[Cop City, beyond contributing to over-policing, will require
clear-cutting 381 acres of forest land.]
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ATLANTA’S COP CITY IS FUNDAMENTALLY UNDEMOCRATIC  
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Tanya Greene
July 28, 2023
The Progressive
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_ Cop City, beyond contributing to over-policing, will require
clear-cutting 381 acres of forest land. _

, (shutterstock)

 

After working to avoid a referendum on a controversial proposed police
training site known as “Cop City,” Atlanta city officials have
finally given up on trying to deny voters a say. But the ongoing clash
illustrates how the United States is alternately stumbling and
careening away from democracy. Escalating police violence and
ill-advised prosecutions against protesters in Atlanta, as well as
repeated delays on the ballot measure, mirror increasingly
authoritarian practices being deployed across the country.

Cop City is a $90
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facility proposed to be built south of Atlanta. Community members and
activists from all over the world object to Cop City, raising concerns
about racial justice, police practices, public funding
decision-making, environmental justice and basic democratic ideals. 

Despite fierce and vocal opposition, in June, the Atlanta City
Council approved
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the project forward. This type of police and government response,
especially after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, however, raises
questions about how the police envision actually “serving and
protecting” our communities. 

Public funds should be used to invest in education, jobs with justice
and non-carceral responses to achieve community safety
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than expensive and unnecessary law enforcement programs. Atlanta has a
poverty rate of 17.9
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and the highest income inequality
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in the country. The choice to spend $90 million on Cop City rather
than on proven remedies for societal challenges is a troubling
indication that policymakers in Atlanta are improperly focused on
addressing symptoms rather than root causes.

Cop City, beyond contributing to over-policing, will require
clear-cutting 381 acres of forest land—one of Atlanta’s lungs
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was initially stolen
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Muscogee people. This dangerously ignores long-standing local
environmental injustices and the worsening climate crisis. Moreover,
the land is in unincorporated Dekalb County
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where residents have no representation
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the Atlanta City Council, which made the decision. It is no accident
that the surrounding community that faces further loss of limited
green space and clean air is also primarily Black.
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The police have responded to the Cop City protests with mounting
violence. The police killing of a queer Indigenous forest
defender, Tortuguita
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in January, is alarming. Dozens of people arrested during the protests
for what, at most, would be considered disorderly conduct elsewhere
are potentially facing decades in prison
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Prosecutors have charged them with domestic terrorism
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new Georgia law
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a warning and a deliberate attempt to deter protests of any kind. 

The subsequent and unprecedented government raid
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a bail and legal defense fund violates protections by the U.S.
Constitution and international human rights law
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Stop Cop City organizers are gathering signatures to place a
referendum on the November ballot to repeal the ordinance authorizing
the land lease, so this struggle is not over. Although Cop City may
feel far away for many, the issues it raises stand as a cautionary
tale about the direction of the country that we all need to heed.

_This column was produced [[link removed]] for
Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and
distributed by Tribune News Service._

* Cop City
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* Atlanta
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* environment
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* Police
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* Referendum
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* democracy
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