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A Hollywood actress and ally of LA Mayor Karen Bass is demanding an apology from mayoral challenger Nithya Raman over comments praising a controversial policy from disgraced former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates, calling the remarks a “historical error” and a “personal assault.”
Anne-Marie Johnson, best known for her roles in Hill Street Blues and Double Trouble, blasted the socialist city councilmember at a Thursday event hosted by Bass.
“Nithya, where’s the apology?” she said loudly, while looking straight at the camera. “We’re running out of time. We need an apology.”
The fiery rebuke comes after Raman criticized Bass during a mayoral debate this week over reports that LAPD shared information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a flashpoint for liberal Angelenos opposed to President Donald Trump’s deportation crackdown.
Raman argued that Los Angeles had abandoned its historic resistance to federal immigration enforcement, invoking Gates’ tenure as police chief.
“This city used to be the gold standard in terms of non-cooperation with immigration enforcement, years ago under the era of Daryl Gates,” the socialist city councilmember said at the debate.
“And now under this mayor, we’ve actually lost trust from our immigrant community in our city and in our law enforcement.”
Bass has seized on the remarks, accusing her challenger of overlooking the city’s painful history of police abuse, particularly against Black and Latino residents during Gates’ tenure.
“My opponent is not really familiar with L.A., especially the Black community,” Bass said. “She doesn’t know us.”
Gates became a symbol of police brutality during his time leading the LAPD, which was rocked by the 1991 beating of Black motorist Rodney King. The officers’ acquittals in 1992 helped ignite the city’s devastating riots.
Johnson said the debate remarks hit close to home. Her father served as a police officer alongside Gates, and she lives in Raman’s City Council district.
“I think I’m the only African American she sees,” she remarked snidely.
Johnson then invoked one of Gates’ most notorious comments: his suggestion that Black men might die more frequently from police chokeholds because their veins or arteries did not open up as quickly as those of “normal people.”
“Gold standard there, Daryl Gates,” Johnson added, referencing Raman’s comment.
“This is what ignorance brings to us. This is what a limited education from social media brings to us. I’d like to drop off an encyclopedia to her door step so she understands the power and the pain and the domestic terrorism we all had to live through during the Daryl Gates reign,” Johnson said, before repeating her demand for an apology.
The actress recalled how hard it was for her family, one of the very few black families around, to try to move into the Silver Lake neighborhood that’s currently in Raman’s district.
“This is all very personal to me,” Johnson said.
Raman has pushed back against Bass’ criticism, posting a video in which she called Gates “an abhorrent and racist police chief” and insisted she was referring specifically to his Special Order 40.
The policy was designed to reassure immigrants that they could report crimes or serve as witnesses without fearing deportation, though it did not prohibit LAPD cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
“Over and over, I have challenged Mayor Bass over reports of LAPD cooperation with ICE under her leadership,” Raman said in a statement. “Now Mayor Bass is deliberately twisting my words to distract from the questions she is refusing to answer.”
Gates resigned in 1992 amid mounting criticism of police abuse, with the Rodney King beating becoming a defining scandal of his tenure.