By Matthew Simon ‘25 An activist was shot and killed by the Atlanta Police Department this January while protesting to save the ecologically-important and historic Weelaunee Forest from being cut down to make room for an Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, derided by activists as “Cop City.” The 26-year-old, who went by the name “Tortuguita,” had been part of the “Save Weelaunee Forest, Stop Cop City!” movement for two years prior to their death and often participated in acts of civil disobedience such as tree sitting and erecting barricades. The “Save Weelaunee Forest, Stop Cop City!” movement involves climate, racial justice, prison reform and indigenous sovereignty activists as well as faith leaders and local community organizers.
“I feel saddened and angry over the news that a climate activist was killed by Atlanta police for protesting the construction of a police training center,” said sophomore Oren Goldman. “Every person should have the basic right to protest peacefully, and it is deeply disturbing that this killing occurred in the United States and that the Atlanta Police department is not denouncing the continued violence toward climate and environmental protesters.” The activists were protesting the construction of the $90 million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which was approved by the Atlanta City Council in 2021. The state-of-the-art facility is supposed to cover 85 acres of the Weelaunee Forest and is set to replace substandard police and firefighter training centers. It would also include a shooting range, a driving course to simulate car chase tactics, an explosive-testing range and a mock town for police to simulate urban warfare and riot control tactics. On the morning of January 18, 2023, while conducting a raid on the protest encampment, Georgia State Troopers fatally shot Tortuguita 13 times. According to the police, Tortuguita was only shot after they first refused an order to leave their tent and then shot a police officer at the scene. However, an independent autopsy revealed that both of their hands were shot, suggesting that Tortuguita was in a seated position with both hands up when they were shot, which several activists have said sounds eerily similar to an execution-style killing. In newly-released body cam footage of the aftermath, police officers are heard asking, “Did they shoot their own man?” Many of Tortuguita’s supporters are arguing that the police officer in question was shot by friendly fire from his fellow officers, and that Tortuguita was shot without cause. “[Atlanta] cops have more than enough,” said junior Hannah Weisz. “The American government’s consistent prioritization of providing aid to the police and military makes it clear that they care about power, not protection.” The Weelaunee Forest plays an important role in Atlanta’s history. It was first inhabited by the Creek nation, who still claim territorial rights to the land and who have recently become involved in the “Stop Cop City” movement there. It later became a site of a plantation where Black people were enslaved prior to the Civil War. In 1920, the Old Atlanta Prison Farm opened in the forest, which according to a recent study by the Atlanta Community Press Collective, was the site of “systemic abuse, torture, overcrowding, neglect and racialized violence throughout the prison farm's history, as well as the possibility [of] unmarked graves of prisoners.” Environmentalists have attempted to turn the land into park space for years, arguing that the trees there are important to preserving Atlanta’s tree canopy and minimizing flooding. Atlanta is often known as the “city in a forest” due to its impressive tree canopy, which is estimated to cover 50-53% of the city as of 2010. “Anytime a party commits an act of deforestation it is bad,” said sophomore Austin Colm. “In this case, it is even worse, due to the legacy of historic oppression at the site. The land needs to be protected.” In addition to the environmental destruction posed by the construction of “Cop City,” the movement also claims that the project connects to intersecting issues of systemic racism, classism, and police brutality, as well as the legacies of mass incarceration and settler-colonialism associated with the site’s history. The facility would be within earshot of a poor black community with one of the highest degrees of wealth inequality in the nation, and activists argue that the destruction of important green space and the pollution that construction would likely bring are examples of environmental racism and spatial inequality in action. Additionally, activists are enraged by the development being largely funded by private corporate donations, with corporations like Wells Fargo, Amazon, Chick-Fil-A, Home Depot and JPMorgan Chase having strong connections to the Atlanta Police Foundation. In a conversation with the GOA Racial Justice Club, freshman Arielle Karni said, “I am vastly disturbed that our world has come to a place where progress is declining, where practices of violence are considered to be a higher priority than the preservation of our planet.” Club president and junior Hannah Weisz said, “The police [system] has always had a strong relationship with large corporations with billions of dollars. They both profit when poor people are criminalized.” Since the killing, there have been several major vigils and protests in solidarity with the “Stop Cop City” movement in cities around the world, including Philadelphia, Nashville, Seattle, Tucson and Chicago in the US and internationally in London, Toronto and the German village of Lützerath, which has had its own conflict over a planned coal mine. Although the vast majority of protests have been peaceful, two protests in Atlanta briefly turned destructive, with protestors lighting at least two police vehicles on fire, smashing the windows of several banks and throwing rocks and fireworks at construction vehicles. The Atlanta Police Department has since arrested at least 29 individuals and accused them of domestic terrorism, while Georgia governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency following the protests. Over 65 national organizations for human rights and civil liberties, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have called for all domestic terrorism charges against the protestors to be dropped. “The charges brought forth against the Forest Defenders are an unfounded attempt by the Atlanta Police Department to redirect blame onto the activists and to distract from their own responsibility for both the injustices of the Cop City plan and for Tortuguita’s murder,” said sophomore Shayne Cytrynbaum. “This is part of a long history of the legal system trying to stop the free speech of civil rights and social justice activists: when threatened by the people, they resort to criminalizing protest, time and time again. Civil disobedience has been a fundamental activist tactic for centuries, and any illegal actions conducted by activists are dwarfed in comparison with this destructive and undemocratic Cop City plan.” The Atlanta Police Department also raided a peaceful music festival held in the forest where numerous children and seniors were in attendance, with the Atlanta Community Press Collective reporting that the police used tear gas and pepper spray balls. Eyewitness also reported that police used a chokehold on one of the festival attendees, and that guns were pointed inside a children’s bounce house. Since their death, Tortuguita has become a martyr for their fellow activists, and the Weelaunee Forest a popular cause for the environmental justice movement worldwide. Calling the incident a murder, Tortuguita’s friends and relatives say that Tortuguita was never violent and always fought for what they believed in. A fellow activist commented that “[Tortuguita was] genuinely so generous and loving and always wanted to take care of people,” while their brother Daniel proclaimed that they were a “citizen of earth” and that they were “always the biggest light in any room they entered.” Describing his fears following the killing of his sibling, Tortuguita’s brother said, “Our family does not want violence toward cops, but we also do not want violence from cops. I am just terrified at the thought that the tactics that were used to kill my sibling are going to be replicated at Cop City.”
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