Las Vegas police host round table discussion on easing community tensions
Click here for updates on this story
LAS VEGAS, NV (KVVU) — Las Vegas Metropolitan Police hosted a roundtable discussion Tuesday aimed at getting feedback from community members about easing tensions following several consecutive days of protests over the death of George Floyd.
Also a subject of discussion was improved ways to interact with community members when police are called to a scene.
“We all should be coming together in a unified way,” said protest organizer Tia Coward.
Officers with Las Vegas Metro, a predominately African-American motorcycle club named Buffalo Soldiers and Raiders tight end Jason Witten were among those in attendance.
“On behalf of being a new member of this community and the Raiders organization I want to help and a great way to start was today,” said Witten.
Noticeably absent from the discussion were young protesters who have been on the front lines of the demonstrations across the country.
“Every time we say something, it’s ‘oh the millenials, those Gen Z’ers are just being stupid,’ and so we are not brought to the table to have our concerns heard and that’s why you see us leading all the protests,” said Coward.
Coward and others are calling for Metro Police to enact new protocols such as banning the use of a “choke hold” on a person who is not yielding to police commands and creating better de-escalation techniques.
“I think that was the most promising thing is that they do want to meet with us and maybe start this committee so we’re always being heard,” said Coward.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
