Council postpones discussion of Trump rally pepper spray

Police Chief Darryl Forte will soon appear before city council committees to explain how police control crowds, council members said yesterday.

The matter has become an issue since video spread of police spraying a man in the eyes with pepper spray on Saturday.

It happened during an arrest of a protestor outside the Donald Trump rally at the Midland Theater on Main Street.

Forte had been scheduled to appear Wednesday before a joint meeting of the neighborhood and housing committees, but that was delayed because he is out of the city.

Housing Committee chair Quinton Lucas said he believed police acted properly but regretted they did not send someone Wednesday to address the committees.

Forte, in his Sunday blog, said, “a video that’s a few seconds long does not capture the mood or actions that had culminated over time.”

Such a video will “rarely be pretty,” he said. “The volatile situation and the harm some people’s actions could have caused were stopped by our officers.”

He said protestors were encroaching on the street and some tired to rush the doors of the theater, blocking Main Street in the process.

One person also assaulted a police horse and four people were arrested, he said, and police used pepper spray twice.

“Given the circumstances,” he said, “Our officers used great restraint.”

One Comment

  1. Maureen H Loyacono says:

    I am still interested in knowing the facts regarding the statement by Forte that the crowd at the Trump event included “known anarchists.” I do not view KC MO as a city that might have such people and more surprisingly that those anarchists are readily identifiable in a large and rowdy crowd of people. Can the citizens of KC MO expect an explanation?

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