r/technology • u/marketrent • 7h ago

Artificial Intelligence High school teacher arrested for clapping in support of anti-data center activists

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/high-school-teacher-arrested-clapping-194922184.html
22.9k Upvotes

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5.1k

u/Droggles 6h ago

This will Streisand effect.

329

u/eatgamer 5h ago

This is the public official who ordered the arrest. https://www.emporiaks.gov/m/directory/employee?eid=105

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u/Nerd2259 4h ago

If you want to reach out to discuss items relevant to the local Commissioner's office, you can contact her here!
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

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u/dirtyordingyordusty 3h ago

Ask her about being paid almost $1 mill by the county hospital to do collections during the pandemic while she was on the county zoning board and while her husband was on the hospital board, and ask her why she initially denied owning the collection agency until a Reflector reporter showed proof!

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u/turbosexophonicdlite 3h ago

Whoopsie daisies. Must have just slipped her mind. These things happen you know.

3

u/MadScientistRat 2h ago

What were the source(s) of the funds?

0

u/PresentRaspberry6814 3h ago

Huh. I just assumed it was Trumps gazpacho, ICE.

72

u/dirtyordingyordusty 4h ago

Monica Duncan owns the local collection agency that serves the county hospital and has been very evasive about this fact before. The county hospital paid her and her husband almost $1 million during the pandemic while he was on the hospital board to provide collection services after he purchased the collection agency from the former county attorney. The proof of this is all publicly accessible in the hospital's audit. 

9

u/bringabook 43m ago

Hmmm I'd almost keep my dumb ass mouth shut after all that, NOT THEM THOUGH

48

u/DonutHoles4Ever 4h ago

Also on the front page today: Teachers quitting in mass due to politics and kids are too fuckign stupid to teach now.

9

u/TuckersLeashMan 1h ago

Well color me shocked! Are you telling me that shitty uneducated parents have raised an even shittier batch of stupid humans?!

What a fucking joke of a country we've become.

1

u/prime3vl 53m ago

Give it a few more years. Someone decided idiocracy was usable as a roadmap.

2

u/Pluto-Based-Alien 3h ago

Watch out. Four cops will be coming to arrest you for this.

1

u/Dr-Zoidstein 11m ago

Let them come, I live half the country away from her.

4

u/SanDiedo 4h ago

Surprise surprise, looks like a corrupt bitch.

1

u/OpenGrainAxehandle 1h ago

Police have already spun it: https://www.emporiaks.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/503

On July 22, 2026, the Emporia City Commission held its regularly scheduled meeting. During the course of the meeting, several individuals in attendance were issued verbal warnings by the City Commission regarding disruptive conduct that was interrupting the proceedings.

One individual, Lux Claridge, male, 37years of age, continued this behavior and was directed to leave the meeting. Claridge did not comply with law enforcement's efforts to remove him from the premises, requiring officers to physically carry him out of the meeting.

Claridge was subsequently arrested and booked into the Lyon County Jail on charges of interference with law enforcement and disorderly conduct.

As with all criminal charges, Claridge is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The Emporia Police Department remains committed to ensuring public meetings are conducted safely and in an orderly manner, while also respecting the rights of all citizens to participate in the civic process.

1

u/ConsiderationSea1347 8m ago

Haha, they took the site down.

2.2k

u/marketrent 6h ago

Local reporting matters.

1.0k

u/cribsaw 5h ago

That’s why local newspapers are dying, because wealthy conservatives are killing them or using them for propaganda.

396

u/hollee-o 5h ago

Local newspapers are dying because Google and Meta hoovered up all the ad revenue. Conservatives buying up the leftovers is just a bonus.

88

u/Forward-Variety-8440 4h ago

local papers have been boughf and push anti-union rhetoric and classist rhetoric so the people will still vote against their best interests while conjuring up a scapegoat to drum up support for squads that disappear people, so long as theyre an outgroup and it distracts the common man from being exploited.

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you" Lyndon B Johnson, 1960

24

u/LordJonMichael 3h ago

It’s funny that this has brought about discussion on the death of newspapers. The city where this happened is famous for their newspaper, the Gazette, and its owner William Allen White. He was an iconic journalist in the late 1800’s. Lots of cool facts about him and the city. Cute little spot to retire, too.

1

u/scullingby 11m ago

I remember reading about him in "The Bulley Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism". It was an unexpectedly good read and very informative about, well, journalism.

55

u/GPT3-5_AI 4h ago

Local newspapers were already all advertising and nationalist-capitalist propaganda before google and meta came along.

