BOYNTON BEACH — A city commissioner’s idea for a memorial to honor the late political activist Charlie Kirk was met with resounding opposition from residents and ultimately rejected by other commissioners.
The Oct. 7 meeting overflowed with residents, spilling out onto the sidewalk at City Hall. Most were there in solidarity against a suggestion made by Commissioner Thomas Turkin to erect a memorial for the late conservative activist, entrepreneur and media personality who was fatally shot Sept. 10 while on stage at Utah Valley University.
The crowd roared with applause after Commissioner Woodrow Hay spoke and made a motion to “drop all conversation now, and in the future, of memorializing Charlie Kirk” in the city.
Boynton crowd took issue of comparing Charlie Kirk to MLK
In the wake of his death, many Republicans and political conservatives have called Kirk a martyr who died because of his religious and political beliefs. Democrats and political liberals have blasted many of his comments as racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic and said the praise ignores his hate speech.
Turkin, who left the chambers about 15 minutes before the meeting started and never returned, had pitched the idea during a Sept. 15 virtual agenda review workshop. He requested adding an agenda item for a discussion of “doing some form of memorial around the assassination of Charlie Kirk.”
Turkin went on to compare Kirk to Dr. Martin Luther King, stating that Kirk’s life work was “no different.”
Local NAACP leaders and supporters at the Oct. 7 meeting expressed their opposition to Turkin’s comparison and the idea of memorializing the public figure.
“We wanted to make sure that the legacy of Dr. King was not distorted by this person, whom I had no idea who he was until he was murdered,” said Alfred Fields, president of the West Palm Beach NAACP branch. “There’s no room for hatred, racism or bigotry here.”
Fields and other NAACP leaders, like Dedrick Straughn, president of the South Palm Beach NAACP branch, gathered a group outside the chambers before the meeting began to pray and discuss their role.
“(Kirk) became more famous in death than he did in life,” said Straughn, admitting he did not even know the public figure before his death. “If we didn’t know you while you were alive, why are we erecting any type of memorial for you? Your life’s work did not dictate this happening.”
Woodrow Hay: ‘The way you die does not justify how you lived’
Turkin left the chambers at 6:18 p.m., just before the commissioners began a 10-minute break before the scheduled city commission meeting began at 6:30 p.m. He did not return to his seat at the meeting and was not in the chambers when Hay spoke.
“What happened to Charlie Kirk was a disgusting act,” Hay said. “However, the way you die does not justify how you lived.”
Hay spoke to the chambers for about eight minutes and went on to state several remarks made by Kirk that contained offensive rhetoric toward the Black community.
Kirk was controversial for his strong oppositions to abortion, gun control, DEI programs and LGBTQ rights. He criticized the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and promoted both COVID-19 misinformation and false claims of election fraud in 2020.
In 2023, Kirk said that “prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people” in urban America. Further, he had said the concept of white privilege is a myth and a “racist idea.”
Hay emphasized that not erecting a memorial or statue is not dishonoring the man’s life.
“Choosing not to create a public statue or memorial is not dishonoring his life,” he said. “It is protecting the dignity, well-being and unity of all our residents.”
This is not the first time Turkin has fallen under scrutiny of the public eye.
In 2023, Turkin was involved in an ethics investigation after body-camera footage showed him speaking to police officers during a DUI investigation of a friend. Officials confirmed he did not interfere with the investigation.
Turkin also faced battery charges in August following an incident with a political opponent in January, to which Turkin pleaded not guilty. The matter remains before the courts.
Bill would make Florida colleges name streets after Charlie Kirk
The idea of the Kirk memorial came the same day a Florida Republican lawmaker filed a bill requiring all Florida public universities and colleges each to rename a roadway on their campuses after Charlie Kirk.
State Rep. Kevin Steele, R–Dade City, filed the bill (HB 113) in the Florida House. There’s no Senate companion yet. Steele wasn’t immediately available for comment.The bill, if passed, would make “each institution’s “board of trustees … redesignate roadways or portions of roadways, as applicable.”
In Palm Beach County, the following proposed road changes were listed for public schools:
Haley Dockendorff is a freelance journalist for The Palm Beach Post.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Amid protestors, Boynton commissioner’s idea for Charlie Kirk memorial is widely rejected
Reporting by Haley Dockendorff / Palm Beach Post
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