Lawyer arrested during LA city council meeting after handing in card with drawing of lynching
An Encino, California, immigration lawyer has been arrested after submitting a public-comment card at a Los Angeles City Council meeting on May 11 that included threatening language and hate speech, police said.
Wayne Spindler, 46, was released on $75,000 bond following his arrest on a criminal threat charge, according to KABC and the Los Angeles Times (sub. req.).
A frequent, and critical, attendee at city council meetings, Spindler seemingly confirmed the gist of what was on the comment card at the May 11 meeting, which was signed “Wayne from Encino.” It included a burning cross, an image of a man hanging from a tree and what the LA Times referred to as “an apparent Ku Klux Klan figure” holding a sign that said “Herb = [N-word]”. Council president Herb Wesson is the first African-American to serve in the position. The drawing can be seen on the Los Angeles Sentinel website.
However, Spindler downplayed the significance of the drawing on his comment card: “The cross burning is the city burning down from corruption, the hood is city hall coming after us for our money and the tree is me and everybody getting lynched as taxpayers,” he told KABC.
When asked about his inclusion of a racial slur, he said, apparently referring to city officials: “They don’t listen to us. The only way they listen to us is if we’re emphatic.”
Near the end of the May 11 council meeting, Wesson described the comment card and said he was doing so to put it on the record for the city attorney’s benefit, the LA Times reports. When Spindler tried to respond from the floor, Wesson had him removed from the meeting, citing a need for him to treat others more respectfully.
“Criticism comes with the job and I can usually blow it off as part of the job,” Wesson said after the meeting, the Sentinel reports.
“But the often harassing and threatening comments made by Mr. Spindler,” Wesson continued, “have become increasingly worse over time. It has risen to the point that I have serious concerns about my safety, my family’s safety, my staff’s safety and the safety of my colleagues on the city council.”
Another city councilman told the Times that he agreed with Wesson’s assessment. “It’s offensive enough that this guy wears Ku Klux Klan hoods with large swastikas drawn on them and will stand in the aisle and do a Sieg Heil and a salute,” said Councilman Paul Koretz. “But this is reaching a point where one wonders if he isn’t a real danger.”
On Thursday, after Wesson held a press conference to discuss the incident, the district attorney’s office confirmed that they were looking into the case and deciding whether formal charges should be filed. Spindler is due back in court on June 10, the Times reports.
Spindler said he is not racist and doesn’t identify with the KKK, reports KABC. He told the news station that he intends to sue the city over this arrest and a previous arrest during a 2015 council meeting which did not lead to formal charges. Spindler claimed Wesson was using the comment card “as a ploy” to silence his criticism, telling the station: “He wants to get me and other people out of city hall because we’re making a difference.”
The California state bar has Spindler listed as an active member of the bar since 1995, with no public record of any disciplinary actions against him.
