Mayor Bass Questioned About LAPD's Significant Liability Payouts for Civil Rights Violations and Officer Misconduct
Accountability and Budget Allocations discussed During Town Hall
During an Immigrants’ Rights virtual town hall, Mayor Karen Bass and LAPD Deputy Chief were questioned about the significant payouts for civil rights violations and officer misconduct.
We have been publishing portions of the Q&A. Below is the a portion of the transcript.
Transcript:
Mayor Karen Bass Staff:
Next up we have Catie Laffoon. Catie Laffoon. Please unmute your audio.
Catie Laffoon | Community Activist:
Mayor Bass. Thank you so much for making the time to do this. It’s really important, and we do appreciate it. Thank you so much. I’m also one of the people that asked for this, so I just want to call myself out on that. I’m one of the people. Thank you very much for taking the time. Currently, the LAPD is facing 400 million dollars in settlements against them for civil rights violations and officer misconduct.
That number is expected to rise exponentially after their actions this summer. Currently, there’s no incentive for the department or the officers to hold one another accountable since these massive settlements are paid out using our tax dollars, and it doesn’t come out of the LAPD budget, which forces the city to cut much-needed programs that help our communities and combat issues that lead to crime and poverty. The LAPD is currently defunding Los Angeles with these settlements. My question is, do you think LAPD liability payouts should come out now?
Mayor Karen Bass:
Let me just say that, one, I think the the liabilities related to LAPD are extremely high, and that needs to be dealt with. You might be interested to know that the majority of the lawsuits are LAPD suing LAPD.
The the dollar amount is use of force, but I’m not sure in dollars; we would be bankrupt. So that I don’t think that, well, I mean, I know that that is not an accurate number. Bottom line is is that we have to fund. LAPD has to have a budget. So if we were to take out hundreds of millions of dollars from their budget, you know, I don’t know how we would be, and we would actually be able to function. But I agree with you 100 percent that those liabilities need to go way down. They need to go way down for use of force. And LAPD has a lot of internal issues that need to be addressed so that LAPD officers, that’s where the majority of the lawsuits are.
Catie Laffoon | Community Activist:
Well, I did get that number from L. A. Public Press, and it’s according to...
Mayor Karen Bass:
Four hundred million. Is that what you said? To L. A. Public Press?
Catie Laffoon | Community Activist:
It was published, but that was according to the controller of L. A., Kenneth Mejia.
Mayor Karen Bass:
But what’s the... did I hear you right that it was 400 million? Yeah, I just say that that’s not accurate. I’ll talk with him. That includes the controller.
Catie Laffoon | Community Activist:
We are facing bankruptcy because of the settlement.
Mayor Karen Bass:
I know, I know, I disagree. And as a matter of fact, I’m meeting with him in the next hour. We talk, we disagree on some things, and that’s one of them that we disagree on.
Catie Laffoon | Community Activist:
I understand, thank you. But I will also say that, you know, taking $400 million out of the LAPD budget as opposed to education or food scarcity programs is a lot different since they have a budget of $5 billion, and our communities would appreciate that if you would look at that for us.
Mayor Karen Bass:
I will. The city of Los Angeles doesn’t fund education, just so you know.
Catie Laffoon | Community Activist:
We’re just community programs that I agree. Instead of defunding programs, we could take the budget out of LAPD. So if they’re held accountable.