LOS ANGELES (NewsNation Now) — The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating a Valentine’s Day-style photo mocking the death of George Floyd that was allegedly shared among department employees.
The post was written like a valentine and reportedly depicts a photo of Floyd with the caption “you take me breath away.”
The LAPD tweeted a statement on Saturday saying that it is “aware of allegations that an image was being passed around the department and this image was in the workplace.”
The department also said that it has launched a “personnel complaint” and is interviewing department employees.
Floyd, a Black man in handcuffs, died May 25 after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck even as he said he couldn’t breathe. Floyd’s death sparked protests in Minneapolis and beyond, and led to a nationwide reckoning on race. Chauvin is scheduled for trial March 8 on charges including second-degree murder and manslaughter.
Officials tweeted, “At this point the Department has not identified any actual postings in the workplace or identified that it was in fact our department employee who created the image. We have raised the apparent existence of the image and directed commands to survey the worksites for it.”
“The Department will have zero tolerance for this type of behavior,” the statement continued.
Ben Crump, the lawyer representing the Floyd family, released a statement on behalf of the family Monday.
“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 large r problem within the culture of LAPD. We demand that everyone who was involved is held accountable for their revolting behavior and that an apology be issued to the family immediately.”
BEN CRUMP
Officials said the officer who made the complaint about the image is set to be interviewed on Monday.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents LAPD officers, did not respond to requests seeking comment.