French police clash with water reservoir protesters

Publishe

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Image caption,

Protesters in Sainte-Soline clashed with police

By James Gregory

BBC News

French police have fired tear gas at protesters at a large demonstration in the west of the country.

Thousands of people had gathered in Sainte-Soline to protest against plans for a new water reservoir.

Several police cars were set on fire after clashes broke out at the construction site.

The unrest follows weeks of anti-government demonstrations in Paris and other cities over President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms.

Though unrelated to the protests over plans to raise the state pension age, the latest demonstration adds to the growing sense of public anger within France.

Opponents of the irrigation project in Sainte-Soline, near Poitiers, marched in large numbers on Saturday despite a ban on gatherings in the district.

The procession set off late morning, with at least 6,000 people taking part, according to local authorities, although organisers claim the group numbered 25,000.

They are protesting against one of the reservoirs being built in the Deux-Sèvres department - developed by a group of 400 farmers to reduce mains water usage in the summer.

France's worst drought on record last year intensified discussions over water resources. Supporters of artificial reservoirs say they could provide the solution to shortages during future dry spells.

But opponents say the project favours large agricultural producers for crop irrigation in the summer and would not directly help the local community.

"While the country is rising up to defend pensions, we will simultaneously stand up to defend water," said the organisers, gathering under the banner of "Bassines non merci" - "No to reservoirs, thank you".

More than 3,000 police officers were deployed to Sainte-Soline, while officials said at least 1,000 potentially violent activists had joined the demonstration.

Security forces fired tear gas to stop some who reportedly threw fireworks and projectiles as they approached the fenced-off construction area.

Officials say several people have been arrested and police have seized weapons, including pétanque balls and meat knives.

President Macron said: "We will never give in to this violence. In a democracy, we do not have the right to use violence."

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said violence displayed against officers in Sainte-Soline was "unspeakable" and "unbearable".

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Image caption,

The large procession is calling for an end to the development

Some of the demonstrators in Sainte-Soline saw this struggle as linked to the nationwide protests against President Macron and his decision to force through a rise in the pension age.

"What is happening today, this convergence of struggles - this struggle for water is similar to the one for pensions," said Benoit Jaunet, a spokesperson for the Deux-Sèvres Peasant Confederation.

"We are facing the same violence. Our work, our water are being stolen for a few people. And that's not right."

Saturday's demonstration follows similar marches in October.

Widespread protests have gripped France in recent weeks. The situation in Paris and other cities was calmer overnight, but security forces have remained on high alert following days of clashes with protesters.

Demonstrations have largely been peaceful, but several French cities have witnessed episodes of violence this week. In Bordeaux, the entrance to the town hall was set alight. In Paris, tear gas was fired and hundreds of fires were lit.

But the Council of Europe - the continent's leading human rights group - has warned that sporadic acts of violence "cannot justify excessive use of force by agents of the state" or "deprive peaceful protesters of their right to freedom of assembly".

Protesters have been emboldened by the government's use of constitutional power to ram through reforms without a vote in the National Assembly.

King Charles III's state visit to France was postponed at the request of President Macron. The trip to Paris and Bordeaux was due to begin on Sunday.

 

 

 

 

Macron 'humiliated' over King Charles NON visit as France braces for fresh violence

Henry Samuel
Sat, March 25, 2023

Inter-union demonstration against the pension reform project in Paris - Zuma Press / eyevine     

Emmanuel Macron has been blamed for the “humiliation” of postponing King Charles III’s state visit during violent pension protests.

Even some of the French president’s close allies fret that he is cutting an increasingly lonely figure in the ivory tower that is the Elysée Palace.

One opposition leader accused him of deliberately seeking to foment an ambience of “civil war” to sway public opinion in his favour.

Summing up the impact of King Charles III’s trip being pulled at the last minute, Le Figaro's front page read: "Charles III: at the heart of the crisis, an avowal of powerlessness". Its editorial branded the postponement a "humiliation", saying France's "Republican monarch" caved in to a bunch of "half-woke half-Bolivarian revolutionaries” who “dream of a remake of 1789”.

