November 24, 1987
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
I have been informed that certain persons, in unlawful combination and conspiracy, have engaged in the violent criminal seizure and detention of persons and property in the vicinity of Atlanta, Georgia. Their actions have made it impracticable to enforce certain laws of the United States there by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.
Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including Chapter 15 of Title 10 of the United States Code, do command all persons engaged in such acts of violence to cease and desist therefrom and to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes forthwith.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 24th day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twelfth.
Ronald Reagan
[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:51 a.m., December 8, 1987]
Note: The proclamation was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on December 7. An accompanying statement printed in the ``Federal Register'' of December 9 with the proclamation and Executive Order 12616 indicated that they ``were signed by the President because of the possibility that existed on November 24, 1987, that the situation at the Federal prison in Atlanta would deteriorate further and that the use of force to free the hostages would be necessary. That situation never arose, and a negotiated settlement was reached. Therefore, the use of units and members of the Armed Forces of the United States to suppress the violence described in the proclamation and Executive order was never required.''