I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank Senior Deputy District Attorney Karen Wold and the Oxnard Police Department for their fine work in convincing Judge Frederick H. Bysshe to make the gang injunction permanent. The Colonia Chiques have terrorized the residents of Oxnard for too long with very little done about it.

Dave Howard of Ojai and Jim Yarborough of Thousand Oaks along with Francisco Romero and other sympathizers would have you believe that peace, love and throwing money at useless programs will fix the problems. It won’t. The programs they whine about, that they say are so needed, are already in place.

Education? There is a system called the public schools where on a daily basis I see these kids tossing away their opportunities. They are too busy tagging the school grounds, terrorizing fellow students, defying any and all authority, and ditching class to smoke dope to get any meaningful education out of the system that is there to serve them.

Jobs? Do people think that if these kids got the education offered to them they might be able to get a decent paying job? Go to school, pay attention, learn to properly read, write and speak the English language, and they might be surprised at the opportunities afforded to them.

If they can get a clue, do what they are supposed to do, and learn to live like civilized human beings, then more power to them and welcome to the real world. If they cannot, then they should be placed behind bars for as long as possible and they can then prey on each other.

— Steve Buratti, Oxnard