The roots of Cop City can be traced to the Israeli Urban Warfare Training Center (UWTC), nicknamed “Mini Gaza,” funded with $45 million from the U.S. These training centers are more than mere facilities; they are live testing grounds for strategies deployed against marginalized peoples, whether in occupied Palestine or predominantly Black, working-class, and undocumented communities in Atlanta. The design of these centers reflects a brutal exchange of methodologies that exacerbate violence against oppressed populations to expand and maintain power and domination through any means necessary.

Narek Boyajian and Jadelynn Zhang