Snoop Dogg: ‘Not Here to Bash Police, But to Communicate’
After a peaceful march led by Snoop Dogg, the Game and fellow protestors outside LAPD headquarters, the rappers addressed the media and new police officers at an LAPD graduation ceremony.
The Game spoke about the universal goal of the police forces in the U.S. and the Black Lives Matter movement, to better communities “from Long Beach to Compton” and all poverty-stricken neighborhoods. “I have no malice in my heart … or anger toward anyone police officer,” said the Game. “This is a beautiful city that can be one, that was one, that can get back to being one … I want to tell everyone that I love you no matter what race you’re from, where you come from … whoever you are,” he said. “If you are human being, this is a day of change.”
Snoop Dogg addressed the new officers, saying that the point of the conference “was not to bash the police, but to get some communication.” The rapper stressed that this would be the first of many steps communities would need to take to gain mutual understanding. “We want to thank [the officers] because now they can go out and do their jobs … and have a conversation.”
Following the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the rappers led a police brutality protest in Los Angeles. Dubbed “Operation H.U.N.T.,” an acronym for “Hate Us Not Today,” the protest was staged to “make the Californian government & it’s law branches aware that from today forward, we will be UNIFIED as minorities,” the Game wrote on Instagram.
“Calling: ALL AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN, MEXICAN AMERICAN MEN & any other RACE of REAL MEN with heart to stand with us today & walk peacefully to the LAPD headquarters,” the Game wrote on Instagram Friday morning. “Do not: bring any weapons or anything illegal. Do not come high or belligerent. We don’t need any HOT HEADS or anyone there for the wrong reasons… We will stand as we are, UNIFIED. I’m calling ALL GANGS, ALL RACES, ALL GROWN MEN affiliated or not & WE WILL STAND UNIFIED.”
“This is how you make moves, you make it happen,”Snoop Dogg said in an Instagram video. “You get some dialogue and understanding with the new recruits before they hit the streets, so this way they know that we’re just like them, we’re trying to live and go home and get some understanding.”
Additional reporting by Sarah Grant