Sixty-one activists appeared before Fulton County Court yesterday on racketeering charges related to their protest of Atlanta’s new “Public Safety Training Center,” commonly known as Cop City. The arraignment comes after the Georgia Attorney General’s Office
As a retired police officer, I recognize “Cop City” as the financial and real estate boondoggle that it clearly is. If the goal was to really have positive impact on the city, they could re-develop a less over the top training center in a former industrial part of the city and not destroy precious green space that the community needs. Obviously we all are grateful for well run, community minded police organizations, but this hyped up police Disneyland has nothing to do with that. Much the way publicly funded/privately owned, and gently taxed, sports stadiums are all about the developer and the owner. Certain people, under the auspices of public safety, areare going to make boatloads of money plowing under this urban forest - hence the disproportionate response by the District Attorney’s Office. I will contribute to their defense and hope the city and the police dept comes to it’s senses. I hope constitutional rights groups and environmental orgs join forces with anti-tax organizations (where are you Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich?) to decry this farce. It’s in everyone’s interest.
If it weren’t for my (happily paid) subscription to Popular Information I certainly would be unaware of this story here in Minnesota. Shame on mainstream media for giving up on investigative reporting. My morning SubStack reads, and a few cups of coffee, are helping me keep a sense of sanity in a world that is losing its mind.
Down here in the ATL metro area, the Atlanta Journal Constitution has done a great job following this-- but yes, AJC won’t reach MN. Thanks for the excellent summary of this case Judd. I honestly suspect many people--even down here-- aren’t aware of the implications of this case. GA’s state GOP has excelled in limiting rights of its citizens-- reproductive and overall health, voting and this, First Amendment. All the while, the Gov positions himself as a moderate, touting the state’s business successes, a cover for how drastically they suppress its citizenry.
I'm glad to hear the AJC has covered the story to your satisfaction, but are you aware that Cox Enterprises, the publisher, has been a big donor? The James Cox foundation (the "charitable arm") gave $10 million of the $90 proposed budget. The city is putting up $30 million and other large donors like Coca Cola, Delta and ChickFilA are supporters. I found all of this on a site of the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) which opposes the project.
Thank you for the info. Aware of Cox and others, re to the Police Foundation. Another funding problem: the vastly increased amount of tax payer dollars being applied, far higher than originally scoped.
YES- they must screw the people can not afford it the in LEAST YES-- they must let BIG MONEY TALK-- while they ALL OPEN THEIR WALLETS---and that's what they all do.------Greedy OLD Creeps! "COP CITY--" yeh right !-- ASSHOLES !!!!!!
Thanks Tesnim and Rebecca for speaking up against another action that promotes a militarized (and fascistic) form of governing in our country. As usual the ACLU says it simply and clearly: “Georgia law enforcement officials are disproportionately wielding these overbroad laws to stigmatize and target those who disagree with the government.” Twenty years for essentially peaceful protest!...and for bringing awareness to law enforcement which is sadly lacking in the harm they are doing.
I'm surprised there has been no connection made between Cop City and Georgia's decades-long program of training its police in Israel, where such facilities include similar dummy urban areas for practice in quelling restive minorities...
Just a month ago local Atlanta news heralded 30 years of this "special relationship":
The USA just sent 24,000 fully automatic rifles to the "police" on the West Bank allegedly to protect the "settlers" from the citizens of Palestine as the latter's land is stolen and the citizens evicted. Note that in Democrats' calls to take weapons of war off the streets of America, there is NO CALL --ZERO!!! to take them out of the cop shops at the same time. That is deliberate BECAUSE American police are the profession with the highest concentration of domestic abusers; thus the court case by police "unions" that cops with domestic abuse indictments are not subject to the same red flag laws as other civilians. Cop shops don't have weapons of war to repel foreign armies. Their sole target is civilian citizens whom oligarchs controlling both parties fear might "get out of control" and protest against their ruling class abuses.
