LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles City Council member was embroiled in a scandal over racist comments and an activist fought at a holiday event Friday night.
The activist and Kevin de León got into an argument over a toy car and the lighting of a holiday tree in Lincoln Park, the Los Angeles Times reported.
On Friday, de León attended his first city council meeting in nearly two months following a scandal that erupted after a recording surfaced in October of former council president Nury Martinez, incumbent councilman Gil Cedillo, de León and a union leader who participated in a closed discussion. discussion. – door meeting where racist language was used to taunt colleagues as participants planned to protect Latino political power in council districts.
Martinez resigned. Cedillo lost the June election and his last day in office is Monday. De León apologized and said he had no intention of resigning.
De León said in a statement to the newspaper that he was attacked on Friday night, while activists said the attacker was a member of the council.
The Times reported that two local activist organizations, RootsAction and J-TOWN Action and Solidarity, posted a video on Twitter showing part of the incident between De León and a man identified as Jason Reedy, a People’s City Council organizer.
De León’s office said Reedy and other activists were to blame. De León spokesman Pete Brown said the council member was hit in the head by Reedy, a member of his staff was elbowed in the face and a volunteer was punched in the arm, the Times reported .
De León’s statement to the Times said they were “violently and physically attacked by self-proclaimed activists during a community holiday event, to the dismay of a multitude of families and children who were there to celebrate a Christmas tree and to receive toys and food. “
“The increasingly heated rhetoric is reaching a climax, transcending verbal threats into acts of violence, and must stop before more serious injury or loss of life occurs,” the statement said. “Violence is not free speech and has no place in politics or democracy.”
Shakeer Rahman, an attorney representing Reedy, called de León “a disgrace” in a statement to the Times Friday night.
“The footage clearly shows him and his supporters initiating this attack while Mr Reedy is standing,” Rahman said. “Not only has Kevin de León lost all political legitimacy, but his claims that he was the one under attack simply underscores how out of touch he is with reality.”
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