Venice Homeless Man Arrested At L.A. City Hall For Angry 'Socialist' Rant -- 'Way Out Of Line' After Tucson Massacre, Says Councilman Bill Rosendahl

By Simone Wilson Thu., Jan. 13 2011 at 6:00 PM

Los Angeles Times

Media darling and longtime Venice transient David Busch

David Busch, 55, stood up during public comment at a Transportation Committee meeting yesterday -- and comment did he ever.

According to L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who was leading the meeting, Busch "waved his arms around and yelled and demanded that the meeting be over." General Services Police quickly called in LAPD officers for backup.

"He started screaming and saying, 'I'm a socialist -- and Rosendahl, you're a Democrat,'" says the councilman. "I didn't understand, frankly. But the reality is that he interrupted a public meeting. ... at a very sensitive time."

Venice Patch Editor Samantha Page reported today that Busch was arrested at the meeting "on a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace." Here's what she heard him say on the way out the door:

"Bill, you are facilitating segregation in Venice between the rich and the poor," Busch told the councilman before being escorted out of the room in handcuffs. "You want to segregate the beach."
Busch also took the arresting officer to task as well, saying, "It's enough of policemen like you coming out, tellng us, at 6 o'clock in the morning, 'It's my job to torment poor people.'"

The agenda item causing all the fuss was Rosendahl's Vehicles to Homes proposal. Since its inception and original moniker "Safe Parking" (bo-ring), it's attracted an avalanche of fallout from angry Venice Beach heads who have taken to squatting on gentrified city streets in their RVs, and really wouldn't have it any other way.

For full background on the community rager, see Dennis Romero's "Gentry Against Funky in Venice."

Still, Rosendahl pretends he doesn't see a difference between the two sides, politely calling Busch a "constituent" or a "gentleman" as he talks about yesterday's disturbance.

But opponents of the Vehicles To Homes program aren't playing nice back. From Romero's July 2010 piece:

Ten old RVs line one block of Third Avenue in Venice. Most are stuffed to the windshields with hoarded junk. Few look roadworthy. Tires are bare. Cobwebs have formed. A man sporting dreadlocks walks up and says three of the campers, all painted in the same '60s rainbow theme, belong to him.
Asked if he would ever participate in Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl's program that would take rig dwellers like him away from residential neighborhoods and place them in special parking lots overnight, he has a few choice words for the city denizens:

"This is not residential," Rasta man says. "Tell them residents, this is a beach. Fuck that shit. We don't give a fuck what people up in them hills think about us."

Things are different now. After Jared Lee Loughner shot six people dead and Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords critically in the head on Saturday, politicians are more on edge than ever. Rosendahl says the five police officers who escorted Busch out of City Hall on Wednesday afternoon were using their best judgment, considering the situation.

"Frankly, they were doing their job," Rosendahl says. "Things are pretty intense in the city these days. I hope to god we don't have any more flareups."

The Transportation Committee was hoping to move onto other items after gathering some opinions about Vehicles to Homes from the homeless advocates, community housing groups and concerned Angelenos who came out to City Hall for the RV issue.

At the meeting, writes Page, one Venice resident "asked Rosendahl to reconsider the 'coercive nature' of the program, which insists participants enroll in social services, saying it was 'cheaper and better' to let people join the program without feeling that pressure."

The Source

District 11 Councilman Bill Rosendahl: Can't we just talk about buses already?

But there were other pressing issues on the agenda -- such as a bus lane that the Bus Riders Union is trying to see installed along Wilshire Avenue.

Still, Busch wouldn't sit down.

According to Rosendahl, he "demanded that the meeting be adjourned ... screaming, 'We are ending this meeting! We are ending this meeting now!'"

Things only got more bizarre from there. Busch allegedly walked toward where the councilman was sitting, then "lied down on the witness table," which Rosendahl said was especially frightening because "he's a tall man -- 6'3" or 6'4"."

And who wouldn't begin to think paranoid thoughts of political crazies on violent streaks at a time like this?

"We're living in a very tense moment in America," says Rosendahl. "As [Busch] kept ranting and raving lying on the able, the police started coming in the room."

Busch received from support from the meeting's attendees, who Rosendahl says cried out -- referring to the policeman who cuffed the transient -- "He's got a Taser! He's got a Taser! Don't let him use the Taser!'"

Today, the councilman pats himself on the back for being the final dove of peace in the City Hall shakeup:

"I got up, grabbed his arm and said, 'You made your point. You don't need to take this any further.'"

Yes, dear readers, we do realize this is all being told from the perspective of an L.A. City Councilman. But we couldn't get a hold of any other witnesses -- let us know if you were there and saw things differently. Because Rosendahl is obviously slightly disillusioned:

"Things are rough these days," he says. "Everywhere I go, people know who I am. So there already was heightened security for all of us councilmembers and the mayor."

From here, the Vehicles to Homes proposal will go before City Council, where all Bill's friends are sure to applaud his grave community concerns, then to the City Attorney, who will be tasked with drafting a new ordinance. If all that works out, RVs will be shown the way to their new homes in designated parking lots.

Busch is still in jail today, and police aren't saying exactly when they'll let him go. However, while the Weekly was on the phone with Rosendahl this afternoon, the councilman received a call on his cell phone from a certain female LAPD "captain," who told him Busch may be offered the option of $100 bail. Which is still kind of a lot for a homeless guy...

"Some of his supportes wanted me to get him released," says Rosendahl. "But the police strongly believe his actions were ... way out of line."

