The Los Angeles Police Protective League asked Twitter and Google to immediately remove from their platforms the Killer Cops website, which offered to pay rewards to anyone who killed an officer.

For violating its rules and policies against inciting violence against police officers, Twitter suspended the Killer Cops account.

The decision came a week after the Los Angeles police union took legal action against the owner of a website that offered to pay rewards for killing officers.

“We appreciate that Twitter acted quickly to remove this dangerous site that called for the murder of Los Angeles police officers,” Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) President Craig Lally said in a statement.

“This was not about free speech or public discourse, it was about protecting officers and their families, and for that we are grateful that this site is suspended,” Lally added.

According to LAPPL officials, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) released photos, names and work locations of 9,000 officers through California Public Records Act requests. However, this move also included those officers deployed on assigned and undercover confidential operations.

Subsequently, the LAPD admitted that it was an error in releasing the officer data.

In his statement, the LAPPL president felt that, as a result of the LAPD’s negligence in publishing officers’ photographs, names and work locations, the owner of the Killer Cops website was able to download the confidential information, publish it and offer rewards to anyone who kills a Los Angeles police officer.

LAPPL attorneys sent cease and desist notices on Twitter and Google to immediately remove the Killer Cops website from their platforms, a request that Twitter complied with on Sunday.

“The colossal mistake made by the Los Angeles Police Department in releasing this confidential information must be met with a zero-tolerance approach by these two social media companies (Twitter and Google), which should include a lifetime ban for the owner of this site,” LAPPL General Counsel Robert Rico said in a statement.

An LAPPL spokesman mentioned that the lawsuit filed by the union is not against the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, which filed the original public records requests for data on the officers, but is against the owner of the killer Cops website.

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