Story by: Kendall Kylls
On Wednesday (June 16) the Atlanta City Council’s finance committee held a public meeting where they reviewed Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd’s newly introduced police bill. The bill seeks to lease hundreds of acres of forested land in Southwest DeKalb to the Atlanta Police Foundation in order to build a new multi-million dollar state-of-the-art police training academy.
During Wednesday’s meeting, a group of protestors gathered outside of Joyce Sheperd’s southwest Atlanta home in a demonstration to oppose the bill. In response, Councilwoman Sheperd quickly called a press conference to address protestors.
“People have a right to come out and say whether they’re for or against it,” she said at the presser. “I have no problem with that. I’ve been doing this for years, and know that people have that right. But what they don’t have a right to do is come up on my private property, knock on my doors, protest on my lawn, on my porch...they don’t have that right.”
Councilwoman Sheperd says that the current police and fire training facilities are “old and dilapidated,” and that a new facility is necessary. She says in the coming weeks, she’ll be organizing tours of both facilities, so the public can see the conditions that Atlanta’s police and firefighters are forced to work in.
“No employee in the City of Atlanta should work in a place like where the police academy and fire academy is. It’s deplorable,” she said.
Councilwoman Sheperd says that there will be public hearings on this matter over the next few weeks, but made it clear that she will be supporting the development of this new facility. As for the protestors, Shepherd says if they return to her home, she will have them arrested.
“I’m putting a ‘No Trespassing’ sign in my property, and if they come back, I will give the police the right to actually lock them up.”
Wednesday's meeting concluded with the finance committee unanimously deciding to delay a vote on Councilwoman Sheperd's bill. They will return to it in 60 days.
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