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U.S.|Former N.F.L. Player Is Arrested After Protest Over MAGA Plaque
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/us/chris-kluwe-protest-arrested.html
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Chris Kluwe, a former punter for the Vikings, was arrested after speaking at a City Council meeting in Huntington Beach, Calif.
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Former N.F.L. Player Arrested for Protest Against MAGA Plaque
Chris Kluwe, a former N.F.L. punter and a resident of Huntington Beach, Calif., was arrested at a City Council meeting after speaking out against plans to install a plaque with references to President Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.”
“Everyone is in favor of a plaque to celebrate the library, but the vast, vast majority are against including a MAGA acrostic. Unfortunately, it’s clear that this council does not listen. So instead, I’m going to take my time to say what MAGA has stood for these past three weeks. 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 V.A., 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. I will now engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience.” “Get the — get out.”
Feb. 20, 2025, 11:32 a.m. ET
When he was an N.F.L. punter with the Minnesota Vikings, Chris Kluwe was known for speaking out. He hasn’t stopped in retirement.
Mr. Kluwe was arrested in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Tuesday night and charged with disrupting a City Council meeting.
He was objecting to plans for a plaque celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Huntington Beach Central Library, which included the words “Magical,” “Alluring,” “Galvanizing” and “Adventurous” — the first letters of which spell “MAGA,” President Trump’s slogan meaning “Make America Great Again.”
The proposed plaque continued with a more explicit reference: “Through hope and change our nation has built back better to the golden era of Making America Great Again!” — also alluding to the “hope and change” and “build back better” slogans popularized by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Mr. Kluwe, who said he had lived in Huntington Beach for 15 years, was one of several citizens who rose to speak at the public hearing. “Everyone is in favor of a plaque to celebrate the library, but the vast, vast majority are against including a MAGA acrostic,” he said, standing at a lectern with a microphone. “Unfortunately, it’s clear that this council does not listen.”
“MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement,” he said, drawing applause. “You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is.”
