California correctional officers union criticized for ad with crosshairs on Black lawmaker
A Black California lawmaker has requested an investigation over a California Correctional Peace Officers Association ad that showed crosshairs over his photo.
The political ad represented a threat to him and his family and constitutes “potentially criminal conduct” under a law protecting elected officials, Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, said in a letter to Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
The ad, which was posted online and then taken down Wednesday, featured a narrator saying the union would “demand that the increased violence and assault on peace officers are addressed and the perpetrators are held accountable to the highest degree.”
At the same time, it showed a man who appears to be CCPOA President Glen Stailey pointing at the crosshairs image over Jones-Sawyer’s name on a wall of lawmakers’ photos.
“I never expected something like that from a law enforcement organization, because they more than anybody else should know how toxic that could be, especially in this environment,” Jones-Sawyer said in an interview.
Stailey said in a statement that the video’s intent was to “target” legislative districts.
“It would require a great stretch of the imagination to believe that we meant anything other than our clear intent, which was to demonstrate that we are mounting political campaigns against certain legislators,” he said in the statement. “However, to put this controversy to rest, we are removing the video from our official channels and editing it. We will not be deterred from our commitment to protect the interests of correctional officers by actively participating in political campaigns.”
The union has supported Jones-Sawyer’s opponent, Democrat Efren Martinez, in the upcoming election. The union’s political action committee made about $143,000 in independent expenditures supporting Martinez in September, according to campaign finance documents.
Jones-Sawyer, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, has advocated for a shift toward rehabilitation and away from incarceration in the state’s penal system and has pursued law enforcement reforms.
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He recently held a press conference to rebuke the shooter of two Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies. He called the shooter a coward.
“I don’t want anybody to perpetrate violence on anyone that carries a badge,” he said.
“It’s absolutely wrong,” he said. “By the same token, law enforcement should realize that if you do that to an unarmed individual, particularly black and brown people, you need to understand why we are outraged.”
