Opinion |

Democracy at risk as harassment of public officials escalates

Harassment, intimidation and threats have become a way of life for public officials. When I read reports from around the country, I can’t help but wonder: Why would anyone want to serve in public office today? Then, I can’t help but worry: What happens if we don’t fix this?

You may recall a particularly acrimonious meeting of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in November 2021. Some members of the public used racist, misogynistic and threatening language to express their frustration with the county’s COVID-19 response.

Following the session, the board voted to adopt the National Conflict Resolution Center’s Code of Civil Discourse, which provides parameters for conducting inclusive, respectful public meetings.

There have been other displays of contempt toward our public officials here: a house set on fire, a car vandalized, incidents of stalking. We shouldn’t be surprised: Roughly one-third of Americans think violence against the government is justified, according to a December 2021 survey by The Washington Post and University of Maryland.

Rachel Locke and Carl Luna have collaborated to study the scope of the problem here in San Diego County. Locke is the director of the Violence, Inequality and Power Lab at Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at University of San Diego. Luna is the director of the Institute for Civil Civic Engagement, a partnership between the University of San Diego and San Diego Community College District. The research was funded by a grant from USD.

The pair surveyed 328 elected officials here, including school and community college representatives, city council members, mayors and the board of supervisors. They also conducted interviews and reviewed literature, traditional media, and social media — including more than 400,000 posts on Twitter, analyzed by Locke’s team.

While the report won’t be finalized until mid-summer, Locke and Luna have shared some of their findings:

• Seventy-five percent of San Diego County’s elected officials reported being threatened or harassed — 82 percent of women and 66 percent of men.
• Sixty-six percent said threats and harassment have increased since they started public service — and nearly half said it’s a monthly occurrence.
• Fifty-two percent of those threatened have considered leaving public service as a result — 61 percent of women and 32 percent of men.

To Luna, the threat environment in San Diego is no different from the rest of the country. It’s the national issues — like COVID-related mandates and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — that have become a rallying cry for instigators making a determined effort to target public officials.

“There are repeated reports of organized harassment,” Luna said, adding, “Anger is a marketable business in America.”

It’s part of a larger strategy by the fringes in society to subvert the will of the people. As anger is fomented, trust in public institutions erodes. As intimidation spreads, fewer will want to serve in public office.

The consequences are chilling. In her book “How Civil Wars Start,” Barbara F. Walter wrote, “If you cannot topple the central government, then you can use violence to goad the population directly into submission.” Walter, who has studied the rise and fall of democracies around the world, was NCRC’s National Peacemaker honoree last year.

It answers my earlier question about what happens if we don’t fix the harassment, intimidation and threats that have become a way of life for public officials. Democracy means rule by the people — and in America today, that means all of us. If targeted attacks are successful, valuable voices will likely be silenced.

To explore possible solutions, Locke and Luna recently organized a series of community conversations, in partnership with the League of Women Voters.

The easy fix, it would seem, is to change meeting protocol in a way that curbs hate speech and shields public officials from harassment and intimidation. But the right to comment “on any subject relating to the business of the governmental body” — even to heckle — is protected by the 1953 Brown Act, which provides guidelines for public participation in meetings of local legislative bodies. (If the behavior is considered disruptive, however, a person can be removed.)

The bigger challenge is finding a way to defuse the anger that is fueling the threats and acts of violence. I know what doesn’t work: trying to persuade people to change by convincing them our point of view is right (and thinking we can).

Instead, we should listen, and let them know they are being heard. Isn’t that what we all want?

(A Path Forward will be taking a summer hiatus in July. It will return on Aug. 6.)

Dinkin is president of the National Conflict Resolution Center, a San Diego-based group working to create solutions to challenging issues, including intolerance and incivility. To learn about NCRC’s programming, visit ncrconline.com