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Atlanta’s so-called ‘Cop City’ is igniting protests. Here’s what we know about the foundation behind it | CNN

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Atlanta’s so-called ‘Cop City’ is igniting protests. Here’s what we know about the foundation behind it | CNN




CNN
 — 

Earlier this month, practically two dozen folks had been arrested after demonstrations towards a police and hearth coaching middle close to Atlanta that opponents have dubbed “Cop Metropolis.” However whereas critics of the power say it is going to hurt the surroundings and propagate police militarization, the controversy has seeped into the inspiration behind it.

The mission is essentially funded by the Atlanta Police Basis, a multimillion-dollar nonprofit that helps the Atlanta Police Division. The muse is certainly one of at the very least 150 prefer it throughout the US that CNN reviewed that say they fill essential funds gaps, not dissimilar to a nonprofit supporting a library or public faculty.

“Our position in Atlanta is to assist present, to develop new packages which might in the end scale back crime,” stated Rob Baskin, the Atlanta Police Basis’s vice chairman and director of public affairs.

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Critics argue these nonprofits — a lot of which had been launched after the wave of protests when a Black 18-year-old was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in in 2014 — are unaccountable to the general public and create channels for company affect in regulation enforcement.

The backlash over the brand new coaching facility is elevating public debate over how concerned personal philanthropy must be in policing, in keeping with Seth Stoughton, a professor of regulation and prison justice on the College of South Carolina.

“Police foundations don’t have democratic accountability the best way {that a} police company does,” Stoughton stated.

A whole bunch of those regulation enforcement foundations — like Atlanta’s, which was based in 2003 — have sprung up throughout the nation within the final 20 years to help departments with more money and tools, in keeping with a research co-authored by Kevin Walby, an affiliate professor of prison justice on the College of Winnipeg. Some are now not energetic.

These kind of foundations have existed since at the very least the Seventies, however most sprung up beginning within the early 2000s. Walby’s research notes that just about 40 % of the organizations it studied within the US had been based within the two years after the 2014 demonstrations over the taking pictures of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

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Many of those foundations supporting main cities elevate annual income within the thousands and thousands, however since 2014, Atlanta Police Basis’s income has grown to make the nonprofit an outlier. It raised at the very least $28 million in income in 2021, the very best income amongst greater than 150 different police foundations for which CNN reviewed Inner Income Service knowledge. That determine is roughly 15 instances what the inspiration raised a decade earlier.

About $16 million of the inspiration’s 2021 income was designated for tasks that qualify for a tax credit score to develop low-income neighborhoods, Baskin wrote in an e-mail to CNN.

Among the many greater than 150 foundations whose IRS knowledge CNN reviewed, the inspiration supporting police in Las Vegas, which has a barely bigger inhabitants than Atlanta, raised the second-largest quantity, with over $12 million. Omaha’s police basis, the place the police division serves a inhabitants comparable in dimension to Atlanta’s, raised just below $1.7 million in income in 2021, by comparability, among the many highest revenues of any police basis CNN reviewed.

Police departments spend most of their funds on personnel, stated Tom Kovach, govt director of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division Basis. Personal foundations —corresponding to Atlanta’s — supply alternatives to fund new applied sciences or packages that don’t get included in authorities budgets, Kovach stated.

However whereas police foundations might help departments overcome funds constraints, “There are political constraints, not simply useful resource constraints,” stated Stoughton. He says that the foundations can generally “present an finish run” round these political constraints, buying extra controversial gadgets like surveillance know-how or coaching that the general public doesn’t help.

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The muse disagrees. “What we provide to the division is set by what the division says it wants,” Baskin informed CNN.

The muse in Atlanta solely funds packages that the mayor or police division have permitted, usually for a pilot interval, Baskin stated in his e-mail.

The Atlanta basis’s annual income has grown considerably since 2014, with specific will increase from campaigns supporting a youth diversion program, surveillance know-how, and an initiative to develop housing for officers to stay within the communities they police, Baskin added.

