LAPD Orders 10-year Review of SWAT Team over ‘Happy Hunting’ Remark

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michael Moore ordered an internal review of the department’s SWAT team Tuesday after a member was caught on audio during a confrontation with an armed suspect wishing his colleagues “happy hunting.”

The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that supervisors had learned about the remark in reviewing body camera footage from a confrontation with an armed suspect. The suspect fired at police and was shot and killed. Neither of the two officers who returned fire at the suspect had apparently heard the “happy hunting” remark, which was called insensitive.

Now, the Times reports, there will be a 10-year review of SWAT team operations to review the specialized unit’s culture:

The review comes on the heels of Times reporting last week that a SWAT team member was caught on video saying “happy hunting” to other members before a fatal SWAT shooting this month.

It comes nearly two years after a former member of the SWAT team alleged in a lawsuit that a group of influential team members known as the “SWAT mafia” glorify violence and the use of deadly force and exert outsize control over hiring like-minded individuals into the squad.

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced $150 million in cuts to the LAPD at the height of the Black Lives Matter riots in June 2020. The city council used $60 million of that to balance the budget, and spent the remainder on various community programs.

Amid a rise in violent crime, L.A. and other California cities that targeted police budgets are scrambling to hire more police.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.