The Los Angeles City Council is now under investigation by the California attorney general for its redistricting policies that came into question with a taped racist rant by three members who wanted to dilute the black vote.
While fallout was swift as council President Nury Martinez and labor leader Ron Herrera lost their positions this week after the tape went viral, seeking to carve out geographical districts by race has been a longstanding problem in Los Angeles, officials said.
LOS ANGELES BLACK LEADERS DEMAND INVESTIGATION AND EXITS AFTER RACIST MARTINEZ LEAK
“Twenty years ago when I was inside the U.S. Justice Department, we received complaints from Hispanic leaders in LA,” said Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at Heritage Foundation. “They claimed there should be another City Council district that represented Hispanics. They claimed it was discriminatory that there wasn’t one there.”
Creating such a district would be illegal and a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race.
However, that didn’t stop Martinez and Councilmen Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo from discussing last year how black people have too much power and ways the Hispanic community can wrest control by carving up districts.
Martinez angrily called the black son of white Councilman Mike Bonin a monkey, while the others compared him to props like a handbag or Civil War statue.
The leaked audio even prompted condemnation from the White House and members of Congress.
Los Angeles and much of California have redistricting commissions that redraw voting districts after each census. Martinez and others complained that the new boundaries benefited the black community at the expense of Hispanics and looked for ways to fix this.
Martinez sought to take away the Los Angeles International Airport from “that little b****” Bonin, prompting the racist comments about his son. Then de Leon talked about a wealthier West Los Angeles district that the group wants to “put in a blender and chop up, right?”
High-profile members of the black community told the Washington Examiner that the comments are likely a fraction of what really is going on behind the scenes with gerrymandering.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement that he will look at the “deeply concerning remarks tied to the city’s 2021 redistricting efforts, and will seek to determine whether there were any violations of state or federal voting rights laws and transparency laws.”
Bonta called the taped remarks appalling, unacceptable, offensive, and deeply painful.
“The decennial redistricting process is foundational for our democracy and for the ability of our communities to make their voices heard — and it must be above reproach,” he said in a statement. “The leaked audio has cast doubt on a cornerstone of our political processes for Los Angeles.”
Former City Councilwoman Jan Perry said the tapes sounded like familiar situations she encountered before leaving office due to term limits in 2013.
“It’s here we go again,” she said. “People who are lacking in ethics use redistricting as a way of rewarding friends and punishing enemies. It’s the friends and family program. It’s political patronage at its worst.”
The best way to resolve the racial animosity and gerrymandering is to have the three City Council members leave office, said Dennis Zine, a former Los Angeles Police Department sergeant and councilman.
“What you have is an ethnic diverse city,” he said. “The council is supposed to be independent and not supposed to put their hands on [redistricting].”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
One way to solve the issue is for the courts to become involved. The government watchdog Judicial Watch has filed numerous gerrymandering lawsuits where judges sometimes make the decisions as to which redistricting maps are valid.
“The racial spoil system is not good for democratic process,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “Politicians want to pick their voters — I only want you to vote for me and not the others. It can’t be that way. They have to respect the commissions.”
