Guest commentary — 2nd Open letter to Scott Whitney, Police Chief of Oxnard

The Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction (OCGI) is Dead!     Let the Healing and Reparation Begin

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By Armando Vazquez / Guest contributor

Now that the people have defeated the unconstitutional Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction (OCGI) what is the next move for the OPD? You, Scott, and all your current staff of Assistant Police Chiefs were with you back in 2003, all as aspiring “by the book” future police chiefs, you guys then were just following orders; when Greg Totten, the Ventura County District Attorney, your boss at the time Police Chief Art Lopez and the Oxnard City Council secretly conspired to create the Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction (OCGI) that the people of Oxnard just slayed after 17 years of community and court room fights.

Scott, this is now 2020, you are college educated, intelligent, respected, and a local “boy” made good! Your current Assistant Chiefs are all college educated and have been together with you for the greater part of two decades. You guys all know Oxnard and for the most part call Oxnard your home. So what kind of 21^st century community safety and wellness is going to emanate in Oxnard from your police department now that the OCGI is dead and the entire nation is calling and demanding fundamental police reform?

We at CORE want to be involved in the development and creation of unique culturally and ethnically congruent community safety, wellness and empowerment safety models that seek to minimize, mitigated and all together eliminate certain crimes, attributable to racism, poverty and disenfranchisement, in our community that only well-funded, instituted and managed restorative justice, medical, educational, and art/cultural resources and programs can produce. Cops can be a part of this important work; but never, ever again, the one and only community safety and wellness option.

You have told me countless times how much you and your police department appreciated the work that community based organizations like our Acuna Art Collective/Café on A  do with at- risk youth and marginalized adult populations in greater Oxnard. I now ask you to be a fiscally prudent, socially conscientious, and a 21^st Century Community Safety and Wellness Leader by working closer with community- based organizations like ours that embrace holistic, ethnically and culturally congruent community involvement as a mandatory element of any significant fundamental police reform paradigm.

Here is what CORE, The Acuna Art Collective, The KEYS Leadership Academy, Oxnard Multicultural Mental Health Collective, and other community based organization and activist supporters want to be initiated immediately in the city of Oxnard as the beginnings of a reparation and healing period for the damage and harm caused by the many constitutional violations that the Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction inflicted on at least three generations of our Mexican/Chicano residents.

1. The Oxnard Police Department must acknowledge publicly that the 16 year long Oxnard Civil “Gang” injunction that was deployed by OPD was declared unconstitutional for violating due process to those enjoined. Therefore, we can clearly see it was a horrifically crafted “cut and paste” police policy that illegally profiled, harassed and swooped up hundreds of Mexican/Chicano youth and adults into the OCGI (without providing any enjoined individuals the benefit of their constitutionally protected due process rights their day in court to face their accusers and have the opportunity to mount a legal defense).
2. An immediate and official Oxnard Police Department notification document mailed to each previously enjoined youth that advises ALL the individuals that were illegally enjoined by the Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction that they are now legally free from any and all previous Injunction constraints.
3. Provide the people of Oxnard an immediate, full, and complete historical account of the policing “tool” known as the Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction in the form of a readily available public document.
4. Reparation for the 16 years of Unconstutional conduct and provide relief for damages committed by the Oxnard Police Department and the City of Oxnard. Reparation can be, but not limited to, jobs, vocational training, medical treatment and counseling, housing and transportation assistance.
5. 5. Total and complete transparency by the Oxnard Police Departments of current discretionary funding streams for PALS, DARE, CalGrip, Measure O, Public school policing funding and any and all other OPD funds that are discretionary and/or grant funded, so that these funds may be shared with community- based organizations that do direct work with the previously enjoined.
6. Begin immediately the development and creation of A Police Review Board that is solely administered and managed by the residents of Oxnard.
7. Provide the Acuna Art Collective (formerly known as the Cafe on A) with an immediate contract to occupy the abandoned Children’s Museum or the old and abandoned Social Security Building. The Acuna Art Collective who will provide FREE social services, Recovery and life skills classes, educational remediation/enhancements, job skills training and art/cultural/programming to the enjoined and other residents of the community.
8. For Services rendered by the Acuna Art Collective to the residents the city of Oxnard will “lease” the Children’s Museum or the old Social Security Building for the nominal fee of $1.00 per year. The city of Oxnard will pay for all utilities and city fees. The Oxnard Police Department will share moneys from discretionary funds in the amount of $50,000.00 to the Acuna Art Collective and other CBO’s for fiscal year 2021-2022.
9. The Oxnard Police Department will transfer the services of social work, recreation, and education by immediatelyturning any and all contracts that the OPD currently provides to residents of Oxnard to reputable and professionally trained community- based organizations. The cops were trained and hired to enforce the local laws, be servants of the people and follow the law, nothing more!
10.  Issuance of an immediate and public formal statement and commitment by the Oxnard City Council and the Oxnard Police Department that in the future the entire community will be advised, consulted, surveyed and respected before enacting another costly and damaging policing “tool” like the recently abolished, ill-conceived, and unconstitutional Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction.

Finally, Scott I advised two years ago that we the Acuna Art Collective, the KEYS Leadership Academy, the Oxnard Multicultural Mental Health Coalition (OHHM) and CORE have professional educators, social workers, therapists, art/cultural and mental health experts and volunteers that are anxious and willing to work with the OPD to develop a mental health wellness first responder protocols/programs and community volunteer teams. These community volunteers/staff would function effectively as trained and professional civilian first responders to certain community wellness/safety incident/problems/occurrences. This process of transfer of services on a national level has demonstrated a real possibility of eliminating the cops, “shoot first, ask question later” approach to familial, youth violence, homelessness, and immigrant issues. These new safety/wellness model approaches can save lives!  Wellness and safety mental health professionals can work with the myriad of other mental health and wellness community safety issues and concerns that are prevalent in our multi-racial and multi-ethnic communities where OPD cops have absolutely no training, patience or time to take on. These community- based wellness/safety models that utilize non-police professionals/volunteers as first responders on the scene can help minimize and de-escalate potentially violent encounters where previously only the police responded.

Scott you are the right Chief for Oxnard; you can lead the city progressively, compassionately and intelligently for community safety through these historic times that demand police reform and accountability. We, the communities of color, in Oxnard and throughout the nation, will never go back to those, hopeless, powerless and disenfranchised days where cops dictated, ruled, controlled and directed the entire safety agenda at the total exclusion of the communities of color. No institutional power, not your OPD, The Ventura County DA or the Oxnard City Council can stop this national and local police reform movement that demands equal justice, accountability and community input and sharing of the decision making process. You Scott, and your leadership team can take on the progressive police reform that is needed in Oxnard. Scott, I am always available to sit down and have a cup of coffee and speak with you about our vision and commitment to police reform and community partnerships in Oxnard, the city that we both love!

— Armando Vazquez, M.Ed., is the Founding Member of Chiques Organizing for Rights and Equality (CORE), Executive Director of Oxnard Multicultural Mental Health Coalition (OMMH) and Executive Director, of the Acuna Art Collective (formerly the Café on A).