Protesters clash with the gendarmerie during a demonstration in Sainte-Soline

By cancelling the trip, the president has for the first time acknowledged that the country is dancing on a volcano,” it went on.

“The Republican monarch is more alone than ever.”

Le Monde cited an Elysée source as saying the president had little choice given the almost certain disruption to King Charles’ trip to Paris, Versailles and Bordeaux.

”A state visit between our two countries cannot be mezzo voce, especially after the Boris Johnson period. It must be pleasant and festive for the King of England and Head of the Commonwealth,” said the source.

Protesters, surrounded by tear gas, clash with riot mobile gendarmes in Sainte-Soline - AFP

The trip was supposed to help further warm ties between France and the UK in the wake of Brexit and following this month’s successful bilateral summit between Rishi Sunak and Mr Macron in which they agreed to a new deal cracking down on Channel people smuggling.

Instead, it ended in “diplomatic disaster”, opined Le Figaro. Worst of all, Paris - reduced to an open-air rubbish pit due to a collectors’ strike - would now have to play second fiddle to Berlin, where the King will be welcomed with open arms. The move was a “terrible disappointment for a ramshackle nation wondering what state it will be in to host the Olympics next year”, it wrote.

A riot mobile gendarmes' vehicle burns during protests against the construction of a new water reserve for agricultural irrigation, in Sainte-Soline - AFP

Amid fears of spiralling violence, even staunch allies are starting to wonder whether Mr Macron is increasingly out of touch, exchanging with only a very small inner circle and deciding everything alone.

“Once cannot remain blind, one cannot remain deaf to this protest. We must offer responses,” said Guillaume Gouffier Valente, an MP from Mr Macron’s Renaissance group.

“The software is broken. It needs to be changed,” said Ludovic Mendes, another Renaissance MP. “People need to talk, to be heard, to be taken into consideration. We need to put the human touch back into proceedings,” he told Le Monde.

More than 3,000 police officers and gendarmes have been mobilised and 1,500 "activists" are expected to take part in the demonstration around Sainte-Soline - AFP

“All anger has been trained on him personally and he has no go-betweens around him. Never has France been ruled by so few men and women,” said Bruno Retailleau, head of the opposition Right-wing Republicans in the Senate.

One potential way out of the current impasse, say analysts, would be to extend an olive branch to Laurent Berger, head of the moderate CFDT union, France’s largest. On Friday, Mr Berger urged Mr Macron to put the reform "on hold for six months" to allow tensions to cool down.

But the president slapped him down, saying that while he was "at unions' disposal" to discuss issues relating to labour, the pension reform must now run its democratic course in the hands of the Constitutional Council, France's highest constitutional court, which must rule within a month whether it is viable.

Members of the Macron camp reportedly told Le Monde that they were “stupefied” at the French president’s dismissive tone regarding Mr Berger, who he accused during a TV interview on Wednesday of offering“no compromise proposals”.

Rather than seeking to calm nerves, analysts said that the French president appeared bent on spoiling the protest movement by styling himself as the champion of law and order against rising anarchy and "agitators".

Emmanuel Macron removes luxury watch during pensions interview

Henry Samuel
Fri, March 24, 2023

Emmanuel Macron subtly removed a luxury watch from his wrist during a key television interview on his unpopular pension reform, in what critics say is further  proof he is “president of the rich”.

During the half-hour prime-time interview on his decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, Mr Macron can be seen starting the broadcast with a large watch with a blue face and black strap on his left arm.

Social media commentators pointed out that he then surreptitiously removed the timepiece 11 minutes into the conversation, placing his left arm under the table while calmly continuing to answer a question. When he brought it back, the watch was   nowhere to be seen.

Many online commentators claimed the timepiece was made by F.P Journe and cost €80,000 (£70,000). $118,752.00 Canadian Dollars

In fact, the watch cost far less than some claimed. According to France Info, it is a BRV 1-92 model of French company Bell&Ross valued at €2,400 (£2,110) and carries the colours of the president’s security unit, GSPR. He has been wearing the same watch for the past year and a half. It was already spotted at the football World Cup in Qatar.

“€2,400 is expensive  $3,312.84 CAD    but it’s 40 times less than prices circulating on the internet,” wrote France Info. 

