Los Angeles City Council speakers will be banned from using the N and C words, the council decided Wednesday.
The ban comes after years of Tyrades, by several speakers who attack the weight, sexual orientation, or gender of officials, and sometimes use racial slander.
The speaker will receive a warning to use either a word or a variation of a word. If they continue to use offensive language, they will be removed from the room and possibly banned from future meetings.
The Black Council President Markey Harris Dawson said the use of words during public comments discouraged people from coming to the meeting.
“It’s language that it hurts when you say these things in public anywhere outside this building, where there are no four armed guards,” he said earlier this year.
Some legal scholars say the council’s decision to ban language could be challenged in court.
In 2014, the city paid a black man $215,000. The black man was kicked out of the meeting for wearing a Ku Klux Klan Hood and an N-word t-shirt.
Attorney Wayne Spindler, who often uses offensive language at council meetings, said Wednesday that he is scheduled to sues the city over the ban. He said he would read the lyrics of Tupac Shakur, including offensive cursing words until he was banned from the meeting.
“I’m filing a $400 million lawsuit that I’m already prepared and ready to file. If I want to be the next billionaire, I’d like to vote yes,” he said in a public comment Wednesday.
Spindler was arrested in 2016 after submitting a public comment card showing a burning cross and a man hanging from a tree. On the card, he said, “Herb = [N-word]referring to then-Council President Herb Wesson, the prosecutor refused to file charges against Spindler.
Armando Hermann, who attended the city council vote on Wednesday, is also a frequent criminal.
At a city council meeting earlier this month, Herman said the council was trying to restrain his speech, repeatedly calling himself a white n-word. He also used the C-word to describe the officials in the room.
In 2023, a judge banned Herman from attending in person an open meeting at the Kenneth Hearn Management Hall of Fame, where LA County supervisors meet, after allegedly sending sexually suggestive emails to four female supervisors. He refused to send an email.
Many other members have opposed the new rules and say it violates their freedom of speech.
“You’re very weak, you have to curb freedom of speech for everyone, and you know this is about to file a lawsuit,” said Stacey Segara Bohringer, a member of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, who often interrupts her remarks in songs at the council meeting earlier this month.
“This is an attack on freedom of speech,” she added.
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