By FOX 5 Atlanta Digital TeamPublished 2 days agoUpdated 1 day agoFOX 5 Atlanta

Stop Cop City activists reportedly chained themselves to equipment in Midtown Atlanta on Monday morning.

ATLANTA - Two activists locked themselves to construction equipment at a construction site near 12th and Juniper streets in Midtown Atlanta early Monday morning to protest the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.

Atlanta police responded to the scene and the activists were eventually taken into custody. The incident, which also included a protest on the street, lasted for several hours and disrupted early morning traffic in the area. 

According to a press release, the activists targeted the contractor, Brasfield & Gorrie, at the site because they are the lead contractor for the training center, which is also known as "Cop City."

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Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum identified the two people who were arrested as 28-year-old Shiloh Wetstone of Atlanta and Temperance Blick of Lilburn. They are facing criminal trespassing charges. 

Schierbaum said the activists used "professional" devices called Sleeping Dragons to secure themselves to the equipment. The police chief said the pair also brought along items for their comfort and it was obvious they were planning to spend the day at the construction site. 

"Today was a publicity stunt to disrupt the neighborhood. This is disappointing. We have a concerted effort to erode the public safety infrastructure of Atlanta," said Darin Schierbaum.

The activists are also hoping to pressure the company into cutting ties with the project. Vandals also targeted their offices in Birmingham, Alabama, in May 2022. 

There have been multiple protests and acts of vandalism and arson since the training center project was announced. 

Equipment at a construction site near Boulevard SE and Custer Avenue was set on fire on Jan. 26. While no group has claimed responsibility for the fire, officials say an online posting appeared to indicate that the fire was started by people opposed to the training center.

Atlanta police have previously spoken out about several intentionally set fires targeting construction equipment, describing the protesters' actions as ruthless and dangerous.

Law enforcement officials say their destruction has cost companies and police agencies millions of dollars in damaged equipment in at least four states across the country.

According to Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum, another act of arson took place on Jan. 16. A piece of equipment belonging to a construction company associated with the training center was set on fire. Although no one has been arrested, Schierbaum said activists took responsibility for the arson on a website.

Last year, the APD, the Georgia State Fire Marshals and other law enforcement agencies announced a reward of up to $200,000 in hopes of catching the group behind the fires.

Protests against the training center — dubbed "Cop City" by opponents — have been going on for more than two years. Around the same time as the fire at the concrete company, activists held meetings, concerts, dinners, and direct action to rally support to block the project.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and other supporters say the 85-acre, $90 million facility would replace inadequate training facilities and would help address difficulties in hiring and retaining police officers. Opponents have expressed concern that it could lead to greater police militarization and that its construction in the South River Forest will worsen environmental damage in a poor, majority-Black area.

 'Cop City' activists arrested at construction site in Midtown Atlanta (fox5atlanta.com) 

CNN — 

An environmental activist killed earlier this year while protesting a planned law enforcement training facility in Atlanta sustained “at least” 57 gunshot wounds, according to a county medical examiner report.

One central question the autopsy leaves unanswered is whether there was forensic evidence proving, as authorities have claimed, that the activist, Manuel Esteban Paez “Tortuguita” Terán, fired a gun.

In the report, the examiner noted there was no visible gunpowder observed on Terán’s hands.

Clashes over Atlanta's 'Cop City' led to a protester's killing and dozens of arrests. Here's how we got here -- and what comes next

But the report also notes a test was performed to determine whether trace amounts of gunpowder residue were present and the results of that test are not included in the report. State investigators and the prosecutor assigned to the case declined to say what the results of the test were.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the agency tasked with investigating the shooting, has said officers shot Terán after the activist shot and seriously wounded a state trooper on January 18, as law enforcement worked to clear protesters from the site of a proposed training facility, dubbed “Cop City” by opponents.

Fellow protesters and Terán’s family have disputed that account and have said Terán would not have fired at law enforcement.

The GBI previously released a photograph of a 9 mm handgun they say was in Terán’s possession. “Forensic ballistic analysis has confirmed that the projectile recovered from the trooper’s wound matches Terán’s handgun,” GBI said January news release. The agency also said it confirmed Terán legally purchased the Smith & Wesson gun they say was recovered on scene.

The GBI told CNN Thursday they have completed their investigation.

“The casefile was given to the Mountain Circuit District Attorney’s Office (Special Prosecutor) on April 14, 2023,” Nelly Miles, a spokesperson for the agency, told CNN in an email.

