Dear Beachhead,

How strange, cops from  Hollywood  division and Alex Thompson on an arrest at the same place at the same time.Thompson gets pics and story for the front page of her website Venice311. Thompson gets the scoop and feels like a hero, making someone look bad to the public. Regardless of his past or his relationship with the LAPD beach detail.  Doesn’t Reina work at Hollywood division? Wasn’t he the Sgt at the beach detail? Does Thompson have proper media credentials? How did Thompson get the information about the arrest in Santa Monica?

Just one on a list of their enemies (dirtbags) of Reina & Thompson from the beach. This is exactly what I was talking about, Thompson getting police information.I hope the department is as concerned as the residents about this seeming inappropriate activities. Is the relationship between Lt Reina or LAPD and a convicted felon of retaliation and revenge approved department policy?

My information is Thompson has taped Solomon on the beach and gave the tape to the victims family in Hollywood. How in Gods name did she even know about the incident or family information if this is true? I would hope your inhouse internal affairs investigation is not complete and this is just more proof of their unsavory relationship.

How many other victims are out there? I am just one of many with Thompson getting a restraining order against me being 3000 miles away and unable to defend myself. Other restraining orders, lawsuits, a number of evictions, arrests of innocent people, accusations and dismissed felony cases.  LAPD has just  thrown more salt in the wounds of intimidation, retaliation and revenge from Thompson and all her aliases.  This reign of terror and people looking over their shoulders has to stop. Thompson is a criminal and she should be  treated as such, not the golden girl LAPD thinks she is.Everyone now sees the truth and is closely watching all the incidents adding up. Why doesn’t LAPD?

Boston Dawna

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Dear Swami,

Thanks so much for that wonderful commentary. I lived in Venice between 1981 and 83, and heard you many times, and you even made it onto my hand-made xmas card one year, as i drew a picture of you eulogizing from a bench along the Boardwalk. I know life up on Oakland. I was searching tonight to see if I could conjure up one of your great lines, something to the effect, “Yes, as you know, We in Disneyland have a lot of dues to pay”. I’m sure that was a set up for a joke somewhere in there, but can’t remember how you finished up that by-line.

I had just graduated from UCLA, and was living on Ozone Avenue back in 1982. As you might know from the T shirt that some were wearing back in that day, “There’s No Zone like the Ozone”.

Courtney Miller

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The Shameful State of Homelessness in LA

Each night, there are 48,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County. That’s more people than 1 ½ times the population of Venice and of those, 20% are physically disabled, 25% are mentally ill, and about 10% of them are children. Take a moment to let that sink in.

There’s a lot to feel ashamed of in those numbers and I could throw down a long list of other statistics that would make you sick to your stomach – like the fact that more than ¼ of all those homeless people are in families headed by single mothers, or that 41% of our homeless adults were employed within the last year.

Your politics aside, these people are a part of our community and there is an economic, social, and environmental cost to allowing this issue to continue festering. Each homeless person is lost potential economic productivity. Every trip to the emergency room or jail is taxpayer money. Any crime by or against the homeless population diverts vital funds from schools to public safety. But, most importantly, it’s a self-sustaining blight against humanity.

I don’t want to get into the conversation of why or how a person is homeless. To me, it’s irrelevant. Either that person made bad choices, caught some bad luck, or simply couldn’t avoid it for whatever reason. My worry is the drag on our community and when I speak of “our community”, I’m talking about everybody – homeowner, renter, entrepreneur, and homeless person.

I think it’s obvious why we need to act now for the benefit of the homeless. How can that person take care of himself or contribute to the community when he doesn’t even have the basic privacy to go to the bathroom or change his clothes? Should we let someone who can’t make a better choice just slip off to hide in the shadows of our streets? Do our teachers have any chance of helping a kid whose only time to relax is in the safety of a classroom?

Did you know that homeowners in Venice pay a median property tax rate of $6,711 per year? The median rent in Venice for a 1 bedroom apartment is $1,995.  What does the city of Los Angeles owe the person who pays that each year? A street full of RVs? I recently met a young father who had to explain to his 5-year-old daughter why a homeless man was peeing on the sidewalk in front of their house one morning. I just saw the same thing happen this morning when I took my own daughter to school.  Is that okay?

I don’t think that anyone on our city council lacks compassion, but it takes more than feeling sorry for someone to fix a problem that affects every corner of society. It takes the political will to spend the money and time to change things.

And if we don’t do it now, when? We’re in an era of high foreclosures, empty housing, and nearly zero interest rates. Will tackling this problem head-on ever be less expensive, or should we wait until all of the homeless children grow up? Every single person has value in our society, but they can’t begin to tap the unlimited potential for human greatness that resides within us all until they have the security of a room.

Odysseus Bostick, teacher and candidate for Los Angeles City Council in District 11

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Dear Beachhead,

I was reading the Beachhead and wanted to make another correction to Paul Tanck’s correction about Olivia’s. Yes, it was in Santa Monica, not Venice, but Olivia’s Place on Main Street in the 1960s was NOT where the surf and skate shop ZJ Boarding House is located today. No, it was across the street in small low rise storefronts where California Heritage Museum is today (remember they moved those Victorian houses from Ocean Ave in the 1980s to the current location). The original buildings were torn down. 2618 Main was on the west side of the street.

I used to eat at Olivia’s with my dad in high school. Maybe I sat next to Jim Morrison.

Thanks,

Karina