WEBVTT - Requiem for Stop Cop City 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:13.640 Alzoone Media get ready for anarchy in Atlanta. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:16.680 It should be clear to all Americans that we have 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.320 a very serious left wing terror threat in our country. 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:25.400 State of the art, organized and well funded activists in criminals. 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:30.480 On April twenty ninth, twenty twenty five, after almost exactly 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:35.120 four years of protests, sabotage, encampments, and organizing against the 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.879 construction of a state of the art police training facility 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:43.440 dubbed copp City, the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center officially 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:47.839 opened atop of the South River Forest into Kabba County, Georgia. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.320 One two three cuts. 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.720 The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center is open. A handshake 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.680 between Governor Brian Kemp and are relieved Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:04.080 Here has not been an easy journey. 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.479 The opening of the one hundred and eighteen million dollar 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.640 complex for police, fire and E nine to one one personnel, 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:14.360 which includes academic, leadership and simulation centers, came after not months, 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:16.480 but years of public pushback. 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:25.000 This is it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis. I've 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.399 been covering the combined Defend the Atlanta Forest, Stop cop 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.880 City movement on this show since twenty twenty one. I 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.600 first traveled to Atlanta to report on the ground from 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.480 inside of the protest encampments in spring of twenty twenty two, 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.080 and I moved to Atlanta to continue covering story more 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.840 in depth in twenty twenty three. My coverage has tracked 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.640 the trajectory of the movement as well as my ability 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:53.000 as a reporter, But this will be my last piece 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:57.720 on the Stop Cop City movement. Every other reporter mini 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.640 series I've done on Stop Cup City was written while 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.560 the movement was still ongoing and the final outcome had 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:09.240 yet to be fully determined. Something that set the movement 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:12.840 in Atlanta apart was the genuine belief that this fight 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:18.280 was actually winnable, as opposed to the many lofty aspirations 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:23.480 of other anti police, anarchists or leftist struggles. I believe 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.720 that we will win and cop City will never be built. 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.880 Were common turns of phrase and not just repeated mindlessly 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:35.000 as a protest chant, but deeply believed. But now, six 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.760 months after the grand opening of Cop City, I want 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.160 to use this distance to offer a look at the 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:46.079 whole movement, based on interviews and conversations I've had with organizers, anarchists, 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:50.440 and forest defenders. Analyzing the movements rise and fall and momentum, 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.320 and why Atlanta is the bridge between the twenty twenty 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.040 protests during Trump's first term and the current expansion of 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:02.400 police surveillance, ice activity an increased state repression against quote 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:07.200 unquote radical left terrorists. We don't have enough time to 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.160 retread a complete, in depth play by play of the 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.640 movement's history, most of which I've already covered in previous episodes, 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.160 but I will attempt to break down the movement into 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:20.480 a series of discrete phases. After organizers learned about the 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.000 plans to build cop City in April of twenty twenty one, 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.680 the movement to Defend the Atlanta Forest first took form 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.960 with an opening attack phase throughout the entire summer of 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:37.000 twenty twenty one, with tree spiking and sabotage targeting construction 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.880 equipment on the east side of the forest, which a 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.280 movie studio was planning to develop at the time in 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.960 partnership with local government. To quote from an anonymous Atlanta 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:51.640 anarchist quote, early stages of the movement were very intentionally 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:56.680 defined by lots of sabotage and unapologetic militancy, just absolute 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:58.960 this is what we're doing. This is what we're about. 