Elmhurst Group Takes Down Black Lives Matter Post

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst resident Lisa Martain Hoffer wrote a post last week on Elmhurst's most popular Facebook page. The post ended with the words, "Black lives matter." It was taken down. Then she reposted it. This was said to have happened 10 times.

Others tried reposting Hoffer's message, and they mostly got the same result. One such repost was on the page as of Monday night.

With her post, Hoffer found supporters on Elmhurst, IL News and Comment, which has more than 16,000 members. And she drew a number of detractors.

Hoffer, who is African American, wrote on the page, "I cried most of the ride home today. Out of exhaustion, rage and sorrow. Then I fixed my face and went inside to make life normal for my daughter. I am so sick of this. Them. Maybe even you. Black lives matter."

In an interview, Jeff Whitcomb, one of the page's administrators, pointed to one of the rules for posts: "Limit the political rhetoric to local issues only. This is not a forum for national political debate."

Whitcomb said the administrators often take down posts of a general nature about national issues, when there is nothing specific to Elmhurst. They have done the same for both Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter posts, he said. When Black Lives Matter supporters protested in Elmhurst over the summer, the page allowed posts about those demonstrations because of the local connection, he said.

Members bring posts that violate the page's rules to administrators' attention, Whitcomb said.

"We probably get 30,000 posts or comments a month," he said. "It's a tall task."

The Facebook page has a number of guidelines. It bars profanity, including abbreviations of curse words. It asks people to be respectful of others and not personally attack anyone, including backhanded comments and remarks.

The page also requests members not to use the forum to disparage businesses, saying that should be done elsewhere.

"ENC is not an 'anything goes free speech forum.' Admins reserve the right to remove any posts, comments or members at any time," the guidelines read.

Last week, one member of the Facebook group criticized Hoffer's post on the page, calling it "heavily context-less."

"(She) basically treated ENC like her personal blog. Nothing about her post specifically stated reference to Elmhurst," the commenter said. "The admins took issue with the vague post, and deleted it."

The commenter said Hoffer's post brought out all the "20-something SJWs (social justice warriors) to tell everyone how racist they are for agreeing with ENC's rules. And so on it goes..."

He got tougher with Hoffer in a private message on Facebook: "I just want you to know that you're absolutely despicable. And you might just be a racist, too."

She responded, "Screen. Shot. Thank you."

The commenter told her to go for it.

"What, you think I wouldn't stand behind that? You're just another racist," he said.

Others on the page, Hoffer said, have shown their support for her. She said she has tried contacting the page administrators.

"I asked if they want to talk about what happened. No response, not before or after," Hoffer said in an email to Patch. "I’m told by friends the admins have claimed they 'thought it was spam and are looking into it.' I’ve also received some exceptionally racist screenshots regarding my post as well. It’s unacceptable."

The original message from Lisa Martain Hoffer: