The Movement to Stop Cop City Launches Summer Week of Action

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 23, 2023

The Movement to Stop Cop City Launches Summer Week of Action

ATLANTA, GA — On June 24, the Defend the Atlanta Forest campaign will launch its 6th week of action, a weeklong calendar of events including marches, art builds, and music shows in support of the movement to Stop Cop City. The week officially begins with a kickoff rally and subsequent food and activities in Brownwood Park.

The campaign against Cop City began in June 2021, when then-mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms announced a plan to lease over 300 acres of forested land to the Atlanta Police Foundation for the building of a police training center. Since then, Defend the Atlanta Forest has organized a week of action every three months, at the beginning of each season. Usually, these weeks have involved numerous national and international allies joining the tree sits that for two years occupied the forest in Weelaunee People’s Park/Intrenchment Creek Park.

During the spring week of action earlier this year, twenty-three people were randomly arrested at a music festival and charged with domestic terrorism on the second day of the week of action. After that week, Dekalb County officially announced closure of Intrenchment Creek Park, and since then, Atlanta Police Foundation has bulldozed 85 acres of forest in preparation for construction of Cop City. But the movement is undeterred, and several initiatives have launched since then to stop the project, including an unprecedented 15 hours of public comment opposing Cop City at a city council meeting and a new campaign to enable Atlanta voters to cancel the lease through a ballot referendum.

With the park closed, this week of action will likely look different from previous weeks, but organizers say the movement is stronger than ever. “Atlanta is a city in a forest, and the forest is everywhere,” said community organizer Reverend Keyanna Jones. “This movement is everywhere in Atlanta, so the week of action will be everywhere, too.”

The kick-off rally in Brownwood Park will begin at 11:00 a.m. with a rally and will continue till dark with music, games, teach-ins, and tables with information from local organizations. The event will be family-friendly with free food available starting at noon, as well as a bounce house, face painting and other fun activities.

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The Movement to Stop Cop City, also referred to as Defend the Atlanta Forest is made up of a coalition of activists, neighbors, and community groups that formed in June 2021 in response to the announced plan to build Cop City.