Karen Bass

And I saw us headed down criminalization road again.

And I felt like I, you know, I mean, I loved being in Congress because it was an opportunity for me to work on domestic as well as international issues, which was always a love of mine.

but to come home because I couldn't sit in my comfortable position in Congress and watch the city go backwards.

And it's the same thing I thought when I was at the university, I couldn't stay in my comfortable position when I saw South LA going downhill.

And at the time I was leading an anti-apartheid organization and we were fighting for the freedom of Nelson Mandela.

And I'm like, well, okay, that's a noble thing to do, but that's on the other side of the world.

Fortunately, though, it coincided with Nelson Mandela becoming liberated and apartheid ending.

And I said, I have to turn my focus to the domestic issue.

I had to leave my faculty position and jump into trying to solve that problem.

So my motivation in everything that I've done has really been the same.

It's the same issues I've been pursuing.

It's the same motivation.

So coming from a city like Los Angeles, again, it has everything in the world to offer.

We have so much wealth and opportunity in the city.

And for a segment of the city to not be able to access that, it's the same problem of injustice in the world of plenty.

And so that's what led me to wanting to leave the city at this point in time.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Well, it was most important that we address the crisis that was facing Los Angeles.

So the day that I was sworn in the next day, instead of going to city hall, I went to our emergency operations center and I declared the city to be in a state of emergency.