LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Mayor Eric Garcetti and police Chief Charlie Beck were in Washington, D.C., today for a meeting with President Barack Obama and officials from across the country to discuss efforts to build bridges between communities and law enforcement agencies following a recent rash of violence. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the meeting will be an effort “to try to further the dialogue and the identification of specific solutions to repairing the bonds of trust that have frayed in so many communities between law enforcement officials and the citizens that they’re sworn to serve and protect.”
“The White House worked to form a Task Force on 21st Century Policing that reflected a diverse set of perspectives,” Earnest said.
“That task force generated a specific report of best practices that many law enforcement agencies across the country have sought to implement. Not all of them have. And it’s the president’s view that the effort to implement those best practices needs to be re-energized.”
The list of meeting attendees includes mayors from various cities, including Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait, and police chiefs from cities including St. Paul, Minnesota; New Haven, Connecticut; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is also attending, along with five other administration and Department of Justice officials.
A Black Lives Matter activist from Minnesota is also attending, along with NAACP President Cornell Brooks and Dawn Collins, a community organizer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For Garcetti and Beck, the meeting comes one day after the Los Angeles Police Commission upheld the actions of an officer who fatally shot a black female robbery suspect in August 2015. The commission agreed with Beck’s assessment that Officer Brett Ramirez acted within department policy when he shot Redel Jones, 30, who was wielding a knife and allegedly lunged toward officers. The commission’s decision sparked angry chants from activists who packed the meeting room, and from hundreds of people gathered outside police headquarters.
Many called for Beck to be fired. Several dozen activists staged an hours-long sit-in on the Main Street steps of City Hall, the main public entrance to the building. No arrests or violence were reported. Tensions between police and the black community have been running high following two fatal shootings by police in the past week — of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. The tensions escalated into last week’s sniper shootings during a protest in Dallas, killing five police officers.