The autopsy was conducted by the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s office the day after the shooting, according to a copy of the autopsy report released to CNN Thursday.

“The autopsy revealed at least 57 gunshot wounds,” the report said. “Collectively, the gunshots resulted in (the activist’s) death and therefore the cause of death is designated as multiple gunshot wounds.”

Atlanta's so-called 'Cop City' is igniting protests. Here's what we know about the foundation behind it

The report did not specify the total number of bullets that made contact.

It lists the manner of death as “homicide.”

The report says “the gunshot wound to the head would have been fatal by itself,” but that shot was “unlikley” to have been “the first wound inflicted.”

Terán, who was non-binary and more commonly known by fellow activists as “Tortugita,” was in a tent when law enforcement agencies arrived on the scene that morning, authorities have said. According to the GBI, law enforcement was clearing out any person found to be trespassing on the land, part of which is owned by the city of Atlanta and part of which is owned by neighboring DeKalb County.

An independent autopsy commissioned by Terán’s family and described at a previous news conference claimed the activist was seated with their hands raised when they sustained at least some of the wounds. That autopsy – which notes Terán was shot about a dozen times by ammunition used in handguns and shotguns – could neither prove nor disprove the allegation the activist was armed.

The autopsy report from the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s office says attempts to determine Terán’s body position at the time of the shooting would be “fraught with potential inaccuracies.”

The GBI declined to comment on the newly released DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s report and referred questions to the special prosecutor.

The special prosecutor in the case, George Christian, told CNN he plans to have an initial meeting with the GBI next week, after being assigned the case on March 8. Christian said he received a hard drive with case information last week, but has not reviewed it yet, and added he is “on the very front end” of his review of the case.

He said he “can’t give a timeframe” for how long his review will last.

The Georgia State Patrol trooper who was shot during the incident “is still recuperating,” an agency spokesperson told CNN Thursday. The agency has declined to identify the trooper.

In a news release regarding the autopsy report, Terán’s mother, Belkis Terán, said, “We are devastated to learn that our child, our sweet Manny, was mercilessly gunned down by police and suffered 57 bullet wounds all over their body.”

The release added that the activist’s family continues to seek “answers that have been withheld.”

 Climate activist killed in 'Cop City' protest sustained 57 gunshot wounds, official autopsy says, but questions about gunpowder residue remain | CNN 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCW3qsy44lk&ab_channel=BreakingNews%2F365

Exclusive: Roark Capital and Silver Lake Management showed to have a web of connections to the Atlanta police foundation

Nina Lakhani @ninalakhaniWed 22 Mar 2023 06.00 EDT

The Guardian Newspaper

A new investigation has uncovered connections between private equity firms and the contentious development of a sprawling police and fire service training complex in Atlanta known as “Cop City” and the police force which fatally shot an environmental activist.

Private equity refers to an opaque form of financing away from public markets in which funds and investors manage money for wealthy individuals and institutional investors such as university endowments and state employee pension funds.

‘We deserve to know’: autopsy of ‘Cop City’ activist shot by police incomplete two months on

Research shared exclusively with the Guardian details links between Roark Capital, an Atlanta-based private equity firm which owns the country’s second-largest restaurant company, Inspire Brands, and a corporate backer of the Atlanta police foundation (APF).

Paul Brown, the CEO of Inspire Brands, whose portfolio includes fast-food franchises Dunkin’, Baskin Robbins and Arby’s, sits on the board of trustees of the APF, which is raising $60m from corporate funders to build Cop City in the Atlanta forest previously earmarked for a public park.

Police foundations are non-profits which raise private money from individual and corporate donors that is funnelled to police departments with little oversight or accountability. The APF has previously helped Atlanta police fund recruitment drives, surveillance cameras and Swat team equipment.

The police crackdown on community protests against Cop City have led to dozens of charges of domestic terrorism and the police killing of the environmental activist Manuel Paez Terán, known as “Tortuguita”. Police said Paez Terán shot at them first, but have not produced any body-cam or other video footage of the shooting.

The APF has helped Atlanta become the most surveilled city in the US in large part thanks to a program called Operation Shield.

The Silicon Valley firm Silver Lake Management, one of the world’s largest tech-focused private equity firms, has invested more than $1bn in Motorola Solutions, which designed and implemented the surveillance system for Operation Shield, according to a new report by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP).

