Guest commentary: In the name of justice and love, stop the killings

Only a Community Police Review Board can reform the Oxnard Police Department

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By Armando Vazquez / Guest contributor

The Oxnard Police Department, like some many police departments throughout the nation, is in acute and quite apparent institutional paralysis. For the past thirty years, if not longer, the entire culture of every police department of the United States can be defined as one of being at war with its own citizenry. The nation’s police departments have declared war on drugs, on gangs, on youth, on minorities, on immigrants, on guys, the poor,  on terrorist  (real or imagined); they have declared war and waged war against all of us in America. Oxnard is no exception; rather it is a twisted, brazen and deadly violent example of the way policing is done in this nation.

So it comes as no surprise that the Oxnard PD is infected with the same sickness that afflicts so many other police departments throughout this nation. But a sick Oxnard Police Department cannot begin to heal itself if it does not admit that it has a major illness. Of course having the OPD admit that it is sick is impossible, they can never be wrong, they are infallible, just ask, the city council, the OPD leadership, all the citizens of Oxnard that rally to their support.

At a recent community gathering, the newly hired city manager, the police chief, and the mayor all responded that a community police review board was unnecessary. Yes they conceded that they had a bit of work to do, but internally they could smooth out the rough patches and move forward. These three high raking city officials were in classical denial and disingenuous mode, out of touch with the fear and loathing that so many of the Oxnard citizenry have for the OPD.

In the wake of the latest tragic killing of Meagan Hockaday, by an OPD cop it is time for the community to get its collective head out of the sand and scream “in the name of justice and love stop the killings,” and then collectively demand that OPD begin turning oversight responsibilities to the community. The cops cannot reform themselves, no more that the fox can stop killing chicken, it is impossible. So here is what we The Black and Brown Youth Peace and Arts Alliance, The KEYS Leadership Academy, The Café on A, the Acuna Gallery, and Oxnard Multicultural Mental Health Coalition recommends of the city of Oxnard.

1. Reform the OPD from top to bottom.
2. OPD stop the killing our people! Admit you have major pathology in your department, and admit that you need help!
3. Convene ASAP a community review board, with citizens form the entire spectrum of the community. Folks that are not lap dogs or cheerleaders for the OPD, but rather independent community servants that have historical credentials in the fight to reform the OPD.
4. Involve the entire OPD in culturally sensitive crisis intervention protocols that demand saving lives, and not enforcing the law by deadly force, as the paramount directive.
5. Develop with the immediate assistance of the community a From a Crisis to Saving Lives Intervention Team. The community volunteer Save Lives program has as the paramount directive to train civilian crisis volunteers to work to save lives, sacrifice our lives to get the crisis resolve. The current OPD protocol of shoot to kill first and ask question later is diabolical and inhumane, and must be eliminated!
6. Hold all killer cops accountable; prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.
7. Make an immediate review of the “alleged” tattooing and other gang pathologies that currently infect the OPD and do everything possible to weed out the “sick” out of the department ASAP.
8. Provide support and funds immediately to groups like OMMH to begin the development of the From a Crisis to Saving Lives Intervention Team.
9. Support and fund the proactive work of groups like OMMH and other community based organization that are working to the address the countless of mental health and substance abuse issues that afflict our community.
10. Acknowledge that the current police paradigm is fatally flaws if the primary objective is safety. And begin to look at community based programs and service that are far superior to conventional policing in transforming communities into safe, creative and vibrant place to live, recreate and practice love and peace.

Wake up Oxnard, next time it will be your son or daughter, the time is now get involved and demand that the city council begin the immediate transformation of the OPD form a  police department that is at war with the community into a department that is completely control by a community police review board.

We cannot afford to wait any longer; we must act now to honor the death of our sons and daughter who have been killed by the OPD.

These are troubling and violent time and the cowards will run for cover, the brave must stand and be willing to give up their lives so never again will a mother and a father wail and grieve for the death of the children who have been killed by the cops hired by us to “protect and serve”

— Armando Vazquez, M.Ed., is the executive director of The KEYS Leadership Academy@ Café on A in Oxnard.