LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los
Angeles City Council has been disrupted by another round of boisterous, foul-mouthed protests after a councilman facing widespread calls to resign for his involvement in a racism scandal defiantly returned to the chamber and took his seat.
Councilman Kevin de Leon’s appearance prompted some council members to walk out amid shouting and chanting from rival groups in the audience, while council President Paul Krekorian ordered a recess amid the outburst.
The turmoil represented a reprise of a Friday meeting where de Leon appeared in the ornate chamber for the first time since mid-October. He is the only council member involved in the scandal still resisting calls from President Joe Biden to step down, while continuing to collect his annual salary of nearly $229,000 — among the most lucrative paydays for city council members in the nation.
Protesters were shouting and waving signs in the audience throughout the meeting. During a public comment period, most of those who spoke denounced de Leon as a racist and called on the councilman to resign, but some supporters defended him and lauded his work in his district, which includes downtown Los Angeles and the heavily Latino Boyle Heights neighborhood.
The continuing disruptions turned the meeting at times into a veritable Theater of the Absurd, with protesters screaming profanities, city staffers pleading for calm and police evicting some protesters who refused repeated orders to settle down.
The scandal was triggered by a leaked recording of crude, racist comments from a year-old meeting involving de Leon, then-council President Nury Martinez, labor leader Ron Herrera and then-Councilman Gil Cedillo — all Latino Democrats — in which they plotted to expand their political power at the expense of Black voters during a realignment of council district boundaries.