'Cop City' explainer - Pt.1
A complicated and evolving subject-here's how we got here.
Welcome to my freemium newsletter by me, King Williams. A documentary filmmaker, journalist, podcast host, and author based in Atlanta, Georgia. This is a newsletter covering the hidden connections of Atlanta to everything else.
Buckhead Cityhood’s Failings
To better understand how ‘Cop City’ factored into the decision to retain Buckhead in the city of Atlanta. Please read my explainer on why an effort for a small subset of members of Buckhead, the wealthiest part of Atlanta to secede from the city ultimately failed. You can read that here.
Key Points:
The City of Buckhead City’s dollars made no sense
Buckhead was annexed to keep Atlanta majority White, but it still didn’t work.
Buckhead City wasn’t going to be a Republican-led city
Sandy Springs’s cityhood effort in 2005 was the impetus, it had some problems
For additional clarity, I would suggest reading my previous newsletter issues:
Atlanta is losing the narrative — an explainer on the rise of an anti-BLM account that is now the 2nd most sought Atlanta news source on Instagram and the problems with this account.
A shift from 'the left' for Democrats on policing — a look at the role police played in the election of Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer to become the mayor of New York, the largest hub of Democrats in America.
Is Andre Dickens Atlanta's Last Black Mayor? — an examination of the election of Andre Dickens, the 7th consecutive Black Mayor of Atlanta. Dickens entered Atlanta where the racial and regime politics of the past were in decline.
What is ‘Cop City’?
‘Cop City’ is the name given to the new Atlanta Police and Fire training facility by activists and community organizers. The site is called Cop City due to its recreation of several real-world training sites, hence a ‘Cop City’. The site is controversial for several reasons, most of which I have included in a 2021 Butter.ATL explainer.
Here are the highlights:
The process was rushed for identifying and securing the site, which occurred sometime in late 2020 before being unearthed in February 2021 according to local reports. This was via Atlanta City Councilmember Joyce Shepherd of District 12, the Atlanta Police Department, and the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Shepherd chose a site outside of her district, where the incumbent was not running for re-election. That incumbent would also vote against the project.
The initially proposed deal would’ve given away 350 acres of public land without any public input, outside oversight, or plan of action to APD. After outcry, it was reduced to 85 acres, mostly to account for a series of surface-level parking lots, a horse park, an automobile course, and a K9 unit.
For perspective, NYC’s police department is nearly 27 times the size of APD and does the same activities on 32 acres of land.
The site, the Old Atlanta Prison Farm is a 300+ acre facility located in the larger 3,500-acre South River Forest in southeast Atlanta.
The facility would initially have given 350 acres to the police at a rate of $10 per year for 100 years. The terms have been cut down to 50 years. It’s still $10 a year.
Environmental conservationists were concerned about the impact of the project in the middle of an area that is residential and deposits into the South River. Arborists are concerned about the loss of old-growth trees and canopy in the area.
Some South DeKalb residents were concerned about another large swath of land going for pennies on the dollar. A few months earlier, a large land swap between DeKalb County, Blackhall Studios, and Ryan Millsap, saw 50 acres of land within walking distance of ‘Cop City’ go for $0 in a swap that was under the assumption of economic development and a long-promised public park. A conflict still in court.
1. How did ‘Cop City’ start?
TL/DR: ‘Cop City’ started after APD and its foundation, APF leveraged its hand during the 2020 protests. APD walked off the job, then got rewarded.
APD for years has wanted a new facility. The current site they use is from loaned land from the Atlanta Public School System, Zoo Atlanta for the horse training, and Atlanta Metropolitan College for the police academy.
In 2015, there was a formal announcement for a new facility, but nothing came. In 2019/20 Fulton County wanted to combine facilities on a single site they would own. APD officially declined in the second half of 2020 after the BLM protests, ‘Blue flu’, and private efforts to work with police after they walked off the job. It wasn’t formally announced until the spring of 2021 after reports surfaced.
