Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (2014) s12e18 Episode Script
Gang Databases
Welcome to "Last Week Tonight"!
I'm John Oliver, thank you so much
for joining us. We are back!
And we missed a lot
over the last month,
from Trump signing his Big, Beautiful
Bill into law, which was terrible,
to Colbert getting canceled,
which was terrible,
to the Coldplay concert heard
around the world,
which was honestly kind of fun.
We're going to focus on developments
concerning Jeffrey Epstein,
once again voted "horniest resident"
by "Deepest Circle of Hell Quarterly".
Very basically, three weeks ago,
after repeatedly promising
to release information on Epstein,
the Trump administration
abruptly announced
"no further disclosure
would be appropriate or warranted",
released a video it claimed disproved
there was any foul play in his suicide.
Though, when a reporter pointed
out a problem with that video,
Trump's answer wasn't great.
Could you say why there was a minute
missing from the jailhouse tape
on the night of his death?
- Could I just interrupt for one second?
- Sure.
Are you still talking about
Jeffrey Epstein? That is unbelievable.
Do you want to waste the time,
and do you feel like answering?
I don't mind answering.
I can't believe you're asking a
question on Epstein at a time like this,
where we're having some
of the greatest success,
and also tragedy
with what happened in Texas.
Okay, nothing about that is reassuring,
from Trump suspiciously scrambling
to change the subject,
to Marco Rubio quietly mourning
the loss of his last shred of integrity,
which, like part of Epstein's prison
video, seems to have disappeared.
That glib dismissal understandably
didn't go down well,
especially given that Trump
and his inner circle
had been actively
stoking this story.
In February, conservative influencers
were summoned to the White House
and handed binders
labeled "Epstein Files Phase 1",
which turned out to contain
virtually no new material,
despite their covers
including the phrase
"the most transparent
administration in history",
a claim which is not aging great!
And Trump has been struggling
to move past this,
as new revelations
keep coming out,
including a Wall Street Journal report
about a gross letter he allegedly wrote
for a book
for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday.
The Journal describes the letter as
"several lines of typewritten text"
and the "hand-drawn outline
of a naked woman."
"The future president's signature is
a squiggly 'Donald' below her waist."
Trump allegedly
signed off with the words,
"A pal is a wonderful thing."
"Happy birthday and may every day
be another wonderful secret."
Okay, there is a lot there.
First, "may every day
be another wonderful secret"
is absolutely what would be
inside a Hallmark card
if they had a subcategory called
"birthday for prolific sex traffickers."
Second, the "squiggly
Donald below her waist"
was, in the Journal's words,
"mimicking pubic hair,"
which is obviously gross, but also,
Why the fuck is
this Trump's signature?
"Donald Trump" has 11 letters,
not 400 Ms.
His signature looks less like pubes
and more like the polygraph results
when he's asked if he's asked if he's
ever been friends with Jeffrey Epstein.
Now, I have to tell you, Trump's
sued the Journal for defamation
and strongly denied writing that
letter, which is understandable,
given it allegedly contains the line,
"We have certain things
in common, Jeffrey."
He also tried to brush it off
by claiming, "I don't draw pictures."
Though, as people quickly pointed
out, he very much does do that.
He basically spent the week
desperately trying to draw people's
attention anywhere else.
He threatened the Washington
Commanders' stadium deal
unless they revert
to their old name,
posted an inexplicable three-minute
highlight reel of old internet clips,
like a woman grabbing a snake
with her bare hands
and various jet ski tricks,
and accused Obama of treason
for trying to steal the 2016 election.
And in case it wasn't obvious
that was a flagrant attempt
to deflect attention from the Epstein
story, Trump basically admitted it.
At the White House, the president
has urged fellow Republicans
to help change the subject.
Every time they give you a question
that's not appropriate, just say,
"By the way, Obama
cheated on the election."
Yeah, it's that easy!
And if they keep asking, just say,
"Hillary shot JFK,
Rosie O'Donnell did 9/11"
"and Nancy Pelosi fucked a bat,
that's how we got Covid."
"No further questions."
And while distraction is usually
one of Trump's greatest weapons,
it doesn't seem to be working here.
Even his sudden dumping
of thousands of files related to
MLK's assassination didn't do it,
given King's daughter responded by
posting this image, captioned,
"Now, do the Epstein files."
Which is excellent.
In terms of internet clapbacks,
that is up there
with Wendy's asking if we can
send Katy Perry back to space,
and I don't say that lightly.
And some of the harshest criticism
is actually coming from
Trump's most fervent supporters.
Even the QAnon Shaman posted,
"Fuck this stupid piece of shit,
what a fraud."
Once you've lost Dipshit Daniel Boone
here, you are in trouble.
And it's understandable
why Trump's struggling to get
even his own base to take his word for
it that there is nothing to see here.
Because to do so,
you essentially have to believe
everything we've learned about Trump
over the years is irrelevant,
or sheer coincidence.
That all Trump did was repeatedly
host Epstein at Mar-a-Lago,
have him at his wedding, hang out with
him at Victoria's Secret fashion shows,
get listed as a passenger
on his plane eight times,
joke with him at a party
while pointing out hot women,
and saying something into his ear
that got the most grotesque smile
in the history
of human expressions,
tell a reporter, "I've known Jeff
for 15 years. Terrific guy."
"He likes beautiful women
as much as I do,"
"and many of them
are on the younger side"
and allegedly host
a "calendar girl" competition
where, other than the two dozen women
flown in to provide the entertainment,
the only guests
were him and Jeffrey Epstein.
You'd also have to forget
about Trump bragging
about his ability to grab
women's genitals
and claiming he'd go backstage
at his beauty pageants
while women were getting dressed,
something he was accused of doing
by five Miss Teen USA contestants,
and once remarking of his own
infant daughter Tiffany
that "she's got Marla's legs."
"We don't know whether or not she's
got this yet, but time will tell."
Beyond that, though,
there's nothing there.
Except for a jury finding him
liable for sexual abuse.
But other than that,
there's nothing to see.
And I should note:
Trump denies the Epstein letter,
the calendar girls contest,
and the claims of walking in
on Miss Teen USA contestants
changing.
He also insists he broke off ties
with Epstein
before he was convicted
of soliciting sex from a minor.
And he's repeatedly denied being
told his name was in the Epstein files,
despite reports Pam Bondi told him
months ago that his name was in there.
And I guess, ideally, Trump would
have Jeffrey Epstein on tape,
vehemently denying their connection.
Unfortunately, what he's got instead
is this moment
in Epstein's 2010 deposition.
Have you ever
socialized with Donald Trump
in the presence of females
under the age of 18?
Though I'd like to answer that
question, at least today,
I'm going to have to assert my Fifth,
Sixth, and 14th Amendment rights, sir.
Yeah, not great! If the answer's
"no," just say that.
Instead, Epstein
started listing amendments
like he was ordering
off the value menu.
"I'll have the number five,
six, 14, 10, 12, three,"
"and whichever else means
I don't have to break bro code."
Who knows where we go from here?
On Thursday, the deputy AG,
Todd Blanche,
Trump's former personal attorney,
went to talk to Ghislaine Maxwell.
And it's not hard to imagine
someone serving a 20-year sentence
that only one man can commute
coming up with whatever story
serves his interests.
But even if that happens, I'm not sure
it'll stop the questions.
Because people aren't letting this go.
When DHS and the White House
posted this video announcing
the TSA's new shoes-on policy,
comments on it included,
"So cool. What about the Epstein files?"
and "TSA needs to check your shoes,
they might find Epstein files there."
And this White House post
about Trump's AI initiatives
got comments like,
"Where's the list, Donny?"
and "Captain Cankles,
where's the list?"
And look, maybe those files
show nothing more than
that Trump and Epstein are two creeps
who enjoyed one another's company.
Do I personally think that's possible?
Though I'd like to answer that question,
I think I'll plead the Fourth,
12th, and 22nd Amendment.
But even if that's the case,
and Trump still eventually ends up
consumed by a conspiracy monster
he cynically helped create
and now can't control,
then at least that'll be a sliver
of something that's frankly been
in short supply
in this whole Epstein story,
and that is actual justice.
And now, this.
And Now:
It's the Summer of Everything.
The new way some companies
are passing on costs to shoppers
and, of course,
it's got a catchy name.
Yeah, we're rolling it out this morning,
the summer of sneakflation.
It's the summer of superheroes.
You could call it the summer
of the water main break.
It's this summer of the silk scarf.
The summer of booty.
It is the summer of sharks.
Step aside, sharks, this is
the summer of fireflies.
The summer of bugs.
It's the summer of the dog.
It is the summer of meow
in Jefferson County.
Brace yourselves
for a summer of millennial mania.
Don't you guys feel like this is
the summer of courtroom dramas?
Is this really gonna be
the summer of stablecoin?
You could call it
the summer of Pedro.
This might go down
as the summer of Labubu.
This is the summer
of grandma core.
All that plus summer of love.
