City workers in Atlanta killed a man living in a tent while using construction equipment to clear a homeless encampment near Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous Georgia church.
Cornelius Taylor’s death Thursday afternoon prompted evacuations near the city’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church to accommodate crowds expected to be in the area this weekend and Monday to celebrate the federal holiday of King. It arose as a result of efforts to reduce the visibility of the homeless. The lives and achievements of civil rights leaders. Taylor’s death has outraged homeless advocates and sparked soul-searching among city leaders.
Housing Justice League activists said in a statement: “This sweep, which the city completely failed to inspect beforehand, is a stopgap measure to project a falsely sanitized vision of Atlanta.” said. “Taylor and other people living on the streets deserve more than to be bulldozed for MLK Weekend festivities. Everyone has the right to live with dignity.”
Atlanta authorities have not yet disclosed how Taylor died. Witnesses told local media that an Atlanta Department of Public Works bulldozer was removing tents from a vacant lot across the street from the church, with some of the tents stuck at the Old Wheat Street encampment. He allegedly ran over a man.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement: “We are saddened by this horrific incident and our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased.” “I deeply value the lives of each and every person in this city. We are reviewing our processes and procedures and taking every precaution to ensure this never happens again, while ensuring that unsheltered residents remain safe. We will continue our important work to contain them and bring our neighbors indoors.”
Historically, the city has sent social workers and support teams to encampments for months before issuing a final evacuation order. These teams work to house people in shelters and eventually secure permanent housing.
Catherine Vassell, CEO of the city’s homeless organization Partners for Home, said the city has been working with people in the camps since April and has placed many in shelters. Last year, the city of Atlanta announced $60 million in new public funding to address homelessness, the largest investment in the city’s history.
The investment comes as Atlanta faces a 60% increase in unsheltered homelessness since the coronavirus pandemic, after years of decline.
Rev. Raphael Warnock, a member of the Georgia State Senate, is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. The Democrat, who won the 2020 election amid Joe Biden’s historic victory in Georgia, will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington on Monday and will be attending this year’s King Day event. had previously announced that he would not be attending.
Marcus Coleman, a community activist in Atlanta, noted that the city is also hosting the college football championship this weekend, and that the city government is clearing homeless encampments in time for the high-profile visitor event. “This weekend is big money for the city,” he said. “The death of Cornelius Taylor and the excruciating manner in which he died seems unfit for a city too busy to hate.”
Sylvia Bloom, who works with homeless people in the area, visited the scene of Taylor’s murder on Friday and told local news outlets that the man loved to paint and had a good heart. He explained that it was the person who held it and said he died of suffocation.
“He had dreams and ambitions, he had a family, he was a good friend of mine, and now he’s gone,” Bloom told WABE. She demanded a thorough investigation.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. served as co-pastor of the church from 1960 until his assassination in 1968, and Joe Biden will have the rare opportunity to become the first sitting president to preach at the church on Sundays in 2023. honored.
