'The Purge' comes to Lakewood
Residents plead for help from City Council. Troubling video.
By: Brian Maquena
March 9, 2022
LAKEWOOD, CALIF. — Men with bats and crowbars—and possibly a gun—taking over a suburban street in the dead of night. No, this isn’t a movie, but an area right behind the Lakewood Sheriff’s station.
"I've had multiple people tell me the video looks like ‘The Purge’," said Doug Sean, a Lakewood resident, referring to the horror film in which unabated hooliganism is allowed to run rampant for one night.
Comments by Doug Sean and two others from Lakewood communities about crime related to street takeovers and vehicle burglaries, as well as homelessness, occurred during Tuesday’s public comments segment. Lakewood stopped televising public comments last summer after the Lakewood Populist organized a group of residents to petition Council regarding face-mask mandates.
Sean pleaded with City Council on Tuesday for help.
"It is disturbing. I have neighbors with children."
UPDATE: Lakewood won't release video
The incident occurred on a street between Del Amo Boulevard and Candlewood Street near the Lakewood Mall. According to Doug and another neighbor who spoke, the gangs of thugs are taking over the suburban street and putting residents in fear for their lives.
"He stays up with a gun. Him and his son do shifts at night," said Carlo Carlos, Doug’s Sean’s neighbor, about one of their neighbors in fear of local crime. "Nobody's doing a damn thing."
On Saturday, a group of six to eight hooligans took over their street with bats, crowbars and possibly a gun. They arrived in three nice, lowered vehicles and appeared to be new criminals not previously seen over the past 18 months, Doug Sean said.
These men had scouted Doug’s Sean’s neighbor’s vehicle at 2 a.m. before returning at 5 a.m. and smashing up the vehicle.
Other crimes on Doug’s Sean’s and Carlo’s Carlos’ street in the last 24 months include:
An attempted catalytic converter theft that failed when a neighbor showed up.
A stolen truck.
Scouting of the truck’s catalytic converter after the truck was retrieved.
The truck getting stolen again.
The truck getting broken into later on.
"It is extremely alarming to me and all of my neighbors," Doug Sean told the five-member Council, regarding the situation.
However, Saturday’s suburban street takeover caused Doug Sean to appeal directly to Council. He said that his neighbors run at 4:30 a.m. before work, but this occurred on a Saturday morning when no one was running.
"It really seems to me like more people need to see this video," said Doug Sean of video he has of the incident. Carlo Carlos told Council how glad he was that his son, who usually arrives home at night, didn’t happen to be on the street at that time.
"I don't know what he could had done with...guys with bats," Carlo Carlos said.
One neighbor was too scared to call the police, Carlo Carlos said.
Doug’s Sean’s and Carlo’s Carlos’ street isn’t the only area with problems.
Tammy, who frequents South Street and Downey Boulevard, said the homeless situation has worsened there. She told Council that things seem to get worse when the City of Long Beach clears out Paramount Boulevard and, in her understanding, usher people towards Lakewood.
The Lakewood Populist has reported how a cleanup of a Long Beach homeless encampment, so large that it was viewable from outer space, caused a surge of homeless encampments in east Lakewood.
“I was at Winco a couple of days ago and some of the most disgusting, lewd acts were going on in the middle of the day in the middle of the parking lot,” said Tammy, who said it was getting impossible to do her morning walks. “It’s just really, really scary, and I’m wondering what we’re doing to just address what’s going on with these people.”
“Getting up in the morning and finding people right in your yard. Going for a walk and not knowing what’s around the corner,” Tammy explained. “The increase is just unreal.”
"We don't know what to do," Doug told Council.
Council does no-confidence vote against DA Gascon
The Council passed a no-confidence vote against District Attorney George Gascon on Tuesday.
Through last year, 27 other cities pass no-confidence votes against Gascon while Lakewood declined. The Council instead sent out a letter critical of Gascon.
The Lakewood Populist has published several articles critical of Council’s approach against Gascon and his lax prosecution policies that many blame for an upsurge in county crime.
City Manager Thaddeus McCormack described Council’s wait on the no-confidence vote while it communicated with Gascon as “judicious”. McCormack said such judiciousness made Lakewood’s no-confidence vote “all the more powerful.”
However, as the Lakewood Populist has reported, Councilman Todd Rogers credited the apparently rushed no-confidence votes by other cities as the reason for forcing Gascon to communicate with Lakewood and other southeast Los Angeles County cities.
“[Gascon’s] responding to a lot of the concerns and probably no-confidence votes that he’s been receiving from around the county,” Rogers told Council at the May 25, 2021 meeting.
Vice Mayor Steve Croft—who is up for reelection this year—still insisted that Lakewood Council was right to hold off on the no-confidence vote.
“Lakewood is not a knee-jerk community,” said Croft, pointing to Council’s approach in fighting state housing mandates and county health mandates.
“We didn’t rush into it,” said Mayor Jeff Wood, regarding the no-confidence vote. “We were very thorough. We were very judicious.”
Councilman Ariel Pe declined to comment before the no-confidence vote was taken, while Councilwoman Vicki Stuckey voiced her support for the no-confidence vote against Gascon.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: A paragraph was taken out about Steve Croft and the election maps due to it not being applicable to this particular story. Also, the tone against Councilmembers Todd Rogers and Steve Croft was softened by taking out of several opinionated paragraphs. While the Lakewood Populist supports opponents of both those incumbents, it is for the voters to decide if such replacement is necessary. The Lakewood Populist apologizes for putting in too much opinion earlier. As this writer often tells interviewees, I have an opinion but I try to be fair. I believe I have taken out much of the opinion that was in the first version of this article, sticking to the facts so as to allow readers to develop their own opinions.
EDITOR’S NOTE 2 (March 21, 2022): This article was updated with slashed-out names and additional names to correct mistakes of speakers’ identities. The Lakewood Populist later confirmed these names with the City Clerk, Jo Mayberry.