Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez speaks during a news conference held at Dodger Stadium on January 15, 2021, in Los Angeles. The president of the Los Angeles City Council resigned from the council Wednesday after she was heard making racist and other crude remarks in an audio recording of conversations with leaders. other Latino religion leaked.
Irfan Khan / AP
hide captions
switch captions
Irfan Khan / AP
Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez speaks during a news conference held at Dodger Stadium on January 15, 2021, in Los Angeles. The president of the Los Angeles City Council resigned from the council Wednesday after she was heard making racist and other crude remarks in an audio recording of conversations with leaders. other Latino religion leaked.
Irfan Khan / AP
LOS ANGELES – An anonymous audio recording was leaked of crude, racist and politically conspiratorial remarks that led to the resignation of the Los Angeles City Council president and a labor rights leader. The force has left a mystery: Who created the tape, and why?
The posting of the old recording on Reddit in the run-up to the November midterm elections has raised clear suspicions of political motives. Much of the hour-long private conversation between several council members and the head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor – all Latino Democrats – focused on consolidating influence. their role in the rearrangement of the Council’s areas.
It has now prompted a state-level investigation.
The recording was made in a meeting room inside the headquarters of the politically influential labor group – known locally as the “Fed” – but it is unknown how the recording was made during a meeting. small gathering of friends, or even people present in the room.
“Clearly this was an inside job, and believes the most likely target of the unknown person who recorded the meeting was union president Ron Herrera,” said Mark Gonzalez, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party chief. .
Herrera has since resigned.
“It has to be someone who has access and knows his calendar, who knows about it,” Gonzalez said. “Everybody is making their own speculation.”
Former Councilmember Nury Martinez, the first Latina to hold the post, resigned Wednesday after President Joe Biden joined a chorus of officials calling for those involved to step down.
Martinez was recorded in conversation saying that White Councilor Mike Bonin treated his young black son as if he were an “accessory” and used derogatory terms. to describe both of them, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
At another point in the hour-long recording, she calls indigenous immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca “tan feos” or “so ugly.” The conversation also included harsh and intolerant comments about Jews, Armenians, and other groups.
The source of the tape “was a salon game going on all over town,” said former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. “It may never be resolved.”
Two other Council members who attended Friday’s meeting, Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon, kept their seats despite growing pressure to resign.
No one at the meeting spoke publicly about the possible source of the recording.
The discussion focused on protecting Latino political power during the redrawing of council area boundaries, known as redistricting. The decade-long process could pit one group against another for political advantage in future elections.
The Caucasian Black Legislature said the recording “reveals a horrifying attempt to decentralize Black voices during a critical regional redistricting process.”
The labor union did not respond to a series of questions, including detailing who attended the meeting. It issued a one-sentence statement that did not specifically say the meeting with Council members was not recorded by the organization.
“The Fed has never had a policy of recording meetings,” Interim President Thom Davis said in a statement.
In today’s tech-saturated society, it’s simple to record a private conversation using widely available devices. Cell phones have very sensitive microphones and can be easily hidden in a briefcase, purse or backpack.
The recording reveals possible clues: Clicks could be the opening of a briefcase, and cluttered paper-like noises could suggest a microphone somewhere on or near the tabletop.
Yaroslavsky says the language is appalling, and he cannot recall any incidents in which a private meeting between elected officials was recorded separately. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the recording was posted on Reddit by a now-suspended user. It is unclear who recorded the audio or who uploaded it to the website.
The release of the secret recording has unsettled the Los Angeles political community, especially those who used to work at the labor group’s headquarters. Gonzalez, the Democratic leader, said people are feeling “unsafe.”
Longtime Democratic consultant Michael Trujillo based in Los Angeles said whoever created the tape probably never wanted to be identified. The person may be seen as a hero in some areas for exposing racism in the highest levels of City Hall, but it could also lead to the person being sued for recording conversations. without consent, which is illegal in California. State law requires one person to record someone else’s recordings with consent.
“The problem is that the same hero will face criminal and civil trials,” he said.
