STORY: "There is a forest in Atlanta that is being replaced with a police training facility and that is exactly what we're trying to prevent," said activist Miles Grant.

"We need forests more than we need police training facilities. It's kind of scary to see our civil rights being eroded in real time and to see really gross over-policing and overreach of police authority. This is a heavy militarized police force, and I don't think that anyone would say that this is making anyone safer."

The site of the planned Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, derisively called "Cop City" by opponents, has been the scene of escalating confrontation as demonstrators oppose both the increasing militarization of police and the development of the forest that its defenders call the "lungs of Atlanta."

The police and fire training center is being built on 85 acres (34.4 hectares) of a 400-acre property in unincorporated DeKalb County that is owned by the city, according to the facility's website.