Police arrest 37 Americans over AI data center protests in 2026

At least 37 people have been arrested across the US this year for protesting the construction of AI data centers in their communities. The charges are about as serious as a parking ticket: clapping, exceeding allotted speaking time, refusing to show ID. The arrests paint a peculiar picture A Futurism investigation published on August 3 documented the 37 arrests, spread across multiple states and tied almost exclusively to public meetings about proposed data center expansions. The people getting handcuffed are maintenance managers, schoolteachers, and farmers who showed up to town halls to voice concerns about their land and their electricity bills. In Hobart, Indiana, a maintenance manager named Pablo Payan was arrested in May for refusing to identify himself during a meeting about an Amazon data center project. In Emporia, Kansas, a physics teacher named Lux Claridge was arrested in July for clapping. She was supporting an anti-data center speaker when police decided her applause constituted a disruption worth an arrest. In Port Washington, Wisconsin, three protesters were arrested back in December 2025 for opposing a proposed AI data center campus that OpenAI and Oracle are devel...