The gymnasium at Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar, Los Angeles, Calif., was bustling with excitement on May 7.
Sitting in front of the room were L.A. Councilmember Richard Alarcón, LAPD henchman Michael Moore and
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The discussion revolved around a gang injunction, the fifth proposed in the San Fernando Valley and the 37th in the City of Los Angeles. The L.A. City Attorney’s office requested the injunction in late April, spurring opposition from community residents and activists. This forced Alarcón to call a town hall meeting about the issue. Alarcón played perfectly the part of a bourgeois politician, sitting on the fence and declining to take a position on the injunction. One minute he spoke to the concerns of the community, the next he defended the LAPD’s power grab.
When local residents were then given the chance to speak, the Party for Socialism and Liberation intervened. Stephen Hinze, PSL candidate for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, District 5, spoke forcefully to the feelings of the audience:
“I am a candidate in this district for the L.A. Board of Supervisors. And I am the only politician here tonight who will speak the truth. Gang injunctions are tools used by law enforcement to criminalize minority youth from working-class communities. They are another form of racial profiling used against Black and Latino people. And this is exactly what is happening here in Sylmar.
“The authorities are not coming here promising jobs, after-school programs or social services—which is what the residents of this district need. Instead, they are bringing repression, racist repression, against an entire layer of young people.
“The L.A. City Attorney’s office is lying when they say that it is easy to get a name removed from the injunction. It isn’t. They have done this dozens of times to hundreds of people in Los Angeles County and we should make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
“Every name on this injunction is Latino in origin. How is this not racism? How is this not racial profiling? This racist gang injunction proposal should be rescinded immediately.”
Hinze’s pointed comments caused much of the audience to roar in approval, setting the tone for the remainder of the meeting.
PSL candidate Hinze is on the ballot for the June 3 election. He is also an active member of the Peace and Freedom Party.
Stigmatizing an entire community
The proposed gang injunction would cover 9.5 square miles—all of San Fernando and Sylmar—and would be the second largest such injunction geographically in all of Los Angeles. San Fernando and Sylmar are working-class, predominantly Latino areas located on the outskirts of Los Angeles. City prosecutors describe Sylmar and San Fernando residents as “terrorized” by the targeted street gang, the San Fers, yet almost all of the audience seemed perplexed by this false characterization.
Although modest gang problems do exist, Sylmar hardly seems to be “under siege.” Most of the working-class homes are well kept and clean, projecting a distinct suburban atmosphere. “Don’t stigmatize the entire community,” Sylmar activist Eugene Hernandez told the LAPD at the meeting.
Audience members approached Hinze after his speech and expressed support for the PSL’s message. His comments were so powerful that even Alarcón opportunistically rushed over to shake his hand.
Hinze’s District 5 opponent, 27-year incumbent Michael Antonovich, did not care enough to attend the community meeting. His hard-line, anti-immigrant position has angered many of his constituents. One Sylmar resident told Hinze, “I have lived here for 20 years and I’ve never seen Antonovich in my community.”
While public services like the library and the parks continue to be neglected, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in league with the Board of Supervisors, is increasing the size of the police force. According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, 51 percent of the Los Angeles 2008-2009 budget will be spent on funding the police. Meanwhile, the city is $500 million in debt.
Hinze and the PSL oppose these anti-worker, anti-immigrant priorities, including racist gang injunctions. These injunctions are capitalist tools to criminalize oppressed youth; they do not reduce crime. What is needed are job programs, free health care, housing and education—not racism and police repression. People’s needs should be put first.
Vote for Stephen Hinze on June 3! Vote PSL in 2008!
To learn more about Stephen Hinze’s candidacy, click here. To learn more about other PSL candidates running in the 2008 elections nationally and locally, click here.
