LAPD Chief Beck is Going; DA Lacey Must Go!
LAPD escalating abuse goes viral
httpss://www.facebook.com/brockisamazing/videos/10210805149267030/
Ed: Chief Chuckie Beck announced his early retirement. #BLMLA has been pushing for him & DA Jackie Lacey to go, so killer cops can be held accountable. Here’s background:
Is This What We Call Civilian Oversight?
by Adam Smith, White People for Black Lives
In reading Kate Mather’s LA Times article “LAPD Take Another Step Toward Deploying Drones In Controversial Yearlong Test,” https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-drone-money-20180109-story.html from January 9th, I think it’s worth pointing out that the civilian-led Los Angeles Police Commission https://www.lapdonline.org/police_commission right now functions more as a rubber-stamp approval body for the LAPD than it does as a body representative of the public at-large.
Among other things, the Mayor Garcetti-appointed commissioners are tasked with choosing three finalists to submit to the mayor for filling the police chief position, approving weekly reports by the LAPD, approving budget requests, and determining whether or not to recommend charges against officers in cases of officer-involved shootings, a statistic that the LAPD regularly leads all US police departments in.
How can residents of Los Angeles take seriously a board tasked with civilian oversight when its president sits on the board of a foundation that gives money to a group that exists solely to provide funds and equipment unencumbered by city budget oversight to the Los Angeles Police Department?
Held on Tuesdays at 9:30am at LAPD headquarters, these meetings are often inaccessible to Los Angeles residents most affected by the very policies on which this civilian commission regularly vote. At this past Tuesday’s Police Commission meeting, commission president Steve Soboroff led the unanimous vote to approve the donation of $31,500 from the nonprofit Los Angeles Police Foundation to be used to purchase drones for the 1-year pilot program, despite the presence of community organizers and activists showing up again to express their concerns.
Commission President Soboroff sits on the board of the Weingart Foundation, which provides grants to a number of LA area nonprofits, including the Los Angeles Police Foundation. How can residents of Los Angeles take seriously a board tasked with civilian oversight when its president sits on the board of a foundation that gives money to a group that exists solely to provide funds and equipment unencumbered by city budget oversight to the Los Angeles Police Department? I think it’s high time for Mayor Garcetti to appoint police commissioners who truly represent the communities the LAPD is tasked with serving, otherwise we need to stop pretending that this board is one of “civilian” oversight.
