“Clapping Is a First Amendment Right:” An Interview With the Person Arrested for Clapping at a Data Center Meeting
www.404media.co
"I have a right to speak. I'm here to speak. I have a right to clap, and if you want me out, you're going to have to drag me out."

Last Wednesday, Lux Claridge planned to speak out against a proposed 1,000 acre data center in their town of Emporia, Kansas. They left in handcuffs after a city commissioner ordered them arrested for clapping.

  • whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    39·
    10 days ago

    “It was annoying,” Claridge told 404 Media. “So what happened was I clapped for the previous speaker. She hadn’t even gotten back to her seat before I stopped clapping. My wife was on the way up to the podium. The time for my wife’s speech hadn’t even been reset yet […] you see the 51 seconds remaining from the previous speaker. So I don’t know what I was disrupting exactly, but I was not clapping the entire time.”

    i have to admit that the article was too long and I stopped, so I’m not really sure that was the “wrongdoing”

    • sik0fewl@piefed.caEnglish
      1132·
      10 days ago

      At city council or committee meetings the gallery is not allowed to make noise. They are there only to observe.

      The gallery was especially noisy at this meeting and was warned to be quiet multiple times. Just because no one is speaking does not mean the gallery is allowed to clap.

      • sepi@piefed.socialEnglish
        145·
        10 days ago

        You like the boot, but the rest of us don’t. Learn to read rooms.

        • lagoon8622@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          95·
          10 days ago

          They crave authoritarian violence. The dog whistle is their belief that they’ll be the ones doing the oppression next time, if they lick the boot passionately enough

      • LePoisson@lemmy.world
        41·
        10 days ago

        That’s fucking stupid, it’s a stupid rule and nonsensical. What, are people not supposed to have reactions to things?

        • sik0fewl@piefed.caEnglish
          22·
          10 days ago

          I think it’s just to not disrupt the proceedings. If you want to speak to an issue you can register as a delegation.

          I’m reminded of a funny incident during a recent Calgary council meeting where a delegation was asked to stop clapping — they could continue singing, but I guess clapping is against the rules of decorum: https://youtu.be/UQRi4FpEj34 at about 4:55.

          • LePoisson@lemmy.world
            5·
            10 days ago

            My whole point is that if someone is clapping or booing or otherwise reacting to a person speaking and they’re not actively disrupting the speaker it shouldn’t be a problem.

            I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect people to not react or be silent when talking about stuff that impacts them directly and as long as it’s not very clearly outright hate speech or disrupting a speaker then it should be okay.

            Rules of decorum are fine and all but when they’re used as a cudgel to silence expression from constituents at a town hall that’s bad.

            • sik0fewl@piefed.caEnglish
              22·
              10 days ago

              It’s not about interrupting the speaker, it’s about the procedure. Boring legal stuff. Refer to funny anecdote I shared from Calgary (I realize Canada and US may do some things differently).

              At the risk of being called a bootlicker, they weren’t just saying stuff and clapping, they were interrupting official meetings and asked to be dragged out.

              Is this an abuse of power? Probably. How many people have been asked to leave or arrested for supporting the commissioners agenda? If this guy was disruptive (he did refuse to leave), did that deserve arrest? I don’t think so

              • LePoisson@lemmy.world
                4·
                10 days ago

                I’m not gonna call you a bootlicker but I will say that the boring legal stuff is just words on a page. The procedure is just made up, and I think it’s mostly made up to not help us.

                Anyways doesn’t matter, have a good day.