Snoop Dogg and The Game led a peaceful march in Downtown Los Angeles on Friday (July 8) in an effort to ease tensions between the African American community and the police force following the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
Following the march, the two rappers were invited inside police headquarters for a closed-door discussion with Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD chief of police Charlie Beck. “It went well,” Snoop Dogg told Billboard after he and The Game emerged from the session. “We were just in there trying to build up dialogue between the police and the community.”
Friday morning, The Game posted on his Instagram an invitation for men of all races to march to the Los Angeles Police Department’s headquarters to “make the Californian government & it’s law branches aware that from today forward, we will be UNIFIED as minorities & we will no longer allow them to hunt us or be hunted by us !!!” He said women and children should stay away, “THIS IS OUR MISSION FOR THEM,” he wrote.
The Compton native emphasized in his post that march had to be peaceful. “Do not: bring any weapons or anything illegal. Do not come high or belligerent … We don’t need any HOT HEADS or anyone there for the wrong reasons… We will stand as we are, UNIFIED. I’m calling ALL GANGS, ALL RACES, ALL GROWN MEN affiliated or not & we will stand UNIFIED.”
The rappers’ mission for the day was to put all differences aside and take action towards ending the social injustices that continue to plague the nation.
“For many years, there’s not been any dialogue,” Snoop continued as a group of about 100 or so bystanders shouted for unity. “It’s just been violence and misunderstanding. We want to bridge the communication gap between the community and the police. That’s what I’m here for, because I could definitely turn it up and go violent. But we wanted to come out here to initiate love and peace. The mayor and chief of police offered us a room inside where we could talk. And they listened to us.”
(Photo Credit: Instagram)