Note: These are perplexing times for residents of Venice. We have a Councilman who helped pass more stringent laws regarding keeping parks and sidewalks clean–automatic removal of bulky items, less notification time for abandoned items. But, the Mayor says he will not sign ordinance, yet it will automatically become law anyway because of way City Charter is written. Then Mayor says he will stop enforcement. Well, the Police Commission trumps him on that one. So it will be interesting to see what happens. (And we don’t even know if this will make a difference to the safety of the individual.) Meanwhile, we the Citizens, the taxpayers are having a hard time justifying what is happening in our neighborhoods. It appears neighborhoods, residents are becoming less and less important.

By Mark Shockley, a resident of Oxford Triangle (area west of Lincoln, south of Washington)
A couple things I thought I would share.

On Friday Morning (July 3) at 6AM I was riding my bike past the Glencoe Park on the corner of Glencoe and Alla. I stopped to use the mens room but it was locked. The door then flung open and I was accosted by a homeless man who was apparently shaving. He was 6 feet tall, super muscular and shirtless with a shaved head. The guy was super aggressive, in my face and I got out of there quick. He basically chased me off. Hell no, I don’t want any of that.

I was shaken up and I was concerned for the next person who knocked on the door so I decided to report it. I called the LA PD and was informed that they wouldn’t come out to investigate unless I waited for the officers. Now I’ve got kids and time is short but I did wait. Once the police arrived (Officer Gan and Calhoun) they knocked on the door and the homeless guy would not exit. As a matter of fact, he never exited the bathroom and after 10 minutes the officers decided to leave. I was pretty surprised. Aren’t you going to wait a bit longer, no warning, not even interested in seeing what he looked like?

I asked the police to please wait and they said, “No”. Then I asked to fill out a report and they smugly replied, “A report for what, did he hit you?”. And I said, “No, but he almost attacked me”. And the officer said, “So what are you reporting?” “Are you saying I need wait until he kicks the shit out of me in order to fill out a report?” And the officer replied, “unfortunately yes?”.

Here is my issue with this: I have 3 children and living in a safe environment is very important to me. I feel the rights of the homeowners are not respected nor enforced properly. I don’t get it, since when does homeownership and being a responsible community member count for nothing?

To put this in context, two weeks ago my wife’s 4-Runner was broken into. The center console was ripped out and the contents of the car were stolen. To make matters worse my 10 year old son found a hypodermic needle on my daughters car seat. We were petrified when he walked into the house with this needle. Did anyone come out to investigate, nope. We filled out a police report via the telephone. How can the overworked police come down to our neighborhood and pretend to care when they’ve got bigger fish to fry? We need a service dedicated to this particular issue, which is getting out of hand.

Furthermore, On July 4th, I watched two really wasted, homeless guys stumbling down the middle of Dickson in the daytime. One of the guys pulled out a huge knife and proceeded to cut his jeans into shorts (in the middle of the street about 20 feet from my kids). Did I report it, no. What’s the point? Nothing will be done, no report will be filed and I’ll get laughed at by an officer who thinks this is a joke.

When homeowners are threatened and when they feel like they need to take security issues into their own hands then, in my opinion, thats a problem.