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Phoenix council faces more police-friendly crowd

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Posted at 7:01 PM, Jun 26, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-26 22:01:43-04

PHOENIX (AP) - The Phoenix City Council is facing a mostly police-friendly crowd a week after people crowded council chambers to express anger over a videotaped encounter that showed officers aiming guns and curses at a black family.

Nohl Rosen from Wickenburg, Arizona, says the city's leadership must "stop attacking our cops."

A few dozen police defenders showed up at the Wednesday meeting after Rosen called on them to express their support.

Rosen started a group he calls Rally for Law Enforcement. He says group members don't believe there was anything wrong with the way officers confronted 22-year-old Dravon Ames and his 24-year-old fiancee Iesha Harper last month after a reported shoplifting. Harper is six months pregnant and was holding the couple's 1-year-old.

Several people at the meeting criticized the officers' actions.

The father of a man who was shot and killed by Phoenix police after the armed robbery of a fast food restaurant says he wants body cam video he believe exists of the encounter.

Roland Harris told a news conference Wednesday he wants the video and "the truth" in the death of his 19-year-jold son Jacob Harris in January. A Phoenix police spokesman did not immediately respond to a query about whether such video exists.

Harris has spoken hours before police defenders are expected to address a regular City Council meeting.

The families of numerous people shot by Phoenix police have spoken out after the recent release of a video that shows officers aiming guns and obscenities at a black family whose young daughter took a doll from a store.

Defenders of the Phoenix police are calling on people to show up at this week's regular City Council meeting to support the department amid an outcry over a video that shows officers aiming guns and obscenities at a young black family.

Nohl Rosen of Rally for Law Enforcement says group members don't believe there was anything wrong with the way officers confronted 22-year-old Dravon Ames and his 24-year-old fiancee Iesha Harper last month after a reported shoplifting. Harper is six months pregnant and was holding the couple's 1-year-old.

Rosen says the group decided to attend the Wednesday afternoon meeting after anti-police protesters crowded last week's.

The couple has filed a $10 million claim against the city.

They say their 4-year-old daughter took a doll from the store without their knowledge.