Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
Protesters yell at Atlanta City Council members after the council voted to approve legislation to fund a police training center, June 6, 2023, in Atlanta.
Funding for Atlanta’s “Cop City,” the community-given nickname for a police training facility in DeKalb County, Georgia, has been approved by the city council in an 11-4 vote. Despite years of protest and critical comments from over 200 people during a public meeting, the council—which is controlled by Democrats—moved forward.
The city leadership’s refusal to listen to the community shows how far police reform efforts still have to go. As I have previously written, community alternatives to policing have been on the rise since 2020. These programs rely on the understanding that abusive policing is systemic in practically every city, including Atlanta; it has irrevocably harmed communities; and working to avoid repeating said harm through equitable, community-focused alternatives is the only way forward. The work often requires a cohesive relationship between the community and city leadership.
In this sense, Atlanta’s city council not only approved a wildly unpopular proposal, they also sent a clear message of total resistance to even mild reform measures. It signals how deeply divergent the needs of the community and the priorities of the city leadership have become.
The training facility was first shopped around by the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF), the main driver of the proposal, in 2017. Its initial cost to taxpayers was reported as some $30 million, but has now been revised to nearly $70 million. The name refers to a mock city the facility would contain, supposedly for the purpose of police and firefighter training. The project would also raze acres of important forestry.
As clear as the city council’s message was, activists against Cop City have their own message. Opposing forces see the facility as another way to ramp up harmful policing tactics that have led to the murder and terrorization of many Black people, in the city and beyond. Opposition first sparked in earnest in 2021, when the council approved a land lease with the APF. In the time since, protest efforts have seen the death of an activist, public hearings with hundreds of people present, and a raid on a community center.
But probably the most important story of the protests has been the brutal legal attack on protesters. Prosecutors have been charging arrested protesters with wildly disproportionate crimes—most notably, more than 40 people have been charged with domestic terrorism, using a law expanded after the mass murder of Black churchgoers perpetrated by Dylann Roof. As Time reported, this is the first time the law has been used this way. The irony is sickening.
As Micah Herskind wrote for Scalawag, this proposal came amidst a retreat from 2020-era police reform efforts. It also came as a response to rising crime statistics and agitation from more privileged community members for something to be done. Atlanta’s government has always done a delicate dance between the largely Black political leadership and the largely white economic ruling class of the city. Ultimately, the leadership is acting to maintain this balance.
The city dynamics illustrate another aspect of what police reform, including diverting at least some of the bloated law enforcement budget to social services, is about. Law enforcement works as an arm of the ruling class, maintaining order in an unjust society. Divesting from traditional policing means decoupling this toxic relationship, and handing decision-making power back to communities.
In response to the dismissive response from the city, activists are attempting to put a referendum to repeal the lease sale on the next election ballot as a way to return the question to the people. As the Associated Press reported, this effort has an uphill battle. But organizers are working to capture the frustration of Atlanta residents, and channel it toward change.
“From our perspective the important issue goes beyond Cop City itself,” the Atlanta Solidarity Fund’s Marlon Kautz told the Prospect. “It’s a question of whether people in Atlanta have the right to oppose the policies of their government without suffering police violence and malicious prosecution.”
