legal low and welcome to qqed newsroom, i'm thuy vu. coming up reporters from youth radio examine sex trafficking in oakland. the first graphic novelist to be named national ambassador for young people's literature. first a look back the gop convention that wrapped up in cleveland, a look forward as democrats gear up for their convention kicking off on monday. this week was supposed to be a chance to rally the gop over the nomination of donald trump. in a primetime speech, senator ted cruz refused evoking boos from many of the delegates. on the democratic side, after a lengthy nomination fight with bernie sanders, how will hillary clinton use the convention in philadelphia to fire up her party's base and win over swing

voters? democratic strategist mary hughes, republican strategist sean wall are, and political reporter alisa walsh. what a week it's been. you came back from the convention this morning. law and order was very much the main theme of donald trump's speech. he said it at least four times in his speech. was it enough to unify the republican party? >> the message wasn't to unify the republican party. the message was to actually get the attention of the entire country. so in our country right now, seems like the best of times, the worst of times. there's a real unsettled feeling in the country with a lot of the officers shot that we are losing control. some of the crime statistics saying 16% of violent crime was up. that message was designed to play on people's insecurities and anxieties, not only on the domestic level but on the foreign level. >> is that a good message? many conventions, you hear messages of hope and inspiration and aspiration.

this was very much depicting a country that seems in chaos. it was dark, it was angry. >> i think that the reality and the perception are in two different places right now. i think the reality is america, many of our inner cities are on the rise, cleveland is a fantastic city that really has come back. the perception that is we're out of control with regards to foreign terrorism threats, domestic criminal activities and other issues. so the perception right now is driving a lot of the electorate. and that is the belief of mr. trump. >> i think that that was a -- is a calculation, that we don't know yet how it's going to go. you're right, there are some cities where crime is up, there are always stamts statistics there. in general, america's pretty safe right now. so i think that we have a lot of fear, we have a lot of fear about foreign terrorism, we have a lot of fear about what we hear on the news or media. will that sort of play out and get those independent voters that trump needs? i'm not sure that's a calculation that's going to play out.

>> and historically we've looked at the economy as the bellwether of where voters would go. and it was interesting to me that there was virtually no discussion of the economy, the domestic economy. where unemployment here in california is below 5%. where the number of jobs created just last month here was 40,000. so the economy over the last eight years has undeniably improved dramatically across the country. and there wasn't a whiff of that, understandably. >> but there was, actually. so that plays into the underlying fear, quite candidly, of immigrants coming in here and taking jobs away from folks in cleveland and buffalo and akron, ohio. i think the insecurities of people from their job perspective, awe mayization of their jobs. as we're speaking there's an active shooting situation going on in germany. that plays right into the fears and the message that was put

forward. >> that's the base. i think that's the question, is that a message that gets forward to the people that trump does need to win over? i do think that you heard a lot of coded language this week about that base about a lot of people who do feel that this country is not the place that maybe their parents grew up in. but again, i think it's going to be interesting to see at a convention this week where we saw a lot of anger at hillary clinton, the lock 'em chant became the mantra, what do democrats do to push back on that? are they going to look at this from a sort of peer perspective or go back to 2008 with this message of hope? there's a lot happening between the two. >> the republican party needs more women voters, more nonwhite voters. is that message good enough to convince those voters? >> there was a dual message here. i was skeptical putting so many of your kids up there to talk about you. i think that can have a negative effect. but in this instance, where the

public doesn't know donald trump and what they see is an acerbic, the quintessential in your face new yorkers, they off theened him up, a family man, he cares about his kids, he cares about herewith workers, his kids turned out okay so he must have some positive, warm at dutytrib. i think it was a good move on their it was a bit risky as you said in this sense. the donald trump who advances the issues under the big umbrella of fear also is a donald trump who is vulnerable on, for example, on the trade issue. here's a guy whose company and whose clothes are produced in factories outside of the united states. here's a guy whose bankruptcies hurt, when we got the blue collar billionaire presentation. but when you go and scratch the surface in atlantic city what you find are small business people and craftsmen who, when the bankruptcies came, they bore the brunt of that.

