Videos of officers hitting protesters at Springfield protest stir controversy

Several videos shared on social media from a conflict between Springfield police and Black Lives Matter protesters Wednesday night depict what appears to be police hitting protesters, stirring controversy.

K9n the apparent use of force on protesters by springfield police last night is also causing some controversy.

Kezi 9 news reporter chris lueneburg joins us live after speaking to local black leaders about their reactions.

Chris?

Social media has been flooded by livestreams and videos of what happened at the barricade in springfield last night -- many of them depict officers hitting protesters -- which local leaders and advocates told me today is*not justifiable oregon state senator james manning tells me he's disturbed by videos like this one-- and wants each incident throughly investigated... springfield police say they just learned about these videos and are looking into it... but former black unity leader isiah wagoner told us he believes this protest would have been peacefull were it not for people like the rioters in eugene last friday... he says they're causing tensions to rise-- and people of color are dealing with the consiquences.

There was a couple of quarrels maybe, heated exchanges.

Nothing was ever destroyed, so where's your evidence that these attacks on our people that you were supposed to be protecting-- where's the evidence for what you were doing in the streets?

Wagoner says this event should act as a call for supporters to reach out to legislators-- to ask for accountability and police reform.

Senator manning says moving forward-- he hopes organizers denounce criminal actors he says are dilluting the black lives matter movement.

Reporting in springfield,