Motorola has been criticised for providing hi-tech surveillance equipment used in US prisons, on the US-Mexico border and in the West Bank. Several European pension funds have divested from Motorola, and it was included in a UN list of companies “that had raised particular human rights concerns” by providing surveillance tools and other services to the Israeli government.

Operation Shield currently boasts more than 12,800 private and public interconnected cameras monitored by the police – the highest number per capita in the country. Motorola has sold more than $22m worth of products and services to the Atlanta police department since 2016.

Silver Lake Management has invested money from pension funds paid into by Texas and Ohio teachers and South Dakota and California state employees, according to PitchBook.

In 2022, Silver Lake added Shadowbox Studios (formerly Blackhall Studios), a television and film studio company, to its portfolio with a $500m investment. The studios are located south of the Cop City site.

At an APF meeting on the Cop City budget in February, the agenda included what appeared to be a discussion on a possible future relationship between Shadowbox and the APF. The meeting agenda included the following item: “Are there any scenarios where we can come up with some agreement to work with Shadowbox for them to help fund some components and in return they have access to use the facility for filming purposes?”

There is no evidence that Shadowbox had any knowledge of the agenda item or that it has contributed in any way to the APF.

“We’ve shown that private equity does have its hands in the controversy that is unfolding around Atlanta and its police force. Knowing the relationships Roark Capital and Silver Lake Management have with Cop City, [the Atlanta police department] and APF will give activists another tool to demand accountability for the recent violence and the destruction of the Georgia environment,” said Amanda Mendoza, PESP researcher and co-author of the report.

The private equity industry manages about $11tn globally. Asset managers and funds buy and restructure companies including startups, franchises, troubled businesses and real estate operations using their clients’ money. Yet unlike banks and other publicly listed companies, private equity firms are exempt from most financial disclosure rules, making it extremely difficult to track their assets – or risks.

It means people such as firefighters, nurses and teachers whose pensions are invested in private equity funds have little way of knowing if their retirement nest egg is financing police surveillance equipment, defence contractors, hospitals or coal plants.

The report Private Equity Profits from Destroying the Atlanta Forest is the latest attempt by researchers to uncloak the industry’s activity.

Roark Capital mostly invests in franchises like fast-food chains and in February 2023 claimed $33bn in assets under management. The company has lobbied against a federal minimum wage, and a 2020 report by the Government Accountability Office found employees at some Roark brands were among the most frequent recipients of food stamps in some states.

After protests swept across the US in response to the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, Inspire Brands CEO and APF board member Paul Brown posted a letter on LinkedIn calling attention to “violence” and “attacks” by protesters – without mentioning the police violence that triggered the protests. (Roark’s own CEO donated thousands of dollars to the former Georgia senator David Perdue as he promoted the big lie and sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election.)

Another Roark connection is Marshall Freeman, who for seven years served as chief operating officer of the APF and sits on the board of the Inspire Brands Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm. Freeman has joined the Atlanta police department as a deputy chief administrative officer.

The enormous amounts of money at the disposal of private equity often comes from state employees and retirees

Roark has invested money from several public worker pensions funds, including those of firefighters and police in Colorado, Los Angeles city employees, Oregon and New York state workers, and Louisiana teachers, according to PitchBook.

“The enormous amounts of money at the disposal of private equity often comes from state employees and retirees, who would be very surprised to learn where their investments are going. That’s why it’s important to follow the money,” said Charles Mahoney, associate professor of political science at California State University who researches private equity investments in defence and national security.

Roark Capital did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Silver Lake declined to comment.

Atlanta is the US’s 38th most populous city, according to the 2020 census. The APF, a non-profit whose corporate backers also include UPS, Home Depot, Wells Fargo and Coca Cola, is the second-largest police foundation in the country after New York City.

According to LittleSis, a corporate finance watchdog group, “police foundations act as a backchannel for corporate and wealthy interests by funding policing even further, adding to already overinflated budgets without any required public oversight, approval, or accountability.”

The Atlanta police department was allotted a third of the city’s $700m budget in 2022, and has received additional money through the APF to expand its surveillance capacity and recruit more officers.

Less than a week after Atlanta police shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in the summer of 2020, the APF gave every officer in the city a $500 bonus.

The APF received a record $11.7m in donations in 2021, a figure likely to rise since Georgia passed new legislation expanding personal tax breaks last year. In addition to funding the police directly, the city has also given the APF more than $3.6m since 2016 for Swat team equipment, licence plate readers and thousands of cameras for Operation Shield.

