U.S. Open of Surfing, Surf City, USA ( Huntington Beach, CA.)
Surf City, USA
U.S. Open of Surfing, 10:00 am PDT, From the pier at Surf City, USA. Sometimes known as Huntington Beach, CA. I am fortunate enough to live right next to the big hotel.
The 2003 Surf Open In Huntington Beach Brings My Downtown Beach Home & Self A Terrible & Scary Tragedy!
To Whom It May Concern:
We are grateful of the coverage the H.B. Independent and Ms. Marder gave to our assault story, we are shocked at Lt. Perez's response in the paper.
Please, read & be aware of our vandalism and assault story before you read the hideously negligible & scapegoat-like statements made by Lt. Janet Perez of the Huntington Beach Police Department to the Huntington Beach Independent. Mr. O. & Mr. M. are victims of a terribly violent crime, Ms. Perez portrays our assault as if it were a drunken fight. It takes two to fight, we never struck back, had the chance to strike back, or saw what was about to hit and destroy us. Ms. Perez then tells the Independent that with alcohol involvement, this is a weekly occurrence. We have owned our home for four years, we have never been mugged, especially on a weekly basis, while innocently watering our plants in a sober state, nor have we heard of any such neighborhood occurrence.......ever.
Did any person compare Lt. Perez's statements about our assault, to those statements made by Lt. Perez of the other assault crimes in the 'Briefly In Public Safety' section of the H.B. Independent.
Ms. Perez, in an effort to minimize the city's and event planner's (fusion us surf open) liability, discreetly portrays a distorted scenario with a simple, one sentence statement. Could someone explain 'victim-blame shifting'? Is someone being advised by City Slicker Politicians & Event Planners? Do you think we might be able to focus on what brought this danger to our home and how to prevent others from becoming potential victims of the same type of crime? During our victimization, we were never afforded a sketch expert, fingerprints from our mailbox were quickly dismissed because of dust, the 3 forever hovering police helicopters were nowhere to be found. This fine example of Ms. Perez's work only further dignifies the lack of care and protection the City and Police Department of Huntington Beach affords it's homeowners and taxpayers.
Thank You,
Mr. O.
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August 4, 2003
The US Surf Open
Huntington Beach, California
&
Members Of The Press
The US Surf Open in Huntington Beach has received positive and wide coverage in our local papers for 2003, and it brings in money for local Huntington Beach Businesses, for the City of Huntington Beach, & 300,000 visitors. Almost daily, I read front-page headlines, if not large feature stories in the sports section about the surf open. As a homeowner in H.B., it makes me happy that something might benefit all parties concerned, but, as I walk my streets and beach every morning of this event, I see what destruction and danger this US Open brings to the beach. After last years 2002 event, I wrote the city council a story about the impact of public parking in our neighborhood. It brought broken plants (vandalism), public urination, bear bottles and trash in our gutters, and late night to early morning public (drunken) screaming accompanied by police helicopters for most of the night. My suggestion was to have year round permit parking because the beaches and businesses provided adequate parking for their events and it would be preventive medicine. I received some sort of response suggesting I start a petition, which I have no time for because of a very busy business schedule. The 2003 US Surf Open became much worse. On Saturday, August 2, 2003 after dusk, two young male adults visiting the US Surf Open, (huntington beach), from Rancho Cucamonga assaulted my property, my roommate, and myself, while I was standing in the front of my home, watering the plants in my courtyard. My attackers were on some type of drugs, holding some type of heavy and harmful objects in their hands. They first started beating up on my mailbox, as I asked them to stop, my roommate & co-owner of our house, (Mr. M.) ran out of our home to chase these horrific visitors away. First, he was struck to the ground; so in a split second, I ran out to his aid, only to be beaten across my face. This is all I remember before the police arrived at my home after I was knocked unconscious. I had a brief interview with the local authorities, who were polite but uninterested and preoccupied because of an overwhelming weekend fright festivity. The crime scene investigator insisted she could not lift prints from our mailbox and the forever hovering police helicopter was nowhere to be found. Then, I arrived at Hoag Emergency Room until my return home at 4:30am on Sunday, August 3, 2003. I have a mangled and broken nose,
shattered orbital and sinus bones, fractures directly under each eye, chipped teeth, and lots of bruising and swelling with big purple/black eyes. I am self employed and unable to service my clientele because of my injuries which results in no income, not to mention the enormous expense of my medical bills, as a result of this attack. Because of the US Surf Open and other large public events, I feel unsafe and threatened even at my own home. I am baffled at the lack of security the US Surf Open provides for people that have homes within a 5-mile radius of the event. I am even more flabbergasted at the lack of foot, air, and car patrol provided by our city police. We live one to two blocks from Main Street, each morning of this event we awoke to some sort of vandalism and/or public disgrace. How do such large surf sponsor companies and a large city get away with not being able or being required to protect their local civilians? And…if this is what some regular criminals got away with, how would and what would terrorism do to an event such as this? While sponsoring and/or reporting on events such as this, are the crime reports during these events ever made public? Is the bad reported along with the good?
Sorely Beaten and Disgraced,
Mr. O. & Mr. M.
Huntington Beach, California
*As a special note: Mr. O. will have cranial reconstructive surgery at Jules Stein Eye Institute and The David Geffen School of Medicine of UCLA by Dr. John McCann & Dr. Jeffrey Rawnsley on Wednesday, August 13, 2003
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THE HUNTINGTON BEACH INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Huntington men assaulted
Two Huntington Beach residents were assaulted outside their Downtown home on Saturday.
Mr. O., 37, was watering his plants in front of his home on a downtown street when two men started beating on his mailbox, Mr.O. said. As he yelled at them to stop, his roommate, Mr. M., 50, ran outside to see what was happening and was struck to the ground, Mr. O. said.
Mr. O. was also struck across the face and knocked unconscious.
"I don't know what hit me," Mr. O said. "I blacked out and woke up covered in blood."
Ouren suffered a broken nose, shattered orbital and sinus bones, fractures under each eye, chipped teeth, bruising and two black eyes. Mr. M.'s injuries were minor.
The men were described by Ouren as thin-set, in their 20s and reeking of alcohol. One was tall and blond. The other was shorter, with died black hair and wearing a baseball cap sideways.
"When alcohol's involved, fights like this are relatively common," Huntington Beach Police Lt. Janet Perez said. "Every week, we see a few of them."
Officers responded to the incident at 8:30 p.m., took the descriptions and searched for suspects, but were unable to find any.
