WEBVTT - Week of Action to Stop Cop City: Full Compilation 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:08.119 It's a warm spring afternoon in Atlanta, Georgia. You and 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:10.440 some of your friends are dancing in the sunlight at 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:13.920 a music festival in South Atlanta. It's day two of 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.840 the South River Music Festival. Last night, you stayed up 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:20.279 till three am, alternating between moshing in the pit and 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:22.880 laying down on a blanket looking up at the night sky, 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.400 trying to see stars through the light pollution. After you 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:29.400 had your fill of DM you called it a night 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.240 and hastily set up a tent in the forest near 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:34.879 the edge of the festival. You tried to sleep as 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.479 long as you could, but soon enough the hustle and 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.160 bustle around the forest beckoned you out of your tent. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:43.080 As you mosed on over back to the music festival, 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:47.360 immediately something new caught your eye, a large, multi colored 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.120 inflatable bouncy castle sitting right in the middle of the 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:55.640 field with a big stopcop City banner hung along the side. 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.520 After you fully woke up, you grabbed a free breakfast 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:02.960 burrito and took a walk through the winding forest. Now 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:05.720 that you've finished your breakfast, you're back at the far 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.360 end of the open field in front of the stage, 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.720 where there's been live music playing for the past few hours. 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:14.920 You and some friends briefly try a stint in the 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.680 bouncy castle, but quickly return to the festival stage as 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.440 you tire out much faster than you expected. As the 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.280 sun is barely starting to set around six pm, suddenly 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.880 you notice the faint scream of police sirens piercing through 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.360 the music being blasted from on stage. You stand up 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:37.160 as the sirens get louder and closer, until a burst 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:40.760 of police cars zoom past the music festival at high speed. 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.880 A short sigh of relief is followed by confusion where 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:49.160 else would a whole bunch of police cars be going, 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.440 But as nothing seems to come of it, everyone starts 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.880 to relax and begin enjoying music once again with the 0:01:56.280 --> 0:02:00.800 apparent absence of police. There's a if you brief moments 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.040 of peace at the festival as things continue as scheduled, 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.520 except you can't help but notice the police helicopter is 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.840 flying across the forest toward the festival. As you take 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.240 note of the chopper, you receive a signal message from 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.680 a friend quote cops have entered the parking lot with 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:22.040 AR fifteen's. You lift up your mask and start running 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.320 across the field to the parking lot at Willawnee People's Park. 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.560 But before you even make it halfway across, you notice 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.680 up ahead a few dozen police officers sprinting into the 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:39.080 open field from the festival side entrance. As the sun 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.120 is setting, a group of cops run past the bouncy 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:46.160 house and start chasing down seemingly random concert goers and 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.320 loan stragglers. One officer points his rifle at the bouncy 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.280 house as another turns off the generator. You group up 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:57.160 with other people from the festival in hopes of working 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:01.120 together to incentivize police to leave the area. As you 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:05.680 get closer, the cops start getting more aggressive. Just up ahead, 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:07.840 a bit further into the woods, close to where you 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.800 set up your tent, you hear some loud bangs and 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:14.480 see a flash of bright light. First, you assume it's 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:18.359 just fireworks being used to hold off the cops, until 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.440 you start coughing and see the faint plume of tear 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:25.200 gas seeping in from the forest. You're forced to fall 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.480 back to the festival and regroup with people by the 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.919 stage where music is still being played. As you're running back, 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.399 you can see dozens of people in zip ti cuffs, 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:38.680 many still pinned to the ground, still coughing from the gas. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:40.880 You make your way back to where you are washing 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:45.120 the previous night. The crowd of festivalgoers tightens up as 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:47.760 riot vans and a bear cat pull into the field 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:52.360 next to the deflated bouncy castle. Police swat teams surround 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.880 the South River Music Festival and creep towards the stage, 0:03:55.960 --> 0:04:01.120 threatening to charge hundreds of people with domestic terrorism. Hanging 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.040 on the backdrop of the stage is a massive banner 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.160 that reads, quote in the eyes of the state, all 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:11.880 who resist white supremacy, colonialism, environmental racism, gentrification, and police 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:22.080 militarization are domestic terrorists unquote. That was the evening of Sunday, 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:26.280 March fifth, twenty twenty three. This is it could happen here. 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.960 I'm Garrison Davis. I arrived in Atlanta a few days 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.159 prior in preparation for the March Week of Action to 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:36.760 defend the Atlanta Forest and stop cop City. This is 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.720 part one of a four part series covering this week 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:44.200 of action, featuring interviews, reportbacks, and analysis from both participants 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.760 and observers like myself. This four part series will be 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.280 a follow up of sorts to the four stop Coop 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:54.240 City episodes we put together last January following the death 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.200 of forest defender Tortigita at the hands of the Georgia 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:01.160 State Patrol, as well as building off my previous year 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.000 of work covering the movement to defend the Atlanta Forest. 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.600 But in case you're new or need a refresher, For 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:11.000 over two years now, activists and community members have been 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.760 in a fight to save the Wallani Forest from being 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:17.600 turned into a massive ninety million dollar police training facility 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.200 stretching across one hundred and seventy acres, with plans to 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.640 include a mock city for urban combat training to quell 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:29.120 civil descent. The cop City project is being led by 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.000 the Atlanta Police Foundation, one of the most powerful police 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.920 lobbying groups in the country. Following seventeen hours of public comment, 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.159 seventy percent of which was against the facility, the Atlanta 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.560 City Council voted to approve the project's lease in September 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:47.440 of twenty twenty one, despite months of protests and community organizing. 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.480 Later that fall, people started occupying and camping out in 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:55.000 the Wallani Forest to maintain a physical presence in the woods. 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.640 In hopes of preventing or delaying construction. Infrastructure to support 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.760 long time ter encampments grew over the next year, with 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:07.000 forest defenders erecting treehouses, road blockades, and making the forest 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.320 a place that people could actually live in with outdoor kitchens, 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.040 community gardens, and places to sleep, whether that be up 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.040 in a tree or in a tent. For a while 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.919 it seemed to be working. Throughout twenty twenty two, construction 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.680 continued to stall. Almost every time cops and workers came 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.800 in to start cutting trees, they were met with resistance. 