The ‘Cop City’ site could be considered a quasi-peace offering to APD/APF for 2020. Within one year the same city council that went from potentially defunding aspects of APD in 2020, was voting in favor of Cop City in 2021. So how did this happen?
2. The 2020 protests and anti-BLM backlash
TL/DR: The 2022 and 2023 pushes of Buckhead cityhood alongside the ensuing culture wars are a direct result of the 2020 protests.
Black Lives Matter, the slogan, organization, and movement quickly evolved into being associated with an anti-police brutality stance throughout the 2010s, peaking in 2020. In the process, leading to a counter-movement Blue Lives Matter, a deliberate rebuttal against the phrase/movement/organization Black Lives Matter.
Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Backlash
By June 2020, across the nation, Black Lives Matter, both the movement and the organization reached their peak of support nationwide. What started as an anti-racist slogan against vigilante violence became co-opted by a counter-protest intent on minimizing and recontextualizing it. It’s a hallmark of white backlash in the US.
From my June 2021 newsletter: Atlanta is losing the narrative —
The post-George Floyd/anti-BLM digital media campaigns helped sway the often white and conservative support it had immediately post-George Floyd in June of 2020, to abandonment by December, and to near-full abandonment by June of 2021. Often combining online misinformation, with promoting Black anti-Black agents or repurposing Black content. As Black Lives Matter became synonymous with police killings throughout the 2010s, so did a stance across the nation of those who began to overtly support police and police killings. These two concluded in the summer of 2020 after the protests of George Floyd engulfed the nation in late May. Throughout the summer a series of protests against police and police brutality overtook the US, then the world. While at the same time the anti-BLM, pro-police sentiment successfully began to regroup.
Support for the Black Lives Matter movement peaked nationwide in June. And for the first time since the anti-apartheid protests of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a global series of protests ensued. Leading to a nationwide series of calls to defund, abolish and reform policing across America including Atlanta.
Police in Atlanta felt a lack of ‘support’ as the public sentiment soured. APD, like many other police agencies across the nation struck back. Nationwide the police engaged in their own counter-protests and launched their own online campaigns. The US saw a mass exodus of police officers walking off the job in 2020. Many never came back, it could be seen that ‘support’ was conditional on praise, unquestioned authority, and autonomy. Since then the issue has plagued US cities, long hubs of Democrat-leaning supporters in a quandary, should they reform the police, defund the police, or abolish the police? Cities like Atlanta did none of the above, they went in the opposite direction, instead providing compliance and complicitness to the police.
Blue Lives Matter respawned, police nationwide stopped showing up or threatening to do so, then saw cities and state governments bend to their will. For APD, that would result in the turning away from Mayor Keshia Lance Bottoms (KLB), getting two new state laws, and the eventual development of ‘Cop City’. It worked.
3. The CNN Center incident - May 29th and May 30th, 2020
Following the nationwide protests related to the murder of George Floyd, Friday, May 29th saw a peaceful afternoon-long protest occur throughout the streets of downtown Atlanta. The protest was mostly uneventful until the end of the official march. As the sun began to die down, protestors lingered and rather than force everyone to leave, the police allowed them to stay. As the sun began to set, the crowd of the evening was noticeably more rowdy compared to the day’s crowd. Protestors remaining began to vandalize the outside of the CNN Center downtown including burning two cop cars.
The vandalism played as a Rorschach test to Atlantans. People were confused. For many, especially stakeholders in Atlanta, the vandalism at CNN Center seemed out of a different version of Atlanta. For APD, a force that engaged in a series of community policing efforts for years prior, the CNN incident represented the end of those efforts.
APD prior to that incident had been hailed for their community engagement efforts. This was evident in the level of comfort of then-Police Chief Erica Shields on the day of the protest. Shields allowed protestors to linger after the official march and even addressed protesters one-on-one in the crowd. In the wake of the vandalism, the 15+ years of work APD went into building a newer agency went up in smoke.
