Seven arrested amid sweep of Bluffs
PALISADES BLUFFS — Santa Monica police officers, members of the Veterans Administration and city landscapers spent hours on the Palisades Bluffs last week searching out homeless encampments and removing them.
Starting at the 500 block of the Pacific Coast Highway, Thursday’s sweep was part of a bimonthly detail intended to keep the Bluffs clean and un-populated. The steep, brushy hillside, owned by the city of Santa Monica, is often illegally occupied by the homeless.
Thursday’s operation led to the misdemeanor arrests of seven individuals inhabiting the Bluffs, according to Lt. Frank Fabrega of the Santa Monica police. In addition, used bottles and cans, newspapers, tents and other confiscated garbage were loaded up into a pick-up truck and hauled off to the dump.
Fabrega said posted signs indicate the Bluffs are dangerous and prohibited from use. Still, the Bluffs continue to be a regular stomping ground for Santa Monica’s down and out.
Nine men and women — including four Santa Monica police officers, three landscape workers contracted by City Hall, and two V.A. homeless liaisons — coned off the right shoulder of the PCH, from which some said they could spot the colorful tarps and other signs of makeshift dwellings along the highway.
The V.A. representatives were on hand to offer services for any homeless individuals found in the hillsides that may have been veterans. Fabrega said it is common to bring the V.A. representatives during the Bluffs’ detail.
The clean-up crew proceeded to scale the cliffside, forcing their way through narrow trails over-grown with thickets to access, and assess, the scattered encampments.
Many were abandoned by the time the detail arrived. Strewn with water bottles, newspapers, pornographic magazines, discarded food cans, backpacks and blankets, the clean-up crew gathered these miscellaneous belongings and lugged them down to the truck for disposal.
At one point, while heading north along the Bluffs, tree branches could be seen rustling in the distance.
Officers split up, combing the Bluffs on their way toward another possible encampment. Upon arrival, a pair of binoculars lay on the dirt, a clearing which may have served as a vantage point of the hillside and highway.
“He went that way,” Santa Monica Officer Robert Martinez said, pointing north.
“We would have caught him if he tried to pass us (heading south).”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 6, 2005. Read the original PDF.