September 20, 2024

Dear Editor,

Headline after headline and year after year of annual statistics tell us that crime is out-of-control in Santa Monica, with sexual assaults the latest painful trend.

Following a second late-August sexual assault at the beach by a homeless attacker SMPD reported three additional sex-crime arrests here, including two incidents of indecent exposure and a sex offender who failed to register.

Then, within days, another homeless man was arrested after breaking into a woman’s bedroom and exposing himself while touching her in bed.

Unfortunately, so-called “restorative criminal justice” policies permit these travesties to continue ad nauseam and some local political candidates simply do not take crime in Santa Monica seriously enough.

Specifically, in all these latest crimes, the perpetrators had been released from jail recently under so-called “restorative justice” policies championed by LA County DA George Gascon and unanimously supported by City Council candidates Dan Hall, Ellis Raskin, Barry Snell and Natalya Zernitskaya.

Additionally, all but Snell oppose amending crime-friendly Proposition 47 (i.e., they oppose allowing voters to toughen penalties for retail theft and drug crimes via Prop 36).

Gascon, a Prop 47 author and defender, pledged his policies would “enhance safety” but delivered exactly the opposite, with violent crime and property crime increasing throughout LA County, and both crime and felony arrests rising in Santa Monica year after year.

Despite this, Gascon ally and Council candidate Raskin gave two policy statements in which he wouldn’t name “reducing crime” as even a top-three priority in Santa Monica, while Zernitskaya stated she believes a) Gascon “has done a great job” and b) poverty drives crime, so to “reduce crime” Santa Monica should fund education, build “more affordable housing,” and “support food giveaways” and other services.

Valuable as such programs might be, does anyone believe they would have deterred these recent sexual assaults or would prevent out-of-town criminals from roving through Santa Monica? Or should voters condemn crime-friendly policies and candidates?

Let’s review information from available law enforcement records on these latest sex crimes.

The homeless man who broke into the Santa Monica woman’s bedroom this month had been released from jail five times in 2024 alone, including after two felony arrests.

His latest release occurred a mere two weeks before the bedroom sexual intrusion and was the suspect’s third release from jail in August. The releases typically occurred a day or two after his arrest, via a “citation” or on his “own recognizance.”

Meanwhile, that second late-August sexual attack at the beach occurred after the suspect also had been arrested and released five times this year, most recently in July, with an almost immediate release each time on either a citation or a “short sentence.”

And what about those two indecent exposure arrests?

One of the suspects was released on a citation the following day, same as had happened for a previous arrest this year, while the other was released on probation the same day as his arrest, after a previous one-day “book and release” three days before his indecent exposure arrest here.

And the rapist arrested for failing to register as a sex offender?

He was released on a citation three days after his arrest, despite three previous arrests for failure to register, three arrests for felony parole violations, and four other arrests.

Sadly, the get-out-of-jail-fast history of these sexual assault perpetrators is hardly an outlier.

In just the past year, SMPD also has arrested fresh-out-of-jail repeat offenders for murder, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, felony burglary, assault and battery, and other serious crimes committed here.

What can be done?

First, demand more funding to hire police. Increased police visibility deters crime.

Second, demand an explanation from those politicians, judges and candidates who rationalize get-out-of-jail-fast, "restorative justice" policies for repeat offenders. Exactly what do they think is “restored” by putting dangerous repeat offenders back on the street to commit additional crimes?

Sincerely,

Peter DiChellis
Santa Monica