'Block Garcetti' Activists Amass At Getty House For 9th Day

LOS ANGELES, CA — For nine consecutive days, protestors rallied outside Getty House, decrying Mayor Eric Garcetti's potential appointment to President-elect Joe Biden's cabinet. On Wednesday, around 100 demonstrators asked Garcetti to publicly refuse a cabinet position, Twitter footage showed.

"Block Garcetti" demonstrators from the Black Lives Matter movement, among other activists, have criticized the mayor's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, law enforcement, homelessness and transportation in Los Angeles, asserting that Garcetti would be unfit for a federal appointment.

On Wednesday Melina Abdullah, a professor of Pan-African Studies at Cal State Los Angeles, asked picketers in front of the Getty House to tweet at Garcetti and ask that he refuse a cabinet position, according to Twitter footage posted by CSUN reporter Emily Holshouser.

The demonstration first began Nov. 24, drawing dozens of protestors and police presence to monitor the scene each day. Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles and Ground Game LA have vowed to protest every day until Biden commits to not appointing Garcetti to the cabinet.

Politial organizations and activists have also taken to Twitter each day over the past week to persuade Biden not to appoint the Los Angeles mayor.

"Mayor Eric Garcetti approved the largest LAPD budget ever during a pandemic and economic crisis," officials from the Democratic Socialists of America LA tweeted, Nov. 28. "LA is suffering under the boot of Garcetti’s liberal white supremacy. @JoeBiden, don’t turn our nation into #Garcettiville. #BlockGarcetti"

Black Lives matter-LA dubbed Garcetti "the worst mayor in the nation," according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

Garcetti served as national co-chair for Biden's presidential campaign and was named by many media outlets to be a possible candidate for a Cabinet post or as secretary of Transportation or Housing and Urban Development.

"Protests come with the territory as mayor," Garcetti said. "I will always support people's right to make their voices heard peacefully and keep listening to what they have to say. I am honored to represent 4 million Angelenos, and I am singularly focused on saving lives and rebuilding a city out of this crisis that is more fair, just and equitable.

And while Garcetti has not denied any consideration for a Cabinet positions, he has insisted he is more focused on what's happening in Los Angeles.

"Angelenos are hurting badly right now, and I see that pain every day," Garcetti added. "Too many lives have been lost, but I know that our collective efforts have saved so many more. That work, more than anything else, is my guiding light right now."

Garcetti said in early November that he hasn't seriously considered whether he would accept a cabinet position if one was offered to him.

"It's not something I'm weighing right now, quite frankly," he said, adding that he forged a strong bond with Biden during the campaign. "It's something that I am happy to give my counsel and advice to the president elect."

BLM-LA representatives told City News Service on Friday that the issues they have with the mayor go beyond Garcetti's possible selection for a cabinet position.

"There is no single issue. Garcetti has failed the people of Los Angeles in an unending number of ways: from criminalizing folks for being houseless, to refusing to stand up for people who are killed by his police force," said Tabatha Jones Jolivet, a spokeswoman for BLM-LA.

"We refuse to be quiet as President-elect Biden considers him for a cabinet post where his reach will extend to setting national policy."

The City News Service and Patch staffer Kat Schuster contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on the Los Angeles Patch