From KABC:
Former UCLA and Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe was arrested during a Huntington Beach City Council meeting Tuesday evening when he approached councilmembers after making an impassioned speech that likened the MAGA movement to Nazism.
Kluwe, a Huntington Beach resident, was protesting the council's decision to place a plaque commemorating the public library's anniversary. The plaque included the words "Magical Alluring Galvanizing Adventurous," an apparent nod to President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again slogan.
"We want to honor the library. We want there to be a plaque, but we don't want MAGA on it because the library isn't supposed to be political," Kluwe told Eyewitness News Wednesday.
And this is what he happened:
Civil disobedience is often necessary. Thank you Chris Kluwe.#civil disobedience
— protecthb.org.bsky.social (@protecthb.bsky.social) February 19, 2025 at 11:23 AM
[image or embed]
And he said this:
MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for resegregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing. MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal. MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide. MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children.”
MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is.
It is what it is.
KABC continues:
Kluwe ended his speech by saying he would engage in the "time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience."
The former NFL player then walked up toward councilmembers and placed his hands behind his back as multiple police officers arrested him. Police carried him out of the meeting.
Kluwe said he spent about fours in jail before he was released.
Proud to be in America, where at least I know I'm free.
