Transcripts For CSPAN Washington DC Mayor Bowser Briefing On Protests 20240712

Before the legislative mean, i have a press conference where our report on the issues coming up in the legislative meeting the next day. Tomorrow, tuesday, june 9, the council will have its regular meeting for the month of june. On the agenda is, is not very large in terms of number of measures. So im going to speak to this, take any questions, then i will turn it over to the mayor with her usual press conference, and i will be staying for a while encase there are more questions regarding the councils business. The main items for tomorrows legislative meeting, we are doing we are proving the final reading on the temporary coronavirus legislation thats a comprehensive bill that we adopted at our last meeting. This was a consolidation of, im going to say four or five different bills that have been passed periodically since march 17. Measures in the district trying to help with the economy as well asindividuals as well appointment for residents and so forth. Im not going to go through what all those measures were and i actually dont have that list in front of me, but we have the temporary legislation which will put that in place for 225 days. As well as it will make additional clarifications with regard to some measures such as the limitations on the percentage Fee Commission it can be charged by thirdparty services that was eating into restaurants revenues, some clarifications regarding tenant payment plans, the rent freeze which we adopted on march 17. There are some new measures and tomorrows emergency, one is creating new Public Health Emergency Response Grant Program at the request of the executive which would give grants for awareness of covid and promoting prevention. So thats an executive sponsor provision. Another new measure will be modifying the beverage regulation administration, modifying the rules to allow for the increased Outdoor Dining related alcohol purchases on public space. Thats to try to help with restaurants with reopening. Then we will be legislative being proving the symbolic designation of black lives matter plaza and approving a contract, will finally get the dollars out for undocumented workers. You may remember that events over a month ago approved roughly 15 million, 5 Million Dollars for restaurants, 5 million for hotels and five muni dollars for undocumented workers, and where that lies at this point is a contract to disperse the dollars to undocumented workers and that contract will be before us tomorrow for approval. It will be passively approved on the solar track and we want to see it move quickly. That is in the coronavirus emergency bill that we have tomorrow. Addition emergency robertrom councilmember white, emergency credit alert, which deals with the use of credit reports for individuals for whom there may be a payment plan which is not an adverse action or adverse matter on a credit report, but still we want to limit how that information can be used. So thats mr. Whites emergency councilmember bonds will have an emergency also dealing with are housing aspects, they fairly technical and we will be combining those with the coronavirus emergency bill. I just spoke with councilmembers , theres emergency nose called the connected transportation Emergency Network amendment act. Take all attempts to program already announced by the toartment of transportation use public space for alternatives, which could be for business use but also for bicycling or more recreational space, given the needs for soial distancing, and theres that program in place with dot, but this bill would codify some of that as well as require reporting on what exactly d. Is doing, so that we can see that we are actually dedicating on a temporary basis, which is actually maybe three quarters of the year, dedicating some public space for nonvehicular uses. And then the final Emergency Zone by Councilmember Charles allen and is called the comprehensive policing and Justice Reform emergency amendment act. Proposes a number of visions putting into law changing the law with regard to access to Body Worn Camera video recordings, for instance wornring preserving body camera equipment to a council request to or investigation. Am not going to go into each of the measures here unless i am would instill greater accountability with regard to camera footage. A bill proposes some changes to ,he office of Police Complaints including allowing the executive director of the office of Police Complaints to investigate evidence of abuse or misuse of Police Powers even though it may not have been specifically alleged in the complaint. Expands a proposal to membership of the use of force review board, which is an existing board. There is a provision to extend the time for corrective or adverse action against an mpd officer in serious cases, which right now by statute is limited to 90 days and this would give a greater period of time for taking adverse action, corrective or adverse action. An legislation would repeal antimask law that is currently in the code. The bill would require certain procedural safeguards, whether where there is a consent search initiated by the police. I will read a little bit from the notes here, strengthens procedural justice in a case where is based only on the persons consent to the search. The officer would have to claim that the person is being asked to consent and that they can refuse the search. A provisions dealing with mandatory continuing education and reconstituting the Police Officer standards and training board. Adopted by the council in the late 1990s, possibly early to thousands, and it has become dormant and it is a way of trying to maintain rigorous standards for Police Officers, and there is a provision regarding identification of officers during First Amendment assemblies as local Law Enforcement. Then there are a few measures that are unrelated to the police , i believe repeal of Law Enforcement reporting for crime victims compensation, which is a precondition to a victim that they have to file a report, Police Report before they can apply for victims compensation. There is a measure that would individuals serving felony sentences. Corrections home confinement requirement that i believe tracks the cares act. I expect there will be quite a bit of discussion on this measure and ive circulated notice of four minutes i will be proposing, one of which is Discipline Police from being a negotiable matter in a collective bargaining agreement. Prohibiting the hiring of officers who have a history of misconduct in other