Mayor Kou’s opening comment was good and heartfelt. Thank you Mayor.

Tonights hateful public comments at Council were unlike anything heard here before. They were designed to wind us up. The only good news is that Palo Altans completely reject their twisted pronouncements.

Thank you, Mayor Kou.

Unfortunately the haters are Hate Zooming public meetings all over the Bay Area and -- as my Google news search showed -- all over the country which has forced cities to limit public comments to written and in-person.

Sadly, this is happening all over the Bay Area. If this is happening on Zoom, you disable the chat. Redwood City got it right. You abolish the speakers, and the problem is solved.

Peace begins with me.

Beyond belief, but sadly I am no longer surprised.

Antisemitism and hate are the causes Zoom bombers spend their time on? Really? Are they trolling? Is this just entertainment for them? Can they not find any other way to feel better about themselves and do something useful with their lives?

Maybe it would be a good idea just to stick to city business and save the international issues for those at the U.S. State Department.

Given the nature of the situation and the access provided by technology, making comments at the city level may not be appropriate in this specific forum. Maybe the mayor could have issued a statement through her office off camera.

Yes, I know there are many in the community reeling from the events in the Middle East who look to leaders to soothe their pain, and I agree 100% with the Mayor's sentiments, but sometimes just sticking to city business is the way to go. Hopefully lessons will be learned after this abuse of free speech by those who are simply seeking attention. Sad fact is that they will not go away, so you must find ways to limit their opportunities.

Of course they're trolling and as for entertainment value, it seems that the more outrageous they can get, they do so their antics can make the news.

Re pedophilia, a national survey from a respected firm found that almost 20% of Republicans surveyed believe that ALL Democrats are pedophiles. Remember Pizzagate from 2016 when the conspiracy theorists kept beating the drum that Hillary and Leon Panetta were running a child pedophile ring in the basement of Comet Pizza? Remember how some heavily armed southerner drove up to DC to rescue those poor abused kids?

The was NO basement and NO child sex ring. He later apologized. Web Link

A quick search on "Pizzagate" to remind myself of the date shows Pizzagate is STILL alive and well, that people again set fire to the pizza place, that there are new Facebook groups devoted to it and that Trump hosted an event featuring the PizzaGate conspiracy theorists December 2022, one month before January 6 when they tried to overturn the election:

Web Link

This was a predictable outcome. Why would the mayor be so naïve as to invite the inevitable antisemitic comments? Perhaps the council should have learned from our other communities that opening up the forum, inevitably leads to hurtful comments.

An empty statement by the mayor and council members that this community denounces hate, and that we can do better have no help. Actions speak louder than words. Silence those comments rather than giving them a forum.

I do agree, that we deserve better – a better mayor, and a better city Council that can offer more than weak words.

I have participated in public life ever since I was a teenager growing up here in Palo Alto during the 1970's. I received my first antisemitic hate letter, addressed to my home address (with a return address!) when I was about 17 years old. Similar letters and phone calls followed with some regularity, some containing death threats (I have a file of these from years gone by, all were shared with the authorities). At one point, our excellent PAPD parked a squad car out in front of our house on Edgewood 24/7 to help me and my family feel safer, with the police checking in on us from time to time. These zoom calls are of course horrifying. But one benefit is that now the rest of the community understands what some of us have been dealing with for a very long time.

Nobody uses Zoom anymore

I read this article with disappoint and disgust....not with the speakers (First Amendment) but with the City Council. I suppose this 'obligation' started in the 60's with the Vietnam War where the Council started getting involved in speaking out against the War. This has now evolved into believing that they are obligated to say something about every headline national/international event. Personally, I did not vote for City Councilmembers to provide their personal opinions on national/international events. These events should not even be mentioned - unless they intend to spend City money supporting one side or the other. The City Council opened the window for such comments by bringing it up themselves - they asked for it. The Council should refrain from discussing national/international events and install a protocol to cut-off speakers who talk about anything other than City business.

As others have noted, there's an easy technical fix - just delay the zoom feed 2-3 seconds and have a person monitor the undelayed feed on headphones. If a bomb hits, the monitor just hits a switch to mute and disconnect the comment, and nobody else ever hears it. This "tape delay" strategy has been used for more than 50 years by broadcasters.

The PAUSD according to a new story here has scheduled an emergency meeting tomorrow to cancel all virtual commenting immediately at their Board meetings, even though they haven't even been hit by a zoom bombing! This is unacceptable and seems to me to just be a way to cut off public comment about their too-often-flawed policies.

Contact the Board members to tell them what a bad idea this is!

@John There was no cause and effect on Monday between the mayor’s statement and the Zoom bombers. The time difference was too short. This was a planed, coordinated attack that happened to coincide at the same meeting as the mayor’s remarks.

My comments at CC yesterday:

Thank you Mayor Kou for your sincere and personal appeal last week to unite in common grief and to move forward with common humanity in troubled times.

Now, how do we best protect the community and our open processes in the wake of the planned, coordinated, and hateful attacks that coincidentally followed; a series of gut punches to anyone who experienced it.

Pre-pandemic, pre-remote public participation, on rare occasion hateful words have been spoken at this meeting. But there was an important difference: we could see who the speakers were, which was a deterrent to their returning.

Both then and now, for all numbered agenda items, as per your written procedures: “Public comments or testimony must be related to the matter under consideration.” Therefore, the mayor should and did interrupt and shut off any speaker who, after fair warning, strayed from the agenda item.

I recommend the warning and the trigger be sooner and any follow-up statement be held until the bigot is completely off-line.

But in the un-numbered public comment period ­– this one –­ it is the speaker who chooses the topic and who can inject hate speech, shielded by its First Amendment protections.

Staff and/or council leaving the room, facing away, or listening but not tolerating are not the best responses in my view. Because there is no First Amendment right to remote public comment.

And so, I recommend that for this “open mike” public comment period only, speakers should be required to be present in the chambers.

Our good citizenry who cannot attend, can write to the council directly or ask a friend to speak here on their behalf.

It is a small price to pay to give pause to those who seek cover in the shadows for their hate.

And to allay any fears in these chambers as well as to maintain decorum, which was breached during this public comment period last week, there should be a uniformed public safety officer present during that time.

##