Stop Cop City - Poster of the Week
Updated: Apr 27
Stop Cop City
Dio Cramer
Digital Print, 2023
Twin Cities, MN
Memorial Piece for Tort
N.O. Bonzo
Digital Print, 2023
Portland, OR
Public outrage over police beatings and murders of unarmed people of color is high. Demands are growing to remove funds from the police and reallocate them to education, youth services, healthcare, and other community-based and non-policing forms of public safety. Yet a $90 million project was just approved to build a military grade training compound for the Atlanta Police Department. Officially named the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, activists and the media are calling it “Cop City.” The police have already killed one protester and arrested at least 18 people. Adding injury to injury, this project will be an environmental disaster.
The plan to build Cop City became public in 2017, the full proposal was published in 2020, and in 2021, Forest Defenders began to occupy Weelaunee Forest to prevent it from being destroyed. On January 18, 2023, 26-year-old Venezuelan activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez Terán was killed during a raid of the Stop Cop City encampment. They were shot 13 times. Police are claiming Tort shot first at a state trooper, the Forest Defenders are denied this and claimed they were killed by police crossfire. Those arrested have been charged with domestic terrorism, which is a felony, rather than with trespassing, a misdemeanor, in order to discourage continued protests.
On January 31, 2023, permits were approved to destroy 300 acres of the Weelaunee Forest that surrounds Atlanta. The land was originally stolen from the Mvskoke (Muscogee) in the 1800s and later turned into a prison farm in the early 1900s. Now it serves the local community as a vital natural resource and biodiverse region, making it a home to amphibians and migratory birds. Known for being “a city in a forest,” Atlanta relies on
the tree canopy of the Weelaunee Forest to combat climate-change-driven heat waves
Police brutality is unacceptable. Greedy corporations, cynical politicians, and police continue to destroy natural resources and the lives of the vulnerable.
The Atlanta Forest Defenders are calling for a Week of Solidarity
February 19th - 26th. Find a protest event near you.
The posters used here are both are free digital downloads on JustSeeds.org. Use these graphics in solidarity with the Atlanta Forest Defenders!
Stop Cop City!
References:
Autopsy Reveals "Cop City" Protester Was Shot 13 Times by Police in Atlanta | Democracy Now
Terrorism Charges Against Atlanta Protestors Draw Criticsm | Courthouse News Service
Documents show how 19 "Cop City" activists got charged with terrorism | Grist
Police Foundations: A Corporate-Sponsored Threat to Democracy and Black Lives | Color of Change
Corporate Backers of the Blue: How Corporations Bankroll U.S. Police Foundations | Eyes on the Ties
Find a Target and Take Action | Stop Cop City Solidarity
How to take action against the building of Cop City:
Week of Solidarity Calendar of Events | Atlanta Forest Defenders