Sign the petition: No massive police training complex. Stop Cop City!
Cop City Private Investors
Activists and forest defenders are calling the plan "Cop City," as it will include a mock village (complete with a nightclub), a Black Hawk helipad, an emergency vehicle driving course, dozens of firing ranges, and an area for explosives training.
The neighborhoods that surround the forest are largely made up of lower-income Black residents. Cop City will decimate green space, which is already so rare in BIPOC communities, and replace it with a playground for the police to practice warfare tactics.
Communities of color live with police-induced trauma every day. Now this Atlanta community will feel and hear the presence of a training facility where cops learn new ways to enact violence against Black and Brown communities, right in their own backyard.
In addition to the terror of an ever-present police force, Cop City is an environmental racism nightmare. The Weelaunee Forest provides ecological relief for the people of Atlanta. It offsets stormwater runoff, which might otherwise push unwanted sediment into the drinking water. The mere presence of trees helps to keep the city cool during the long, hot, humid summers, and improves air quality by reducing carbon dioxide released into the air.
Cop City has been gaining nationwide attention, and for good reason. The city of Atlanta, its police force, and its corporate sponsors are actively cooperating to increase police power, at a time when police departments are under scrutiny for abusing that power.
Cop City will do irreparable harm to the city of Atlanta, and inspire more play villages for cops across the country. But there's hope. Cop City does not have the full funding necessary to scale the project from private entities, meaning there is still time to put pressure on these investors to halt all funding to the Atlanta Police Foundation and APF Support Inc.
Sign the petition to private investors: No massive police training complex. Stop Cop City!
Participating Organizations
Presente.org
198 methods
Corporate Accountability
Daily Kos
DemCast USA
Democracy for America Advocacy Fund
Earth Action, Inc.
Green America
National Campaign for Justice
Stop the Money Pipeline
TakeItBack.Org
Sponsored by
Additional Sponsors
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To:
Cop City Private Investors
From:
[Your Name]
Your contributions to Cop City cause environmental, mental, and physical harm to the Black and Brown communities of Atlanta. We strongly oppose your efforts to contribute financially or in any capacity to the Atlanta Police Foundation and APF Support Inc. to further the development of Cop City. We call on your organization and all individual investors, foundations, endowments, pension funds, and corporations to withhold resources and funding from Cop City as well as collaboration with the Atlanta Police Foundation and APF Support, Inc. We encourage you to engage with the community to invest your financial support toward policies and programs that promote public health and safety for Atlanta.