More than two dozen Oakland Police officers are facing 33 violations of department policy for using tear gas on a group of largely peaceful protestors who marched on police headquarters on June 1, 2020.
Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong said in a news conference Wednesday that overall officers did a good job keeping the peace during the several days of protests over the killing of George Floyd, but the deployment of tear gas was a mistake.
"The policy is very clear. In order to use that level of force, there must be imminent danger to the officer or community member," Armstrong said. "During these investigative processes, they determined that that did not exist."
Four separate investigations by the city of Oakland determined that tear gas deployment was a violation of department policy.
Armstrong said his officers' actions on June 1 were a failure, but he noted they came after three days of unrest that included vandalism, violence and looting on a scale never seen before in Oakland.
"It’s challenging for the officers, it’s challenging for the department but also it poses a potential for decisions to be made," he said.
Armstrong explained that his police force learned important lessons from their mistakes last summer and as a result they’re a better department.
"I just want our community to know that you should feel safe coming to the city of Oakland," he added. The disciplinary measures against officers include reprimands or suspensions, which can be appealed.
Armstrong also personally apologized for saying at the time that protestors were preparing to use Molotov cocktails. That information turned out to be inaccurate; demonstrators were instead seen throwing water bottles at police.
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