Two homeless men were arrested on several charges at 7:05 am on Saturday, Dec. 7 after bringing unwanted attention to themselves by smoking cigarettes near the entrance of a business.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were on patrol when they received a radio call telling them that there were four people who were congregating and smoking cigarettes less than 20 feet from the entrance of a publicly accessed business.
This is a Santa Monica Municipal Code violation, so the officers hastened to the location in order to put a stop to the behavior.
When the officers arrived they saw that two of the perpetrators of the crime were still in the act of smoking the cigarettes less then 20 feet from the entrance, and were thus caught (Marlboro) red handed.
When the suspects caught sight of the officers one of them threw his cigarette onto the ground.
The officers began to investigate but their efforts were hampered by the fact that both of these suspects lied about possessing any form of identification.
The officers were taking no chances and arrested both of these people forthwith.
Suspect number one was a 49-year-old homeless man who was charged with littering, a violation of probation, failing to register as a sex offender, and smoking in violation of an ordinance.
Bail was set at $20,000. The other suspect, aged 39 and also homeless, was charged with the smoking ordnance violation as well as a probation violation. Bail was set at $10,000 for that individual.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
