New Legal Opinion Finds City Can Disband Encampments as “Immediate Threats to Public Health and Safety”

A new legal opinion commissioned by the Venice Stakeholders Association finds that the City of Los Angeles is on strong legal grounds to seize objects left on public sidewalks for days because they pose an immediate threat to public health and safety.

The opinion, prepared by attorney John Henning, focuses on the implications of the “Lavan Decision,” a ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which limited – but did not forbid - the City from removing items that had been left by transients for short periods of time on L.A.’s Skid Row so the owners could go to eat, wash or run errands.

Henning points out that in the Lavan case even “the plaintiffs did not argue – at either the trial court or on appeal - that they had a right to store their possessions for days on end on public property.”

“The City has over-reacted to the Lavan Decision and effectively given transients permission to perpetually store their property on sidewalks across the City, which was not the court’s intent or even the plaintiffs’ request,” said Mark Ryavec, president of the Venice Stakeholders Association.

“This misinterpretation of the court’s ruling is wreaking havoc on Venice residents,” Ryavec said, “with the establishment of permanent encampments on residential streets adjacent to the Boardwalk, on Third Street and on Venice Boulevard near residences, and recently on Coeur D’Alene Avenue next to two elementary schools.”

Ryavec said, “These encampments spawn a tremendous amount of crime, from trespass, harassment and home invasions to vandalism, public inebriation, defecation and urination.”

“Nearby residents are very concerned and they have good reason considering, for example, the five home invasions since last April in just the few blocks around my home.”

Henning’s opinion states that the City is legally entitled to remove items that comprise an encampment because the encampment itself poses an immediate threat to public health and safety due to the unsanitary conditions that exist in such encampments and their lawless atmosphere.  Removing these encampments was explicitly allowed by the court in the Lavan Decision.

“When there is an ‘immediate threat to public health or safety,’ Lavan does not require the City to give any notice whatsoever before removing private property from the right-of-way,” the VSA attorney noted.  “Although the City may choose to store such property for a period of time in order to allow it to be reclaimed by its owner, the property can be removed from the right-of-way immediately and without notice.” 

(If you wish to have a copy of Mr. Henning's opinion please send an email to venicestakeholders@ca.rr.com)

Reports of Two More Home Invasions in 2014 in the Abbot Kinney/Windward Circle Neighborhood

Editor's Note:  As long as the City continues to allow transients, often drugged out and/or mentally ill, to violate the City's own ordinances and curfew against camping in parks, these individuals will remain in our town and residents will be exposed to terrifying incidents like those that follow. This forces residents and their families into an existential form of Russian Roulette, imposed on them by the lack of action and leadership by City Councilman Bonin, Mayor Garcetti, Police Chief Beck and the commissioners of the Police Commission and the Recreation and Parks Commission (the latter which has jurisdiction over the Venice Beach Recreation Area). Will the next home invasion result in death? Or the one after that?  Why does the City keep fighting its own residents to maintain an illegal campgrounds on Venice Beach?

On July 18th, 2014, two burglars broke into our home in the 400 block of Grand Blvd.

At the time, we were at home asleep with our 5 year old son and 2 year old daughter. Our son had a nightmare earlier that night and was asleep in our bed, while our daughter was alone in the children's bedroom.

At around 3:45 am, we heard something drop in the kitchen, and I looked up and saw a flashlight in the hallway. I whispered to my partner that someone was in the house. The person heard me and began moving quickly. My partner heard this and screamed at him to get out of our house. I ran to grab my daughter while he chased the guy out the back door. We then saw another guy run past the house in the other direction. They didn't have time to collect three of their four shoes (which they had taken off so as not to wake us while they walked through our bedroom). They dropped a laptop and a box cutter beside the house on their way out.

They had taken my car keys, several laptops and our phones. Fortunately we had a landline which we used to call the police. About 20 minutes later my partner saw that my phone registered on Find My iPhone, placing one of the burglars in an alley in Venice. The police sent several units and cornered him with all of our belongings, no shoes on, and the fourth shoe in his bag. He was arrested, but since he was three weeks shy of 18 years old, we were told that he would not get more than juvenile camp for more than a few months. (This means he is back on the streets by now.) And he did not give up his partner.

I should note that we have a six foot high fence. These prowlers climbed over a neighbor's wall to enter our property, and pried opened a window next to our front door to enter the house. It took my five year old a long time before he could go to bed without making sure all of the doors and windows were locked. And on most nights, I still go to sleep thinking that someone is lurking outside of my window. The other incidents happening in our neighborhood make those fears even stronger.

