'This Is a Day of Change:' Snoop Dogg, The Game Lead Impromptu March in Unity with LAPD

Los Angeles, CA — Just hours after a peaceful protest in Dallas turned into a national tragedy, gangsta rappers in Los Angeles became the unlikely champions of unity.

Snoop Dogg and The Game led dozens of men representing LA's minority communities on a march outside the Los Angeles Police Department recruit graduation.

“Objective: 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," The Game wrote in an Instagram call to action. "Let's erase the fear of one another on both sides & start something new here in the city of Los Angeles, a city we all love & share!”

Following the graduation ceremony, and the march, the rappers held an impromptu meeting with Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.

"If you are a human being and you have ears and eyes to see, this is a day of change," The Game said. "I think that we need to take responsibility as a human race and accept the role as peace-givers and people that distribute love and change throughout this city."

The Game urged supporters to make Los Angeles can be a "flagship" for cities around the world, and a showing of peace and unity here will resonate around the world.

"I know that together we can unify Los Angeles," he said.

Unaware that they were marching on the LAPD's recruit graduation ceremony, the rappers said the coincidence made it all the more poignant.

"This is even better because now these students that are about to hit the streets can know that there is some sort of dialogue going on and they don't have to be fearful," Snoop Dogg told City News Service. "And they can do their jobs and know that when you stop somebody you're a conversation away from sending them home or taking them to jail, but the conversation is key."

Police and the communities they police have common ground, said Snoop Dogg.

"We all represent the same cause and we all want to go home to our families," he said. "Today was a first step of many steps. We are here to show love and support to the police force in Los Angeles and get some understanding and communication, and we feel like this is a great start."

It was an "extraordinarily powerful meeting," said Garcetti.

"If we can, on the streets, say that peace and love is the only way forward — the lives we can save," he said.

Standing next to the famed rappers, Beck said it was a far cry from his typical press conference.

"We are too violent a society," he said. "Violence begets violence. It is time to put down our arms and start the dialogue. We have to go forward from today as human beings, as Americans, as partners. Put aside the things that divide us and come together on the things that bind us — our desire to leave Los Angeles a better place than we found it, our mutual desire to have our kids grow up in a place where they can't expect violence at every turn.

"I couldn't be prouder to stand in front of you today and say we are on that path in Los Angeles, but it's going to take everybody. It's going to take leadership and it's going to take hard work."

Snoop Dogg told reporters earlier outside LAPD headquarters he wanted to ensure that rookie officers — like those who graduated today — "know who they're dealing with."

"A lot of times these officers hit the streets in communities where they have never encountered a gang member or someone who had a different kind of background," he told KNX Newsradio. "Today it's a bunch of guys up here who come from those communities who want to show them we're cool, we're peaceful. We're here in love."

He said the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department does a better job of training its deputies for work on the streets, because they generally begin working in the county jail.

By contrast, LAPD officers are often sent into gang-plagued neighborhoods straight out of the academy.

"They're scared, they're nervous, and when they encounter someone, they automatically feel they must use violence as opposed to communication," he said.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.