“Cop City Will Never Be Built”: Political Spiritualities of the Movement to Stop Cop City

"Cop City Will Never Be Built" examines the spiritual and religious practices that animated the movement to prevent the construction of a militarized police training facility in Atlanta’s South River Forest. Contrary to popular depictions of contemporary leftist movements as inherently irreligious, militant “Stop Cop City” activists consistently deployed religious ritual and practice as modalities of political organizing and future-oriented world-making. Through analysis of the political impact of the movement’s spiritual ceremonies, rituals, and direct actions, interviews with movement activists, engagement with a multimedia movement archive, and comparison with resonant movements, this paper reveals spiritual practice as a cornerstone of the Stop Cop City movement, as well as other anti-colonial land defense movements across the Global South.