UPDATE - JULY 20, 2023:
Check out the latest action steps you can take to help Stop Cop City:
Have you been following the ongoing fight in Atlanta to Stop Cop City?
Cop City is a project of the Atlanta Police Foundation to build a $90 million police and military training facility in Atlanta’s Weelaunee Forest, the largest urban forest in the United States and ancestral land of the Muscogee people.
Activists and community members in the primarily Black neighborhoods surrounding the forest have been organizing to oppose the project for two years. Recently the movement gained national attention with the death of Tortuguita, a forest defender, increased police and legal violence towards activists, and a swell of local opposition at City Council meetings.
“I cannot believe I am standing here, pleading with you not to spend the tax dollars of a Black city, to tear down a forest in a Black neighborhood, to increase the policing and caging of more Black people … Say no to Cop City.”
— Testimony from the public comment period in Atlanta
Georgia officials are trying to portray activists as outside agitators, but local opposition is strong, deep, and anchored in a vision of solidarity and safety for all of us without increased policing and militarization.
Our local Bend the Arc: Jewish Action Atlanta chapter has been involved in the work to Stop Cop City over the last few months — joining Shabbat and ritual gatherings in the forest, attending City Council hearings and offering public comment on why we reject increased militarization and policing as Jews, and following the lead of Black activists organizing to keep Atlanta communities safe.
Last week, rather than listening to the majority of Atlantans who have raised their voices in opposition to Cop City, the Atlanta City Council caved to the lobbying pressure of the Atlanta Police Foundation and voted to approve an additional $30 million in public funding for the development.
The fight is not done, and there is a time-sensitive next step: a coalition of local, statewide and regional organizations and individuals has come together to place Cop City on the November ballot through a referendum. Read more about this effort here.
As we mark Juneteenth across the country this weekend, we all have an opportunity to reflect on our personal and communal investments in Black futures and Black communities, in reparation and accountability, and in disinvestment from white supremacy.
If you live in the Atlanta area, you can join our Atlanta chapter’s work to help collect the 75,000 petition signatures needed to get the Stop Cop City referendum on the ballot. Raise your hand to get involved in Atlanta with Bend the Arc here.
If you live outside of Atlanta, here are two organizations on the ground leading this work who you can support with donations:
- Atlanta Solidarity fund — bail and legal defense fund for those being arrested and prosecuted.
- Community Movement Builders – a leading Black organization on the ground fighting to Stop Cop City since its construction was announced.
Organizing to Stop Cop City is one example of how American Jews are working in their communities to fund a vision of community safety by stopping the flow of resources into policing and mass incarceration. You can read about work from other Bend the Arc chapters here.
In solidarity,
The Bend the Arc team
