Deseret News
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Yukai Peng, Deseret News
The Utah chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police is urging leaders in Cottonwood Heights to discipline a city councilwoman who confronted officers at a protest that ended in violence last year.
Ian Adams, the union s executive director, alleges Tali Bruce continued to wade into ongoing assaults on officers and interfere with their ability to defend themselves and make arrests at the Aug. 2 march. Her continued membership of your council is an embarrassment to the entire state, Adams wrote in a Wednesday letter addressed to the city council.
A day earlier, the Utah Attorney General s Office released a report backing how officers handled demonstration. Investigators in the office found police did not use excessive force and acted appropriately, but said the city s police department could have planned better when it came to coordinating with other agencies and communicating with organizers of the demonstration.
The
event on Aug. 2, 2020 was in remembrance of Zane James, who was shot and killed by Cottonwood Heights police in 2018.
Darlene McDonald, an activist and member of Salt Lake City’s Racial Equity in Policing Commission, was at the demonstration where police used tasers and pepper spray after some protesters became aggressive. McDonald said, in her view, the videos presented by the Attorney General’s office were taken out of context.
“It felt like I was watching a propaganda piece,” McDonald said. “The clips that they showed fit a narrative that they wanted to portray … one that was very positive for the police officers involved.”
The Utah Attorney General s office on Tuesday is expected to present its review of how Cottonwood Heights police handled an August 2020 demonstration that erupted in clashes between officers and protesters.
KSL TV
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS Investigators combed through more than 40 hours of video and 500 pages of police reports, listened to distraught 911 calls and questioned one officer and witness after the next.
They arrived at one main conclusion: law enforcers in a sleepy Utah suburb were simply doing their job last summer when they arrived at protest against police brutality and commanded demonstrators to clear out of the road, leading to confrontations that ended in violent, sometimes bloody clashes. Use of force never looks good, even in the most clearly justified circumstances, Utah special agent Matthew Thompson told Cottonwood Heights city leaders in a presentation via videoconference Tuesday. This case is no exception.
KSL TV
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS Investigators combed through more than 40 hours of video and 500 pages of police reports, listened to distraught 911 calls and questioned one officer and witness after the next.
They arrived at one main conclusion: law enforcers in a sleepy Utah suburb were simply doing their job last summer when they arrived at protest against police brutality and commanded demonstrators to clear out of the road, leading to confrontations that ended in violent, sometimes bloody clashes. Use of force never looks good, even in the most clearly justified circumstances, Utah special agent Matthew Thompson told Cottonwood Heights city leaders in a presentation via videoconference Tuesday. This case is no exception.