Atlanta Press Releases category interest

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A group of “Stop Cop City” protesters disrupted an Atlanta City Council meeting Monday afternoon, chanting and throwing pingpong balls toward council members.

Two of the protesters held a sign at the front of the chamber reading: “Andre Dickens: You dropped the ball on democracy,” as many of the protesters threw the plastic balls toward the front of the chamber.

Mayor Andre Dickens did not attend the meeting.

The protesters left City Hall peacefully, with some locking arms as they filed out.

The council meeting went on recess during the disruption and council members were soon seen returning to the chamber. Police were present during the protest, but apparently did not make arrests.

The protesters wore shirts saying, “The people will decide; Stop Cop City,” referring to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.

The training center, often dubbed “Cop City” by activists, has been at the center of controversy for years. Police say the 85-acre complex in DeKalb County will act as a mock city for real-world training and emergency vehicle operations, among other things.

Several activists have been arrested and charged in connection to protests over the center. One even died after a shootout with state troopers on the center’s future grounds in January 2023.

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In August 2023, activists announced they had collected more than 100,000 signatures to put the issue on the ballot for a public vote. The city said the signatures were turned in past the legal deadline, but still accepted the boxes, while adding that the acceptance didn’t guarantee further action.

The balls thrown by protesters at the meeting each had numbers representing the signatures on the petition.

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In a press release, the protesters called themselves a “group of Atlanta-based community members, organizers and advocates,” and said they were demonstrating on the one-year anniversary of submitting 116,000 petition signatures calling for a referendum on the public training facility.

By releasing thousands of ping pong balls in the chamber, “residents continue to show active resistance to the $106 million project that has been highly contested since it was initially announced by City Council in 2021,” the group said in the release.

“The message was clear today, Mayor Andre Dickens has dropped the ball on democracy,” they said in the release. “While Council members are complicit by turning a blind eye to the signatures collected by not evoking the verification process, it has been the Mayor’s office that has spent an estimate of $1,000,000 on legal fees to withhold the vote from its own tax-paying residents.”

They said “it is not too late for the City Council to initiate putting the referendum on the ballot in November of this year. City council members have the power to do so, but the question is whether they will be too cowardly to do so.”

In a statement to Atlanta News First, Mayor Dickens’ office reiterated that the petition signatures were turned in past the legal deadline, and said the matter is still being litigated.

You can read the full statement below:

On September 11, 2023, boxes containing signatures for a petition were submitted to the City of Atlanta Clerk’s office requesting a referendum on the Atlanta City Council’s 2021 ordinance authorizing former Mayor Bottoms to enter into a lease agreement with the Atlanta Police Foundation for construction of a Police and Fire Training facility – which is now known as the Public Safety Training Center.

After the original petition was issued by the City Clerk at 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 whether such a referendum could be used to reverse an action previously approved by the City Council.

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 and all 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.

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.

Despite the ongoing legal issues, the Clerk received the petition and has made the petition available for review by the press and public until the legal questions can be resolved.

Importantly, at the time the petition was submitted, the training center had been approved twice by the Atlanta City Council, with one of those approvals passing with a supermajority vote and after a citywide election in which EVERY major candidate for Mayor expressed support for the training center with the eventual winner receiving over 60% of the vote.

Since this matter is still pending in litigation, we have no further comment at this time.