Author: Anna-Lauretta Barrientos, Laura Pinto, and Kristina Hernandez Categories: News,United States,Spanish,Spain,Spanish police,police violence source National Register of Historic Places title This article was originally published by: National Review article Spain’s government on Thursday formally accused a U.S. senator of racism and called for him to resign over an article he wrote on social media about the country’s police force.
Senator Juan Ignacio de la Torre, a conservative member of the governing coalition, published a Facebook post on July 4 calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment over remarks by a former Los Angeles Police Department officer that alleged the countrys police force was racist.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the post on Wednesday.
Ignacio, who has long been a critic of police brutality, was not immediately available for comment Thursday.
The Los Angeles police department released a statement late Thursday calling the article a “troll” and “misleading.”
The statement said that Ignacio’s post “did not reflect the values of our department or the people of Los Angeles.”
It also noted that Ignaco’s comments were made during a meeting with the mayor of Los Altos, who was then the chief of police, in which the former LAPD officer had asked the mayor about his thoughts on the Los Angeles City Council’s decision to grant immunity to the officers who shot and killed a teenager in December 2016.
The former officer was not named in the statement but he was identified in the newspaper article by a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
The LAPD has said that it found no evidence that Ignace’s statements were racially motivated.
Ignace, however, has said he was referring to the fact that he was not aware of any such discussions and had no way of knowing if any of the comments he made were racially insensitive.
He has said the comments were meant to be humorous.
The city of Los Angles released a separate statement on Thursday calling for Ignacio to step down.
“The city has zero tolerance for hate speech, racism and violence and we will not tolerate this kind of behavior,” the statement said.
It also said that while it welcomed Ignacio stepping down, he had not been removed from office.
The statement noted that the Los Angls city council unanimously voted in May to grant the former officer immunity from civil lawsuits in the case, which is being investigated by the state Department of Justice.
In the Facebook post, Ignacio said he had spoken to Mayor Kevin Faulconer about the issue.
“I’ve also met with the police commissioner and the mayor,” he said.
“It’s clear to me that he is willing to listen and that he’s going to take the necessary steps to get rid of the officers involved.”
A Los Angeles judge on Thursday dismissed an indictment filed against Ignacio and four other officials for allegedly conspiring to interfere with the city’s investigation into the fatal shooting of the 16-year-old Los Angeles teenager, which led to the resignation of then-Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Los Angeles police say they found no proof that the officers used excessive force in the shooting.