Setting the Record Straight
This past week, as my staff and I were delivering city services, providing food to those in need, and working on solutions to homelessness, a local TV personality ignited “The Lie Heard Round the World” and it likely made it to your computer or television screen.
I am writing to let you know it is absolutely and demonstrably false.
Last week, an on-air personality at Fox 11 tweeted what he claimed was proof that I have repeatedly called LAPD to respond to my home, often to protect me from protesters. That is absolutely false. His so-called evidence showed nothing of the sort. LAPD has confirmed I have not asked for patrols or special protection, and have never called 911. And I have written documentation specifically asking LAPD not to send units to my home, noting that officers have far better things to do.
It is a lie, and it has had remarkable legs, making its way to local media, British tabloids, and the Fox News Channel. You can read the truth and see all the details discrediting this false report at this link. You can also see the LAPD letter debunking the report there, too.
This false report coincides with recent attacks on me by the local police union, which has been upset with me since I challenged them for advocating slashing vital city services and even reducing neighborhood patrols by 200,000 hours, in order to pay for their raises. And when George Floyd was murdered, and hundreds of thousands of Angelenos took to the streets calling for reimagining how we provide for public safety and keep our neighborhoods safe, I supported that call. The attacks from the police union, including a mailer that many of you received in your homes recently, is meant to send a message to all elected officials: Question the police union at your own peril.
I refuse to be bullied or intimidated. I promised you when I first ran in 2013 that I would always do what I felt was right and that together we would move Los Angeles forward, do good, and get things done. No police union, no shoddy journalist, no false and malicious rumor will get me to break that promise to you.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin
Venice, 11th District