Hire officers? Abolish the police? L.A.’s election reveals deep divisions over the LAPD
In Los Angeles last week, voters endorsed a very different vision of policing than the kind of reforms endorsed by the Black Lives Matter and other movements.
And the battle lines were as stark as one might think.
On one side stood the Black Lives Matter movement, which pushed for increased police accountability and greater transparency. Supporters of the movement, including Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, said their supporters are outnumbering the “noise” coming from the community.
On the other side was the LAPD’s outgoing superintendent, Robert White, who was widely credited with turning the department around. He was widely considered a hero of the Black Lives Matter movement.
But by overwhelmingly approving the mayor’s $2 billion plan for the LAPD, voters embraced his reform plan over the community’s resistance.
The City Hall-backed plan, which would require more officers on the street and limit civilian oversight, was not embraced by most of the people in the community it represented, both black and white.
As the election results came in on Tuesday, more than 50% of Black Lives Matter’s supporters voted for Garcetti and Beck, according to exit polls.
The election was not without controversy.
The results did not come as a surprise: Black Lives Matter’s backers had been saying this election for weeks, and they were clearly ready for it. But on Tuesday, many of their supporters were stunned.
The mayor’s plan to overhaul the LAPD has received some of its earliest support from the L.A. branch of the NAACP and from the Black Lives Matter movement — including from the movement’s very own co-leader, Malik Scott.
“If you think that your vote won’t count,” Scott told CBS News correspondent Jessica Schneider, “you’re sadly mistaken.”
“This was never a question of whether the movement