A special task force created to gather community input on the planned Atlanta Public Safety Training Center held its first meeting on Wednesday morning after months of domestic terrorist attacks by individuals protesting the training center’s construction.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said that the construction of the training center is moving forward and so are meetings of the special task force.
“This was the very first meeting of a group of people who had not been gathered together for this cause,” Dickens said. “The individuals in this meeting tell us how they want to conduct that meeting.”
The planned $90 million training facility is set to be built in the south river forest in DeKalb County. Leaders like Mayor Dickens and former mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young support its construction.
Dickens says the special task force was created to gather greater community input on everything from parks and green space to sustainability related to the construction project, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
Individuals protesting the facility have grown increasingly more violent, with many committing acts of domestic terrorism, like a violent ambush on police officers last month. Protestors have recently planted “life-threatening” booby traps around the construction area targeting police officers.
Mayor Dickens said that some of the members of the task force are concerned for their own safety due to the violent terrorism.
“A lot of these individuals expressed today that they were scared,” the mayor said. “Scared of the individuals who have thrown Molotov cocktails – who have sent threatening letters.”