Such campaigns are sometimes supported by companies based mostly in Atlanta.

“It is smart that companies would need to have a job in a company that cares about public security. I don’t see something fallacious with firms investing of their communities and donating to a nonprofit,” stated Farhang Heydari, a regulation professor and researcher at New York College. “The half that turns into a bit of drawback with police foundations is when police departments use them as an finish run round democratic governments. You would need to undergo a standard funds course of to purchase a bunch of surveillance cameras and put them up across the metropolis.”

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The surveillance cameras that the Atlanta Police Basis has put in by way of its Operation Protect program are solely in neighborhoods that need them, Baskin stated. He additionally famous that the inspiration doesn’t buy weapons or ammunition for the police division.

But it surely’s the funding for the coaching facility that’s drawing consideration today.

About two-thirds of the so-called “Cop Metropolis” coaching facility’s projected $90 million price ticket might be lined by the police basis, in keeping with Bryan Thomas, the director of communications for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. The mission was introduced by then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in spring 2021 and the town council permitted an settlement to lease the land designated for the power to the Atlanta Police Basis in September 2021. In June 2021, protesters allegedly vandalized the inspiration’s workplace.

The Las Vegas’ basis has additionally been fundraising for a brand new coaching middle, Kovach informed CNN.

These campaigns to extend funding for police foundations have come as racial justice teams name to cut back police spending. Critics query companies’ motivations for contributing to those funds, whereas some concurrently publicly espouse help for Black Lives Matter and different actions that demand reform.

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“That these police departments can go to those companies and get issues that that our elected officers haven’t given to them…it is a harmful cocktail,” stated Rashad Robinson, president of Coloration of Change, a racial justice group that launched a 2021 report that was vital of the foundations.

“What shareholder can be snug with companies transferring cash if it didn’t have one thing to do with affect?” Robinson added.

In response to such criticism, Darin Schierbaum, chief of the Atlanta Police Division, informed CNN that companies concerned with the police basis don’t craft coverage for the police division: “I’ve a devoted and gifted group of govt commanders that do,” he stated.

“That criticism is inaccurate,” Baskin stated. “I feel it’s incorrect, and I feel it misstates and exhibits frankly a misunderstanding of what we do.”

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He added, “The enterprise and philanthropic neighborhood in Atlanta is awfully beneficiant and really keen to reinforce public security.”

The presence of company management on basis boards is frequent amongst philanthropic nonprofits, the place such leaders supply the items of “time, expertise and treasure,” Kovach stated. He means that it’s helpful for these foundations to have each the experience and the monetary assets related to these companies.

Stoughton, the College of South Carolina professor, believes the emphasis is on the providing of “treasure.”

“The explanation that they’re pulling folks from massive companies is as a result of the folks in massive companies have massive checkbooks,” he stated.

Police departments aren’t the one public companies that depend on personal philanthropy. Libraries, faculties, hearth departments, universities, and different public entities have devoted foundations to help their mission. However the situation of personal philanthropy funding public companies is “sharper” round policing, Stoughton says, given current controversy over policing and racial justice.

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“Policing is way more on the tip of the pendulum of public opinion,” Stoughton stated.

Methodology: To search out the very best income amongst police foundations, CNN reviewed the Inner Income Service’s enterprise grasp file for any organizations that described themselves as police, or public security foundations, or “buddies” of regulation enforcement. This evaluation excluded organizations that described themselves as “fraternal order,” or public security foundations that had been discovered to solely help non-law-enforcement first responders, corresponding to hearth departments. CNN additionally reviewed any exempt organizations within the enterprise grasp file that filed on the identical deal with and gave the impression to be law-enforcement associated, to see if any of these mirrored further sources of income for a similar police basis, as APF Assist Inc. does for the Atlanta Police Basis.

In reviewing Atlanta Police Basis’s annual income, CNN reviewed 990 filings from ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer. If there have been variations between one yr’s submitting and the “prior yr” income within the previous yr’s submitting, the yr displays the newest determine.



