Atlanta petition drive to cease ‘Cop Metropolis’ is ‘futile,’ metropolis’s attorneys argue

ATLANTA — An ongoing petition drive to halt the development of a police and firefighter coaching middle is “futile” and “invalid,” attorneys for town of Atlanta argued in a court docket submitting Monday, as they sought to forestall the proposed referendum from showing on November’s poll.

For the previous month, activists with the “Cease Cop Metropolis” motion have been attempting to collect the signatures of greater than 70,000 registered Atlanta voters by Aug. 15 to pressure a referendum. It will enable voters to resolve the destiny of the challenge that has seen vital pushback and turn out to be a flashpoint within the nationwide debate over policing.

Beneath the proposed referendum, voters would select whether or not they wish to repeal the ordinance that approved the lease of the city-owned land upon which the challenge is ready to be constructed.

However attorneys for town argued that the huge canvassing effort has come far too late. The authorization town obtained in 2021 to signal the lease settlement “has already been used” and can’t be retroactively revoked, they stated.

Activists decried that argument, calling it “a surprising and violent assault on the democratic course of.”

“From delays to intimidation and now this, it’s clear that the Metropolis will go to any lengths to make sure that on a regular basis Atlantans don’t have any recourse once they disagree with metropolis choices,” Mary Hooks, a lead organizer with the Cop Metropolis Vote coalition, stated in a press release.

Opponents additionally famous that the submitting got here lower than two weeks after Mayor Andre Dickens, one of many chief proponents of the coaching facility, pledged that his administration wouldn’t attempt to halt the petition drive.

“We all know (the referendum) goes to be unsuccessful, if it’s accomplished actually,” Dickens stated throughout a July 5 information convention. “We’re ensuring we proceed monitoring the method. However there isn’t a one in regulation enforcement or my administration that will ever get in the best way of them doing their constitutional proper to have a petition.”

In a press release Monday, the mayor’s workplace forged blame on the activists for bringing the problem earlier than the court docket within the first place — town’s submitting was in response to a latest lawsuit introduced by a gaggle of residents of DeKalb County, the county by which the coaching middle can be positioned. The residents are suing as a result of they aren’t allowed to signal the petition since they don’t stay inside metropolis limits.

“The Metropolis had no intention of participating the Courtroom, preferring to let the petition course of play out as required by the State referendum course of,” a Dickens spokesperson stated. “Nonetheless, a small group of non-Atlanta residents in DeKalb County introduced the Metropolis into Courtroom, and the Metropolis was compelled to reply.”

Dickens and others say the $90 million facility would change insufficient coaching amenities and would assist handle difficulties in hiring and retaining law enforcement officials that worsened after nationwide protests towards police brutality and racial injustice three years in the past.

However opponents, who’ve been joined by activists from across the nation, say they concern it would result in higher militarization of the police and that its development will exacerbate environmental injury in a poor, majority-Black space. The “Cease Cop Metropolis” effort has gone on for greater than two years and at occasions has veered into vandalism and violence.

Organizers have modeled the referendum marketing campaign after a profitable effort in coastal Georgia, the place Camden County residents voted overwhelmingly final yr to dam county officers from constructing a launchpad for blasting business rockets into area.

The Georgia Supreme Courtroom in February unanimously upheld the legality of the Camden County referendum, although it stays an open query whether or not residents can veto choices of metropolis governments.