Atlanta HBCU community joins protests against ‘Cop City’ police training facility
Jeremiah Poff
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Students and faculty at several Atlanta area historically black colleges and universities have joined continued protests against the construction of a police training facility and are demanding that school leaders also denounce the project.
The construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center has roiled Black Lives Matter activists and environmental groups that have opposed the project, with deadly consequences. Last month, 26-year-old Manuel Esteban Paez Teran was shot and killed in a shootout with police that also injured a Georgia State patrol officer.
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The project has been dubbed “Cop City” by opponents, including the HBCU community members who have joined in opposing the building’s construction. In an open letter, members of the Morehouse College faculty condemned the project as another example of the militarization of police.
“Let us not delude ourselves: Cop City, if built, will result in more death and destruction at the hands of the police,” the college’s faculty members wrote, blaming the shooting death of Teran on police and calling the circumstances surrounding the 26-year-old’s death “suspicious.”
“We, the undersigned members of the Morehouse College faculty, call upon our civic leaders and fellow educators in Atlanta to denounce Cop City, to take immediate action to cancel the project, and to respond to the will of the people — and not merely the wealthy and well connected — in determining the character of our communities and the conduct of those who claim to serve and protect us,” they added.
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On the college’s campus, students used a public forum earlier this month to condemn the planned facility and demanded HBCU leaders join them in denouncing the project, Inside Higher Ed reported. The students cited the recent death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of police in Memphis, Tennessee, as evidence that police training harms black people.
“The seven police officers who engaged in the death of Tyre Nichols were trained,” Morehouse sophomore Daxton Pettus said. “We’ve been training police officers more and more, adding more training, but we still continue to see black people murdered on television.”