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Cop City

The State Is Wielding Grand Jury Subpoenas Against Cop City Activists

October 20, 2024 Cody Bloomfield, Truthout. , , , ,
With each passing day, the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (dubbed “Cop City” by opponents) inches toward completion. It’s been just under a year since the last Stop Cop City mass mobilization march attempted to breach the site, but the struggle against the militarized police training facility continues. Activists are organizing ping pong ball drops at city council meetings, pursuing legal remedies to recover what remains of the Weelaunee Forest, and continuing to hold teach-ins and small-scale protests. Organizers wait with bated breath for the resolution of the 61 pending RICO cases against activists.

Georgia Drops Money Laundering Charges In Cop City RICO Prosecution

September 20, 2024 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , , , ,
Atlanta, GA — Money laundering charges against three Atlanta Solidarity Fund defendants, who are among the 61 people indicted in a sprawling conspiracy lawsuit against Cop City protesters, have been dropped as of Tuesday. Last year Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson were indicted as part of Georgia’s wide-reaching Racketeering Influenced Criminal Organization, or RICO, case that the state filed against opponents of the multi-million dollar police training compound known as Cop City. The three organizers were arrested and charged during a raid on their home by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Atlanta Police Department in May last year.

Quiet Rollout Of Cop Cities Across The US Meets Growing Resistance

September 10, 2024 Victoria Valenzuela, Waging Nonviolence. , , , , ,
On June 11, a week after a police training facility in Richmond, California, broke ground, organizers from the Stop Cop City Bay Area Coalition marched to the Overaa Construction headquarters in protest. Citing concerns over rising police militarization and repression in the predominantly Black and Latino area, the protesters — joined by local residents — called on Overaa workers to boycott the $30 million construction deal. “By furthering the militarizing and surveillance of our city — and coordinating law enforcement resources across the region, including ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] — they’re actually making our cities into Cop Cities,” said Refilwe Gqajela, a community organizer with the Anti Police-Terror Project in California’s Bay Area.

The Goal Is To Attack A Movement

June 30, 2024 Micah Herskind, Welcome to Hell World. , , , ,
The Georgia Attorney General’s office appears to have made a major blunder in the ongoing prosecution of 61 Stop Cop City activists—one that could potentially cost the state its case altogether. According to a motion filed by attorneys for three defendants who run the nonprofit Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF), Georgia Deputy Attorney General John Fowler’s prosecutorial team has extensively and brazenly violated multiple defendants’ right to attorney-client privilege. This motion is just the most recent episode in the RICO case that has been denounced by activists and legal experts as a political prosecution intended to punish and intimidate those in the Stop Cop City movement.

We’re Occupying Emory University To Demand Divestment From Israel

April 26, 2024 Narek Boyajian and Jadelynn Zhang, Mondoweiss. , , , , , , ,
In Gaza and the West Bank, over 34,000 Palestinians have been murdered since the siege began on October 7, 2023. For over 75 years, the Palestinian people have been subjected to the illegal Zionist settler colonialism and white supremacy funded by Western Powers. The violence of the Israeli regime goes beyond denying Palestinian livelihood, making it its mission to sever Palestinians from their communities, land, and history. Halfway across the world, in the heart of Atlanta, a battle rages against the encroachment of Cop City, a sprawling police training facility slated to be erected in the Weelaunee Forest.

The New Modern Day Militarized Fort!

April 4, 2024 Shaka Shakur, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
This week represents the first year anniversary of the State’s attack and arrest of Amin Chaoui and others who were challenging its attempt to build another kop city, this time within the Atlanta, Georgia, area. It's important to look at the creation of kop city within the larger context of State repression and the creation of an expanded police State of hyper surveillance, pushing ever greater intrusion into the private lives of the people. The repressive State relies upon the use of poor or working class folks to police and dominate other poor, oppressed and marginalized folks.

Black Women Blast Atlanta City Hall; Demand Stop To Cop City Buildout

March 25, 2024 John Zangas, DCMediaGroup. , , , ,
Atlanta, Georgia - A collective of Black Women of the Movement for Black Lives dropped a 30-foot banner under the atrium of City Hall and demanded Mayor Andre Dickens allow Atlanta residents to vote on whether or not construction of Cop City should proceed in DeKalb County. Outside Atlanta City Hall they displayed banners sewn with samples of over one hundred thousand petitions of Atlanta area residents opposed to Cop City. Several city employees watched the demonstration inside City Hall as the women chanted “Stop Cop City!” and “Black Women Oppose Cop City!”

