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Video: Snoop Dogg And The Game Hold Joint Press Conference With Mayor And LAPD Chief
After leading a peaceful march outside of LAPD headquarters rappers Snoop Dogg and The Game held a joint press conference with Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck Friday morning. Snoop Dogg and The Game, joined by a crowd of roughly a hundred people, had been leading a protest outside a graduation ceremony for the department's newest officers and were invited inside for a closed-door conversation with the mayor and Chief Beck after the graduation ended. The four emerged for a joint press conference after their private conversation.
Right here, right now: We are having the dialogue for peace in our city and our country. @thegame @SnoopDogg pic.twitter.com/DnLsLABDaR
— MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) July 8, 2016
"I stand here with my partners in public safety in Los Angeles," Chief Beck said, flanked by Mayor Eric Garcetti and the rappers.
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"It doesn't look my usual public safety press conference, does it?" Beck asked the room. "It's not. We are too violent a society—violence begets violence—it is time to put down our arms and start the dialogue," Beck said.
"We just had an extraordinarily powerful meeting, one in which walls came down, boundaries and barriers didn't exist, and for a moment we grieved commonly for the lives that had been lost," Garcetti said, speaking of his closed-door conversation with the rappers and Chief Beck.
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Snoop Dogg and the Game walk into LAPD headquarters. (Photo by Julia Wick/LAist)
According to City News Service, both The Game and Snoop Dogg said they were unaware that there was an LAPD recruit graduation scheduled for the morning when they decided to gather at police headquarters, but that the ceremony made the gathering more poignant, as it allowed them to build relationships.
"This is even better because now these students that are about to hit the streets can know that there is some sort of dialogue going on and they don't have to be fearful,'' Snoop Dogg said.
"We had folks who were coming down here today to express their pain, and they didnt know that we had a police graduation—sometimes God works in mysterious ways—but they witnessed our newest class of brave angels, people who graduated from high schools in South Los Angeles and the Eastside and the San Fernando Valley, people who have connections and have maybe even seen violence firsthand, people just as we have up here," Garcetti said.
"We all represent the same cause and we all want to go home to our families,'' Snoop Dogg said. "Today was a first step of many steps. We are here to show love and support to the police force in Los Angeles and get some understanding and communication, and we feel like this is a great start.''
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"I want to thank The Game and Snoop for coming down with the Nation of Islam to have a dialogue with the Los Angeles Police Department and the mayor about keeping Los Angeles safe," Chief Beck said, before handing the floor to The Game, who said "If you are a human being and you have ears and eyes to see, this is a day of change."
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Snoop Dogg enters LAPD headquarters. (Photo by Julia Wick/LAist)
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Snoop and the Game are escorted past barriers and into LAPD headquarters for a private meeting with Mayor Eric Garcetti and Chief Beck. (Photo by Julia Wick/LAist)
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(Photo by Julia Wick/LAist)
Related:
Snoop Dogg Has Officially Become California's Moral Compass
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