Last weekend, my partner saw two transients sleeping in the children's park on Venice beach - in the morning. When will the City start protecting Venice families?


October 4th at 3:30 in the afternoon on the 500 block of Rialto Ave.

It was a spectacularly beautiful afternoon and we had the doors and windows to our place open enjoying the great weather. An out of town guest was visiting and we were beginning to get things ready for an early dinner. Our house opens directly to the cottage next door where our tenant of 3 years resides.

We were suddenly surprised by someone screaming. At first we couldn’t tell where it came from or who was, but it was obviously from someone in great distress. My partner and I went out the side door and heard additional screams from the alley behind our house. It was evident that it was our tenant, and that she was screaming ‘Help me, there’s someone in my house’. It was terrifying to hear.

We immediately ran to the alley where we saw our tenant, who was already calling 911. My partner made sure she was OK and I ran to the back door of her cottage. A 40 something transient was coming out the back door as I was going in. He immediately said ‘I didn't do anything. I’m sorry, I didn't know she was your wife.’ I didn't correct him. He had scraped his hand jumping over the front gate of her place, which is 5’6” tall and is always locked. He told me he had come directly from the beach, where he was living and that he was being chased by some other transients. It was obvious that no one was chasing him.

Our tenant said she was reading on her bed, when the guy opened her front door and came at her with his hands raised in a threatening manner. She screamed at him to get out but he continued moving toward her; she bolted out the back door. I told the creep that he wasn't going anywhere until the police came. He didn't offer any resistance, took his shirt off for some reason and sat on a chair outside.

By this time a lot of neighbors came out to see what was going on and had gathered by the back gate. Many were armed with whatever was immediately available; a shovel, a bat an more.

The police arrived within a few minutes, which was great. They then repeatedly asked me if I had used force to restrain the creep; honestly they seemed more concerned that I had held him or physically restrained him in any way. This truthfully pissed me off and I told them so. They also told me to get a motion sensor light; not too helpful at 3:30 pm.

It turns out the creep had just arrived in Venice form the East Coast where he jumped bail on a felony burglary charge.

I attended the recent court hearing along with our tenant where we both testified under oath about the incident. The defense attorney repeatedly insinuated that our tenant had invited the creep into her house. I don’t know how much more insulting that could be, it was a despicable and disgraceful move by the defense. I was repeatedly asked about the property and the surrounding fences and gates. As I designed and built the entire place, this didn’t provide the defense with a lot of questions. The arresting officer was in court as awitness as well, it was his day off and we both really appreciated his attendance.

Since the creep has prior felony charges and an outstanding warrant, the Deputy District Attorney informed us that they were going to ask for 8 years. The trial is scheduled for next month. Once he finishes his sentence in CA, he will be extradited to the East Coast to serve his sentence there as well. He won’t be on the street again for quite a while.

Anatomy of a Home Invasion

On April 8th of this year, around 4:30 AM, a transient living in Venice was crazy on drugs, yelling at the top of his lungs "he has a gun," on Horizon Avenue near Riviera. 

Several residents were awakened by his loud ravings and called the police.  The police did not respond to several calls, the police said later, since it was just another drug addict acting out in Venice. 

A young mother of two in a duplex was awakened and went down her stairs to investigate.  She heard the transient yelling at the top of his lungs and then heard noises that she thought came from him fighting with someone in the street.  As she descended her stairs she realized that he was trying to kick in her front door. 

She grabbed her 5 and 7 year old children and fled down the back stairway to her neighbor's on the first floor, from where she called the police, while the intruder climbed the front stairs

Not being able to kick down the door, he had broken the glass plate in the top of the 100-year old door and dove through it, cutting himself extensively in the process.  She could hear that he was momentarily stopped by a child guard at the top of the stairway, but he got past it and proceeded to go into the young woman's living room and then into the bathroom, which he demolished and in the process covered it in blood.  He ripped both pedestal sinks off the wall, which the police later told the resident would have taken Herculean strength and indicated he was on probably PCP. 

Quickly realizing that they were not safe downstairs, both single moms fled with their children to a neighbor's across the street who offered them sanctuary. 

From the time she called the police to the time the police entered her apartment, 25 minutes elapsed. 

The police and emergency medical personnel surrounded the duplex and then entered the house.  They found the transient fighting with a shower curtain on the floor of the bathroom, drenched in his own blood.  It took six cops and paramedics to subdue him and carry him to a waiting ambulance.

