Three people were arrested in Port Washington, Wisconsin, after they interrupted a Tuesday meeting held by the local authority to discuss a potential data center project.

Although the meeting did not concern the proposal for the 902MW, so-called ‘Lighthouse’ data center, which will be developed by Vantage Data Centers as part of OpenAI and Oracle’s Stargate infrastructure project, the first thirty minutes of the meeting were taken up by public comments in opposition to the facility.

Video footage of the incident shows police arresting three women, among them Christine Le Jeune, a member of the non-profit organization Great Lakes Neighbors United.

Le Jeune had made a speech criticising the project and the Port Washington Common Council, but she was forced to conclude early after going over the three-minute time limit on public comments.

This was met with applause and brief shouting, which subsided before the next speaker began her speech.

A police officer can then be seen speaking to Le Jeune and two others. More officers then gather around, and video footage eventually shows officers dragging all three individuals across the floor before handcuffing and escorting them out. Police told Fox that two of the women were arrested because they dropped to the ground and grabbed Le Jeune to prevent her from being taken out of the premises.

Earlier in the meeting, a member of the Council had asked members of the audience to “refrain from interrupting anyone during their public comment portion.” Otherwise, they would be removed.

Police also said that they had given multiple warnings to the crowd not to disturb the meeting.

But commentators online have questioned whether the arrest constituted an overreaction to the actions of the three individuals.

This incident will likely worsen attitudes towards the data center despite Vantage and the Council’s best efforts to assuage concerns about potential utility rate hikes, corruption, procedural irregularities, the impact of long-term construction, and the effect on the environment.

Vantage has made varied commitments to limit the facility’s environmental impact, pledging to implement closed-loop cooling as well as committing to invest in local biodiversity and water restoration projects. It has also committed to invest a minimum of $175 million to make regional infrastructure upgrades, and it has said that it would underwrite 100 percent of the power infrastructure investment with a dedicated electricity rate from WEC Energy Group utility We Energies.

Moreover, the Common Council has collated a series of documents, links, and attachments relating to the data center on a website. Many of these are ‘Fact Sheets’ and ‘FAQ documents’ directly aimed at citizens opposed to the facility.

The data center still requires various approvals before it can be built. Vantage scored a planning victory amidst much controversy in November when the Council and the Joint Review Board approved the creation of a Tax Incremental District for the data center.

This means that property taxes in the district will be split into two streams – one tied to property values before redevelopment, and the other tied to the additional increase in property values during and after redevelopment – and the latter will be used to subsidize the district, effectively reimbursing Vantage for its investments.