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Chris Moritz

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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Look, I mean, there's so many... sort of fault lines in the decay of California that's happened, I would say, over a course of 25 years. It's accelerated significantly in the last five. But I think when we ultimately try and dissect what has happened here, you have to ask yourself the question, why? And what is the political economy?

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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And the political economy of California is one that is increasingly stratified. It's stratified by design. It is stratified significantly because of the influx of immigrants into the country, into the state, both illegal and not, but significantly amongst low skill, obviously low wage, illegal immigrants. California is 27% foreign born today. Since 1990, that has grown 60%.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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And as the state has become more foreign, more dominated by immigrants, the Democratic Party has become more and more entrenched, right? So California was not a blue Colossus. I would argue even until 2000. But this has been an accelerating trend. It's not something that has happened by accident.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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It has happened for the explicit purpose of achieving political hegemony amongst the Democratic Party. Now, I argue in my book that the Biden administration attempted to implement the exact same strategy with their immigration policies that we all witnessed to such great horror.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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um fortunately you know that was curtailed by the election but in california there has been no um pause right the the consolidation of power um the amplification and ascendancy of figures like gavin newsom and kamala harris who words that is only continuing And unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be, you know, an off ramp. So, you know, it's a complicated question.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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Yeah, and hopefully that is actually what will happen. I mean, the fact is, Dr. Drew, you live here. You, I'm sure, understand the zeitgeist of this state like I do. And everyone is talking about crime all the time. We've all been affected by it. We all see it. And in many cases, we've been victimized by it.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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So I actually wrote this book because of a victimization that I experienced in 2023 when my home in Santa Monica was effectively home-invaded Two nights in a row on one weekend by an MS-13 gang member, convicted felon, had served seven years in state prison for gun crimes. And he was immediately deported after his prison sentence by the Trump administration in the first term.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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And then he came back into the country under Biden. And once he was back in California, he had a kid, so that's a US citizen. And then he went on a rampage across LA County and into Ventura County. And he committed dozens of these types of crimes all over the place. Now, in LA County, especially under the tenure of the former DA George Cascone, Property crimes were simply not prosecuted.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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So police officers had no incentive to make a case on a property crime, even one where there's a violent element. And this guy was a violent gangster. When he was arrested by the police, up north in Ventura. He had a stolen loaded gun on him, body armor, knives. And actually in his interrogation, the cops said to him, thanks for not opening fire on us at the arrest.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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So we know you had a gun on you. He said, don't thank me because if my wife and kid had not been in the backseat of the car, it was a stoplight arrest. He said, I was totally planning on opening fire and murdering you because I'm not going back to jail.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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This guy was ultimately only sentenced for two counts of these types of crimes in Ventura County, which takes property crime and crime in general a little bit more seriously, but not a lot. He ended up getting a two year sentence, which he'll serve, I'm sure, much less than that, probably a year and a half. and a $300 fine.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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Now, if you or I don't pay our taxes, we're going to go to jail for a lot longer than two years. So what has happened that our justice system has now prioritized the rights of criminals above victims, of course, but society in general. And when I learned all these facts and was trying to understand just as a citizen of California, how this could have happened, I began an investigation.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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And one of the prosecutors I talked to in my initial research, who's a veteran deputy DA, I told her my story and she said, well, what's so remarkable about your story is how relatable it is. And I was kind of taken aback by that. Because how could it be relatable that an MS-13 gang member could home invade your house while you're asleep, two nights in a row.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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And he's an illegal alien, a dreamer, by the way. And he gets a two year sentence and is gonna be out in the last event. And that's now become relatable and the standard of justice in California. When that happens, what I determined ultimately, and this was substantiated by significant research into plenty of other examples of this types of occurrence, is that in California,

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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The state has effectively surrendered on its fundamental duty to protect citizens. That's the number one job of government. In fact, it's the entire basis of what we call the social contract. The idea that you surrender, pay taxes, surrender liberties, autonomy in exchange for protection by the government, which is supposed to have monopoly on violence.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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And at the very least, there has to be an assurance of justice. That is gone in California. So in my opinion, the government of California really does not have any legitimacy, and certainly Gavin Newsom.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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It's really interesting you should phrase it that way, Dr. Drew, because in my book, I actually have an entire chapter dedicated to the legislative history of what I believe is really the core of our problems. And I call it statutory negligence. And the idea is that the laws put in place by the legislature, but also through ballot initiatives, are so reckless, so foreseeably dangerous.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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They rise to a level of gross negligence or criminal negligence, which if it was an individual committing that kind of tort, they would face criminal liability.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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Now, it's really interesting you should bring up 1789. So I call my book A Portrait of California in the Twilight of Empire, and that has several different connotations. One, of course, is that California is the fifth biggest economy in the world, almost a country unto itself. I would say an empire, and it is in its twilight. When I wrote the book,

