Oakland Police Town Hall Fields Complaints Over Use Of Force During George Floyd Protests

OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- The Oakland Police Commission called a special town hall meeting Monday night to discuss the use of force against protesters including tear gas and rubber bullet policies.

Some 48 people wrote in comments and dozens commented during the Zoom meeting.

Many disputed the Oakland police narrative about the events of the evening of May 29 and said police and the mayor lied during the press conference.

Many of the public speakers said they will also be going to the Oakland City Council meeting Tuesday night to raise the issues there as well. There are 24 official citizen complaints to OPD regarding their use of force.

Deputy Chief LeRonne Armstrong started answering questions from the commission and rolled back many of the statements made during the press conference on Tuesday, June 2.

Deputy Chief Roland Holmgren was the incident commander who was calling the shots on May 31 and June 1 protests. Interesting to note, Armstrong said OPD was writing policy now to immediately stop the use of carotid artery holds. Several California police departments, including Mountain View on Monday, have announced they no longer will allow their officers to use choke holds to subdue suspects.

Also, Rachel Lederman, a use of force expert, claimed that OPD violated its own crowd control policy. She shared a graphic image of a woman with severe bruises all over her body from less lethal weapons.