In Atlanta, police violence unites Gaza and Stop Cop City protests

Emory University students and others gathered to set up tents at 7:30 a.m. on April 25. Minutes later, university police arrived on the grounds, but the students were undeterred. First one tent, then two tents, were set up in rapid succession. Within an hour, more than a dozen tents had been set up and at least 100 people had gathered on the Emory grounds, with more on the way. The first ominous signs of police involvement were apparent, as officers could be seen on walkie-talkies gathering near the administration building.

Students unfurled banners reading “No Cop City,” “No Genocide,” “Defend the Forest,” “Gaza Solidarity Camp,” and began recording messages on social media. They were not surprised when Atlanta police arrived on campus, after they had dismantled a similar encampment in protest of Cop City just a year earlier.

What the students did not expect, however, was for Georgia State Police to appear alongside the Atlanta Police Department. All of this police power, mobilized by the Emory administration and police, was aimed at silencing student demands that Emory divest from Israeli apartheid and at suppressing students’ constitutional right to protest Israel’s U.S.-funded genocide of Palestinians.

Less than three hours after the students set up camp, police moved in. They pepper-sprayed students and their supporters. Police violently arrested students and faculty who had gathered to respect and support students’ First Amendment rights. Four of the first seven arrests were students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) who had joined the encampment. For those of us who followed the police response, it was clear that these students in particular were targeted because they were Black and because they were on Emory’s campus.

One protester was tasered and another was choked. After 45 minutes, the student tents were dismantled and their banners torn down. A total of 28 people were arrested that day. The encampment ended, but the protests continued. For days, students and community members from across Atlanta gathered at Emory to hold marches, festivals, speeches, and lectures to keep the momentum going.

This determination by students and others did not come overnight. For the past two years, students in Atlanta—at Emory and elsewhere—have been actively involved in the Stop Cop City movement, preparing for moments like this when police would be called upon to destroy their civil rights.

The students understood that the role of the police was to protect university property. The police did not care that the protesters were speaking on behalf of the 40,000 people killed in Gaza. The police showed no interest in reason, despite the protesters’ efforts to make it clear that dropping American-made bombs to destroy hospitals, universities, and apartment buildings had nothing to do with protecting Israel and everything to do with the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians for their land. The Atlanta students understood the connections between militarism, war in foreign countries, and militarized policing in southwest Atlanta.

In recent years, the Atlanta student movement has matured through struggles on and off Emory’s campus. Lessons have already been learned that have helped create a collective conviction that has led to ongoing protests. On this day, students reminded police that their conviction could not be erased by a single act of brutality.

The evacuation of the Emory encampment in late April was one of the swiftest and most brutal responses to campus protests that have spread across the country. But in the context of Atlanta’s history, its universities, and the city’s response to the protests, this violence and the resistance it took to resist it are hardly surprising.

Among the many prestigious colleges and universities in and around Atlanta, Spelman and Morehouse are among the nation’s leading HBCUs. Georgia Tech is Atlanta’s center of engineering and technology, and Georgia State is considered an entry point for working-class students looking to advance their career goals. Emory stands out as the elite university, known as one of the “Southern Ivies,” a group of Southern schools that are comparable to their Northern counterparts in terms of prestige and selectivity. Emory’s endowment is the 12th largest of any university in the United States.

Each of these Atlanta institutions has its own history of student protest, but none has earned a reputation as an incubator of radical student movements. However, radical student activity in Atlanta has gained momentum in recent years as it has increasingly focused on combating police violence. Students at the Atlanta University System (the HBCU hub of Morehouse, Spelman, Morris Brown, and Clark universities) were involved in the George Floyd uprisings in 2020. On May 20, 2023, two Atlanta University Center students were violently pulled from their car and arrested by Atlanta police. The encounter was captured on video. video gone viralNone of the six officers involved in the incident have been charged, but two have been fired.

The 2023 killing of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, a forestry advocate killed by Atlanta police, brought attention to the Stop Cop City movement. Students from Morehouse and Spelman staged a protest against the military-style training facility at an event on the Morehouse campus. This led to a hastily planned event by the mayor of Atlanta and the Morehouse administration, in which the mayor, police chief, and other administrators attempted to convince Black Morehouse students that military-style trained police were good for the Black community. The event was repeatedly disrupted by students, one of whom called the mayor a “sellout.” Following these early protests, students across Atlanta began organizing together, connecting their struggles on campus and in the city.

These events gave students a more radical and intersectional understanding of their struggle. They also reinforced the idea that the police, military, and capital development work together to control resources, people, and property. Students began to view the fight against Stop Cop City as one with national and international implications.

The Emory encampment also highlighted the connections between the ongoing U.S.-funded Palestinian genocide and the militarization of American police. Workshops and panels highlighted the training program between the Israeli police and the state of Georgia. Known as GILEE, the Georgia International Police Exchange Program promotes training and strategic exchanges between Georgian and Israeli police.

Emory students not only called for a ceasefire and divestment like those at other campus camps, they also offered an analysis based on a historical understanding of settler colonialism. Thus, Emory students at the camp were vocal in their support of Palestinians’ right to self-determination and their struggle for their land. The Atlanta students who participated in the Stop Cop City efforts were already grappling with class and race consciousness, imperialism and colonization, capitalist economies, and the militarization of the police. They were well prepared to include a broader political perspective, exposing the misleading narrative of the U.S. and Israeli governments and corporate media.

Emory and Atlanta students had already created a network from their Cop City activism. That network spanned multiple campuses, and the students decided that creating a single encampment in the city could focus their efforts and provide a stronghold for students from across the region. Existing student networks, as well as relationships with non-student organizers, enabled rapid mobilization in the wake of the demolition encampment. They also understood that this encampment was not just a student protest.

When the Emory encampment was set up, there was no distinction between students and non-students. At the same time that administrators and politicians across the country deployed violent police forces to quell campus protests, they also tried to sow discord among the protesters by using the old segregationist trope of the “outside agitator.”

But for students, this message fell flat from the start. Indeed, they understand that the struggle taking place on campus is not limited to the university: it represents one of the frontiers of a movement that must fight collectively for a free Palestine and against militarized police and state violence.

Inspiration in your inbox

Sign up to receive email updates from YES!