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Aurornis an hour ago

They really buried the details in this article. The opener leads you to believe she did nothing wrong because she briefly spoke during a public comment period

> Mia Heider had never attended a public meeting before when she showed up to the city council meeting in Springfield, Missouri. After briefly speaking at a podium during a public comment period, she was arrested and dragged away in handcuffs.

The details are toward the end. The council was trying to discuss a public housing issue and she was trying to use that time slot to bring up Flock.

> Later in the evening Mia Heider tried to speak out about Flock during public comments about a housing issue.

They cut off the mic and told her it was the wrong topic, she wouldn’t leave the podium, flipped off the council (it’s the photo in the article) and the police hauled her off the podium.

There’s a real valid story in here about the city council sending the Flock thing to committee, but the article has been through the clickbait ringer so many times that they’re trying to make it sound like someone got arrested for saying “Flock cameras” during an open comments section, which isn’t true.

Given the topic I’m probably going to get downvoted for bringing up facts from the article itself, but I’m really tired of this type of journalism where you can tell they workshopped this and carefully chose which important details to bury at the bottom of the story so it gives a different impression if you only read the headline or skim the first couple paragraphs.

mandevil 36 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I dunno, Council announces that they are going to be talking about Flock (YC 17), that there will be public comment about Flock (YC 17), sees that a whole lot of people are very angry about Flock (YC 17) and have come to the meeting, and immediately shift the discussion to a committee so they don't have to hear those people angry about Flock (YC 17), I can see why she did what she did. That sure seems like the Council is trying to avoid all of the community anger over Flock (YC 17).

If you are going to do something that makes so many people so angry that they are willing to come to a local government meeting, you kinda have to let them talk about it, you know? Otherwise it feels like you're trying to run out the clock on them.

TheChaplain 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Thanks for bringing up the whole picture. No down-votes from me.

empath75 43 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Giving someone the finger is not a crime.

Aurornis 41 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Interrupting a city council meeting, speaking out of turn, refusing to leave, and then devolving into obvious defiance is, however.

ModernMech 16 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Ah I see you are well versed in bureaucratic attack strategies on the first amendment! “We’re not violating your rights, there’s a special first amendment zone you can say all that where we can’t hear!”

dekhn 12 minutes ago | parent [-]

Can you instead try to see that people who disagree with you may actually not being attempting to subvert the first amendment, but instead are focusing on the necessary business city councils have to achieve? There are clearly limits on what you can say and do in a city council meeting.

freejazz 38 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Well, she spoke about something 'off topic' during public comments - if that's the same thing as what you described, I'm not so sure.

gruez 26 minutes ago | parent [-]

>during public comments

You're conveniently omitting the fact it was public comments for a different issue

>Heider explained that she waited until the public comment period for a different issue, filled out a form to talk, and then got up to deliver a written statement about Flock cameras.

thereader12 4 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Because the council canceled comments on the Flock issue that had been scheduled for that day.

Matl 11 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

He may be omitting that because it seems like a convenient way to not hear comments about an issue by switching to a different issue.

dekhn 36 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

She was not arrested for that.