Pam Bondi baffling........

Pam Bondi bafflingly calls out 'crime' in wealthy California city

In front of a congressional committee, Pam Bondi started pointing fingers

By Farley Elliott

United States Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday bafflingly implied a largely idyllic community in Los Angeles County was somehow a crime-ridden den in desperate need of reform.

Bondi was testifying in front of a congressional subcommittee Wednesday about a variety of recent Justice Department controversies, including the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and potential probes against President Donald Trump’s political enemies. As part of a tense back-and-forth exchange with California Democratic Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove that mostly centered on a Department of Justice report on political violence, Bondi called out Kamlager-Dove’s 37th Congressional District, implying it was filled with crime.

“There are violent, dangerous people out here with real threats,” Kamlager-Dove said to Bondi at the House Judiciary Committee hearing, referring to far-right extremists.

“There are, in your district,” Bondi replied, partially cutting off Kamlager-Dove, whose 37th Congressional District includes diverse Los Angeles neighborhoods like Mid-City, West Adams, Historic South-Central and Beverlywood. A minute later, before moving on to questioning from a different committee member, Bondi was allowed to further reply to Kamlager-Dove.

“Her district includes Culver City,” Bondi said forcefully, emphasizing the city name, “and she’s not talking about any crime in her district. Nothing about helping crime in her district.”

Culver City, a standalone city that is mostly encircled by the city of Los Angeles, is widely considered to be among the most pleasant areas in all of LA County. While not quite as protected (or wealthy) as cities like Beverly Hills, with its private security patrols and fenced-in mansions, it’s still viewed as a peaceful, semi-suburban community with a relatively low crime rate and high quality of life.

The jokes were quick to fly on social media. Politico’s Liam Dillon, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, said on X that he was “imagining roving gangs of NPR employees terrorizing people from Culver City’s protected bike lanes.” NPR’s West Coast headquarters is, indeed, located in the 40,000-person city, as are two-Michelin-starred restaurant Vespertine and Sony Pictures Studios, the television and film complex that, among other things, produces shows like “Jeopardy!”

Amazon and Apple also have large offices in Culver City, which also boasts a dense and historic downtown. According to Zillow, the median single-family home price in Culver City was north of $1.5 million as of December 2025. 

“The worst crime in culver is the cost of quinoa at Erewhon,” said another X user, referring to the high-end grocery store chain. “She’s right, that Trader Joe’s downtown can get really busy,” added another.

In a statement to SFGATE, Culver City Mayor Freddy Puza said that Bondi’s statement caught him by surprise, particularly because of the area’s continually falling crime rates, which he said dropped by nearly 10% in 2024 and another 6% in the third quarter of 2025. “Our City is in Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove’s district, whose leadership our City appreciates, and the facts simply do not support the Attorney General’s narrative from today’s Congressional hearing,” Puza’s statement read. “We welcome the correction from the federal Department of Justice, but we won’t hold our breath.”

Kamlager-Dove told SFGATE in an emailed statement: “Culver City is known for parks, studio lots, and breakfast burritos—not crime. Pam Bondi should visit sometime.”

Bondi did not reference any other areas within Kamlager-Dove’s district when talking about crime, and the hearing ultimately moved on. SFGATE reached out to the attorney general’s office for comment but did not receive a response before publication.