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The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Family of man killed after his tent was crushed by a bulldozer sues Atlanta
The family of a man who was killed after city workers crushed his tent with a bulldozer during a sweep of a homeless encampment in Atlanta, Georgia, filed a lawsuit against the city on Friday over his death, calling it 'tragic and preventable'. The lawsuit filed by Cornelius Taylor's sister and son alleges that city employees failed to look to see if there was anyone inside the tents in the encampment before using a bulldozer to clear it in the 16 January sweep. Taylor, 46, was inside one of the tents and was crushed by the truck when his tent was flattened, the lawsuit says. City officials had called for the clearing of the encampment in preparation for the Martin Luther King Jr holiday. The encampment was blocks away from Ebenezer Baptist church, where King had preached. An autopsy report later revealed Taylor's pelvic bone had been broken and that he suffered damage to organs and internal bleeding. 'A tent that was occupied by a human being was crushed by this heavy equipment. That's obviously wrong,' Harold Spence, an attorney, said. 'Nobody looked inside the tent, and if someone who looked inside had taken 10 seconds to do so, this tragedy could have been averted. And if you don't know what's inside, you don't crush it.' The lawsuit filed in Fulton county state court asks for a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages, as well as repayment for medical expenses, funeral costs and legal fees. It was filed against the city and seven unnamed city employees, including the driver of the bulldozer. A spokesperson for Andre Dickens, the mayor of Atlanta, said in a statement 'the incident involving Mr Taylor was a tragedy' but that he could not comment on pending litigation. The US supreme court ruled last year that cities across the country can enforce bans on homeless camping. But clearings are controversial. Taylor's death sparked outrage among local advocates and neighbors at the encampment, who called the city's policies on clearing encampments deeply inhumane. They said the city faces a dire affordable housing shortage that makes it inevitable that people will end up living on the streets. 'The sweep, prior to which the city failed completely to check the tents, is a stopgap measure to try to project a false, sanitized vision of Atlanta,' activists from the Housing Justice League advocate group said in a statement. 'Taylor and everyone else living on the streets deserved much more than to be bulldozed out of the way for MLK weekend festivities. Everyone deserves to live in dignity.' The family's lawyers described the lawsuit as a call for city leaders to treat homeless people as deserving of 'respect and dignity' instead of rushing to clear their communities 'as if they were invisible'. Typically, the city sends social workers and outreach teams to encampments over a period of months before issuing a final order to evacuate. Those teams work to place people in shelters and, ultimately, permanent housing. The city had been working with people at the encampment since April 2024 and had placed many into shelters, said Cathryn Vassell, CEO of the city's homelessness organization, Partners for Home. City officials have said they are taking care to prioritize the safety and dignity of unhoused individuals. Right after Taylor's death, the city put a temporary moratorium on encampment sweeps. However, with the Fifa World Cup coming to Atlanta next year, the city has since resumed clearing encampments with the controversial goal of eliminating all homelessness in the downtown area before then. Last week, the city closed the camp where Taylor lived and said officials coordinated with the local non-profit to offer people living there housing with supportive services. Lawyers said they were grateful for the city's efforts, but more work is needed. Members of the Justice for Cornelius Taylor Coalition said they are still paying for hotel rooms for eight former encampment residents. Taylor's lawyers and family called on Dickens' administration to cut through red tape such as issues with documents and help the others get housing. Taylor's sister Darlene Chaney teared up during a news conference on Friday where lawyers announced the lawsuit as she re-listened to descriptions of the gruesome injuries her brother suffered. She said Taylor loved to read everything from science fiction to the Bible. He was eager to leave the encampment to rebuild his life, and stayed positive about his future even as barriers such as getting him an ID slowed that process down, she said. She misses his 'annoying' weekly calls – and said now she only has one brother to annoy her. She misses having two. 'We're here, just because someone, in my own personal opinion, was lazy,' Chaney said. George Chidi contributed reporting
The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Family of man killed after his tent was crushed by a bulldozer sues Atlanta
