Dozens of people were arrested in
Los Angeles over the weekend,
during the second week of protests
outside of a Korean spa in
Koreatown known as Wi Spa.
Now, this started off with
what appears to be a completely
manufactured controversy, and I'll
give you those details in a second.
But unfortunately the situation
devolved even further,
with police using excessive force
against the counter protesters who
showed up to counter protest
the anti-transgender protesters who
were demonstrating outside of
the spa.
Now we gotta go back a little bit,
I want to give you some context,
because this all started on
June 24th, when an Instagram user,
cubaangel posted a video of herself
angrily confronting a staff member
at the Wi Spa in Korea town,
accusing them of letting a disrobed
transgender person in the women's
section of the business.
Now I'm familiar with Wi Spa,
I have frequented that spa several
times, and I hate the fact that
a place that I love so much is
embroiled in this controversy,
especially with what appears to
be a manufactured controversy
by the right wing.
I said manufactured because so far
there's been absolutely no evidence
that the allegations by this woman,
this anti-transfeminist, who
was berating Wi Spa workers, that
the incident even happened, right?
So she claims it did.
She claims that there was
a transgender woman, who went into
the women's area of the spa,
was disrobed, and
allegedly had an erection.
And when I first heard the story,
I was skeptical of it mostly
because the woman was using a lot
of the rhetoric that you hear from
right wingers who want to prevent
transgender people from using
the bathrooms that they identify
with, or from playing sports with
the gender that they identify with.
But now we have a few more details.
So there is increasing doubt among
law enforcement and
staff at the Wi Spa, whether there
was ever a transgender person there
to begin with.
Anonymous sources within the LAPD
tell the Blade they have been
unable to find any corroborating
evidence that there was
a transgender person on that day.
Similarly, a source at the Spa told
the Blade there's no record of any
of its usual transgender clients on
its appointments guess list on
the day in question.
Treatment at the Spa is by
appointment only, which is true,
I have made appointments
there before, and
most of its transgender clients
are well known to the staff.
Now an important element to
the story is the fact that in
California, businesses are not
allowed to discriminate against
customers, patrons, clients,
based on their gender identity,
based on their sexual orientation.
We have that statewide law in
California.
So anyone who wants to come after
Wi Spa, over allowing transgender
women or men into their business
understand that they are legally
obligated to do that, okay?
So the woman in question who
complained about a transgender
woman in the women's locker room,
threw a fit,
recorded herself as she's yelling
at a Wi Spa employee about it.
And then protests ensue,
anti-transgender protests ensue,
and then you have the counter
protesters who are responding to
the anti-transgender protesters.
And of course it devolves into
violence, police show up.
As I mentioned,
this is now the second week
that the protest took place.
Of course there's scuffles, and
the cops use excessive force.
A good example of that is the video
that you're about to watch,
where a protester was just shot at
blank range with a less lethal
weapon, let's watch.
[NOISE] >> So,
there's also some regulations in
Los Angeles in regard to how police
are supposed to use these less
lethal weapons, right?
Whether it's the weapon that
you saw in that video that uses
a foam projectile, or beanbags.
They're supposed to shoot, I mean,
I honestly think this is insane,
but they're supposed to shoot it
the ground so it ricochets, and
then hits the target, so
it's less powerful, I guess.
But look, the point here is,
why did the cop even do it?
I mean, you have
a counter protester, they're saying
don't shoot, don't shoot.
No one is serving as any type of
imminent threat, and this isn't
the only video evidence we have of
the cops using excessive force.
It's so incredibly frustrating,
because I think, look, if you want
to have a legitimate discussion,
a calm discussion about the nature
of Korean spas, and
how some people might feel
uncomfortable with a transgender
person in the locker room.
I think that that might be a valid
discussion to have, but
you can't have that discussion when
it immediately devolves into
what we're experiencing right now,
in all of this video surveillance,
in all of these cases of police
using excessive force and brutality
against the counter protesters.
>> Yeah, and I don't want to cast
any aspersions on the police,
far be it for me to ever do
something like that, Ana.
But from what we know, police
officers, the members of the force,
they tend to lean conservative,
which makes me believe that
probably their sympathies lie
not with the anti protesters, but
the people who were complaining and
pissing and moaning about trans
people being able to freely use
a facility in the section of which
gender they actually identify with.
That's the one.
So I'm never going to be surprised
with the cops behaving in lockstep
with the worst fringes of
American conservatism.
That seems like par for
the course for me.
Yeah, secondly, Ana, you're right.
We can't even have a frank
conversation about nudity in
a freaking locker room of a spa.
Why are you losing your mind over
this?
I know why, it's because this
country was founded on some BS
puritanical principles,
and we're still dealing with
the remnants of that unnecessary
conservatism around everything
involving human genitals, right?
We're still dealing with that.
But my favorite part about this
lady lying was that,
the trans person had an erection.
You flatter yourself, lady.
[LAUGH] >> Really, really,
that's what happened?
Come on.
