ATLANTA – The Black Southern Women’s Collaborative (BSWC) today condemned the furtherance of “Cop City” in Atlanta. The BSWC is a network of Black women organizing in the South to improve the material conditions of Black people. It includes Phyllis Hill, national organizing director for Faith in Action and founder of the BSWC; Kendra Cotton, executive director of the New Georgia Project; Ashley K. Shelton, president, and founder of The Power Coalition for Equity & Justice; the Rev. Rhonda Thomas, executive director of Faith in Florida; Nsombi Lambright, executive director of One Voice; Tameka Greer, executive director of Memphis Artists for Change. Hill and Cotton issued the following statement urging the Atlanta City Council to abandon the project and refrain from expanding its budget:
“Cop City is far more sinister than a training facility,” Hill said. “It is an example of the ways in which democracy is being undermined and protests criminalized. The right to peaceably assemble and petition the government is being aggressively curtailed, not just in Atlanta but in communities across the country. If Cop City persists, we will see continued dehumanization and criminalization of Black and Brown people in the south and across the nation.”