Mendoza said: “When it comes to policing, which already faces severe accountability and transparency issues, private equity involvement adds an additional layer of opaqueness. This report is just scratching the surface in investigating how private equity has contributed to not only moving these dangerous projects forward but also supporting a devolving situation of violence in the city.”

Paez Terán was part of a broad social movement that opposes the $90m Cop City training complex planned for 85 acres of the South River forest, one of Atlanta’s largest remaining green spaces. The social movement also opposes plans to develop 40 acres of public park in the same forest.

Paez Terán’s death was the first known killing by police of an environmental activist in the US. The police crackdown has continued since his death amid growing local opposition to Cop City. Community concerns include increasing police militarization and excessive force especially against Black residents, as well as losing part of a forest that had been included in 2017 plans to create what would have been the city’s largest park.

 Investment fund links to Atlanta police and ‘Cop City’ project revealed | Atlanta | The Guardian 

The family of an environmental activist killed while protesting a planned law enforcement training facility in Atlanta earlier this year has filed a lawsuit against the city, seeking the release of records to aid in their search for answers about what led to the fatal shooting.

“We’re here because Manuel Paez Terán’s family wants answers,” Jeff Filipovits, an attorney for the family, told reporters in a news conference Monday. “And we are not getting any answers.”

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, has said officers shot Terán after the activist shot and seriously wounded a state trooper on January 18, 2023, as law enforcement worked to clear protesters from the forested site of the proposed facility, dubbed “Cop City” by opponents who fear it will further militarize police and harm the environment.

Activists have disputed the GBI’s claim, and the family’s attorneys say an autopsy commissioned by the family and released Monday indicates the activist was seated and had their hands raised when they sustained at least some of the wounds.

But that autopsy – which notes Terán was shot about a dozen times by ammunition used in handguns and shotguns and could neither prove nor disprove the allegation the activist was armed – “is not enough for us to work backward from it to figure out what happened,” Filipovits said Monday.

The lawsuit aims to have a Georgia court order the city of Atlanta to turn over police department records the family’s attorneys previously requested, including any images and video or audio recordings related to authorities’ operation on January 18. But those requests have been stymied by what the attorneys and their lawsuit allege is a “coordinated effort” by the state to “prevent public records from being released to Manuel’s family and the public at large.”

“My heart is destroyed,” Belkis Terán, the mother of the activist, said at Monday’s news conference, adding she is trying to continue her child’s legacy but still lacks the answers she needs. “I want answers for my child’s homicide. I’m asking for answers to my child’s homicide.”

A spokesperson for the city of Atlanta declined to comment Monday, citing the pending litigation. Reached for comment Monday, the GBI referred CNN to earlier statements. In a news release last week, the agency said its actions were aimed at preventing the “inappropriate release of evidence” to “ensure the facts of the incident are not tainted.” The GBI “continues to work diligently to protect the integrity of the investigation and will turn our findings over to an appointed prosecutor for review and action.” The investigation so far, it added, “still supports our initial assessment.”

 Belkis Terán is seen with her child, Manuel Paez Terán, in this family photo. - Courtesy Belkis Terán

The city initially responded to a January request for information from attorneys by saying the Atlanta Police Department had identified relevant records that would be released on a “rolling basis,” according to Wingo Smith, another attorney representing the family, and the lawsuit. On February 8, the family’s attorneys had received 14 videos from body-worn cameras that were also released to reporters, the lawsuit says.

On February 13, however, the director of the GBI’s Legal Division sent a letter to the Atlanta police chief asking the department to “withhold those records” related to the GBI’s investigation, the lawsuit says. According to the letter, provided as an exhibit in the family’s lawsuit, the GBI explained the records were evidence in an ongoing investigation, and thus exempt from public disclosure.

 The next day, the state Department of Law sent a letter to the city, according to the lawsuit, and on February 15, Atlanta police sent a revised response to the attorneys, saying it would “not be releasing further footage at this time.”

The planned police facility – slated to include among other things, a shooting range, a burn building and a mock city – has received fierce pushback from several groups. Among them are residents who feel there was little public input, conservationists who worry it will carve out a chunk of much-needed forest land and activists who say it will militarize police forces and contribute to further instances of police brutality. Those backing the facility say it’s needed to help boost police morale and recruitment efforts.