Mayor Bottoms’s last stand
The most remembered image of the tenure of KLB would be her impassioned plea to protestors to go home after the vandalism at CNN. Followed by speeches by Atlanta veteran rappers Killer Mike and T.I.’s ‘Atlanta is Wakanda’ statement was the phrase that became most memorable. KLB was embraced by a wide swath of Black Atlanta and Black America.
Her subsequent moves to immediately fire officers involved in caught on-camera instances of police violence may have saved Atlanta from a worse fate but cost her the support of the APD, APF, Buckhead, and the business community at large.
This tension would be further inflamed by Governor Kemp calling up the National Guard to monitor Atlanta after the CNN Center incident. Marking the end of the relationship between the Mayor of Atlanta and the Governor of Georgia. The police chief would resign. A new interim would be selected and the stability provided by APD pushed efforts of the biggest stakeholders to return Atlanta to normalcy. Normalcy would be based on placating APDs’ needs and egos of ‘support’, a nationwide trend as officers across the US felt calls for reform as being ‘anti-police’.
4. The Murder of Rayshard Brooks and the role of Councilwoman Joyce Shepherd in ushering in ‘Cop City’
On the late evening of June 12th, 2020 Rayshard Brooks, was drunk and asleep at the drive-through at the Wendy’s on University Avenue in South Atlanta. A call was made to the police to get the man to move his car. One hour after the police came, Brooks was murdered. Within 24 hours Wendy’s was burned to the ground. For the police in Atlanta, the relationship with the mayor deteriorated to the point of no return.
The Murder of Secoriea Turner
The murder of Brooks, followed by the subsequent fire of the Wendy’s where he was murdered became a point of no return for stakeholders. The site had been abandoned by police altogether becoming an autonomous zone. Marked by days of activities both positive and negative, resulting in the murder of 8-year Secoriea Turner, who was shot in the backseat of her parent’s car by two men believing they were protecting the area.
To save Atlanta, KLB fired every office involved in the stop. It cost her mayoral tenure. As cities nationwide were engulfed in racial violence over police getting off for crimes, Atlanta did the opposite. The mayor of the Black mecca got the result Black people wanted—immediate justice and standing up to the police. Even police Chief Erika Shields stepped down. It was a career-killing mistake. The police for the rest of her tenure never supported KLB again. Shields would eventually land in Louisville.
While on the other end, some within city hall sought an alternate means to save Atlanta by going in the opposite direction—placating APD by any means necessary. In the process keeping Atlanta’s establishment in support of city leadership. The other lawmakers and stakeholders of Atlanta began in private working on securing the city. This meant directly working to appease APD and APF.
Atlanta City Councilwoman Joyce Shepherd
The ‘Cop City’ project was pushed through by then-District 12 Atlanta City Councilwoman Joyce Shepherd with the guidance of APD and APF. What prompted this was the June 12th, 2020 murder of Rayshard Brooks at the Wendy’s on University Avenue in South Atlanta. The district of Councilwoman Shepherd.
Joyce Shepherd was a veteran Atlanta City Councilwoman. Shepherd first won in a special election in 2003, then proceeded to represent the district as of 2020. District 12, is one of the poorest in the city and one of the least active voting blocs.
Following the murder of Brooks, then 8-year-old Secoreia Turner, and the chaos in South Atlanta, Shepherd worked closely with APD and APF on what would eventually become the project of ‘Cop City’. An answer to the 5-year question of where the new Atlanta police training center would go. The answer, the Old Atlanta Prison Farm, located in the South River Forest would bring its own series of future problems. At the then-present moment, the forest was considered the safest bet. APD began working again with the city council and most of the force was back to work by the end of 2020.
4. The ‘Blue-Flu’ of June 2020
TL/DR: The police got scrutinized, held a hissyfit, then won the 2021 mayoral election, got paid, and got a new training facility with no political repercussions.
In June 2020, hundreds of Atlanta police officers called out sick in what was known as ‘the blue flu’. The ‘blue flu’ was a protest in which an estimated 170 of 1,400 officers all called in sick in addition to dozens more resigning. The officers who stayed faced having to fulfill the need for police in multiple jurisdictions and responsibilities, often not being able to do so. As a result, basic policing services were not met citywide.
