VIEW LARGER Phoenix City Council chambers clear out as community members wait to speak on Aug. 30, 2017. After the first 15 minutes of public comment, when Mayor Greg Stanton tried to move on with the meeting, protesters flooded the chamber aisles demanding to be heard.
The mayor declared a short recess, left the room and came back with an option — move up the agenda item calling for a $45,000 external review of police actions on Aug. 22.
Nearly every speaker at the five-hour-long meeting spoke against the review and gave testimony on what they saw the night of the rally. That included resident Gina Mendez.
“And ya'll let the police mess up that day,” Mendez said. “Y'all should be ashamed.”
The several residents who spoke in favor of police actions were soon drowned out by boos and chants from those against.
Councilmembers then discussed the review, requested by City Manager Ed Zuercher Monday. Almost all were against it, either because it second-guessed police or because it wasn't independent enough.
Zuercher pulled his recommendation for the item, making a vote impossible.
“My attempt here was to respond to concerns for independent fact-gathering, but it's apparent my proposal is not viewed as objective and therefore I respectfully withdraw my recommendation for this item,” he said.
The $45,000 contract with OIR Group would have included an independent review of police using tear gas and other dispersion tactics to break up a the protests the evening of the Trump rally.
Stanton supports an investigation.
“I expect that [review] to be an objective tool to help us learn all we can from the events of last Tuesday and to use any recommendations to improve our police department functions for future events and improve the city as a whole,” Stanton said.
The council item did not go through. The first of 12 community listening sessions with Phoenix police will be Sept. 5 at 6 p.m.
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