Tensions between law enforcement and protesters have continued to rise since Terán’s death, reaching a fever pitch earlier this month when nearly two dozen demonstrators were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism in connection to violent clashes at the site. Authorities said officers and construction equipment were assailed with Molotov cocktails, commercial-grade fireworks, bricks and large rocks.

Eli Bennett, a defense attorney for some of those charged, claimed his clients had been wrongfully arrested “more than a mile” from those clashes and about “an hour or two” after footage showed demonstrators lobbing fireworks and Molotov cocktails at police.

“They all deny it,” he added, speaking about his clients. “Police moved in with an overwhelming display of force,” Bennett told CNN about the arrests.

The attorneys on Monday also publicly released the autopsy commissioned by the family and performed by a forensic pathologist, who detailed the numerous gunshot wounds Terán suffered to their feet, legs, abdomen, arms, hands and head.

Most of the wounds indicate they were caused by handguns, the autopsy notes, though others appear consistent with shotgun ammunition. There were no entrance wounds on Terán’s back, the pathologist wrote, indicating the activist “was facing the multiple individuals who were firing their weapons at him during the entire interval in which the shooting occurred.”

The wounds, the pathologist writes, “indicate that the decedent was most probably in a seated position, cross-legged, with the left leg partially over the right leg.”

“At some point during the course of being shot, the decedent was able to raise (their) hands and arms up in front of (their) body, with (their) palms facing towards (their) upper body,” it says.

“It is impossible to determine if the decedent had been holding a firearm, or not holding a firearm, either before (they were) shot or while (they were) being shot the multiple times.”

The official autopsy, performed by the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office, has not been released.

 Family of environmental activist killed while protesting 'Cop City' files lawsuit against Atlanta in search for answers | CNN 

A man walks his dog along the South River Trail, which leads into Intrenchment Creek Park, in Atlanta on August 15, 2022. On the road, the words 'Stop Cop City' reflect the sentiment of advocates and residents who don't want to see a new police and fire training facility built in the area.Austin Steele/CNN

By Christina Maxouris, CNN Photos by Austin Steele and CNN Videos by Matthew Gannon, CNNUpdated 12:56 PM EDT, Sat September 24, 2022CNN — 

When Ram moved to the Boulder Walk neighborhood just southeast of Atlanta five years ago, it felt like finding a hidden gem: It was a diverse, affordable and family-friendly community just steps away from the local high school, bordering a forest but still a short drive from the big city; perfect for her family of five.

But she hasn’t been able to get used to hearing the daily sprays of gunfire.

“When I first moved here, it increased my anxiety,” Ram, who did not want her full name used due to privacy concerns, said. “It messed up my nerves.”

The sound comes from a nearby Atlanta police firing range. It’s unnerving, residents from several nearby neighborhoods told CNN. Worse, they worry it’s just a glimpse into what could come when local officials begin building a massive police and fire training center in their backyards. “I absolutely want the police to be well-trained,” said Joe Santifer, who lives in another neighborhood, roughly a mile away from where the facility is slated to be built. “But if they’re not being good neighbors now, what will give us the confidence that they’ll be good neighbors in the future?”

Joe Santifer poses for a portrait at Glen Emerald Rock Garden in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 22, 2022.Austin Steele/CNN

The expected $90 million, 85-acre center, announced and approved by the city of Atlanta last year, will include a shooting range, mock city and burn building, among other facilities. The Atlanta Police Foundation says the center is needed to help boost morale and recruitment efforts, and previous facilities law enforcement has used are substandard, while fire officials now train in “borrowed facilities.” The police foundation, a nonprofit established in 2003, helps fund local policing initiatives through public - private partnerships. Among those sitting on its board of trustees are leaders of UPS, Wells Fargo, The Home Depot, Equifax and Delta Air Lines.

But the plan has been met with fierce resistance from a community still reeling from monthslong demonstrations protesting police brutality and racial injustice. Some locals say the city’s announcement blindsided neighbors and the development process since has largely been a secretive one with limited input from the most affected communities.

For others, the facility poses environmental concerns at a time when the deadly impacts of climate change have become hard to ignore: The training center would carve out a chunk of forested land Atlanta leaders previously seemed to agree to preserve, though the city says officials are committed to replacing trees destroyed in construction.

Activists determined to stop the project have camped out in the forest’s trees and, despite a permit which could soon signal the start of construction, say they have no plans to leave.

Atlanta and then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms were in the national spotlight in 2020 as protests erupted across the country over police killings of Black people, including Rayshard Brooks, a Black man fatally shot in the back by Atlanta police.