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:31.280 Construction equipment left around the forest was routinely sabotaged, and 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:35.159 last year a tertiary targeting campaign resulted in the general 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.600 contractor for a cop City Reeves Young construction, to drop 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.520 out of the project. Police enacted multiple raids on the 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.440 forest in twenty twenty two, trying to flush out any 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.279 forest defenders camping out in the woods and tear down 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.880 encampment infrastructure, but the occupation was generally able to bounce 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.119 back pretty quick. As the movement to stop cop City 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:00.839 was seemingly winning, police intensified their repression as a series 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.479 of raids in December of last year decimated much of 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:05.400 the infrastructure that was built up over the course of 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.440 that year and left six people with domestic terrorism charges. 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.800 But things got worse just a month later. In January 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.480 of twenty twenty three, multiple police agencies engaged in a 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:20.680 mass raid of the Wallani Forest, destroying all remaining campsites. 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.200 About an hour into the January eighteenth raid, the Georgia 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:26.680 State Patrol swat team killed a twenty six year old 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:31.240 forest defender, Manuel Tehran, also known by their forest name Tortigita. 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:36.160 Decab County's autopsy found at least fifty seven gunshot wounds 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.920 from multiple officers. We'll talk more about the results from 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.440 various autopsies in a later episode, but just a few 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.520 weeks ago, tort would have turned twenty seven. The other 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.160 side of the Defend the Forest movement is focused on 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.880 a smaller section of the Wallani Forest just east of 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:58.520 Entrenchment Creek. Initially in hopes of expanding his movie studios, 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.720 The now former own of Blackhall Studios, Ryan Millsap, has 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.800 been trying to gain control of forty acres of public 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.960 parkland through a shady landswap deal with Decap County that's 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.440 currently subject to legal disputes. The slate of land in 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.360 question contains the popular meeting spot in the forest known 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:18.520 as the Living Room, which acts as a sort of 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.120 central hub, as well as what's referred to as Wilawni 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.119 People's Park, where the Park gazebe used to be before 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.560 Ryan Millsap demolished it, later ripping out all of the 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:32.360 grass and sidewalks in a once again legally questionable move. 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:36.560 In January, Wilani People's Park also became home to the 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:40.120 vigil site for Tortigita all at Let Matt from the 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.800 Atlantic Community Press Collective explain the other happenings in the 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:45.359 woods since January. 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.680 They got their land disturbance permit in late January, and 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:53.080 the first phase of the land disturbance permit only allows 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:58.280 for soil erosion control work, So to this point, essentially 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.680 what they've done is they've cut some paths into the 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:08.160 forest into the proposed site, and then around the exterior 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.520 of the site they've clear cut a line in order 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:16.240 to install silt fencing, so there isn't a large amount 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.760 of infrastructure. They're not allowed to do a large amount 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:23.640 of disturbance right now. They're in like the pre construction 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.160 phase right now. So they started in February and they 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:29.800 did a lot of work very quickly. They installed a 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:31.960 privacy fence, so you can't really see what's going on, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.559 so our general understanding of it, like comes from drone footage. 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.800 It actually slowed down a couple weeks later, and from 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.880 what I understand, they began to pull some construction equipment out, 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.640 probably not wanting to leave, you know, a target for 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.520 shall we say, any sort of spicy activities. 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:54.880 But not all of their construction equipment was removed, As 0:09:55.040 --> 0:10:01.040 everyone would soon find out, the deadly Jenny left the 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:04.320 community in the morning and unsure of how the fight 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.240 to stop copp City would evolve. With the use of 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.960 lethal force and the loss of a friend, the Forest 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:14.880 Defender's semi permanent occupation of the Wallani Forest ended after 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:18.720 that raid, but the fight was far from over. About 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.480 a month after the January raid, local Atlantans put out 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.920 a call for supporters across the country to converge in 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.920 Atlanta in early March for a mass gathering known as 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.600 a Week of Action. There have been four previous Weeks 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.840 of Action, but this one, more than any other, would 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.880 be crucial in reifying what the next stage of the 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:43.920 movement would be. I started off this episode with the 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.360 Sunday night police raid on the South River Music Festival, because, 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:50.520 for better or worse, what happened on that evening set 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:53.240 the proverbial stage for what the majority of this Week 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.000 of Action would look like and how its effects would 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.960 ripple out in the coming months. But before we get 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:01.160 to the rest of the week, we first have to 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.319 go back to the official start of this Week of 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.560 Action to explain how we got here in the first place. 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.640 To kick off the Week of Action, a rally was 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.160 planned for the morning of Saturday, March fourth, at Gresham 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:17.520 Park in southeast Atlanta. By the time I arrived around 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:20.760 eleven am, hundreds of people were already in the park. 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:25.320 Music was blaring from loudspeakers. Some kids and a few 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:29.160 brave adults were running around throwing multicolored powdered paint at 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:33.000 each other. It was a pretty festive time. Soon enough, 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.400 it was time for things to begin. Matthew Johnson, the 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:40.959 interim executive director of Beloved Commune, formerly kicked off the week. 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:47.199 Hoday, let's get started, all right. 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:49.720 I just want to make sure that everybody is in 0:11:49.880 --> 0:12:00.119 the right way. I came here to stop cop city. 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:05.199 What did you all come here to do? What did 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:09.280 we come to do? What are we come to do? 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:12.680 What have we come here to do? 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:15.880 All right? 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:22.160 I'm glad that everybody found the right address. Thank you 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:24.720 everybody for joining us. 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:27.199 It's about two years ago. 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.840 In what was formerly known as Entrenchment Creek Park now 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:39.760 known as Wolani People's Park, where a ragtag bunch of 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:47.280 individuals gathered under a gazebo. That gazebo was illegally destroyed 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:59.240 by Ryan Millsap and his henchmen in an attempt to 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.959 break this movement, in an attempt to bury this movement. 