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SANDY HUFFAKER \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n
By Joe Wilkins | Futurism<\/p>\n
It takes a lot to get your typical white-bread American riled up enough that they\u2019re willing to go to jail. Getting arrested is a massive pain, bringing court dates, fines, and a record that can shadow your job and housing prospects for the rest of your life.<\/p>\n
For most folks, just the threat of jail time is enough to keep them on their best behavior. Yet in 2026, data centers have become one of the rare issues pushing more and more of Americans to risk it anyway.<\/p>\n
So far in the US, Futurism<\/em> has counted at least 37 arrests stemming from protests related to data centers this year. There were an additional 12 cases where police intervened to prevent protestors or speakers from confronting civic leaders, though in reality that number is likely much higher, as these cases aren\u2019t as likely to make the news.<\/p>\n Unlike in other<\/a> moments<\/a> of political unrest in recent memory, it\u2019s hard to pigeonhole these anti-data center activists demographically. They range from landowning farmers to physics teachers, zoomers to boomers, rural townspeople to suburban parents.<\/p>\n Despite their differences, the arrestees all have one thing in common: they each felt the actions of democratically elected officials are failing to reflect the wishes of their constituents, instead deferring to massive tech corporations.<\/p>\n Take the case of 42-year old Pablo Payan, a maintenance manager from Indiana. During a public meeting in May held to discuss plans to erect a massive Amazon data center in the city of Hobart, Payan refused to identify himself for the record before speaking, resulting in an attempted removal by police.<\/p>\n As officers were escorting him out, Payan says he asked why he was being removed, which prompted officers to place him under arrest for criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my opinion, I was kicked out to prove a point that the law is on their side and if people continue to try and express themselves and speak, they will also be intimidated or arrested by law enforcement,\u201d Payan told Fox32<\/em><\/a> after the fact. \u201cSo I think it was a flex of power.\u201d<\/p>\n Far from the \u201canti-tech extremism\u201d that law enforcement agencies<\/a> and the Trump administration<\/a> have warned about, these demonstrations are overwhelmingly peaceful, escalating into physical confrontations only when police lay hands on a person to remove them. Many of the charges come when anti-data center activists break petty clerical rules, like going slightly over the allotted time<\/a> for a public comment.<\/p>\n Lux Claridge, a physics teacher from Emporia, Kansas, is an exemplar of the absurd ways civic leaders can weaponize police to stifle dissent. At a public meeting earlier this month, Claridge was arrested<\/a> after clapping in support of another community member speaking out against a proposed 1,000 acre data center campus \u2014 running afoul of a commissioner\u2019s rule against \u201csnapping\u201d and \u201cclapping.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am fully of the notion that clapping is a First Amendment right that I have,\u201d Claridge said in an interview with 404 Media<\/em><\/a> after the fact. \u201cI can exercise that as long as I\u2019m not disrupting, and I still argue that I was not disrupting at all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have a right to clap,\u201d Claridge continued, \u201cand if you want me out, you\u2019re going to have to drag me out.\u201d<\/p>\n