|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Livermore community is still grappling with shock and dismay after hate speech from virtual participants during last week’s City Council meeting led to its abrupt adjournment.
“So many good people are doing good things for our community. And yet hate, too, is having its moment,” former councilmember Trish Munro said in a statement to Livermore Vine.
“Over the past few weeks, there have been more than 30 instances of an organized hate campaign disrupting Bay Area governmental meetings (council meetings and boards of supervisors) with hate speech — largely, but not exclusively, directed against Jews,” she added.
Munro, who is Jewish, said she was observing the culmination of Yom Kippur when the incident took place during the council’s Sept. 25 regular meeting. She said she was notified via text of the intrusion referred to as “zoombombing” soon after the council meeting ended.
After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the Livermore council — along with many other public agencies — maintained the practice of holding hybrid meetings in person and via Zoom as well as live streaming via YouTube to continue allowing more ways of access for residents.
However, callers who joined via Zoom last week using fake aliases hijacked the public forum period to express racist, anti-LGBTQ and antisemitic rhetoric, including the assertion that “there seems to be an over-representation of Jewish people within the authority structure to decide what our civil rights are.”
While Livermore council meetings are typically held on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, last Monday’s session also coincided with the end of Yom Kippur — a Jewish holy day of fasting and repentance.
After interrupting two back-to-back callers identified as “Sadie Enwird” and “Judy Stroyer”, respectively, Mayor John Marchand called for a recess.
City attorney Jason Alcala noted before the recess that the situation appeared to be an orchestrated effort given the disparaging nature of the comments and the monikers of the callers, which phonetically translated to offensive slurs and phrases.
“This is not unprecedented; this has happened in other cities as well,” Alcala said.
Marchand was joined by councilmembers Ben Barrientos and Bob Carling. Vice Mayor Brittni Kiick and Councilmember Evan Branning were absent.
After the break, the council suspended the remainder of public comment to the end of the meeting and went ahead with the rest of the agenda.
Just before public comment was set to reopen, Barrientos grabbed his belongings and left the dais. His exit left only two members of the council remaining, meaning there was no longer a quorum to allow the meeting to proceed.
Livermore school board Trustee Kristie Wang, who is also a community organizer with Tri-Valley for Black Lives, shared a comment reflecting on the incident with Livermore Vine.
“As a member of the Jewish community, I’ve been tracking the increasing incidents of antisemitic zoombombing at public meetings throughout the Bay Area. Yet hearing those hateful words expressed in the chambers of our City Council was still somehow shocking and appalling,” she said. “These are not Livermore values. This is not who we are.”
The day after the council meeting, the city released a public statement denouncing hate and doubling down on its commitment to diversity and inclusion.
“Livermore’s strength is derived from its diversity and inclusiveness, from respecting one another, from welcoming all, and from collaborating with one another across differences. The city stands against expressions of hatred and supports bringing community members together to celebrate diversity and inclusion,” the statement reads.
Both Wang and Munro expressed appreciation to the council and city officials for how they handled the issue.
“The City Council acted swiftly and appropriately. Both council and city staff deserve thanks from everyone who stands against hate,” Munro said.
Wang shared similar sentiments. “I was gratified to see Mayor Marchand take immediate action in the meeting and see the city issue a statement the next day, reaffirming our culture of inclusiveness and stand against hate and intolerance,” she said.
In light of the incident’s timing, Munro shared a principle within the Jewish faith that is of particular importance to her.
“During Yom Kippur, Jews recite an alphabet of sins using the plural first person: ‘We have sinned,’ not ‘I have sinned.’ While each person is responsible for individual actions, personal repentance is not enough. There is communal recognition that when terrible things happen, it is incumbent on all of us, on the whole community to repair the damage. Livermore has been damaged. Let us all work together to build a stronger community out of that damage,” she said.