“I Prefer To Use The Term Virtual Cockroaches” Matthews Puts An End To Potential ‘Zoom Bombers’
MATTHEWS – The board of commissioners in Matthews decided Tuesday night to completely remove the Zoom option for their board hearings after last week’s meeting nightmare brought on by so-called “zoom bombers.”
“With apologies to the insect, I prefer to use the term virtual cockroaches,” says Mayor John Higdon.
Higdon was not there last week when five anonymous people joined the public meeting via Zoom and began to make racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic statements. The mayor says he does have a three step plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
- Remove Zoom as an option.
- Remove the written comment option.
- Require names and addresses from each speaker.
“We’ve allowed people to do these written comments and Zoom comments probably longer than we should have,” said Higdon.
The board agreed unanimously to the mayor’s three step plan. They say they’re happy with how smoothly the decision was made.
“I think it’s good to show the community that we care about our community, that we don’t want to be able to give easy access to do this kind of zoom bombing, and this kind of hate speech,” said Commissioner Kevin McCool. “A lot of people felt unsafe, and I feel like we’ve done a lot to protect our community.”
