Los Angeles playing music in subway stations to deter homeless encampments
Venice resident Soledad Ursua and Los Angeles business owner Paul Scrivano joined 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss the tactic and broader concerns surrounding surging crime in the area.
Los Angeles is taking an unusual approach to curb homelessness within the county's public transportation system - but some residents claim the approach reflects that of a zombie thriller movie.
Officials have resorted to playing classical music at the LA Metro stations to deter the homeless from congregating, but one Los Angeles County resident warned, "Beethoven is not going to cut it."
Soledad Ursua is a board member on the Venice Neighborhood Council, and she joined "Fox & Friends First" to discuss the city's unconventional approach to mitigate the crisis and why more action is needed to curb violence and drug use.
"What's happening is that Metro is dealing with a self-inflicted wound," Ursua told Ashley Strohmier Thursday. "Ridership is still at 60% of pre-pandemic levels, and that's because it's so unsafe now. The metro system has now become synonymous with bodies on the floor, overdose, death and despair, and so that is why nobody is riding the metro today."
"It has really gotten out of control… and it's almost become a makeshift homeless shelter right now," she continued.
Serious crimes, such as aggravated assault, murder and rape, on Los Angeles' trains and buses increased by 24% last year, compared to 2021, while other less-serious crimes increased by 14%, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
The spike in lawlessness has left many riders unhappy, with LA Metro Safety Officer Gina Osborn reporting last month that the agency had recorded a 99% year-over-year increase in complaints from riders over other passengers possessing or using drugs. LA Metro received 1,385 reports of narcotics use last year alone, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
Despite the dismal numbers, Los Angeles County officials claim preliminary data suggests their tactic could be working.
Metro Red Line subway train at the Hollywood and Vine station in Hollywood. (REUTERS) (REUTERS)
"Early results show that incidents of graffiti, vandalism, loitering and trash/clean-up incidents have decreased by more than 50%," an LA Metro official told Fox 11.
But Ursua insisted classical music is not enough.
"This is a crisis that they, themselves, created in 2020 following the BLM riots," Ursua said. They decided to side with defund the police activists. They actually decided to remove officers with guns, law enforcement officers, and replace them with social workers, so today we are facing a crisis where there are no armed guards on Metro. It's essentially social workers."
"That is really one of the reasons that crime is spiraling, yet none of our woke progressive leaders are willing to take a step back and admit that their policies have led to spiraling crime," she continued.
Officials allocated $122 million to a program last year to fund 300 unarmed ambassadors to the public transportation system who report crimes.
But many critics have said even that has not been enough to reduce drug overdoses and crime on the subway system.
As of March, at least 22 people have died on public transportation from suspected drug overdoses, which is more than the 21 individuals who died due to various causes in all of 2022, the Los Angeles Times found.
Paul Scrivano owns the Blue Dog Beer Tavern in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood, and he is no stranger to dealing with the homeless crisis.
He was the victim of a feces attack last year involving a homeless man who is known for regularly defecating on storefronts on Ventura Boulevard.
"It doesn't matter what they do," Scrivano said Thursday. "If you're going to talk about movies and look at any zombie movie, it doesn't [matter] what you do to try to prevent them from attacking. There's nothing you can do. Classical music, guards, activity on the sidewalk, it doesn't matter. They keep coming."
"Like your guest was saying, there's no police, there's no enforcement, there's no appetite for any police or any enforcement," he continued.
Scrivano slammed the county's Board of Supervisors for the surging crime arguing, they "have no idea what enforcement is."
Two of those supervisors recently introduced a plan for "decarceration," that would essentially release anyone behind bars that is being held with bail at $50,000 or less, city documents show.
"I lay the fault 100% at the feet of the supervisors, specifically Lindsey Horvath, who is the same supervisor who is trying to empty the jails, quote, depopulate, and the new term is decarceration," he said.
If passed, the local sheriff would be instructed to review its bail thresholds and to cite and release "individuals with aggregate bail amounts set at $50,000 or below."
The Los Angeles Superior Court would be directed to "implement the Emergency Bail Schedule that was in place at the height of the COVID pandemic" in an effort to "prioritize increased opportunities for pre-trial release."
Fox News' Emma Colton and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
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