and so i wondered as i listened to this outstretched warmth toward folks who do have it hard, whether under much scrutiny that would stand up. >> look. our country, for better or worse, is going through some very wrenching time periods. jobs are changing. mechanization is changing. i think we're back a little bit towards the nixon era. and so the trump campaign is going towards a nixon strategy. it's the hard hat strategy. i think the clinton campaign is making a disastrous mistake, as are the democrats, putting up a lot of these families who have been shot by the police. >> but is it a smart strategy to hearken back to the era of nixon? the society we had then so is different from now. back then nearly 90% of the voters were white. we've got a situation now where the last presidential election, it was hovering around 70% white. >> it's not nixon, it's talking

about insecurities for jobs. it's talking about foreign insecurities. it's talking about domestic insecurities. so -- for a lot of republicans, and i would argue for democrats and independents, this isn't fear for them. this is real, honest to goodness concerns. that's why trump won in the primary is because a lot of the republican candidates refused to address issues that a lot of the electorate said they think are real problems. and so i do think this is a message, candidly that will go beyond just the republican base. now, is it enough? i don't know. again, he's vulnerable with moderate republicans, he's vulnerable with women. if they don't show up, he loses. >> yeah, i think that mary hit on something though, trump does have a tough needle to thread. he's put himself out as the everyman, here to represent these white workers who are falling from the middle class. on the same side of the coin, he's the real estate developer. he's a billionaire. that's also -- he's trying to speak to everybody while also talk about how he has been such

a success and he's going to bring that success. we saw a lot of that i think this week with the sort of almost wanting to have it both ways. i think in timeses it works, in other times it didn't. i do think it's worth mentioning how much the message was knocked off by things like the cruz speech, by things like melania trump's speech, similarities to michelle obama, i know sean will say that's the media focusing on the negative. but it was the story and it was what people were talking about. >> i know you're both going to the democratic convention. beginning monday in philadelphia. so mary, what can we expect to see at that convention? >> two things. in a variety of ways. one is strength. the other is likeability. i think you will find a wamplrm and a cohesive democratic party that is -- represents and looks like the modern and forward-looking united states of america.

and that has solutions. i think the breadth of her experience and the depth of detail by which she will tell you how she will proceed, to the answer problems about fear, and to solve some of our bigger problems, will be clear. and we hope not numbing detail. but nonetheless, pretty specific. >> she clearly has the experience. but polls show a majority of americans, even those who say they will vote for hillary clinton, think trust is a liability for her. how does she overcome that? can she overcome it? >> yes, she can overcome it. and i think there are a couple of things you can do. one is to -- a simple one, simply to breathe. i think we see her often in these very tough and very memorable situations in her life when she is under intense

scrutiny. and now she has won this nomination. something she has sought for a long time. i think you will see the joy and the acceptance of the party's confidence. which is something she's been after for a while. and i think that you will also learn things about her, as we did about mr. trump, that show you the human being who is there. and as people learn more, i think their confidence will grow. >> i think we're going to see a lot of contrasts as we sort of already hit on here. i mean, last week -- this week, the convention started with make america safe again. we talked about public safety issues, immigrants killing people. we had speeches from police officers talking about police officers who have been killed. we had a speech from a father of somebody who was killed by an illegal immigrant. by contrast the democrats are opening up with first lady michelle obama. and a dreamer, a young immigrant

who is here illegally but was given deportation relief from the obama administration. i mean, just that i think shows you the way the democratic party is trying to position themselves in contrast. sean also mentioned on i believe the second night they're going to have this group of mothers, mother of sandra bland who died in police custody, the mother of eric gardener who was shot by police, a contrast with what we heard about sheriff joe arpaio and others last week. it's certainly made for tv, we'llsy. >> as of now hillary clinton has not announced her vp pick but heavy speculation is it will be virginia senator tim kaine. how do you think bernie sanders voters will react to that? >> i think bernie sanders voters and democrats across the board want to win. at this point everyone understands that our big tent is only working if everybody gets underneath it. so i think they're in. i think they'll be for it.

they got a good platform. they worked hard on it. senator sanders is in. and he held out a long time. so that he would know his candidacy had been worthwhile. i think unlike the missed opportunities for unity that we saw, i think what you will see is people who say, this is not only worth it because i believe in what we're trying to do, but when you consider the alternative, nobody stays out. >> i think this is hillary 10.0, trying to remake herself for the eighth, ninth, tenth time. i don't think it's a bad strategy for getting activist democrats left-leaning saunders voters on board but still the perception she's wall street's candidate. there is a serious trust problem on her part. there's also a trust problem on donald trump's part so i'm not sure where it ends up at the end of the day. but she has real issues. >> if tim kaine is the vp pick,

that is a calculated strategy to go after independents and voters that feel this way. if you look at polls clinton's in a better position than obama was eight years ago for her supporters. this is an attempt to sort of focus on the more moderate crowd. >> we'll have to leave it there. i'm sure you guys will all be back between now and election day. thanks so you all. sean walsh, marisa lagos, mary hughes. earlier this year the library of congress chose the first graphic novelist to be the national ambassador for young people's literature. bosh and raised in the bay area, gene yang has been drawing comics since grade school. else his stories take on themes of race and identity, as well as superheroes and mythical lower. yang wants to inspire america's young readers to open up their world through books. welcome to the program. >> thank you for having me. >> you have been national ambassador for young people's literature for a few months now.

