The White House had no comment from Bottoms, who serves as senior adviser to the President for public engagement. Activists living in trees to stop ‘Cop City’ Perhaps the loudest voices of opposition come from activists and organizers who have dubbed the plan “Cop City”
and called on Mayor Dickens to cancel the lease. “Tree sitters” and other members of the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” movement built shelters in trees to prevent the facility’s construction and have also called attention to the forest’s history,
saying a police center will continue a legacy of oppression on the land. Before it was a prison farm, White settlers established slave-based plantations in the area after forcing off the Muscogee Creek tribe, according to anthropologist Mark Auslander.
Forest defenders refer to it today by its Muscogee name, Weelaunee Forest, as a nod to its original inhabitants. Members of the movement have been accused by local officials and some neighbors of using violent tactics in related opposition efforts,
including allegedly setting a tow truck on fire. In May, eight protesters were arrested after a Molotov cocktail was allegedly thrown at police as authorities tried to remove them from the area, according to CNN affiliate WSB.
But it did not deter their efforts. The Defend the Atlanta Forest Twitter account posted a letter in August it said was from a tree sitter. “I’ll be here keeping up the struggle,” the letter said. “My question to the (Atlanta Police Foundation) is: When will you give up?”
The Community Movement Builders group, which also opposes the plan, would have liked to see the financial resources instead be put toward mental health, food and housing programs for south Atlanta communities, according to Olufemi.
Taxpayers will fund about $30 million of the facility’s cost in total, with the rest coming from private philanthropic and corporate donations, the city has said. Among those backing the center is the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a partnership between the mayor
and the city’s top business, civic and academic leaders. Its former chairman, Alex Taylor, Chairman and CEO of Cox Enterprises, led the initial private funding campaign for the center at then-Mayor Bottoms’ request.
(Cox owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the city’s major daily newspaper.) Cox Enterprises spokeswoman Sonji Jacobs told CNN in a statement, “The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has always operated with complete editorial independence, and the newspaper,
in its coverage of the police training facility, has repeatedly disclosed that it is owned by Cox Enterprises.” Atlanta Police Foundation President and CEO Dave Wilkinson wrote in a 2021 Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed a surge in violent crime across Atlanta
since the summer of 2020 called for “more effective law enforcement,” but the city had struggled to build morale and retain employees in recent years. Residents who are in support of the facility told CNN they wanted police to be able to train properly