Boardwalk brawl involving naked woman shines spotlight on issues in Venice Beach
A recent viral video showing a naked woman armed with what appears to be spiked bats has drawn the public's attention to Venice Beach for all the wrong reasons, shining a spotlight on the community already mired in issues.
The video from TMZ shows the moments that the completely nude woman and another clothed woman were involved in a bizarre brawl on the Venice Boardwalk.
Onlookers can be seen surrounding the fracas as the clothed woman swings the spiked weapon at the naked woman, who continues to jump back and avoid being hit.
Eventually, the naked woman is able to get the weapon, which she throws at the clothed woman as she walks away.
Somehow, nobody was hurt during the incident.
"Thank God she didn't hurt anybody, or they didn't hurt anybody," said Kevin Lekar, who lives in Venice. "They were both throwing it. Anybody could have gotten hurt."
As shocking as the video is, people who live in the area say it's nothing out of the ordinary.
"It's an everyday occurrence. There are naked people running around all the time," said Katie Bonarrigo.
The fight comes just hours after another incident on the boardwalk in which a Good Samaritan tackled a burglary suspect who allegedly broke into Dudley Market. He held the man until police could arrive.
Last September, a man drinking a beer as he illegally drove down the boardwalk crashed into a jewelry vendor and narrowly missed running into a crowd of people, raising public safety concerns.
All of these events put Venice on the map, and not in the way that city leaders would like.
"Nobody called LAPD while this incident was occurring," said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park, whose District 11 oversees Venice. "You know, people stood around filming a naked woman who is clearly vulnerable."
She says that the issue is just one of many pointing toward a greater need for mental health and addiction resources throughout Los Angeles County.
"No community should have to put up with behavior like that. Visitors to Venice Beach should be be intimidated by that kind of behavior and those women who are living in those circumstance are vulnerable," she said.
Park says that despite the progress being made so far with Mayor Karen Bass's "Inside Safe Program," which aims to get thousands of homeless people off the streets of Los Angeles, there's still a far way to go.
In the meantime, she'll continue to listen to the concerns of residents and do what she can to make a positive changes for the community.
