The Battle Against Cop City in Atlanta

Something horrible is happening in Atlanta. A much needed public forest, originally in 2017 planned to exist undeveloped as the “lungs” of the city, is under attack. It has been systematically invaded by combined police forces intent on building a $90 million training and “morale” facility, after the Atlanta City Council voted to allow a nonprofit called the Atlanta Police Foundation to build the facility (albeit with $30 million of the costs coming from Atlanta taxpayers.) Would it surprise you to hear that this beautiful green space is surrounded by working class and poor communities, predominantly black, historically segregated, environmentally and economically disadvantaged?

The broad outlines of the backstory on the struggle from an apolitical point of view can be garnered from CNN:

[The City of] Atlanta and then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms were in the national spotlight in 2020 as protests erupted across the country over police killings of Black people, including Rayshard Brooks, a Black man fatally shot in the back by Atlanta police… The city’s police chief resigned and Bottoms denounced the “chaos” she said was unfolding on the city’s streets, adding she was trying to strike a “tough balance” between criticizing police officers and supporting the ones who protected the city.