During a Memphis City Council meeting, officials postponed voting on a moratorium for Elon Musk’s data centers, leading to chaos including a fistfight and protesters taking over the hall. About 100 protesters accused council members of being "sellouts" after the vote was delayed; some shouted slogans like “ain’t no power like the power of the people.” The meeting descended into disorder with police eventually clearing out the hall as arguments continued outside.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-07,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
In Memphis, TN, a heated City Council meeting erupted into chaos on Tuesday when officials postponed a vote on a moratorium for Elon Musk's data centers. The 7-5 vote to table further discussion led to angry protests, with residents chanting "bought and sold" and "no justice, no peace." Police had to intervene as the situation escalated, and one council member was removed after a heated exchange. Among the protesters were members of Indivisible Memphis, who oppose the data centers over concerns about infrastructure strain and environmental impact. The postponed vote was scheduled for Thursday, October 8th, but activists vowed to continue their protest outside City Hall.
Written for “Elon Musks Data Center Controversy Me…” on 2026-10-07,
grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.
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Leaning: leans right for article 62106 (high confidence, 2 verified quotes) · logged 2026-10-07
Chaos erupted at the end of a Tennessee city council hearing when officials postponed a vote on Elon Musk’s data centers, sparking a fistfight and protesters taking over the meeting hall.
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officials → erupt → hall
A mob of enraged protesters harassed members of the Memphis City Council Tuesday night after they had just voted to delay the vote on a moratorium of data centers in the city.
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they → harass → city
Councilors voted 7 to 5 Tuesday night to table the remaining items on the agenda for a later date before the meeting devolved into a loud disarray of shouting between council members and the residents.
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meeting → vote → members
One protester broke out a bullhorn and began to lead a chant of “ain’t no power like the power of the people.”
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protester → break → people
Council Chairwoman Jana Swearengen Washington had called for a recess to the meeting and ordered police officers to clear out the hall, according to a livestream.
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Washington → call → livestream
The frenzied mob worked its way to the dais and began shouting at the city councilors who were huddled around.
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who → work → councilors
The protesters accused the elected officials of being “sellouts,” according to video from KWAM News Radio.
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protesters → accuse → Radio
Officers had successfully removed the protesters from the meeting hall as the mob continued to shout “this is our city” and “show me what democracy looks like.”
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democracy → remove → what
At least two women engaged in a fight near the exits during the chaotic meeting, but no arrests were made, WREG reported.
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WREG → engage → meeting
Roughly 100 protesters had attended the meeting for the scheduled final vote on the data centers that sit south of the city on the Memphis, Tenn.-Southaven, Miss. border.
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that → attend → border
Two large data center facilities, named Colossus and Colossus 2, are run by Musk’s artificial intelligence company SpaceXAI.
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facilities → name → company
The original Colossus facility was built to serve X’s Grok AI bot but was later part of an agreement in May that will see Anthropic use the full computing power of the facility
If passed, a 12-month moratorium would be enacted on data centers to allow for a study on the impact the facilities have on the city’s health, engineering, power and water infrastructure.
City council infighting occurred amid the chaos as one councilor accused another of confusing people.
“That’s all he does; he brings up mess, he… that’s all you do, JB Smiley, confuse the people over, over, over and over!
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you → build → people
Councilman Smiley, who voted against delaying the vote, called for a civilized discussion on the subject instead of the shouting and fighting.
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who → vote → shouting
“When the community shows up, we just have to listen to them.
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we → show → them
I’m disappointed that we didn’t listen with ears, okay, I hear you, I understand.
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I → ’m → you
Let’s figure out how we can do what you want, but also what we believe would be in the best interest of the community
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we → figure → community
,” said Smiley, who was the lead sponsor on the moratorium proposal.
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who → say → proposal
Councilman Jeff Warren, an opponent of any moratorium, warned that the year-long pause would give incentive to companies to not do business with the city and find another area to build the complexes.
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pause → warn → complexes
“If we pass a moratorium, there’s not reason for them to think they need to come here.
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they → pass → moratorium
They get the same benefit from going to Desoto County, Crittenden County, Fayette County, Tipton County,” said Councilman Jeff Warren Tuesday.
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Warren → get → County
The Aporia