This is not the Summer of Love.
Moving on. Our main story tonight
concerns gangs,
something Tampa police once
warned teenagers about like this.
Think it's cool to be
a baller, shot caller?
Wanna end up like this?
Join a gang and chances are,
you will. The choice is yours.
So make the right choice.
Open your eyes
and wake up before it's too late.
Holy shit!
Take it down 1,000 notches!
Because when you show a dead body
pop up like a jack-in-the-box,
you're not implying
joining a gang'll kill you,
you're implying it'll turn you
into a flesh-eating zombie.
If that is true, gangs are the least
of your problems right now, Tampa.
Gangs have long been
a target of law enforcement,
and this story concerns
a commonly-used tool
police have developed to thwart them:
gang databases.
Basically, lists the police keep
of people that they say
are involved in gangs.
You might remember,
earlier this year,
the government used them as
a justification to deport immigrants,
most famously in the case
of Kilmar Abrego Garcia,
whose deportation they
later admitted was a mistake.
Before Trump doubled down
on this Microsoft Paint bullshit
being actual evidence, he initially
talked about the case like this.
You're talking about Abrego Garcia.
Is that the one? Yeah.
He's an illegal alien, MS-13 gang
member, and foreign terrorist.
This comes out of the State Department
and very legitimate sources.
I mean, I assume. I'm just
giving you what they handed to me,
but this was supposed
to be certified stuff.
Was it? Okay, well, I'm glad it's
"certified stuff," that's reassuring.
But you know you don't always
have to read what they hand you, right?
If they handed you "Mein Kampf",
would you read it out loud?
You know, I take that back,
that's a terrible example,
you wouldn't just read it,
you'd do a fun little riff on it
in the briefing room.
But it is worth talking about those
"legitimate sources",
because one of the few pieces
of evidence authorities have produced
to support those MS-13 allegations
is Abrego Garcia's 2019 entry
into something called
GangNet: a regional gang database.
Basically, back in 2019, cops
apparently approached Abrego Garcia
and three others at a Home Depot
in Maryland,
filled out a form
identifying them as gang members
and submitted it to GangNet.
Officers "observed he was wearing
a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie"
"with rolls of money covering the eyes,
ears and mouth of the presidents",
saying they "know such clothing to be
indicative of the Hispanic gang culture"
and that
"wearing the Chicago Bulls hat"
"represents that they're a member
in good standing with MS-13."
Which is already a little bit weird.
Because it implies that, somehow,
if you're not up to date
on your monthly MS-13 dues,
your Bulls hat privileges
get revoked.
The cop filling out that form
also cited
a "past proven and reliable source
of information"
who supposedly corroborated
that Abrego Garcia
was "an active member of MS-13",
though you should know,
that cop was suspended
just a week later,
pled guilty to misconduct on an
unrelated issue, and was fired.
Nevertheless, that gang allegation
meant Abrego Garcia
was denied bond and spent months
locked up in ICE detention.
In fact, it later emerged that he's
the guy in this local news piece
from 2020, speaking anonymously
about his experience.
I spoke with an immigrant
who was looking for work
outside of this Home Depot
in March 2019.
He tells me he was falsely
labeled as a gang member
and was detained
for almost eight months.
I don't know why they noticed me.
Perhaps because of my Latino race,
they labeled me as a gang member.
Which I have never been,
and I have no criminal record in
my country or in the United States.
Yeah, that is ridiculous. A person's
clothing shouldn't be criteria
for locking them up
for eight months.
As we all know, the worst consequence
for fashion choices
should be getting roasted
by teens on TikTok.
Maddie B. from Georgia has a right
to her opinions,
but that doesn't mean that they don't
hurt. Hey, Maddie: fuck you.
Congratulations on your sweet 16,
but fuck you.
And notably, two separate
federal judges
have looked at the government's evidence
and found it unconvincing,
with one on Wednesday
writing that,
"for the court to find that Abrego
is a member of or in affiliation"
"with MS-13
would border on fanciful."
And his isn't the only story that brings
these databases into question.
The Trump administration
also deported
this Venezuelan man,
Francisco Garcia Casique,
to the El Salvadoran prison CECOT,
claiming he's part of Tren de Aragua,
something that he and his family
strongly deny.
And while the government hasn't
supplied any evidence for that claim,
reporters discovered
a Texas gang database does list him
as a member of that gang.
But that listing has some
pretty big red flags on it,
including that that photo
is of someone else entirely.
Those are two whole
different genres of men.
And it was only
after this was pointed out
that authorities removed
his entry from Texas's database.
And at that point,
it's about as trustworthy
as those ads at the bottom
of websites with headlines like,
"You'll Never Believe What
Angela Bassett Looked Like as a Child"
paired with a photo
of Little Miss Sunshine.
Guys, I don't think that's her.
The fact is, around the country,
local and state police departments
keep these databases,
sometimes without disclosing them,
despite investigations repeatedly
finding them to be
"notoriously inconsistent and opaque",
riddled with "questionable
entries and errors"
and
"rife with unreliable intelligence."
So, given all that, tonight,
let's talk about gang databases,
how people end up on them, and
the massive problems they can cause.
And before we start, let's just
briefly discuss what a gang is.
Because the word can conjure up
media representations
of tight, coordinated groups,
whose members are all engaged
in sophisticated criminal
conspiracies and violent crimes.
But nowadays, a gang
can look wildly different,
with many being loose groups
of teenagers banding together
for protection, status,
or a feeling of community.
There's a lot of variability here
and not all gang members
may even be engaged in crime.
As one researcher has put it,
"Not all gang members are criminals,
not all criminals are gang members."
Unfortunately, none of that nuance
is on display in these databases.
And depending where you live,
the reasons to be added to one
can be worryingly broad, as this
defense attorney explains.
It is a database entirely maintained
by law enforcement
that has no scrutiny from any other
branch of government
or from any citizen organization
or from anybody whatsoever.
They control this database completely.
And if they want you in this database,
they can put you in this database.
So, we don't know what they're
doing or how they're doing it?
Nope. As far as you know,
you could be in that database.
I could be in that database.
Well, that is not ideal.
Because in terms of lists you
don't want to find your name on,
a police gang database
seems like one of the worst,
right above the Epstein client list,
which luckily, remember, doesn't exist,
and I can't believe
anyone's still talking about it!
The criteria to be added
to a gang database
are typically unrelated
to criminal conduct,
and more focused on how
a person looks, acts,
and whom they associate with.
Some places
even have a point system,
where certain actions or identifiers
get added up
to qualify you for inclusion.
The Boston Police Department
uses a point system
for identifying gang members
and associates.
For example, if you're in a group photo
or have contact with a gang member,
that's two points.
If you use gang paraphernalia
or other identifiers,
that'll earn you four points.
Six points, and you're considered
a gang associate.
10 points and you're a verified
gang member.
Yeah, but that evidence
seems pretty weak.
Just being in one group photo
with someone
doesn't automatically mean
you're meaningfully linked.
There is a reason
that we don't call the people in this
photo the "Kevin Spacey Gang".
But it's not just photos
and paraphernalia,
being in a known gang location,
or wearing gang colors
can also land you in a database.
But that can get very subjective,
as, at one point,
the colors the NYPD considered
to be associated with various gangs
were black, gold, yellow, red,
purple, green, blue, white,
brown, khaki, gray,
orange and lime green.
That sounds less like a thoroughly
vetted list of gang signifiers,
and more like someone naming
what colors the Gap Factory Foreversoft
Shrunken Crewneck T-Shirt comes in.
Also, for the record: lime green
is just a terrible gang color.
Nobody looks good in lime green,
except maybe Jessica Chastain, once.
Now, as for "associating
with known gang members"
that can mean merely talking
to an alleged member,
being seen walking next to them,
or simply having the status of "friends"
on a social media platform.
In some places, even being the victim
of alleged gang violence
counts towards getting someone
in the database.
In Boston, that can earn you eight
of the 10 points required.
And the thing is, the evidence can get
even thinner, as in many places,
the sole criteria
can be "self-admission".
And just watch as
the NYPD's then-chief of detectives
gets asked a fairly obvious
follow-up about that.
People self-admit to us every day
in New York City.
So, self-admission will get you
in the criminal group database.
So, does the police officer,
patrol officer, perhaps ask,
"Are you in a gang?" and people
just willingly answer that question?
Yeah, that is not
generally what happens.
Right! Of course it isn't!
No one's gonna voluntarily
tell a cop they're in a gang,
unless they just got kicked
in the head by a police horse.
What "self-admission"
can actually mean is,
"we found something
on your social media"
"that we've decided constitutes
you admitting to being in a gang."
But that can include things
like online posts
simply using the word "gang".
In one instance, a teenager
who'd posted a picture with a friend
with the caption
"Happy birthday gang"
was added to a database
with "self-admission"
listed as one of the reasons.
And if the bar is that low,
anything is basically a confession.
A pic of you holding a diploma
with the caption "killed it"?
