The Emporia data center arrest that turned a Kansas zoning meeting into a police encounter began with applause. Lux Claridge, a high school physics teacher, attended the July 22 Emporia City Commission meeting with their spouse, Jessica Danford, and brother David to oppose the proposed Flint Hills Digital Campus, according to 404 Media. Police later carried Claridge out in handcuffs after City Commissioner Monica Duncan asked officers to remove the next person who clapped or made noise.
The commission was considering zoning ordinances tied to a proposed hyperscale data center on 1,000 acres of rural land in Emporia. Dozens of residents came to speak against the project, 404 Media reported. The meeting lasted nearly five hours, with some attendees waiting outside the small chamber or in overflow rooms because the room held about 30 people.
Commissioners enforced a two-minute limit for public comments and repeatedly told attendees not to clap, snap, heckle or otherwise interrupt. According to 404 Media’s account of the meeting, applause still broke out at times, usually briefly. About 50 minutes in, Duncan warned that disruptive attendees would be asked to leave.
Why was Lux Claridge arrested at the Emporia meeting?
Claridge clapped after a speaker finished and as Danford approached the podium, according to 404 Media. Duncan then asked the police chief to remove the next person who clapped or did “anything,” saying she was “done.”
Police approached Claridge and told them to leave. Claridge responded that they had a right to speak and told officers to drag them out. Officers then lifted Claridge, handcuffed them and removed them from the room, according to 404 Media. Emporia Police later said on Facebook that Claridge had continued disruptive conduct after warnings and did not comply with officers’ efforts to remove them.
Emporia Police said Claridge was booked at the Lyon County Jail on charges of interference with law enforcement and disorderly conduct. The department said it was trying to keep the public meeting safe and orderly while respecting residents’ right to participate.
404 Media said Emporia Police denied its request for Claridge’s arrest report, citing an active criminal investigation and saying release of the record could interfere with investigative work. 404 Media said it has appealed that denial.
After Claridge was removed, Danford told Mayor Becky Smith that Claridge was her spouse and asked that police not hurt them, according to 404 Media. Duncan then said the attendees could all leave, and the meeting’s camera feed was cut off. The feed resumed about 10 minutes later, and Danford delivered her remarks against the data center.
David Claridge, Lux Claridge’s brother and a candidate for state representative, later spoke at the podium and criticized commissioners for removing his sibling, saying they had violated Claridge’s First Amendment rights, according to 404 Media. He also told 404 Media he was angry about the removal.
What is the Flint Hills Digital Campus?
The Flint Hills Digital Campus is the proposed data center development at the center of the Emporia zoning fight. A hyperscale data center is a large computing facility built to house many servers and supporting power, cooling and networking systems, often for cloud or artificial intelligence workloads.
Developer Gary Pinkston has been publicly linked to the project. He wrote an opinion piece in the Emporia Gazette promoting the data center, which also appeared on the Flint Hills Digital Campus website, according to 404 Media. But the Gazette later published recordings from Pinkston’s federal bankruptcy hearing, where Pinkston said the project was his daughter’s and told creditors he did not write the op-ed.
The Flint Hills Digital Campus website is now offline, 404 Media reported. Two days after the bankruptcy hearing, Emporia commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the zoning measure for the project, according to the Emporia Gazette.
This story draws on original reporting from 404 Media.
