Letters to the Editor: Nury Martinez didn’t mean for her comments to be racist? They were exactly that

To the editor: None of the current and former Los Angeles City Council members heard in the recording of their racist conversation gets it. (“‘Completely destroyed’: Nury Martinez talks about the leaked recording and her life today,” Oct. 9)

Former Council President Nury Martinez said in her first interview since the conversation was reported a year ago that she didn’t mean for her comments to be racist, but they were exactly that. That conversation is a perfect example of the systemic racism in our society that needs to be rooted out.

I see that Councilmember Kevin de León and former Councilmember Gil Cedillo each filed a lawsuit because the recording destroyed their reputations and possibly their careers. Wait a minute, they succeeded doing that all by themselves.

I was taught that if you have a comment about another person that cannot be said to that person’s face, then don’t say it at all. At the very least, I hope that lesson was learned.

Joan Maggs, Granada Hills

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To the editor: There are two ways to spot a liar — the person says, “I always win when I gamble,” or, “I never say anything about anybody in private that I wouldn’t say to their face.”

Everyone has said things they should be ashamed of. Fortunately, most of us aren’t celebrities and nobody gives a damn what we say or think in private. Unfortunately, phones can now easily record everything we say without our knowledge, and there is probably enough material stored to put us all in hell.

Note however that comedians get us to laugh at mean stuff, and Martinez, Cedillo and De León may have just been clowning around. More attention could have been given to whether their policies and actions in office were fair and equitable.

In my mind, the real sin was the surreptitious recording and distribution of selected bits from the meeting — to make sure that everyone inside and outside the meeting was hurt.

Ken Hense, Los Angeles

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To the editor: That thing she did, she didn’t mean it. That other thing she did, she didn’t mean that either. And that third thing — yup, also didn’t mean it.

“I had absolutely no relationship with [L.A. County Dist. Atty. George] Gascón,” Martinez said in an interview, but she was more than willing to characterize him as in bed with people she cast aspersions on.

After only 2½ years in leadership, Martinez said she had grown “more frustrated and angry and pissed off at everything,” so nothing she said should be taken at face value. I have never seen a better example of someone who should never, ever be in a position of civic leadership.

There’s more. Martinez said, “What this has done to me and my family has completely destroyed us,” characterizing the scandal as some third party acting on her. Not an iota of responsibility about what she did to herself.

Mitch Paradise, Los Angeles

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To the editor: A year later, Martinez seems to have learned nothing, and neither have the media or the political culture of Los Angeles.

What remains unaddressed amid this obsession with the racist language in the recording is the real scandal: The then-City Council president and two other sitting City Council members were secretly plotting to gerrymander districts to preserve their personal fiefdoms at the expense of African American constituents.

That’s the real racism and political corruption running rampant in L.A.

Doug McIntyre, Woodland Hills