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.840 This is the goal. If you don't like it, that's cool, 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.560 but then don't be a part of this. That was 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.800 just what we were doinguote. In September twenty twenty one, 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.440 the Atlantic City Council voted to approve the land Lease 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.760 Ordinance authorizing the Atlanta Police Foundation to use hundreds of 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.599 acres of city owned land in the South River Forest 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.680 to build cop City. After this vote, electoral strategy gets 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.240 largely aeshewed, and soon after the next phase fully kicks 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.960 off that fall with the physical occupation of the forest 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.560 and the start of the pressure campaign's targeting subcontractors working 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.640 on the construction project. To again, quote from an anonymous 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:43.880 Atlanta anarchist quote, persistent encampment, occupation, lots of direct action happening, 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:47.120 lots of sabotage happening, and the cops just not knowing 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.080 what to do at all. Small incursions would get made, 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.360 but they just had not figured out what to do 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.360 about it yet. There was just kind of like free 0:04:55.440 --> 0:05:00.000 reign unquote. For the first half of this occupation phase, 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.520 the Atlanta Police into cab sheriffs seemed to be stuck 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.679 in a form of paralysis, not knowing how to disrupt 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:11.960 the forest encampments or prevent equipment sabotage. Meanwhile, the pressure campaign, 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:14.760 inspired by the tactics of the animal rights group Shack, 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.720 showed early promise in getting some contractors like Reeves A 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.880 Young construction and material suppliers to drop out of the 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.000 cop City project. But after this stream of steady success 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.320 from Fall of twenty twenty one to May of twenty 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.920 twenty two, the police were forced to up the ante 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.359 and started conducting large scale raids in the forest to 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:40.239 remove force defenders and damage encampment infrastructure. Quoting an Atlanta 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.160 anarchist quote, May of twenty twenty two is the end 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.599 of the paralysis phase for the cops. We had our 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.400 first grid sweep raids where the paralysis phase is broken. 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.680 You're getting your multi agency large sweeps where they're really 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:55.919 coming in and putting in a lot of work. That 0:05:56.040 --> 0:06:00.320 really leads up to January of twenty twenty three where 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:04.719 Torte got killed. Prior to the police killing of Tortigita 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:09.360 during a forest encampment raid on January eighteen, twenty twenty three, 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.320 the occupation phase proved highly effective in preventing pre construction, 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.200 but the killing and Tortighita essentially marked the end of 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:22.200 the continuous occupation phase. What followed was a period of 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:27.600 high octane intensity. Let's call this the revenge phase. Quoting 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:31.000 in Atlanta anarchist. You get this kind of like trading 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.200 blows with the cops repeatedly during that time, and things 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.320 are getting pretty fucking crazy, hitting their highest pitch at 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:42.040 March fifth quote. During the South River Music Festival on 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.919 March fifth, a few hundred people splintered off from the 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.440 festival and marched to the nearby Cop City construction site. 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:52.440 The crowd repelled police and construction equipment was set on fire. 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.400 The cops weretleated, quick swarming the area with all available 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.520 units in Atlanta, kettled the festival and eventually arrested twenty 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:04.640 three people, charging them with domestic terrorism. After the events 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:08.159 of March fifth, the movement entered an odd limbo phase, 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.160 with heightened tensions among the Stop Cop City coalition on 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:16.640 the role of direct action and sabotage within mass movement actions. 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.480 During this period, police fortified and regularly patrolled the perimeter 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:26.400 around the forest. Entry became heavily restricted Following this denial 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.320 of operating space. The forest around the slated construction site 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.600 was preemptively clear cut to both prepare for construction and 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:39.000 demoralize the movement. But a month later, the bail fund 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:42.800 and legal defense nonprofit the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, was raided 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.000 by police and were later charged with money laundering and 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.320 charity fraud. Just a few days after the raid, the 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:53.320 city Council approved a sixty seven million dollar Cop City 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:57.640 funding package. The next day, organizers announced a referendum campaign 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.600 to gather petition signatures to put the Cops City land 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:05.560 Lease Ordinance on the upcoming November ballot. Despite setbacks, there 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:09.160 was still energy going towards stopping Cop City, but it 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.520 was fragmenting in ways that it hadn't really before. There 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.440 was no clear consensus on the direction to take the movement. 