Protestors threw thousands of ping pong balls in the City Hall on Sept.16’s Atlanta City Council meeting to protest Mayor Dickens’s appropriation of $90 million in city funds to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. Critics of the complex refer to it as “Cop City.”
Cop City is an 85-acre designated space in DeKalb County that trains police officers and firefighters. The controversy surrounding Cop City stems from fear of exacerbating police brutality and funding the creation of a more powerful and influential police presence. The construction of the new complex in the South River Forest, a previously undeveloped natural space, has also raised environmental concerns among protestors.
The protest at City Hall marks the first anniversary of a petition, with supposedly 116,000 signatures from Atlanta residents, being submitted to the city. The petition put the issue of furthering development into a public referendum. However, the Atlanta City Council is yet to make a decision, likely because of issues surrounding the petitions legal legitimacy. Due to this delayed response, the protestors decided to “drop the ball.”
The protestors, dressed in brat green, branded a banner that said “Andre Dickens: You Dropped The Ball On Democracy” and a picture of a ping pong ball with 116,000 written on it, referring to the number of signatures.
The protest lasted about 20 minutes with the group chanting “You dropped the ball”. The City of Atlanta cut live feed to the stream about six minutes after the protest erupted. This incident came after various smaller demonstrations happened outside of city hall and many of the protestors spoke earlier during the City Council meeting.
This protest is part of a much larger series of uncoordinated yet harmonic efforts by various civil rights and environmental groups that have been vocal about either delaying the construction or entirely stopping the completion of the training center. One of the larger efforts under the ‘Defend The Atlanta’ Forest movement involved its organization’s members camping out in the woods of the planned construction site. This particular strategy started in 2021 and ended in escalation in January of 2023. Then, 61 protestors were indicted using the state’s anti-racketeering law and Dekalb County charged others under the state’s terrorist statute. Furthermore, a protester was shot multiple times and killed by Georgia State Troopers, an event that only drew more attention to the Cop City controversy.
Despite the showcased public support for the initiative, many Atlanta officials are unphased. Kasim Reed, Former Atlanta Mayor, released a statement through a spokesperson, illustrating the legal shortcomings of the petition.
“After the original petition was issued by the city clerk at the petitioners’ request, some of the petitioners sued the city in federal court challenging the state’s petition requirements. Also, the petition effort itself raised serious legal questions about whether such a referendum could be used to reverse an action previously approved by the City Council.”
The issue of adding a referendum to an item through a petition is not clear through local and state laws. This led to an ongoing legal battle between the petitioners and the city that is currently waiting to be heard in federal court.
“The lower court ruled in favor of the petitioners. The city appealed that decision, believing we needed a clear process for referendums and wanting to resolve any legal questions once and for all. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals paused the lower court’s ruling pending the appeal. We are awaiting a final decision.”said
Reed also points to issues with the petition itself. The timeline when the petition was started and when it was submitted exceeded the time frame required to be eligible with the city.
“Adding to the need for clear guidance from the 11th Circuit, state law mandates that petitioners only have 60 days to collect signatures. Any petition turned in after 60 days is invalid, per state law. This petition, however, was circulated for over 80 days.”
Additionally, earlier in January, many reports found that many signatures in the petition were invalid.
Furthermore, Reed stated that at the time of the petition circulation, which was September through November of 2023, both the City Council and the mayoral candidates had already expressed support for these training centers.
The Stop Cop City movement has demonstrated clear conviction and passion through its continued efforts and demonstrations. Despite this, it seems their efforts still have many legal obstacles left to hurdle.