The Elysée insisted that Mr Macron had removed it because it was “clinking on the table”. Indeed, he removed it just after it could be heard touching the desk while he mentioned “blockages”.

Regardless, the Leftist opposition instantly pounced on the images as the latest proof that the president had no idea what it was like to be on the breadline in France. They argue that the reform will above all affect low-paid workers.

“Just as he is talking about ‘minimum wage workers’ who have never had such high purchasing power, he discreetly removes his pretty luxury watch,” wrote Clémence Guetté, an MP from the France Unbowed party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

paris - AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani

The French president likes to be known as “the master of the clocks”, meaning he decides to speak and act at a time of his choosing.

However, for his detractors who are dead set against raising the retirement age, he is an out-of-touch ex-banker incapable of understanding the concerns of the average modest French worker.

Critics also claimed Mr Macron was wearing a €5,000 (£4,000) Hermes suit. Here again, fact-checkers on French media said it was a far less costly model by Parisian tailor Jonas & Cie valued at around €450 (£395).

Michigan 1st state in decades to repeal 'right-to-work' law


- Union members and supporters chant in the Capitol rotunda, Tuesday morning, March 14, 2023, as they wait for a Right To Work bill to be voted on. Michigan, long known as a mainstay of organized labor, became the first state in decades to repeal a union-restricting law known as “right-to-work” that was passed over a decade ago by a Republican-controlled Legislature. 

(Todd McInturf/Detroit News via AP)


JOEY CAPPELLETTI
Fri, March 24, 2023


LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan, long known as a mainstay of organized labor, on Friday became the first state in decades to repeal a union-restricting law known as “right-to-work” that was passed over a decade ago by a Republican-controlled Legislature.

The state's “right-to-work” law had allowed those in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying union dues and fees. Its repeal is seen as a major victory for organized labor with union membership reaching an all-time low last year.

"Today, we are coming together to restore workers’ rights, protect Michiganders on the job, and grow Michigan’s middle class,” Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement Friday after signing the legislation.

The second-term governor also signed legislation restoring a prevailing wage law that had been repealed by Republicans in 2018. It requires contractors hired for state projects to pay union-level wages.

Repealing the “right-to-work” law, enacted in 2012, had long been listed as a top priority for Democrats, who took control of the full state government this year for the first time in 40 years.

Supporters of the repeal poured into the state Capitol in Lansing earlier this month as the House and Senate took up the legislation before approving it along party lines after limited deliberations.

“It’s a new day here in Lansing,” Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks said prior to the vote. ”It’s time to once again make Michigan known as a place where workers want to come."

Democrats had argued that the law allowed for “free riders” that received union representation without having to pay fees or dues. Without it, unions can now require all workers in a unionized workplace to pay fees for the cost of representation in bargaining.

Michigan had the nation’s seventh-highest percentage of unionized workers when the “right-to-work” law was enacted in 2012, but that dropped to 11th in 2022. Over the past decade, union membership in Michigan has fallen by 2.6 percentage points as overall U.S. union membership has been falling steadily for decades, reaching an all-time low last year of 10.1%.

Michigan becomes the first state in 58 years to repeal a “right-to-work” law, with Indiana repealing its in 1965 before Republicans there restored it in 2012. In 2017, Missouri's Republican Legislature approved a “right-to-work” law, but it was blocked from going into effect before voter's overwhelmingly rejected it the next year.

In total, 26 states now have “right-to-work” laws in place. There were massive protests in Indiana and Wisconsin in recent years after those legislatures voted to curb union rights.

In Michigan, thousands of union supporters descended on the state Capitol to protest in 2012 when the Republican-controlled Statehouse pushed the “right-to-work” legislation through without hearings.

Neighbored by state's with “right-to-work” laws, Republicans say the repeal will lead to Michigan becoming less attractive to businesses and will lead to forced union membership. House Republican leader Matt Hall said in statement following Whitmer's signing that “businesses will find more competitive states for their manufacturing plants and research and development facilities.”

Small Business Association of Michigan President Brian Calley, who was lieutenant governor when the law was passed in 2012, said the repeal “eliminates the right of workers to decide for themselves if they wish to join a union.”

