Snoop Dogg, The Game, Lead Gang Members, And Los Angeles Citizens To LAPD Graduation Ceremony In Show Of Unity With Police

Snoop Dogg, The Game, and others in Los Angeles marched peacefully to the LAPD. They were there to establish communication with police, and managed to arrive during a police graduation ceremony. They hope to prevent further violence between police and minority citizens. As the Dallas Morning News reported, The Game and Snoop used social media to send out the call for others in L.A. to come march with them, and then spoke with the media about what they hope to accomplish.

The Game and Snoop could be seen in pictures standing beside L.A. police chief Charlie Beck, who talked about a divide between police and the people in communities they look after in America. The act represents one of the biggest shows of unity in recent times after deadly police altercations that have led to protests. It symbolizes a potential start to serious dialogue and progress.

As Southern California Public Radio reports, The Game gave a heartfelt speech stressing peace and coming together in a press conference during the march.

“I love you. No matter what race you’re from, no matter where you come from, no matter what gang you’re from or what police force you stand for, what badge you put on, what school you teach — whoever you are, in the world, if you are a human being and you have ears and eyes to see, this is a day of change. Respect it, understand it, love it, embrace yourself for positivity.”

It is an extremely tense time in America, after police confrontations led to the deaths of two black citizens, and then five police officers were shot dead at a march in protest of police violence. Many in communities across America, from the highest office of government to the most local, are worried about police killings and potential retaliation killings being carried further. Snoop and The Game hope to calm the atmosphere by opening channels of communication, and stress that they hold no anti-police agenda.

Snoop and The Game, both being from California, perhaps remember the riots that tore Los Angeles apart during the 90s, after one of the most notorious police abuses in America was broadcast on TV: the beating of Rodney King. Police officers were acquitted of wrongdoing and then Los Angeles broke out into six days of uncontrollable chaos that only ended with military intervention. The involvement of gangs, the looting, and the destruction left over 50 people dead and a couple thousand injured.

If Snoop and The Game can come together with police in Los Angeles, perhaps celebrities equally as representative of their home states and cities could do the same. It could, at least, offer some solution to put a damper on the violence rather than more violence and force, or more protests. Snoop and The Game were actually not aware there was a graduating class of new police officers there when they organized the event, but saw it as a positive coincidence.

Snoop Dogg and The Game organized the march in reaction to the police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana, but made it a march of unity after hearing about the five police officers killed in retaliation. The rappers want to support the police and bring recognition to their efforts to bring communities together.

The Game further expressed his motivations with Southern California Public Radio.

“We’re just out here to reintroduce ourselves to the LAPD and allow them to reintroduce themselves to us so that we’re not in fear of each other, so that we can share the L.A. streets, so we can coexist, and so that we do away with this hatred that both sides have seemed to conjure up for each other.”

The pioneering move by The Game and Snoop Dogg is sure to have created ripples of hope.

[Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for AOL]