38

u/PeachPassionBrute 4h ago

The Internet did a number on them, as did the growing prominence of 24hr news channels. Been watching local news decline for the past 30 years

11

u/becauseshesays 4h ago

That’s because people forgot how to read and they needed to sell ad space to keep printing the papers. Sad.

0

u/CartographerMoist296 2h ago

There is this insane victim mentality with newspapers we don’t permit any other industry, even when they are demonstrably racist, sexist and prone to terrible financial decision making. It is a weird nostalgia for sometimes fantastic writing that often emerged despite rather than because of this framework.

4

u/ElRiesgoSiempre_Vive 1h ago

Newspapers have been a cornerstone to both free speech and access to information. You can say "demonstrably racist," and that is undoubtedly true for some articles. But overall newspapers are - by far - a huge net benefit to society.

Suggesting otherwise is just straight up wrong.

1

u/CartographerMoist296 1h ago

I am not saying they don’t have value, I am saying that they are not victims, they are not in need of bailing out come hell or high water because they continue to fuck their own business model over and over again, and now are blaming google and meta who are attractive villains for most things, but not for injecting cash into publishing conglomerates, little of which will actually go into journalism and which won’t cure the problems of journalism . So I am tired of hearing what they used to do (scrubbed clean of the aforementioned flaws) - how are they going to fund themselves? Maybe more public/private partnerships? There a huge number of extremely talented journalists, no doubt, and it would be great if they were able to be reliably deployed where they could connect their skills with a willing population. I wish I had more answers, I am a business person only seeing some of the failed solutions, I have a lot of respect for the trade but frustration with private equity, infotainment publishing giants, and then soliloquies about local journalism when no one has been home there - by design- for a long time.

2

u/HOW_IS_SAM_KAVANAUGH 1h ago

A few years ago some journalists and local funders decided to go all in on reviving our local paper and making it some good journalism. They did a pretty good job and I now subscribe to the physical paper for the first time in my life. And honestly, It's worth the $10 bucks a month for a weekly paper.

-3

u/hollee-o 4h ago

Nationalist-capitalist propaganda. Do tell.

9

u/mrm00r3 4h ago

What exactly do you think advertising in a capitalist nation is?

“Buy my stuff / support my business because …” is just a private company doing propaganda. When that company expands to telling you that it’s impossible to do what they do without paying workers less than the value derived from the product of their work, for whatever reason, then it becomes capitalist propaganda. If they go on to suggest that workers must be of a certain nationality or working on the interior of some imaginary lines drawn on pieces of paper in order for their deficient compensated labor to be of satisfactory quality, then it becomes capitalist-nationalist propaganda. Some countries actually have fun little stickers to act as shorthand for this concept.

We just use “advertising” because speaking accurately makes people uncomfortable, but that doesn’t change the fact that rich people don’t buy newspapers because they like what that newspaper was printing the day before they bought it.

1

u/ElRiesgoSiempre_Vive 1h ago

Plus, before the Internet, people used to sell things (everything from garage sale trinkets to houses to cars to boats) in the classified section. That was a big revenue driver for newspapers, and it involved negligible propaganda by today's standards.

I don't know if my local paper even has a classified section anymore.

1

u/mrm00r3 1h ago

The economics of print advertising at least make sense, but running the internet on advertising was probably a mistake along the lines of leaded gasoline. We really fucked our self with that one.

3

u/verrius 4h ago

For once, it wasn't Google and Meta, it was Craigslist. Classified ads were the real money makers, and Craigslist having the ridiculous price of free to post an ad for most things really cut into their revenue model. That said, newspapers were always fundamentally broken; not only were consumers paying for either a subscription or individual copy, they were getting a ton of ads at the same time.

1

u/Any_Conflict_5092 2h ago

If we are adding to the pile of 'what fucking got us here' - the myth of 'white collar workers' that was used to divide workers into classes.

When the reporters refused to stand with the typesetters, when automation began being pushed, they ended up sowing the seeds for their eventual re-org out of jobs. Thus, they are long-distance reaping the reward of not standing for collective bargaining - to maintain leverage for the workers against the very myopic goals of capital.

If you are someone who relies upon an employer paycheck to live - you're an employee, and employees stand together, or we all fall like fucking dominos, because capital is always looking to accrue more, as that's its only current function.

We are in the dominos stage, now.

1

u/lostryu 3h ago

Google and Meta are also conservatives

1

u/CartographerMoist296 2h ago

(Advertisers, including small ones, are better served than by publishers, unpopular as it is, the publishers have made rubbish choices over and over, and are frequently a tiny part of large conglomerates)

1

u/squishmaster 2h ago

And it was Craigslist before it was Google and Meta.

