By Carlos Pineiro Santa Monica
Why do we have laws in our fair city if they aren’t enforced? Have you ever seen the SMPD issue a citation for public drunkenness? Bicycling on sidewalks on the Third Street Promenade? Smoking within 20 feet of a business entrance? Illegal U-turns in a business district? Camping on the beach or in our parks at night? When excessively loud street performers draw a crowd on the promenade so large that it completely blocks the entire sidewalk on a daily basis, why do we have to fight through these crowds if the police are around? Where are they? Breaking up bar fights at Hooters? Somehow I don’t think so. Everyday I pass clueless adults pushing baby strollers along the Beach Bike Path while I avoid hitting them at 20 mph. Where are the cops? Stopping bank robbers at First Federal on Main Street? OK, that bank has been hit a few times, but what about all those officers on the clock the rest of the time?
The men and women who put on a police badge every day also have to go to work wearing a loaded sidearm. Protecting the community with possible deadly force is a responsibility that most people just do not comprehend nor appreciate. Police officers are never paid enough to protect us. The rest of us may be hard working, but police officers put their lives on the line every day they go to work. No one else has to do that at their job unless they’re in the military. Still, this community would be a lot more pleasant and safer if the police just did their job: enforcing the law just like other cites do. Right now, people who break the law in Santa Monica aren’t even getting warnings.
The message this sends to the community at large? Laws are meant to be broken, and in Santa Monica you can pretty much do what you want because the police won’t “hassle” you while you push junior along the bike path.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 21, 2008. Read the original PDF.