Update February 9, 2021: Following this report, L.A. Taco learned through a public records request that on December 17, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office sent Side Action Apparel, LLC, a cease and desist order instructing the company to immediately stop selling products that infringe on LAPD trademarks. In the letter, the city attorney noted that the use of the LAPD trademarks by the company was "unauthorized" and "constitutes trademark infringement." As of now, the Toni McBride challenge coin has been removed from the Side Action Apparel website.
In April, Toni McBride–an LAPD patrol officer and competitive shooter that also moonlights as a model and influencer–fatally shot 38-year-old Daniel Hernandez in South Los Angeles while on duty. The shooting propelled the already popular LAPD officer even further into the public spotlight as videos of McBride shooting guns with celebrities like Keanu Reeves, and Halle Berry resurfaced over the summer.
Following the fatal shooting, McBride briefly deactivated her Instagram account, which currently has nearly 100,000 followers, in June. But after a month's hiatus, McBride returned to social media. And in August, she was back posting videos of her shooting guns with entertainers like Joe Rogan, a podcast host, and comedian, at Taran Tactical Innovations, a shooting range in Simi Valley, CA. That month, McBride endorsed a plastic surgery center in Oxnard, and since then, she’s kept her loyal followers up to date with everything from the products that she uses to her health and her relationship with God.
Last Thursday, after teasing the collaboration for weeks, McBride released her latest product: a $25 limited edition “challenge coin”–a pocket-size medallion used by military personnel and politicians as a sign of camaraderie–through an Inland Empire based screen printing company called Side Action Apparel. The coin features McBride’s LAPD badge on one side, while the other side features a three-leaf clover with a blue streak through it and the popular law enforcement phrase “hold the line.” Last week, McBride also began endorsing a veteran-owned fitness apparel company called Never F*cking Quit. “Use Code ‘TONI’ at checkout to save some monnnaaayy (sic) a portion of your money will be donated to the Officer Needs Help Fund by using my code,” McBride said in an Instagram post last Friday that has since received over 15,000 likes (in an earlier post from November, McBride claimed that all of her commissions through NFQ would go to the fund.)