A hate speech campaign comes to Monterey City Hall.

When members of Monterey City Council and the public gathered in the council chambers in Colton Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 19 for a meeting, everything seemed normal. The night’s business included a discussion on the city’s housing element – a plan for how to incorporate 3,654 new residential units by 2031 – which drew plenty of public interest. People standing in the chamber spoke at the podium. Others called in remotely. Then things went off the rails as comment after comment – 13 in total – veered away from the housing element and into blatant racism and anti-Semitism. The callers, unnamed and anonymous, lobbed slurs that have no place in civil society. Mayor Tyller Williamson stopped public comment amid the onslaught and apologized to the listening public for the hate they’d just heard. The City Council tabled the important business before them.

One of the great things about our democratic system of governance is that the public gets to participate. One of the awful things is that sometimes members of the public – including those who run for office, and sometimes win – believe and say awful things.

The hate speech that bombarded Monterey’s meeting appears to be part of a systemic attack on local government agencies. Similar calls have disrupted meetings in San Diego, Walnut Creek, Larkspur, South San Francisco, Livermore and more in recent weeks.

“These aren’t random acts,” says Marc Levine, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League’s Central-Pacific region. “Perpetrators are engaging in organized, orchestrated attacks on public meetings across the state and even nationally. These are white supremacists who are trying to take over these public spaces that are supposed to be there for serving the public.”

The City of Monterey led the way early in the Covid-19 pandemic to offer virtual public comment. While there is no requirement to keep offering it now that public spaces have reopened, the city has continued to do so, in an effort to make it easier for people to participate. “We have residents with child care challenges, mobility issues, work commitments or other obligations that don’t allow them to participate in person,” notes Assistant City Manager Nat Rojanasathira. “Residents have expressed their appreciation for having this type of public engagement.”

White supremacists are now exploiting Monterey’s effort to increase public access to meetings. They’re using it to spew hate and anger, and they’re ruining it for the rest of us.

Starting Tuesday, Sept. 26, Monterey implemented a new policy, something pulled straight out of ADL’s toolkit on how to handle this type of hate speech. People now must sign up to speak at the beginning of a discussion – no late arrivals to Zoom or in person – and the duration of public comment will be limited based on the number of speakers who join the queue. And on Wednesday, Sept. 27 (after the Weekly’s deadline), Monterey City Council was scheduled to discuss whether to suspend its virtual public participation option entirely.

“On one hand, providing online comments provides greater access for residents,” Rojanasathira says. “On the other hand, it is now becoming a platform for hate that can cause meetings to become disruptive and, in some cases, residents may be less willing to attend meetings if hate speech, bigotry and anti-Semitic language is a norm.”

Of course, virtual participation enables more hate like this – the cloak of anonymity gives people a way to hide. “There’s a reason why the KKK wears masks,” Levine notes.

The First Amendment protects speech, even hate speech, unless it rises to the level of a specific criminal threat. (The Monterey Police Department is not investigating any of the commenters for that reason.)

The real shame is that racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic slurs are still used in our society at all. “Hateful language can lead to hateful violence,” Levine says. “We need to call that out and denounce it.”

Thank you to Monterey’s leaders who did. “We hope you will join us in unequivocally condemning these malicious statements,” city officials wrote in a statement. “The City will continue to conduct the people’s business and serve all who live, visit and work here.”

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com