online – Stop Cop City

The increasing militarization of police forces at home mirrors the use of US armed forces around the world to exploit land and people in order to enrich and protect the elite wealthy ruling class. When we speak of the military-industrial complex, we need to include the police-judicial-prison complex as well. The same racist, colonialist mentality is at work both domestically and abroad.

The Atlanta Police Foundation is trying to build the largest police training facility in the US, known as Cop City. Its construction will destroy the Weelaunee Forest, a watershed surrounded by primarily Black residents who overwhelmingly oppose the project.

The plans include military-grade training facilities, a mock city to practice urban warfare, dozens of shooting ranges, and a Black Hawk helicopter landing pad.

Cop City will serve as a training center for militarized police forces throughout the U.S., aimed at the repression of people who are impoverished, BIPOC, LGBTQ and any who dissent to the established order.

This webinar will focus on the struggle to resist the corporate-led creation of this base for militarized police operations and the root forces that are behind it.

Presenters

Reverend Keyanna Jones is a political and social justice activist and community organizer in Atlanta. Since 2021, she has been an advocate for families who have lost their children to police brutality. She currently works as the Executive Administrator for the New Georgia Project (a voter engagement and civic education organization), and serves as chaplain for the Board of Directors of Recovery House NJ. She is the proprietor of E-Equals MC Squared Educational Services where she works as a homeschool curriculum consultant, IEP advocate, and German translator. See her speaking to the Atlanta City Council here

Micah Herskind is an organizer and policy advocate in Atlanta, GA. He writes about the prison industrial complex and movements to abolish it, and has written for New York Magazine, Teen Vogue, Race & Class, Defector, Prism, and other outlets. See him on Democracy Now here.

Both presenters are activists in the Stop Cop City campaign.