The Los Angeles Police Department’s budget was cut by $150 million as decided by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. He plans to reinvest back into the communities of color and also women.
The mayor stated the city would not upsurge the LAPD budget of $1.8 billion.
“We will not be increasing our police budget,” said the mayor.
Garcetti also stated during the press conference that he would propose more specifics at a later time but money will be distributed “now, not years from now.”
He also stated that, “It’s time to move our rhetoric towards action to end racism in our city.”
“Prejudice can never be part of police work…It takes bravery to save lives, too.”
He also spoke to creating a better communication system that would permit information to follow officers who didn’t sustain their duty to defend and protect citizens.
“We need to move toward a guardian-based system,” said the mayor, “by developing long term relationships between our youth and police officers.”
Garcetti also announced a Civil and Human Rights Commission that will have its first meeting next week, with a promise to have the department up and running by July 1. In that department will reside an Office of Racial Equity to help the city “apply and equity lens to everything we do.
This comes a week after the entire country has experienced civil unrests with protests in all 50 states. Many of those protests took place in Los Angeles, where Mayor Eric Garcetti also marched along protesters.
The protests were inspired by the death of George Floyd who died at the hands of four police officers, all of whom have been arrested and charged. Derek Chauvin had his charges upgraded to second-degree murder. The other ex-officers have been charged with aiding abetting-murder in the second-degree.
