The theme song from “Barney & Friends” has been blaring 24 hours a day for weeks on Palos Verdes Street in San Pedro.
There are about two dozen homeless individuals who have pitched tents on the sidewalk there, and they say the blaring kids’ music is a not-so-subtle way to get them to move.
“It’s psychological,” said Danielle Nunez of Street Watch LA, a mutual aid organization that helps the homeless. “It is to keep people up. They can’t have a quiet space and it’s playing at nighttime so that people literally cannot sleep.”
The vacant property is run by Jerico Development, Inc., and is used for filming.
“It’s hard,” said Reynalda Guterrez, who sleeps in a tent on Palos Verdes Street. “I mean, you hear Barney all day long, over and over and over again. With the lights blaring on you, you can’t get no sleep at night … You can’t talk to anybody.”
The music reaches 70 decibels at times, and is paired with bright flood lights.
“First the lights went on. They did that a few nights at first,” said Danel Love. “Then the music came on and it was loud … it’s traumatizing.”
KTLA reached out to Jerico Development for comment but did not hear back as of Friday night.
But after Street Watch LA tweeted about the situation, gaining reactions from hundreds, the music was turned off.
“Anti-homeless actions exist in forms of harassment and in this case, hostile music,” one tweet said. “The Barney song playing not only makes it harder for folks to sleep or have a quiet space, it infantizes the violence this building is inflicting on our neighbors.”
“It’s really nice not to hear it, but I’m still traumatized, I guess, from hearing it for so long, 24 hours a day,” Love said.
