The Los Angeles Police Protective League dropped a 30-second attack ad Thursday targeting mayoral candidate Nithya Raman over her record on homeless encampments near schools.
The spot, titled “Nithya Raman Won’t Keep Our Kids Safe,” opens with a young girl walking past homeless camps on her way to school as audio of Raman’s past comments plays underneath. The police union is hammering Raman, 44, for opposing expanded anti-camping restrictions and for voting more than 75 times against banning encampments at over 500 locations near schools, parks, daycares and other sensitive sites.
“Walking to school shouldn’t be scary. Bad things can happen. I see things I’m not supposed to. So I keep my head down so I don’t have to look, or step on a needle,” the girl says in the ad as she walks.
The union built the commercial around Raman’s previous statement that a child would not be safer “because a tent is 500-feet away from a school.” Raman has consistently opposed city measures restricting encampments within 500 feet of schools and parks, arguing that moving encampments does not address homelessness and that Los Angeles needs more shelter and housing resources instead.
In a 2022 statement, Raman said she did not want encampments around schools but argued that simply creating additional restricted zones would not solve the underlying problem.
The ad release comes as a $62.6 million homeless initiative championed by Raman has struggled to deliver results. City records showed that by June 25, the program had housed just three households despite a goal of moving roughly 2,000 into permanent housing.
More than 130 matters piled up after every Housing and Homelessness Committee meeting over a five-week stretch in April and May was canceled, according to previous reporting.
Raman’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The housing affordability advocate has also drawn sharp criticism for plans to expand her 1,879-square-foot Silver Lake home into a 3,528-square-foot house with a spa and two-car garage, an 88% increase in size.
The police union’s intervention marks a significant escalation in the mayor’s race, with public safety groups now weighing in on homelessness policy ahead of the election.
Raman, who unseated an incumbent in 2020 on a progressive housing platform, has made housing affordability central to her political identity throughout her career.
The attack ad represents the latest clash between law enforcement groups and progressive city leaders over how to handle Los Angeles’s sprawling homeless crisis, which has become a defining issue in local politics.