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:09.840 Yet every single time that they have tried to bury us, 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:19.200 they have forgotten that we were seeds. Every time they 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.119 thought that they backed us into a corner with their repression, 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.840 we had more of you show up and support this movement, 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:35.400 and we thank you so much. They have set every 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:39.040 hurdle in the way of every day at Lantern's to 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.679 intimidate them and stop them from. 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:52.760 Supporting this movement, and we still show up. We appreciate 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:55.600 every single person that has come here to support us 0:13:55.880 --> 0:14:00.280 in spite of the terror that the state has right 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.360 to instill in us. We must be very careful and 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.760 understand the gravity of the situation that we are in, 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.199 especially after we've lost a friend. 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:18.640 Okay, thank you for standing with us. And now there 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:22.320 are many things that we do not agree on. But 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:23.920 what did we all come here to do? 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:32.640 So let's remember what got us this far was a 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:40.960 diversity of tactics, and now it's time for. 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:41.840 Us to double down. 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.080 The crowd gathered was a pretty diverse mix of people 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:50.400 from a variety of backgrounds, beliefs, and preferred tactics. On 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.680 this is Saturday morning, everyone felt pretty united, whether you 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.080 were a kid running around with paint all over your 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.120 body or an anarchist to dressed head to toe and camo. 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.280 Next up, somebody read a statement from the Muscogee elder 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:04.360 Miko Chabon. 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:06.400 Colonel, I'm here to read. 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:11.440 A statement from my Miko, Miko Shabbon. 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:17.040 Yeah, my name is Marty. I'm Muscoge on my father's side. 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.920 On my mother's side, I'm Atham both Acmel and Thana, 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:25.000 and my dad's also Filipino. Miko asked me to read 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:30.200 this statement. Band Strijaio mart At this time, I would 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.240 like to express my gratitude to all who have conversed 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:38.200 onto these ancestral territories of Muscogean ancestors and modern spiritual 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:42.040 inhabitants of the earth that we now stand on today. 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:46.280 We represent a vast society of peoples whose presence in 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.960 the colonized named states of Georgia, Alabama, and. 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.520 Florida have existed for over thirteen thousand years. 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.000 We represent a way of life that strove to minimize 0:15:58.040 --> 0:15:59.360 the harm that humans can. 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:03.160 Do to the earth, to other species, and to each other. 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.840 Today, we continue this movement that begun many years ago, 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.680 and we honor those who have taken footsteps to protect 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:15.040 this forest and our relative who gave the greatest of sacrifices, 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:20.200 just as ancestors existed on these very grounds and carried 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:24.440 of faith and confidence in what our ancient ones passed 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.000 on to us. May the hope of peaceful existence for 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:32.080 all be achieved for many more centuries to come. This 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:36.000 existence can only occur when we realize the sacredness of 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:39.400 the Wilani Forest, that all that is natural on this earth, Mother. 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.800 This type of existence can only occur when we realize 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:46.680 that we all belong to this earth, and she does 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.640 not belong to us. This type of holy existence can 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.480 only occur when we realize that no cop city can 0:16:53.520 --> 0:17:03.240 ever exist because more weapons only create more violence. With 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:07.800 these efforts to begin today, perhaps reason will prevail and 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:09.880 we could create a future where all people have. 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:11.320 The right to exist. 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:14.560 Today, may our dreams for this forest and the surrounding 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:15.560 community come true. 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:18.840 For those who can hear, let them hear. 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.960 The next speaker was from Community Movement Builders, a local 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:27.280 black collectives that focuses on combating and gentrification and police violence. 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.639 I may be a little bit selfish, and my reason 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:36.880 for being here I want to be free. 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:39.440 I want my children to be free. 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:41.359 I want my mother to be free. 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.600 I want my father, my brothers and sisters to be free. 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:46.880 And I don't want to have to live a life 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.480 in ten years when my babies, my nieces and my 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:53.920 nephews come to me and ask, come, I see, where 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.680 were you What were you doing when they destroyed our 0:17:56.720 --> 0:18:00.520 clean water, destroyed our clean air happened? 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:02.040 Why were you not around? 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.520 What were you doing when when my babies twenty ten 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.360 years and they say, comasie, what were you doing when 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.359 this country turned into a fascist dystopia? 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:10.359 What were you doing? 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.560 Where were you where you're around. I can't sit here 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.399 best shit back and say I just sat home and 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:15.920 watched this. 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:17.080 Whole world burn to hell. 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:22.840 I don't believe in the power. 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:27.480 I don't believe in the power of being periless. 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:29.520 I believe in the power of the people. 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.360 So I said to everyone today that during this week 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.639 of action, I don't know where you will be. I 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.359 don't know what you will be doing, but we standing 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.040 behind you and we're staying with you. And we want 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.120 to show the city of Atlanta. We want to show 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.960 Mary Dickens that he is not fit to rule and 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:52.880 he does not runing city way. 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:56.720 We want to show. 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.240 Them said, the ninety million dollars that they took to 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.719 build this very warfare training facility will not cross our 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:10.480 communities wheo. And we also want to show the city 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:14.480 of that letter that again we are ready to stop 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.040 really surviving to start living. 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.679 Finally, our last person Reverend Leo'she is a Baptist minister 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.200 part of the Stop Copp City Clergy Coalition, which we'll 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:29.320 talk a bit more about in the next episode. 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.399 And I believe my faith compels me and convicts me 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.440 that in this moment, the work that has been. 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.800 Done, and the work that is to come to. 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:46.679 Defend this, our beloved family, this, our siblings. 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.840 The earth is a holy and righteous work. 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.719 It is a holy and righteous work that is grounded 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:05.359 in a faithful rage, rage which has been boiling in 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:10.400 the human family's blood for centuries and meets us care 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:15.000 at this moment and asks us, what will you do 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.760 to defend those who have no defense? 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.920 What will you do to protect those who have no shelter? 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:28.920 What will you do when the time comes to decide 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.600 on whose side you are on? Will you stand for 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:37.159 oppression or will you stand for the liberation of all people? 