I dont take threats on my life lightly and neither should this guy. Go get a shotgun first of all, but always keep a hefty metal pipe by your door. That way when he says he is going to kill you, you have legal authority to break his legs into many little pieces. He wont be killing anyone anymore, plus you have a nice big beach to drag his shattered body too.

Tara’s post was scary enough. I’d suggest neighborhood watch and working closely with the liason officer assigned to your area. I love Venice and would hate to see it slip back into the way it was in the early 90′s. LA put a lot of effort into revitalizing, am glad to see the neighborhood is uniting to make things better and stop the crime.

Iluvhatemail – being inside your own house is one thing, but in Steve’s case above he couldn’t even get to his house because the homeless guy was blocking the path. Things are pretty messed up when you can’t even get to your own home.

Keep up the letter writing program and demand that LAPD put more officers in bad areas.
How about ENFORCING CURRENT LAWS THAT PROHIBIT VAGRANCY??!! DEMAND that they ENFORCE THE LAW against vagrants!

If you would have capped his ass, I bet the PD would have shown up then,
ready to arrest you.

The situation has gotten out of control here in Venice. These criminals are hiding within the homeless. They are aggressive, young parasites who prey upon the goodwill of the residents of Venice. They break into our cars, steal from our homes and threaten our families. Between these scumbags and the shitty RVs who park in one spot for weeks/months at a time, Venice has turned into a squalid sandbox.
Things are reaching the boiling point and I urge Councilman Rosenthal to not ignore the plight of the people he was elected to reperesent.

The guys at YoVenice.com have been fantastic at bringing out tax paying community together. Venice has become unsafe mostly at night but anything can happen in broad daylight as well. Last week an out of control Transient was freaking out on a historic canal walkway when police were called they apprehended him by the childrens park, arrested him on possesion and he had an outstanding felony warrant. The police should be praised for their efforts and it is really sad that they are so understaffed and cant possibly be in 10 places at the same time. The Mayor ignores us so I made two slide shows for him check them out.
http://www.youtube.com/user/veniceresidentsunify#p/a/u/0/8Ss-v2K260o
I love venice and I’m not going anywhere so, badguys you better get out fast!
tax paying venice resident

Well, prepare for more cutbacks, which will probably mean a smaller police force. Unfortunately, officers don’t have time to just patrol neighborhoods looking for vagrants. That will never be a huge priority unless they start committing heinous crimes.

“That will never be a huge priority unless they start committing heinous crimes.”

Um… did you RTFA? Or do you think that raping and murdering a woman who was pregnant with twins isn’t heinous enough?

Venice crime is at an all time low. Yuppies in Venice are at an all time high.

Funny (not) that the LAPD shows up for complaints about papperazi taking photos of canal residents, but are not on the scene for calls like these.

I was recently at Venice Beach and was surprised at the number of homeless I saw all over…It practically looked like a homeless tent city.

Venice is not the only community where the highly paid LAPD does not come out. In Rancho Park I have called 911 after someone that looked quite dangeous jumped on my front lawn, and the COPS NEVER CAME!

As Michael said it is funny (NOT) the way there will be tons of cops out for the glamorous stuff like movies , celebrities,etc. But when the average citizen needs them to SERVE AND PROTECT….they are nowhere to be found.

The problem is directly attributable to the Councilman, Bill Rosendahl, who is better known around Venice as “Smilin Bill because he smiles and shakes hands and that’s it and the other name for him is Bill Rosen-stall because he stalled the implementation of neighborhood public safety for the one and a half terms of his office and continues to do the same today.

Rosendahl was a social worker turned Adelphia media hack turned Councilman, and his methods and policies show his complete bend for street dwellers by lifestyle choice such as the “grunge” heroin addicts mixed in with the few actual homeless in Venice have superior rights than the tax paying peaceful residents of Venice.

Rosendahl and a few of his ilk like the Venice Neighborhood Council current Vice President Linda Lucks, are allowing “homelessness” of all kinds to concentrate in and around Venice. So has the crime rate risen since Rosendahl and Lucks took office, you bet! Areas of Venice that hardly had any crime when the past Council person was in office have had their crime rates steadily increase to the point where the town is boiling now. The so-called tolerant of Venice become intolerant as soon as they experience the grime and crime of today.

One has to wonder if there is a larger force here. Are these people deliberately running down Venice for a longer term purpose such as being shills for large scale Eli Broad style development. Remember it was Broad’s developments who benefited when downtown skid row was cleaned out.

There they go, trashing again. Won’t score points with informed voters. But those aren’t the ones they want to fool, are they? Crime goes up everywhere when people have no money. Venice still sports one of the lowest crime rates in the city. Venice Neighborhood Council and Eli Broad? Someone obviously doesn’t know Venice. Watch for the budget problems to increase community volunteer work – watch true Venetians get on board while trash-talkers comfort each other with insipid insults.

[...] unhappiness with our politicians on this issue is being heard. In the last week, the national blogMetBlogs picked this story up. Readers, who do you know at major news outlets in Los Angeles? We need to get [...]

Bo, read the whole post. Don’t pick and choose which words you want to reply to. Go find the L.A. Times picture with Smilin Bill rushing to shake Eli Broads hand that was on Page one. Truly informed voters DO know what’s going on in Venice. Unfortunately most Venetians don’t have or spend the time to be well informed.I wish they did.

Having been deeply involved in Venice projects, and politics for over 20 years, I’ve learned who the players are. Venice has been a dumping ground for the City of LA since it was first incorporated into the City and it continues today. When they cleaned out downtown skid row where do you think all those addicts, parolees, mentally ill, and few actual wanting-help-homeless went? Many not all but many came to Venice. Don’t believe me? Ask any cop in Pacific division about where the transients are coming from and if they think they can trust you, they will tell you, and lots came from skid row. Others as of late in the mobile home-less population have heard Venice was extra tolerant from the internet and nationwide word of mouth. Just like when we had our last major prostitution epidemic in Venice where the hookers were communicating on the internet the Venice was the hip place to do tricks. So are you less informed or are you a member of Linda Luck’s Breakfast Club along with Mike Bonin from the Councilman’s office trying to spin the truth?

There are many things people in Venice and elsewhere can do to protect themselves, their families and neighbors to augment the hard working police officers to make Venice safer and better.

One way is to merely bitch and moan on blogs, the other is to go positive by personally volunteering to organize your neighborhood watch, map your block for Emergencies and to “Be Prepared.”

We know that in any crisis, neighbors and neighborhood councils are the first responders (remember the Metro Link crash, recent fires? So ask yourself: Am I prepared? Do I know my immediate neighbors?

If you are a “doer”, it is critically important that you vote in the Venice Neighborhood Council election on Sunday, April 11, Oakwood Recreation Center, 7th & California from 10-4.

I am voting for for Linda Lucks for President and Carolyn Rios for Vice President because they are leaders with proven records of community building, service and problem solving, with the resources to leverage dwindling City resources for Venice.