Police in Claremore, Oklahoma arrested a local man after he went slightly over his time giving public remarks during a city council meeting opposing a proposed data center. Darren Blanchard showed up at a Claremore City Council meeting on Tuesday to talk about public records and the data center. When he went over his allotted 3 minutes by a few seconds, the city had him arrested and charged with trespassing.The subject of the city council meeting was Project Mustang, a proposed data center that would be located within a local industrial park. In a mirror of fights playing out across the United States, developer Beale Infrastructure is attempting to build a large data center in a small town and the residents are concerned about water rights, spiking electricity bills, and noise.<\/p>\n
The public hearing was a chance for the city council to address some of these concerns and all residents were given a strict three minute time limit. The entire event was livestreamed and archive of it is on YouTube. Blanchard was warned, barely, to \u201crespect the process\u201d by one of the council members but was clearly finishing reading from papers he had brought to read from, was not belligerent, and went over time by just a few seconds. Anyone who has ever attended or watched a city council meeting anywhere will know that people go over their time at essentially any meeting that includes public comment.\u00a0Blanchard arrived with documents in hand and questions about public records requests he\u2019d made. During his remarks, people clapped and cheered and he asked that this not be counted against his three minutes. \u201cThere are major concerns about the public process in Claremore,\u201d Blanchard said, referencing compliance documents and irregularities he\u2019d uncovered in public records.\u00a0When he went over this three minutes, police officers and an unidentified city official rushed to his position. Blanchard put down the microphone and approached the city councilors to hand them some of his documents. The police follow. Immediately, someone in the crowd said \u201cFreedom of speech.\u201d There is an exchange of words at the table where the councilors are seated that\u2019s impossible to hear over cheers from the crowd.\u201cOn what grounds? I said on what grounds?\u201d Blanchard said as the cheers subsided.\u201cArrest him,\u201d an unidentified man in a blue vest said.The police officers immediately put Blanchard\u2019s hands in handcuffs. He doesn\u2019t resist.\u201cYou\u2019re arresting him?\u201d A woman called from the crowd.\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you people?\u201d Said another.\u201cIn order to get through this, it\u2019s gonna help if each person can talk\u2014whether they\u2019re for or against\u2014without the clapping and [inaudible], that way you can have your three minutes without being interrupted,\u201d Claremore Mayor Debbie Long told the crowd. \u201cSo I appreciate that. I appreciate it from both sides.\u201dClaremore PD and the Mayor\u2019s office did not respond to 404 Media\u2019s request for comment, but the PD did provide a lengthy statement on the incident to the local outlet News On 6. \u201cClaremore Police officers are not responsible for enforcing the rules of city council meetings and only become involved when a city official orders someone removed from the meeting,\u201d the statement to News on 6 said.\u201cA Mounds man came to Claremore and refused to comply with the rules that everyone else had no problem complying with. He was ordered removed by the City Manager, but refused to do so. Officers again told the man to leave, but he said, \u2018I\u2019m not gonna leave,\u2019 and continued with the behaviors that caused him to be expelled. Officers were left with no choice but to arrest him,\u201d the statement said.The construction of data centers is a contentious topic in America right now. The push to build out artificial intelligence has created an unprecedented demand for data centers to fuel them and people who live near the proposed construction projects often aren\u2019t happy about it. In Amarillo, Texas, residents are fighting a 6,000 acre project that would consume a lot of water in a drought prone area. A small town in Michigan is pushing back against a proposed data center that would assist with nuclear weapons research. It\u2019s unclear what, exactly, Project Mustang would do if it were built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"