Former NFL star arrested after ‘Nazi’ MAGA protest

Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was arrested Tuesday on a charge of disturbing an assembly where he called MAGA “explicitly a Nazi movement.”

According to the city’s arrest log, the incident occurred at a city council meeting in Huntington Beach, California where he has been a resident for the past 15 years.

Kluwe, 43, per reports, was protesting the city’s approval of a public library plaque that was designed to use words to spell out “MAGA.”

Kluwe, a former Vikings punter, called MAGA “explicitly a Nazi movement.”

He said he would engage in “peaceful civil disobedience.” While approaching the city council members’ bench, police stepped in and carried him out of the room.

“MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence,” he said in a statement. “MAGA stands for re-segregation 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 VA, 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.”

Kluwe told the Orange County Register that he spent four hours in custody before his release.

Gracey Van Der Mark, a member of the city council, told The Hill that there was “nothing peaceful” about Kluwe’s actions, accused him of “causing alarm among those in attendance, including two young students.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.