Somewhat, uh, contentious Lexington City Council public hearing on annexation last night:

Residents who came didn’t mince words. They compared annexation to communism, Nazism and segregation. Outside the center stood a portrait of a pig dressed up as Hitler, giving the famous Nazi salute, with the words “Fascist Pig” above.

“You picked the fight, and you got a fight and it’s personal,” Thomas Frank, who lives on Archie Lane, said to the council members, who were on stage. He called council member Becky Klass “Mrs. Klassless” and mentioned her husband, Mark Klass, who is the senior resident judge for Davidson Superior Court. That prompted Klass to attempt a response, but she was quickly shouted down by members of the audience who yelled, “No!”

Members of Citizens United Against Forced Annexation, a local group of Davidson County residents, wore red to show solidarity. Others wore shirts with the hammer and the sickle, a symbol of the communist movement.