LAPD launches probe into claims cops shared George Floyd image with phrase ‘you take my breath away’
A man wearing a protective face mask walks by murals of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in Pittsburgh
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The Los Angeles Police Department is conducting an internal investigation after allegations that some employees circulated a Valentines-style image of George Floyd with the caption, “You take my breath away.”
“The Department will have zero tolerance for this type of behavior,” the LAPD said on Saturday in a tweet. The department declined to comment further when reached byThe Independent.
Mr Floyd, who was Black, was killed in police custody last May after an officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck while he was handcuffed for almost nine minutes. Mr Floyd repeatedly said that he couldn’t breathe before he died.
The LAPD has launched an internal investigation including interviewing the employee who alerted them to the image.
“At this point the Department has not identified any actual postings in the workplace or identified that it was in fact our department employee who created the image,” the LAPD said in the statement. “We have raised the apparent existence of the image and directed commands to survey the worksites for it.”
Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, and is facing trial this spring. Mr Floyd’s death sparked the biggest nationwide civil rights protests in generations.
The protests have taken place in cities across America over the past year, including in Los Angeles.
At the time, Los Angeles police chief Michel Moore said of looters that Mr Floyd’s death was “on their hands as much as it is on those offices,” though he later apologized.
Following the demonstrations, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti sought to redirect up to $150 million from the police budget to social services.
In January, a police officer in England was charged with a criminal offence for allegedly sending an offensive meme of Mr Floyd to colleagues over WhatsApp.
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