LA City Council Pres Resigns After Leaked Audio Reveals She's Suuuuuper Racist
Yikes!
It was a jam-packed day of resignations for (now former) Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez after she was caught on tape being racist, homophobic, and promoting child abuse. These were very busy tapes.
Last year, Martinez had a redistricting meeting with three other sitting LA City Council members and a local union leader, Ron Herrera. Martinez especially spoke as if she didn’t realize their conversation was recorded. I think 1980s one-hit wonder Rockwell would’ve had a more successful political career because he always assumed people were watching him.
You can hear Martinez in the leaked audio, published in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, saying gross shit about Mike Bonin, the council member representing the 11th District, and his son, who is a child. She described Bonin as a "little bitch" who "thinks he's fucking Black."
She accused Bonin, who's white, of using his son like "an accessory ... s u negrito , like on the side." Council member Kevin de León, competing with Martinez in the homophobia sweepstakes, claimed Bonin carried the kid around like a designer handbag. (Bonin is also gay.) He also referred to Bonin as the Council's "fourth Black member." When de León compared Black political power in LA to the Wizard from Oz, Martinez said she'd never seen the movie. She's a monster.
Here, listen for yourself and then go throw up:
During the meeting, Martinez ranted about how Bonin's son apparently behaved while on a float in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. This was back in 2017 but she was still cranky. She claimed the kid was so unruly he might've tipped over the float if she and other women hadn't stepped in to “parent this kid.”
MARTINEZ: They’re raising him like a little white kid ... I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back. There’s nothing you can do to control him.
Martinez is 49 so it’s not like she raised kids during the height of the Switch Era. But she doesn’t sound like she’s talking about a child so much as a wild animal that needs to be broken. That might explain why she refers to Bonin’s son as “ el changuito ” which sounds cool until you realize the English translation is “little monkey.”
After the tapes dropped Sunday, Martinez seemed to think she could ride this out. She released a statement suggesting that she was just so concerned about how redistricting might negatively impact communities of color that she and de León had an entirely unrelated racist conversation, presumably to unwind.
MARTINEZ: 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.
Anger and frustration don't make you racist. The Hulk might've gotten pissed and smashed some fools, but he never hurled racial epithets. That's just not who he is deep down.
Martinez referred to Indigenous people in Koreatown as "short little dark people." She also dismissed Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón with a snide "Fuck that guy … He’s with the Blacks." But we shouldn't let Martinez's bigotry and child-beatdown sensibilities define her. She's also incredibly corrupt , plotting with Herrera and de León to aggressively gerrymander fellow council members' districts in retaliation and to advance their own interests.
Martinez initially stepped down as City Council president, stating she would work on "reconciliation ... healing ... forgiveness ..." blah, blah, blah ... SHE WANTED TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF A KID! She needs to keep on stepping and get the fuck out.
You know she’s a Democrat because she actually resigned unlike openly vile Republican racists Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Tommy Tuberville. (This list is hardly comprehensive.) If you’re a Republican and reliably evil, you have a whole support system willing to defend you against the worst actions imaginable. But everyone who was anyone ditched Martinez, including California's junior Sen. Alex Padilla. The grand closing for her career was all of 24 hours. Her colleagues were already calling for her to resign, because they presumably have more integrity than Clarence Thomas’s fellow Supreme Court justices.
Herrera also resigned Monday as president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. De León — formerly president of the California state Senate — seems to think he still has a political career.
Unfortunately, Karen Bass, actual Democratic candidate for mayor, was slow to respond, leaving fake Democrat Rick Caruso an opening to exploit the situation. He said Sunday, “The whole situation shows that City Hall is fundamentally broken and dysfunctional. Most of the people involved in this ugly episode have supported Karen Bass… I hope she will do the right thing and hold her accountable and refrain from supporting the hate speech used.”
So classy playing the guilt by association card! Obviously, Democrats will support other Democrats. Bass didn’t seek out the racist vote. But the croneyism and raw exercise of power demonstrated on the tape is very damaging and could benefit Caruso from a “clean house” approach. That's the last thing we need now.
[ LA Times / Knock LA.com ]
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There was a union involved. I would assume meetings are always recorded when there is a union involved.
Just gonna mention here that in very strong democrat areas where a GOPer can't get elected for pooper scooper, we're gonna have to start vetting our people at the primary level a bit more closely.