Shades of a Tiananmen Square approach to dissent. The same sort of basic-freedom-to-dissent-squashing used in China, Russia, Hungary, Mianmar, and way too many other un-free prison-countries. We continue to hurtle rapidly backwards.
We all need to speak up, while we still can.
Vote BLUE Like Our Lives Depend On It!
I am so very grateful for the work of Popular Information and other excellent Substack Journalists.
As an animal right advocate and activist this trend toward the law enforcement and the Justice system punishing peaceful activism scares me. They just convicted DxE’s Wayne Hsuing in Sonoma Valley, Ca last week for give aid and rescue to chickens and ducks. It's going under appeal.
It was a conviction in California for a felony conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor trespass! When I read that, I immediately went to the Direct Action Everywhere website and made a contribution. Prosecutorial overreach is everywhere as well, "from sea to shining sea."
the VERY BEST THAT MONEY CAN BUY ----if you are UBER-RICH with a lot of MONEY OR- A CORPORATION.- yes they have it all---as long as it's CHEAP ! CHEAP! CHEAP! --that's the way they do it ----or try to----well SCREW THEM ALL ! and that's the way little people do it.--to ALL the CREEPS !!!!!
This is crazy and so wrong and needs to be righted immediately! So people can’t protest? And to deny lawyers and bail? People can’t call out a cop as murderous who was involved in shooting an environmental protester 57 times?! What the hell? More on that story please!
Sexton and cronies in Tennessee just quietly passed and broke ground on a similar situation for another cop city there too... this needs to be national news ... trying to throw Rico charges on protesters ...unbelievable
What ? and lose out on ALL that money-------sounds like your on DRUGS or Better. the government WILL NOT LISTEN to much of anything let alone the people they have NO MONEY---and this is what the CREEPS count on--so change the game on them, and they will not know WHAT TO DO---MONEY IS NO OBJECT! as long as it's theirs. KEEP ON SPENDING----THEIR MONEY.
You're welcome. Please spread the word. We need to bring as much light to this issue as possible. This trend absolutely cannot be allowed to continue in this country.
Let me guess, this particular District Attorney is Republican and is using RICO as a way to give it to the Libs in retaliation of Trump being indicted under the RICO statutes? Could their tactics be any more transparent?
"Cop City" sounds to me like a Good Ole Boy camp". And if I am not mistaken, being financed completely or partially by funds from far right leaning sources.
Yes, that makes perfect sense. Nothing says he is out of bounds more than another DA publicly saying they withdraw from all the related cases. Never head of such a thing before.
The 109 page RICO document certainly reveals the mindset of those inspired to create and support these charges. They intend to use the courts and proposed facility to augment the police state they seek to construct to replace our weakened democracy as a way to enact complete control of citizens.
More than a step too far to bring this case against people previously charged with serious crimes for the same acts to widen the circle. But it is Georgia.
I am reminded of the time we stopped to eat on the outskirts of Atlanta. It was sort of between mealtimes so not a lot of people were there. It took a while to be served. The manager, a Black man, sat with us and chatted about various things to see and what we’d seen. Our food arrived. As he stood up and began to walk away, he turned back and said. “Be careful. And very careful when you go through Cobb County. We call it COBB - Come On Back Boy county.”
We got the very politely delivered message: Don’t think being white protects you in Georgia.
As a retired police officer, I recognize “Cop City” as the financial and real estate boondoggle that it clearly is. If the goal was to really have positive impact on the city, they could re-develop a less over the top training center in a former industrial part of the city and not destroy precious green space that the community needs. Obviously we all are grateful for well run, community minded police organizations, but this hyped up police Disneyland has nothing to do with that. Much the way publicly funded/privately owned, and gently taxed, sports stadiums are all about the developer and the owner. Certain people, under the auspices of public safety, areare going to make boatloads of money plowing under this urban forest - hence the disproportionate response by the District Attorney’s Office. I will contribute to their defense and hope the city and the police dept comes to it’s senses. I hope constitutional rights groups and environmental orgs join forces with anti-tax organizations (where are you Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich?) to decry this farce. It’s in everyone’s interest.