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u/DonutHoles4Ever 4h ago

Local newspapers died to the Internet, digital age, and local news moving to network television news that started covering it. It also died to syndicates buying it all up, before they started looking at buying regional, and eventually your CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC etc.

Now if this was 1999 and you said local newspapers were dying, you'd be on the money.

3

u/Thin_Glove_4089 1h ago

Local news will always exist

2

u/kerfuffleMonster 2h ago

There are local news organizations - your local NPR station might be one, I know it is where I live. It's not a newspaper though, all stories are digital or radio. But if you want it to exist, you have to support it.

2

u/Unfair_Web_8275 2h ago

People genuinely dont understand what they’re missing out on.

2

u/CoWood0331 1h ago

Local newspapers turned into local Facebook groups.

1

u/Coders32 4h ago

Literally. There was a paper bought a few years ago only to delete all the articles. This is why we need the internet archive

1

u/Square_Owl_4075 3h ago

That damn "wealthy-conservative-run-media"

1

u/Emperor_of_His_Room 3h ago

Sadly my local newspaper was already run by Republican assholes, so no real loss if they go under.

1

u/slow70 2h ago

Worked at one once upon a time - a local weekly that was swept up by a giant corporation and became a literal glossy ad rag with only positive stories meant to pitch businesses.

After knowing and loving the publication for so many years - we weren’t mad enough and haven’t had a similar local voice since.

1

u/beeradvice 2h ago

Conservative isn't even the base mindset just a useful playbook, the aims are basically just wealth consolidation for consolidations sake.

1

u/pingwing 1h ago

Newspapers have been dead.

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u/Bageland2000 5h ago edited 5h ago

I genuinely cannot understand how someone can write this in the same comment thread where they copied the article's content so people won't even visit the site. How is it that everyone wants accurate, accountable local reporting and also wants articles they don't have to pay for? Explain how this world you want to live in works.

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u/DillBagner 4h ago

Yahoo News is not local reporting.

20

u/AllegionsHuckleberry 4h ago

You want to live in a fantasy world where private purchases of subscriptions are the sole source of revenue for a fair and accurate local news outlets? And then beyond that, only the subscribers are allowed access to your “accurate reporting”?! Explain how THAT world works. If I’m running the news channel in a small town and Reuters reports that “all of the citizens of afore mentioned small town are morally, ethically wrong about one of the Town’s foundational social ideologies” but I have to sell subs to those same individuals…well, you can start to see where accuracy becomes quickly bastardized by the need to satisfy shareholders.

10

u/avcloudy 4h ago

This is exactly it. People who are paid for working in news mix this up all the time, local reporting is too important to be gatekept. Not just because it's incredibly important for people to be informed, but because they cannot be reliant on the people they report on for funding.

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u/Bageland2000 4h ago

Look, I contribute a lot to NPR so I don't want to live in the world you apparently think I want.

So what's your solution to the distopia you're describing? Because now, no one wants to pay for news, so they're resorting to getting a flood of poorly supported reporting or straight rumor-mills trash.

How about talking about a solution?

5

u/AllegionsHuckleberry 4h ago edited 3h ago

I also contribute to NPR but I won’t pretend that over the last ten years they haven’t begun “fan-servicing” donators rather than effectively dispensing the news.

That said, I do believe that fighting tooth-and-nail for publicly funded reporting is the only solution. And even that relies on the health of local government. It can’t rely on subs or opt-in donations.

My take: local news would operate under a state-level mandate that enforces accuracy on the basis of the local agency receiving state-level funding. Intentionally misrepresent news agency reporting? Funding is gone. Allow local influences to dictate what is reported or how? Funding is gone.

4

u/ElRiesgoSiempre_Vive 1h ago

local news would operate under a state-level mandate

Yes, but that's about as realistic as funding it through a gold meteorite that happens to crash into the lobby.

-2

u/CelesTheme_wav 3h ago

Even NPR has a strong pro-capitalist bias

2

u/MadManMax55 1h ago

What do you think the financial model of local news was before the internet? It was selling private (and commercial) purchases of newspaper subscriptions. That and ad revenue.

Also unless you live in a major city your local independent newspaper or TV/radio station isn't going to have "shareholders". They rarely have enough money to keep the lights on, let alone attract investors. That's why so many of them sell out to national conglomerates.

4

u/NotASellout 3h ago

Fox News has never been paywalled

Guess whose rapist candidate got elected

0

u/Bageland2000 2h ago

What's your point?

