[News] Forest Defenders Vow Resistance After Court Green-Lights Phase I of “Cop City”

[Anti-Imperialist News]

truthout.org
<https://truthout.org/articles/forest-defenders-vow-resistance-after-court-green-lights-phase-i-of-cop-city/>
Forest Defenders Vow Resistance After Court Green-Lights Phase I of “Cop
City”
Candice Bernd - February 22, 2023
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

The Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, issued an order
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23685515-order-denying-tro> last
week denying three plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order to
halt clearing and construction work at the forested site of a planned
police training facility that activists in Atlanta have dubbed “Cop City.”
The ruling paves the way for construction activity even as the DeKalb
County Zoning Board of Appeals considers the merits of the plaintiffs’
legal appeal of the project’s land disturbance permit.

The 85-acre, $90 million police militarization and training complex is
being spearheaded by the Atlanta Police Foundation. If built, the compound
would be one of the largest police training facilities in the country
<https://theintercept.com/2021/08/11/atlanta-police-training-center/>. The
site would contain several shooting ranges, a helicopter landing base, an
area for explosives training, police-horse stables and an entire mock city
for officers to engage in role-playing activities.

In September 2021, the Atlanta City Council approved the project despite
nearly 17 hours of comments from more than 1,100 constituents across the
city, 70 percent of whom expressed firm opposition. Black working-class
communities who actually live in the proposed area of unincorporated DeKalb
County, and therefore aren’t represented in Atlanta’s City Council, also
vocally oppose the project.

Judge Thomas Cox sided with the Atlanta Police Foundation’s argument that,
“Property owned by a governmental entity for governmental purposes is
exempt from local zoning ordinances.” Judge Cox, however, ordered the
Foundation to “immediately coordinate daily inspections of the property and
pay for the same.”

According to documents the DeKalb County Planning and Sustainability
Department submitted to the Atlanta Community Press Collective
<https://atlantapresscollective.com/2023/02/17/judge-denies-cop-city-construction-injunction/>,
the project’s land disturbance permit allows for “phase 1” construction
processes that include sedimentary control measures and “certain security
measures, including … a widened parking pad, security lights, generators,
and storage for supplies to support 24 hour patrols.” A Planning and
Sustainability Department inspector found that no work was performed beyond
this scope after an inspection last week.

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Jon Schwartz, tells *Truthout* he doesn’t plan to
appeal last week’s ruling denying the restraining order. The next step is a
hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals, likely on April 12. After the
hearing, the board has 60 days to issue a ruling. Schwartz, however, said
Friday’s decision provides cover for the Zoning Board to rule the permit
can move ahead.

The denial of the temporary restraining order comes as a loose coalition of
community activists dubbed “Forest Defenders” are building toward a large
convergence during a week of action March 4-11. The convergence is aimed at
potentially reoccupying the South River Forest after a series of violent
raids on a protest encampment resulted in the police-perpetrated shooting
of Forest Defender Manuel Esteban Paez Terán in January. The coalition has
called for protests at local offices of the project’s contractors and
investors across the country this week.

Atlanta-based organizer Micah Herskind told *Truthout* last week’s ruling
doesn’t change much for those organizing on the ground. “I think that
people are just preparing for the week of action, and we’re going to do
that regardless. I think Judge Cox’s ruling is a bummer, and I hope that
the case moves forward with being able to stop the project beyond this, but
I think for most activists in Atlanta the fight continues.”

“I think Judge Cox’s ruling is a bummer, and I hope that the case moves
forward with being able to stop the project beyond this, but I think for
most activists in Atlanta the fight continues.”

Amy Taylor, a member of the project’s own advisory committee, filed the
initial appeal
<https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/02/ZBA-Appeal-Application.pdf> of
the land disturbance permit earlier this month with the DeKalb County
Zoning Board of Appeals. The appeal argues the county improperly issued the
permit because the project’s construction would violate a state limit on
sediment runoff in violation of the Clean Water Act and because the amount
of green space its lease sets aside is inaccurately large.

Taylor’s attorney, Schwartz, filed an amended appeal
<https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/02/Complaint-for-Emergency-Injunctive-Relief-SRWA-v-APF.pdf>
last week in the Superior Court of Fulton County adding two new plaintiffs,
County Commissioner Ted Terry and the South River Watershed Alliance, an
environmental organization that has been working on behalf of the South
River Forest and watershed for more than a decade. The filing also sought
the restraining order as well as an injunction against future clearing work
until the Zoning Board of Appeals’ final decision on the permit appeal.

On February 11, the Atlanta Community Press Collective obtained and
published an email exchange
<https://atlantapresscollective.com/2023/02/11/atlanta-police-foundation-refuses-to-comply-with-zoning-appeal-in-violation-of-county-law/>
between the plaintiffs’ attorney Schwartz; Dave Wilkinson, the CEO of the
Atlanta Police Foundation; and Simon Bloom, Foundation attorney and Board
of Trustees member. In the exchange, Wilkinson said the Foundation plans to
move “full speed ahead” with construction on the project despite the
appeal, which puts in place an active stay against the permit. Wilkinson
suggests that “it defies common sense” that an appeal from Taylor, who
lives within 250 feet of the site in unincorporated DeKalb County, could
force a work stoppage.

South River Watershed Alliance Board President Jackie Echols told *Truthout*
that both Wilkinson’s comments and Judge Cox’s ruling last week were
disappointing. “You feel kind of helpless when the law that you’re quoting
is just totally ignored,” she said.

“You feel kind of helpless when the law that you’re quoting is just totally
ignored.”

