PNA Responds to Gun Violence

November 20, 2003

Dear Editor,

In the articles "Shots Ring Out in the Pico Neighborhood" and "Report Concludes Community Unity Can End Violence" you report on the violence that is occurring in the Pico Neighborhood and the response of the City and Santa Monica Police Department.

In September the membership of the Pico Neighborhood Association elected new members to the Board of Directors. We feel it is necessary to inform the Santa Monica community about the approach that is needed to address the gun-violence in our neighborhood.

As Board members of the Pico Neighborhood Association we are very concerned with the violence that has plagued our community for many years. This year alone our community has had to live through seven shootings since June.

One of those bullets took the life of 19-year-old Jalonie Carter and another bullet pierced the home where four children lived. It is apparent that the approach the City and the SMPD has used is not working.

City leaders and various Pico Neighborhood residents held meetings during the summer to develop viable solutions to the recent wave of violence. One of the outcomes of those meetings was a request to organize a “solutions-based dialogue” with the City Manager and the Chief of Police. The community is still waiting for a response.

We recognize that violence is a symptom to a more complex problem due to poverty and institutionalized racism. According to the recent RAND report on Reducing Gun Violence, neighborhood conditions and community well being is directly tied to incidences of crime.

In order to effectively address the issues of gun violence the City of Santa Monica must invest in improving the quality of life of the Pico Neighborhood. Our community continues to lack job opportunities and expanded youth services, and with the recent cuts in the vocational programs at SMC the economic and educational opportunities many youth had in our neighborhood are eliminated.

We recognize that in order to have a true collaboration, trust, cooperation and respect is necessary on both sides. Only after the community and the City begin to work together can we incorporate a community informed approach with a focus on community engagement in developing an appropriate response that promotes prevention and does away with indiscriminate incarceration of low-income youth.

The newly elected PNA is committed to working with both the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Police Department to create a new paradigm of community centered policing. We look forward to meeting with Police Chief Butts and City Manager Susan McCarthy to engage in this process.

In a City with such abundant resources it is intolerable to allow this problem to persist in the only working-class neighborhood of Santa Monica.