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.800 My friends, I come with so good news if that's okay. 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.840 And the good news is that God stands on the 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:59.840 side of the oppress. God stands on the side of 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:05.800 the forest defenders. Law stands on the side of the 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:11.119 most marginalized. And let us make no mistake that in 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:14.760 our protests and in our rage, we also have to 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:21.240 cry out and lament. We cannot be silent as dou 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:27.359 Gita's blood cries out from the ground. We must honor 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.679 a life that did not have to be lost. It 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.679 did not have to be this way. Do not listen 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:40.760 to anyone who tells you that there is not a 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:47.280 better way, there is always a better way. I come 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:51.920 with my faith and the conviction that in this work, 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:57.719 in this moment, a prophetic imagination, a creative vision, is 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:02.160 needed for the world that we want to see. I'm 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:04.720 not here to wait for the Kingdom of God. I 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:09.800 want the Kingdom of God right now, right now. 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:16.040 After the speeches were finished, it was announced that the crowd, 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:20.080 now nearing a thousand strong, would gather up together and 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:24.160 march to Wilani People's Park to retake the forest. As 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:26.880 everyone was getting ready to leave, you could see the 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:30.200 care and solidarity people had for each other on full display. 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:32.840 Bike scouts were checking to see if the path was clear, 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:36.560 volunteer street medics ready to help anyone in need. Water 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:39.640 bottles are being handed out to keep everyone hydrated, while 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:43.520 others autonomously coordinated rides for people unable to make. The 0:22:43.640 --> 0:22:49.240 walk looks like approximately one thousand people marching from Gresham 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:51.520 Park to Alani People's Park on. 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:52.200 The bike path. 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:56.680 That's a I can't even see the end of where, 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:00.960 of where, the of where the people's it's a long, 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:04.640 long stretch of people marshing, hundreds and hundreds of feet. 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:07.240 There's some banners in front of the march. One of 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:13.200 them reads disarm, defund, dismantle, no cop city. There's one 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:17.520 of the sun shining over a pink sky with a 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:22.960 little blue turtle and their shell is the earth. Massive 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:29.240 like ten person banner that reads defend the Forest. The 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:31.920 energy of the march remained high as people chanted to 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:34.560 the beat of drums. I sat down with Matt from 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:37.280 the Atlantic Community Press Collective towards the end of the 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:40.080 week to talk about what we saw throughout this week 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:40.520 of action. 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:44.879 At one point, the entire crowd, seemingly the entire crowd 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:47.320 was chanting if you build it, we will burn it, 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:49.080 which seems. 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:50.080 Almost like a thousand people. 0:23:50.280 --> 0:24:02.760 Yeah, and it was being chanted like, you know, looking 0:24:02.800 --> 0:24:05.760 around the crowd, you saw everyone for the most part, 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:06.560 partaking in that. 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:08.840 So that was a very interesting. 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:11.639 Moment where it felt like there was that sort of 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:16.320 solidarity amongst the varied groups that make up the Defend 0:24:16.359 --> 0:24:17.399 the Atlanta Forest movement. 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:21.119 As the march went on, the path was getting increasingly forested. 0:24:21.680 --> 0:24:24.040 About two thirds of the way to Allani People's Park, 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:27.840 after turning a bend, the crowd noticed three deer frolicking 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:38.320 alongside the march from further within the tree line. To 0:24:38.440 --> 0:24:41.359 quote the Atlanta Community Press Collectives right up of the 0:24:41.359 --> 0:24:45.640 march quote. The joyous mood shifted slightly as the protest 0:24:45.840 --> 0:24:49.200 closed in on the People's Park, passing over the remains 0:24:49.200 --> 0:24:52.600 of the bike path destroyed in December by film executive 0:24:52.680 --> 0:24:56.760 Ryan Millsap. Activists were uncertain what they were walking into 0:24:57.400 --> 0:24:59.919 or whether the police would offer any resistance. 0:25:00.480 --> 0:25:02.200 Activists thought that there was going to be an issue. 0:25:02.359 --> 0:25:07.120 They were concerned about the police being in willani People's Park. 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:11.520 So about halfway we saw that stack of makeshift shields 0:25:11.840 --> 0:25:13.680 made out of plastic rain barrels. 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:20.160 About two dozen of those five gatlandrum shields just mysteriously 0:25:20.160 --> 0:25:23.680 showed up along the bike path. We are arriving at 0:25:23.680 --> 0:25:26.800 Willannee People's Park, no cops. 0:25:27.880 --> 0:25:32.200 But then when we got there there was no police whatsoever. 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:36.600 From what the scanner people told us, there were police around, 0:25:36.840 --> 0:25:39.720 they were just kind of monitoring from afar, but no 0:25:39.800 --> 0:25:43.200 police ever entered the park. And it was I would 0:25:43.240 --> 0:25:47.200 say it was a really nice high point return to the. 0:25:47.160 --> 0:25:52.560 Forest, banners and shields moving around Willane People's Park as 0:25:52.760 --> 0:25:55.320 hundreds and hundreds of more people still pour in from 0:25:55.320 --> 0:25:59.280 the bike path. As the back of the march finally arrived, 0:25:59.520 --> 0:26:02.119 the crowd gathered up one more time to all chant 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:03.520 out a promise. 0:26:03.200 --> 0:26:18.560 In unison, I will, I Will. 0:26:19.840 --> 0:26:22.600 One of the activists I interviewed during the Week of 0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:25.240 Action was Matthew Johnson, the person who kicked off the 0:26:25.320 --> 0:26:28.919 rally at Gresham Park. We talked about the methodology of 0:26:29.000 --> 0:26:31.879 starting off this Week of Action with this big inclusive 0:26:31.920 --> 0:26:34.480 march and how that may have helped achieve the goal 0:26:34.600 --> 0:26:36.840 of retaking the forest that first day. 0:26:37.880 --> 0:26:43.199 We wanted to be sure that we would be able 0:26:43.320 --> 0:26:49.280 to reoccupy the park and what that would entail is 0:26:49.359 --> 0:26:53.520 having a wide swath of the larger public involved with 0:26:55.040 --> 0:27:00.480 any efforts to enter into the park. And so we 0:27:00.640 --> 0:27:05.200 had the rally Aggresshiam Park and there was a march 0:27:05.400 --> 0:27:12.399 planned from that part to Wallani People's Park. There is 0:27:12.600 --> 0:27:17.119 violence that people have become accustomed to when it is 0:27:17.240 --> 0:27:20.920 people on the political fringes. That's just where we're at 0:27:21.520 --> 0:27:25.159 in the political situation in Atlanta. However, when you have 0:27:26.160 --> 0:27:30.280 several people that you would consider more normal, liberal, progressive, etc. 0:27:31.280 --> 0:27:37.560 Like representatives from NGO's nonprofit organizations, just normal people that 0:27:37.680 --> 0:27:42.639 also wanted to see the project shut down cop City. 0:27:43.840 --> 0:27:47.800 That's when you have the ability to move towards people 0:27:48.320 --> 0:27:51.399 that want to reoccupy, having the space to do that 0:27:51.720 --> 0:27:55.119 without seeing tons of police repression as we have seen 0:27:55.720 --> 0:27:56.880 in the movement recently. 0:28:01.240 --> 0:28:04.960 After reaching Wolaanni People's Park, many of those who arrived 0:28:05.000 --> 0:28:07.920 from out of town for this week of action, myself included, 0:28:08.320 --> 0:28:11.919 stopped by the shrine for Tortigita just off of the 0:28:11.920 --> 0:28:16.480 tree line. People added new wildflowers and packs of fruit snacks. 0:28:16.880 --> 0:28:20.639 I'm going to walk over to the Torti Guita vigil site. 0:28:20.920 --> 0:28:23.040 Looks about the same as last time I was here. 0:28:24.440 --> 0:28:29.960 Many candles, little turtles, still a few fruit snacks. Although 0:28:29.960 --> 0:28:32.280 the vigil shrine was the same as last time I 0:28:32.320 --> 0:28:35.200 saw it, almost everything else about being in this place 0:28:35.280 --> 0:28:38.400 was different. When I was here last time in January, 0:28:38.840 --> 0:28:42.440 it was a dark place of grief. The forest was barren, 0:28:42.680 --> 0:28:45.240 with all of the trees in their bare winter state. 0:28:45.880 --> 0:28:49.200 But looking around the forest this first sunny day, you 0:28:49.240 --> 0:28:52.640 could see new life growing all around you. To quote 0:28:52.640 --> 0:28:56.080 the Community Press Collective again quote, small campsites began to 0:28:56.080 --> 0:28:59.720 crop up across the landscape. Some nestled in sunny air spaces. 0:29:00.160 --> 0:29:04.280 Others tucked into thickets, providing shelter and cooler climate for 0:29:04.360 --> 0:29:08.560 the new residence. The trees themselves reflected this next phase. 0:29:09.080 --> 0:29:11.920 Sprigs of new growth leaves appeared on the ends of 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:15.720 barren branches. Small white flowers bloomed along the periphery of 0:29:15.720 --> 0:29:20.160 the parking lot. After months of desolation and death, life 0:29:20.240 --> 0:29:24.040 prevailed and spring arrives in the forest. 