Residents Group Urges a Crackdown on Transients : Studio City: Authorities are asked to employ a public nuisance law to prosecute vagrants who harass people. But homeless advocates cite concerns.

Concerned that an influx of homeless people has increased crime in an affluent Studio City area, a group of residents has called for authorities to use a public nuisance law to prosecute transients.

The residents are eager to crack down on so-called “transient criminals,” believed by residents to be responsible for offenses ranging from car burglaries to rapes.

“Existing criminal codes--burglary, robbery, etc.--require a violent crime already to have been committed,” said Jack Gold, a Superior Court commissioner who lives in the Studio City-Sherman Oaks area and heads the citizens committee addressing the problem. “The citizens hope that by using the public nuisance law we can avoid violent crimes to our citizens in the street.”

Residents say they also are disturbed by vagrants who harass them if the residents refuse requests for money, block their entrances to grocery stores and swear at them when told not to pick through residential garbage cans.

One woman said she did not want her children to see homeless people with holes in their pants that expose their private parts. She said she also worried about the traffic hazards they create by standing near highway off-ramps.

Gold said the intent of the residents’ efforts is to rid the area of most of the vagrants.

The city attorney’s office has agreed to send a representative on a tour with a police officer to check whether crimes are being committed and determine what, if any penal and municipal codes would apply, said Ted Goldstein, spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

At this point, it is unclear what behavior, if any, would fall under the public nuisance law, said Rick Dinse, assistant commanding officer of the Police Department’s Valley Bureau.

“You have to define what conduct they’re doing is wrong and whether it is a nuisance,” Dinse said. “Being a vagrant is not a violation of the law.”

The penal code defines a nuisance as anything injurious to health or offensive to the senses or obstructing property “so as to interfere with comfortable enjoyment of life or property by an entire community or neighborhood or by any considerable number of persons,” Dinse said.

A person must be warned once of the activity before an arrest can be made under the code. Conviction on the misdemeanor charge carries a $500 fine or six months in jail, Dinse said.

Dinse said at least 50 transients have been arrested for both misdemeanor and felony crimes in Studio City in the past year, but said there were no comprehensive statistics on crimes committed by transients.

“The community is anxious to use whatever tool available in order to reduce what they believe is a serious criminal element in their community,” Dinse said.

The residents’ position made homeless advocates wary.

Steve Smith, director of public affairs at the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles, said he did not dispute Studio City’s right to have a safe environment but questioned use of the statute for arresting the homeless.

“Homelessness is often the result of economic distress or the disease of addiction,” Smith said. “Our communities would be better served by effectively addressing these causes of homelessness rather than outlawing those who have become homeless.”

Allan Parachini of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California said Studio City’s reaction to the homeless is not unusual.

“A lot of times people simply are uncomfortable by the sight of homeless people on the street,” Parachini said. “Simply not liking the way someone looks on the street is not the basis for any sort of legitimate law enforcement action in our society.”

He said if a homeless person burglarizes a car or makes discernible threats, there already are sufficient penal codes to deal with the crimes. The ACLU now has lawsuits pending against Santa Barbara, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Orange and Fullerton, which have enacted ordinances outlawing overnight stays in public places, Parachini said.

In Studio City, the number of homeless has increased over the past year, fueling concerns among residents.

The Studio City Residents Assn. sought solutions to the problem by inviting a homeless advocate to address its membership. Some residents subsequently began handing out cards to the homeless detailing what services are available to them in the region, association President Tony Lucente said.

But many have embraced the public nuisance statute, an idea offered by Los Angeles Police Officer Jim O’Riley, the lead community policing officer for the area, Lucente said.

At a Monday night meeting of the Studio City Residents Assn., it was a hot topic of conversation.

“Transient arrested for assault with a deadly weapon with a firearm,” O’Riley said as he thumbed through a stack of arrest reports. “Transient arrested for grand theft property. And here’s a report where he knocked down an 86-year-old woman at Ralphs.”

“We’re being invaded, ladies and gentlemen,” O’Riley said. “We’re being invaded.”

Gold said the people he is concerned with are criminals who “are not really down on their luck. Let’s not start out feeling sorry for them.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, a scheduled speaker, addressed the issue next, saying there would be closer cooperation between the city attorney’s office and the Police Department in dealing with the issue.

He said if no penal codes apply to illegal situations, he would support municipal legislation.