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.080 Previous periods of shift in the movement were often marked 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.840 by an organized Week of Action, which was a convergence 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.000 of people from all around the country or even the world, 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.520 who traveled to Atlanta to partake in a week's worth 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:30.440 of events, actions, and protests against Cop City. The Atlanta 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:34.320 Police Foundation and contractors hired to build the facility the 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:38.240 summer of twenty twenty three saw the sixth organized Week 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:42.640 of Action, but it too was caught in this limbo phase, 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.360 and without the forest as an operating zone, the Week 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.600 of Action struggled to find its purpose despite the surge 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:53.199 in movement participation around the city Hall budget vote earlier 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:57.199 that June. The next phase was the first to be 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:02.600 positively determined by the police, the repression phase, which really 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.440 sets in around August of twenty twenty three with the 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:09.560 Rico indictment charging sixty one people with racketeering, arson, and 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.560 domestic terrorism. State repression then evolved in the form of 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:18.240 persistent surveillance of activists, house raids, and additional charges, which 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:23.600 leads to the current trial phase. Quote an Atlanta anarchist quote, 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.320 I think an important aspect of this phase is obviously 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.760 supporting your defendants, preparing for the potential of long term 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.760 prisoner support, and also not letting the state be the 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:36.120 one to close the book by doing this, because you 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:38.720 don't want to let them define the narrative of this 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.800 forever by getting to put their rubber stamp on the 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:45.240 end of the trial and calling it Otherwise, the movement 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:50.280 gets stuck in this permanent zombie phase where we're still saying, 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:54.360 stop cop City is this thing that's happening. When it's built, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:58.360 it's built, it's right there, right like. It doesn't mean 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.760 that we all just go home, but it means that 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.760 you're like a veteran of this battle now and there's 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:09.720 new shit to do, new stuff to work on. Even 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.760 in retrospect, people have been largely hesitant to assign blame 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.720 to a specific factor in why the fight to stop 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.280 cop City fell short of achieving its stated goal. But 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.920 we can track a decline in momentum which allowed the 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.600 state to gain the upper hand. For nearly three years, 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:32.360 state repression tactics failed to disrupt the growing momentum against 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.240 the Cop City project. Forest raids, arrests, and criminal charges 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:40.000 made little impact. The use of terrorism charges as a 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.200 repression tactic started back in December of twenty twenty two, 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.880 following an encampment raid resulting in six people being charged 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.520 with domestic terrorism. This was the first time that charge 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.320 has been used in Georgia, following its adoption in twenty 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.720 seventeen in response to the whitepremacist mass shooting by Dylan Roof. 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.720 Just a month after domestic terrorism charges were first deployed. 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:05.400 Tortighito was killed by police in another forest raid, but 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.880 this tragedy only seemed to strengthen the resolve of the 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:13.439 movement to fight cop City, which then only grew. Similarly, 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.360 the clear cutting of the force itself wasn't enough to 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:21.800 demoralize the people in Atlanta. Rather, the hesitation to build 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.520 on the momentum of a widely publicized direct action like 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:29.240 March fifth provided this state in opening while the movement 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:33.440 was stuck in limbo. Throughout this limbo phase, the movement 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.680 was adjusting from intensified momentum and the high octane aspects 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:41.040 leading to March fifth. But as the energy tapered down, 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.480 the state jumped on that dip in momentum, then delta 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:49.240 pretty significant blow with the Rico indictment. The Rico charges 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:52.319 in August of twenty twenty three, followed by the series 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.560 of house raids in February of twenty twenty four, were 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.319 a pretty crippling one to punch that stifled the momentum 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:04.040 to our almost a complete standstill. Quoting an Atlanta anarchist, 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.240 A lot of people will argue their opinions about what 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.440 was the stifling thing. I think some of the more 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:14.800 electorally or mass movement. Big tent minded people would argue that, 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:17.360 like March fifth, takes a lot of the wind out 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.840 of the sails. I think a lot of people would 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.840 disagree with that, just because like you can build on 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.960 the momentum of a March fifth, you can build on 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:30.520 like a triumphant battlefield victory, it's a lot harder to 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:34.880 build on just everyone getting more charges and also people 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.600 getting their doors kicked in really early in the morning. 