The legislation Whitmer signed also includes $1 million in appropriations, which Republicans say is to ensure they are “referendum-proof.” The Michigan Constitution states that bills with appropriations attached to them are not subject to a public referendum in which voters could reject the law.

Whitmer promised in her 2019 State of the State speech to “veto bills designed to cut out the public’s right of referendum.”

The Democratic governor on Friday also signed legislation repealing a third-grade reading law that required students to repeat the grade if they test more than one grade level behind in reading and writing.

Strong signal, pending action: Putin’s warrant shows limits of international law



Laura Kelly
Sun, March 26, 2023 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a wanted man, but his chance of avoiding judgment is high.

It’s a sad realization for many who are looking to hold the Russian leader accountable for launching a full-scale invasion against Ukraine and face responsibility for unimaginable horrors allegedly carried out by Russian forces.

Still, global justice advocates say the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against Putin for war crimes, served last week, sends a powerful message of deterrence and animates a debate over enforcement.

An arrest warrant was also served for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights. Both were charged with the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

But there’s frustration over how the ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, can execute the arrest warrant.

Russia has rejected the ICC’s authority out-of-hand. Moscow is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that enshrined the court’s jurisdiction.

The forcible transfer of a population by an occupying power, in particular children, is a war crime under the Rome Statute.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said that they have succeeded in bringing back 308 Ukrainian children who were abducted by Russia, but estimates that Moscow holds more than 16,000 of these children.

In a program reportedly overseen by Lvova-Belova, these children are submitted for “reeducation” that in effect denies their Ukrainian identity and are handed over for adoption by Russian families.

Acting on an ICC warrant

The 123 members of the ICC are generally compelled to act on an arrest warrant if any of the alleged perpetrators travels to their countries. Still, they can refuse to act by citing domestic law, in particular if a country respects that a head of state enjoys unique protections and immunity from arrest.

Member-states South Africa and Hungary have already raised concerns over their commitments to the ICC.

“We can refer to the Hungarian law and based on that we cannot arrest the Russian President … as the ICC’s statute has not been promulgated in Hungary,” said Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Reuters reported.

And South Africa’s international relations minister, Naledi Pandor, reportedly said Friday that the government is seeking legal advice over their obligations to the ICC if Putin arrives in Durban in August to attend the BRICS summit, the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Pandor said South Africa wants to “be in a position where we could continue to engage with both countries to persuade them towards peace.”

Mary Glantz, senior adviser for the Russia and Europe Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said South Africa’s response to the ICC warrant sends an important signal of the power of the court.

“I think the initial mood in the Global South was business as usual. The fact that they’re even investigating what legal obligations they have and that they’re thinking about this, I think is a positive step,” she said, referring to South Africa.

“It’s a step in the right direction that maybe we’re moving the needle a little on global public opinion about what’s going on in Ukraine.”

It’s an unusual move by the ICC to make public its arrest warrants, Gantz said, and is likely a signal of the court’s confidence in the evidence it has for its case, and that it may have other secret warrants for members of Putin’s inner circle.

“They could show up somewhere and that country, as a state party, could get the information that ‘nope, there’s an arrest warrant’ and they could be picked up,” Gantz said.

“It leaves a pall of uncertainty around everybody in [Putin’s] inner circle when it comes to international travel.”

America’s relationship with ICC

The war crimes warrant has also brought up uncomfortable questions for the U.S., which walks a fine line between voicing support for international justice and clashing intensely with the ICC over its pursuit of war crimes investigations allegedly by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Biden administration has eased friction with the ICC by removing sanctions imposed on its chief prosecutor by the former Trump administration. The ICC, in turn, set aside investigations into alleged crimes committed by American forces in Afghanistan.

The U.S., which is not a member state of the ICC, has said the court’s most important function is to carry out justice in countries where the home courts are compromised, and that the strength of the American justice system should shield it from efforts to make it a target of the international court. Still, Congress has recognized the U.S. can do more and took recent action to amend U.S. law to better position itself to assist the ICC and apprehend alleged war criminals.

This includes the Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act, signed into law in January, which allows for America’s courts to carry out trials against alleged war criminals who are found to be in the U.S., even if they never targeted Americans or committed crimes in the U.S. The law is unlikely to be used to go after Putin, given the far-fetched scenario he’d travel to the U.S.

