Colonia Civil Rights Coalition organized to fight injunction
Ventura County Star
Colonia Civil Rights Coalition organized to fight injunction
By Dolly Villa
August 1, 2004
On June 1, a preliminary gang injunction singling out the community of Colonia and a portion of Oxnard went into effect. The injunction covers 6.6 square miles of Oxnard, which the Oxnard Police Department calls the Safety Zone. Many will be affected by this injunction.
I started the Colonia Civil Rights Coalition to give our community a chance to fight back to defend our civil rights. I was always skeptical of accounts of police harassment until now. I have experienced it firsthand since starting this coalition. I fear if this injunction passes, it will give the police more power, less accountability and the right to harass. I am not a gang member and already suffer from police harassment.
The gang injunction unfairly segregates us and strips away our rights. Under the proposed injunction, our community, along with the rest of the Safety Zone, would be forced to live by “The Rules For Living” made by the Oxnard Police Department. These rules include a 10 p.m. curfew and prohibit the wearing of Dallas Cowboys football clothing.
What amazes me is that we are the one city in the whole country that has the privilege of having the Dallas Cowboys football team here during summer training. How can this same city prohibit the wearing of Cowboy clothing in 25 percent of the city?
This is communism. We are in the greatest country in the world, yet, my community does not get to feel the freedom everyone else does. The police have not done enough work in the community to justify a gang injunction. Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez comes into our beautiful city and starts using the same tactics he used in Rampart. They didn’t work over there and they will not work here.
You cannot approach Oxnard the same way Los Angeles is approached.
According to Neail Holland, a gang specialist with the Oxnard Police Department, 99 percent of my community was in support of this injunction before the public became aware of it through the front page of The Star. I find this to be untrue as I am a member of the Colonia community and was never asked for my opinion in a matter that would affect me, my family and my friends forever.
To make matters worse, our own Oxnard City Council was not even aware of this injunction. We are not denying the problems in the community, however, the gang injunction is not the answer. This should be a last resort. I have called the Oxnard Police Department numerous times to request the names of the officers to be trained in the proper enforcement of the gang injunction. My request has not been answered.
Through fund-raising carwashes, T-shirt sales (now the Oxnard Police Department will label you an associate of the Colonia Chiques if you wear one) and community awareness events, we have hired our own experienced gang injunction attorney by the name of John Hachmeister. We still have time to fight this injunction. It is not over yet.
– Dolly Villa, 23, lives in Oxnard.
