 Cop City is what we call a urban warfare training facility and the reason why we call that is not being hyperbolic it's because the Atlanta police foundation who was bankrolling the project what they say is going to be built there are shooting ranges is going to be a mock city of Atlanta where they're going to be practicing high speed car chases where they're going to be practicing bomb detonations where they're going to be practicing busting into people's doors and doing evacuation drill these are specific trainings to be able to one repress movements whatever those movements might be and also to be able to ultimately brutalize poor and working class communities black communities in particular the phrase defend the Atlanta forest has come directly out of the fight against cop city over a hundred acres of publicly owned land is slated to be developed we believe that you know one tree is too much for them to even be cutting down and there are a lot of reasons why this force is an important site to recognize and to protect um historically this is Muscogee land right indigenous folks who had their land stolen by white people in Atlanta who then transitioned that land into a prison farm essentially where they were capturing formerly enslaved people and forcing them to work at this farm and now they want to use this site to build yet another apparatus that is going to harm and brutalize poor and working class people this is an urban forest it is responsible for collecting the rainwater when we have huge storms here southwest Atlanta black neighborhoods already flood and so without those trees we're going to experience even more flooding of our communities we also know that the trees provide a natural canopy for the rising increases in temperatures that we're experiencing due to global warming so without those trees it's set to get even hotter and we know that poor working class black and brown people have the least access to you know AC right who aren't going to be able to be durable against these increased impacts of climate change we also know specifically that when they're doing these tear gas explosions when they're detonating these bombs right the runoff from those chemicals will get into our water supply this forest there's a river that flows through it that provides our drinking water and environmental studies after environmental studies have confirmed that the water will be poisoned if cop city is built there this is specifically environmental racism the area with that surrounds where cop city is proposed to be built is 70 black right it's a very much so a poor and working class community the poisoned water the noise pollution from gunshot rounds being being fired bomb detonation is being taken place all of that is specifically affecting poor and working class black communities i've been pulled over by the police repeatedly in atlanta the further militarization of the police is just going to further the risk that i have whenever i am pulled over by the police in atlanta atlanta is also already the most surveilled city in the entire country and in my own neighborhood we have police cameras up all over the place right so we recognize that this is just an extension of the police state as we've been trying to organize to be able to get uh cop city stopped the state's repression against organizers has also increased greatly what i'm talking about is literally having guns pointed in your face as an organizer organizing against cap city having tear gas deployed against you as an organizer in cops against cop city up to the point where the atlanta police atlanta police or the georgia state police actually murdered a protester tortugita was murdered by georgia state police for sitting in a tent on public park land and the same people who are investigating their murder is the georgia bureau of investigation who was actually on the scene when they were murdered and so that's culminated now and not only the murder of one organizer but also the domestic terrorism charges against 19 different people organizing against cop city the week of action is an opportunity for folks who want to to come to atlanta and participate in different rallies demonstrations teachings cultural events all related to stopping cop city if you're unable to come to atlanta there's a great website called stopcopcity solidarity dot org where you can learn how you can plug in from where you're at right that could be calling the contractors and subcontractors headquarters in your own city that could be writing letters to the folks who are still incarcerated for demonstrating against cop city that could be doing banner drops or art installations to let people know where you are what's going on with cop city because it's important to know that while this facility is being built in atlanta 43% of the officers that will be trained at cop city will not even be in the state of georgia so this is a moment of urgency for everyone and that website will give folks a lot of information on who they should be targeting if they want to plug into the week of action