0:29:25.040 --> 0:29:25.960 I'm excited to. 0:29:25.960 --> 0:29:29.400 Get back into the forest because it is so hot, 0:29:30.200 --> 0:29:33.480 and get back in the forest I did. One of 0:29:33.480 --> 0:29:36.720 the events that happened almost daily throughout the week was 0:29:36.840 --> 0:29:40.560 tours of the eastern side of the Wallani Forest. The 0:29:40.640 --> 0:29:43.120 walks through the woods were led by Joe Perry, a 0:29:43.160 --> 0:29:46.520 member of the South River Forest Coalition. I was able 0:29:46.560 --> 0:29:49.080 to attend the first tour during the Week of Action 0:29:49.480 --> 0:29:52.800 and got consent to record some of the forest walk. 0:29:52.600 --> 0:29:56.960 All right, hey, y'all, welcome to the living room, so 0:29:57.160 --> 0:29:59.960 named because it's it's a very inviting and comfortable place. 0:30:00.160 --> 0:30:00.560 Relax. 0:30:01.280 --> 0:30:04.200 This is where a lot of the meetings happened during 0:30:04.520 --> 0:30:09.560 the previous Week of action. People gather and have different 0:30:09.600 --> 0:30:18.920 events here. Oftentimes it will be food available here campfires, silverware. 0:30:21.200 --> 0:30:24.480 So it's also just a very very comfortable place to 0:30:24.520 --> 0:30:30.320 relax because it's in this pine forest and so not 0:30:30.360 --> 0:30:33.520 really any undergrowth and just super comfortable. It's a really 0:30:33.560 --> 0:30:37.720 good place to have meetings and just kind of get 0:30:37.720 --> 0:30:41.920 to know each other and establish some calm. 0:30:43.000 --> 0:30:44.960 We made our way from the living room to the 0:30:45.040 --> 0:30:48.240 Grandmother Tree, a large oak that is estimated to be 0:30:48.280 --> 0:30:51.000 a few hundred years old. On our way to Ryan 0:30:51.000 --> 0:30:54.760 Millsaps proposed a site for so called Michelle Obama Park, 0:30:54.840 --> 0:30:57.920 which is currently a forty acre mount of dirt about 0:30:57.960 --> 0:31:01.120 thirty feet high. We walked past to some old tents 0:31:01.200 --> 0:31:05.040 that were slashed apart during the January raid. Among the 0:31:05.080 --> 0:31:09.760 destroyed remains were little pink flowers growing out of the ground. Next, 0:31:09.840 --> 0:31:13.600 we headed to Entrenchment Creek. Joe Perry explained some of 0:31:13.640 --> 0:31:17.520 the background regarding the environmental state of the watershed and 0:31:17.600 --> 0:31:20.000 how protecting the forest is a crucial step in the 0:31:20.040 --> 0:31:22.400 process of helping the land heal itself. 0:31:23.560 --> 0:31:27.240 I got involved with a group called the South River 0:31:27.320 --> 0:31:31.400 Forest Coalition. We are trying to help further the vision 0:31:31.600 --> 0:31:34.800 of the South River Forest that Ryan Gravelle and the 0:31:34.880 --> 0:31:39.440 Nature Conservancy came up with to try to interweave about 0:31:39.480 --> 0:31:44.200 thirty five hundred acres of forest with the other businesses 0:31:44.200 --> 0:31:47.560 and homes and lands around this area that are in 0:31:47.600 --> 0:31:51.520 the watershed of the South River forest. And the Entrenchment Creek, 0:31:51.680 --> 0:31:55.120 which we will see on this tour, is the main 0:31:55.160 --> 0:31:58.320 tributary to the South River. The South River is the 0:31:58.360 --> 0:32:02.200 fourth most endangered river in this country, and Trenchmit Creek 0:32:02.240 --> 0:32:07.000 is one of the most polluted creeks in this county. 0:32:07.560 --> 0:32:10.960 And so that is what we're trying to protect. And 0:32:11.000 --> 0:32:13.920 in order to protect a river and a creek and 0:32:13.960 --> 0:32:16.600 a watershed, you have to protect the forest that's around it. 0:32:17.360 --> 0:32:20.719 I've been exploring these woods for the last decade and 0:32:21.040 --> 0:32:24.040 leading tours and talking to people about it, trying to 0:32:24.080 --> 0:32:26.600 explain what's going on with a lawsuit, trying to explain 0:32:26.640 --> 0:32:29.040 what's going on the difference between in Trenchmen Creek Park 0:32:29.080 --> 0:32:33.080 and the prison farm and the acreage and all these 0:32:33.120 --> 0:32:36.400 other things, and all that stuff. It's just like it's 0:32:36.400 --> 0:32:38.760 just gears turning in your head because when you come 0:32:38.760 --> 0:32:40.960 out here and enjoy this, I mean, this is really 0:32:40.960 --> 0:32:42.840 what it's all about. This is all we have to 0:32:42.880 --> 0:32:46.000 do to convince people that this is worth saving it. 0:32:46.160 --> 0:32:49.200 Just bring you out here and let you appreciate it. 0:32:49.280 --> 0:32:53.240 As masses of people converged at Wallani People's Park Saturday afternoon, 0:32:53.840 --> 0:32:56.880 almost immediately a whole bunch of pop up infrastructure was 0:32:56.960 --> 0:32:59.960 set up to facilitate an encampment in the woods once again, 0:33:00.680 --> 0:33:02.600 really for the first time in any kind of large 0:33:02.600 --> 0:33:07.760 capacity since January and even December. The December raids decimated 0:33:07.920 --> 0:33:11.160 much of the camp infrastructure, which still had not been 0:33:11.200 --> 0:33:15.640 rebuilt since then. But upon arriving from Gresham Park on Saturday, 0:33:15.960 --> 0:33:18.640 both first time of visitors to the Wallani Forest and 0:33:18.840 --> 0:33:22.720 seasoned forest defenders worked together to rebuild a lot of 0:33:22.720 --> 0:33:25.920 that infrastructure to support camp life for the next week. 0:33:26.360 --> 0:33:27.960 One of the things that we saw on the march 0:33:28.560 --> 0:33:32.840 in was like eight cinder blocks right at the entrance 0:33:32.880 --> 0:33:36.200 to the living room, and then you and I went 0:33:36.240 --> 0:33:38.920 into the living room, we saw these huge water tanks. 0:33:39.000 --> 0:33:42.600 So later they moved those water tanks to those cinder 0:33:42.600 --> 0:33:46.320 blocks and they that has become or a watering point 0:33:46.360 --> 0:33:49.800 for everyone. So like twice a day a truck comes 0:33:50.360 --> 0:33:52.480 with a water tank on the back and then they 0:33:52.600 --> 0:33:56.000 go through the arduous process of filling that water. So 0:33:56.040 --> 0:33:59.960 that everybody in camp can have water, and they had 0:34:00.080 --> 0:34:03.560 this system that was seemingly self organized. And then that 0:34:03.600 --> 0:34:06.360 first day we were sitting in the parking lot and 0:34:06.560 --> 0:34:08.440 it seemed like every time you turn around there was 0:34:08.480 --> 0:34:12.719 like a different train of people carrying supplies into the 0:34:12.719 --> 0:34:18.400 living room. The second day, there was a woman who 0:34:18.920 --> 0:34:24.400 was shoveling gravel from the torn up concrete on the side, 0:34:24.800 --> 0:34:27.440 and she was filling all of the brandom holes in 0:34:27.480 --> 0:34:31.280 the ground so that carts could go up them. And 0:34:31.400 --> 0:34:34.680 I was like, you know, did somebody assign this to you? 0:34:34.760 --> 0:34:37.320 She's like, no, I saw this. It just needed to 0:34:37.320 --> 0:34:39.520 be done, and I did it. And that was very 0:34:39.600 --> 0:34:43.960 much the entire vibe of those first I would say 0:34:43.960 --> 0:34:46.440 twenty four hours was Okay, what do we need to 0:34:46.480 --> 0:34:47.680 do to get this thing running? 0:34:48.360 --> 0:34:53.319 As encampments were being established, simultaneously, infrastructure for the South 0:34:53.400 --> 0:34:56.960 River Music Festival was being erected in the adjacent radio 0:34:57.040 --> 0:35:00.600 control field. Within a short amount of time, a full 0:35:00.600 --> 0:35:05.360 stage was constructed, complete with lights and speakers, lining the 0:35:05.400 --> 0:35:08.960 sides of the field, where various tables and booths. One 0:35:09.000 --> 0:35:12.000 side featured a large variety of refreshments, as well as 0:35:12.000 --> 0:35:14.680 a medic tent, and the other side was home to 0:35:14.960 --> 0:35:18.839 free hot food and freshly grilled burgers and hot dogs. 0:35:18.880 --> 0:35:21.600 Next to the food were a few tables distributing an 0:35:21.680 --> 0:35:25.880 array of radical literature posters and stickers. What was your 0:35:25.880 --> 0:35:27.400 favorite stuff at the music fest? Suture? 0:35:27.440 --> 0:35:29.799 So well, there was an arapa table, and I'm very 0:35:29.880 --> 0:35:33.359 food motivated, so the arapas were delicious, and we had 0:35:33.400 --> 0:35:37.080 walked a bunch that day, so I needed sustenance. And 0:35:37.080 --> 0:35:39.920 then there was the burger table as well, but we 0:35:40.160 --> 0:35:42.400 I don't think. I don't know if you got a burger, 0:35:42.440 --> 0:35:43.480 but I did not get a burger. 0:35:43.600 --> 0:35:45.399 I got I got one burger, but they were out 0:35:45.440 --> 0:35:47.359 of buns when I got a burger, so I had 0:35:47.360 --> 0:35:51.680 a lettuce burger. And then soon after they got the 0:35:51.719 --> 0:35:53.800 buns back, and I was kind of kind of bummed. 0:35:54.280 --> 0:35:57.719 Yeah I did not at least you got something, but 0:35:57.800 --> 0:35:58.600 I had the arapis. 0:35:58.600 --> 0:36:01.120 So I mean still hardworth to be fair, hundreds of 0:36:01.160 --> 0:36:03.600 people were they've fed for They've had five hundred people, 0:36:03.880 --> 0:36:06.879 you know, And at one point they made announcement that 0:36:06.960 --> 0:36:08.880 like they needed to do another food run just to 0:36:08.880 --> 0:36:11.680 go get more more food, and like a bunch of 0:36:11.680 --> 0:36:14.080 people volunteered and you know, only I think two or 0:36:14.080 --> 0:36:15.960 three went down to Walmart to get a bunch of 0:36:15.960 --> 0:36:17.960 more burgers and hot dogs, and it was just a 0:36:18.000 --> 0:36:18.720 really cool moment. 0:36:18.960 --> 0:36:20.840 So I think by the end the end of the 0:36:20.920 --> 0:36:22.760 night when I was there, there were about five hundred 0:36:22.760 --> 0:36:26.319 people just enjoying the music and looking at the sky. 0:36:26.440 --> 0:36:28.720 It was just an immaculate vibe. There was a little 0:36:28.840 --> 0:36:32.560 fire pick off to the side. And yeah, you talked 0:36:32.560 --> 0:36:34.480 about the setting up the stage. You know, I didn't 0:36:34.520 --> 0:36:38.560 know what to expect walking in there is not expecting 0:36:39.520 --> 0:36:42.080 quite that much of a production. I wasn't expecting a 0:36:42.239 --> 0:36:46.040 light pledged stage with lights all around sort of in 0:36:46.080 --> 0:36:49.160 this really like the lighting worked really well for it's 0:36:49.719 --> 0:36:51.600 it backdropped the surrounding for. 0:36:51.719 --> 0:36:53.959 It like nice like green and purple lighting. 0:36:54.040 --> 0:36:55.399 Yeah, it was. It was great. 0:36:55.760 --> 0:36:58.439 And then they had that green room tent back there, 0:36:58.480 --> 0:37:00.360 and then they had a separate tent for a quick like. 0:37:00.800 --> 0:37:04.960 It was a very well thought out festival in the 0:37:04.960 --> 0:37:05.640 middle of nowhere. 0:37:06.040 --> 0:37:09.480 The South River Music Festival began early Saturday evening at 0:37:09.520 --> 0:37:12.600 five point thirty, kicking off two days of local musical 0:37:12.640 --> 0:37:16.880 artists playing shows free of charge. Before the lineup of 0:37:16.920 --> 0:37:20.320 live music began. Someone on stage read out a small 0:37:20.360 --> 0:37:24.000 flyer that was being passed around, detailing the reasoning for 0:37:24.080 --> 0:37:27.160 the festival and its place within the fight to defend 0:37:27.200 --> 0:37:30.760 the forest, and I got permission to share that reading. 0:37:31.400 --> 0:37:35.160 In the limitless possibilities of the cosmos, in the mad 0:37:35.280 --> 0:37:39.680 flecks of events, reactions and anomalies of the past twelve 0:37:39.760 --> 0:37:43.440 billion years since the birth of our universe, it's a 0:37:43.480 --> 0:37:46.360 statistical impossibility. 0:37:45.520 --> 0:37:49.520 That we would be here now, But here we are alive. 