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Cop City

Atlanta: Referendum Coalition Says City Will Use Voter Suppression

August 23, 2023 Matt Scott, Atlanta Community Press Collective. , , , ,
Atlanta, Georgia - On Monday, the Stop Cop City Coalition announced it had collected 104,000 signatures on a referendum petition that would allow Atlanta voters to decide whether to overturn the 2021 lease of 381 acres of city-owned land in the South River Forest to the Atlanta Police Foundation for the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, but it will not turn in those signatures yet, citing an argument by the city that will increase the minimum number of signatures required for the petition to be successful and concerns that city officials plan to use what the coalition says is a voter suppression technique when validating petition signatures.

Atlanta’s Appeal Of ‘Stop Cop City’ Referendum Denied

August 16, 2023 Dyana Bagby, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
Opponents of Atlanta’s planned public safety training center scored another victory today when a federal judge denied the city of Atlanta’s appeal  to try to halt the “Stop Cop City” referendum petition drive. The ruling comes as organizers with the Vote to Stop Cop City  coalition say they have collected nearly 80,000 signatures,  more than the 70,000 goal announced at the start of the campaign in June. U.S. District Court Judge Mark H. Cohen denied the city’s appeal of his ruling last month  to allow those living outside the city to collect signatures as part of the referendum petition campaign. His ruling on the preliminary injunction also extended the amount of time to collect signatures.

As Petition Deadline Looms, Stop Cop City Wins More Time And Volunteers

August 6, 2023 Katherine Demby, Prism. , , ,
On Thursday, July 27, a federal judge ruled in favor of four DeKalb County residents who sued the city of Atlanta earlier this month, arguing that they should be allowed to collect petition signatures because they live so close to the proposed facility. Under current rules, all petition signers and signature witnesses must be registered to vote in the city of Atlanta. The preliminary injunction granted by U.S. District Court Judge Mark Howard Cohen not only bars the city of Atlanta from banning non-resident signature collectors but also extends the signature collection period, giving organizers until Sept. 25 to collect all signatures.

Cop City And The Escalating War On Environmental Defenders

July 15, 2023 Basav Sen and Gabrielle Colchete, In These Times. , , , ,
The fight in Atlanta over Cop City, a massive police training facility, has turned into ground zero for overlapping crises facing our country: the climate emergency, vast political and economic inequality, ever-militarizing police forces and systemic racism. If we want a democracy healthy enough to solve these crises, it’s worth paying attention to what is happening in the South River Forest. On May 31, in a disturbing move shortly before Atlanta’s City Council approved more funding for the facility, Georgia law enforcement arrested three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which provides activists with legal support and bail money.

Stop Cop City Is Everywhere

July 3, 2023 Cody Bloomfield, Defending Rights & Dissent. , , ,
Despite the arrests of protesters and their support network, or perhaps because of it, the Stop Cop City movement is everywhere. Driving through Atlanta, I see Stop Cop City wheatpaste posters pasted on abandoned buildings and at highway intersections. “Defend the Atlanta forest” is scrawled as bathroom graffiti and found on bumper stickers and yard signs. It’s hard for residents of Atlanta to be ignorant of the movement. Defend the Atlanta Forest, once a small contingent of hardcore activists occupying the Weelaunee Forest in the dead of winter, has proliferated into a diverse movement.

‘Stop Cop City’ Week Of Action Day Seven

July 1, 2023 Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
Atlanta, GA — The ‘Week of Action’ against ‘Cop City’ continued Friday with a protest outside the offices of Cadence Bank in Midtown Atlanta, which is providing a construction loan to the Atlanta Police Foundation for the building of ‘Cop City.’ Friday evening, a panel hosted by ‘Hip Hop Caucus’ discussed the past and present of overpolicing — from Atlanta’s militarized Red Dog Unit to ‘Cop City.’ During the rally at the bank, protesters chanted, held banners and briefly attempted to enter the locked building entrance to speak with Cadence Bank representatives.

‘Stop Cop City’ Week Of Action Day 5

June 30, 2023 Unicorn Riot. , , , , ,
The ‘Stop Cop City’ movement’s sixth week of action continued on Wednesday, with two events striking a more tense tone than the relatively calmer days earlier in the week. At around 10:30 a.m., a few dozen protesters held an unannounced noise demonstration outside Cadence Bank, which is providing the Atlanta Police Foundation with a construction loan for building ‘Cop City.’ They reportedly chanted at the bank for about 20 minutes, with some bacon apparently being tossed toward the mass of police guarding the bank, before leaving.

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.

Forest Defender Speaks From Bartow County Jail

June 22, 2023 Ryan Fatica, Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
Bartow County, GA — Over 7 weeks after they were arrested while distributing fliers in a small suburb of Atlanta, Charley Tennenbaum continues to be held in the Bartow County Jail for actions they say are protected by the First Amendment. On April 28, Charley and two other individuals were arrested in the city of White, Georgia and slapped with felony charges for distributing fliers containing information about Jonathan Salcedo, a Georgia State Patrol trooper who has been linked to the killing of Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán. Tortuguita was killed by police during a raid on the Weelaunee Forest on January 18.

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.

‘Cop City’ Protesters Visit Nationwide Insurance

June 15, 2023 Ryan Fatica, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
Scottsdale, Arizona — “I’m here in an official capacity, representing Nationwide,” said a protester in a blue wig and a skintight blue acrylic body suit. She wore placards strung across her shoulders with hand-painted replicas of the Nationwide logo on the front and back of her body. Her voice was muffled by the suit, which covered her entire face, hands, and probably feet. She peered out through eye holes it looked like she’d cut herself. “This insurance contract I’ve signed with Cop City is just not worth it from a business perspective,” she explained. “And also because I’m going against the wishes of the people and the Earth.” 

‘Stop Cop City’ Domestic Terror Charges Echo Past Repression Of Activism

June 11, 2023 Chris Hedges, The Real News. , , ,
The movement to Stop Cop City in Atlanta has brought environmental defenders and police abolitionists together to fight a mega-project that would demolish the historic Weelaunee Forest to create a massive urban warfare training facility. For standing up for people and the planet, more than 40 Cop City activists have been struck with domestic terrorism charges. Will Potter, author of Green Is the New Red, joins The Chris Hedges Report to place the repression of Cop City activists in a longer history of labeling environmental activists as ‘domestic terrorists.’ Will Potter is an investigative journalist whose work has focused on social justice and environmental movements, and attacks on civil rights post-9/11.

The Unions And Workers Supporting Cop City Protestors

June 9, 2023 Sarah Lazare, The Real News. , , ,
Vincent Quiles, a 28-year-old father and union organizer in Philadelphia, is part of a fledgling labor effort to support the months-long protests against construction of the notorious Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, popularly known as “Cop City.” For Quiles, this also means speaking out against his former employer: Home Depot. When he was fired from a Home Depot store in northeastern Philadelphia in February, Quiles was already struggling to support his toddler son on his salary, which he says never felt like enough, given the meager benefits. He says he was forced to lean on his “very strong support system.”
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