By: Manuel Ocaño / La Opinión Special Posted Aug 22, 2023, 23:13 pm EDT
Activists and civil rights organizations have denounced that shootings and deaths by shootings involving the Los Angeles police have reached unprecedented levels.
“We are here to ask that you stop killing our people,” said Dr. Melina Abdullah, a representative for Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, “stop killing our people.”
“So far this year, Los Angeles police officers have shot 20 people; 13 of them are believed to be African American and 14 of them have died, ”said the doctor and activist,“ but there are 14 people that we know have died, ”she questioned.
“This is the highest number that has been recorded so far,” he emphasized.
Although no official data is available, the LAPD’s Stop Espionage Coalition reported that most of the people killed this year by police shots suffered from mental illnesses. Just last month there were six shootings at the hands of Los Angeles police officers.
The most recent officially recognized incident occurred Friday morning in a Watts neighborhood. A police spokesman said the officers fired because the suspect “pulled out a weapon,” but did not specify what type of weapon.
During the conference before the Los Angeles government center, the coalition disclosed official information that it obtained from the same police department. One list says that Los Angeles police officers have been involved in 43 incidents this year in which they used firearms, but in just over half of those cases they failed to hit suspects.
Matyos Kidane, an African-American activist in Los Angeles, said he finds it very troubling “that while police are reaching an unprecedented number of shootings that have even caused deaths, elected officials have said nothing, not even our mayor,” Karen bass.
He said that “the response from the city’s top elected official has been worse than simple silence. Mayor Karen Bass has coddled the LAPD first by increasing its annual budget to unprecedented levels and more recently by granting a pay raise” for all officers.
The activists held the news conference as the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners welcomed a former FBI agent and a public policy and violent extremism studies scholar at the University of the South as its new chief. of California (USC), Erroll Southers.
According to the coalition, the arrival of Southers, an African American, as head of the board, translates into a change of face of that institution, rather than a change in policy, which could reduce the use of firearms among police officers.
Abdullah emphasized “understanding that when police kill people, it is not a number that increases, it is a human being, and their death affects their families and our community.”
“They must stop killing our people and hold those who kill us accountable,” the doctor reiterated.
The Black Lives Matter Los Angeles leader said the city’s police chief, “Michel Moore, has misguided the police department into becoming the most dangerous police department in the entire country,” she said.
“And we’re outraged that the police chief just walks into town hall asking for a 13 percent pay raise and Mayor Karen Bass gives it to him,” he added.
For his part, General Godon, a leader of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a Skid Row-based group, declared that “it is time for the mayor to speak.”
In a brief message, Godon said it is “time for the mayor to speak up and for her to fire Moore” as Los Angeles police chief.
“Mama” Paula Menor, a Black Lives Matter activist who for years has advocated for families of people shot and killed by police officers in Los Angeles, confirmed that “a disproportionate number of black people have been killed, and so is a disproportionate number of people who died and suffered from mental health issues.”
He added that the Los Angeles police have changed regulations “but when it comes to this matter of shooting people with mental illnesses they don’t apply them.”
“Mama” Menor said that since they are people who do not have social network services, they end up calling the police “who very often, generally, end up solving the matter with shots” of firearms.
He asked that the lives of people with conditions be respected who, instead of receiving help, are shot. The activist stated that she was making this request on behalf of families who have lost their loved ones “so callously”.