LA Mayor Eric Garcetti urges Black Lives Matter protesters to get COVID-19 tests and self-isolate for 14 days
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti urged Black Lives Matter protesters on Wednesday to have themselves tested for possible exposure to coronavirus and to self-quarantine for 14 days as a precaution after the demonstrations of the last two weeks. “If you were out protesting, as I’ve said, please go get a test — a free test, at one of our open testing centers,” Garcetti said during a press briefing. “Consider self-quarantining for 14 days, and get tested for COVID-19. We have a test waiting for you at one of the 24 testing sites across the city and county," he added.
There could be a considerable rise in cases in the coming days owing to the thousands who have taken to the streets in the past week to protest racial inequality and the killing of George Floyd. Los Angeles County has so far reported 65,822 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,707 fatalities.
The mayor also emphasized the message of the protests on the day after the funeral of Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody at the hands of a former Minneapolis officer on Memorial Day. “People of all backgrounds, genders, and race have come together to demand change,” Garcetti said. “I believe we will emerge from these days as a different city, and a different country — a better city, and a better country — and I hope, too, a better world."
Garcetti also highlighted his announcement last week to slash 10% off law enforcement budget in response to the demand of BLM protesters to "defund the police." “We’re changing our budgets to make investments where we need them,” he said, touting the $150 million in cuts to the Los Angeles Police Department and $100 million from other city priorities.
Garcetti asserted that with a smaller budget, the police would adopt new practices in line with “21st-century policing goals.” “This is bigger than just a budget, but I want you to know we will not be increasing our police budget — how can we at this moment?” the mayor said last week. "I have instructed and committed … that our city … identify $250 million in cuts, so we could invest in jobs, in health, in education, and in healing. And that those dollars need to be focused on our black community here in Los Angeles, as well as communities of color, and women, and people who have been left behind, for too long.”
During the speech, Garcetti also implicitly slammed President Donald J. Trump, saying leaders in Washington wanted “to go back to 20th or 19th century policing, to get tough, ‘to dominate,’ to not worry about people’s heads, to dehumanize them as you put them into squad cars."
“This not only does not save lives, it costs lives," he concluded.
However, Garcetti did not forget to praise former President Barack Obama for advocating police reform, noting the former POTUS' recent speech to his My Brother’s Keeper organization. According to the L.A. mayor, the police department has agreed to end the use of “carotid holds” that leave the subject unconscious, otherwise known as “sleeper holds” or “rear-naked choke” holds.
Garcetti also announced that gyms would be allowed to open on Friday, June 12, albeit with new restrictions and rules. However, several other businesses would still remain closed. Since the day before, there had been a 1% increase in new coronavirus cases and 64 deaths in the city in the past 24 hours, the mayor noted.