In an 11th-hour change, Atlanta approved new rules for citizen-led petitions to include signature matching—a practice decried by Cop City protesters and voting rights advocates.
    • jonne@infosec.pub
      82·
      2 years ago

      This is more than just the police union wanting this. They want to build these things everywhere, and there’s bipartisan support for them.

      • Monument@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        5·
        2 years ago

        But why would our politicians want domestic police trained to be a military force that doesn’t have the code of conduct of the military and is only accountable to the local bureaucracy?

        It’s like they want an a military force in every city that can act with impunity, or something.

        (I kid. It’s because they’re fascists, and the U.S. is becoming a police state.)

  • PorkRoll@lemmy.world
    43·
    2 years ago

    So if the state tries to stop the will of the people when they go through the “proper channels,” what recourse do the people have left to get their voices heard?

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
    41·
    2 years ago

    Many onlookers have struggled to understand why the city has invested so much energy and risked so much bad press in continuing to block a vote.

    I’m one of those people? Why is the group supposedly elected by the people of the city, to serve the people of the city, going to such lengths to deny them from having their voice heard?

    These obstructive actions leave people little alternative to civil disobedience. Every effort needs to be made to obstruct and delay construction efforts, and further to name and shame the contractor companies, insurance companies, politicians and other figures that support this police pet project.

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      2 years ago

      First of all, Atlanta has a “strong Mayor, weak Council” system. With the Mayor apparently having come out as a vehement card-carrying fascist (despite giving basically zero hint of such before the election, by the way), there are a lot of tricks he could use to push this shit through even against the opposition of Council.

      Second, the Council basically has three factions: the rich white people from Buckhead, the mostly-poor (but not entirely poor – a point I’ll come back to) black people from Bankhead (more southwest Atlanta, but I liked the symmetry), and the and the middle-class progressives from the east side.

      • The Buckhead people are perfectly happy to support Cop City – and its location as far away from themselves as possible, along the dividing line between the progressives and the poor blacks – because of course they are.

      • The poor black people are (perhaps surprisingly) often also inclined to support it because they’re so beaten-down by both crime and institutional racism that they think more police presence + “development” (even shitty development) will help them. Moreover, Atlanta is called “the city too busy to hate” for a reason, and that reason is because of the long-standing alliance between the black leadership of the city (centered on HBCUs like Morehouse, plus the black churches) and the Buckhead business community.

      • So, the east side progressives are the pretty much the only faction in strong opposition (in part because it’s a fascist training camp, but also because the location for it is close to some of the east side neighborhoods).

      In other words – and less charitably, but accurate – too many poor black people in Atlanta are class traitors.

  • bl_r@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    41·
    2 years ago

    The blocking of peaceful, democratic means to get things done fully justifies more violent direct action to work towards those ends.

    Considering the IDF will be training the Atlanta PD in the complex, I really hope the protestors and activists manage to stop cop city.

    I hope more machinery burns.

  • stoly@lemmy.world
    33·
    2 years ago

    I really can’t figure out what is wrong with these people that they are so openly oppressing the wishes of their populace over something so stupid.

  • lemmyman@lemmy.world
    15·
    2 years ago

    I get so frustrated when an article introduces a new term, says what somebody thinks about it, then goes off on some tangent before finally describing the issue at hand two thirds of the way through the article.

    Signature matching is supposedly a way to prevent fraud, in which a voter’s signature on a ballot, or in this case petition, is confirmed to correspond with a signature from the same voter registered in the state’s database. But it has been criticized widely as a method of voter suppression.

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      2 years ago

      FYI, the Atlanta mayoral election is non-partisan and basically every candidate is a Democrat (except Mary Norwood, but even she claims to be an independent rather than admitting she’s a Republican). Your comment is entirely misplaced.

      Also, there was basically no indication before he was elected that Andre Dickens would come out as fascist.

      • Rhombus Ticks@mastodon.social
        25·
        2 years ago

        @grue

        2021 is post Sinema.

        Anyone randomly voting for unvetted mayoral candidates whom get an endorsement from murder police is a problem

        Name ONE major metro police unit that isnt festering w murder cops…ONE.

        This windowfucker was the most pro cop candidate.

        He vetted himself.

        • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          2 years ago

          Look, troll, I live in Atlanta and I’m explaining the facts to you based on personal knowledge. Randos from the Internet like you are not entitled to think you know better about my own damn local government than I do.

          • Rhombus Ticks@mastodon.social
            17·
            2 years ago

            @grue Look Summer Child, I lived in Atlanta for 12 years I have been to the forest the cop city protesters are defending and I boost their signal every single fucking day

            Ever been in a country in a coup?

            I have.

            You have no FUCKING CLUE what the American reich will be like and you will be on the short list of people they put in camps while I cry sadly for you and other idiots lile you safely on europe cause i paid attention

            Bye

            • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
              4·
              2 years ago

              I lived in Atlanta for 12 years I have been to the forest the cop city protesters are defending and I boost their signal every single fucking day

              What a coincidence, almost everything in that quote describes me, too, except I’ve lived in Atlanta longer than that.

              Apparently, the only difference between me and you is that you’re too intellectually dishonest to admit that Dickens’ fascism wasn’t obvious before the election (oh, and Kasim Reed was “the most pro cop candidate,” by the way, until he was eliminated for the run-off).

              • Rhombus Ticks@mastodon.social
                1·
                2 years ago

                The very fact that Kasim DHS Tool Occupy Destroying Filth Reed wasnt shamed into never showing his face in public again proves my point

                Voting for ANY pro cop mayor is fucking stupid

                its just fucking dumb