Speaker 1: Greetings. This is it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis,
Speaker 1: and this episode I will once again be talking about
Speaker 1: the Defend the Atlanta Force project. Last month I released
Speaker 1: two episodes totally like three hours in content, uh, discussing
Speaker 1: the movement from its inception up until the current state
Speaker 1: of affairs at time of recording, which was like early May.
Speaker 1: If you want background on this uh, really interesting and
Speaker 1: vital piece of resistance that's happening in Atlanta, Georgia, then
Speaker 1: I would recommend you at least attempts to check out
Speaker 1: the Juggernaut of Audio, which is that two part a
Speaker 1: long story short. There's this police training facility that the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Police Foundation and other corporate interests in the city
Speaker 1: are trying to build on one of the city's last
Speaker 1: remaining like massive wafts of of a continuous forested land.
Speaker 1: On an adjacent piece of forested land, a movie studio
Speaker 1: called Black Hall is trying to expand their sound stage
Speaker 1: onto a whole other section of the woods. The joint
Speaker 1: projects of the police training facility, dubbed Cops City and
Speaker 1: the Black Hall Studios sound stage expansion threatened hundreds of
Speaker 1: acres of the largest continuous piece of the Atlantic Forest
Speaker 1: located in southwest Intocab County. The area is often referred
Speaker 1: to as the Lungs of Atlanta and produces a massive
Speaker 1: amount of tree canopy in the city and is a
Speaker 1: wonderful little ecological spot. I was lucky enough to visit
Speaker 1: in late April to help in putting together those those
Speaker 1: two episodes, and a lot of a lot a lot
Speaker 1: has happened since then. Uh. Coming off the success of
Speaker 1: getting Reeves Young to cease work on the Cops City project,
Speaker 1: I felt like there was this sense of renewed optimism
Speaker 1: regarding the potential of actually winning. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: in just during the week before the Week of Action,
Speaker 1: attempts by cops to enter the forest increased, and there
Speaker 1: was talk of increasing crackdowns against the forest offenders by
Speaker 1: local law enforcement, who also announced that they called in
Speaker 1: the FBI to assist them, which leads us to the
Speaker 1: Week of Action. On the morning of May nine, which
Speaker 1: was a Monday, barely a day into the Week of Action,
Speaker 1: a bulldozer was brought into the Atlanta Forest. This is
Speaker 1: based on reporting by the Great Folks at the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Community Press and other on the ground reports from forest
Speaker 1: offenders hosted by the Defend the Atlanta Forest account and
Speaker 1: scenes dot no blogs. So around nine thirty a m.
Speaker 1: Monday morning, people inhabiting the Wilani Forest woke up to
Speaker 1: the sounds of trees going down and metal machinery. A
Speaker 1: bulldozer marked with Dodd Drilling LLC, accompanied by to Decab
Speaker 1: County cops, had bulldozed a path through the forested Entrenchment
Speaker 1: Creek Park, directly adjacent to the old Atlanta Prison Farm.
Speaker 1: The park land is currently under threat by the Black
Speaker 1: Hall Studios sound stage development. The Dodd Drilling bulldozer destroyed
Speaker 1: a significant swath of forests, injuring plants and animals in
Speaker 1: its path. When people learned about this, around forty folks
Speaker 1: quickly mobilized and gathered around the bulldozer, confronting the project
Speaker 1: managers and the police officers on the scene. Those gathered
Speaker 1: showed it at the workers and cops to go home
Speaker 1: and declared that this is a public park. When the
Speaker 1: two Decab County police who were protecting the bulldozer were confronted,
Speaker 1: it was revealed that they were actually working as off
Speaker 1: duty uniformed private security, seemingly taking orders from the construction management.
Speaker 1: The management who wore vests labeled Contour Engineering and Dodd
Speaker 1: Phillips claimed that they were not working for black Holes studios.
Speaker 1: Who who knows if that's true or who they might
Speaker 1: be working for that Georgia state law does permit off
Speaker 1: duty police officers to be hired, along with their uniforms,
Speaker 1: service weapons, and vehicles, by private companies for their own purposes.
Speaker 1: The police expressed that they were not aware that they
Speaker 1: were in a public park along with the bulldozer they
Speaker 1: were protecting, and faced with a confident group of responders
Speaker 1: intent on defending the forest from further destruction, police and
Speaker 1: the construction management quickly made the decision to retreat from
Speaker 1: the woods. The off duty cops had called in reinforcements
Speaker 1: from Decab County. Seven more Decab County vehicles showed up,
Speaker 1: but by the time the extra police survived, workers were
Speaker 1: driving the bulldozers back into the parking lot. The police
Speaker 1: were persuaded to leave by the actions of intelligent people
Speaker 1: acting quickly and collectively in defense of the land. The
Speaker 1: force defenders then escorted the cops and the workers out
Speaker 1: of the park and made sure that the instruction of
Speaker 1: the woods had truly ceased. Police scanners reported that vehicles
Speaker 1: transporting the bulldozer faced a brage of rocks and had
Speaker 1: their windshield smashed. Entrenchment Creek Park is still a public
Speaker 1: park and property of Decab County under a civil court injunction.
