Reed Park is on a lot of radars at the moment for all the wrong reasons. The park is home to the County’s needle distribution program drawing the ire of neighbors and some councilmembers.
It’s also a block from the recent murder of a homeless man prompting increased scrutiny from the Santa Monica Police Department. The attention is prompting increased demand from residents for home security measures, including a home-made anti-homeless device.
In May, we reported on the device invented by long-time Santa Monica local Stephen McMahon as a way to discourage the homeless from making camp and taking drugs in his building’s courtyard parking space and thus also preventing the inevitable repeat burglaries.
McMahon now says that demand for this deterrent, called the Blue Chirper, has significantly increased, from a gentle, steady flow to “I can’t make them quick enough” and that the increase in demand is tied to what he sees as a worsening condition of the park and nearby area.
It’s called the Blue Chirper because it’s a straightforward shoe box-sized device that combines the concept of blue flashing light — that is known to keep people awake, which is why it’s often used in warehouses and on heavy machinery — together with the extremely annoying sound of crickets to prevent drug users from finding a comfortable place to “fade away” for a day or so.
“My wife and I are going on holiday next week and I’ve got this landlord who desperately wants four of them, otherwise she says that her tenants will move out, it’s got that bad,” he says, adding, “She [the landlord] was in tears. It would normally take me a couple of months to build four, but she was practically begging me.”
McMahon says that when he walks through the park, he sometimes makes casual conversation with homeless people and asks if they’ve experienced the device. He said many of them have and they hate it. He said he doesn’t support the needle program nor does he think it is preventing disease.
“If you walk in the park for long enough – I walk by and I call them a ‘round pound.’ They're pounding the fortified wine and they're shooting up in a circle and they're just passing needles around. They do not care about something like hepatitis C,” McMahon says.
Council is split on the program with Councilmembers Gleam Davis, Jesse Zwick and Caroline Torosis voicing support while Mayor Phil Brock, Vice Mayor Lana Negrete, Councilwoman Christine Parra and Councilman Oscar de la Torre oppose it. In a 4-3 vote the council made that opposition official by asking staff to cease the program, despite the City having no control over it as it is administered by the County.
During that meeting, Council also discussed drafting language of proposed resolutions for consideration by the League of California Cities, Independent Cities Association and Westside Cities Council of Governments, itself asking the State Legislature and Governor to change laws to provide for local control over the dissemination of syringes and other drug paraphernalia in local communities.
With the needle program at the forefront of the conversation about the park, police are also investigating a nearby murder. Earlier this month, a body was discovered in the 1100 block of 6th Court, less than one block away from Reed Park. Residents of the area said the body was found with what looked to be a stab wound to the chest.
Lieutenant Erika Aklufi of the Santa Monica Police Department said that the victim appeared to be homeless, but little is currently known about the apparent homicide. With neighborhood concern rising, McMahon is constantly working to refine his invention.
And now, as components lay strewn across tables and chairs at home, with a number of devices all in varying stages of construction taking up precious desk space, he’s practically fighting off energetic investors who want a piece of the action. The next stage is to put the device into a specifically designed, pre-formed, reinforced plastic casing, rather than the thick wooden box it’s in now.
McMahon hopes that this will drastically bring the price down, making the Blue Chirper significantly cheaper to produce and therefore more affordable to buy. Should you have any information that may assist in the murder investigation, please contact Detective Zamfirov at the Santa Monica police Department on (310) 458-8398.
scott.snowden@smdp.com
