Three years ago today, in the streets of Atlanta, a vigil for Paez Terán, a protester who had been killed by police three days earlier, grows violent. Terán had been part of the “Stop Cop City” protest, resisting the development of a police and fire fighter training facility. The governor declares an emergency. Over 40 protestors are charged with domestic terrorism — in cases that are ongoing.

The city government repeatedly defies public pressure and “Cop City” — which includes a miniature urban landscape for practicing the suppression of urban unrest — begins operations in April 2025.

This land had been inhabited by the Muscogee people until they were forcibly removed in the 1830s. The land had been a slave plantation, and until recently, a prison farm.