2021

“Atlanta mayor touts plans to open new police training center” by Wilborn P. Nobles III. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 1, 2021.

“Opposition grows to police training center at Atlanta Prison Farm” by Maria Saporta. Saporta Report, June 14, 2021.

For decades, the vision for the historic Atlanta Prison Farm has been to transform it into a green jewel for the region.

The Atlanta City Design, incorporated into the official city charter in December 2017, called for the prison farm to be the centerpiece of a grand South River Forest Park. That vision was unanimously adopted by the Atlanta City Council.

But now the Atlanta Police Foundation and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms have proposed turning 150 acres of the Prison Farm’s 348 acres into a massive public safety training campus complete with indoor and outdoor shooting ranges, bomb detonation and explosion tests, burning buildings for fire training, a road course to practice car chases, pastureland for the city’s mounted patrol among other training facilities.

“Sierra Club Georgia Chapter, 15 other environmental organizations, urge Atlanta City Council to protect the South River Forest.” Sierra Club, August 12, 2021.

“Public safety training center plan heads to City Council with a chorus of opposition” by John Ruch. Saporta Report, August 13, 2021.

The East Atlanta Community Association last month also issued a statement of opposition, saying the Prison Farm site should be preserved for green space, natural habitat and public recreation. It also called for a “qualified and transparent feasibility study” of what kind of public safety training center is needed and where it should go.

“Atlanta City Council passes ground lease for training facility, public dissent continues” by Aja Arnold. The Mainline, September 9, 2021.

Last week, Social Insights Research released its community survey on the development of the facility in Atlanta, showing an overwhelming number of residents who replied opposed the construction of a new facility. Of 371 residents surveyed, 98% said they do not support police/fire facilities being built in South Atlanta/Atlanta Prison Farm area. Moreover, 90% of participants said they do not support police/fire facilities being built in the city entirely.

“Why Atlantans are pushing to stop ‘Cop City’” by Aja Arnold. The Appeal, December 8, 2021.

Beyond the basic objections to such a major expansion of the city’s policing footprint, environmentalists are also up in arms, since the site’s proposed location lies within the South River Forest, which is the Atlanta area’s largest remaining green space and, scientists say, one of the city’s greatest defenses against worsening climate change.

2022

“Abolitionists and Environmentalists in Atlanta Band Together to ‘Stop Cop City’” by Mira Sydow. Yes!, March 22, 2022.

“The City in the Forest: Reinventing Resistance for an Age of Climate Crisis and Police Militarization.” Crimethinc, April 11, 2022.

Opponents of these plans regard the police training facility—dubbed “Cop City”—and the Blackhall development as interrelated aspects of the same repressive restructuring of Atlanta. In short, the Blackhall development will exacerbate economic disparities and ecological collapse, while Cop City will equip the police to preserve them.

“Native Americans Share Concerns of Over Fate of Forest” by Gloria Tatum. Streets of Atlanta, May 2, 2022.

“We don’t live among resources; we live among relatives. The trees, water, land, plants, and animals are our relatives, and we respect them; we don’t destroy them,” [Daniel] Wildcat said.

The forest [our relative] is a teacher, a healer, and an elder that can make us better human beings. We have a right to have relationships with some of our other [more-than-human] relatives. We have a responsibility to be good relatives in this world to our other relatives in this forest.

“Atlanta community members warn of environmental damage from ‘Cop City’” by Ray Levy Uyeda. Prism, June 15, 2022.

The South River Forest is what Kathryn Kolb, an Atlanta-based naturalist, photographer, and founder of the environmental organization Eco Addendum, would call a recovering native forest home to a scattering of old-growth trees. Kolb says that “from an ecological perspective, it would kind of be a shame” to place the proposed facility at the Old Atlanta Prison Farm. The forest is recovering from decades of logging, farming, and construction, and is on the verge of flourishing again. It would be an incredible loss to squander the forest’s potential recovery and what that would mean for Atlanta residents. […]

In the neighborhoods surrounding the South River Forest, 71-88% of residents are Black, with asthma rates in the 94th percentile and diabetes in the 80th percentile nationally. The vast majority of residents live at or below the federal poverty level, and the neighborhoods rank in the 96th percentile nationally for toxic water pollution. Cutting down trees, leaching construction materials into soil, and polluting waterways with heavy metal toxins found in bullets and grenades, which would be used in police training, would further place the neighborhoods’ residents at risk. 

