By Richard Garvey
Venice Resident and Public Health Researcher

Last weekend the wonderful mural at Market and Main (a block from my house) was tagged by some jerks.

Some of my neighbors point to this and say that this is a sign that the neighborhood will soon be overrun with crime, and we need to institute the “broken-windows” policing theory here in Venice.

The gist of that theory is that if you flood an area with police and cite every infraction you can, from tagging, to loitering, to jaywalking, you will reduce crime. The thought is that if you get these (mainly young and poor, sometimes homeless) folks into jail for a minor offense, you will stop them from committing a larger offense down the road.

I totally disagree with this concept. Broken-windows policing is terrible for the police and terrible for the community. It leads to selective enforcement of petty crimes, and ruins the relationship between the police and the community.

Anyone, who has been to Men’s Central, Lynwood, Twin Towers, or especially Wayside jails, will tell you that those places only serve to breed desperation and teach people to become criminals. Then when folks come out, they are treated differently and feel differently for the rest of their lives. It should be our goal to do everything we can to keep people OUT of jail. It creates a culture of distrust and fear between the community and police, which we have seen a lot of lately, including the recent LAPD killings of Brenden Glenn and Jason Davis.

I don’t believe that one act of graffiti leads to more crime. That mural, which I love so much, is right at the bus stop. It gets tagged a few times a year (admittedly last week’s was a bad one.) The correct solution is to do what always happens with this mural. When it gets tagged, we make sure it gets repainted to its former splendor. It’s a hassle, but it shows pride in the neighborhood.

I don’t think it is productive to waste LAPD time ticketing people for loitering, jaywalking, etc. When LAPD Chief Bratton was here he tried this policy downtown, and I personally witnessed the consequences. He is widely credited for implementing this policy in NYC, and he came here to bring broken-
windows policing to LA.

I worked on Skid Row during his entire tenure, and saw the actual effect of his implementation of broken-windows policing down there. He sent 50 extra officers to an eight square block area, and I saw them constantly harass people who had nowhere to go. Police gave them tickets they could not pay and then locked them up when they failed to pay or appear in court. They teamed up with the corporate funded BID (Business Improvement District) patrol to terrorize the local poor and homeless population.

Not once did I, or any of my interviewers, get bothered, and we jaywalked and loitered just as much as the homeless folks did. The effect was to make it an “us versus them” thing, force displacement to other parts of town, and misery for those who already had it bad. Sure Bratton could claim that he got some people off the street but at what cost?

Skid Row in LA was cemented in the 70’s when the City decided to concentrate all services down there. That’s why Department of Mental Health is there, 5 major missions, 3 different walk-in health clinics, 2 different walk-in mental health clinics, the VA and 13 free meals a day. There are Independent living apartment buildings, and single-room-occupancy buildings. Was that a perfect solution? NO. But that’s where we are today. When you drive people outside of there you drive them AWAY from services.

A lot of my neighbors want to get the poor and homeless out of Venice. I hope they change their minds about advocating for broken-windows policing as a way to accomplish their goal, as opposed to emergency shelters and transitional housing programs to serve as a bridge to permanent housing… I see calls for more police and even the formation of a BID patrol in Venice. I think it will do more harm than good.