The Berkeley City Council held a special meeting on Saturday on improving police and community relations following recent anti-police brutality protests.
Protests have taken place in Berkeley and in many other cities across the country in response to recent grand jury decisions in Missouri and New York to not charge police officers in the deaths of two unarmed black men, and to other officer-involved deaths.
Because many people were expected to attend the special meeting, a follow-up to a Dec. 16 council meeting on the protests in Berkeley and the city's response to them, it was not held at the council's chambers. Instead, it was held at the Ed Roberts Campus at 3075 Adeline St. and began at 10 a.m.
Berkeley officials said in a statement that the meeting "will consider how we can improve community and police relations, address our response to what occurred in Ferguson, Missouri, and beyond, and produce positive steps the city council can pursue."
They said, "The agenda is designed to hear from a wide range of voices and move our community conversation forward."
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, and Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, D-Richmond, were invited to participate in the meeting.
Among the other people who have been invited to participate were John Powell, a University of California at Berkeley law professor who is director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, Jack Glaser, a UC Berkeley professor who recently wrote a book on racial profiling, and
Sheila Quintana, the principal of Berkeley Technology Academy, an alternative high school.
