"Meeting turns violent; two arrested"--down in sunny Florida, where people retire to enjoy a life of serenity...I have highlighted a couple of the juicy details and taken out people's names, replacing them with letters. Kafka-like of me, don't you think?

By Lee Helscel © South Marion Citizen
03/19/2004
(what follows is the first few graphs of the story--link to the whole thing follows)
A meeting of approximately 135 homeowners to discuss issues they have with the developer of Cherrywood Estates and to explore forming a homeowners association ended abruptly March 11. Before it ended tempers flared, a man was given the bum's rush and two men were arrested by Marion County Sheriff's deputies.
About 35 minutes into the 6 p.m. meeting, one of the organizers, C, spotted the developer's field superintendent, H, in the audience. At the time, C had finished speaking, and co-organizer of the meeting, B, was at the podium in the community room at Queen of Peace Catholic Church.

C walked to the back of the room and asked H to leave. When the non-Cherrywood resident declined to go, C and the crowd gathering around them began demanding that he leave, with shouts of, "You don't belong here."

When residents discovered C's tape recorder on the table, the men around the 41-year-old man began to get angry and demanding that he leave. At least one man placed his hands briefly around H's neck.

H, who remained passive during the incident, later said two men, at different times, grabbed him around the neck with their hands. A Sheriff's report notes a one-and-a-half-inch abrasion on the left side of H's neck was consistent with being grabbed around the neck.

During the scuffle a man identified as T allegedly picked up a chair, as if to hit H with it, the report charged. There were two or three persons between H and the man with the chair, and did it didn't appear as if the man was able to swing the impromptu weapon. He set it was set aside.

H's tape recorder was taken from him and the half-dozen men around him were becoming more vocal and adamant about getting the perceived intruder out the meeting. Collectively they got him out of his chair as a woman, identified as K, positioned herself between H and the crowd as he made his way to the door.
The Cyber Citizens for Justice web site has the whole story--things definitely got out of hand.