Speaker 1: The pending case prevents construction or clearing by Black Hall Studios.
Speaker 1: Later that same day, a group of around forty people
Speaker 1: marched to the home of Shepherd Long, the principle of
Speaker 1: Long Engineering, an engineering firm subcontracted to do surveying and
Speaker 1: other preconstruction work on the Atlanta Police Foundation's Public Safety
Speaker 1: training center, which we called Cops City. The group rallied
Speaker 1: for about ten minutes outside Shepherd Lungs home and was
Speaker 1: demanding that Long Engineering sever its contract with the Cops
Speaker 1: City project. One of the group members read aloud a
Speaker 1: statement directed to Shepherd Long, which I will play the
Speaker 1: audio of here. In Mane is a city of forests
Speaker 1: with the most tree coverage of any urban city in America.
Speaker 1: If you continue to work with bross Field and Gory,
Speaker 1: the entire city will experience worse floods, higher temperatures, and
Speaker 1: small field afternoons. You have the power to stop that.
Speaker 1: This proposed military training compound is in the nucleus of
Speaker 1: a culturally rich black community full of churches, preschools, and
Speaker 1: community centers. Dozens of children and grandparents have lived there
Speaker 1: for years. If you continue to work with brass Field
Speaker 1: and Gory, our streets and backyards will be filled with shootings, explosions,
Speaker 1: and dear gas. We want our children and neighbors to
Speaker 1: be able to breathe clean air and experience the vastness
Speaker 1: of the Atlanta Forest, not to be victims of a
Speaker 1: domestic war zone. You have the power to stop that.
Speaker 1: We are here to fight for the future of our city,
Speaker 1: our children, our neighbors, and our planet. We hold no
Speaker 1: ill will towards you personally. We just want you to
Speaker 1: make this one right decision. We no long Engineering has
Speaker 1: many other contracts with many other company. We are only
Speaker 1: here to ask you to drop this one company, Rathfield
Speaker 1: and Glory, until they dropped their contract with the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Police Foundation. The group distributed flyers alerting neighbors to the
Speaker 1: work of Shepherd Long and what his company was doing
Speaker 1: in De capp County. After about ten minutes, the group
Speaker 1: quickly dispersed without incident. The next day, There's a lot
Speaker 1: of other events related to the Week of Action. There
Speaker 1: was a security culture workshop and activist primer about building
Speaker 1: a collective understanding of ways to keep us all safe
Speaker 1: from imprisonment the government repression. There was a night of
Speaker 1: hip hop and punk at a local radical venue that
Speaker 1: served as a benefit show for the Forest Defense, and
Speaker 1: other random events throughout the Week of Action included stuff
Speaker 1: like clothing swaps, bike rides through the forest, yoga in
Speaker 1: the park, plus daily breakfast and dinners, history talks, art parties,
Speaker 1: wood walks, skill shares, and a sick night rave along
Speaker 1: with you know, forced tours and much more. So that's
Speaker 1: just two days of the Week of Action, the Monday
Speaker 1: and the Tuesday. When we get back from this ad break,
Speaker 1: I will get into what happened on Wednesday and then
Speaker 1: and then Thursday. You know, we're going to go through
Speaker 1: it linearly. Um, despite my criticisms of linear time, we
Speaker 1: will go through this in a linear fashion because that's
Speaker 1: how formatting this episode was easiest. Anyway, here's some ads,
Speaker 1: and we are back talking about the Defending Atlantic Forest
Speaker 1: Week of Action. So just after ten am on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: May eleven, to de cab County Park Police entered the
Speaker 1: forest to inspect the path created by the bulldozer that
Speaker 1: previous Monday. As they were exiting the forest, forest defenders
Speaker 1: to ambush them by throwing rocks and bottles at their
Speaker 1: vehicles and smashing the car windows. At noons like two
Speaker 1: hours later, a van marked law enforcement Department of Juvenile
Speaker 1: Justice pulled up into the parking lot of entrenchmentt Creek Park.
Speaker 1: It's worth noting that the area of Entrenchment Creek Park
Speaker 1: and the forested area on the Atlanta Prison Farm has
Speaker 1: like two child prisons on it. We talked more about
Speaker 1: those in the in the two part series from last month.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so this van marked Department of Juvenal Justice
Speaker 1: pulled up into the parking lot inside in Trenchmant Creek Park.
Speaker 1: But an hour later the van was attacked suddenly by
Speaker 1: a brage of rocks and multiple tires were slashed. The
Speaker 1: van attempted to escape, but was left stranded in the
Speaker 1: parking lot until the cab police were able to escort
Speaker 1: it out. Police were nervously walking backwards in order to
Speaker 1: keep their eyes on the tree line, where they knew
Speaker 1: forced defenders would be watching them at every moment. Multiple
Speaker 1: police vehicles were damaged. Nobody was detain or arrested. Portions
Speaker 1: of that report came from scenes dot no blogs dot Org.
