Commentary by Heather Caswell
April 11, 2025
In the spirit of compassion, community and protecting women from violence, Davis needs to change the narrative around prosecuting repeat offending, mentally disturbed criminals who have created the worst safety crisis in our city’s history.
Since last summer, when I had my life threatened twice at my store by a mentally disturbed homeless man who had been arrested and released dozens of times for similar criminal behavior, I have spoken to nearly one hundred Davis women about downtown safety. Almost every one of them had a frightening personal story to relate, like a friend who had a deranged man shouting angry threats for 20 minutes at her and a colleague as they sat outside eating lunch.
My customer Jana Tutan, a lifelong Davis resident and a 73 year old attorney retired from the California State Attorney General's office, told me that she and her friends now go out to eat in Winters to avoid the insecurity they feel as seniors in downtown Davis.
Jana went to UC Davis Law School and has been committed to civil rights her whole career. “I never thought a time would come when I would feel unsafe in downtown Davis in broad daylight,” she told me. “Our rights have been short changed in favor of extending every possible accommodation to a small group of potentially dangerous men.”
Older women, the most physically vulnerable demographic, are often targeted by about ten repeat offending homeless men whose mental illness plays out by bullying and terrorizing people who are weaker than they are. The Artery now has trouble finding women to work their later shifts for fear of being accosted when walking to their cars. Just last month, I learned that the new owner of Tea List was welcomed to my business neighborhood by having her life threatened twice, by the same man, during her first few weeks in business.
Women have fought for decades for the right to be free from domestic abuse, harassment and violence in the home and workplace. More recently, the #MeToo movement raised society’s consciousness about taking women’s safety seriously. Thankfully, “We’ve come a long way, baby.”
But shockingly, we have entered a new era of sexist mansplaining about the fearful experiences that Davis women face by a small number of homeless men who regularly menace our most vulnerable citizens in downtown stores, streets and neighborhoods.
The Vanguard’s David Greenwald leads the way in rationalizing violent threats and intimidation of women as the new “boys will be boys,” when those boys happen to be homeless.
In response to a concerted and successful effort to persuade the city to hire a new downtown beat cop that I led with the Davis Community Vision Alliance (a group of elder women influencers committed to a harmonious, vibrant community), Greenwald wrote a column titled,“Why Is the Council Prioritizing a Beat Cop Downtown over Homeless Service Coordinators?” In it, he describes experiences like mine, of having our lives threatened by menacing, potentially violent, angry men, as "uncomfortable encounters” and “people who feel unsafe.” As opposed to actually experiencing danger. He notes that his “lived experiences" (as a large younger man) has been that “most of the unhoused folks downtown are polite. Yes, there are some who struggle—who yell or act out—but that’s often untreated mental illness, not criminal behavior.”
Greenwald complains that “what we’re seeing is a city ready to invest in law enforcement rather than trained outreach workers. That’s not just a missed opportunity—it’s an abdication of responsibility.”
Greenwald suggests that women like me and my senior citizen customers, who are the victims of relentless menacing behavior by a small number of men, should grin and bear the abuse in the name of “compassion.” He writes that it is easier for council members “to appease wealthy donors and downtown business interests than to stand up and say: This is wrong. This won’t work. We need better. I don’t blame the council for picking their battles. But this is one they needed to fight.”
Shockingly, Lucas Frerichs, the supervisor representing downtown, seems to share Greenwald’s view that protecting a small number of homeless criminals from the consequences of their ILLEGAL ACTIONS against vulnerable members of the public is more important than protecting the safety of the citizens who elected him and whose taxes pay his salary.
During an interview with the Vanguard a few weeks ago, Lucas said, “There’s definitely a perception issue, especially downtown, but I don’t think things are spiraling out of control.” He then went on to blame the police. “If a resident calls for help and the officer responds by yelling at someone experiencing homelessness, that damages trust.”
Terrorized women of Davis do not have a “perception problem,” Lucas. We are not calling the police because we need them to solve the problems of the mentally disturbed or drug addicted person threatening our lives or occupying our back steps. We are calling them because we are EXPERIENCING AN UNSAFE SITUATION, and need law enforcement to do its job. This does not mean criminalizing homelessness. Nor does it mean solving the problems that every homeless person has. What it does mean is protecting all of us, especially women, seniors and children, who are less capable of protecting ourselves from dangerous men, from those who break the law, regardless of whether they are housed or unhoused.
Lucas, like Greenwald and the Davis City Council, need to learn the lesson of the #MeToo movement. And start listening to women.
#
Davisite 
Leave a reply to Toni Cancel reply