Despite ‘Cop City’ protests, Atlanta moves forward with plan

ATLANTA — In the wake of the shooting death of an environmental activist, Atlanta-area officials reiterated Tuesday that they are moving forward with plans to construct a huge police and firefighter training center that protesters derisively refer to as “Cop City.” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens held a news conference to announce that the city had signed a memorandum of understanding with DeKalb County to build the $90 million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. He also said officials have pledged to enact certain environmental protections after consulting with a “community advisory committee.” It was one of officials’ most full-throated defenses of a plan that has faced consistent pushback from both locals and out-of-state leftist activists, some of whom moved into the South River Forest over a year ago and built platforms in surrounding trees. Stop Cop City!” The news conference came nearly two weeks after the death of an activist known as Tortuguita, who was killed by authorities after officials said the 26-year-old shot a state trooper. Many activists also oppose spending so much money on a police facility that would be surrounded by poor, majority-Black neighborhoods in a city with one of the nation’s highest degrees of wealth inequality.