Nury Martinez. (Photo: lacity.gov)
Embittered City Councilwoman Nury Martinez Resigns Amid Racist Comment Recording Scandal
Martinez resigns after four days of facing universal calls for her to step down
By Evan Symon, October 12, 2022 6:41 pm
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez resigned on Wednesday following four days of political leaders, LA citizens, and lawmakers from across the political spectrum asking her to step down due to the released recordings of her making several racist comments in a meeting with two other council members and a labor leader.
The comments, which were leaked on the website Reddit Sunday, quickly became one of the top stories in the entire country within only a few hours. According to the audio, which was recorded in October 2021, featured Martinez, fellow City Council members Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.
The four were discussing council redistricting when they brought up Councilman Mike Bonin, a white and openly gay Councilman, and his young black son and brought up a picture with Bonin and his family in a Martin Luther King Jr. parade.
“Bonin thinks he’s f—ing black,” said Martinez in the audio, pointing out the picture. “He handled his young Black son as though he were an accessory. They’re raising him like a little White kid. I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.”
Martinez then proceeded to use slurs against the eight-year-old child, saying in Spanish “Parece changuito” or in English, “He’s like a monkey.” Other slurs and derogatory comments followed, with Martinez proceeding to disparage whites, blacks, and indigenous members of the Latino community. The coverage caused all three affected Council members to release statements of apology, but did little to diffuse tensions.
Throughout Monday and Tuesday, the calls for the four to resign increased. On Monday, Martinez stepped down as Council President, but calls for her to fully resign only increased. Herrera became the first of the four to resign on Tuesday, adding even further pressure on the three. By Tuesday night, some of California and the Nations most powerful lawmakers had called for them to step down, including LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, bother LA Mayoral candidates Karen Bass and Rick Caruso, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and President of the US Joe Biden. In addition, protestors flooded in and around City Hall during the weekly City Council meeting demanding resignations and the LA Mayoral debate focused primarily on the incident. Now Councilwoman Martinez had taken a leave of absence on Tuesday, avoiding the public eye at the City Hall meeting while de Leon and Cedillo showed up.
Martinez Resigns
Martinez, who had been a City Councilwoman since 2013, had lost virtually all support by Wednesday morning, and in the early afternoon finally resigned.
“It is with a broken heart that I resign my seat for Council District 6, the community I grew up in and my home,” said Martinez in a press release. “When I ran in 2013, I wanted to see a change in my community and fight for my neighbors. That is what it has been about all along. No one expected me to win, but with the support of residents throughout the district I overcame that challenge and won the seat for Council District 6. I had the honor of serving in the role of a lifetime: being the representative for my neighbors.”
“My time on the City Council was extremely difficult, and I hope that my work for the city inspires young Latina girls.”
“I apologize for falling short of the expectations of my family, and vow to strive to be a better woman to make you proud.”
News of her resignation was celebrated by many on Wednesday, with some simply noting “Two down, two to go,” referring to the still in-office de Leon and Cedillo.
“We knew this was coming, and Martinez, who arguably made the worst statements of the four, was the second to fall,” said Maria Costa, a Los Angeles pollster who focuses on Latino communities, in a Globe interview on Wednesday. “She just ruined her political career. She’s not even 40 yet, and these things will follow her for the rest of her life. She was rumored to eventually be looking for a House seat or the Mayorship one day. All that is out the window now follow her own little Watergate.”
“We’ve been gathering some quotes from people by phone all day for a quick view, and everyone is happy she’s out now. Some are worried about Latinas in the future running for office, but by and large they are happy that a racist is out. Especially black and white Angelinos we talked to.”
In City Hall, Mayor Eric Garcetti released a statement approving of her resignation, saying “Nury made the right decision, one that I realize is painful to her personally but unquestionably in the best interests of a city that I know she loves. Racism and hateful words cannot ever be overlooked by our community or within one’s self, and she needs the time and space to reflect, make amends, and move forward with her life.”
He added Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo also need to resign “as soon as possible.”
Elsewhere in City Hall, the shockwaves of the resignation also hit.
