Haines Public Safety Building (Photo: hainesalaska.gov)
A Haines public meeting held via video-conference was disrupted Wednesday after unknown persons began shouting racist abuse.
The Haines Public Safety Committee was holding a virtual meeting when a speaker joined the Zoom conference and began shouting racist obscenities.
Borough staff muted one speaker, then shortly after a second person joined in.
“Was that one of those hacks?” one member asked. “Did we get Zoom-bombed?”
Haines Police Chief Heath Scott was on the Wednesday evening call.
“It was vulgar and inappropriate. Not appropriate for the atmosphere, and not appropriate on any Zoom call as I’m concerned.”
Staff quickly dropped both speakers, who’d identified themselves online simply as “Dan” and “Jeff.”
The police chief says it’s difficult to tell whether the pranksters were from Haines or targeted the meeting at random.
“I don’t think there’s any way of knowing. It happened two separate times, about 30 second apart and the names that flashed on the screen were just first names.”
Borough staff called it “disturbing” and said it was the first disruption the administration has had, also known as “Zoom bombing.”A typical Zoom-bombing incident is when a videoconference is hijacked by the insertion of material that is lewd, obscene, racist or abusive.
It has become a rising trend over the past year as more public forums move online due to the pandemic.
Haines officials say they’re discussing additional precautions to prevent future disruptions. The meeting adjourned shortly after. But not because of the obscene outbursts. Only half of the six-member committee had called in. They didn’t have a quorum.
The Public Safety Committee meeting was rescheduled and resumed today.
