"Playgrounds for cops": Beyond protests, clergy, environmentalist unite against Atlanta's 'Cop City'

[marmar]

"Playgrounds for cops": Beyond protests, clergy, environmentalist unite against Atlanta's 'Cop City'
23 people were charged with domestic terrorism — including a legal observer

By AREEBA SHAH
Staff Writer
PUBLISHED MARCH 7, 2023 5:26PM (EST)


(Salon) More than 20 people are now facing domestic terrorism charges after dozens of protesters dressed in black — including one from France and one from Canada — were arrested at a planned police training center in a wooded area outside of Atlanta.

The ongoing conflict between authorities and protesters who oppose the so-called "Cop City," a $90 million project set to be built in a forest near Atlanta to offer training for the city's Police and Fire Departments, including classrooms, a shooting range and a "mock city for real-world training," has heated up in recent weeks. Since 2021, the proposed site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center has drawn protesters who worry the project will damage the environment and contribute to the militarization of police.

"We have a problem in the United States with how deeply unimaginative our leaders are in addressing crime," said Kyle Bibby, the senior campaign director at Color Of Change, a civil rights organization. "All we do is just increasingly militarize our police. We increase funding to the police, but that doesn't actually address real systemic issues that lead to crime. People in the community would like to see that money going towards housing, education programs, violence prevention, mental healthcare – other inputs that actually raise crime."

At issue is 3,500 acres of land in Dekalb County called the South River Forest – one of the largest unspoiled forested areas in the Atlanta metro area, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission. The area includes Intrenchment Creek Park, the Atlanta Prison Farm, Constitution Lakes Park and Gresham Park – a predominantly Black neighborhood.

In January, a 26-year-old environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, or "Tortuguita," was shot and killed by officers during a raid at a protest camp. Police have said that Tortuguita attacked them and injured a state trooper, but activists have questioned their claims and called on law enforcement to release any body-camera video of the incident. Tortuguita's killing sparked demonstrations to spread across downtown Atlanta, leading Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to declare a state of emergency on Jan. 26 and order the state's defense department to mobilize up to 1,000 state National Guard troops to be called up to active duty "as necessary." Since then, local organizations have criticized the Mayor and City Council for choosing to engage in violence by relying on police to harass and arrest those protecting the forest as the movement against the Cop City project has built momentum. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/03/07/playgrounds-for-cops-beyond-protests-clergy-environmentalist-unite-against-atlantas-cop-city/

[orthoclad]

1. Stasi/Gestapo amusement park

Chimes in with some articles I read today:

Germany is still trying to crack the Stasi puzzle
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/07/east-germany-stasi-surveillance-documents/

FBI, Pentagon helped research facial recognition for street cameras, drones
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/07/facial-recognition-fbi-dod-research-aclu/
(They put the Stasi to shame. Funny how all this surveillance didn't protect the Capitol.)

And another one (Guardian, I think) about how hard it was for the foreign press to report on Nazi Germany, for two reasons: 1, Hermann Goering read all their correspondence, and 2, their home papers didn't want to print it. Surveillance and suppression.

This is much more like a military training ground, which makes sense, because we don't have police anymore, we have an occupying army. At least in poor neighborhoods. It ain't Mayberry, it's Mariupol.

Yep, hyperbole, but you get the point. From the Salon article:
"... a police facility that would be surrounded by poor neighborhoods in a city with one of the nation's highest degrees of wealth inequality."

We've given the police billions in military equipment and a lot of high-falutin' "training" on how to recognize and dominate the enemy (like press and legal observers, and "others" like Erin Brockovitch*), but has that put a dent in crime? No. But we keep repeating the pattern. Why? Because this is not about "crime". This is about protecting the oligarchy**.

* "Environmental activist Erin Brockovich named in Ohio law enforcement report on “special interest terrorism” threat in East Palestine"
https://www.wtrf.com/ohio-train-derailment/environmental-activist-erin-brockovich-named-in-ohio-law-enforcement-report-on-special-interest-terrorism-threat-in-east-palestine/
** In 2015, after Citizens United, Jimmy Carter called the US an "oligarchy".

Do NOT speak out against the oligarchy. You might be a "special interest terrorist".