Los Angeles City Council cancels meeting amid furor over racist recording

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The Los Angeles City Council cancelled a planned meeting on Friday amid continued public outcry after two of its members were caught in a leaked audio recording making racist remarks.

The decision to cancel's Friday's session came after past meetings were repeatedly upended by protesters demanding the resignation of all three council members who were recorded in the tape. To date, only one has stepped down.

City Council members Kevin de Leon, Gil Cedillo and ex-council President Nury Martinez were all secretly recorded in the profanity-laced tape, which was first reported on by the Los Angeles Times newspaper, making derogatory remarks about several groups of people, including Black, Jewish, gay and Armenian people.

The officials, who are all Latino, were discussing redistricting plans, and how to consolidate Latino power in the US's second-largest city where they constitute a majority of the population.

Martinez said a fellow council member, who is white, treated his Black son like an "accessory."

“They’re raising him like a little white kid,” Martinez said, suggesting the council member's son was misbehaving during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. “I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.”

Martinez also singled out Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, saying "**** that guy … He’s with the Blacks."

Martinez has already stepped down as council president, and has announced that she is taking a leave of absence.