- 35 people detained after “coordinated attack” at Atlanta’s “Cop City” police training site CBS News
- Protest outside Atlanta police training facility turns violent, dozens arrested WFAA
- Atlanta police name 23 domestic terrorism suspects in Cop City attack; AG warns ‘violent extremists’ Fox News
- Demonstrators cause ‘havoc’ as peaceful music festival took place near APD Training Facility WSB Atlanta
- 23 face domestic terrorism charges after arrests in ‘Cop City’ protests at planned police training site in Atlanta CNN
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Atlantas
Atlanta’s Midtown Music festival canceled, reportedly over Georgia’s gun laws
Though the organizers did not cite a reason for calling off the festival, various media reports citing industry and festival sources said the cancellation was due to a recent interpretation of Georgia’s gun law, which permits firearms in public spaces, including parks.
Weapons and explosives of any kind are prohibited at the festival, according to its website. Gun rights advocates had mounted a pressure campaign against that position, calling into question the festival’s ability to restrict firearms since Georgia allows guns to be carried in parks.
Sources with knowledge of the cancellation decision by operator Live Nation who spoke to Rolling Stone cited Georgia gun laws as the reason.
Georgia gun advocate Phil Evans told CNN he emailed festival organizers in May, apprising them of Georgia gun laws and a Georgia Supreme Court case dealing with guns in which he was a party. Evans said he also asked the City of Atlanta to deny a permit to Live Nation for Music Midtown, given the festival’s ban on firearms.
In the email dated May 13, Evans asked the city to deny the permit for “as they have publicly stated an intent to violate settled state law.”
“The City of Atlanta should respect state law and uphold it when dealing with entities that make use of tax-payer owned properties that wish to make money from such usage, or even otherwise,” the email said.
The event slated for September 17 and 18 in Piedmont Park was canceled “due to circumstances beyond our control,” said the organizer’s tweet.
The music festival was set to feature a “diverse lineup of over 30 artists across 4 stages,” including My Chemical Romance, Future, Jack White and Fall Out Boy among others, according to the festival website.
“We were looking forward to reuniting in September and hope we can all get back to enjoying the festival together again soon,” the organizers said.
Last year’s festival attracted some 50,000 people and featured performances by Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and Maroon 5, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman said it was a “sad day” after the cancellation was announced.
“Public policy has real impacts and in this case- economic and social implications on a great tradition,” Shipman tweeted.
Ticket refunds will be processed automatically within the next 24 hours, organizers said.
City Councilman Andre Dickens will become Atlanta’s next mayor, CNN projects
Dickens and Moore had advanced to the runoff after no candidate in a wide field received a majority of the vote earlier this month. The sitting mayor, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, had announced in May she would not seek reelection.
Leading up to Tuesday, polls suggested the contest was close with a large swath of the electorate still undecided.
Dickens, a former businessman and nonprofit leader, has served on Atlanta’s City Council since 2013.
In a race that focused on a recent spike in violent crime as well as controversy over an effort by the residents of the wealthy community of Buckhead to break off from the capital and create their own city, Dickens — who previously served as the chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee — laid out a public safety plan that prioritized community policing and boosting police resources.
Dickens’ proposal calls for increasing the police force by 250 officers during his first year in office while requiring new training for every police department employee on de-escalation techniques and racial sensitivity.
Ahead of the November 2 general election, shooting incidents had increased dramatically from 406 at that point in 2019 to 629 this year, according to an October 23 report from the Atlanta Police Department.
When Dickens takes office, he also faces concerns about low morale at the Atlanta Police Department and the number of officers who departed the force since June 2020. Tensions were high after Bottoms called for the firing of the officer who shot Rayshard Brooks in the parking lot of a Wendy’s in June of 2020. Bottoms said she had asked the officer be let go from the force one day after the deadly shooting, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported at the time.
Though much of their rhetoric on the need for a safer Atlanta was similar, Dickens took a different approach than his opponent with regard to how he would handle policing in the city.
