Atlanta, Georgia – On Saturday night, police officials said that vandals attempted to break into the property that protects the SWAT office and accompanying buildings where special equipment is stored. The SWAT property was damaged but the criminals did not get inside.
The office is part of the DeKalb County site where the Atlanta Police Department is planning to construct an expanded public safety training complex. According to Fox 5, Investigators believed a group called “Stop Cop City” may be behind the unlawful act.
On Saturday night, Michael Bond, a councilman and member of the public safety panel, said vandals used cut tree limbs to break through the fencing that protects
“This group that claims to want to protect trees cut down trees to use as weapons,” the city leader said.
Opponents have dubbed it “Cop City.”
For at least two years, demonstrators have opposed placing police facilities there.
The Atlanta Police Foundation plans to fund and build a new facility on 85 acres and preserve the remaining portion of the 265-acres property as green space, which is currently not accessible to the public.
Protesters, dubbed “Cop City” oppose “the expansion of the police state” and said the Atlanta Police Foundation is threatening the Atlanta forest.
“We are not extremest, we are neighbors of the forest, residents of south Atlanta, most importantly, we are intelligent people who know the future of the world is on fire,” Mae Johnson, who said she lives in a neighborhood near “Cop City.”
She said the “Stop Cop City” movement has broad support because of the environmental impact the forest has on the city. City council members said they would be planting hundreds more trees for each tree that would be cut down.
