While several people spent Valentine's Day celebrating the holiday with their loved ones, others spent theirs making inappropriate digital V-Day cards. Over the weekend, social media users gained knowledge that a disturbing and extremely insensitive Valentine's Day card depicting the late George Floyd was circulating throughout the Los Angeles Police Department.
In the mock Valentine's Day card, a picture of George Floyd reportedly appears side by side with the problematic phrase, "You take my breath away," which completely derides Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin last year. The mock Valentine-themed image soon made its way to an unnamed department member who filed a personnel complaint about the unethical image.
Now, the LAPD has announced that it will conduct an investigation into whether LAPD employees were involved in sharing and/or creating the offensive Valentine's Day mockup. In a statement to CNN, Capt. Stacy Spell explained the nature of the internal probe.
"We do not know the source of that image, whether it was on social media, in an email or seen in another form. It's unclear at this time if the image came from an original source outside the LAPD," he told the outlet.
Regardless, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office is extremely displeased to have heard about the alleged behavior of LAPD officiers. In its own statement, the District Attorney's Office has announced a separate review of the situation to determine if any of their past cases have been compromised by prejudicial and biased police work.
"Celebrating the murder of a Black man at the hands of police demonstrates a profound absence of humanity. The mock valentine underscores the highly problematic, and frankly, racist perceptions that pervade the law enforcement culture regarding the communities we are sworn to protect and serve," Gascón said in the statement.
Floyd's family has also caught wind of the mock valentine, and they, like many, are calling for the termination of the officers involved. Stay tuned for updates as LAPD's investigation continues.
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