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City council meeting erupts into chaos after planned data center vote postponed

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McEntyre, N. (2026, October 7). City council meeting erupts into chaos after planned data center vote postponed. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2026/10/07/us-news/memphis-city-council-meeting-erupts-into-chaos-over-vote-on-musk-data-centers/

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

New York Post · collected 2026-10-07 · by Nicholas McEntyre

Quick Summary

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 by AI on 2026-10-07, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

On Tuesday night, the Memphis City Council meeting erupted into chaos as officials postponed a vote on a moratorium for new Elon Musk data center developments. The postponement triggered an angry crowd who shouted at council members and used bullhorns to chant slogans like "bought and sold" and "no justice, no peace." During the chaotic scene, Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton was removed from the meeting after a heated exchange with protesters and fellow member JB Smiley. Police were called in as their presence tripled, but not before a fight broke out in the lobby between two women, though no one was detained or injured. The council voted 7 to 5 to delay the vote until October 20, prompting protests both inside and outside City Hall, with residents demanding action on infrastructure impacts from data centers.

Written for “Elon Musk Data Center Debate Memphis” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 3 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Elon Musk Data Center Debate Memphis
Politics · 4 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans right and hedges 15% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
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⚖️ Leans left further left than this Hedges 4 of 19 claims Outlet record 69/100
Fox News
Hedges 7 of 27 claims Outlet record 68/100
CBS News
Hedges 0 of 2 claims Outlet record 65/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
20
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
15%
3 of 20 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans right
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
66/100
New York Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
4
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-07 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

New York Post · 16741 article(s) · 36 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 36 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Nicholas McEntyre
45 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 “An affluent area where people would have things that are sought after would be the motivation for this,” Smith added.
🔮 William “Stone” Romberg was fishing into Phillips Inlet in Panama City Beach, Florida, when his cast accidentally caught the bird Sunday afternoon, according to his employer and a GoFundMe set up for his family.
🔮 “The Democratic Party should forfeit her seat because even if she wins, she will be of great consequence to them.
🔮 Saettele claims he attempted to remove the screwdriver from his father’s head but it was “stuck” and wouldn’t come out. During his five minutes of suffering, the wounded Saettele made “deeply moving statements” before reciting the “Lord’s Prayer” with his son, the younger Saettele told police.
🔮 Rahma asked Shields if they could get a free round of drinks if they showed up to her bar.
🔮 He is bound by New York State’s compulsory education law that requires all kids between 6 and 16 to attend full-time instruction, meaning Sweeney would have to wait until the 2027-2028 school year to graduate.
🔮 Ranta revealed she feared the construction of the data centers would be a perfect target for Russian aggression in the already tense European domain.
🔮 Carlson and her crew had chosen to jump off a free-floating iceberg they dubbed “No Name” off the coast of Twillingate near Newfoundland, Canada.
🔮 Aggravated residents could only do so much about the alleged annoying birds before the ordinance was passed as owning a rooster wasn’t illegal and enforcement of the noise ordinance would only be done it a responding police officer witnessed the noise complaint firsthand.
🔮 “He knew that the military would give him a solid career and a solid base, and give him discipline and integrity and everything that wraps up a good military individual,” John Patterson said.
Also by Nicholas McEntyre
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 45 articles by Nicholas McEntyre →

Topics

Council KWAM News Radio Tennessee WREG the Memphis City Council

Subjects

Jeff Warren PERSON · 2× Smiley PERSON · 2× Council ORG · 1× Elon Musk’s PERSON · 1× Jana Swearengen Washington PERSON · 1× KWAM News Radio ORG · 1× Memphis GPE · 1× Tennessee GPE · 1× WREG ORG · 1× the Memphis City Council ORG · 1×

Narrative

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.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-07
🔮 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!

Claims (20 extracted, 3 hedged)

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. asserted
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. asserted
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. asserted
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.” asserted
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. uncertain
Washington → call → livestream
The frenzied mob worked its way to the dais and began shouting at the city councilors who were huddled around. asserted
who → work → councilors
The protesters accused the elected officials of being “sellouts,” according to video from KWAM News Radio. uncertain
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.” asserted
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. asserted
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. asserted
that → attend → border
Two large data center facilities, named Colossus and Colossus 2, are run by Musk’s artificial intelligence company SpaceXAI. asserted
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! uncertain
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. asserted
who → vote → shouting
“When the community shows up, we just have to listen to them. asserted
we → show → them
I’m disappointed that we didn’t listen with ears, okay, I hear you, I understand. asserted
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 asserted
we → figure → community
,” said Smiley, who was the lead sponsor on the moratorium proposal. asserted
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. asserted
pause → warn → complexes
“If we pass a moratorium, there’s not reason for them to think they need to come here. asserted
they → pass → moratorium
They get the same benefit from going to Desoto County, Crittenden County, Fayette County, Tipton County,” said Councilman Jeff Warren Tuesday. asserted
Warren → get → County
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