#LA: Dear Constituents, Nearly a week after the Ferguson grand jury voted not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, Wednesday, a New York grand jury voted to not indict an officer who placed a chokehold on Eric Garner for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. He died from his injuries and the graphic video showing the moments before his death spread over the internet like wildfire. Then there was the officer-involved shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice from Cleveland. Rice was seen pointing and walking openly with a fake BB gun (missing the orange tip) through a park. To many, it doesn’t matter the circumstances, or whether the victims of these officer-involved shootings were in the right or wrong. As I’ve mentioned before, when incidents like this occur, many start stringing the incidents together and seeing a common thread of African-Americans being killed ruthlessly and without cause. Serving as Chief of Police as well as an officer with the LAPD, it’s been unsettling to see these latest instances of officer-involved shootings unravel. During my tenure, community-based policing/government was, and continues to be, my mantra. People want safe neighborhoods and police want to keep crime down-it’s a relationship that has to be stable and symbiotic. When certain police officers abuse the public’s trust and sense of safety, it’s just that much harder for crimes to be solved, for people to call and confide in the police. I appeared on CNN’s Newsroom Thursday to discuss the police tactics utilized during Eric Garner’s arrest.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 16:00:01 +0000
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