Proponents of the training facility say that the project is necessary to improve police morale and to fight crime. They have said that there is no feasible alternative location for the training center and that the Old Atlanta Prison Farm is "not a forest".[3] Critics of the training facility state that the center will increase militarization of police and that destruction of the forest will exacerbate economic disparities and ecological collapse in a poor-majority Black neighborhood.[4] On January 18, 2023, Georgia State Patrol Officers shot and killed Manuel Esteban Paez Terán during a raid on the occupied encampment.
Criticism of police and associated unrest has reduced police morale.[5] Authorities claim that the city has struggled with rising crime, citing 149 homicides in 2021: the most in a single year since the 1990s.[3] However, the city's crime compilation data shows a drop in overall crime rates and a mixed trend in homicides over the period from 2009 to the present.[8] Advocates for the proposed training facility have said that the project is an attempt to address these problems.[3][5]
The $90million proposed training center would include a shooting range and a mock village that has led the project to be nicknamed "Cop City." The city is expected to pay one-third of the cost, with the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF) paying the rest.[3] Plans for the 85-acre (34ha) facility were announced in 2017 [citation needed]. According to the APF, the project provides "the necessary facilities required to effectively train 21st-century law enforcement agencies responsible for public safety in a major urban city."[9]
Cox Enterprises is a corporate investor in the training facility and owns the city's major daily newspaper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,[5] which has published multiple editorials in favor of the project.[3]
The facility's proposed location is the Old Atlanta Prison Farm (OPF). A 2021 study by the Atlanta Community Press Collective—a self-described "abolitionist media" group—called the location a site of "atrocities of the past."[10][2][11] An earlier study in 1999 did not mention historical atrocities, but did recommend that the area be preserved and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Opponents of the project have objected to placing the police facility on the site of historic human rights violations.[2][11]Environmental justice advocates and organizations have proposed that the OPF should remain a centerpiece in the 3,500-acre (14km2) urban green space called the South River Forest.,[3][5] citing Atlanta's "massive disparities" in green space: areas with higher percentages of African-American residents–including the area surrounding the OPF–have fewer and smaller parks.[5]
Timeline
Stop Cop City protests in Atlanta in January 22, 2023
The APF training facility is opposed by a coalition of environmental groups, neighborhood associations, local schools,[12] and racial justice groups.[13] Plans were approved by the city in September 2021 after 17 hours of public comment from over 1,100 residents, 70% of whom opposed the project.[3] Residents have expressed concern that the approval process was secretive with limited input from affected communities.[5] The city appointed a community-advisory committee, and in 2022 Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens said that there was "a lot of room for input."[3] The advisory committee does not include representatives from environmental groups, but does include representatives from the police and fire departments and the Dickens administration.[3] A vocal critic of the facility was removed from the advisory committee.[3]
Residents who support the construction of the training facility have said that they want a properly trained police force and hope the project would improve the quality of the Atlanta police force to make their communities safer.[5]
DTF supporters have led divestment movements against APF corporate sponsors funding the APF, and four "week of action" campaigns in 2021–22 featured live music, supply drives, skill shares, and history lessons about the area.[14] Dozens of local community groups and regional organizations have opposed the project.[15][16][17]
Two environmental organizations, the South River Forest Coalition and the South River Watershed Alliance, have filed a lawsuit against the film studio development.[3]
Forest defense actions
A tree sit to prevent cutting of trees at the Old Atlanta Prison Farm
Beginning in late 2021, the contested forest was occupied by self-described forest defenders who barricaded the area and constructed tree-sits to prevent trees from being cut. Forest defenders had several conflicts with police, resulting in some arrests. They have also destroyed equipment being used by developers in the forest, vandalized property belonging to corporations connected with the APF and Blackhall studios, and committed arson.[3] In May 2022 the corporate offices of Brasfield & Gorrie in Birmingham, Alabama were vandalized, and the message "Drop Cop City Or Else" was spray-painted on the building.[18]
There is wide variation in the political stance and approach of DTF forest defenders,[18] and several sources describe the movement as leaderless and autonomous, with any participant able to act as they wish.[13][19][20]Prison abolition is a strongly represented political philosophy among opponents.[2][6]
On December 13, 2022, a task force of multiple police agencies conducted a joint raid at the training facility site.[21] Five people were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism.[22] The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) stated that road flares, gasoline, and explosive devices were found in the area;[21] when reporters asked police whether the explosive devices were fireworks or something more dangerous, the police declined to answer.[23]
On January 18, 2023, Georgia State Troopers and other agencies launched another raid. During the raid a trooper was shot in the leg, and a protester, Manuel Terán, known also as "Tortuguita", was shot and killed by police.[24] Police stated that Terán fired on them without warning.[25] Multiple groups, including other protestors, two independent journalists who had previously interviewed Terán, and Terán's family, have questioned whether Terán fired first, pointing to the lack of body camera footage of the shooting and calling for an independent investigation.[25][26][27][28]GBI conducted a forensic ballistic analysis which determined that the projectile recovered from the officer's wound matched the handgun found in Terán's possession.[29] The GBI said that there is no body camera footage of the shooting because officers near the incident did not have cameras. Georgia State Patrol officers do not wear body-cameras.[30] However, there is footage of the aftermath; officers from other agencies were present and would have captured that video.[30] The recovered handgun was determined to be purchased legally by Terán in September 2020.[31] Other protesters and Terán's family dispute that Terán fired a gun.[25]
