'Dropped the ball': Atlanta council meeting disrupted by 'Cop City' protesters throwing ping pong balls

On Monday, a large group of Atlanta, Georgia residents who are against the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, also known as "Cop City," attended a city council meeting. They shouted "You have dropped the ball" and threw ping-pong balls towards the front of the room.

The organizers of the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta informed FOX 5 that they were commemorating one year since they submitted a petition to the city with over 100,000 signatures, requesting a referendum on the ballot to allow residents to vote on whether to allow the construction of a new police training facility.

A federal lawsuit has been filed on the matter, which is pending.

Nearly 4 hours into Monday's meeting, several people in the audience began to protest after a speaker had finished at the podium.

The two elderly women, holding a sign that read "Andre Dickens, you dropped the ball on democracy," walked to the front of the city council room, targeting the mayor of Atlanta.

The ping pong ball number 116,000 was painted onto the sign.

The city council members were pelted with hundreds of ping pong balls as two women stood up front with a banner.

The ping pong balls symbolize the over 100,000 signatures gathered for the referendum, as stated by protesters, according to a tweet from the Atlanta Community Press Collective.

The protest lasted for six minutes before the live video of the meeting abruptly ended, leaving the protesters still in the chamber. Twenty minutes later, the feed resumed, showing that the protesters had departed the chamber.

Supporters of the $90 million facility on 85 acres, including Dickens, argue that it will improve inadequate training facilities and tackle challenges with recruiting and retaining police officers.

The new facility may increase police militarization, and it is situated in a predominantly Black area, according to opponents' concerns, as reported by FOX 5.

Over the past few years, the facility has been the focal point of numerous protests, some of which resulted in violence and vandalism, culminating in the death of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, also known as "Tortuguita," at the hands of state troopers in January 2023.

In October 2023, the special prosecutor decided not to prosecute the state troopers who killed Teran, determining that the use of deadly force was "justifiably reasonable."

Nearly $20 million has been added to the cost of the training center due to the problems caused by protesters, according to city officials.