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# Letter: Little sympathy for Schmidt
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/010307-story/
- Published: 2007-01-03T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T23:34:59.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Mike Kirwan Venice*

Little sympathy for Schmidt Editor: Shame, wasting an article on Martin Schmidt (“Surfer’s life went adrift,” Jan. 1, page 1). Supposedly, he was a wonderful man. Wonderful men don’t jump out of windows trying to escape police. He was suspected of trying to rob a market. Police didn’t see the crime, so he was only a suspect — innocent until proven guilty. But jumping out of a third-floor window to evade police does not sound very innocent.

I shall save sympathy for someone who deserves it, not this Darwin Award winner.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 3, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/010307.pdf?ref=smdp.com)