Berkeley Residents Sound Off About Police Behavior, Tear Gas

Protesters at Berkeley's city council meeting delivered their message against police brutality loud and clear Tuesday night.

Berkeley’s city council meeting was moved to Longfellow Middle School because the mayor wanted to hold it in a large venue to accommodate crowds of people.

The crowd was smaller Tuesday night, probably because of the bad weather, but the topic was a hot button issue--alleged police brutality.

"This city is the most progressive city or one of them in this nation, and for this to be the first place where my 60-year-old friend was ever tear gassed is disgusting,” one speaker said at the meeting.

There were dozens of speakers at Berkeley’s rescheduled city council meeting Tuesday night, and their message was the same.

“Those Berkeley police department used excessive force on very innocent black youth,” another speaker said.

Speakers had to wait a week-and-a-half to confront the mayor and council members about alleged excessive force during the Ferguson demonstration on December 6 in Berkeley.

"I saw one guy got shot in the back with this, this is what they were firing," another speaker said. "If I were standing one foot to the left I would have got hit by this as well,” a protester said.

Protesters vandalized businesses and there many arrests.

“Mayor Bates, you defended the police riot on protesters the next day and blamed students who were beaten unprovoked by the police. That is a scandal," BAMN National Organizer Yvette Felarca said.

Bates said he defended Berkeley police.

"I believe we have the best police force in the U.S.," he said. "They use the right amount of force. I’m very proud of them. If somebody stepped over the line and did something that was bad, we’ll look into that. And we aren't going to shuffle things under the rug, and if we need to discipline people, we'll discipline people.”

The mayor said he will hold a special council meeting in January to talk about how police handle large crowds and to look at the role of the district attorney, and who will investigate police actions.