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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The 'Stop Cop City' Movement Roots Going Back Decades</h1>March 11, 2023</div>
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The Stop Cop City movement recalls Atlanta’s 1996 Olympic bid and the
city’s long history of prioritizing tourists, business interests, and
wealthy white communities over Black and working-class people </p><div>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/scheerpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/52668179545_a1426ee007_o-edited.jpg?fit=780%2C488&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="245"><font size="1">Protesters
marching in Minneapolis near Hennepin/Lake remembering Manuel
Teran(Tort), who was shot and killed by officers at a prolonged protest
in an Atlanta forest after they say he fired upon them. They stopped at
Lake/Girard where protester Deona Marie was killed on 06/13/21. (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chaddavisphotography/">Chad Davis</a> / <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chaddavisphotography/52668179545/in/photolist-2of7bR8-2of6rmm-2n2nTjW-2ncEueQ-3gC2uB-2fwKSvZ-2nFJujv-DLmXBf-4TpkZ4-9b2gH2-aGWNdX-JPDX6-qfRVcA-5GfWVc-bRtcGP-2o27PXh-6nNqR3-LNxge3-vTefQb-2nmQSdk-EiuA5R-P4Mk2Z-2kGwTgH-2njKTwo-2nWsQSN-2gNxXJW-4VeLCy-nPbyvg-2mVnNFg-WWiLrr-CqJyt-3gC2wM-Y5PZnu-6ViTfW-2j81y1q-5K1fjN-FfLKRJ-2j7ewti-2koRia2-2ohYMXy-2n3qqNh-2jcNrUR-Cq6u9N-2oce9hh-2h573oF-2ggxLG6-2fuWcqz-h8aBDo-2XYtU2-2krdQ2D">Flickr</a>)</font>
<p><strong>By Micah Herskind / <a href="https://prismreports.org/2023/03/02/fight-stop-cop-city/">Prism</a> </strong></p>
<p>On Jan. 18, 2023, a squad of local and state police officers marched into the Weelaunee Forest in southeast Atlanta, where they <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/02/09/cop-city-body-camera-footage/" rel="noreferrer noopener">shot and killed</a> a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/for-family-of-manuel-tortuguita-paez-teran" rel="noreferrer noopener">young, queer, Indigenous-Venezuelan protester</a> named
Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán. Tortuguita was one of many Atlanta forest
defenders, a decentralized group of activists that has been <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/the-new-fight-over-an-old-forest-in-atlanta" rel="noreferrer noopener">living in the forest since 2021</a> to protect against its proposed destruction and replacement with “Cop City”—a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/16/us-activists-protest-atlanta-cop-city-training-forest" rel="noreferrer noopener">massive police militarization facility</a> complete with a “mock city” inside for police to practice their many tactics of urban warfare and repression.</p>
<p>The city is leasing 85 acres of the Weelaunee Forest (land <a href="https://streetsofatlanta.blog/2022/05/02/native-americans-share-concerns-over-fate-of-forest/" rel="noreferrer noopener">originally stolen</a> from
Muscogee Creek people) to the Atlanta Police Foundation for Cop City,
but it is located in a majority-Black area of DeKalb County outside of
city limits, resulting in significant disenfranchisement of its
residents who have few easily accessible <a href="https://ryangravel.com/2021/08/21/faq-what-process-would-we-expect/" rel="noreferrer noopener">official channels</a> to register their dissent. While Cop City would impact everyone in Atlanta and across the country, it will have especially <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/stop-cop-city-tortugita-oped" rel="noreferrer noopener">disastrous ramifications for nearby residents</a>, who will <a href="https://prismreports.org/2022/06/15/atlanta-environmental-damage-cop-city/" rel="noreferrer noopener">lose the benefit</a> of the forest’s flood prevention and cooling impacts. Indeed, this is land that the city referred to in 2017 as <a href="https://www.atlantaga.gov/home/showdocument?id=30594">one of the “four lungs”</a> of Atlanta and slated for incorporation into a broader set of park land—a promise the city broke just four years later.</p>
<p>While the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/02/09/cop-city-body-camera-footage/" rel="noreferrer noopener">political assassination</a> of
Tortuguita thrust the multi-year struggle against Cop City into the
national spotlight, Atlanta organizers have been working against the
