Agenda Summary
title
In opposition to “Cop City”.
body
Official Text
WHEREAS: The City of Atlanta plans to use funding from the Atlanta Police Foundation and private investors to construct an Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, also known as “Cop City”, on approximately 85 acres of deforested land in the Weelaunee Forest; and
WHEREAS: Cop City would encompass shooting ranges, a helicopter pad, and a “tactical village” meant to mimic an Atlanta neighborhood for the purposes of simulating urban warfare and would be the largest such police training facility in the United States near a predominantly Black community; and
WHEREAS: This facility would enhance the militarization of not just the Atlanta Police Department, but any municipal, state or federal agency invited to train there; and
WHEREAS: The Somerville City Council actively supports the demilitarization of policing and recognizes the disproportionate violence that militarized policing has on people of color, disabled people, low-income folks, and other marginalized communities; and
WHEREAS: In a survey written by lender Cadence Bank, the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Program Manager answered that 43% of recruited trainees at the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center would be from out-of-state; and
WHEREAS: The Somerville City Council recognizes the critical need for municipalities to actively advance policies that combat climate change; and
WHEREAS: Atlanta forests annually remove roughly 19 million pounds of air pollutants, according to the Georgia Forestry Commission, while the Weelaunee Forest is one of the last unspoiled forested areas in the metro Atlanta area; and
WHEREAS: There has been a sustained effort to stop Cop City’s construction by a broad coalition of advocates that has testified before their elected officials, gathered over 100,000 signatures in opposition to said construction, as well as having camped in the Weelaunee Forest to prevent its destruction; and
WHEREAS: Advocates to st...
Click here for full text