Following a tense evening Tuesday night, people in Worcester, Massachusetts, will have another chance at a community meeting to voice their concerns about a scathing report on the city's police department.
It was a packed house on both sides at the Worcester City Council meeting Tuesday night with people expressing their outrage over the findings of a Department of Justice investigation that took two years and found excessive force, sexual misconduct, and discrimination of women and minorities by Worcester police.
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“You should be ashamed of yourselves. It’s either that there’s no oversight or you’re just incompetent. It’s embarrassing," one man said in front of city council.
“The city must apologize for the abuse of prostituted women by the Worcester Police Department,” one woman said.
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Officers who showed up to Tuesday's meeting, though, defended the department.
“Knowing that this report is utter garbage,” one cop said at the meeting.
“Everyone thinks that we are racist, that we are thugs and that we’re sexual deviants or predators. I want to say that’s not true,” another officer said.
The city council will decide how to respond and what changes need to be made. There will be another community meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the YWCA at 1 Salem Square.