Another important piece of legislation, included in the 2023 funding bill, lifted a prohibition on the U.S. working with the ICC, but narrowly defined it to focus specifically on war crimes investigations surrounding Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“And so they changed it to say, ‘OK, for this very, very specific situation, there’s a certain amount of help we can give,’” said Celeste Kmiotek, staff lawyer with the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council, which focuses in part on accountability for atrocity crimes and human rights violations.

“This is a very good opportunity for U.S. lawmakers to really consider, potentially being more open to the ICC.”

A delicate debate on U.S. involvement with the ICC is playing out behind closed doors between the Pentagon and the White House, the New York Times reported earlier this month, saying the Department of Defense is blocking the State Department from transferring war crimes evidence to the ICC.

The evidence reportedly includes material about decisions by Russian officials to deliberately target civilian infrastructure and related to the ICC’s case against Putin and Lvova-Belova.

On Friday, a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter urging President Biden to share U.S.-collected evidence with the ICC: “Knowing of your support for the important cause of accountability in Ukraine, we urge you to move forward expeditiously with support to the ICC’s work so that Putin and others around him know in no uncertain terms that accountability and justice for their crimes are forthcoming.”

A State Department spokesperson said that the administration has “worked hard” over the past two years to improve U.S. relations with the ICC, pointing to the lifting of sanctions and “a return to engagement,” but did not specifically address whether it is directly providing evidence to the international court.

Child relocation charges just the start?

The war crimes allegations over the forced relocation of children is significant, international law experts have argued, because it could lay the groundwork for more war crimes charges, including genocide and crimes against humanity.

There’s some optimism to believe Putin and his most senior officials will face justice.

Of the 18 heads of state or heads of major military forces wanted by international justice, 83 percent have faced accountability, Thomas Warrick, a nonresident senior fellow for the Atlantic Council wrote in an analysis.

Putin has few friends left in the world. Still, support he receives from Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the comments from Hungary and South Africa highlight that the Russian leader is not entirely isolated.

But a larger rap sheet, possibly including genocide and other heinous war crimes, could help pressure action from countries who have stayed on the sidelines.

“You got to wonder, how many states really want to be seen standing side-by-side with an accused war criminal,” Gantz said, “somebody who is accused of kidnapping children, at this point, and could potentially be accused of genocide, which I think could be even more poisonous, even more toxic to people standing next to him.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

Former rebel leader is named Congo's new Defense Minister

Former militia leader Jean Pierre Bemba holds a press conference in the Congoleses capital Kinshasa Oct. 26, 2006. Bemba was appointed as Congo's defense minister Thursday March 23, 2023, amid a cabinet reshuffle.

 (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, file)

JEAN-YVES KAMALE
Fri, March 24, 2023 

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo's former rebel leader jailed by the International Criminal Court, Jean-Pierre Bemba, has been appointed Congo's Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in a Cabinet reshuffle.

Bemba's appointment to the key positions was announced Thursday evening on state television by President Felix Tshisekedi's spokeswoman. Bemba's promotion and other Cabinet appointments come less than a year ahead of Congo's presidential elections.

Congo's former vice president between 2003 and 2006, Bemba was later imprisoned by the ICC for more than a decade, accused of murders, rapes and pillaging committed by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo forces in the neighboring country of Central African Republic. In a surprising ruling, he was acquitted by the ICC in 2018. Bemba has always maintained his innocence.

Bemba's return to prominent government positions comes nine months ahead of Congo's presidential elections scheduled for December. Bemba's political comeback was likely decided to help Tshisekedi win votes in Congo's war-torn northeast, where Bemba's rebel group was popular in the 1990s and 2000s, say analysts.

“This is clearly a pre-election reshuffle and Jean-Pierre Bemba has been appointed to bring his supporters in line to rally behind the president ahead of the race,” said Benjamin Hunter, Africa analyst for Verisk Maplecroft, a risk assessment firm.

“Despite Bemba’s previous imprisonment by the ICC, he is a political heavyweight with the patronage networks and contact book to help Tshisekedi’s election campaign,” he said.

