Santa Monica has been overrun by a scourge of 'woke lawlessness', a group of locals calling for federal protection in the iconic beachside city west of Los Angeles claims.

The Santa Monica Coalition, as they call themselves, wants California Governor Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump to send the Army National Guard to set up checkpoints downtown just as it did around the Palisades Fire in January.

As they see it, local elected officials are courting rather than discouraging rampant drug use, crime and homelessness in the city.

'There's depravity on the streets,' said John Alle, a commercial real estate investor who co-founded and is bankrolling the group seeking more police and stricter laws.

'We've got a reckless situation that's being neglected by woke city officials. It's an outdoor insane asylum.'

'We need federal involvement in the catastrophe that Santa Monica has become,' added Jessica Rogers, the group's other co-founder.

Like many cities, especially those relying largely on tourism, Santa Monica was hard-hit when stores, restaurants and other businesses went out of business during the Covid pandemic.

Also like many other communities, it hasn't fully bounced back.

Santa Monica has been overrun by a scourge of ' woke lawlessness', a group of locals calling for federal protection in the iconic beachside city west of Los Angeles claims

Santa Monica's warm weather, easy access at the end of Los Angeles county's bus and train lines, and beaches, parks and public spaces have drawn homeless people to the neighborhood

Some 40 per cent of the once-popular Third Street Promenade shopping district – where Alle owns or has financed four large commercial properties – sits vacant. 

So does nearly 70 per cent of the adjacent Santa Monica Place outdoor mall, whose owner, the Macerich company, recently defaulted on its $300 million loan.

Meanwhile, Santa Monica's warm weather, easy access at the end of Los Angeles county's bus and train lines, and beaches, parks and public spaces have drawn homeless people to the neighborhood.

A walk almost anywhere downtown includes encounters with people panhandling. Encampments have popped up on sidewalks where Louis Vuitton and Fred Segal used to have stores. 

Needles and meth pipes are strewn in three city parks and on the beach near the iconic Santa Monica Pier, and overdoses, especially involving fentanyl, are reported almost daily.

With the commercial real estate vacancies have come a sharp nosedive in city sales tax revenues, which help fund Santa Monica's police officers, firefighters and paramedics. 

Emergency services are woefully understaffed, unable to keep up with demand.

A homeless man lies down in the middle of a park in downtown Santa Monica

A walk almost anywhere downtown includes encounters with people panhandling. Encampments have popped up on sidewalks

The famous Third Street Promenade onc bustled with tourists and shoppers. Now it is virtually deserted

Business are paying for private security and unarmed 'ambassadors', whose job it is to shoo homeless people off the sidewalks and call police to report them

Stores that remain there report high levels of theft — people brazenly stealing items from under shopkeepers' noses. 

Business owners often don't report those crimes for fear of losing their liability insurance.

Tenants such as Adidas and Abercrombie & Fitch feel so uneasy about conditions in Santa Monica that they negotiated month-to-month leases on the Promenade.

'Most of the big-name stores have left,' Rogers said.

Hotels also suffered as word has spread about tourists being robbed and assaulted. 

Without enough police officers, city government assessed property owners along the Promenade and Santa Monica's famed Ocean Avenue for the cost of private security guards and and unarmed 'ambassadors', whose job it is to shoo homeless people off the sidewalks and call police to report them.

Police brass encouraged residents, shoppers, and tourists to carry whistles and pepper spray, and women were advised not to walk alone at night.

Safety, among other concerns, prompted the American Film Institute to move the annual film festival it held in Santa Monica for more than 30 years to Las Vegas.

Some 40 per cent of the once-popular Third Street Promenade shopping district sits vacant

Stores that remain there report high levels of theft — people brazenly stealing items from under shopkeepers' noses

Organizers of the 2028 Olympics cited crime and homelessness in Santa Monica when passing it over for the beach volleyball competition, choosing Huntington Beach instead.

Aside from golf – which will be held on a course that straddles Santa Monica and Los Angeles city lines – no other Olympic event will be held there. 

Alle, 57, said he was walking through Santa Monica's Palisades Park in 2023 when he was jumped by a man to whom he refused to hand over his phone and wallet. 

The man punched him to the ground, kicking him repeatedly in the head even after he fell unconscious.

Alle suffered a broken jaw and permanent damage to his vision even after two brain surgeries.

He also recounted an evening last year when Lana Negrete, who now serves as Santa Monica's mayor, needed him to escort her to her car because she was being harassed by two men loitering on the Promenade.

The Santa Monica Coalition includes about 5,000 residents, businesses, and locals who 'want to keep the city from being destroyed', Alle said.

The group is suing the Los Angeles County Health Department, its director, and a clinic in nearby Venice for providing free, taxpayer-funded needles over the last four years at three parks in Santa Monica.

A man is arrested by several police officers in downtown Santa Monica

The group claims local elected officials are courting rather than discouraging rampant drug use, crime and homelessness in the city

The coalition is aiming its sights at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for alleged cronyism and mismanagement of emergency water supplies needed to put out January's fires

The program is meant to prevent the spread of blood-borne viruses, including HIV, among drug users. But the coalition argued it was only encouraging illegal drug use in the city.

Alle is so incensed by the program that, in 2023, he replaced a billboard reading 'Santa Monica Is Not Safe' on one of his properties with an updated version reading, 'Santa Methica Is Not Safe.'

The coalition also objects to a proposed emergency ordinance establishing a permanent 'entertainment zone' allowing open-container alcohol consumption along the Third Street Promenade seven days a week. 

It wants city officials to curb what its members see as enough chaos on its streets, not encourage more of it.

Neither Mayor Negrete nor Santa Monica's city manager office returned DailyMail.com's inquiries for comment. 

Several groups that advocate for unhoused people in the city declined to comment.

The coalition takes credit for successfully pushing three top city officials to resign, including a city manager whom Alle and Rogers allege misused federal Housing and Urban Development funds. 

The coalition is aiming its sights at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for alleged cronyism and mismanagement of emergency water supplies needed to put out fires.

It would be unprecedented for the state or federal government to authorize the Army National Guard to address Santa Monica's municipal woes in a non-emergency.

A homeless man peeks out from under a blanket surrounded by trash

A homeless man speaks to a private security guard whose job it is to keep him away

Newsom asked cities throughout California this week to pass laws outlawing homeless encampments and clearing out existing ones. It is too early to tell how Santa Monica will respond

However, the coalition leaders deem current conditions there to be a pressing health and safety crisis.

'The council's woke agenda is ruining the city and it's gonna be years before the city can recover,' Alle said.

Rogers blamed the crisis partly on Santa Monica's strong manager form of government, one in which a hired administrator rather than the mayor or council members who hired that administrator effectively runs the city.

'The residents' wishes aren't being honored,' said Rogers, who, like Alle, lives near Santa Monica, but technically outside city lines.

Meantime, Newsom – who spent years pushing a lighter approach with the homeless, trying to provide temporary housing – has toughened his approach. 

He asked cities throughout California this week to pass laws outlawing encampments and clearing out existing ones. 

It is too early to tell how Santa Monica will respond.