Racist Zoom-Bomber Threatens Candidate For Evanston City Council

EVANSTON, IL — Several dozen Evanston residents gathered outside the home of a candidate for alderman Sunday after she was targeted by a racist intruder during an online event hosted by the local Democratic Party.

Carolyn Murray, who is running for 5th Ward alderman, said she was taking part in a remote endorsement interview using Zoom teleconferencing software when one of the participants, unbeknownst to her, started sending racist private messages to participants.

Murray said she was focused on the camera while answering questions from Democratic Party of Evanston Vice President Greg Andrus. But midway through the interview, she had to switch computers due to a technical issue. That's when the abuse intensified, she recalled.

"That's when we got audio-bombed, and it was a disguised voice. That voice was saying the N-word, the N-word, and that person said that they killed my son and they were going to kill me," Murray said. "So obviously everyone's in a rage, and I'm realizing, OK, well now it's a real problem. So I just addressed it and said, you know, 'Hey, I don't know who this is or what's going on, but I'm not scared of you and I'm not going to allow you to intimidate us.'"

The intruder sent messages supporting President Donald Trump and listing attendees' home addresses in the software's chat feature. While her staff contacted police, she confronted the anonymous online racist, Murray recalled.

"I don't know who you are," she said. "But you're not coming to intimidate me, intimidate my people that are on this call, and whoever you are, we're not scared."

Organizers completed the interview after the incident, Murray said. Party representatives issued an initial apology Sunday evening saying that they "shut it down as quickly as we could" and pledging to improve security protocols and cooperate with police.

"Since the pandemic has forced us to meet virtually, unfortunately these meeting rooms are susceptible to threats," they said in a statement.

The next day, party officials elaborated on the apology in a longer statement.

"We apologize for not shutting the event down immediately," they said. "No one should feel unsafe at our events and no one should feel unsafe in participating in the political process – ever. We will not tolerate white supremacy, anti-Blackness, or racial violence in all of its forms in any space where we operate."

Murray, a U.S. Navy veteran, said she initially went into "military mode" after the threat — making sure her home security was in place and checking in with police. She said local party leaders later told her they were aware of increased threats following pro-Trump rioting Jan. 6 on Capitol Hill.

"I could see it was very planned at me," Murray said. "If you would have shared that to me, I could have told you, that of all the candidates, if you are already receiving heightened alerts I probably could be a high-profile target because of my involvement with anti-gun violence, my involvement with the Obama administration and just being a Democrat and a Black female. I could see why, if they were going to do this, they would wait until my interview would come to attack you."

Murray has been an anti-gun violence advocate since her son, Justin, was fatally shot in 2012. She organized gun buyback events and attended President Barack Obama's 2013 State of the Union address as a guest of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston.) She said she has been targeted by gun rights supporters ever since. Hers was the first of more than two dozen candidate interviews conducted over Zoom to be disrupted in such a way.

"For some reason, I don't know why, when you speak up for sensible gun laws you're viewed as anti-police," she said. "When you speak up about Black-on-Black crime, homicides that are being unsolved, you're viewed as anti-patriotic. I'm a military veteran. That's not the case at all. I'm speaking up for safety. So how I've been labeled and targeted by white supremacists and Trump supporters is unconscionable to be, but that's the political climate we're living in."

After the incident, Karla Thomas, a local antiracism and equity consultant, offered to come stand outside Murray's home for protection Sunday evening. She said the racist threats were aimed at intimidating Black candidates from running for office.

"I was like, 'You know what, that won't be necessary, but if you would like to come over and take a picture to show solidarity and to say that we're not going to be intimidated by some terrorist,'" Murray said.

Speaking at a gathering of about 50 people outside Murray's home, Thomas said Black people should not be expected to function while facing racist attacks, and it was wrong to not immediately address the racist outbursts.

"You need to sit tonight and figure out how you're going to protect the people of color who are running in your community," Thomas said. "It is not OK to say you like diversity when those people pay a much higher tax to exist in this town because of the color of their skin."

Evanston Democratic Party Committeeman Eamon Kelly said the disruption was a criminal act. He expressed confidence the online intruder would be identified and said the rapid gathering in response to the hate speech shows the community's support of the right of Black candidates to run for office and lead the city.

"One of our members, and one of our community was threatened today by a Trump supporter. But it wasn't just a threat, it was an extremely racialized threat," Kelly said.

"We will hold you criminally responsible for what we did. We will find you and we will hold you accountable. And I'm here at Carolyn's house so that you know that within minutes and hours we will be there," he said. "We are a community together, we will hold you accountable."

Evanston Police Chief Demitrous Cook also addressed attendees, many of them holding candles, outside Murray's house Sunday evening.

"I came out here because I stand in solidarity against any form of racism against anybody," Cook said. "It's important that we all stand for people of color. Brown, Black, Jewish people, American Indians, white people, everybody can be discriminated against, and that's something that we should not tolerate. It's a very difficult time in America. It's a time for all of us to stand up as brothers and sisters."

Several fellow candidates for aldermen, mayor and city clerk attended the vigil. Murray also said she was contacted by four aldermen after the Zoom-bombing — Alds. Ann Rainey, Tom Suffredin, Melissa Wynne and Don Wilson. Some other aldermen referenced the incident at Monday's City Council meeting.

Fuschia Winston-Rodriguez, one of those that gathered at Murray's house, said it was up to white residents of Evanston to respond to the hate speech.

"Those were your people, they weren't mine. They were not mine. And every single day you stand here silent, more of that gets to happen. Every single minute that you are here silent that is allowed to happen," Winston-Rodriguez said. "We say that we are welcoming, we say that we are diverse, we say this is the place to be, this is 'Heavenston,' we live in a bubble — no we don't. We live in a bubble of fakeness. We live in a bubble of fake words — fake buzzwords that you all heard about, I don't know, on social media."

Murray said she hoped the city would expand the forums available for residents to share their experiences feeling intimidated or unsafe amid heightened racial and political tensions.

"Citizens have a right to feel safe in their neighborhood, and if we're saying that we're trying to be a more racially conscious city moving forward, and if it's a work in progress for our equity, this is definitely an opportunity that we need to make right in Evanston," the candidate said.

"We can definitely utilize this, especially with our climate right now, to just address this and tackle it head on and build off of this," she added. "It wasn't just an attack on me. It was an attack on the callers who are residents. It was an attack on the Democratic Party."

Murray's campaign is planning a community forum Jan. 19.