Stop Cop City: a training center for police and fire officers in the Weelaunee Forest, Atlanta, the hometown of DeKalb County
Nearly twenty-six people have been in jail since demonstrations at a forest near Atlanta became a national talking point as authorities try to build a police and fire training facility.
The leaders of the “Stop Cop City” movement, which is made up of a coalition of groups and activists, say the center will militarize police and promote violence against communities of color, in response to the Black American uprisings in 2020.
That’s not true, says Sean Wolters, who works within the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” movement. Atlanta residents have been protesting for more than two years in numerous ways, including physically at the site, appealing construction permits and voicing their dissent at city council meetings, including one this week, Wolters said. He said that the movement has attracted others in its struggle from all over the world.
This week’s arrests are the latest instance of authorities clashing with opponents of the project amid ongoing national – and global – conversations around policing and the protection of the environment.
The training center will be built. Earlier this year, Atlanta’s mayor said the city got the green light from neighboring DeKalb County – where the parcel of land is located – and construction permits were set to be issued.
The foundation, a nonprofit, is privately funding most of the costs through “philanthrophic and corporate donations,” according to the city. Taxpayers will fund about $30 million, the city has said.
The center will include, among other things, a shooting range, a burn building and a mock city “for real world training,” according to the foundation’s website.
It is necessary to help boost the police’s recruitment efforts. Previous facilities used by Atlanta law enforcement are substandard while fire officials train in “borrowed facilities,” the police foundation has said.
“Our training includes vital areas like de-escalation training techniques, mental health, community-oriented policing, crisis intervention training, as well as civil rights history education,” he said in January. This training needs space, and that is what this training center is going to offer.
The training center is expected to be located in the Weelaunee Forest, which the tribe maintained as sacred Native American land. Their fight has been joined by a robust coalition of decentralized activists, including climate activists who believe paving the 85 acres would – among other things – lead to an increase in flooding in an already flood-prone area.
In a letter to city leaders, more than a dozen environmental organizations previously urged them to reject the training center’s development, saying it would be bad for the ecological community.
Climate change and fragmentation of the South River forest will make Atlanta’s top natural disaster continually increasing in intensity, according to a letter.
“Defend the Atlanta Forest” protesters and the Atlanta Department of Natural Resources and their attorney, Tom Carlson, have condemned the recent charges of domestic terrorism
Dozens of people at the site have been charged with domestic terrorism in recent months. They call the charges “an over-criminalization of demonstrators under a constitutionally dubious statute.”
Activists say police arrested people at a music festival in a separate park from the construction site, which is contrary to the story. Atlanta police deny the claim.
Local authorities have repeatedly accused protesters of the training facility of using violent tactics and have charged at least a dozen other people with domestic terrorism in recent months.
Domestic terrorism is a felony charge in Georgia that carries up to 35 years in prison, said Ronald Carlson, an emeritus law professor at the University of Georgia.
The authorities might be trying to put a charge like that on you and what their intent is. Carlson said it seems clear that what they’re trying to do is deter destruction of property and injuries to people.
More than two dozen organizations, including the Human Rights Watch, have called for the domestic terrorism charges against “Defend the Atlanta Forest” activists to be dropped, saying they are a “clear attempt to silence dissent.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, has said Terán shot at officers, injuring a Georgia State Patrol Trooper, and authorities returned fire, killing the protester. Activists don’t agree with that claim.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp supports the project and urged local authorities this week to keep those arrested behind bars. Both Kemp and Dickens say the majority of those who have been arrested in connection to the project thus far are out of state and don’t represent local sentiments.
A large portion of a public park near Atlanta on the proposed site of a police and fire training facility – dubbed “Cop City” by critics – has been temporarily closed by an executive order, after county officials said they located “life threatening” hidden traps scattered in the park.
They found boards with nails hidden by leaves and underbrush. You could kill a small child or a pet with those,” DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond told CNN by phone.
Under the executive order, unauthorized persons entering the properties will be subject to prosecution for criminal trespass, and unauthorized parked vehicles will be towed and impounded, according to a news release about the executive order.
DeKalb County has been unable to send its parks employees into the site of the proposed $90 million, 85-acre training facility because “they have been attacked with rocks” and other objects, Thurmond said.
A police officer shot and killed during a clearing operation in Atlanta: A family of the arrested protester contacted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Tensions between law enforcement and protesters have continued to rise since the January shooting death of a protester, who law enforcement says fired on officers first and seriously wounded a state trooper.
An incident report released on Friday by Georgia’s Bureau of Investigation shows how law enforcement asked a protester to come out of his tent during a clearing operation.
The officer says he fired until it became clear Paez Terán was no longer shooting or had set off additional explosive devices. In addition to the protester being shot at by a trooper, five other troopers shot their weapons.
“While shooting I observed a small explosion at the front of the tent and a large plume of white powder going into the air,” the officer writes in the report.
A statement from the family of Paez Tern called on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to release evidence. It also criticized the bureau for investigating the shooting, which came during an operation the bureau planned.
“The GBI is investigating its own tragic operation. Enchanta Jackson said that the family wanted to know what steps the GBI had taken to preserve the integrity of its own investigation.
“The officer narratives released today by the Department of Public Safety were drafted weeks or, in some cases, months after the incident,” Jackson said. “When officers drafted these statements, each had the opportunity to review the publicly available video and the press releases issued by the GBI.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/24/us/atlanta-cop-city-park-closure/index.html
The South River Forest Public Safety Training Center Community Task Force: An Overview of the Task Force and the First Amendment Rights of Demonstration
The South River Forest Public Safety Training Center Community Task Force will have more than 40 experts and community stakeholders. The task force adds members to the existing advisory committee.
The new task force with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties of Georgia makes sure that demonstrators have the right to protest and that the safe and unrestricted right to protest is ensured.
“The ACLU of Georgia is committed to helping ensure the safe and unencumbered right to protest, and as such, joins the City’s task force with demonstrators’ First Amendment rights at the forefront,” officials from the organization said in a statement.
Noticeably absent from the task force is anyone from the Muscogee Nation, or “Creek” Native American tribe. When asked by CNN why there was no Native American representation on the task force, the mayor’s office did not reply.