SMPD Still Hasn’t Explained Abandoning Downtown To Looters 3 Months Ago

It’s been four months since downtown Santa Monica was substantially destroyed by looting … during peaceful protests that distracted police.

The Santa Monica Police Department has yet to produce a report on what happened.

Large groups of criminals flooded Santa Monica on May 31st … following a peaceful protest for racial justice.

Santa Monica police decided to deploy at the pier … to confront the peaceful protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets.

But three blocks to the east … the business district was looted … with no police in sight.

LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva personally was at the command post incentive Monica that afternoon … after police asked for backup from the sheriff.

Eventually, National Guard troops were called in to restore order.

The city council is not happy … according to the Santa Monica Daily Press

The City of Santa Monica will hire an outside agency to provide both a factual report and an analysis of decision-making related to the police department actions … or lack of actions.

Santa Monica Police Department were expected to release a factual, after-action report this month.

But the department says it is unable to produce the report …  due to a lack of manpower.

Without an after-action report … the city council cannot get a separate independent analysis to evaluate the response.

The Santa Monica Daily Press reports several council members are frustrated with delaying the overall discussion due to a lack of information from SMPD.

This story is based on the report in the Santa Monica Daily Press.

This story is difficult.

Police in Santa Monica are examining video camera pictures and other evidence…. trying to find out how a 102 year old woman in a wheelchair died on a street corner.

It was yesterday afternoon … at the corner of Colorado Ave and 2nd Street in the heart of downtown.

A police report obtained by the Santa Monica Daily Press says that a good samaritan saw the woman fall out of her wheelchair on Tuesday afternoon.

He put the woman back into her seat and then noticed she wasn’t breathing.

The man then tried to perform CPR on the woman and when she was unresponsive, he contacted the Santa Monica Fire Department who called in the police.

This story is based on reporting by the Santa Monica daily Press.

——