strengthening and Police Access to mpd records when they have an investigation. In a nutshell, those are the issues before the council tomorrow. Im happy to take questions, and then i will turn it over to the mayor. Other than the amendment youre proposing [indiscernible] any general thoughts on what is in their . I support the legislation and i expect it will be passed. I expect there will be some debate over some of the more technical aspects of the bill. Are littlese issues bit more complex, and it is often thought in the public discourse, and i also think that , im aware that there are a lot of suggestions right now circulating in the public realm with regard to reforms that cities need to adopt. What many people dont realize is that this is not the first time that the district has dealt with issues of police conduct, and weve actually made quite a number of reforms over the last several decades. If i remember correctly, and i was not briefed on this, there was concern about 10 years ago with regard to the use of deadly force and there was an investigation, and there were some reforms adopted at that time. That what only to say we need to continually review and evaluate whether procedures that we have and requirements that we have are adequate, there has already been quite a bit that has been adopted in the district. Proposals are necessary and useful, but they may not go as far as what we are hearing being demanded of Police Departments across the country, but that could be because we have already done a lot of that. One of the demands of heard is need to bemay independent consideration of complaints by citizens of police conduct. We have a very robust Police Complaints board for over 20 years. Were there any Police Reform thes that could with 2015 resolution that are being revisited . I dont remember what would as im standing here, you have to refresh me on what was adopted in 2015, unless youre talking about the near act. It may have been, i think some of that was separate. I remember that the mayor proposed Body Worn Cameras separate from the near act. [indiscernible] the one ofe the provisions i mentioned was an amendment that has to do with the office of Police Complaints access to police records. That action was taken from legislation about 10 years ago. The mayor when she was a councilmember, i think it has a good chance of passing now. Its a fairly simple change, but it makes it clear that opc has unfettered access to relevant records. What do you think about the bigger call being made out there to define the police . Police . D the i think when we talk about the demand for defunding the police, we need to be clear what that means. Does that mean reducing the budget of the Police Department 20 . Have to remember that reducing the budget of the Police Department to zero . There have been some heinous issues with regard to police misconduct. The police also serve a very important function with regard to crime. Think what the council is going to look to do is look at whether additional dollars can be found for it interesting alternatives, which as you know is something the council initiated with the near act to look at nontraditional policing strategies toward reducing crime and responding to crime, looking at crime as often a Public Health issue, and looking at recognizing that crime often has , im going to say a cyclical aspect to it, meaning that what we see with a lot of the shootings that occur and someone is shot and there is retaliation and retaliation, cyclical in that sense. The near act went to that approach, and weve expanded that the last couple of years. I think thats what the council is going to look to do with the budget before us, is to put more emphasis on that. I would add that we also have to keep in mind that the fundamental issue, i think, is publicts been in the debate for the last 10 days, has should behether there a Police Response to crime, but rather police misconduct, and how police can be better at serving the citizens whom theyre supposed to be serving and protecting. So when it comes to the Defund Police conversation, youre looking at alternatives . Is that something youre considering . Im sure the councilmembers will be looking at that as a possibility. What would you like to see added or taken out . We will have her, when she comes up. Are there any other questions for me with regard to the legislative meeting tomorrow or the issues on the agenda . Anything you wanted to be taken out . Any provision in the police will that you want to see taken out or removed . Indicated, ive noted four amendments to add. Im not looking to strike anything from that bill. That the billote is before us on an emergency basis. That means it would be in effect for 90 days. Be work onwill permanent legislation. I think there will be some technical aspects that will get refined as we get to the permanent legislation, but substantively, i expect, i would be surprised if there were any substantive provisions that were removed from the bill. Just because of the nature of our structured government, the council is in a position where it can respond fairly quickly to events like this, doing legislation that you would see in other states when the legislature finally gets around to being able to meet and to adopt. We are able to respond more quickly, and i think that the work that mr. Allen has put forward reflects the expertise that is in the committee on judiciary and Public Safety with regard to ideas. The hearing on the sweeping legislation working on these issues for years to jump on it now. Im suggesting the latter, but some of the positions actually track requirements that are in the general orders, weve refined them a little bit but some of it is not new, but is being codified and there is value to that because then its thetter of the policy of government as opposed to the general order that can be changed. Some of the provisions, like for instance, the prohibition on holds. Lds neck im not sure a delivery process adds anything there. Will still be here for questions if there are more. Thank you all very much. Thank you, mayor. Everybody. Ning, im muriel bowser, mayor of washington, d. C. I want to thank chairman mendelson for being here and participating in a joint press or which i think is efficient for all of us. I know that he and the council are working hard and continuing to support our Covid Response in their legislative meetings, so we appreciate that. The chief up to provide a quick Public Safety update as it relates to the districts response to demonstrations in our city, and then we will take