By JW August
Times of San Diego
LA MESA, California –After its last meeting was disrupted by antisemitic hate speech, the La Mesa City Council on Tuesday will consider an end to live phone and Zoom participation during the public comment period.
At the Feb. 13 meeting, the council was forced to listen in silence as anonymous caller after caller denigrated the Jewish religion and culture with vile accusations and conspiracy theories.
The Anti Defamation League in San Diego condemned the racist calls, saying “we know these callers are part of an extremist network and do not represent ordinary La Mesans.”
Similar attempted hijackings of local government meetings with hate speech have occurred repeatedly in communities across California.
The council does not plan to discuss the public comment changes during the Tuesday meeting. The plan is listed as a consent item on the agenda, which means it passes through along with other items like street resurfacing and curb painting.
The item is listed as “Public Comment For City Council and Board and Commission Meetings” and explains how and why La Mesa has decided to stop accepting live calls and Zooms during the public comment period. Among the reasons listed is the city “experienced numerous technological problems related to this format resulting in the disruption of meetings and inconvenience.”
Two years ago in January, the city first offered remote public comment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But item 10.4 for Tuesday’s meeting notes that “in the aftermath of COVID, remote public comment is no longer necessary,” adding “staff recommends the public comment portion of all council meetings revert back to the pre-COVID format, which did not include remote public comment.”
Councilmember Colin Parent believes it’s a smart move.
“Our recent experiment with remote testimony has created a lot of challenges for conducting our meetings, and it is appropriate to pause that practice while still maintaining opportunities for in-person public comment,” he said.
But he added that “it is important for the local government to follow our obligations for freedom of speech, and to follow California’s open meeting laws.”
La Mesa is not the first city to react to the hijacking of a public comment period during council hearings. Last October the Walnut Creek City Council announced it would stop taking remarks remotely via phone and Zoom after antisemitic callers hurled insults at a Jewish councilmember. Similar attacks on Jews during public hearings have occurred in San Francisco, Sacramento, Fremont, Redwood City and Sonoma County.
The rule changes haven’t stopped hate speech in council chambers. At the Feb. 21 meeting of the Walnut Creek council, a man attending in person and wearing a shirt with swastikas lashed out at the board with an antisemitic attack. Calling himself “Scottie,” he was angry that the council had shut down remote public comments.
“I came here to discuss the attack on free speech and our First Amendment rights being stripped away by Jewish supremacists,” he said, according to media reports. “You shut down Zoom comments at the behest of the [Anti-Defamation League] because some Jews’ feelings got hurt.”
The California Department of Justice tracks incidents of hate speech, but Deputy Atty. Gen. Britton Lacy said local officials may be best-positioned to deal with disruptions at public meetings.
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This report appeared initially in Times of San Diego with which San Diego Jewish World shares news and features under auspices of the San Diego Online News Association.