These sick-ins and resignations were the results of the firings of eight APD officers involved in two separate incidents. The first was the murder of Rayshard Brooks by two APD officers on June 12th. The second was after six APD officers were immediately suspended after being caught on live television tasing two AUC students at a makeshift police checkpoint downtown. Rather than taking the lead in being above the criticism, APD decided to allow their absence to throw the city into chaos.
The three-day ordeal resulted in an immediate $500 bonus for each officer. Nor were any officers ever disciplined. The police utilized the oldest trick in the book—extortion. Since the formalization of the police in the 1800s, the threat of work stoppage, typically in the form of non-attendance has been the most effective form of political mobilization. Police departments then and now, threaten to not work in order to force an outcome—it works.
The police went from almost defunded to receiving even more city funds
While the APD portion of the annual city budget has grown by an average of 7% a year. At the height of tensions during the summer of 2020, and by one vote, the city of Atlanta, almost defunded APD. In that scenario, a discretionary portion of APD’s funds would’ve gone to other programs outside of policing endeavors. All with the aim of preventing or reducing would-be crimes.
That one-person majority of the city council not only voted for APD to not be defunded but within a year later APD was given a larger portion of the city budget. ‘Cop City’ was also in motion. In addition to the $500 bonus for officers in June, a second bonus was given a few months later. While no officers were disciplined for ‘the blue flu’. APD gained more by doing less.
Atlanta almost chose to defund, while abolition was never on the table.
Should that have happened those funds would’ve gone to other programs, services, and departments to reduce crime—one of the goals of the national Defund the Police movement. A movement then and now misrepresented in its aims and purposes.
Most cities including the heavily Democrat-leaning Atlanta spend a large portion of their money on police and policing endeavors, leading to other services such as education spending, homelessness, youth programs, diversion programs, and drug/alcohol services receiving substantially less, if any funds.
With most of the efforts left at the behest of typical philanthropy and public-private partnerships. Often leading to results that rely on only police for substantial efforts, creating a cycle of arrests to incarceration. This often leads to most social issues being at the discretion of individuals, civic organizations, and philanthropy.
5. Online, Atlanta was presented as ‘the purge’
TL/DR: The 2022 and 2023 pushes of Buckhead cityhood alongside the ensuing culture wars are a direct result of the 2020 protests.
How this manifested online was a hard pivot into ‘crime porn’, the sharing of (often doctored or misleading) violent BLM protests, and constant distribution of unrelated clips of Black people (mostly young men) in big cities committing crimes. Cities across the US from Philadelphia, DC, and Atlanta saw an adjacent rise in this content at the same time as many police agencies across the country simply stopped policing.
From my June 2021 newsletter: Atlanta is losing the narrative — Part I
Despite the hard work of the international movement for Black Lives Matter against police brutality and violence last summer, the anti-Black Lives Matter movement was working harder. The greater adversarial group of white, Republican adjacent, evangelical Christian, some Latinx populations, and conservative contrarians were harder at work (mostly online) to dismiss the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. This was in addition to the discrediting of the entire movement as well as its founders—and for the most part, it worked.
In Atlanta, that was best manifested by the rise of ATLScoop, an initial anti-BLM Instagram account that pivoted to a hybrid of crime porn (ex: Breitbart) and Black vice sites (ex: This Is 50, WorldStarHipHop). Since then, ATLScoop and its daily barrage of (almost always) Black crime has become ‘the news’ to a generation of people raised on Instagram. Then reposted by their parents on Nextdoor and grandparents on Facebook. Crime or rather the perception of violent crime has been front and center since 2020. As a result, the average Atlanta citizen believes the crime rate is closer to 1990 or even 2010 compared to what it actually was in 2020.
6. Is it local fear-mongering or news reporting?
TL/DR: The hard pivot into every Atlanta news organization into ‘crime porn’, helped reshape a narrative on crime, which in turn helped APD.
