Skip to content

Cop City

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.”

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.

Georgia State Students Demand The University Denounce Cop City

May 20, 2023 GSU Student Coalition Against Policing and Militarism, Scalawag Magazine. , , , ,
We, the Georgia State University Student Coalition Against Policing & Militarism, write this letter to express our solidarity with the Stop Cop City movement. We demand that the university end its sprawling investments in carceral projects, including, but not limited to, Cop City.  The university heavily invests in policing, surveillance, and other forms of state violence that disproportionately impact racially-oppressed students, both historically and in our contemporary time, who comprise most of the school's population. Further, while the institution increases funding for GSU Police Department (GSUPD), which enacts racialized violence against its students, departments face budget cuts that reduce the educational capacity of the university.

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.

Three Face Felonies For Allegedly Flyering Near Home Of Georgia Trooper

May 14, 2023 Ryan Fatica, Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
Bartow County, Georgia — More than 3 ½ months after Georgia State Patrol agents killed forest defender Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán during a raid on the Weelaunee Forest, officials still refuse to name the officers responsible for their death or take any steps toward bringing them to justice. After months of waiting, it appears that activists and community members have begun stepping up to provide transparency themselves. In late April, researchers with the Atlanta Community Press Collective released the names of six Georgia State Patrol SWAT agents believed to be involved in Tortuguita’s killing.

March And Encampment At Georgia Tech To Stop Cop City

May 6, 2023 It's Going Down. , , ,
On April 24th, demonstrations took place at Emory University, Georgia Tech, Agnes Scott College, Clark Atlanta, Spelman, and Morehouse. At Georgia Tech, a few dozen of us gathered on Tech Green, an open green space located on campus. A graduate student hosted one of their classes on the Green while we set up tents and gazebos. For several hours, we distributed literature about the movement to defend the Weelaunee forest and to stop Cop City. We also distributed a zine about the 2017 murder of queer anarchist and Pride Alliance student Scout Schultz by GTPD officer Tyler Beck, and the subsequent revolt on campus in the wake of the killing.
«1234567»
assetto corsa mods

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.