By David C. Murphy Beverly Hills
On Sunday, July 17, 2005, I was relaxing on beautiful Santa Monica beach, spending the afternoon enjoying nature before heading off to St. Monica Parish for an evening church service. But as I got up from the beach to leave, I saw something shocking: an out of control, wild, violent gang fight right on the pedestrian and bike path that borders the beach. Four or five men were violently going at it like nothing I’ve ever seen — throwing metal beach trash cans at each other, grabbing and hit-ting each other with 10-foot long collapsed restaurant umbrellas from the nearby Perry’s Beach Café — at 2400 Ocean Front Walk, south of Santa Monica Pier — and causing a huge scene. It shocked me that such out of control behavior could happen there — just east from Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois on Main, and the beautiful new Urth Caffe. I must say this violence makes me less likely to return to this beach.
Businesses should be worried beach goers may go elsewhere, making a drop in customers likely. I hope leaders from Santa Monica’s civic, business, religious and residential communities will make stopping gangs and gang violence their top priority, and do everything possible to address the problem. Otherwise, I fear it will drive away residents, visitors and their money, and businesses and their investment. The violence shocked me — but the police response also shocked me, I’m afraid. Far from sending a message of power and control, the police response struck me as small and quiet. A single patrol car pulled up, with no flashers or siren, to the area where the fight occurred, and a single patrol officer emerged. By this time, the gang members had run away, but were eventually caught by other patrol cars — I later saw them in custody on a side street. Instead of quietly pulling up with no siren or lights, the patrol cars — and there should have been many, many of them — should have rushed to the scene making a scene themselves, loudly blaring sirens and flashing lights. As it was, the dominant image for onlookers was of the violent gang members — the police response was hardly noticeable. I feel the police response in these situations should project a much stronger image — a strong police response is useful not only to send a message to the gang members, but also to the crowds watching, which might include teens tempted to join a gang, who should see that the police are in control, not the gangs.
Finally, I was shocked by the California Highway Patrol’s 911 system. When the fight broke out, I called 911 on my cell phone. I got a recorded message telling me to press a button. If this was an emergency, which I did, and then I was put on hold. I finally gave up and hung up, calling back nervously several times and never getting through. It is scary not to be able to instantly get through in an emergency — the state needs to put more resources into CHP 911 call centers, or needs to find a better 911 system — quickly.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 22, 2005. Read the original PDF.