LA city councilmember faces renewed scrutiny following physical altercation with activist
Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León, criticized earlier this year for making racist comments in conversation with other members, shoved a community organizer calling for his resignation on Friday.
Two progressive grassroots groups published a video where de León pushes a man onto a table and then shoves him down a hallway.
“Disgraced Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin De Leon JUST assaulted local organizer Jason Reedy,” RootsAction and J-Town Action and Solidarity captioned the video.
“He was caught on those racist anti-Black leaked tapes and now he’s assaulting Black folks. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!”
Reedy and other organizers surrounded de León, telling him to resign, before the de León slipped through a door and was followed by Reedy.
The councilmember claimed in a statement released Saturday that Reedy “launched a pelvic thrust, followed by a headbutt to my forehead” before de León retaliated. In the video, it is unclear what physical interactions took place before de León pushed the activist.
“My response, in defense of myself, was to push him off me,” the councilmember, who was elected in 2020, wrote.
The councilmember also alleged that after the shove Reedy “struck me in the face with a closed fist, violently elbowed a female staff member, and injured a volunteer.”
Tapes released in October implicated de León in the controversy that brought down L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez after she used racist terms to describe a Black child.