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Samantha Hayes reporting Organizers say the Ogden black community press conference was held to discuss the deteriorating relationship between its citizens and the police.
Community leaders are asking for an independant investigation of the police department after officers broke up a summer concert and arrested 10 people.
Marcus Carn/Witness: "There's not enough action, because they are smothering all the people that was there."
On June 27th, Dub Dub records sponsered a party at the Union Station in Ogden.
Mark Gross/Dub Dub Records: "When we rented out the Union Station where the kids could come and enjoy themselves, and the police came and turned it into something that shouldn't have happened."
The hip-hop concert was advertised as a non-alcoholic event starting a 8:00. The police were there by 8:30.
Asst. Chief Wayne Tarwater/ Ogden City Police Dept.: "About 8:30 officers were contacted and advised that there was possibly underage drinking, and possible marijuana smoking."
Police say the standoff began when one of the bouncers wouldn't let them inside.
Asst. Chief Tarwater: "After that, that individual was placed under arrest for interference with a police officer, I believe. Another individual, being that individual's brother, saw what happened, came and interfered, and was also arrested."
The brothers, Tanaka and Darius Bears, both Dub Dub record board members, and six others are facing felony rioting charges. That's a possibility of five year in prison.
Mark Gross/Dub Dub Records: "They turned in to felony charges and things like that. To get a felony when you are trying to go to a concert..."
Derek Keith/Witness: "I was sick to my stomach because nobody touched me, nobody looked at me. They just let me go, because I wasn't black."
Pretrial hearings for the eight suspects start Wednesday.
Nobody from the police department or city government attended the town hall meeting. Officials in those departments say they were not invited.