Congratulations, grad, but guess what?
Now you're wanted for murder.
And while so far, I've been saying
anyone can be added to these lists,
those who end up on them
are heavily people of color.
In D.C., their database at one point
had almost 2.000 names on it,
and only one individual was white.
One, in total.
Do you know how few lists there are
with only one white guy on them?
It's basically this database and
the cast of "Hamilton". That is it!
And police can cast
a pretty wide net
when it comes to flagging people
as potential gang members.
A 2023 audit of the NYPD's
database found
they'd designated entire public housing
buildings as gang locations.
And in California, this man
was approached by police
in what they apparently considered
a "known gang location",
which was just a park
in South Central L.A.
They jump out,
they come over there to us,
"We got a call that y'all was drinking
and you're loud and this."
I said, "There's nothing on the table,
so what do you mean, drinking?"
He says officers interviewed them,
asked them to hand over their IDs
and raise their shirts
to show any tattoos.
You can have a tattoo
and not be a gang member!
I got a letter in the mail saying that
I'm a gang member. I'm like, wow.
Yeah, wow indeed.
Having a tattoo clearly
doesn't mean you're in a gang,
and it definitely doesn't
mean you've committed a crime.
Lots of people have them
for all sorts of reasons,
like Adam Levine, who once
explained his shark tattoo by saying,
"I've always had a strange
fascination with sharks."
"I actually think they're the most
fascinating creatures on Earth."
"I guess the tattoo
had something to do with that."
And who here can disagree?
Adam Levine treating his body
like a 10-year-old's sticker book
doesn't mean he's guilty of a crime.
DM-ing an Instagram model,
"I may need to see the booty",
feels pretty close to one.
But that is different, isn't it?
And it turns out, that man
is not only not a gang member,
he literally worked
in gang intervention,
trying to prevent kids from joining
them and make communities safer.
And he is well aware
of the irony of all this.
You can't stereotype everybody that
you just pull up on.
I mean,
you got some bad cats out here,
but then you got bad police out here
that don't really care about nothing.
Larry says he's never been in a gang.
Not interested in joining.
I sing, it's what I do.
And he's pretty good at it.
His rap name is LV,
short for Large Variety,
and his big claim to fame?
Singing the vocals for Coolio's
Grammy-winning song
"Gangsta's Paradise", in 1995.
It's true!
He's basically music royalty.
And for anyone who doesn't know,
"Gangsta's Paradise" was a hit song
from the well-meaning white teacher
movie "Dangerous Minds"
and it's one of the rare rap songs
without any cursing in it,
because it samples
a Stevie Wonder song,
and he apparently didn't want to clear
the sample until Coolio offered
to take out the swears
and then he agreed.
So, to recap here: the police put
the gang interventionist
from the clean rap song about
the cyclical nature of gang violence
on California's gang database.
And a pretty good sign these databases
have too many names in them
is just how quickly they get smaller as
soon as people start asking questions.
After the police in D.C. faced
a spate of news articles and lawsuits,
they suddenly managed to remove
half of individuals on their database.
Which isn't surprising, given
it turns out a police lieutenant there
had admonished his staff about weak
and bad validations in the database,
writing, "sooner or later the entire
unit is going to get burned for this."
And in some cases, people have been
flagged as gang members
seemingly out of pure spite.
Take what happened in Phoenix
just a few years back.
Inside the state's gang member
database, you'll find the names
of 17 of these
umbrella-carrying protesters.
In October 2020, they marched in
downtown Phoenix streets,
followed by many more
Phoenix officers.
Then, they huddled on a street corner,
where they got arrested and eventually
charged as a criminal street gang.
To charge as a street gang
in Arizona, the law is broad.
You need just two
of the following criteria.
And here are the ones that
officials claimed for the protesters:
they carried umbrellas,
they wore mostly black,
and they chanted,
"All cops are bastards."
For those reasons, officials
labeled them members of ACAB,
a gang of extremists.
Yeah! That happened.
The cops rounded up 17 people
at a Black Lives Matter protest
and branded them all as a gang,
with one police sergeant
even telling a grand jury
that they were more dangerous
than the Crips, the Bloods
and the Hells Angels.
Which is a pretty major exaggeration,
given their energy doesn't scream
"violent gang" so much
as "goth 'Singin' in the Rain.'"
As for the "wearing all black", that is
not suspicious, that's called taste.
And that's not me talking,
that's Coco Chanel, honey.
If you have a problem with that,
tell it to her grave, in Switzerland,
where all true fashionistas
get buried.
Now, in that case,
the State Department of Public Safety
declined to add those people to
the database, and for good reason,
especially given some had never
even met before that night
and one was this guy, who just saw them
walk by and started taking photos.
But however you get onto these lists,
whether it's a Facebook post,
living in the wrong building,
or just annoying the cops,
it can be very hard to get off.
Few places have real mechanisms
for challenging your placement,
assuming you even know you're
on one in the first place.
Because while that singer
got a letter in the mail,
California's one of the few places
that requires you be notified
if you're added to a database.
And let's say you were in a gang,
but you left,
which is actually pretty common.
Experts say most people
who join gangs
might just try it out
for a couple years, then leave.
The problem is,
while departments are supposed
to reevaluate gang database entries
at least every five years
"and purge those
that officers can't re-confirm,"
that doesn't always happen.
One of the first in-depth looks
at California's database
found it was rife with names that
should've been purged long ago.
And if your name
is in a database,
it can open you up to even
more interaction with police,
as "you're more likely to get
stopped and searched,"
"or arrested for a minor infraction."
Which is obviously dangerous,
especially for people of color,
who, remember, are the vast
majority of those on these databases.
Just listen to this man
in New York,
explaining how an outdated gang label
came back to haunt him.
32-year-old Victor Dempsey,
a former gang member
who served prison time at 17
years old for attempted robbery,
says he left his gang life
behind more than a decade ago.
He claims the NYPD's gang database
still has him listed as a known member,
which he realized during
a recent routine traffic stop.
The fact that they decided
to detain me in their squad car
because I'm labeled a gang
member is outrageous to me,
and I did not know until that day.
I happened to see the monitor
and there was a mugshot
of me that said "security risk".
Yeah, that's a pretty nasty surprise.
But I will say, good on that guy
for doing what we all do but very
few are brave enough to admit to:
taking a little peek
at someone else's screen.
If your screen is out in public,
I'm a-peeking.
A four-paragraph friend break-up on
the subway? Don't mind if I fucking do.
Sarah has been different since
the Fourth of July beach hang,
and you're right
to tell her over text.
And all of this
can have long-term effects.
If you're labeled a gang member,
you could face higher bail,
tougher prosecution
and even a longer sentence.
For instance, in California, let's say
you're accused of stealing a phone
and are charged with robbery.
Your sentence might be around
two to five years.
But if you're in their database
and the DA pursues a gang
enhancement charge,
you could easily be facing
as much as 15 years.
And that can push people to feel
like they have to take plea deals.
As when it comes to immigrants,
the designation of "gang member"
can be truly life-altering.
It can be the reason that someone's
denied pathways to remain in the U.S.,
and it "can make someone"
"a higher priority for deportation
and the target of a raid."
Take what happened during
Trump's first term.
Back then, there was a real presence
of MS-13 in Long Island,
with significant associated violence.
But that fed into a paranoia
that got wildly out of hand.
Because schools there were told to be
on the lookout for gang activity,
with some maddeningly
imprecise guidance,
as both a school administrator and
a community activist there pointed out.
You really don't see this guy anymore.
You're going to see these guys.
It's going to be the kid in
the skinny jeans and the polo shirt
and maybe the Chicago Bulls cap.
They put on a presentation.
They show images of bandanas,
or Bulls horns, and they tell us
that those are items that,
if we see the students
wearing or drawing,
that we should be on the alert
because it's related to a gang.
I've heard things like, "Well, they
scribble '503' in their notebooks."
That's the area code
of where they come from.
Yeah, and kids are gonna doodle.
And "503" is honestly preferable
to what most students
are drawing: dicks.
Just loads and loads of dicks.
Octopus with dick tentacles,
the Easter Bunny with dick ears,
the school's principal
with dicks for arms, legs
and even hair.
They are lucky their students
were doing area codes instead.
And the thing about telling
teachers and school police,
"Look out for a bunch of kids
all wearing the same thing"
is that "wearing the same thing"
is literally what kids do.
One teacher there later told the story
of how she was working lunch duty
when a school security guard
told her he thought it was suspicious
that a lot of the students
were wearing the Salvadoran flag.
As she put it, "Thank God I was
there, because I told him,"
'Today is their Independence Day.
He had no clue.'"
And just imagine being labeled
a gang member
because a school security guard
didn't have international holidays
turned on on his Google Calendar.
Unfortunately, not all kids
were as lucky
as those in that particular lunch room.
Because at another high school
in that area,
a teenager called Alex got added
to a gang database
by a school resource officer after he
was seen, among other things,
wearing blue sneakers, which school
security guards told him
were "the color of MS-13."
