A ratbag group of cop-hating Black Lives Matters activists were handed the floor at City Hall as they launched a campaign to block extra funding to hire more police in Los Angeles.
Everyday Angelenos were left frustrated as they were locked out of the first public budget hearing — while lefty activists led by Black Lives Matter–Los Angeles and People’s Budget LA were given 20 minutes to air their radical views.
At stake is the city’s $14.9 billion budget, the single most consequential decision City Hall makes each year.
The group, led Friday by Melina Abdullah, demanded the council shift funding from policing and into community-based social services.
They are the same activists previously documented by The California Post shutting down public meetings.
They are furious about Karen Bass’s proposal to hire 510 police officers – despite critics saying all she is doing is replacing departing staff, and highlighting the department’s ongoing staffing crisis.
Abdullah claimed her coalition, formed in 2020, wanted a “people’s budget” shaped by community input, sharply reducing police funding and redirecting billions toward housing, mental health care, and social services.
Inside the chamber, officers assigned to secure the room were required to stand watch as the activist presentation, and hours of public comment that followed, much of it calling for cutting or eliminating police.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League blasted the decision to have them lead the budget proceedings.
“To think, just a few days ago the People’s Budget mastermind Melina Abdullah was tossing miniature toy pigs over a fence at our office and now she will present her confirmation bias-riddled sham of a defund the police budget to the city council—well, it just warms our hearts,” the union said.
Eunisses Hernandez, a self-described abolitionist, was among the elected officials who invited the coalition to deliver the opening presentation.
Abdullah told councilmembers the group had presented before under former Council President Herb Wesson, who led the body from 2012 to 2020 and briefly returned as an interim appointee before a court blocked his reappointment on term-limit grounds.
The activist-led presentation launched a budget process set to stretch over three weeks.
But as the hearing began, many of the people who came to speak weren’t even in the room.
Residents, union members, and advocates were blocked from entering City Hall as the first 20 minutes unfolded without them.
Jill Larson, who drove in from Sherman Oaks to speak about street lighting and rising taxes, said she was shut out as the hearing started.
“I came here to talk about how we’re spending money, basic things like street lights that don’t work,” she said.
“I drove all the way here, and I couldn’t even get in while they were giving that time to a group that isn’t part of the city.”
Teresa Koehn, who came to address funding for animal services amid overcrowded shelters, said the opening presentation missed the urgency of what she sees on the ground.
“I’m here because our shelters are overwhelmed and animals are paying the price,” she said. “But instead of hearing from people dealing with that, the first voices were activists with an agenda.”
Tension inside the chamber escalated as the meeting got underway.
Shouting from activists, including members of a Latina trans advocacy group, forced a pause in proceedings as councilmembers tried to regain control.
Public comment quickly ran over its allotted time, forcing the Budget Committee to extend it by an additional hour.
The hearing resumes Monday.