Atlanta APPROVES funding for 'Cop City' after hundreds of activists packed City Hall to oppose it

The city of Atlanta has approved funding for a controversial new police training center dubbed 'Cop City' by opponents.

The 11-4 vote happened on Tuesday after hundreds of activists packed City Hall and spoke for hours in fierce opposition to the project, which they say will destroy the local environment and militarize the police.

For about 14 hours, residents took to the podium to slam the $90 million project, saying it would be a gross misuse of public funds to build the huge facility in a large urban forest in a poor, majority black area of southeast of Atlanta.

Six hours into the meeting, Emory University religion professor Sara McClintock took to the podium and pleaded with councilmembers to reject, or at least rethink, the training center.

'We don't want it,' McClintock said. 'We don't want it because it doesn't contribute to life. It´s not an institution of peace. It's not a way forward for our city that we love.'

Atlanta's City Council approved funding for a new police training center deemed 'Cop City' by opponents. Hundreds of activists packed City Hall on Tuesday before the vote

Opponents of the project say it would be a gross misuse of public funds to build the huge facility in a large urban forest in a poor, majority black area

For about 14 hours, residents again and again took to the podium to slam the project

Protestors gather in the atrium of Atlanta City Hall to protest the planned police training center

Still, councilmembers agreed to approve $31 million in public funds for the site's construction, as well as a provision that requires the city to pay $36 million - $1.2 million a year over 30 years - for using the facility.

The rest of the funding for the project would come from private donations to the Atlanta Police Foundation.

The project has faced passionate opposition since it was announced, with the decentralized 'Stop Cop City' movement galvanizing protesters from across the country, especially in the wake of the January fatal police shooting of Manuel Paez Terán, a 26-year-old activist known as 'Tortuguita' who had been camping in the woods of the proposed project.

In a sign of the security concerns Monday, dozens of police officers were posted throughout City Hall and officials temporarily added 'liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes' to the list of things prohibited inside the building. 

The highly scrutinized vote occurred in the wake of the arrests Wednesday of three organizers who lead the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has provided bail money and helped to find attorneys for arrested protesters.

Prosecutors have accused the three activists of money laundering and charity fraud, saying they used some of the money to fund violent acts of 'forest defenders.' Warrants cite reimbursements for expenses including 'gasoline, forest clean-up, totes, Covid-19 rapid tests, media, yard signs.'

Mayor Andre Dickens said the passage of the budget resolution 'marks a major milestone for better preparing our fire, police and emergency responders to protect and serve our communities.'

He added that 'Atlanta will be a national model for police reform with the most progressive training and curriculum in the country.'

The training center was approved by the City Council in September 2021 but required an additional vote for more funding. 

Protesters gather outside Atlanta City Hall ahead of a council vote over whether to approve public funding for the construction of a proposed police and firefighter training center

The activist groups are protesting construction of an 85-acre police training facility planned to be built in forestlands southeast of Atlanta, Georgia

A Bank of America Office spray-painted by activists in response to plans to build a huge police training facility in Atlanta 

City officials say the new 85-acre campus would replace inadequate training facilities and would help address difficulties in hiring and retaining police officers that worsened after nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice three years ago. 

But opponents, who have been joined by activists from around the country, say they fear it will lead to greater militarization of the police and that its construction will exacerbate environmental damage. 

Protesters had been camping at the site since at least last year, and police said they had caused damage and attacked law enforcement officers and others. 

Numerous instances of violence and vandalism have been linked to the 'Stop Cop City' movement, including a January protest in downtown Atlanta in which a police car was set alight, as well as a March attack in which more than 150 masked protesters chased off police at the construction site and torched equipment before fleeing and blending in with a crowd at a nearby music festival.

Those two instances have led to more than 40 people being charged with domestic terrorism, though prosecutors have had difficulty so far in proving that many of those arrested were in fact those who took part in the violence.

Additionally, activists have been smashing windows and damaging offices across the US as part of an ongoing protest against the proposal to build the training facility in a forest outside Atlanta.

Members of the Stop Cop City movement have claimed credit for vandalism in 19 states in the last nine months, targeting businesses like Amazon, Porsche, and Wells Fargo.

The group has said they target businesses based on their affiliation with the Atlanta Police Foundation and the proposed facility known as Cop City.