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:43.520 It's hard to build on that. Despite the Rico charges, 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:49.559 acts of sabotage did continue, but isolated sabotage alone wasn't 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.920 enough to propel the movement. After the referendum campaign was 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.280 effectively nullified by the state and fall of twenty twenty three, 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.160 there was a lack of willingness among its organizers to 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.800 engage in serious efforts to get people engaged in mass 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:08.680 actions or pressure campaigns targeted against elected officials. Something multiple 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.319 activists in Atlanta have mentioned to me as a contributing 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.760 factor to the eventual decline in momentum during this limbo 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:19.040 stage is a sort of failure to prefigure alternative strategies 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.400 and adapt After the forest occupation became impossible to maintain, 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.040 especially considering just how much weight people had put into 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:30.200 that strategy but then did not come up with a 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.400 clear next step after the police were able to suppress 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:37.480 that tactic by completing their ODA loops and improving their 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:42.520 own strategies. The ODA loop is a four step military 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.600 decision making model used across a large variety of professional fields, 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:50.280 including policing. Step one, observe, gather as much information as possible, 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:56.200 then orient, synthesize and information with background knowledge, decide on 0:13:56.360 --> 0:14:00.640 the next course of action using that newly synthesized information, 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.800 and finally act and the results of your actions should 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:08.360 then send you back to step one. Failure to act 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:13.040 at all or too slowly often ends in defeat. To 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:17.760 quote an anonymous Atlanta anarchist quote, you need contingency lines right, 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.240 either things that you're willing to escalate in the current 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.040 line of strategy that you're doing to make it still viable, 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.040 or a complete change in strategy it can be changed 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.080 in tactics to something new and exciting. Either of those 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.320 are valid options. Doing both of them in the same 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:35.840 time can be extremely effective, but at the end of 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.480 the day, you have to when the cops start to 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.920 break out of paralysis. An example from any eco defense 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:44.800 or occupation, whether in Atlanta or somewhere else, when the 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.120 cops start to break out of that paralysis, you have 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:51.520 to escalate in some way. The occupation, the defense of it, 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.240 has to escalate in some way to prevent them from 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.480 feeling safe coming in or trying to, or the physical 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:03.000 space of action to change, because now they need to 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.800 recalibrate to oh, shit, like, not only is the occupation 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.760 less assailable than we thought because there's been a change 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.760 in tactics, but there's also a massive uptick and shit 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:17.440 going on everywhere else, and that significantly impedes their ability 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.880 to have an ODA loop to do battle with. You 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.400 can even look at the ice pickups that got a 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.840 lot of attention in Worcester, Massachusetts. They were not expecting 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.880 that many people just to show up. You can see 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.280 when the crowd starts to hit like a critical mass 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.240 of rage and getting really close to those guys that 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:39.120 they fucking panic. They freak out, like it's very clear 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:42.760 even just in the small amount of their faces and 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.200 their movements that you can see that they were panicking. 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:52.520 Similar scenes have since taken place in Chicago and Portland. 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.880 And I've seen this before with Bortac during the twenty 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.400 twenty protests in Portland. I think anyone who has watched 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:02.800 the Cops for Treat has seen this before. But the 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.680 more the same thing happens, the more you get used 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.720 to it, the more you experiment and find ways to 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:13.720 adapt and overcome. Quoting an Atlanta anarchist quote, cops panic 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:15.720 and you can see it in the way they walk 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.960 like they weren't ready for that, and next time they 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.760 might be, which means you have to add something new, 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:23.760 a new spice has to get thrown in a new 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.880 flavor profile. They'll get used to pushing through crowds like 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:28.800 that until someone hits them at the end of the day, 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.040 and whether you're like confronting them on the ground or 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:34.480 trying to get to the neighborhoods ahead of time to 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.320 knock people's doors to get them out, Eventually cops will 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:40.720 start to find ways to counteract your strategy, and eventually 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.840 you will have to reshift and recalibrate the tools you 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:49.680 are using to orient back to Atlanta, All these instances 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:54.840 I've mentioned amount to failing to take advantage of key moments, 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.200 whether that be in the aftermath of March fifth, the 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:02.040 seeming impossibility of continue nude forest encampments or of the 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:06.600 city's blanket refusal to accept the results of the referendum. 