Shawny Williams, the former police chief of Vallejo in California's San Francisco Bay Area, has revealed disturbing details of a racist harassment campaign that ultimately forced his resignation from the force.
A Pattern of Hostility and Threats
Williams testified in a federal civil rights lawsuit deposition that he endured a steady stream of racist remarks from colleagues and received numerous threats to his safety both at work and at home. The harassment became so severe that he felt compelled to resign from his position in 2022, despite his mandate to reform the troubled police department.
According to Williams's testimony, the threats continued even after he left his post, with hostile mail arriving at his home and a second property he owned outside California. "They were hostile, toxic," Williams stated during the deposition. "I had safety concerns."
Reform Efforts Met With Backlash
Williams took over the Vallejo police department in 2019 with a clear mission to implement reforms in an organisation known nationally for unchecked violence and resistance to change. His appointment came during a period of national reckoning on police violence following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Melissa Nold, the lawyer representing plaintiff Deyana Jenkins in the federal case, highlighted the significance of Williams's position: "He was our first Black police chief in a department that's always been known as a racist police department. To hear that he was run off because he was doing reform and discipline - that's very concerning."
The deposition revealed specific instances of racial hostility, including one colleague's statement: "This Black Jesus can't save us." Williams also described disturbing comments from a former police captain and claimed the city attorney had threatened him, though he didn't provide details.
Specific Threats and Department Culture
Three weeks before resigning in October 2022, Williams received what he described as a "Halloween card threat" that emitted a deafening screech when opened. The card contained the message "quit today" and the noise was so loud that Williams initially thought it was "some kind of domestic violence occurring outside the building."
The harassment intensified after Officer Jarrett Tonn, who shot and killed unarmed 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa during a protest in 2020, was reinstated to the force in 2023 following Williams's departure. Williams had originally dismissed Tonn, but an arbitrator overturned the decision after Williams left the department.
Williams testified that he repeatedly asked the department to investigate the threats and raised his concerns with city manager Mike Malone. However, he claimed the city failed to act, and Malone appeared uninterested in helping, allegedly stating multiple times that "they're not going to stop until I fire you or you quit."
Williams identified "they" as referring to the Vallejo Police Officers' Association (VPOA), the bargaining unit for police officers in negotiations with the city.
The Vallejo police department and VPOA did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding Williams's allegations.
Williams concluded that his "resignation was a result of a pattern of constructive termination hostility" and that "there was racial animus, retaliatory things that were happening that just made it unbearable or impossible for me to perform my duties in a safe environment."
