Our Fights Against White Supremacy, Police Violence and the Climate Crisis are Interconnected.

In the wake of the George Floyd uprising of 2020, the Atlanta Police Foundation proposed a $90 million police training compound that would be used to train police from across the country, and around the world, in militarized tactics. The project would destroy hundreds of acres of the Weelaunee Forest, one of the largest urban forests in the country. The forest is a key resource to mitigate climate driven extreme heat and flooding in the surrounding majority Black communities.

A vast network of organizations and people have been resisting the project for over two years. The #StopCopCity movement has utilized a wide range of strategies, from community organizing, to direct action, call-in and email campaigns, and legal interventions which have successfully delayed construction of the project.

On January 18, 2023, a community member and Stop Cop City organizer named Tortuguita, was shot and killed by police while defending the forest. Climate Justice Alliance endorsed the statement of solidarity with the movement to Stop Cop City and Defend the Weelaunee Forest, and joined over 1300 groups in calling for an independent investigation of Tortuguita’s death.

The land slated for development into Cop City has long been the site of racialized violence: the land was violently stolen from the Muscogee (Creek) nation, later became the site of a 19th century slave plantation, and was a forced labor camp (the Old Atlanta Prison Farm) as late as the 1990s.

Despite this growing opposition to the project, on February 1, 2023, the City of Atlanta approved the final permits for Cop City. While there will be efforts to appeal the decision, there is an urgent need to respond now. A week of solidarity actions is currently underway (February 19-26), a mass mobilization in Atlanta has been called for March 4-11, and a National Day of Action has been scheduled for March 9. This is a critical moment in the campaign to Defend the Weelaunee Forest and Stop Cop City, and a critical moment in the abolition and climate justice movements.