ATLANTA — A resolution expressing support for the controversial Atlanta Public Safety Training Center was passed in the Georgia Senate on Friday.
The resolution came before the committee sponsored by seven Georgia senators not only to support the complex being built but also to condemn "acts of violence and domestic terrorism; and for other purposes."
Sponsors of the bill included:
- Hodges, Mike - District 3
- Burns, Max - District 23
- Williams, Rick - District 25
- Hatchett, Bo - District 50
- Kennedy, John F. - District 18
- Cowsert, Bill - District 46
- Echols, Shelly - District 49
According to a post from the Georgia Senate on X, formally known as Twitter, the resolution passed 48 to 5.
More than 60 people were in court in November facing RICO charges after being indicted by the Georgia Attorney General's Office, accused of collectively constituting an "enterprise of militant anarchists, eco-activists and community organizers."
More background
The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center project is a planned 85-acre complex on the Old Prison Farm site in south DeKalb County under a land lease agreement with the City of Atlanta. Situated in the South River Forest, protesters have argued the facility would decimate one of the largest preserved forest areas in the city and desecrate historically Native American land of the Muscogee Creek people, who once lived in the woods and called it the Weelaunee Forest before being displaced by white settlers in the early 19th century.
In addition to police training facilities, the center is also slated to offer training capacity to the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department and the city's 911 center.
The training center has been the subject of a now-yearslong protest movement as city politicians, including Mayor Andre Dickens, and the Atlanta Police Foundation, which is primarily funding the project, have argued it will have a much-needed modernizing effect on the police force.
The protest movement mushroomed with the law enforcement shooting death of an activist, Manuel Paez Teran, in January. Officials have said the protester shot first at a Georgia State Patrol trooper as a clearing operation of protest encampments in the forest was ongoing, then was killed in return fire. Paez Teran's family and activists have strongly contested the official narrative.