FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 12, 2023
National Public Health Leaders Speak Out Against Cop City: “Public Health is Public Safety”
Hundreds Rally at American Public Health Association’s Annual Conference
ATLANTA, GA — A coalition of national public health professionals and local organizers are set to rally at the 2023 American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting and Expo on Tuesday, November 14th, outside of the Georgia World Congress Center. Over 12,000 participants are expected to attend the conference. This rally builds upon the statements and efforts of Atlanta-based healthcare workers in drawing connections between public health and public safety while opposing the expansion and militarization of the police and the construction of Cop City.
As far back as 2016, APHA has been one voice among many in the health sector to frame the issue of police violence as a public health emergency.
In addition to the rally, APHA attendees with expertise on the health impacts of the climate crisis, incarceration, and policing will be hosting several sessions at the conference that draw connections between public health and the expansion of police training centers and the prison industrial complex. As Atlanta physician and conference presenter Mark Spencer explains, “Atlanta healthcare providers are seeing many unmet needs in our patients. Affordable housing, eviction prevention, improved public transportation, food security, adaptation to climate-related excessive heat emergencies, and mental health resources will do far more to protect and promote public health and safety than hardening law enforcement, deforestation, and removing land from public access.”
In a statement from July 2023 grounded in decades of research and data, public health nurses declared: “Funding for destructive systems, such as police militarization, must be reallocated to social systems that improve public health.”
This rally comes a day after Block Cop City, a non-violent direct action called for by Atlanta organizers, expected to bring hundreds to the construction site of the proposed facility. Coalition organizers attending APHA join local community leaders to urge the City Council and Mayor Andre Dickens to divest from the corporate-funded Atlanta Police Foundation and reallocate city funding towards public health solutions. As public health nurses attest in their statement, “we are prepared to partner in the work needed to address these social determinants of health and safety.”
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iS9pfNmDhf5Z19p5gryomIulP0XV8WoeeQUL0XgyKBk/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cj5PGDqaL02e7ZDzX8J6mCAwDnHZm6NJ6ak10jgRSBs/edit?usp=sharing
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