Stop Cop City Movement Vows to Continue Resisting Police Militarization and Violence Against Working Class Americans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 30, 2025

Stop Cop City Movement Vows to Continue Resisting Police Militarization and Violence Against Working Class Americans

Atlanta Police Foundation Opens its Militarized Urban Warfare Center Known as “Cop City” Two Years Behind Schedule, with Taxpayers Bearing the Brunt of at Least $37M in Cost Overruns

ATLANTA, GA —On the day that Atlanta officially opened the urban warfare center known as Cop City, local residents and organizers rallied and promised to continue the movement against policing and incarceration in Atlanta.

Cop City officially opened on April 29, 2025––over two years behind schedule and at a taxpayer cost of more than double what was originally promised, jumping from $30 million to a reported $67 million.

The facility was built despite mass opposition from Atlanta residents, including a multi-year campaign with a wide range of tactics from environmentalists, abolitionists, students, teachers, anarchists, Indigenous activists, local democracy proponents, and many more. A 2023 ballot initiative petition effort to put Cop City to a direct vote by Atlanta residents collected over 116,000 signatures, more than double the votes that Andre Dickens received in 2021.

“This day represents the silencing of community voices, especially the voices of a historically Black neighborhood that cried loudly against this project,” says DeKalb County resident Rev. Keyanna Jones Moore of the Atlanta Multifaith Coalition for Palestine. “The opening of Cop City shows that neither Andre Dickens nor the Atlanta City Council believe that Black people are worthy of living in an environment that is safe, that is free of pollution, and free of state-sanctioned and interpersonal violence. This day shows that we are truly living in the midst of fascism.”

In addition to the construction costs imposed on taxpayers, the facility has also cost millions in taxpayer dollars spent on the city’s lawsuit to prevent Atlanta residents from voting directly on Cop City, as well as in legal settlements following police brutality toward Cop City protesters, and increased costs devoted toward surveilling the Cop City site. Exponential resources have also been spent on indicting 61 protesters on racketeering charges for their opposition to the facility. The indictment was issued following multiple waves of arrests wherein 42 people were charged with domestic terrorism—all part of a broader authoritarian state crackdown on any dissent against the facility.

Beyond its financial costs, the project has already taken a massive human and financial toll. In January 2023, Atlanta and Georgia police forces murdered Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, known as Tortuguita, a forest defender, in the South River Forest (otherwise known as the Weelaunee Forest). The project has also destroyed over 171 acres of critical forest land, with the majority Black working class area that surrounds it already experiencing increased flooding.

At the opening ceremony for Cop City, officials including Georgia’s far-right governor Brian Kemp, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, and Atlanta Police Foundation CEO Dave Wilkinson spoke, demonstrating the bipartisan nature of the project that has helped lay the groundwork for the current extreme repression and criminalization of protesters. The opening ceremony was not widely publicized and kept quiet by the APF and City of Atlanta, who invited only select press and local businesses.

Despite the opening of the so-called training center, organizers are determined to continue fighting not just Cop City, but the violence of policing and disinvestment in Atlanta.

“While Cop City drains millions from the city’s budget, Atlanta’s real emergencies are growing worse: affordable housing is becoming increasingly scarce, the unhoused population grows daily, and vital city workers face layoffs,” reads an official statement from the People’s Campaign to Stop Cop City. “Cop City’s grand opening is also just days after Fulton County police murdered 24-year-old Damarion Smith. These avoidable tragedies remind us our fight isn’t over until Cop City falls. Cop City may be built, but Atlantans’ resistance remains as strong and determined as ever.”

People across the country also continue to support the 61 individuals facing RICO charges for their opposition to Cop City, who have an upcoming hearing on May 14, 2025, at 9:30 a.m. at the Fulton County Courthouse (136 Pryor St SW, Courtroom 4D).

Beyond Atlanta, people across the country are resisting the construction of over 70 similar Cop City-type proposals, including in New York City, NY; Baltimore, MD; San Pablo, CA; Hershey, PA; and many other cities.

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For more information on the sweeping RICO criminal case and ways to support the defendants and the movement to Stop Cop City, go to: weelauneethefree.org.