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# Police getting bad rap for crackdown in Pico
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/police-getting-bad-rap-for-crackdown-in-pico/
- Published: 2006-07-24T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T00:23:47.000Z
- Author: Bill Bauer
- Tags: Opinion, Pico, #archive-import

I’ve been buying seafood from Juan for years. Among the filets of fish, we often talk about life in the Pico neighborhood, where Juan and his family have lived for a long time.

A couple months ago, Juan told me about black and Hispanic adolescent males that were hanging out in the northeast corner of Virginia Park.

“They talk trash, smoke dope, drink 40s (beer), vandalize park furniture and carve placas and gang signs. My wife and I don’t walk there anymore,” he said.

A few days later, Juan told me they stopped hanging out in the park. I told him that someone probably called the police about a situation that needed looking into.

I don’t know what the police did about the law breakers Juan described, but I’m sure they made contact and the young men decided to hang out somewhere less public. I’d bet they told their friends they were “harassed” and that the “pigs keep jacking us.”And, they probably didn’t care if their loutish, criminal behavior was driving off families and other kids afraid of confrontation and violence.

The good news is that Juan and his wife are using the park again, but they’re still angry about those few who spoil it for the rest of us. The bad news is the parents of these young men probably have no idea what their kids were really up to beyond maybe being told, “the cops screw with us.”

The local press (SMDP, July 17 and July 19, page 1) ran articles about two rancorous meetings of the Pico Neighborhood Association (PNA) and the Virginia Park Advisory Board (VPAB). Some Pico neighbors wanted more police patrols, while others felt there is already too much police scrutiny and that officers have it in for neighborhood youth. It seems no matter what law enforcement does, it isn’t right.

An outspoken critic of neighborhood police presence and who insists that “all young Latinos are suspects” is a PNA board member whose 20-year-old son was arrested on July 12 for battery on a peace officer. Gina De Baca was quoted (SMDP, July 17, page 8) as saying of that charge, “My son did nothing wrong. He did not break the law.”

However, the record shows that De Baca’s son was charged with the same crime in 2004, although the charges were dropped. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff Web site and Los Angeles Superior Court records, he was convicted the same year for possession of a controlled substance for sale. In January 2006, he was arrested and charged as an ex-felon in possession of a firearm, and two weeks ago, arrested and charged with a second battery on a peace officer.

Based on comments made at the VPAB meeting, it seems that some folks think the police have nothing to do except target law-abiding Pico neighborhood youth. I doubt that’s the case.

The problem is that the general public is getting weary of charges and demands. The complainers are losing credibility and sympathy. There seems to be a growing “they made their own bed, let them lie in it” response to anything that goes on between Pico Boulevard and the 10 Freeway — and that’s a tragedy.

Casting the police, whose mission is to stop the violence and ensure safe neighborhoods, as “villains and instigators” compounds the problem and fosters more distrust on all sides.

Nothing’s going to get any better or safer as long as people play the blame game. Parents, the schools and the churches all need to get much more involved with our children. Anything meaningful must start in the home.

Expecting government to sweep in,stop the violence and perform miracles is as likely to happen as FEMA rushing in to rescue the residents of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

There’s no one magic formula that’ll make everything “OK.”That only happens in bad movies and fairy tales. (Bill Bauer)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 24, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072406.pdf?ref=smdp.com)