Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez has resigned after leaked audio allegedly captured her using racist language to describe colleagues.
The leaked audio was from an October 2021 closed-door meeting involving Martinez, council members Kevin De León and Gil Cedillo, and LA County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.
They were discussing the politically sensitive process of redrawing council district boundaries and the need to reelect Latino members and protect economic interests within Latino districts, according to the Los Angeles Times, which obtained the recording.
Among some of the comments in the profanity-laced recording, Martinez allegedly belittled Councilman Mike Bonin’s black son with a racist slur in Spanish and criticized his misbehavior during a Martin Luther King Jr. parade.
“They’re raising him like a little white kid,” Martinez said. “I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.”
Martinez also called the child “ese changuito,” Spanish for “that little monkey.”
De León also criticized Bonin, saying, “Mike Bonin won’t f—–g ever say peep about Latinos. He’ll never say a f—–g word about us,” he said.
The leaked remarks sparked outrage, with a crowd of protesters packing the Los Angeles City Council chamber Tuesday and calling for Martinez, De León, and Cedillo to step down.
The protestors delayed the start of the meeting, which Martinez did not attend, by shouting, “Hey hey, ho ho, Nury Martinez has got to go! What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”
Bonin, who said his son was under three years old at the time of the 2017 parade referred to in the conversation, called for Martinez, De León, and Herrera to resign.
“We are appalled, angry, and absolutely disgusted that Nury Martinez attacked our son with horrific racist slurs, and talked about her desire to physically harm him,” Bonin wrote in a statement with his partner Sean Arian. “It’s vile, abhorrent, and utterly disgraceful.”
Martinez subsequently resigned from her leadership role later on Tuesday.
“I take responsibility for what I said and there are no excuses for those comments. I’m so sorry,” Martinez’s statement reads in part. “I sincerely apologize to the people I hurt with my words: to my colleagues, their families, especially to Mike, Sean, and your son. As a mother, I know better and I am sorry. I am truly ashamed.”
Herrera resigned from his position as the leader of the Federation of Labor on Monday night after issuing an apology on Sunday.
“The calls for accountability are loud, clear, and deserved. I recognize that the community and our affiliates deserved an apology, and I am sorry this has not been the case,” Herrera said.
“I had to first face my family and granddaughters personally and apologize to them for my failure to stand up to racist and anti-black remarks in that immediate moment,” he suggested. “I failed them in the moment, and for that I hold the deepest regret.”
Cedillo and De León have not resigned as council members but have apologized for being involved in the conversation. Cedillo was not reported to have made offensive remarks but apologized for not intervening.
“Clearly, I should have intervened,” reads a statement from Cedillo. “I failed in holding others and myself to the highest standard. The hurtful and harmful remarks made about my colleague’s son were simply unacceptable.”
Cedillo and De León continue to face calls to resign from their City Council seats, including from the leaders of at least eight SEIU California labor unions with primarily Los Angeles-area members.
