WASHINGTON — More than a month after unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, D.C. leaders had a heated discussion about local police practices.
At a town hall meeting Tuesday night at Union Temple Baptist Church in Southeast, black residents spoke of being profiled or targeted by police.
“I want to apologize for any poor behavior you’ve experienced from our police officers,” 7th District D.C. Police Commander Robin Hoey said.
Hoey is black, but an angry woman in the audience called him a “token.”
“You are not supposed to be here speaking up for that system. If you took off that uniform…your own police officers would do the same thing to you,” she said.
Another woman in the audience asked Hoey if D.C. police have military-style weapons like what were used against protestors in Ferguson.
“Stun grenades and things like that — yeah, absolutely we do. When we serve high-risk warrants, those types of things are used,” he said, adding that battering rams are often used too.
“We are not an occupying army,” he added.
Also brought up at the meeting was a plan by D.C. police to roll out a pilot program involving body cameras that officers strap to themselves and use to record their interactions with the public.
“A lot of people have been calling for the body cameras, but the body cameras have the potential to be another type of surveillance on the community,” said Seema Sadnandan, policy director at ACLU of the Nation’s Capital.
Also speaking at the event was psychologist Dr. Bruce Purnell, who says young people in the black community are killing each other, and something needs to be done so that they value themselves more.
“Not only is it happening, it’s entertainment to the world. We’re presenting it as entertainment. We’re rapping about it. It’s coming into movies. We’re desensitized to our own destruction,” Purnell said.
Hoey says he’s seen some things he calls “disturbing.”
“I could be standing in a line and somebody will turn to a little kid who’s about 10 and say, ‘Don’t talk to no police. Don’t talk to no police. Don’t speak to that cop.'”
Panel of under-35 black men talking about their police interactions/impressions here at Union Temple Baptist @WTOP pic.twitter.com/qTUgjEQpRd
— Michelle Basch (@mbaschWTOP) September 16, 2014
Rev. George Gilbert of Holy Trinity United Baptist Church in Northeast, who moderated the program, urged residents to try to make changes.
“Take what you’ve heard today and do something,” Gilbert said.
On Wednesday, Oct. 8, the D.C. Council committee that oversees the D.C. Police Department will hold a public oversight hearing at Howard University to review police practices such as stop and frisk and the use of SWAT-like teams.
Members of the public are urged to stop by and share their experiences.
Get more information about the event on Councilmember Tommy Wells’ website.
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