LANSING, Mich. — On Saturday, Jan. 21, the Lansing Police Department responded to multiple calls reporting suspicious activity near the Frandor Shopping Center. When officers arrived on scene, they found a group of roughly 30 protestors who were vandalizing the Bank of America building and throwing glass candles at the building's windows. The message "Stop Cop City" was graffitied on the exterior of the building.
"Stop Cop City" is in reference to a national protest over the building of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in Georgia. The training center, penned "Cop City" by protestors, is an 85-acre police and fire training facility that will cost $90 million. A third of the bill will be footed by taxpayers, while the remaining cost will be payed for by the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Opponents of the training center argue that the facility is causing ecological harm, since it is being built over 300 acres of DeKalb County's South River Forest. Nationwide protests over the training center followed the shooting of an environmental activist who was opposing the project.
Protests of the project have been errupting nationally, with several protests occurring this past weekend. Notably, a Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Atlanta had it's windows smashed and walls vandalized Saturday night.
In a press statement, the Lansing Police Department stated "the department was aware of national protest relating to an officer shooting in Atlanta, which could result in property damage and vandalism, but still was not expecting anything locally."
Six suspects in Lansing were arrested and charged. Five suspects were charged with hindering and opposing, two of the suspects were charged with parking after dark and one was charged with resisting an officer.
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