Is hateful political rhetoric on the rise in Fresno? We asked city’s civic leaders

Mayor Jerry Dyer and most Fresno City councilmembers say they’ve seen an increase in politically motivated hostility directed at them and other local officials in the Central Valley over the past five years.

“The amount of hate mail I have received during my time as police chief and now as Mayor has been substantial,” Dyer said. “This is to be expected due to the high profile nature of these positions. I have grown somewhat numb to hateful people and have learned to avoid reading social media comments.”

To understand the scope, tone, and seriousness of public discourse directed at Fresno officials, The Bee asked City Council members to respond to a series of questions via email and followed up with phone interviews with several of them.

Fresno officials say they’re facing more politically motivated threats and racially charged attacks, fueled by national polarization, on social media and in person. While some, like Dyer and Councilmember Mike Karbassi, see it as the work of a vocal minority, others, including Miguel Arias and Brandon Vang, report ongoing, targeted harassment.

Karbassi, who represents District 2 in northwest Fresno, said the city’s political discourse has become increasingly “vitriolic,” driven largely by what he calls “a very vocal and intolerant minority.” He noted this trend has persisted since he took office in 2019.

“Some folks who expressed support for Palestine changed the way they pronounce my name to include the Arab word for ‘s---,’” Karbassi said, noting those individuals are exercising their First Amendment rights. “Another individual brought up my heritage and my family to make a point.”

Miguel Arias, who represents District 3 — which includes the Tower District, west Fresno, and downtown — said he often receives racist remarks. He noted tensions escalated in 2019, when the Fresno City Council became majority Latino for the first time in years.

“Republicans began referring to the council as the ‘gang of four,’ the ‘cartel,’ and even the ‘Mexican mafia,’” Arias said. “That rhetoric only got worse during the pandemic. We saw numerous examples of far-right extremists threatening elected officials under the cover of COVID, and those attacks were clearly race-based.”

Arias shared racist messages with The Bee, including ones that told him he would “want to go back to Mexico” and called him a “beaner,” among other things.

Nelson Esparza, who represents District 7, which includes parts of central and east Fresno, echoed Arias’s observations. He said the hostility noticeably intensified during the pandemic and following the shift to a Latino-majority council.

He recalled a 2020 incident during the pandemic, when City Council meetings were held over Zoom, in which commenters directed racist remarks — including the N-word — at him.

“You see a decreased level of civility when it comes to public discourse in general,” he said.

Arias said he’s filed restraining orders and, at times, secured police protection for his children due to death threats and online doxing.

He also recalled an incident in 2020 where “Republican-funded extremists” according to Arias, tried to enter his home. At the time, Arias was cited for misdemeanor battery and while citations against him were later dropped , the trespassers were never prosecuted — something he believes sent a troubling message.

Councilmember Annalisa Perea, who represents District 1 in west-central Fresno, said she noticed politically motivated hostility on the rise more recently — specifically after the start of the war in Gaza.

“I would say, more often than not, the messages definitely bordered on hate speech,” she said. “Constituents would personally attack us on this topic.

Perea said that as the only woman on Fresno’s City Council, she’s faced a different kind of harassment online.

“I think being the only woman on the City Council, fairly frequently I get individuals who become very fixated on me,” she said. “This isn’t so much hate as it is harassment. They’ll start sliding into DMs, and sometimes they’re inappropriate. I think, however, that’s just part of being a woman in the spotlight.”

But it hasn’t only been online. Perea recalled one alarming incident from last summer when she came home to find several full aerosol cans placed on her front porch.

“It was in the middle of summer, and I don’t know how long those cans had been sitting in the sun,” she said. “But you have these gases under high heat, and that can result in an explosion. I reported it to the police, and since then, I’ve taken steps to increase security at my home — especially now that I have young kids.”

Beyond that, she said most of what she’s experienced in person has been limited to verbal hate. However, a town hall she hosted in September escalated further.

The event, held at the Big Red Church on Van Ness Avenue, took a turn after a man walked in aggressively.

“He came stomping down the aisle and pulled something black out of his pocket — it ended up just being a cell phone — but he started pointing it at the speakers,” she said, referring to herself, Supervisor Luis Chavez, Congressman Jim Costa, and others who were seated at the front. “He was murmuring something we couldn’t quite understand, and after he left, he made several death threats.”

The incident was reported to the police. Perea said an investigation is underway.

Councilmember Nick Richardson, who represents District 6 in northeast Fresno, said most of the negativity he faces comes from the internet.

“There is no armor, weapon, or vehicle in the U.S. arsenal that could give the sense of power some people get from sitting behind a keyboard,” he said.

Still, like Vang and Arias, Richardson has reported people to law enforcement as potential concerns.

Richardson however said that he believes building relationships with his constituents has made a difference.

“The more people have gotten to know me, the warmer the reception has gotten on both sides of the aisle,” he said.

Brandon Vang, who represents District 5 in southeast Fresno, said he has also received racially charged messages online, whether through social media comments or direct messages, and have become more common.

In 2021, while serving as a Sanger Unified School Board Trustee, he and his wife were targeted with racial slurs during an incident at an IHOP.

“Each threat has to be taken seriously — not only for myself but also for my family,” he said. “Law enforcement is aware of these threats.”

Like Vang, Dyer said he has also taken the threats he’s received over the years seriously — including dozens of death threats — and has implemented increased security measures to protect himself and his family.

“This includes having a 24-hour security detail for me and members of my family, and having to relocate my daughter out of state for a period of time,” he said. “Most of these threats occurred when I was the police chief due to my aggressive stance on gangs.”

The threats Dyer has received range from people saying they would shoot him, harm his wife, or kill his children. “Thankfully, those kinds of threats are rare,” he said. Most have come through social media or other online platforms, while others were sent in letters to his office, left on his vehicle, or intercepted by law enforcement through phone calls or voicemails.

“The Fresno Police Department is notified of every threat made, and I am notified of threats against me that law enforcement learns of,” he added. “Depending on the validity of the threat will determine the degree of security measures taken. However, every threat is taken seriously.”

The Bee contacted Councilmember Tyler Maxwell for comment, but his communications director said they had no comments to make at this time.

This story was originally published October 12, 2025 at 10:40 AM.

Marina Peña

The Fresno Bee

Marina Peña is a former journalist for the Fresno Bee