Black Lives Matter protesters clashed with riot cops in Los Angeles this week as the city council installed a new president amid the ongoing scandal of members recorded making shocking racist remarks.
At least 50 protesters descended on City Hall ahead of the key meeting Tuesday — even though it was being held virtually, with only the acting president and staffers inside at the time.
A throng of baton-wielding cops in riot protective headgear waited inside, forcing the protesters out when they tried to storm inside the building.
Video footage captured tense confrontations as the protesters demanded the meeting be postponed until two of the councilors caught in the leaked, racist recording followed Councilmember Nury Martinez in resigning.
“No resignation — no meeting!” the crowd shouted as they justled with cops pushing them back from the entrance of City Hall.
One clip shared by Spectrum News reporter Kate Cagle showed a cop grabbing the ringleader in a Black Lives Matter jacket by the back of the neck as he forced him back out of the building — with the protester chanting through a loudspeaker throughout.
That BLM activist, Joseph Williams, complained that they “were essentially brutalized by the LAPD” just for trying to attend the meeting.
Others were filmed trying to force open one of the locked doors.
The chants could be heard inside the council chamber, which was mostly empty save a handful of staff and some press.
Councilman Paul Krekorian was selected to lead the council in what he called “an extraordinarily painful moment” of “crisis and challenge” after the leaked recording of racist comments about another member’s black son.
Martinez — who made the racist comments — stepped down last week.
Although the other two council members involved in the chat — Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo — did not make racist comments, they did not object nor admonish Martinez.
So far, both have resisted widespread calls for their resignations, including from President Biden. Neither council member attended Tuesday’s virtual meeting.
Last week, protesters crowded into the council chamber and angrily called for the councilmen to resign.
Those complaints continued unabated during the virtual meeting Tuesday, as a long list of speakers spent roughly three-and-a-half hours calling for the council to suspend business until de Leon and Cedillo step down.
Mayor Eric Garcetti said he would work with Krekorian and the council “to help heal the wounds caused by the hateful words of a few.”
With Post wires
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