While Moore suggested removing Police Chief Rodney Bryant from his position, Dickens said he would not immediately replace Bryant and instead would give Bryant 100 days to improve the department.
World Series: How an Ice Cream Machine Turned Around Atlanta’s Season
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves are making their first World Series appearance since 1999 because of star players at several positions, an underrated pitching staff and shrewd midsummer moves by the front office.
Inside the clubhouse, though, players also point to a secret weapon. It doesn’t field, throw or hit, but it has delivered over and over again. Atlanta’s game-changer in 2021? A soft-serve ice cream machine.
“When they brought that into the clubhouse, it was like magic,” infielder Johan Camargo said. Added the star reliever Tyler Matzek, “It’s just something that we kind of rallied around.”
The story of how a frozen treat invigorated a team that was treading water early in the season begins in Boston in late May. Atlanta was visiting Fenway Park when, during a 9-5 loss to the Red Sox, the team endured a rain delay that lasted nearly three hours.
“We didn’t restart the game until midnight,” Matzek said. “There was nobody in the stands. It was absolutely pouring. We were like, ‘Oh, well, there’s nothing to do, so let’s eat ice cream.’”
The pantry in the visitor’s clubhouse at Fenway has a soft-serve ice cream machine. For reliever Josh Tomlin, it brought back memories of trips to Dairy Queen with his father while growing up in Texas.
“It was perfect,” he said. “It had a little chocolate side and had a vanilla side, and a swirl in the middle.”
The 162-game baseball season, not including the playoffs, is arduously long. Players often look for small pleasures to break up the monotony: drinks on the team plane, a silly song to rally around, even a rare home-cooked meal. And who doesn’t like ice cream?
So soon after returning to Atlanta, Matzek said he and his teammates began teasing Calvin Minasian, who oversees the clubhouse at Truist Park, that his Boston counterpart was better at his job. Why hadn’t Minasian, they needled, sourced them a soft-serve ice cream machine?
Minasian knew he couldn’t order such a device without permission. Tomlin, 37, said the players talked things over and tasked the star first baseman Freddie Freeman, 32, the team’s longtime leader and reigning 2020 National League Most Valuable Player, with taking their case to General Manager Alex Anthopoulos.
Anthopoulos said his first reaction was a joking reluctance to go along. “We’re going to have all these guys crushing ice cream and, oh man, they’re all going to be 400 pounds,” he said he told himself. But when Anthopoulos saw the players weren’t kidding, he approved his first purchase of an ice cream machine in his 10 years as a G.M.
“I view this relationship as a partnership,” Anthopoulos said. “We’re not anyone’s parents. So I can joke about stuff like that but these guys are grown men. They’re responsible. Freddie, especially, takes tremendous care of himself. But it’s something they really wanted. And it’s a two-way street, right? We ask these guys as a club for stuff all the time: ‘Can you help us out with this?’ or ‘Can you help us out with that?’”
The requests can range from participating in charity and marketing events to helping vet potential roster additions. A week before Atlanta traded for Cleveland outfielder Eddie Rosario, for example, he called the infielder Ehire Adrianza, a former teammate of Rosario’s in Minnesota, for his perspective. Rosario has since blossomed into an October star.
“If they feel strongly about something, within reason obviously, then sure,” Anthopoulos said, though he joked that “if they said, ‘Hey, we want five ice cream machines, a cotton candy machine and we want this and that,’ of course no.”
The players said they understood the boundaries.
“Everyone thinks that we eat chicken breast and vegetables every single second of the day,” Matzek said. “I mean, we do. We’ve got to take care of our bodies. But everybody loves ice cream.”
The machine arrived during the second week of June, when the team was a season-low five games under .500. When Anthopoulos finally saw it, he snapped a photo and texted it to Freeman, who replied, “2-0!!!” The team, Freeman was saying, had won consecutive games since the machine had been turned on.
