Protest at Atlanta City Council over Cop City. In 2021, 1,100 Atlanta residents, 70% of them
opposed to building the police facility, spoke, and on June 5 and 6, more than 400 opponents spoke. The City Council approved the $90 million funding for the facility anyway.
VIDEO STILL /Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The push to build “Cop City,” the planned police training facility in Atlanta, and the struggle to stop it, tell us a lot about who really runs our country and what the movement for progressive change is up against, not only in Atlanta but nationwide.
Cop City is the name activists have given to a planned $90 million corporate-funded militarized police training facility that would destroy 85 acres of forest and include mock cities to help police train for urban warfare. There is little doubt that police would be training there to confront future protest movements and to protect corporate interests.
There has been broad and diverse public opposition in Atlanta to the project, including through petitions, direct actions, town halls, canvassing, and public testimony. As Micah Herskind reported last year in Mainline, in September 2021 the Atlanta City Council voted to advance Cop City despite hearing 17 hours of pre-recorded comments from more than 1,100 Atlanta residents, 70% of whom opposed the project. More recently, on June 5 and 6, the City Council heard from more than 400 opponents of the project, but the Council approved funding for Cop City anyway.
Reporting by Mainline, Prism, Truthout and others has exposed the ties between powerful corporations and wealthy investors and the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF, a private group that funnels money to the police), the media, the police department and city government.
Angela Y. Davis and Barbara Ransby wrote recently in Truthout that corporations like Amazon, Wells Fargo and Delta are backing the development of Cop City. They note the “direct link between the police state and encroaching environmental degradation” and that “Black and working-class people are losing their lives to both at a record pace.” They point out that those who have stood against Cop City have been systematically targeted by the police.
The call to stop Cop City “is also connected to the years-long fight against the West Side Cop Academy in Chicago and against Urban Shield in Oakland,” and other struggles, they write. They also note: “Atlanta has the highest income inequality in the nation, and more police won’t fix that,” but resources for health care, housing, and education will.
Forest defenders try to stop Cop City. PHOTO/Chad Davis, Minneapolis Uprising
A report from the watchdog group Private Equity Stakeholder Project outlines the ties between the APF and private equity firms like Roark Capital. “More money for police departments and foundations ultimately leads to more money for private equity firms and other corporate actors,” the report says.
On June 7, Atlanta activists announced a petition drive to put Cop City on the November ballot as a referendum. “The overwhelming majority of people opposed Cop City but the City Council chose again to side with the police and corporations to continue to criminalize our community — which is why it is time for the people of Atlanta to decide,” said local activist Kamau Franklin. Britney Whaley, regional director of Working Families Power, added: “Atlanta’s working families overwhelmingly oppose Cop City. It will disrupt their communities and environment, and lead to greater fear of police across the city and country. If the City Council won’t stand up for its people, then the people must stand up for themselves — and that’s exactly what we are doing with this ballot measure.”
Bob Lee is a professional journalist, writer and editor, and is co-editor of the People’s Tribune, serving as Managing Editor. He first started writing for and distributing the People’s Tribune in 1980, and joined the editorial board in 1987.