Speaker 1: Earlier that same day, like early in the morning, around
Speaker 1: forty people visited the home of Keith Lanier Johnson Jr.
Speaker 1: In Kensaw, Georgia. Keith is the Eastern Regional president of
Speaker 1: Brassfield and Gory. Brassfield and Gory are the current general
Speaker 1: contractor on the Atlanta Police Foundations Cops City Project. Flyers
Speaker 1: were posted around the neighborhood, past the low barrier fencing
Speaker 1: around the gated community. An anonymous statement released online at
Speaker 1: scenes dot no blogs read quote now that Keith is
Speaker 1: no longer busy on the board of the Mount Perrin
Speaker 1: Christian School. It seems he is now managing the one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty two thou dollars of fines levied against
Speaker 1: his employer for safety and wage theft violations. He's also
Speaker 1: overseeing the destruction of grave sites, leveling of a vital
Speaker 1: tree canopy, and the militarization of the American Police Force.
Speaker 1: It is for those reasons that community members went to
Speaker 1: his home at six am. We hope that Keith is
Speaker 1: able to convince the two owners, currently sitting comfortably back
Speaker 1: at home in Birmingham, that the current Atlanta Police Foundation
Speaker 1: contract is untenable and there is an urgent need to
Speaker 1: cancel it. It could turn out that Keith personally is
Speaker 1: carrying to Brunt the pressure for his boss's decisions. Brassfield
Speaker 1: and Gory will eventually drop the Cops City project. Anonymous
Speaker 1: groups are developing new methods for disincentivizing the project. The
Speaker 1: next day, on May twelve, a tightly packed crowd around
Speaker 1: eight mask protesters converged on the Brassfield and Gory Atlanta
Speaker 1: office in broad daylight. People holding banners and launching fireworks
Speaker 1: arrived at the building, and force defenders covered the side
Speaker 1: of the office with stop Cops City graffiti and chanting
Speaker 1: will be Back as they left. Unicorn Riot reported that
Speaker 1: five people were arrested following the action and booked on
Speaker 1: several charges, including some felonies. Charges were including riot and
Speaker 1: criminal damage to property and quote terroristic threats and acts.
Speaker 1: I know that some but possibly not all, people's charges
Speaker 1: got dropped, and the listed bond amount for some individuals
Speaker 1: was extremely high, getting up to around fifty dollars just
Speaker 1: for an individual. Nearing the end of the week of action.
Speaker 1: On Saturday, May eleven, a march to Defend the Forest
Speaker 1: took the streets in East Atlanta Village, led by local preschoolers.
Speaker 1: There were some really nice signs and artwork done by kids.
Speaker 1: The Defend the Forest twitter account posted some beautiful photos
Speaker 1: of kids protests signs that says forest is life and
Speaker 1: love you trees stop, never cut down the trees allowed
Speaker 1: with very very good art. It was very very pleasant
Speaker 1: to see. A Few hours later, another march to Atlanta
Speaker 1: at the top cop City drew around two d protesters
Speaker 1: is After about an hour of marching, the crowd returned
Speaker 1: to Freedom Park, where they were then attacked by police.
Speaker 1: Without warning. Dozens of cop cars pulled up and police
Speaker 1: helicopters loomed overhead. Armored cops were arresting people on the
Speaker 1: sidewalks for marching on the streets, for playing drums, or
Speaker 1: for just standing in the wrong place. Atlanta police and
Speaker 1: Georgia State Patrol officers assaulted, shoved, and tackled multiple people,
Speaker 1: deployed tasers and threatened neighbors who filmed the arrests. One
Speaker 1: person violently arrested was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Speaker 1: To defend the forest, twitter account posted quote at least
Speaker 1: seventeen arrests night by Atlanta Police Department. Spirits high as
Speaker 1: the forest raves and the encampment grows outside the forest,
Speaker 1: many stand vigil at the jail, welcoming arrestees as they
Speaker 1: are released. We are strong together. The forest unites us.
Speaker 1: The cops cannot divide us. Atlanta Police say that the
Speaker 1: march was in violation of pedestrian laws, which is why
Speaker 1: they charged and started assaulting people on the sidewalk. And
Speaker 1: that wraps up some of the Week of Action stuff.