“People are happy that she is out, but a lot of people are asking where do we go from here,” “Marco” a staffer in the LA City Hall, told the Globe on Wednesday. “If de León and Cedillo also go, that means the LA City Council, along with the upcoming elections and previous scandals, will have essentially been massively overturned in only a few years, largely stripped of serving Latinos, and faced with a rocky future. A lot of people don’t like all this sudden change, but a growing number of people have said that there was so much wrong in the Council that huge changes were needed. Either way, 2023 will be a radically different year in the Council. We’re used to a lot of incumbency and replacements of Councilpeople being very similar. This will change that dramatically.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, neither de Leon or Cedillo have resigned.
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Nice to see the weapons of the left turned back on them. May this be the first of many, many happy endings.
As much as I am also pleased to see the end of the political careers of these three, I fear this situation won’t end happily. Far-far-left extremists and even anarchists are clearly the ones whose “useful idiots” have been most prominently screaming and protesting and chanting in the streets at City Hall. It is this crowd that is already lining up to fill the vacuum left by the trio of council knuckleheads should the other two resign. Also, two or more extreme lefties are on the Nov ballot for council seats, one has already been elected outright in the June primary, and one could win for city controller (God forbid). These people want to abolish the police and think crime is A-OK, they don’t believe in or respect private property, they think the homeless/vagrant crowd should grow unabated with no controls on encampments, drug use, violence, criminal behavior, they want ruinous “equity” on steroids, etc. A majority far-far-left council, especially with Karen Bass as mayor, could quickly finish destroying and bankrupting what’s left of the city. If you think the place is a stinking, smoldering, brutal, crime-ridden hell hole now you haven’t seen anything yet.
This is why at the very least Rick Caruso must be elected mayor at this crucial time. Electing Tracy Parke in CD11, Sam Yabry in CD5, and re-electing Mitch O’Farrell in CD13 may help to keep the city council somewhat sane. We’ll see what happens
I understand your concerns but I think we are entering an era where the left eats itself. People are waking up to their evil and won’t stand for it anymore. The political landscape is having a major earthquake and things will not be the same.
CW, that would be wonderful, and I sincerely hope and pray you are right.
Actually, I think this is what the so called Deep State cabal desires. I think the goal all along has been to maneuver the United States into destroying itself from within. The finishing touch is to get us into a war with Russia – and make sure we lose it. With the U.S. crushed and Russia broken, that leaves China, their pet Technocracy, free to expand globally.
Yes, John Dunlap — I think it used to be called “unconventional warfare.”
It is just end result of the overwhelming narcissism of LA. Bass will win and with the DA the destruction of LA will continue. Any criticism will be labeled “right-wing” and the population will tremble and keep voting Democrat. “Right Wing” is of course anything the Democrat Party decides is contrary to its own power. “Right Wing” is not about some obscure paper in the Frankfurt School, it is defined by the LA times, ABC, CBS, NBC, google algorithms, etc. Politics is downstream from culture and unless you start to see many family and friends be willing to “self identify” as “right wing” nothing will change. Newsom did not do this to us, he is an idiot but we collectively did it to ourselves. Apathy is the real reason California is collapsing. It will bottom out at some point but we have years of decay ahead of us. Only then will normies be willing to verbalize “right wing” opinions.
Great post, Showandtell!!!
Agree 100%
Grew up in the SFV, but man am I glad I’m across the County lines in the 805 now…
This is what happens when we elect “community organizers” to public office, instead of public SERVANTS, who look out for ALL of their constituents, not just an identity politics agenda as obviously Martinez, Cedillo and De Leon do, with their union lackey, Herrera…
Apparently this is why Garcetti and others got on their knees in 2020 in response to the George Floyd brouhaha. They likely even then felt the hot breath of the extra-serious radicals at their backs and were afraid of being swept out of power, ironically by the same groups (e.g. BLM, even Antifa) they had been using as “enforcers.” Now actual commies and anarchists appear to be exploiting this council situation in hopes of seizing legitimate municipal power.
It’s definitely satisfying to watch the threesome of despicable leftist machine politicians “get theirs” after they have abused us and their offices so shamefully. At the same time we need to also be aware of the bigger picture. The people waiting in the wings could be much worse. They’re called anarchists for a reason.
Nice to see the truth come out that so many of these racial minorities are super racist towards other groups. Caucasians are the least racist of any group. And I read a poll a few years ago that proved this!