Councilman Kevin De Len and activists swap assault allegations

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Los Angeles Police have opened an investigation into an altercation between Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de Len and a community activist who accused each other of assault during the appearance of embattled councilors at the illumination of a Christmas tree in Lincoln Heights.

De Lens communications director Pete Brown told KCAL9 the council member was on stage in Lincoln Park around 6:30 p.m. Friday when a group of five to six people approached him. The group rushed from Len as he tried to leave the stage with a woman and her baby, Brown said.

One of the group allegedly headbutted de Len, which sparked an altercation between the two men, the councilman and others at the scene said.

De Len released a statement saying that a staff member, a volunteer and I 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 the lighting of a Christmas tree and to receive toys and food.

The growing rhetoric is reaching a fever pitch, escalating from verbal threats to actual acts of violence and must stop before more serious damage or loss of life occurs, the statement said. Violence is not freedom of expression and has no place in politics or democracy.

J-Town Action & Solidarity, which markets itself as a collective grassroots community power in Little Tokyo, and the progressive group Roots Action have accused de Len of assaulting local organizer Jason Reedy. The organizations shared a 10-second video on Twitter showing Len holding Reedy and then pulling him to a table.

De Len then pushed Reedy away from the table and towards a wall at the end of the video.

On Friday night, J-Town organizer Steven Chun released a statement explaining the group side of the meet.

We came to this event alongside our comrade Jason to hold KDL accountable for its racist and fascist policies, Chuns’ statement said. When we approached him and demanded that he resign, we were all assaulted by his supporters and were even called racial slurs and slurs such as “Oriental”.

Once we were pushed out of the gym doors down the hallway all I saw was KDL’s anti-Blackness showing up again in physical violence as he assaulted Jason for the second time this year. They then physically kicked us out and we all left soon after. Kevin must resign immediately and never show his lopsided racist face in public again.

De Len said the video does not fully show what happened.

What the video doesn’t capture, most conveniently, is that he thrust his pelvis into me and then headbutted me in the head, de Len said. When he headbutted me, that’s when I grabbed him and put him on the table that I held him on the table for maybe five to 10 seconds.

Then, at that moment, I let him go. Another melee ensued. He rounded the corner, punched me hard, punched me in the face, threw a second punch, missed.

Shakeer Rahman, an attorney representing Reedy, denied his client headbutted the adviser in a statement to the Los Angeles Times and called De Len a disgrace.

Video footage clearly shows him and his followers launching the assault as Mr Reedy stands on the ground, Rahman told the newspaper. Not only has Kevin de Len lost all political legitimacy, but his claims that he was the one attacked here just underscores how out of touch he has been with reality.

A police report has been filed and the video is now part of the investigation, according to media reports. No one has been arrested and the LAPD has not released the names of those involved.

The Los Angeles Police Department told KCAL9 they responded to the venue after receiving a report of a large group fight. Authorities told KCAL9 that when officers arrived, a man was being treated by paramedics for body aches.

City Council Speaker Paul Krekorian released a statement on Friday calling on the two sides to resolve their differences nonviolently.

Tonight, council member Kevin De Len, a member of his staff and a volunteer were physically assaulted by people who interrupted a community holiday event to demand his resignation, the statement said. This kind of crime is intolerable in a free society, and the incident will be vigorously investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department. Regardless of the differences we may have with elected officials or our fellow citizens, such violence is completely unacceptable. In a free society, political disagreements are inevitable and heated discussion is necessary, but violence discredits the cause that employs it.

This city has endured horrific division and toxicity for the past few months. We must reject hate in all its forms, and we must reject the atmosphere of bullying, bullying, and threats that has become all too common in this city and across the country. Whatever position each of us takes on the controversies of the day, we must reject violent words and especially violent acts, and we must begin to treat each other with the same respect that we want others to show us even when we do not agree.

Council member Marqueece Harris-Dawson shared her thoughts on the incident on Twitter.

Some people are ready to excuse the behavior of CM de Leons. I’m not.

The Lincoln Park appearance came hours after de Len attended a council meeting for the first time since Oct. 11. His appearance was brief as protesters immediately yelled at him to leave, and he was no longer present after a break of around 45 minutes.

De Len has defied widespread calls to resign for his involvement in a 2021 racist conversation with Council members Gil Cedillo and Nury Martinez and a top county labor official who was leaked in October. He also faces a recall effort that is collecting signatures.

Protesters have regularly shown up at meetings demanding that de Len and Cedillo resign before the city conducts its business.

Martinez and the union leader resigned in October. Cedillo lost his bid for re-election.

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