Students at Emory University, Georgia State University, Agnes Scott College, Morehouse College, Georgia Institute of Technology, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta are joining together on their campuses to protest against Cop City on April 24, 2023. The students demand city officials cancel the lease and that all contractors and funders of the project drop ties with the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Atlanta-area universities have been key propellers of Cop City through both research partnerships with the Atlanta Police Foundation and through their affiliation with the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a public-private partnership of corporate and political elites that has been a major proponent of Cop City. The presidents of GSU, GT, Spelman, Emory, Morehouse, and Clark Atlanta University sit on the board of the Atlanta Committee for Progress. The students demand Woodruff Foundation — the largest funder of the Public Safety Training Center and a significant funder to Atlanta universities — divest from the Atlanta Police Foundation. Students are calling on their Universities to drop ties with the APF, ACP, and to use their platform as an institution to hold Woodruff Foundation accountable for funding ecological and social harm.
These protests come on the heels of the release of the Dekalb County autoposy report of the killing of protestor Manuel “Tortuguita” Estaban Paez Terán. This report casts serious doubt on the GBI’s claim that Tortuguita fired a gun, revealing that no gun powder residue was found on their hands, and revealed that police caused at least 57 gunshot wounds.
Wittika Chaplet, Emory University Class of 2023, stated, “We have a responsibility as students to hold our institutions accountable to the communities which we inhabit and to the world. We are walking out and rallying on April 24th to stand in solidarity with the residents of Gresham park, and the communities most affected by police brutality and…
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