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Atlanta, GA

Outkast founder Big Boi’s uncle killed in Atlanta road rage shooting: ‘Pierced the heart of my family’

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Outkast founder Big Boi’s uncle killed in Atlanta road rage shooting: ‘Pierced the heart of my family’


The uncle of one of the members of the legendary hip-hop duo Outkast was gunned down during a deadly road rage shooting on an Atlanta street last month.

Remoin Patton, 62, was found dead by police on the 200 block of Joseph E. Lowery Blvd NW. just after 5:30 p.m. on June 16, the Atlanta Police Department said.

Patton’s nephew is Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, who founded the iconic group with André Lauren Benjamin – better known by his stage name André 3000 – in 1992.

Outkast’s Big Boi’s uncle Remoin Patton was shot and killed during a road range shooting in Atlanta on June 16, 2025. Big Boi/Facebook

Remoin Patton was driving on the road that divides the Washington Hills and Vine City neighborhoods of Atlanta when he got into a verbal confrontation with a driver of another vehicle, police reported.

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“During the altercation, Patton was shot, causing him to crash his vehicle into a vacant residence,” officials announced after the shooting.

Police responded to a 911 call and found Patton suffering from a gunshot wound to the back.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A person watching the home Patton crashed into says the 62-year-old was attempting to turn onto a nearby street but was hit in the back, causing the car to drive up onto the front porch of the home and into the front wall, according to WSBTV.

“I’m like, ‘What the heck happened to my place that I’m staying now?’” Chris Walker told the outlet. “I never thought it would be this property.”

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Patton was pronounced dead at the scene on the 200 block of Joseph E. Lowery Blvd NW. Levett & Sons Funeral Homes
Police investigate Patton’s car after the shooting on June 16, 2025. WSB-TV 2

A tarp was placed to block off the hole left behind by the crash, according to footage from the station.

Big Boi paid tribute to his uncle in Facebook posts.

“Long Live Uncle Moonie … Miss ya Unc,” the rapper wrote alongside a three-minute video filled with family pictures.

“Everybody who knows Uncle Moonie heart aches,” the “Hey Ya!” singer told WSBTV. “He wasn’t just ‘My’ Uncle, he was Unc to all that met him. A moment of rage has in totally pierced the heart of my family forever. May Uncle Moonie’s soul rest in peace.”

A tarp was placed to block off the hole left behind by the crash, according to footage from the station. WSB-TV 2
Big Boi/Facebook

The alleged gunman, Jabryion Crumbley, turned himself over to officials at the Fulton County Jail on July 2.

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The 18-year-old suspect was charged with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

He remains in jail without bail, according to jail records viewed by The Post.

Police had already charged 32-year-old Janisha Crumbley for her involvement in the shooting.

Janisha Crumbley was arrested and taken into custody by police during a traffic stop on June 20.

Jabryion Crumbley turned himself over to officials at the Fulton County Jail on July 2. WSB-TV 2
Janisha Crumbley was arrested and taken into custody by police during a traffic stop on June 20. WSB-TV 2

She was charged with hindering the apprehension of a felon.

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Janisha Crumbley was released on a $30,000 surety bond, jail records show.



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Atlanta, GA

Winners and losers from an unbelievable NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta

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Winners and losers from an unbelievable NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta


Inclement weather, red flags, track-clearing pileups and a last-lap pass by the hometown hero — EchoPark Speedway put on a show for the ages on Saturday night. Some are calling it the best race of the year with non-stop action throughout the pack, even after half the field was collected in a mid-race pileup. 