“The US activists holed up in treehouses to block $90m ‘Cop City’” by Mike Jordan. Guardian, June 16, 2022.

“The New Fight Over an Old Forest” by Charles Bethea. New Yorker, August 3, 2022.

“Beneath the Concrete, the Forest: Accounts from the Defense of the Atlanta Forest.” Crimethinc, August 9, 2022.

“The Battle for ‘Cop City’” by Jack Crosbie. Rolling Stone, September 3, 2022.

“Forest for the Trees” by David Peisner. The Bitter Southerner, December 13, 2022.

The land became a dumping ground for businesses and residents, evidence of which remains scattered throughout the property. In places, knotty tree trunks and leafy vines grow up, around, and through disused auto parts, rusting steel drums, and crumbling cinder blocks. Mountains of old tires dot the property. It’s common to find spent ammunition left by the Atlanta Police Department, which uses an area around the forest as a gun and explosives range. There’s more surprising detritus, too. The stately marble façade from the Carnegie Library, Atlanta’s first public library, was discarded in a section of the woods in large stone pieces sometime after it was demolished in 1977. The Atlanta Zoo buried several elephants on the property. More troublingly, some inmates who died at the prison farm are widely believed to be buried in unmarked graves, though none have yet been found.

2023

“The Strategy of Composition” by Hugh Farrell. Ill Will, January 14, 2023.

While police defunding has become anathema across the US political spectrum, by blocking the construction of a training facility needed to raise the morale and update the tactics of a department shattered in 2020, the Defend the Forest movement is also defending and extending the memory of the George Floyd Uprising. 

“Little Turtle’s War” by David Peisner. The Bitter Southerner, January 20, 2023.

The situation in the South River Forest has deteriorated markedly. There were massive raids by law enforcement in mid-December that attempted to clear all of the forest defenders off the land in Intrenchment Creek Park and across the creek, on the site where the city intends to build the training facility for police and firefighters. The police reportedly used tear gas, pepper balls, and rubber bullets to help dislodge activists from tree-sits. I visited the forest immediately after these raids, and the encampments had been trashed, structures built by forest defenders had been dismantled, and a community garden had been trampled. Most of the activists had fled the forest, though several were arrested on a host of charges, including, most controversially, domestic terrorism.

“‘Assassinated in cold blood’: activist killed protesting Georgia’s ‘Cop City’” by Timothy Pratt. Guardian, January 21, 2023.

“Killings of environmental activists by the state are depressingly common in other countries, like Brazil, Honduras, Nigeria,” said [Keith] Woodhouse. “But this has never happened in the US.”

“Statement on Repression of the Stop Cop City Movement.” Atlanta Solidarity Fund, January 23, 2023.

“Protest Isn’t Terrorism” by Bill McKibben. January 24, 2023.

We need to be systematically lowering the temperature in this planet—not just by reducing carbon dioxide, but by avoiding this kind of rhetorical and legal escalation.

“Over 40% of Anticipated Cop City Trainees Would Come From Out of State.” Atlanta Community Press Collective, January 24, 2023.

“The Crackdown on Cop City Protesters is So Brutal Because of the Movement’s Success” by Natasha Lennard. The Intercept, January 27, 2023.

“Satellite Signals for the Atlanta Forest” by Frédéric Neyrat. Ill Will , January 30, 2023.

Cutting down trees, killing activists, producing a void in order to fill it with images: such is the aesthetic-political program of the forest-clearers, the depopulators of the world.

“Cop City, Gentrification, and Young Thug: Atlanta’s uneven war over greenspace in ‘The City of the Forest’” by Justin A. Davis. Scalawag, February 9, 2023.

