The Los Angeles Police Protective League Friday released a 30-second ad criticizing mayoral candidate Nithya Raman for her stance on the city’s anti-camping law, known as municipal code 41.18.
The advertisement can be viewed online, and it is expected to be broadcast on television this weekend, according to the LAPPL. In the video, a short clip features Raman saying, “I mean, it’s like, I don’t think a kid’s gonna be safer because a tent is 500 feet away from a school,” followed by a young girl who walks past a homeless encampment.
Raman made those remarks during a debate against Mayor Karen Bass in January, which was hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association.
“Walking to school shouldn’t be scary,” the young girl in the ad says. “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. I’m just a kid, even I’d know I’d be safer if this was 500 feet away.”
LAPPL officials said the ad was filmed on a street that was a few hundred feet away from both a public school and a private school.
“As a city councilmember, Nithya Raman has voted over 75 times against banning homeless encampments at over 500 separate locations next to schools, parks, daycare and other sensitive locations throughout Los Angeles,” according to a statement from LAPPL President Ricky Mendoza.
“Ms. Raman just doesn’t get it: No child should have to walk to and from school or the park past dangerous encampments, it’s just not right,” Mendoza’s statement concluded.
Raman, who represents the City Council District 4, has maintained that the anti-camping law, known as Municipal Code 41.18, should not be expanded without parallel investments in housing, shelter and outreach, arguing that the city lacks the ability to enforce the measure effectively. She further has stated that if elected mayor, she would not get in the way of city council members who use the anti-camping law.
During a news conference Friday morning, Raman said she’s a mother of two children who attend Los Angeles Unified School District.
“My kids walk to school every day. I don’t want homeless encampments anywhere in this city, and in my district we’ve actually implemented the policies that get encampments indoors and off the streets for good, and not just move people down the block, but really making our streets safe for our children,” Raman said.
She added that her response to LAPPL is: “Don’t you want that for the entire city?”
“My vision for Los Angeles and our children’s safety is not about which block an encampment should be on. It’s about streets that don’t have homelessness at all,” Raman added.
The LAPPL provided $620,000 for the ad with an additional $100,000 from the Los Angeles Professional Manager’s Association.
Formed in 1923, the LAPPL represents more than 8,900 sworn Los Angeles Police Departments officers rank lieutenant and below.
Both LAPPL and the L.A. Professional Manager’s Association have endorsed Mayor Karen Bass, who is campaigning for a second term. Raman, a one-time ally of Bass, announced her bid to challenge the incumbent in February.
After earning the top two spots in the June election, Bass and Raman will face off in the Nov. 3 election.
Homelessness is among the top issues for voters.
This week, Bass and Raman participated in a two-day homelessness forum at the Los Angeles’ Original Pantry Cafe hosted by the nonprofit Hope the Mission and KTLA5.
After two consecutive years of decreases, the number of unhoused people in Los Angeles County and the city rose 1.2% and 3.4%, respectively, in the most recent count. The city had an estimated 45,000 unhoused people, according to figures from the 2026 Greater L.A. Homeless Count.
Raman criticized Bass’ multi-million-dollar program Inside Safe, an encampment resolution initiative that works to bring unhoused people into temporary housing such as motel and hotel rooms, and other interim shelters. A recent Los Angeles Times report found that 40% of Inside Safe participates returned to the streets.
“We cannot ask taxpayers to spend that much and not see the kinds of results that we need here in Los Angeles,” Raman said Wednesday. “We know that there are more efficient responses out there.
“My plans involves relying on short-term rental vouchers or time-limited subsidies that have a 75% effectiveness of actually moving people to self-sustainability or to permanent housing,” Raman added. “And moving people from very expensive short-term interventions to long-term interventions that cost a third of what Inside Safe costs.”
Raman represents the Fourth Council District, which encompasses neighborhoods such as the Hollywood Hills, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino and Reseda. She said that since she took office there has been a significant decrease in homelessness in her district.
Bass answered questions and shared her plans for homelessness on Thursday, when she was scheduled to make an appearance.
In her remarks, Bass gave herself a B+ on her efforts to address the humanitarian crisis. The mayor said, ” Too many people are on our streets, and three or four of them did not wake up this morning, and so in my opinion, it is still an emergency … I will not be satisfied until there are no more Angelenos sleeping on our streets.”
Bass has repeated that she is fixing a broken system since she took office in 2022, a system that has been broken long before her tenure. She also defended her Inside Safe program.
“We have proven that we have cleared over 140 encampments. We have gotten thousands of people off our streets,” Bass said in her remarks. “But one thing that we need to do is provide better services for them. We need to take care of people for interim housing. We need to make sure they can move on to permanent housing, and the eventual goal is self-sufficiency.”
The mayor’s campaign has challenged Raman’s narrative that the councilwoman’s efforts resulted in a homelessness decrease in her district, arguing that it was actually the work of Inside Safe operations. Bass has further criticized Raman for what she described as the councilwoman’s failed leadership as the chair of the L.A. City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee.
Raman was removed as chair at the start of September. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, an ally of Bass, split the committee into two separate ones and reconfigured the groups. He named Raman to the new Homelessness and Health Committee but only as a member and not as the chair. Raman had described the move as “politically motivated,” a critique that Harris-Dawson has refuted.
Bass’ campaign criticized Raman on Wednesday for voting against a request from another member of the city council to establish an anti-camping zone near the Lula Washington Dance Theatre in South L.A.
“Nithya Raman believes that it’s OK for encampments to be outside of schools, day cares and other sensitive locations,” Bass campaign spokesperson Alex Stack said in a statement. “Mayor Bass has made it clear that Angelenos, especially kids, should not have to dodge tents on their way to school or dance class.”