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A peaceful, non-violent march left Gresham Park with puppets, butterflies, a marching band, and hundreds of forest defenders. It looked more like a parade than a march to demand a people’s work stoppage. When they reached Constitution, police in riot gear violently attacked them and threw tear gas into the crowd and flash-bang grenades.
Ironically, one of the complaints about Cop City is that the police are too violent. This attack on peaceful marchers puts a focus on why people don’t want this training facility built to train police with the Israeli military.
Other forest defenders planted native trees along the march path to replace trees destroyed by Cop City construction. Their shovels were confiscated by police, who considered the shovels weapons.
How Did This Boondoggle Start:
Once, a critical mass of people had cell phones with cameras. They documented the abuse and murder of black people by police. This led to rallies, marches, and occasionally a riot after the death of George Floyd by police. People said enough of police killing black people for no good reason and no police accountable.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was worried about low police morale and recruitment. She gave them 300 acres for a state-of-the-art training center in a secret backroom deal. The Atlanta City Council (ACC) reduced the acreage to 85, but 171 acres will be affected.
That’s how it started, and since then, the ACC, the Mayor, and the Atlanta Police Foundation still refuse to listen to the people.
What part of the people don’t want cop city – does the mayor and ACC not understand?
Some of the forest defenders tell why they don’t want Cop City.
Fergie Chambers, activist: I’m here because this is the center of the national struggle against the police. And because a lot of my heart is in Atlanta,
There are many connections between Cop City and the Israeli military. The most blatant and obvious one would be the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program, where we have Zionist cops cross-training with Georgia cops for years.
The financial supporters of the Atlanta Police Foundation are also supporters of the Zionist occupation. You don’t see political repression, like we see in Atlanta unless the ruling class is feeling the heat from the people.
Jennifer Perlman, forest defender: Many activists who are opposed to Cop City see the connections between what is happening in Palestine and what is happening here in the U.S. It is basic Imperialism and right-wing authoritarian fascism that we see in so many countries.
Palestine is essentially a laboratory that has been used to test out weapons for warfare, urban policing, and different chemical weapons. Anything that can be tested out has been tested out in Palestine. They are like our military-industrial complex laboratory.
Cop City is creating urban warfare police training centers all around the country, and we can see the connection between that and what’s going on in Palestine.
Sam, spokesperson for Block Cop City: This is a struggle for competing visions of the future. Whenever a forest is slated to be clear-cut, forest defenders stand in the way of removing it.
Every single time a multinational corporation attempts to build a fossil fuel pipeline, indigenous resisters stand in the way.
When corporate polluters, environmentally racist projects, or other unspeakable extractive industries plan to destroy the environment that the people would not tolerate, defenders of the environment stand in the way.
Tortuguita put their body on the line to defend this forest, and they were murdered.
The police protect corporations, polluters, and destroyers of the earth. Therefore, the movement for the earth must be against the police.
The institution of policing and law enforcement is rotten to its very core. We don’t believe their doublespeak. The uprising of 2020 was a movement against the police.
We will stop cop city because we know with more police training actually comes more violence. With more training and more resources, the police are more efficient at inflicting their violence.
The first function of the police is upholding and defending and making possible the white supremacist racial order.
The second function of the police is the protection of capital, attempting to lock in forever all the brutal inequalities that define our era.
The final function of the police is to destroy every social movement before it gets strong enough to change the world.
This movement has been powerful and cutting-edge as a leaderless, decentralized, and autonomous movement, and that is why it has scared the powers that be to their very bones.
We are in solidarity with our black brothers, sisters, and the people of Palestine and every indigenous struggle attempting to protect sacred life forms.
Kamau Franklin, founder of Community Movement Builders: We are in a struggle to stop a militarized complex that is meant to over-police black and brown communities and to stop movements against police violence and the militarization of the police.
The city and the state will use every means and mechanism to defeat this movement because they want to oppress us and stop us. They want us to be consumers and stay at home watching TV and buying things while they make daily decisions that impact and affect our lives.
People have been charged with domestic terrorism and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges for protesting Cop City. We can not give the police power and control over our lives.
You cannot close your eyes to the terror of policing that happens in this country in this world. You’re either with the oppressed or with the oppressor.
Written and photos by Gloria Tatum
Streets of Atlanta 