大象传媒

On a Wednesday night in September 2021, Charlotte* sat handcuffed on the ground outside of Atlanta City Councilwoman Natalyn Archibong鈥檚 East Atlanta home. To their left and right were 10 more protesters with their hands secured behind their backs, staring up at 13 Atlanta police officers. 

Less than an hour before, the protesters鈥� shouts rang through the night, audible in the background of Archibong鈥檚 Zoom call, where the City Council debated a for a $90 million police-training facility south of Atlanta. The proposal, nicknamed 鈥淐op City鈥� by organizers, came in the wake of a national movement to defund the police and threatened to raze 85 acres of Atlanta鈥檚 South River Forest. 

To Charlotte, an Atlanta resident who works in native plant habitat restoration, the destruction of this forest in the most-canopied city in America felt personal. Charlotte explains that the South River Forest sits on a resource-rich watershed previously occupied by the Muscogee (Creek) people. But about 100 years ago, the land was developed for the , a notoriously abusive facility that exploited prisoners for agricultural labor. The current fight to protect the land is rooted in reclaiming its tarnished history, but also in combating the widespread community harm that a police-training facility would create.

鈥淧olice abolition is very intersectional with climate justice, housing justice, and all of these issues related to resources,鈥� Charlotte says. 鈥淎t the end of the day, police are beholden to and protect the systems of resource hoarding that benefit corporate elite and wealthy people.鈥�

To combat the destruction of the forest and the construction of the facility, Atlanta residents formed a coalition in spring 2021. Over the next year, the Stop Cop City movement would mobilize thousands of Atlanta residents to take on corporations, cops, bulldozers, and the White supremacy in their midst.

Policing Versus Public Safety

When America erupted in protest in the wake of by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Atlanta was fighting to avenge one of its own. On June 12, 2020, less than three weeks after Floyd was killed, 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, wounding the city鈥檚 Black community and inciting national outcry. 

In the following days, cracks appeared in the Atlanta Police Department. from the post she鈥檇 held since 2016, and calling in sick en masse to protest the felony murder charges brought against Rolfe. Two days into the strike鈥攁bout a week after Brooks鈥� murder鈥攖he Atlanta Police Foundation for every Atlanta police officer to 鈥渟tem attrition and boost morale,鈥� according to a statement. 

The is a nonprofit organization that supports APD by funding additional technology, training, and resources that are not included in the city鈥檚 already robust budget. According to a by Color of Change and LittleSis, there are police foundations in nearly every major city in the U.S., and Atlanta鈥檚 boasts corporate sponsors like Amazon, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Chick-fil-A, and Uber, making it possible to issue payouts, like the post-blue-flu bonuses, or to fund massive policing projects, like the proposed training facility. 

As 2020 wore on, , who was awaiting trial for Brooks鈥� murder, and Atlanta City Council . On March 31, 2021, then-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms plans for the construction of a 鈥渘ew public safety training facility鈥� in the 300-acre South River Forest for Atlanta鈥檚 police and fire departments in an effort to increase resources available to officers and improve morale on the force.

For abolitionist organizers and South Atlanta residents, this was a clear threat to their physical environment and community safety.

Organizing a Resistance

By the time news of the Cop City proposal hit the press, Jasmine Burnett was a veteran organizer for Black liberation and a longtime skeptic of the Atlanta Police Foundation. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 important as organizers to be able to raise contradictions,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he people who are killing us can鈥檛 also be the people who are keeping us safe, so how do we talk about safety in a way that reflects our material conditions?鈥�

In July of 2020, Burnett and a few friends formed a coalition called . Its purpose was to divert funding from APD鈥檚 , and reinvest the money in communities. DARC was an affiliated working group of the Atlanta chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, but it was composed of both DSA and non-DSA-affiliated members鈥攁nyone was welcome. The group focused on building community awareness for the budget through education: Members canvassed neighborhoods disproportionately impacted by police violence and created a media campaign called .

In April 2021, a few months before Atlanta City Council planned to vote on the next year鈥檚 budget, DARC connected with the budding coalition of Atlanta organizations called Stop Cop City. The groups quickly developed specialties: Community Movement Builders organized direct actions and protests; Sunrise Atlanta raised awareness for the environmental impact of Cop City; and DARC coordinated canvassing and communication with Atlanta DSA, which provided funding. 

By mid-summer 2021, the organizers in the South Atlanta Forest. The events ranged from community nurturing, such as potlucks, reading groups, and barbecues, to movement building, such as protests, teach-ins, and canvassing.