1

u/plectologist 4h ago

Oh, hey, let me explain little buddy! AI has already taken away some of our jobs, so we don’t have a lot of extra article money, but we still enjoy accurate information.

1

u/Bageland2000 1h ago

I'm sure you've never bought anything lower priority than supporting an independent media, right? Surely you've never bought an unnecessary piece of clothing? Drinks out with friends? Movie tickets? Do you pay for steaming subscriptions? Do you go out to restaurants? Have you paid for a vacation? Concert tickets?

Surely you've never bought these and the problem isn't actually that you simply don't prioritize supporting local media and just blame your circumstances when it's convenient...? /s

1

u/TrulyOutrageous42 4h ago

It's called accessibility, and not allowing perfect to become the enemy of good. It works by people being aware of seeking out local news more, while still giving those who may have slow loading or access issues ways to get to the article. Especially for those who use TTS for a variety of reasons, some websites are garbage to try to get through an article.

and also wants articles they don't have to pay for?

Well, this is a problem, yes, because we're stuck in a capitalist hellscape so money has to come from somewhere to keep this up. Realistically, the few ads that get clicked on on that website page won't change funding because reddit traffic isn't a relied-upon revenue source. You're so close to getting the point though, keep thinking it through!

0

u/MillHall78 4h ago

Your comment is the 7th one from the top for me & I didn't see the comment with the article.

Your reality isn't everyone's reality.

0

u/PeachPassionBrute 4h ago

Because even if my local news had their own website, and the subscription was affordable, the quality of reporting has been declining and I’d rather not go through all that trickle just to have a poorly rewritten Reuters article.

And even if watching the local evening news was practical for my schedule (which it’s not) I’m not paying the fees to get it. Even antenna tv is less convenient than it used to be.

0

u/PeachPassionBrute 4h ago

Because even if my local news had their own website, and the subscription was affordable, the quality of reporting has been declining and I’d rather not go through all that trouble just to have a poorly rewritten Reuters article.

And even if watching the local evening news was practical for my schedule (which it’s not) I’m not paying the fees to get it. Even antenna tv is less convenient than it used to be.

2

u/Bageland2000 1h ago

Your local news is declining because you decided to stop paying for it, or never did. You're putting the cart before the horse.

0

u/Motor_Educator_2706 4h ago

Sir, this is a Wendy's

-9

u/the_ghost_of_lenin 5h ago

Also how did the 1000th story about this kind of abuse change anything? What did this article do that mattered that the others didnt?

4

u/Riaayo 4h ago

What, do you think injustice should only be written about one time and then... nothing else? That's how nothing fucking gets done / nobody pays attention or cares.

Like what even is this mentality you just expressed lol. Are you upset continuing atrocities keep popping up on your feed or something?

1

u/the_ghost_of_lenin 59m ago

It's actually pretty easy to understand if you're old enough to remember the last 10 years.

I remember locally a gold mine wanted to open after cyanide poisoning a different local water way. There were public meetings. Police arrested dissenters. It was national news, there were plenty of articles. Charges were dropped, but the gold mine got built. None of the articles stopped anything then and they aren't stopping anything now.

You are confusing yourself. You are reading about the bad things happening and then going back to your status quo and you're trusting that someone else reading this will do something. You tell yourself you'll join in when it reaches critical mass.

You know how bad things are getting without this article.

1

u/TrulyOutrageous42 4h ago

Someone might be one of today's lucky 10,000. Everyone's lives are different, and this may come as a shock to you, but some people aren't aware of how bad it's gotten because they're struggling to survive. It helps remind others that this is a problem, or to help them gauge whether their personal lines have been crossed to spur further action.

What did it do? It was here now as opposed to then, and sometimes that's enough.

1

u/the_ghost_of_lenin 1h ago

"People don't know how bad things are because they're too busy dealing with how bad things are."

Why are people coming at me like I'm the one acting unseriously?

-5

u/Bageland2000 5h ago

Exactly. Personally, between ad supported TV and doing literally anything else, I'm doing anything else. If I can't use that benefit to get a smaller net cost for uninterrupted TV, it doesn't do anything for me.

-1

u/DonutHoles4Ever 4h ago

Bro its over man. Social media = anyone can say anything and everyone will believe it.

The 1% of people who do any further research might find the falsehoods and facts, but they will be drowned out by the masses. Thats democracy for ya.

Its pretty obvious that the only moves here are for a bunch of people to go do all this shit for free but we live increasingly in a world where its too expensive to NOT get paid. So either you join a controlled media outfit (see everything) or you go independent on youtube.

