Fact-checking the City of Atlanta's Claims on "Cop City"
[March 2nd, 2023] UPDATE: The Mayor’s Office of Communications has since deleted “Key Facts on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center”. You can still access the attached visuals and portions of the press release below or through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
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The ongoing controversy surrounding the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center — widely derided by opponents as “Cop City” — took two new turns. On February 8th, The Atlanta Police Department released body camera footage related to the January 18th deadly police shooting of activist and protester Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran at the site. Saporta Report revealed on February 6th that the project’s land disturbance permit (LDP) is being challenged by Amy Taylor, a member of the project’s Community Stakeholder Advisory Committee (CSAC). Joined by Dekalb County Commissioner Ted Terry, whose district includes the South River Forest, she has sought an injunction at the Fulton County Superior Court to stop construction work. Another member of the CSAC, Nicole Morado, resigned the same day of the killing of Teran.
In light of the new information and ahead of the injunction hearing on February 16th, The Xylom fact-checked some of the “Environmental Stewardship” claims made in a press release, “Key Facts on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center” by the Mayor’s Office of Communications on January 31st, to see if they hold up against the new details.
CLAIM: “The 85-acre facility will be constructed on a set of parcels owned by the City of Atlanta that total 385 acres. The rest of that land will continue to be greenspace.”
OUR RATING: FALSE
Three parcels owned by the City of Atlanta were originally included in the site: 15-081-08-001, 15-081-08-002, and 15-082-01-001. Their boundaries can be seen in figures included in the site-specific Phase I Environmental Safety Assessment (ESA) carried out by Terracon under the ASTM E1527-13 standard for APF.