Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez made openly racist remarks about the city’s racial landscape in a leaked audio recording.
In the recording from October 2021, Martinez, a Democrat, spoke about Councilman Mike Bonin’s black son as “Parece changuito”—which is translated to “like a little monkey”—while recalling seeing Bonin’s son on a float during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.
“They’re raising him like a little white kid,” Martinez was heard saying. “I was like, ‘this kid needs a beatdown,’ let me take him around the corner, and then I’ll bring him back.”
During the conversation with council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, Martinez described Bonin at one point as a “little bitch.”
Martinez also mocked Oaxacans and said, “F— that guy. He’s with the Blacks,” while speaking about Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón.
Following the audio leak, Martinez stepped down from her post and apologized for her racially offensive language.
“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,” she said in a statement. “Therefore, effective immediately I am resigning as President of the Los Angeles City Council.”
Several officials came forward to condemn her comments. The incident comes just a month away from the November midterm elections.
“Bigotry, violence, and division too often live in unseen and unheard places, but have severe consequences on the lives of our fellow Angelenos when they are not confronted and left to infect our public and private lives,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said. “Stepping down from the council would be the right response by these members in a moment that demands accountability and healing at a time of great pain and deep disappointment.”
“This is not the Los Angeles I know or reflective of the beliefs of the women & men of LAPD. Such remarks are unacceptable in any setting. A dark day for our City of Angels,” Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michel Moore tweeted.
