Los Angeles City Council’s under fire president broke cover on Sunday with a t-shirt promoting three goals everyone should aspire to.
“Drink Water, Love Hard and Fight Racism”, the black top said in white lettering.
Marqueece Harris-Dawson, 56, who represents District 8, is in the spotlight after delivering an emotionally-charged testimony at City Hall claiming he was the subject of a racially-biased police stop.
But, as the California Post reported, he was pulled over for doing a U-turn in a school zone — and sources said he even called a Los Angeles Unified School District boss to try to get out of a citation.
On Sunday the Post found Harris-Dawson driving in the same government-issued Tesla back to his home following the scandal.
He had the message flashed across his t-shirt as he walked up his driveway to his modest house in south Los Angeles.
The sighting comes a week after the council president delivered emotional testimony at City Hall describing what he claimed was a racially biased police stop.
During the council hearing Harris-Dawson told colleagues he had been pulled over and questioned about his job, saying the incident illustrated the dangers of so called pretextual traffic stops by the LAPD.
But according to sources close to the event, the stop was not conducted by LAPD, it was carried out by officers from the Los Angeles School Police Department during morning drop off near a high school.
Officials said that Harris-Dawson had first caught the officer’s attention while driving erratically on the freeway.
Police say he then exited directly in front of the patrol car and crossed a center divider to make an illegal U-turn before being pulled over near the school as students were arriving.
He was issued a citation for the moving violation. The ticket carries a $238 fine and adds a point to a driver’s DMV record.
Sources also told the Post that during the stop Harris-Dawson contacted a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District board in what appeared to be an attempt to avoid the citation.
The Post reached out to the council president’s office for comment but did not receive a response.
During the council hearing Harris-Dawson described the experience as traumatic and said he told officers during the stop, “In fact I’m the president of the council.”
He argued that pretextual traffic stops in Los Angeles are “grossly racially biased,” claiming roughly 85 percent involve Black and Latino drivers.
But the powerful Los Angeles Police Protective League blasted the council president’s version of events in a sharply worded response.
“If there was an Academy Award category for fictitious stories told by elected officials, Mr. Harris-Dawson’s theatrical performance would deliver him an Oscar,” a spokesman said.
The union said the stop involved a clear moving violation near a school with children present during morning drop off.
“He was cited for an egregious moving violation near a school with children during morning drop off time. Full stop,” the spokesman said.
The union, which represents nearly 10,000 LAPD officers, also accused the council president of misleading the public and called for a full accounting of the incident.
“As British historian Lord Acton said, ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,’” the spokesman told The Post. “He was cited for an egregious moving violation near a school with children during morning drop off time. Full stop.”