They cited the fact that he'd written
the numbers "504" on his backpack
and had doodled
a devil with horns.
But you should know,
Alex was a Honduran immigrant,
and 504 was the Honduras
country code.
As for the devil, that was literally
that school's mascot.
This is what it looked like. Also blue,
by the way-the color of MS-13!
Nevertheless, Alex got labeled
an MS-13 member.
And a few months later,
ICE agents came to his house,
arrested him, telling him they'd
heard he was a gang member,
and he was eventually deported.
And he wasn't the only one
scooped up.
And when a police commissioner there
was asked
why he thought collaborating with ICE
was a good idea,
he had a pretty chilling answer.
Why do you need
to even bring in ICE,
because the evidence
isn't strong enough?
For example, if we have intelligence
that they are a gang member,
that's not necessarily a crime, right?
Certainly, being
a gang member is not a crime,
and the intel that we may have may
not indicate a significant state crime.
We may have something small, but
nothing that'll keep them in jail.
So, if we perceive someone
as a public safety threat,
we utilize all of our tools,
which include immigration tools.
So, we'll partner with
the Department of Homeland Security
to target them
for detention and removal.
Okay, so, there is a lot there.
First, thank you
for finally answering the question,
"What would 'American Dad'
look like in real life?"
But second, if someone's on your list
of big, bad criminals
and you can't find any big,
bad crime to arrest them for,
that suggests the problem
might be your fucking list.
So, it is pretty clear gang databases
are way too easy to get on,
way too hard to get off, and can
turn people's lives upside-down.
So, what do we do?
Well, I'd argue, we get rid of them.
And if you're thinking,
"Well, hold on, how will police
then stop gang violence?"
I'd say, "With police work."
They could, and should,
do actual police work,
focusing on where violence
is concentrated,
instead of fixating on labels.
As one expert who's studied
gangs has said,
"Dangerous groups and dangerous
offenders can be tracked perfectly well"
"by ordinary law-enforcement
intelligence methods and systems."
They don't need
these databases to do that.
And for what it's worth, Chicago
and Portland, following criticism,
actually scrapped their
databases in recent years,
and one analysis found it has not
resulted an increase in reported crime.
Meanwhile,
departments in other cities,
including some I've mentioned,
like Phoenix and New York,
told us they've learned from the past
and tightened up
how people are added
to their databases.
But that is very hard to verify,
given how opaque all of this is.
And I'm not saying violence
associated with gangs isn't real,
or isn't a problem.
I'm just saying the answer
needs to go beyond policing, and
way beyond these databases.
One expert we spoke with
emphasized the need
to put resources toward "community
violence intervention workers",
who can access "spaces and networks
police can't and shouldn't enter,"
"like family cookouts and peace
talks between warring street crews",
as those individuals have
the credibility to mediate disputes,
mentor young people at risk,
and guide them toward potentially
life-saving opportunities.
But until we make
that paradigm shift,
we may need to fundamentally
change our understanding
of what being on one
of these databases means.
Because when you hear
"known gang member"
or that something was
"gang-involved" on the news,
it sounds like evidence.
But as you've seen tonight,
far too often,
the label's sloppily applied,
with flimsy criteria
and very little regard for what
the consequences could be.
Keeping these databases
as they are isn't just shortsighted,
it is harmful to the communities
they're supposed to be helping.
If only there were a more elegant way
to sum all that up in just a sentence,
delivered by someone with firsthand
experience of this problem.
Luckily, I think I may know
just the person to speak to that point.
Tell me why are we
so blind to see
that the ones we hurt
are you and me?
Good point, LV! Please!
Been spendin' most our lives
livin' in a gangsta's paradise.
Been spendin' most our lives
livin' in a gangsta's paradise.
Keep spendin' most our lives
livin' in a gangsta's paradise.
Keep spendin' most their lives
livin' in a gangsta's paradise.
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Moving on. Finally tonight, a quick
update about Minor League Baseball.
You may remember, back in May,
we offered to rebrand
one minor league team,
under the condition that they take
whatever name we give them,
sight unseen.
And in a pleasant surprise, nearly
half the teams in the league applied.
In the end, we chose
the Erie SeaWolves,
who sent us 11 reasons
they should be picked, including,
"The SeaWolves
play baseball nowhere near the sea."
So, we rebranded them
into the Erie Moon Mammoths,
taking the name
from a prehistoric fossil
that was discovered in a nearby lake
by a diver named George Moon.
And people seemed
to really respond to it.
The team apparently sold
four years' worth of merchandise
in just three weeks,
and last Saturday,
they played their first of four games
this year as the Moon Mammoths,
in front of a record crowd.
I was there, looking happier
than I've ever been,
and I cannot thank everyone at the
SeaWolves and at this show enough
for working incredibly hard
to pull off this ridiculous idea
in a stupidly short timeframe.
But I am so happy that they all did,
because it was an amazing evening.
Take a look.
Not a single soul has left
this ballpark to turn in early,
hoping for some Moon Mammoths
magic tonight.
Here it comes.
It's morning in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Welcome to UPMC Park!
The SeaWolves are transforming.
I'm the team president for
the Erie SeaWolves
or Erie Moon Mammoths, I guess.
Thanks to the discovery
of this man.
In 1991,
I was diving at Lake Pleasant.
I was doing an advanced class
with another diver
and I found a mammoth bone.
Of course, at the time,
I thought it was a dinosaur bone,
like I was an idiot, you know.
That was the start of it.
And a little help
from one John Oliver.
I hear that frequently
around town.
"Are you aware that there's
another John Oliver out there?"
And I tell them, "I'm very aware,
and at some point,"
"I hope he becomes aware of me."
While many in the area were excited
about the new team name,
not everyone was on board.
We are the SeaWolves.
We aren't the Moon Dogs.
Well, first, Red, it's Moon Mammoths,
not dogs.
But second, it was too late to go back,
because this purple mastodon
was about to make
his big entrance.
And here he is, making
his UPMC Park debut:
Fuzz E. Mammoth!
Nothing could spoil
this majestic moment,
not even an absolute disgrace
of an opening pitch.
My fault, that's on me.
As the game began,
Fuzz greeted his adoring fans,
even as the inferior John Oliver
struggled with every task he was given:
getting food orders wrong,
stumbling through a radio broadcast,
displaying the running form of a weak,
frightened animal,
and absolutely butchering
an American classic.
'Cause it's one, two, three strikes,
Game!
Let's go Mammoths!
Sadly, the story on the field
wasn't quite the fairy tale
the people of Erie had hoped for.
And, goodbye, it's a home run
for Adam Retzbach.
Runner coming to the plate,
they can't get him. They call it safe.
Line drive the other way,
it's a base hit.
Campos looking up, it is gone,
a home run.
And it's six-three, Oyster Catchers.
Though in the bottom of the ninth,
all hope seemed lost.
We'll see if they've got
a three-run rally in their bats tonight.
It turned out these Mammoths
weren't ready for extinction just yet.
Line drive into center,
a base hit.
Leadoff man is on
for the Moon Mammoths.
Crowd of 7,000 Moon Mammoths
fans on the edge of their seat.
On a two-two, Mendoza chops one,
a high chopper to the right side.
First baseman, Urman,
stumbles, gets it to the pitcher. Safe!
Line drive, right center field!
It's down! It goes to the wall!
Josenberger cuts it off,
Liranzo the stop sign at third.
It's a two run double
for McGonigle!
A base hit could win the ballgame.
Lots of fans standing,
hoping for some Moon Mammoths
magic tonight.
And when you believe in magic,
sometimes miracles really do happen.
Briceno strikes out swinging
and that does it.
And sometimes they don't.
That would have been so great.
But even in the face of defeat,
the people of Erie left
with their tusks held high,
because there's always another day.
There's always another ball game.
Feels unreal. I thought that mammoth
would have its time in the sun
every once in a while,
and people would forget about it.
I would have never, ever guessed that it
would have made a splash like this
with the SeaWolves, with
the Erie community, or anything else.
Anything's possible wherever you live,
whether it's Erie or anywhere else.
You never know, when you stick
your hand down in the mud
and pull something up,
what you're gonna find.
Well put, George Moon, you never
do know what you're gonna find.
You might find hope.
You might find a new friend.
You might find something
no reasonable person
would ever expect to see.
Who knows? You might just find
the one task even John Oliver
can't screw up.
Are you ready
for some fireworks?
Three, two, one!
Pretty good, John.
I mean, you're no Bob Costas,
but then, who is?
Let's go Mammoths!
Let's go Mammoths!
Let's do it. Tusks up!
Yes, tusks up, Erie. And, you
know what? Tusks up, America.
That's our show, thanks so much
for watching. Tusks up, everyone!
See you next week, good night!
On your marks, set, go!
Off they go.
The mammoth runs with heart.
C. Wolf has natural pace.
Louie is lost. Dig in, Mammoth!
Think of those centuries!
Now is your time!