The Watershed Alliance has expressed concerns about the training compound’s
impacts on the South River for months now. The organization sent letters to
DeKalb County and the state environmental protection division outlining how
the training center’s construction would increase the sediment load in
Intrenchment Creek, a tributary of South River, in violation of the Clean
Water Act.

Atlanta’s South River, Echols says, has been on a state’s 303(d) list of
waters polluted by sediment that fail to meet water quality standards. It’s one
of the most endangered rivers
<https://endangeredrivers.americanrivers.org/south-river/> in the country,
having long been plagued by sewage pollution. In fact, a consent decree
with the Environmental Protection Agency and Georgia Environmental
Protection Division gave DeKalb County more than eight years
<https://www.courthousenews.com/appeals-court-asked-to-enforce-order-for-georgia-county-to-stop-spilling-sewage/>
to implement procedures to rein in water pollution, but mass sewage spills
have only continued in that time. The county’s deadline has since been
postponed
to 2027
<https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/dekalb-county-georgia-clean-water-act-settlement-modified-further-address-sanitary>,
a move critics like the Watershed Alliance argue lets the county continue
active practices of systemic environmental racism against surrounding
communities of color.

In fact, the South River Forest area’s ecological benefits and clear need
for protection had become so evident over the years that, prior to plans
for the police training center, the Atlanta City Council had planned to
turn the corridor into a protected park
<https://www.atlantaga.gov/home/showdocument?id=30594>. That’s what Echols
says the community still wants.

“That 300 acres of green space was the largest investment that Atlanta has
ever made in southeast Atlanta, and to renege on that, … it’s truly a
blatant disinvestment in the communities and the environment in southeast
Atlanta,” she told *Truthout*.

“That 300 acres of green space was the largest investment that Atlanta has
ever made in southeast Atlanta, and to renege on that, it’s truly a blatant
disinvestment in the communities and the environment in southeast Atlanta.”

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, alongside DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond,
announced the county’s approval of the training center’s permit during a
press conference on January 31. During the conference, Dickens and Thurmond
referred several times to the Community Stakeholder Advisory Committee, a
body intended to act as a representative for the communities immediately
surrounding forested area of the planned training facility.

Prior to Advisory Committee member Taylor’s appeal, another member of the
committee, Nicole Morado, resigned in outrage over the police-perpetrated
killing of environmental activist Terán by Georgia State Patrol trooper the
day they were shot on January 18. Terán, whose chosen name was Tortuguita,
was shot and killed by police during a violent raid on a protest encampment
in the South River Forest that has blockaded construction on the training
center for months.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) initially said Tortuguita was
shot and killed after allegedly firing a gun and injuring a Georgia state
trooper during the raid, but body-worn camera video
<https://truthout.org/articles/video-raises-questions-about-tortuguitas-death-at-cop-city-amid-permit-appeal/>
from an Atlanta Police Department (APD) unit released this month appears to
show officers suggesting that the trooper was shot by friendly fire in the
initial moments after the shooting. The GBI has stated that their ongoing
investigation of the shooting “does not support” the officers’ statements
and that they will release all video evidence when the investigation is
complete.

Tortuguita’s family released a statement
<https://twitter.com/ByTylerEstep/status/1623732625511796736/photo/1>
responding to the release of the body camera footage, saying the videos
raise “more questions than they answer, but confirm the family’s worst
fears that Manuel was massacred in a hail of gunfire. The videos also show
the clearing of the forest was a paramilitary operation that set the stage
for excessive use of force.” They have joined community activists in
calling for investigation of the shooting completely independent of the
GBI, DeKalb County police and the APD, and for the agencies to share the
evidence they have gathered with the family in a face-to-face meeting.

Over the course of December and January, 19 opponents of the police
training center have been charged with felonies under Georgia’s rarely used
2017 domestic terrorism law, including participants of the recent uprising.
A *Grist *review <https://grist.org/protest/atlanta-cop-city-terrorism/> of
20 arrest warrants shows that none of those hit with terrorism charges are
accused of seriously injuring anyone, and that many of the alleged acts of
“domestic terrorism” consist solely of trespassing in the woods, camping or
occupying a tree house.

The Superior Court’s ruling last week also comes after former Emory
University President Claire Sterk stepped down from the board of the
Atlanta Police Foundation and as a growing student movement opposed to the
training center gains momentum at historically Black and other colleges in
Atlanta. Sterk resigned from the board after more than 200 health care
workers and students affiliated with Emory signed a letter
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lTlQGzf5qlNGabV98uqC4BJ9leBruk7TgsW1V0eDc_I/edit>
calling for her resignation.

The land around the site slated to become the training center is associated
with the Old Atlanta Prison Farm
<https://itsgoingdown.org/slave-labor-overcrowding-and-unmarked-graves-the-buried-history-of-atlanta-city-prison-farm/>,
a complex of farms sold in a land lottery to a chattel slave plantation.
The site became a city-operated prison
<https://atlpresscollective.com/2021/08/14/history-of-the-atlanta-city-prison-farm/>
and dairy farm where incarcerated people were forced to grow crops and
raise livestock to feed the populations of other city prisons from about
1920 to 1989, according to the Atlanta Community Press Collective. Today,
the area continues to host a shooting range, juvenile detention facility
and the Helms state prison.

The struggle against the training center has brought activists against
police violence together with environmental activists as well as Muscogee
(Creek) tribal members, whose ancestors originally inhabited the land
before their forced removal in the early 19th century. Highlighting the
intersection of the training center’s social and environmental injustices,
they point out that not only is the South River Forest and watershed, known
to the Muscogee as the Weelaunee Forest, one of the city’s most important
defenses in the face of the worsening climate crisis, it’s also long been
the site of racist displacement, enslavement and carceral subjugation.
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