what has the experience been like so far? >> it's been amazing. it all started in january when i was invited over to the library of congress in washington, d.c. there's a fancy ceremony, i put on a fancy suit, they gave me a fancy medal, gave a speech about how much books mean to me. since then i've done a couple of other speaking engagements. >> what have books been to you in your life? >> books are huge. books have formed me as a human being, as a cartoonist. one of the examples i share in these speeches is how books have actually been ambassadors for me. they've explained worlds i never understood before. for instance, i don't know if you can tell, but i'm kind of a nerd. which means i grew up -- i was terrible at sports when i was growing up. i never had any sort of interest in sports. especially basketball for some reason. whenever i played basketball, the ball always ends up hitting me in the head. so i just try for a really long time to stay away from that world as much as i could. eventually i got interested in

basketball, and part of it is from books. i read this book called "outside the paint" written by a woman named kathleen yep, about the chinese basketball scene in the 1940s in san francisco. >> in fact in your inaugural speech as ambassador, you talked about that. >> that's right. >> a beautiful speech, i read it. you talked about reading without walls. how breaking down those walls really allowed you to learn about a whole new world of basketball that you had never been interested in. >> that's absolutely right. i think that's such an important part of books. we're all caught in our own brains, i stew in our own thoughts. books are a way to experience life through somebody else. through somebody else's mind. >> as a kid, what did you want to grow up to be? >> when i was really little, i really wanted to be a disney animator. animation, animated movies, animated television series. that was the first time i realized that you can tell stories by drawing. and i've always loved these two things, stories and drawing.

that's what i wanted to do. >> at what point did the writing part come in? >> fifth grade. that's when i started reading comic books. my mom bought me the superman comic and after i read that my mind was blown. i realized that you could convey things through these still pictures on a printed page. in such emotional and effective ways. i knew that was something i wanted to do. >> in fact, this book, "american-born chinese," is the one that really catapulted you to national fame. it won the michael prinz award for excellence in young adult literature, the first graphic novel to accomplish that, what was your reaction if. >> that was crazy too. the response was life-changing. that book got so much support from librarians and teachers and readers in general. and that really marked a turning point in my career. before that, every time i put out a comic book i would lose money.

this was actually one i could tell my parents, this is actually making a little bit of money. >> you can be proud now because your parents are immigrants from taiwan and hong kong. >> that's right. >> and you actually majored in computer science at uc berkeley, partly to please them. but it wasn't your passion. >> i do love computers for sure. but my dad's very practical wishes for me also played a role. >> the "new york times" hailed your book "american-born chinese" as a dark exploration of asian-american adolescence that blends two cultures in "inventive, unexpected ways." are identity and culture the themes you like to explore most in your works? >> it does seem like i return to that over and over again. i have a friend named mantra quailly, a young adult author as well. she says at the heart of every young adult book is this equation. that's power plus belonging is

equal to identity. and i really feel like that describe miz work. my work is really about how young people find their power, how their find their voice, how they find their sense of belonging, how that adds up to their identity. >> in fact, that is one of the reasons that you would drawn to superman, right? >> absolutely. >> you saw it through that lens. >> yeah, i've been a superhero fan in general for a long time. superman is the very first superhero. he's the one that established the conventions of that genre. he was created by the sons of poor jewish immigrants. and i don't know if they did it consciously but i feel like they put a piece of the immigrant experience into that character. he really is an immigrant. he's from a different culture. he comes over to america. and he has to wrestle between these two cultures. he's a kryptonian and also an american and figure out how these things fit together. >> you started working on superman for dc comics. >> i started on issue 41, which came out last summer.