>> Yeah, so I try to see both sides
of the actual core issue, right?
Because there are bad faith actors
involved in this, and I think it's
important to kind of take them out
of the equation in order to talk
about the core issue of, all right,
well, there's a transgender woman.
because Korean spas,
here's the issue with Korean spas,
I love Korean spas.
You're not allowed to be clothed in
the women's area.
The women's area has hot tubs,
it has a freezing cold pool that
you're supposed to torture
yourself in.
You go in the cold pool and
then you go in the hot tub, and
then cold pool and then you just,
I don't know why you would do that?
But apparently people think it's
good for them.
Anyway, my point is you're not
allowed to wear a bikini or
a bathing suit.
In fact, I went there once with
a good friend of mine, she was
uncomfortable being completely nude
in the hot tub area, so
she was wearing a bathing suit.
But the staff told her that she
can't do that,
that she either has to leave or
take off her bathing suit.
And there are kids there as well,
there are literally children
there because the culture is,
hey, we go there as a family,
we spend the entire day at
the spa to relax and recharge.
I love that about Korean spas.
But I don't know, is it wrong to
take the concerns of some good
faith actors seriously, right?
If they are there with their kids
and they are uncomfortable with
that nudity in the locker room,
especially when they're with their
kids, you know what I'm saying?
I don't think that it's wrong to
have a conversation about
that amongst people who don't have
bad intentions.
You get what I'm saying?
But the conservatives in this
country don't want that rational
conversation to take place,
because this is all spectacle for
them, right?
This is all a giant distraction.
It's part of the culture wars
that honestly,
it's the bread and butter for
the Andy Ngo's of the world, right?
Of course Andy Ngo, he's first,
he's front and center as these
protests are taking place,
because this is just an effort to
create content, create spectacle.
And again, it seems unlikely that
the incident even occurred, but
is it unlikely for an incident like
that to ever occur, right?
Not the needless embellishments by
the woman.
But if there's a transgender person
in the women's locker room at
the spa, is it possible that that
could happen in the future?
Sure, but you can't even have
an honest conversation about it,
without this turning into
this toxic stew of hate and
police brutality of course.
>> Yeah, I think the problem
with the conservatives is,
it's always hard to
take them at face value when
they're presenting their issues.
And I'll give you abortion,
as an example.
If a bunch of conservatives were
like, you know what, I don't want
to see abortions happening.
So we're going to ramp up sex
education, contraception, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
We're going to do all the things
that prevent unwanted pregnancies.
No, they don't want that,
they just don't want people having
sex for sport, right?
And so that's often what happens
with many of their arguments.
I don't know that it's actually,
you know, we feel uncomfortable
seeing the genitals of a trans
person in a spa.
It's like no, I just don't want
trans people at spas, period.
That's the real issue.
So it's often hard to take these
people at face value when they make
their arguments.
And I gotta say I think people will
overrate nudity.
Honestly as somebody who
grew up with my grandmother,
who's from Haiti in the house,
this woman did not care.
When it was time to take his shirt
off and throw her bra somewhere,
that's what she was doing it door
wide open.
She didn't give a damn, and
we learned to live with it
somehow, Ana.
And then [LAUGH].
>> Yeah, fair enough,
fair enough, that's a good point.
I do want to go to one more video
and then we'll leave this topic,
and I agree with you overall,
I think you're right.
You mentioned how the cops tend to
be a little more empathetic toward
right wing values.
That's definitely the case in
California or Los Angeles, I should
say, where, the chief of the Los
Angeles Sheriff's Department made
it clear that they're not going
to enforce the new mask mandate
which requires indoor mask wearing.
Then there's also the fact that
they are brutal not just to
counter protesters, but
also to journalists who were just
simply trying to cover what was
transpiring that day.
Take a look.
[NOISE]
>> Just brutal, absolutely brutal.
Cops come in, they're supposed to
de-escalate the situation, and
they do the exact opposite.
They call it an unlawful assembly,
and then immediately use brutal
force in order to clear the area.
It's just and doing that to
a journalist who's trying to cover
what's transpiring is, it goes
against the rights of a free press,
but they don't care.
They don't care, and
there are no consequences.
Obviously they could just do this,
shows like ours, we'll call it out,
but when push comes to shove,
nothing really changes.
Nothing's really done to hold them
accountable when they use this
excessive force toward people,
including journalists.
>> And oftentimes you hear police
and people who are allied with
the police talk about the dangers
of the job.
I put my life on the line every day
on the job, right?
Sorry, some of y'all do,
some of y'all do.
Some of you guys do actually work,
very dangerous neighborhoods.
A lot of y'all are just
pushing ladies around, that's which
you do on a daily basis,
your life ain't in danger,
nobody's actually bothering you.
Nobody's in danger of being heard.
You're just being a jerk to some
people who happen to a spouse of
those beliefs, that you don't
personally agree with them on.
That's often what you're
doing as a cop.
That's why next time a cop tells
you that life is on the danger,
is on the line,
you should show them that clip.