First, the land was home to the Muscogee Nation. They forced Indigenous people out. Next, it became the Atlanta Prison Farm, where they chained Black children of the formerly enslaved and forced them to grow crops to feed the rest of the city.
Today, Atlanta, GA has sinister plans for this land yet again.
The plan, to tear down 85 acres of land and build a $90 million police training center on Atlanta’s south side, has been dubbed “Cop City.” And it’s a HUGE risk not just to human beings – but to our environment.
Destroying the well-shaded, flood-defending land to build this police dystopia means nearby neighborhoods will suffer the “urban heat island effect” – meaning more air pollution, air conditioning costs, and danger of heat-related illnesses. Not to mention the police’s toxic, explosive weaponry.
And with climate change already on the rise, we cannot afford to make things worse.
But from erecting encampments on the land, to doing serious damage to construction equipment, Atlanta protesters won’t let Cop City get built without a fight.
Police and prisons have traumatized generations of Black and Indigenous residents – and Atlanta intends to keep that exhaustion and displacement going.
But like the Cop City protesters keep showing us, fighting against their attack on our communities also means fighting against their attack on the land we live on!