A small group of Los Angeles city leaders faced shame and castigation after an audio recording of racist remarks at a private meeting surfaced.
The most egregious remarks were uttered by City Council President Nury Martinez, who seemed to verify the 2021 recording by. She likened a colleague's son, Black and 2 years old at the time, to an animal and seemed to imply that the county's progressive district attorney shouldn't be supported because he may be popular with Black Angelenos.
During the meeting, the group settled on Heather Hutt, one of the council's three Black members, who subsequently was appointed by the full council. A statement attributed to Bonin and his partner, Sean Arian, called on Martinez to resign and, at the same time, urged the council to remove her as president.
"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," she said in a statement sent to NBC Los Angeles."For that I am sorry." “I want to start by apologizing,” he said. “While I did not engage in the conversation in question, I was present at times during this meeting last year,” he continued. “It is my instinct to hold others accountable when they use derogatory or racially divisive language. Clearly, I should have intervened.”
Those issues are front and center in the race to replace Mayor Eric Garcetti, which pits a veteran Democrat, U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, against billionaire former Republican Rick Caruso.