Your plan makes so much since
sense.
If it weren’t for my (happily paid) subscription to Popular Information I certainly would be unaware of this story here in Minnesota. Shame on mainstream media for giving up on investigative reporting. My morning SubStack reads, and a few cups of coffee, are helping me keep a sense of sanity in a world that is losing its mind.
Hmm. I don't think the world is losing its mind so much as playing out the history that was never resolved.
If you had centuries of slavery you need to repair that.
If you stole masses of land via massacres, you need to attend to making amends in a big way.
Things make sense.
Point taken.
Down here in the ATL metro area, the Atlanta Journal Constitution has done a great job following this-- but yes, AJC won’t reach MN. Thanks for the excellent summary of this case Judd. I honestly suspect many people--even down here-- aren’t aware of the implications of this case. GA’s state GOP has excelled in limiting rights of its citizens-- reproductive and overall health, voting and this, First Amendment. All the while, the Gov positions himself as a moderate, touting the state’s business successes, a cover for how drastically they suppress its citizenry.
I'm glad to hear the AJC has covered the story to your satisfaction, but are you aware that Cox Enterprises, the publisher, has been a big donor? The James Cox foundation (the "charitable arm") gave $10 million of the $90 proposed budget. The city is putting up $30 million and other large donors like Coca Cola, Delta and ChickFilA are supporters. I found all of this on a site of the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) which opposes the project.
Thank you for the info. Aware of Cox and others, re to the Police Foundation. Another funding problem: the vastly increased amount of tax payer dollars being applied, far higher than originally scoped.
YES- they must screw the people can not afford it the in LEAST YES-- they must let BIG MONEY TALK-- while they ALL OPEN THEIR WALLETS---and that's what they all do.------Greedy OLD Creeps! "COP CITY--" yeh right !-- ASSHOLES !!!!!!
Thanks Tesnim and Rebecca for speaking up against another action that promotes a militarized (and fascistic) form of governing in our country. As usual the ACLU says it simply and clearly: “Georgia law enforcement officials are disproportionately wielding these overbroad laws to stigmatize and target those who disagree with the government.” Twenty years for essentially peaceful protest!...and for bringing awareness to law enforcement which is sadly lacking in the harm they are doing.
I'm surprised there has been no connection made between Cop City and Georgia's decades-long program of training its police in Israel, where such facilities include similar dummy urban areas for practice in quelling restive minorities...
Just a month ago local Atlanta news heralded 30 years of this "special relationship":
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/world/atlanta-law-enforcement-israel-georgia-international-law-enforcement-exchange-gilee/85-f99341d7-3eaf-418e-9704-f2ad498cc949#:~:text=ATLANTA%20—%20Israel%20has%20long%20been,community%20policing%20and%20homeland%20security.
Look at the huge group photo in that article and notice all the non-White officers sent to train. (Just kidding. I don't see one.)
These trainings are routinely labelled 'community policing' but for tons more angles on this just google ISRAEL TRAINS POLICE FOR STATE OF GEORGIA.
The USA just sent 24,000 fully automatic rifles to the "police" on the West Bank allegedly to protect the "settlers" from the citizens of Palestine as the latter's land is stolen and the citizens evicted. Note that in Democrats' calls to take weapons of war off the streets of America, there is NO CALL --ZERO!!! to take them out of the cop shops at the same time. That is deliberate BECAUSE American police are the profession with the highest concentration of domestic abusers; thus the court case by police "unions" that cops with domestic abuse indictments are not subject to the same red flag laws as other civilians. Cop shops don't have weapons of war to repel foreign armies. Their sole target is civilian citizens whom oligarchs controlling both parties fear might "get out of control" and protest against their ruling class abuses.
