FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 8, 2023
National Day of Action Against Police Terror on March 9: Demand Justice for Tyre Nichols and Tortuguita
Rally at King Center Amphitheater at 6pm
ATLANTA, GA — 2022 was a record year for police violence. At least 1,176 people were killed in 2022, including seven people at the hands of the Atlanta police. In 2023, we witnessed the brutal murder of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police and learned about the kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Susana Morales by a Doraville police officer and the murder of forest defender, Tortuguita, who was shot at least 13 times by the Georgia State Patrol. While an official, non-independent, investigation is ongoing, Tortuguita would still be alive today if not for the Atlanta Police Foundation’s reckless plan to build the wildly unpopular public safety training compound known as Cop City.
This $90 million militarized police training compound will be built within a majority-Black neighborhood in unincorporated Dekalb County, with local residents having zero say in the matter. Atlantans have resisted Cop City since early 2021, when the plan was proposed by Atlanta City Council with almost 14 hours of public comment, revealing that about 70 percent of Atlantans were opposed to the project.
In 2020, the George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks Uprising brought millions of people to the streets calling for police abolition, police defunding, and the reimagining of public safety. These calls have been completely ignored by Atlanta’s political and corporate classes. Instead, the city now aims to double down on the same tactics and practices of policing that do not keep our communities safe. This massive and absurd investment in police militarization, with a compound featuring a mock city, shooting ranges, and VR simulation infrastructure will undoubtedly reinforce an “us versus them” culture that is rampant in police departments across the state and country.
Police militarization has always disproportionately impacted Black and brown communities as well as social justice movements, which aim to disrupt the status quo that the police are so viciously dedicated to upholding. This injustice is compounded by the sheer scale of the facility, drawing police departments from other states in order to replicate violent tactics nationwide. These tactics would also be influenced by the Atlanta Police Department’s coordination with Israel, a state and occupying force that violently upholds apartheid, through its GILEE (Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange) program.
“We will not stand by while the Atlanta city government and its police continue to kill our people and decimate our communities,” said Kamau Franklin, an organizer with Community Movement Builders.
On Thursday, March 9 at 6 p.m., Community Movement Builders, the Movement for Black Lives, Black Alliance for Peace, the New Georgia Project and other black-led organizations will rally at the King Center Amphitheater (449 Auburn Avenue NE) to call for an immediate halt to the construction of Cop City, for the Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and the City Council to cancel the lease to the Atlanta Police Foundation, for justice for Tyre Nichols, Susana Morale, and all victims of police brutality, and for an independent investigation of Tortuguita’s murder.
Working class Atlantans are dealing with an inflation crisis, a housing crisis, a hunger crisis, a climate crisis, and a lingering public health crisis exacerbated by the closure of Wellstar Hospital. We demand investment in housing, healthcare, and other social programs because we understand that these do more to mitigate crime than Cop City ever will.
In Atlanta and beyond, we are calling for solidarity actions to support the National Day of Action Against Police Terror.
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