Conflict in eastern Congo has been simmering for decades with more than 120 armed groups fighting for power, land, resources and some to defend their communities. Tshisekedi came to office in 2019 promising to stem Congo's instability and violence, but it's only increased.

Other new government postings in the Cabinet reshuffle include Tshisekedi’s former chief of staff, Vital Kamerhe, who was named the minister of the economy. Kamerhe was sentenced to 20 years in prison but acquitted last year. Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi, a former warlord in Ituri province was appointed minister of state for national integration.

A SYMBIOTE IS A PARASITE
Apple enjoys 'symbiotic' relationship with China, Cook says

AFP
Sat, March 25, 2023 


Apple enjoys a "symbiotic" relationship with China, CEO Tim Cook said on Saturday, as the iPhone giant looks to move production out of the country.

Cook, who is in China to attend the high-profile China Development Forum, said "Apple and China grew together," during an interview on the role of technology in education.

"This has been a symbiotic kind of relationship that I think we both enjoyed," he said at the state-run event attended by top government officials and corporate leaders.

Cook's visit comes as Apple, the world's biggest company by market value, is trying to move production out of China.


Last year, Apple sales were hit by curtailed production at factories as a result of China's zero-Covid policy.

US export controls on high-tech components are also threatening the company's supply chain.

Cook did not address supply chain issues during his discussion.

Instead, he focused on the need to bridge the education gap between urban and rural schools and encouraged young people to learn programming and critical thinking skills.

He also pledged to increase Apple's spending on its rural education program in China to 100 million yuan ($15 million).

Cook visited an Apple Store in downtown Beijing on Friday, and a photo of him posing for a selfie with singer Huang Ling has gone viral on Chinese social media.

Apple CEO praises China's innovation, long history of cooperation on Beijing visit

Reuters
Fri, March 24, 2023 

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Apple CEO Tim Cook on Saturday used his first public remarks on his visit to China to praise the country for its rapid innovation and its long ties with the U.S. iPhone maker, according to local media reports.

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Saturday used his first public remarks in China in recent years to praise the country for its rapid innovation and its long ties with the U.S. iPhone maker, according to local media reports.

Cook is in Beijing to attend the China Development Forum, a government-organised event being held again in full force after the country ended its COVID controls late last year.

Besides Cook, the event is being attended by senior government officials as well as CEOs of firms such as Pfizer and BHP.

"Innovation is developing rapidly in China and I believe it will further accelerate," Cook was quoted by The Paper news outlet as saying.

His visit comes at a time of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington and as Apple has been looking to reduce its supply chain reliance on China and moving production to new up and coming centres such as India.

Last year, production at the world’s largest iPhone factory run by Apple supplier Foxconn was heavily disrupted after China's zero-COVID policies fuelled worker unrest.

Cook also visited an Apple Store in Beijing on Friday, pictures of which went viral on Chinese social media.

During his speech, Cook also discussed education and the need for young people to learn programming critical thinking skills, announcing that Apple plans to increase spending on its rural education programme to 100 million yuan, the local media reports said.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh)

From Boston to Detroit — why Atlanta's 'Cop City' protests are galvanizing communities around the U.S.

Protests against a plan to build a new training center for police and firefighters in Atlanta have spread to cities across the country. The center's critics are wary that, if successful, it could create a precedent for others to follow.

Marquise Francis
·National Reporter
Sat, March 25, 2023 

Protests against a plan to build a new police and firefighter training center in Atlanta have spread to cities including New York, Detroit and Miami. 

Protests over the construction of a new 85-acre training center for police and firefighters in Atlanta have spread well beyond the city’s limits, and are gaining momentum across the country.

For more than two years, the proposed training center, dubbed “Cop City” by its opponents, has been the subject of criticism from environmentalists and social justice advocates alike, who argue that its construction would harm the local ecosystem and accelerate the militarization of the police. But in recent months the issue has garnered increased national attention, especially after the fatal police shooting in January of Manuel Terán, a 26-year-old environmental activist who was protesting the facility’s construction.

