LOS ANGELES (HPD) — Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez resigned Monday after she was overheard making racist comments and other crude statements during a leaked recording of her with other Hispanic community leaders. .
Martinez issued an apology in which he expressed his embarrassment at the situation.
“In the end, my apologies are not the most important thing; will be the actions you take from this day. I hope they give me the opportunity to make amends,” she said in a statement. “Therefore, effective immediately, I tender my resignation as Speaker of the City of Los Angeles Council.”
The statement did not indicate whether he will relinquish his place on the council. His spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a phone call and email seeking comment.
Martinez said in the recorded conversation that Councilman Mike Bonin, who is white, handled his young black son as if he were his “accessory” and said that his son’s behavior was similar to that of an ape: “He seems like a monkey.” , he noted, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.
Martinez also referred to Bonin as a “little bitch” and at another point mocked Oaxacans, the people originally from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, the Times reported.
“I see a lot of these dark-skinned short guys,” Martinez said, referring to a particular area of a predominantly Latino neighborhood in Koreatown.
“I don’t even know what village they are from, or how they got here,” he added. “They are ugly”.
Martinez, whom her district website describes as a “leader who has overcome obstacles and who brings deep life experience as the proud daughter of working-class immigrants,” was elected to the council in 2013 and served seven years. later she became the first Hispanic to preside over the body.