The former chief of staff for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti referred to the city’s Black Lives Matter chapter as 'annoying,' leaked emails show.
In an October 2016 email, Ana Guerrero — who still serves in an advisory role for Garcetti‘s office — wrote that people praising the mayor were"not as annoying as BLM, but getting close," Vice reported. The Black Lives Matter movement and its anti-police protests grew in popularity in 2016, after Alton Sterling and Philando Castile died in Louisiana and Minnesota, respectively.
A protester waves a Black Lives Matter flag during the demonstration outside of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's home to protest his proposed funding of the Los Angeles Police Department. "The mayor and his staff have always approached the conversation about racial justice thoughtfully with a goal of bringing people together to make change.
The office added:"Those deeply personal and difficult moments have not deterred us from pursuing an unprecedented justice agenda that includes millions invested in reimagining public safety, a commission on reparations and a participatory budgeting pilot that specifically confronts the legacy of institutional racism in our city."