Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ is Poised for a Ballot Vote—But Officials Say No

Atlanta residents say they’ve collected more than 116,000 signatures on a petition to put a controversial police training facility up for a vote.

Those signatures are far more than the approximately 70,000 needed to force a referendum. But on Monday, city officials said they might dismiss the petition.

The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center is an 85-acre, $90 million police training facility planned for construction in an Atlanta forest. The proposal, called “Cop City” by critics, has drawn fierce opposition for its projected cost, environmental footprint, and impact on policing in the city. Police and prosecutors have taken an aggressive stance of their own, arresting protesters en masse and charging more than 60 activists with racketeering last week. Some of the defendants in the RICO case are accused of conspiracy on the basis of them handing out fliers, running a bail fund, or (in one case) acting as a legal observer at a protest.

Read more at The Daily Beast.