'Cop City' protester temporarily disrupts traffic on Peachtree Street Thursday morning
ATLANTA - An activist protesting the construction of Atlanta's controversial public safety training center locked themselves to construction equipment in Atlanta on Thursday morning.
The group, which calls itself Drop Cop City, says one protester used a reinforced pipe to attach themselves to a piece of equipment at the Brasfield & Gorrie work site at the intersection of Peachtreet and 17th streets.
"The City of Atlanta has refused to let us vote on Cop City. They are continuing to squash all avenues we have to engage on the issue, and have responded to our concerns with violence, repression, and police terror. They want us to be afraid, but I am not going to yield," Michael Czajkowski, the protester, said in a statement to FOX 5.
SKYFOX 5 saw a group of protesters in the area with signs and banners.
Police shut down Peachtree Street between 17th Street and West Peachtree Street temporarily.
Atlanta police have since removed the protester and Peachtree Street reopened to traffic shortly after 8 a.m.
APD Major Christian Hunt said the protester "was cited accordingly." No other arrests or citations were issued.
The construction company has been the focus of many protests in connection with the public safety site.
"We will keep organizing, and continue taking action until Brasfield & Gorrie cuts ties with Cop City. Our direct action movement will only grow", an organizer with Drop Cop City said in a statement.
In January, two activists locked themselves to equipment at a different site in Midtown Atlanta and were taken into custody after a few hours.
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum identified the two people who were arrested at that protest as 28-year-old Shiloh Wetstone of Atlanta and Temperance Blick of Lilburn. They are facing criminal trespassing charges.
Vandals also targeted their offices in Birmingham, Alabama, in May 2022.
Debate around the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center
Protests against the training center have been ongoing for more than two years. Over the weekend, activists held meetings, concerts, dinners, and direct action to rally support to block the project.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and other supporters say the 85-acre, $90 million facility would replace inadequate training facilities and would help address difficulties in hiring and retaining police officers. Opponents have expressed concern that it could lead to greater police militarization and that its construction in the South River Forest will worsen environmental damage in a poor, majority-Black area.
Protests against the project, which have at times resulted in violence and vandalism, escalated after the fatal shooting in January of 26-year-old protester Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, known as Tortuguita. A prosecutor last month said he would not pursue charges against the state troopers who shot Paez Terán, saying he found that their use of deadly force was "objectively reasonable."
In August, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr indicted 61 protesters using the state's anti-racketeering law, characterizing them as "militant anarchists."
The city says the issues caused by protestors have raised the cost of the training center by about $20 million.
Meantime, construction is should be done in December.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.