Hours after drawing protesters’ ire with his first in-person appearance in two months at a Los Angeles City Council meeting, Kevin de León was involved in a fight with an activist Friday night, in an altercation at least partially caught on video.
The council member said in a statement that he was assaulted. Activists said De León was the aggressor.
De León was at Lincoln Park for a toy giveaway and holiday tree lighting when the incident occurred, his office told The Times.
A video posted to Twitter by two local activist organizations — RootsAction and J-TOWN Action and Solidarity — shows a brief portion of an altercation between De León and a man identified in the description as Jason Reedy, an organizer with the People’s City Council.
The video, which is in slow motion, shows the council member with other people behind him in a hallway. De León pushes Reedy onto a table before grabbing Reedy again and forcing him down what appeared to be a hallway or doorway.
The 10-second video clip does not depict any other portion of Friday night’s incident.
In a statement, De León said that he, a staff member and a volunteer were “violently and physically assaulted by self-proclaimed activists at a community holiday event to the dismay of a multitude of families and children who were there to celebrate a Christmas tree lighting and to receive toys and food.”
“The escalating rhetoric is hitting a fever pitch, transcending from verbal threats into actual acts of violence and must end before more serious harm or loss of life occurs,” the statement said. “Violence is not free speech and has no place in politics or democracy.”
In a statement to The Times on Friday night, Shakeer Rahman, an attorney representing Reedy, called De León “a disgrace.”
“Video footage clearly shows him and his supporters initiating this assault while Mr. Reedy stands prone,” Rahman said. “Not only has Kevin de León lost all political legitimacy, his claims that he was the one attacked here simply underscores how he’s lost touch with reality.”
De León’s office said Reedy and other activists present were at fault.
Pete Brown, a spokesperson for De León, said the council member was head-butted by Reedy, a member of his staff was elbowed in the face and a volunteer was punched in the arm.
Jason Reedy speaks during Friday’s City Council meeting.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
No head-butts were captured on the video, which Brown said starts after it occurred.
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.”
Prior to the start of the video, De León was on a stage at the venue when protesters came in, the spokesperson said. He tried to move away but was pursued by the activists, who blocked off exits, according to Brown.
A social worker who was representing a nonprofit organization Friday night said the event was wrapping up when the activists entered the venue.
He did not wish to provide his full name for fear of retaliation and identified himself only as Giovanni.
Giovanni told The Times that he saw Reedy try to head-butt De León but that the attempt was not successful.
Eventually, the social worker said, he pulled the council member into another room and away from the protesters.
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.”
Authorities have confirmed little about the incident and did not identify anyone involved.
Officers were called at 6:30 p.m. to the 3500 block of Valley Boulevard for a report of a large fight involving eight possible suspects, said Officer Drake Madison, an LAPD spokesperson.
The suspects had fled by the time officers arrived, Madison said. Officers took the report of one victim.
Firefighters were called to the location to assess an adult male, but the man was not taken to a hospital, said Nicholas Prange, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson.
Friday night’s altercation followed a tense City Council meeting that saw De León make his first appearance in two months.
It was the first time he’d been in council chambers since mid-October, when fallout from a leaked racist audio tape roiled the city.
The question of when — or if — De León would return had loomed large at City Hall. His name was frequently invoked even as his seat remained conspicuously empty, with protesters regularly interrupting the thrice-weekly meetings to demand his resignation.
De León, who apologized in the wake of the tape, has been adamant that he has no plans to resign. He began to quietly reenter the public sphere about a month ago, attending food giveaways, holiday meals and other community events, but avoided council chamber until Friday morning.
Police told The Times earlier in the day that Reedy and another man were ejected from Friday’s City Council meeting out of concern that the men were about to get into a physical altercation.
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
Gregory Yee
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