Advertisement Protesters take over city council meeting 'This is no longer your meeting' Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Protesters took over Monday’s Albuquerque City Council meeting.Chants led city councilors to call a recess at about 6:15 p.m.VIDEO: Laura reports live from the sceneThose involved wanted a recall election for Mayor Richard Berry. They also said Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden should be fired.One of the chants was: "This is no longer your meeting!"At about 6:30 p.m. the meeting was adjourned.VIDEO: Laura's full on-air report"There has not been democracy in this city," said a resident at the meeting. A "People's Assembly of Albuquerque" passed three resolutions while in the chambers. One was no confidence votes against Berry, Rob Perry and for an immediate resignation of Eden. Another was to have lapel cameras worn by Albuquerque police officers at all times when encountering civilians. Another was the implementation of an independent civilian oversight committee with the powers to discipline, hire and fire any officers.VIDEO: Protesters chantingProtesters left city hall at about 7 p.m. and security began letting people back in shortly after."Unfortunately, this evening's City Council meeting gradually reached a point where, for the safety of staff, the general public and the members of the Council, I had to adjourn the meeting." said Council President Ken Sanchez. "I called a brief recess in the hopes that order would be restored, but some members of the crowd persisted in disrupting the meeting. It's unfortunate that the Council was not able to hear from everyone who signed up to speak, and was not able to complete some very important business on tonight's agenda, including some Charter amendment dealing with the organization of the police department. I'll be calling a special City Council meeting this Thursday so that we can address the many important issues we were not able to get to this evening.”Another meeting has been scheduled for Thursday."We understand there are those in our community who have expressed concerns about APD issues related to the Department of Justice report. We are working hard to make proactive improvements now and in conjunction with DOJ recommendations," said Eden. "While we welcome constructive discussions, we do not believe disruption of tonight's city council meeting was a productive way to meet those goals."