On 19 Dec 2021, Rudy Canoza <js@phendrie.con> posted some
news:g3JvJ.86976$JZ3.51246@fx05.iad:

> Niggers won't like this. Give the cops plenty of bullets.

ATLANTA (AP) � The Atlanta City Council early Tuesday approved funding for
the construction of a proposed police and firefighter training center,
rejecting the pleas of hundreds of activists who packed City Hall and
spoke for hours in fierce opposition to the project they decry as �Cop
City.�

The 11-4 vote just after 5 a.m. is a significant victory for Mayor Andre
Dickens, who has made the $90 million project a large part of his first
term in office, despite pushback to the effort. The City Council also
passed a resolution requesting two seats on the Atlanta Police
Foundation�s board.

In a statement, Dickens said the passage of the budget resolution �marks a
major milestone for better preparing our fire, police and emergency
responders to protect and serve our communities.�

�Atlanta will be a national model for police reform with the most
progressive training and curriculum in the country,� he said.

The decentralized �Stop Cop City� movement has galvanized protesters from
across the country, especially in the wake of the January fatal police
shooting of Manuel Paez Ter�n, a 26-year-old environmental activist known
as �Tortuguita� who had been camping in the woods near the site of the
proposed project in DeKalb County.

For about 14 hours, residents again and again took to the podium to slam
the project, saying it would be a gross misuse of public funds to build
the huge facility in a large urban forest in a poor, majority-Black area.

�We�re here pleading our case to a government that has been unresponsive,
if not hostile, to an unprecedented movement in our City Council�s
history,� said Matthew Johnson, the executive director of Beloved
Community Ministries, a local social justice nonprofit. �We�re here to
stop environmental racism and the militarization of the police. ... We
need to go back to meeting the basic needs rather than using police as the
sole solution to all of our social problems.�

The training center was approved by the City Council in September 2021 but
required an additional vote for more funding. City officials say the new
85-acre (34-hectare) campus 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. Protesters had
been camping at the site since at least last year, and police said they
had caused damage and attacked law enforcement officers and others.

Though more than 220 people spoke publicly against the training center, a
small handful voiced support, saying they trusted Dickens� judgment.

https://apnews.com/article/cop-city-vote-atlanta-city-council-
99e9dfbd5a3d83d2e564c34b7c61c686