Protesters share urgent pleas for police reform with Tampa's Citizen Review Board

the random condemning people are dying
we are out there protesting sacrificing
our lives so you guys can see that our
life matters
after weeks of demonstrations in Tampa
against racial injustice and police
brutality protesters took their urgent
pleas for reform to the citizen review
board tonight was the board’s first
meeting since January because of the
pandemic eight on your side’s Justin
checker joins us live tonight at the
Tampa Convention Center Justin Keith and
Jen good evening many speakers were
upset that mayor jane caster wasn’t here
but i learned she was never scheduled to
attend there were calls for defunding
tampa police and demands for change the
overflow crowd waited outside while the
public comment inside lasted for hours
these tensions are rising people are
upset every day that goes by as
somebody’s life that can be lost several
speakers told Tampa citizen review board
there does need to be a tangible
progress made towards defunding the
police and reallocating those funds to
programs such as education public
housing 41 year old Ellis Richards says
the police reforms he wants to see or
higher standards and education
requirements police officers

doctors and pilots they all have
thousands of lives in the balance every
day two of those jobs it requires a high
education many of the younger speakers
have marched through the streets in
recent weeks police say they have only
acted when demonstrators became violent
and didn’t disperse but the protesters
raised concerns about the use of
excessive force I brought up to Jane
caster how we were tear gas I brought
two broad to Jane caster how we we are
being shot with rubber bullets after
several calls for Chief Brian Dugan to
step down we responded by saying he’ll
seek feedbacks from citizens of the city
on how to fix problems and move forward
we are making a variety of changes to
our policies and some of this stuff is
ongoing and it’s not going to happen
overnight an original member of the CRB
Carolyn Collins told eight on your side
she’s never seen a turnout like tonight
we
to change culture within the fleet
Department across the country and they
won’t change they’ve got to be respected
but they’ve got to learn to respect
others as well
and that review board member told me
though puts ago their agenda for the
next meeting in July based on the many
comments they heard tonight we’re live
in Tampa I’m Justin Shakur eight on your
side

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