If you buy the Police Foundation's pitch, then demolishing trees for "Cop City" becomes a way to make better cops—and by proxy, a way of attacking Atlanta's gang problem. It's a subtle rhetorical move that preys on current sensationalism around violent Black crime, and ignores the reality that policing often reproduces the same violence it's supposed to stop. Nevertheless, rhetoric like this keeps a chokehold on urban policymaking: the idea that lasting solutions to gun violence depend on making police departments the first stop for public funding and resources. 

“Who Is ‘Cop City’ For? Residents Living Near the Site Aren’t So Sure” by Madeline Thigpen. Capital B Atlanta, February 9, 2023.

“HBCUs: ‘We Do Not Want Cop City’” by Sara Weissman. Inside Higher Ed, February 14, 2023.

“Fact-checking the City of Atlanta’s Claims on ‘Cop City’” by Alex Ip. The Xylom, February 16, 2023.

It appears that APF [Atlanta Police Foundation] or the City of Atlanta have not laid out plans to maintain compliance with federal, state, and local environmental standards, which they have frequently violated in the past three decades, lack the proper paperwork to proceed with any land disturbance, nor have they considered the complete environmental impacts “Cop City” has on the surrounding watershed and potential future users of the site.

“The Forest in the City.” Crimethinc, February 22, 2023.

The movement to defend the Weelaunee Forest has drawn together a wide range of groups and strategies. Legal defense organizations like the South River Forest Coalition, which is bringing a lawsuit against the Dekalb County government, work parallel to groups like the SRY Campaign, an anonymous collective of researchers who publicize the home and office addresses of those who seek to destroy the forest. While abolitionists and radical environmentalists have established encampments and tree houses in the forest, a network of pre-schools and parents has built community gardens and hosted public outreach events. Still others have organized raves and cultural events in the forest, connecting the most ambitious artists with the irrepressible spirit of the movement.

“Forest Defenders Vow Resistance After Court Green-Lights Phase I of ‘Cop City’” by Candice Bernd. Truthout, February 22, 2023.

“Clergy & Faith Leaders Call for a Stop to Cop City and in Defense of the Atlanta Forest.” Open letter, February 28, 2023.

“Balance Sheet: Two Years Against Cop City.” Crimethinc, February 28, 2023.

“Defending Abundance Everywhere.” Crimethinc, March 2, 2023.

In our view, the concept of radical stewardship stems from the recognition of the millennia of knowledge and work of the Indigenous people of any given land, the land’s first stewards. Radical stewardship is in alignment with the rights and interests of the first stewards of the land, whether they choose to demand the land back, move to “rematriate” it, or exercise their right to keep taking care of it. In our case here in Atlanta, these first stewards are the Mvskoke people.

“Tortuguita’s Playlist" by David Rovics. Counterpunch, March 3, 2023.

“‘The Amount of Solidarity is Incredible Here’: Voices on the Frontlines of the Fight to Stop Cop City.” It’s Going Down, March 6, 2023.

“Faith Leaders Weigh in on Clashes at ‘Cop City.’” Time, March 6, 2023.

“‘This is how I’m going to die’: police swarm activists protesting ‘Cop City’ in ‘week of action’” by Timothy Pratt. Guardian, March 7, 2023.

“Cop City is a real threat to Spelman College” by Eva Dickerson and Spelman alumni. Scalawag, March 7, 2023.

“The fight to Stop Cop City has decades-old roots” by Micah Herskind. Prism, March 8, 2023.

“Resistance to Atlanta’s Cop City Ramps Up” by Sonali Kolhatkar. Yes!, March 9, 2023.

“Yes, Black People are Protesting Cop City Too” by Madeline Thigpen. Capital B Atlanta, March 9, 2023.

“There are lots of people local to Atlanta who are organizing against Cop City,” said Jasmine Burnett, a southwest Atlanta resident and organizer with Community Movement Builders.

Burnett said this movement is a continuation of the fight against state violence that Black Americans have been fighting for centuries.