project for years. The proposal first <a href="https://citycouncil.atlantaga.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/5332/637454378634230000" rel="noreferrer noopener">went public</a> in early 2021. It was <a href="https://www.mainlinezine.com/cop-city-and-the-prison-industrial-complex-in-atlanta/" rel="noreferrer noopener">quickly opposed by a broad coalition</a> that
included environmental justice and human rights organizations,
abolitionists, groups working against gentrification, clergy,
neighborhood associations near the proposed site, and more. Community
members <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/battle-brews-over-land-plans-for-new-atlanta-police-and-firefighter-training-center/YYTLB5CGXVAIDCMVPFAEBIA6KQ/" rel="noreferrer noopener">consistently advocated</a> and
attended public meetings throughout the summer of 2021. When it came
time for the final City Council vote on the Cop City legislation, the
council meeting lasted two days due to <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/17-hours-of-public-comment-pour-in-ahead-of-police-training-center-vote/RDE6OHCQRRCZXPQFHFS776CX2I/" rel="noreferrer noopener">over 17 hours of public comment</a>, in which the <a href="https://theappeal.org/atlanta-cop-city-police-training-facility/" rel="noreferrer noopener">vast majority of commenters opposed</a> the project. <br></p><p>Meanwhile, it was residents from northeast Atlanta, a disproportionately <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/what-would-buckhead-city-look-like-we-crunched-the-numbers/WRIYJBY2PBCEJFKWTFK2YDWXYA/" rel="noreferrer noopener">white and wealthy</a> area of the city, who <a href="https://www.mainlinezine.com/cop-city-and-the-prison-industrial-complex-in-atlanta/" rel="noreferrer noopener">spoke in favor</a> of Cop City. As one Black resident from southwest Atlanta <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYLJ2Rigfdo" rel="noreferrer noopener">summarized poignantly</a>,
“It doesn’t appear as if the police protect us. They protect the north
side. But you want them to train over here … why is that?”</p>
<p>Despite the massive local opposition to Cop City, a <a href="https://www.mainlinezine.com/cop-city-and-the-prison-industrial-complex-in-atlanta/" rel="noreferrer noopener">combination of state and corporate forces </a>worked
hand in hand for years to push for its creation. The private nonprofit
Atlanta Police Foundation (APF) championed the vision for Cop City,
working on the plans for it <a href="https://atlantapolicefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/VISION-SAFE-ATL-Infrastructure.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener">since at least 2017</a>. APF is backed by a mix of some of <a href="https://news.littlesis.org/2022/11/15/meet-the-major-corporations-and-cultural-institutions-helping-build-cop-city-in-atlanta/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Atlanta’s most</a> <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23572554-q3-2022external-q3-atlanta-police-foundation-board-meeting-bus-tour-consent-agenda_q3-91422#document/p20">prominent corporations</a>, including Delta, UPS, Home Depot, Wells Fargo, and Coca-Cola, as well as <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23572554-q3-2022external-q3-atlanta-police-foundation-board-meeting-bus-tour-consent-agenda_q3-91422#document/p20" rel="noreferrer noopener">major foundations</a> like
the Georgia Power Foundation and the Woodruff Foundation, whose founder
was the president of Coca-Cola from 1923-85. Many of the same
corporations’ leaders sit on the <a href="http://atlprogress.org/about.php" rel="noreferrer noopener">Atlanta Committee for Progress</a> (ACP), a public-private partnership made up of corporate, state, nonprofit, and <a href="https://prismreports.org/2023/02/27/what-good-are-hbcus-mirroring-anti-blackness/" rel="noreferrer noopener">university leaders</a> that has <a href="http://www.atlprogress.org/_pdf/ACP_Public_Safety_Release_04-01-21.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener">vocally supported</a> Cop City—including the 2021 commitment from their then-Board Chair Alex Taylor to <a href="https://saportareport.com/opposition-grows-to-police-training-center-at-atlanta-prison-farm/columnists/maria_saporta/" rel="noreferrer noopener">lead the fundraising campaign</a> for
$30 million in private funds, half of the anticipated $60 million total
cost to build the facility. Taylor is also the CEO of Cox Enterprises,
