Listen and follow The Daily
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon Music

This episode contains descriptions of violence.

In a patch of woods southwest of Atlanta, protesters have been clashing with the police over a huge police training facility that the city wants to build there. This month, that fight came to a head when hundreds of activists breached the site, burning police and construction vehicles.

Sean Keenan, an Atlanta-based reporter, explains how what opponents call “Cop City,” and the woods surrounding it, have become an unlikely battleground in the nation’s debate over policing.

On today’s episode

Sean Keenan, a freelance reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

• This month, protesters damaged property at the site of a planned police center in Atlanta in a disturbance that grew out of a demonstration among activists in a forest being developed into a training center.

• How a forest near Atlanta became a new front line in the debate over policing.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Sean Keenan contributed reporting.

Fact-checking by Susan Lee.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Anita Badejo, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Chelsea Daniel, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Sofia Milan, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong and Devon Taylor

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Dorr, Julia Simon, Isabella Anderson, Desiree Ibekwe, Renan Borelli, Mahima Chablani, Nell Gallogly, Jeffrey Miranda, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer and Maddy Masiello.