Opponents of the proposed law enforcement training center in DeKalb County thought they’d scored a win when they accumulated 116,000 signatures on their petition to have the measure be put on ballots. That number was well north of the 15% of valid Atlanta area voter signatures (58,000) needed to approve the referendum.
But there was a problem – both Atlanta city code and state law have a 60-day deadline for petition circulation. The original petition was issued on June 21st, giving it an August 21st deadline for submission. That deadline was long past when petition organizers attempted to submit their work this past Monday, September 11th.
The organizers had previously received a favorable ruling from U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen allowing them extra time to submit their signatures, a ruling that came after another legal dust-up wherein DeKalb County residents outside of Atlanta city limits demanded they be included in the petition. While Cohen’s ruling would have given the petition until late September to be submitted, city of Atlanta officials declined to process the signatures, saying they had missed the 60-day window.
That decision was backed up by a Stay order issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th circuit on Cohen’s extension, throwing the petition back into limbo.
The decision now remains with the Court of Appeals, as the petition rests securely with the Atlanta municipal clerk. Should the court reverse course and give the city the go-ahead to verify the signatures and allow the petition to move forward, it will “do so as expeditiously as possible without violating the law.”
All that back and forth has infuriated opponents of the public safety training center, dubbed ‘Cop City’ by critics, who have directed their ire at Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and members of the Atlanta City Council who have supported the facility.
“This is yet another disgraceful push by the city to stonewall democracy, showing that Mayor (Andre) Dickens and the City of Atlanta fear the power of their constituents,” the Vote to Stop Cop City Coalition said in a statement. “The City was notified on Thursday of our intention to submit, yet was too cowardly to release any response, or even respond to our email, until after we arrived.”
The legal drama regarding the petition is just the latest in the ongoing saga surrounding the training facility. Earlier this month more than 60 activists were indicted on RICO charges for their involvement in actions against law enforcement, including destruction of police vehicles, throwing molotovs at the Georgia State Patrol headquarters, and the attack of an APD recruiting event in New York City by masked ‘protestors.’
This story isn’t going away anytime soon – expect it to be a key issue in Dickens’ re-election campaign, and one that will likely draw far-left challengers looking to ride a wave of ‘Stop Cop City’ opposition into City Hall.
