By Derek Lantzsch
My wife and I decided to take an evening walk on Main Street at about 10 p.m. on Halloween. We usually walk down Main as we live two blocks from there. I was born here in Ocean Park and love my community.
We were enjoying watching all the dressed up party people in their funny and unique costumes. It was very interesting and sometimes hilarious. We saw walking showers, a sexy nurse, ’60s dress-ups and many others. One thing we also noticed was the unusual numbers of out of place homeless people (criminals?) who were cruising the streets seemingly looking for food or money or trouble. Many drink in the open on Main when no police are present. One lady we saw looked like she was shooting up something as we walked by!
One such person we had a startling and painful experience with. As we walked on the sidewalk, a large homeless man stepped into our way stopping us dead in our tracks. He leaned into our faces and said, “Do you have any change?” I said no and proceeded to walk with my wife on my arm. As we tried to squeeze by him, he hit me with his elbow, striking me on my arm as we passed!! He penalized me for not coughing up “any change.”
I was very angry, but held my temper and proceeded with my wife. Then I saw an LAPD car and told them what happened. They then stopped him. We had to wait for SMPD to show up, and it took about 45 minutes all in all. Just because I didn’t give him change!
Turning a very nice evening into a not so pleasant experience. After making the report we just headed home to the safety of our own living room.
The nature of his panhandling was not aggressive, it was criminal! This is not the first time we have had this kind of experience with these people who really don’t seem like they are just homeless, but more like they are criminals searching for victims to terrorize or rob. They stare at you and your loved ones like you better give ‘em something or you’ll regret it.
Also we noticed that MORE of these types are on Main Street now that Bayside Corp. members have had them chased out of Third Street. They haven’t left, just moved down to Main Street. If people will stop handing over money to these vagrants, maybe they will find another place where the people are so foolish as to think their cash handed to a person, who could be a criminal, is a good thing.
As for us, we are tired of this problem and want something to be done. We would like more police presence on Main Street as we pay taxes too!
I would like our city leaders to stop wasting out tax dollars on criminals, people who don’t want to work, organizations that don’t do what their contract promises and focus on solutions to stop this trashing of Santa Monica.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 7, 2002. Read the original PDF.