Downside of Harbor Days

While Harbor Days may have been fun for many of the residents of Port Hueneme, the residents of Surfside Village were held hostage for over two hours without prior notification. For those residents who leave for work at 5 a.m. and return after dark just to hold down a job, it was impossible to spot the notices on the street posted late Friday afternoon.

On Saturday morning, a long line of cars was detained for two hours while police barricaded the road for the Harbor Days parade. Both exits to Surfside Village and Moranda Park were blocked. Police refused to consider any alternative to letting the residents leave. Held hostage were teen-age kids late for work after dropping by the park for a quick game of basketball, an elderly lady prevented from getting to her doctor’s appointment, a mother with a sick child and a naval officer detained from military maneuvers.

Through the tense two hours, the police just sat eating pizza (which magically appeared through the barricade) and told the citizens that there was nothing they could do; they were “just following orders.” When asked to call their supervisors to discuss a means of addressing the citizens’ distress, one police officer replied, “I will not jeopardize my job and become a martyr for your cause.”

This is not what I thought our founding fathers meant by “a free country.” These public servants have created a bureaucratic police state and lost their sense of who they are working for. As a citizen of Port Hueneme, I am furious at the lack of consideration the Police Department holds for its citizens.

JUDY COWELL

Port Hueneme