Phony Fani Willis, Misguided Support, And The Atlanta Plantation

February 24, 2024 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
It is interesting that the scoundrels who happen to be Black know how to deflect from their misdeeds and get undeserved support from their people. The less any solidarity is deserved, the more blatant the effort to use Black trauma as a get out of jail free card. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivered quite a performance during his 1991 confirmation hearings. He defended himself against charges of sexual harassment by referring to his experience as a “hight tech lynching,” and in doing so he immediately won the support of many Black people who should have known better than to give him any credence for any reason whatsoever.

Free Palestine; Stop Cop City

February 21, 2024 Palestinian Youth Movement, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
In South Dekalb County, Georgia, the South River forest forms a canopy so lush and life-giving that it is referred to as one of the “four lungs of Atlanta.” This sprawl of green space was known as “Welaunee” by the native Muscogee people, who were forcibly displaced in the 1830’s. Swaths of Welaunee Forest were settled and cleared to make way for a cotton plantation. This history encapsulates the twinned imperatives of the American colonial project: the displacement and genocide of indigenous populations and the stolen labor of enslaved Africans. Today, the Welaunee forest is once again imperiled.

Cop City: Federal And State Police Raid Three Homes In Atlanta

February 9, 2024 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , , , ,
Atlanta, GA — A multi-agency task force raided three homes in Atlanta early Thursday morning as part of an ongoing investigation surrounding resistance to ‘Cop City.’ At around 6:00 a.m., law enforcement agents with the Atlanta Police Department, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia State Patrol, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and FBI carried out search warrants at three separate homes across the city seeking evidence related to a July 2023 arson targeting police motorcycles at an Atlanta police precinct. One 30-year-old Atlanta local, John Mazurek, was arrested and charged with first-degree arson in connection with the 2023 sabotage.

Federal Court To Decide If Atlanta Voters Could Have A Say On Cop City

December 22, 2023 Cody Bloomfield, Truthout. , , , , ,
A court case heard in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on December 14, 2023, could have a decisive impact on the legal fight to finally put Cop City on the ballot. If successful, the citizen ballot initiative would put a question to voters about whether to revoke the lease of land to the Atlanta Police Foundation to build the massive militarized police training facility, which has seen grassroots resistance reach a fever pitch this year. In Atlanta, for a citizen ballot initiative to be voted on in a general election, petition gatherers must collect signatures equivalent to 15 percent of active registered Atlanta voters within 60 days.

Don’t Stop: Continuing The Fight Against Cop City

December 13, 2023 Ex-Workers Collective, CrimethInc. , , , ,
Starting in April 2021, people in Atlanta, Georgia set out to defend Weelaunee Forest, where politicians and profiteers are attempting to build a police training compound known as Cop City. Over the past two and a half years, this movement has given rise to one of the fiercest struggles in North America. Opponents of Cop City have repeatedly destroyed equipment and forced contractors to withdraw from the construction project, while the authorities have killed one forest defender and pressed outlandish racketeering charges against 61 more, including the members of a legal support collective.

The ‘Cop City’ Mass Arraignment Circus

December 8, 2023 Hannah Riley, Consortium News. , , , , ,
On November 6, I sat in a courtroom in downtown Atlanta as 57 people churned through arraignments on charges tied to a sweeping racketeering case. The case in question is as light on the evidence as it is clear in its aim: to suppress the movement to stop Cop City from being built in an Atlanta-area forest. The arraignment process was the first of what will likely be many surreal days in court as the state attempts a prosecution unprecedented in both size and scope. Being somewhat confused by the inner workings of our Byzantine court system on even the best days, I didn’t know what to expect from a mass arraignment of this many individuals.

Georgia Frames Cop-City Protest As Criminal Conspiracy

December 4, 2023 Rachel McKane and David Pellow, Consortium News. , , , , ,
When does lawful protest become criminal activity? That question is at issue in Atlanta, where 57 people have been indicted and arraigned on racketeering charges for actions related to their protest against a planned police and firefighter training center that critics call “Cop City.” Racketeering charges typically are reserved for people accused of conspiring toward a criminal goal, such as members of organized crime networks or financiers engaged in insider trading. Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr is attempting to build an argument that seeking to stop construction of the police training facility – through actions that include organizing protests, occupying the construction site and vandalizing police cars and construction equipment – constitutes a “corrupt agreement” or shared criminal goal.

Environmental Pollution Lawsuit May Pump The Brakes On Cop City

November 23, 2023 Jocelyn James, Scheer Post. , , , , ,
Earlier this month, the South River Watershed Alliance (SRWA) filed a civil rights complaint against the city of Atlanta, saying the rapid construction of a police training facility, locally known as Cop City, has caused environmental destruction to the surrounding community. The SRWA filed the complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and says the project’s location constitutes environmental racism. The facility’s construction is planned for a predominantly Black residential area, despite the investors and organizers of the project hailing from mostly white residential areas, and a proposed 43% of police trainees at the facility are expected to come from outside of the state of Georgia.
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