your questions. Thank you, mayor bowser. Thanks for your continued leadership. Yesterday marked the 10th straight day of protests here in washington, d. C. As an to zepeda, today weeks but we experience the largest crowds on saturday that weve seen so far. There were tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators in the city. In fact, hard on the radio when thes driving in that protests were being described as being largely without violence. I would correct that statement and say exclusively without violence. I will go through the arrests over the course of the last several days. Last saturday, we had 19 arrests, sunday we had 90. Monday we had 280 nine. Tuesday, 29, wednesday we had zero. Thursday we had zero. This past friday we had one arrest for a simple assault. On saturday, we had one arrest for an attempted burglary of an establishment in the area of the protests, and then on sunday in the Early Morning we had a defacing property arrest. We anticipate more demonstrations as the days move forward throughout this week. To facilitatered the Peaceful Demonstrations that we have seen in recent days. Thank you. Questions . Questions . What are your thoughts on the council [indiscernible] we will be going through it section by section today and discuss any changes or additions that we think we need with the councilmember, by and large, so preliminary briefings that ive received is that we can largely be supportive, but we want to make sure we understand all the technicalities. Satisfied with the withdrawal of the maryland and new Jersey National guard forces, and are there any other forces available, at along those lines, have you established a review of Standard Operating Procedure with the National Guard . Mayor bowser we understand that all of the outofstate guard will be leaving the city if they are not already gone, would have been gone within 48 hours, i think, from yesterday. I had another meeting with general walker over the weekend, i believe that was, where we discussed a number of issues about the d. C. Guard. Keep in mind that the d. C. Guard is a federal guard. We have called up members of the d. C. Guard with both Covid Response and with demonstration response including both over the last couple of months. So we will continue to have those discussions with general walker. Our congresswoman has a bill before congress that would change the organizational structure of the d. C. National guard, which we support. Any other questions . Of the bigwser, one complaints of been hearing over the weekend in regard to the policies with Body Worn Camera footage, is the program working as intended when there are families of people who have been killed by police who havent been able to see that footage . Mayor bowser well, we certainly think that the Body Worn Camera program work. I think you recognize, i guess we were5 now, i think the first jurisdiction in the country to have a Body Worn Camera program for all patrol officers. Commissioned we studied the effectiveness, what impact does the body one Camera Program have on Police Activity and what does it . . Have on citizen activity how does it correlate to complaints that we see . Weve done all that. We rolled it out in such a way that we could study half of our officers. Half of them are part of a control group to see if we noticed any differences in behavior, and we shared that information and everything that we learned. There was also a pretty robust conversation about all of the rules related to Body Worn Cameras which were i think unanimously approved by the council. So we think the program is working. Whats the plan for how long you going to keep the lack lives matter mural on 16th street . Mayor bowser we have commissioned the artwork, weve renamed the plaza, and im thankful to the plasm for codifying that renaming to black lives matter plaza. Council. Ul to the we think it will have a place in d. C. History as well as american history, and we plan to keep it there. We havent discussed how long its going to stay there, but like all of our other public art, it stays. We will continue to talk about ways to make that a part of the fabric of d. C. , and we also want to involve our downtown district, involve the neighbors to the mural, and we will do that. [indiscernible] mayor bowser its not part of the mural. It wasnt part of the mural, but we recognize it as expression, and especially right now, theowledging and affirming expression thats important to the discussion we have to have as a community. Any plans to take it off or move it . Mayor bowser i do not consider it as part of the mural. Any other questions . [indiscernible] others who are still looking to get answers about their deaths. What do you say to the families and why are there questions that have gone unanswered . Mayor bowser i dont know if i agree that questions have gone unanswered, but certainly mpd is available to answer any questions and to show any Body Worn Camera to family members. This is actually for the , is Something Different about now than what happened almost two decades ago on use of force issues is this a different moment . To what some Police Departments are now doing across the country . Mayor bowser thats a great question, and i will turn to the chief and also build on something we heard from the chairman. The chief just gave me the data upstairs that it was 2002 when inserted into it entered into a number of agreements with the federal government, and weve been on the pace of reforming our department for the last 18 years. We have had the commitment of Wonderful Police leadership, so while i dont know if i would totally agree with your characterization, this department is different than many places in the country, because of that steady pace of reform over the last 18 years. But let me introduce the chief, who has been here for every one of those years, to talk about it. Thank you, mayor and chairman, and you are absolutely right. We have been on a path to reform in washington, d. C. Since 2002. For those of you who were here prior to 2002, you remember series of articles about the metropolitan Police Department that came out in 1999, when they painted the Police Department is using more excessive force, shooting more rounds, everything soup to nuts, which painted mpd in a negative light. The department of justice was called in by chief ramsey to take a look at the agency, and they determined that the metropolitan Police Department had a pattern and practice of using excessive force. In 2002, we entered into an agreement with the department of justice. It took us