LOS ANGELES (AP) – A report that Los Angeles police officers circulated a photo of George Floyd with the words “take my breath away” in a Valentine-like format has sparked an internal investigation and has sparked a strong condemnation from Floyd’s family, the district attorney and the police union.
Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said Saturday that investigators will try to determine how the image may have reached the workplace and who may have been involved, the Los Angeles Times reported. Moore said the officer who filed the complaint would be interviewed Monday.
“Our research is to determine the accuracy of the allegations while strengthening our zero tolerance for anything that has racist views,” Moore said.
Floyd, a black man, died last May after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck as Floyd repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.” His death sparked mass protests across the country over racial injustice and police brutality.
Ben Crump, a lawyer for Floyd’s family, said Monday the family is outraged.
“This is beyond insult in view of the injury: it is an injury to death. The kind of cruelty and cruelty that a person’s soul needs to do something like this evades understanding and is indicative of “A much bigger problem within the LAPD culture,” Crump said.
“We demand that everyone involved be held accountable for their outrageous behavior and that the family be apologized immediately.”
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon condemned the image and said he would investigate the matter to see if any of his cases “may have been compromised by biased police work.”
The board of directors of the Los Angeles Police Protection League said in a statement that the union “repudiates this nasty image” and that any officer who “feels the need to be part of any online group involved, promote and / or celebrate this type of activity, their professional choice should be reconsidered quickly because they clearly do not have the criteria or the disposition to be a member of the application of the law “.
If the internal investigation confirms that LAPD agents circulated the image, “people will find my anger,” the police chief said.
The Times reported that Moore also confirmed that the department is investigating two anonymous Instagram accounts related to department staff, including a so-called “Blue Line Mafia.”