The police force in the United States resembles its own little army, with weapons and equipment on hand that make our little Irish minds boggle as to why they could possibly need all this firepower within arm's reach. But that's a very interesting question - Why? Why is it that policing in the USA requires such weapons to be readily available? What happened that forced local police departments to ditch the pepper spray for the AR-15? This week's episode is just one of the reasons why policing in America underwent such an overhaul.
On February 28th 1997, Los Angeles was rocked when a confrontation between two bank robbers and LAPD erupted into a shootout that, while lasting for only 44 minutes, saw North Hollywood shut down from around 9am until almost midnight, with children being kept in lockdown in schools until 8pm. Our suspects are Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu - two armed robbers who stormed into a Bank of America branch at the intersection of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Archwood Street in North Hollywood at 9:16am. 44 minutes later, Larry would lay dead and Emil would be under arrest.
But why is this event so different? Bank robberies weren't uncommon, especially not in Los Angeles, and this was, surely, just another heist - right? Well, before Larry and Emil walked into the bank, they were fitted with armour plating, and enough guns and ammunition that will see 2,000 rounds of ammunition fired by the shootout's end and enough protection that despite being hit several times - both gunmen could continue to stand and resist the LAPD. Strap in folks, this one is going to keep you glued to the episode like nothing else.
This episode was recorded by Arron Keegan and joined by Hayley O'Connor and Conor Daly. The intro and outro music - Strollin' Along - was recorded by David Renda. Make sure you follow us on social media! Just search for "That's Old News" on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter/X!
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Chapters
(00:00) Coming Up This Week
(00:44) Intro
(05:27) Los Angeles: A Haven For Robbery
(12:11) Larry Phillips Jr.
(14:03) Emil Matasareanu
(20:29) A Bad Start
(28:36) The Robberies Begin
(30:48) February 28th, 1997 - The North Hollywood Shootout
(01:03:42) The Aftermath and the Future of Policing in the USA
(01:09:52) Some Funny Moments During the Shootout
(01:17:02) Post Show Banter and Discussion