Now is your time!
Do it! Do it for Erie! Yeah!
I haven't had HBO for a number
I'm John Oliver, thank you so much
for joining us. We are back!
And we missed a lot
over the last month,
from Trump signing his Big, Beautiful
Bill into law, which was terrible,
to Colbert getting canceled,
which was terrible,
to the Coldplay concert heard
around the world,
which was honestly kind of fun.
We're going to focus on developments
concerning Jeffrey Epstein,
once again voted "horniest resident"
by "Deepest Circle of Hell Quarterly".
Very basically, three weeks ago,
after repeatedly promising
to release information on Epstein,
the Trump administration
abruptly announced
"no further disclosure
would be appropriate or warranted",
released a video it claimed disproved
there was any foul play in his suicide.
Though, when a reporter pointed
out a problem with that video,
Trump's answer wasn't great.
Could you say why there was a minute
missing from the jailhouse tape
on the night of his death?
- Could I just interrupt for one second?
- Sure.
Are you still talking about
Jeffrey Epstein? That is unbelievable.
Do you want to waste the time,
and do you feel like answering?
I don't mind answering.
I can't believe you're asking a
question on Epstein at a time like this,
where we're having some
of the greatest success,
and also tragedy
with what happened in Texas.
Okay, nothing about that is reassuring,
from Trump suspiciously scrambling
to change the subject,
to Marco Rubio quietly mourning
the loss of his last shred of integrity,
which, like part of Epstein's prison
video, seems to have disappeared.
That glib dismissal understandably
didn't go down well,
especially given that Trump
and his inner circle
had been actively
stoking this story.
In February, conservative influencers
were summoned to the White House
and handed binders
labeled "Epstein Files Phase 1",
which turned out to contain
virtually no new material,
despite their covers
including the phrase
"the most transparent
administration in history",
a claim which is not aging great!
And Trump has been struggling
to move past this,
as new revelations
keep coming out,
including a Wall Street Journal report
about a gross letter he allegedly wrote
for a book
for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday.
The Journal describes the letter as
"several lines of typewritten text"
and the "hand-drawn outline
of a naked woman."
"The future president's signature is
a squiggly 'Donald' below her waist."
Trump allegedly
signed off with the words,
"A pal is a wonderful thing."
"Happy birthday and may every day
be another wonderful secret."
Okay, there is a lot there.
First, "may every day
be another wonderful secret"
is absolutely what would be
inside a Hallmark card
if they had a subcategory called
"birthday for prolific sex traffickers."
Second, the "squiggly
Donald below her waist"
was, in the Journal's words,
"mimicking pubic hair,"
which is obviously gross, but also,
Why the fuck is
this Trump's signature?
"Donald Trump" has 11 letters,
not 400 Ms.
His signature looks less like pubes
and more like the polygraph results
when he's asked if he's asked if he's
ever been friends with Jeffrey Epstein.
Now, I have to tell you, Trump's
sued the Journal for defamation
and strongly denied writing that
letter, which is understandable,
given it allegedly contains the line,
"We have certain things
in common, Jeffrey."
He also tried to brush it off
by claiming, "I don't draw pictures."
Though, as people quickly pointed
out, he very much does do that.
He basically spent the week
desperately trying to draw people's
attention anywhere else.
He threatened the Washington
Commanders' stadium deal
unless they revert
to their old name,
posted an inexplicable three-minute
highlight reel of old internet clips,
like a woman grabbing a snake
with her bare hands
and various jet ski tricks,
and accused Obama of treason
for trying to steal the 2016 election.
And in case it wasn't obvious
that was a flagrant attempt
to deflect attention from the Epstein
story, Trump basically admitted it.
At the White House, the president
has urged fellow Republicans
to help change the subject.
Every time they give you a question
that's not appropriate, just say,
"By the way, Obama
cheated on the election."
Yeah, it's that easy!
And if they keep asking, just say,
"Hillary shot JFK,
Rosie O'Donnell did 9/11"
"and Nancy Pelosi fucked a bat,
that's how we got Covid."
"No further questions."
And while distraction is usually
one of Trump's greatest weapons,
it doesn't seem to be working here.
Even his sudden dumping
of thousands of files related to
MLK's assassination didn't do it,
given King's daughter responded by
posting this image, captioned,
"Now, do the Epstein files."
Which is excellent.
In terms of internet clapbacks,
that is up there
with Wendy's asking if we can
send Katy Perry back to space,
and I don't say that lightly.
And some of the harshest criticism
is actually coming from
Trump's most fervent supporters.
Even the QAnon Shaman posted,
"Fuck this stupid piece of shit,
what a fraud."
Once you've lost Dipshit Daniel Boone
here, you are in trouble.
And it's understandable
why Trump's struggling to get
even his own base to take his word for
it that there is nothing to see here.
Because to do so,
you essentially have to believe
everything we've learned about Trump
over the years is irrelevant,
or sheer coincidence.
That all Trump did was repeatedly
host Epstein at Mar-a-Lago,
have him at his wedding, hang out with
him at Victoria's Secret fashion shows,
get listed as a passenger
on his plane eight times,
joke with him at a party
while pointing out hot women,
and saying something into his ear
that got the most grotesque smile
in the history
of human expressions,
tell a reporter, "I've known Jeff
for 15 years. Terrific guy."
"He likes beautiful women
as much as I do,"
"and many of them
are on the younger side"
and allegedly host
a "calendar girl" competition
where, other than the two dozen women
flown in to provide the entertainment,
the only guests
were him and Jeffrey Epstein.
You'd also have to forget
about Trump bragging
about his ability to grab
women's genitals
and claiming he'd go backstage
at his beauty pageants
while women were getting dressed,
something he was accused of doing
by five Miss Teen USA contestants,
and once remarking of his own
infant daughter Tiffany
that "she's got Marla's legs."
"We don't know whether or not she's
got this yet, but time will tell."
Beyond that, though,
there's nothing there.
Except for a jury finding him
liable for sexual abuse.
But other than that,
there's nothing to see.
And I should note:
Trump denies the Epstein letter,
the calendar girls contest,
and the claims of walking in
on Miss Teen USA contestants
changing.
He also insists he broke off ties
with Epstein
before he was convicted
of soliciting sex from a minor.
And he's repeatedly denied being
told his name was in the Epstein files,
despite reports Pam Bondi told him
months ago that his name was in there.
And I guess, ideally, Trump would
have Jeffrey Epstein on tape,
vehemently denying their connection.
Unfortunately, what he's got instead
is this moment
in Epstein's 2010 deposition.
Have you ever
socialized with Donald Trump
in the presence of females
under the age of 18?
Though I'd like to answer that
question, at least today,
I'm going to have to assert my Fifth,
Sixth, and 14th Amendment rights, sir.
Yeah, not great! If the answer's
"no," just say that.
Instead, Epstein
started listing amendments
like he was ordering
off the value menu.
"I'll have the number five,
six, 14, 10, 12, three,"
"and whichever else means
I don't have to break bro code."
Who knows where we go from here?
On Thursday, the deputy AG,
Todd Blanche,
Trump's former personal attorney,
went to talk to Ghislaine Maxwell.
And it's not hard to imagine
someone serving a 20-year sentence
that only one man can commute
coming up with whatever story
serves his interests.
But even if that happens, I'm not sure
it'll stop the questions.
Because people aren't letting this go.
When DHS and the White House
posted this video announcing
the TSA's new shoes-on policy,
comments on it included,
"So cool. What about the Epstein files?"
and "TSA needs to check your shoes,
they might find Epstein files there."
And this White House post
about Trump's AI initiatives
got comments like,
"Where's the list, Donny?"
and "Captain Cankles,
where's the list?"
And look, maybe those files
show nothing more than
that Trump and Epstein are two creeps
who enjoyed one another's company.
Do I personally think that's possible?
Though I'd like to answer that question,
I think I'll plead the Fourth,
12th, and 22nd Amendment.
But even if that's the case,
and Trump still eventually ends up
consumed by a conspiracy monster
he cynically helped create
and now can't control,
then at least that'll be a sliver
of something that's frankly been
in short supply
in this whole Epstein story,
and that is actual justice.
And now, this.
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The new way some companies
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and, of course,
it's got a catchy name.
Yeah, we're rolling it out this morning,
the summer of sneakflation.
It's the summer of superheroes.
You could call it the summer
of the water main break.
It's this summer of the silk scarf.
The summer of booty.
It is the summer of sharks.
Step aside, sharks, this is
the summer of fireflies.
The summer of bugs.
It's the summer of the dog.
It is the summer of meow
in Jefferson County.
Brace yourselves
for a summer of millennial mania.
Don't you guys feel like this is
the summer of courtroom dramas?
Is this really gonna be
the summer of stablecoin?
You could call it
the summer of Pedro.
This might go down
as the summer of Labubu.
This is the summer
of grandma core.
All that plus summer of love.
This is not the Summer of Love.
Moving on. Our main story tonight
concerns gangs,
something Tampa police once
warned teenagers about like this.
