A couple dozen of protesters showed up outside Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León’s El Sereno offices Oct. 13, pressuring him to resign for his participation in a recorded conversation involving four elected officials that included a series of racially charged remarks and discussions over redistricting.
Two of them—former Council President Nury Martinez and former LA County Federation of Labor Ron Herrera—have resigned, but de León and fellow councilman Gil Cedillo have resisted the growing calls.
In the tapes, de León compared Councilman Mike Bonin’s handling of his son at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade to “when Nury brings her little Goyard bag or the Louis Vuitton bag.” He did not interject as Martinez belittled Bonin, who is white and openly gay, and called Bonin’s child “ese changuito,”—Spanish for “that little monkey.”
Martinez also said of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón: “[expletive] that guy. (inaudible) … He’s with the blacks.”
When Cedillo dismissed black voters by saying “the 25 blacks are shouting,” de León responded, “But they shout like they’re 250.”
de León also made comments about last year’s process of redrawing council district boundaries, which included discussions of how to avoid giving Councilwoman Nithya Raman renter-heavy districts like Koreatown. In the conversation, de León called Raman’s district “the one to put in the blender and chop up, left or right.”
After the tapes were released, de León said in an Oct. 9 statement: “There were comments made in the context of this meeting that is wholly inappropriate, and I regret appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments made about a colleague and his family in private. I’ve reached out to that colleague personally.”
“On that day, I fell short of the expectations we set for our leaders—and I will hold myself to a higher standard,” he said.
de León has not commented since.
de León, 55, has been on the council since 2020 and made an unsuccessful run for mayor this year. Prior to the city council, he was in the state Senate and Assembly from 2006 to 2014.
Acting Council President Mitch O‘Farrell said Thursday that he’s been unsuccessful in trying to reach de León. The council has come to a standstill while calling for de León and Cedillo to resign, with O’Farrell canceling a scheduled meeting on Oct. 14.
“In the court of public opinion, the verdict has been rendered and they must resign,” O'Farrell said of de León and Cedillo. “There’s too much pain, there’s too much deep injury to the soul, to the spirit in the city. And this must happen and the people have spoken.”
Among the couple dozen protesters who showed up outside Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León’s El Sereno offices Thursday was Melina Abdullah, his former teacher.
Abdullah, a professor at Cal State LA and head of the Black Lives Matter Los Angeles chapter, said de León was one of her 15 students when she taught a class called Voting, Campaigns, and Elections at Scripps College around two decades ago.
Abdullah said that in her class, de León presented himself as “pro-worker, pro-people of color, pro-black” and talked often about the labor movement.
“And then what was revealed is that behind closed doors, he was anti-all of those things,” she said. “I’m beyond disappointed. I’m enraged.”
Many cars driving by the corner of Huntington Drive and Rosemead Avenue during the protest honked in support, with a few people rolling down their windows to make passing comments.
Other speakers criticized de León for voting for the 41.18 ordinance that bans homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools and daycare centers. They held signs such as, “KDL Hates The Poor,” and “We Are With The Blacks.”
“We know we deserve better now,” said Martha Escudero, a member of the housing group Reclaiming Our Homes. “We’re not stupid and we’re not going to get fooled again. Just because they look like you and me [doesn’t mean] they are for your interests. It’s what they actually do.”
Mario Correa, a member of J-Town Action and Solidarity who was critical of the city clearing encampments in Little Tokyo, said he isn’t surprised that de León has not yet resigned.
“He thinks that LA doesn’t care,” Correa said. “He thinks that LA will stand for it. He’s gambling, and it’s up to the people to put on the pressure.
By the end of the 90-minute gathering, a sign hung on the door of de León’s office that read: “Kevin, Resign Now!!”
