Over a thousand people converged on Atlanta City Hall on Monday, June 5 to speak out against the city’s plan to build a new police and firefighter training facility, called ‘Cop City’ by critics. At least 367 people signed up to speak during the public comment period that was held before the full Atlanta City Council voted on whether to approve $67 million in public financing for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.
During over 15 hours of public comment that started at 1 p.m., there were only four comments in support of the training center, all in the first hour, according to the Atlanta Community Press Collective.
Despite the overwhelming public turnout against the plan to fund the training center, the city council voted 11-4 around 5:30 on Tuesday morning in favor of the funding. The city of Atlanta will proceed to fund $31 million up front, followed by $1.2 million every year for the next 30 years.
THE SCENE OUTSIDE ATLANTA CITY HALL
INSIDE CITY HALL
Chicago’s version of Cop City is a precursor to Atlanta’s–both because of the ambitious size and scope of the project and the messy politics and blowback from activists and residents.
AT THE DAIS
Elizabeth Rymarev is an Atlanta Press Club intern with ACC for the summer. She is a rising senior at the University of Georgia studying journalism and history.