Atlanta City Council members receive death threats over training center vote
ATLANTA - Atlanta City Council members say they are receiving death threats after voting in favor of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center last week.
Some council members say it’s gotten so bad they now have police posted in front of their homes.
One of those council members who says he’s on the receiving end of some of those threats is Michael Julian Bond. He says anonymous callers have used racist language for Black people, even wished for his death. He says he’s never seen or heard such hostility in all his years on city council.
"Council members have actually had their lives threatened," Bond said.
He says he and other members who voted in favor of the training center for police and first responders have gotten death threats ever since that controversial vote.
"They said all kinds of ugly things to me," he said.
It isn’t clear exactly who is making those threats, but Bond says some even invoked the name of his father, civil rights leader Julian Bond.
"They wish I was dead like my father," he said.
Atlanta City Council members say they are receiving death threats after voting in favor of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center last week. (FOX 5)
Some of the taunts even turned racist.
"There’s been gratuitous use of the ‘N-word’ against me. They’ve made threats against my staff and the entire office," Bond said.
Last week, council members approved a plan to fund the training center critics call "Cop City".
They oppose what they say is the expansion of a police department they accuse of abusing people of color in to the South River Forest they call Weelaunee.
The vast majority are impassioned but nonviolent.
"I’ve come to expect criticism," Bond said.
Atlanta City Council members say they are receiving death threats after voting in favor of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center last week. (FOX 5)
Bond says the anonymous calls have grown so threatening, police officers are now posting up outside council members’ homes.
"They’ve been in front of my home, they’ve been detailed in front of every council person’s home, based on the level of threats they’ve received," Bond said.
"We in no way, shape or form endorse nor support racism, patriarchy or any of those things," said James Woodall, public policy associated at the Southern Center for Human Rights.
Woddall says his organization opposes the training center and is against any threats to council-members.
He says too many people who spoke out against the center feel city leaders are ignoring the voices of the people.
"Violence is the language of the unheard. Our leadership is not willing to listen to the people, and this is the consequence of those actions," Wooddall said.
Atlanta City Council members say they are receiving death threats after voting in favor of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center last week. (FOX 5)
Bond wants protesters to do more: to disavow those threats.
Woodall wants city leaders to do more to address concerns of communities of color he says experience police overreach.