A county meeting in Florida descended into shouting, profanity, and the ejection of community members over a proposal to rename a road for the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The anger came as the Lake County Commission considered a proposal, which ultimately got unanimous approval, to rename a stretch of road as the Charlie Kirk Memorial Highway.<\/p>\n
The majority of public commenters at the Tuesday meeting opposed the plan, including resident Gavin Brown, who argued the county should name roads after local figures who had served the community like veterans or law enforcement, such as Bradley Link, a sheriff\u2019s deputy who was killed last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWouldn\u2019t it be more suitable and ideal to have a memorial to honor someone who fought to serve and protect us, have a true Lake County resident who was a brave American hero?\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these dark, dystopian times, let\u2019s remember Deputy Link, and let\u2019s look at things we can do to unite, and not divide us, and that includes you, Mr. Sabatini,\u201d Brown added, referring to Lake County Commissioner Anthony Sabatini, who proposed the name change.<\/p>\n
Council meeting in Florida\u2019s plan to rename road for slain activist prompted profanity, public commenters being removed, and accusations of \u2018political agitators\u2019 (Getty Images)The comments angered the Republican leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow dare you use that deputy\u2019s name for your petty bullsh*t political argument!\u201d Sabatini said. \u201cHow dare you!\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabitini later told Fox 35 he was alarmed by Brown\u2019s comments, alleging he was a \u201cpolitical agitator.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCharlie literally was just assassinated two weeks ago, and here you have political agitators coming out against him,\u201d Sabitini said, \u201creally almost days after he was buried. I thought it was very disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Multiple speakers were ultimately removed at the meeting.<\/p>\n
Conservatives across the country have mourned Kirk\u2019s death, including at a large rally in Arizona (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)Brown wasn\u2019t the only one who opposed the plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we approach approved political figure naming without clear criteria, we open the door to endless partisan battles over our public spaces,\u201d resident Jaqueline Arnt of Mount Dora said, Click Orlando reports.<\/p>\n
Others spoke in favor of the idea to honor the Turning Point USA founder.<\/p>\n
“I know at 16 years old, they don’t have votes right now. But they will in two years,” Autumn Jacunski, whose 16-year-old son was a speaker at a local vigil for Kirk, told the commission. “They are the future, they’re going to be our new leaders, and Charlie was someone they looked up to, he was someone they were invested in.”<\/p>\n
Kirk\u2019s killing earlier this month has prompted widespread mourning, including a Trump administration directive to fly flags at half-staff, and a massive memorial rally in the activist\u2019s home state of Arizona. <\/p>\n
Oklahoma\u2019s top school official, meanwhile, announced this week he would launch Turning Point USA chapters in all of the state\u2019s high schools.<\/p>\n
The killing has also set off debates over the extent of protected and dangerous speech, following incidents like late-night host Jimmy Kimmel being temporarily taken off air after he made controversial statements about Kirk and the Trump-appointed head of the FCC appeared to threaten Kimmel\u2019s home network of ABC. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A county meeting in Florida descended into shouting, profanity, and the ejection of community members over a proposal to rename a road for the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated earlier this month. The anger came as the Lake County Commission considered a proposal, which ultimately got unanimous approval, to rename a stretch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n