Cop City Martyr or Cautionary Tale?
In September of 2021, the Atlanta City Council leased forested land to the Atlanta Police Foundation to build a training facility. Atlanta’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottom, said the facility will provide the necessary space to ensure that police officers and first responders receive 21st-century training.
“Abolish the police” activists insisted law enforcement didn’t deserve a new facility, and environmentalists expected the area to be turned into a park.
The movement to halt construction was called “Stop Cop City”.
In December 2021, the movement created an encampment for “forest defenders” protesting the training facility. In January, the bulldozers arrived to start construction, and dozens of “forest defenders” got into skirmishes with police that led to arrests. City officials told the “forest defenders” they were trespassing on private land, but the “forest defenders” continued to have clashes with the police.
In May 2022, “forest defenders” threw Molotov cocktails at officers patrolling the area.
A month later, a Guardian columnist described the entrance to the “forest defenders” encampment. “The sign in the forest reads: You Are Now Leaving the USA. Then, high up among the branches of white oak trees, there is a tree house the size of a closet. It drapes all sides with white…