LAPD launches investigation to determine who secretly recorded councilmembers' racist remarks

The Los Angeles Police Department announced Tuesday that it is opening a criminal investigation into the leaked audio recording in which city council members were caught using crude and racist language to describe their political rivals.

The audio, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, captures conversation from a private October 2021 meeting where then-City Council President Miru Martinez says Mike Bonin, a white councilman, treats his young Black son as though he were a fashionable “accessory,” like a handbag.

The four officials caught on tape – Martinez, Los Angeles Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, and city councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Léon – asked the police to investigate how the recording was made, which they believe was made illegally without their consent, said LAPD Chief Michel Moore.

In California, it is illegal to make a recording with permission from everyone involved.

It was not clear who recorded the October 2021 conversation, and Moore said police did not yet have a suspect in mind.

Herrera stepped down the Monday after the recording was made public. The remaining leadership of his union called upon the city council members involved to resign their seats.

Martinez followed suit a couple days later after nationwide backlash but de Léon and Cedillo have resisted calls to step down.

In the recording, De Léon repeatedly referred to Bonin as the city council’s “fourth Black member” and complained, “Mike Bonin won't f---ing ever say peep about Latinos. He'll never say a f---ing word about us.”

On Wednesday, the city council voted to censure all three city council members involved. Protesters demanding de Léon and Cedillo resign were cleared from the chamber.