January 23, 2024: Cop City Update

COP CITY UPDATE

VOR discussed the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, known by its opponents as Cop City, on 12/12/23.  This $90+ million joint project of the Atlanta Police Department and Police Foundation, is planned for a portion of the Welaunee Forest in DeKalp county adjacent to metro Atlanta.  Heralded by the city as a state-of-the-art police and fire training center, Cop City has faced opposition since its announcement in 2021 on the bases of racism, damage to the environment, fostering militarization of police, and a growing financial cost to the city.   Opponents attended city council meetings to voice concerns, occupied the forest to prevent the project moving forward, leading to the death of an activist, and submitted petitions to have the project put before Atlanta voters.  A deadline dispute sent the ballot request to court, and the court has not yet issued its ruling.

On the one-year anniversary of the death of activist Tortuguita, we hoped to provide an update on Cop City.  We discovered there was no update to report, but instead discovered a history of Cop City that needs to be told.  The Atlanta Way is a strategic interracial partnership between political leadership and economic elites that work in service of corporations and upper-class white communities and to the detriment of lower-income Black and working-class communities.   Hosting the 1996 Olympics was a key accelerant of the Atlanta Way and set the stage for long-term gentrification and exclusion in the city, focusing primarily on making the city more attractive to a more affluent set of prospective citizens and investment.  Listen and learn how Cop City furthers the goals of the Atlanta Way.

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