Pampering Criminals More Important Than Fighting Crime

September 23, 2025

Dear Editor,

Congratulations to SMPD for rapidly arresting the homeless outlaw who stabbed a Pier restaurant worker trying to enjoy his lunch break. The daylight sneak-attack occurred over Labor Day weekend. An arrest followed three days later.

Kudos aside, however, the incident highlights yet again the consequences of local politicians undermining public safety here.

This violent attack not only injured another innocent person but random assaults by violent homeless criminals, this one on a holiday weekend at a prime tourist destination, further mar Santa Monica’s increasingly ugly reputation for crime and disorder.

Perversely, local “establishment” officials persist in favoring policies that allow such travesties, yet blame the City’s financial rot on everything except homeless crime depressing tourism, despite local businesses warning about the problem for years.

Facts: the Pier attacker stabbed his victim in the back several times and was arrested for Attempted Murder. He had been previously arrested by SMPD twice, but released both times by criminal-friendly local policies.

The attacker’s most recent previous release, arranged by the LA County Probation Department, occurred in April on a felony charge. Yet he’d already been released on Probation after a December arrest. News reports relate he also was wanted on a warrant for Battery (i.e., punching or hitting someone).

Who should be held accountable for this?

Mainly, of course, the back-stabbing criminal. No excuses.

But responsibility also falls on local politicians and their staffs, including the Santa Monica City Council and City Attorney’s Office, which reward homeless and drug-addicted criminals with four different “service” programs (SamoBridge, STEP Court, Alternatives to Incarceration, and Permanent Supportive Housing) if they commit crimes here instead of in a less lenient jurisdiction.

The City claims these programs’ eligibility is limited to those who commit “low level” crimes but Assault & Battery, Burglary, Loitering to Commit a Crime, Indecent Exposure, Possession, and Petty Theft are among those.

And note SMPD reports homeless criminals now account for over 70 percent of all arrests in Santa Monica. Moreover, crimes by homeless offenders here are hardly confined to “low level” ones.

In addition to the attempted murder at the Pier, homeless criminals in Santa Monica have committed sexual assaults, murder, robberies, arsons, assaults with deadly weapons, hate crimes, carjacking, assault, battery, elder abuse, burglaries, repeat shoplifting incidents, urinating and defecating in public, public nudity, possessing or brandishing dangerous weapons, and batteries on police officers, among others.

Digging deeper, who oversees the Probation Department that repeatedly released the violent Pier attacker? The LA County Board of Supervisors, led by Lindsey Horvath, who supposedly represents Santa Monica.

And the Pier stabbing is hardly an outlier in terms of repeat offenders on Probation.

SMPD has arrested already-convicted criminals for burglary, robbery, murder, violent hate crimes, making criminal threats, drug crimes, and assault with a deadly weapon in Santa Monica—all shortly after a County Probation release.

Do local politicians view pampering criminals as more important than restoring public safety?

Apparently they do, as every member of the City Council’s “political establishment” majority, as well as County BOS chair Horvath, supported DA George Gascon, whose crime-friendly “highlights” included a consistent rise in Countywide crime, a child molester openly boasting about a light sentence, and a murderer so enamored with Gascon that he wished he could tattoo his face with the DA’s name.

Meanwhile, the so-called criminal prosecution division in our City Attorney’s Office also channels Gascon, declaring that if homeless criminals here were jailed, they “may pick up more offenses” before their trial “or have to wait” to receive the free services the city provides.

Perhaps homeless crime here, with all its consequences, is the most predictable calamity in the region’s history.

Sincerely,

Peter DiChellis
Santa Monica