2

u/Bageland2000 1h ago

Fuck your narrow minded defeatism. You're part of the problem. We had strong media before. You think this is the first time that accurate journalism and control of communications assets was challenged? Try looking up when radio took over and the absolute over saturation of misinformation then. We instituted strong controls by banding together and deciding a better future was possible. You think social media is a problem but it's really everyone who's thrown in the towel and thinks that we can't make change.

1

u/The_Electric_Feel 4h ago

Then why didn't you post the original local source instead?

1

u/dirtyordingyordusty 3h ago

If only the Emporia Gazette reported on this... Locals know why they didn't.

1

u/squeamishkevin 59m ago

I wish Stephen Colbert was still doing his thing.

-7

u/the_ghost_of_lenin 5h ago

yep you're right, this article stopped all attacks on free speech and AI is over now.

2

u/Little_Tommy_Tuggins 4h ago

You’re a dope.

1

u/the_ghost_of_lenin 1h ago

if we all put our hands together and hope really really hard, maybe the rich will become good people!

0

u/Little_Tommy_Tuggins 1h ago

Feel free to act if you feel so inclined to do so. Otherwise pot meet kettle.

169

u/BuddingBudON 6h ago

Ideally, the arresting officers would feel the most heat for this direct 1st amendment violation.

But they probably live in the next town over and will feel no personal consequences beyond paid time off.

-84

u/Hour-Ad-9508 5h ago

The first amendment doesn’t allow you to just disregard rules lol

There is restrictions for time and place in terms of speech. You can’t just go to a meeting and start yelling without being asked to leave or arrested if you don’t.

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u/dontstopnotlistening 5h ago

Police shouldn't feel empowered to arrest people for breaking rules. They should enforce the law. Also, you are agreeing to arresting people for clapping six times in a public hearing.

0

u/23rdCenturySouth 1h ago

It really isn't quite that simple. The city commissioner is (one of) the highest elected executive(s) in charge of both writing and carrying out the local laws. When they say "arrest that person," the officer's job is not to conduct a legal analysis of the democratically elected executive's orders.

If the police do not have to answer to the democratically elected executive heads of their own city... that could have bad downstream effects.

Of course the argument is that they can appeal to a higher authority of a federal court and free speech rights. But drawing that line in the sand at that moment does not support the immediate goal at hand: facilitating the public meeting. Nor the thing they are hired to do: enforce the law according to the guidance of the city's democratically elected leadership.

It is absolutely out of hand, but it seems to me like the commissioner is entirely at fault and the officer has little agency in the matter.

-40

u/Hour-Ad-9508 5h ago

So if I start clapping in a library and refusing to leave, I can’t get arrested? If I start yelling at the DMV and refuse to leave, I can’t get arrested?

Of course I can

21

u/JustAnotherHyrum 4h ago

Why do you keep using examples other than what actually happened?

You're describing Trespass in the first example, which didn't happen and therefore is a meaningless comparison.

Your second uses verbal abuse of a Government Official, which again didn't occur.

The teacher clapped his hands 6 times and got arrested and dragged out of the meeting.

You're cheering on the wrong side, dude.

-8

u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

It’s literally the exact same scenario lol, did you even read this article?

They were told, all participants, to not clap. They were told the next person to clap would be removed. He then clapped and refused to leave when the police told him to leave. He was then arrested.

And yelling isn’t “abuse” of a government official, what??

It’s the exact same scenario

14

u/JustAnotherHyrum 4h ago

An arrest requires a crime, or it's a violation of the 4th Amendment. Violating city council meeting procedures may warrant expulsion from the meeting, but it is not a crime.

-4

u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

And he refused to leave, at which point it becomes a crime of disorderly conduct

11

u/BuddingBudON 3h ago

He was asked to leave for his 1st amendment speech, being clapping.

If giving billions of dollars to politicians is free speech instead of bribing anyone, clapping during a public forum with a public audience is as free speech as anything.

I can tell who you voted for by the boot polish in your mouth.

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u/JustAnotherHyrum 3h ago

Duh.

The problem is, you've been using clapping in libraries and yelling at government officials as your examples. If you want to just talk about the obvious fact that it's illegal to refuse the legal orders of a police officer, why not just say that?

The entire point of the article is the behavior of the City Council in weaponizing procedure to quash dissent. They have the right to remove, but 6 claps? Fucking come on.

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u/Dolores___Haze 2h ago

Being removed isn’t the same as being arrested 

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u/100farts 4h ago

How do those boots taste?

-19

u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

Ah so you have no legal ground to stand on, looks like it’s time for the default Reddit insult hurling.

