Farmer arrested for speaking too long at datacenter town hall vows to fight

wat10000

He was not arrested for speaking too long. He was arrested for trespassing after being asked to leave. This occurred after speaking too long, but the speaking too long is not the reason for the arrest.

josefritzishere

https://archive.ph/2Ermp

sheikhnbake

> When he went a few seconds over his allotted 3 minute time limit, the city ordered Blanchard arrested and transported to the county jail. The city charged Blanchard with trespassing

josefritzishere

Beale Infrastructure exhibits mafia-like, possibly illegal behavior getting city officials to sign NDAs. I suspect kickback schemes and conflicts of interest to be behind this egregious use of lawfare.

wrs

This is basically weak people in authority overreacting from fear and resentment. Same as when the principal expels a student for saying something rude at assembly, or when a bank sues someone for sending in a vulnerability report about their website.

JumpCrisscross

Is the datacenter going ahead? Who is building it and who is principally using it? Has the state AG commented on this?

ChrisArchitect

I don't know what he was speaking on at the data center town hall but the followup was a "No Turbines Rally" showing people with "Stop Wind Now" signs. Let's maybe skip this round of 404media ragebait.

Volundr

The article keeps saying he was arrested for going a few seconds over, which is weird because it also contains this statement: "Feary then notified police to have Blanchard removed. I informed Blanchard that he was asked to leave and needed to do so. Blanchard then continued to the front of the room where counselors sat behind a table and insisted on giving them paperwork,” according to the police report. “Sergeant Singer then directed me to place Blanchard under arrest for trespassing. Blanchard was placed in handcuffs, escorted from the property, and transported to Rogers County Jail." The video seems to back up that account, showing him being told he needs to leave, and him instead walking to the front with paperwork, before finally being arrested. To be clear I don't think this justifies the charges, but it's weird the article repeatedly frames it like he just went a couple second over and was immediately slapped in cuffs, marched out and charged.

htx80nerd

how dare that commoner insult the Money

Leynos

From the article, here is the recording of the meeting: https://www.youtube.com/live/xLPF3rTT0mY The event in question can be seen around 1:56:00 through 2:00:00 (approx)