Charges against Price draw outrage, sadness and sense of ‘Black loss’ in South LA
LOS ANGELES — Curren Price was sworn in for his third term on Los Angeles City Council last fall with a promise to mend rifts.
After leaked recordings had exposed Latino council members plotting to consolidate power in a conversation laced with anti-Black tropes, Price was a counterpoint — a veteran Black leader who had forged unity in his majority Latino district.
“He is someone for me that embodies everything we need in this moment,” said Councilmember Monica Rodriguez.
Seven months later, Price has been charged with perjuring himself by failing to disclose his wife’s business dealings with developers whose projects he voted on, and with embezzling city funds by having his now-wife receive spousal health benefits when they were not legally married. Price called the charges “unwarranted.”
In Price’s district and among leaders of L.A.’s Black communities, the charges have been a political earthquake, one heightened
