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Cop City

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.

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.

Behind The #StopCopCity Domestic Terrorism Warrants

March 23, 2023 Ryan Fatica, a contributor and Chris Schiano, Unicorn Riot. , , , , , ,
Atlanta, Georgia — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, in collaboration with several other law enforcement agencies, charged 23 more people with ‘domestic terrorism’ for their alleged involvement in the ongoing effort to stop ‘Cop City’ and to defend the Weelaunee Forest in unincorporated DeKalb County southeast of Atlanta. This brings the total number of ‘Cop City’ opponents charged under the statute to 42. Most of those arrested are currently being held at the DeKalb County Jail after being denied bond by Magistrate Judge Anna Watkins Davis on March 7. Four arrestees, including attorney Thomas Jurgens, have been granted bond.

An Historic Direct Action In A Forest Outside Atlanta

March 19, 2023 Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
DeKalb County, Georgia – In broad daylight Sunday, March 5, a group of about three hundred masked people wearing mostly camouflage and black clothing stormed the main police security outpost within the Weelaunee Forest at the proposed construction site of the ‘Cop City’ project. Demonstrators tore up silt fencing, and set an office trailer, two UTVs, a mobile surveillance tower, and a front end loader afire as police ran for cover. The group hurled rocks and fireworks at the retreating police, who repositioned to a smaller outpost across Key Road SE and worked furiously to close a gate behind them to establish a barrier between themselves and the advancing group.

Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán’s Independent Autopsy Report Released

March 15, 2023 Alex Binder, Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
The family of Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán held a press conference Monday morning outside the Historic DeKalb Courthouse to release the full autopsy of Tortuguita and to discuss the lawsuit the family filed this week against the City of Atlanta under the Georgia Open Records Act. Tortuguita was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol on January 18 in the South River Forest as they were dedicating their time to the diverse ‘Stop Cop City’ movement. The autopsy conducted of Tortuguita at the request of their family by Dr. Kris Sperry has found that when Tortuguita was shot and killed, their hands were raised in the air.

Atlanta Was A Constitution-Free Zone During ‘Stop Cop City’ Week Of Action

March 15, 2023 Candice Bernd, Truthout. , , , , ,
Southeast Dekalb County, Georgia—Belkis Terán raised her arms wide to welcome the rain now pounding hard over the newly thatched pavilion in the parking lot of the “Weelaunee People’s Park,” a space once known to residents of Atlanta and Southeast DeKalb County as Intrenchment Creek Park. Long before settlers dubbed the South branch of the Ocmulgee River here as simply the “South River,” the Mvskoke tribe, who were forcibly relocated from this area to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, called the river Weelaunee, the tribal word for “green/brown/yellow water.”
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