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.639 In these moments, the police and the state were able 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:13.840 to determine where battle lines were drawn, and quite literally 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:17.119 so during the quote unquote block Cop City protest in 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.919 October of twenty twenty three, where police easily repelled a 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:23.600 protest march from even reaching the road to the Cop 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:27.200 City construction site, and the state continued to push their 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:32.199 lines forward with the joint fbiatf raids on activist houses 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.680 in February twenty twenty four, which further stifled the movement 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.520 and was coupled with months to years long persistent surveillance 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.320 and intimidation denoted by cops parked outside of homes of 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:47.679 alleged activists, mobile surveillance, and hidden cameras placed in front 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:52.080 of activists homes and a local community center. One of 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.320 the more frightening incidents came in May of twenty twenty four, 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:57.959 where a resident of one of the homes raided that 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.320 February woke up in the middle night to a bright 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:05.560 light outside the bedroom window only to find a lit 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:10.080 road flare catching the wooden railing of their porch steps 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:24.000 on fire. One of the things I've been reflecting on 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.600 regarding cop City is the way people talked about fear 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:31.439 as a tool. Frank Herbert's litany against fear was a 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.320 common refrain to overcome the fear that this state used 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.080 as a weapon. But the first time I heard fear 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.399 mentioned as an offensive measure wasn't in reference to this 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:44.200 state using fear. It was in early twenty twenty two 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.680 when I first visited the forest encampment, and the anarchists 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:51.640 talked about how the police were scared of entering the forest, 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:56.439 how delusions of Vietnam's style booby traps demonstrated that the 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:01.399 cups are not impervious super soldiers. Instilling fear is a 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:06.400 major aspect of police training. They are susceptible to emotional impulses, 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:10.800 like all of us. Quoting an Atlanta anarchist quote. But 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.919 while we understand our own fear, I think people often 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.280 fall into the trap of not understanding that the state 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.800 is also afraid of them. Because the state feels like 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:27.560 this monolithic machine, like this unassailable entity, that it is 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.760 not It's made up of people with flaws and emotions 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:33.920 who have the same corrozol response to being threatened that 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.240 you or I do. A big part of the lessons 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:41.040 learned from Atlanta has to be of willingness to engage 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.720 with them in a way that is personally endangering. That 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:48.480 is the single way out. They're human and they get scared. 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:51.679 The fear that I think had them so tight until 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.919 May of twenty twenty two was a fear that manifested 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.560 itself in a lot of paralysis. Fear is of normal 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:02.480 human emotion to danger. So whether you're the most hardened 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:07.000 swat team guy going up against the craziest eco freak 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.280 in the world, fear is a normal reaction to that. 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.560 But what really had them so tight was fear as 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:17.360 a matter of them being paralyzed by it that they 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:20.640 couldnot find out how to move. And once they did 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.400 find out around May of twenty twenty two, we really 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:26.960 start to see things change and like they were scared 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:29.600 enough in the woods to shoot someone to death, like 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.000 they were still afraid, we were able to instill an 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:36.320 immense amount of fear in our enemy, which is an 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.199 absolutely necessary tool if you're going to be on the 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:44.119 very nimble, small green team insurgency side of things. You 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.320 have to make your enemy afraid of the dark, but 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.520 also you have your defensive strategy against fear. You would 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.119 hear all the time in Atlanta, the whole let the 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.680 fear wash over you and through you mantra. That was 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:00.960 a thing that people talked about and said constantly, because 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:06.919 you have to find a way to move through that paralysis. Eventually, 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.280 and with the help of a multi agency task force, 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:14.200 the cops in Atlanta were able to move through that 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:18.359 fear and continue their actions. They were not totally paralyzed 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:23.480 by it. In contrast, the pseudo paralysis affecting Stop Cop 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:27.880 City only set in very late into the movement as 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:32.000 a culative result of a coordinated sequence of oppression tactics. 