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Atlanta’s Attack On Cop City Protesters Should Be A Warning To Us All

June 30, 2023 Angela Y. Davis and Barbara Ransby, Truthout. , , , , ,
The ongoing attack on the network of environmental and abolitionist activists in Atlanta should make all people concerned with the right to protest, the future of the environment and the rise of militarized police forces take notice. At 5 am on June 6, after over 200 community members had spoken against moving forward with the facility, the Atlanta City Council voted to allocate $31 million in public funds toward construction of a militarized police training center dubbed “Cop City.” This was the most recent development in a fierce and violent struggle over police expansion and forest preservation in Georgia, and has repercussions well beyond the state.

Sixth ‘Stop Cop City’ Week Of Action

June 28, 2023 Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
Atlanta, GA — This week (June 24 – July 1) activists, organizers, and community members opposed to ‘Cop City’ are converging in Atlanta for a “Week of Action” against the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. From June 24 through July 1, people will gather in and around Atlanta to mobilize against the Atlanta Police Foundation’s proposed urban warfare training center. In the months since the last national convergence against the project, clear cutting in Weelaunee, where the training facility may be built, has escalated, the city of Atlanta has approved millions in additional funds for the project, and repression against organizers has continued.

Atlanta Is Already A ‘Cop City’; This Is Why The Fight Is Intensifying

June 27, 2023 Demetrius “Dee” Vaughn, Reckon. , , , , ,
I’ve lived in Atlanta for my entire life. I tried to leave a few times, but l always somehow made my way back. I’ve never felt the sense of community that I feel here anywhere else. It’s a Black city, steeped in southern hospitality. That means that we’ll find a way to help each other, even if we don’t have the resources. It’s a community of deep creativity, a city of hustlers and artists with a culture of Blackness that people from other places often can’t understand. But it’s also a place where the gap between the rich and the poor is painfully clear. That gap is marked by the presence of police in low-income Black neighborhoods like mine.

Week Of Action Demands Stop Cop City!

June 22, 2023 Dianne Mathiowetz, Workers World. , , , ,
Within a day of the massive community turnout at the June 5 Atlanta City Council meeting — where, despite 16 1/2 hours of public comment opposing the over $67 million of taxpayer money to build the militarized police training center in the Weelaunee Forest, the Council approved the expenditure — a new strategy to stop “Cop City” was announced on the steps of City Hall. Representatives of multiple organizations, including Community Movement Builders, the NAACP Legal Fund, Movement for Black Lives, Working Families Party and Black Voters Matter, described the referendum process to allow the people of Atlanta to vote on the fate of Cop City.

State Repression Targets The Stop Cop City Movement

June 8, 2023 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
Atlanta, Georgia is no mecca. The idea that it is a “good for Black people” city is a lie. Atlanta is little more than a glorified plantation where powerful white people give directions to the Black people they choose to be overseers. The power of the latter group is severely limited of course. They can always be counted on to act on behalf of the white power structure they serve. No one should be shocked that members of the Atlanta City Council listened to hours of impassioned testimony from their constituents opposing what they call a Public Safety Training Center yet still voted to approve an initial $31 million expenditure by a vote of 11 to 4.

Atlanta City Council Approves USD 31 Million For Controversial ‘Cop City’

June 6, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Atlanta’s 15-member City Council approved USD 31 million in funding to help build “Cop City,” the “urban warfare” training facility proposed to be built in the forest in the southern city. The 11-4 vote took place after 15 hours of public comments were heard regarding the project, with the vast majority expressing overwhelming concern over the project and and rejecting it. Throughout the session, over 1,000 people gathered inside and outside Atlanta City Hall to protest the controversial project. The Atlanta Police Foundation (APF), ostensibly a nonprofit but which provides support for the Atlanta Police Department and is spearheading the project of Cop City, believes that the facility is necessary.

Training Center Costs Call Years Of Promises Into Question

June 5, 2023 Riley Bunch and Brian Eason, Atlanta Journal Constitution. , , , ,
In the spring of 2021, the Atlanta Police Foundation announced an attractive deal for city taxpayers. If the city put up $30 million for a public safety training center, the nonprofit and its philanthropic partners would handle the rest of the project’s $90 million price tag. That promise was repeated month after month, year after year, by one mayor and then the next. Today, the Atlanta Police Foundation still asks for donations to the project on a fundraising page that says the city will only contribute $30 million to the cause. But that’s not true. And it hasn’t been true for years.

LDF’s Concerns About Recent Arrest Of Atlanta Solidarity Fund Members

June 5, 2023 Legal Defense Fund. , , , ,
On May 31, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced that law enforcement officials raided the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, arresting and charging three of its staff with charity fraud and money laundering. In response, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) President and Director-Counsel Janai S. Nelson issued the following statement: “We are deeply concerned about the apparent targeting of Atlanta Solidarity Fund members, Marlon Kautz, Savannah Patterson, and Adele Maclean, particularly in light of Magistrate Judge James Altman’s recent criticism of the evidence presented by the State against them, which he decried as unimpressive in today’s bail hearing.

