Venice Homeless Being Pushed off the Boardwalk, Advocates Say

By Dennis Romero Fri., Feb. 17 2012 at 3:06 PM

Categories: Law

MaxVT

A boardwalk scene.

Advocates for the homeless are steaming over what they say is a homeless crackdown in one of L.A.'s last bastions of free living -- Venice.

The last two nights along the boardwalk and beyond LAPD officers have been contacting homeless people, warning them they can't sleep there, according to David Busch of the group Working Democracy!

According to the LAPD ...

... what they're doing is "outreach."

LAPD Pacific Division Capt. Brian P. Johnson told the Weekly today:

From the police department's perspective this is really about homeless and community outreach. I don't like to refer to it as a crackdown.

So for the past few nights, and for the foreseeable future, cops will be contacting homeless folks on the boardwalk, letting them know that, according to a recently clarified city rule, they're on park land and can't be there from midnight to 5 a.m., Johnson said.

So far the effort has included clergy and social workers who try to find proper beds for the homeless, he said.

But Busch says the cops and their friends were a little more pushy than that, asking for folks' Social Security numbers and attempting to take photos of them.

Both sides agree no arrests have been made ... so far.

Johnson says the effort stems from community complaints about an influx of homeless during this Great Recession. In particular he acknowledges a wave of younger homeless people from places like the Pacific Northwest.

Busch says the action is part of a larger effort to protect the interests of gentrification in Venice (he notes Google moved into its Venice offices last year).

And, by claiming the boardwalk as park land, he says the city and cops are trying to get around "a 2003 injunction that prohibits LAPD officers from indiscriminately stopping and searching the homeless without adequate justification," in the words of the ACLU.

Police aren't supposed to be rousting people simply for sleeping on a sidewalk, for example, but whether or not that rule applies just to Skid Row or all of L.A. seems up for debate.

But Busch claims that homeless people have moved east from the beach in reaction to the police action, populating streets like 3rd Avenue. He says officers have followed and have continued to roust them:

I think it's part of a move to segregate the beach. The new form of segregation in L.A. is not by color but by your wallet.

Busch's group is staging a street party tonight on 3rd near Rose Avenue to raise awareness about the crackdown / outreach.

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[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

boardwalk, City Council, homeless, LAPD, park, Venice

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David Ewing

Dennis,

Thanks for writing aboutthis. It's not a simple situation, but one thing is pretty clear. The City isbreaking the law by refusing to honor the agreement it made in the JonesSettlement, and it’s doing so intentionally. The Jones settlement is not difficult to understand. It isbarely longer than this comment, and it’s written in simple English.

The police are nowclaiming it only applies to the skid row area downtown. Nothing in theagreement limits its law enforcement provisions to less than the whole city.That doesn’t leave any room for innocent misinterpretation.

Here in Venice, Fridaynight, I asked a Pacific Division lieutenant to show me the part that justifiedtheir interpretation. She pointed out the following text: "The Los AngelesPolice Department will keep this policy in effect and operate according to thispolicy until an additional 1250 units of permanent supportive housing areconstructed within the City of Los Angeles, at least 50 per cent of which arelocated in Skid Row and/or greater downtown Los Angeles.”

As you can see, thislanguage refers only to the City’s obligation to build housing. It has nothing to dowith restricting the area in which the police must honor the agreement that,“it will not enforce Los Angeles Municipal Code ("LAMC") section 41.18(d) between the hours of 9:OO p.m. and600 a.m….”

The agreement doesspecify in later paragraphs that people may not sleep in driveways , loadingdocks, and building entrances. It does not specify any geographical areas.

According to a sergeantthat same evening, the police are operating on the basis of legal counsel ChiefBeck received from the City Attorney. Presumably our City Attorney knows he’snot telling the truth but is making what is euphemistically known as an“aggressive interpretation.” He's really just telling a whopper and hoping the cops will be able to clear thehomeless out of Venice before the ACLU can get a case to court.

David Ewing

Sorry about the formatting. Don't know what happened.

Bj Reynolds

the word 'homeless' is being used to hide so many problems these people have. if you really think the lack of a house is their problem, just try giving them a house and see what happens to it. in fact some of them are 'nomad's and don't want any obligations. i suggest we should use more specific descriptions of each group, such as 'nomad', 'alcoholic', etc.

Robert

There's two sides to this issue. LAPD Pacific has been out there giving out tons of information to try and get the homeless resources and off the streets. Residents have complained for months that its beginning to get insane with so many coming from different states. Not all but there are very hostile, aggressive homeless that are dangerous as well. Everyone criticizes LAPD until all those homeless move into their neighborhoods then its a different story.