Will you donate $5 to help expose the truth about Cop City?

Our team has been covering the movement against Atlanta’s Cop City from the jump. While the major news outlets catch up, The Intercept is hard at work digging into who stands to gain from this monument to police brutality.




A coalition of racial justice advocates and environmental defenders is fighting to save over 300 acres of forest land outside of Atlanta from becoming a massive police training center, dubbed Cop City by opponents.

The movement has achieved remarkable success — delaying the development of Cop City and forcing concessions from Atlanta officials.

But law enforcement officials have also responded with brutal force, culminating in the killing of 26-year-old Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán by police last month. Only then did the mainstream national news start covering the fight over Cop City — after over a year of police-friendly coverage from the press in Atlanta.

The Intercept has been on this case from the start, talking to advocates on the ground and reporting out the huge social and environmental costs of the Cop City development. While the major news outlets catch up, our team is hard at work filing public records requests and digging into who stands to gain from this monument to police brutality.

As a nonprofit news outlet, we depend on your support to take on powerful institutions like Atlanta’s police and business establishment.

Will you donate to support our ongoing coverage of the movement to stop Cop City and help hold Atlanta police and their backers accountable for their violent response?

The movement to defeat Cop City has been derided by city officials, the police, and their corporate backers as one of outside agitators and so-called eco-terrorists. Our reporters, who’ve been on the ground following the forest defenders from the start, know otherwise.

An Atlanta-based coalition of conservationists, police reformers, racial justice advocates, and Indigenous-rights proponents, the movement put out a call for solidarity, and people like Terán responded. It deployed a creative array of tactics including encampments, tree-sits, peaceful protest marches, and carefully targeted property damage.

The Intercept’s reporting has also shown the lengths police are going to repress the protestors: not just killing Terán, but also arresting 19 others on spurious charges of domestic terrorism that could yield up to 35 years in prison.

With Atlanta officials announcing a so-called compromise of planting new trees and installing a buffer around their proposed facility — and police doubling down on their claims that Terán shot first — the national news media is bound to move on.

But The Intercept has been reporting the story of Cop City from the beginning, and we won’t stop until the whole story is told — including why the police shot a protester dead.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on readers like you to do this boots-on-the-ground investigative work. Will you chip in?

STAND WITH THE INTERCEPT →

Thank you,

The Intercept team

First Look Institute is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization (tax ID number 80-0951255).

The Intercept’s mailing address is:
First Look Institute
P.O. Box 27442
Washington, DC 20038

The Intercept is an award-winning nonprofit news organization dedicated to holding the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism. Our in-depth investigations and unflinching analysis focus on surveillance, war, corruption, the environment, technology, criminal justice, the media and more. Email is an important way for us to communicate with The Intercept’s readers, but if you’d like to stop hearing from us, click here to unsubscribe from all communications. Protecting freedom of the press has never been more important. Contribute now to support our independent journalism.

Key phrases

Older messages

Memphis Police Chief Trained With Israel Security Forces

Monday, February 6, 2023

Chief Cerelyn Davis also led the first police department in the US that swore off the exchanges. MOST READ How Democrats Paved the Way for Kevin McCarthy's Attack on Ilhan Omar Akela Lacy For years

Sign the petition: Statehood for D.C. now!

Saturday, February 4, 2023

Over 700000 people call Washington, DC, home. The people of DC pay the highest federal taxes per capita but have no voting representation in Congress. Becoming a state ends this injustice. This is a

George Santos Benefactor Bankrolled Group Opposing LA’s Progressive Prosecutor

Thursday, February 2, 2023

A big spender on right-wing causes, investor Andrew Intrater gave seed money to a group formed to oust a reform-minded district attorney. MOST READ New FTX Filing Pulls Back the Curtain on Sam Bankman-

Elon Musk censored a BBC documentary. So much for free speech.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Twitter is blocking access to a documentary that reveals Narendra Modi's role in a genocidal massacre, just weeks after Musk banned journalists critical of him at home. Elon Musk is at it again.

We’re being sued by Erik Prince. He won’t drop his empty claims.

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

This is the weaponization of libel law to threaten the news media and chill journalism. We've already spent over $200000 on legal fees and costs fighting off Prince's lawsuits — not to mention

You Might Also Like

☕ I can see it now

Friday, March 29, 2024

Is video the next AI frontier? March 29, 2024 Tech Brew PRESENTED BY Infinity Fuel It's Friday. Today we've rounded up AI news from the extended Brewniverse: Tech Brew's Patrick Kulp kicks

The Police Have A Dark Money Slush Fund

Friday, March 29, 2024

Corporate interests are funneling far more money to law enforcement than previously known — often with scant oversight. Police are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars a year in secret funding

A very bad year for press freedom

Friday, March 29, 2024

Plus: Beyoncé's new album, Netanyahu's new crisis, and more. March 29, 2024 View in browser Good morning! I'm back, here to dig into a topic close to my heart. —Caroline Houck, senior

Numlock News: March 29, 2024 • Trading Cards, Kite Fights, Breadfruit

Friday, March 29, 2024

By Walt Hickey Have a great weekend! Kite Fighting A popular competitive sport in Brazil is kite fighting, where competitors try to cut down their opponents kites while avoiding getting their own kite

☕️ Floppy-haired fraudster

Friday, March 29, 2024

SBF is sentenced to 25 years... March 29, 2024 View Online | Sign Up | Shop Morning Brew PRESENTED BY Impact.com Good morning. Today marks one year since Evan Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American Wall

AI hallucinates software packages and devs download them – even if potentially poisoned with malware [Fri Mar 29 2024]

Friday, March 29, 2024

Hi The Register Subscriber | Log in The Register {* Daily Headlines *} 29 March 2024 Illustration of someone in a hoodie looking at a bench with a cloud over it AI hallucinates software packages and

What A Day: Clown by law

Friday, March 29, 2024

Trump's lawyers are having another rough one. And the mainstream media could learn a lesson from the legal world about handling corruption. Thursday, March 28, 2024 BY CROOKED MEDIA —Steve Bannon,

🌶️ Is it getting hot in here?

Friday, March 29, 2024

Introducing our theme for April plus fun stuff to read, watch, and click on. March 28, 2024 Open in new tab Did a friend forward this? Subscribe today! April's Theme is SPICY It was chosen by our

What 58 Famous People Smell Like

Friday, March 29, 2024

Here's what you missed on the Strategist. The Strategist Every product is independently selected by editors. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. What

Trump Would Need New Tactics to Steal the 2024 Election

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Columns and commentary on news, politics, business, and technology from the Intelligencer team. Intelligencer early and often Trump Would Need New Tactics to Steal the 2024 Election Many avenues Trump