The plan to devote millions of dollars to build a controversial public safety facility in Atlanta has advanced.
On Wednesday, the Finance/Executive Committee of the Atlanta City Council voted to approve allocating $30 million to the initiative dubbed “Cop City”.
According to city officials, the facility is required so that police officers and firefighters may train closer to home and be better prepared to respond to incidents.
However, people around the country have organized for over a year to voice opposition to the proposal. Critics say “Cop City” will militarize a police force that’s more likely to target Atlanta’s Black and brown communities. Last week, almost 300 protesters spoke out against the project’s funding at Atlanta City Hall, Axios reports.
If constructed, the facility may be operational by December 2024, police head Darin Schierbaum told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
At the committee meeting on Wednesday, over 30 people spoke. Axios reports that Nate Bailey, president of the Atlanta Professional Firefighters organization, was the only individual who spoke in favor of the idea.
“Our citizens and visitors deserve the very best fire department, and to be the best, we must have a world-class training center,” he said.
Many others said the city should instead take the $30 million and invest in education, jobs, affordable housing, and efforts to fight homelessness.
Devin Barrington-Ward, Managing Director of Black Futurists Group, warned council members that approving the funding would have political repercussions.”There will be consequences, so you all just have to ask the question on whether or not what side of history you want to land on,” he declared.
The only council member to vote against the request, Liliana Bakhtiari, said that recent events have demonstrated that the community feels helpless.
“Democracy is an incredibly fragile thing, and when I hear the community say that they feel helpless, it worries me because when people feel helpless, they take law and order and life into their own hands,” she said. “And we create the very thing we claim to want to prevent.”
The full City Council is expected to vote on the request at its upcoming meeting on June 5.