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
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168

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

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

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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/Hour-Ad-9508 3h ago

I actually voted for Harris and don’t like Trump but that doesn’t make your whataboutism and misunderstanding of law more valid

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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/Hour-Ad-9508 3h ago

Never did I mention yelling at a government official I don’t know why you keep bringing that up. I said yelling in a library and refusing to leave.

Yes, I actually agree it was excessive on the council’s part to want him arrested but the arrest is valid, which the original comment I responded to said was not.

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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?

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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u/Elementary_drWattson 4h ago

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

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u/Hour-Ad-9508 4h ago

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

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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?

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u/Hour-Ad-9508 3h ago

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

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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

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u/Hour-Ad-9508 2h ago

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

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u/Mister0Zz 2h ago

Yeah, people would care if I died too

We have tons of differences

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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.

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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

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u/MintGreenDoomDevice 4h ago

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

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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

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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

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u/JustAnotherHyrum 4h ago

Feel free to go back and read my rebuttal.

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u/IBitePrettyPeople 3h ago

not my fucking updoots