‘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]

Training for peace, progress, and respect for all human beings, regardless of race or religion, does not require urban warfare tactics. #CopCity #America #Israel #Palestine

United Nations 2023

I heard on the TV news of the violence- the protest about "Cop City" down in Atlanta Georgia, and I did not understand who or why. So I searched online for information, and found that the beginning was all about a park and forest land being demolished to make way for a massive training center for police. 

I do respect our police, but I do not support America becoming a Police State, with those already in power doing all they can to gain and keep more power.

Furthermore public parks and nature reserves should not be usurped by local, state or federal governments here in America to further militarize our police.  

This situation sounds so much like Israel as Israel freely usurps Palestinian land, training Zionist soldiers and testing weapons and tactics on the Palestinians in the illegally occupied territories, and then demonizing any and all who dare protest.   

I searched for more information on the people behind "Cop City" to see if Israel was connected to this project. First thing I find is a polished piece of propaganda that points to major American corporations that I won't name because I think that article is a misdirecting smokescreen created to protect Israel. 

Criticize Israel's state sponsored terrorism and you get wrongly accused of being an anti-Semitic.  That accusation silences many people, stifling an honest and helpful conversation, thereby allowing corruption and cruelty to flourish in racist Israel, and here in America as well.

Training for peace, progress, and respect for all human beings (regardless of race or religion) does not require urban warfare tactics.

Protests about police violence in our cities include the plea for money to be spent on the people's needs.  The only way to stop the violence in our cities is with crucial social programs and investments so that all Americans have a better chance to find decent jobs and create good lives for themselves. 

I did find one article from 2021 "Israel and the militarization of Atlanta's police" pointing out that Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange "has been exchanging technology, homeland security policies, and community policing tactics with the IPF through the GILEE program"

https://georgiastatesignal.com/israel-and-the-militarization-of-atlantas-police/

That information should be front and center with all news coverage concerning this situation, not buried away where few see it, because  that very foreign county called Israel really does have undue influence over our elected leaders, our media, our technology (Pegasus) and now our police.  

This is a very scary situation. Our democracy is in danger of imploding thanks to the influence of Israel.

International law and basic human rights should matter, so should the people of Atlanta.

 

"Out of the approx 35 people arrested at the #StopCopCity music festival last night, 22 are still being held and charged with "domestic terrorism," per the DeKalb County jail records website. Yet none are charged with violence, arson or the police claims #CopCity "