Speaker 1: I know there was a lot more things that happened,
Speaker 1: but trying to crime it all into a tight package
Speaker 1: was challenging. So that that was the general general week
Speaker 1: Week of Action vibes. But there is there's more. We
Speaker 1: still We still have like half the episode to go
Speaker 1: because a lot, a lot else has happened in in
Speaker 1: the days since then. In the early morning on Monday
Speaker 1: May sixteen, a week after the bulldozer descended on the forest,
Speaker 1: accompanied by off duty cops acting as security, a home
Speaker 1: associated with Dodd Drilling LLC. Was painted with slogans including
Speaker 1: Dodd Drilling, Stay Out, stop Cops City and drop a
Speaker 1: p D. A message for the homeowner associated with Dodd
Speaker 1: Drilling was released, which you can read the full version
Speaker 1: of online at scenes dot no lugs dot org. I'll
Speaker 1: read some portions of it here. Quote. Last Monday, a
Speaker 1: bulldozer with your logo forced its way into the Wolani
Speaker 1: Forest and left one hundred foot trail of destruction in
Speaker 1: its wake. Forced defenders responded quickly with rocks and rage,
Speaker 1: but some damage was already done. Despite having no permit,
Speaker 1: you allowed Atlanta Police to use your equipment to intimidate
Speaker 1: and injure the forest and its residents. Today, you know
Speaker 1: what it's like to have your space invaded. You came
Speaker 1: into our home, so we came to yours. Your private
Speaker 1: property is not as private as you may think. We
Speaker 1: demand that you stay out of the Wolani Forest and
Speaker 1: stopped working with Atlanta Police and Cops City contractors. To
Speaker 1: all others who would support Cops City, it might have
Speaker 1: more costs than you anticipate, financial and otherwise. Many creatures
Speaker 1: care deeply about this forest and are prepared to defend it.
Speaker 1: Any partner of the a p D or contractor for
Speaker 1: Cops City is our enemy and a potential target. The
Speaker 1: will Annie Forest is not dying, it is being killed,
Speaker 1: and those who are killing it have names and addresses.
Speaker 1: A list of local Atlanta evil doers is available at
Speaker 1: stop reeves young dot com. The next day, on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: May see Atlanta police, backed by other state and federal
Speaker 1: law enforcement, including the CAB Police, Georgia State Patrol, the
Speaker 1: Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI, raided the South
Speaker 1: Atlanta Forest. The raid came just days after the Week
Speaker 1: of Action, which brought hundreds to the Atlanta Forest to
Speaker 1: participate in workshops, plant gardens, watch films, and protest at
Speaker 1: the homes of developers plotting the forests destruction. Shortly after
Speaker 1: the scheduled events ended, police gathered their forces to raid
Speaker 1: the forest encampment. Police started staging at around nine am
Speaker 1: on Tuesday and started coming in at around ten am.
Speaker 1: Force offenders started mobilizing and calling for support. Cops blocked
Speaker 1: off the roads leading to the forest access points and
Speaker 1: told drivers stuck at the blockade that quote, we're opening
Speaker 1: up the site for construction. Soon, cops started arresting protesters
Speaker 1: that gathered in Entrenchment Creek Park and towed any car
Speaker 1: on the streets outside of the park. Helicopter circled the forest,
Speaker 1: trying to track the movement of forest offenders under the
Speaker 1: cover of the tree canopy. Police near occupied trees were
Speaker 1: heard talking about quote flushing out people inside tree houses
Speaker 1: in the face of militant resistance. Police did manage to
Speaker 1: cut down trees and destroyed multiple treehouses, destroyed force defenders,
Speaker 1: personal belongings, and other protest infrastructure set up by the
Speaker 1: land defenders, all in an effort to allow contractors to
Speaker 1: begin development of the ninety million dollar Cops City project.
Speaker 1: On Twitter, the Defend the Atlanta Forest account posted quote
Speaker 1: reports that the Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol are
Speaker 1: chainsawing in an area of the old Atlanta Prison farm
Speaker 1: where people have occupied trees to Defend the Forest. Dozens
Speaker 1: of Forest Defenders moving in groups all over the woods
Speaker 1: throughout the raid. No arrests inside the forest reported so far,
Speaker 1: only from the perimeter at the public park. Police seem
Speaker 1: unwilling to pursue people through the forest. Swat rifles trained
Speaker 1: on force defenders occupying a treehouse to stop Cops City.
