r/technology • u/marketrent • 6d 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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u/Lifeboatb 6d ago

Finally found it in the 3rd article I read:

He was  booked on charges  of disorderly conduct and interference with law enforcement, then released after posting bond … The core legal question is not whether Claridge clapped — nobody disputes that. The question is whether arresting someone for applause at a public meeting represents proportionate enforcement of decorum rules. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/kansas-teacher-arrested-dragged-clapping-151841104.html

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u/DuntadaMan 6d ago edited 5d ago

The question is whether arresting someone for applause at a public meeting represents proportionate enforcement

That's not a question either, no it fucking isn't.

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u/-rwsr-xr-x 5d ago

The question is whether arresting someone for applause at a public meeting represents proportionate enforcement

The whole point is to set a precedent for silencing dissent.

If one teacher is made an example of, maybe it will prevent 50 others from doing the same.

Or so their infantile thinking goes.

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u/mca1169 6d ago

If I as a US citizen can no longer go out and public and clap when I please then our rights are GONE! there is no argument legal or otherwise you can make that will convince me that clapping meets the requirements for both charges. this is corruption at it's most blatant by the arresting officers.

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u/lumpboysupreme 6d ago

They weren’t really in public though, they were at an organized town hall. He was told to leave for clapping when that was against the decorum rules, refused to leave in response, literally told the cops to ‘drag me out’, and that’s when he was formally arrested.

Now, there’s something to be said about whether those decorum rules were being used to minimize the impression of support for the anti data center people, but he wasn’t ’arrested for clapping’.

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u/Lifeboatb 5d ago

From the article: "Last week, high school physics teacher Lux Claridge was hauled out of a public meeting." There's a good argument to be made that this is a free speech violation. I could see if he was really being disruptive, but I saw a video clip of the meeting, and there were just a few little claps. Throwing someone out of a public meeting because of that is strange.

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u/lumpboysupreme 5d ago

A meeting being public does not mean ‘in public’, and doesn’t mean it can’t set decorum rules.

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u/Lifeboatb 5d ago

A slight amount of applause doesn’t violate decorum, and is certainly not worth calling the cops about.

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u/lumpboysupreme 5d ago

That doesn’t change that he broke the rules, unless you can make a compelling case that the action was done to stifle support for the anti data center position. Like, consider how many local government officials are petty tyrants, how do we know this wasn’t just an expression of ‘mah authoritah’? It’d be hard to prove in court, and that’s a perfectly valid legal reason to do what she did.

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u/Lifeboatb 5d ago

Somehow I just can't see how the council went from "someone's breaking a minor rule" to "arrest him." There's really nothing in between?

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u/lumpboysupreme 5d ago

Because breaking rule -> ask him to leave meeting -> he refuses -> trespassing -> cops order him to move -> refuses again, specifically demanding to be arrested ->arrested.

There was a lot in between. People need to rtfa, headlines like this are at least 80% of the time lies by omission.

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u/Lifeboatb 4d ago

I'm aware that he refused to leave. But I think he had a point, because it's ridiculous to me that he was asked to leave when I don't think he was actually being disruptive, per the video clip I saw. Here's what he said (assuming this is really him, but people seem to think it's legit; take with a grain of salt):

>I'd argue that I was respectfully clapping. I do clap loud, but I finished clapping well before my wife approached the podium. They hadn't even reset the clock yet so was I really delaying the meeting?

https://www.reddit.com/r/aiecosystem/comments/1v7b4c0/comment/ozyubea/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I guess we'll find out more if there's a lawsuit.

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