LAPD union blasts Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti's 'killers' comment, plan to cut budget
Jamie McBride, director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, joins Laura Ingraham with insight on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
As many as 300 officers from the Los Angeles Police Department were out sick over the violent holiday weekend, days after city leaders voted to slash the police budget by $150 million, according to a report.
LAPD brass is probing whether the high number of members out sick over the Fourth of July weekend was actually a case of the "blue flu" connected to a memo sent around last week that encouraged a sick-out among officers, the LA Times reported. According to the outlet, an organized labor protest of this nature is illegal.
“Rather than jumping to conclusions and indicting and impugning the integrity of our rank and file, I’m asking that we explore this,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the LA Times, stressing that the department was working to learn the facts before "making sweeping judgments."
The novel coronavirus could have also played a role in the decreased staffing numbers.
As of Wednesday morning, at least 120,764 COVID-19 cases were reported in Los Angeles County, while the state total reached more than 284,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Medicine.
A spokesperson for the LAPD confirmed that the department "experienced a higher than normal absentee rate" over the July 4th weekend, but said it was still able to maintain its patrol staffing minimum.
"Public safety is our priority, and the men and women of this Department are dedicated to that mission, as the vast majority of police officers reported to work as scheduled over the holiday," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The Board of Directors for the Los Angeles Police Protective League told Fox News it has been "very clear" about its opposition to any sick-out.
"We do not condone it, we do not encourage it and have advised our membership that we strongly oppose any such tactic," the board wrote in an emailed statement. "We do not know if the number of officers calling in sick this past 4th of July was higher than in previous years, nor do we know how many of our officers who called in sick were a result of the large spike in COVID-19 cases our department has suffered from, what we do know is that there were no service disruptions as a result of any officer calling in sick."
The board also reported it sent a message denouncing any plans for a sick-out before the holiday weekend "ensuring there was no confusion as to where the Board of Directors stands with regard to this issue."
The memo focused on the treatment of police and the ultimate decision in favor of budget cuts, according to the report.
“They succeeded in defunding the police; what do you think is next? Our pay? Our benefits? Our pensions? You’re God Damn right all those things are in jeopardy now,” the letter, obtained by the outlet, states. “We have to send the city a clear message that we are not expendable and we are not going to take this crap anymore.”
LAPD Headquarters on July 1, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Over the weekend, when murders and shootings were reportedly on the rise in Los Angeles, almost every person was out sick in some of the department’s gang units, sources told the LA Times.
The LAPD reported 19 murders between June 21 and July 5, six of which occurred from Friday to Sunday, according to the report. In 2019, there were nine reported during the same June-to-July period.
Nationwide, some public officials and activist groups have called for a funding shift away from law enforcement agencies during America's reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice.
LAPD’s recently announced budget cuts will reduce the number of officers to a level not seen for more than a decade.
LOS ANGELES POLICE REPORT 'OUTRAGEOUS NUMBER' OF FOURTH OF JULY ILLEGAL FIREWORKS CALLS
About two-thirds of the funding was earmarked for police overtime and will be used to provide services and programs for communities of color, including a youth summer jobs program. The City Council’s 12-2 vote will drop the number of officers from 9,988 as of last month to 9,757 by next summer, abandoning a goal of 10,000 officers touted by political leaders and only reached in 2013.
It's a big change in the nation's second-largest city, where the 1992 acquittal of white officers in the beating of black driver Rodney King set off violent unrest that has been compared to the chaos during some protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Other cities around the country also have cut police budgets or are moving to do so, including an effort in Minneapolis to disband the city's force. New York City lawmakers approved an austere budget Wednesday that will shift $1 billion from policing to education and social services in the coming year. In California, liberal Berkeley passed a budget Wednesday that cuts $9.2 million from police, while Oakland leaders last week slashed $14.6 million from law enforcement and they are considering steeper reductions.
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The Los Angeles vote reduces the LAPD's nearly $2 billion budget.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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