Speaker 1: The Defend the Forest twitter account also posted a video
Speaker 1: of a semitruck packed full of building supplies headed into
Speaker 1: the north boundary of the proposed Cops City site, where
Speaker 1: police were raiding the forest defense occupation. I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: a little quote from Unicorn Riot, who reported on the
Speaker 1: police raid. Quote. According to police, those committed to defending
Speaker 1: the forest to put up a fight, pelting the officers
Speaker 1: with rocks and what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail
Speaker 1: was deployed along a fence line. In the wake of
Speaker 1: the raid, a truck barricade constructed months ago to protect
Speaker 1: those occupying the forest from police incursions, showed signs of
Speaker 1: having being set on fire. Flaming barricades are a common
Speaker 1: tactic used by protesters around the world to push back
Speaker 1: against police unquote. Eventually, police let media enter a small
Speaker 1: contained area on the other side of the blockade. Police
Speaker 1: wanted to talk with the multiple press outlets that had
Speaker 1: gathered near the site in an attempt to gain control
Speaker 1: of the media narrative. Atlanta Police Deputy Chief sheer Bomb, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's how I'm pronouncing it. I've no idea has actually said,
Speaker 1: but I think it's sheer Bomb held an interview staged
Speaker 1: by the Public Affairs Office Overall, the goal seemed to
Speaker 1: be to control the media narrative by painting police as
Speaker 1: the heroes and the protesters as a very small group
Speaker 1: of outside agitators. After getting the statement from police, most
Speaker 1: media left the scene while the blockades were still up
Speaker 1: on both sides of the forest access road. Deputy Chief
Speaker 1: sheer Bomb said that police escorted contractors into the forest
Speaker 1: and preliminary work was being done. Police later specified that
Speaker 1: they were at this site to company contractors tasked with
Speaker 1: removing some temporary illegal structures that were set up by protesters,
Speaker 1: and that quote no one was hurt. Media framed the
Speaker 1: raid and subsequent arrests as the police cracking down on
Speaker 1: a group of violent outside agitators, cops giving statements like quote,
Speaker 1: we will not be deterred by the acts of a
Speaker 1: few that do not represent our community, and with local
Speaker 1: news covering the incident like quote several protesters who are
Speaker 1: arrested after they threw a Molotov cocktail at police as
Speaker 1: officers raided a camp on the grounds of the planned
Speaker 1: Atlanta Police Departments training facility unquote, even though the arrests
Speaker 1: took place in a completely different section of the woods
Speaker 1: where protesters were gathered openly in a public park and
Speaker 1: actually happened before the cocktail was thrown. Yet there was
Speaker 1: a lot of attempts to link the arrests to the
Speaker 1: maltof cocktail, but you know, media, media just do that,
Speaker 1: and they got hold up the story of of the
Speaker 1: of the cocktail and of the outside agitators attacking Atlanta
Speaker 1: police and it's not representing our community. Eight people were
Speaker 1: arrested and faced charges ranging from criminal trespassing to police obstruction.
Speaker 1: Despite attempts by police to paint the movement as the
Speaker 1: work of quote outside agitators, while also working alongside of
Speaker 1: growing list of out of town law enforcement organizations, the
Speaker 1: movement to oppose Cops City has been directly rooted within
Speaker 1: a broad localized opposition, whether that be with Atlanta based
Speaker 1: organizations fighting against gentrification, local chapters of climate change protest organizations,
Speaker 1: or just anonymous individuals that reside across Atlanta, or the
Speaker 1: indigenous people who have in setral connections to the land.
Speaker 1: Hours after the raid, there was a Atlanta community press
Speaker 1: conference put on at Entrenchment Creek Park, And I'm going
Speaker 1: to read a statement that somebody gave at the press conference.
Speaker 1: Quote this is an attempt to demoralize a vibrant and
Speaker 1: diverse movement led by local community members against the replacement
Speaker 1: of the largest urban tree canopy in the United States
Speaker 1: with the largest police training compound in the United States.
Speaker 1: The police will attempt to depict this movement as a
Speaker 1: small group of hard line activists. We are all neighbors
Speaker 1: of the forest. We are intelligent people who know that
Speaker 1: the future of the world is on fire, and who
Speaker 1: are determined to act and to defend what remains to
Speaker 1: sustain life in this city and on this planet. The
Speaker 1: city is only going to get hotter, Wrench is only
Speaker 1: going to get more expensive. Food and gas prices are
Speaker 1: only rising. The city has no answers for this except
Speaker 1: for a more militarized police force. You can't prop up
Speaker 1: a free society with violence alone. The next day, protesters
Speaker 1: from Saturday's Stop Cop City march had court and all
Speaker 1: of their charges were dropped. Atlanta police is just desperate
Speaker 1: to get a good boogeyman to blame any potential uprising on,
Speaker 1: and they're not being super successful and letting any of
Speaker 1: these charges stick. There was this really great point made
Speaker 1: by this person named Audi Khali and was going to
Speaker 1: quote from a thread they posted quote. Thirty seven arrests
Speaker 1: were made in relation to the decentralized Defend the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Force movement over the past weeks, mostly for made up
Speaker 1: jaywalking charges, but only twelve had their legal identities revealed
Speaker 1: to corporate media and right wing doctors. Why all twelve
Speaker 1: protesters who were docked these past couple of weeks were
Speaker 1: said to be from out of state. When journalists asked
Speaker 1: if other protesters had Georgia residences, answers were denied. The
Speaker 1: answer to why is simple, These twelve currently possessed out
Speaker 1: of state I das and appeared white, passing the other
Speaker 1: twenty four arrestees might not necessarily fit these categories. Noticed
Speaker 1: that right wing troll Andy no omitted the ages of
Speaker 1: the arrestees who are not in their twenties as well.
Speaker 1: This is another iteration of the outside educator and narrative
Speaker 1: and an attempt to delegitimize resistance while denying local agency unquote.
