{"id":19175,"date":"2026-04-24T00:22:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T00:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=19175"},"modified":"2026-04-24T00:23:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T00:23:02","slug":"city-council-members-and-community-members-blast-police-takedown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/24\/city-council-members-and-community-members-blast-police-takedown\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council Members and Community Members Blast Police Takedown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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City Councilwoman Brittany Jones, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Truth Staff<\/em><\/p>\n

Several days after a Toledo Police Department officer threw a 15-year-old girl to the ground \u2013 twice \u2013 during an arrest for walking in the street, Toledo City Council members held a press conference, along with a few concerned residents, to express their anger over the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 15-year-0ld child was abused by a Toledo Policeman,\u201d said City Council President Vanice Williams, opening the press conference. \u201cIf anyone else did what they did, they would be charged and put in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

So began a press conference designed to express the ire of certain elected officials the morning after those same officials and certain city residents held a meeting with Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz and Police Chief Michael Troendle to discuss and analyze the situation and explore what action should be taken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take issue with how Black women are treated across the country because I am one,\u201d Williams continued. \u201cThat incident did not have to happen. I saw a grown man throw a young lady to the ground because she did not give her first name.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident, which was captured on camera by onlookers, occurred when TPD officers stopped a group of Black teenagers who were walking in the street, a street which had no sidewalk. On film, one sees the officer take the 15-year-old girl to the ground. Twice. Even after she was handcuffed.<\/p>\n

Williams said that as a Black woman who has faced so many challenges in her own life because she is Black, the racial aspects of the case are particularly troubling to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take issue with the racial inequality of this community,\u201d she said. \u201cI will protect Black women at all costs. I support the Toledo Police Department but I do not support bad behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several other council members spoke at the press conference. Council members Nick Komives and Brittany Jones, PhD, both termed the action of the police officer as \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president of the Toledo Police Patrolman\u2019s Association, Michael Haynes, later disagreed with the council members assessment of the situation. He defended the police officer\u2019s actions. He said that taking a person to the ground \u201cis a helpful tool that we use the ground in order to gain compliance in control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haynes also defended the police officers\u2019 use of profanity in the situation towards the teen and her mother. Profanity by police officers is \u201cused appropriately as de-escalation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Toledo Police Chief Troendle Mike Troendle also apparently confirmed the department\u2019s reason for the use of profanity in a meeting with city council members and community representatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chief said that profanity was used to de-escalate the situation,\u201d said Earl Murry, PhD, professor emeritus of the University of Toledo, who attended that meeting.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the officers on the scene have been moved to other parts of the city as police officials and the city administration seems loathe to punish them for that behavior.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the uproar continues \u2013 the anger in the Toledo community continues.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Truth Staff Several days after a Toledo Police Department officer threw a 15-year-old girl to the ground \u2013 twice \u2013 during an arrest for walking in the street, Toledo City Council members held a press conference, along with a few concerned residents, to express their anger over the incident. \u201cA 15-year-0ld child was abused […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[344],"class_list":["post-19175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19178,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19175\/revisions\/19178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19175"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=19175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}