L.A.: "Meanest City in America"?

In a report released Tuesday, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless named Los Angeles the No. 1 "Meanest City" out of 273 nationwide.The report says a primary reason for the dubious honor was a new Los Angeles police crackdown called the Safer Cities Initiative that it claims has trapped tens of thousands of poor, homeless and disabled residents in the criminal justice system..... A spokesman for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa blasted the report, calling it "short-sighted and misleading."....He said the mayor has committed more than $100 million since 2007 to housing the homeless, and funded more than 1,078 housing units for the homeless, more than in the past 12 years combined. The Safer City Initiative, he said, has helped reduce crime by more than 35 percent, particularly in areas with high populations of homeless..... The Safer Cities Initiative crackdown that pushed the city to the top of the list brought extra LAPD officers to the 50-square block area of Skid Row, according to the report. In the first two years of the initiative, the officers made more than 750 arrests each month in a community that is home to about 13,000 people....... The authors cited a 2007 UCLA study that found the city was spending $6 million annually to pay for 50 police officers to crack down on crime on Skid Row at a time when the city budgeted only $5.7 million for homeless services.... In one incident, the authors cited the example of two police officers who attacked a petite homeless woman, who may have been mentally disabled, with clubs and pepper spray. ["L.A. Criticized as 'Meanest City' in America," Daily News]

The ACLU on Tuesday sued Santa Monica in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, saying city police routinely violate homeless people's constitutional rights by harassing and arresting them, even as the city fails to provide sufficient shelter beds. "Santa Monica is effectively running a deportation program for the homeless," said Mark Rosenbaum, the organization's legal director.The suit is similar to previous legal challenges in Laguna Beach and Santa Barbara that Rosenbaum said have resulted in policy changes that have helped the homeless.