Police conduct at political rallies questioned

With more protests planned against Mayor Gavin Newsom’s social program slashing budget, two city supervisors held a meeting to discuss police protection of protesters, CBS Channel 5 reported Monday.

The central idea of the recent budget rallies is that social programs are being cut while the police and fire departments are receiving slight budget increases. Supervisors David Campos and Ross Mirkarimi have called a meeting with the police department to make sure law enforcement protects the crowd while not interfering with the protests.

Mirkarimi questioned Police Capt. John Goldberg about the amount of money spent staffing protests, adding a high-level of police presence at rallies could stifle dissent.

“Our goal is to staff each event appropriately to the event," Goldberg said. "If we have good information we can staff the event accordingly. However, because situations are so fluid, some times we are overstaffed sometimes we are understaffed.”

This meeting comes on the eve of another budget cut rally, planned for Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. across the street from City Hall.

 

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