Laguna Beach shuts down council meeting after 'Zoombombing' incident (2024)

Laguna Beach officials on Tuesday ended a city council meeting early after a handful of speakers unleashed antisemitic, hom*ophobic, transphobic and racist tirades over Zoom during a public comment period.

The incident appears to be an example of “Zoombombing,” an unfortunate trend that began when the pandemic forced public meetings to move online, allowing speakers to make comments from remote sites.

The meeting, where leaders were considering recognizing February as Black History Month and conducting other business, like appointing community members to committees, was peppered with profanity-laced comments about Latinos, members of the LGBTQ+ community and Black and Jewish people. Tuesday’s meeting was mostly in-person, but included an option for the public to tune in and comment via Zoom.

After two hours, and roughly a dozen public speakers, Mayor Sue Kempf decided to adjourn the meeting and move it to another date.

“Our community’s dedication to civic engagement is commendable, and we are committed to ensuring a safe and respectful environment. Together, we will continue to uphold our values of inclusivity, respect, and integrity,” Kempf wrote in a statement.

Zoombombing, in which speakers aim to disrupt a public meeting, became an unwelcome trend during the pandemic when city and school district gatherings largely went online to avoid transmission of COVID-19.

“This was a targeted act by a relatively small number of people who are looking for publicity. They’re like ants,” said Brian Levin, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino. “This is really the conduct of a roving band of both small-numbered and small-minded bigots.”

The comments in Laguna Beach began less than an hour into the meeting during a period set aside for people to give their thoughts on issues not on the council’s agenda.

After two speakers used antisemitic language and a third sought to speak about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., City Atty. Megan Garibaldi briefly paused the comments to explain that this attempt at Zoombombing was a way to “try to test the city government” to see if they’ll shut down speech in violation of the 1st Amendment.

“To the extent that these comments start to get to the point of disrupting our meeting ... we can suspend comment. Otherwise, unfortunately, we have to proceed with comment until they’re over,” she told the crowd.

The profanity and conspiracy-laden comments continued after the council moved onto the consent calendar. At one point, after a man used anti-gay and anti-Jewish slurs, city officials paused the meeting to give members of the audience a chance to step outside until the comments were over. Officials attempted to continue the meeting, but the hate speech continued.

After several breaks and attempts to move the discussion forward, Kempf said she was ending the meeting.

“We couldn’t get any work done,” Kempf said Wednesday morning. “It just wasn’t productive.”

Cities and schools across California from the Bay Area to San Diego have grappled with Zoombombing during their meetings.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism in August reported an increase in antisemitic speech at public forums like city council meetings. Since then, the group has recorded more than 135 such disruptions at public meetings in the U.S., according to the ADL.

Many of the Zoombombing incidents are the work of individuals associated with a small, known hate group. The incident comes at a time when anti-Jewish hate is surging across the United States, Levin said.

In Orange County, the Jewish community was the most targeted for religious-related hate activity in 2022, according to a report published last year by the OC Human Relations Commission. New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Portland, Ore., and other major cities also hit records for anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2023, Levin said.

“There is a greater resilience with respect to these kinds of bigotries because of both the destruction of the internet and the the down-sloping direction of civic discourse,” he said.

In Laguna Beach, which has been celebrated for decades as a haven for the LGBTQ+ community, residents attending the meeting were visibly angry.

Some shouted from the audience that the council should stop the Zoom feed.

Mayor Pro Tem Alex Rounaghi called the comments from the Zoom speakers “horrible” and said they don’t reflect Laguna Beach values.

“We all know the 1st Amendment protects everyone’s right to speech, even hate speech, but we can add our voices too,” he said. “This is a place that is not only tolerant of diversity of all forms but also embraces it.”