Alameda to share video after criticism of police

Officials in Alameda plan to order an independent investigation into an incident last month that ended with a black man being toppled to the ground by police officers who responded to a call of a person walking in the street.

City Manager Eric Levitt said Friday that officials planned to release bodyworn camera footage of the May 23 incident that day.

In a video of the incident, which had not been officially released by early afternoon, officers appear to detain a man before more law enforcement officials arrive. The man can be heard repeatedly asking officers to let him go before they topple him to the ground.

Levitt said the episode occurred on Central Avenue during the morning. He did not want to comment beyond a statement he released this week, but he said the officers’ actions depicted in the video did not represent what he wanted for the city or its police force.

“I don’t know what prompted the person to call, but the report was that someone was walking in the middle of the street and asked if an officer can go check on the person,” he said. “I want Alameda a year from today to be viewed as a model for what people want.”

Alameda Police Chief Paul Rolleri did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Alameda police officials said the man was “not struck, pushed, slammed or hit,” and the context in a social media post about the incident “was not completely accurate.”

The Police Department plans to release “all body cam footage, conversations, the initial call for service, and dispatch communication.”

“We intend for this encounter to a teachable moment for the officers

involved, the neighbors and the woman who placed the initial call for service,” officials said.

The video’s posting on social media drew criticism from residents and at least one city official.

Council member Malia Vella said she did not know the man but believed she had seen him exercising on the street in recent weeks. The episode made her “livid,” she said, and she supports an independent investigation.

“I am trying to understand why somebody would call this in,” Vella said. “I am livid that when the officer arrived it wasn’t a oneminute interaction.”

Vella said she had many questions about the incident, including why more police officers were called to the scene and why the situation escalated.

“Instead (it) turned into what I feel was a major incident that was traumatic not only for the individual, but for witnesses, for people of color in our community to see this, and I think we need to address it,” Vella said. “The bar shouldn’t be physical trauma. I think that is a very low bar for when we should be upset.”