Activists & LAPD Condemn Valentine Posting Mocking Floyd’s Death

On Feb. 15, local civil rights activists held a press conference at the LAPD Harbor Station in response to a Valentine’s Day post that went viral this past weekend. While the group, which included the San Pedro Good Trouble Brigade, the vice president of the San Pedro chapter of the NAACP, the founder and head of Justice for Murdered Children and Civil Rights activist Najee Ali called for LAPD accountability, they also praised Harbor Division Captain John Mastick and LAPD Police chief Michael Moore for quickly addressing the issue.

Chief Michel Moore announced this past weekend that the police department has launched an internal investigation into allegations that a photo of George Floyd with the words “You take my breath away” in a Valentine-like format was being “passed around” by other officers.

Moore said the officer who made the complaint is set to be interviewed Monday, the same day as the press conference. Moore said the department’s goal is to determine exactly where and how the image may have come into the workplace, online or otherwise, and who may have been involved.

Ali, who explained he was civil rights attorney Ben Crump Southern California spokesman, read a statement from the attorney:

“The Floyd family is understandably outraged. This is beyond insult on top of injury — it’s injury on top of death. The type of callousness and cruelty within a person’s soul needed to do something like this evades comprehension — and is indicative of a much larger problem within the culture of the LAPD. We demand that everyone who was involved is held accountable for their revolting behavior and that an apology be issued to the family immediately.” 

We  want everyone to know we’re not here to condemn or attack the LAPD,” Ali said. ”We simply want to hold them accountable.” Ali credited Captain J. Mastick as a whistleblower, but it wasn’t made clear that the post came from a Harbor Division police officer. 

An email posted on Twitter Saturday by journalist, political commentator and activist Jasmyne Cannick appears to indicate the photo and a possible post on social media originated out of the department’s Harbor Patrol Division.

Ali commended Chief Michael Moore for speaking out and saying there will be zero tolerance of anyone mocking someone’s death within this department. “Any LAPD officer mocking the death of George Floyd should be terminated immediately,” Ali said. 

Floyd, a Black man, was killed by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, after an officer knelt on Floyd’s neck while he said, “I can’t breathe.” His death sparked protests across the country.

Gatlin, representing the local chapter of the NAACP,  reaffirmed the decades worth of strong relationships between the LAPD and Harbor Area residents. “I want to make sure that continues,” Gatlin said. “I want to thank Captain [Mastick] for his leadership and I want to thank you for being here to bring this out.”

Justice for Murdered Children director, Lawanda Hawkins expressed similar sentiments. “If we need to have a community meeting out here in San Pedro, we got the Captain right here [gesturing at Captain Mastick], Hawkins said. 

The victim rights advocate described San Pedro as a family that is able to talk out its differences.

“I’m hoping that this makes our relationship stronger,” Hawkins said. “It’s our hope that more of the community gets involved and they begin to talk to law enforcement when we talk about some tough issues. 

Maya of the San Pedro Good Trouble Brigade reiterated the calls for accountability. “We are here as allies as people who live and work in the community of San Pedro,” Maya said. “And we are here to support the Black, Brown, Indigenous and other people.”

Maya, too, called for zero tolerance for this sort of behavior in the police department.