$500 IN PRIZES. Students protest Cop City, point to Emory connections

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George Floyd as an example.

“We’re not going to beat them at violence,” Terán said in an interview with Peisner. “They’re very, very good at violence. We’re not. We win through nonviolence.”

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund is currently preparing a legal team to pursue “a wrongful death suit.” Missouri Rep. Cori Bush (D-1) tweeted on Jan. 24 that she was “calling for an independent investigation” into Terán’s death, and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-12) tweeted her support on Jan 25.

Emory students show solidarity

Terán’s death sparked numerous vigils and protests across the country.

On Jan. 23, Emory University students hosted a vigil on Asbury Circle to honor Terán’s life. Dozens of students, alumni and community members attended the vigil, and many were dressed in black for mourning. Attendees brought candles, signs, flowers and pictures of Terán.

Gabriel Eisen (18Ox, 20C), a friend of Terán, gave a speech at Emory’s vigil. He discussed University administration’s ties to the construction of Cop City, mentioning both University President Gregory Fenves and former University President Claire Sterk, who currently serves as a Charles Howard Candler professor of public health.

Fenves is a member of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, which is made up of more than 40 Atlantabased corporate-elite chief executive officers and has expressed support for Cop City’s development. In 2021, the Atlanta Committee for Progress released a statement noting that former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms asked the committee to “lead a capital campaign to seed the initial private funding for the project,” which they accepted.

Sterk, among representatives from major corporations like Waffle House and Delta Airlines, sits on the Atlanta Police Foundation Board of Trustees, a public-private partnership with the Atlanta Police Department. On Sept. 8, 2021, the Atlanta City Council released a statement saying the Atlanta Police Foundation “intends to fund and build” the facility.

In total, 80% of funding for Cop City comes from private donations.

Eisen said Emory’s connections to Cop City makes the University “complicit in Terán’s death.”

“The main thing Emory should do as an institution is condemn Cop City,” Eisen said. “Emory has so much power in Atlanta. If they were really standing up to what they believed, and for what the students believe, they would formally withdraw support, and put out some kind of statement.”

In an email to the Wheel, Assistant Vice President for University Communications and Marketing Laura Diamond wrote that while the University does not have institutional ties with the Atlanta Police Foundation, community safety is a “top priority” and Emory works with law enforcement on a variety of issues, including public safety.

“We encourage our community to engage peacefully and we reject and condemn violence in all its forms,” Diamond wrote. “Emory is a place where we discuss and debate the issues that divide us — this is a foundational aspect of our mission to educate. We will continue to support the rights of our students, faculty and staff to share their opinions on this issue and others while reminding our community that individuals are speaking for themselves and not on behalf of the University.”

Lucy Amirani (24C), who attended the vigil, said she got involved with the Stop Cop City movement a year ago through the Sunrise Movement in Atlanta, a community organization that works to fight climate change. She recently joined Emory organizers supporting the movement on campus after hearing of Terán’s death.

“All the speakers were really powerful, especially the ones who actually knew [Terán] and were able to bring their spirit into the event, because a lot of us never actually met them, even those of us who had been to the forest,” Amirani said.

Community reaction

In an August 2021 open letter to the Atlanta City Council, environmental organizations raised concerns about environmental impacts of the project, such as the destruction of a major green space needed to prevent flooding and provide shade and clean air.

The project would also expose surrounding areas to noise pollution and heavy metals used in bullets. Cop City is surrounded by predominantly Black and working class neighborhoods, which have asthma rates in the 94th percentile and diabetes in the 80th percentile nationally.

Defend the Atlanta Forest, an autonomous social movement, also raised concerns about the “scarred” history of the land, pointing to the displacement of the Muscogee Creek people in the 1800s, and later, the use of land as the Atlanta Prison Farm, a facility that infamously exploited prisoners for unpaid labor, from the 1950s to 1990s.

A few hundred demonstrators gathered at Underground Atlanta on Jan. 21 to protest Terán’s death. Protesters held signs with slogans such as “free the activists, drop the charges” and “body cams for all cops.”

One speaker identified themself as Terán’s friend, stating that the protest also stood for demanding racial justice. Other speakers commented on capitalism’s relationship to climate change. The demonstrators then marched down Peachtree Street the speeches, chanting, “We are all forest defenders. No justice, no peace, no racist-ass police.”

Around 6 p.m., the demonstration escalated when a group of protesters vandalized businesses that support Cop City, including Wells Fargo & Company and the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. This resulted in the Atlanta Police Department arresting six protesters. Witnesses alleged that the police “violently slammed several individuals to the ground” and hit a protester with a car, according to a Jan. 22 press release by the Atlanta Press Collective and an NBC News article.

Additionally, Defend the Atlanta Forest tweeted a video of an Atlanta police officer kneeling on a protester’s neck as they yelled “I can’t breathe.”

Alison Thieberg (25C) attended the protest with her friends.

“When it was just people talking, sharing speeches, that’s when it kind of felt like it was at its best,” Thieberg said. “Even when we were walking in some of the less crowded streets and cars were honking at us in support, it also felt really good.”

Thieberg added that, although she was glad to see some Emory students and faculty, she expected more to attend.

“We live in an area full of protected forests and we benefit a lot from them,” Thieberg said. “We can go on and talk about how it’s important to support it, but I wish we saw more people physically going out and demonstrating that.”

In addition to protests, the Atlanta community held vigils in remembrance of Terán, one of which was held on Jan. 18 in Little Five Points. About 300 people gathered with candles, flowers and signs to sing in remembrance of Terán and give speeches about the violence.

Laura Kearns (01PH) attended a second vigil, which was held on Jan. 20 in the Weelaunee Forest parking lot.

“I felt it was very important to show up and to be there in that place with people who knew [them] and who have the same shared understanding and values of the forest and serving nature,” Kearns said.

— Contact Mitali Singh at mitali.singh@emory.edu and Marian Moss at marian.moss@emory.edu