Granderson: City council members’ recording isn’t just offensive. It’s also illuminating
The mayor’s office posted the city recording on its website Tuesday morning.
In fact, the city’s video recording of police meetings is so clear that its content is hardly a mystery. This isn’t a mystery. It’s a matter of basic human decency.
To be clear, I don’t mean to suggest that city officials should simply be allowed to broadcast their meetings for the public’s benefit. They’re public officials, after all, and they should be accountable to the public whose welfare they’re supposed to serve.
I know there are a lot of good people in this city who would see a city’s public video recording of a particular meeting as an obvious way to hold accountable city officials who are violating city policy. What I really mean is this:
I think it’s important for members of the public who have a negative opinion about the city to understand the recording, even if it’s just the way the video is presented is disturbing.
It’s particularly important that city residents see the video of the police-on-fire incident and hear the police union’s response, which has been at the heart of the controversy over the officer-involved shooting of a man in front of City Hall on Thursday.
City Council members have repeatedly said they’re willing to share the recording of their meeting with the public in general. I’m also willing to do so. In fact, I plan to. I will publish it in full, including City Council members’ responses, on the website of my blog, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The video has been so troubling to city residents for so long that no one can honestly argue that the police union’s reaction hasn’t caused widespread anguish and anxiety for the city’s residents in the two and a half weeks since the recording was made public.
At this point, I’ve seen it, I understand it, and I think it’s important to make