The city’s police chief resigned and Bottoms denounced the “chaos” she said was unfolding on the city’s streets, adding she was trying to strike a “tough balance” between criticizing police officers and supporting the ones who protected the city.

In the spring of 2021, following mounting pressure over a demoralized police force, Bottoms announced plans to build a new police training academy in an unincorporated part of neighboring DeKalb County on a controversial parcel of land owned and used as a prison farm by the city for much of the 1900s, sprawling across more than 300 acres. Prisoners there were subject to harsh punishments and bleak conditions, including poor sanitation and nutrition and overcrowding, according to the Atlanta Community Press Collective, a local group of researchers and writers.

“We knew that (the training facility) was a direct response to the uprisings that took place in 2020,” said Kwame Olufemi, of Community Movement Builders, a Black member-based grassroots organization opposing the project.

The site of the proposed project, the Old Atlanta Prison Farm – where graffitied ruins now sit entwined with weeds and vines surrounded by forested land – is a “cultural landscape of memory,” say local advocates, who have long called for it to be turned into a park and memorial.

It’s also less than half a mile away from a tributary of the South River, which is one of America’s most endangered, according to nonprofit conservation group American Rivers. That’s a result of decades of neglect and pollution the area, which is overwhelmingly Black, has endured, local advocates say.

In 2017, a report authored by Atlanta’s city planning department which envisioned the prison farm as a key part of a larger effort to protect green spaces around the river was adopted into the city charter. It felt like a “unanimous promise” from city leaders to protect the land, said Joe Peery, with local volunteer group Save The Old Atlanta Prison Farm.

But in September 2021, after hearing roughly 17 hours of public comment – the majority of which was against the training center – the Atlanta City Council approved a ground lease agreement with the Atlanta Police Foundation, allowing for 85 acres of the prison farm site to be turned into the training facility while the other 265 is slated to be preserved as greenspace. (For comparison, the NYPD’s training academy is a roughly 32-acre campus; the LAPD training campus is about 20 acres.) Andre Dickens, Atlanta’s current mayor, was among the council members who voted for the lease.

“Everybody was floored,” said Jacqueline Echols, board president for the South River Watershed Alliance, an organization working to protect the river. “Just in 2017 they’d said this would be a park and a community investment.”

Jacqueline Echols stands for a portrait outside of Intrenchment Creek Park in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 3, 2022.Austin Steele/CNN

Though the land is in unincorporated DeKalb County, it’s long been owned by the city, and residents in the surrounding area don’t have a say in city elections or vote for the leaders who made this decision. “It was kind of foisted upon us,” Santifer, who lives in Glen Emerald Park, said. “That’s part of the issue: the lack of transparency, the lack of engagement with this community because frankly, they know the community doesn’t want it.”

The police foundation has said the city went through an “exhaustive review of its properties” before selecting the site, adding it is the only one owned by Atlanta big enough to accommodate the two departments’ needs. And even if another privately-controlled site was identified, the foundation has said, preparing it for development would take “decades and present taxpayers with an unwarranted financial burden.”

City spokesperson Bryan Thomas told CNN the prison farm site was “a pragmatic choice, given its adjacency, its ownership by the City and its former and continued use” by Atlanta’s police and fire rescue departments.

Other sites were explored over several years, Thomas said, adding the city engaged with a group of designers, architects and engineers about what a “first-rate training center” would require. The group eventually focused on the prison farm site since it has previously hosted training facilities, like the firing range, Thomas added.

CNN also reached out to the police foundation for comment.

After the September 2021 vote, Bottoms said she was aware of widespread opposition to the facility, but the city did not have any other site options to choose from, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The center was a move to support the city’s fire and police officers “while also focusing on sensible reform,” Bottoms, who did not run for reelection, said in a September 2021 news release.

The White House had no comment from Bottoms, who serves as senior adviser to the President for public engagement.

Perhaps the loudest voices of opposition come from activists and organizers who have dubbed the plan “Cop City” and called on Mayor Dickens to cancel the lease.

“Tree sitters” and other members of the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” movement built shelters in trees to prevent the facility’s construction and have also called attention to the forest’s history, saying a police center will continue a legacy of oppression on the land. Before it was a prison farm, White settlers established slave-based plantations in the area after forcing off the Muscogee Creek tribe, according to anthropologist Mark Auslander. Forest defenders refer to it today by its Muscogee name, Weelaunee Forest, as a nod to its original inhabitants.

