Santa Monica--More Violence Drifts Into Town

Santa Monica, an oceanfront community that has been attracting economic extremes--the affluent and the down and out--has suffered two more incidents of violence committed by drifters.

A mental health professional was stabbed by a transient on Sunday and, hours later, a transient strolled up behind a homeless person sitting on a bench in the city’s Palisades Park and clubbed him with a steel rod.

Both victims survived the unrelated attacks, which followed by less than two months the fatal stabbing of a psychiatric social worker by a transient in the beach city.

The latest violence underscored the growing pains of a city that is increasingly viewed as a great place to hang your hat--whether in an expensive piece of real estate, or on a park bench.

As a result, Santa Monica’s 156-officer police force has its hands full.

Police Chief James Keane on Monday attempted to explain why there has been a big increase in the number of drifters walking the beach city’s streets in recent years and--most important--their effect on the area’s crime rate.

“Santa Monica is at the end of a freeway,” he said. “You can’t go any farther west. It’s got a beautiful climate. If I was a transient, here’s where I’d be.”

A recent study by Keane’s staff found that, since 1985, transients have been playing a much more significant role in violent crime in the upscale community.

In the first of Sunday’s attacks, police said, a drifter identified as Larry Anthony Taylor stabbed a psychiatric social worker while she was counseling him in a private care center.

Shirley Ann Sauerwein, 44, was able to fend off her attacker, who then fled. She was in good condition Monday at Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center, a spokesman said.

Taylor, 27, who was arrested shortly after the attack while walking along Pacific Coast Highway, was booked for investigation of attempted murder and could be arraigned today, police said.

In a striking parallel in February, a mentally ill drifter stabbed to death psychiatric social worker Robbyn Panich, 36, as she worked in a county health clinic in Santa Monica. Her death prompted the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to approve $250,000 for beefed-up security at county outpatient clinics.

Michael Roback, a senior social worker at Panich’s clinic, said Monday that a new security guard was patrolling the Santa Monica West Mental Health Center as a result of the supervisors’ action.

The stabbing of Sauerwein, who briefly worked at the center, “stirred up” apprehensive feelings among workers there, who were still attempting to get over the Panich slaying, Roback said.

Unlike Panich, however, Sauerwein, who worked for the adoptions division of the county Department of Children’s Services, was moonlighting as a counselor for Devonshire House, a private center on 4th Street.

Another Violent Incident

In her current post with the county, Sauerwein can free-lance 24 hours a week, officials said.

Further amplifying Santa Monica’s growing homeless problem was another violent incident in the city on Sunday.

Police reported that Willy Eugene Brown, 35, whom they identified as a drifter, was sitting on a bench in Palisades Park overlooking the ocean when another drifter, Joe Alvarez, 64, walked up behind him and struck Brown with a steel rod.

Brown was treated at Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center for a skull injury and a broken arm. Alvarez, police said, was booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon.

Such violence is symptomatic of the increasing incidence of transients in the city’s crime rate, police spokesman Sgt. John Miehle said.

In 1985, he said, transients accounted for 15% of the city’s aggravated assault crimes; last year, the figure was 20%. In that same time, he said, the percentage of drifters charged with rape has risen from 6% to 38%, and homicides from 11% to 70%.

Police Chief Keane said that, in his opinion, “90% of the transient problem is a social problem, not a police problem.”

Still, he said, his officers have their hands full with the growing number of drifters.

“I get more complaints on transients than anything else,” said Keane, 57, who has been the city’s police chief for 11 years.

He said he has directed his officers to cite drifters, when warranted, for such infractions as panhandling. But he complained that the Santa Monica city attorney’s office does not follow through on prosecuting such cases.

Policy Explained

In response, Assistant City Atty. Joseph Lawrence said his office’s policy is, in effect, to not prosecute unless there is “a threat of violence.”

“Even if we did prosecute,” Lawrence said, “the chances are that the (judges) would not give jail time” because of jail crowding.

Instead, he said, the city operates “a social work diversion program” through which the homeless are placed in contact with social workers.