Council meetings disrupted with bigoted remarks
Public commenters at recent council meetings in Larkspur and Tiburon have disrupted the proceedings with racist or antisemitic remarks.
The incidents both occurred during meetings on Sept. 20. At the Tiburon meeting, two speakers made bigoted statements during online public comments about the town's climate plan. One denied the existence of the Holocaust, while the other made slurs and threatened violence against Jews.
At the Larkspur meeting, during the public comment period on the city's communications team, two public commenters made racist and antisemitic slurs, laughed and repeatedly used white supremacist phrases.
The incidents are part of a pattern of racist and antisemitic disruptions at public meetings throughout the Bay Area, said Marc Levine, regional director of the AntiDefamation League's regional office. Other sites include Walnut Creek, Sacramento and Sonoma County, he said.
“Public meetings across the country are under attack by white supremacists. They are coordinating and victimizing public meetings,” said Levine, a former state assemblyman who represented Marin. “They're not happening in isolation and it's very important to understand that. These are coordinated attacks by these extremists to peddle in hate and stoke fear.”
Holli Thier, a councilmember from Tiburon who is Jewish, said the attacks were even more reprehensible because they happened between the holy holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
“We invite and we need all of our elected officials and residents to stand with us and not be silent in the face of hate and discrimination,” Thier said. “I lost family in the Holocaust. I think we really have to speak out and make sure that something like that can never happen again.”
Sky Woodruff, Larkspur's city attorney, said during the council meeting that it was the third such disruption. He said the city has rules of decorum to limit profanity, but noted “all members of the public have a full fair and equal opportunity to be heard.”
“Hate speech is protected by the First Amendment,” he said. “We do have to allow these comments to occur.”
Some expressed concern that the comments could come from anyone and anywhere because of teleconference meetings.
Larkspur City Manager Dan Schwartz called the statements “awful.”
“It was really jarring for all of us,” Schwartz said. “We do condemn this, but frankly I am dismayed that court rulings say that this is somehow protected First Amendment speech. I don't think this is what the First Amendment was written for. I'm so disappointed in the court system.”