By Steve Klamkin WPRO News

Providence Police and the mayor Friday talked about the officer-worn body-cam footage released so far, showing a heated confrontation Tuesday between dozens of officers and scores of residents on the city’s Southside, calling some officers’ actions and language inappropriate, promising more video and accountability.

“There’s some stuff that I’ve seen and I’ve heard in those videos that fall way short of the professionalism and the standards that we set for ourselves,” said Mayor Jorge Elorza.

Police Thursday night released video from Patrolman John Benros’ body-worn camera, comprising about one hour of what Chief Hugh Clements said was a nearly three-hour response by, at one point, every patrol unit in the city, or about 35 officers, to Sayles Street. There, officers tried separating fighting neighbors and wound up firing pepper spray at a large group of people.

On the video, one officer, after unleashing pepper spray, is heard taunting some of the people, “who wants some more?”. Another officer refers to a woman using an offensive term.

“That’s not language that we accept, we shouldn’t be talking that way,” said Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare.

“When we complete all this… review, there’ll be responsibility and accountability for that. That’s not what we’re about,” said Pare.

The Friday morning news conference by police and the mayor followed a Thursday afternoon news conference by some of the participants in Tuesday’s melee at the scene on Sayles Street. They claimed police beat and pepper sprayed a large number of young people and children, holding some in a police van for up to an hour, claims that the police largely rejected.

Pare defended pepper spray as an effective deterrent, and said police cannot tell that there may be asthma sufferers in the vicinity.

Mayor Elorza rejected calls by the group Black Lives Matter RI PAC to defund the police.

“I don’t believe that this is an incident where the diversion services where we are investing would have made a difference,” Elorza said. “With that said, I think we all acknowledge that not only is there a need for more mental health services, but the need is increasing every single year.”

Police said more footage would be released after being redacted to blur minors’ faces and some license plates.