Shades of a Tiananmen Square approach to dissent. The same sort of basic-freedom-to-dissent-squashing used in China, Russia, Hungary, Mianmar, and way too many other un-free prison-countries. We continue to hurtle rapidly backwards.
We all need to speak up, while we still can.
Vote BLUE Like Our Lives Depend On It!
I am so very grateful for the work of Popular Information and other excellent Substack Journalists.
Just adding that for non-Whites the U.S. is often an un-free-prison-country place to try to live.
As an animal right advocate and activist this trend toward the law enforcement and the Justice system punishing peaceful activism scares me. They just convicted DxE’s Wayne Hsuing in Sonoma Valley, Ca last week for give aid and rescue to chickens and ducks. It's going under appeal.
It was a conviction in California for a felony conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor trespass! When I read that, I immediately went to the Direct Action Everywhere website and made a contribution. Prosecutorial overreach is everywhere as well, "from sea to shining sea."
the VERY BEST THAT MONEY CAN BUY ----if you are UBER-RICH with a lot of MONEY OR- A CORPORATION.- yes they have it all---as long as it's CHEAP ! CHEAP! CHEAP! --that's the way they do it ----or try to----well SCREW THEM ALL ! and that's the way little people do it.--to ALL the CREEPS !!!!!
Thanks for your support!
This is crazy and so wrong and needs to be righted immediately! So people can’t protest? And to deny lawyers and bail? People can’t call out a cop as murderous who was involved in shooting an environmental protester 57 times?! What the hell? More on that story please!
Sexton and cronies in Tennessee just quietly passed and broke ground on a similar situation for another cop city there too... this needs to be national news ... trying to throw Rico charges on protesters ...unbelievable
There comes a time when government NEEDS TO LISTEN to the masses. FFsake--move the damned site away from populated areas.
What ? and lose out on ALL that money-------sounds like your on DRUGS or Better. the government WILL NOT LISTEN to much of anything let alone the people they have NO MONEY---and this is what the CREEPS count on--so change the game on them, and they will not know WHAT TO DO---MONEY IS NO OBJECT! as long as it's theirs. KEEP ON SPENDING----THEIR MONEY.
I don’t know how to respond to your comment--it is absolutely incoherent.
Wow! It’s impossible to find the words to express one’s outrage. Thanks for shining a might on this.
You're welcome. Please spread the word. We need to bring as much light to this issue as possible. This trend absolutely cannot be allowed to continue in this country.
I see Trump’s Project 2025 is starting early. As I said the other day, why don’t they just secede already?
Our former prez - agent orange - would take this to a whole new level as would maga mike.
What the US would be like under a Trump presidency.
Let me guess, this particular District Attorney is Republican and is using RICO as a way to give it to the Libs in retaliation of Trump being indicted under the RICO statutes? Could their tactics be any more transparent?
"Cop City" sounds to me like a Good Ole Boy camp". And if I am not mistaken, being financed completely or partially by funds from far right leaning sources.
Yes, that makes perfect sense. Nothing says he is out of bounds more than another DA publicly saying they withdraw from all the related cases. Never head of such a thing before.
The 109 page RICO document certainly reveals the mindset of those inspired to create and support these charges. They intend to use the courts and proposed facility to augment the police state they seek to construct to replace our weakened democracy as a way to enact complete control of citizens.
Thanks for covering this important story, Judd. Chillingly fills in details I did not know.
Oops! Thanks, Tesnim and Rebecca!
More than a step too far to bring this case against people previously charged with serious crimes for the same acts to widen the circle. But it is Georgia.
I am reminded of the time we stopped to eat on the outskirts of Atlanta. It was sort of between mealtimes so not a lot of people were there. It took a while to be served. The manager, a Black man, sat with us and chatted about various things to see and what we’d seen. Our food arrived. As he stood up and began to walk away, he turned back and said. “Be careful. And very careful when you go through Cobb County. We call it COBB - Come On Back Boy county.”
We got the very politely delivered message: Don’t think being white protects you in Georgia.