Atlanta police reportedly used tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse anti-‘Cop City’ protestors on Monday. The demonstrators were urging the city to halt the construction of a new police training center. The use of force by the police was caught in aerial footage from local news station WGXA News.
In support of the cause, hundreds of protestors arrived at the heavily guarded construction center donning masks and chemical suits. The protestors held signs that read “Stop Cop City” and “Viva Tortuguita,” in remembrance of an environmental protestor who was fatally shot in January during a similar protest. The demonstration escalated with a physical interaction between the protestors and the officers resulting in the police release of tear gas.
Darin Schierbaum, the Police Chief for the City of Atlanta, addressed the protest in a press conference. He suggested that the demonstrators were there to incite the officers by disobeying orders. “This is not a group that has the best interests of Atlanta at heart,” Schierbaum said. “This is a group today that left Gresham Park prepared to reach the site, prepared to do harm, prepared to do destruction.”
The opposition’s concerns about the construction of the facility primarily stem from the fear of over-policing of black communities and the removal of hundreds of trees used for flood mitigation. “It is a war base where police will learn military-like maneuvers to kill black people and control our bodies and movement,” the Stop Cop City movement stated on its website.
As it stands, construction on the project is set to be completed by December 2024. The efforts of the Vote to Stop Cop City Coalition to place the training center issue on the local ballot have been put on hold due to a missed deadline, despite the success in collecting thousands of signatures. Officials are now awaiting a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to determine the legality of a deadline extension, amongst other legal concerns.
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