88 points by sudonanohome34 days ago | 42 comments
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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.
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.
> 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
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.
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.
IIRC Blue Owl is the asset manager, not exactly the owner -- Beale Infrastructure is technically a portfolio company they back. Minor distinction I guess, but "owned by" implies more operational control than Blue Owl probably has day-to-day.
> Who is building it and who is principally using it?
I was actually just looking into that: Beale Infrastructure, owned by Blue Owl.
we saw a gap: some of the largest global hyperscalers—companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google—needed partners who could move at their speed and scale to solve their growing data needs
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.
Sure man. Nothing says "hacker ethos" like arresting a citizen for going 3 seconds over their allotted free speech time.
There are so many bootlickers here on HN these days. A sign of the times, I suppose.
But of course, what else can we expect? This is the natural consequence of putting ethics and morality after money. Money always wins. And once you start seeing the world like that, through the lens of "success makes right", you have to bend your view of reality to make it square. And then you wind up here, defending actions like this.
But what was the actual sequence? Was there a procedure for extending time, or did he just keep going and ignore removal requests? Those are pretty different situations, and the "bootlicker" framing only holds if there was no legitimate process he bypassed.
Look, the article is right there, and what it says doesn't match what you're saying. Sure, they arrested him for "trespassing", but their definition of trespassing was going over his allotted time by a matter of seconds.
They did not ask him to leave, and he refused. They counted down the seconds he had the floor, and ordered his arrest the moment he went over the allotted time.
I don't know if you've ever been to a Town Hall before, but this is absolutely ridiculous. When you go over your time, you can either ask for more time or be told that you are done.
You shouldn't be arrested unless you intentionally refuse to conclude your time, or if you create a disruption. He did neither.
They arrested him because they didn't like what he had to say, and they want to send a harsh message to anyone else who dares speak out against Datacenters.
This is an egregious violation of First Amendment rights.
Sure, technically accurate. But if someone goes over their 3-minute slot at our company meeting and we call security to have them removed for trespassing, the headline's still going to say we kicked someone out for talking too long. The sequence of events is the story.
We went through something similar fighting a warehouse rezoning. What helped: coordinate with neighbors so multiple people each take their 3 minutes rather than one person trying to cover everything. Also submit written comments beforehand — those go into the official record no matter what happens at the mic. Blanchard's written statement still counts even after the arrest.
This is how authoritarians speak. Rules only matter when they make sense. An authoritarian never cares about that, and insists on a strict interpretation of the rules, well beyond reason.
A 3-minute limit is sensible. Hauling someone off to jail because they spoke for a few seconds too long is tyrannical.
You should want better out of the society you live in. Even if you disagree with this farmer, ask yourself if he would have seen the same consequences if he went over the limit speaking in support of this Datacenter (spoiler: of course he wouldn't have).
Do you really want to live in a world where people are creatively charged with trespassing, not because of actual malicious action, but because they said something that the powers that be didn't like?
I've been to dozens of zoning and utility hearings. The standard procedure when someone runs long is a tap on the shoulder, maybe a gentle mic cut. Calling the police is so far outside normal practice it's jarring. This wasn't rule enforcement - somebody wanted him gone specifically.