0:37:49.600 --> 0:37:54.839 Together Such incredible circumstances have brought us here. Among them 0:37:54.920 --> 0:37:59.000 the incredible and innovative resistance to defend this place. From 0:37:59.080 --> 0:38:02.000 becoming a poet least training compound. 0:38:05.239 --> 0:38:07.400 Magic mushrooms out. 0:38:07.840 --> 0:38:11.040 This resistance, which brings us together the most cunning and 0:38:11.080 --> 0:38:15.880 resilient techniques of the radical environmentalist movement with the incredible 0:38:15.960 --> 0:38:19.560 courage and ferocity of the George Floyd Uprising, is not 0:38:19.719 --> 0:38:21.320 just about a small piece of land. 0:38:21.840 --> 0:38:23.360 It's not about being fought. 0:38:23.200 --> 0:38:26.359 Between police and their goons on one hand and some 0:38:26.400 --> 0:38:29.640 activists and their friends on the other. We are witnessing 0:38:29.680 --> 0:38:33.440 a collision of two competing ideas of happiness. 0:38:32.760 --> 0:38:34.160 Of life, of the future. 0:38:37.160 --> 0:38:40.600 In this competition experiments with new types of free culture 0:38:40.680 --> 0:38:44.319 play a decisive role. This movement cannot be reduced to 0:38:44.360 --> 0:38:48.080 what is happening in city hall, on social media, or 0:38:48.120 --> 0:38:52.840 in meetings. For two years, we have descended on these woods, 0:38:52.880 --> 0:38:56.280 finding refuge from the high rents and predatory bookings fees 0:38:56.360 --> 0:38:59.560 of the corporate venues and bars. We have not come 0:38:59.600 --> 0:39:03.759 here to redecorate the actions of some activists as allies, 0:39:03.880 --> 0:39:06.759 lending our service to the drab and loveless militancy of 0:39:06.800 --> 0:39:10.760 something we do not otherwise care about. As the gentrification 0:39:10.880 --> 0:39:14.920 of Atlanta intensifies, more and more diy venues and clubs 0:39:15.160 --> 0:39:18.040 are shutdown, and free spaces to play, shows and dance 0:39:18.080 --> 0:39:21.440 are push further and further from the city center. Our 0:39:21.480 --> 0:39:24.439 free time is pinched as rents increase and traffic keeps 0:39:24.520 --> 0:39:25.880 us waiting longer and longer. 0:39:26.480 --> 0:39:31.720 That is going to change. 0:39:31.920 --> 0:39:34.840 Music is not like other forms of human culture. It 0:39:34.880 --> 0:39:40.400 is different from painting, drawing, poetry, literature, or film art. Politics, 0:39:40.440 --> 0:39:45.000 and symbolic culture in general represent the passions conjuring strong 0:39:45.040 --> 0:39:48.080 feelings from the shadows of reality, pulling them from the 0:39:48.120 --> 0:39:50.760 depths of the soul or the back of consciousness. 0:39:51.280 --> 0:39:53.000 Music, on the other hand. 0:39:53.280 --> 0:39:56.960 Is perhaps the only form of human creativity that contacts 0:39:57.040 --> 0:40:02.360 those feelings without any mediations. Music is physics, music is reality. 0:40:04.120 --> 0:40:06.680 The system we live in is at war with reality. 0:40:07.160 --> 0:40:11.839 The system is destroying forests, rivers, mountaintops, and oceans. It's 0:40:11.920 --> 0:40:16.080 destroying our imaginations, our bodies, and our world. To defend 0:40:16.120 --> 0:40:19.440 ourselves from certain annihilation, it will not be sufficient to 0:40:19.480 --> 0:40:23.000 strike the right notes at the right time. We will 0:40:23.040 --> 0:40:25.800 have to make recourse to other means, to more direct means, 0:40:26.120 --> 0:40:32.640 and that is why we're all here. The defend the 0:40:32.680 --> 0:40:36.719 Atlanta Forest Revolution will be economic, political, as well as cultural. 0:40:37.200 --> 0:40:40.120 We're building a new era of human history where music 0:40:40.160 --> 0:40:42.880 will be at the steering wheel. What is needed cannot 0:40:42.880 --> 0:40:46.680 be taught without first being discovered. We are those adventurers 0:40:46.880 --> 0:40:49.560 plunging the depths of the cosmos for the contours and 0:40:49.600 --> 0:40:53.080 textures of a free existence, of a life without dead time. 0:40:54.000 --> 0:40:56.440 When it is necessary, we will defend ourselves by the 0:40:56.480 --> 0:41:00.000 means appropriate to the task. Not with words, not with denunciation, 0:41:00.600 --> 0:41:04.520 but with actions, real and concrete, actions as real as 0:41:04.520 --> 0:41:09.040 this sounds, as real as reality. 0:41:10.040 --> 0:41:12.160 I'm so lucky to be here with y'all. Thank you. 0:41:13.480 --> 0:41:16.080 Across the middle of the field, hundreds of people laid 0:41:16.120 --> 0:41:20.480 out blankets on the grass and dirt. Concertgoers alternated between 0:41:20.520 --> 0:41:23.319 a dancing in front of the stage and relaxing and 0:41:23.400 --> 0:41:27.439 eating food on picnic blankets. As the night approached, over 0:41:27.480 --> 0:41:30.440 a thousand people were spread out across the RC field. 0:41:31.000 --> 0:41:33.520 Amoshe pit had formed directly in front of the stage. 0:41:34.000 --> 0:41:38.520 Musicians led stop Coopcity chants, and between sets, people spoke 0:41:38.560 --> 0:41:39.800 on mic about the movement. 0:41:40.640 --> 0:41:45.960 Everybody say stop cop City, Stop cop City. 0:41:48.000 --> 0:41:49.000 That's right, that's right. 0:41:49.360 --> 0:41:52.920 Saturday Night was headlined by local Atlanta rapper Zach Fox. 0:41:53.600 --> 0:41:56.160 Zach told stories about how he and his friends used 0:41:56.200 --> 0:41:58.840 to hang out in this very forest as teenagers. 0:41:59.400 --> 0:42:02.920 All Right, man, hey, i'm gonna say this, Fuck the mayor. 0:42:05.840 --> 0:42:08.640 I'm gonna say this, fuck the mayor, and fuck all 0:42:08.640 --> 0:42:13.160 this shit. And I love everybody for coming out to 0:42:13.200 --> 0:42:13.960 support this ship. 0:42:14.040 --> 0:42:15.360 And you're really fucking. 0:42:19.440 --> 0:42:21.160 When I tell you me, Archie. 0:42:21.239 --> 0:42:23.520 Everybody used to walk back in these woods and drink 0:42:23.600 --> 0:42:28.840 red stripes and and walk our dogs and shoot guns 0:42:28.880 --> 0:42:32.600 and shiit. So I really don't want to see this 0:42:32.600 --> 0:42:35.920 shit happen. And I really appreciate Allia for coming out 0:42:35.960 --> 0:42:36.480 to do this shit. 0:42:37.920 --> 0:42:41.399 Fuck cop City Chance erupted pretty regularly throughout the night. 0:42:42.080 --> 0:42:43.520 And this is all I'm gonna tell the police. This 0:42:43.560 --> 0:42:45.080 is all I'm gonna tell the police. Okay, hold on, 0:42:45.200 --> 0:42:46.560 let me make sure I push the right button. 0:42:53.840 --> 0:42:59.840 Say that ship. Let's go. Fucking run it. Fucking run it. Fucko, 0:43:00.080 --> 0:43:05.560 run it, fucking run it, fucking run it, fucking run it. 0:43:06.480 --> 0:43:13.719 FUCKO, run it, Atlanta. I love y'all so much. 0:43:13.760 --> 0:43:22.359 Man, Hell yeah, hey, man, let me say something real quick. 0:43:22.400 --> 0:43:23.800 Let me say something real quick before I get the 0:43:23.800 --> 0:43:25.719 fuck out saves. Let my hummies right this shit. I 0:43:25.800 --> 0:43:28.279 love y'all so much for supporting this shit I have. 0:43:28.920 --> 0:43:31.120 Let me tell you. Let me tell you something. I'm 0:43:31.160 --> 0:43:33.040 thirty two. A lot of niggas start getting old and 0:43:33.040 --> 0:43:34.640 they lose faith in the youth. I got so much 0:43:34.640 --> 0:43:41.640 faith in everybody in this motherfucking bitch. Wherever y'all going, 0:43:41.760 --> 0:43:43.880 I'm going, I truly believe that y'all gonna save this 0:43:43.920 --> 0:43:44.720 motherfucking world. 0:43:44.800 --> 0:43:45.720 So I'm with y'all. 0:43:46.920 --> 0:43:54.160 Fuck cop City, fuck cops in general, fuck twelve, fuck authoritarianism, 0:43:54.160 --> 0:43:56.560 fuck capitalism, fuck all that bullshit. I'm with y'all to 0:43:56.600 --> 0:44:02.600 the end. So I motherfucking die so let me hear 0:44:02.680 --> 0:44:03.879 y'all say this one more time. 0:44:04.200 --> 0:44:13.400 Start bawow, start bobow. Stiit bob wow, side bobow. 0:44:14.560 --> 0:44:17.800 Besides the domestic terrorism banner I mentioned in the opening 0:44:17.800 --> 0:44:21.040 of this episode, another banner was hung up beside the 0:44:21.080 --> 0:44:26.240 stage featuring turtles and butterflies, along with the Asada Shakur quote. 0:44:26.680 --> 0:44:29.480 Love is our sword, truth is our compass. 0:44:31.120 --> 0:44:31.640 This kind of. 0:44:31.680 --> 0:44:35.440 Music is about the Nazi to nature, filling the trees, 0:44:36.440 --> 0:44:38.080 feeling the ground, filling each other. 0:44:39.680 --> 0:44:42.040 Look right up there, look. 0:44:41.880 --> 0:44:42.840 At the fucking moon. 0:44:46.560 --> 0:44:50.560 To quote a communicate from the Sonic Defense Committee quote. 0:44:50.719 --> 0:44:53.840 At this point, it was impossible to imagine a meaningful 0:44:53.880 --> 0:44:57.840 police intervention. The crowd was made up of elderly people, 0:44:58.000 --> 0:45:03.239 university students, rappers and did US activists, toddlers and newborns, skaters, 0:45:03.560 --> 0:45:08.120 people of all imaginable Atlanta demographics. The night ended around 0:45:08.200 --> 0:45:11.640 three thirty am to sounds of house techno and drum 0:45:11.680 --> 0:45:13.560 and bass without any notable incident. 0:45:13.840 --> 0:45:15.040 Unquote. 0:45:15.239 --> 0:45:18.000 Tents were set up all over the eastern side of 0:45:18.040 --> 0:45:21.040 the forest, with many people choosing to sleep under the 0:45:21.040 --> 0:45:24.160 tree canopy between the living room and the music festival 0:45:24.239 --> 0:45:27.280 for that first night. As the night went on, people 0:45:27.400 --> 0:45:31.440 carefully tended small campfires both in the festival field and 0:45:31.560 --> 0:45:33.680 in the middle of the living room. To quote the 0:45:33.680 --> 0:45:37.640 Press Collective, the movement was once again living in joyous 0:45:37.640 --> 0:45:42.040 harmony with the forest it had promised to protect. Tomorrow's 0:45:42.080 --> 0:45:45.239 episode will cover day two of the music festival, the 0:45:45.360 --> 0:45:49.400 frankly unprecedented direct action that took place Sunday afternoon, and 0:45:49.600 --> 0:45:52.640 a more detailed look at the police raid that happened 0:45:52.760 --> 0:45:59.520 later that evening. See you on the other side, welcome 0:45:59.560 --> 0:46:02.600 back to it could happen here. This is part two 0:46:02.760 --> 0:46:05.680 of my mini series detailing the March Week of Action 0:46:05.880 --> 0:46:10.080 to defend the Atlanta Forest and stop Coop City. Last episode, 0:46:10.160 --> 0:46:13.040 we covered the Week of Action kickoff rally at Gresham 0:46:13.080 --> 0:46:16.520 Park and day one of the South River Music Festival. 0:46:17.200 --> 0:46:19.640 Will be picking up basically right where we left off, 0:46:20.040 --> 0:46:23.280 starting with my conversation with Matt from the Atlanta Community 0:46:23.280 --> 0:46:26.080 Press Collective. Saturday night, there was music going on to 0:46:26.200 --> 0:46:28.880 like four am. It was a long night, but like 0:46:29.000 --> 0:46:31.600 a really good night. What was your Sunday? 0:46:31.680 --> 0:46:33.480 Like Sunday? 0:46:33.600 --> 0:46:37.279 You know, Sunday started off really great, Like walking in 0:46:37.320 --> 0:46:39.239 the first thing you see when you walked back onto 0:46:39.239 --> 0:46:44.040 the festival grounds was this amazing bouncy house that they 0:46:44.040 --> 0:46:46.839 had written some guidelines up there that it did seem 0:46:46.880 --> 0:46:50.520 like everyone followed. You could fit six adults, which like 0:46:50.600 --> 0:46:53.160 for a bouncy house, that's pretty large. 0:46:53.239 --> 0:46:54.560 It was a big bouncy house. 0:46:55.080 --> 0:46:56.640 It was like six of dollars through twelve kids or 0:46:56.680 --> 0:47:00.840 something like that. So, yeah, you see bouncy house and 0:47:00.880 --> 0:47:03.560 like when you see that the first thing, but I 0:47:03.560 --> 0:47:08.960 think that visually sets the entire expectation, like that is 0:47:09.040 --> 0:47:11.680 a statement in and of itself of like what they 0:47:11.719 --> 0:47:13.160 were going for that first. 