The family of a man who was killed after city workers crushed his tent with a bulldozer during a sweep of a homeless encampment in Atlanta, Georgia, filed a lawsuit against the city on Friday over his death, calling it 'tragic and preventable'. The lawsuit filed by Cornelius Taylor's sister and son alleges that city employees failed to look to see if there was anyone inside the tents in the encampment before using a bulldozer to clear it in the 16 January sweep. Taylor, 46, was inside one of the tents and was crushed by the truck when his tent was flattened, the lawsuit says. City officials had called for the clearing of the encampment in preparation for the Martin Luther King Jr holiday. The encampment was blocks away from Ebenezer Baptist church, where King had preached. An autopsy report later revealed Taylor's pelvic bone had been broken and that he suffered damage to organs and internal bleeding. 'A tent that was occupied by a human being was crushed by this heavy equipment. That's obviously wrong,' Harold Spence, an attorney, said. 'Nobody looked inside the tent, and if someone who looked inside had taken 10 seconds to do so, this tragedy could have been averted. And if you don't know what's inside, you don't crush it.' The lawsuit filed in Fulton county state court asks for a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages, as well as repayment for medical expenses, funeral costs and legal fees. It was filed against the city and seven unnamed city employees, including the driver of the bulldozer. A spokesperson for Andre Dickens, the mayor of Atlanta, said in a statement 'the incident involving Mr Taylor was a tragedy' but that he could not comment on pending litigation. The US supreme court ruled last year that cities across the country can enforce bans on homeless camping. But clearings are controversial. Taylor's death sparked outrage among local advocates and neighbors at the encampment, who called the city's policies on clearing encampments deeply inhumane. They said the city faces a dire affordable housing shortage that makes it inevitable that people will end up living on the streets. 'The sweep, prior to which the city failed completely to check the tents, is a stopgap measure to try to project a false, sanitized vision of Atlanta,' activists from the Housing Justice League advocate group said in a statement. 'Taylor and everyone else living on the streets deserved much more than to be bulldozed out of the way for MLK weekend festivities. Everyone deserves to live in dignity.' The family's lawyers described the lawsuit as a call for city leaders to treat homeless people as deserving of 'respect and dignity' instead of rushing to clear their communities 'as if they were invisible'. Typically, the city sends social workers and outreach teams to encampments over a period of months before issuing a final order to evacuate. Those teams work to place people in shelters and, ultimately, permanent housing. The city had been working with people at the encampment since April 2024 and had placed many into shelters, said Cathryn Vassell, CEO of the city's homelessness organization, Partners for Home. City officials have said they are taking care to prioritize the safety and dignity of unhoused individuals. Right after Taylor's death, the city put a temporary moratorium on encampment sweeps. However, with the Fifa World Cup coming to Atlanta next year, the city has since resumed clearing encampments with the controversial goal of eliminating all homelessness in the downtown area before then. Last week, the city closed the camp where Taylor lived and said officials coordinated with the local non-profit to offer people living there housing with supportive services. Lawyers said they were grateful for the city's efforts, but more work is needed. Members of the Justice for Cornelius Taylor Coalition said they are still paying for hotel rooms for eight former encampment residents. Taylor's lawyers and family called on Dickens' administration to cut through red tape such as issues with documents and help the others get housing. Taylor's sister Darlene Chaney teared up during a news conference on Friday where lawyers announced the lawsuit as she re-listened to descriptions of the gruesome injuries her brother suffered. She said Taylor loved to read everything from science fiction to the Bible. He was eager to leave the encampment to rebuild his life, and stayed positive about his future even as barriers such as getting him an ID slowed that process down, she said. She misses his 'annoying' weekly calls – and said now she only has one brother to annoy her. She misses having two. 'We're here, just because someone, in my own personal opinion, was lazy,' Chaney said. George Chidi contributed reporting
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Tens of thousands in US join ‘Good Trouble' anti-Trump protests honoring John Lewis
