Speaker 0: Be. Thank you. Let's see, try to do some of the council items first here that we had a request for. Let's go ahead and do item 15 than 18 because I think our council items.
Speaker 1: Communication from Councilman Austin, Councilwoman Price, Vice Mayor Andrews. Councilmember Richardson. Recommendation to request City Council to support Assembly Bill 1196.
Speaker 0: That's when Austin.
Speaker 3: Thank. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm having a little bit of technical difficulties here, but I'd like to thank my colleagues, colleagues Price Council Member Price Andrews and Council Member Richardson for signing on to this item of. In normal circumstances, an item like this would go to our state led committee. But in light of the moment that we are in, I think it's important for us to, like many other police agencies across the city, across the state, to reexamine in-country, to reexamine the use of force tactics by a police department. I'd like to thank our police chief and a lot of his power, who proactively announced last week that the police department would immediately suspend the use of the carotid artery restraint. Several other police departments throughout the state have taken similar actions recently. It's now time for language to go on record. The support of Assemblymember Mike Gibson's legislation, HB 1196 to ban the use of this tactic by police officers statewide. Karadzic. The carotid artery restraint, also known as the sleeper hold, applies pressure against the carotid artery. They have blood flow to the brain, which can render the person unconscious and can aggravate underlying health conditions that an officer may not be aware of. While the federal government is also moving forward to ban chokeholds, I have joined in Assemblymember Gibson's call for other states and Congress to move forward with California's lead on ending this tactic . And I would also just point out that an L.A. Times article review of the California Department of Justice records from 2016 to 2018 on the law enforcement throughout the state reported injuring 103 people using carotid restraints during those two years. Two, three, two people were actually killed and 91 were left unconscious. Blacks make up 23% of those injured by neck restraints, while comprising only 6.5% of the state's population. My council colleagues, I think this is a no brainer. I ask for your unanimous support of this item, and I also would just again thank our council member, Richard Richardson, who was a chair of our state led committee, for signing on to this and allowing us to skip the state legislative process in committee. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and count on Councilman Austin. Thank you for bringing this item forward. This is absolutely lutely the right call to support this legislation, and I'm grateful to the assemblyman for bringing it forward. This is there are so many use of force options available that are less torturous, less cruel and and less harmful. And I am grateful that our police chief was proactive in making declarations regarding this type of use of force. And I'm hopeful that other police chiefs in the region and throughout the state will follow. But I think having this legislation in place is a clear signal to everyone that we're talking about a necessity of use of force . There are certain use of force practices that are more harmful and more dangerous than others and frankly, more cruel when we're talking about depriving someone of air. And we're we're talking about the area of the body that's so prone to injury. So I'm I'm very happy to sign on to this item as chair of the Public Safety Committee. I know we're going to be talking about some of our use of force options and practices and adopting new best practices as we move forward. And certainly looking at how our use of force practices impact different communities and in this case, impact black communities more than any other race. And I think it's very important to call that out. And I thank you, Councilman Austin, for bringing this forward. Thanks.
Speaker 0: Council. Woman Council member Richardson. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Council members and de Vos, then councilor anger.
Speaker 2: I absolutely agree with my colleagues. This is absolutely the right decision for this. I'm also very grateful to Chief Luna for taking the proactive steps of eliminating the method, this method in Long Beach. But that's just one long overdue step. And so but it but a very welcome one. I believe we need to rethink the ways that our law enforcement officers are permitted to use force. And I look forward to working with my colleagues to reexamine the way that we conduct policing in Long Beach. Thank you.
Speaker 0: That's we, Ranga.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Mayor. And I totally agree with all the comments of the councilmembers, but in a very short way. It's time. The time has come to get rid of this. Abusive force of use of force to control and apprehend individuals. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Casa Richardson.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a few a few points. First, thanks to Councilman Austin for reaching out. We do have a state legislative process. We have a meeting coming up next week. There's a number of bills that will be tracking with respect to use of force reparations, the repeal of Prop two or nine. We've invited the chair of the Black Caucus, Shirley Weber, to come and be a guest on our state legislative committee. But I think it makes sense, given that this legislation was sponsored by a local city council, our local assembly member, Mike Gibson, that represents North Palm Beach. The city takes this immediate opportunity to be on the record in support. I know that when you take a two off, off the table, broadens the conversation and sort of creates the conversation about what do you do if you don't have this tool? And that's the conversation that we need to be having here locally. I support this this activity, this action and state legislative committee will will also be taking this on. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman Pierce.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Echo the comments that I appreciate you guys bringing it forward to the council quickly and making sure that we can give the support. And obviously, I think we've all had lots of conversations with the city staff, the police chief and with the public about trying to make sure that our police department is one that doesn't use excessive force. And this is obviously one of those actions. I look forward to community members. I want to just mention the framework and the process that's there and making sure that community members are engaging in the open sessions that are public now, and particularly around the public safety piece and the police section, so that we can have a full conversation about what, as Councilmember Richardson said, tools are there. What do our police officers do? What is the training? And how can we make sure that we are limiting excessive use that might do damage to our residents, whether they're they're black or not? And so I fully support this and really appreciate you guys bringing this forward and look forward to the next conversation.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 0: Vice Mayor Andrews.
Speaker 3: Yes. First of all, I want to thank our councilman also for bringing this item forward. I think I definitely think that's the direction that we should be going into. And thank you again. Quentin is for it.
