At the Sept. 29 Clearwater City Council meeting, Councilmember Ryan Cotton motioned to rename Court Street to Charlie Kirk Way, in remembrance of the 31-year-old right-wing activist assassinated at Utah Valley University Sept. 10.
Introducing the motion, Cotton began, “Charlie Kirk was assassinated for standing unapologetically for standing on the very principles that form the bedrock of our Republic.”
He continued, “This proposal isn’t about headlines or political theater,” adding that he “didn’t expect unanimous agreement.”
And he didn’t get any.
He barely finished his statement – “I will make a motion so these people can come and have an opportunity to speak,” he said – before his voice was drowned by public dissent and a banging gavel. “Order. We have to maintain order,” shouted Mayor Bruce Rector to calm the crowd.
No other councilmembers seconded the motion. “The motion dies for lack of assent,” declared Rector to deafening applause, extended whooing, then the hollow thud of his gavel.
Cotton insisted, “Charlie Kirk was assassinated for bringing a second mic so that you could challenge him.” From the crowd, an anonymous voice boomed back: “He was a white supremacist.”
More gavel.
From proposal to rejection, only three minutes passed. Public comments, however, stretched over an hour. Though the council chose not to rename the street, the crowd pressed for comment. Rector obliged rather than adjourn.
The first speaker at the podium recited Kirk’s own words: “If I see a Black pilot, I’ll be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified. It’s happening all the time in urban America. Prowling Blacks go around for fun, targeting white people. It’s a fact.” The woman quoting him was Dr. Jennifer Griffin, a Black physician in a white medical coat and uniform.
“I’m Black and educated, and it was not given to me because I’m Black,” she said. “As you try to deify Charlie Kirk, you also deify white supremacy. And do you want white supremacy to reign here in Clearwater? I ask you. I ask you. Answer.”
Rector closed the session with a final remark. “We had a lot of controversial agenda items. We had a lot of differences of opinion. But one thing I’ve learned in a year and a half as mayor is we are all stronger together and we have more in common than we do differences,” he said with the gavel silent beside him.