The transient had a criminal record in Idaho.  He is not from California.  He is to be confined in a mental hospital for at least one year.

The young woman's in-laws, who owned the property, sold it.  The young woman has moved to a new residence that has three doors to pass through before one can enter the home.

She and her oldest daughter have PTSD and are both in counseling; the young woman could not sleep for the first month after the break-in.

This is the sixth home invasion in our small neighborhood that I know of since April.

And Traveling Eric (AKA the Mayor), City Attorney Mike Feuer (AKA The Poodle), Councilman Bonin (AKA The Homeless Advocate) and Chief Charlie Beck (Well, we can't arrest our way out of this mess in Venice) are doing precisely what to stop the next home invasion in Venice by transients that continue to be allowed to camp on Venice Beach, on 3rd Street and on Venice Boulevard?

Argonaut Article - Venice Beach Is Not a Campground

http://argonautnews.com/power-to-speak-venice-beach-is-not-a-campground/

Venice Stakeholders Association and Residents File Lawsuit against the City and County of Los Angeles for Dangerous Conditions and Public Nuisance at Venice Beach

After years of having public safety and health concerns ignored, the Venice Stakeholders Association and individual residents today filed a lawsuit against the City and County of Los Angeles for their maintenance of a public nuisance and dangerous conditions along the Venice Boardwalk and beach that deprive residents of the quiet and safe enjoyment of their homes and the Venice community of the safe use of the Venice Beach Recreation Area.

“It has long been evident that the City and County enforce “no camping” laws in all of their parks except the Venice Beach Recreation Area,” said Mark Ryavec, president of the neighborhood association.  “One look at the pristine condition of the park next to City Hall or Grand Park next to the Hall of Administration shows the unequal treatment Venice has received.”

“It is only at the Venice Beach Recreation Area and on adjoining streets that a lawless Skid Row encampment, open drug sales and use, loud late-night noise, and public inebriation, urination and defecation is routinely permitted,” Ryavec said.  “This is not tolerated elsewhere in Los Angeles or in other beach cities along Santa Monica Bay.”

“Since City and County officials and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority have not replied to our many requests to clean up the park and beach, we had no choice but to bring this lawsuit.”

“The stakes are very high,” Ryavec said.  “This lawless environment spawns deadly behavior – for example, the killing of a young Italian visitor who was run down on the Boardwalk by a meth-addicted transient in his car in the summer of 2013. Or the recent home invasion that forced a young woman out onto the rooftop of her house to escape a transient who had broken in. 

“The lack of enforcement of existing laws makes the hundreds of campers living along Venice Beach feel they can do anything they want with impunity.  The result is that harassment, intimidation, trespass, vandalism, home invasions, and burglaries are common.”

Rob Glushon, the attorney for the VSA and individual plaintiffs Gary Harris, Jack Hoffmann, Arthur Kraus, David Krintzman and Brad Neal, said, “California law requires all property owners to maintain their property in a manner that does not cause harm and danger to others.  Both the City and County need to take action to abate the intolerable conditions at Venice Beach, which are a serious threat to public health and safety.”

Contact:  Mark Ryavec at 310 871 6265

Legal Issues in Confronting Venice's Transient Crisis Outlined in ABA Journal

The American Bar Association Journal has published a cover story on recent court decisions that have exacerbated a chronic lawless environment at Venice Beach and fueled an increase in assaults, trespass, burglaries, drug sales and use, intimidation and harassment of residents, and public inebriation, defecation and urination in our community.

Cities get mired in civil rights disputes in trying to deal with growing homeless populations

POSTED NOV 01, 2014 05:00 AM CDT

BY LORELEI LAIRD

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Photo of Mark Ryavec by Kyle Monk.

Mark Ryavec lives in a beautifully restored 1907 duplex in Venice Beach, the artsy beachfront neighborhood of Los Angeles. 

He's about half a mile from the shore and even closer to Abbot Kinney Boulevard, a trendy artery filled with pricey restaurants and boutiques. Depending on which real estate website you consult, his improvements and recent gentrification in the area have pushed the property's value to roughly three or four times what he paid for it in 1989.

Across the street, one of his sometime neighbors lives in a van. Drinking coffee in his front yard, Ryavec watches a young man slip out. Shortly afterward, the man comes back with a car that jump-starts the van. This is necessary because it's a street sweeping day and the space ceases to be legal at noon. This, Ryavec says, means the van-dweller will take up a parking spot that a resident could be using—in a parking-poor neighborhood that gets 16 million visitors a year.