As the organizers鈥� efforts ramped up, the facility plan progressed. On June 7, Atlanta City Council with a $15 million increase in police funding, a disheartening conclusion for protesters after a year of DARC mobilization. Additionally, Councilwoman Joyce Shepard, who represents coalition member Community Movement Builders鈥� district, to officially fork over 381 acres of forested land to the Atlanta Police Foundation at a rate of $10 per year for 50 years. 

Stop Cop City doubled down, in the South River Forest to build community and raise awareness of what was at risk.

Following the Money

Nolan Huber-Rhoades, a resident of Oakland City in Atlanta and a former DARC organizer, explains that the movement isn鈥檛 just about tearing down Cop City and APD鈥攊t鈥檚 about building people power, community, and an alternate narrative about policing. A doctoral candidate at Beulah Heights University, Huber-Rhoades鈥� abolition efforts are informed by his research about narrative paradigm theory, which examines the ways people think about the world around them through stories, or 鈥減aradigms.鈥� 

Plans like Cop City that aim to 鈥渋mprove鈥� policing, Huber-Rhoades explains, are put forth in a paradigm that believes the police are meant to serve and protect, but abolitionist movements like Defund the Police operate in a paradigm that recognizes that police protect property and property owners.

As the movement grew louder, organizers identified key players behind Cop City, including the Atlanta Police Foundation鈥檚 corporate backers. Scott Roberts, senior director of criminal justice and democracy campaigns at Color of Change, dove into researching the foundation, discovering that several international, Atlanta-based corporations sat on the Foundation鈥檚 board and funneled millions of dollars into the organization. 

鈥淲e realized that not only were [police foundations] private entities, but they were being funded by some of the same corporations who were in the midst of publicly declaring their allegiance to Black communities,鈥� Roberts says. 

At the time, Coca-Cola embodied the hypocrisy Roberts describes鈥攊n June 2020, the corporation broadcast a message in Times Square urging New Yorkers to 鈥渁dmit we can do more,鈥� 鈥渞ight wrongs,鈥� and 鈥渓isten and create a better future and end racism.鈥� The company donated $500,000 to 100 Black Men of America, according to . Representatives from Coca-Cola also sit on the board of the Atlanta Police Foundation.

In late August and early September, Roberts worked with Stop Cop City organizers to stage protests at Coca-Cola鈥檚 headquarters. After public scrutiny and closed-door meetings with organizers, Coca-Cola gave up its seat on the Atlanta Police Foundation鈥檚 board in October, privately telling Color of Change that its advocacy impacted the decision.

This would turn out to be one of the movement鈥檚 few lasting victories.

Re-Organizing

On Sept. 8, 2021, Atlanta City Council . Leading up to the vote, the Council , more than two-thirds advocated against the authorization of a ground lease to the Atlanta Police Foundation of the South River Forest. When Charlotte was released from police custody at 3:30 the morning after being arrested outside of Councilwoman Archibong鈥檚 house, they heard that the ordinance had passed, 10鈥�4. 

Charlotte reflects on the news with a sense of inevitability. 鈥淭here was nothing we could have done to change [City Council鈥檚] minds. This vote wasn鈥檛 about what the people of Atlanta wanted; it was about what the City Council鈥檚 donors were pressuring them to do,鈥� they say.

Following the vote, inter-movement tensions in the coalition boiled over, including dissent between member organizations about representation. So DARC dissolved, but the work to stop Cop City continues. 

鈥淭he decentralization of [Stop Cop City] meant that if one organization went down, there was still a broad base of people to keep fighting,鈥� Huber-Rhoades says.

Burnett has since become the organizing director of another member organization of the coalition: , a nonprofit collective cultivating mutual aid in southeast Atlanta with the goal of creating a . The group鈥檚 recent efforts focus on the Pittsburgh neighborhood鈥攖his past election cycle, they un-elected their Atlanta City Councilmember, Joyce Shepard, who had brought forth the Cop City ordinance.

In November 2021, Charlotte and other organizers connected with local Muscogee leaders to perform a stomp dance in the South River Forest, and in December, they worked to support the infrastructure of an ongoing encampment for forest defenders protesting the development of the training facility.聽

In January 2022, the bulldozers came, but dozens of organizers stood their ground, facing skirmishes with DeKalb County Police that have .

As the forest has been leveled before their eyes and APD鈥檚 budget inflates further, organizers foster community in the sanctuary of the South River Forest. 

鈥淚n all movements of resistance, we need to be building what we hope to replace the systems of extraction with,鈥� Charlotte says. 鈥淎bolition is about creation as much as it is about letting go of and dismantling systems that don鈥檛 serve us.鈥�

*大象传媒 has granted this source anonymity after they provided evidence of legitimate concerns for their safety connected to their organizing work. Read more about 大象传媒鈥檚 policy regarding veiled sources here.