Since the summer of 2020, local news in Atlanta has become relatively indistinguishable from online crime porn sites. Local news focused initially only on the May 31st vandalism at the CNN center rather than the ensuing weeks of peaceful daily protests, stoking sensationalism on violence and lawlessness rather than the role of the police in all of this. 2020 was marked as a summer full of non-stop feeding of violence online, on television, and in print. Seemingly all local news resembled Instagram crime porn accounts, resulting in the majority of Atlanta wanting the police.
From my June 2021 newsletter: Atlanta is losing the narrative — Part IV
The growing problem for everyone running for office now is that the success of ATLScoop and the Buckhead Cityhood page are creating online feedback loops of fear, where online content is generating offline perceptions of Atlanta that aren’t contextual or fully truthful.
These accounts are not contextual to the role of police in contributing to all of the problems. For example, examining the role of APD, which instead of taking criticism, did nothing for months throughout the summer of 2020.
Nor are they critical of the role of the Kemp administration in re-opening first, or the lack of any stringent gun laws in Georgia, or acknowledging the role of out-of-towners in creating a ruckus. ATLScoop is winning. And it is winning big right now, so the question is what does it do with its newfound power? As long as more people share its content, it can’t be stopped, even if it’s not correct, critical, or contextual.
Crime porn aided in copaganda, which aided in secession talks
Local news brands have since followed suit either directly or indirectly. All news in Atlanta is now through the purview of ATLScoop. If one were to look at news from traditional or untraditional sources, it would be no different. Violent crime is on television, the front page of local news websites, on every social media site, on local radio programs, and on the tip of the tongue everywhere.
For the Buckhead secessionists, social media (in particular crime porn accounts) provided an environment to use fear-based tactics to stoke the fires of seceding. In 2020, the Buckhead Cityhood Facebook page was formed. It quickly garnered supporters. Supporters to whom were generally concerned about the rise in crime.
The only problem is that the data stated that Buckhead was still the safest and most policed area of Atlanta, in addition to the year-over-year data showing overall crime down. But for those seeking secession, the constant fear of Buckhead becoming Bankhead was enough to galvanize efforts to leave Atlanta.
7. APD starts to gain more lawmaker and business support
As early as July, stakeholders in Atlanta began courting once again. APD began to see a shift in catering to their whims with a pool of $2 million dollars to be allocated as cash bonuses for officers which were organized by the Atlanta Police Foundation. Several business and civic leaders began to call for more police presence in the city to address the rise in crime, perceived lawlessness, and the rise in homicides.
On the state level, a new ‘Blue Lives Matter’ law, was enacted to allow for police to sue protestors, a special ‘bill of rights’ for law enforcement, a rebrand as ‘peace officers’, and penalized organizations that would support any such groups or initiatives that criticized the police. On top of an anti-‘defund the police’ bill that made any reforms or reallocation of police funds by any municipality in Georgia beyond 5% illegal.
While happening in the city of Atlanta, a series of backdoor meetings with APD, APDF, and an unnamed city council person was happening to re-establish a positive relationship. Those meetings would eventually become what is known as ‘Cop City’.
8. Mayor Dickens is now facing the consequences of the 2021 election—he was correct in his decision
TL/DR: Mayor Dickens made the right political choice even though it was arguably the wrong policy choice.
The 2021 Atlanta Mayor’s race
The shocking announcement of then-mayor KLB in May of 2021, nearly one year after everything went down, marked the end of the old way of doing things. Atlanta had seen its first major uptick in violence in years, while APD and the business community turned their backs on the mayor. Whoever the successor would be, it would have to answer to both. Another win for APD.
From my previous newsletter: Kasim Reed is back (6/112021)
This election will be defined by two things: crime and Buckhead.
The response to both will likely be determined not only by who wins but where Atlanta is going next. Despite the evidence that overall crime was down double digits in 2020 and in 2021, the one stat that has gone up tremendously has been the murder rate.
‘Cop City’ while very unpopular then and now was also the choice to make for those who wanted to win the coveted moderate, Buckhead, and business vote in Atlanta. Dickens played 2021 correctly, which led to flip-flopping on his stance regarding ‘Cop City’, and is now dealing with the consequences.
