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The struggle to Stop Cop City is not just a battle over the creation of a $90 million police urban warfare center. It’s not just a fight to protect the 381 acres of forest land, known as one of the “four lungs” of Atlanta, currently under threat of destruction. It’s not just a conflict over how the…
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“My heart is destroyed.” These are the words of Belkis Terán, whose child Manuel Esteban Paez Terán—or Tortugita—was killed by a squad of Georgia State Patrol troopers on January 18, 2023. Tortugita, who used they/them pronouns, was killed while participating in the defense of at least 85 acres of forest land in the Weelaunee Forest—a site that…
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What a time it is to be a prison abolitionist! Millions of people filled the streets during the 2020 uprisings, forcing a national conversation around defunding and abolishing the police. The abolitionist lexicon broke into the mainstream. Suddenly everyone had—and had to have—an opinion on the movement.
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On a gray, drizzly day last December, activists and organizers with the Atlanta-based Stop Cop City movement held a press conference on the edge of the Weelaunee Forest. Hours before, a massive police force had descended on Weelaunee, where a group of forest defenders have been living since 2021 to prevent the construction of a…
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“What do we want? Divestment! When do we want it? Now!” A group of student organizers chanted these words during a 2017 protest as we called on our university to divest from private prisons. The showdown followed nearly two years of campaigning, during which we had written proposals, circulated petitions, hosted teach-ins, and organized protests—all toward the demand…
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This document is meant to be a tool for organizers and others looking to better understand—and abolish—the PIC. It is a companion resource to the piece “Cop City and the Prison Industrial Complex in Atlanta.” It first offers a compilation of some existing thinking about the PIC—theory and visualizations of the PIC, developed by organizers…
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Anyone listening to the virtual Atlanta City Council meeting on September 8, 2021 could hear the chants: “Stop Cop City!” It was a Wednesday night, and tensions were high. Protesters had gathered outside the houses of council members, outraged as discussion of a controversial proposal began. The police were on their way.
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Two weeks after uprisings sparked by the murder of George Floyd left Atlanta littered with ashes, protesters flooded the city’s streets once more. The police had killed again, and this time the victim was an Atlantan: 27-year-old father and music lover Rayshard Brooks, shot in the back twice by Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe. The Wendy’s where Rolfe…