Walnut Creek is one of many cities that ended remote public comment because of racist Zoombombs, so one of the racist Zoombombers showed up in person at Tuesday’s meeting in hopes of blaming it all on Jewish people.
When city council and government meetings went all-remote across the country during the pandemic, the switch to virtual meetings had some unintended consequences. One of these unintended consequences was the proliferation of racist Zoombombs during public comment, which caused San Francisco and other cities to end remote public comment.
Walnut Creek was one of those cities, and KTVU reports that one of that city’s most notorious Zoombombers showed up in person at Tuesday night’s meeting to deliver an antisemitic rant during public comment. He did so in a “White Power” shirt that also displayed a swastika.
The speech is disturbing, though we are embedding it below, as it has been retweeted by Walnut Creek councilmember Kevin Wilk, who was the target of the rant. “Freedom of Speech allows stupidity and hate,” Wilk says in the tweet, “ Note the ‘courageous’ man hides his face.”
Freedom of Speech allows stupidity and hate. Note the “courageous” man hides his face. https://t.co/eWu5ZGiHV0
— kevinwilk (@kevinwilk) February 21, 2024
Wilk has a point there, as the commenter who identifies himself as “Scotty” points directly at Wilk saying, “I’m here today because people like you think we’re scared to show up and show our face.” Yet this fellow’s face is obscured by sunglasses he is wearing indoors for a 6pm meeting.
“You people disgust me,” he continues, using the k-word to describe the Anti-Defamation League. “It’s only a matter of time until another inevitable Jew expulsion,” he adds, threatening another holocaust, before signing off with a Nazi salute and the words “Heil Hitler, white fucking power.”
Wilk, who had previously been Walnut Creek’s first Jewish mayor and is now a city councilmember, was the first to respond.
"We live in a free country, and there is free speech, and that means we have to listen to awful and heinous comments like we listened to," Wilk said at Tuesday night’s meeting. "And I would like to apologize on behalf of the city council and anybody who had to hear that horrible, horrible speech."
In comments to KTVU after the meeting, Wilk said that the man’s real name is not Scotty, and the individual lives in Modesto. Wilk also added that the FBI is "aware of him."
Image: City of Walnut Creek via Youtube
