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# Appeasing the thugs is no answer
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/appeasing-the-thugs-is-no-answer-editor/
- Published: 2004-07-31T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:47:03.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Pico, #archive-import

*By Don Johnson Venice Beach*

Will there still be a $100,000 mural painted at the Virginia Park project? Doesn’t that sound like a bit too much to pay for yet another mediocre spray-paint graffiti “art job” to distract motorists in this area?

With Santa Monica’s heavy budget woes of late, coupled with that of the schools, it would seem that there would be no money available for such frivolous squandering. Or was the scarce funding begrudgingly made available by City Council to Oscar de la Torre’s “at risk boys” to keep them from tagging or otherwise vandalizing the new park?

The Pico thugs have effectively excluded anyone else from participation in work on that huge public project, and it now begs the question: Will anyone else in Santa Monica be able to use the new public park and all of its facilities or is it now their little turf exclusively?

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 31, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/073104.pdf?ref=smdp.com)