issue 50, which is the end of my run, just published last month. >> what will your next book be about? >> i am doing another book for d dc comics "new superman," a chinese kid who grows up in shanghai who inherits some superman's powers. >> an asian superman? >> that's right. >> i think that's awesome. as an immigrant i find that awesome. >> we're all excited about it. >> and a quick fun notice. you live in the south bay, in san jose. not too far from where i grew up in san jose. my mom still lives there. your parents live in another part of the south bay not far from where i live now. so just so you know, i've been stalking you. in case you did not know that. just for the record. >> well, one of our families was stalking the other, we're not sure which one yet. >> i now you were destined for greatness, i thought, i'm following him. such a pleasure to have you. >> thank you for having me. bay area law enforcement

agencies have been roiled by allegations of officer sexual misconduct involving a young man who calls herself celeste. those who work with sexually exploited youth say the case comes as no surprise. it's emblematic they say of the larger problem that can plague law enforcement agencies dealing with a vulnerable population. two reporters from youth radio have been covering a strip of oakland's international boulevard known as the track, considered the city's red light district, and they join me now. natalie bettendorf and denise tejada, a pleasure to have you here. the police misconduct case as, as we said, sparked much shock among the public. what was the reaction among youth service providers that you talked to? >> really what we saw in our reporting and interviewing this cross-section of youth service providers is that none of these service providers expressed any sort of same shock or similar

surprise that the public was expressing during this. >> why is that? >> i think part of that reason is because they have seen from these victims and from these girls on the street that this is something that they see every day. and this is -- this kind of interaction between authorities with girls on the street and with girls who are really vulnerable on the track, this is something that they have encountered before. and all across the country. so what they're telling us is that being shocked and being surprised actually is showing an issue of education in the public. and that maybe we need to not be as shocked and actually realize this is a problem that really is endem 96 a lot of police departments across the country. >> when you say endemic, how widespread is that problem, police taking advantage of young girls on the streets? >> well, the providers that we spoke to say we shouldn't be

surprised that this is happening in other departments. so it's not -- from what i'm hearing is that it's not an isolated issue to just oakland or to just richmond or any other agency here in the bay area. you know. so i think that's what it is for a lot of the providers is, you know, if you know this work, you've been doing it, continually working with young girls, then you know that this is not an isolated issue to this department. and that's so unfortunate. >> there are certainly, though, good officers who genuinely want to help and try to help. is there a conflict between arresting them versus trying to rescue them, from a law enforcement perspective? >> definitely i think what we saw was that there's this -- with this scandal there's an increase in distrust on the streets. really what youth service

providers are saying, it's frustrating to have things like this happen when really they are depending on these police, they are depending on the police department to work with them, their co-workers, in helping save these girls. but really, when it comes to arresting versus rescuing, arresting them is really just getting the girls off the street and maybe it's not necessarily getting them the help that they need as opposed to just getting this girl who's been trafficked or who's in a really vulnerable situation just out into services. so that's really the important part. >> this is actually an issue we saw back in 2010 when we first started to look at this issue. one of the areas that we focused on was when police officers arrest the girl, it's actually the opportunity to give them access to services. so that's where the

contradiction happens. and one area, you're arresting a girl that's considered a vehicle tilk of sexual exploitation. somebody that's -- that constantly has been abused in every way that you can think of. and so you arrest them. and then you give them access to services. so on one hand she's a victim getting arrested, and that's the only way to get them to services first. >> so what do you want to see happen? do you want them to no longer be arrested and just be taken to services? >> so here's one of the questions that came up in our reporting back in 2010. if a young girl, underaged girl, she's not -- she doesn't have the age or can't consent to sex, so technically she's a victim. you can say it's rape. then you ask the question, can you essentially arrest a victim of rape?

but that's the tricky part is you kind of -- they do arrest them. because otherwise how do you get them off the street and into services? >> very opaque area. natalie, i know that you've spent time out on international boulevard reporting this story. you're in the process of finishing it up, it will air on kqed radio next week. what did you see out there and how do these girls end up on the streets? >> really what we saw on international is we were taken by some service providers from baywar and they showed us international which is also known as the track. it's kind of a slang term that people will use around that area for this street where you can find a lot of prostitutes and trafficked girls. and this is a really -- an area that is very -- it can be really dangerous. there's a lot of closed, private

businesses down there. you really see -- you can see a lot of men on the streets for sure. there's still a lot of businesses and there does seem to be some lively -- it definitely is a lively economy down there for sure. but you can tell that it is haunted by these practices that are happening behind closed doors. >> all right. thank you both for being here. denise tejada and natalie bettendorf with youth radio. that's it for us. i'm thuy vu. thanks so much for watching. next week a kqed newsroom special, "stand up san quentin." get an inside look at a rehabilitation program where prisoners write and perform their own life stories. for all of kqed's news coverage, go to kqednews.org.

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