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By Michael Howard
Screenshot from City Council video: La Mesa City Attorney Gleen Sabine advises Council on free speech rights
March 3, 2024 (La Mesa, CA) - The La Mesa City Council in its February 27 meeting voted 4-1 to ban remote public comments moving forward, with Councilman Jack Shu casting the dissenting vote.
The agenda item cites a memo by City Clerk Megan Wiegelman that suggested “in the aftermath of COVID, remote public comment is no longer necessary.” But the move to disallow call-in and Zoom public comments during City Council meetings seems to be in response to theFebruary 13 Council meeting, in which several remote participants listed Jewish government officials and unleashed a barrage of anti-Semetic speech.
Ironically, thse callers presented their message in a delivery style that could be described as educational and personable, but the content of their messages was starkly hateful and dark. Two callers decried the Jewish circumcision ritual, implying it called for bloody sexual acts and another caller quoted religious texts inciting Jews to kill non-jews and promoted hate of non-Jews.
Lending to the surreal nature of the moment and perhaps accounting for the stunned response of the Council members and the public in attendance, the callers made a point to commend the Council.
“I would like to commend the council for allowing free speech,” caller “Travis” said before stating a few minutes later that “the world has been taken over by Jews.” He complained that such phrases are branded anti-semetic and then “weaponized” to prevent First Amendment speech.
Travis went as far as citing legal cases in what might have been a precursory measure to prevent his words from being muted.
“Sixth Circuit Isson v. Madison Local School District held that a government body cannot regulate speech in its public participation section even when that speech is quote personally directed, insulting, antagonistic, abusive, harsh, or insulting,” Travis noted from the 2021 ruling.
At one point in the proceedings Mayor Mark Arapostathis asked City Attorney Glenn Sabine to address the public about what they were hearing.
“Although we may not like the comments of particular groups or individuals,” Sabine said, “it has to be tolerated because of the First Amendment.” He went on to say he wouldn’t want the Council to get in trouble for cutting off callers because they didn’t like what was being said.
“The audience should not take the wrong impression by what’s going on here by the Council sitting here and not taking action, it’s just part of what they have to do to comply with the Constitution,” Sabine explained.
Councilmember Shu, who cast the sole dissenting vote to keep remote public comments, noted the difficulty in hearing hate speech.
“In terms of freedom of speech and public testimony, it’s a hard issue at times, it’s hard to stomach,” he acknowledged. But he added, “I urge the Council to not approve this change, stay as we were, and not be intimidated or fear what may happen in the future with regards to public testimony.”
Shu noted that Councilmembers have the ability to use remote access to participate in Council meetings. “The public should be given the same ability to participate in our forum, in our Council meetings, remotely,” he insisted. “I would hate for our city to take away that forum,” he added.
La Mesa isn’t the only city facing this issue. Within the last few days, several city councils around the nation have reported similar tactics of remote callers touting hate speech. Cities facing this issue include Matthews, North Carolina; Beaverton, Oregon; Walnut Creek, California; Evanston, Illinois; Lakewood, Colorado, and more.
In the Matthews, North Carolina case, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) detector was used to determine whether the callers were real people or generated from AI. According to the detector, there is a 97% chance that the voice was artificially generated.
But there’s a good possibility that the technology to detect AI is not as reliable as the technology that has created it. According to the North Carolina Queen City News report covering the Matthews City Council incident, an actual human voice was tested and reported to have a 78% chance to be artificial, when in fact it wasn’t.
Back in La Mesa, not all of the public comments were anti-Semitic, including real human and in-person attendee Gene Carpenter who denounced the words he heard during the meeting.
“I’ve heard a lot of stuff tonight that is just so ugly and disgusting and unnecessary,” Carpenter said.
“This is not how we’re going to solve the problems,” he pointed out.
SOURCES
August, J. (2024, February 16). ANTISEMETIC CALLERS OVERWHELM LA MESA CITY COUNCIL MEETING WITH HATE SPEECH | East County Magazine. https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/antisemetic-callers-overwhelm-la-mesa-city-council-meeting-hate-speech
City of La Mesa. (2024, February 13). City Council—February 13, 2024. Retrieved March 3, 2024, from https://pub-lamesa.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=0ebf294a-3275-4ccc-9a4f-7929f07e3572&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English&Item=9&Tab=attachments
City of La Mesa. (2024, February 27). City Council—February 27, 2024. https://pub-lamesa.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=8a6a028d-7aaf-45ae-b1f0-1124a798ddda&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English
Cushing, T. (2021, July 14). Sixth Circuit Says School Board Can’t Boot People From Meetings Just Because It Doesn’t Like What They’re Saying. Techdirt. https://www.techdirt.com/2021/07/14/sixth-circuit-says-school-board-cant-boot-people-meetings-just-because-it-doesnt-like-what-theyre-saying/
Editor, L. to the. (2024, March 1). Letters: Measure B | Favored by unions | A new course | No call | Denying audience | Church’s attributes | Wasting resources. The Mercury News. https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/29/letters-1631/
Frances, M. (2024, February 29). Other municipalities dealing with suspected A.I. disruptors during meetings. Queen City News. https://www.qcnews.com/news/local-news/other-municipalities-dealing-with-suspected-a-i-disruptors-during-meetings/
Shannon, D. (2024, March 1). Reid urges new public comment limits. Evanston Now. http://evanstonnow.com/reid-urges-new-public-comment-limits/
The Denver Post. (2024, February 29). Letters: Neo-Nazis hide their faces and names. Keep exposing the hate. The Denver Post. https://www.denverpost.com/2024/02/29/lakewood-wheat-ridge-antisemitism-hate-speech-neo-nazis/
Wiegelman, M. (2024). UPDATE TO ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY A-4: PUBLIC COMMENT FOR CITY COUNCIL AND BOARD AND COMMISSION MEETINGS. City of La Mesa. https://pub-lamesa.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=12794
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