Arrest Of Bail Fund Organizers In Atlanta Sets A Dangerous Precedent

June 1, 2023 Zoe Alexandra, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Officers from the Atlanta Police Department (APD) and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) raided an activist house in the southern US city of Atlanta on the morning of May 31. During the raid, the officers arrested three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a non-profit organization that provides “support for people who are arrested at protests, or prosecuted for movement involvement” by way of jail and legal support and accompaniment, bail funds, and helping provide access to representation. The three arrested organizers, Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson, were booked in the DeKalb County Jail where they were each charged with money laundering and charity fraud.

Atlanta: We Do Not Need A School For Assassins

May 19, 2023 Alex Binder, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
Atlanta, Georgia — Hundreds of Atlantans spoke out against the proposed authorization of $33.5 million taxpayer dollars for the Atlanta Police Foundation to fund the construction of ‘Cop City’ during the public comment section at city council on Monday. The council is expected to vote on the funding on June 5. The public comment lasted over seven hours and the nearly 300 community members who had the opportunity to speak were unanimous in their opposition to ‘Cop City’, which if built, would be an 85-acre urban warfare police training compound in the South River Forest in DeKalb County, Georgia.

National Conference For Black Self-Determination And Pan-African Unity

May 17, 2023 Tunde Osazua, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
From June 23rd to the 25th, a historic gathering of Black radical organizers will take place in the city of Atlanta, hosted by Community Movement Builders . The National Black Radical Organizing Conference will serve as a rallying point for individuals dedicated to our collective liberation struggle. Under the theme of "Unity in our Lifetime: Connecting the National Black Struggle for Self-Determination with Pan-Africanism," this conference aims to propel our movement to new heights and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to dismantling systemic oppression. During conference keynotes, panels, plenaries, workshops, and screenings, a diverse array of critical topics will be explored, ranging from base building and mass work to ideological positioning, the non-profit industrial complex, political prisoners, policing, gender, incarceration, and the vital role of students and youth in our liberation struggle.

Cities Across The US Are Mobilizing To Honor Tortuguita’s Birthday

April 23, 2023 It's Going Down. , , , , ,
Supporters of the fight against Cop City in so-called Atlanta, Georgia are planning solidarity demonstrations, educational events, benefit concerts, and solidarity events to mark the birthday of anarchist and forest defender Tortuguita. This call for continued action comes after forty-two people now face “domestic terrorism” charges for simply “their participation in the movement, with arrest warrants citing the flimsiest grounds, including protesters having mud on their shoes and the number for a legal support group scrawled on their arms.” Moreover, the call for continued solidarity comes as the Dekalb County Medical Examiner has released the damning results of their autopsy, which directly contradicts claims made by law-enforcement that Tortuguita fired upon them, causing them to fire back and kill them in mid-January of this year, when police carried out a raid on protest encampments in the Weelaunee forest.

Why Did Chase Bank Cancel This Cop City Protester’s Accounts?

April 9, 2023 Nick Pinto, Hell Gate. , , , ,
Teresa Shen, a 31-year-old therapist living in Brooklyn, checked her mailbox earlier this month and found some perplexing correspondence from Chase Bank, the consumer banking branch of JPMorgan Chase, where she'd been a customer for more than decade. The letters, dated March 7, had surprising news. "One letter said that they were closing my checking and savings accounts," Shen recalled. "Another said they were closing my credit card." Just why Chase was closing Shen's accounts wasn't immediately clear from the letters, which said only that the bank was taking the step "due to a publicly reported financial investigation."

Atlanta’s “Cop City” Is A Blueprint For America’s Future

April 2, 2023 Taya Graham, The Real News Network. , , ,
In a special episode of Police Accountability Report, TRNN reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis report from the ground in Atlanta, where for weeks forest defenders have been fighting and risking their lives to stop the construction of “Cop City”—a massive planned police training center that would be used to instruct officers from around the country in deadly repression tactics. Speaking directly with activists on the frontlines, Graham and Janis explore the truth behind the police killing of Manuel “Tortuguita” Tehran, and the dark money sources funding the creation of the Atlanta Public Safety Center.

Youth Organizers Unite Marginalized Communities To Stop Atlanta’s Cop City

April 2, 2023 Ngakiya Camara, Truthout. , , , , , ,
A crowd of youth organizers have mastered this call and response chant, a unanimous voice talking back to a potential Cop City. Nearing the end of Defend the Atlanta Forest’s Week of Action, the energy from the In Defense of Black Lives rally held at the Atlanta Police Foundation Headquarters is palpable. There is laughter, chanting, a fire of hope that electrifies the air — folks have just finished roasting the heavily militarized police, who eye the crowd through the slits of their helmets. The solidarity between these kids is their biggest threat. Black youth organizers were at the center of this rally that was organized by the Stop Cop City Coalition, In Defense of Black Lives Atlanta (IDBL), which is a coalition movement based in Atlanta that works to defend Black life and to defund the Atlanta Police Department.
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