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<p><a id="label"
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City Kills Before It Opens</span></b></font>
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<span><a
href="https://www.blackagendareport.com/author/Margaret
Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist">Margaret
Kimberley</a> - </span>25 Jan 2023
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<div class="field field--name-field-cover-image field--type-image
field--label-hidden field--item"><a
href="https://www.blackagendareport.com/sites/default/files/2023-01/Paez%20Teran.jpg"
title="Cop City Kills Before It Opens"
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Before It Opens"}"><img
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<div class="field field--name-field-image-caption
field--type-string field--label-hidden field--item"><font
size="1">Manuel Esteban Paez Terán was killed by police at the
site of the planned Cop City. (Photo: Gabe Eisen)</font></div>
<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary
field--label-hidden field--item">
<p><em>What could possibly go wrong with a $90 million, 85-acre
police training ground that the community doesn't want?
Someone could be killed, and that happened before Atlanta's
awful Cop City project has even been built.</em></p>
<p>The city of Atlanta, Georgia is often presented as a “Mecca”
for Black people. Every mayor of that city who has held office
since 1974 has been Black, and celebrities have made it their
home. Major Historically Black Colleges and Universities are
located there. Atlanta is thought of as a place where Black
people thrive.</p>
<p>Except it is like every other major American city, where
Black people are more likely to be low wage workers or among
the unhoused. The Black people in leadership positions are
allowed to occupy them precisely because they have taken a
pledge not to upset the established political order.</p>
<p>These caveats must be kept in mind when discussing the
construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center,
known popularly as Cop City. The purported Black Mecca
municipality is spending $30 million to construct an 85-acre
militarized police training camp in the Weelaunee Forest. Cop
City will feature a <a
href="https://unicornriot.ninja/2022/new-documentary-on-late-sixties-civil-unrest-is-a-rosetta-stone-for-decoding-the-modern-day-police-state/"
rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">mock town<span
class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>
with a gas station, bank, bar, nightclub, school, residential
homes, apartments, park, and splash pad. There will also be a
warehouse on site for training in “crowd control.” A survey
of area residents indicates that <a
href="https://site-2670551-5163-2537.mystrikingly.com/"
rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">98% of them are
opposed<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>
to the facility which will be constructed by the Atlanta
Police Foundation. The Foundation has pledged to <a
href="https://truthout.org/articles/major-corporations-and-institutions-are-helping-to-build-cop-city-in-atlanta/"
rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">raise an additional
$60 million<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible">
</span></span></a> for the project from corporate donors.</p>
<p>The impetus for this theft of public land and training ground
for brutality began in 2020. In that year millions of people
across the country rose up in protest after the murder of
George Floyd by Minneapolis police. But Atlanta then
experienced its own rebellion when police there killed
Rayshard Brooks. Brooks was killed by police after an
altercation which began when he fell asleep in his car in the
parking lot of a fast food restaurant. Such circumstances are
common in police killings which usually happen during traffic
stops, mental health crises, and even calls for help. Only <a
href="https://mappingpoliceviolence.us/" rel="nofollow"
class="0" target="_blank">one-third<span class="0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> of police
killings occur during the commission of violent crimes.</p>
<p>Brooks' death created another rebellion, this time in Atlanta
itself, which years before was falsely dubbed, the “city too
busy to hate.” The response was classic, as the city’s white
fathers ordered their Black puppets to crack down and thus the
idea for Cop City was born. Its funders are a who’s who of
corporate giants including Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase,
Chick-Fil-A, Home Depot, United Parcel Service, Delta
airlines, Amazon and Waffle House. All of these entities claim
to have some sort of racial equity program and pledge
workplace diversity. Some of their CEOs made grand gestures
like “taking a knee” in 2020, but when not creating feel good
photo opportunities they use police foundations to help fund
police departments across the country. These efforts are
little more than slush funds which help police departments
spend more money without any accountability to the public.</p>
<p>The protests against Cop City also attracted <a
href="https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/" rel="nofollow"
class="0" target="_blank">forest defenders<span class="0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>, who
camped out to save the old growth trees from destruction. But
their peaceful protest of civil disobedience was met with
brute force. Some of them have been arrested and charged with
“domestic terrorism.” But the worst was yet to come. On
January 18, 2023 a forest defender named Manuel Esteban Paez
Terán was killed by the police.They claim that Paez Terán shot
one of them first. But there has been no independent
investigation and conveniently none of the police or members
of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation who raided the
protectors’ encampment were wearing body cameras. Cop City is
killing people before it even exists.</p>
<p>Of course protests ensued after Paez Terán was killed and
there were arrests. <a
href="https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/01/23/atlanta-mayor-andre-dickens-says-arrested-rioters-traveled-our-city-wreak-havoc"
rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Mayor Andre Dickens
<span class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>channeled
the segregationists of old when he said, "It should be noted
that these individuals were not Atlanta or Georgia residents.
Most of them traveled into our city to wreak havoc." The
representatives of the Black Mecca have resurrected the old
“outside agitator” trope.</p>
<p>Police surveillance in Georgia didn’t start with Cop City. In
2007 the plans for what is now <a
href="https://www.mainlinezine.com/report-with-10000-cameras-and-counting-how-many-does-the-apd-need-to-protect-and-serve-atlanta/"
rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Operation Shield<span
class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>
were put in place. More than 10,000 video cameras and license
plate readers make Atlanta the most surveilled city in the
country and one of the most surveilled in the world. Corporate
funders to the Atlanta Police Foundation paid for this hyper
policing too.</p>
<p>Cop City shows the nexus between oligarchic control, the
police state, and their errand girls and boys in the Black
political class. The end result of their dirty dealing is the
Cop City monstrosity. Police don’t need a training center.
They are already trained. They know quite well that their job
is to keep Black people under physical control and lock them
up as often as possible. A mock town teaching riot control is
the last thing Black people need. Haphazard brutality would be
transformed into an efficient and well oiled machine.</p>
<p>Obviously Cop City should be opposed, but so should corporate
control over our lives, and treacherous Black faces in high
places. There will surely be more killings if Cop City becomes
a reality.</p>
<p><strong><em>Margaret Kimberley is the author of <a
href="https://www.blackagendareport.com/bit.ly/3fnaWYU"
rel="nofollow">Prejudential: Black America and the
Presidents</a></em></strong><strong><em>. You can
support her work on <a
href="https://www.patreon.com/margaretkimberley"
rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Patreon <span
class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>and
also find it on the <a
href="https://twitter.com/freedomrideblog"
rel="nofollow" class="0" target="_blank">Twitter <span
class="0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>and
<a href="https://t.me/MargaretKimberley" rel="nofollow"
class="0" target="_blank">Telegram <span class="0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>platforms. She
can be reached via email
at margaret.kimberley(at)blackagendareport.com.</em></strong></p>
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