Activism
Domestic Violence Groups Praise Newsom’s Budget, But Ask for More Funding
Victim services providers, including DV shelters and rape crisis centers, faced an influx of survivors seeking services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Domestic violence (DV) advocates in California are praising Gov. Gavin Newsom for allocating $100 million in the 2021-22 budget revision to support crime victims. But they say the money is not enough to meet new DV-specific demands brought on, in part, by the COVID-19 crisis.
Victim services providers, including DV shelters and rape crisis centers, faced an influx of survivors seeking services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the past few years, they’ve also received reduced funding from the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), with continued cuts expected in the future.
The advocacy organizations ValorUS (formerly the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault) and the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (CPEDV) have released a statement commending Newsom for the funding, without which, they say, services providers would have faced significant cuts beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2022-2023. However, they are also calling on Newsom to expand the funding to include $315 million for services that support victims and $15 million in ongoing prevention funding for sexual and domestic violence.
Victim services funding goes toward essential services for victims of violent crime, including legal assistance, housing and homelessness responses, child abuse programs and programs dedicated to traditionally underserved communities.
There has been an increased demand for these services since the pandemic began, with more than three in five DV organizations globally reporting an increase in demand for services in a March 2021 report released by the NO MORE foundation, a national DV resource center.
San Francisco-based Community United Against Violence (CUAV) faced an increased demand for services while working under social-distancing restrictions during the past year.
CUAV provides direct services, including advocacy-based counseling, direct cash assistance and temporary housing for survivors in emergency situations.
CUAV primarily serves LGBTQ+ people of color who are survivors of intimate partner violence, hate violence and police violence. The nonprofit also supports community organizing in the Bay Area, advocating for transformative justice and alternatives to policing.
Dominique Cowling, Healing Justice Program Manager at CUAV, says the proposed $315 million in funding would help expand the services that CUAV is able to provide.
“It would be incredibly helpful for providing more of the domestic-violence specific work and education that we do, not only with our survivors but in our community trainings, too,” she said.
When we go out and do outreach for our partner agencies, we can really have more staff members that are providing that education,” Cowling continued. “I can also imagine really being able to support folks that are in crisis, and that are experiencing housing [and] financial instability. There are so many things that would be really helpful for this additional funding.”
The Los Angeles-based Jenesse Center offers career services along with housing assistance, which Donna Derden, Chief Operating Officer, says is necessary for a holistic approach to victim services that ensures long term stability for crime survivors.
“We do all of the workforce development to guarantee long-term success. We don’t want them to have to return to the shelter because they ran out of money, they didn’t know how to pay their rent on time, they didn’t know how to do whatever, and they went back to the abuser. And, then, a year later, they’re coming back to us for more help. Addressing all those issues ensures long-term stability and success for the clients,” says Derden.
The specific amounts in the funding requests are based off of previous state spending.
For the $315 million the groups are requesting for victims services funding, the governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) had previously projected that amount as the number needed to provide stability over three years. According to John Finley, policy manager at ValorUS, the $15 million prevention funding requested from the governor is based on the state’s previous investments in that area.
California had previously allocated $10 million in one-time DV-related funding in fiscal year 2018, and $5 million in fiscal year 2019.
According to Finley, the amount proposed by ValorUS and CPEDV would stave off cuts until fiscal year 2025-26. With just the $100 million proposed, Cal OES projects that victim services providers would face funding cuts starting in fiscal years 2023 or 2024.
If the projected victim services funding cuts take effect, then vital services and agencies for people affected by a wide array of crimes — including domestic and sexual abuse, child abuse and hate crimes — would face cuts.
This would disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income communities. According to a 2017 survey the Alliance for Safety and Justice conducted, people of color are 15% more likely to become victims of crime.
Finley also points out that the proposal for increased victim services funding comes at a time when California is estimating that it has a $75.7 billion surplus, which Newsom announced alongside his proposed expansion of the Golden State Stimulus, part of the California Comeback Plan.
“Seeing that decline [in funding] even while we have an enormous state surplus, that is a bit concerning. I would go so far as to say, if we weren’t able to intervene significantly to any cuts to victim services, it would be totally indefensible for us to have this much money and then be cutting the services we provide to victims of violent crime,” said Finley.
Activism
Officer Fired for Shooting and Killing Sean Monterrosa Has Termination Overturned
Michael Rains, attorney for the Vallejo Police Officers’ Association, said that “several credible sources” have told him that Detective Jarrett Tonn’s termination has been overturned in arbitration.

By Katy St. Clair
Bay City News
The officer who was fired for shooting and killing a man during George Floyd protests in Vallejo in 2020 could be getting his job back after prevailing in arbitration.
