Rappers Snoop Dogg and The Game led a peaceful unification march to the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters in downtown L.A. Friday morning.
The demonstration was organized by Compton native The Game, whose legal name is Jayceon Terrell Taylor.
It was scheduled the day after a sniper attack in Dallas left five police officers dead and seven others wounded.
The deadly gunfire erupted in Dallas Thursday night as videos showing two African-American men – Alton Sterling and Philando Castile — shot to death by police in Louisiana and Minnesota spurred protests and debate over police use of force across the country.
In an Instagram post announcing the event Friday morning, The Game called for men of color to take part in the peaceful march to “make the Californian & it’s (sic) law branches aware that from today forward, we will be UNIFIED as minorities and we will no longer allow them to hunt us or be hunted by us !!!”
Woman and children were urged not to take part in the demonstration.
“THIS IS OUR MISSION FOR THEM,” he wrote.
The Game emphasized that the march would be non-violent.
“Do not: bring any weapons or anything illegal. Do not come high or belligerent. We don’t need any HOT HEADS or anyone there for the wrong reasons… We will stand as we are, UNIFIED,” he wrote.
It began Friday morning in the 1200 block of West Third Street in the Westlake area of central L.A. and ended outside police headquarters in downtown.
Snoop Dogg, a Long Beach native whose legal name is Calvin Broadus, said the point of their march was to “reintroduce” LAPD to the members of the community it serves.
“It’s all about getting some dialogue going and getting us acquainted with each other, before a tragedy,” he told KTLA in an interview shortly before 9 a.m. “We want to introduce ourselves to them and let them introduce themselves to us. And then hopefully that will create some sort of dialogue to where we have an understanding when people are being pulled over, being questioned.”
Dozens of people attended the march and peaceful demonstration; they could be seen walking toward headquarters around 8:30 a.m., a short time before a graduation ceremony for the department’s latest recruits was to be held, Sky5 video over the scene showed.
Snoop Dogg said organizers weren’t aware of the graduation when they scheduled the event.
“We’re not here to protest, or be violent, we’re here to get understanding so that there is clarity whenever we’re being pulled over,” he told KTLA.
He emphasized that violence was not the answer.
“The right thing to do is what we’re doing now … we don’t want to act violently; we want to act peacefully. And we want to act with dialogue.”
He added that the Dallas police shootings put the mission ahead for them.
The Game told KTLA in a separate interview outside police headquarters that he was there for peace and to spread love. In the wake of recent events, he said he felt like he was a “man on a mission.”
“I would be lying to you if I told you that I wasn’t saddened by what occurred in Dallas,” he said when asked if Thursday’s night events had increased his resolve. “I would be lying to you if I told you that I wasn’t angered about the things that occurred in Louisiana and Minnesota and Fresno.”
He added that the combined sadness and anger he felt over the violence combined to bring peace around his spirit when he awoke Friday morning.
The message for the demonstration was loud and clear, the rapper said.
“It’s peace,” he said. “This peaceful demonstration right here will save a lot of lives.”
Snoop Dogg and The Game met with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and others after the graduation ceremony, according to a tweet from the mayor’s Twitter account.
The CNN Wire contributed to this story.