Los Angeles mayoral candidates discuss homelessness and policing during first debate as protestors shout in disapproval

• Five Los Angeles mayoral candidates gathered for their first televised debate on Tuesday.
• The topics of homelessness and policing prompted outbursts of disapproval from activists who attended.

Five Los Angeles mayoral candidates took the stage in their first debate on Tuesday night at Loyola Marymount University.

The night was marked with six outbursts from protestors, as the candidates discussed their plans for homelessness and policing, among other topics.

Mel Wilson, a former member of the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board; LA city attorney Mike Feuer; US Rep. Karen Bass; and city council members Kevin De León and Joe Buscaino were all present at the event. Rick Caruso, a billionaire mall developer, declined to participate due to scheduling conflicts, his spokesperson said.

During the debate, four out of the five candidates agreed that homelessness was the top city-wide issue. Wilson argued instead that keeping people housed was the number one issue.

"I believe that housing is a basic human right, but I don't believe that you have a right to sleep on the streets, the sidewalks, the parks, and the beaches of LA," Wilson said.

Bass said poverty is criminalized in the city, saying she doesn't "believe that poverty should be a death sentence."

Buscaino, on the contrary, said he supports implementing a no-encampment city-wide law.

The candidates also were in overwhelming support of expanding the number of officers budgeted in the Los Angeles Police Department, with the exception of De León, who said he'd maintain the department's current status.

Bass was among those who supported expending the police budget but said there "shouldn't be guardian style policing in wealthy areas and warrior style policing in communities of color."

Wilson argued that the majority of Angelenos want more police, claiming that "99% of the police officers are good."

"They're hardworking," he said. "They want to come home safe that night."

Buscaino, a former police officer, echoed that sentiment, adding that Los Angeles has "the finest police department in the country."

Activists slammed the candidates for their responses to homelessness or policing.

"Fuck you, Buscaino!" Ricci Sergienko, an activist for the grassroots organization Poor People's Campaign, said during the debate. "We don't want cops as mayor of Los Angeles, Joe!"

In a statement to Insider after the event, Sergienko said "none of those candidates on stage represent the people of Los Angeles."

"The People won't be quiet about this," Sergienko added, "and we aren't going anywhere."

Other activists from various organizations also called out statistics about officer-involved killings in the city and homeless encampment sweeps as the audience booed and candidates laughed.

"KDL you represent skid row — a 70% Black community," Matyos Kidane, an activist with Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, said, referring to city councilman De León, whose district includes downtown LA where Skid Row is located. "Four to five unhoused people die in a day. How are you laughing right now?"

"Your idea of public safety is contingent upon Black people like me," Kidane continued.

Buscaino called the demonstrations "toxic," while Bass compared them to January 6 Capitol rioters.

Gina Viola, an abolitionist community organizer also running for mayor, took to Twitter to condemn the candidates for mocking and laughing at the demonstrators.

"People were more concerned with the disruptions in that room. They didn't even understand that folks are not being heard. Folks are not being seen. Folks are not being listened to," Viola said. "They made jokes and they laughed on stage as each person in the audience who had something meaningful to add was escorted one-by-one out of the room."

Steven Chung, an activist with J-town Action & Solidarity, told Insider in a statement that each of the candidates "fundamentally represent the same things — criminalizing houselessness, expanding the police state, and ultimately committing violence against working-class people of color in LA."

The Los Angeles mayoral primary takes place on June 7.