Episode 81 with Cerise Castle, Producer, Podcaster, Journalist, and Intrepid Writer of The Important Series ”A Tradition of Violence: The History of Deputy Gangs...” for KnockLA

Show Notes and Links to Cerise Castle’s Work and Allusions/Texts from Episode 81 

    On Episode 81, Pete talks with Cerise Castle about her lifelong love of reading, her early mature engagement with literature and the world, her work as a podcaster and producer and reporter, and the issues and exhaustive research surrounding her 15-part series on deputy gangs with The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, entitled “A Tradition of Violence: The History of Deputy Gangs in The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.”

     Cerise Castle is a Los Angeles-based multimedia journalist specializing in arts & culture, civil rights, crime, and human interest stories. She has several years of experience as a multi-media journalist across print, television, and audio.

She has produced and hosted segments for the Emmy-award winning nightly news program, VICE News Tonight, Los Angeles NPR affiliate KCRW, and nationally syndicated radio program Marketplace. She has also produced two series for the podcasting giant, Wondery. Her reporting and commentary have been featured in publications like The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine and MTV. 

In her free time, she is an avid hiker and stargazer.

       

Cerise Castle's Personal Website

 

I Hate My Boss Podcast 

 

"A Tradition of Violence The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department"

 

Cerise Castle’s KnockLA Website

At about 2:25, Cerise talks about her relationship with language and her lifelong love of reading, including her love of historical fiction, history, Zora Neale Hurston, Roald Dahl, and Walter Dean Myers (maybe at too young of an age!), Mike Davis, and Brenda Stevenson

At about 6:00, Cerise responds to Pete’s question about her exposure to news and politics as a kid

At about 7:50, Cerise gives a mixed response to Pete’s question about her feelings on representation in what she read growing up

 

At about 9:00, Cerise is asked about contemporary writers and works that have thrilled her, and she shouts out Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age and Brandon Taylor’s Real Life

At about 10:50, Pete asks Cerise about how she comes up with story ideas

At about 12:00, Pete asks Cerise about “light bulb moments” in which she realized that journalism was for her, including a transformational meeting with Ann Curry in 8th grade

At about 14:45, Cerise talks about her experience writing at Vice as a freelance writer and as on-camera reporter

At about 15:35, Cerise shouts out Kai Rysdaal

At about 16:15, Cerise talks about her experience with Wondery podcasting, such as I Hate My Boss

At about 17:15, Pete asks Cerise about the genesis of her series about gangs within the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, as well as the exhaustive research (she read about 100,000 pages!) needed to complete the writing

At about 18:45, Cerise notes that “people are talking about it” and using the story for promising legal purposes

At about 19:30, Cerise recounts some compliments that she has received from the series, and responds to Pete’s question about how much the average LA County resident knows about the deputy gangs

At about 22:40, Cerise and Pete discuss the amount of money paid out by taxpayers and the violence and murders carried out in the last four or five decades due to LASD gangs

At about 25:10, Pete points out one section of the series and the repeated lack of accountability for those who have committed crime while wearing a badge, and she talks about the legacy of Peter Pitchess

*EDIT* Cerise notes that she was referring to Sheriff Sherman Block**

At about 29:00, Cerise traces some of the early deputy gangs and Pete notes the chilling quote by David Lynn and the “Vietnam Mentality,” 

At about 30:20, Cerise notes an interesting article by Lexis-Olivier Ray with LA Taco that notes the number of LAPD officers who live outside the communities they serve, even outside of the state at times

At about 31:20, Pete asks Cerise if he sees LASD gang members as being inherently drawn to the gangs, or if they are corrupted once they join; Cerise notes that her research has shown that those who don’t join are ostracized and threatened with job loss and physical violence 

At about 33:30, Pete and Cerise know the perversity of the sheriffs who commit flagrant acts getting, at maximum, a slap on the wrist, while those who report misconduct are shunned and written up and sometimes prosecuted  

At about 34:10, Cerise notes the people she has interviewed who have compared the LASD gang situation with Training Day

At about 35:10, Cerise talks about the proliferation of sheriff gangs, moving from the Lynwood Vikings to The Century Station to the LA Central Jail

About 36:20, Pete asks Cerise about the fact that the Sheriff’s Department even in 2021 has a leadership with extensive gang ties and histories 

About 38:30, Pete wonders about the major obstacles that haven’t allowed extensive prosecution and punishment of sheriffs’ misconduct, and Cerise talks about how seriously deputies take “The Blue Code of Silence”

About 40:00, Cerise explains a phrase favored by Paul Tanaka, the #2 in the LASD about “work[ing] in the gray area”

About 41:00, Pete asks Cerise about any desire for change and support for change after George Floyd’s police murder

 

 

You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a

five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Spotify, Stitcher,  and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I’m @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I’m @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe via The Chills at Will Podcast Channel.

This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I’d love for your help in promoting what I’m convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.

I’m excited to share my next episode, Episode 82 with Sara Elkamel, a poet and journalist living between her hometown, Cairo, and New York City. She holds an MA in arts journalism from Columbia University, and is currently an MFA candidate in poetry at New York University, where she taught in the undergraduate Creative Writing Program. Her poems have appeared in The Common, Michigan Quarterly Review, Four Way Review, and The Boiler, among others.  The episode airs on October 1.

The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.