A council meeting, and a black woman, she's talking to council. She's called racial slurs. She's told to go back to Africa. She says council did nothing to protect her. [00:00:15] Put her up full mass. Hell of a story. This happened in San Bernardino, California. Amy Malone is her name. She spoke in person at the city council meeting last week October 18. [00:00:33] Two men on Zoom interrupted her using derogatory terms, including the N word, NBC Los Angeles reported. The audio was muted in a video of the meeting due to the offensive language, [00:00:49] but NBC Los Angeles confirmed that one of the men could be heard telling Malone, go back to Africa, and both men repeatedly used the N word. Wow, Miss Malone reacted. She immediately addressed officials saying that they should apologize for [00:01:09] the hecklers actions instead of being ordered to wait by Mayor Pro Tem Fred Shorett, that's 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, end quote, he said. [00:01:26] 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. Nothing like that should happen, nothing! [00:01:42] And I wanna say this, I echo her statement, but that's offensive to everyone who's not racist. So, of course, that's offensive to the target audience. It's also offensive to those who are allied with us. [00:02:01] So, yes, an apology should go directly to the target audience. We are sorry, ma'am, and to everyone who's part of the African American community, we're gonna make sure that never happens again. We're gonna cut that feed off, they would not be able to participate here anymore. [00:02:16] And to everyone who's here, we apologize for the offense. Real simple, real simple. There's more. She told NBC Los Angeles that she is disappointed by how city officials addressed the situation. [00:02:34] Quote, 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. [00:02:51] 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. Speaking to NBC Los Angeles, Malone said she wants the hecklers to be charged. [00:03:09] So let's put up the mayor, Helen Tran is her name, 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 Comet protocols to identify [00:03:25] steps that can be taken to prevent this from happening, all right? The mayor will go on to say, quote, last Wednesday does not define us as a city. In part, per times, that is not who we are. [00:03:41] Tonight we stand together as a unified community, because hateful comments by two individuals are not a reflection of what the city of San Bernardino is or what we stand for. [00:03:57] And I agree, there are good people in your community. There are actually some good people inside of your operational government. But here's an approach I recommend to the leadership of the city. [00:04:13] Well, things like this happen. Instead of saying we're investigating, we're looking into it, we have their IP addresses, we're gonna see what can be done in the future, possible, perhaps, maybe. Instead of doing that, be very clear about what will and [00:04:31] will not happen in your city, be very clear about the penalty for those who have already violated decorum and possibly law. Be very clear that you're willing to make them, those individuals, public. [00:04:46] You know why? Because they were on a public channel. They were providing public comment. They no longer have right to privacy. So how about you blast their pictures and names for everyone to see? You have the legal right to do that. They decided to offer those comments in a public forum. [00:05:04] They did. That would be a start. All right, Jackson, thoughts here? >> Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you have to put your foot down in a way to show that there's consequences for things like this. Because we're continuing to have to deal with racism in this country, [00:05:22] given the fact that a lot of those are the founding pillars of the nation. It's also just an unfortunate negative aspect of the human condition. It's part of how we group ourselves together, it's part of our tribal nature, but it's not something that we can't overcome. [00:05:37] And so, right now, unfortunately, we're living in an era where you can't point and be like, this is all because of Donald Trump, but just the style of his being who he is. Nothing really matter. Like you got Marjorie Taylor Greene on the floor of Congress showing [00:05:52] private pictures of everything's just nuts, everything's crazy. So, hey, why not go to this public space and say what I feel like? So just in regard to how you mentioned, you gotta be able to be no, no, we're not gonna have that, because people can't think that it's okay. [00:06:12] And we do live in an era where this is, unfortunately, becoming a bigger issue, so. >> Speaker 1: Yep, it's becoming more and more proclaimed in public spaces where children are, where the ears of everyone can be. [00:06:28] That's the big difference that we're seeing at council meetings, etc. These things are not happening just in private context, they're happening in public context more and more. All right, we'll bring you updates as they come.