On February 9, 2023, the Atlanta police released body camera footage of the aftermath of the shooting wherein an officer is heard saying "You fucked your own officer up." This led some to believe that the injured officer had not been shot by Terán, but by friendly fire from another officer.[32][33]
In March, Terán's family released the results of an independent autopsy revealing that Terán was shot fourteen times while sitting cross-legged on the ground with their hands raised in the air.[34][35]
January 2023 protests
Stop Cop City protests in Atlanta on January 22, 2023
On January 21, 2023, protesters marched from Underground Atlanta down Peachtree Street. At the intersection with Ellis St, some protesters damaged institutions who support the facility and burned an Atlanta Police Department vehicle. Six arrests were made. Responding to condemnation of these acts, Stop Cop City issued a statement asserting that "Destruction of material is fundamentally different from violence. All reported acts appear to be explicitly targeted against the financial backers".[36]
Vigils and protests were also held in other cities, such as Bridgeport, Minneapolis, Nashville, Philadelphia, and Tucson, from January 20 to 22, 2023.[37] Some demonstrators spray painted graffiti on Bank of America buildings to protest the company's involvement in financing the facility's construction.[37]
March 2023 protests
A protest was held at the facility construction site on March 5, 2023. Several demonstrators threw rocks and firebombs, resulting in the destruction of several pieces of construction equipment. Police subsequently raided the nearby South River Music Festival and detained 35 people, of which 12 were released and the remaining 23 were charged with domestic terrorism.[38] Festival attendees have accused police of selectively charging protestors from out of state, while releasing Georgia residents, in order to further the narrative that "outside agitators" coordinated and controlled the protests.[citation needed]
The arrest warrant for the festival attendees stated that domestic terrorism charges were brought against those based on probable cause, such as having had mud on their feet, and that those with legal aid phone numbers written on their bodies were considered suspicious. According to The Intercept, there is no information contained in the warrants that directly connects any of the defendants to illegal actions.[39][40] Atlanta police chief Darin Schierbaum refused to comment when confronted by journalists about this allegation.[41]
In May 2023, three activists were arrested and charged with felony intimidation of a police officer and misdemeanor stalking, with penalties up to 20 years in prison, for posting fliers and identifying the officer that shot Manuel Terán.[42] That same month, three more activists were arrested and charged with charity fraud and money laundering for organizing a legal bail fund.[43] Regarding the arrests, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr pledged to “not rest until we have held accountable every person who has funded, organized, or participated in this violence and intimidation” regarding the protests.[44]
2024 protests
In April 2024, students at Emory University organized a protest[broken anchor] on the university lawn against Cop City and the university's ties to Israel.[45] A statement from protest organizers accused the university of being “complicit in genocide and police militarization” and called for "total institutional divestment from Israeli apartheid and Cop City at all Atlanta colleges and universities."[46][47] The protests were peaceful until Georgia State Patrol, Atlanta Police and University Police forcefully dispersed the protests.[46][48] Law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets, and tasers during the crackdown.[49] 28 people were arrested, including the university's philosophy department chair Noëlle McAfee.[45]
Issues and themes
In September 2022, the APF reported that it projected opening the first phase of the facility in late 2023. DTF estimated that it had delayed the project by at least a month and a half.[14]
Domestic terrorism charges
Following the arrests in December when protestors were charged with domestic terrorism, additional protestors arrested in January were also charged with terrorism resulting in a total of 20 people facing these charges.[50] On March 6, 2023, it was reported that 23 people who had thrown large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police, as well having set buildings and equipment on fire, had been charged with domestic terrorism. Only two of them were from Atlanta. One was from France, and one was from Canada.[51][52][53][54]
This is the first time that state law has been used in this way. Legal scholars, protest groups, and state and local governments are interested in the precedents that this will set for handling similar cases in the future. Supporters of this approach say that it will deter criminal behavior, while critics say that it is overreach and could stifle legitimate protest.[55]
On April 25, 2023, Emory University students gathered on the Atlanta Campus quad and pitched tents as an act of protest to urge university leadership to denounce the building of the training center.[59] Students were also asking that Emory University President Greg Fenves step down from his role as a member of the Atlanta Committee for Progress (ACP), which plays a role in the building of the project.[60] The protest ultimately came to an end when Emory Police arrived on the Quad and asked students to leave the Quad, informing them that those who remained would face arrest.[59]
In September 2024, Georgia prosecutors dropped all fifteen charges of money laundering against three Atlanta bail fund organizers.[62] The three individuals were indicted alongside 58 others after helping to organize the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a provider of bail money for protestors taken into custody.
