The city ought to apologize, invite him back to speak his comments, and amend the rules to comply with the First Amendment.
Chris Bray, Substack "This just keeps happening, and I’ll just keep writing about it.
"A 22 year-old Iowa resident named Noah Petersen was arrested this week at a meeting of the Newton City Council after sharply criticizing the town’s police department and refusing to be silent when the mayor told him to stop. You can read a local news story here, or see full video here. Here’s a TV news report that gets in most of the important action:
“ 'You are out of order, sir,” and, “Chief, escort this gentleman from the chambers.” Because he criticized the city government. I find the interrupted comment lumpy and cartoonish — more about this in a moment — but it doesn’t matter: The First Amendment protects dumb speech, too.
"The city’s rules for public comment (see Item #4) prohibit “derogatory statements or comments about any individual.” From the City of Newton’s website, here’s the police department’s Idiocracy-quality press release on the arrest:". . .See it at the link...
"The Streisand effect is a name for the phenomenon in which attempts to hide, censor, or prevent access to something have the opposite result—the unintended consequence of drawing far more attention to that thing.". . .
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