Harassing the Homeless

This last week while I was parked along the sidewalk near Rat Beach/South Redondo Beach as I sat and sipped my morning coffee, reading a good book and just trying to enjoy my morning before I headed home to work (I work at home.)...I noticed a homeless (I should say: a HOUSEless) woman sitting on one of the benches along the strand there. She had her proverbial shopping cart, she was dark-skinned and sun wrinkled, smoking a cigarette and of all things, just minding her own business. She wasn't panhandling...she wasn't harassing anyone...she wasn't DOING anything to anyone or causing any inconvenience to anyone or anything. Then...because we are living now under a police state and the police apparently NEED more than ever now to make their pre-sense know to us all...a Redondo Beach Police Officer came cruising down the street and as soon as he spotted the HOUSEless perp, this homeless and helpless old woman, he turned on his lights (even though he pulled his police cruiser over into one of the parking spaces in front of the HOUSEless old woman, he wasn't blocking traffic...do you see where I'm going with this line?) and he got out of his bright, shiny, flashing spectacle of a police cruiser and commenced to harass this old homeless woman. I'm not sure WHY this officer felt the NEED to have the lights on his cruiser flashing (since his cruiser was NOT blocking traffic), perhaps he was a rookie officer and the flashing lights made him feel bigger than life itself, maybe he WANTED to attract attention to the fact that he was harassing an old HOUSEless woman. Maybe that made him feel like a man...I don't know. All I know is, he ruined my morning. My coffee tasted bad in my mouth...my book was no longer interesting and the view suddenly became ugly. The old HOUSEless woman with her sun wrinkled skin and her shopping cart of personal items wasn't what bothered me at all. She was just another human being just trying to live her life without being buggered by another unnecessary interruption by a local cop who could have been applying his technical skills out on the rush hour speeders on PCH or handing out tickets to commuters still talking on their cell phones to their ears while driving in heavy traffic. I guess an invisible Houseless old woman is far more a priority than doing real community "service." Don't get me wrong. I have had a great relationship with the Redondo Beach Police Department in the past. They DO do good work. My suggestion though would be for Chief Leonardi to have your officers focus on more important matters than harassing old HOUSEless women. Also, since the officer's vehicle was actually parked in a parking space on the SIDE of the street, were his flashing lights really necessary to his job of harassing his dangerous HOUSEless female perp as she sat and smoked her cigarette? Just some thoughts from a South Bay Resident.