Atlanta Residents Protest ‘Cop City’
The Atlanta City Council delayed a vote on building a $90 police and fire training center following nearly 20 hours of public comments protesting the proposal.
Landwebs
The Atlanta City Council was forced to delay a vote on a proposal to build a $90 police and fire training center following nearly 20 hours of public comments protesting the proposal activists are calling “Cop City,” Courthouse News Service reports. The plan calls for converting 85 acres of land in one of the city’s last remaining green spaces — previously earmarked as a park space — into a state-of-the-art training facility. According to renderings, the facility would house a “mock city” meant to train police, firefighters and rescue teams, as well as classrooms, a shooting range, a horse barn, a kennel, public- access green space and areas for vehicle storage. Supporters say the training center, which would significantly surpass the 32-acre training facility used by the New York Police Department, would bolster the department’s crime response and officer recruitment efforts.
But public opposition is widespread: a survey conducted by local firm Social Insights Research of 371 residents near the proposed site found that 98 percent of respondents didn’t support the project. For one, the project contradicts organizers’ calls to slash the city’s police budget. At a Friday rally in front of the capitol, residents also called on corporate donors — Coca-Cola, Delta and UPS — to pull funding from the project. In a letter sent by the South River Forest Coalition to the city council on Monday, the coalition asked that council regularly convene an advisory committee to work with the Atlanta Police Foundation for a review of all the impacts on the land if the lease is approved. Council plans to resume listening to public comments Wednesday.
