Members of a hostile crowd screamed vulgar and rude comments at the May 13 meeting of the Van Buren Township Planning Commission, as the protesters tried to shut down mega-watt data center action and approval of a Battery Energy Storage System on the corner of Bemis and Rawsonville roads.
The May 13 meeting lasted seven hours because some members of the crowd wanted to keep the commission from doing its job.
At one point, around 10:15 p.m., the commission chairman closed the meeting for a 10-minute break when the screaming from the audience made it impossible to hear a vote taking place at the commission table.
What was so appalling was that the worst offenders were women and their screams were ear-shattering. The few men who spoke were mainly professional and polite, except one man who gave the commission his middle finger as he walked out of the meeting room.
The chairman let crowd members speak time and time again during public comments, for fear of being accused of not letting them talk.
Many of the women abused his openness with smirks. It was not pretty.
During the break, one of the protestors, who works in real estate, told the crowd not to worry how the commission voted. She pointed out a woman in the audience from Detroit who she said was known nationwide for stopping data centers and she would work with them. Don’t give up, it’s not over, she told them.
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