The invasion of the ICE brigades in Minneapolis was at its height. Hundreds of federal border patrol and immigration agents had taken to the streets of America’s 16th largest metropolitan area. Two people, both 37 years old, a young mother and a male nurse, were shot and killed by ICE agents. Despite sub-freezing temperatures in late January, thousands of protestors had taken to the streets — across the nation.

Minneapolis’ 46-year old mayor, Jacob Frey, his brown hair tasseling down his forehead, was furious. A track all-star in college and a graduate of Villanova University Law School, Frey, mayor for eight years and sometimes criticized for being too moderate, campaigned on improving police-community relations. And now, this, two murders on his streets.

On Jan. 7, he held a news conference, picked up by the national TV networks at the peak of the ICE chaos. He looked straight into the cameras without a stutter: "Get the f--- out of our city," he declared. Earlier he called ICE’s defense of its killings “bulls---.” Last I looked, two million viewers on YouTube had watched his press conference. Curses equal clicks.

Abnormal words spoken in public in an abnormal time. Although, perhaps, the words might have been appropriate in this moment of anger and fury. I’ve always told my own kids that even curse words have their place in expressing certain anger. But the beast was out of the bag; the F-bomb was right in front of us all on national television.

We all drop f-bombs. But should we curse in public?

Not to say that it was a first. It’s widely known that in private Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon swore like — well, like sailors and, more recently, like the rest of the population. (Nearly 65% of the population swears daily, experts say.) And twice Joe Biden was caught on a........

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