#StopCopCity Open Letter from Georgia State University Faculty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 31, 2023

#StopCopCity Open Letter from Georgia State University Faculty

ATLANTA, GA — A group of faculty members at Georgia State University (GSU) has written an open letter calling for an end to the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, more popularly known as Cop City, which has been the subject of controversy and protest in the City of Atlanta and around the world.

The open letter, signed by over 20 GSU faculty members and counting, highlights the harmful impact of police training facilities like Cop City on communities of color, and argues that such facilities reinforce and perpetuate a system of institutionalized racism and oppression. The undersigned faculty express that “[a]s faculty at GSU, many of us teach and build community with a diverse working-class student population that this very initiative would threaten.”

In the letter, the faculty members call on GSU to divest from Cop City and to instead invest in community-based alternatives that prioritize public safety and well-being over policing and punishment. They join faculty at Morehouse and Spelman and urge other universities and institutions to join them in taking a stand against the expansion of the police state.

GSU Faculty Letter Sign-on: https://forms.gle/ve5WuYJTkwB8Mdmh8.

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