Speaker 1: Police are continuing to target stop cops to new protesters
Speaker 1: with extremely high bales. Just getting nine protesters released during
Speaker 1: one week cost over a hundred thousand dollars, So please,
Speaker 1: if you're able to consider donating to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund.
Speaker 1: There will will be links in the description. So that
Speaker 1: was the raid that took place a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Six tree houses were destroyed. And those tree houses weren't
Speaker 1: just like tree sets to defend the forest. These were
Speaker 1: also like people's homes like that that that's where people
Speaker 1: were living. Uh so six six of those were destroyed.
Speaker 1: Multiple force defenders, personal belongings were stolen or just dismantled
Speaker 1: and decimated by the cops. And overall the raid was
Speaker 1: pretty bad. I mean, it's it kind of it kind
Speaker 1: of sucked. We will talk about what has happened since
Speaker 1: the raid. Would be come back from a little at break,
Speaker 1: all right, we are back after the raid. Officers from
Speaker 1: Atlanta Police Departments Zone three Field Investigations Team discussed using
Speaker 1: deadly force against protesters if they used molotov cocktails to
Speaker 1: defend themselves from a raid. According to scanner audio publicized
Speaker 1: by activists, listen closely for like thirty seconds to hear
Speaker 1: their conversation discussing deadly FORCEY good thing we didn't get
Speaker 1: out with dental today. I don't do well with fire.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah right, hold you deadly fourth encounter. Wait, whatever
Speaker 1: doing with fire, That's why I brought it up. I
Speaker 1: was saying, as well, as long as we're all that
Speaker 1: they paid cockill deadly fourth encounter, you liar, the cock
Speaker 1: fill have them at the road, the treehow they had
Speaker 1: up they had cars like on it, people coming in
Speaker 1: serious the protest against COPT. Sure, So I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: reread one little section in case it was hard to hear.
Speaker 1: Quote I told you deadly force encounter. That's why I
Speaker 1: brought it up. As long as we're on the same page,
Speaker 1: I'm atop cocktail is the deadly force encounter unquote. So
Speaker 1: a deadly force encounter is a situation where officers are
Speaker 1: legally allowed to shoot to kill. Basically, what this scanner
Speaker 1: audio insinuates is that police are preparing or thinking about
Speaker 1: just killing people when molotov cocktails are deployed. So that's
Speaker 1: a thing. Also, it's a little interesting that police themselves
Speaker 1: referred to the project as cops City, But yeah, keeping
Speaker 1: track of scanner audio has been a big part of
Speaker 1: the not on the ground portion of the movement being
Speaker 1: all to track police communications, police locations all using open
Speaker 1: source information, and tops are really scared and paranoid when
Speaker 1: it comes to stuff around the forest and just don't
Speaker 1: seem to be able to grasp the idea of a
Speaker 1: decentralized resistance movement that is capable of a diversity of tactics,
Speaker 1: including militant ones. There's this other scanner audio that was
Speaker 1: released displaying Atlanta police's ignorance, cowardice, and paranoia related to
Speaker 1: what they believe is a group dubbed Black Flag Atlanta. Hey,
Speaker 1: you guys gotta be carefully. Had a um to the cab.
Speaker 1: Guys are sitting in a van and they they attacked
Speaker 1: the van or you know, knocking windows out with flatting
Speaker 1: attires and stuff. But they're supposed to be a group
Speaker 1: called a Black Flag Atlanta that are targeting police and
Speaker 1: they have an app and stuff that can monitor our
Speaker 1: vehicles and shows about patrol cars are sitting at with
Speaker 1: lab updates. You know, you know, you know, they could
Speaker 1: be jumping the pointing something or you know, set a
Speaker 1: trap or damaged propery ands out in the range. You said,
Speaker 1: they gotta what's the name of that? I just pulled
Speaker 1: back round find it. But the group is called Black
Speaker 1: Flag Atlanta. So the so called group that police refer
Speaker 1: to as black Flag Atlanta is likely just referring to
Speaker 1: a hobbyist website that simply collects on the ground reports
Speaker 1: and open source police scanner information. The website is an
Speaker 1: open resource for anyone to use. It's not a group
Speaker 1: of people. It's just a random online tool that lets
Speaker 1: you listen to scanner audio. The cops mentioned that they're
Speaker 1: afraid because of the actions of some anonymous individuals who
Speaker 1: surrounded a law enforcement vehicle and damaged it while officers
Speaker 1: were inside just sitting terrified, and then did the same
Speaker 1: to a juvenile detention facility. Van I discussed the details
Speaker 1: of that direct action earlier in this episode, when anonymous
Speaker 1: people through rocks and slash tires of those law enforcement vehicles.
Speaker 1: Quoting from an anonymous statement on scenes dot no blogs quote,
Speaker 1: the cops believe that black Flag Atlanta is a group
Speaker 1: that tracks and monitors cops and their locations around the
Speaker 1: forest and works to attack them. This is laughably wrong.