In that election, Dickens was considered a long shot for the Mayor’s seat as he was mostly behind former mayor Kasim Reed and then-City Council President Felicia Moore. Dickens's team correctly positioned himself as a viable third option. Playing on the large backlash against former Mayor Reed and being more likable than Moore, Dickens was positioned as the guy who could represent both Bankhead and Buckhead.
Dickens voted for Cop City in 2021, now here comes the after effects
But it was Dickens, to the surprise of many who voted in support of the ‘Cop City’ project in 2021 as a then-city council member. Dickens’s 2021 vote could be interpreted as a political maneuver, one that would be seen by Buckhead secessionists, those concerned about the uptick in violent crime, and/or pro-police loyalists as a differentiator against his completion. The issue was already a major topic for the 2021 mayoral election. Dickens needed to separate himself from his competition.
Both Kasim Reed and Felicia Moore expressed concerns about ‘Cop City’
Dickens’s top two opponents expressed various concerns about the project. Former mayor Kasim Reed stated openly that he would not support the project at the location. Reed in that election also garnered the support of the police union. While Dickens’s other primary opponent Felicia Moore herself stated she had some serious questions about the project, the details, and its development at that location. While both candidates had the pleasure of not having to vote. Dickens made himself the viable third option by that vote although the project was widely not supported by Atlantans.
Dickens makes the runoff, then proceeds to win in a blowout
Dickens defeated Reed by the narrowest of margins in the general election to reach a runoff where he defeated then-Council President Moore. Dickens benefitted greatly from both Moore’s sudden abandonment of would-be voters in the runoff and Dickens’s general goodwill as a city councilman.
Dickens was the Atlanta guy, the neighborhood guy, the affordable housing guy going against the ‘anti-strip club’ and stick-in-the-mud Moore, in addition to Moore being seen as ‘the Buckhead candidate’. Dickens won, cop city was voted on, then passed, favorability was high and for a time, the thought of secession seemed to be in the rearview until it wasn’t.
Dickens was playing chess, not checkers
Since the election, Dickens’s moves and announcements have been held (smartly) close to the vest. He’s continued to keep his message discipline regarding ‘Cop City’. He has been good at differentiating that protestors arrested are not from Atlanta, while also not falling into conservative tropes or policing anecdotes. Dickens’s administration and the city council correctly used the site as leverage to ensure that Buckhead secession stayed on the back burner. It worked.
The calculations were correct
The Dickens administration has spent the greater part of 18 months seeking to assuage those who support the project while avoiding those who do not. It could be argued that Dickens’s team correctly assessed that most of the ardent detractors are not enough numbers to sway public opinion against him in any meaningful way or be in substantial numbers to vote against him when/if he decides to run again in 2025.
From my previous newsletter: A few thoughts on last week's mayoral election (12/7/2021)
5. Buckhead and the business community will play a bigger role
Buckhead is going to play a bigger role in this election than it ever has since it was annexed into the city of Atlanta in 1952. And yep, the issue of race was a motivating factor in doing so! The looming part of the session is growing by the day. The problem for both Dickens and the newly elected city council will be how to govern for both Old Atlanta and New Atlanta, all while keeping Buckhead in the union.
5b. The biz community is bigger than Buckhead and will dictate much more
The Atlanta business community has been relatively not seen and not heard. Now because of threats of secession, the continued heightened perceptions of crime, and a new city council, they will likely have more sway than before.
Dickens is facing the reality of being The Mayor of Cop City
For some in Atlanta, it’s hard to parse this decision by Mayor Dickens to keep steady on ‘Cop City’. Mayor Dickens is the same person who voted for defunding the police a year prior, the same person who voted against the 2 billion dollar subsidy of the Gulch, and the same person who wrote the legislation to close, then repurpose the Atlanta city jail. Dickens wasn’t the mayor then, but he is now. The Atlanta way of doing things is much stronger and more impactful than it’s been for years, decades even.
