The Atlanta Police Foundation aims to help fund the construction of an 85-acre public safety training complex on the site of a long-abandoned and derelict city-owned prison complex known as the Old Atlanta Prison Farm in southeast Dekalb County, Georgia.(Screen grab of video showing artists rendering of the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center)
A recent headline on the NBC News website pretty much exemplified the tone of the mainstream media's coverage of a deadly confrontation between police and an armed assailant in an unincorporated wooded area in southeast Dekalb County, Georgia late last month.
The clickbait read: "Environmental protests have a long history in the U.S. Police had never killed an activist — until now."
The headline—and indeed, the first two paragraphs—failed to mention the fact that officers returned fire after a state trooper had been shot and wounded by the "nonbinary activist known as 'Tortuguita'" or that the suspected shooter had been illegally camping on land where a planned public safety training facility is to be built.
That training complex—dubbed the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center—is to be built on the site of a long-abandoned and derelict city-owned prison complex known as the Old Atlanta Prison Farm, and has unfortunately been the center of unnecessary conflict and controversy.
Simmering Tensions
Soon after the City of Atlanta approved plans to build the training facility, environmentalists and anti-police activists moved in, constructing "tree houses" and have been essentially "squatting" on the land ever since.
A joint task force was formed to address criminal activity taking place in the area of the "protest" against the new training center. The task force—consisting of the Atlanta Police Department, the DeKalb County Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and others—has conducted numerous operations in the area.
For example, in December the task force arrested five individuals ranging in age from 20 to 25 years old and hailing from places including California, Maine, Nebraska, and Wisconsin—and charged them with aggravated assault, criminal trespass, felony obstruction, inciting riot, and domestic terrorism.
In the months prior to that particular operation, the task force had made numerous arrests for ongoing criminal activity at the "protest" site including arson, attacks against public safety officials, carjacking, destruction of property, and various crimes against persons.
Infuriating Irony
The irony of the entire matter would be entertaining if it wasn't so infuriating. The Atlanta Police Department recognized after the violent and costly protests that followed the May 2020 in-custody death of George Floyd that officer training needed to be addressed in a more holistic manner. Officials recognized also that the existing infrastructure in the area was insufficient to achieve that objective, and started planning the new training center.
A logical person might conclude that this was a reasonable and rational approach to address citizen concerns about police-community relations.
Indeed, according to the center's website, the stated objectives of the new facility include efforts to "embrace police reform and cultural sensitivity through an extensive training and educational partnership with the National Center for Civil & Human Rights" and to "set a national standard for community engagement, neighborhood sensitivity, and devotion to the civil rights of all citizens by law enforcement."
Despite claims by so-called environmentalists, the facility will not be built on an existing forest.
According to the City of Atlanta, "The training center will sit on land that has long been cleared of hardwood trees through previous uses of the site. Arborists have confirmed the existing vegetation on this land is overwhelmingly dominated by invasive species like brush, weeds, vines, and softwood trees. Much of the site contains rubble from old building structures and asphalt from old parking lots."
Further, the new facility includes plans for about 300 acres of "greenspace open to the public, featuring trails, ballfields, picnic areas."
Finally, the place the protesters derisively call "Cop City" will help meet the training needs of the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department (AFRD), which for several years has been relegated to training in unoccupied elementary schools across metro Atlanta and "burn houses" in places like DeKalb County, Gwinnett County, and Douglasville.
Demands for increased quality and quantity police training will only be successfully met when myopic anti-police politicians, members of the press, and radicalized protesters get out of their own way and let it happen.