0:47:12.960 --> 0:47:16.520 Day, Day two of the music festival started around noon. 0:47:17.160 --> 0:47:19.200 Right in the middle of the RC field was this 0:47:19.440 --> 0:47:23.440 large rainbow colored bouncy castle adorned with a stop Copcity banner. 0:47:24.000 --> 0:47:27.000 People slowly trickled in all over the course of the afternoon, 0:47:27.280 --> 0:47:30.080 culminating in about a thousand people scattered across the field 0:47:30.200 --> 0:47:33.800 by four pm. Just like the night before, people enjoyed 0:47:33.840 --> 0:47:37.680 free food, Defend the Forest related literature, and a bustling 0:47:37.719 --> 0:47:41.440 refreshment booth while listening to live music. People played a 0:47:41.480 --> 0:47:44.719 soccer and frisbee in the open field, while others were 0:47:44.800 --> 0:47:48.360 continuing to build camp infrastructure in the forest. 0:47:48.560 --> 0:47:51.480 So I think the bouncy Castle set the tone, and 0:47:51.520 --> 0:47:54.400 everything was really lighthearted for the first few hours. I 0:47:54.680 --> 0:48:01.400 spent most of that day walking around watching the autonomous 0:48:01.400 --> 0:48:04.120 infrastructure in the forest kind of pop up on its own. 0:48:04.840 --> 0:48:07.600 It's like everywhere I went, you know, to the parking lot, 0:48:07.840 --> 0:48:13.440 you saw trains of people carrying like water and supplies 0:48:13.680 --> 0:48:16.879 deep into the forest. Everyone seemed to just be trying 0:48:16.920 --> 0:48:19.280 to find a place to fit in and to work 0:48:19.400 --> 0:48:22.080 and to really participate in the week of Action. 0:48:22.880 --> 0:48:25.920 As the day went on, rumors started to circulate about 0:48:25.960 --> 0:48:30.720 inaction happening later that afternoon. Word quickly spread that people 0:48:30.760 --> 0:48:35.160 would meet up in the RC field at five pm. Eventually, 0:48:35.200 --> 0:48:38.239 a flyer was posted to social media, and sure enough, 0:48:38.360 --> 0:48:41.240 come five o'clock, a group of a few hundred people 0:48:41.440 --> 0:48:45.160 made up of individuals and affinity groups, gathered behind the 0:48:45.200 --> 0:48:48.480 bouncy Castle, most of whom were masked up and a 0:48:48.560 --> 0:48:52.440 donning some form of black block or camo block. A 0:48:52.480 --> 0:48:55.560 communicating posted later on the website scenes dot no blogs 0:48:55.600 --> 0:48:59.200 dot org described the feeling on the ground quote the 0:48:59.239 --> 0:49:04.239 air was tense, no visible rage, just a stealed determination. 0:49:04.960 --> 0:49:07.359 No one knew what was coming next, but we knew 0:49:07.400 --> 0:49:09.400 it was something big that. 0:49:09.680 --> 0:49:12.359 That was quite the visual like this, this crowd of 0:49:12.440 --> 0:49:15.800 Camo and black block and like some people wearing normal 0:49:15.840 --> 0:49:18.160 clothes who I don't think quite knew what they were 0:49:18.160 --> 0:49:23.560 about to do next to this massive bouncy castle. And 0:49:25.200 --> 0:49:27.520 I think that that the visual of it kind of 0:49:27.560 --> 0:49:32.239 represents like two aspects of the movement, right, like the 0:49:32.360 --> 0:49:35.759 militant aspect and the joyful aspect, and I think they're 0:49:35.800 --> 0:49:40.560 both very central to what you know, the movement is. 0:49:40.760 --> 0:49:44.200 Yeah, it's a pretty good encapsulation of the diversity present 0:49:45.000 --> 0:49:47.680 around the Defend the Forest and Stop cup City movement. 0:49:48.320 --> 0:49:49.040 There's a few. 0:49:48.920 --> 0:49:52.799 Hundred people in Camo Block walking down, I believe is 0:49:52.840 --> 0:49:56.960 a constitution, a lot of people addressed in Black Block, 0:49:57.800 --> 0:50:08.800 mix of legal observers here, police shoppers overhead are Currently 0:50:08.840 --> 0:50:15.879 people are marching west in the direction of the old 0:50:15.920 --> 0:50:20.160 Atlanta prison farm, the slate of the forest that cop 0:50:20.200 --> 0:50:23.840 City is planned to be built on. There has not 0:50:23.920 --> 0:50:28.160 really been a mass convergence of people like this in 0:50:28.239 --> 0:50:31.720 the forest in a long long time. I cannot remember 0:50:31.760 --> 0:50:33.840 the last time there was anything quite like this. This 0:50:33.920 --> 0:50:37.160 is definitely the biggest group of people who's ever like 0:50:37.360 --> 0:50:41.400 converged on marching on the old Atlanta Prison farm area. 0:50:42.440 --> 0:50:45.640 Last year, people were occupying and living in the forest 0:50:45.640 --> 0:50:48.959 in that side. Since the repression has intensified, more people 0:50:49.000 --> 0:50:52.000 have moved over across on the other side of the 0:50:52.080 --> 0:50:55.400 Churchman Creek Park, on the slate of land closer to 0:50:55.440 --> 0:51:00.160 Wollani People's Park and the section that Lion MILLSAP is 0:51:00.160 --> 0:51:04.920 wanting to develop. Definitely never seen this many people marching 0:51:04.960 --> 0:51:10.080 like this near the forest. In a much more militant 0:51:10.120 --> 0:51:14.439 seeming group of the crowd, as opposed to Saturday's first march, 0:51:14.440 --> 0:51:18.840 which was like a thousand people of various types. Everyone 0:51:18.840 --> 0:51:23.520 here looks much more willing to throw down. As the group, 0:51:23.600 --> 0:51:27.480 around three hundred strong, left the RC field, they calmly 0:51:27.520 --> 0:51:31.440 marched west down Constitution Road toward the power line cut, 0:51:31.760 --> 0:51:36.480 accompanied overhead by a police chopper equipped with a thermal camera. 0:51:37.120 --> 0:51:39.080 Popped as still overhead. I'm sure you can hear it. 0:51:40.960 --> 0:51:43.600 To get a clear picture of what actually happened that day. 0:51:43.920 --> 0:51:47.640 It's useful to understand the geography of the Wilauni Forest, 0:51:48.160 --> 0:51:50.600 especially since the police have tried to make it sound 0:51:50.680 --> 0:51:53.560 like the individuals who were arrested later that night were 0:51:53.680 --> 0:51:56.600 apprehended at this scene of the crime, which is not 0:51:56.760 --> 0:51:57.600 actually the case. 0:51:58.040 --> 0:52:01.000 The entire area that the defenders are trying to defend, 0:52:01.040 --> 0:52:05.560 the entire Weilani Forest, the contiguous part of it is 0:52:05.960 --> 0:52:10.320 surrounded in sort of a triangle by three different roads, Constitution, 0:52:10.520 --> 0:52:14.319 Key and Bouldercrest. All the way to the east is 0:52:14.360 --> 0:52:18.319 Wilani People's Park, and like just to the west of 0:52:18.360 --> 0:52:21.560 that is the RC Field where the music festival was happening, 0:52:21.560 --> 0:52:25.480 where the bouncy castle is and where our group that 0:52:25.520 --> 0:52:29.400 we're following here starts to gather. And then all the 0:52:29.440 --> 0:52:34.560 way to the west is the proposed site of copp 0:52:34.640 --> 0:52:39.359 City along Key Road. So to get there through the 0:52:39.400 --> 0:52:44.680 forest takes a good thirty forty five minutes to get there, 0:52:44.760 --> 0:52:46.520 you know, if you're on the road, is still like 0:52:46.800 --> 0:52:49.920 a twenty five thirty minute walk. It is not like 0:52:50.400 --> 0:52:55.160 anywhere close on foot. No, it's from point A to 0:52:55.160 --> 0:52:55.480 point B. 0:52:55.600 --> 0:52:57.160 And if you're crossing through the woods, you also have 0:52:57.200 --> 0:53:00.319 to like jump over Entrenchment Creek, which is not the 0:53:00.360 --> 0:53:02.000 easiest creek to cross over. 0:53:02.560 --> 0:53:05.080 It's not the easiest and it's not the cleanest something 0:53:05.120 --> 0:53:05.759 you want to step in. 0:53:06.360 --> 0:53:07.279 I'm at the back of the march. 0:53:07.320 --> 0:53:10.880 Now everyone's kind of tightened up into one larger, larger group. 0:53:11.400 --> 0:53:15.000 They've paused briefly and are retrieving some tires that have 0:53:15.080 --> 0:53:21.680 been found near the ditch on the road here, dozens 0:53:21.719 --> 0:53:25.239 and dozens of tires are blocking are blocking the road. 0:53:26.520 --> 0:53:28.560 They're getting moved out pretty quick and the march is 0:53:28.560 --> 0:53:31.440 moving on. Oh, and looks like people arrived at the 0:53:31.440 --> 0:53:35.719 power line cut. This massive clearing for power lines to 0:53:35.800 --> 0:53:40.520 run north south. People are now marching on the green 0:53:40.640 --> 0:53:44.560 grass underneath the power lines. The thin clear cut for 0:53:44.680 --> 0:53:48.000 power lines has been there for years and directly leads 0:53:48.040 --> 0:53:51.000 to where cop City pre construction work is taking place 0:53:51.320 --> 0:53:54.560 near the North Gate. The open area makes it easy 0:53:54.640 --> 0:53:56.960 to traverse, but on the flip side that also makes 0:53:57.000 --> 0:54:00.279 it easy to surveil. There were only a little over 0:54:00.320 --> 0:54:03.040 a dozen cops stationed at the North Gate, as well 0:54:03.080 --> 0:54:06.520 as the police chopper circling overhead. The group of block 0:54:06.640 --> 0:54:09.959 is slowly, slowly moving north along the power line cut. 0:54:10.560 --> 0:54:12.839 I'm keeping my distance for now so that I can 0:54:13.360 --> 0:54:18.480 continue doing stuff without being extremely jeopardized. The block approached 0:54:18.520 --> 0:54:21.080 the North Gate in broad daylight, with shields in hand 0:54:21.320 --> 0:54:24.800 and people behind throwing projectiles in the direction of police, 0:54:25.360 --> 0:54:28.800 a barrage of fireworks, rocks, and just the sheer size 0:54:28.800 --> 0:54:32.680 of the crowd overwhelmed police, causing officers to retreat as 0:54:32.719 --> 0:54:35.839 a swarm of hundreds of people overtook the proposed cop 0:54:35.880 --> 0:54:39.920 city construction site and current police security upost within the 0:54:39.960 --> 0:54:42.680 Wollani Forest. All right, the group has marched a decent 0:54:42.719 --> 0:54:46.880 ways up. There's now fireworks in the distance. Police helicopter 0:54:46.960 --> 0:54:49.320 is still overhead. Looks like most of the crowd is 0:54:49.360 --> 0:54:52.200 still in the area of the power line cut. 0:54:52.320 --> 0:54:53.120 Pretty condensed. 0:54:53.200 --> 0:54:56.279 Large group of people up there, lots of fireworks. Like 0:54:56.360 --> 0:54:59.600 I said, some individuals chose to focus their efforts on 0:55:00.000 --> 0:55:03.680 pelling the nearby police, giving the opportunity for others to 0:55:03.680 --> 0:55:07.200 set their sights on various targets. The large number of 0:55:07.239 --> 0:55:10.760 people in the block together allowed for individuals to feel 0:55:10.880 --> 0:55:14.480 more safe and capable of taking action. The APDs put 0:55:14.480 --> 0:55:16.440 a call out to get any available units down here 0:55:16.440 --> 0:55:18.920 by the old line of prison farm property and a 0:55:19.000 --> 0:55:23.240 quote from the scanner audios get here now assholes. Forest 0:55:23.239 --> 0:55:27.680 defenders smashed up and set ablaze and office trailer, two UTVs, 0:55:28.080 --> 0:55:31.440 a surveillance tower and a front end loader as the 0:55:31.440 --> 0:55:34.440 police ran for cover behind a fenced off secondary, smaller 0:55:34.440 --> 0:55:39.400 outpost across from Key Road, despite the police helicopter circling 0:55:39.440 --> 0:55:42.600 overhead the gathering spot for a good thirty minutes. It 0:55:42.640 --> 0:55:46.480 seems APD was not fully prepared in their response or 0:55:46.560 --> 0:55:49.319 just did not know what was going on, because they 0:55:49.440 --> 0:55:52.319 made a decent way without any visible resistance so far. 0:55:52.960 --> 0:55:56.839 A communicate posted online reads quote when we approached the gate, 0:55:56.880 --> 0:56:00.319 finally it was not chaos, but it was something like it. 0:56:00.880 --> 0:56:04.160 Our crowd unleashed a wild burst of energy. It was 0:56:04.200 --> 0:56:07.240 incredible and I will never forget it. It was rhythmic 0:56:07.360 --> 0:56:12.120 almost We devastated all of their work, their vehicles, the trailer, everything. 