Anti-data center protesters arrested during Port Washington meeting

Multiple people were arrested at a City of Port Washington meeting Dec. 2 where protesters spoke out against the proposed $18 billion data center.

At least one person was arrested at a City of Port Washington meeting Dec. 2 where protesters spoke out against an $18 billion artificial intelligence data center campus for tech giants OpenAI and Oracle. Multiple others were handcuffed and escorted out of the building.

The arrest came during public comment after a woman speaking against the project led chants of “Recall, recall, recall.” Her three-minute time slot to speak had ended, and city officials had already warned attendees to not speak outside of their turn.

The woman had mentioned that advocacy groups, namely the citizen group Great Lakes Neighbors United, are already planning recall elections to challenge members of the council.

She appeared surprised as police officers approached her to escort her out of the building.

Immediately, the council chambers erupted into commotion, as other protesters stood to defend her. They called out, “She didn’t do anything” and “What is the arrest for?”

The woman did not comply with the police, and multiple people who moved to defend her were handcuffed and escorted out of the building.

Before they were out the door, members of the city council had left the room. For the next 45 minutes, the remaining attendees and protesters stood in consternation, chattering nervously.

A spokesperson for Vantage who attended the meeting declined to comment on the situation. Vantage, a Denver-based data center operations company is fronting infrastructure improvements, along with interest, consulting fees and other costs associated with the project that total $458 million.

The data center was not on the agenda, but around 30 protesters showed up to participate in a string of protests against data centers across the state Dec. 1 and 2. Dozens of residents and climate advocates in seven Wisconsin cities demanded officials halt approval of data center projects built by Microsoft, OpenAI and other tech companies.

Over 50 people demonstrated outside Milwaukee’s Discovery World Dec. 2, while another 40 gathered at the state Capitol in Madison. Protesters also held smaller rallies in Kenosha, Beaver Dam, Menomonie and Janesville, cities on or near the sites of potential data center projects.

The protests were organized by climate advocacy groups Healthy Climate Wisconsin and 350 Wisconsin as well as political groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said Healthy Climate Wisconsin health equity coordinator Julia Alberth.

Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.