The attorney representing George Floyd’s family, a Black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer, issued a statement on following media reports that Los Angeles Police Department members had circulated an image of Floyd with the phrase, “You take my breath away.”
The mock-Valentine has rightly sparked outrage.
Floyd, 46, was killed on May 25, arrest after former officer Derek Chauvin, a white officer, knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Floyd repeatedly told Chauvin that he could not breathe, but the officer ignored his pleas and kept applying pressure until he lost consciousness.
His death sparked protests against police brutality in the United States and overseas.
In a statement, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump demanded accountability and an immediate apology to Floyd’s family.
“The Floyd family is understandably outraged. This is beyond insult on top of injury — it’s injury on top of death. The type of callousness and cruelty within a person’s soul needed to do something like this evades comprehension — and is indicative of a much larger problem within the culture of the LAPD,” he said.
The LAPD issued a statement over the weekend saying that they are currently investigating an employee.
“Celebrating the murder of a Black man at the hands of police demonstrates a profound absence of humanity,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said on Monday. “The mock Valentine underscores the highly problematic and frankly racist perceptions that pervade the law enforcement culture regarding the communities we are sworn to protect and serve.”
The offensive Valentine’s existence confirms that the LAPD is still potentially a breeding ground for the next Derek Chauvin.
