Atlanta's proposed Cop City project is just the latest iteration of militarized policing which enables state repression.
The proposed Atlanta Cop City uber police militarization training base and headquarters is a reincarnation of antebellum South Carolina's Citadel, 1842. The Citadel traces its origins to an arsenal constructed by the state of South Carolina to defend white Charlestonians against possible slave uprisings following Denmark Vesey's thwarted rebellion of 1822 which was preceded by the Stono Rebellion and Haitian Revolution.
Originally the Citadel consisted of the Citadel Academy in Charleston and the Arsenal Academy in Columbia. The Arsenal was burned by General Sherman's forces during the U.S. Civil War and never reopened. But the Citadel Academy, occupied by Union troops in 1865, was reopened in 1882 with military training. Today its graduates cover the planet and like the U.S. Military major contribute to war, environmental pollution, and climate change.
From its inception, the United States of America is an ongoing criminal enterprise built with stolen labor on stolen land. To ensure control of the land and labor force, it was and continues to be held together and run with full spectrum dominance, from coercion to terror and murder.
Despite democratic rhetoric, appearances, and pretensions, the U.S. is a classic colonial, racialized, and patriarchal authoritarian police state. The U.S. Constitution, a commercial pact with the ruling class, secured by the Electoral College, insures smooth operation, protection and promotion of white power and commercial interests.
Cop City is designed to join Michigan's Camp Grayling, founded in 1913 when local lumber baron, Rasmus Hanson, donated over 13,000 acres to the State of Michigan for military training. Camp Grayling has since grown to 147,000 acres that spans over three counties of maneuver area, state-of-the-art ranges, and modern support facilities, making it the largest National Guard training center in the country.
Camp Grayling is a premier, world class “Joint Maneuver Training Center.” It is a leader in providing efficient, unparalleled customer-focused service and the highest level of modern training. Support resources are scheduled year-round to provide a wide range of high-quality training service members, emergency responders and private-sector customers worldwide. Training sites have unique combinations of resources that provide a wide variety of training scenarios to meet unit readiness requirements. Large artillery, mortar, tank ranges and maneuver courses are among the highlights of Camp Grayling.
Atlanta's Kop City is a harbinger of far more than destruction of the forest, will of the people be damned, even a militarized police training center and headquarters, it is an esculation of the war on the people and the planet. #ShutKopCityDown #SmashKapitalism
Efia Nwangaza is a South Carolina based attorney. She is Director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination and Founder and Coordinator of WMXP-LP Radio. She is also a member of the Black Belt Human Rights Coalition, Black Alliance for Peace, a veteran of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and a proud daughter of Garveyites.
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