After cops remove activists, L.A. mayor candidates take on homelessness -- and one another
Black Lives Matter-L.A. leader Melina Abdullah, a professor at Cal State Los Angeles, was forcibly removed by police officers from the mayoral debate on the campus.
Caruso, as he did in March, issued broad-brush attacks on the other four candidates, all of them elected officials, tying them to homelessness, rising crime and other ills. The candidates, in turn, defended the idea of public service and accused Caruso of trashing their profession. Buscaino and De León highlighted their work on air quality and the environment, and described their efforts to move people off the sidewalks and under a roof. De León has opened “tiny-home” villages and other interim housing in his Eastside district, while Buscaino has done the same in neighborhoods near the port.
During another memorable moment, the councilman — who is the son of a Guatemalan immigrant and was the only Latino onstage — responded entirely in Spanish to a question about street vending.