The banter between the G.M. and star soon turned into a running joke. “We’ll be a softball team soon enough,” Anthopoulos messaged at one point. “Anything to win the East!!!” Freeman replied, referring to the team’s division.
A few days later, Freeman texted Anthopoulos to tell him they were now 3-1 with the ice cream. He also sent a photo of himself enjoying a cup of it. Anthopoulos later joked to Freeman that he would get a machine installed in Freeman’s house if the team won its division.
“If you told me I had to spend my own money to buy an ice cream machine to win the N.L. East, I would do it,” Anthopoulos said.
On Sept. 30, Atlanta claimed its fourth straight division title, overcoming injuries to star players such as outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and capping a 56-37 stretch fueled, at least in part, by hard-hit balls and soft-serve pulls. Freeman, too, started the season slowly but finished with a .300 average and 31 home runs after a summer tear that also coincided with the arrival of a certain dessert.
(Freeman has so far declined to collect on Anthopoulos’s offer of a personal machine for two reasons: “I watch how much the chefs in the clubhouse clean it and I’m like, ‘I’m good, man.’” and “I don’t need my son just pulling down for ice cream.”)
Now a beloved clubhouse fixture, the machine has been at the heart of a season full of good memories. Freeman’s oldest son Charlie, 5, and Tomlin have a tradition that started soon after it arrived: After every home victory, Tomlin gives Charlie a small cup of ice cream with sprinkles, from which Charlie takes only one bite. The children of several other players also come into the clubhouse after home wins to enjoy the same treat.
Before every home game, Camargo, 27, said he serves himself a little “to get a taste.” Matzek, another standout this postseason, loves making root beer floats. Everyone has enjoyed the ice cream, even Anthopoulos and his son, and, of course, Freeman.
“You see Freddie over there, sitting cross legged at his locker before a game and he’s munching on an ice cream cone, and it’s funny,” Tomlin said. “That dude is one of the best baseball players in the world and he’s over there eating an ice cream cone.”
Although the Braves’ machine has only one flavor (vanilla), Tomlin commended Minasian for building a sundae bar: chocolate and caramel sauces, sprinkles and small plastic bowls shaped like helmets.
“It’s just a cool little something to get your mind off something else,” he said. “Just go in there and get your ice cream cone and you’re a kid again.”
The legend of the machine grew as the team turned its season around. The Braves didn’t look like a playoff contender when the soft serve arrived and now they’re in the World Series. Said Matzek, “I just know that we got an ice cream machine and we started playing better.”
“You need good players, obviously,” Anthopoulos said, “but I do think you should have an environment that people are happy to come to work every day, whether you’re a baseball player or an executive in an office.”
With three more wins against Houston, Atlanta would celebrate its first title since 1995. If that happens, the Champagne, beer and, yes, the soft serve will be flowing.
Investigating Trump a big early move for Atlanta’s new DA
ATLANTA (AP) — The district attorney investigating whether former President Donald Trump should face charges for attempting to pressure Georgia’s elections chief into changing the results of the presidential race in his favor has a reputation as a tough courtroom veteran, not only as a prosecutor but also as a defense lawyer and judge.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was sworn in last month after winning a resounding 2020 election victory over her former boss, entered the national spotlight Wednesday when letters to top state officials revealed her office is investigating whether illegal attempts were made to influence the state’s 2020 elections. That includes the Jan. 2 phone call in which Trump was recorded asking Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn his defeat.
Prosecuting Trump would likely prove a career-defining move for Willis — and one fraught with risk, said Atlanta attorney Robert James, a former district attorney in neighboring DeKalb County. Constituents in heavily Democratic Atlanta would demand an aggressive prosecution. The Republican ex-president would likely unleash an army of lawyers to defend him. And news coverage would scrutinize every step, or misstep.
