By Ryan Fatica
Atlanta, GA – A harsh chorus of chants and drums erupted in the late afternoon silence of the upscale Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw, Georgia, Monday, punctuated by the pops of fireworks and the barks of dogs.
A group of 30-40 protestors chanting “Stop Cop City!” converged on the home of Shepherd Long, Principal of Long Engineering, an engineering firm subcontracted to do surveying and other pre-construction work on the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Public Safety Training Center, currently scheduled to open in late 2023.
One member of the group read aloud a prepared statement demanding the company pull out of their contract with Brasfield and Gorrie, the general contractor hired by the Atlanta Police Foundation, the project’s main architect. “We want our children and neighbors to be able to breathe clean air and experience the vastness of the Atlanta forest, NOT be victims of a domestic war zone,” they shouted. “You have the power to stop that.”
The group distributed fliers alerting neighbors to the work Long and his company are doing in DeKalb County. In their prepared statement, the protestors made a clear request of Long: “We hold no ill will towards you personally, we just want you to make this one right decision. We know Long Engineering has many other contracts with many other companies. We are only here to ask you to drop this one company, Brasfield and Gorrie, until they drop their contract with the Atlanta Police Foundation.”
After about ten minutes, the group quickly dispersed without incident.
Representatives of both Long Engineering and its parent company, Atlas Technical Consultants, LLC declined to comment on the protest.
“Week of Action” vs. “Cop City”
The event was one of many taking place during a ‘week of action’ against the proposed training facility organized by the Defend the Atlanta Forest campaign. The week’s schedule includes meals, discussions and camping in the Atlanta Forest as well as concerts, protests and film screenings in the city.
Activists from throughout the country have converged on Atlanta this week to oppose the construction of the police training facility and the destruction of the forest upon which the project depends. Dubbed “Cop City” by its critics, the 85-acre police training facility carries a price tag of $90 million for its initial phase. In September, 2021, Atlanta’s City Council approved a proposal to construct the facility within a huge swath of forested land in unincorporated DeKalb county southeast of Atlanta.
The particular parcel of land slated to become a police training center is the former home of a city-run prison farm, which operated in the area from 1920 to 1989. The facility was used to house prisoners from Atlanta who were forced to work on the farm raising food for the city’s prison population. Since its closure, the city has maintained its ownership of the land, using it as a dumping ground while the forest around it slowly engulfed its collapsing carceral infrastructure.
Leave a Reply