Civil-Rights Leaders Propose Plan In Wake Of Ezell Ford Shooting
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A coalition of civil-rights groups unveiled a plan they say could ease tensions between the LAPD and local African-American community a day after the release of the Ezell Ford autopsy report.
Blocks from where the 25-year-old black man was killed, civil-rights leaders and the law enforcement officials gathered Tuesday to make a statement.
"Nobody wants to see anyone in this community shot down. No one on either side," Earl Ofari Hutchinson of the Urban Policy Roundtable said.
To minimize distrust on both sides, activists proposed the plan they called "The Ezell Ford Police Conflict Resolution Plan."
The five-point plan calls for a review and changes to the department's use of deadly force policies, according to KNX 1070's Claudia Peschiutta.
The plan also calls on the department to implement mandatory use of body and dash cams; mental health retraining for officers; a conflict-mediation task force that would include police and civilians; and an automatic referral of all officer-involved shootings to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office criminal prosecution section.
"We all have the same goal. We all have the same partnership. We want to be great public servants to the people in this community and if these are the tools that we can agree to and work toward achieving, then we'll do that," LAPD Capt. Cory Palka said.
Many of the suggestions, according to the LAPD, are in practice in varying degrees.
But as Peschiutta reports, Palka says he would discuss the plan with the police chief.
On Monday, the LAPD lifted an administrative hold on an autopsy report from the Aug. 11 officer-involved shooting that killed Ford. The report said Ford was shot three times on his right side. Two of the wounds were fatal.
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