Los Angeles Council Prez Saw The Digital Dash!

Get out of here!

The Los Angeles City Council president is out after she was recorded saying racial slurs about a Black council member. Pressure is on for her to resign from her role as a councilwoman. 

By the way, she is an elected Democrat, just in case a far right troll wants to make it all about the party registration. A racist has only one label. 

She was the first Latina elected to be Los Angeles City Council president.

On October 9, 2022, an audio recording of a conversation involving Karen Martinez, fellow councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera regarding gerrymandering was leaked anonymously onto Reddit. In the meeting, Martinez stated, "Fuck that guy ... He's with the Blacks", referring to District Attorney George Gascón. 

Martinez also insulted fellow Councilmember Mike Bonin's adopted child, saying "This kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner, I’ll bring him right back." Martinez also called the child a "changuito" according to the Los Angeles Times, a racial slur for a black person meaning "monkey" or "ape" in Spanish.

Pretty stupid.

In the course of the discussion on redistricting, she commented, "I see a lot of little short dark people there" in reference to Koreatown. "Oaxacan Koreans. Not even like Kevin. Little ones," Cedillo replied. She then continued, "I was like, I don't know what village they came from, how they got here, but whatever." She can also be heard to remark, "tan feos" or "they're so ugly" in Spanish.

The three councilmembers discussed how to appoint a new councilmember who would work in their interests, and also agreed to gerrymander Nithya Raman's district in order to suppress those who had voted for her. Heather Hutt, a former California State Director for then-Senator Kamala Harris was suggested. On August 26, 2022, Martinez introduced a motion to appoint Hutt as a councilmember, which was seconded by four other members. The motion was opposed by Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Mike Bonin, who instead proposed instructing the City Attorney to find eligibility requirements for appointments. On August 30, the vote to instate Hutt as a councilmember fell one vote short, with five voting for and five voting against; it was refereed to the Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee for further discussion. The Committee cleared her for reconsideration by the Council the next day, and Hutt was confirmed by the Council in the next meeting and sworn in on September 2, 2022.

Martinez later provided a statement in the Los Angeles Times apologizing, “In a moment of intense frustration and anger, I let the situation get the best of me. I hold myself accountable for these comments. For that I am sorry.”

Bonin's family replied in a tweet condemning the racist comments and demanding Martinez's resignation. 

On October 10, she stepped down as president through a released statement that apologized to Bonin and others, saying, "Therefore, effective immediately I am resigning as President of the Los Angeles City Council," though it was unclear whether she would also resign from her seat on the city council.