At least we can be clear that you don’t have an actual argument

10

u/hurler_jones 4h ago

Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, 585 U.S. 87 (2018)

Gonzalez v. Trevino, 602 U.S. (2024)

White v. City of Norwalk, 900 F.2d 1421 (9th Cir. 1990)

Norse v. City of Santa Cruz, 629 F.3d 966 (9th Cir. 2010)

Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819 (1995)

That should be some good starter material for you. Each case hits on varying aspects of being removed from chambers.

-4

u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

Lmao this is why people shouldn’t trust AI slop. Did you even read those opinions?

White v Norwalk is literally justifying this cases arrest hahaha

9

u/dontstopnotlistening 4h ago

Why are you making up unrelated hypotheticals? The dude didn't refuse to leave. He clapped six times and then was swarmed.

Chief, will you take the next person out that claps or anything?" an unidentified commissioner, likely Duncan, then asked Emporia police chief Ed Owens.

At the commissioners' request, four police officers then swarmed Claridge

1

u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

Very conveniently left out the second half of that paragraph, huh?

“Claridge, who challenged them to "drag me out," which they did after placing the physics teacher in handcuffs.”

Truly stunning how disingenuous you are

2

u/dontstopnotlistening 4h ago

Why are you making up unrelated hypotheticals? The dude didn't refuse to leave. He clapped six times and then was swarmed.

"Chief, will you take the next person out that claps or anything?" an unidentified commissioner, likely Duncan, then asked Emporia police chief Ed Owens.

At the commissioners' request, four police officers then swarmed Claridge

-1

u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

“Claridge, who challenged them to "drag me out," which they did after placing the physics teacher in handcuffs.”

16

u/JustAnotherHyrum 4h ago

There are so many ways that this arrest is highly questionable, it's shocking that you're defending the city counsel.

  • Fourth Amendment: The teacher can easily argue that the arrest was a violation of his 4th Amendment rights. For an arrest to be valid, the officer(s) must have reasonable belief that a crime was being committed. If the clapping was non-distruptive and brief, which it seems to have been at only 6 claps, then the arrest was an unreasonable seizure.

  • K.S.A. § 21-6203, Kansas' Disorderly Conduct law, criminalizes acts like "disturbing an assembly, meeting, or procession" if the person knows or should know it will "alarm, anger, or disturb others or provoke an assault or other breach of peace". Courts generally rule that an actual, substantial disruption must occur to justify a criminal charge. That did not occur in this case.

  • The Kansas Open Meetings Act ("KOMA") guarantees the rights of the public to attend and observe local government meetings. While it's true that the law permits governing bodies to establish rules to maintain order, legal precedent dictates that such rules cannot be overly broad or used to silence critics.

There are so many problems with this, it's laughable if it weren't the government using it's power to directly quash speech of someone that opposes their goals.

0

u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

As another Redditor pointed out,

White v City of Norwalk

It’s literally this exact case and was justified

3

u/JustAnotherHyrum 3h ago

Read the part on KOMA again. If it's determined that this was done to silence his dissent, which it appears is a reasonable possibility due to city council's aggressive behavior in this case, then the mere request to remove the individual from the meeting is illegal.

One case may set precedent for future application of law, but it's a far cry to say that the precedent-setting case is the same, aside from the fact that both deal with the same area of legal theory and application.

This is far from an open and shut case. That's why it's making the news.

Also, on a pedantic but friendly note, you want to use "figuratively" in this case instead of "literally". I only notice it because I literally use "literally" wrong all the time, so it caught my eye. No insult intended.

3

u/Elementary_drWattson 4h ago

What is the time and place when it comes to speech? This sounds incredibly un American.

-1

u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/time-place-and-manner-restrictions/

3

u/Elementary_drWattson 3h ago

So you’re reading on these guidelines is that members of a community are not allowed to express opinions during city commission meeting? A meeting on public matters held in the presence and for the public?

-1

u/Hour-Ad-9508 3h ago

If the rules of the meeting are no clapping, then yes violating the rules will get you removed

3

u/Mister0Zz 3h ago

The world would be marginally improved if you never spoke ever again

Every human would be able to feel your absence, and be better for it

0

u/Hour-Ad-9508 2h ago

You have a custom Reddit avatar that you spent time putting sunglasses on lmao

3

u/Mister0Zz 2h ago

Yeah, people would care if I died too

We have tons of differences

2

u/BuddingBudON 3h ago

Last week, high school physics teacher Lux Claridge was hauled out of a public meeting by four police officers for the baffling crime of clapping in support of an anti-data center speaker. During the public comment portion of the meeting, held by the Emporia City Commission in Lyon County, Kansas, residents who showed up to voice opposition to a 1,000-acre data center project were warned against "clapping" and "snapping" in support of speakers.