the corporation that owns Atlanta’s main media outlet, the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution—resulting in an <a href="https://www.ajc.com/opinion/opinion-atlanta-needs-new-public-safety-training-center-now/CTY42ZZA7RHOBCZW3CR5FD5CFA/" rel="noreferrer noopener">endless</a> <a href="https://www.ajc.com/opinion/opinion-the-sometimes-messy-but-inexorable-march-to-public-safety/BYFEJFLAVFA6PFWP2E6554QGKA/" rel="noreferrer noopener">stream</a> <a href="https://www.ajc.com/opinion/opinion-a-violent-outcome-that-neednt-have-happened/EILQDIUEBBDWBD7YLDDSWHANH4/" rel="noreferrer noopener">of</a> <a href="https://www.ajc.com/opinion/citys-crime-rise-can-be-reversed-once-more/NXZT4APRCRHD5NTEPFFZZR3YYE/" rel="noreferrer noopener">pro-Cop City</a> <a href="https://www.ajc.com/opinion/opinion-does-atlanta-city-council-really-care-about-public-safety/MBMGNS2I2BBLBHJ7HHFPTVCQ5I/" rel="noreferrer noopener">op-eds</a> <a href="https://www.ajc.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-govt-101-and-the-tough-decisions-surrounding-cop-city/5BQVUR7PDJE4HEQLLWCJGV2JSI/" rel="noreferrer noopener">and</a> <a href="https://www.ajc.com/opinion/opinion-crime-wave-should-spur-action-on-center/E2G7BMPL2BEZHPOW4AOJBXUG64/" rel="noreferrer noopener">editorials</a> since the project was announced, with the paper <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/the-new-fight-over-an-old-forest-in-atlanta" rel="noreferrer noopener">often failing to disclose</a> the relationship between AJC and Cox.</p>
<p>In other words, Cop City is a fundamentally anti-democratic project
driven by a mix of powerful actors, while Atlanta’s residents,
particularly those closest to the proposed site, have been utterly
ignored. </p>
<h3>Atlanta’s Olympic City and mass displacement </h3>
<p>This is far from the first time that Atlanta has prioritized the wishes of its ruling class over the community; it’s a <a href="https://saportareport.com/red-hot-city-is-perfectly-timed-for-atlanta-gentrification-to-look-in-the-mirror/columnists/johnruch/" rel="noreferrer noopener">defining feature of Atlanta governance</a>.
While the fight to Stop Cop City is a more recent struggle against the
Atlanta ruling class’ orientation toward its most vulnerable residents,
it should be understood within a much longer trend of state, corporate,
and nonprofit forces banding together to shape the city in their
interests and at the expense of Black and working-class residents. This
pattern showed up perhaps most vividly in the transformation of the city
that occurred in the leadup to the 1996 Olympics. </p>
<p>To attract the Olympics and the supposed increase in revenue and
reputation that the Games would bring, Atlanta’s political and economic
leadership worked to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26229061" rel="noreferrer noopener">physically and ideologically </a>reshape Atlanta as a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/233383/imagineering-atlanta-by-charles-rutheiser/" rel="noreferrer noopener">world-class city</a>—a mission that <a href="http://www.ruig-gian.org/ressources/Atlanta_background_paper.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener">predated but intensified</a> during
the city’s preparation for the Olympics. While the APF and ACP lead the
push for Cop City today, the private nonprofit Atlanta Committee on the
Olympic Games (ACOG) and groups like the Central Atlanta Progress (a
nonprofit representing Atlanta’s business interests) <a href="https://placesjournal.org/article/the-displacement-decathlon/?cn-reloaded=1" rel="noreferrer noopener">championed the vision</a> and city transformation for the Olympics.</p>
<p>Upon being selected for the 1996 Olympics, the city’s leaders
prepared Atlanta for the games with displacement, destruction, and
redevelopment. In 1995, the city destroyed Techwood Homes, the U.S.’s
oldest federally subsidized public housing project, to <a href="http://www.ruig-gian.org/ressources/Atlanta_background_paper.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener">clear the way for</a> the Olympic village that would house athletes and media. Just south of Techwood Homes, the Techwood Park district—an “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26229061" rel="noreferrer noopener">economically and culturally vibrant location</a>”
home to over 10% of the city’s shelter capacity that was painted as a
“slum” by the city’s corporate forces—was transformed by ACOG into the
