Having run out of other options, a group of Atlanta "cop city" protesters have taken up a new approach. They are targeting the construction company which is currently building the Atlanta Police Training Center by chaining themselves to construction equipment owned by the company. The latest incident, the third one this year, happened this morning.
Protesters opposed to the future Atlanta Public Safety Training Center disrupted a construction site early Wednesday morning by locking themselves to a 250-foot crane, activists said, in at least the third such protest action in recent months.
Wednesday morning's protest, like the prior two instances, targeted the contracting company Brasfield & Gorrie, which is involved in the building of the police and fire training center that opponents call "Cop City."
The release issued by activists said the two activists scaled the crane and draped a "large vertical banner that read 'Drop Cop City'" and then "used reinforced pipes to attach themselves to the ladder system within the frame of the crane, blocking access to the crane's control tower and effectively shutting down the machine."
Both of the activists who engaged in this morning's stunt were trans. They chained themselves to the crane using handcuffs locked inside PVC pipes, what the police referred to as a "sleeping dragon" device. The pipes are added to slow down the process of removing the chains which would otherwise be quickly removed with bolt cutters. Police said the pipes in this case had also been covered in feces to make removing them even worse for first responders.
After a few hours both activists were arrested. Police said the time spent dealing with the protesters had slowed response to an unrelated problem at a school.
Atlanta Police and Atlanta Fire & Rescue say they support peaceful protesting like the rally organized along the sidewalk, but they do not support people illegally entering private property.
“We had a call to a local elementary school that had a carbon monoxide leak and kids ended up being sick. So, tying up resources of our well-trained members that could be responding to real emergencies in the City of Atlanta poses a problem for us,” said Chief Roderick Smith, Atlanta Fire and Rescue.
As mentioned, this is the third such incident in as many months. In January, activists from the same protest group locked themselves to construction equipment in midtown Atlanta.
Atlanta police responded to the scene and the activists were eventually taken into custody. The incident, which also included a protest on the street, lasted for several hours and disrupted early morning traffic in the area...
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum identified the two people who were arrested as 28-year-old Shiloh Wetstone of Atlanta and Temperance Blick of Lilburn. They are facing criminal trespassing charges...
"Today was a publicity stunt to disrupt the neighborhood. This is disappointing. We have a concerted effort to erode the public safety infrastructure of Atlanta," said Darin Schierbaum.
I'll wrap this up with two local news reports, one from today and the the one below that from the previous incident.
In this clip, a spokesperson for the group makes it clear they are targeting the company for this harassment as a way of demanding they stop work on the police training center. Construction on that site is ongoing and the first phase of it is expected to be completed later this year.
