Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michael Moore this week addressed some of our reporters questions about police brutality, the mistreatment of women, trans and non-binary protesters, and the possibility that the Trump administration would send unidentified, clandestine federal officers into Los Angeles. The chief spoke briefly after a press conference about the department’s community policing program. See video below.
Mayor Eric Garcetti and several others also spoke at the press conference where the city announced an expansion of the Community Safety Partnership that puts police directly in working-class communities of color. The program, the city argues, will help change policing into being less about arrests and more about communication.
However, it comes at a time when activists in those same communities are calling for a complete reimagining of the way policing is done. Fueled by Civil Rights protests resulting from the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, the city recently cut $150 million from the LAPD’s billion dollar budget.
The modest cuts have not placated calls to defund the police led by Black Lives Matter. Protests continue every day in Los Angeles, mass arrests follow, and true Civil Rights reforms have yet to materialize. With all that at stake, L.A. Taco has analyzed the chief’s responses to these essential questions.