In the immediate aftermath of Terán’s death, vigils in his honor were held across the country, from Tallahassee to Los Angeles. Since then, what began as a local issue has continued to spark demonstrations in a variety of other cities, where activists have felt inspired to stand in solidarity with Atlanta while warning against the construction of similar facilities in their own backyards.

In late February, dozens of protesters took to the streets of downtown Detroit, stopping midday traffic while chanting, “Stop Cop City!” Less than two weeks later, similar chants were shouted by more than 50 students and community members on the campus of Harvard University. Then last weekend, in Providence, R.I., dozens gathered outside a Home Depot with signs that read, “Defund and Reimagine.”

A makeshift memorial for environmental activist Manuel Terán, who was killed by law enforcement during a raid to clear the construction site of "Cop City." 

(Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images)

Students at Harvard said they rallied because of their own concerns about systemic police violence.

“Believe it or not, the same concerns in Atlanta are also in Massachusetts, whether we have our own Cop City to prove it,” Karen Choi, a sophomore at the school and one of the event’s organizers, told Yahoo News. “The issue of violence is systemic, rooted in a history of police brutality that has long been safeguarded by a numbers game that prioritizes profit.”

Maggie House, a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, said she chose to demonstrate because she believes police brutality, forest devastation and climate change are “national and global issues which unite our generation.”

“Allowing Cop City to move forward not only increases the risk for militarized police force[s] to be used against all Americans, it has the potential to carve a pathway for private investors to partner with police foundations nationally to create similar projects with equally devastating effects,” House told Yahoo News.

Detroit activists offered similar explanations for rallying against the Atlanta training center.

“Those same tools of militarized police impact us here in Detroit, just as they do in Atlanta,” Antonio Cosme, an education coordinator with the National Wildlife Federation, told Bridge Detroit last month. “I see Detroit and Atlanta as being deeply, deeply interwoven in their cultural fabric.”

Environmental activists rally on March 4 in the South River Forest near Atlanta, where the training center is scheduled to be built.

 (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Tiffany Roberts, a public policy director for the Southern Center for Human Rights, an Atlanta-based public interest law firm dedicated to prison reform, has been an outspoken critic of the center. She told Yahoo News that she’s encouraged by the wide range of demonstrations taking place in cities across the country.

“The courageous organizing by these young people has really been a source of pride for me,” Roberts said, adding that she thinks the intersectionality of issues on display in the Cop City debate makes it resonate more widely. “They can talk about police militarization and they can talk about the environment and they can talk about environmental racism.”

In an interview with the Intercept earlier this year, Casey Sharp, a Georgia-based archaeologist who has helped facilitate communications between activists and local leaders in Atlanta, predicted that the Cop City protests “will become another Standing Rock,” referring to demonstrations beginning in 2016 over the planned construction of a 1,200-mile-long oil pipeline through the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota that drew national attention.

The debate over Cop City

The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which is set to include a shooting range, fire training towers and a mock city featuring homes and streets, was approved by the Atlanta City Council in 2021 with the backing of the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF), a nonprofit largely funded by corporate donors. Amid a flurry of lawsuits attempting to halt the project altogether, a spokesperson for the city said “construction is ongoing” but offered no specifics on the current status of the center.

The training center is estimated to cost around $90 million, a third of which is expected to be paid by taxpayers. The rest will come from private donations raised by the APF.

Proponents of the center say it is needed to help boost law enforcement recruitment, retention and morale in the wake of severe staffing shortages in the city.

The site of the planned police training facility near Atlanta.

 (Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images)

Atlanta City Council member Michael Julian Bond, who voted in favor of the plan two years ago, told Yahoo News in January that the center represents a necessary investment in public safety that’s been decades in the making.

“The city desperately needs new training facilities,” Bond said, citing an increase in 911 calls in the last three years after the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta. “There is a continuingly demonstrated need for police, fire and emergency services.”

But critics believe that besides harming the region’s environment, the facility will further strain relations between police and the community, particularly the Atlanta area’s majority Black population.

In an interview with the New York Times earlier this month, Arthur Rizer, a former Washington state police officer and policing expert, said, “I do share the concern of the citizens of Atlanta that the apparent focus is going to be a paramilitary-type training, urban assault tactics, which quite frankly have not been effective at reducing crime.”
Activists fear Atlanta’s Cop City could set a precedent

In recent months, the growing backlash against Cop City in Atlanta has raised concerns for activists in other parts of the country that their cities could be next.

