NBCLA
Several Venice organizations have criticized the Los Angeles County Sheriff s Department; saying it is calling for the “forced displacement and criminalization of unhoused people” on the boardwalk.
“This week, the L.A. County Sheriff and others unfamiliar with Venice and its unhoused residents held press events on the Venice Boardwalk calling for the forced displacement and criminalization of unhoused people in order to ‘clean up’ the Boardwalk,” according to the statement released Friday afternoon by the Venice Family Clinic; Grass Roots Neighbors; Safe Place for Youth; Venice Black, Indigenous and People of Color Elders; Venice Community Housing; and Venice Justice Committee.
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Venice Beach has long been L.A’s haven for the offbeat and out-of-step, a magnet for throngs of the curious drawn by the precarious balance between natural beauty and human eccentricity.
But recently, that magical Venice has become a caricature of itself. Shamed almost daily in eyewitness videos of trash, mayhem and fire, its milelong ribbon of tents and shanties is now held up as the hallmark of everything broken about Los Angeles.
“The beatings, the murders of senior citizens, the fires, the victimization of housed and unhoused, the black RV terrorizing families in a school zone, the unanswered emails, unreturned phone calls; there is no excuse for your absence and neglect,” one resident wrote as part of what has become a daily barrage of screaming emails directed at city leaders.
A cleanup was scheduled for Tuesday morning to move some of the unhoused residents from the beachfront, prompting members of the Venice Justice Committee to come out.