How can I get involved?
Cop City has begun construction. What can you do?
The City of Atlanta, the Georgia state government, the police, and the corporate elites have doubled down on Cop City, and are using their power to intimidate and suppress the movement to stop it. They murdered a Forest Defender, Tortuguita, in cold blood, and have charged over 40 protestors with Domestic Terrorism. They are scared. They know that this fight can be won, and they are trying their best to intimidate us. This is the moment to fight back even harder.
According to the law, the City of Atlanta and Dekalb County both allow for the holding of binding referendums on any subject, on which local residents are eligible to vote. This means that both the City Council and DeKalb Commission can move to hold a referendum on the construction of Cop City. If you are a resident of the City of Atlanta or unincorporated Dekalb County who believes that Atlanta City Council and Dekalb County must put people over private corporations, please sign the petition and call your city council member or county commissioner asking them to place a referendum on the ballot this November. We must pressure our elected officials to do the right thing and let the people have a say!
What is Cop City & Why is City Council Bulldozing a Forest?
In a move that underscores the strong ties between policing, Atlanta City Government, and corporate elites, Atlanta’s ruling class is moving forward with the demolishing of a large portion of historic forest to construct a new, privately funded $90,000,000 cop training facility — equipped with a shooting range, and space for weapons and explosions testing, and burning buildings tests. This plan not only ignores residents’ demands to reduce the scope and size of policing in Atlanta, but it also follows an undemocratic process and ignores community needs. Read more here!
While it’s clear now more than ever that our elected City Council intends to prioritize development projects and capitalist interests over the needs of working people, we have the power to organize against their plans!
Corporations, Cops, and Cash — Oh, my!
The land is being leased to the Atlanta Police Foundation — a board of corporate ghouls which acts as the PR machine for the Atlanta Police Department, actively gentrifies neighborhoods and funds mass surveillance projects. The APF’s training facility will be supported by the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a committee of over 40 corporate elite figures, including the CEOs of Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and Cox. These close relationships underscores the ties between policing and capitalist interests, and the Mayor and City Council’s endorsement of this proposal exemplifies their alignment with corporate elites over the working-class people of Atlanta.
We want community, not cops!
After years of protest, uprisings, and communities urging for change in response to police violence, including the murdering of environmental activist Tortuguita, it is disgraceful that the City of Atlanta intends to offer more physical space and resources with which APD can practice brutalizing residents. True safety in Atlanta will not be attained via increased policing, militarization, and carceral punishment — and it will only be made worse by the construction of cop city! Atlanta City Council must be held accountable to everyday working class people, and provide for people’s basic needs — including food security, clean water, housing, public and mental health care, and education.
Get Involved
The Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America (ATL DSA) is one chapter of the largest socialist organization in the United States, with over 1,000 members. We believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few.
Ready to join the fight to Stop Cop City? Join DSA at www.atldsa.org/join