“Cop City, if built, will set a new precedent for police militarization, not just in Atlanta, not just in the Southeast, not just in the country, but in the world,“ Jonah Sylvester, an organizer with the Weelaunee Defense Society of Pittsburgh, told the Pittsburgh City Paper earlier this month.

In 2020, the city of Pittsburgh acquired a former hospital from the federal government, at no cost, in order to build a regional policing and first responder training center, similar to the one proposed in Atlanta. Though no concrete plans have been put in motion, city officials have said the project would cost about $120 million.

In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, included in his latest budget a new $120 million state police training center to replace the 100-year-old facility currently shared by the State Police Academy, the National Guard, the New Jersey Department of Corrections and the Juvenile Justice Commission.

The recent push for new police training centers in Atlanta and elsewhere is a direct response to the 2020 protests following the murder of Floyd and other high-profile police killings.

Firefighters on the scene after a police car was set on fire during a protest against Cop City in Atlanta, Jan. 21.

 (Benjamin Hendren/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Atlanta officials like Mayor Andre Dickens, a Democrat, have touted the police training center as exactly the kind of reform that community members demanded in 2020.

“Good community policing depends on high-quality training,” Bryan Thomas, a spokesperson for Dickens’s office, told Yahoo News.

But critics are wary of any type of massive investment in policing, arguing that the focus on training misses the point of what the 2020 protests sought to accomplish.

“It wasn’t training that people asked for in 2020,” Roberts said. “What people asked for in 2020 was for police to stop killing [Black] people.”
Environmental concerns over the center

Environmental activists also object to the plans for the center, which is slated to be built on the site of a former prison farm in the South River Forest, a sprawling 3,500-acre green space just outside the city’s limits.

The land was designated as part of a 2017 proposal to create green space and recreation options for underserved parts of Atlanta. But the City Council scrapped those plans just four years later, agreeing instead to lease the land to APF to build the training center.

Law enforcement vehicles block the entrance to the site of the training facility. 

(Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images)

Many community activists argue that preserving the park’s greenery will help combat climate change, as trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, while making the area less susceptible to flooding.

Terán, who was killed following a clash with police in the South River Forest in January, was among those who objected to the training facility for environmental reasons.

His death, which is being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), has prompted widespread outrage, exacerbating long-simmering tensions between protesters and law enforcement throughout Atlanta.

While police initially claimed that Terán was shot after he opened fire on a state trooper, evidence has since come to light that casts doubt on that narrative, including body camera footage from one of the responding officers at the scene as well as the findings of an independent autopsy commissioned by Terán’s family.

The Atlanta Police Department declined Yahoo News’ request for comment on the shooting, and the GBI pointed to its previous statements about the case.

“The GBI cannot and will not attempt to sway public opinion in this case but will continue to be led by the facts and truth,” the bureau said in a statement on March 10. “We understand the extreme emotion that this has caused Terán’s family and will continue to investigate as comprehensively as possible.”

An image of environmental activist Manuel Terán. 

(Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images)

Peaceful vigils held throughout Atlanta in the wake of the shooting have turned violent in recent weeks. At one particular demonstration earlier this month, three dozen people, many of them from out of state, were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism after, police said, they hurled bricks and fireworks at officers.

According to Atlanta police, a group of violent agitators had used “the cover of a peaceful protest” to “destroy property and attack officers.” But Defend the Atlanta Forest, a local activist group, insists that those arrested, including one person from Canada and another from France, weren’t actually among the agitators, but were simply concertgoers attending a nearby music festival.

City Council member Bond, whose father, Julian Bond, was a prominent leader in Georgia’s civil rights movement, condemned those who have responded to Terán’s death with violence.

“I regret that someone has lost his life in pursuing his ideals as an activist,” Bond said. “I also regret that a peaceful demonstration about his death was co-opted by a few who embedded themselves to commit acts of violence.”

“Martin Luther King never set a police car on fire,” he continued. “And he changed the world.”

Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Spencer Platt/Getty Images, Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images, Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images