A public Zoom call hosted by the Los Angeles Police Commission to discuss the George Floyd protests didn’t go well for the department. In a session that lasted nearly nine hours, caller after caller harshly criticized the LAPD’s response to the protests and demanded that LAPD Chief Michel Moore resign.
Callers ranged from polite to angrily profane, but with very rare exceptions, they expressed similar complaints. Some demanded either that the LAPD be defunded or that the current LA city budget, which disproportionately funds the LAPD despite harsh cuts elsewhere, be replaced with the People’s Budget. Others brought up the history of people killed during encounters with LAPD officers and demanded the city do more to address those situations. Some demanded even Mayor Eric Garcetti resign. And plenty called in simply to tell the commission, “F— you.”
And the overwhelming majority of callers demanded Moore either resign or be fired.
This is the first public meeting the LA Police Commission has held since the beginning of the protests in LA — and across the country — sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis white cop, Derek Chauvin, choked him for nearly nine minutes. The call — which began at 9:30 a.m. — is also taking place a day after Moore made comments on Monday evening that people “capitalizing” on the protests and “looting” were just as responsible for the death of George Floyd as the officers who killed him. “His death is on their hands, as much as it is on those officers,” Moore said.
Moore quickly apologized for those comments and did so again on the Tuesday Zoom call. “I understand that there are those that are not able to accept my apology,” he said. “I’m hopeful that my words and deeds, as well as those in our department, will show others the genuineness of our intentions, our values and our beliefs.”
The Zoom call, which initially had a capacity of 500 participants, allowed callers to share their comments with the commission in one-minute increments. But as the call extended into the evening, callers were then limited to 30-second increments.
Watch the call here.