Los Angeles mayoral candidate and Councilmember Nithya Raman continued to clarify her remarks made during the NBC4 and Telemundo 52 debate, in which she referenced former Los Angeles Police Department Chief Daryl Gates.
“The city used to be the gold standard in terms of non-cooperation with immigration enforcement years ago during the era of Darryl Gates,” Raman said during the Oct. 13 debate.
Gates, who died in 2010, was chief of police for 14 years under then-Mayor Tom Bradley, the city’s first Black mayor and a former police officer. The two often clashed, and Gates was widely criticized in many Black neighborhoods when the department was often viewed as an occupational force.
Two days later, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, Raman’s opponent in the race, rallied Black community leaders who demanded an apology in South Los Angeles.
“Darryl Gates inflicted serious harm to the African American community,” Bass said, later adding, “My opponent is not really familiar with LA, especially the Black community. She doesn’t know us.”
At first, Raman said Bass was “trying to twist” her words, but she has since appeared to adopt a more conciliatory tone — first in a private call to the Watts Gang Task Force and then during an interview with radio personality Yesi Ortiz that appeared on Ortiz’s Instagram account Tuesday.
“I apologize for, you know, talking about an issue that I know is one that causes real pain to Angelenos,” Raman said when Ortiz asked her to clarify her comments. “I’ve read the history of policing here in the city, I deal with it on a daily basis here at the city council, and I understand, I understand that, you know, that my reference to a person who has caused a lot of pain is really, is challenging.
“I only mentioned that era because I feel like 50 years ago, in an era when our police force was very militarized that there was an effort being made to make sure that immigrants in Los Angeles, through Special Order 40, which was passed under Mayor Tom Bradley, were able to make crime reports without fear of immigration enforcement.
“And that in 2026, we need to be able to stand up for our immigrant communities. Fifty years later, we need to be able to stand up even more for our immigrant communities. And I have a level of outrage about the fact that LAPD has not met that moment in the way that I think Angelenos need.”
Gates was responsible for Special Order 40, a police policy still being used today. It was the first-in-the-nation requirement that police officers not inquire about a person’s immigration status or aid federal immigration agents. The former police chief said immigrants, legal or otherwise, needed to trust the police in order to report crimes.
Raman’s campaign released a new broadcast and digital commercial, focusing attention on the issue of homelessness and criticizing the mayor for comments made in an interview with longtime critic and KFI radio host John Kobelt, in which she said she wasn’t informed of the potential strength of the winds that resulted in the Palisades Fire before she left for a diplomatic trip to Africa.
“I know that there were Santa Ana winds, but when I came back in town and asked, ‘Why wasn’t there red alerts that were going on from the city family?’ Basically, I was told that, you know, we knew there were going to be Santa Ana Winds, but we had no idea there were going to be 100-mile-per-hour winds,” Bass said.
The mayor said she hasn’t had a day go by that she doesn’t regret being out of town when the Palisades Fire took place.
