A Black woman expressing her concerns at a recent San Bernardino, California, city council meeting was called racial slurs. She is now criticizing leadership’s lack of response.
The woman, identified as Amy Malone, spoke in person at the city council meeting last week on Oct. 18 before two men on Zoom interrupted her using derogatory terms, including the N-word, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Due to his employment history, Malone was articulating her opinion against hiring Charles Montoya, who is now the city manager.
“When you look at his track record, you would not hire him for your own personal business,” Malone said before she was cut off.
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The audio was muted in a video of the meeting due to the offensive language, but NBC Los Angeles confirmed that one of the men could be heard telling Malone to “Go back to Africa,” and both men repeatedly used the N-word.
“Wow,” Malone reacted. She immediately addressed officials, saying that they should apologize for the heckler’s actions instead of being ordered to wait by Mayor Pro Tem Fred Shorett, according to the video.
“It’s a technical. I don’t have any control over that, and certainly that is inappropriate. I couldn’t agree with you more,” he said.
She responded: “Thank you. Thank you. To me, that should have been the first thing said to every African American in this place. It’s not just a me thing; this is an ‘everybody’ thing. Nothing like that should happen. Nothing.”
Malone then concluded her statement before walking away from the podium. She told NBC Los Angeles that she is disappointed by how city officials addressed the situation.
“I was hoping that the people in charge were going to take control and really stop everything for a moment and shut it down and allow me to get myself together, and that’s not what happened,” she said, per the outlet.
Local police are probing the incident and have gathered the men’s IP addresses. In addition, the local NAACP chapter chimed in and slammed the “disgusting” comments.
City leaders, including Mayor Helen Tran, held an event on Monday to publicly condemn the remarks, the Los Angeles Times reported. The city also issued an apology and added that it is “reviewing its remote comment protocols to identify steps that can be taken to prevent this from happening again.”
Watch the video of Mayor Helen Tran responding to the incident here.
“Last Wednesday does not define us as a city,” Tran said, in part, per the Times. “That is not who we are. Tonight, we stand together as a united community, because hateful comments by two individuals are not a reflection of what the city of San Bernardino is or what we stand for.”
Speaking to NBC Los Angeles, Malone said she wants the hecklers to be charged.
