Owner blasts music in front of homeless encampment outside his West LA business

LOS ANGELES - A business owner is playing loud music outside of his office on Wilshire Boulevard to push the nearby homeless encampment out of the neighborhood.

Nic Bartolotta, the founder of DCT Smart Stretch, said the encampment moved to the area about eight months ago.

"Six to eight months ago, the first couple of tents popped up outside and we didn't think it was a big deal. We wanted to be respectful and we respectfully asked them to move 50 feet down the block where they wouldn't be in front of our medical facility and then it escalated," said Bartolotta.

Bartolotta said the encampment has grown.

"It's now gotten to the point where they're four feet away from the windows and the quality of the people that are living there, they're not just vets, there are mentally deranged and criminals that are doing drug deals, drinking all day long, licking our windows, and worst of all, defecating and urinating in our alcove, which is supposed to be our entrance for handicapped people," he said.

He said the encampment has deterred some of his clients.

"I went to school and trained and paid a lot of money to become a physical therapist and I put a lot of money into this space and I come in the morning and sometimes I'm cleaning human urine that is coming in from under our doors or have to go out and you can see a pile of vomit outside," he said.

Bartolotta said he was putting up lights outside of the business on a ladder when he was targeted.

"I was on the second to top rung holding onto the awning and all of a sudden, someone just yanked the middle of the ladder straight to the ground," he said.

He broke his arm.

"It shattered into four pieces in a spiral fracture and I couldn't get up. I couldn't move my arm so I grabbed my wrist and I reset the bone out of fear," he said.

He ended up putting the ladder in his vehicle and driving himself to UCLA hospital. After that incident, he said he put up surveillance cameras and the speaker.

"I mounted a wireless speaker that connects inside and we started playing death metal from 10:30 at night to 4:30 in the morning on repeat, same song. There's a large part of the community around here that just doesn't understand how serious it is," he said.

Some residents in the community are outraged, and call the tactic from the business "inhumane."

"That's just terrible. I frequently interact with the homeless encampment from this encampment, in the neighborhood walking my dog or at the local convenience store and they're just ordinary people. They're not like that different from everybody else and everybody deserves to be treated with dignity so when I saw that they were just treating these people so terribly, it's unacceptable," said Andrew Rahn.

Rahn recorded a video of the incident and posted it on social media.

"When it comes to addressing the problems of homelessness, being mean to homeless people is obviously not the solution and I would expect people to know better than that but apparently not," said Rahn.

Rahn believes the city needs to address homelessness.

"I believe that housing is a right for everybody no matter who you are or how much money you make. I think that's just like a right of basic dignity but I understand that some people disagree with me," he said.

Rahn directly called out Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti regarding the homeless crisis.

"I just really wish that the City government would step up to address homelessness. Me, as a voter, I've supported initiatives and put a lot of taxpayer money through, and I just think that Eric Garcetti has really failed this city in terms of taking homelessness as seriously as he should," said Rahn.

Bartolotta also believes the City is responsible for the problem, and believes Councilmember Mike Bonin's efforts are "failing."

"Other businesses have done this. We're not the first people to use music as a way to deter homeless encampments. We're definitely not doing this to be malicious to them. We're trying to be reasonable and it hasn't worked and we have no support [from officials]," he said.

Reverend Andy Bales, the CEO of the Union Rescue Mission, believes the city needs to get involved.

"Businesses are frustrated and the people on the streets are most frustrated. There is nowhere to turn for help. Our city is failing businesses. Our city and county are failing businesses, but more importantly, they're failing the people on the streets," he said.

Bales referenced a similar incident in San Pedro involving another building using music to force homeless people away.

"It had no effect other than to traumatize people and in the end, they had to apologize and wanted to apologize. I think we should always lead with compassion rather than frustration and as long as we lead with frustration in dealing with our unhoused neighbors,  we're not going to find an answer," he said.

Bales said businesses have reached out to him in the past to help find housing and resources for homeless people living in encampments near their businesses.

"There's always a better solution," he said.

Bales said in January of 2021, 165 people have already died living on the streets compared to 95 people in January of 2020.

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