Think it's cool to be
a baller, shot caller?
Wanna end up like this?
Join a gang and chances are,
you will. The choice is yours.
So make the right choice.
Open your eyes
and wake up before it's too late.
Holy shit!
Take it down 1,000 notches!
Because when you show a dead body
pop up like a jack-in-the-box,
you're not implying
joining a gang'll kill you,
you're implying it'll turn you
into a flesh-eating zombie.
If that is true, gangs are the least
of your problems right now, Tampa.
Gangs have long been
a target of law enforcement,
and this story concerns
a commonly-used tool
police have developed to thwart them:
gang databases.
Basically, lists the police keep
of people that they say
are involved in gangs.
You might remember,
earlier this year,
the government used them as
a justification to deport immigrants,
most famously in the case
of Kilmar Abrego Garcia,
whose deportation they
later admitted was a mistake.
Before Trump doubled down
on this Microsoft Paint bullshit
being actual evidence, he initially
talked about the case like this.
You're talking about Abrego Garcia.
Is that the one? Yeah.
He's an illegal alien, MS-13 gang
member, and foreign terrorist.
This comes out of the State Department
and very legitimate sources.
I mean, I assume. I'm just
giving you what they handed to me,
but this was supposed
to be certified stuff.
Was it? Okay, well, I'm glad it's
"certified stuff," that's reassuring.
But you know you don't always
have to read what they hand you, right?
If they handed you "Mein Kampf",
would you read it out loud?
You know, I take that back,
that's a terrible example,
you wouldn't just read it,
you'd do a fun little riff on it
in the briefing room.
But it is worth talking about those
"legitimate sources",
because one of the few pieces
of evidence authorities have produced
to support those MS-13 allegations
is Abrego Garcia's 2019 entry
into something called
GangNet: a regional gang database.
Basically, back in 2019, cops
apparently approached Abrego Garcia
and three others at a Home Depot
in Maryland,
filled out a form
identifying them as gang members
and submitted it to GangNet.
Officers "observed he was wearing
a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie"
"with rolls of money covering the eyes,
ears and mouth of the presidents",
saying they "know such clothing to be
indicative of the Hispanic gang culture"
and that
"wearing the Chicago Bulls hat"
"represents that they're a member
in good standing with MS-13."
Which is already a little bit weird.
Because it implies that, somehow,
if you're not up to date
on your monthly MS-13 dues,
your Bulls hat privileges
get revoked.
The cop filling out that form
also cited
a "past proven and reliable source
of information"
who supposedly corroborated
that Abrego Garcia
was "an active member of MS-13",
though you should know,
that cop was suspended
just a week later,
pled guilty to misconduct on an
unrelated issue, and was fired.
Nevertheless, that gang allegation
meant Abrego Garcia
was denied bond and spent months
locked up in ICE detention.
In fact, it later emerged that he's
the guy in this local news piece
from 2020, speaking anonymously
about his experience.
I spoke with an immigrant
who was looking for work
outside of this Home Depot
in March 2019.
He tells me he was falsely
labeled as a gang member
and was detained
for almost eight months.
I don't know why they noticed me.
Perhaps because of my Latino race,
they labeled me as a gang member.
Which I have never been,
and I have no criminal record in
my country or in the United States.
Yeah, that is ridiculous. A person's
clothing shouldn't be criteria
for locking them up
for eight months.
As we all know, the worst consequence
for fashion choices
should be getting roasted
by teens on TikTok.
Maddie B. from Georgia has a right
to her opinions,
but that doesn't mean that they don't
hurt. Hey, Maddie: fuck you.
Congratulations on your sweet 16,
but fuck you.
And notably, two separate
federal judges
have looked at the government's evidence
and found it unconvincing,
with one on Wednesday
writing that,
"for the court to find that Abrego
is a member of or in affiliation"
"with MS-13
would border on fanciful."
And his isn't the only story that brings
these databases into question.
The Trump administration
also deported
this Venezuelan man,
Francisco Garcia Casique,
to the El Salvadoran prison CECOT,
claiming he's part of Tren de Aragua,
something that he and his family
strongly deny.
And while the government hasn't
supplied any evidence for that claim,
reporters discovered
a Texas gang database does list him
as a member of that gang.
But that listing has some
pretty big red flags on it,
including that that photo
is of someone else entirely.
Those are two whole
different genres of men.
And it was only
after this was pointed out
that authorities removed
his entry from Texas's database.
And at that point,
it's about as trustworthy
as those ads at the bottom
of websites with headlines like,
"You'll Never Believe What
Angela Bassett Looked Like as a Child"
paired with a photo
of Little Miss Sunshine.
Guys, I don't think that's her.
The fact is, around the country,
local and state police departments
keep these databases,
sometimes without disclosing them,
despite investigations repeatedly
finding them to be
"notoriously inconsistent and opaque",
riddled with "questionable
entries and errors"
and
"rife with unreliable intelligence."
So, given all that, tonight,
let's talk about gang databases,
how people end up on them, and
the massive problems they can cause.
And before we start, let's just
briefly discuss what a gang is.
Because the word can conjure up
media representations
of tight, coordinated groups,
whose members are all engaged
in sophisticated criminal
conspiracies and violent crimes.
But nowadays, a gang
can look wildly different,
with many being loose groups
of teenagers banding together
for protection, status,
or a feeling of community.
There's a lot of variability here
and not all gang members
may even be engaged in crime.
As one researcher has put it,
"Not all gang members are criminals,
not all criminals are gang members."
Unfortunately, none of that nuance
is on display in these databases.
And depending where you live,
the reasons to be added to one
can be worryingly broad, as this
defense attorney explains.
It is a database entirely maintained
by law enforcement
that has no scrutiny from any other
branch of government
or from any citizen organization
or from anybody whatsoever.
They control this database completely.
And if they want you in this database,
they can put you in this database.
So, we don't know what they're
doing or how they're doing it?
Nope. As far as you know,
you could be in that database.
I could be in that database.
Well, that is not ideal.
Because in terms of lists you
don't want to find your name on,
a police gang database
seems like one of the worst,
right above the Epstein client list,
which luckily, remember, doesn't exist,
and I can't believe
anyone's still talking about it!
The criteria to be added
to a gang database
are typically unrelated
to criminal conduct,
and more focused on how
a person looks, acts,
and whom they associate with.
Some places
even have a point system,
where certain actions or identifiers
get added up
to qualify you for inclusion.
The Boston Police Department
uses a point system
for identifying gang members
and associates.
For example, if you're in a group photo
or have contact with a gang member,
that's two points.
If you use gang paraphernalia
or other identifiers,
that'll earn you four points.
Six points, and you're considered
a gang associate.
10 points and you're a verified
gang member.
Yeah, but that evidence
seems pretty weak.
Just being in one group photo
with someone
doesn't automatically mean
you're meaningfully linked.
There is a reason
that we don't call the people in this
photo the "Kevin Spacey Gang".
But it's not just photos
and paraphernalia,
being in a known gang location,
or wearing gang colors
can also land you in a database.
But that can get very subjective,
as, at one point,
the colors the NYPD considered
to be associated with various gangs
were black, gold, yellow, red,
purple, green, blue, white,
brown, khaki, gray,
orange and lime green.
That sounds less like a thoroughly
vetted list of gang signifiers,
and more like someone naming
what colors the Gap Factory Foreversoft
Shrunken Crewneck T-Shirt comes in.
Also, for the record: lime green
is just a terrible gang color.
Nobody looks good in lime green,
except maybe Jessica Chastain, once.
Now, as for "associating
with known gang members"
that can mean merely talking
to an alleged member,
being seen walking next to them,
or simply having the status of "friends"
on a social media platform.
In some places, even being the victim
of alleged gang violence
counts towards getting someone
in the database.
In Boston, that can earn you eight
of the 10 points required.
And the thing is, the evidence can get
even thinner, as in many places,
the sole criteria
can be "self-admission".
And just watch as
the NYPD's then-chief of detectives
gets asked a fairly obvious
follow-up about that.
People self-admit to us every day
in New York City.
So, self-admission will get you
in the criminal group database.
So, does the police officer,
patrol officer, perhaps ask,
"Are you in a gang?" and people
just willingly answer that question?
Yeah, that is not
generally what happens.
Right! Of course it isn't!
No one's gonna voluntarily
tell a cop they're in a gang,
unless they just got kicked
in the head by a police horse.
What "self-admission"
can actually mean is,
"we found something
on your social media"
"that we've decided constitutes
you admitting to being in a gang."
But that can include things
like online posts
simply using the word "gang".
In one instance, a teenager
who'd posted a picture with a friend
with the caption
"Happy birthday gang"
was added to a database
with "self-admission"
listed as one of the reasons.
And if the bar is that low,
anything is basically a confession.
A pic of you holding a diploma
with the caption "killed it"?
Congratulations, grad, but guess what?
Now you're wanted for murder.
