“Sickening, Disgusting, Infuriating” Matthews Board of Commissioners Stunned After Zoom Bombing

Update:

MATTHEWS, N.C. – Matthews Commissioner Renee Garner is still completely disgusted after Zoom bombers crashed Monday night’s Board of Commissioners meeting, spewing anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist language.

“I heard things that I never imagined I would ever hear,” says Garner. “It got to a point where it was not healthy for me to sit and and have and have to take this in. And at that point, I made a decision to walk out,” she continues.

To see the meeting in its entirety, click here. DISCLOSURE: the language used in this view is offensive.

In the video, you can see the board members getting visibly uncomfortable with the comments that are being made.

Commissioner Ken McCool says he was appalled. “People were really shocked at what happened,” he says. “We never thought we would see something like this,” says McCool.

While the first speaker was making anti-Semitic comments, Commissioner Garner asked for the volume to be turned down so it was audible, “but he was unable to yell it at the entire room,” she says.

“Maybe some of us find it repulsive,” Commissioner Mark Tofano said, “but you have no right to turn down the volume on this man.”

Garner replied, saying the language that he was using was offensive, but most of all, it was “disgusting.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Tofano replied. “You’re not the one that decides who can speak and who cannot speak. And if you turn down the volume on another speaker in this hall ever again, so help me…”

It turns out that Zoom bombing is happening all across the country.

“I was made aware a few weeks ago that it was starting to happen in communities across the country,” McCool says, “but really didn’t think it ever happen in Matthews.”

“They’re hoping for a lawsuit, and they’re hoping for somebody to shut them down,” says Garner, “and so they do amp up their rhetoric to be as disgusting as possible. And I think that’s exactly what happened last night.”

Moving forward, the Board of Commissioners are working with town staff to find ways to allow people to have their freedom of speech without opening the door for topics discussed Monday night. Commissioners McCool, Garner and Tofano say that the racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic comments made at Monday’s meeting do not represent the town of Matthews.