Organizers with Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles launched a campaign Wednesday targeting two of Southern California’s biggest police unions, saying they will push to have them ejected from the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and ultimately disbanded.
Activists said they intend to stage protests every week outside the headquarters of the Police Protective League, the union that represents roughly 9,800 Los Angeles police officers, while also working to end that group’s status as a labor union. The campaign will also seek to expose the league’s “central role in perpetuating white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and a culture of deadly violence” at the LAPD, organizers said.
“Every Wednesday we’re going to send a message to the people across the street … that we are going to end these associations,” said Akili, an organizer with Black Lives Matter-L.A., appearing at a news conference across from the league’s offices. “We will not be bullied anymore. We will not give up our budgets anymore.”
Akili, who goes by a single name, said his group is working on state legislation to decertify police unions. Representatives of Black Lives Matter-L.A. also want the labor federation, which represents about 300 affiliates, to sever its ties with the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the union representing deputies with the county’s Sheriff’s Department.
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