Tensions between the community, protestors and Phoenix City Council surrounding the topic of police brutality and the Phoenix Police Department budget escalated at a City Council meeting Wednesday afternoon.
More than two dozen speakers expressed their frustrations at the meeting after a viral video of police using excessive force on a family of four sparked nationwide outrage.
In the video, Phoenix Police officers threaten and shout at a black family of four.
Dravon Ames and his fiancé Iesha Harper said the police arrived because their 4-year-old daughter took a doll from a Family Dollar without either parent knowing.
The video shows officers arresting Ames and screaming at Harper to put her infant daughter down on the ground.
Phoenix resident and protest attendee Randall Graves said he was sick of the injustice of the Phoenix Police Department and the city glossing over the issue of police brutality.
“This is why we’re here, to protest and to let the council know we are done with this injustice because something needs to change,” Graves said.
Cenia Galvez, a protestor and California native who recently moved to downtown Phoenix for work, was particularly shocked by the nature of the viral video.
“The officers screamed at the mom to drop the baby on the floor, it’s so hot here those would’ve been second-degree burns,” Galvez said.
Poder in Action, a social justice movement in Arizona was in attendance in an attempt to stop the city council from passing a budget of $721 million for the Phoenix Police Department. The budget was passed 7-2.
Viri Hernandez, a leader of Poder in Action, expressed her concerns about the budget.
“This is $721 million from our pockets for this police department, and they have done nothing to help out the Ames family,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez said that the budget should be held back until the officers involved in the Ames incident are fired.
Phoenix resident Cynthia Victoria Williams said she finds it sad that she has to constantly explain to her children that they could be killed for responding incorrectly to a police officer. But she also said Jeri Williams, Phoenix Police chief, is not the boss of the police department.
“Jeri Williams can only do so much, she let us know that last night, the assistant city manager is her direct boss and the city manager is her boss, and he is appointed by the mayor, and he has to be held accountable for these actions,” Williams said.
On Tuesday night, Williams and Phoenix city leaders held a meeting at the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church where they spoke about the video with the community.
Williams said, “Real change starts with the community,” upsetting some of the activists and prompting a woman to shout that real change starts when the city fires the officers involved in the incident.
Ames, Harper, and some of their friends and family were at the meeting.
Ames said he wants the officers involved in the incident to be fired. He and his family are suing the city for $10 million.
Contact the reporter at milopez6@asu.edu.
