By Mark Ryavec
I know of two other home invasions in which the residents and their children were home at the time of the invasion, one about four months ago on Grand and another very recently on Horizon near Riviera. In the latter event, I have heard from two sources that a mentally ill and/or meth-addicted transient broke through a leaded glass door, ran up the stairs to a bathroom and proceeded to destroy the bathroom, including ripping the sink off the wall. He was bleeding profusely from cuts he received when he forced his way through the leaded glass door. The family fled to a neighbor’s house and the neighbor called the police. The LAPD dispatcher, I was told, initially refused to send a patrol car because the caller did not know the exact street address of the house where the break-in occurred. I’ve reached out to a friend on Horizon for further details.

That makes four home invasions in about the same number of months, and that’s just in the area within four blocks of the Boardwalk and between Venice Boulevard on the south and Westminster on the north. There may have been more elsewhere in Venice.

Combine mentally ill and drugged-out campers with lax enforcement, even tolerance of the campers (sleeping bags, anyone?), and this is the result. The murder of Eun Kang on Electric Avenue in 2010 by a mentally ill transient should have taught the LAPD and Mr. Bonin of the threat that the homeless encampments in Venice represent to the residents here. Instead, the homeless population has increased, enforcement has weakened, the enabling goes on (feeding programs, storage locker on the beach, sleeping bag giveaways, showers at St. Joseph, etc.) and we see the result in increased break-ins of occupied residences by very unstable individuals.