“The mayor is trying to paint this picture that Black people want Cop City, so it’s important now more than ever for us to be in the streets, for us to be linked into these movements to demonstrate that that’s a lie,” she said.

“Solidarity is How You Counter State Repression” by Kandist Mallett. March 9, 2023.

The degree of prosecutorial repression being waged against the forest defenders is alarming, but it’s also in alignment with how the state has used domestic terrorism threats, rhetoric and legal tools against social movements since 9/11.

“Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens flees from Mvskoke Ceremonial leaders trying to deliver eviction notice, call for end to Cop City project on Mvskoke land.” ICT News, March 9, 2023.

Mvskoke ceremonial leaders are demanding an end to the Cop City project, an independent investigation into the police assassination of Tortugita, and the dismissal of all charges against forest defenders. "Cop City cannot be built in the Weelaunee forest, in the city of Atlanta, in the state of Georgia or anywhere in the Mvskoke homelands," the letter reads.

“How ‘Cop City’ Trumped Justice” by Zak Cheney-Rice. NY Mag, March 9, 2023.

“Cops And Donuts Go Together More Than You Thought: The Corporations Funding Cop City In Atlanta” by Morgan Simon. Forbes, March 14, 2023.

Corporations loudly made billions of dollars in commitments to racial justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by police officers, often seeking the associated “halo effect” with an increasingly diverse consumer population in the US. What is less well-known, ironically, is their equal support of the expansion and increased militarization of police departments this past decade through organizations called police foundations in cities such as Atlanta, New York, Louisville and Los Angeles.

“Stop Cop City: The Fight for a Forest and the Future of American Policing” by Amba Guerguerian. Indypendent, March 17, 2023.

“An Historic Direct Action in a Forest Outside Atlanta.” Unicorn Riot, March 18, 2023.

“One Rabbi’s Purim in the Forest” by Nate DeGroot. Atlanta Community Press Collective, March 18, 2023.

“‘We are not in the least afraid of ruins’: Food Autonomy in the Weelaunee Forest.” Atlanta Community Press Collective, March 19, 2023.

“Private Equity [PE] Profits from Destroying the Atlanta Forest” by K Agbebiyi, Azani Creeks, Amanda Mendoza. Private Equity Stakeholder Project, March 22, 2023.

“Muddy clothes? ‘Cop City’ activists question police evidence” by R.J. Rico. AP News, March 22, 2023.

“The Health Risks Behind ‘Cop City’” by Akilah Wise, PhD. Capital B Atlanta, March 23, 2023.

Public health experts who spoke with Capital B Atlanta said the evidence does not support the idea that training facilities alleviate police violence and trauma. With the preponderance of reports and footage of police violence against Black citizens, the facility and increased police presence in the community may be “repeating sources of trauma,” according to Keon Gilbert, a public health professor at Saint Louis University and co-director of the Institute for Healing Justice and Equity. 

“Officers in ‘Cop City’ raid shot pepperball gun into activist’s tent first” by Hilary Beaumont. Guardian, March 25, 2023.

“Stop Cop City Movement Embraces National Strategy as Permit Appeal Is Denied” by Candice Bernd. Truthout, April 13, 2023.

Week of Writing: #StopCopCity. Scalawag, May 1–6, 2023.

“‘Malice or inepitude’: probe into police killing of eco-activist frustrates family” by Timothy Pratt. Guardian, May 4, 2023.

A Black Abolitionist View on Cop City with Dr. Angela Davis. Black Power Media, May 8, 2023.

“U.S. agency quietly shuts down monitoring device key to training center pollution debate, sewage control” by John Ruch. Saporta Report, May 11, 2023.

“As ‘Cop City’ Proceeds, Atlanta City Council Proposes Acquisition of Parkland in South River Forest” by Alex Ip. The Xylom, May 14, 2023.

“Journalist files federal lawsuit over police interrogation at public safety training center site” by John Ruch. Saporta Report, May 16, 2023.

“Atlanta politicians face pressure to vote against giving $31m to ‘Cop City’” by Timothy Pratt. Guardian, May 20, 2023.