Los Angeles Police Officer Roberto Yanez said he has spent much of his career building bonds with the residents of South LA and Watts, working with them to address graffiti, theft and many other quality issues life.

As the senior principal officer, Yanez works to ensure that residents and business owners feel comfortable contacting him about neighborhood issues.

So when he found out that the candidate for the City Council, Ysabel Jurado, had said “F— the police, that’s how I see them” at a college meeting, he was surprised.

“I try not to let politics affect me, but it’s a slap in the face,” he said.

Yanez, a 34-year law enforcement veteran, said he would “love” to hear Jurado apologize. So far, Jurado has refused to do so, saying the phrase was “just a lyric” from a song that was “part of a larger conversation about systemic injustice and police accountability.”

Jurado’s campaign, when contacted by The Times, repeatedly declined to say whether she felt an apology was necessary. Jurado dismissed the controversy as a distraction, despite criticism from the police chief, some council members, the police union and family members of LAPD officers, who say her words were hurtful to them and those over 10,000 department employees.

With the election a week away, the fallout from the remark has created a strange underpinning for the bitter race between Jurado, a first-time candidate, and Councilman Kevin de León, who represents part of LA’s Eastside. In that contest, when and how to apologize was a theme from the start.

For months, Jurado has attacked De León over his participation in a conversation with three other Latino political leaders that introduced cruel and racist remarks. De León, who has been politically hurt by the scandal, has repeatedly apologized.

The tape, which sparked a national scandal once it became public, featured nasty exchanges about a white councilman and his black son. It also contained an epithet from Council President Nury Martinez, which he hurled at Dist. Atty. George Gascon: “F— that guy… he’s with the Blacks.”

De León told The Times last year that he should have “closed that meeting”. He said he has asked hundreds of people for forgiveness, including elected officials, neighborhood organizers, black clergy and other religious leaders.

In a lawsuit he filed over the audio scandal, De León was less conciliatory, saying through his lawyer that he “never made any comments that were even remotely offensive.”

Jurado, a tenant rights lawyer, criticized De León’s apology as disingenuous.

“If I’m wrong, I’m wrong,” she said at a 9/11 candidate debate in Lincoln Heights. “I apologize for the first time. I’m not waiting two years. I don’t wait for others to tell me to do it. I apologize and learn from it.”

Some of Jurado’s critics now call these empty words. Others say the fact that she didn’t apologize shows she meant what she said.

“She really feels it, ‘F’ the police,” said Val Marquez, who lives in El Sereno and attended the Lincoln Heights debate. He plans to vote for De León.

Jurado made the remark at an Oct. 17 meeting at Cal State LA after a college student who is also The De León staff he asked where he stood on the abolition of the police.

“What is a rap verse? F— the police, that’s how I see them,” she replied, before going on to argue that the police need to focus on gangs and violent crime. Jurado declined to name the song, but the words he used closely match parts of NWA’s “F— Tha Police” and Kanye West’s “All Falls Down.”

De León called the statement “disrespectful” and said he should apologize. Some Jurado supporters said they didn’t think he meant it when he spoke.

Councilor Nithya Raman, who supported Jurado and voted against a police pay raise package last year, called the comment “unfortunate” but said she believed it was “made in jest”.

“It was done in a light way, talking to a constituent in an attempt to relate to them,” Raman said. “And I hope that if he wins, he’ll be able to work productively with PD, because that’s part of the job — a lot.”

In some cases, a candidate’s reluctance to apologize can make the situation worse. Two years ago, City Council candidate Danielle Sandoval he apologized for handling wage theft cases at her restaurant in San Pedro. She delivered that message only after weeks of combative statements that galvanized several supporters support them.

In the past week, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents LAPD officers, ran digital ads saying Jurado’s plan for public safety “starts with an F-bomb.” On Sunday, a group of women whose loved ones worked in law enforcement called on her to drop out of the race.

“For someone who wants a position on the City Council to say these words, it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because the police are protecting the ones we love,” said Angela Mendoza, whose boyfriend, LAPD Officer Fernando Arroyos, was shot and killed by gang members in 2022 while he was off duty.

Gina Moreno, right, stands as Maria Johnson, left, comforts Angela Mendoza, center, holding a portrait of her late lover, LAPD Officer Fernando Arroyos, who was killed while the couple was house hunting. At a news conference, they expressed their anger at Los Angeles City Council candidate Ysabel Yurado’s “F— the police” remark.

(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

Sitting at the police union offices, the women said they feared Jurado’s words would contribute to public antipathy toward the police, putting officers at greater risk.

“It shows a lack of judgment,” said Gina Moreno, whose husband and two sons work for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. “It shows the hatred in his heart.”

Jurado responded with a statement saying he has “deep respect” for those who have lost family members in the line of duty. “We can honor the memories of fallen officers as we push for accountability and equity in policing,” she said in a statement.

Appearing on Fox 11, Jurado said Her use of “F—police” reflected the realities residents face when seeking help from the LAPD.

“The whole comment is about members of the community calling the police for help, and when the police come, they themselves (turn) into the suspect, when in fact they are the victim,” she said.

Carlos Montes, who lives in Boyle Heights, said Jurado has nothing to apologize for. During an interview, he uttered the same phrase while discussing fatal police shootings in his neighborhood over the past decade.

Montes, who is 77 and supports Jurado, said LAPD officers should have been prosecuted for the shootings, including one that left a 14-year-old dead. Jesse Romero deceased in 2016. County prosecutors declined to press chargessaying the officer used “reasonable force” to defend himself and others.

“F—LAPD,” ​​Montes said. “The LAPD should apologize to the Chicano community for years of murders, broken bones and false arrests.”

Montes said there was no comparison between Jurado’s recorded remarks and those on the hour-long audio between De León, Martinez, then-council member Gil Cedillo and labor leader Ron Herrera.

Martinez, the former council president, said on the record that then-councilman Mike Bonin, who is white and gay, carried his son, who is black, “like an accessory.” De León, in response, said it was just like when Martinez “brings his Goyard bag or his Louis Vuitton bag.”

Herrera and Martinez resigned in the wake of the scandal, and Cedillo is now out of office. De León and Cedillo filed separate lawsuits against the couple they believe was responsible for the recording.

In his trial, De León took a defiant stance, blasting the media coverage of the scandal, which his lawyer described as “more concerned with clickbait than facts.”

El Sereno resident Pam Marquez, who is married to Val Marquez, said she is over the audio leak scandal — and is ready to vote for De León.

In the past two years, she said, De León has done much to repair his reputation by working to address homelessness and respond to the needs of his constituents.

“Everyone deserves a second chance,” she said. “And I think this is his.”

Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.