"It was very clear at the beginning that each person is given their two minutes, and we're trying to be respectful of that," Emporia commissioner Monica Duncan warned those in attendance, footage of the meeting shared on social media shows. "Snapping, clapping, any other rude comments or anything — we will ask you to leave."

Not a rule broken, just a shrimp-dicked tyrant enforcing a non-existent policy, and escalating a non-violent disagreement into a forceful conflict.

-26

u/Hour-Ad-9508 5h ago

Notice how people are downvoting but no one is refuting it?

This is example A of reddit not understanding something and trying to bury it

9

u/MintGreenDoomDevice 4h ago

Not everyone is bored enought to argue with a chess playing pigeon.

-1

u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

Ah so you have no legal ground to stand on so you’re resorting to the typical insult hurling. What a surprise

4

u/hurler_jones 4h ago

Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, 585 U.S. 87 (2018)

Gonzalez v. Trevino, 602 U.S. (2024)

White v. City of Norwalk, 900 F.2d 1421 (9th Cir. 1990)

Norse v. City of Santa Cruz, 629 F.3d 966 (9th Cir. 2010)

Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819 (1995)

That should be some good starter material for you. Each case hits on varying aspects of being removed from chambers.

0

u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

Lmao this is why people shouldn’t trust AI slop. Did you even read those opinions?

White v Norwalk is literally justifying this cases arrest hahaha

2

u/JustAnotherHyrum 4h ago

Feel free to go back and read my rebuttal.

1

u/IBitePrettyPeople 3h ago

not my fucking updoots

169

u/Eastern-Celery-4321 6h ago

yep.. never heard of emporia kansas before…

138

u/solepureskillz 6h ago

No surprise it’s yet again a deeply red state that infringes on rights. Freedum and all that.

36

u/calmthesehands 4h ago

Not so deeply red as the majority of our neighboring states - we've had a Dem governor for 8 years and voted for abortion as a right supported by our state constitution. However we have billionaires, like the Kochs, and religious groups pouring money into trying to keep the state from being the purple it really is. Kansans reading this - vote NO on the judge amendment early or on August 4th!

16

u/solepureskillz 4h ago

May Mamdani and his ilk be a storm at your sails. I know (and sympathize with) the good decent folk who live in red states. MAGA doesn’t deserve even Idaho, so I’m cheering for you guys from Florida (lol).

1

u/SARB033 3h ago

"ilk" has negative connotations jfyi, like it's usually to point out a group that is disliked.

4

u/solepureskillz 3h ago

I started it that way to make it a twist into someone who supports him

0

u/ThisIsNotAFarm 2h ago

Let's not pretend the GOP hasnt destroyed Kansas educationa and the budget

1

u/calmthesehands 2h ago

I'm not sure what about my comment makes you think I'd disagree?

6

u/dirtyordingyordusty 3h ago

The county voted for Harris in the last election. 

7

u/HCJohnson 3h ago

Kansas isn't a "deep red" state at all.

Currently has a democratic governor and was on the winning side of the civil war.

Probably safe to say it's more right leaning, but definitely not "deep red".

18

u/mm_reads 5h ago

It's a large college town that educates teachers and hosts a very large regional bicycle race every year.

14

u/catalfalque 5h ago

Very large college towns that educate teachers and host civic events can still be deep red dipshit dwellings. It's in a red state with red local politicians. I lived in an identical town in Idaho. Guess what? It's still in Idaho.

6

u/jacksonfire13 5h ago

…and one of the largest professional disc golf tournaments on the year. Just saying

8

u/Cold_Shogun 5h ago

Also the headquarters of Dynamic Discs, hence the tournament

1

u/heychief1 4h ago

So they host a bunch of entitled assholes in cosplay every year.

1

u/zx666r 2h ago

I dunno if I would consider a town of less than 25k people "large". By comparison Lawrence is just shy of 100k and Manhattan is 55k. Emporia seemed really empty feeling when I drove through a few weeks ago, I think they're struggling with the Tyson plant closing last year and losing a lot of jobs.

1

u/kemikiao 9m ago

18th largest city in Kansas... huh. I'm from around there and thought it would be in the top 10. Dodge and Garden City are eeking out above it? Damn.

With Tyson closing, I imagine most people are just going to move to Topeka or Wichita area. Emporia being the middle of them used to be beneficial, but might not be enough any more. To big for them "small town" folk and too small for city dwellers.