Members of the movement have been accused by local officials and some neighbors of using violent tactics in related opposition efforts, including allegedly setting a tow truck on fire. In May, eight protesters were arrested after a Molotov cocktail was allegedly thrown at police as authorities tried to remove them from the area, according to CNN affiliate WSB. But it did not deter their efforts. The Defend the Atlanta Forest Twitter account posted a letter in August it said was from a tree sitter. “I’ll be here keeping up the struggle,” the letter said. “My question to the (Atlanta Police Foundation) is: When will you give up?”

A person walks near the entrance to Intrenchment Creek Park in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 3, 2022.Austin Steele/CNN

The Community Movement Builders group, which also opposes the plan, would have liked to see the financial resources instead be put toward mental health, food and housing programs for south Atlanta communities, according to Olufemi.

Taxpayers will fund about $30 million of the facility’s cost in total, with the rest coming from private philanthropic and corporate donations, the city has said. Among those backing the center is the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a partnership between the mayor and the city’s top business, civic and academic leaders. Its former chairman, Alex Taylor, Chairman and CEO of Cox Enterprises, led the initial private funding campaign for the center at then-Mayor Bottoms’ request. (Cox owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the city’s major daily newspaper.)

Cox Enterprises spokeswoman Sonji Jacobs told CNN in a statement, “The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has always operated with complete editorial independence, and the newspaper, in its coverage of the police training facility, has repeatedly disclosed that it is owned by Cox Enterprises.”

Atlanta Police Foundation President and CEO Dave Wilkinson wrote in a 2021 Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed a surge in violent crime across Atlanta since the summer of 2020 called for “more effective law enforcement,” but the city had struggled to build morale and retain employees in recent years.

Residents who are in support of the facility told CNN they wanted police to be able to train properly and hoped the development would make their communities safer and help spur economic development.

Spence Gould, a marine and resident of the Boulder Walk community for roughly a decade, said he sees the need for a training center. “I want my police force very well-trained, I want them to have all the resources that they need,” Gould told CNN. “But I also see the (Defend the Atlanta Forest) concerns because we are really wrecking the planet.”

Once the foundation has a land disturbance permit (which is still under review, according to DeKalb County) and construction begins, a fence will be put up around the site and anyone on the property “will be arrested,” Wilkinson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in March.

Construction is expected to begin in the late fall and the first phase of the facility is expected to open before the end of 2023, the city spokesperson said.

Trees are seen with hearts placed on them near the planned police development in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 22, 2022.Austin Steele/CNN

Before the mayor’s sudden announcement, the prison farm site had been a key centerpiece in another vision: the South River Forest.

The forest is a 3,500-acre network of connected green spaces across parts of Atlanta and DeKalb County, which advocates say is desperately needed. Despite being known as the “city in a forest,” Atlanta has massive disparities in green space, with fewer and smaller parks in predominantly Black areas like this one. And with a population size expected to sharply increase in the coming decades, the benefits the forest can provide – floodplain restoration, habitat expansion and tree canopy protection, among others – will be critical, the Nature Conservancy has said.

'Hotlanta' is even more sweltering in these neighborhoods due to a racist 20th-century policy

In August 2021, more than a dozen environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter, wrote an open letter to city leaders urging them not to lease the prison farm site to the police foundation, arguing ragmenting the South River Forest will leave surrounding communities vulnerable to adverse impacts, like stormwater flooding – a problem already worsening because of climate change.

“The forest serves as the city’s lungs,” said Nina Dutton, chair of the Sierra Club Metro Atlanta Group. “Forests capture carbon, they clean the air … they mitigate flooding and prevent erosion and they help keep the city cool. Breaking up this area of forest would reduce the amount of forest that’s available to help us in those ways.”

The forest vision could also spur economic development in long neglected areas and reconcile decades of environmental injustice with investment, said urban planner Ryan Gravel. “If you live in a community in the South River Forest, you’re more likely to live within walking distance of a landfill or a prison than anywhere else in metro Atlanta, by far,” he said. “You’re talking about an area that has historically been treated as a dumping ground.”

Discarded bags of trash are seen along a hole in a fence that leads into a proposed police development in Atlanta on August 15, 2022.Austin Steele/CNN

Thomas, the city’s spokesperson, said training facilities will make up less than half the site, while the rest will be green space open to the public and include walking trails and picnic areas.

