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Armando Vazquez.
By Armando Vazquez / Guest contributor
In the months of July and August, 2018 in various settings in the community Chiques Organizing for Rights and Equality (CORE) has met with the Oxnard Police Department to discuss the future of the two Civil Gang Injunctions that are currently temporarily on “suspended” status pending the outcome of the sober deliberations currently under way in the community, at OPD headquarters and at city hall. We are encouraged with the recent outreach engagement efforts by OPD Chief Scott Whitney, Assistant Chief Eric Sonstegard and Jason Benites that have brought together the community and the OPD.
At the end of the highly informative Community Relation Commission Civil “Gang” Injunction presentations of August 20, 2018 made by the OPD and CORE, Chief Whitney approached me and suggested that we meet to discuss and potentially work together on some specific aspects of the Civil Gang Injunctions that needed to be revisited and perhaps improved. Chief Whitney had in mind the review and discussion of the Oxnard version of the “Opt-Out” provision of the Civil Gang Injunctions. We agreed to meet the following day, August 21, 2018 at the old Social Security downtown building, our temporary location courtesy of the city.
The August 21, 2018 meeting at the old Social Security downtown building was attended by Chief Scott Whitney, Assistant Chief Eric Sonstegard and Jason Benites, CORE members and other interest community residents. We initially reiterated and agreed that we would attempt to focus on ideas, suggestion and commentary regarding the current Civil Gang Injunction “Opt-Out” provision. The OPD provided an overview of the current “Opt-Out” provisions. For a variety of reason the OPD has found that there are relatively few of the 368 enjoined “gang” members that has taken advantage of the “Opt-Out” provisions. The “Opt-out” provision is the rigorous protocol that the enjoined “gang” member must successfully complete to be “freed’ from the Civil “Gang” Injunction.
The reasons for the relatively few 368 enjoined “gang” members taking advantage of the “Opt-Out” provision was what appeared to be for obvious reasons; namely, distrust of the cops and their “Opt-Out” program, continued activity as a gang member, ignorance of the “Opt-out” protocol and finally lack of communication between the cops and the enjoined “gang” member. We all surmised that this is not rocket science and of course the enjoined “gang” members and the cops have a mutual trust and communication problem. Accepting this no-brainer truth; that there is little to no communication, let alone trust, between the OPD and the enjoined “gang” members was a crucial step in moving forward. To the credit of the OPD and the community we all agreed that perhaps a trusted independent community organization working with the OPD could help create a “bridge” to the enjoined “gang” members.
The OPD, CORE members and other community activist agreed in principal into the exploration and the development and creation of a community based program, working with the OPD “Opt-out” provisions, might be an important beginning step in the development of a dynamic protocol that could initially identify “low hanging fruit” that might be ripe for the “Opt-out” provisions/programs and successful transition out of the Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunction.
Of course the devil is in the details and where the OPD is having problems/concerns regarding their current “Opt-out” provisions and stalled “freedom” protocol. This is where trusted community members and organizations working with the OPD are critically important in hammering out legal, clear, transparent and discernable “hoops” that the enjoined “gang” members must navigate to achieve their goal of “freedom” from the Civil “Gang” Injunction.
CORE has been down this legal black hole before; today we want to work toward sunlight and liberation. In 2005, 2006 and now in 2018 we have been critical of the OPD’s “Opt-out” initially non-existent and now apparently a weak, oblique and inaccessible “Opt-out” provision. We want to help the OPD create a fair, accessible and humane restorative/rehabilitative “Opt-out” protocol.
This is what CORE will fight to include in the future “Opt-out” provision and program. The “Opt-out” provision and program must have a robust triage component, consisting of jobs, education, legal aide, community restorative justice service, health (physical/mental) services, art/cultural, counselling, long term professional support and other rehabilitative services. CORE, the Acuna Arts Collective, Oxnard Multicultural Mental Health Collation (OMMH) and other trusted community based organizations have a local history of providing long term local and successful “social triage” services to acutely at-risk population in the greater Oxnard area. We don’t expect the cops to provide this triage, but we must expect the cops to make whatever available information they can provide to make the “Opt-out” triage assessment robust and complete. We must never work irresponsibly and set up or mislead the enjoined “gang” member. Once we betray our mission of transparent fidelity we will lose the trust of the entire community forever!
Make no mistake about it CORE vehemently opposes and will continue to oppose the Oxnard Civil “Gang” Injunctions. We have argued that they are constitutionally flawed; and we believe the state’s courts will continue to render crushing legal defeats to jurisdictions, like Oxnard, that stubbornly fail to read the writing on the wall and continue to pursue a police policy that has long been rendered constitutionally infirmed and obsolete as law enforcement “tool”.
We are all in complete and total agreement with all parties; the OPD, CORE, the residents of Oxnard’s and all those folks at the periphery of our local society that long for social justice and equality, that our universal goal is to make Oxnard the safest, most humane and prosperous city that we can craft through our collective intellect, love, justice and hard work. This is a historic time in Oxnard, let us dispel the fear and loathing that drives and divide many of us in our community, and begin to open our hearts and minds to help our various populations in need and crisis maximize their full potential. Only in this way can we truly make Oxnard the city that real cares about safety, equality and prosperity for all.
— Armando Vazquez, M.Ed., founding member of CORE and the Acuna Art Gallery and Community Collective.
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