‘Cop City’ Protesters Will Attempt to Block Controversial Construction of Atlanta Training Center

Friday marks the start of a weekend-long “mass direct nonviolent action” by organizers of the Block Cop City movement in and around the South River forest area of ​​Atlanta, where the controversial training center Atlanta Public Safety Facility is to be built.

Construction of the facility, dubbed “Cop City” by opponents, is underway and expected to be completed by December 2024. Critics of the 85-acre, $90 million center will gather in the forest this weekend to protest the construction, and to prepare for a “Day of Action” planned for Monday with the aim of “stopping the construction,” organizers say.

“If the city government doesn’t stop construction to listen to the people, then we’ll just have to do it ourselves: a people’s order to stop work,” the activists said on the city’s event page. protest.

The broader movement against the center, called Stop Cop City, has continued for two years, with critics of the Atlanta Police and Fire Training Center arguing that its completion could lead to greater militarization of police in the metro Atlanta area. which is a predominantly black community.

“This is a war base where police will learn military-style maneuvers to kill black people and control our bodies and movements,” the movement states on its website. “They train to make sure the poor and the working people stay in line.”

The center will include an “auditorium for police/fire and public use,” a “simulated city for burn training and urban police training,” an “emergency vehicle operator course for Emergency Vehicle Driver Training,” a kennel for K-9 unit and training, according to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center website.

The Atlanta Police Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting construction of the center, said it would promote “world-class training.”

“Police and fire services are continually evolving,” their website says. “By the end of 2024, the citizens of Atlanta will have law enforcement agencies whose cultural, operational and community training programs are the best in the nation.”

ABC News has reached out to the Atlanta Police Foundation for comment on the planned protests.

A recent petition for a referendum on the center’s construction garnered more than 100,000 signatures, but its fate hangs in the balance amid the city’s legal challenges to the petition’s validity.

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Controversy around the center intensified when a protester, Manuel Esteban Páez Terán, was shot and killed by police while raiding the campground occupied by protesters in January. Officials say the protester fired the first shot at a state trooper and the officer responded with the fatal shot.

Terán, who used they/they pronouns, had at least 57 gunshot wounds in his body, according to the DeKalb County autopsy, including to his hands, torso, legs and head.

There is no body camera footage of the incident, according to police. Mountain Judicial District Attorney George Christian said last month that he would not file charges against the state agents who shot Páez Terán, saying their use of deadly force was “objectively reasonable.” .

Numerous protests against the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center have resulted in arrests of some of those involved. Sixty-one people were indicted in a racketeering case after Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr obtained a sweeping indictment against organizers in August. More than half of the people named in the indictment resided outside of Georgia.

“If you come to our state and shoot a police officer, throw Molotov cocktails at law enforcement, burn police vehicles, damage construction equipment, vandalize private homes and businesses and terrorize their occupants, you can and will be held accountable,” Carr said in the September indictment.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) criticized the indictment, saying Carr wanted to “punish protests, civil disobedience or isolated crimes.”

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“The theory in the indictment is shocking, and the combination of charges is unprecedented,” the ACLU said in a statement following the indictment. “While Carr wishes to pursue a protest movement as if it were a full-fledged organized crime ring, much of the alleged conduct is far less serious.”

Atlanta is preparing for protests planned for this weekend.

“We’ve been talking with organizers and community leaders, just to make sure that everyone understands how much we support peaceful protests, how much we welcome peaceful protests, but also to say that if things turn into a different direction, we’re ready to,” said LaChandra Burks, deputy director of operations for Mayor Andrea Dickens’ office and a spokesperson for the city of Atlanta, in an interview with ABC News.

Mayor Dickens and other supporters of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center argue that the facility would replace inadequate current training facilities and help address challenges in hiring and retaining police officers. Mayor Dickens’ office also convened two separate committees to engage the community regarding the training center amid the controversy.

‘Cop City’ protesters will attempt to block controversial Atlanta training center construction originally appeared on abcnews.go.com