Kyle McAuley Accused of Harassing Journalists and Knocking Council President to the Ground

By Dolores Quintana

After the appalling incident at Palms Community Day, Palms Neighborhood Council board member Kyle McAuley, an avowed conservative who supports Donald Trump, was suspended from the council on September 16, only two days after the event. McAuley allegedly engaged in bizarre behavior to harass journalists Jonathan Green and William Gude when they appeared at the event according to videos recorded by William Gude. 

While making strange noises, shouting obscene abuse, and attempting to block Gude physically, McAuley knocked Palms Council President Kay Hartman to the ground. After noticing Hartman was on the ground, McAuley immediately accused Gude of the act despite all logic since Gude was in front of him and Hartman was behind him. 

The Palms Neighborhood Council sent out this message on its social media channels on Friday, September 20, “As of the night of Monday, September 16, 2024, per the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners Code of Conduct Policy, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment has suspended Kyle McAuley from the Palms Neighborhood Council pending further investigation.”

After the Board of Neighborhood Councils released this week’s meeting minutes, via a Zoom video recording, Kay Hartman’s comment on the situation concerning McCauley’s behavior was made public. In her statement, Hartman said, “Palms NC has a problem board member as we now know. My community is upset, my board is upset, I am upset, my family is upset. I’ve already had one board member resignation due to the incident this weekend. His family is afraid for him to continue serving with our problem board member. Until Saturday, he was planning to run for re-election next year.”

“The censure and removal process takes too long when there is this level of violence. I’m having to move our meeting to Zoom, we meet in person, because of our members’ discomfort. Our censure motion is in the final stages of editing, but censure and removal takes too long. We have a case of violence and we have to have a way to move faster, a way for the City to intervene. We need to root out violence and hate quickly.”

The Palms Neighborhood Council took the incident very seriously and is taking steps to censure and possibly remove Kyle McAuley from the council’s board as quickly as possible. McAuley continues to link to transphobic content on his social media channels in an attempt to influence the people who are reading his posts. He linked a video with Republican figures like Charlie Kirk and Vivek Ramaswamy, claiming that “We only want to protect the children.”