Responding to questions raised in the wake of a fatal police shooting Saturday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called for "dialing down" emotions, and pledged his confidence in LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.
"Chief Beck has my support, my strong support," Garcetti said Thursday.
For more than two years, members of Black Lives Matter and other department critics have called for a new chief, and they renewed their call after the incident Saturday that ended in the death of 18-year-old Carnell Snell, Jr.
Protesters contend the shooting could have been avoided.
After anger was fueled by rumors Snell was unarmed, Beck, with the concurrence of Garcetti and Police Commission President Matt Johnson, released security camera video that appears to show Snell run across a mini-mall parking lot with a handgun in his left hand, place it in his waist, then disappear around a corner as an officer runs after him.
During public comment at Tuesday's meeting of the LAPD's civilian oversight commission, a series of speakers condemned the shooting with at times profane language. Others raised previous police shooting incidents, including the mother of Richard Risher, who was killed in Nickerson Gardens in July during a running gun battle in which a police officer was also wounded. Lisa Simpson angrily raised the specter of an eye for an eye.
"If I killed your officers like they killed my kids, would it be equal?" Simpson said to Beck and the commissioners. Other public speakers referred to police officers as murderers.
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Garcetti said all losses of life are tragedies and offered condolences to those who grieve.
He also made an appeal.
"I would encourage all of us to kind of dial down the emotion piece, feel it, but find a place to make connections again," he said.
Earlier this week, the union that represents officers, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, had criticized activists who spread "false narratives" about police shootings, and cited a statistic that, nationwide this year, gun violence against police officers has increased 42 percent.
Garcetti spoke of the strain on officers to be placed in situations of having to make life or death decisions in a split second.
Release of video of incidents also came under discussion. Police said the officers involved in the Snell pursuit were in a division that had not yet been equipped with body cameras. Both Beck and the Mayor again pledged support for expanding their use, though neither was prepared to lay out a clear vision for a policy under which video will be released to affected family or the public.
The police commission will hold hearings and take public comment during a process to develop that policy.
Also discussed were privacy protections against disclosure of disciplinary action taken against officers found to have violated department policy. Favored by the officers union, that has been a sore point for department critics. Beck himself said in many cases he would prefer to disclose more than he is permitted under law, but doing so will require state legislation.
