| Stop Cop City | |||
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| Part of Black Lives Matter and United States racial unrest (2020–2023) and the climate movement | |||
 Stop Cop City graffiti along the Proctor Creek Greenway Trail | |||
| Location | 33°41′38″N 84°20′10″W / 33.69383°N 84.33606°W | ||
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non-centralized leadership | |||
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Stop Cop City (SCC), also known as Block Cop City and Defend the Atlanta Forest (DTF), is a decentralized movement in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, whose goal is to stop construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center by the Atlanta Police Foundation and the City of Atlanta. The proposed location for the facility is the Old Atlanta Prison Farm, and opponents of the facility are concerned about the growth of policing in the city—which has witnessed several protests against police violence following the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the killing of Rayshard Brooks,[1] both by police officers.[2][3]
Proponents of the training facility say that the project is necessary to improve police morale and to fight crime. They have said that there is no feasible alternative location for the training center and that the Old Atlanta Prison Farm is "not a forest".[3] Critics of the training facility state that the center will increase militarization of police and that destruction of the forest will exacerbate economic disparities and ecological collapse in a poor-majority Black neighborhood.[4] On January 18, 2023, Georgia State Patrol Officers shot and killed Manuel Esteban Paez Terán during a raid on the occupied encampment.
- ^ Abusaid, Shaddi; Stevens, Alexis; Hollis, Henri; Burns, Asia Simone (August 23, 2020). "No charges against Atlanta officers in fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on August 24, 2022. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
- ^ "Abolitionists and Environmentalists in Atlanta Band Together to "Stop Cop City"". YES! Magazine. Archived from the original on December 10, 2022. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
- ^ a b Bethea, Charles (August 3, 2022). "The New Fight Over an Old Forest in Atlanta". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
- ^ "Atlanta organizers unveil plan to stop 'Cop City' at the ballot box". AP News. June 7, 2023. Archived from the original on June 21, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2023.