But this is just the beginning of Ryavec's problems with homelessness in Venice Beach. A much smellier problem is that people living in vehicles have limited access to bathrooms. As a result, he says, vehicle-dwellers routinely relieve themselves behind million-dollar homes.

More at: http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/unwanted_guests 

Residents Ask City for Ban on Luggage Stored at Venice Beach and Ban on Sleeping within 125 Feet of Residences and Hotels

The Venice Stakeholders Association today forwarded to City officials a petition from residents supporting public safety amendments to protect Venice Beach and other major outdoor event venues in Los Angeles from a Boston Marathon-like backpack bombing.  The package of amendments also would establish a buffer zone around residences and hotels throughout the City in which the City’s “no sitting, lying or sleeping” ordinance could be enforced.

“Currently Venice Beach, with an estimated 16 million visitors a year, is at risk of attack due to the ease with which anyone can leave unattended baggage for hours,” said Mark Ryavec, the president of the VSA.  “Unattended luggage is not allowed at LAX or Union Station and it also should not be allowed anywhere in the City where huge numbers of people congregate,” Ryavec said. “Our amendment would plug this hole in City law.”

Also included in the package is an amendment that would re-establish the City’s “no sitting, lying or sleeping on public rights-of-way” ordinance within 125 feet of any residence or hotel.  The ordinance has been largely unenforced for eight years as part of the “Jones Settlement,” an agreement between the City and several homeless individuals in Downtown’s “Skid Row” neighborhood to temporarily hold off enforcement between 9 PM and 6 AM until additional housing is built to house the homeless.

Jack Hoffmann, a Market Street resident, said the application of the Jones Settlement to areas beyond Skid Row has created a nightmare in Venice, especially on and near Ocean Front Walk, which is known as the Venice Boardwalk.  “By encouraging the establishment of large encampments of mentally ill, drug and alcohol addicted, and criminally-inclined individuals living on our doorsteps, the City has endangered residents, visitors and those living on the street; abandoning people helps no one.” Hoffmann said.

“Instead of forcing people to live with this danger and bear the burden the City will not accept, in Venice or elsewhere, the City should at least create a buffer zone around residences and hotels citywide where these encampments cannot remain while a comprehensive solution is developed.” Hoffmann said.

  

According to Ryavec the Jones Settlement does not preclude the City from passing – and then fully enforcing – a new ordinance that more narrowly tailors the sitting/lying/sleeping ban to those areas closest to residences and hotels.  “The settlement specifically states that the City’s agreement to temporarily not enforce the ban from 9 PM to 6 AM does not apply to any ordinance adopted in the future,” Ryavec said.

Ryavec also noted that even after the City finishes building the 1,250 housing units required by the Jones Settlement, any enforcement of the present sitting/lying/sleeping ban could invite a new lawsuit since the City still would not have enough shelter beds to accommodate all those living on the street.  “If the VSA’s amendment is adopted, and the absolute ban is challenged again in court,” said Ryavec, “the narrower ban has a better chance of surviving because it is tailored specifically to protect residents and visitors where they live and sleep.”

In the letter to City officials, VSA said that by not enforcing the sitting/lying/sleeping ban the City has allowed a lawless situation to develop along the Venice Boardwalk and on nearby residential streets, as hordes of aggressive, opportunistic transients attracted by mild weather and the easy availability of drugs camp out on private and public property, committing a constant stream of assaults, thefts and burglaries, defecating and urinating in public, and harassing anyone who gets in their way . (Ryavec noted that residents and visitors are not the only victims of these conditions; there is also a record of brutal transient-on-transient assaults.)

Ryavec referred in particular to a recent case that drew international media attention, in which a transient invaded a home two blocks from the beach while the resident was home, forcing her to hide on her roof until the police arrived.

David Krintzman, a walk street resident near the Ocean Front Walk encampments, said a robbery of his neighbor’s apartment had recently been committed in broad daylight by a transient who absconded with the neighbor’s laptop, clothes and other possessions.

“From a neighborhood safety perspective, I am very concerned about the transient encampment the City has permitted to exist at the grassy knoll and pagodas at the foot of Dudley Avenue as well as the encampments which extend several blocks north,” Krintzman said. 

In another recent incident, three transients from Oklahoma stole a watch from a visitor while he was changing clothes in a Venice Beach restroom. When the visitor tried to take the watch back, the thieves threatened him with a butcher knife and pepper spray.  “The transients told police they were here because they had heard that Venice was a great place to be homeless,” Ryavec said.“This culture of lawlessness has to stop and residents must have protection,” Ryavec said.