By Anonymous
The struggle to stop the Bay Area Cop Campus — a $44 million police training facility under construction in the heart of San Pablo, California near City Hall at the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Church Lane — is connected with struggles over Palestinian liberation, and fascism, settler colonialism and militarism wherever they appear. The project broke ground in 2023 for a 42,000-square-foot center including a 20-lane indoor gun range, a virtual reality training room, and more.
Guided by the Zapatista’s organizing principle that international solidarity means fighting our struggles at home, many in the Bay Area feel compelled to examine how to bring the fight for a Free Palestine into our local communities. The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and other Palestinian and non-Palestinian folks have done incredible work to mobilize masses of people to disrupt the everyday flow of life in the San Francisco Bay Area, along with numerous other cities around the so-called United States, with multiple bridge and highway shut downs — forcing Americans to reckon with the nature of the genocidal Zionist project, an extension of American projects of war and colonization.
The strategic purpose in making a “regular life” disconnected from the horrific violence at the core of US imperialism — in part to pressure decision makers (whether political or corporate) — is understandable. We have a responsibility to examine how our current efforts in solidarity with Palestine can also cultivate political affinity, social connections, and organizing infrastructure that enables the longevity of social and political struggles for collective liberation.
The Israeli Occupation Forces have long used Gaza as a military laboratory for the evolving tools of genocide, policing, and their technologies – the same technologies, strategies and training that are shared with police departments in the so-called U.S. The explosion of Cop Cities across the country is without doubt building off longstanding relationships between US police departments and the Israeli military. These ties are clear in elements of the Cop Campus design, including the proposed drone tech center and a VR conflict simulator room. Cop Campus will enable increased regional cooperation of militarized police forces to monitor, harass, control and murder marginalized communities in the Bay Area. Cop Campus is an extension of the “Deadly Exchange,” a local manifestation of the military industrial complex and the theft of resources for destruction.