Team Coverage: Oakland fires embattled police chief LeRonne Armstrong
Hello, and good evening. I'm Sarah Doncey. After weeks of virtual silence, the mayor of Oakland announcing that she has fired the city's police chief. It is obviously a huge shakeup for the city of Oakland, and it's a big test for the city's new mayor too. Reaction has been swift, and in some cases pretty strong. Chief Armstrong was sworn in as chief back in February of 2021, nearly one year after former chief and Kirkpatrick was also fired without cause. The department has had about a dozen police chiefs, both interim and official over the past 20 years.
Armstrong did release a statement tonight, saying I am deeply disappointed in the mayor's decision after the relevant facts are fully evaluated by weighing the evidence instead of pulling soundbites from strategically leaked inaccurate reports. It will be clear I was a loyal and effective reformer of the Oakland Police Department. Our Andrea Nakano has more on the newly elected mayor's decision and how a lot of people are reacting to it. Mayor Shang Tao has been in office for just about a month, and she's made her biggest and most controversial move yet. She fired chief Laurent Armstrong without cause, and some community members are outraged by her decision. Again, this is not a disciplinary action. The chief does serve at the will of the mayor, and again, I've lost confidence in chief Laurent Armstrong.
Mayor Shang Tao says after her investigation, it was clear that chief Laurent Armstrong wasn't the right person to lead the police department forward. During the course of an investigation into how he handled police misconduct, the mayor says the chief made statements that troubled her. Chief Armstrong described the underlying incident as a minor vehicle collision. He said the officers made mistakes. This stems from an investigation into a former Oakland police sergeant accused of a hit and run and firing his service weapon inside the elevator at police headquarters. The mayor says this was her decision, and she fired him without running her decision by the police commission, which usually provides input on personnel matters. And while I had hoped the commission would be able to review the investigation and recommend action, it was not able for them to do so by the deadline.
The firing of chief Armstrong has some wondering if mayor Shang Tao is the right person to lead the city of Oakland. Outrage, I'm feeling just like I've been betrayed, you know what I'm saying? By this lady, I just think that she hasn't been in her position long enough to make such a judgment of a man's career, a man's life. Chief Armstrong was liked and respected in the community. He was raised in Oakland and joined the police department 24 years ago. Then in February of 2021, he was hired as the top cop. He's the best police chief we've ever had. Bishop Bob Jackson says Armstrong was able to bridge the gap between communities of color and the police department.
He sees Armstrong's firing as a ploy for the federal oversight monitor, Robert Warshaw, to keep tabs on Oakland and to continue collecting roughly a million dollars a year. Robert Warshaw, he's the one need to go. He's the one they need to get rid of, not Laurent Armstrong. I'm hoping that the community of color will rally more than ever before and support this man, chief Armstrong, in demand that this lady, Shane Tau, so-called mayor, would reinstate him immediately. Mayor Tau says she will now work with the police commission in the search for the next police chief. Tau says they will be looking at a diverse pool of applicants and finding those that are committed to reform. In the past 90 minutes, the chair of the Oakland Police Commission released a statement saying she didn't know about the mayor's decision to release the chief before her press conference.
Her statement said, there is an assertion that the mayor asked for the commission's recommendation. That was not a formal request and it was clear to me that last week the mayor was wary about the commissioner's relationship with the chief, so we gave our recommendation by standing up a discipline committee. Art Juliet Goodrich met with Armstrong last week when he was still making the case that he should keep his job, that he wanted to keep it. And he had a lot to say about that initial report that was critical of the department. Shocking that someone would do an investigation like this, that in my opinion was so biased and so focused on trying to create a crisis. It really was surprising. Well, she talked to Armstrong on the phone today after he was fired.
Juliet Goodrich has reported a lot on this story. So you talked to Laurent Armstrong today. How did he find out about this? Yeah, he said that he got an email actually 15 minutes before that news conference. It was not from the mayor herself, it was from an attorney from the mayor's office. So not a very personal way to find out that you're out of a job. I mean, I've been wondering all day how does he feel about that news? He really wanted to keep his job. Oh, absolutely he did.
And he told us that in an interview last week. He says he's digesting it all right now. Understandably, he's not gonna give a formal interview at this point, but he says he's deeply disappointed. He says he prepared for the worst care scenario. He prepared for the best case scenario. And he says this was the worst case scenario, clearly. All right, Juliet, thank you so much.
Chief Laurent Armstrong has done nothing wrong. For all this time, you have our back. But today is our turn to say that we have your back. Well, that was reaction after Armstrong was initially put on leave. Several local community activists were rallying around him, fighting to save his job at the time. The NAACP even sent the mayor some letters calling for Armstrong to be reinstated. Of course, that is not what she decided to do.
Tonight, I spoke with the chair of the NAACP committee on legal redress, Terry Wiley. I think it's fair to say that many in the African-American community feel disrespected by the mayor. In that she did not listen to our voices. All of this progress was being made by the police department under his leadership. Was this the right remedy? And we don't think it was. As with any major issue, there is not complete and total agreement. Oakland's council president, Nikki Boss, supports Mayor Shangtown's decision.
In a statement she wrote, I support the mayor in leading Oakland to continue reforming our police department by instilling a culture of integrity and fairness at every level and achieve constitutional policing without federal oversight. There's also been a lot of reaction from you online on social media. This user tweeted, quote, city of Oakland getting ready to host its annual police chief audition. Another user tweeted, I don't know what is going on in Oakland, but it's mind-boggling that we've had 11 police chiefs in 13 or 14 years. We first brought you the mayor's announcement on CBS News.
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