The City Council meeting on the evening of Monday, October 23 saw three separate incidents of members of the public calling in and making white supremacists statements while using offensive racial slurs.
The incidents led to Council Member Göran Eriksson calling for a future agenda item to discuss no longer allowing the public to speak at the meetings virtually. He received three nodding heads and that will likely be raised at the next meeting, considering the urgency.
The racist outbursts happened on an evening when the council voted unanimously in favor of a resolution, “Condemning the recent attacks on Israel and standing in solidarity with Israel and its people, and expressing deep concern for the innocent civilians in Gaza; and if desired, adoption of the proposed resolution and direction to the City Manager to send a letter with a copy of the adopted resolution to President Joseph R. Biden, the Secretary of the United States Department of State, Anthony Blinken, and Culver City’s elected representatives.”
That vote was 4-0, with Vice Mayor Yasmine-Imani McMorrin absent.
Action Item 2 also resulted in a unanimous 4-0 vote, as the city designated November 12-18 2023 “Culver City United Against Hate Week.”
The item further called for the newly-designated week, “as a City-Sponsored Campaign,” and to authorize, “the City Manager to administratively approve agreements, permits and licenses needed as deemed appropriate for this campaign to promote hate crime reporting Awareness and the message of unity against hate and hate crimes within the Culver City community.”
Those first two items saw the council unified against hate and terrorism, and the racist speakers highlighted why those action items are so necessary. Vile racial slurs were heard by everyone, as was the phrase “Hitler was right.” Staff hurried to cut the audio, and the council was visibly shocked.
Later in the meeting, the council voted in favor of a moratorium on business tax for cannabis distribution companies, an ordinance restricting sidewalk vending, to broaden the definition of allowable signage/billboards, and to form an ad hoc signage subcommittee with the aim of exploring a digital kiosk program.