Jacksonville City Council President Randy White ordered the council chambers cleared for about half an hour during the May 27 meeting when the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arrested an audience member after pulling him over a row of seats to the ground and also took two other attendees out of council chambers in handcuffs.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said it made the arrests after City Council leadership asked police to remove a group of people who were disrupting the council meeting. A man was arrested on a felony charge of resisting an officer with violence and two women were arrested on misdemeanor charges of resisting an officer without violence.

Mayor Donna Deegan said her administration directed First Coast Security, which staffs security checkpoints at City Hall, to do additional training and inspections after police found a small knife in the wallet of the man arrested on the felony charge of resisting arrest.

Jacksonville Community Action Committee criticized the arrests of the three people affiliated with the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network.

"Video footage taken by spectators at City Council shows clear excessive force," the group said in a statement. "This is part of a trend of JSO using excessive force in their interactions with community members."

The Sheriff's Office said it made the arrests after White asked officers to "remove a group of individuals who were disrupting the proceedings" during the meeting.

"JSO respects the right to freedom of speech and the right to protest; however, the actions of the three individuals in custody constituted a clear violation of the law," the sheriff's office said.

A 29-year-old man was arrested on a third-degree felony charge of resisting with violence and a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon in a government building after officers found a "folding credit card knife" in his wallet, the Sheriff's Office said.

The blade of the knife folds into a case that is about the size of a credit card.

Deegan said the small knife was not detected by First Coast Security during its standard security screening of people going into the City Council meeting.

She said in addition to directing First Coast Security to train its security guards on how to spot that kind of concealed weapon, the city is doing a "full security review for City Hall" that encompasses potential equipment upgrades, staffing changes and vendor options as the current security contract heads to expiration in September.

Florida law allows people to carry concealed firearms and weapons, including knives, into government buildings such as City Hall. However, state law says concealed firearms and weapons are not allowed in a meeting of the local government body, such as a city council meeting.

The city has a regular security checkpoint at the entrance to Jacksonville City Hall and security guards staff a second checkpoint at the entrance to council chambers for City Council meetings.

Donna Deegan, Angie Nixon and Rory Diamond sound off on incident

"We all have freedom of speech," Deegan said May 28. "The time to exercise that is during the public comment period of City Council meetings. The words we choose matter. Civil discourse should be just that. Civil."

State Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, said she stands with the three people arrested and called for dismissal of all charges against them.

"This is a time of deep disgust as residents were met with violence in our own city chambers simply for demanding that their voices be heard," Nixon said. "... We must hold our leadership accountable for the outrageous abuse of power."

City Council member Rory Diamond meanwhile called on State Attorney Melissa Nelson to seek "maximum jail time" on the felony charge. He said someone can't put hands on a police officer and "just walk away with community service."

According to Sheriff's Office reports, police initially arrested a woman after asking her several times to leave council chambers because she had been loudly clapping during the meeting, which City Council rules prohibit. She refused to leave and after police decided to arrest her, she refused to put her arms behind her back to be handcuffed until officers gained control of her arms, the report said.

The second person arrested, who was standing near the woman, began to record what was happening, protested her arrest and stood in the aisle and would not move, "effectively preventing us from escorting her out of City Council chambers," the report said.

The officer told the man to move and "extended an open hand to create space." The man responded in a way that is redacted from the report released by the Sheriff's Office. The officer then grabbed him "and pulled him over the row of seats and onto the ground" where another officer handcuffed him, the report said.

During those two arrests, another woman "began to interfere and impede police efforts by physically getting in the way," the report of her arrest said. She refused to follow commands to back up and she grasped a metal rail in the chambers "in an attempt to elude arrest," the report said.

A video posted on social media shows what happened in the seconds leading to the arrest of the man.

An officer was escorting a handcuffed woman down the aisle between two rows of seats at the back of the council chambers. The officer was separated by a row of seats from the woman as they walked toward the man, who was standing in the aisle.

The audio of the video captured commands of "Back up, back up." The officer reached out and grabbed the upper right arm of the man to move him away.

The man took a step back and reached out with his left hand toward the officer's hand. The officer then put his hand behind the man and pulled him forward, causing him to fall over a row of seats to the floor.

"Hey, hey, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa," a spectator says as the man is falling over the row of seats.

The handcuffed woman fell into the seats.

Council chambers were cleared for half hour after disruptions

White ordered the chambers emptied at 7:34 p.m. when council also went into recess. Council reconvened at 8:01 p.m.

"Due to repeated disruptions from members of the audience during today’s City Council proceedings — and after multiple warnings were issued — council leadership made the decision to clear the chamber in order to restore order and allow the business of the city to continue," a statement issued on behalf of City Council said. "We remain committed to transparency, public participation, and the respectful conduct of public meetings in accordance with council rules."

According to City Council rules, the council president can order the removal of audience members who disrupt a meeting by "shouting, yelling, whistling, chanting, singing, dancing, clapping, foot stomping, cheering, jeering" and other displays of excessive noise.

Vice President Kevin Carrico said after the council meeting that a number of audience members were breaking the council rules.

"They were given some leniency in the beginning of the night, and then it got to the point where the president had no choice but to start saying we're going to remove people who are making displays — clapping and cheering and disrupting the meeting," Carrico said.