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Local council’s Zoom meeting about police reform, racial issues interrupted by white supremacist

CHURCHILL, Pa. — A town hall meeting that was intended for police reform and a discussion over racial problems that a disabled veteran claims his neighbor has caused him was ’Zoom-bombed’ with a hateful message from a random person.

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Leaders of the Churchill Council are calling that person a white supremacist, but they didn’t let that brief interruption distract them from the issues at-hand.

“Racism is not welcome here, we don’t tolerate it here,” said Churchill Council President Jay Dworin. “A white supremacist Zoom-bombed our meeting, came out and said the N-word.”

Council member Paul Smith said the man had a Nazi flag behind him in a closed room.

“You have a situation that the community is coming together to try and take progressive actions -- to try and make this not just a reactive space against racism, but a proactive space where we put in policies to address racism,” Dworin said.

One of the topics during the meeting was issues that resident Timothy Drake said he has had with a neighbor for quite some time.

Drake is a disabled veteran and said his neighbor has called police on him for unnecessary reasons.

“Police were down here so much at my door, my neighbor’s kids up the street who are five or six were actually stating that, ’Mom, dad, there go the police to Mr. Drake’s house again,’” he said.

Dworin told Channel 11 they are looking into those issues, such as that neighbor using racial slurs toward Drake. However, the council is also considering policy solutions.

“Part of this meeting became looking at something like a Karen’s Act -- a space where we’d be able to implement something that’s new to this region -- where if you use the police as a tool of harassment based on protected class of race or religion, national origin, disability for instance, that the person who is calling the police could be fined for using it,” Dworin said.

The council president and police chief are planning on talking to Drake privately as well.