It was also the first race of the five-week in-season challenge, and most brackets are surely busted already. But with that being said, here’s a look at the biggest winners and losers from this weekend’s thriller in Atlanta:

WINNER: Hendrick teamwork makes the dream work

Watch: Chase Elliott makes last-lap magic to win at EchoPark Speedway

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At the end of the Cup race in Atlanta, the RFK teammates lost sight of each other but the Hendrick duo of Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman stuck together. They perfectly timed the final two laps, moving up into second and third and leaving the race little nothing he could do. The No. 6 Ford tried to block, but it wasn’t enough to stop Elliott from completing a last-lap pass for the lead. And any hope Brad Keselowski had of fighting back vanished as Bowman refused to push him, allowing Elliott to snap a 44-race winless streak. 

LOSER: Brad Keselowski loses his golden ticket to the playoffs

Watch: Brad Keselowski talks ‘good effort’ in runner-up finish

The only thing that could save Keselowski’s season at this point is a win. He sits 27th in points and has gone winless this year, but Atlanta was a great opportunity to rectify that. At one point, he had two teammates lined up behind him but by the time the white flag flew, they were nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, it’s not the first time Keselowski has lost one of these Atlanta races in a last-lap pass.

WINNER: The race track for putting on one of the best shows of the year

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

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Call it Atlanta Motor Speedway, EchoPark Speedway, or whatever you want. It doesn’t change the fact that it just put on one incredible show. Even a 23-car pileup couldn’t slow down the action as the lead changed 46 times. Five different drivers led the race in the final ten laps. The breath-taking race never let up with drivers constantly making huge moves throughout the pack and it seemed like no one could hold the lead for long. Atlanta has asserted itself as the best drafting track on the schedule and it’s not even close.

LOSER: Pretty much everyone involved in that 23-car pileup

Austin Cindric, Team Penske Ford, Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Josh Berry, Wood Brothers Racing Ford, Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford, Ryan Preece, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford, William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Corey Lajoie, Rick Ware Racing Ford

Photo by: Krista Jasso / Getty Images

Might as well just group everyone into this. Of the 23 drivers involved in this mess, nine were unable to continue. The second stage had barely gotten underway when names like Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Joey Logano, and Ross Chastain had their cars destroyed. In fact, this wreck nearly guaranteed a new winner as seven of the 11 winners this year were eliminated in the wreck while others were wounded.

WINNER: Ty Dillon with the in-season tournament upset

Ty Dillon, Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Ty Dillon, Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

Both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds have been knocked out of the in-season bracket challenge, allowing the No. 31 and No. 32 seeds to advance. Most surprisingly, Ty Dillon moves on over Hamlin, giving him the chance to fight for a $1 million prize that would be the highlight of his Cup career. And he had the perfect response for Hamlin fans after the race, saying: “To all the Denny fans out there, I just knocked your favorite driver out.”

LOSER: Ryan Blaney at the wrong place at the wrong time again

AJ Allmendinger, Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, Ryan Blaney, Team Penske Ford, Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

It’s a good thing Ryan Blaney managed to win at Nashville as his season has included six DNFs in the first 18 races. Last year, he had seven in 36 races. Blaney was once again an innocent bystander as he tried to avoid the first wreck of the night, but instead found himself slamming the outside wall. Blaney lamented the bad luck, noting how he always seems to get “caught up in other people’s garbage.” He finished 40th (last), which is his worst result in five years.

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WINNER: The 18-year-old rookie for keeping it clean

Connor Zilisch, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet; Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota; BJ McLeod, Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet; Justin Haley, Spire Motorsports Chevrolet; Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: David J. Griffin – Icon Sportswire – Getty Images

While veterans were crashing all over the place, 18-year-old Connor Zilisch kept his car clean and stayed out of trouble, running every single lap and nearly scoring a top ten finish. He was the best of the four Trackhouse cars as his three teammates did wreck while Zilisch placed 11th in the No. 87 Red Bull Chevrolet. He drove like someone who has been doing this for a while, not a rookie in his fourth career start.

LOSER: Stenhouse battles back from a penalty, but misses out on the win

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Krista Jasso / Getty Images

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had one of the best drives of anyone during the final run of the race. He had to start from the rear of the field for the last restart due to a penalty, but he quickly marched forward. Stenhouse pulled off a brilliant three-wide pass for the lead with just six laps to go, but he could not hold it as the No. 47 slipped back. He was still inside the top five on the final lap, but contact with the outside wall caused him to slip back to sixth. It was still a strong result but with how close he was to Victory Lane, he’s surely wondering what he could have done differently in those final few laps.

