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Because the Martin Luther King Jr. Kingdom Day Parade wound to an finish in Leimert Park, activist Jason Reedy stated he tried to “bird-dog” LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell over a current improve in police shootings.
One of many police division’s most outspoken critics, Reedy, typically confronts LAPD and metropolis officers nose to nose in public boards. After jawing with members of McDonnell’s safety element, Reedy acquired right into a heated trade with Alan Hamilton, a deputy chief who runs the detective bureau. In a forwards and backwards partially caught on video, Hamilton was heard suggesting that Reedy had “molested” youngsters.
Reedy, 38, an organizer with the grassroots collective, the Folks’s Metropolis Council, stated the accusation is baseless and a part of a “disgusting” marketing campaign by LAPD officers to silence him.
Hamilton has since claimed his remarks have been taken out of context, and stated he meant that Reedy was merely bothering younger officers on the scene, not abusing youngsters.
The drama unfolded eventually week’s parade. Metropolis politicians and police officers use the occasion to mingle with neighborhood members, who collect to see performances by highschool marching bands, taekwondo college students and mariachis.
Reedy stated he was there together with his household, however left them at one level to confront L.A. Mayor Bass over her help of the Police Division. When he noticed McDonnell close to the tail finish of the parade, he recalled, he started screaming on the chief about the truth that LAPD officers had opened hearth on residents almost 50 instances final 12 months — the best annual complete in a decade.
Activist Jason Reedy speaks at a Los Angeles Metropolis Council assembly on Dec. 9, 2022.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions)
In some unspecified time in the future, McDonnell left and Reedy stated he started arguing with Hamilton.
Reedy posted the movies of the encounter to his followers on X, the place it has racked up tens of 1000’s of views. The clips additionally started circulating privately amongst some LAPD officers.
Within the footage, Reedy is confronting Hamilton whereas holding his telephone within the senior official’s face.
“I gotta watch the youngsters to ensure the youngsters don’t get molested,” Hamilton stated within the video.
Reedy then makes use of a derogatory time period for law enforcement officials and asks what Hamilton means.
“I do know your previous, man,” Hamilton says. One other clip of the trade posted by Reedy ended with Hamilton hopping right into a van with different officers and slamming his door shut.
Hamilton instructed The Occasions that he didn’t imply “molesting” in a felony sense, and advised, with out providing proof, that Reedy had manipulated the recording utilizing AI in a means that favored his narrative — one thing Reedy roundly disputed.
A daily at Police Fee and Metropolis Council conferences, Reedy and different outspoken police critics and social justice advocates have in current months blasted the LAPD for what they’ve seen as a heavy-handed response to this summer time’s pro-immigration protests, collaboration with federal authorities, and unwillingness to confront racism and sexism inside its ranks.
His techniques replicate a brand new, extra confrontational dynamic between public officers and activists who search to seize encounters that can resonate on social media.
Reedy stated felt compelled to nook the mayor and police chief on the MLK parade as a result of it was the one approach to get them to reply for the division’s actions.
However his advocacy has made him the goal of false accusations, he stated. One officer referred to as him a “assassin” and “home abuser.” And in years previous, senior police officers have publicly advised he was an unfit dad or mum for bringing his younger son to Police Fee conferences.
Nonetheless, Reedy stated, for somebody of Hamilton’s rank to discuss with him as a baby abuser crossed the road and probably put him liable to retaliation in his neighborhood. The truth that he’s the first caretaker of his two younger youngsters made the feedback all of the extra disturbing, he stated.
“It’s not true so it doesn’t have an effect on me like that, however even somebody like me I do care what individuals in the neighborhood suppose,” stated Reedy.
Hamilton stated Reedy’s footage didn’t present the stream of vitriol towards him that Reedy unleashed on him, questioning his Blackness and commenting on his combined Asian heritage.
“That man referred to as me every thing beneath the solar,” Hamilton stated.
Hamilton stated he had hung round so as to protect a few of the youthful Black officers current — whom he known as “his youngsters” — from Reedy.
He denied accusing Reedy of inappropriately touching youngsters, saying that he used the time period “molesting” as a euphemism for accosting the youthful officers.
LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton listens throughout a information convention on Dec. 4, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Occasions)
“I used to be referring to the youngsters in uniform, the 20-year-old officers” he stated. “I stated, ‘Cease molesting them…’ It’s unfair. These officers coming in right this moment don’t have anything to do with the historic points that we’ve got on this division.”
Hamilton stated he and Reedy have traded phrases with one another previously, and he felt the necessity to get up for lower-ranking officers eventually week’s scene.
“I don’t suppose Jason Reedy’s afraid of me, and I’m definitely not afraid of Jason Reedy,” Hamilton stated.
Requested whether or not the encounter with Hamilton had made him second-guess his strategy to confronting public officers, Reedy responded merely: “Nah.”
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