Staying Safe for Holidays

By JAMES GAVSIE, Special to the Post

Is there a greater place to be than Pacific Palisades during the holidays? Santa Claus coming to town, Hannukah just round the corner and way too much family coming to visit. With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays we sometimes forget that we live in Los Angeles and not everyone who comes to our community is as “neighborly” as we would like them to be. With that in mind, here are a few quick tips to help us all have a great holiday season. Quick Tip #1: Lock your car door. Don’t even pretend to be surprised by this because you know as well as I do that there are still quite a few people living in the Palisades who don’t lock their car. Do you know what method is most used by car thieves to gain access to your car? They check to see if a door is open! I’m not kidding. Add to that the fact there is usually something that looks valuable in the car, say that Christmas gift you just bought, and you’re inviting someone to see if your car is unlocked. The other day a friend of mine walked to what he thought was my car, opened the door, and got in. He was surprised by the fact that it wasn’t my car, and I was even more surprised that someone thought that it would be okay to leave it unlocked. Really, people? Locking a car door is too much work? What, is pressing a button too much like manual labor for you? Look, I really appreciate the fact that the Palisades has that community feeling to it. I think it’s also great that many residents feel very safe here. With that being said, please lock your car doors! We shouldn’t make our vehicles easy targets. Quick Tip #2 would be: Avoid being the “easy” target. We’ve all heard of the unfortunate muggings that have taken place in the Palisades. Well, most of them have something in common. The person who was mugged was perceived as an ideal (or easy) target. A mugger will size up a person very quickly by asking themselves whether or not their intended target looks like someone who would be caught by surprise, put up a fight, and/or have something valuable on them. Remember, muggers don’t want to be caught or even be somewhat identifiable. How do we avoid being a target? Follow these rules: Avoid carrying large amounts of cash, avoid being distracted (by your cell phone, iPod, etc.), and avoid walking alone, especially at night. Quick Tip #3: Keep it in the Palisades. With our proximity to Santa Monica, and especially to Third Street Promenade, I can see why we would be tempted to do a great deal of our holiday shopping over there. However, in a side-by-side comparison of the crime rate of Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades which one do you think provides a safer venue for shopping during the holidays? Pretty obvious isn’t it? I’m not saying that being bombarded with requests for spare change isn’t enjoyable, but why not stay local and frequent the businesses here? You’ll be supporting our community while having a more enjoyable (and safer) shopping experience. Editor’s note: James Gavsie is the owner of MAX Impact Martial Arts (1663 ‘ Marquez Ave). He is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and opened his studio in Pacific Palisades in March 2005. He can be reached at 310-454-7105 or visit the Max Impact Web site, www.maximpactma.com.