The meeting was called by Phoenix in the wake of the release of a bystander's video of police officers who pointed their guns and shouted obscenities last month at a black family.
"Real change starts with the community," Williams said to a sometimes hostile crowd comprised mainly of blacks and Hispanics.
A Phoenix couple has filed a lawsuit against the city after a video showed police officers arresting and drawing a gun on them after their 4-year-old daughter allegedly stole a doll.Ames addressed the crowd briefly, drawing applause when he said he and his family were lucky to be alive after the incident."We matter," said Harper, holding the couple's 1-year-old.
The store video is difficult to follow because it has been edited and the subjects' faces are blurred. It shows a man taking something from a display rack and examining it, but it's unclear what happened to the package when he walked off camera. A bystander's video that came to light last week shows officers aiming guns and yelling profane commands at Ames and his pregnant fiancée, Iesha Harper, as she held their 1-year-old daughter. They say their 4-year-old daughter had taken a doll from a store without their knowledge.The couple filed a $10 million claim against the city alleging civil rights violations as a precursor to a lawsuit. The race of the officers is not known.
Phoenix police have not responded to repeated questions about whether the officers in the videotaped encounter following the alleged shoplifting were aware of, or influenced by, Ames' earlier case. Civil liberties attorney Sandra Slaton said Monday the prior case was irrelevant.
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