After an audio recording of the president of the Los Angeles City Council making shockingly racist statements about a fellow council member to the head of a nearby labor organization was made public earlier this month, three council members were compelled to apologize on Sunday.
The conversation in October 2021 between Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmen Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, and President of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Ron Herrera was initially about council members’ comments regarding maps that the city’s redistricting commission had proposed.
On multiple occasions, Martinez is heard disparaging fellow council member Mike Bonin in the tape, calling him a “little b****” before sensationally accusing him of carrying his adoptive kid around town like “an accessory.”
According to the leaked recording, De León seemed to concur with his colleague’s remarks when he likened Bonin taking his child around LA to “when Nury takes her little yard bag or the Louis Vuitton bag.”
Later in the 30-minute chat, Martinez refers to the youngster as “that little monkey” (esse changuito), a disparaging term for a black person in Spanish, and “su negrito,” a term used in jest to refer to a black person.
The Latina Democrat said that Bonin had been treating his son “like a little white child” and that he needed a “beatdown.”
The mayor of the municipal council said, “Let me take him across the block and I’ll return him back.”
‘In a moment of tremendous irritation and rage, I allowed the situation get the better of me and I hold myself responsible for these statements,’ she said in a Sunday apology for the remarks, which were initially reported on Reddit. For that, I apologize.
Concerns about the redistricting process and its detrimental effects on communities of color were brought up throughout the meeting, she said. “My art is self-explanatory.” I’ve put a lot of effort into guiding our city through its most trying period.
In response, Bonin told the LA Times that the tape release left him feeling “disgusted, enraged, and heartsick.”
He said, “It’s fair game to criticize me, but why not my son?” as he demanded the resignation of all three city council members. “To attack a youngster, you have to be extremely petty, insecure, and poisonous.” Not even three years old. Other than that, I’m at a loss for words.
Although it is still unknown who captured the audio and how, it was initially posted on Reddit.
Wow, you know it occurs, but when you really hear it, it’s astounding,’ a user who has since been suspended said in a comment next to the audio recording that was released. “City Hall and the labor movement are bedfellows,”
Additionally, Martinez was heard on video cursing at LA District Attorney George Gascón.
The former member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education said, “F*** that man, he’s with the Blacks.”
De León expressed regret for his remarks on Sunday, calling them “wholly unacceptable” and admitting that he “failed to live up to the standards we set for our leaders.”
In a statement, he said, “I regret seeming to condone and even contribute to some inappropriate remarks made about a colleague and his family in private.” “I personally reached out to that coworker,” I said.
Cedillo, however, claimed to the LA Times that he had no memory of the exchange.
An inquiry for comment made on behalf of the LA Times was not answered by Herrera. The chat was “recorded in violation of California’s privacy and recording laws on LA County Federation of Labor property,” according to his attorney Julie Gutman Dickinson, who also represents the LA County Federation of Labor.
The LA Times, on the other hand, argued that “it is a fundamental principle of the United States that we do not restrict or penalize the receiving and publishing of important material,” as stated by its General Counsel Jeffrey Glasser.
Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, would not say whether the three city council members should continue in their positions or step down.
“There is no room for bigotry anyplace in LA,” he told the LA Times. “There is no place in our city family for assaults on coworkers and their loved ones.”