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Cop City

Stop Cop City Activist Facing RICO Charges Speaks Out About Repression

September 13, 2023 Justin A. Davis, Waging Nonviolence. , , , , , ,
For the past two years, calls to “stop Cop City” and “defend the Atlanta forest” have shaken the political and corporate establishment of Georgia’s state capital. Although Atlanta City Council has approved a lease and funding for a massive Public Safety Training Center in the city’s Weelaunee Forest, the sustained, popular #StopCopCity movement has effectively halted its construction. In response, local and state government have used a variety of tactics to move things forward — including police raids (which led to the killing of protester Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán), domestic terrorism charges against activists and a highly-controversial “signature verification process” that could undermine a proposed referendum.

The Struggle To Stop Cop City By Any Means Necessary

September 10, 2023 Micah Herskind and Kamau Franklin, The Forge. , , , ,
Cop cars on fire. Occupations of the Weelaunee Forest. Weeks of action. Volunteers with clipboards, collecting referendum petition signatures in the summer heat. Weekly canvassing. Town halls and open mic sessions. Direct action and civil disobedience. Record-breaking numbers of people showing up for public comment (on three separate occasions!). Regular food distributions and mutual aid. Surveillance cameras smashed. Music festivals in the forest. Comrade care clinics. Protests outside the homes of politicians and CEOs. Trivia night fundraisers at local restaurants. Shareholder divestment campaigns. Wheatpasting, movement art, and diss track competitions.

Construction Work Stopped Briefly As Cop City Protesters Enter Site

September 8, 2023 Matt Scott, Nolan Huber-Rhoades and Lev Omelchenko, Atlanta Community Press Collective. , , , ,
Thursday morning a group of Cop City activists invoked a “people’s stop work order” and chained themselves to equipment at the construction site for the proposed Atlanta Safety Public Training Center, more commonly known as Cop City. “This is a war happening against protesters,” Ayeola Omolara Kaplan, one of the five activists arrested, said via written statement. “If we don’t stand up for our right to protest now, standing up in the future will be vain. Cop City is in the process of being built, and this can only continue if we allow it.” Kaplan, a self-described Atlanta based revolutionary artist, was joined by Jeff Jones...

NLG Condemns Georgia Indictments Of Stop Cop City Protesters

September 6, 2023 National Lawyers Guild. , , , , ,
The National Lawyers Guild condemns in the strongest terms the state of Georgia’s indictments, announced today, Tuesday, September 5, against 61 people targeted for allegedly being part of the movement to #StopCopCity. These indictments, filed by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, aim to quell the growing, massive public movement to bring an end to the construction of a military police training facility in the Atlanta Forest, and to use RICO, domestic terrorism and money laundering charges to portray a popular movement as an unlawful conspiracy. “The National Lawyers Guild strongly condemns the state of Georgia’s organized effort to silence, criminalize, and punish movements for justice,” says NLG President Suzanne Adely.

More Than 60 Atlanta ‘Cop City’ Activists Named In RICO Indictment

September 5, 2023 Jozsef Papp and Shaddi Abusaid, Atlanta Journal Constitution. , , , ,
More than five dozen activists were indicted on RICO charges last week over the ongoing efforts to halt construction of the city of Atlanta’s planned public safety training center in DeKalb County. The sweeping indictment, handed up last Tuesday in Fulton County, is being prosecuted by the Georgia Attorney General’s Office. A total of 61 protestors have been charged with violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act. Some face additional charges of domestic terrorism and money laundering. Most are not from Georgia.

Cop City Protesters Knock Atlanta PD For Soliciting ‘Outside Agitators’

September 4, 2023 Lydia Wei, The Indypendent. , , , ,
In recent weeks, New Yorkers have been perplexed by Atlanta Police Department (APD) hiring advertisements plastered throughout the MTA announcing recruiting events in New York City.  On Saturday afternoon, one of those events took place at the New York Hilton Midtown. A group of around 100 protestors chanting “From ATL to NYC, stop Cop City!” gathered on the sidewalk outside the hotel in opposition to the interstate recruitment. The demonstration drew a wide variety of participants.

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.
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