In an age of vitriol, public service is an act of courage A Feb. 3 piece at Politico just caught my eye. I missed this news: Wednesday night, New Jersey councilwoman Eunice K. Dwumfour was found in her car with multiple gunshot wounds, according to authorities. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Dwumfour, a Republican, was only 30 years old. She was still a newcomer, serving her first term on the Sayreville Borough Council after being elected in November 2021. Her former campaign manager Karen Bailey Bebert told the New York Times that Dwumfour was an “inspirational woman” who was excited to get into politics at a young age. We know about recent shootings at the homes of politicians in Albuquerque, the attack on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband that was meant for her, the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and the man with a loaded gun arrested outside the home of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). The threats and vitriol are that much worse for women in politics than men, especially if they are black (Dwumfour). “Online violence is becoming more prominent because there just isn’t a consequence for it,” said Nina Jankowicz, author of How to Be a Woman Online and lead for the Centre for Information Resilience’s Hypatia Project, which combats online harms against women. Harasssment has a “chilling effect,” Jankowicz says: “You just really look at your life very differently. Especially if you have children. You wonder if there’s going to be somebody outside waiting for you,” Jankowicz told Women Rule.…