Speaker 1: Rather than understanding that our power comes from open source intelligence,
Speaker 1: horizontal organizing, and transparency, they have conjured up a shadowy
Speaker 1: organization that organizes hits on police officers and publishes their
Speaker 1: targets right beforehand. Unquote, cops really just don't seem to
Speaker 1: have a clue on what's what's actually going on um
Speaker 1: or how any types of decentralized infrastructure works, or how
Speaker 1: movements are really operated. It is an interesting thing to see.
Speaker 1: But scared cops are also dangerous cops, as we just
Speaker 1: mentioned about them planning to use lethal force if there's
Speaker 1: a multip cocktail in the area right when cops are scared.
Speaker 1: That's not necessarily always a good thing. Um. It just
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of police training is based on
Speaker 1: being afraid and then using deadly force if you are afraid.
Speaker 1: So it's just a thing to think about. I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not making any like commentary here. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, yeah, cops seem really scared, and that can
Speaker 1: be good. It also can be dangerous. I'm now going
Speaker 1: to talk a bit about solidarity actions, because you know,
Speaker 1: not everyone's able to go to Atlanta, even if even
Speaker 1: if they would like to go to land and help
Speaker 1: to help participate, some people just aren't able to. But
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean people are unable to assist in the movement.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a little quote from Unicorn Riot quote.
Speaker 1: In recent weeks, autonomous attacks in solidarity with efforts to
Speaker 1: defend the Atlanta Forest have occurred throughout the country, according
Speaker 1: to a website that tracks such actions, One repeated target
Speaker 1: has been at Las Technical Consultants, the apparent company of
Speaker 1: Long Engineering, a subcontractor of the Cops City project, which
Speaker 1: had its windows of its office smashed in Albany, New York,
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and it's building tag with the graffiti
Speaker 1: in Highland, Indiana. The website also received reports of attacks
Speaker 1: on Bank of America, which donates money to the police
Speaker 1: foundations across the country, including the Atlanta Police Foundation. Attacks
Speaker 1: were reported in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Portland's Enemy Appolis unquote. And
Speaker 1: I'm going to just go through a list of solidarity
Speaker 1: actions that have happened in May and now up into June.
Speaker 1: Most of these were posted on scenes dot no blogs
Speaker 1: that seems to be the main site for anonymously posting
Speaker 1: communication or report backs. You can find guides to how
Speaker 1: to do so with more Internet security on websites like
Speaker 1: Scenes and websites like Warrior up. So Anyway, here's just
Speaker 1: a list of little communications that have been released related
Speaker 1: to solidarity actions that have taken place in the past month. Quote.
Speaker 1: On the evening of May tenth, I smashed seven windows
Speaker 1: at the office building where the northeast offices of Atlas
Speaker 1: are located in Albany, New York. I also tagged Atlas
Speaker 1: stopped destroying the Atlanta Forest, destroying conscience of acres of
Speaker 1: forest during the sixth greatest mass extinction of species. To
Speaker 1: build a police training facility following one of the largest
Speaker 1: anti police uprisings in decades is fucking disgusting with his vandalism.
Speaker 1: I urge Atlas to do the right thing and to
Speaker 1: drop any contracts with brass Field and Gory and the
Speaker 1: Cops City project. During the week of Action, the brass
Speaker 1: Field and Gory Corporate HQ in Birmingham, Alabama was targeted.
Speaker 1: According to a strongly worded anonymous statement published on scenes.
Speaker 1: The report back reads quote, on the morning of the
Speaker 1: thirte the windows and glass doors to the brass Field
Speaker 1: and Gory Corporate HQ were smashed. The words drop Cops
Speaker 1: City or else were spray painted on the windows. Paint
Speaker 1: was applied to the front sign. Let it serve as
Speaker 1: a warning to the executives at brass Field and Gory.
Speaker 1: We know where you work and we know where you sleep.
Speaker 1: You're houses could be next Keith Johnson Miller, George James Gory.
Speaker 1: You will drop this contract eventually. Why wait to see
Speaker 1: how far will go? In solidarity with a struggle in
Speaker 1: Atlanta unquote. And then just a few days ago, construction
Speaker 1: offices in Pennsylvania were hit the community a was short
Speaker 1: and sweet just reads quote. Door windows smashed and building
Speaker 1: tagged at the northeast office of Atlas Technical Consultants at
Speaker 1: two one to six Fillmore Avenue in Erie, Pennsylvania. Stop
Speaker 1: Cops City, Defend the Atlanta Forest and Forests Everywhere. A
Speaker 1: few days ago, on May thirty one, there was a
Speaker 1: massive police mobilization involving helicopters and a road checkpoint around
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Forest at the proposed Cops City site. According
Speaker 1: to reports, Atlanta Police Department accompanied Long Engineering, who seemingly
Speaker 1: we're surveying for a perimeter fence. No arrests were reported.
