One day after the Los Angeles City Council ordered city attorneys to draft a law prohibiting protesters from coming within close proximity of their homes, Council President Nury Martinez says a group showed up at her residence, trespassed on her property, and filmed her house and the contents of her car.
Martinez, a Democrat who is in line to become acting mayor if Mayor Eric Garcetti is confirmed as the next U.S. ambassador to India, posted a video of the alleged intruders to social media on Wednesday. The images were captured by a Ring security camera.
“Today when I was at work, a group of demonstrators showed up at my home while my family was inside,” she tweeted, adding that the people were “calling out for me.”
The forty-second video shows four men congregating on Martinez’s driveway, examining an automobile parked outside the home while looking over the property. One person can be seen with a camera and appears to be shooting footage.
This past Sunday, protestors banged on my windows and doors, screaming on bullhorns. Earlier this summer, it was spraying graffiti and vandalizing my car.
This has got to stop.
— Nury Martinez (@CD6Nury) September 2, 2021
Martinez says it was the second time this week uninvited visitors came to her home. She said a group of protesters opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates showed up Sunday night, banged on her windows and front door, shouted obscenities outside her daughter’s bedroom, and harassed her neighbors.
Protesters also reportedly visited the home of Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, another Democrat, on Sunday night.
Both Martinez and O’Farrell are behind a proposed law that would require proof of a COVID-19 vaccination to enter some indoor businesses in L.A.
According to Martinez, the group had attended a rally in Santa Monica earlier in the day protesting vaccination requirements. One of the demonstrators at that gathering reportedly “was carrying a list of LA council members’ home addresses, encouraging all at the event to intimidate them against voting for vaccine mandates.”
Sunday night, this group went to my home, banged on the front door & harassed my neighbors.
I'm done with threats and intimidation aimed at public servants. Today, we took action to protect people from targeted protests.
We can't wait until someone is hurt – or worse – to act. https://t.co/XjwnNS9v7m
— Nury Martinez (@CD6Nury) August 31, 2021
Sunday’s alleged incidents prompted Martinez to introduce a proposal that tightened the rules over protests targeting public officials at their private residences. The Los Angeles Times reported, “The council, on a 13-1 vote, ordered city attorneys on Tuesday to draft a law that would bar protesters from coming within 300 feet of a target’s home.”
“I’m done with threats and intimidation aimed at public servants,” said Martinez on Tuesday. “Today, we took action to protect people from targeted protests. We can’t wait until someone is hurt – or worse – to act.”
More details from the Times:
The council’s proposal instructs city attorneys to draft a law modeled after one in San Jose. Martinez’s motion notes that the San Jose ordinance has survived legal challenges.
L.A. has an existing law prohibiting “targeted demonstrations” within 100 feet of a private residence. The law does not ban “peaceful picketing or distributing pamphlets, going door-to-door, alone or in groups, in residential neighborhoods.” Some City Council members said Tuesday that they weren’t aware of the existing law. …
Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said the city already enforces the 100-foot rule — for example, by seeking “voluntary compliance” from protesters. Officers also enforce laws that deal with amplified sound and verbal threats.
In Los Angeles, the organizing strategy of showing up at public officials’ homes became more commonplace as the Black Lives Matter movement took hold. BLM’s official L.A. chapter began to popularize the tactic in 2015. Over the years, BLM and allied groups have targeted Mayor Garcetti’s residence on numerous occasions. The progressive activists have also made uninvited visits to the homes of an LAPD commissioner, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and former L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, resulting in her husband pulling a gun on the protesters.
#BREAKING This morning Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s husband pulled a gun out on Black Lives Matter activists who protested his wife in front of their house. @BLMLA pic.twitter.com/wnCFMMvaWV
— Jasmyne Cannick (@Jasmyne) March 2, 2020
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