Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore tells the Police Commission that an employee may wind up being fired after an investigation identified the person responsible for distributing an Instagram post with an offensive reference to the death of George Floyd.
Moore told the commission the three-month investigation determined that no department websites were used to send the image and a single individual was determined to have sent it to a number of officers who in turn reported it to Department Commanders.
Activists have been calling for the firing of any LAPD employee who created or circulated the post, which featured an image of Floyd -- who was killed on May 25, 2020, after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes -- that included the words "You take my breath away." The police union, the Floyd family attorney, and various city leaders have decried the post.
The department became aware of the photo on Feb. 12, two days before Valentine's Day, because a group of officers saw it and were "disgusted" by the post, Moore said. The department inspected all stations for any evidence of the image and worked to identify anyone who was involved in the creation or distribution of the image, which was posted on the Blue Line Mafia Instagram page. The page has since been taken down.
"The family of George Floyd is outraged and devastated," Project Islamic Hope director Najee Ali said in February at a news conference at the LAPD's Harbor station, where an officer had made a formal complaint about the post at the urging of Moore.
"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," Ali said.
Chauvin was convicted on one count of second-degree murder, one count of third-degree murder and one count of second-degree manslaughter.
In February, while discussing the post, Moore told commissioners that some in the LAPD have "extremist" views.
"We must acknowledge that some portion within our profession and by extension within this department has explicit bias and extremist views," he said. "This is a similar conclusion that the Department of Defense has reached with its forces as it comes to terms with the members of its own armed forces being inside the Capitol this past January."
In referring the officer to a Board of Rights, Moore said he was sending a clear message of the inappropriate nature of the act.
In later comments, the chief indicated if the Board of Rights finds the person guilty, he will terminate him. Because of state labor laws, the individual’s name was not released at the meeting.