Written by Vincent Cain
Attorney General Rob Bonta and three Democratic state senators united with crime victim advocates from the network Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, demanding the state invest more in crime prevention, victim compensation, and trauma recovery.
The executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, Tinisch Hollins, said, “A lot of their counterparts in the government don’t seem to agree that people who have been victims of police violence or their surviving family members deserve help when they lose a loved one. Or that … someone at some point in their life who may have committed a crime is not deserving … of getting help and access to treatment and mental health.”
Additionally, lawmakers have introduced several new bills to help crime victims. However, Some of the bills focusing on crime victims target police violence, which is a much less serious issue than the actual crime in California.
As an example, one of State Sen. Connie Levya of Chino’s bills would expand eligibility for California’s victim compensation program to serious bodily injury or death caused by a law enforcement officer’s use of force, which passed out of the Senate last year but has yet to make it out of the Assembly.
Attorney General Rob Bonta has announced that the California DOJ had its victims services unit “expanded and beefed up.” He has also stated that they have added an advisor to the attorney general on survivor policy and advocacy.
It seems that the Democrats’ attempt to get tough on crime before the election this year isn’t working out as well as they hoped. Rob Bonta and George Gascón have received backlash from law enforcement due to past statements and policies.
Facing Anne Marie Schubert for Attorney General, Bonta has received only $21,000 from law enforcement, compared to Schubert’s nearly $300,000. In addition, Gascón has backtracked two key policies which allowed them to prosecute some juveniles as adults and seek life sentences in some cases.
Photo Cred: AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File
