Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin DeLeon (CD-14) is not having a Happy Holiday. In October, a conversation of a secret meeting between DeLeon, his former Councilmembers Nury Martinez (CD-06) and Gil Cedillo (CD-01), and L.A. Labor Federation President Ron Herrera was leaked, where the councilmembers spouted racist and homophobic slurs directed at their colleague Mike Bonin (CD-11) and his Black adopted son, as well as crass remarks made about Black council districts in general, and certain indigenous citizens in particular.

In case you haven’t been keeping score, Herrera resigned from his position and Nury Martinez resigned her CD-06 council seat. Calls for the resignation of Cedillo and DeLeon have fallen on deaf ears, but both councilmen have not attended a council meeting since the October fallout due to the disruptive protesters calling for their unseating preventing council business from being conducted. Couple that with the animus from Bonin and his allies on the council, Nithya Raman (CD-04) and Marqueece Harris-Dawson (CD-08), who were also not-so-flattering subjects of that leaked conversation.

On December 9, DeLeon decided he would appear at what was probably one of the last meetings of the calendar year. Councilmembers Bonin, Harris-Dawson, and Raman walked out in protest.

Vile racist Kevin de León just showed up for council. I walked out, as did @mhdcd8 and @nithyavraman. He needs to resign.

That same evening, DeLeon attempted to conduct council business in his CD-14 by attending a tree lighting and toy drive in Lincoln Park.

Perhaps this was a mistake.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Hours after drawing protesters’ ire with his first in-person appearance in two months at a Los Angeles City Council meeting, Kevin de León was involved in a fight with an activist Friday night, in an altercation at least partially caught on video.

The council member said in a statement that he was assaulted. Activists said De León was the aggressor.

De León was at Lincoln Park for a toy giveaway and holiday tree lighting when the incident occurred, his office told The Times.

Jason Reedy is the activist in the video who claims he was assaulted by DeLeon. The video was captured by Roots Action, a progressive group associated with the Democrat Socialists of America Los Angeles (DSA-LA). Like the DSA, Roots Action supports worker solidarity and opposes anyone who challenges this. Currently Roots Action is on a campaign to convince Joe Biden not to run for a second term. They also have no love for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or her successor as Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Party allegiances, along with electoral norms and traditions (read: constitutions and city charters) mean nothing to them. Consider this a warning.

Roots Action posted the full video of the DeLeon-Reedy altercation on their Twitter feed. From this writer’s viewpoint, it does not look good for the councilman.

Full video of conflict Friday night involving Kevin De Leon.

Please ask @JTOWNACTION for permission to use. Please contact Jason Reedy’s lawyer @sh4keer if you have any questions. pic.twitter.com/fDaVfsBSeZ

— RootsAction (@Roots_Action) December 10, 2022

DSA-LA have been playing hardball to overturn the Los Angeles City Council and their status quo and appear to be winning this game. DSA-LA backed candidates have overturned two Council seats: establishment hack Mitch O’Farrell (CD-13) was voted out in November and replaced by labor activist Hugo Soto-Martinez.

So moving and inspiring and hopeful to see @hugoforcd13 take his oath of office, surrounded by family, friends and sisters and brothers in the labor movement. @unitehere11 pic.twitter.com/6iqbwG8sd4

— Mike Bonin (@mikebonin) December 10, 2022

And DeLeon’s fellow embattled “racist” Cedillo was primaried in June by Eunisses Hernandez, an avowed DSA-LA member.

I am not either. https://t.co/8kTbQvlUjF

— Eunisses (@EunissesH) December 9, 2022

The DSA-LA’s tracks are all over this stalking of DeLeon. But even with statements and the video, it currently stands as a he-said, he-said scenario. The Daily News reports that along with the Roots Action activists, another Little Tokyo-based progressive activist organization called J-Town Action & Solidarity was also part of the altercation. They, too, accuse DeLeon of starting the assault.

What a surprise.

“We came to this event alongside our comrade Jason to hold KDL accountable for his racism and fascist policies,” Chun’s statement said. “As we approached him and demanded that he resign, we were all assaulted by his supporters and were even called racial insults and slurs such as ‘Oriental.’

“Once we were pushed out of the gymnasium doors into the hallway, all I saw was KDL’s anti-Blackness manifest into physical violence yet again as he assaulted Jason for the second time this year. They then physically threw us outside and we all left promptly afterwards. Kevin needs to resign immediately and never show his unhinged racist face in public again.”

DeLeon gave his own statement, rebutting the activists’ account.

De León said the video does not fully show what happened.

“What the video doesn’t capture, most conveniently, is he thrusted his pelvis into me and then he head-butted me right into the head,” de León said. “When he head-butted me is when I grabbed him and put him on the table. I held him on the table there for maybe five to 10 seconds.

“Then, at that moment, I let him go. Another melee ensued. He turned the corner, he threw a punch at me — a full blown punch, hit me right in the face, threw a second punch at me, missed me.”

Roots Action appeared to be ready for all this. Reedy already has an attorney on tap to litigate the matter.

Shakeer Rahman, an attorney representing Reedy, denied that his client head-butted the councilman in a statement to the Los Angeles Times and called De León “a disgrace.”

“Video footage clearly shows him and his supporters initiating this assault while Mr. Reedy stands prone,” Rahman told the newspaper. “Not only has Kevin de León lost all political legitimacy, his claims that he was the one attacked here simply underscores how he’s lost touch with reality.”

According to media reports, a police report was filed, along with the video, and the incident is now under police investigation. The Los Angeles Police Department declined to release the names of the people involved in the incident, and no arrests were made.

Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, who is sometimes a fellow traveler with DSA-LA and their activist ilk, is taking the time from his busy CalLeg schedule to help stir the pot.

Not spewing anti-black, homophobic, anti-indigenous hate speech and not becoming physically violent with people who challenge that hate speech are very low barriers for elected officials to stay in office.

This *member* of our City Council feels otherwisepic.twitter.com/7dHo9FnujE

— Isaac G. Bryan (@ib2_real) December 10, 2022

It is clear that certain parties are determined to see DeLeon out of office, by any means necessary. This alleged assault could be the wedge that accomplishes it.