several years to come into substantial compliance. An independent monitor was assigned. In fact, we have come into substantial compliance. That independent monitor was asked by the council to come back and look to see if the metropolitan Police Department had slipped back on any of those initiatives. The independent monitor set at that time that the metropolitan Police Department, particularly its leadership, was committed to fair, unbiased, and constitutional policing. That is something we are very proud of. We have discussed the legislation, the emergency legislation that has been proposed. Other than some technical issues some of the asks, a lot of the items that are in the emergency legislation are already in the mpd general orders and that will they willy legislate those into becoming law here in the city. To the extent that we have concerns, we will talk to councilmember alan, we will talk to the chairman and hopefully, because this need to be done so quickly under emergency procedure, that we will get legislation that everybody in the city is comfortable with. Does that answer your question . Ok, thank you. You had said that since weve had the Body Worn Cameras that families have not been able to review Body Worn Cameras, that is just not true. In every instance where there has been a fatal use of force in the district of columbia of the families have been able to view the video. Marquis austens family has been able to view the video i want to say on two separate occasions. You or the cheap attribute the fall in violence and unrest . You directede regularly to and signaled to the protesters that . . You were backing the cause mayor bowser im not a Public Safety official but i will give you my gut reaction. For a couple of nights, there was a Critical Mass of people here that were bent on destruction. When we saw, federal forces move on american people, there was a Critical Mass of people who were bent on making sure that would never happen again. The people were bent on destruction were outnumbered and probably left. I asked this before, but what are your thoughts come as a chairman said some councilmembers want to take money from police and move it to alternatives. What is your reaction to that . Mayor bowser i have my budget that i distributed to the council a few weeks ago and i can tell you that what we had submitted is what we think we need for Public Safety. Not a penny more or less. On both the enforcement side for the metropolitan Police Department and i also know that we have heavily invested in intervention programs, opportunity programs as well. Which has always been our approach. Our approaches policing, intervention, and opportunity. Over the course of my time in sixce, i think this is our budget, over the last five years, in fact, if you look at the percent change in our investments, you can see that mpd has increased more slowly than those social service, for change, and we saw a 12 in investments in mpd since 2015. Dhs, our department of human services, has seen a 75 percent change. Likewise for schools, both d cps and public charter, have seen 40 change. D hcf, which handles a lot of seen alth programs, has 21 change. Dbh, the handles are Mental Health programs, has seen a 15 that handles our Mental Health programs, has seen a 15 change. The office of Victim Services has seen a 90 increase of funding. I just want to be very clear that the budgets that we have sent to the council over the last five years has recognized all parts of Public Safety. Policing, but certainly intervention and opportunity programs. The senate on the radio he said on the radio about police violence. I talked about this little before. Attributed to be not having the proper funding for the agency. Underfunding or inappropriate funding would be one of the reasons why they got themselves into that position. Recruitmented for and hiring of the best people, people who are service minded. Training,alk about implicit bias, deescalation those things are the things that andund in washington dc things that we are proud of in the agency. The mayor mentioned this. The reason why we where body cameras is for accountability. The men andesents women of our Police Department, who are receptive to that kind of accountability. To the extent of any legislation moving forward, it helps us with accountability, with improving our Police Department. Thank you,r everybody. This week, the house and senate will hold hearings on response to the coronavirus and lawenforcement accountability, live on cspan. Theretary of but for secretary of labor testifies before the committee. Judiciary Committee Hearing on policing practices and lawenforcement accountability. Secretary ofn3, the treasury Steve Mnuchin testifies before the Senate Small Business committee on the implementation of title i of the cares act. This week on cspan and cspan3, online at cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. With the recent protests unfolding across the country, watch our live, unfiltered coverage, with we things from the white house, congress, governors and mayors across the nation. Addressing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and campaign 2020. During the conversation every day on washington journal. Liveu missed any of our coverage, watch any time ondemand on cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free app. N 80 lab radio feel thate president there is systemic racism in Law Enforcement . As a has pointed out republican primary candidate that it was absolutely affordable horrible. He definitely believes that there are instances of racism, but he believes our Law Enforcement is the best in the world. He believes that by and large, they are good people. Defending this country from rioters and antifa. Those officers that were hurt defending our country were , aoes, as was david doran Police Officer who lost his life. Of our policest officers are good, hardworking people. There is a lot of evidence of that. Does he still believe that againsters who kneel Police Brutality should be fired . The president is very much against healing in general. It is tied to our National Anthem and is not respect our military men and women across the country. He is not a fan of the kneeling meant because he believes it is disrespectful to the military. Does he think they should be fired . I have no comment. He is against the kneeling movement. I have no information on that and i have not talked to him. Next, new york city mayor bill de blasio talking about the protest over the death of george lloyd. New york is entering phase one of its reopening