Guest commentary — The Oxnard Civil Gang Injunction is DEAD! Reconciliation, Healing and Reparation Begins NOW!

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By Armando Vazquez / Guest contributor

After 16 years of illegal profiling, harassment and enjoining Mexican youth and adults, the racist and unconstitutional Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction is DEAD! Irrational fear, ignorance, and racism created this unconstitutional monster. There is the universal antidote to irrational fear, and racist hate and it is love; and love is at our miraculous and transformative disposal any time we wish to act boldly and put love into action. Oxnard here is where we must act boldly and immediately with love on a local level.

We all know that the best community safety and wellness is where all adults, kids, young adults and everyone else in Oxnard feels a real sense of civic participation, ownership, peace, love and respect. We have relied much too long on cops alone to bring us safety. We all know full well that safety is mostly perceptual. As a sobering reminder, let us not forget that Oxnard is yearly designated by highly reputable research groups as one of the safest cities in the country for it size. We have let others assign us the “bum rap” about crime riddled Oxnard. We have often be responsible and complicit in perpetuating our city as being “taken over by gangbangers, terrorist and drug dealers” by enacting bonehead and stupid local laws and programs run by cops like the Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction, the zero tolerance policies for “anti-graffiti and tagging” that has resulted in astronomical fines for youth offenders and their parents, cops in every public city school, PALS, DARE, CalGrip to mention just a few ill-conceived examples.

Now that the Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction is DEAD!  We can and must change our perception from irrational fear and hate to active all inclusive love. A new bold perception on how we view our youth, the immigrants, troubled and down on their luck adults, the homeless, and the folks that don’t look like us. We can embrace the diversity and differences that make us the Oxnard residents so uniquely beautiful and special, rather than suspect and to be feared. There are still a few “sanctuaries” in Oxnard that practice this kind of community defined practices of social and restorative justice  work that is complimented by culturally competent and ethnically congruent professional and volunteer educational and psychological programming supported by an unwavering foundation of love.

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

1. Reparation for the 16 years of Unconstutional conduct and damages committed by the Oxnard Police Department. Reparation can be, but not limited to, jobs, training, medical treatment and counseling, housing and transportation assistance.
2. 2. An immediate and official city of Oxnard Police Department notification document that advises ALL the individuals enjoined by Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction that they are legally free from any and all constraints.
3. 3. Total and complete transparency of the Oxnard Police Departments discretionary funding stream for PALS, DARE, CalGrip, Measure O, Public school policing funding and any and all other OPD funds that are discretionary and grant funded.
4. Begin immediately the development and creation of A Police Review Board that is solely administered and managed by the Oxnard residents.
5. Provide the Acuna Art Collective (formerly known as the Cafe on A) an immediate contract to occupy the abandoned Children’s Museum.
6. For Service render 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.
7. The Oxnard Police Department will get out of the business 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!

The Acuna Art Collective/Café on A was (we want to continue to be) a unique FREE community center for marginalized and at-risk populations in Oxnard for over 25 years. It was in our downtown storefront that art, social and restorative justice and community service, best practices programs, small business incubators, dreams, ideas and aspirations were developed, made real and put into loving practice to empower the marginalized community by everyday folks like you and me.  CORE and the Acuna Art Collective and other partnering community based organizations are committed to working to help empower the newly freed youth, adults and their families that were ensnarled in the Oxnard Civil “Gang’ Injunction.

In these troubled apocalyptic time in our country and in Oxnard, community based centers like the old Café on A, are need now more than ever to assist the “huddled and marginalized masses” so they may integrate, participate and become empowered stewards and active contributing residents of Oxnard. In providing “franchise and ownership” to the marginalized and disenfranchised we move from “the obsolete policing communities into safety syndrome” toward a holistic wellness and safety paradigm that involving the entire community that places rightful knowledge, ownership, power and authority in the hearts and minds of the affect residents. Together we can dispel the fear and hate, open our minds and hearts and create an Oxnard that truly worthy of its title of the “The City that Care for all it Residents!”

— 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).