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# Where is your compassion, Santa Monica?
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/where-is-your-compassion-santa-monica-editor/
- Published: 2005-08-05T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:33:06.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Downtown, #archive-import

*By Hanna Levinson Santa Monica*

I keep asking myself, why are we not compassionate enough as a society to forgive 88-year-old Russell Weller, the driver of the car that killed 10 people in that incredible, unfortunate accident at the downtown Farmers’ Market on July 16, 2003? How can it be that so many civil suits and criminal charges are filed against this very unfortunate man and what can we as a society do to protect the ordinary citizen who makes a mistake?

Mr. Weller and his loved ones must suffer every day with the memory of that horrid accident and the knowledge that 10 people died as a result of Mr. Weller’s actions and reactions. Why must we further punish him and the surviving families by requiring them to live and constantly re-live the tragedy of that fateful Wednesday? Why can’t we honor the stellar citizen as an aging senior who made a mistake, and help him and the families of those who died and all the rest of us find healing and closure?

What has happened to us as individuals, as a city? Where is our heart, Santa Monica? If we cannot find compassion, understanding, reason and healing for Mr. Weller, how can there ever be hope for reconciliation among nations?

If better barriers will keep another person from suffering similar consequences, it would be reason enough to warrant better barrier protection at our often street-long farmers’ market locations.

Perhaps it would be better to do away with the barriers altogether, and the cars on Wednesdays. Wouldn’t it be nice to have no cars in the streets on Farmers’ Market days, block off the whole of downtown, open the streets to all vendors and let the city and its inhabitants breathe, bike and walk freely on that one day per week? Wouldn’t that be a nice memorial to the 10 who died July 16, 2003?

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 5, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080505.pdf?ref=smdp.com)