As you may recall, Kevin de Leon is an LA City Councilmember who was caught on tape along with several other councilmembers making racist comments. The worst of the comments came from former Council President Nury Martinez who has since resigned. She’s the one who used a Spanish term meaning “little monkey” to describe the adopted black son of fellow councilmember Mike Bonin.

Kevin de Leon was present for those comments and seemed to join in when Martinez suggested that Bonin carried his black child like a designer handbag. He later apologized for what he said and for not interceding in the racist remarks made by Martinez but refused to step down from his seat on the city council. As I pointed out here, there was a contingent of Black Lives Matter protesters who started a 24/7 protest outside of de Leon’s house (though it’s unclear if he actually lives at the location).

Rise and shine. @blmla embarks on first full day of 24/7 encampment in front of LA Councilmember Kevin de Leon’s Eagle Rock home. LAPD is keeping a close watch. pic.twitter.com/QySJQBJnXo

— Proud Member of The Blacks (@Jasmyne) October 16, 2022

Yesterday, De Leon attempted to return to his seat on the city council for the first time since the scandal began and it didn’t go well:

De León, who has largely kept out of sight to avoid protesters angered over his participation in a leaked backroom conversation that included racist remarks, unexpectedly showed up to a City Council meeting, took his seat and appeared ready to return to work.

But the rest of the council wasn’t having it. Council member Mike Bonin, whose adopted Black son was called a “little monkey” by one participant in the leaked conversation, immediately stood up and left when de León sat down. Two other members also headed for the exit.

The meeting lost its quorum and was interrupted at which point De Leon left and did not return. Councilmember Bonin later tweeted this:

Vile racist Kevin de León just showed up for council.

I walked out, as did @mhdcd8 and @nithyavraman.

He needs to resign.

— Mike Bonin (@mikebonin) December 9, 2022

But the real drama happened last night when De Leon attended a Christmas toy giveaway for kids. Here’s the video showing what happened:

Here’s a video of the incident…@kdeleon is not fit for office. pic.twitter.com/P7QQIxPEHg https://t.co/L32kJmmvRu

— Yashar Ali 🐘 یاشار (@yashar) December 10, 2022

Here’s what I see. A couple of activists including Jason Reedy are shouting at De Leon as he tries to leave the event. As they get to a door, someone who seems to be with De Leon keeps Reedy from following him through the door on the right. Reedy pushes through the door on the left and it looks to me like De Leon is trying to push him back or maybe close the door on him. At this point, Reedy puts his hands up but he’s pressing his body against De Leon and blocking him from leaving. Reedy is also shouting “Get your f**king hands off me!” and “Don’t f**kin touch me!”

At this point, both De Leon and Reedy have arguably crossed several lines. De Leon seems to have been pushing Reedy at the door and then Reedy responds by bodying De Leon and prevent him from leaving (he’s between De Leon and the exit). At that point, De Leon begins pushing back and puts his hands on Reedy’s jacket and pulls him down. And that’s where the video cuts off. Here’s the dueling accounts from the LA Times.

De León said in an updated statement that Reedy and other activists present were at fault.

“I decided to try to exit the event to draw the disrupters away from the attending families and children and leave without further incident,” De León said. “We discovered Reedy and others had blocked all available exits. Once we were able to push open a door and try to get out, Reedy launched a pelvic thrust, followed by a headbutt to my forehead.

“My response, in defense of myself, was to push him off of me,” De León said. “In the ensuing struggle, Reedy struck me in the face with a closed fist, violently elbowed a female staff member, and injured a volunteer in front of horrified parents and children.”…

Asked to respond to the claim of head-butting, Rahman called it “false.”

“Mr. Reedy was criticizing Kevin de León’s political record and echoing the widespread demands for him to resign,” the attorney said. “De León’s supporters then initiated physical contact by shoving him, and De León grabbed Mr. Reedy. Mr. Reedy had his hands up and made zero contact with anyone until after De León grabbed him.”

My own take is that neither one of these guys is telling the truth. For starters, I don’t see a head butt (meaning a strike with the head) in the video. I do see Reedy putting his head against De Leon’s forehead briefly as part of his effort to lean into him with his body. This is not a protest or an act of speech. I’m not an attorney but I wonder if the fact that De Leon was clearly trying to leave and Reedy was clearly preventing him from doing so means this could constitute something like false imprisonment. The fact that Reedy has his hands up (as does De Leon) doesn’t mean he’s not the one being the aggressor at this point. After being shoved into a wall behind him, De Leon responds by trying to shove back and get Reedy out of his way.

I also don’t see a punch with a closed fist but this clip was posted by the protesters who were with Reedy. Maybe they edited the end of this or maybe they just didn’t catch it but I don’t see the punch. For now, the new city council president is siding with De Leon:

In a statement later Friday, City Council President Paul Krekorian characterized the incident as an assault against De León, his staff and a volunteer, and an “intolerable” crime.

Krekorian said the incident would be “vigorously investigated” by the Los Angeles Police Department.

“No matter what disputes we may have with elected officials or our fellow citizens, violence like this is completely unacceptable,” he said. “In a free society political disagreements are unavoidable, and passionate discussion is necessary, but violence discredits the cause that employs it.”

This is one of those situations where I wish they could both lose. But I think Reedy could have just let De Leon leave and he would have left. The pushback from De Leon only happened after Reedy physically blocked his only way out. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if the LAPD see it that way.

Update: The people behind this protest.

.@PplsCityCouncil has been responsible for radicalizing people into militancy & sending them out in Los Angeles for direct action. The group celebrates violent extremism & its members are extremists. Albert Jaragua Corado is threatening to beat L.A. city council member @kdeleon.. pic.twitter.com/v5pa9UBfxt

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) December 10, 2022

Here’s the interview from last night with De Leon. He says he was “punched twice” and may press charges.

#UPDATE: Councilmember Kevin de León says he may press charges against the individual that attacked him during a Lincoln Heights holiday event. For more click here: https://t.co/KgFtjJlRZu pic.twitter.com/D9IMexAijf

— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) December 10, 2022