He lists these "supporters" as Venice Community Housing Corporation Executive Director Steve Clare, along with former Venice United Methodist Church treasurer and pro-RV activist Peggy Lee Kennedy and her Venice Action Alliance colleague David Ewing (the same "resident" in the Patch quote from the meeting).

All three haven't been answering their office phones this afternoon/evening, but we'll try them in the morning. While we're waiting, who wants to get started on the "Free Busch" shirts?

Turns out the guy's a regular Venetian activist. Take a gander at this Los Angeles Times article from December -- concerning a "Venice resident James Hunter, whose body was found Dec. 1 in his Ford van," and in which Busch gets like four paragraphs of print-time. Let's just say, dude's no stranger to the spotlight.

"It really woke me up," said David Busch, 55, who said he has been homeless in and around Venice for the last dozen years.
Hunter "was a friendly, a quiet, gentle guy," Busch said. "But the man had a heart condition and was terrified that he would be targeted. All these punitive measures -- it's just snowballed and gotten out of control."

Busch said he joined the protest Saturday to appeal to residents of Venice who want to address the homeless problem, not kick it out of town.

"Show your love Venice!" Busch shouted. "Stop the homeless kick-out -- now!"

And hey, why not? Here's a video of him doin' this thing at a Venice Neighborhood Council meeting:

Tags:

Bill Rosendahl, David Busch, homeless man, RVs, Safe Parking, Transportation Committee, Vehicles to Homes, Venice, Venice Action Alliance, Venice Patch

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Lunarlands

I was there at the meeting and this story is far from the truth. Busch said the meeting was adjourned and lied down on the public comment table far from the councilmember. All he did was peacefully declare that the meeting was over--stopped the discussion on other agenda items but in no way threatened anyone. The LA city council police are known to be aggressive and excessive and the cops wanted to taser the poor man for saying his mind. The public including myself had to call councilmember Rosendahl who didn't see that the cop had the taser low and near the guy, to stop the cop from tasering Busch!! It would have been horrifying to see a peaceful activist violently tasered for disrupting a meeting when the city council was about to screw over the livelihood and the right for homeless people to live on Venice. Disrupting a meeting is not a crime and especially Busch had every right to peacefully protest the decision that Rosendahl made that jeopardized his and his community's well-being.

venicepower

First, let us recall that City Hall is, unlike Arizona supermarkets, a secure facility, with metal detector and armed guards to protect all who enter. Knowing Mr. Busch, and the situation into which he was knowingly walking, Mr. Rosendahl might have chosen a different rhetorical path regarding Mr. Busch's actions, as well as an introduction that might have provided Mr. Busch and his followers some hope of balanced focus on an issue that has been wrenched so far out of balance by a polarized few. Mr. Rosendahl is a gifted speaker. He might be well-advised to consider using his gift for leadership going forward. He can and should allay fears and set the tone of civility that this country - and, in particular, this city, so desperately needs.

Second, let's keep in mind that this is a blog, not a news report. Its design intent is to stimulate dialogue, with no requirement to posit facts in a transparent fashion. This said, hard facts prevail over name-calling in any dialogue.

Third, make no mistake: Mr. Busch's act was an obvious, clear-headed example of civil disobedience - a time-honored form of nonviolent protest. Any student remotely familiar with Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi or, for that matter, Malcolm X, can easily see that Mr. Busch's timing and expression were calculated for maximum civic effect in an effort to publicize the desperation which surrounds City - and citizen - inaction on the issue.

The blogger maintains that Mr. Rosendahl - a tall man himself - was "pretending" that both sides merit equal time. The ongoing campaign of hate email, voicemail, blogging and earmail delivered by those who have been organized to purge L.A.'s only freely accessible coastal area of its diversity drowns out equal time with every shout, leaving the genuinely aggrieved on both "sides" without a reasoned voice. This type of "activism" is self-defeating, as the agendized group will learn as the tide turns toward reason.

Calvin E. Moss

Bill Rosendahl has started a hate the homeless campaign inVenice Beach.Rosendahl is a cruel political motivated,money driven liar who is enpoweringviolent hate mongers in Venice.The violence is coming from Bill Rosendahl (democraticparty) the LaPD,and violent Yo Venice Blog low life.Rosendahl has done nothing for thepoor disabled people living on the streets except put specially trained police units out thereto harass them. Some have died because of this or become more impoverished.example:a man died in his van (stress) after the police harassed him many times. heart failure!

Chessy

Jimmy was a good guy, saw him a couple of times up at the "Townhouse", but he loved his smokes and booze with the best of them. He died from congestive heart failure, which he had, and not stress.

Jim

David Busch is a gentle, non-violent man who has volunteered hours and hours of his time for Lincoln Place tenants (not homeless) and others. He is somewhat more demostrative than most Venetians. But all of us are sick of Rosendahl's constant BS. It is time that political leaders acknowledge that we are in the worst depression since the 1930s and do something about it, other than repressing the victims.

Robert

Don't think the homeless are innocent victims. The ones in Venice area are hostile and really aggressive towards anyone who doesn't give them money. The RV's have cause blight and they abuse 1st ammendment rights by cursing at officers and others. Give the other side of the issue cause there are many residents who support and thank LAPD officers keeping all these people in line.

Joey B

Sounds like David Busch is your average, idiotic, nutbag who thinks they can interupt public meetings by acting out. Life is too short David Busch and your behavior doesn't prove anything other than your an idiot and you have no class. I commend the LAPD officer who handled the situation. It sounds like he handled it appropriately. Luckily, the Dove of Peace had his back as well. Good job, DOPe!!!!