On June 7th, 12th district City Council-member Joyce Sheperd introduced an ordinance to lease 381 acres of public land to the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF) for the purposes of constructing an $80.6 million police training facility — equipped with a shooting range, and space for weapons and explosions testing, and burning buildings tests. This plan not only ignores residents’ demands to reduce the scope and size of policing in Atlanta, but it also follows an undemocratic process, and underscores City Council's commitment to fulfilling the desires of private organizations over the needs of the people.

Under the current proposal, the facility would be constructed on a former prison farm, to which incarcerated Black laborers were sold into indentured servitude. Policing and imprisonment represent a continuation of the racist practices the state has used to criminalize, capture, and exploit Black people for free labor throughout history. Further, the APF’s training facility will be supported by the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a committee of over 40 corporate elite figures, including the CEOs of Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and Cox. This relationship underscores the ties between policing and capitalist interests, and the Mayor and City Council’s endorsement of this proposal exemplifies their alignment with corporate elites over the working-class people of Atlanta.

Finally, our coalition stands in direct opposition to the process through which Sheperd is granting APF access to city-owned land. The proposed ordinance not only waives a competitive bidding process over the land use, but it offers APF the land at a tremendously discounted price ($10) for the next fifty years. This proposal is undemocratic, as it eliminates any public discussion over alternate uses of the city’s property, and grants a private foundation more resources at a time when Atlantans are struggling to pay their rent and meet basic household needs.