ONE WOMAN'S DEATH: ONE COMMUNITY'S RESPONSE
By Leni Marin

Claire Joyce Tempongko was a Filipina immigrant woman who was stabbed by her ex-boyfriend in front of her two very young children, in October 2000. Claire had called the police repeatedly before the incident. In fact, even a year before the incident Tari Ramirez, her batterer, had served at least six or seven months in jail for domestic violence. He was released on probation, and he began to harass her. Claire obtained a temporary restraining order. She expressed her fear of her ex-boyfriend to her family and her family was helping her. He continued harassing her. At one point, when she called the police they had come and picked him up. He was only charged with disorderly drunken conduct. He came before a judge on the arrest charges. However, missing from the packet that was presented to the judge was the fact that he was on probation and had earlier been charged and convicted for domestic violence-a huge missing piece. The ex-boyfriend was released and ordered to perform community service. Two weeks later Claire Joyce was dead. He had come back and killed her. Her children were witness to their mother's murder.  There was shock, outrage, and fear.

When the System Fails

In looking at the things this woman tried, it is obvious she was in great danger. She called the police and got a temporary restraining order. The ex-boyfriend had been arrested for domestic violence.  Right now, Tari Ramirez is still at large. He has not been caught. 

Similarly, ten years ago, we also were involved in the case of a Fijian immigrant woman who was killed in San Francisco. The same thing happened. She called the police and tried everything. She got a restraining order and the man came after her while he was on probation. She was dropping her son off at school. He killed her there. He committed suicide after killing her in front of their son.

The Asian Women's Shelter organized a vigil and rally in front of the Hall of Justice for Claire Joyce.  The event mobilized anti-domestic violence activists, the local Filipino community, as well as the community at large. The demand for justice was very clear. People wanted the system to be accountable because clearly the system had failed.

Making Systems Accountable

How did we make the systems accountable? In Claire Joyce's case, we held the criminal justice system, the probation department and the police department accountable.

In meeting with the criminal justice system, we first organized what we called the Committee for Justice for Claire Joyce Tempongko. The Asian Women's Shelter, the Family Violence Prevention Fund and other community organizations were involved. The first order of business was to demand a meeting with the Chief of Police and the Mayor, which we were able to do. In the meeting with the Chief of Police, we asked: "What are you going to do about looking for the batterer? It is ridiculous that he is still at large." We pushed them to organize community posting of the batterer's picture. He was well known in his neighborhood. Also, people repeatedly called the woman's family, saying they had seen him. The police said it was not true and they believed he went to Mexico. We then stepped up our efforts and demanded that the reward be raised. The Mayor agreed and the reward was raised from $10,000 to $25,000.

We said from the very start that this tragedy could have been prevented.  In addition, we recognized a flaw in the fatality review process. There appeared to be a sentiment among them that they were not going to point fingers. They were just reviewing the case for the sake of reviewing it and not saying what went wrong. They were not addressing questions concerning who is accountable and what corrections need to be made to prevent a repetition of certain system failures. Community organizing occurred around the points of taking further action because we recognized that fatality reviews are not the answer to preventing homicides.

Community Organizing As the Key

How did we support the family and how did we mobilize the community so they could have an opportunity to express their outrage and shock and be a part of the demand for justice?

We offered post-traumatic stress therapy for the children who witnessed the murders. The children were still attending the same school. We worked with the family to move the children to another school right away. We were concerned that the batterer might come for them there. We also were concerned about security, even after the children were moved to another school. We wanted to make sure the teachers and police knew the situation. The police were not thinking about those kinds of things for the family.

We worked with the media to broaden-beyond the Filipino and the advocacy community-the impact and the knowledge about the homicide. The Family Violence Prevention Fund organized a campaign called "Not in My Home, Not in My Town", which collected pledges from members of the San Francisco community. We organized luncheons that involved key women leaders and supporters of the Consortium on Domestic Violence, a leading organization in San Francisco. Organizers of the "Not in My Home, Not In My Town" campaign and the family worked together to collect names at organizational meetings and at churches. Claire's mother -Clara Tempongko- has been very visible in the campaign.

Results

Concrete results came from our efforts. Together with the Mayor of San Francisco and the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women (which did a fatality review and conducted a hearing), we held a news conference and the city devoted $12 million for a major overhaul of their system. For example, the probation department did not have computerized linkages with the San Francisco police department. With all the high tech that is supposed to be in Silicon Valley, they were in the dark.  We collected more than 5,000 pledge cards and we demanded that open positions in the domestic violence investigation unit be filled. There were only ten people working in the unit at a time when they had funding for twenty positions, four of which were supposed to be for multi-lingual workers. Those are just some of the concrete results we experienced. We were proactive and realized that community organizing is the key to preventing domestic violence.

Leni Marin is the Managing Director at the Family Violence Prevention Fund.