A coalition of faith leaders in Atlanta has joined the protest to stop construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center by the Atlanta Police Foundation and the City of Atlanta. The planned facility has been nicknamed Cop City.
Stop Cop City and Defend Atlanta Forest are two names for a social movement in Atlanta that opposes building the $90 police training facility at the site of the Old Atlanta Prison Farm, which is part of the Weelaunee Forest.
A 2021 study found that prison to be the site of past atrocities. An earlier study had recommended preserving the site on the National Register of Historic Places. The site also is an important forest that environmentalists contend should be preserved. They want it to be the centerpiece of a 3,500-acre urban green space called the South River Forest.
Environmentalists and activist clergy contend Atlanta has disparities in green space, with more park space devoted to predominantly white areas than predominantly Black areas. South Atlanta, where Cop City is planned, is a predominantly and historic Black section of the metropolitan area.
All this is tied up in ongoing protests about abusive policing practices not only in Atlanta but nationwide.
For more than a year, the forest has been occupied by “forest defenders” who held “tree-sits” to prevent trees from being cut. These activists have been accused of vandalizing nearby property, leading to a police raid of the site on Dec. 13, 2022. Five people were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism.
When state police made a second raid on the site Jan. 18, a Georgia state trooper was shot in the leg and a protester, Manuel Terán (also known as Tortuguita), was killed by police.
Advocates for the training facility contend it is necessary to improve police morale and fight crime. They also contend the Old Atlanta Prison Farm is not a forest.
As of March 2, nearly 300 clergy and faith leaders from Atlanta and beyond had signed on to a call to end “police militarization, as well as ecological destruction and systemic violence rooted in legacies of genocide and enslavement.”
“We need all people of faith and conscience, those who love and build community with the knowledge that we are interconnected across cultures and geographies to join us for a week of action in Atlanta starting Saturday, March 4, at 11 a.m.,” the letter explains. “With our large numbers, we will show the world our solidarity with all those working in peace and good faith for a just and beautiful future.”
Clergy and religious leaders have planned a news conference that day and plan to deliver their letter to the Atlanta City Council.
“We call on clergy and religious leaders, who are a moral authority in our society, to use your power in support of the forest protectors,” the invitation states. “Come with your vestments, robes and shawls. Come with your sacred texts and teachings. Come with your spiritual power to protect this sacred place.”
The clergy cite several concerns:
- “For the Greater Atlanta Community and the implications for the future of public safety in the United States if Cop City goes forward.”
- “Ignoring the cries of its residents, the City of Atlanta is moving to destroy the nation’s largest urban forest and replace it with the largest militarized police training facility in North America.”
- “Despite a record-breaking amount of public comment opposing the facility, Atlanta’s City Council still passed legislation to build Cop City.”
- “We are horrified about the police raid in the Weelaunee Forest, resulting in the killing of 26-year-old Manuel Paez Terán. We are profoundly troubled by the use of military tactics and escalated legal charges on members of our community — suppressing legitimate resistance while at the same time clear-cutting the Forest’s trees despite not having the appropriate permits.”
The faith leaders in their letter quote from the book of Job to say Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions call upon people of faith to protect the environment.
“We will not succumb to evil nor systems or policies that bring harm and destruction,” the letter concludes. “We will continue our work with justice and love, until the day we can all live in peace as God’s children.”
Signatories to the letter include leaders from Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur and Park Avenue Baptist Church in Atlanta, as well as the Alliance of Baptists.
