Santa Monica Democratic Club, A Clueless Group Supporting a Clueless SMMR Slate

September 16, 2024 - Since I was called out personally, I'm finally writing in response to the letter Jon Katz, President of the Santa Monica Democratic Club, wrote in the SMDP on August 20th about my "Anybody But SMRR" letter. Jon titled his response "Playing Politics," which was appropriate, because it was full of half truths, outright lies, straw man arguments, and misrepresentations of my views-in short, a case study of playing politics from the president of an organization completely out of touch with the crime, disorder, and mental illness every Santa Monican faces on a daily basis. I'm writing not because I care what Mr. Katz thinks, but to highlight the extreme cluelessness of him, his group, and the SMRR candidates they are supporting

Apparently, Jon and I are neighbors living a block away from each other. The first fiction Jon wrote was that my letter was "all about playing politics and not reflective of the actual character of our neighborhood." Really?

Have you visited our local Reed Park, infested with addicts, dealers, and unstable mental cases enabled by drug paraphernalia given by Barbara Ferrer et al? If you are so blinded by your ideology that you can no longer comprehend reality, I'm happy to take you for a tour and visit Reed (or the alleys of our neighborhood) at any time, day or night, to show you the danger and misery your myopic belief system enables.

Have you not seen the eight-story "stack and packs" being built on Lincoln, with dozens more on the way for the boulevards surrounding us, under the fiction that it will solve our homeless problem? I can understand why you want to deny reality-SMRR has presided over the overdevelopment we are beginning to see changing our city forever, with some as tall as 34 stories. And SMRR FOUR candidate Ellis Raskin was chair of the Planning Committee that let it happen!!

If you're still clueless about reality and how the world perceives us, watch this 20 minute video detailing how Santa Monica has changed under SMRR rule. From a former Santa Monica resident, it has three million views and counting. Watch how the city, under anti-police SMRR control, has devolved into a dangerous and drug infested place, with a murder, break-ins, attempted rapes all in OUR NEIGHBORHOOD in just the LAST TWO WEEKS. Wake up and smell the urine, Jon.

SMRR (of which you are a loyal member) and the SMDC (of which you are president!) have, from the time they were created, done more to destroy the character and values of Santa Monica than any organization. And you are now supporting the SMRR Four with a platform that doesn't even mention crime, safety, and disorder, while endorsing George Gascon, the failed LA DA immiserating the entire county. It's incomprehensible until you dive into your ideology and denial :

You said about SMRR that you "believe in the organization's mission to create opportunities for people of all income levels, but especially the least fortunate among us, to be able to live and thrive in Santa Monica." Pretty words, except the reality is you and your SMRR dead-enders believe the "least fortunate" includes every transient addict or criminal that rolls into town, as witnessed by the supportive housing being built in the middle of our downtown tourist area at a million dollars a pop. Great plan to embed the sickest amongst us, (and NOT from Santa Monica), in a struggling tourist district, but at least you're keeping up with Gleam's declaration that anybody who rolls into town and lives in our alleys "is a Santa Monican!"

You accused me of saying our block "has become unaffordable due to overdevelopment." I said no such thing. What I believe is the tsunami of overdevelopment, much of which is just beginning to be seen, in which density and height restrictions were traded in exchange for a few "affordable" units per building will do nothing to help stabilize our city when it comes to crime and safety. "Build more housing" is a joke when applied to the mental health, crime, and addiction crisis beleaguering our streets, during a month when TWO CHILDREN WERE ABDUCTED by drugged and/or mentally ill transients (one unsuccessful thanks to the bravery of a neighbor). The truth is 67% of all arrests arise from this transient community, and until we remove it, more crime will continue to happen, because people like you allow it.

You smear the Change slate by saying "We understand the contempt that MAGA and Trump have for following the Constitution, but now we are seeing the same reflected in our local government." Now who is playing politics? I'm a lifelong Democrat, who, like Oscar, Phil, Lana, and Christine, have never voted Republican in our lives, and certainly are not ignoring the Constitution. We are simply the moderate middle who have had enough of the crime wave you refuse to see.

Your lie gets to the very heart of the cynicism in your letter, and your political ideology. The Democratic Party overall is busy recovering the moderate center from fringe people like yourself, and yet you double down by accusing the Change slate, which is similarly moderate, of being MAGA. That's contemptible and I'm sure a preview that reveals how SMRR and your SMDC will try and smear the four moderate change candidates that are simply trying, like the country as a whole, to tack to the common sense middle.

As far as I can tell, the truest thing you wrote was the first part of a sentence that read, "Maybe I'm just a far-left lunatic..." Is this some dawning awareness trying to break through, Jon? Go with it! You, and SMRR, as embodied by people like Caroline Torosis, are willfully ignoring the one thing our police have told us they need, which is 300 officers to proactively reclaim the streets, parks, alleys and public spaces from addicts and criminals, from which most of our problems emanate. Only draining the breeding ground of this extremely anti-social behavior will create a virtual loop of safety that will bring back businesses and make residents feel safe again. It is, as I've said before, existential for our residents, businesses, and tourists.

Finally, how do I know you don't believe in enforcement, Jon? Because your SMDC Executive Board just voted not to support Prop 36, which would roll back certain provisions of Prop 47 and increase penalties for repeat offender of theft and drug trafficking. This is why I and so many other residents will vote anybody but the SMRR FOUR, endorsed by your SMDC. We're sick of it. The entire state is sick of it and why Prop 36 will pass and Gascon will lose. Everybody but you seems to know the basic fact that when you are kind to the cruel, you are cruel to the kind-people just trying to live their lives.

Vote for the Change Slate: Oscar de la Torre, Vivian Roknian, Phil Brock, and John Putnam. This will give the council enough votes to truly change direction. Enough is enough of SMRR, and their SMDC enablers who continue to ignore reality.