On Tuesday night, when activists tried to speak at the first gathering of Dallas’ newly revamped Community Police Oversight Board, police broke up the crowd, grabbing and shoving people who demanded to be heard. According to the Dallas Morning News, the altercation was serious enough for the Dallas Police Department to file a use-of-force report about the incident.
Dallas City Council voted to expand community oversight of DPD in April, seven months after a white Dallas officer shot and killed an unarmed black man who was sitting inside his own apartment. Amber Guyger’s murder of Botham Jean reignited the decades-long push to reform the city’s toothless system of police oversight. Her trial last month—as well as the altercation at Tuesday’s meeting—further underscored the many reasons for Dallas’ trust issues with law enforcement.
