Police help defeat California bill on removing problem cops

Source: AP

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Police unions and other law enforcement organizations went into overdrive to thwart a measure that would have added California to the majority of states that can end the careers of officers with troubled histories. It failed as lawmakers scrambled to wrap up their work, and while the nation's most populous state still has no way to permanently remove problematic officers, a number of other police reforms passed.

With lobbyists and lawmakers mostly isolated by the coronavirus pandemic, it became a battle of phone calls, colorful graphics and Instagram posts from law enforcement organizations to counter celebrity tweets pushing lawmakers to rein in police brutality after the death of George Floyd last May in Minneapolis and the shooting of Jacob Blake last week in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

"We ended up, for lack of a better term, playing a game of whack-a-mole,” Tom Saggau, a spokesman for police unions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, said of law enforcement efforts to counter support for what he called a deeply flawed proposal.

Even intervention from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wasn't enough to rescue the measure that died without a vote before the legislative session ended early Tuesday. It failed hours after Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies fatally shot Dijon Kizzee after the Black man dropped a a bundle that included a gun.



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/police-help-defeat-california-bill-on-removing-problem-cops/ar-BB18C01O?li=BBnb7Kz