Dickens is now Mayor Carcetti in The Wire, ‘Cop City’ is now his bowl of soup. Idealism went out the window for city politics. But those closer to the situation understand that Dickens didn’t have many moves to make.
9. How Buckhead Cityhood birthed ‘Cop City’
TL/DR: Buckhead’s potential cityhood was also one of the impetus in creating what would be eventually known as ‘Cop City’, the combined Atlanta police and fire training center located in the Atlanta section of South DeKalb County.
The ‘Cop City’ site could be considered a quasi-peace offering to APD/APDF for 2020. The threat of Buckhead cityhood was also one of the points of contention in creating what would be the eventual ‘Cop City’. Throughout the summer there were also efforts to assuage the Buckhead leaders and the broader business community. Arguably the most influential association of business and civic leaders in the state.
Year one of Dickens was aimed at stopping Buckhead Cityhood
Dickens for the better part of his entire first year as mayor worked to assuage Buckhead’s business community and residents. Within a few months as mayor, Dickens cut the ribbon on a new police station as well as celebrated a new class of police officers into APD. Anchored by a new police Chief, Darin Schierbaum, both the city of Atlanta and APD have made having a more visible presence.
Dickens had to contend with Bill White and his politics, he could’ve lost
Bill White, the successful New York City political figure and Trump fundraiser was *this close* to pulling off the unexpected, separating Buckhead from the city of Atlanta. The correct decision was to keep Buckhead at all costs, costs that include placating the overlapping interests of Buckhead and APD with the follow through on supporting ‘Cop City’. Buckhead wanted a show of force, APD, wanted its facility.
People wanted to feel secure, and the only answer for most was to have the police present in Buckhead.
Despite the at times blatant racial dog-whistling of the Buckhead Cityhood, Dickens’s team managed to see the forest from the trees. People then and now, despite the data feel as if crime in Buckhead is out of control. Blame the local news, blame IG crime porn accounts or your neighborhood chat apps—but all of these people were responding to real fears of becoming a victim. Even when data says the opposite.
Dickens had to make a public show of force including supporting ‘Cop City’ openly, despite the realities that a project of this sort would never be in a wealthy, majority-white business district or neighborhood. Dickens's call for more officers made many in Buckhead + those who became engulfed in the uptick of local crime news feel safe. Dickens didn’t fall prey to the conservative media positioning of how Democrats have been portrayed as being non-sympathetic towards the desire for law enforcement.
From my previous newsletter: Buckhead Cityhood’s failings (3/10/2023)
For Mayor Dickens, he has to continue to be a poker player.
Dickens must continue to keep his long-term plans and dealings closer to the chest. He has to continue to several disparate groups all wanting different things. APD/APDF’s ‘Cop City’ plans which also fall in line with Buckhead’s policing needs…
… Dickens’s played both the Cop City and Buckhead Cityhood plans correctly, he’s going to need to keep that going for the next two years before his re-election in 2025.
Buckhead is still the safest area of Atlanta by a wide margin, Dickens has reinforced that. All of this plus the general impracticalities of Buckhead Cityhood secured that the union would stay together. In the process giving some much-needed leverage within the state legislature to avoid a potential Buckhead Cityhood vote. In the process placating Kemp, state republicans, would-be secessionists, APD, and APF.
Dickens had to make sure ‘Cop City’ happens, if not, it would’ve been another KLB situation all over again. But in this scenario, Buckhead indeed secedes. Mayor Dickens played the situation exactly as a veteran politico should. Whether or not this was the correct decision long term is still to be determined. The Atlanta Way has been showing signs of decline and dismissal, it’s on full display with ‘Cop City’.
Mayor Dickens has dealt himself an unfavorable hand
Dickens, for the better part of two years, has had to be the mayor of Buckhead, now he has to be the mayor of the rest of Atlanta. It’s here where the hard part lies.
Later this week: Cop City explainer Pt. 2—Understanding the backlash, protests, fundraisers, and the fallout
Cop City is still an evolving situation. All signs point to the project remaining on its deadline and that in itself may be the biggest problem.
-KJW