The new police training center they want to create in the United States, the capital of Atlanta, in Georgia, has provoked conflicts: since the project was made public two years ago, there have been incidents around the area, where the majority of the population has opposed it. The center, located in the largest forest around the city, has become the center of the forest defense movement and the fight against American police violence. In the riots where a dead person was present, the autopsy reveals that the police shot him fourteen times when he was on the ground. In recent protests, 23 people have been arrested on charges of “domestic terrorism”. They can be punished for up to 35 years.

In EE.UU. Any measure on the police is scandalous, as argued by the data on police violence. In addition, in Atlanta the issue is particularly sensitive, as it is one of the cities with the highest police surveillance in the country: more than a third of the 2022 budget, about 250 million dollars, was allocated to the police department. In this situation, the creation of a center that trains the police arouses alarms among various groups of the city: “Cop City”, the city of the police, the center has been registered by the protesters. Associations of neighbours, schools, racial justice groups and environmental advocacy groups are opposed.

The latter are working against the location of the center, the place they want to build, the Old Atlanta Prison Farm, which is an important green area of the territory, and they propose to keep space under the name of South River Forest, because there are big differences between economic conditions and social classes in the city, and they say there are few green areas around black communities. But it's no coincidence that the green zone has the name of jail, because one study says there were cases of police violence. Some activists have been in favour of keeping this space as a memory space.

Not only groups and collectives, but most Atlanta citizens don't want this center. In a questionnaire conducted among the population, 70% of the respondents were against it. Among those who have been favorable, however, the demand for a proper place to work for police ethics prevails.

Fourteen police shots on the ground

Environmental advocates have been defending the forest since they announced the project, which was occupied in 2021. Several police acts have subsequently been committed, but the situation has not worsened until December 2022. Then, the police raided and arrested five people, also on the pretext of “domestic terrorism”. On January 18, 2023, the Police killed environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán Tortuguita. His family's recent autopsy reveals that the police shot him at least fourteen times, even on his face. Tortuguita, on the other hand, was on the ground with his hands raised. After this murder, 23 more arrests came in March with a South River Forest music festival.

The Stop Cop City movement has been created between resistance groups. As with the Black Lives Matter, it has no clear leadership and is the sum of many people and influences.