A former pro football punter was arrested during a Huntington Beach City Council meeting after an act of “peaceful civil disobedience.”
Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was seen in a video from Tuesday’s meeting in the city southeast of Los Angeles as Huntington Beach police carried him out. Kluve had just finished delivering a rebuke of the “propaganda statement” being made in a proposed plaque outside of the Central Library that displayed the words “Magical,” “Alluring,” “Galvanizing” and “Adventurous” – MAGA when put together.
“Through hope and change our nation has built back better to the golden era of Making America Great Again!” the sign reportedly reads, according to the Orange County Register. Notably, “hope and change” was former President Obama’s slogan while “build back better” was used by former President Biden.
But Kluwe and other protesters had a problem with the MAGA portion of the sign commemorating the library’s 50th anniversary.
(Video Credit: City of Huntington Beach)
“Unfortunately it’s clear that this council doesn’t listen, so instead I’m gonna take my time to say what MAGA has stood for these past three weeks,” said Kluwe who played for the Minnesota Vikings from 2005 to 2012. “MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for resegregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans.”
The 43-year-old activist called MAGA “explicitly a Nazi movement” before ending his speech with a final statement.
“I will now engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience,” Kluwe said as he stepped toward the council members who are all Republican.
The official city video feed cut out at this point but another video by the Protect HB group showed Kluwe being subdued by officers and then carried out.
Civil Disobedience is often necessary. Thank you @ChrisKluwe pic.twitter.com/HrbTCAZpru
— Protect HB (@protect_hb) February 19, 2025
“This was done not with the intention of changing the council’s mind because I don’t think those minds can be changed,” he told the Orange County Register. “It was done so that people who are watching and people who will watch understand that this is important enough to get arrested for. That it’s important to stand up and speak truth to power and to do so in a way that other people can emulate.”
“A public library is supposed to be welcoming to anyone who wants to come in and check out a book and learn,” Kluwe said. “And so this attempt to politicize it with an explicit MAGA reference on the plaque shows that they don’t care about the public library. They care about making a propaganda statement.”
He was charged with disrupting an assembly and said he was released about four hours after his arrest.
City Council member Gracey Van Der Mark blasted Kluwe’s comments as an insult to President Donald Trump’s Jewish supporters.
“He wanted his five minutes of fame, and that’s what he got,” she told the Daily Pilot.
“It is OK for us to have our beautiful conservative city,” she said. “We respect everyone. We’re not out there attacking people who don’t think like us, we’re not out there running across and trying to intimidate people who don’t agree with us … The city of Huntington Beach has always been conservative, and they tried to change that, and we’re just taking it back to the way it was. If I wanted to live in a liberal city with liberal values, I would have stayed in Los Angeles.”
The plaque, which was approved by the City Council unanimously, was later approved with “a slightly altered design,” according to the OC Register.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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