LA City Council bans N-word at public meetings, triggering legal threats

NY Post ^ | 8/02/25 | Samantha Olander

[Libloather]

Watch your mouth!

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to ban the use of the N-word and C-word at public meetings — triggering free speech backlash and the threat of a $400 million lawsuit.

The controversial vote by the body allows council leadership to issue a warning for any use or variation of the slurs. Repeat offenders can be booted from the chamber and barred from future sessions.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who is black and introduced the measure, said the use of slurs during public comments has made residents hesitant to attend meetings.

“It is language that, anywhere outside this building where there aren’t four armed guards, would get you hurt if you said these things in public,” Harris-Dawson told the Los Angeles Times earlier this year.

**SNIP**

“I’m going to file my $400-million lawsuit that I already have prepared and ready to file,” Spindler said during public comment, adding he plans to read explicit Tupac Shakur lyrics until he’s banned from a meeting.

Spindler was arrested in 2016 after submitting a public comment card showing a burning cross, a man hanging from a tree and the phrase “Herb = [N-word],” referring to then-Council President Herb Wesson. Prosecutors declined to bring charges.

David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, warned the council’s policy likely won’t survive in court.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

“council leadership to issue a warning for any use or variation of the slurs”

ANY variation?
So, I assume one cannot say “n-word” or “c-word” in Council meetings?

[KrisKrinkle]

“The brits seem to like using it quite frequently.”

I believe it has a different meaning for them.

I wouldn’t sit down in an English restaurant and ask for am extra napkin.

[sauropod]

“Communist”.

[GMMC0987]

I assume we’re not talking cheapskate and niggardly.

[Palio di Siena]

Figgers

[pepsionice]

Back in the early 1980s...I noticed the use by black comedians, and thinking....this is going to become a regular thing. After 2008....yeah, it was rock-solid in terms of daily use now.

[gunnut]

Maybe coon?

[sgt_lau]

I think the C-word is Can’t Understand Normal Thinking

[hecticskeptic]

“ The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to ban the use of the N-word and C-word at public meetings…....“It is language that, anywhere outside this building where there aren’t four armed guards, would get you hurt if you said these things in public,” Harris-Dawson told the Los Angeles Times earlier this year.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sounds series…. And here we are on FR trying to figure out what the ‘C-word’ is?

[PAR35]

and C-word

I need some help with this one.

Colored, as in "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People"?

Coon, as in "Blue Tick Coon Hound"?

A common Australian slur for Women?

Crackhead?

[PAR35]

I do wish that Samantha had been plain spoken and willing to call a spade a spade - instead of a special purpose shovel. Oh, well, it looks like enough folks are dancing a jig over this story.

[V_TWIN]

“I believe it has a different meaning for them.”

Not from what I’ve heard in the brit flicks I’ve watched....it’s used EXACTLY how it was meant.....in the most insulting way possible! Lol!

[Salman]

Was there a real situation of people saying n****r at public meetings?

[Srednik]

Will “Cracker” or “Whitey” be banned as well?

[glennaro]

Except negroes would argue that "nigga" is not the "n-word" (unless, of course, said by someone who is not a negro). Then again, perhaps I'm getting all these "n-words" mixed up.

What I'm not confused about is that when I was growing up in Baltimore during the late-50s through the 1960s, if you called a negro "black" you were literally asking to be punched in the face: "Who you callin' 'black', honkie?!" POW!!

[KrisKrinkle]

I didn’t mean it wasn’t meant to be insulting. I meant it didn’t necessarily refer to a body part.

[Bernard]

Does this ban only apply to those words in English? What happens if you press 2 and somebody says a bad word in illegal?

And I would suspect that LA radio stations will have a lot of dead air if they can't play rap songs anymore.

[KarlInOhio]

Since it is paired with the N-word, maybe it is cracker.

We'ĺl have to add numbers so we know whether it is c-word #1, c-word #2, or c-word #3.

Or like the BBC warning in Monty Python's naughty chemist sketch: We do not use words like b_m, b_tty, w__-w__, kn_ckers, kn_ckers, or Semprini.

[John Milner]

So how did they write the rule?

Did they literally spell out the words to ensure clarity in the rule? If so, if someone asks for a reading of the rule would the council-person who reads it be banned?

If the rule only refers to the words as “N-word” and “C-word” those designations do not clearly and precisely state exactly what words are forbidden. Thus opening them up to issues of someone decides the “C-word” is Coon or Cracker, not Country Under Natural Trajectory.

[DownInFlames]

I was looking for The Bee. No? Good luck with dat.