LAPD Caves to Leftist Outcries, Drops Service After Ads Show Up on Breitbart
The Los Angeles Police Department is changing its advertising policies after one of its recruitment ads appeared on Breitbart, a conservative news website.
The presence of the ad was first reported Saturday by Noah Shachtman, editor-in-chief of the leftist Daily Beast.
“Uhhhh why is the LAPD running recruitment ads on Breitbart?!” he asked in a tweet, implying that advertising on a conservative site was outrageous.
Uhhhh why is the LAPD running recruitment ads on Breitbart?! pic.twitter.com/9gr1hnmy4o
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) September 28, 2019
Many who took note of Shachtman’s tweet were incensed.
Truly shameful.
— C E Hall (@CEHall13) September 28, 2019
How else would you hire Nazis? By targeting Nazis, of course
— independently stealthy (@mchristo) September 28, 2019
The ensuing outcry prompted LAPD Chief Michel Moore to respond personally. He was adamant his department had nothing to do with the ad and floated the possibility that it might be a “spoof.”
No. LAPD did NOT purchase or otherwise acquire ad space on that website.
Senior leadership at LA City Personnel Department also relayed they did not authorize or pay for this ad either.
Both Depts s investigating whether spoof/other effort to discredit LAPD https://t.co/46jn7DPtZt
— Chief Michel Moore (@LAPDChiefMoore) September 28, 2019
The LAPD’s account joined in the defense on Twitter.
“The LAPD celebrates diversity and embraces it within our ranks, and within the city we serve,” it wrote. “We are aware that a recruitment advertisement has been circulated on a website that creates a negative juxtaposition to our core values.”
We take matters like this very seriously, and have begun an initial inquiry into the matter and to determine its validity, as well as what future steps can and will be taken to avoid this situation occurring in the future.
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) September 28, 2019
The department didn’t directly buy ad space on Breitbart but rather purchased ad placements through Google. The LAPD Personnel Department soon announced that it would drop Google’s ad service in light of the episode with Breitbart, which it said doesn’t “reflect the City’s values.”
We have stopped these Google Ads altogether while we reexamine our ad filters and take all necessary steps to ensure tighter control of ad settings. @LAPDHQ
— Join LAPD (@joinlapd) September 28, 2019
Yet again, virtue signaling has run amok, and a police department is getting dragged through the mud along with a conservative news site for pretty much nothing.
Twitter users, many of whom probably don’t live in Los Angeles anyway, were triggered by the fact that an ad might recruit Breitbart readers to the city’s police force.
To them, readers of conservative sites are a shadowy, secretive community of racist white people, while normal people get their news from left-leaning or establishment outlets.
Obviously, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Nevertheless, the leftist Twitter mob thinks it has the moral high ground over conservatives and won’t miss any opportunity to throw its weight around. Unfortunately, the LAPD felt the need to cave to the pressure.
The department likely will miss out on a surge of fantastic recruits gleaned from the readership of a staunchly pro-police website.
The only real losers here are the residents of Los Angeles.
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