Speaker 0: Thank you. That concludes council comment. I know that the police chief wanted him some comment as well, Mr. Learner.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Mayor. Members of the City Council, thank you for recognizing the work of the men and women of the police department and the fact that we issued a special order back on the 9th of June to suspend the use of the carotid restraint. Also want you to know that our work is not going to stop there as we re-envision how it is and what it is to work with our partners in the community. I also want you to know that we issued a special order today that puts more management controls on no knock, no knock search warrants that went out today. We haven't put that out yet publicly, but it will be probably by tomorrow. We're also working on an early intervention system that helps us identify any potential problematic employees. That will be very helpful to us at all. And I just wanted to comment that when you look at a lot of of the reforms that are suggested, either at the national level, either by Congress or at the state level, and others others that are talking about it, your police department is already way ahead of the curve. And there's a whole list of things that we do specifically in the training realm that we've been doing for several years, such as number one in our use of force policy. And the overarching message is that we have an absolute reverence for human life under any circumstances. That special order went into effect as of this January, and it is consistent with what you hear over and over in the state. Things like we look at my. All of us in here really quick. Or we're talking about, one, a duty to intervene, which is talked about a lot that's already in our policy mandatory that we de-escalate whenever possible. And our officers do that over and over again, that we give verbal warnings. And even to the extent that use any use of force is proportionate to the situation that we're in and also that. When host use of force that the officers are absolutely required to provide medical aid. That's really important. The training that you hear about over and over, whether it's crisis intervention, training, training on de-escalation, training on implicit bias, procedural justice, the use of body worn cameras, those are all things your police department has been doing now for several years. And I just want to conclude by saying that what we're doing is working. Is it perfect? Well, I have a deputy chief right now assigned to review a lot of our use of force policies and everything that we do to make sure that we are meeting our community standards. And the standards are laid out across the country. And just to give you an example, in 2019, when you look at our uses of forces compared to our arrest and our total stops are our percentage was 1.67 ratio per every arrest we made. That means that our officers were doing an amazing job in very difficult circumstances, specifically when they're dealing with people in crisis, either mental illness or substance abuse, and only 1.67% of the time they use force. Maybe someday we'll get that to zero. But that's why we've got a lot of work to do. So with that, I'll conclude my comments. Thank you very much.
Speaker 0: I think you also have a controversy here and I think just keyed up also.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I want to have the chief let him have the last word. But I'll just say very briefly that from as mentioned, Mike Gibson representing Carter Long Beach to Austin, thank you for bringing this forward to our police chief. It's just very gratifying to see Vimy Ridge take the lead on this issue. Thanks.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Madam Cook, to be a public comment on this item.
Speaker 1: There is one public comment on this item.
Speaker 4: Victor Boosie, you have 3 minutes.
Speaker 3: Vegetables in line 0808. This is my zip code. It's not that the police are ineffective. Many communities, they are harmful. The history of police policing in this country come from slave catchers. It's more than brutality. It's more than reforms. In stark contrast, the drug war, the prison complex, all these things combined bring injustice to black people, especially here in Long Beach. You're talking about Mike Gibson. Mike Gibson was the Linwood cop. The Linwood Police Department had to be disbanded because they were so corrupt and crooked. What did Mike Gibson do in that police department? What did he do for not be a bad apple? Who did he read out? Nobody. So you're telling me a former cop from a shady. Police Department is the one who is going to give me a reform. No, I am not taking it. Reforms don't work. Video footage, whether from body cameras or other sources, wasn't enough to get justice for Philando Castile. Samuel de Bois, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice and far too many black folks are police violence. Reforms are not the problem. The police are the problem. It's time for something new. Community groups in the sixties also demanded civilian review boards better trained in community policing. What happened since the sixties? It took till 2021 to defend it. It took from 2020. But you often see that black lives are sacred. Forget that we don't want your reforms. We want to defund our DPD. That's it. Those are the demands. Understand the demands. We get to take your money. We're here to take your jobs. This is over. We demand justice for all black people in Long Beach. That will bring up all marginalized people in Long Beach. This have gone and not gone far too long. It needs to end. The people are in the streets. Listen to the people in the streets. Too much violence has been borne on decade after decade by police, and the best reforms do nothing to help us. We are still dying in the streets. Black Lives Matter. We would not be protesting for all these years. It's been going on over and over and over again. And every time there's a reform, that's it. It gets co-opted, it gets retired, it gets overturned depending on who's in office. Anything on the federal level can't state. The only thing I can think is taking money away from the police department. That is the only reform that works is to defund the police. That's it. Defund Albee P.D.. Don't give me talking about chokeholds. Are you serious? Now you're banned. Chokeholds. So before this, it was okay to choke a black man to death. Are you kidding me? Is that the reform that you have for me as a black man? To have a black man on the city council? That's all you guys got?
Speaker 4: Well, thank you. That's a conclusion of public comment for this item.
Speaker 0: Okay. Thank you. Please go ahead and call the roll call.
Speaker 1: District. One eye to eye. Three.
Speaker 2: Eye.
Speaker 1: District four.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: District five by district six.
Speaker 3: I.
Speaker 1: District seven.
Speaker 3: I.
Speaker 1: District eight.
Speaker 3: Hi.
Speaker 1: District nine.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: Ocean carries.
Recommendation to request City Council to support Assembly Bill 1196 (Gipson) making it illegal to use a carotid artery restraint tactic to forcibly detain a suspect, and request City Manager to communicate the City’s support to the bill’s author and our state legislative delegation.