L.A. Officials Express Outrage over Dallas; S.F. Officials Equivocate

Political leaders and law enforcement officials in Los Angeles have expressed outrage at the murders of five police officers at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas. In contrast, officials in San Francisco and Oakland equivocated, or ignored the event.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke out on Twitter: “Tonight’s assassinations undermine our democracy and were an attack on us all. We cannot let hate spread like a disease in our country.”

Tonight’s assassinations undermine our democracy and were an attack on us all. We cannot let hate spread like a disease in our country.

— Eric Garcetti (@ericgarcetti) July 8, 2016

He issued four tweets in total, all expressing concern for law enforcement, including:

These officers died protecting our collective right to peacefully protest. We cannot let hate spread like a disease in our country.

— Eric Garcetti (@ericgarcetti) July 8, 2016

Other Los Angeles officials expressed similar sentiments. L.A. Police Department chief Charlie Beck said that local police would wear mourning armbands in solidarity with Dallas:

#LAPD stands with the City of #Dallas. We will wear our mourning bands in their honor. #PrayForDallas pic.twitter.com/dLgJHxJ9ke

— Chief Charlie Beck (@LAPDChiefBeck) July 8, 2016

Police in San Francisco and Oakland expressed similar sentiments. The same was not true, however, of elected officials in the Bay Area, where Black Lives Matter protesters vandalized a police station and blocked traffic even as events in Dallas unfolded.

Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf had little to say about events in Dallas. Her most recent tweet, as of Friday morning, was a retweeted message supporting Black Lives Matter:

The paper is yours next week if you want to say something about #BlackLivesMatter #PhilandoCastile #AltonSterling https://t.co/YUb7WEbu03

— East Bay Express (@EastBayExpress) July 7, 2016

San Francisco mayor Ed Lee addressed the police killings, but created an implied moral equivalence between police murdered in cold blood and black men killed by police in the course of duty:

Tonite we grieve for the Dallas officers, for too many young Black men, for our country. Stop the violence. We can & must do better. #Dallas

— Edwin Lee (@mayoredlee) July 8, 2016

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.