Much of the land to be developed has previously been cleared of trees and the parts including forest cover are “overwhelmingly dominated by invasive species,” devoid of thick forest, Thomas added. The Atlanta Police Foundation has committed to replace any hardwood tree destroyed in construction with 10 new ones and replace any invasive species with hardwood trees, the spokesperson added.

But advocates with Save the Old Atlanta Prison Farm argue most of the land has been reforested and reducing the forest in any way would also reduce the economic opportunities for the surrounding communities. “The noise and smoke coming from the Police Training Facility would further erode that impact,” the group has said.

Although the training center will put a dent in advocates’ plans, many are still determined to see the South River Forest come to life. An ongoing initiative by the Nature Conservancy and the Atlanta Regional Commission is collecting community input about the forest’s future and is slated to wrap up in the coming weeks.

“This could be the first step in starting to reverse some of the discrimination that this part of the city has seen over the last decades,” Santifer, who is among the project managers of that initiative, said.

DeKalb County leaders could soon take a vote on a resolution introduced by county commissioner Ted Terry calling for an environmental assessment of the site and a noise study for the proposed center – and asks developers to reconsider the location if their plan cannot satisfy environmental standards. (Atlanta Police Foundation officials have said the center will “be built with 21st century EPA standards and controls.”)

Terry recently said on Twitter county leaders have received more public comment from residents on this issue than any other during his tenure. “All opposed,” he wrote.

Dickens, Atlanta’s mayor, told the New Yorker recently an advisory committee created in the aftermath of the lease approval offered a way for public input on the project. But critics of the group note its members were appointed by local officials and don’t have the power to hold the police foundation and developers accountable to the community’s concerns.

One member was voted out after publishing an opinion piece criticizing the police foundation and project developers for misleading the community and avoiding their environmental due diligence – including by never investigating the possibility of unmarked graves on the prison farm land.

A "Defend the Atlanta Forest" sign is seen in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 22, 2022.Austin Steele/CNN

The committee isn’t meant to serve as a watchdog, but rather to make recommendations on changes or adjustments to the development which would benefit surrounding communities, said committee chair Alison Clark. And so far, the foundation has adopted all the group’s recommendations, she added, including relocating the center’s firing range further away from residential areas.

Clark, who has lived in the Boulder Walk neighborhood for roughly eight years, told CNN she is in favor of the training facility. She agrees the area has long been used as a “dumping ground” for unpopular developments like landfills, and hopes the center can help economically lift the area, bring in new vendors and also boost police presence. “At the end of the day, I think that’s a win-win for the community,” she said.

But ahead of the DeKalb County commissioners’ vote, county leaders heard from residents who said the project remained highly unpopular among the surrounding communities and urged for the approval of Terry’s resolution.

“Residents in the area, who are predominantly Black and brown, often low-income, have been left out of the decision-making process and their voices have been ignored,” DeKalb County resident Brad Beadles said during an August meeting, according to a summary posted on the county’s website. “No one should have to be subjected to such clear harmful violations of our environment and our neighborhoods.”

Terry told CNN he is taking more feedback from community members on the resolution and expects a vote on it from the commission next month.

 Atlanta wants to build a massive police training facility in a forest. Neighbors are fighting to stop it | CNN 

Federal & State Governments Demonize Victims of Child Sex Crimes with Drug Wars

Victims of child sex crimes can be found in addiction programs everywhere.  The State at all levels have relied on jailing vulnerable rape victims for decades of addiction.

Survivor's drug of choice will determine the length and frequency of their incarceration time.

We need to replace incarceration with bringing our sex crime survivors home.  Nicotine is as lethal as heroin according to the CDC..  If you substitute every drug conviction with the drug of choice being nicotine, you can easily see the ignorance of mass incarceration.

Migrant agricultural workers kept out of the US by tough immigration laws are now being replaced by prison labor.             

Prison inmates are picking fruits and vegetables at a rate not seen since Jim Crow.

Convict leasing for agriculture – a system that allows states to sell prison labor to private farms – became infamous in the late 1800s for the brutal conditions it imposed on captive, mostly  black workers. 

Federal and state laws prohibited convict leasing for most of the 20th century, but the once-notorious practice is making a comeback.

Under lucrative arrangements, states are increasingly leasing prisoners to private corporations to harvest food for American consumers.

https://www.latinorebels.com/2019/06/07/convictsarereturningtofarming/