People across all 50 US states on Thursday joined marches and rallies at more than 1,500 sites to protest against the Trump administration and honor the legacy of the late congressman John Lewis, an advocate for voting rights and civil disobedience. The 'Good Trouble Lives On' day of action coincides with the fifth anniversary of Lewis's death. Lewis was a longtime congressman from Georgia who participated in major civil rights actions, including the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 when police attacked Lewis and other protesters at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Lewis implored people to participate in 'good trouble, necessary trouble' to advance their causes, and this call serves as the underpinning for the 17 July actions. Dozens of advocacy and civil rights organizations signed on as partners for the event. In Atlanta, Georgia, one of the main sites for the protest, Lewis's legacy rang loud as anti-Trump demonstrators marched down the courtyard of Dr Martin Luther King Jr's famed church, Ebenezer Baptist. 'We honor John Lewis's personal legacy, five years after being called home,' said the Rev Dr Jonathan Jay Augustine, the newly appointed senior pastor of Big Bethel AME church. 'He's someone who gave his life for inclusion and for inclusiveness, and the things he gave his life for are under attack and being eroded away.' About 1,000 people marched from Big Bethel and the landmark five-story tall mural of Lewis to Ebenezer Baptist, where the Rev Raphael Warnock, a Democratic senator from Georgia, is its senior pastor. Politics and faith are intertwined on Atlanta's streets and Lewis's legacy of political protest – and the unique animosity Donald Trump had for him, and for Atlanta's fifth district, which Lewis represented – is rarely far from the thoughts expressed by civil rights and voting rights leaders here. 'Today we go to send a message from the birthplace of civil rights to … the one that wants to destroy the Department of Education, the one that wants to deport millions upon millions of people seeking a better life, the one who won't release the Epstein files, the one who had the nerve to call the fifth district horrible and falling apart,' said the Georgia NAACP president, Gerald Griggs. 'We still have a message for that man. In Georgia, no one is above the law. You still have a court date in the fifth district.' In downtown Washington, hundreds of people gathered in a park a few blocks from the White House. Some held signs protesting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and comparing the Trump administration to Nazi Germany. 'Fascism will fall and when it falls, if you were complicit, you will be held accountable,' said Mary Baird, who traveled to Washington on Thursday morning from North Carolina to meet with members of Congress before the protest. In downtown Minneapolis, the theme of 'good trouble' punctuated the speeches, with speakers imploring the crowd to follow Lewis' sexample and take a stand, even if it gets them in trouble. 'Stand up and get in the way,' said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer and social justice advocate who also called on the crowd to continue the boycott against Target, the retailer based in Minnesota. The events across the country on Thursday were inspired by civil rights leaders like Lewis, who showed the power of collective action, the protest's website says. 'That's why on July 17, five years since the passing of Congressman John Lewis, communities across the country will take to the streets, courthouses, and community spaces to carry forward his fight for justice, voting rights, and dignity for all.' Organizers said before Thursday's events that they expect tens of thousands of people to turn out in small towns, suburbs and cities, the latest exercise of street protests distributed across the country to show opposition to Trump in all corners of the US. The last mass day of protest, No Kings, in June drew several million people in one of the biggest single days of protest in US history. Thursday's events were expected to be smaller as it is a weekday. Chicago was to host the day's flagship event on Thursday evening, with additional main sites in Atlanta, St Louis, Annapolis and Oakland. Events include rallies, marches, candlelight vigils, food drives, direct action trainings, teach-ins and voter registration drives. The protest's demands include an end to the Trump administration's crackdown on civil rights, including the right to protest and voting rights; targeting of Black and brown Americans, immigrants and trans people; and the slashing of social programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), known colloquially as 'food stamps'. 'One of the things that John Lewis would always say is that if you see something that's wrong, you have an obligation to speak up, to say something, to do something,' Daryl Jones, co-leader of the Transformative Justice Coalition, told reporters on Thursday. 'That's what July 17 is about – seeing things across this nation, seeing things that are being impacted, that are just not right. We've got to stand up and say something.'
