January 29, 2015

Hot times in cold St. Louis Wednesday night as a town meeting to consider a civilian review board degenerated into shouting and shoving.

Right at the center of it? Jeff Roorda, the police union general manager who has been a steadfast defender of unlimited police rights at the expense of citizens.

Raw Story:

The disturbance reportedly started after an argument between Jeff Roorda, who leads the city’s police officers association, and Alderman Terry Kennedy.

Witnesses accused Roorda of shoving a woman, which angered members of the audience. Footage taken at the scene by livestreamer Bassem Masri shows Roorda grabbing one woman by the arm and pushing past her before being pulled back.

Masri –who filmed many of the protests in nearby Ferguson following the shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson last August — can be heard cursing at Roorda in the video, calling him a “piece of sh*t” and a “white supremacist.”

Patricia Bynes tweeted:

And Alderman Antonio French joined the chorus:

Here's a Storify compiling real-time tweets, photos and videos:

Police really don't want any oversight, do they? They just want to do what police are going to do, all on the taxpayers' dime with no one to make sure they're not abusing the public trust.

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