One by one, the angry residents who had packed the council chambers in Palmetto Bay, Florida, stepped to the podium to express their disgust over online comments that a council member, Stephen Cody, had made about Charlie Kirk.

One man called Cody’s comments “vile.” Another called them “abnormal and dangerous.” A third man said that the council member’s Facebook post, which went up a few hours after Kirk was fatally shot in Utah, “smells like it came out of the pit of hell.”

All three wanted Cody to resign from office. If that did not happen, a fourth speaker said, “We’ll come after him.” While he did not intend to harm Cody, he added, “He’s not going to have a very nice life while he’s living here.”

The most contentious civic matters anyone had anticipated this month in Palmetto Bay, a

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