LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said today that any officer who is identified as participating in the distribution of a photo mocking the death of George Floyd will be “disciplined,'' but he did not elaborate on the extent of punishment or say if any officers would be suspended or fired.
Activists have been calling for the firing of any LAPD employee who created or circulated the Valentine-themed social media post featuring an image of Floyd that included the words “You take my breath away,'' while the police union, the Floyd family attorney and various city leaders decried the post.
Moore said during Tuesday's Police Commission meeting that the department became aware of the photo because a group of officers saw it and they were “disgusted by the existence'' of the post. The department inspected all stations for any evidence of the image and is working to identify anyone who was involved in the creation or distribution of the image, which was posted on the Blue Line Mafia Instagram page. The page has since been taken down, according to Moore.
“We must acknowledge that some portion within our profession and by extension within this department has explicit bias and extremist views,'' he said. “This is a similar conclusion that the Department of Defense has reached with its forces as it comes to terms with the members of its own armed forces being inside the Capitol this past January.''
Moore added that he believed the vast majority of the department's personnel serve Los Angeles with “honor, integrity and compassion.''
The LAPD is working with internal and external cyber experts to identify if any LAPD officers created or distributed the image.
“My commitment is that anyone associated with the creation or dissemination of this image will be disciplined, and anyone who is engaged in promoting the imagery, mocking the death of George Floyd, or anyone for that matter, has no place in this department,'' Moore said.
Reports of the image, and the subsequent complaint within the LAPD, first surfaced Feb. 12, two days before Valentine's Day.
Screen grabs of the image allegedly referred to in the internal LAPD complaint, and posted on Twitter and elsewhere, show a picture of Floyd on a pink background surrounded by hearts with the words “You take my breath away'' and Valentine-style spaces to designate who it is being sent “to'' and “from.''
Floyd died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes as he repeatedly said, “I can't breathe.'' That officer, Derek Chauvin, is awaiting trial on a second-degree murder charge.
“The family of George Floyd is outraged and devastated,'' Project Islamic Hope director Najee Ali said last week at a news conference at the LAPD's Harbor station, where an officer had made a formal complaint about the post at the urging of Moore.
“It's despicable and outrageous that there are LAPD employees who are in the workplace mocking the police murder of George Floyd, who died in May after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground under the knee of Derek Chauvin, who was then a police officer in Minneapolis,'' Ali said.
The LAPD's union also expressed outrage at the post.
“The Los Angeles Police Protective League repudiates this abhorrent image and anyone associated with its creation, dissemination, or passive observation of it,'' the union said in a statement last week. “If that image was created, `liked,' or shared by a member of the LAPD, the chief of police must act swiftly to hold those individuals accountable. There must be zero tolerance for this behavior in our profession, and any police officer who feels the need to be part of any online group that engages in, promotes, and/or celebrates this type of activity should quickly rethink their career choice because they clearly don't have the judgment, nor temperament, to be a member of law enforcement.''
Photo: Getty Images
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