By Maria Saporta
What a complicated mess.
The controversy over building a public safety training center on the site of the old Atlanta Prison Farm continues to fester.
And there’s no guarantee the Memorandum of Understanding announced on Jan. 31 between Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond on the development of the project will end the protests and settle the controversy.
Unfortunately, the issue has become a lightning rod that is gaining national and international attention – especially with the shooting death on Jan. 18 of protester Manuel Esteban Paez Teran by state troopers.
Let me establish two points.
For starters, I believe Atlanta needs a new public safety training center because of the poor condition of existing facilities.
Entrances to the 191 Peachtree building are boarded up and guarded following violent protests over the public safety training center. (Photo by Maria Saporta.)
Second, I abhor violence – whether it be from protestors or from the police. I am a disciple of Martin Luther King Jr. – understanding that nonviolence is the most effective way to achieve social and environmental justice.
So, the goal of this column on the public safety training center is two-fold. I want to explore what went wrong and what can we do to make it right.
This said, the whole project was flawed from the beginning.
In April 2021, the Atlanta Police Foundation and then-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced plans to build the training center on the site of the old Prison Farm. The city owned the land, which was surrounded by unincorporated DeKalb County, meaning the closest neighbors had no official voice to weigh in.
Dave Wilkinson, president and CEO of the Atlanta Police Foundation, said in an extensive interview on June 10, 2021, that the site for the center had been under review for four years by the city’s real estate department. But only sites already owned by the city were considered.
Imagine if there…
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