UPDATE: L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez has resigned from her post after audio of racist remarks made in October 2021 leaked Sunday.
Martinez did not indicate at the time whether she will also step down from her City Council seat.
“I take responsibility for what I said and there are no excuses for those comments,” Martinez said in a statement Monday. “I’m so sorry.”
Her statement continued:
“I sincerely apologize to the people I hurt with my words: to my colleagues, their families, especially to Mike, Sean, and your son. As a mother, I know better and I am sorry. I am truly ashamed. I know this is the result of my own actions. I’m sorry to your entire family for putting you through this.
“As someone who believes deeply in the empowerment of communities of color, I recognize my comments undercut that goal. Going forward, reconciliation will be my priority. I have already reached out to many of my Black colleagues and other Black leaders to express my regret in order for us to heal.
“I ask for forgiveness from my colleagues and from the residents of this city that I love so much. In the end, it is not my apologies that matter most; it will be the actions I take from this day forward. I hope that you will give me the opportunity to make amends.
“Therefore, effective immediately I am resigning as President of the Los Angeles City Council.”
[Original story below]
Colleagues and constituents alike are calling for the resignation of Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez after a recording of her making racist and derisive remarks leaked Sunday, sparking a series of public apologies from those involved and protests outside of Martinez’s Sun Valley home.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the audio – first posted anonymously to Reddit before being obtained by the newspaper – depicts a closed-door conversation from October 2021 between Martinez, Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and L.A. County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.
In the secret recording, much of the conversation centered around the once-in-a-decade process of redistricting. Martinez can be heard heatedly discussing the need to “ensure that heavily Latino districts did not lose economic assets.”
But the racist comments in question center around Councilmember Mike Bonin, who is white, and his young son, who is Black. Martinez, deriding Bonin for thinking “he’s f—ing Black,” accused the councilman of handling his son like an accessory while on a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade float, and then said of the son, “Parece changuito,” or “He’s like a monkey.”
“They’re raising him like a little white kid,” Martinez said. “I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.”
Elsewhere in the recordings, Martinez says of District Attorney George Gascón, “F— that guy, he’s with the Blacks.”
Protests mounted outside of Martinez’s Sun Valley residence Sunday evening, calling for her resignation while playing the recordings over loudspeakers.
Martinez and others have since released statement apologizing for the incident.
“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,” Martinez said. “For that I am sorry.”
“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,” her statement continued. “My work speaks for itself. I’ve worked hard to lead this city through its most difficult time.”
Additional statements have been made by de León and Herrara, acknowledging their complicity in Martinez’s comments.
De León said of his “wholly inappropriate” comments that he had fallen “short of the expectations we set for our leaders.” (In discussing Bonin, the councilman compared his handling of his son to a Louis Vuitton handbag, the Times reports.) I regret appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments made about a colleague and his family in private,” he said in a statement. “I’ve reached out to that colleague personally.”
Herrara also apologized, emphasizing that there’s “no justification and no excuse for the vile remarks made in that room,” and that he “didn’t step up to stop them.”
“I will have to bear the burden of that cross moving forward,” he said.
The Times reports that in contacting councilman Cedillo Sunday night, he claimed to not “have a recollection of this conversation.”
Bonin posted a response of his own Sunday afternoon, expressing anger and disgust toward Martinez’s “vile, abhorrent, and utterly disgraceful” comments made about his son. He then called personally for her resignation.
“Any parent reading her comments will know she is unfit for public office.”