*Earlier, we brought you news of a situation inside the LAPD where some a-hole thought it would be a good idea to distribute on Valentine’s Day a meme/photo of George Floyd with the caption “You take my breath away.”
Najee Ali, an LA-based community activist said during a late Monday morning press conference in LA that they’re “not here to condemn or attack LAPD” and that they “simply want to hold them accountable.”
Ali is also an ally and spokesman for Attorney Ben Crump who represents the Floyd family.
“Any LAPD employee mocking the death of George Floyd should be terminated immediately,” Ali said.
The Floyd family, who is still grieving his death, is also asking that those involved be terminated.
“It’s scary knowing that we have racists that may come into our community are in charge of policing Black people,” Ali said.
Floyd, who is iconic, even in death, died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer handcuffed him, pinned him to the ground and then knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes as he repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.”
Ali said the photo scandal is painful and that Floyd’s death still hurts.
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Meanwhile, LAPD officials announced that they launched an internal investigation after an officer complained about the image and alleged it was being circulated within the department. The complaining officer was scheduled to be interviewed Monday, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said.
As of this posting, a coalition of activists, headed by Project Islamic Hope, had scheduled an 11am news conference outside LAPD’s Harbor Community Police Station to ask for a meeting with Moore, and to call for the termination of any LAPD (employee) who shared the image mocking Floyd’s killing.
“It’s despicable and outrageous that there are LAPD employees who are in the workplace mocking the police murder of George Floyd, who died in May after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground under the knee of Derek Chauvin, who was then a police officer in Minneapolis,” said Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic Hope.
Reports of the image, and the subsequent complaint within the LAPD, first surfaced Friday (02-12-21).
Screencaps of the image allegedly referred to in the internal LAPD complaint, and posted on Twitter and elsewhere, shows a picture of Floyd on a pink background surrounded by hearts with the words “You take my breath away” and Valentine-style spaces to designate who it is being sent “to” and “from.”
It was unclear whether this is the same image that prompted the LAPD complaint.
LAPD HQ, an official department account, tweeted at 8:30 p.m. Saturday: “The Department has become aware of allegations that an image was being passed around the department and this image was in the workplace. There are also allegations that the post with the image was authored by a department employee.”
The tweet continued: “A personnel complaint has been initiated and we are pursuing each allegation including interviewing the department member who brought it to our attention.”
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