fenced-in Centennial Olympic Park. Several other neighborhoods were cut
up or destroyed in the service of the Olympics, including Atlanta’s <a href="https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2016/08/05/autodromo-rio-atlanta-olympics" rel="noreferrer noopener">Summerhill neighborhood</a>, which was replaced by the Centennial Olympic Stadium and an array of townhouses that were unaffordable for prior residents.</p>
<p>The city also made significant policy changes and other
infrastructural investments that would facilitate displacement, often
through criminalization. In 1991, the Atlanta City Council <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469654751/the-legend-of-the-black-mecca/#:~:text=For%20more%20than%20a%20century,in%20spite%20of%20Jim%20Crow%2C" rel="noreferrer noopener">passed new city laws</a> hyper-criminalizing homelessness—laws that, according to historian Maurice Hobson, “were so ambiguous that they <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469654751/the-legend-of-the-black-mecca/#:~:text=For%20more%20than%20a%20century,in%20spite%20of%20Jim%20Crow%2C" rel="noreferrer noopener">could be enforced</a> against
undesirables at the discretion of authorities.” In 1995, the city
opened the Atlanta City Detention Center downtown with an approximate
1,000-bed capacity, which state forces used to clear mostly Black
homeless people from the streets and hold them over the weekend when
tourists flooded the city. Hauntingly, the new jail was <a href="https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/10644/1995_Fall.pdf?sequence=1" rel="noreferrer noopener">referred to by one city official</a> as “the first Olympic project completed on time.” Organizers are <a href="https://www.closethejailatl.org/" rel="noreferrer noopener">still fighting</a> to close this jail. </p>
<p>The city displaced <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26229061" rel="noreferrer noopener">roughly 30,000 people</a> from
their homes between 1990 and 1996 and illegally arrested over 9,000
homeless people between 1995 and 1996. At the time, some activists even
uncovered the Atlanta Police Department’s <a href="http://www.ruig-gian.org/ressources/Atlanta_background_paper.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener">use of pre-printed tickets</a> with categories filled out for “African American,” “Male,” and “Homeless.” </p>
<p>While state and corporate actors were the key drivers of the Olympic
transformation, nonprofits also aided directly in the displacement,
lending resources, involvement, and cover to state violence. For
example, <a href="http://www.ruig-gian.org/ressources/Atlanta_background_paper.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener">through a partnership</a> between
the city and the nonprofit organization Travelers Aid, homeless
individuals were given one-way tickets out of town and were <a href="https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2016/08/05/autodromo-rio-atlanta-olympics" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly required</a> to
sign pledges not to return. Just as state and corporate entities
partnered with nonprofits during the Olympic displacement, today, the
Atlanta Police Foundation is partnering with the National Center for
Civil and Human Rights to offer <a href="https://www.civilandhumanrights.org/human-rights-groups-launch-course-to-train-police/" rel="noreferrer noopener">“human rights” training</a> to the Atlanta Police Department—a partnership touted during the leadup to the City Council vote on Cop City. </p>
<h3>Striving to become a “world-class city”</h3>
<p>In the two and a half decades since the Games, Atlanta’s hostility
toward Black and working-class residents has only intensified. Atlanta’s
leadership continually poured <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520387645/red-hot-city" rel="noreferrer noopener">vast sums of public money</a> into
private projects while the city has gentrified rapidly and low-income
residents have been pushed further out. In 2017, the City <a href="https://atlanta.curbed.com/2017/6/22/15851062/peachtree-pine-homeless-shelter-closing-2017" rel="noreferrer noopener">closed Peachtree and Pine</a>, the city’s largest homeless shelter. <a href="https://thesoutherneronline.com/83287/nexus-feature/final-closing-of-peachtree-and-pine/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ownership of the building</a>has
