As our Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar reported, Nury Martinez has resigned as Los Angeles City Council president, after a leaked recording from October 2021 of her making racist and homophobic remarks against Blacks—specifically the adopted Black child of white (and gay) councilmember Mike Bonin — surfaced. Leaving no racist, homophobic, or bigoted stone unturned, Martinez also disparaged Councilman Mitch O’Farrell (gay), and Councilwoman Nithya Raman (Indian).
With her half-hearted apology and resignation from her leadership role, Martinez is making an attempt to quell the anger of Angeleans of all ethnicities, as her unvarnished rantings didn’t exclude anyone and offended everyone.
“In a moment of intense frustration and anger, I let the situation get the best of me and I hold myself accountable for these comments. For that I am sorry,” Martinez shared. “The context of this conversation was concern over the redistricting process and concern about the potential negative impact it might have on communities of color. My work speaks for itself. I’ve worked hard to lead this city through its most difficult time.”
Oh, it speaks alright. This “Latina First” is the tool who called for defunding of the police and demanded that Los Angeles Police Chief Michael Moore “take a knee” during the 2020 BLM protests in the city. While defunding L.A.’s law enforcement, Martinez maintained her full security detail, until she was criticized for this rank hypocrisy.
This is how ugly this progressive patina is, and once again, what’s underneath the surface has been exposed.
But it wasn’t just Martinez. In this very “hush hush” meeting between Martinez, City Councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, and L.A. Labor Federation President Ron Herrera, there were disparaging comments shared all around.
As my colleague Bob Hoge reported,
We all say things that we’d rather not have recorded for the world to hear, but this is some truly toxic stuff that the Council President is spewing out. It’s hard to see how she can regain the public’s trust and continue in her position. Kevin de León, meanwhile, has some pretty serious egg on his face as well.
None of these supposed politicians for the people took a hesitant breath while spewing their bile. This is what happens when progressive racists get drunk on their power and assume they can drop professionalism even in a supposedly professional meeting. No decorum, no filter, just unvarnished remarks that demean Blacks, gays, and their colleagues who they are supposed to be working in concert with, but instead are planning to undermine.
Take Martinez’ comments about how to handle Mark Ridley-Thomas’ District 10. Ridley-Thomas has been indicted on federal corruption charges and was suspended from the council pending the investigation. Mark Ridley-Thomas is also Black and oversees a majority Black district. The City Council voted in Heather Hutt to be a caretaker of the District 10 seat, but for all intents and purposes, it is up for grabs.
Martinez: If the African Americans look at this now… If he goes away…
DeLeon: You mean, resign? Not suspended…
Martinez: If he resigns, and the African Americans look at this as a hostile takeover because he’s gone. We’ll have to figure that shit out because politically they’ll come after us.
If Blacks weren’t looking at it as a hostile takeover, you can bet your sweet bippy they are now!
The Los Angeles Times correspondent Gustavo Arellano points out the problems in this scenario, which has existed in some form or another in the Los Angeles City Council, the most powerful governing body of the second-largest city in the nation.
When you have an elected Latina official use words to describe Black people — children, no less — as changuitos (“little monkeys”) and negritos (“darkies”) while no one else in the room pushes back, it shows the rot, pettiness and paranoia that infest L.A.’s Latino political class. The four waded in grievance politics straight out of Sam Yorty’s City Hall.
When you’ve lost The L.A. Times…
District 4 Councilwoman Nithya Raman probably thought her fellow first had her back. Now that she knows for a fact she does not, Raman was one of the first to throw Martinez and the LatinX Crew under the bus.
Racist, homophobic, and deeply cruel statements like these are disqualifying for elected office in LA. The people who made them should resign. If they don’t, I’ll vote to remove them from Council leadership at the first opportunity.
Sending all my love to Mike and his family. https://t.co/lxiheTFUOz
— Nithya Raman (@nithyavraman) October 9, 2022
All of these folks have endorsed Karen Bass for Mayor of Los Angeles, but she has also denounced their behavior.
My statement regarding the recording released today. pic.twitter.com/WEkTusf70D
— Karen Bass (@KarenBassLA) October 10, 2022
Since then, it’s been a veritable pile-on, as other Council members and Black organizations have weighed in, calling for Martinez, DeLeon, Cedillo, and Herrera to fully resign their posts. The L.A. City Council has always been a hive of villainy, but more so in the last 12 years. Between the corruption (see, Englander, Mitch and Huizar, Jose along with Ridley-Thomas, Mark mentioned above) and the cozy relationships with real estate developers and Cal Labor, nobody’s hands are clean, and they are all complicit in some form of undermining the public trust.
A fish rots from the head, and the rot in Los Angeles can be directly linked to this regressive body, resulting in the garbage leaders who are having to apologize for being themselves. RedState has covered DeLeon’s and Martinez’ sins extensively, as well as Cal Labor and all its malfeasance. There’s more to come on that front, as the sins of Los Angeles and its political rackets are being exposed.
Just in time for the November elections.
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