“Nobody should be confused about the fact that you’re going into a whirlwind,” James said. “If this is what she chooses to do based on the facts and the evidence, from what I know about her as a prosecutor, she’s smart enough and tough enough to handle it.”
In her first weeks on the job, Willis has already faced criticism for trying to hand off two high-profile cases against police officers, including a fatal shooting. But fellow lawyers who have faced her in court say she’s a skilled litigator who isn’t afraid of tough cases.
“She is a hard-charging, tough trial lawyer,” Atlanta defense attorney Page Pate said. “I would never question her ethics. I would never question her diligence or her intelligence. She is a bulldog when she thinks she’s on the right side.”
Willis worked 17 years as an assistant district attorney under Paul Howard, who was Georgia’s first Black DA when he took office in 1997. Before challenging Howard for his job in 2020, Willis spent short stints as a criminal defense lawyer and a municipal court judge.
Running an aggressive campaign in which she accused Howard of mismanagement, Willis trounced him in an August runoff election for the Democratic nomination, winning nearly 72% of the vote. With no Republican on the ballot, Willis cruised to victory in November.
In her most high-profile case under Howard, Willis served as the lead prosecutor bringing charges against nearly three dozen Atlanta public school educators accused in a cheating scandal. In April 2015, after an unwieldy trial that spanned months, a jury convicted 11 former educators of racketeering for their role in a scheme to inflate students’ scores on standardized exams.
Pate, who defended one of the accused educators, said Howard bungled the case and should have lost. But Willis and her co-counsel, he said, “pieced that thing together, worked day and night to make it what it was.”
The new district attorney has come under fire for seeking to offload a pair of cases against Atlanta police. One involves officers charged with dragging two Black college students from a car during May protests over racial injustice. The other deals with two officers charged in the July 12 shooting death of Rayshard Brooks, a Black man killed as he tried to flee arrest for drunken driving.
Willis last month asked Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to reassign the cases to an outside prosecutor, arguing that her predecessor had acted improperly in the cases, including politicizing them during his reelection campaign. Carr declined to transfer the cases.
Though some attorneys said Willis had good reason for seeking to recuse her office, her attempt outraged members of Brooks’ family.
“Not only did you hurt me, but you hurt everyone out here who was counting on you to do the right thing,” Tomika Miller, Brooks’ widow, said at a news conference last week. “You say that you don’t run from hard cases. But, baby, you ran from this one.”
Shean Williams, an Atlanta civil rights attorney who represents the family of a man killed in a different police shooting being prosecuted by Willis’ office, said he understands the desire to have such cases prosecuted by the local district attorney. He applauded Willis for investigating Trump’s phone call, saying it makes him hopeful she will hold police officers and others in power accountable.
It’s uncertain whether Willis will seek charges against Trump or anyone else in relation to the election.
Senior Trump adviser Jason Miller has already decried the investigation, saying it’s a continuation of a “witch hunt” by Democrats against the former president.
Though Willis’ letters to state officials don’t name Trump as a target, the prosecutor’s spokesman, Jeff DiSantis, confirmed that, among other things, investigators are looking into the phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, can be heard on the call rejecting Trump’s repeated calls for him to change the state’s certified results of the presidential election, which President Joe Biden won by about 12,000 votes.
“In most cases, you would have sort of a he-said, she-said case where one person is contending another party said something,” said Cathy Cox, dean of the law school at Mercer University and a former Georgia secretary of state. “But you have a tape of Trump’s actual words. There is no dispute of what he said.”
Regardless, in cases against celebrities and public officials like Trump, even obtaining a grand jury’s indictment that allows a case to proceed to a trial court can be difficult, said James, the former DeKalb County prosecutor. That’s because citizens empaneled to hear such cases often find it difficult to be impartial about famous defendants, he said.
“Ultimately, as a prosecutor, your job is to prosecute cases without fear, favor or affection,” James said. “You look at the law, you look at the facts, and you compare the two.”
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writer Sudhin Thanawala contributed from Atlanta.