A brawl ended a public meeting at St. Louis City Hall Wednesday night to discuss a proposed civilian review board of local police.

According to the St. Louis Dispatch, the meeting moved along peacefully for about an hour, but the crowd grew tense as police officers began testifying in opposition to the civilian oversight committee. The St. Louis police department's business manager, Jeff Roorda, bearing a wristband in support of Darren Wilson, eventually stands and shouts for Alderman Terry Kennedy, who was chairing the hearing, to call for order.

Roorda then apparently started storming toward the front, running into Cachet Currie, who was trying to leave—that's when the meeting erupted into a fight.

"I was literally just trying to leave the meeting and I got caught in whatever Roorda and Kennedy had going on in their exchange," Currie told KMOV. "Roorda just jumped out into the aisle, pushed me over, and tried to get to Kennedy. I'm like 'wait a minute, don't push me.' Then he started going off on me, pushing me. Some man grabbed me by the hair, just started trying to throw punches at me. From there it just went wild."

Roorda claims he was pushed first, telling the same station, "As I tried to exit the aisle I was in, the woman was standing in the way. She began elbowing me and pushing, trying to keep me from getting out. As I tried to exit, she continued to do that. Two or three other anti-police radicals rushed over and things escalated from there."

A man recording the incident can be heard shouting, "You white supremacist motherfucker!" as the packed room turns violent. (The fight breaks out in the video's last 10 minutes.)

"We spent the night hearing from anti-police radicals," Roorda told the St. Louis Dispatch. "We hear from two police officers and he (Kennedy) lets the place go wild."


[Screengrab via KMOV]