Stop Cop City with Keyanna Jones and Matthew Johnson
Upstream
Upstream
4.9 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2023
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the past couple of years, the city of Atlanta, Georgia, has been pushing forward a project known as "Cop City" — a tactical training compound featuring a mock city which has been referred to as a kind of 'war base' where police will learn military-style tactics and maneuvers. The $90 million compound would be built on somewhere between over 300 acres of forest in Atlanta — a space known as the Weelaunee Forest, one of the largest urban forests in the country.
As a result of this controversial and extremely unpopular development, a grassroots response has taken shape to stop Cop City. In today's episode, we've brought on two individuals who are part of that movement.
Keyanna Jones is an interfaith leader and member of the Faith Coalition to Stop Cop City. She's lived in the neighborhood around the Weelaunee Forest for her whole life. Matthew Johnson is a minister at Beloved Comnmune, an activist, and also a member of the Faith Coalition to Stop Cop City. Both Keyanna and Matthew are organizers who have been integral to the movement.
Thank you to Fugazi for the intermission music and to Zara Wilkins for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of Upstream is brought to you by the Come Back to Care podcast, |
| 0:04.6 | a podcast for social justice curious families who want to practice social justice in their daily parenting, |
| 0:11.2 | while re-parenting their inner child. |
| 0:14.2 | Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts or visit www.comebacktocare.com forward slash podcast to learn more. |
| 0:23.3 | And before we get started on this episode, please, if you can, |
| 0:26.9 | go to Apple Podcasts and Spotify to rate, subscribe, and leave us a review. |
| 0:32.4 | It really helps get upstream in front of more eyes and into more ears. |
| 0:37.0 | Thank you. And now on with the show. |
| 0:56.9 | We know that cops, cities, implications spread far and wide to all of us, |
| 1:07.2 | because it's not only police repression, it's environmental racism, |
| 1:11.7 | it's not only environmental racism, it's also economic injustice, |
| 1:16.5 | because you are taking from a community, you're not offering jobs to the people in that community, |
| 1:22.1 | you're not offering to build any other resources for that community, |
| 1:26.3 | everything that cops city is and will be would take away from that community. |
| 1:32.7 | You are listening to Upstream. Upstream. Upstream. Upstream. |
| 1:37.8 | A podcast of documentaries and conversations that invites you to unlearn everything you |
| 1:43.6 | thought you knew about economics. I'm Dela Duncan. And I'm Robert Raymond. |
| 1:48.7 | For the past couple of years, the city of Atlanta, Georgia, |
| 1:51.7 | has been pushing forward a project known as cop city. A tactical training compound featuring |
| 1:58.1 | a mock city, which has been referred to as a kind of war base where police will learn |
| 2:03.0 | military style tactics and maneuvers. The $90 million compound would be built on somewhere |
| 2:09.6 | between 60 and 300 acres of forest in Atlanta. A space known as the Wailani forest, |
... |
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