaign is have us come together and, you know, like the mutual aid in LA has been so inspiring right like we keep keep us safe right like we are the ones that are standing in to protect us because our government is not doing that.

[SPEAKER_04]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because what does our government, what does our city just do in the face of ice raids in the face of, you know, climate collapse, they pass a motion to spend more than $2 billion to expand the convention center.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like girl, again, like I can't even talk about the Olympics.

[SPEAKER_01]: The no Olympics, I think we did an episode about no Olympics like four years ago or something on this show.

[SPEAKER_01]: Cause I'm on Karen Bass's press, like I get her press releases.

[SPEAKER_01]: The one today was like a thousand days out from the, from the games.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here's everything that we're doing for the Olympics.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, I'm gonna punch my computer.

[SPEAKER_01]: it's so much money.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's so like this idea of like we're going to like when you said we keep us safe right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like we're going to protect the city of LA and make it beautiful for the Olympics.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like my friends are the ones who are down feeding people my friend like there's that whole thing about building a fence around MacArthur park.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's happening now where it's like they want to get close it off at night.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like oh my God.

[SPEAKER_01]: everything's going to become like closed and privatized.

[SPEAKER_01]: I even hate like when it's like you have to put in a code to use the restroom downtown.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, fuck you!

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, yeah, I mean, good.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can talk forever about the fact that like our cities are designed for segregation and inequality.

[SPEAKER_02]: And LA is such a good example of that because [SPEAKER_02]: all of like this this city was sold as a real estate like a gated community essentially like an open gated community you know and it stole water from just communities in the central valley and it's still is stealing water from land there and land that's a whole other thing yeah the amount to which myself and my friend Katie have become obsessed with water rights like we don't have time.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's another, that's another thing, and on the top of that, like yeah, I was there actually at the parse commission commenting against that fence and what's also frustrating is a parse commission moves its location of its meetings every time and on top of that they don't allow written or call in comment so it's like, [SPEAKER_02]: There is a series of things that he's have done to remove the dignity of people in L.A.

Like on top of the gate, they want to build around MacArthur Park.

[SPEAKER_02]: The fact that they're making us swipe when we exit out of the metro, when metros are not calculated by distance, again, they're treating us all like suspected criminals, essentially.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like removing dignity just in that, the fact that like, [SPEAKER_02]: they said they sold us that this is going to be a car free Olympics and they're not doing anything to actually push that the fact that they're trying to push a gondola versus actually giving us like bus rapid transit or a light rail for the same amount of money that would actually provide real public transit for everybody.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's just [SPEAKER_02]: again like who who who are these people like they're not they're not they're obviously like not for the people right there for some some small group of like people living in some fantasy land of gondolas and i was gonna say the gondola lobby absolutely gondola lobby one guy owns a bunch of gondolas he's like please i need to offload these [SPEAKER_02]: I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, okay, so you can follow me on idaforele on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube that's AIDA, the number four L.A.

And then you can also go to my website, idaforele.com as built AIDA, the number four L.A.com or just the word four.

[SPEAKER_02]: And subscribe to my newsletter.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can donate there, or even the link in my bio on Instagram, and I'm going to have some fun razors coming up.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's one November 7th at a skin up bicycle shop, which will be a DJ in Archo.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to put it before I are soon.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm also working on a drag show.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, with maybe [SPEAKER_01]: and shout out to maybe a girl.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, also running.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, also we're like allies and and also I'm going to set up like a coffee with Ida and I'm going to post that soon.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm probably going to start off with Donna's or coffee, which is my neighborhood coffee shop.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I shout out to all the amazing coffee shops and restaurants we have in LA that's like we're like the best [SPEAKER_02]: You know, if you'd place, I think, in the country.

[SPEAKER_02]: And again, like, if you can donate, you know, $5, a price of a cup of coffee or something, that will help me get more endorsements, some airtime.

[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, it's, it is a money run campaign.

[SPEAKER_02]: But just think about the fact that, like, you're donating for your values.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's what we need right now, more than ever, [SPEAKER_02]: We're losing that in our elections in our country and we're, you know, people have been sold off through APAC and affiliates.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we're, we're just not focused on real change.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we're so far from creating a community for the people.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so if you can donate anything you can, that would really help my campaign.

[SPEAKER_02]: And please come out to my fundraisers and I would love to meet you and and also send me a note if you're if you're willing to like volunteer and and like I'm definitely going to be at the next Slickle via you're handing out flyers or whatnot think about this you put in in city attorney and it's so annoying for the people we don't like really sort of what we're looking for.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah exactly someone who is.

[SPEAKER_02]: has a history of yelling at politicians, has a history of getting angry at about the injustice in the world.

[SPEAKER_02]: And as an attorney as well, you know, going against people like Chevron, having put in a ceasefire resolution, helping standing up for immigrants and asylum cases, that's what we want to see.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want to be that person to be yelling at, [SPEAKER_02]: people in city hall and holding people accountable because that's what what I want to do I want to make sure that everybody's doing their job right and we have an ethical city attorney that is holding also the other politicians to the high high grade of ethics.

[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, please volunteer [SPEAKER_02]: donate.

[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, let's let's start building a new better city with our tax dollars and and stop, you know, giving out handouts to billionaires.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for having me.

[SPEAKER_01]: A thousand natural shocks a bad with money podcast is a production of noted bisexual, produced by Melissa D.

Montz and Diamond M.

print productions, edited by Diane Kang, post-production sound by Coca Lorenz, and music by Zach Sherwin as sung by Sam Barbara.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, love you, bye!