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campus is in the Druid Hills neighborhood, three miles from downtown Atlanta.
Oglethorpe County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,825. The county seat is Lexington.
The Atlanta Police Department (APD) is a law enforcement agency in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
The American city of Atlanta, Georgia has a reputation as the "city in a forest" due to its abundance of trees, uncommon among major cities. Tree coverage was estimated at 47.9% for 2008, in a 2014 study.
Gregory Louis Fenves is an American engineer and academic who is the 21st president of Emory University. He previously served as the President of the University of Texas at Austin from 2015 to 2020.
Erika Shields is an American law enforcement officer. She previously served as the chief of police of the Louisville Metro Police Department from January 2021 to January 2023. She was previously the 24th chief of police of the Atlanta Police Department from 2016 to 2020.
The New York Police Department's Strategic Response Group (SRG) is a unit of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) formed in 2015 for all counter-terrorism and the policing of political protests.
A wave of civil unrest in the United States, initially triggered by the murder of George Floyd during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020, led to protests and riots against systemic racism in the United States, including police brutality and other forms of violence. Since the initial national wave and peak ended towards the end of 2020, numerous other incidents of police violence have drawn continued attention and lower intensity unrest in various parts of the country.
The George Floyd protests in Atlanta were a series of protests occurring in Atlanta, the capital and largest city of Georgia, United States. The protests were part of the George Floyd protests and, more broadly, the 2020–2021 United States racial unrest, which began shortly after the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. On May 26, protesting occurred in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area and, over the next several weeks, protests spread to cities throughout the United States and then internationally.
Andre Dickens is an American politician and nonprofit executive who is the 61st and current mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. He was a member of the Atlanta City Council and defeated council president Felicia Moore in the second round of Atlanta's 2021 mayoral election. He is the chief development officer at TechBridge, a nonprofit technology organization. He served as the chairperson of the transportation committee and chaired on the Public Safety and Legal Administration Committee.
Michael Allen Collins Jr. is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Georgia's 10th congressional district since 2023. He is a member of the Republican Party.
The Old Atlanta Prison Farm is an abandoned, city-owned prison complex in southwest DeKalb County in the U.S. state of Georgia. From approximately 1920 to 1990, the farm was worked by prisoners to produce food for the region's prison system. There are limited historical records detailing the operation of the farm, especially after 1965.
The South River Forest or Weelaunee Forest is an area in southeast metro Atlanta, DeKalb County, Georgia, United States named after the nearby South River. The South River is also known by its Muscogee Creek name, the "Weelaunee". The area includes significant disparate, undeveloped forested parcels that help protect the river and tributaries. The area was originally identified and named the "South River Park" by Atlanta's Department of City Planning and identified as one of the lungs of Atlanta to be established as a conservation zone. Subsequently, The Nature Conservancy, the South River Watershed Alliance, South River Forest Coalition, Save the Old Atlanta Prison Farm, and others collaborated in an effort to hold Atlanta accountable to its conservation plan for the area.
Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, also known as Tortuguita, was a Venezuelan environmental activist and eco-anarchist who was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol Troopers, after a Georgia State Patrol Trooper was wounded during a raid of the Stop Cop City encampment on January 18, 2023.
The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, commonly known as Cop City, is a police and fire department training campus under construction in the South River Forest area of DeKalb County near Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Much of the land included in the plans was formerly part of the Old Atlanta Prison Farm, which was abandoned in 1995.
The Atlanta Police Foundation is an American nonprofit organization that provides support to the Atlanta Police Department.
Lorraine Fontana is an American lesbian activist and founder of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance.
↑ Lennard, Natasha; Lacy, Akela (May 2, 2023). "Activists Face Felonies for Distributing Flyers on "Cop City" Protester Killing". The Intercept. Archived from the original on May 4, 2023. Retrieved May 20, 2023. A forensics report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about guns fired during Tortuguita's killing named six state patrol officers: Bryland Myers, Jerry Parrish, Jonathan Salcedo, Mark Jonathan Lamb, Ronaldo Kegel, and Royce Zah. According to public records, one of the officers named lives in the area where the activists posted flyers. The report was obtained by the Atlanta Community Press Collective, an abolitionist nonprofit media group, through an open records request.
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