People hold placards and chant slogans as they protest before Wednesday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting in Los Angeles was cancelled.
Ringo HW Chiu / AP
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Ringo HW Chiu / AP
People hold placards and chant slogans as they protest before Wednesday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting in Los Angeles was cancelled.
Ringo HW Chiu / AP
Nury Martinez has resigned, days after a tape recording of her making racist comments against the city’s Black and Oaxacan communities was leaked.
“It was with a broken heart that I gave up my seat for the District 6 Council, the community I grew up in and my home,” she said in a statement.
A recorded conversation involving Councilmembers Martinez, Gil Cedillo, and Kevin de León captured the now-former councilwoman describing a member’s black son white council with crude and racist language. She also described the Oaxacan immigrants in Koreatown as “little dark-skinned people”.
The resignation comes hours after protesters disrupted a city council meeting scheduled for Wednesday inside Los Angeles City Hall. Without the resignation, there would be no meeting, they said in chants.
Prior to his resignation, Martinez resigned as chairman of the council, but did not want to leave the council altogether. Cedillo and de León issued an apology, but did not resign.
Councilmember Mike Bonin, whose son was the subject of Martinez’s comments, earlier in the day tweeted a call let all three step down.
It’s unlikely that just Martinez’s resignation will satisfy the LA community.
Dozens of protesters inside the conference room on Wednesday shouted at Pro Tempore President Mitch O’Farrell as he tried to speak and call for order. Protesters held signs asking members to resign and chanted for an hour, as the meeting dragged on.
O’Farrell tried to order the group to be quiet, but ultimately forced the meeting to end after losing delegates before anything on the agenda was resolved.