And while so far, I've been saying
anyone can be added to these lists,
those who end up on them
are heavily people of color.
In D.C., their database at one point
had almost 2.000 names on it,
and only one individual was white.
One, in total.
Do you know how few lists there are
with only one white guy on them?
It's basically this database and
the cast of "Hamilton". That is it!
And police can cast
a pretty wide net
when it comes to flagging people
as potential gang members.
A 2023 audit of the NYPD's
database found
they'd designated entire public housing
buildings as gang locations.
And in California, this man
was approached by police
in what they apparently considered
a "known gang location",
which was just a park
in South Central L.A.
They jump out,
they come over there to us,
"We got a call that y'all was drinking
and you're loud and this."
I said, "There's nothing on the table,
so what do you mean, drinking?"
He says officers interviewed them,
asked them to hand over their IDs
and raise their shirts
to show any tattoos.
You can have a tattoo
and not be a gang member!
I got a letter in the mail saying that
I'm a gang member. I'm like, wow.
Yeah, wow indeed.
Having a tattoo clearly
doesn't mean you're in a gang,
and it definitely doesn't
mean you've committed a crime.
Lots of people have them
for all sorts of reasons,
like Adam Levine, who once
explained his shark tattoo by saying,
"I've always had a strange
fascination with sharks."
"I actually think they're the most
fascinating creatures on Earth."
"I guess the tattoo
had something to do with that."
And who here can disagree?
Adam Levine treating his body
like a 10-year-old's sticker book
doesn't mean he's guilty of a crime.
DM-ing an Instagram model,
"I may need to see the booty",
feels pretty close to one.
But that is different, isn't it?
And it turns out, that man
is not only not a gang member,
he literally worked
in gang intervention,
trying to prevent kids from joining
them and make communities safer.
And he is well aware
of the irony of all this.
You can't stereotype everybody that
you just pull up on.
I mean,
you got some bad cats out here,
but then you got bad police out here
that don't really care about nothing.
Larry says he's never been in a gang.
Not interested in joining.
I sing, it's what I do.
And he's pretty good at it.
His rap name is LV,
short for Large Variety,
and his big claim to fame?
Singing the vocals for Coolio's
Grammy-winning song
"Gangsta's Paradise", in 1995.
It's true!
He's basically music royalty.
And for anyone who doesn't know,
"Gangsta's Paradise" was a hit song
from the well-meaning white teacher
movie "Dangerous Minds"
and it's one of the rare rap songs
without any cursing in it,
because it samples
a Stevie Wonder song,
and he apparently didn't want to clear
the sample until Coolio offered
to take out the swears
and then he agreed.
So, to recap here: the police put
the gang interventionist
from the clean rap song about
the cyclical nature of gang violence
on California's gang database.
And a pretty good sign these databases
have too many names in them
is just how quickly they get smaller as
soon as people start asking questions.
After the police in D.C. faced
a spate of news articles and lawsuits,
they suddenly managed to remove
half of individuals on their database.
Which isn't surprising, given
it turns out a police lieutenant there
had admonished his staff about weak
and bad validations in the database,
writing, "sooner or later the entire
unit is going to get burned for this."
And in some cases, people have been
flagged as gang members
seemingly out of pure spite.
Take what happened in Phoenix
just a few years back.
Inside the state's gang member
database, you'll find the names
of 17 of these
umbrella-carrying protesters.
In October 2020, they marched in
downtown Phoenix streets,
followed by many more
Phoenix officers.
Then, they huddled on a street corner,
where they got arrested and eventually
charged as a criminal street gang.
To charge as a street gang
in Arizona, the law is broad.
You need just two
of the following criteria.
And here are the ones that
officials claimed for the protesters:
they carried umbrellas,
they wore mostly black,
and they chanted,
"All cops are bastards."
For those reasons, officials
labeled them members of ACAB,
a gang of extremists.
Yeah! That happened.
The cops rounded up 17 people
at a Black Lives Matter protest
and branded them all as a gang,
with one police sergeant
even telling a grand jury
that they were more dangerous
than the Crips, the Bloods
and the Hells Angels.
Which is a pretty major exaggeration,
given their energy doesn't scream
"violent gang" so much
as "goth 'Singin' in the Rain.'"
As for the "wearing all black", that is
not suspicious, that's called taste.
And that's not me talking,
that's Coco Chanel, honey.
If you have a problem with that,
tell it to her grave, in Switzerland,
where all true fashionistas
get buried.
Now, in that case,
the State Department of Public Safety
declined to add those people to
the database, and for good reason,
especially given some had never
even met before that night
and one was this guy, who just saw them
walk by and started taking photos.
But however you get onto these lists,
whether it's a Facebook post,
living in the wrong building,
or just annoying the cops,
it can be very hard to get off.
Few places have real mechanisms
for challenging your placement,
assuming you even know you're
on one in the first place.
Because while that singer
got a letter in the mail,
California's one of the few places
that requires you be notified
if you're added to a database.
And let's say you were in a gang,
but you left,
which is actually pretty common.
Experts say most people
who join gangs
might just try it out
for a couple years, then leave.
The problem is,
while departments are supposed
to reevaluate gang database entries
at least every five years
"and purge those
that officers can't re-confirm,"
that doesn't always happen.
One of the first in-depth looks
at California's database
found it was rife with names that
should've been purged long ago.
And if your name
is in a database,
it can open you up to even
more interaction with police,
as "you're more likely to get
stopped and searched,"
"or arrested for a minor infraction."
Which is obviously dangerous,
especially for people of color,
who, remember, are the vast
majority of those on these databases.
Just listen to this man
in New York,
explaining how an outdated gang label
came back to haunt him.
32-year-old Victor Dempsey,
a former gang member
who served prison time at 17
years old for attempted robbery,
says he left his gang life
behind more than a decade ago.
He claims the NYPD's gang database
still has him listed as a known member,
which he realized during
a recent routine traffic stop.
The fact that they decided
to detain me in their squad car
because I'm labeled a gang
member is outrageous to me,
and I did not know until that day.
I happened to see the monitor
and there was a mugshot
of me that said "security risk".
Yeah, that's a pretty nasty surprise.
But I will say, good on that guy
for doing what we all do but very
few are brave enough to admit to:
taking a little peek
at someone else's screen.
If your screen is out in public,
I'm a-peeking.
A four-paragraph friend break-up on
the subway? Don't mind if I fucking do.
Sarah has been different since
the Fourth of July beach hang,
and you're right
to tell her over text.
And all of this
can have long-term effects.
If you're labeled a gang member,
you could face higher bail,
tougher prosecution
and even a longer sentence.
For instance, in California, let's say
you're accused of stealing a phone
and are charged with robbery.
Your sentence might be around
two to five years.
But if you're in their database
and the DA pursues a gang
enhancement charge,
you could easily be facing
as much as 15 years.
And that can push people to feel
like they have to take plea deals.
As when it comes to immigrants,
the designation of "gang member"
can be truly life-altering.
It can be the reason that someone's
denied pathways to remain in the U.S.,
and it "can make someone"
"a higher priority for deportation
and the target of a raid."
Take what happened during
Trump's first term.
Back then, there was a real presence
of MS-13 in Long Island,
with significant associated violence.
But that fed into a paranoia
that got wildly out of hand.
Because schools there were told to be
on the lookout for gang activity,
with some maddeningly
imprecise guidance,
as both a school administrator and
a community activist there pointed out.
You really don't see this guy anymore.
You're going to see these guys.
It's going to be the kid in
the skinny jeans and the polo shirt
and maybe the Chicago Bulls cap.
They put on a presentation.
They show images of bandanas,
or Bulls horns, and they tell us
that those are items that,
if we see the students
wearing or drawing,
that we should be on the alert
because it's related to a gang.
I've heard things like, "Well, they
scribble '503' in their notebooks."
That's the area code
of where they come from.
Yeah, and kids are gonna doodle.
And "503" is honestly preferable
to what most students
are drawing: dicks.
Just loads and loads of dicks.
Octopus with dick tentacles,
the Easter Bunny with dick ears,
the school's principal
with dicks for arms, legs
and even hair.
They are lucky their students
were doing area codes instead.
And the thing about telling
teachers and school police,
"Look out for a bunch of kids
all wearing the same thing"
is that "wearing the same thing"
is literally what kids do.
One teacher there later told the story
of how she was working lunch duty
when a school security guard
told her he thought it was suspicious
that a lot of the students
were wearing the Salvadoran flag.
As she put it, "Thank God I was
there, because I told him,"
'Today is their Independence Day.
He had no clue.'"
And just imagine being labeled
a gang member
because a school security guard
didn't have international holidays
turned on on his Google Calendar.
Unfortunately, not all kids
were as lucky
as those in that particular lunch room.
Because at another high school
in that area,
a teenager called Alex got added
to a gang database
by a school resource officer after he
was seen, among other things,
wearing blue sneakers, which school
security guards told him
were "the color of MS-13."
