When should a candidate apologize? The question roils the Jurado-De León race

L.A.'s 14th Council District race candidates, Ysabel Jurado and Kevin De León.

Oct. 30, 2024 3 AM PT

Los Angeles police officer Roberto Yanez said he has spent much of his career forging ties with residents in South L.A. and Watts, working with them to tackle gang graffiti, theft and many other quality-of-life issues.

As a senior lead officer, Yanez works to ensure that residents and business owners feel comfortable contacting him about neighborhood problems.

So when he learned that City Council candidate Ysabel Jurado had said “F— the police, that’s how I see ‘em” at a college meet-and-greet, he was taken aback.

“I try not to allow politics to affect me, but it’s a slap in the face,” he said.

Yanez, a 34-year veteran of law enforcement, said he would “love” to hear Jurado apologize. So far, Jurado has declined to do so, saying the phrase was “just a lyric” from a song that has been “part of a larger conversation on systemic injustice and police accountability.”

Jurado’s campaign, when contacted by The Times, repeatedly declined to say whether she felt an apology was necessary. Jurado has dismissed the controversy as a distraction, despite criticism from the police chief, some council members, the police union and family members of LAPD police officers, who say her words were hurtful to them and the department’s more than 10,000 employees.

With the election a week away, the fallout over the remark has created an odd bookend to the acrimonious race between Jurado, a first-time candidate, and Councilmember Kevin de León, who represents part of L.A.’s Eastside. In that contest, when and how to apologize has been a theme from the beginning.

For months, Jurado has assailed De León over his participation in a conversation with three other Latino political leaders that featured crude and racist remarks. De León, who was politically wounded by the scandal, has repeatedly apologized.

The recording, which sparked a national scandal once it became public, featured ugly exchanges about a white councilmember and his Black son. It also contained an epithet from Council President Nury Martinez, which she hurled at Dist. Atty. George Gascon: “F— that guy ... he’s with the Blacks.”

De León told The Times last year that he should have “shut that meeting down.” He said he had asked hundreds of people for forgiveness, including elected officials, neighborhood organizers, Black clergy and other religious leaders.

In a lawsuit he filed over the audio scandal, De León was less conciliatory, saying through his lawyer that he “never made any comment that was even remotely offensive.”

Jurado, a tenant rights attorney, has blasted De León’s apologies as insincere.

“If I make a mistake, I cop to it,” she said at a Sept. 11 candidate debate in Lincoln Heights. “I apologize the first time. I don’t wait two years. I don’t wait for other people to tell me to do it. I say sorry, and I learn from it.”

Some of Jurado’s critics now call those words hollow. Others say the fact she hasn’t apologized shows she meant what she said.

“She really feels that, ‘F’ the police,” said Val Marquez, who lives in El Sereno and attended the Lincoln Heights debate. He plans to vote for De León.

Jurado made the remark at an Oct. 17 meet-and-greet at Cal State L.A., after a college student who is also a De León staffer asked where she stood on abolishing the police.

“What’s the rap verse? F— the police, that’s how I see ‘em,” she replied, before going on to argue that police need to focus on gangs and violent crime. Jurado has declined to name the song, but the words she used closely match portions of N.W.A’s “F— Tha Police” and Kanye West’s “All Falls Down.”

De León called the statement “disrespectful” and said she should apologize. Some Jurado supporters said they don’t believe she was serious when she spoke.

Councilmember Nithya Raman, who endorsed Jurado and voted against a package of police raises last year, called the comment “unfortunate” but said she thinks it was “made in jest.”

“It was made in a lighthearted way in speaking to a constituent in trying to relate to them,” Raman said. “And I hope that if she wins, that she’ll be able to work productively with the P.D. because that’s part of the job — very much.”

In some cases, a candidate‘s reluctance to apologize can make a situation worse. Two years ago, City Council candidate Danielle Sandoval apologized over her handling of wage theft cases at her San Pedro restaurant. She delivered that message only after weeks of combative statements, which spurred several endorsers to pull their support.

For the past week, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing LAPD officers, has run digital ads saying that Jurado’s plan for public safety “starts with an F-bomb.” On Sunday, a group of women whose loved ones have worked in law enforcement called for her to drop out of the race.

“For someone who wants a position in City Council to say those words, it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because police protect those we love,” said Angela Mendoza, whose boyfriend, LAPD Officer Fernando Arroyos, was shot and killed by gang members in 2022 while he was off duty.

Maria Johnson comforts Angela Mendoza, center, as she holds a portrait of her late boyfriend, LAPD Officer Fernando Arroyos.

Seated at the offices of the police union, the women said they fear Jurado’s words would contribute to public antipathy toward police, putting officers at greater risk.

“It shows a lack of judgment,” said Gina Moreno, whose husband and two sons work for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “It shows the hate that she has inside of her heart.”

Jurado responded with a statement saying she has “deep respect” for those who have lost family members in the line of duty. “We can honor the memories of fallen officers while also pushing for accountability and equity in policing,” she said in a statement.

Appearing on Fox 11, Jurado said her use of “F— the police” reflected the realities residents face when they seek help from the LAPD.

“The whole comment is about community members calling the police asking for help, and when the police come, they themselves [turn] into the suspect when actually they’re the victim,” she said.

Carlos Montes, who lives in Boyle Heights, said Jurado has nothing to apologize for. During an interview, he uttered the same phrase while discussing the fatal police shootings in his neighborhood over the past decade.

Montes, who is 77 and supports Jurado, said LAPD officers should have been prosecuted for the shootings, including one that left 14-year-old Jesse Romero dead in 2016. County prosecutors declined to file charges, saying the officer used “reasonable force” to defend himself and others.

“F— LAPD,” Montes said. “LAPD should be apologizing to the Chicano community for the years of killings, broken bones and false arrests.”

Montes said there is no comparison between Jurado’s recorded remarks and the ones on the hourlong audio between De León, Martinez, then-Councilmember Gil Cedillo and labor leader Ron Herrera.

Martinez, the former council president, said on the recording that then-Councilmember Mike Bonin who is white and gay, carried his son, who is Black, “like an accessory.” De León, in response, said it was just like when Martinez “brings her Goyard bag or the Louis Vuitton bag.”

Herrera and Martinez resigned in the wake of the scandal, and Cedillo is now out of office. De León and Cedillo have filed separate lawsuits against the couple they believe was responsible for the recording.

In his lawsuit, De León took a defiant stance, blasting media coverage of the scandal, which his lawyer described as “more concerned with clickbait than facts.”

El Sereno resident Pam Marquez, who is married to Val Marquez, said she has moved past the audio leak scandal — and is ready to vote for De León.

Over the past two years, she said, De León has done a lot to repair his reputation, by working to address homelessness and responding to the needs of his constituents.

“Everyone deserves a second chance,” she said. “And I think this is his.”

Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.