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If you haven't heard of "Cop City," it's a location situated not far outside of Atlanta, Georgia, in what is called South River Forest, being created to train officers in urban warfare. The city of Atlanta decided to proceed with the development of the area in September 2021 after public comment from over 1,100 residents, 70% of whom opposed the project. Later, a petition was signed by citizens to force a referendum, but it didn't stop city government from moving forward. Apparently, hundreds of thousands of signatures were collected. The signatures were challenged by the city of Atlanta through a process called signature matching, whereby the signature had to resemble the one that the state has on record. This measure was taken to disqualify several of the signatures collected. More importantly, the death of a young man, Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, who was an environmental activist, wasn't even enough to assuage the ambitions of the politicians. Terán was shot 57 times during a raid of the South River Forest. Terán was there to protest the expected ecological impact construction would have, though others have expressed concerns about being heavily policed in the future by officers that would be learning paramilitary tactics there. Largely funded by huge corporations, including Delta Airlines and Home Depot, with Chick-Fil-A being a contributor as well, the interests of the people seem to have been ignored altogether. Citizens that protested have been charged with crimes ranging from domestic terrorism to violations of the RICO act. A similar project was undertaken in Chicago back in 2020. In Chicago, the price exceeded the initial estimates of 95 million dollars by 60 million dollars. What Chicagoans learned was that their version of "Cop City" was constructed to gentrify the area and displace poor black families According to Alderman Ramirez-Rosa. As of now, 47 other cities have confirmed the existence of such a project. For more information... Click Here.
Some believe the construction of these facilities will lead not only to better training of police officers, but they will also serve as a more adequate training center for firefighters and paramedics. The location in Atlanta, according to city officials including Mayor Dickens, is designed to do just that and was expected to be completed by December of 2024.