My husband and I are 14-year residents of Malibu. We’ve always used the public access to Broad Beach. In the past, we’ve seen the ATVs from Trancas Homeowners Association patrol back and forth on the beach in the summer, shooing people off the sand.
Now that the sand is gone, the association has hired someone to shoo people off the rocks. What was disturbing was the man they hired. An older man, in his sixties at least, pacing back and forth, at 2:30 p.m. on Memorial Day, wearing a T-shirt that represented he was from the homeowners association, literally screaming at anyone who touched the rocks. He yelled at an Indian family, shouting rudely and loudly. The grandmother wore a sari, and looked to be 70 years old, and was visibly shaken, as was her husband. The man eventually chased them off the beach, accomplishing what the Broad Beach homeowners wanted, I suppose. They want to intimidate people so they won’t use the public access.
This man, an employee of the Trancas Homeowners Association, yelled at this poor family as they were scurrying along the public access back to their car. He had no right to scream at them on public land. It was harassment, pure and simple, and when I told the man this, he said he didn’t give a damn, and he would report us. He stood and screamed at the eight of us. Unbelievable. Who gave this man orders to drive the public away from a California beach? His job consisted of walking back and forth along the rocks, yelling obscenities, and that he “didn’t give a damn about the mean tide mark.” What sort of people would hire someone like this? It speaks of the arrogance of Broad Beach residents, and it’s shameful.
Rena and Bill Patterson