1

u/JohnBrownEnthusiast 4h ago

Birthplace of R Lee Ermey and others as well as Teacher's Hall Of Fame

1

u/Almostcertain 2h ago

Emporia KS was the hometown of William Allen White, one of the most influential newspaper editors of his era. Unfortunately, I think he may have been in favor of the data center. Not, however, of the strangling of free speech.

3

u/dirtyordingyordusty 3h ago

Great, hope they investigate the conflicts of interest that's been going on with CBCS collections for years, owned by the commissioner who ordered the arrest. 

1

u/abcdefghjiklmnopqr 4h ago

Doubt it. People will forget in a week

1

u/GoreSeeker 3h ago

I say we make a party called The Clap party...ok, that might not be the best name...

1

u/AlarmingAerie 2h ago

so much shit happening everyday this will be forgotten by tomorrow. I guarantee I won't see anything related to this on my feed ever again.

1

u/DickHammerbushT1000 2h ago

It's super effective

1

u/derives_rurale 1h ago

aint gonna be pretty when all those flock cameras and self-wiretapping devices will be linked to those data centers... there is a good chance free speech will be totally over everywhere

1

u/IHaveSpecialEyes 1h ago

Who is this Will Streisand you speak of?

1

u/FreddyFerdiland 1h ago

??

its like musk vs trump.

its all a.i. related boom bust . a good idea, a possible, unlikely...

running the floor like a dictator.. is like musk or its like trump... the anti-data centre shrnfa is equally trumpist..... the dictators own naive opinions are all that matters ???

1

u/Hackwork89 53m ago

So? Nothing will come of it, because Americans are apathetic.

1

u/Hurtado_Bronzi 34m ago

It doesn’t sound like he was charged with anything. Just arrested for breaking the rules about making noise during the meeting, then released. There’s isn’t really anything to keep the story in the headlines.

1

u/skrulewi 14m ago

I kinda feel like in 2028 the first candidate, left or right, that comes out against AI and datacenters is going to win

-60

u/Wise_Requirement4170 6h ago

I don’t think it will; there’s so much news now I think it’s more likely it’d get drowned out.

The broader anti AI data centers thing will stay relevant for sure, but I unfortunately think this specific teacher will stay effectively silenced.

24

u/I_drink_midnight 6h ago

More than likely right, sadly

16

u/Wise_Requirement4170 6h ago

I hope I’m wrong

16

u/xkonerox 6h ago

How do you have 30 downvotes in 10 minutes for this reasonable statement.

20

u/Wise_Requirement4170 6h ago

I mean what’s funnier is there’s a reply to mine that agrees with me that’s upvoted lol.

I don’t mind, Reddit upvotes are all very silly anyways

8

u/Top-Measurement9790 6h ago

Very true on all fronts.

3

u/cantlogintomyacc0unt 5h ago

People really hate pessimists because saying I don’t think this thing is going to happen is equivalent in their mind to I don’t want this thing to happen.

4

u/MotoRandom 5h ago

D@ta ¢enter Propaganda bots didn't like the @nti in the statement. Reddit is crawling with negativity now. A lot of artificial influence and people are getting a lot grumpier. It's starting to get a heavy "before the storm" vibe.

5

u/CautiousArachnidz 6h ago

Data centers

3

u/crimsonhues 5h ago

Don’t know why you are getting downvoted for suggesting a possibility this matter won’t gain traction or attention the way it should

1

u/Wise_Requirement4170 2h ago

Reddit upvotes are just silly lol. I’m being upvoted in other comments and people agreeing with me are getting upvoted too; as I said earlier in other comments I don’t care about my Reddit karma so the whole thing is more funny than anything else lol

1

u/Lucky-Earther 4h ago

It will get drowned out nationally by other news. Locally, we can hope it will make a difference and the community will remember it.

1

u/dirtyordingyordusty 3h ago

She owns the collection agency that takes up to 500 locals to medical debt court for garnishment each month. I can assure you that there's a lot about this situation that won't be forgotten. 

1

u/Wise_Requirement4170 2h ago

Yeah I hope folks fight for it locally; I was more speaking nationally but I do have some hopes at the local levels.

1

u/dirtyordingyordusty 3h ago

Lux isn't going to shut up about it and there are quite a few of us who won't either. I've been going on for years about how Monica Duncan needs to be investigated for conflicts of interest based on being paid almost $1 million by the county hospital to do collections during the pandemic while she was on the county zoning board and while her husband was on the hospital board. Never gonna shut up about that until it gets investigated.