SANTA MONICA, CA — The City Council this week unanimously approved a new ordinance that would prohibit people from harassing bicyclists and pedestrians.
The law would prohibit the harassment of people riding bikes and other small transportation devices, as well as pedestrians. That includes physical assault, attempted physical assault, threatening physical injury, distracting or attempting to distract, and attempting to force a bicyclist off the street, according to City Attorney Doug Sloan.
The law, modeled after one on the books in the city of Los Angeles, would not be enforced by the city or police, but rather through civil lawsuits, Sloan said.
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“These are purely civil remedies … It is not criminal. Somebody aggrieved can bring a civil action against a perpetrator,” he said.
Plaintiffs would be able to recover treble damages, attorney fees, costs and punitive damages, with a minimum award of $1,000, according to the ordinance.
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The proposal was introduced by Councilmember Jesse Zwick.
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“While it doesn’t solve all the issues at hand … it does provide an important form of recourse who have faced this kind of harassment,” he said. “This is not a hypothetical or fictive problem. It’s a real one I hear about regularly from cyclists in our city.”
As originally written, the ordinance covered only bicyclists and those on other small transportation devices. But at the suggestion of Councilmember Gleam Davis, the law is set to cover pedestrians, pending a second vote at an upcoming council meeting.
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