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'Stop Cop City' petition drive expands
A federal judge has significantly extended the deadline for organizers fighting a proposed public safety training facility. Opponents of what has been dubbed "cop city" have been trying to gather more than 70,000 signatures to force a vote on the construction. The judge delivered another win for organizers.
ATLANTA - A group of DeKalb County residents can now collect signatures for a petition to put a controversial $90-million training center for first responders on the ballot. A federal judge on Thursday ruled in their favor. The decision also resets the clock for opponents of the facility that critics call "Cop City." They’ll get 60 more days to collect 70,000 signatures.
Atlanta City Council last month green-lit the plan to fund the center. Opponents launched a petition to get a referendum on the ballot to let voters decide if they want the facility.
The city mandates anyone signatures must be an Atlanta resident, but the judge temporarily blocked that requirement.
Federal judge rules to extend ‘Stop Cop City’ petition
U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen ruled that the city had imposed an unlawful requirement that those collecting signatures have to be residents of Atlanta. A group of people who live in DeKalb County just outside the city had sued - saying they should be allowed to join in the canvassing effort and noting that the planned site for the training center itself is in unincorporated DeKalb County, outside the city limits.
"Requiring signature gatherers to be residents of the city imposes a severe burden on core political speech and does little to protect the city's interest in self-governance," Cohen wrote, adding: "The city has offered no specifics as to why permitting nonresident plaintiffs to gather signatures ... will cause any disruption to the political process."
Attorneys for the city and state had urged the judge to toss the entire referendum campaign, calling it "futile," and "invalid," but Cohen declined to rule on its legality, saying it was not up to him to decide that separate dispute.
"We are thrilled by Judge Cohen's ruling, and the expansion of democracy to include our DeKalb neighbors, and levels the playing field for our coalition," said Mary Hooks, a lead organizer for the coalition. "Cop City has been marred time and time again by the silencing of democratic input and repression of community participation, and since the launch of this campaign, we have been playing on a field tilted in the city of Atlanta's favor."
Asked whether officials plan to appeal the ruling, a spokesperson for Mayor Andre Dickens said officials are reviewing the judge's decision and will have more information later.
"The choice is simple," the spokesperson said in a statement. "We can either have the best-trained firefighters and police officers or we can decide to settle for sub-par training conditions in sub-par facilities."
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Judge extends deadly for 'Stop Cop City' petition
Protestors who oppose the new Atlanta police training facility get a victory from a federal judge. The judge ruled that the city had imposed an unlawful requirement that those collecting signatures to put the measure up for a vote had to live in Atlanta.
Reaction to judge’s ruling on ‘Stop Cop City’ peition
"Great ruling," said Amelia Weltner, who lives in DeKalb County near the site. Weltner is one of several plaintiffs who sued for the right to collect signatures for the petition.
"I’m in DeKalb County and cop city is in DeKalb County. It’s going to affect my home," Weltner said. "Now I can fully participate in the process of collecting signatures."
Critics of the center initially had until Aug. 14 to collect 70,000 signatures to get the referendum on the November ballot. The judge’s decision grants them another 60-days to qualify if they want to get the referendum on the ballot in March. They still must meet the August deadline to get the referendum on the ballot in November.
"I think it’s wonderful," said John Taylor. Co-Director of Black Male Initiative, a group helping in petition efforts. "We’re going to do everything in our power to collect signatures on the original timeline to ensure this decision goes on the November ballot so Atlanta residents have the right to decide."
The city sued to block the petition. A spokesperson sent us a statement that reads "we are reviewing the judge's decision. We immediately made the clerk aware of the judge's ruling and new petitions have already been sent to the petitioners."
As of Tuesday, organizers had gotten more than 30,000 residents to sign on to the effort, according to Paul Glaze, a spokesperson for the Vote to Stop Cop City Coalition.
What is the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center?
Dickens and others say the $90-million facility 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 in a poor, majority-Black area. The "Stop Cop City" effort has gone on for more than two years and at times has veered into vandalism and violence.
Organizers have modeled the referendum campaign after a successful effort in coastal Georgia, where Camden County residents voted overwhelmingly last year to block county officials from building a launchpad for blasting commercial rockets into space.
The Georgia Supreme Court in February unanimously upheld the legality of the Camden County referendum, though it remains an open question whether citizens can veto decisions of city governments.
The Associated Press contributed to this report