Michael Rains, attorney for the Vallejo Police Officers’ Association, said that “several credible sources” have told him that Detective Jarrett Tonn’s termination has been overturned in arbitration.
Tonn was dismissed from the Vallejo force after he shot Sean Monterrosa, 22, of San Francisco, outside of a Walgreens store on Redwood Street during the early morning hours of June 2, 2020.
The Vallejo Police Department has not commented on whether Tonn will return.
Tonn and two other officers were responding to alleged reports of looting at the store in an unmarked pickup truck. Body camera footage shows Tonn, who is seated in the backseat of the vehicle, stick an AR-15-style assault rifle in between the two officers and fire five times through the windshield at Monterrosa as the police vehicle approached the store.
Monterrosa died a short time later.
Vallejo police have alleged that Tonn fired at Monterrosa because he mistook a hammer in Monterrosa’s sweatshirt pocket for the butt of a gun.
The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta in May 2021 opened an investigation into the shooting, but there have been no updates in that case and Bonta’s office will not comment on open cases.
Tonn was at first placed on administrative leave for the shooting death, but was fired in 2021 by then-Chief Shawny Williams, who determined that Monterrosa was on his knees with his hands raised when he was shot.
Rains, who has represented two other officers fired by Williams — and prevailed — said the reinstatement of Tonn was the right decision. Rains said Sunday that Tonn applied a reasonable and lawful use of force in the Monterrosa case, and that Williams was wrong to terminate him.
“This is just three for three now with Williams,” he said, referring to the now three officers that have gotten their jobs back. “It demonstrates what a colossal failure he was as a chief in every respect. I’m delighted for Tonn, it’s deserved.”
Rains did not represent Tonn in this case.
But others see Monterrosa’s shooting death as a dark stain on a department known for years of shootings by officers.
The law office of John Burris filed a civil rights suit against the city of Vallejo and its Police Department for Monterrosa’s death, citing alleged tampering with evidence and acting negligently by not reprimanding or re-training Tonn previously despite a “shocking history of shooting his gun at civilians.”
Burris’ office is no longer representing the case and the family is now represented by new counsel, John Coyle, with a jury trial scheduled for January 2025, according to court records.
Nevertheless, Burris commented Sunday on Tonn’s reinstatement, saying he was disappointed but not surprised at the move, because arbitrators in these cases are “biased” toward the police.
“Even though police may have committed in this case an outrageous act, it’s not surprising that that has happened, and it happens more times than not,” he said.
When asked if he was confident that Bonta would file charges against Tonn, Burris chuckled and said that he would wait and see.
“I would not hold my breath,” he said.
Tonn had previously shot three people over five years in Vallejo while on duty, none of which were found to have had firearms, a tenth of the 32 total shootings by the department in one decade, according to attorney Ben Nisenbaum.
Vallejo civil rights attorney Melissa Nold, who represents families of people killed by Vallejo police, said the decision to bring back Tonn had been in the works the minute he was terminated by Williams.
“Unfortunately, I am not surprised at this troubling turn of events because a whistleblower notified me last year via email that Tonn was working a deal to get his job back once they threatened and ran off Chief Williams,” Nold said.
Williams resigned abruptly last November. Williams was repeatedly criticized by the Vallejo Police Officers’ Association, the offices’ union, which had previously voted “no confidence” in him and blamed him for everything from attrition to high crime in the city. But advocates for the families of those killed by police said Williams had been making progress in cleaning up a department that had gained international attention for being violent. During Williams’ tenure, there were no police shootings after the Monterrosa death.
Nold places part of the blame on Tonn’s return on the city, which she said “made no effort” to support his termination. Nold said they are still expecting Bonta to file criminal charges against Tonn and there will be a push to get him decertified as an officer as well.
“He cannot ever go back out onto the streets of Vallejo,” she said. “The liability he would create by being here is astronomical, but sadly no one in the city attorney’s office is smart enough to understand and/or are too corrupt and rotten to care.”
In May, a Solano County judge found that the Vallejo City Attorney’s Office broke the law by deliberately destroying evidence in cases related to police shootings.
The city of Vallejo did not respond to a request for comment.
Members of the family of Monterrosa and their advocates are planning on showing up to the Vallejo City Council meeting on Sept. 12 to protest the return of Tonn, Nold said.
The family will also be holding a “Justice 4 Sean Monterrosa” press conference on Thursday at 11 a.m. at Vallejo City Hall, 555 Santa Clara St., Vallejo.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of September 20 – 26, 2023
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Activism
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