A staffer for Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León is at the center of a controversy surrounding Council District 14 candidate Ysabel Jurado, who was captured saying “F— the police” in response to a question about her stance on police abolition.
Martin Perez, who is a constituent service deputy for De León’s office, asked Jurado the question during a meeting with Cal State L.A. students, according to Pete Brown, De León’s spokesperson.
Perez was captured in an audio recording asking Jurado: “As someone who’s, myself, pro-abolishment of police, where do you stand on that spectrum?” Perez, who in the recording self-described as “a punk from East L.A.,” also asks Jurado what she thinks of De León’s “discretionary fund spending on overtime for police.”
In response, Jurado says: “Yeah, what’s the rap verse? ‘F— the Police.’ That’s how I see ‘em.”
Election 2024
Perez is a resident of District 14 and a political science student at Cal State L.A. who attended the gathering hosted by the school’s Political Science Association, Brown said Wednesday. He attended the event as a student and was “not on the clock working,” Brown said.
As a constituent service deputy, Perez fields calls dealing with potholes, tree trimming, illegal dumping, and other services in the district, Brown said.
It’s not clear who recorded the audio, which according to the Westside Current, was recorded on Oct. 17. The Westside Current, a local news site focusing on communities like Venice, El Segundo, West LA, Brentwood, Playa Del Rey, and Culver City, was the first outlet to report about the recording.
READ MORE: Get to know the candidates for L.A. City Council District 14
Jurado, in a statement sent to Boyle Heights Beat Monday, said she was quoting “a lyric from a song that’s been part of a larger conversation on systemic injustice and police accountability for decades.” Jurado did not specify which song she was referencing.
“But it was just a lyric — and I’m proud to be accessible to young people and students, listening to their concerns and treating them like the future leaders they are. That’s something my opponent has failed to do,” Jurado said in the statement.
De León, in a statement to LAist, called Jurado’s comment “simply disrespectful.”
“I stand where I’ve always stood, 100% behind our frontline officers who go out every day risking their lives to protect Angelenos across our city,” he added.
The board of directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, a union that represents more than 8,000 police officers, issued a statement on Monday in reaction to the leak, saying Jurado “revealed her true colors on how she views police officers who protect the residents of Los Angeles.”
“Her view of the officers who protect our city is despicable,” the statement read.
The union later released a 30-second attack ad lambasting Jurado and the remarks she made about police. “Her plan for public safety starts with n F-bomb,” the ad states. The ad was funded by the union in the amount of $100,000.
De León’s campaign has issued mailers linking Jurado to efforts to “defund and abolish the police.” And, in his opening remarks at a recent debate forum inside Dolores Mission Catholic Church, De León said, “I support more police for the safety of our community. My opponent wants to abolish the police.”
Jurado, at the forum, said she has never stated that she supports defunding the police.
“When we talk about public safety, when we look at our city departments, when we look at the safety of our communities, LAPD has been a quarter of the city budget, but folks do not feel any safer,” she said at the forum.
Jurado noted during the forum that police often have to act as marriage counselors and mental health workers.
“That shouldn’t be the case,” she added. “We should be creating good union jobs in the city and the county and working together to make sure that our first responders are folks that are equipped with that, so that the police can focus on the most violent crime, which we know in this community is gang violence.”
In her statement reacting to the recording, Jurado said her “commitment to public safety remains as strong as ever.”
“When I’m elected, I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and fight for the services and departments that keep us safe, healthy, and whole. It’s not enough to be tough on crime — we’ve got to be tough and smart, and operate with the fiscal responsibility necessary to fix our lopsided budget,” Jurado said.
“I’m prepared to work with whoever I need to—whether it’s the LAPD or colleagues I may not always see eye to eye with—because my priority is delivering for our district, plain and simple. Our campaign is about real solutions, not distractions,” she said.
