By B. Sakura Cannestra and Ben Irwin. San Jose Spotlight.
The South Bay is being invaded by virtual hate speech, racist and hateful attacks via Zoom in its government meetings, creating uncertainty among public officials about how to contain the problem.
At the Sunnyvale City Council meeting on Tuesday, residents were subjected to racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric during the remote portions of public comments.
Last week, the San Jose City Council meeting was bombarded with similar behavior. Municipal officials across the region are turning to their legal counsel for answers on how to balance free speech, without disrupting virtual public comments, when faced with hate speech.
More than a dozen remote callers flooded the Sunnyvale council meeting with inflammatory public comments, asking council members about anti-Semitic conspiracy theories or shouting anti-Black and anti-immigrant statements.
Mayor Larry Klein and Vice Mayor Omar Din interrupted most callers, reminding them to stay on topic or denouncing their hate speech on behalf of the city.
After council members asked City Attorney John Nagel about the hateful comments, he stated that specific people cannot be prohibited from speaking remotely during public comments, but added that he was working with Klein and Din to address these disruptions.
Klein later told San José Spotlight that the city has been working to balance access to public comment and not allowing hate speech. She said it's important for families who would need child care to be able to access public comments remotely.
“Hybrid meetings bring a lot of value and that's why the council made the long-term decision to maintain that hybrid option,” he told San José Spotlight. “But of course it allows people outside of your community to ultimately provide some of the testimonies we heard tonight.”
At the end of the meeting, Councilman Richard Mehlinger showed a slideshow of places he visited in Vienna, Austria, including photographs of Judenplatz, a central square for the city's Jewish community, and the Jewish Museum. Mehlinger, whose grandfather fled Vienna in 1938 and whose great-uncles were murdered by the Nazis, said history shows that inflammatory comments have led directly to genocides.
“It's fundamentally intimidating to the public,” Mehlinger told San José Spotlight. “Something like what we saw tonight cannot be tolerated. Yes, legally we have the First Amendment, there is case law. That's something I'll leave to the lawyers. But politically, it must be questioned and it must not be allowed to stand.”
The Anti-Defamation League has tracked a rise in anti-Semitism and hate speech in public forums. The shutdown of public gatherings has swept the region in recent months, and the governments of San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Contra Costa County are considering ending virtual public comments to combat hate speech.
Numerous anti-Semitic and racial slurs disrupted last week's San Jose council meeting during virtual public comment segments. Councilor Dev Davis said she did not appreciate the disruption to regular council business.
“I think the insults that some of the public commentators are using are very disturbing and, frankly, anxiety-provoking for some of us,” Davis said at the meeting. She declined to comment further for this story.
San Jose City Attorney Nora Frimann did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan called the hate speech disruptions “incredibly disappointing” and said the city does not tolerate hate in any form. He noted that his firm preference is to maintain Zoom as an avenue for public participation.
“There is certainly a tension between freedom of expression and maintaining our high standards of inclusion,” Mahan told San José Spotlight. “That's something we're dealing with and I certainly hope it's not necessary to take away a tool that has helped many members of our community participate.”
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, ayou administeredred by the CaliFornia State Library.
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