On Tuesday morning, several city council members expressed their frustrations during a council meeting about the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) communication with the public regarding the ongoing ICE raids in Los Angeles, as well as Chief Jim McDonnell’s response to a question about whether or not the LAPD will enforce a state law banning law enforcement officers from wearing face masks in public.
During an LAPD press conference last week, Chief McDonnell described two state laws that were passed by the state legislature in response to the ICE raids—one banning face coverings, the other requiring law enforcement officers to identify themselves—as “not a good public policy decision.”
“The reality of one armed agency approaching another armed agency to create conflict over something that would be a misdemeanor at best, or an infraction. It doesn't make any sense,” McDonnell told reporters. “It's not a good public policy decision, and it wasn't well thought out in my opinion”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson described the chief’s comments as “disturbing” and “wholly unacceptable.”
“I want to join my colleagues in communicating how disturbing it was to hear that specific message,” Harris-Dawson told a representative of the department during Tuesday’s meeting. “Something like, ‘well, it isn't a smart law, and I don't like it, so we're not doing it.’ That just was way beyond the pale.”