Make wishtv.com your home page

Protestors take over city council meeting in Ohio after teen shot, killed by police

COLUMBUS (WCMH) – Protesters converged on Columbus City Hall in Ohio ahead of Monday night’s city council meeting.

People’s Justice Project Organizer Tammy Fournier-Alsaada is also attending the meeting.

“I don’t want to see anything negative happen to the city that I love,” she said. “I think we can come together and work on solutions. I would hope that our leadership is prepared to work with community members.

The People’s Justice Project has made five demands in the wake of the death of 13-year-old Tyre King. They gave Columbus City Council members seven days to consider demands. Tonight, they are back and want to know where council members stand with their demands.

“We have to look at in a very transformative way how police come into communities, especially communities of color,” Fournier-Alsaada added. “We have to be transformative in our thinking on how we are engaging young people.”

The People’s Justice Project demands include:

CPD relinquishing control of its summer safety initiative to the community.

Investing more than $150 million in prevention, intervention, and community controlled policing.

Redirecting another $33 million from police facility improvements to trauma recovery and healing services in violent neighborhoods.

Collaboration with the People’s Justice Project on where these funds go.

Independent investigations of all police-involved shootings.

“I think it’s easy to choose sides,” said Fournier-Alsaada It is harder to sit down at a table together and come up with positive solutions that get everybody on the right track.”

Fournier-Alsaada said her group is trying to do just that in the wake of tragedy.

“We should not lose focus on the fact that a 13-year-old child in Columbus, one of the places where we say it is very safe to raise a family, that that child is dead,” she said.