Culver City, a crime haven? Bondi’s jab falls flat with locals
Conversations about Culver City, the vibrant residential neighborhood on Los Angeles’ West Side, often include “Heart of Screenland” – often includes phrases like “walkable” and “green spaces” and “Erewhon.”
So when US Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi insinuated that the city of 39,000 residents is a haven for crime during a heated exchange with Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) on Wednesday; local officials and personalities responded with statistics: memes And sarcastic sarcasm.
Bondi slips and falls as she nears the end of a tough House hearing focused largely on the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Kamlager-Dove, whose district includes Culver City, criticized Bondi over the deletion of Justice Department data linking far-right ideology to political killings and said “there are violent, dangerous people out there who are real threats.”
“It’s available in your area,” Bondi replied. “His district includes Culver City and he doesn’t mention any crime in his district. There is nothing about aiding crime in his district. It’s not even worth going into detail.”
Hometown figures stepped up to defend the city, posting photos of clean streets, well-kept parks and buzzing community events.
Political commentator and Angeleno Brian Taylor Cohen calls the city “arguably one of the safest places” in Los Angeles, while Culver City-based comedian Heather Gardner He said: “The biggest crime of the century is this woman’s mockery of our justice system. Release the unredacted files. PROSECUTE REAL crimes.”
Kamlager-Dove, Culver City’s “breakfast burritos – not a crime.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for clarification from Bondi’s statements.
Crime in Culver City decreased 9.7% in 2024 and decreased an additional 6.1% in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, according to the Culver City Police Department. Violent crimes decreased by 3.9% in 2024, the last full year of available data.
During this period, murders fell to zero, while aggravated assault, kidnapping, and robbery also decreased. The city had 26 cases of sexual assault in 2024; In 2023, this number was 25. The only violent crime that saw a significant increase was simple assaults, up 8.1%.
The California Department of Justice and FBI report that crime in the state in 2024 will drop to “the lowest levels ever recorded.”
Mayor Freddy Puza described Culver City in an interview Thursday as a “strong, vibrant community” of people with no shortage of job opportunities at small businesses and companies, including TikTok, Pinterest and entertainment giants Apple, Amazon and Sony.
He said local government has been able to reduce crime rates through community-based policing and by providing housing and social services to unhoused populations. The mayor called Bondi’s response a “knock-on reaction” from an attorney general facing damage to public trust in his own department.
“What I’ve read is that he’s trying to change direction,” he said. “I think he could really spend his time prosecuting the people in the Epstein files and making sure the information coming from the federal government is transparent.”
Stating that the city has not seen any ideological violence, he added: “But the potential is very close. There is no doubt that it is on the rise and the president is fueling it. People are becoming more and more polarized.”
At the hearing, Bondi came under harsh criticism for the Justice Department’s investigation into Epstein, particularly for proofreading errors in the document. publish millions of case files last month. On one occasion, the attorney general refused to apologize to the Epstein victims in the room, saying he would not “fall into the void” with partisan demands from Democrats.
His performance led to bipartisan demands for his resignation, including from conservative pundits including Megyn Kelly, Nick Fuentes and Kyle Rittenhouse.
Culver City wasn’t Bondi’s only target on Wednesday. He called Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). “Bored, poor lawyer” He accused Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome” and branded former CNN host Don Lemon a “blogger.”
But since the trial, he has remained silent as locals continue to question his intelligence and chuckle at images of Culver City’s pylon-protected war zone.
“The worst crime in Culver City is that they charge $24 for a smoothie at Erewhon,” Gardener joked again on TikTok.