since been transferred to Central Atlanta Progress, the group that once
helped to champion Atlanta’s Olympic transformation. As Anita Beaty,
then-executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the
Homeless, <a href="https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2016/08/05/autodromo-rio-atlanta-olympics" rel="noreferrer noopener">noted</a>,
“the [Olympic] juggernaut was a dry run, a dress rehearsal for the
developers and the elites to take over the city, to take over the
planning, housing construction—to eliminate public housing.” These words
have proven to be tragically true. </p>
<p>Today, many of the same forces that once worked to reshape the city
continue to build on the city’s Olympic legacy to attract other large
events, most prominently the <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/atlantas-bid-to-host-the-2024-democratic-national-convention-a-breakdown-of-the-numbers/AO43EOGGWFFCRNY6GYJFSEXSUQ/" rel="noreferrer noopener">2024 Democratic National Convention</a> (DNC) and the <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/world-cup-sets-deadline-for-developers-to-bring-new-life-downtown/KCABWBFKNVHJ5L6ENXDVKVDMXY/" rel="noreferrer noopener">2026 FIFA World Cup</a>.
In the city’s bid to attract the DNC—an event that has been compared to
the Olympics—Atlanta’s leadership has touted its hotel capacity,
planned improvements to stadium infrastructure, and the city’s ability
to call on at least 27 other police and fire departments in nearby
areas.</p>
<p>While these events are certainly not the only reason that city
leadership has worked so hard to create Cop City, they are nonetheless
directly related. Atlanta’s quest to frame itself as a world-class city
that is welcoming to tourists and big business will continue to go hand
in hand with increased policing and displacement. At a recent City
Council meeting, for example, the Atlanta <a href="https://twitter.com/atlanta_press/status/1630281274286850051" rel="noreferrer noopener">chief of police stated</a> that
he was seeking to recruit over 400 additional police officers by the
time of the 2026 World Cup. Likewise, despite committing in 2019 to
closing the city jail built in preparation for the Olympics, in 2022,
city leadership <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/civil-rights-organizations-ask-atlanta-mayor-and-city-council-reverse-their-decision">instead voted to re-open</a> and fill the jail with 700 people from the county jail. </p>
<p>In other words, when it comes to the displacement, destruction, and
violence associated with the vastly unpopular Cop City project, Atlanta
has been here before. State and corporate forces continue to run the
city in the service of real estate capital, tech jobs, tourism, and
upper-class white communities—and at the expense of Black and
working-class residents. Carceral expansion, real estate development,
and major events continue to mutually reinforce one another.</p>
<p>But just as there were <a href="http://www.ruig-gian.org/ressources/Atlanta_background_paper.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener">once protests</a> against
the violence of the Olympic project in Atlanta, so too are people
resisting state violence today. The movement to Stop Cop City is only
becoming more powerful as more people join every day and take action
even in the midst of <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/01/27/cop-city-atlanta-forest/" rel="noreferrer noopener">massive and likely unconstitutional</a> state
repression. While Atlanta’s posture toward its most vulnerable has held
steady for decades, the Stop Cop City movement is here to stay. The
movement has the potential not just to stop the destruction of the
forest and the construction of a deadly police playground, but also to
begin reversing the transformation that has for so long held our
communities ransom. When we fight, we win.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s Note: See ScheerPost publisher Robert Scheer’s SI Interview with civil rights activist and <a href="https://communitymovementbuilders.org/">Community Movement Builders</a> founder Kamau Franklin on Cop City below:</em></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/08/the-birthplace-of-american-dystopia/"><em>The Birthplace of American Dystopia: Cop City, Atlanta</em></a></strong></p>
<hr>
<div><p>Micah Herskind is an organizer, policy advocate, and writer based in Atlanta, GA.<br></p>
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