ATLANTA — Two protesters chained themselves to construction equipment in Midtown Atlanta early Monday morning to pressure a contracting company associated with the future Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, activists said.
A release issued by an activist group, Drop Cop City, said the protesters targeted a Midtown Brasfield & Gorrie construction site "as a way to pressure the company to cut ties with the controversial project."
Several other protesters were on site in support, as law enforcement worked to extract the two protesters attached to the equipment. Atlanta Police said in a late-morning update the two protesters had been extracted and arrested, charged with criminal trespass.
Atlanta Police said the 23-year-old and 28-year-old used makeshift locks, metal and wires during the incident.
APD Chief Darin Schierbaum called it a "publicity stunt to disrupt the neighborhood."
Activists opposed to the training center project call it "Cop City" and have organized under several banners, including "Stop Cop City" and "Defend the Atlanta Forest," the latter a reference to the South River Forest where the police and fire training center is being built.
"Brasfield & Gorrie should expect disruptions at their worksites everywhere, and anytime. People of good conscience will continue taking action against Brasfield & Gorrie until they join the host of other contractors who have cut ties with Cop City," said Mariah Parker, identified in the "Drop Cop City" release as a local Stop Cop City activist.
The City of Atlanta said earlier this month site prep work at the construction site for the training center is 75% complete, with officials now targeting December of this year for completion of the project.
Schierbaum argued that as courts decline to intervene in the building of the project, the increasing frequency of protest actions against the center is coming from a "sense of desperation by those who don't want to see the training center built."
The activist group's release said the protest action blockaded entrances to the construction site Monday morning at 12th and Juniper Street in Midtown, halting the start of work at the site for the day. The release said the two protesters "used reinforced pipes to lock themselves to construction equipment." Schierbaum described these as "sleeping dragons."
The protest action comes after APD responded to a site Friday where construction equipment had been set on fire. Police in that instance said they believed the arson was connected to the public safety training center opposition movement, though several social media accounts and websites connected to the movement that have claimed responsibility for past actions have not done so in this instance.
Fires were set at a concrete company in Gwinnett County last November, and Atlanta Police motorcycles were destroyed in an arson incident in July 2023. Police also previously highlighted three arsons earlier last year on McDonough Boulevard involving construction equipment that ultimately was not linked to the building of the training center.
Those opposed to the training center have protested and organized against it for roughly two years. A RICO indictment brought by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has charged over 60 people for their involvement with the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” movement, though what level of organization — if any — that might exist between various factions of activists under this umbrella is not clear.
The protest movement mushroomed following the Jan. 2023 law enforcement shooting death of Manuel Teran, known as Tortuguita, during a clearing operation of the forest encampments where protesters first started opposing the training center's construction.
The elements of the opposition movement against the center have included lawsuits to halt its construction, a referendum drive to put the facility's funding on the ballot in Atlanta, marches and protest actions such as the one Monday morning, and more radical elements of the movement that allegedly have vandalized the construction site and set arson fires targeting companies tied to the center.
The Cop City Vote referendum drive in particular has been a flashpoint with the city generally trying to quash it through bureaucratic maneuvers.
City officials have said the opposition movement has ballooned the cost of the project from an initial estimate of $90 million to nearly $110 million. Schierbaum said APD has been in touch weekly with training center contractors as the project continues.
Brasfield & Gorrie issued a statement Monday afternoon after the two people chained themselves to construction equipment. The company said it was thankful for law enforcement's quick response and also glad that no one was hurt.
"Work continues on the construction site," the statement said. "This is the latest in a related string of events over the past year and a half, many of which have involved criminal activity. Since this string of events began, we’ve taken steps to increase security as well as planning and response protocols. We continue to work closely with law enforcement agencies to monitor and respond to potential activity on an ongoing basis."