I wasn't expecting to hear a reference to my favorite childhood movie as I listened to the surreptitiously recorded conversation among Latino officials that has shaken Los Angeles to its core.
But there it was, sandwiched between then-City Council President Nury Martinez's cruel and racist comments about Oaxacans (they're so ugly), a Black child (he's like a monkey), a gay colleague ("a little bitch").
City Councilman Kevin de Léon spoke of what he called the "Wizard of Oz" effect. Black Angelenos, he implied, are overrepresented in the city's corridors of power, because they make so much noise.