Speaker 1: Long Engineering, as we've stated, is owned by Atlas Technical
Speaker 1: Consultant and it's currently being contracted by Brassfield and Gory,
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Police Foundation's general contractor. The Soft Reeves Young
Speaker 1: campaign released a statement discussing the events of the past
Speaker 1: few days quote. On May thirty one and June one,
Speaker 1: Brassfield and Gory subcontractor Long Engineering entered the old Atlanta
Speaker 1: prison farm with chainsaws and heavy machinery. They're cutting down
Speaker 1: trees in order to build a fence around the zone.
Speaker 1: This is where the Police Foundation believes they will build
Speaker 1: the Cops City Training Compound. They hope to prevent the
Speaker 1: community from seeing what they are doing. Long Engineering, owned
Speaker 1: by a man named Shephard Long of ken Saw, Georgia,
Speaker 1: has already participated in destructive acts in the South River Forest.
Speaker 1: For this, they have become the object of a nationwide
Speaker 1: pressure campaign by activists and communities organizing to oppose police
Speaker 1: militarization and climate change. Long is a subsidy of Atlas
Speaker 1: Technical Consultants. If activists and community members can convince Brassfield
Speaker 1: and Gory to drop their contract with the Atlanta Police Foundation,
Speaker 1: the project could lose funding and fall apart. Brass Field
Speaker 1: and Gory uses many subcontractors to do their projects, including
Speaker 1: Atlas Technical Consultants subsidy Long Engineering. By encouraging Long Engineering
Speaker 1: to drop the contract with Brassfield and Gory, we encourage
Speaker 1: Brassfield and Gory to drop their contract with cops. City.
Speaker 1: Climate collapse and police militarization are not abstract processes so
Speaker 1: that nobody can stop. They happen because of observable and
Speaker 1: preventable reasons. If you care about police brutality, if you
Speaker 1: want to stop climate change, this is your chance to
Speaker 1: do something unquote. And I do think there are a
Speaker 1: lot of signs that people actually can make actual impacts.
Speaker 1: At the last community Stakeholder Advisory meeting, Atlanta Assistant police
Speaker 1: Chief Darien schnear Bomb said that construction plans could be
Speaker 1: quote delayed or deferred because of the actions of a
Speaker 1: very few unquote, and said that this is why police
Speaker 1: agencies are working to quote addressed criminal protests very quickly
Speaker 1: so it doesn't get into that realm unquote. And on
Speaker 1: the day I record this, which is June second, earlier
Speaker 1: this morning to police chased force defenders into the woods
Speaker 1: near a work site and found a camp ten force
Speaker 1: defenders confronted and surrounded a bulldozer that was in the woods,
Speaker 1: resulting in a work stoppage. On a communicate released online
Speaker 1: at scenes read quote work stopped Today Thursday, June second,
Speaker 1: as a group of ten Force Defenders confronted a bulldozer
Speaker 1: in the forest just west of the Duvy today forcet
Speaker 1: defenders launched rocks and fireworks, yelling get the funk out
Speaker 1: of the woods. As the machine was attacked. Four to
Speaker 1: five workers, likely with long engineering, hid behind the bulldozer
Speaker 1: while one Atlanta Police officer stood idly with his hands
Speaker 1: on his hips. Force defenders retreated into the woods howling.
Speaker 1: No arrests were made. We call upon any one who
Speaker 1: wants to defend the forest and stop cops City to
Speaker 1: support the struggle by sewing chaos along the perimeter, plan
Speaker 1: a slow moving car caravan on Constitution Road, or a
Speaker 1: rally at the juvie workers and pigs. We repeat, stay
Speaker 1: the funk out of the woods, unquote. And also today
Speaker 1: a new timeline was released detailing the construction plans for
Speaker 1: a cop city. The Atlanta Police Foundation plans to begin
Speaker 1: cutting down massive swaths of trees in about two weeks.
Speaker 1: The clearing is planned for nearly of the four hundred
Speaker 1: acre property, so defour stations seems to be just two
Speaker 1: weeks away now. Based on the full site plans that
Speaker 1: are viewable online, I will link the plans in the
Speaker 1: show notes, along with the stop Reeves Young campaign, which
Speaker 1: details ways to assist like calling campaigns and random stuff
Speaker 1: that is maybe more possible from afar. But the stop
Speaker 1: cop City project is going to continue all throughout the
Speaker 1: summer and seems to have no sign of cooling down.
Speaker 1: It is only it is only heating up as the
Speaker 1: summer gets hotter. So well the stuff in the forest
Speaker 1: in more ways than one, But anyway, that doesn't for us. Today.
Speaker 1: You can check out stop reeve Zone dot com for
Speaker 1: the calling campaign and for the list of quote evil
Speaker 1: doers that are working to DeForest sections of the Atlanta
Speaker 1: South River Forest. You can go to scenes dot no
Speaker 1: blogs dot org to read communicates and report backs, and
Speaker 1: I'll put links for the Atlanta Soliday Ality Fund in
Speaker 1: the description as well. See you on the other side.
Speaker 1: It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.
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Speaker 1: Slash sources, thanks for listening.