Lance Bell said he saw a graphic on someone else’s social media account that made fun of the Oct. 18 No Kings protests and added his own opinion: “Hate America First protest this Saturday” followed by three vomiting emojis.

But it was part of the graphic he shared that started a social media backlash: “Retards only. Normal people stay home PLEASE.”

“It’s the equivalent of shooting a paintball at protestors, and then the group of protestors turn around and come after me with machine guns and machetes,” Bell said, of South Elgin, is active in the Kane County Republican Party, and still has name recognition from his unsucessful campaign last year for county board chair. “I have blocked over 150 people on social media, not exclusive to Kane County.”

Bell said he got abusive, profane messages from throughout the Midwest and beyond.

“I was impressed by how organized the Democrats are when it comes to spewing hate,” Bell said.

He said he was also doxxed online with his personal information, including his cellphone number and his phone blew up.

“I have spam blocker, and I don’t listen to voicemail,” Bell said.

Bell said he was also called names during the election.

“It didn’t bother me during the election and it doesn’t bother me now,” Bell said.

As a foster father to six daughters over the past 14 years, all with special needs, Bell said he never intended disrespect in his repost.

“I don’t disagree that the ‘R-word’ is a slur – and I didn’t repost it to endorse the language,” Bell wrote in an email. “Of course, my repost wasn’t about mocking anyone’s abilities; it was about pointing out how disconnected from reality some protests have become.”

In retrospect, Bell wrote that the graphic struck him as social commentary on the absurdity of the No Kings event itself.

“After all, what exactly are people protesting when they say ‘No Kings’ in a republic that has no king?” Bell said in the email. “If anything, it could be viewed as a comment on how performative ideology can drown out basic logic and civility – and perhaps that’s the conversation we should be having. After all, which is worse? A slur or a profane response?”

Frustrating, reckless, unkind

To those who advocate for the special needs community, however, the slur lit a fuse of passionate reaction.

Lore Baker, president and CEO of the Association for Individual Development, wrote in an email that Special Olympics has been working since 2009 to end the use of the R word with its “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign.

“The use of this word is considered derogatory, unkind and demeaning,” Baker wrote.

Geneva resident Chris Propheter echoed the sentiment.

“I’m mortified,” Propheter said.

Her daughter, Amanda, 36, will represent Geneva in Special Olympics Illinois at the USA games next June in swimming.

Amanda’s response: “‘The R word should be respect, not retarded,’” her mother said.

Propheter also took issue with Bell’s characterization that those who criticized or bashed him were all Democrats.

“He can’t justify that,” Propheter said. “I’m a Republican. ... Everybody called him out on it. Making it about Republicans and Democrats is ridiculous.”

‘Stunned’

“I was stunned,” St. Charles resident Roxanne Remitz said when someone shared Bell’s repost with her.

“You don’t put that word out there,” Remitz said. “The R word is not a paintball. He should have apologized rather than defending it.”

Remitz’s son, John, 32, participated in the Special Olympics State Golf Tournament last year. He also works at Flagship on the Fox and at Duke’s Northwoods, both in St. Charles. He participates in the Rising Lights Project in St. Charles and at Valley Sheltered Workshop in Batavia, both serving those with special needs, his mother said.

Jen Hall of Elburn, who has a son with autism, was alerted to Bell’s post and said it was her duty to call him out on it.

“I have a child with autism,” Hall said. “He was bullied in high school because people were calling him the r-word. I had to take him out of school and homeschool him.”

Charles Miles, who served on the Geneva Mental Health Board and has a special needs adult daughter, added his voice in an email: “I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating the posting on Lance Bell’s Facebook is.”

“I am left speechless [at] this reckless use of a word that is only meant to demean and hurt,” Miles wrote. “As Maya Angelou famously said, ‘If someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time.’”

Bell’s post is gone from his social media, but it survives in a screen shot on the Facebook page of Aurora Democratic Central Committee.