By Stephen Baker Santa Monica
I have become very frustrated over the years with the homeless problem in Santa Monica. I have lived in Santa Monica for more than eight years, and it has just gotten worse and worse. What’s wrong with our city?
I no longer venture to the Third Street Promenade. I don’t even know what new stores have gone in since the last time I’ve been there. I don’t go because every bench, at any given time during the day when the shopping district is open for business, is taken up by a homeless person and his or her belongings. So while I’m shopping, and enjoying myself, I can’t even have a seat to rest and just take in the beauty of the promenade because of some bum. Why is this allowed? I understand that at some point, the ACLU argued that the promenade is public property, so anybody is allowed there without discrimination. But as far as I can see, my taxes paid for the buildings on this street, and are paying the staff that keep the street clean. Which homeless person is paying taxes? Someone, I’m sure, will argue that some of them have jobs and how dare I group all the homeless together… I’m not. I’m talking about the ones who are on the benches, all day, with stolen shopping carts and plastic bags full of who knows what.
Speaking of stolen shopping carts, it says very specifically at the stores in question that the carts are not to be removed from the store’s property without written permission, and it is a crime to do so. Why isn’t SMPD collecting and jailing all the bums who are walking around with these carts? They’re not doing anything about it. Some people may say,“Well, that’s a really petty crime, they should be working on more important things.” Oh really? So at what point does stealing become “not petty?” I know if I stole an item worth $75 to $100 (www.metroactive.com), I’d be arrested and charged with a crime. So why are the homeless allowed to walk around in plain sight of the public, including the police, with these items?
Enough about the shopping carts, let us move onto other crimes. I’ve personally witnessed littering and public urination. I’ve been a victim of a variety of things including threats to myself and threats of a bomb in a public place. I’ve had to call the police a number of times. In one case, I followed up on a homeless woman who was threatening to smash her half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s on my head. When I called the police, it took them 15 minutes to arrive. 15 minutes! The woman could’ve smashed the bottle on my head, drank the blood out of my neck, taken all my things, and been on a bus to Hollywood by then. What the hell? If an average person had made the same threat, the police would’ve been there immediately. So what’s going on?
The dispatcher asked if the person threatening me was homeless. I said yes, she appears to be homeless. She asked if the person had hit me with anything yet. I said no, I had not been hit yet. Then she told me the police would be there shortly. End of conversation... 15 minutes later, woohoo!, the police arrives. They take me aside to question me, and I describe in perfect detail what had happened. They arrest her for threatening me with a weapon. They give me a business card with the detective’s name on it that I can call to follow up on the matter. I called approximately two weeks later, and I was informed the case hadn’t come out of the front office, that the detective hadn’t received the case yet, and to call back in a week or two. I was told it takes seven to ten business days to process. I called back a month later, and I was informed she was already out of jail. I was informed that she’d been convicted of a few crimes and had a warrant or two out on her. She is a repeat offender, but she is homeless, so hey, what can they do about it?
HUH? So if you’re homeless, you can threaten to smash people up with glass, and you’ll be out in a month or two, even though you have a record of multiple offenses? SWEET! I’m going to go homeless in a few days so I can start robbing liquor stores. They’ll let me go after a month or two because I’m homeless. Anyone see anything wrong with this picture?
The bomb scare was absolutely brilliant. There was this old man standing just inside the patio at Trastevere Restaurant, on the corner of Third Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, and he was telling a guy he had a bomb in his backpack and was going to blow up the entire restaurant. He kept repeating things like this and laughing. Of course, I called the police because nowadays if someone threatens to have a bomb, you have to take them seriously, right?
The dispatcher asked if I had seen the bomb. I replied that the guy had said it was in his backpack. Then they asked, of course, if he was homeless. I said yes, because he appeared to be homeless. They said, then, that I had to have seen the bomb before they would come do anything. To make sure I was hearing her correctly, I said, “So this guy can stand here and threaten to kill a man and his wife, and blow up a restaurant, and yet I have to see the bomb before you’ll send officers to the scene?” She replied yes, because the homeless, for the most part, are a little crazy and there was doubt to the truthfulness of his story.
Are you kidding? So now a guy just has to be grubby, and he can go around making bomb threats and nobody will take it seriously? What the hell is wrong with our city?
I write this in frustration because I am so sick and tired, every day, of walking down the street, and getting harassed by at least one homeless person for something on every block. A cigarette, some change, some food, whatever. Normal people don’t do this! Then, when I get to where I’m going, which is generally a restaurant, I like to sit on the patio to enjoy the breeze and weather. On the patio, again, I get harassed for food and/or money. When did this become OK? People sometimes stare at me because usually when asked for something by a homeless person, I tell them to go fuck themselves. I just can’t deal with it any more. Help me.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 6, 2006. Read the original PDF.