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:35.840 As the movement has been winding down and transitioning to 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.960 court support, something people in Atlanta have had to balance 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:43.480 is the urge to keep Stop Cop City in this 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:49.280 sort of unalive zombie state where you're still kind of 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:53.520 acting like it's an ongoing thing, even though the immediate 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.879 local result is pretty clearly finished. But in keeping this 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:00.840 kind of zombie version of the movement alive, it prevents 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:04.160 you from actually moving on and internalizing what happened here 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:07.520 and using that for whatever comes next, which is at 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:11.280 this point a burgeoning police state and right wing power block. 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:16.359 Quoting an anonymous Atlanta anarchist quote, internalizing not just in 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:19.520 terms of like lessons learned and things that you need 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:22.199 to learn from and skill up on to keep that 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:26.639 honed combative edge in Atlanta, but to think about fighting 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:30.159 on a larger scope than just Atlanta. As the cops 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:33.080 took their lessons learned here nationwide in terms of how 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:37.639 they're doing repression towards Palestinian liberation movements towards a lot 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:40.800 of the way that ICE operations are currently happening. That 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.480 necessitates that we also take our lessons learned here and 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:48.080 also go to a larger scale with them. Also, if 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:50.720 you never close the book yourself on this battle that 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:53.920 you're a part of, which people incurred a massive amount 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.600 of trauma doing at a certain point, this could just 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:00.800 remain like an open wound on you forever if you 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:05.000 let it. And it is probably unhelpful to keep seeing 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:08.360 the movement to stop cop City is doing a rally here. 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:12.840 Like when it's built, it's there, and now we need 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:15.520 to move on to other things. We need to move 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:18.480 on to other things that are larger than Atlanta. There's 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:21.879 still a police state to engage with here. You don't 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:25.320 need the container of this struggle to justify going out 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:30.440 and taking action against the police. And there are other 0:23:30.480 --> 0:23:33.760 things happening in Atlanta. There's vice rates happening in Atlanta 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:36.640 in the north suburbs of the city. Cop City is 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:41.159 actively being enacted, and if people want to continue stopping it, 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:44.520 they'll have to actually stop what the effects are which 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:49.800 are now happening on a nationwide scale. An early irony 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:53.240 of the movement was that though cop City was conceived 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:57.560 as a training ground for police first, it became a 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:01.320 training ground for anarchists. As top Cup City became the 0:24:01.359 --> 0:24:05.040 first mass movement following the twenty twenty George Floyd protests, 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:09.960 whatever happened in Atlanta would demonstrate what activists have learned 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:13.480 from the twenty twenty uprising, as well as influence what 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:18.080 future movements against police expansion might look like. Atlanta Police 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:22.360 Chief Darren Shecherbaum expressed as much during the Public Safety 0:24:22.400 --> 0:24:24.520 Training Center grand opening. 0:24:25.000 --> 0:24:27.919 Because when Antifa put out its call for individuals to 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:31.520 rally here in this spot and on Peachtree Street, from 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:34.639 across the nation and literally the globe. We were up 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:36.760 against a playbook we had never seen at the Atlanta 0:24:36.760 --> 0:24:39.920 Police Department, and we ourselves put out the call for help, 0:24:40.520 --> 0:24:43.960 and no sheriff said no, No police chief said no. 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:47.720 The Georgia State Patrol, the Department Natural Resources should ste 0:24:47.720 --> 0:24:50.200 by side of this department, as did the FBI and 0:24:50.240 --> 0:24:55.159 the ATF, because we all knew that that playbook was 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:58.560 successful here in Atlanta, Georgia, it would find itself across 0:24:58.560 --> 0:25:01.320 this country and public safety be stymied wherever we go. 0:25:02.320 --> 0:25:07.400 While Atlanta served as this training ground for anarchists, in response, 0:25:07.600 --> 0:25:11.280 the state also used the movement to test out strategies 0:25:11.320 --> 0:25:16.080 for the next generation of counterinsurgency tactics, well before the 0:25:16.160 --> 0:25:20.360 cop City facility was finished being built. Now, with this 0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:25.720