They cited the fact that he'd written
the numbers "504" on his backpack
and had doodled
a devil with horns.
But you should know,
Alex was a Honduran immigrant,
and 504 was the Honduras
country code.
As for the devil, that was literally
that school's mascot.
This is what it looked like. Also blue,
by the way-the color of MS-13!
Nevertheless, Alex got labeled
an MS-13 member.
And a few months later,
ICE agents came to his house,
arrested him, telling him they'd
heard he was a gang member,
and he was eventually deported.
And he wasn't the only one
scooped up.
And when a police commissioner there
was asked
why he thought collaborating with ICE
was a good idea,
he had a pretty chilling answer.
Why do you need
to even bring in ICE,
because the evidence
isn't strong enough?
For example, if we have intelligence
that they are a gang member,
that's not necessarily a crime, right?
Certainly, being
a gang member is not a crime,
and the intel that we may have may
not indicate a significant state crime.
We may have something small, but
nothing that'll keep them in jail.
So, if we perceive someone
as a public safety threat,
we utilize all of our tools,
which include immigration tools.
So, we'll partner with
the Department of Homeland Security
to target them
for detention and removal.
Okay, so, there is a lot there.
First, thank you
for finally answering the question,
"What would 'American Dad'
look like in real life?"
But second, if someone's on your list
of big, bad criminals
and you can't find any big,
bad crime to arrest them for,
that suggests the problem
might be your fucking list.
So, it is pretty clear gang databases
are way too easy to get on,
way too hard to get off, and can
turn people's lives upside-down.
So, what do we do?
Well, I'd argue, we get rid of them.
And if you're thinking,
"Well, hold on, how will police
then stop gang violence?"
I'd say, "With police work."
They could, and should,
do actual police work,
focusing on where violence
is concentrated,
instead of fixating on labels.
As one expert who's studied
gangs has said,
"Dangerous groups and dangerous
offenders can be tracked perfectly well"
"by ordinary law-enforcement
intelligence methods and systems."
They don't need
these databases to do that.
And for what it's worth, Chicago
and Portland, following criticism,
actually scrapped their
databases in recent years,
and one analysis found it has not
resulted an increase in reported crime.
Meanwhile,
departments in other cities,
including some I've mentioned,
like Phoenix and New York,
told us they've learned from the past
and tightened up
how people are added
to their databases.
But that is very hard to verify,
given how opaque all of this is.
And I'm not saying violence
associated with gangs isn't real,
or isn't a problem.
I'm just saying the answer
needs to go beyond policing, and
way beyond these databases.
One expert we spoke with
emphasized the need
to put resources toward "community
violence intervention workers",
who can access "spaces and networks
police can't and shouldn't enter,"
"like family cookouts and peace
talks between warring street crews",
as those individuals have
the credibility to mediate disputes,
mentor young people at risk,
and guide them toward potentially
life-saving opportunities.
But until we make
that paradigm shift,
we may need to fundamentally
change our understanding
of what being on one
of these databases means.
Because when you hear
"known gang member"
or that something was
"gang-involved" on the news,
it sounds like evidence.
But as you've seen tonight,
far too often,
the label's sloppily applied,
with flimsy criteria
and very little regard for what
the consequences could be.
Keeping these databases
as they are isn't just shortsighted,
it is harmful to the communities
they're supposed to be helping.
If only there were a more elegant way
to sum all that up in just a sentence,
delivered by someone with firsthand
experience of this problem.
Luckily, I think I may know
just the person to speak to that point.
Tell me why are we
so blind to see
that the ones we hurt
are you and me?
Good point, LV! Please!
Been spendin' most our lives
livin' in a gangsta's paradise.
Been spendin' most our lives
livin' in a gangsta's paradise.
Keep spendin' most our lives
livin' in a gangsta's paradise.
Keep spendin' most their lives
livin' in a gangsta's paradise.
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Moving on. Finally tonight, a quick
update about Minor League Baseball.
You may remember, back in May,
we offered to rebrand
one minor league team,
under the condition that they take
whatever name we give them,
sight unseen.
And in a pleasant surprise, nearly
half the teams in the league applied.
In the end, we chose
the Erie SeaWolves,
who sent us 11 reasons
they should be picked, including,
"The SeaWolves
play baseball nowhere near the sea."
So, we rebranded them
into the Erie Moon Mammoths,
taking the name
from a prehistoric fossil
that was discovered in a nearby lake
by a diver named George Moon.
And people seemed
to really respond to it.
The team apparently sold
four years' worth of merchandise
in just three weeks,
and last Saturday,
they played their first of four games
this year as the Moon Mammoths,
in front of a record crowd.
I was there, looking happier
than I've ever been,
and I cannot thank everyone at the
SeaWolves and at this show enough
for working incredibly hard
to pull off this ridiculous idea
in a stupidly short timeframe.
But I am so happy that they all did,
because it was an amazing evening.
Take a look.
Not a single soul has left
this ballpark to turn in early,
hoping for some Moon Mammoths
magic tonight.
Here it comes.
It's morning in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Welcome to UPMC Park!
The SeaWolves are transforming.
I'm the team president for
the Erie SeaWolves
or Erie Moon Mammoths, I guess.
Thanks to the discovery
of this man.
In 1991,
I was diving at Lake Pleasant.
I was doing an advanced class
with another diver
and I found a mammoth bone.
Of course, at the time,
I thought it was a dinosaur bone,
like I was an idiot, you know.
That was the start of it.
And a little help
from one John Oliver.
I hear that frequently
around town.
"Are you aware that there's
another John Oliver out there?"
And I tell them, "I'm very aware,
and at some point,"
"I hope he becomes aware of me."
While many in the area were excited
about the new team name,
not everyone was on board.
We are the SeaWolves.
We aren't the Moon Dogs.
Well, first, Red, it's Moon Mammoths,
not dogs.
But second, it was too late to go back,
because this purple mastodon
was about to make
his big entrance.
And here he is, making
his UPMC Park debut:
Fuzz E. Mammoth!
Nothing could spoil
this majestic moment,
not even an absolute disgrace
of an opening pitch.
My fault, that's on me.
As the game began,
Fuzz greeted his adoring fans,
even as the inferior John Oliver
struggled with every task he was given:
getting food orders wrong,
stumbling through a radio broadcast,
displaying the running form of a weak,
frightened animal,
and absolutely butchering
an American classic.
'Cause it's one, two, three strikes,
Game!
Let's go Mammoths!
Sadly, the story on the field
wasn't quite the fairy tale
the people of Erie had hoped for.
And, goodbye, it's a home run
for Adam Retzbach.
Runner coming to the plate,
they can't get him. They call it safe.
Line drive the other way,
it's a base hit.
Campos looking up, it is gone,
a home run.
And it's six-three, Oyster Catchers.
Though in the bottom of the ninth,
all hope seemed lost.
We'll see if they've got
a three-run rally in their bats tonight.
It turned out these Mammoths
weren't ready for extinction just yet.
Line drive into center,
a base hit.
Leadoff man is on
for the Moon Mammoths.
Crowd of 7,000 Moon Mammoths
fans on the edge of their seat.
On a two-two, Mendoza chops one,
a high chopper to the right side.
First baseman, Urman,
stumbles, gets it to the pitcher. Safe!
Line drive, right center field!
It's down! It goes to the wall!
Josenberger cuts it off,
Liranzo the stop sign at third.
It's a two run double
for McGonigle!
A base hit could win the ballgame.
Lots of fans standing,
hoping for some Moon Mammoths
magic tonight.
And when you believe in magic,
sometimes miracles really do happen.
Briceno strikes out swinging
and that does it.
And sometimes they don't.
That would have been so great.
But even in the face of defeat,
the people of Erie left
with their tusks held high,
because there's always another day.
There's always another ball game.
Feels unreal. I thought that mammoth
would have its time in the sun
every once in a while,
and people would forget about it.
I would have never, ever guessed that it
would have made a splash like this
with the SeaWolves, with
the Erie community, or anything else.
Anything's possible wherever you live,
whether it's Erie or anywhere else.
You never know, when you stick
your hand down in the mud
and pull something up,
what you're gonna find.
Well put, George Moon, you never
do know what you're gonna find.
You might find hope.
You might find a new friend.
You might find something
no reasonable person
would ever expect to see.
Who knows? You might just find
the one task even John Oliver
can't screw up.
Are you ready
for some fireworks?
Three, two, one!
Pretty good, John.
I mean, you're no Bob Costas,
but then, who is?
Let's go Mammoths!
Let's go Mammoths!
Let's do it. Tusks up!
Yes, tusks up, Erie. And, you
know what? Tusks up, America.
That's our show, thanks so much
for watching. Tusks up, everyone!
See you next week, good night!
On your marks, set, go!
Off they go.
The mammoth runs with heart.
C. Wolf has natural pace.
Louie is lost. Dig in, Mammoth!
Think of those centuries!
Now is your time!
Now is your time!
Do it! Do it for Erie! Yeah!
I haven't had HBO for a number