Cop City

The $90 million[2] construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center began in spring 2023 on an 85-acre plot of land in the South River Forest, DeKalb County, Georgia.[3][4] The land is owned by the City of Atlanta.[4]

Once complete, the center is planned to be used as a training campus for police and fire services and is expected to open at the end of 2023.[5] Facilities at the site will include classrooms, a burn building, a mock city (including apartments, a bar/nightclub, and a school), and a shooting range.[5][6] 265 surrounding acres of the site will be used as green-space.[6]

The Muscogee peoples inhabited the area of South River Forest until most of the community was forcibly removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) by the United States federal government in the 1830s during the Trail of Tears.[7] Their name for this land was "Weelaunee," translatable as "brown water [place]."[8] Before logging of the land after their displacement, the forest was dominated by an Oak-Hickory forest community. The Muscogee used the forest for human needs: acorn flour for food and hickory wood for toolmaking amongst other uses.[9]

The site in 2013

The site was initially purchased in 1863 by the City of Atlanta for use as a cemetery during the American Civil War, but was never used for that purpose.[10] The land was purchased by the federal government in 1917 to be used as a prisoner-of-war camp,[10]^: i and used as the Atlanta Prison Farm from 1920 until 1995.[10] After being vacated the building was used to illegally dump tires, and was damaged by serious fires in 2009 and 2017.[10]

Stop Cop City graffiti

Terracon Consultants are the acting consultants to Atlanta Police Foundation, the project client.[10]

In 2021, Atlanta's Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, accompanied by Dave Wilkinson, the CEO of the Atlanta Police Foundation, said the site had been selected to house a training center as it was deemed the only suitable location available to the city.[11] She had earlier endorsed the use of the site in Spring of 2021.[11] Pre-construction site clearing started in May 2022.[12]

January 2023 protests of the construction

Since 2021,[6] the site has been the subject of public gatherings and protests. Community events including skill shares, guided hikes, and musical performances have been held.[13][14] Five protestors were arrested in December 2022, and twenty-three protestors were arrested in March 2023, all charged with domestic terrorism.[15][16] In January 2023, 26-year-old[6] protestor Manuel Esteban Paez Teran was fatally shot by police.[3] According to a lawyer working on behalf of Teran's mother, an independent autopsy revealed "Both Manuel's left and right hands show exit wounds in both palms. The autopsy further reveals that Manuel was most probably in a seated position, cross-legged when killed."[17]

January 2023 protest signs

On March 5, 2023, protestors threw large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police officers, and destroyed various construction vehicles.[4][2] 35 people were detained, and 23 people were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism. Of the arrestees, one was from France, one was from Canada, and two were residents of Georgia.[2][16][18] Only one of the 23 arrestees was offered bond: a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center who had only been there for observation, and was freed on a $5,000 bond because of this.[19]

By May, prosecutors had charged more than forty protestors with domestic terrorism,[20] a move that Human Rights Watch called an "attempt to smear protesters as national security threats".[21]

At a May 2023 public meeting, Atlanta City Council members faced public pressure to reject the provision of $31 million of public funds to the Cop City project. At the time the construction of the project, which had received $60 million of corporate funding, was several months delayed.[22] On May 31^st, a SWAT team arrested three organizers of a bail fund that had supported protestors with bail and legal defense. Those arrested were charged with money laundering and charity fraud.[23][24]

On June 6, 2023, the council approved the $31 million funding after more than 16 hours of public comment from more than 300 speakers, the vast majority of whom were opposed to the project.[25][20][26] More than 1,000 people signed up to speak,[27] but hundreds of people were not admitted to the building.[28]

In June 2023, a coalition of activist groups opposed to the construction project announced their plans to force a referendum on Cop City.[29] The referendum was inspired by a similar successful effort in Camden County, GA. [20] The Georgia constitution allows residents to force a referendum on decisions by local governments if they can get 15% of registered voters to sign petition. In Atlanta, that is 60,000[20] to 70,000[30] signatures. The referendum against Cop City would cancel the city’s lease to the Atlanta Police Foundation, which the city has said isn't legal.[31]

In September 2023, organizers submitted 116,000 signatures for the referendum, but the City Council refused to count them, and said the activists had missed the deadline to turn in the signatures. That deadline had been extended by US District Judge Mark Cohen, but the city's appeal of that decision is being considered by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.[31]

61 activists affiliated with the Defend the Atlanta Forest group were charged with racketeering in September 2023.[32]

• Official website