Environmental activists hold a rally and a march through the Atlanta Forest, a preserved forest in Atlanta that is scheduled to be developed as a police training center on March 4, 2023. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
ATLANTA - The King Center and other groups have joined with activists in calling on the city of Atlanta to put the planned Public Safety Training Center up for a vote.
In a statement on Monday, the nonprofit, which is run by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter Bernice King, said Atlanta leadership was not transparent with the public in its decisions concerning the development of the $90 million, 85-acre training center, which opponents call "Cop City."
Calling the city's actions a "misstep and a missed opportunity," The King Center also argued that Atlanta leaders are not considering the hundreds of voices opposing the facility.
"Despite the ardent opposition shared during public comment and in protests, city leadership and most City Council members and Mayor Dickens insist that the majority of residents across districts are in favor of the Council’s collective decision to use public funding for the project," the letter from The King Center and other groups reads in part.
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Pointing to the "copious disagreement" about where and how the training center should be built, The King Center says the tension should be addressed by the city through a public vote.
"In a time of crises in housing, health, poverty, and justice, if the City of Atlanta intends to use $31M of public dollars, the responsible and democratic approach is to allow the public to vote on whether this is how their government should spend their money," the letter reads.
Organizers say they need just 58,203 signatures by Aug. 14 to qualify for the November ballot — the equivalent of 15% of registered voters as of the last city election — but they set the higher goal of 70,000 knowing some will be disqualified. If that’s not reached until late August or September, the referendum wouldn’t happen until March, when a competitive GOP presidential primary could turn out conservative voters and hurt its chances. The city also could move forward with construction in the meantime, unless a judge intervenes.
As of Aug. 3, activists with the Vote to Stop Cop City group say they need to collect 10,000 signatures before their deadline.
The campaign got a boost after 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."
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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.
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. The city has since filed an appeal and a motion for a stay over the ruling.
Mayor Andre 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.