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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This was before the election, and it did seem that America was in a twilight of empire. But beyond that, I wanted to frame the destruction of our state

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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against the sort of end of empire um phenomenon across you know many different civilizations and societies and with respect to the french revolution um i i've actually termed this phrase you called grievance uh or retribute retribution it's a kind of retributive justice

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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I call this crime equity, and I think it's at the fundamental heart of the so-called criminal justice reforms that have turned our state into a war zone in many parts. And the idea of it is that the ultimate ideological motivation for these reforms is not about rehabilitating criminals. It is actually as a form of equity about redistributing crime.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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Redistributing crime to areas and people that had been historically insulated from it. So I view this very much as an attack on the middle class. And in fact, the evidence, especially speaking to police officers in Los Angeles is indeed crime has spread.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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from the so called dangerous areas to the west side of Los Angeles, to Brentwood, to formerly the Palisades, to these areas that had been off limits. And this is not just because criminals have gotten smarter, not just because there's been changes within the economics of the criminal underworld, which I can talk about, but really because laws have been put in place. to unleash criminals.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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And it is entirely foreseeable that by unleashing criminals and emptying the prisons, They are going to continue to commit crime because that is the statistical conclusive determination about crime. It's committed over and over again, higher recidivism by a small number of people, career criminals.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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And a lot of the people that we've released through prison reforms are in fact violent and have violent history.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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You know, it's funny. People say that California is this sort of like progressive bastion. They're wrong. It's actually as regressive and reactionary as you can possibly imagine. Because the oligarchy, and it kind of ties to the 1789 kind of analogy. And in some ways, I feel the bourgeoisie, the middle class that are really under attack by the oligarchy in the state.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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But in any event, a great example about the prisons. So we shut down juvenile correction facilities in past years. As a result, juvenile crime has spiked. And in fact, gangs are recruiting children as young as 10 to be child soldiers committing hijackings, armed robberies, and even assassinations. There is an example a few years ago of a small time rapper who was by LAX Airport parking his car.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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A 15 year old gang member approached the vehicle, assassinates him, gets back in the vehicle, getaway vehicle that's driven by his dad, okay? So what gangs have learned, because they're smart, they understand legal arbitrage, is that if you have recruit kids Even if they get arrested over and over and over again, they face no consequences.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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Gaston refused, as one of his initial directives, to try juveniles as adults, ever. So this is the consequence. Again, all of these types of policies have a predictable response. And another thing I would say that is just, I think, quite interesting is the influence of the Mexican drug cartels in California is far, far more profound than anyone possibly realizes.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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And essentially what I have learned through many, many hours of interviews with cops and prosecutors is that sometime in the late 2000s, the Mexican drug cartels moved into California to essentially execute a hostile takeover of the drug trade, which was primarily dominated by the Bloods and the Crips and legacy black gangs. And the cartels said to these gangs that

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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if we catch you selling dope without sanction, we will cut your head off. And they meant it literally. Right, so they brought the Mexican style savagery, which I call sort of pre-Columbian sort of atavistic savagery into this state. The legacy Black Kings, well, they got the message fast. So they had to find a new vertical of crime to continue their operations. What was the easy target?

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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Residential burglaries. And it just so happened that in the state, we barely take them seriously. You are more likely to get robbed, burglarized, beaten or your car stolen in California than in any other state in the country by far, by like double.

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The RFK Files Coverup & Failed State Of California w/ Mark Groubert & Chris Moritz – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 478

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My grandfather was... We're from Liverpool originally. There's a lot of English in Santa Monica. And Santa Monica was a great place up until the communists took over. It's Steven Miller, one of my best friends, okay? He's also from Santa Monica. There's a lot of great folks from Santa Monica and Southern California, but we're surviving. And again, my home is my castle. I'm not giving up.