Man exposes self, repeats the N-word at Black NC community group’s Zoom meeting
A man exposed himself, committed a lewd act and repeated the N-word during a North Carolina community betterment group’s public Zoom meeting, a meeting organizer said this week.
“It was a deplorable incident,” Willie Jones, a Smithville Community Coalition board member, told The Charlotte Observer.
Founded in 1968, the coalition is helping redevelop the historically Black Smithville community in Cornelius, about 20 miles north of Charlotte. The group is working on an ambitious, $12-million plan to provide housing affordable to teachers, first responders and other workers, as well as seniors, Jones said.
At the group’s Feb. 28 monthly Zoom meeting, attended by about 30 people, a naked man defecated and repeated the N-word three times before a coalition member shut the meeting down, Jones said.
About 16 to 18 senior widows who are Black attended the meeting, according to Justin Miller, community organizer for the coalition. That made the incident all the more despicable, Jones said.
Jones and others couldn’t offer much of a description of the man, only that he is white and sounded like he’s in his late 20s or his 30s, he said.
“Who would do that in an environment” with many older women in attendance? Jones asked. “Nobody does that to their grandma.”
Cornelius Today first reported about the incident.
‘Unsecure Zoom link’
The man appeared on screen as Mecklenburg County Assessor Ken Joyner held a question-and-answer session as part of the meeting, Jones said.
In a statement to the Observer Thursday, Joyner called what happened “an unfortunate, uncomfortable incident.”
Joyner said he’s “very empathetic with the Smithville community participants who had to see the hackers and hear their comments. It was distracting and took away from the purpose of the meeting.“
The coalition used “an unsecure Zoom link” to organize the meeting, he said.
“We are asking future groups who want us to speak to consider either upgrading to a more secure feed or consider meeting in person,” Joyner said.
The county uses much more secure platforms than Zoom, Joyner told Cornelius Today. “In two years of meetings on the county platforms, I have not had anyone uninvited enter a virtual meeting,” he said.
‘Emptiness of Values’
Jones said the intrusion “speaks to the emptiness of values in some people’s lives. What makes it become cool” to commit such an act and hurl a racial slur at Black people? he asked.
Jones said he asked the same questions growing up during segregation in rural Mecklenburg County, Virginia, the first county along Interstate 85 once you leave North Carolina.
“It’s the devil in them,” he said his grandmother replied to him.
No police investigation
Cornelius police haven’t investigated the incident, because nothing has been reported to the department, police spokeswoman Kristin Prescott said in an email Thursday.
Jones told the Observer the coalition didn’t file a police report. That’s partly due to a historic mistrust of police and because the coalition didn’t require people to identify themselves through an email address before being allowed access, he said.
Jones said he searched online for similar Zoom meeting intrusions and found no instance of a perpetrator being caught.
The coalition won’t let anonymous access happen again, he said.
History of Smithville
Smithville lies on both sides of Catawba Avenue off Interstate 77, Cornelius Exit 28. Multi-million dollar Lake Norman mansions grace neighborhoods in the opposite direction off the exit.
Originally called Limley by freed slaves around 1869, the predominantly Black community was later renamed Smithville to honor cotton farmer Jacob Smith, according to the coalition website.
In 1908, Smith began parceling out his land to Black families in hopes that they’d create a community “where families could live together,” according to the coalition.
Smithville redevelopment plan
Jones helps lead the coalition’s community redevelopment plan.
On Tuesday, Mecklenburg County commissioners are scheduled to consider awarding nearly $5.8 million to the initiative, he said.
Jones is a 69-year-old retiree who worked 29 years as project manager for a non-profit, Boston-based community development organization that expanded nationally.
In 2016, Jones graduated from a theological seminary and became an ordained minister in the Pentecostal denomination.
He sees his role helping the Smithville community as a way to put his faith into action.
“We’ll carry on,” he said of the intrusion. “This doesn’t stop us from doing the people’s business.”
Tips to prevent Zoom intrusions
On its website, Zoom recommends these and other steps to prevent disruptions of meetings on its plat:
▪ Allow only signed-in users to join, with the email address they were invited through allowing access.
▪ Lock the meeting by clicking the security icon at the bottom of the Zoom window. No new participants will be able to join the meeting once underway.
▪ Require a meeting pass code you can share privately.
▪ Enable the Zoom Waiting Rooms feature, which keeps guests from joining until you’re ready to let them into the meeting. “It’s almost like the velvet rope outside a nightclub, with you as the bouncer carefully monitoring who gets let in,” according to Zoom’s website.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.