Dispute takes on racial overtones

Hernandez drug arrest divides L.A. City Council

LOS ANGELES (AP) City Councilman Mike Hernandez vowed Friday he would
not resign because of his drug arrest, defying colleagues who proposed new
rules to ease the ouster of elected officials involved in criminal activity.

The calls for the Hernandez's resignation, the first since his arrest for
cocaine possession Aug. 21, ignited a racially charged political squabble
within the governing body of the nation's secondlargest city.

Council members Laura Chick and Mike Feuer said that to remain silent would
make it look as if the council condoned drug use.

Hernandez branded Chick and Feuer as political opportunists, while another
council member suggested a more sinister motive.

``I think some of these things are kind of racist,'' said Councilman Nate
Holden, who is black. ``I wonder if they (Chick and Feuer, both white)
would do these things if it was one of their own. I don't think that they
would. I think they act like Westside Ku Klux Klan.''