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Atlanta, GA

Chase Elliott’s Atlanta win takes away chance to earn a playoff spot for some drivers

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Chase Elliott’s Atlanta win takes away chance to earn a playoff spot for some drivers


HAMPTON, Ga. — On a night when opportunity opened for so many drivers outside a playoff spot, hope faded away in the blur of Chase Elliott’s car.

And so goes one less chance to make the playoffs for Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Zane Smith.

The Hendrick Motorsports star earned his second victory at his hometown track.

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All entered Saturday night’s race at EchoPark Speedway outside a playoff spot. Jones was the closest to the cutline and he was more than one race’s worth of points back. While there’s a chance those drivers can point their way into the playoffs with eight races left in the regular season, the reality is they need to win.

Saturday night was set to be that chance.

Until it wasn’t.

Smith led with eight laps left.

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Stenhouse passed him and led with seven laps to go.

Keselowski got by him and led the next five laps.

Chase Elliott passed him for the victory on the final lap.

“Every loss sucks,” Keselowski said after finishing second.

NACARMedia Atlanta (1).jpg

He becomes the 12th winner of the 2025 season.

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Keselowski is so far back in the points that he needs to win to make the playoffs. But he didn’t have much of a chance on that last lap.

Elliott’s teammate, Alex Bowman — who entered the night on the playoff cutline — was in third place and gave Elliott a push down the frontstretch as the field took the white flag.

“If he and I did anything but push one another in that situation, we were handing the race to Brad,” Elliott said.

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Several contenders were out early after a crashfest at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta.

That momentum helped Elliott dive to the inside of Keselowski’s car and pass him in Turn 1. Bowman challenged Keselowski for second as Elliott pulled away for the popular win at his home track.

“There’s races where you can do things different and there’s races where you can’t,” Keselowski said.

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There was not much he could do going against the two Hendrick Motorsports teammates.

A key moment in the race came when Keselowksi’s teammate, Chris Buescher, who had been running second to his boss, lost second to Smith at Lap 237 of the 260-lap race. Buescher then fell to fourth two laps later. He soon fell out of the top five and could not provide Keselowski any help the rest of the race.

Without a teammate, Keselowski was exposed to the big moves that cars could make on the 1.54-mile speedway.

NACARMedia Atlanta (5).jpg

Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe got knocked out in a crashfest.

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When Smith took the lead, he felt comfortable with the situation only a few miles from a potential first Cup victory.

“I felt like I had a good idea of how it was going to be, controlling the guy in second, how big of a run he was going to get and just trying to stall him out the best I could and pick up help,” Smith said after finishing seventh. “I just let two guys by.”

Stenhouse made a big move to go three-wide, diving down low to take the lead.

“Just didn’t feel like I had enough speed to stay there,” Stenhouse said after placing sixth. “It was going to take some massive blocks to do that.”

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With the big runs, that would have led to a big crash, similar to the 22-car crash that brought out the caution at Lap 70 that eliminated points leader William Byron, pole-sitter Joey Logano, Pocono winner Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin.

Keselowski took control and with two laps to go, he was in good shape. He had Tyler Reddick behind him, followed by Elliott, Stenhouse, Jones, who would finish fifth, and Bowman. That was a Toyota, two Chevrolets, a Toyota and another Chevrolet behind Keselowski’s Ford.

Had it stayed that jumbled, Keselowski might have been able to hold off his foes but Bowman went from sixth to third and Elliott went from third to second by the final lap, setting up Elliott’s move.

“Honestly,” Elliott said, “all the cards fell on the right places there those last couple laps.”

And left Keselowski, Jones, Stenhouse and Smith still searching for that victory that gets them into the playoffs.

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