A video produced and posted on Facebook by the Culver City Police Officer’s Association on August 13, 2020 is a textbook example of social media propaganda; false statements, unsupportable equivalencies and pictures posted of alleged villains. The supposed wrongdoing? Having opinions that the CCPOA does not like.
The video uses a standard style of over-reach that might be amusing if it were not so overtly threatening.
Opening with an attack on the Culver City Action Network, a local group who have worked for the last three years to educate people about their legal rights in regard to education, immigration status, and rent policies, they have often used town-hall style conversations about community connection. Pre-pandemic, they were renting local school auditoriums as meeting space, and all of these meetings were well publicized and open to all.
The unidentified voice over that asks “Who is the Culver City Action Network? Why do they continuously put out false narratives about the Culver City Police Department?” reflects absurdly in reverse. Representatives of the CCAN have met with the Culver City Police Department on a number of occasions, discussing policies for sanctuary ( after the city council passed the law) and the pilot program for drones ( still in process by the department.) To pretend that this is a group of anonymous interlopers is, in fact, a false narrative.
The villains whose faces are posted in the video are CCUSD School Board member Dr. Kelly Kent, and her father John Kent, whose crimes seem to be having thoughts, conversations and hashtags posted that are not what the CCPOA thinks they should be. That the CCPOA considers Dr. Kent using a hashtag on FB to be a sign of some sort of subversive connection is extreme over-reach.
“I was wondering,” said Dr. Kent in a brief phone interview, ” what do school boards members do if they feel they can’t call the police for help?” she acknowledge that she had recently had security cameras installed at her residence, something she said “I wish I didn’t feel like I had to do. But I did.”
Kent has stated she is not member of CCAN. Adding her to a video that seems to be focused on CCAN seems nonsensical. Every other school board member who is not involved with CCAN could be featured as well.
So, who is the Culver City Police Officers Association? A police union, authorized to negotiate with the city on behalf of the department in regard to pay and benefits. Why would they be in the business of creating Facebook videos using such easily debunked methods of spreading misinformation on social media?
Requests to the CCPD for information have not as of yet, been returned. A message on Facebook to the CCPOA has also not received a response.
With a community meeting already scheduled for Thursday, August 20, 2020, the CCPD is doing just what one would hope and expect a police department to do; conduct outreach and find ways to discuss the concerns of the community in the midst of this national conversation on changing the role of police departments.
What the CCPOA is doing is damaging the reputation of the department they are supposedly defending by using such unsupportable tactics online.
Judith Martin-Straw
To connect with Thursday’s online CCPD meeting, go to (content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CACULVER/bulletins/29a1c6a?reqfrom=share)
Excellent! Thanks Judith.
GREAT article, Judith! You absolutely nailed it.
This is terrible black listing. It appears the CCPD felt threatened by people having opinions and observations. We are not a police state. The police work for the public not the other way around.
Judith,
I was surprised by your “article.” I have always felt that you were a responsible, truth-telling journalist. Believe me, you and I both know others who are not. If your article was supposed to be an “opinion,” it was not labeled as such; and it is my OPINION that the “article” should have been clearly identified as “OPINION.” The Culver City Police Officers Association legitimately corrected some erroneous statements made by CCAN about the Culver City Police Department and its history which you absent-mindedly failed to mention in the “article.” Next time, could we have the WHOLE story? Or could we have your “opinions” labeled clearly as “opinions?” Ms. Kelly asked what a school board member does if she FEELS she can not call the police department for help. As a former school board member, I can assure you that my fellow school board members and I ALWAYS felt confident in asking the CCPD for help. If you are a school board member and you do NOT feel that you can ask the police department for help, you are NOT a Culver City School Board Member: you are an LAUSD school board member. If there are troubles in our schools, would Ms. Kelly seriously prefer to ask help from LAPD rather than CCPD? Isn’t the safety CCPD provides to our schools one of the HARD and FAST reasons that people move here send their kids to Culver City schools in the first place? Doesn’t Ms Kelly understand that? If I am wrong, and your Opinion was clearly identified as “Opinion,” I apologize for taking your time. Very truly yours, Steven Gourley