A man wearing swastikas on his t-shirt and around his neck took to the public-comment microphone at Walnut Creek’s City Council meeting Tuesday evening and delivered an anti-Jewish diatribe that shocked city officials into a brief silence.
The goateed man in dark sunglasses, who identified himself as “Scotty,” wore a brown plaid shirt over a white t-shirt emblazoned with the swastika and the words “white power.” Another swastika hung from a chain around his neck, and his ball cap bore the circular, patterned “Black Sun” neo-Nazi symbol. He pulled out a phone and said he was “filming this for legal reasons.”
The man expressed discontent with the city’s October decision to shut down Zoom comments on video transmissions of city meetings, a move that followed months of anti-Semitic harassment, much of it directed at council member Kevin Wilk. The “Zoom-bombing” abuse came amid a surge of offensive, anonymous intrusions into broadcasts of public meetings across the Bay Area.
In Walnut Creek on Tuesday, the man said, “I’d like to remind you there is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment and cutting off comments for speech you disagree with is in direct violation of the oath of office that you all swore to uphold.” He pointed in the direction of Wilk, referring to “people like you,” and continued by threatening a lawsuit if he were to be “shut down.” He invoked the possibility of another Holocaust, before uttering “heil Hitler,” giving a Nazi salute and finishing with a profanity and the words “white power.” As he walked out of the chambers, he said, “I’m surprised you didn’t cut me off,” and, “See you next time, Wilk.”
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Council members sat stunned for several moments. Wilk then responded, saying, “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 just listened to.
“I would like to apologize on behalf of the City Council and anybody that had to hear that horrible, horrible speech.”
Mayor Pro Tem Cindy Darling apologized to Wilk, saying the man’s “vile” comments were clearly directed at him and were “not who we are as a city.”
A clearly flustered Mayor Loella Haskew said, “OK, um, doggone, um, there we are,” and moved on to regular council business.