Residents in a wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood are getting so fed up with increasing armed home invasions that many are looking to address the problem themselves since local government does not appear to be up to the task.
Those living in Encino, in the San Fernando Valley, have been on edge due to a wave of burglaries and other property crimes happening in the area. Residents have discussed several measures, including forming a neighborhood watch, hiring private security, and becoming gun owners.
At least 10 burglaries were reported in Encino in the last month, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Residents say there have probably been more in this Valley neighborhood, which is home to roughly 60,000 people.
Some in Encino have hired armed guards to sit outside their homes. Others simply want to arm themselves.
“In all my years working and living in Encino, I have never participated in conversations where people said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to go get a gun.’ But now they are,” said Robert Glushon, president of the Encino Property Owners Assn.
Crime statistics indicate that burglars are hitting Encino far harder than other parts of Los Angeles. Citywide, residential burglaries were up 4% from last year, the LAPD told news station KTLA-TV — compared with Encino’s 40% increase from June to July for an area south of the 101 Freeway.
Local law enforcement tried to minimize the threat. “I can’t emphasize this enough that people tend to overreact to spikes and dips in crime all the time,” said Captain Brian Wendling, commanding officer of the LAPD West Valley Division. He said the crime rates in Encino “do not tell an accurate story of the situation on the ground.”
Wendling appeared to blame the media for concerns about crime, indicating that it has been hyperfocused on problems in the area.
Wendling said that the media have been laser-focused on crimes in Encino and have overreported the situation, giving the impression that police are not working fast enough.
“We are taking it extremely seriously,” he said. “We need the media’s help to cool the temperature, so to speak. We try to reduce the incidence of crime, and then secondarily we try to reduce the fear of crime. That’s what really got blown out of proportion.”
Those comments echo the sentiments Mayor Karen Bass voiced in August 2023 after a couple of brazen smash-and-grab retail thefts occurred (essentially in the same area in which these home invasions are occurring):
Get this: On NPR this morning, LA Mayor Karen Bass said that the reason people in LA are afraid is because conservative press is "exploiting" "spectacular-type crime" that's happening in the city. Uh.... okayhttps://t.co/BSqhzNRWdg pic.twitter.com/BhdR2oRZOB
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 19, 2023
Bass said:
What I want [people] to know is that they are safe in Los Angeles. Crime trends show crime going down. However, when you have a spectacular-type crime happen like this, it does create a sense of fear. But one of the reasons it does, is because it's exploited by the press, and particularly the conservative press that wants to paint Los Angeles and many other Democratic-run cities as though we are in a crisis of crime. And that is not the case.
But is the following story being "blown out of proportion?" Does it seem that it's being "exploited by the press?" My California colleague Bob Hoge is friends with the homeowner in this story, who was forced into a situation where he had to take violent action:
The burglary attempt gone wrong left one of the suspects critically wounded. Details: https://t.co/1DZxkGjZfb pic.twitter.com/2XKBsuLtza
— KTLA (@KTLA) July 9, 2024
Normal people don't want to have to shoot and "critically wound" another human, even if it's justified. But do other locals think the problem is being "overblown?" On the contrary, they're discussing taking their own measures to protect the community:
Despite the increase in police patrols, resident Sam Avishay can sense the anxiety among his neighbors, some of whom are talking about hiring a private security company and splitting the cost. He’s wondering whether it would be worth it to purchase a firearm, as some of his neighbors are doing.
“Does that escalate the situation?” Avishay said. “All of this has made me rethink my long-held belief that I should not be a gun owner.”
Resident Stephanie Rosenthal has reached the point of taking pictures of suspicious cars on her street and approaching strangers sitting in their cars.
“We just have to make ourselves present and not let anyone case out the neighborhood,” she said. “You have to be willing to interrogate anyone ... if they’re taking chances, so will we.”
These residents are far from alone in their concern:
Hey @CAgovernor @GavinNewsom & @MayorOfLA @KarenBassLA & DA Gascon: Your failures have gotten very personal. This is yesterday. My childhood home in Encino, my mom’s house, broken into & badly ransacked. 6th or 7th time in 3 years. Always gone before police arrive. Why? Because… pic.twitter.com/76mgJ4JFNy
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) June 22, 2024
Because even if they’re caught, they’re never incarcerated. This is unsustainable.
Other Los Angeles neighborhoods are experiencing similar problems, including Sherman Oaks, where a city council member asked a resident to stop sending videos and images of homeless individuals committing crimes in the area because they were traumatizing her. How about you do something about it then, councilwoman?
Hopefully, residents in Encino and other cities recognize the reality that the government cannot always protect them. Local law enforcement is likely doing the best it can to keep up with heightened crime rates, but they're often constrained by anti-police state and local authorities and woke DAs. When the government takes a lenient approach to apprehending and prosecuting those committing violent and property crimes, there is only so much the police can do.
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