‘Our struggles are connected’: Atlanta protesters link Cop City to Gaza war: Campus protesters say issue of police training center and its connections to Israel has been on their minds for months

"... The issue of transparency is of particular importance to students at Emory, with an endowment of $11bn – the 11th-highest in the US, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Students across the metro area – not just at Emory – have also long been protesting against a direct connection they see between policing in Atlanta and Israel: the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (Gilee), a non-profit program that sends US police officers to Israel and vice versa, for training and other activities.

The Rev Keyanna Jones, a Baptist minister and part of an Atlanta-based faith coalition against Cop City, was asked by Emory student organizers to speak about this and other connections on 25 April, as part of the launch of a protest encampment.

Jones arrived at Emory and had barely gotten through her remarks at a press conference when officers from Emory, Atlanta and Georgia state patrol rushed the quad. “I looked around and saw pepper balls and rubber bullets being shot,” she said. “I saw three young women in hijabs. One was paralyzed; she could not move … I went over and told them, ‘If you don’t move, you’re going to get hurt!’”

One of the women kept screaming, “What is happening?” Jones recalled. Finally, the three ran away from the quad.

At the time, it was probably the fastest shutting down of a student protest encampment of the dozens occurring across the country. It also was probably the first in which police used Tasers on protesters...."

Protesters at Emory University demonstrate against the war in Gaza. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

‘Our struggles are connected’: Atlanta protesters link Cop City to Gaza war

Campus protesters say issue of police training center and its connections to Israel has been on their minds for months

Timothy Prattin Atlanta

Mon 13 May 2024 10.00 EDT

Last modified on Mon 13 May 2024 10.03 EDT

The student-led protests at Emory University in Atlanta have distinguished themselves from others occurring across the US in at least one way: protesters are seeking transparency about and divestment from Israel but also from a $109m police training center known as “Cop City”.

A broad-based movement against the training center, now in its fourth year... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/13/cop-city-emory-atlanta-israel

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]