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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Forest Defenders Vow Resistance After Court Green-Lights Phase I of “Cop City”</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Candice Bernd - February 22, 2023<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_lek6vp5j0" alt="image.png" width="392" height="261"><br><p>The Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23685515-order-denying-tro">issued an order</a>
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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/08/11/atlanta-police-training-center/">largest police training facilities in the country</a>.
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>According to documents the DeKalb County Planning and Sustainability Department <a href="https://atlantapresscollective.com/2023/02/17/judge-denies-cop-city-construction-injunction/">submitted to the Atlanta Community Press Collective</a>,
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.</p>
<p>The plaintiffs’ attorney, Jon Schwartz, tells <em>Truthout</em> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Atlanta-based organizer Micah Herskind told <em>Truthout</em> 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.”</p>
<blockquote><p>“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.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Amy Taylor, a member of the project’s own advisory committee, <a href="https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/02/ZBA-Appeal-Application.pdf">filed the initial appeal</a>
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.</p>
<p>Taylor’s attorney, Schwartz, filed an <a href="https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/02/Complaint-for-Emergency-Injunctive-Relief-SRWA-v-APF.pdf">amended appeal</a>
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.</p>
<p>On February 11, the Atlanta Community Press Collective <a href="https://atlantapresscollective.com/2023/02/11/atlanta-police-foundation-refuses-to-comply-with-zoning-appeal-in-violation-of-county-law/">obtained and published an email exchange</a>
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.</p>
<p>South River Watershed Alliance Board President Jackie Echols told <em>Truthout</em>
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.</p>
<blockquote><p>“You feel kind of helpless when the law that you’re quoting is just totally ignored.”</p></blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://endangeredrivers.americanrivers.org/south-river/">one of the most endangered rivers</a>
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 <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/appeals-court-asked-to-enforce-order-for-georgia-county-to-stop-spilling-sewage/">more than eight years</a>
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 <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/dekalb-county-georgia-clean-water-act-settlement-modified-further-address-sanitary">postponed to 2027</a>,
a move critics like the Watershed Alliance argue lets the county
continue active practices of systemic environmental racism against
surrounding communities of color.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.atlantaga.gov/home/showdocument?id=30594">had planned to turn the corridor into a protected park</a>. That’s what Echols says the community still wants.</p>
<p>“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 <em>Truthout</em>.</p>
<blockquote><p>“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.”</p></blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/video-raises-questions-about-tortuguitas-death-at-cop-city-amid-permit-appeal/">body-worn camera video</a>
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.</p>
<p>Tortuguita’s family <a href="https://twitter.com/ByTylerEstep/status/1623732625511796736/photo/1">released a statement</a>
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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://grist.org/protest/atlanta-cop-city-terrorism/"><em>Grist </em>review</a>
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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lTlQGzf5qlNGabV98uqC4BJ9leBruk7TgsW1V0eDc_I/edit">signed a letter</a> calling for her resignation.</p>
<p>The land around the site slated to become the training center is associated with the <a href="https://itsgoingdown.org/slave-labor-overcrowding-and-unmarked-graves-the-buried-history-of-atlanta-city-prison-farm/">Old Atlanta Prison Farm</a>, a complex of farms sold in a land lottery to a chattel slave plantation. The site became a <a href="https://atlpresscollective.com/2021/08/14/history-of-the-atlanta-city-prison-farm/">city-operated prison</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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