PPCC Hosts 90-Minute Discussion Regarding Area Crime

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

During its most recent board meeting on September 28, Pacific Palisades Community Council hosted a nearly 90-minute discussion regarding the “increase in, and escalation of, crimes involving the youth” in the area.

The discussion, suggested for the agenda by Pacific Palisades Residents Association Primary and Alternate Representatives for PPCC Jessica Rogers and Courtney Macker, covered “how best to come together, get involved and talk to our children” in order to “get a handle on these new threats and improve public safety for all of the Palisades.”

Several Los Angeles Police Department officials were present for the discussion, including Senior Lead Officer for Pacific Palisades Brian Espin, West LA Captain Richard Gabaldon and Sergeant Scott Alpert.

Macker explained that the community has seen an “increase in crimes in … public spaces.”

“Most concerning, it’s juveniles that are involved,” Macker detailed. “There’s been theft, disrespect and assault of employees … there’s been drag racing at the park, fighting at the park, lighting off fireworks at the park. We’ve recently been made aware that there are a number of kids who have gotten jumped, beaten up and had items stolen from them, just walking through town, minding their business.”

Macker said people have filed complaints and spoken to law enforcement, but that “we kind of feel like we’re being gaslit,” that the Palisades is “not getting the response that we feel we deserve.”

“All we’re trying to do is keep our public spaces safe and our kids safe and our community overall safe,” Macker continued. “And it doesn’t feel like there’s any consequences for this bad behavior.”

In a sentiment later echoed by LAPD, Macker suggested that parents talk to their kids to find out if they have any information about what has been going on in town, or if they themselves have been a victim, as the more information that can be provided, the more LAPD can do in terms of a response.

“My home backs up to the Rec Center,” PPCC Legal Advisor Rob Weber said. “I’ve lived there for 20 years, the activity of the kids being rowdy at night and lighting off fireworks has just gotten worse and worse, particularly in the last two or three years.”

One question asked by PPCC Area 6 Representative Cindy Simon was whether LAPD knew who the kids involved were.

“They don’t know for sure that it’s the same set of people over and over, but they have been able to identify a couple of high schoolers that are there over and over again,” Zar explained of LAPD. “They’ve actually reached out to the high school, they’ve had the deans pull these kids out and talk to them. But that has not deterred the behavior. The crimes are not being reported.”

Despite reportedly long wait times, Zar, and LAPD later in the meeting, made the point that the crimes need to be reported—not by email to Espin or others with LAPD, but via the report lines—to help put together a response.

“LAPD has suggested that this is … a communications thing, that we should try to reach out and educate parents or at least get information out there, so the parents know that they should be watching their kids or at least being mindful of where their kids are,” Zar said.

Other suggestions from PPCC board members given throughout the meeting included working more closely with area schools, potentially hosting rallies or educational programming, hiring a private security company to patrol Palisades Recreation Center at the times incidents are occurring or to do additional curfew checks.

“The challenge we have in West LA is always going to be resources,” Gabaldon explained. “We only have one car up there in the Palisades. We have our Beach Detail that covers the beach … once the Beach Detail goes home, we have one car at night up there.”

Gabaldon explained that while he could have a “four-hour discussion on some of the issues,” he reported that LAPD is seeing incidents of “juveniles acting up in large groups” increase “all over the city.”

“I encourage everybody, as frustrating as it is, if they see something to call the police, whether it’s 911 or the non-emergency line (877-275-5273),” Espin said. “Because I do need that data recorded, an incident number, whether we get there in time. As much as we want to, sometimes we’re not there in time … but I still use that data as showing the issues that we’re having up there.”

Detectives can then take the data and follow up to see if the crimes are related and see who is committing them. Most of the arrests, especially for juveniles, lead to the diversion program, Espin said.

“A lot of the kids were afraid to come forward, they were worried about retaliation,” Espin said of previous incidents. “So if there is no report, where our victim, whether it’s a kid or an adult, can say that, ‘hey, I got beat up by this person or this group of people,’ there’s no follow up for the detectives.”

Though Espin was limited with what information he could share about the incidents due to minors being involved, he suggested for kids who are worried or scared to avoid the group of kids and the “main culprit” involved with the incidents.

“We can try to convince them as much as we want, but if they don’t feel safe and they’re not going to give us more, I know it’s frustrating to all the community members because you believe you know who did it and maybe you’re 100% right,” Alpert said. “But we have to go off the actual facts, evidence in front of us, we have to have that, or the city attorney or the district attorney is not going to do anything with that, it’s going to be basically rejected and that case is going to be closed.”

While reported incidents become public record, certain reports, Espin explained, qualify for confidentiality, with names redacted. But if an incident goes to court, victims would have to come forward.

Espin explained some of the things he has been doing to help with the incidents, including speaking with Paul Revere Charter Middle and Palisades Charter High schools. Because the incidents are not taking place on school grounds and are outside of school hours, Espin said, the schools are limited in what they can do.

He suggested kids “not be out at 10 o’clock at night hanging out at the park” and “not be out in the evening hours at the village where some of this stuff’s happening.”

“For right now, while this activity is occurring,” he said, “until we can at least try to figure out the players that are involved.”

LAPD also has been conducting plainclothes undercover task forces at Palisades Recreation Center, as, when it comes to things like fireworks and doing donuts while driving, those are crimes that can be cited and/or trigger an arrest if an officer is present.

At the time of the PPCC meeting, Espin reported that Gabaldon had committed Violent Crime Task Force overtime funds to LAPD so that they could increase their presence at the park the following Friday and Saturday evening to oversee the behavior of the kids present.

“That’s just this weekend, we can’t be there every weekend, we can’t be there every day,” Espin continued. “We need to come together as a community, as a neighborhood, and have this conversation with families and people that have kids.”

Espin suggested that families and parents check in with their kids about where they are, especially between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., which is when many of the incidents are taking place. He also confirmed that private security companies, even though they cannot make arrests, act as a deterrent, as would cameras.

“I’m happy to have another community meeting,” Zar said at the end of the discussion. “Maybe it’s one where we invite the kids to come and listen to LAPD.”