and SoCal air remains thick with smoke from raging wildfires

SoCal's skies remain thick with smoke as wildfires combine with weather conditions to layer the lower atmosphere with sooty clouds of ash.

By Jade Hernandez

Saturday, September 12, 2020 7:46PM

also

DENSE FOG ADVISORY

Issued: September 12 at 2:00PM PDT

Expiring: September 13 at 10:00AM PDT

Areas Affected: Los Angeles County Coast including Downtown Los Angeles

has video and reporting about the hospital disturbances

whole story is certainly counterproductive to cops becoming less likely to use paranoid tactics

cross links related to possible perps:

The online use of anti-police memes has surged, a new research report says, raising concerns that they might spur real-world violence....Some memes that spread on social media depict police officers being shot or their vehicles burned...Another post urged people to use 3-D printers to make guns that can’t be traced by authorities....

from VIOLENT MEMES AND MESSAGES SURGING ON FAR-LEFT SOCIAL MEDIA, A NEW REPORT FINDS

It started as an internet meme.Then waves of political unrest gave adherents of the Boogaloo a chance to test their theories about the collapse of American society....Hunter told me he and his compatriots feel their hands have been forced. “A lot of the violence perpetrated by the government, police brutality, foreign wars, civilian casualties, no-knock raids — I guess the way we viewed it was: ‘How in the world are we supposed to stand up against this?’”.... In April, a man in Texarkana, Texas, who identified with the movement streamed a live video on Facebook while dressed in body armor and a Hawaiian shirt, telling viewers he was “hunting the hunters”: searching for police officers to ambush.... On the forums, they would joke about a “pig roast” — code for killing police officers. In June, Facebook claimed that it deleted hundreds of accounts and pages devoted to the movement; by mid-July, the Boogaloo bois were back on Facebook talking about a “spicy fiesta.”....“They’re really anti-police,” Pitcavage says of the Boogaloo; they may say they want to find common cause with anyone protesting the police — but some want to act as agents provocateurs, accelerating street violence and furthering any conflict. For many of them, the protests following the killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day looked like the perfect opportunity to create mayhem....

from THE CHAOS AGENTS: INSIDE THE BOOGALOO, AMERICA'S EXTREMELY ONLINE EXTREMISTS

LA Sheriff to politicians: Emphasize trust in justice system

Includes results of interview, by Stefanie Dazio @ AP.com, Sept. 15

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County sheriff on Monday criticized elected officials, sports figures and civic leaders for “fanning the flames of hatred” as America grapples with racism and police brutality, saying they instead should emphasize trust in the criminal justice system.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s comments to The Associated Press came after the weekend ambush of two deputies who were in their parked police vehicle when a man walked up to the passenger’s side and fired multiple rounds. The deputies were struck in the head and critically wounded but both are expected to recover, Villanueva said. The gunman hasn’t been captured and a motive has not been determined [....]

[....] After that shooting, a handful of protesters gathered outside the hospital where the deputies were treated and tried to block the emergency room entrance. Videos from the scene recorded protesters shouting expletives at police and at least one yell “I hope they ... die.”

Villanueva said the angry rhetoric is making deputies’ work more difficult.

“They’re out there doing their job and yet we have people fanning the flames of hatred and just turning up the volume when we don’t need it. We need to be turning it down,” Villanueva said. “Particularly our elected officials and civic leaders and sports figures, they need to start emphasizing trust in the system, due process.”

Villanueva did not specify any particular people but many politicians and athletes have harshly criticized police and called for defunding departments in the wake of [....]

In his interview with AP, Villanueva also rejected claims the criminal justice system is biased against people of color, saying his department is committed to thorough investigations, including of its own employees.

“To someone who says they’re biased, the only bias we have is toward facts,” he said. “We need to stop the false narratives. We have to let the system take its course and justice has to be based on facts, based on evidence. It has to be right.”

Villanueva said the department’s investigations into police shootings like Kizzee’s take time.

“We’re not going to speed up or slow down at the behest of anybody,” he said. “It’s going to be based on fact, not on emotion. Some people already have determined the results, so they’re trying to throw rocks at the process.”

Meantime, Villanueva defended the arrest of Josie Huang, a reporter for public radio station KPCC taken into custody during Saturday’s demonstration outside the hospital. The department said Huang didn’t identify herself as a journalist and interfered with the arrest of a protester.

After she was released, Huang tweeted she was “filming an arrest when suddenly deputies shout ‘back up.’ Within seconds, I was getting shoved around. There was nowhere to back up.”

In a video of the incident, Huang can be heard shouting, “I’m a reporter. ... I’m with KPCC” as she falls to the ground. She said she was wearing a press pass.

Villanueva said Huang was too close to the deputies during the man’s arrest. He claimed “that’s where she crossed the line from journalism to activism,” He said he didn’t know if the deputies heard her shouting “I’m a reporter.”

“You have to have a certain level of responsibility as a journalist,” Villanueva said. “Do your job but do it at a safe distance where you’re not interfering with the deputies doing their job.”

He added: “All I can say is, in the heat of the moment when these protesters are calling or chanting for the death of the deputies in the emergency room, she picked the worst time possible to try to get an up-close of the deputies making an arrest. That’s on her.”