0:56:12.600 --> 0:56:15.799 But it looks like Atlanta Police is now trying to converge. 0:56:16.040 --> 0:56:19.320 Lots of fireworks are still. I see smoke. Oh, a 0:56:19.360 --> 0:56:22.680 lot of smoke. WHOA A lot of smoke very fast 0:56:22.840 --> 0:56:26.640 is filling up, filling up the area around the little 0:56:27.120 --> 0:56:29.239 It looks like it's by the little control tower in 0:56:29.280 --> 0:56:32.800 the middle of the power line cut. Wow, that smoke 0:56:32.880 --> 0:56:35.840 is thick. That's a fire. That is a decent fire. 0:56:35.880 --> 0:56:38.279 You can I can see the orange flame now as 0:56:38.360 --> 0:56:40.799 the few police officers stationed at the North Gate were 0:56:40.840 --> 0:56:44.920 forced to fall back under pressure. Force defenders leveled months 0:56:44.960 --> 0:56:48.000 of their work within a few minutes. To quote the 0:56:48.239 --> 0:56:51.720 scenes dot no blocks communicate quote. This act of mass 0:56:51.800 --> 0:56:56.520 collective sabotage was done methodically and without anxiety. The crowd 0:56:56.600 --> 0:56:59.920 destroyed all of their equipment with ease and confidence. 0:57:00.440 --> 0:57:06.040 So the excavator there was a utility train vehicle, which 0:57:06.080 --> 0:57:08.560 is what the police have been using to sort of 0:57:09.120 --> 0:57:12.840 move in and around the woods, and sort of motorized 0:57:12.880 --> 0:57:18.320 move in and around the woods. And then the office 0:57:18.320 --> 0:57:20.640 space and the storage space. 0:57:21.400 --> 0:57:22.840 We're all torched. 0:57:23.360 --> 0:57:26.320 I think that that comprised like everything that was over. 0:57:26.120 --> 0:57:30.040 There, and then the police surveillance tower, which has been 0:57:30.040 --> 0:57:31.160 taken down a few times. 0:57:31.160 --> 0:57:33.880 Surveillance towers in that area, they have this tendency. 0:57:33.400 --> 0:57:33.960 To fall over. 0:57:34.680 --> 0:57:37.800 The fire has gotten a lot lot bigger. Police scanner 0:57:37.800 --> 0:57:41.640 audio is saying officer needs help, calling for all available 0:57:41.720 --> 0:57:44.439 units to converge on the spot. Wow O, the fire 0:57:44.480 --> 0:57:47.800 is getting so much brighter, smoke is incredibly thick. It 0:57:47.800 --> 0:57:50.040 looks like some people are starting to move out of 0:57:50.080 --> 0:57:51.240 the area back into the woods. 0:57:51.800 --> 0:57:52.920 But wow, that is. 0:57:52.880 --> 0:57:57.400 A huge fire. It was at least two separate things 0:57:57.560 --> 0:58:00.200 lit on fire. There were, in fact, more than two 0:58:00.240 --> 0:58:03.120 things on fire. Looks like crowd is going to be 0:58:03.160 --> 0:58:05.680 starting to move because a lot of police is about 0:58:05.680 --> 0:58:08.040 to show up. Unsure what the response will be for 0:58:08.160 --> 0:58:11.240 people at the music festival or at a Wolani People's 0:58:11.280 --> 0:58:13.000 park who are camping out for the Week of Action. 0:58:13.720 --> 0:58:17.200 But this is a pretty pretty big action for Week 0:58:17.240 --> 0:58:21.160 of Action Day two. Wow, this smoke plume is massive. 0:58:25.280 --> 0:58:28.760 While the action itself was a success, the notion of 0:58:28.800 --> 0:58:32.840 an overall one sided victory was about to come crashing down. 0:58:33.240 --> 0:58:36.280 A whole bunch of sirens just flew by about a 0:58:36.280 --> 0:58:39.560 dozen cop cars, lots of cop cars by the music 0:58:39.560 --> 0:58:42.800 festival entrants as well by the RC field. Looks like 0:58:42.840 --> 0:58:47.080 the cop cars are converging at the festival, not at 0:58:47.200 --> 0:58:51.200 the fire. Okay, back at the music festival. As you 0:58:51.200 --> 0:58:55.760 can hear, it is it is. It is still ongoing. 0:58:55.760 --> 0:58:58.560 There's still hundreds of people, probably like five hundred people 0:58:58.640 --> 0:59:01.520 gathered here at the music festival. You can see smoke 0:59:01.600 --> 0:59:05.560 in the air from this vantage point, from the spot 0:59:05.640 --> 0:59:07.840 by the power line cut where. 0:59:07.920 --> 0:59:10.120 Those two fires took place. 0:59:11.000 --> 0:59:13.680 One indication that this night was far from over was 0:59:13.720 --> 0:59:17.200 that the police helicopter seemed to be moving toward the festival. 0:59:17.640 --> 0:59:20.080 The chopper has moved from being near the power line 0:59:20.080 --> 0:59:24.000 cut to the music festival and Wailani People's Park. Vibe 0:59:24.000 --> 0:59:25.960 seems to be pretty chill on the ground here. I'm 0:59:26.000 --> 0:59:28.320 not sure how many people that are present know what's 0:59:28.360 --> 0:59:32.480 going on, but the chopper is still stationed above the 0:59:32.680 --> 0:59:35.160 entrance to the festival, so I think they're looking to 0:59:35.200 --> 0:59:38.040 see if the group that march is going to march 0:59:38.040 --> 0:59:42.400 back the same direction, which I don't think they will, but. 0:59:42.440 --> 0:59:43.760 That is what's currently going on. 0:59:44.280 --> 0:59:46.840 People still still seem to be coming like to and 0:59:46.880 --> 0:59:51.840 from the festival. Sure enough, within minutes, an increasingly large 0:59:51.920 --> 0:59:55.360 number of police started to stage by the entrance to 0:59:55.400 --> 0:59:58.560 the RC field. Doesn't the police cars are now stationed 0:59:58.560 --> 1:00:00.480 outside the entrance to the RC field where the music 1:00:00.520 --> 1:00:03.439 festival is taking place. There's a lot of police here, 1:00:03.480 --> 1:00:06.840 some with rifles. They're getting their zip ti cuffs ready. 1:00:07.720 --> 1:00:10.400 They've not entered the festival area yet, but I got 1:00:10.400 --> 1:00:13.200 word from somebody that they have entered the Wolani People's 1:00:13.200 --> 1:00:18.720 Park parking lot and it looks like movement is to 1:00:18.760 --> 1:00:22.720 be expected very soon. At around six thirty pm, police 1:00:22.760 --> 1:00:25.600 began to raid the South River Music Festival and started 1:00:25.600 --> 1:00:29.000 what I think is accurately described as the police's own 1:00:29.080 --> 1:00:32.400 counter protest to the events that transpired the past hour. 1:00:33.040 --> 1:00:36.960 So when the police came running up onto the tarmac 1:00:37.000 --> 1:00:39.000 at Rcy Field where the bouncy castle was, of course 1:00:39.160 --> 1:00:42.960 they had to point a rifle at the bouncy castle. 1:00:43.440 --> 1:00:45.280 And if that doesn't show that police are not here 1:00:45.320 --> 1:00:48.040 to have fun and have joy, I don't know what is. 1:00:49.040 --> 1:00:50.680 I don't know if anyone was in it at the time. 1:00:50.680 --> 1:00:53.520 I don't think so. I think they were literally just 1:00:53.600 --> 1:00:58.880 pointing a gun at an empty bouncy castle, which they 1:00:58.920 --> 1:01:02.680 have they destroyed, And I think we have to take 1:01:02.680 --> 1:01:04.000 a moment to mourn that. 1:01:04.640 --> 1:01:06.840 Lots of police running into the music festival. 1:01:07.520 --> 1:01:12.959 They're running someone down, chasing down a few people, Cops 1:01:12.960 --> 1:01:17.080 approaching for multiple sides. Instead of immediately trying to confront 1:01:17.120 --> 1:01:20.800 the hundreds of music festival attendees head on, the still 1:01:20.880 --> 1:01:24.440 extremely outnumbered cops ran to the opposite side of the 1:01:24.520 --> 1:01:29.120 music festival and started to indiscriminately go after isolated stragglers 1:01:29.880 --> 1:01:36.800 people running into the woods trace by police. Someone's tackled, 1:01:38.520 --> 1:01:47.200 no one early arounded to arrest someone else being arrested one, two, three, 1:01:48.320 --> 1:01:52.480 four or five six people currently arrested that I can 1:01:52.520 --> 1:01:55.120 see or at least being detained. 1:01:56.360 --> 1:01:58.080 Looks like an NLG person's on the ground. 1:01:59.080 --> 1:02:02.440 Eventually, the certain goers realized what was happening, and a 1:02:02.440 --> 1:02:05.360 little over one hundred people mobilized to pressure the cops 1:02:05.480 --> 1:02:06.280 out of the field. 1:02:07.360 --> 1:02:07.800 People from the. 1:02:07.840 --> 1:02:12.120 Music festival are now running behind the police that have 1:02:12.960 --> 1:02:18.280 rushed into the RC field, cops being flanked by hundreds 1:02:18.280 --> 1:02:18.640 of people. 1:02:20.120 --> 1:02:23.320 So the first thing that happened was a few officers 1:02:23.400 --> 1:02:27.080 entered the RC field, which is where the music festival 1:02:27.120 --> 1:02:29.880 was happening, and made a few quick arrests. 1:02:30.000 --> 1:02:31.680 Yeah, like five or six, I would say. 1:02:31.520 --> 1:02:35.760 And I would assume, seeing like the crowd and realizing 1:02:35.800 --> 1:02:39.320 that a small force of officers is easily overwhelmed, kind 1:02:39.360 --> 1:02:42.960 of pulled back with their arrests. And then just after that, 1:02:43.120 --> 1:02:45.720 over in Wielani People's Park, that's when the CAB came 1:02:45.760 --> 1:02:48.360 in with their SWAT teams. There was a group that 1:02:48.440 --> 1:02:52.600 was meeting in the gazebo and they report like dozens 1:02:52.640 --> 1:02:56.680 of police officers running by. One of them stood up 1:02:56.720 --> 1:03:00.120 to record, and an officer with an ar fifteen and 1:03:00.200 --> 1:03:02.560 yelled at them and told them to sit the fuck 1:03:02.640 --> 1:03:05.840 back down, and they did. They were allowed to finish 1:03:05.840 --> 1:03:09.760 their meeting. But they report this very surreal experience of 1:03:10.040 --> 1:03:14.000 just officers like flying by and also making arrest of 1:03:14.360 --> 1:03:15.960 individuals who were running. 1:03:16.360 --> 1:03:17.680 And then the third. 1:03:17.440 --> 1:03:21.000 Wave, I would say, came in on the back of 1:03:21.080 --> 1:03:26.120 a armored police vehicle with an L RAD, good old 1:03:26.200 --> 1:03:27.120 DJ L rad. 1:03:28.120 --> 1:03:30.560 It brings it brings back all the memories. 1:03:30.280 --> 1:03:32.560 And so from there they sort of launched into the forest, 1:03:32.720 --> 1:03:33.600 launching tear. 1:03:33.400 --> 1:03:41.200 Gas again also brings back all of the memories. Police 1:03:41.240 --> 1:03:44.160 are starting to come back into the music festival. Fireworks 1:03:44.160 --> 1:03:46.800 are happening in the woods near the living room. 1:03:46.840 --> 1:03:47.360 It looks like. 1:03:49.400 --> 1:03:52.680 The police that entered via the RC field advanced up 1:03:52.720 --> 1:03:54.960 to join another group of cops who came in from 1:03:55.040 --> 1:03:58.680 Wolani People's Park and were already in the woods. What 1:03:58.800 --> 1:04:02.320 I first assumed were just fireworks were actually in exchange 1:04:02.360 --> 1:04:05.919 of munitions, with cops firing explosive tear gas canisters into 1:04:05.960 --> 1:04:08.560 the forest and people trying to hold the cops off 1:04:08.600 --> 1:04:09.440 with fireworks. 1:04:10.600 --> 1:04:15.160 Tear gas is in the woods. Fucked, it's hard. I 1:04:15.200 --> 1:04:18.120 can't get any I didn't I didn't bring my gas 1:04:18.160 --> 1:04:20.400 masks because this was a music festival. 1:04:20.680 --> 1:04:23.439 It's just the woods are completely caked and gas everyone 1:04:23.480 --> 1:04:25.960 who's inside. I don't know how they're gonna get out. 1:04:26.920 --> 1:04:29.240 Cops have the place surrounded. It's so gassed up in there. 1:04:29.840 --> 1:04:31.000 Police raided. 1:04:31.600 --> 1:04:34.520 They tear gased a section of the woods close to 1:04:34.560 --> 1:04:37.600 the RCA field, kind of blocking off the RCA Field 1:04:38.000 --> 1:04:41.480 from from the Wanni People's Park parking lot and the 1:04:41.480 --> 1:04:44.080 camp sits nearby, So you couldn't like really get away 1:04:44.160 --> 1:04:46.680 or run through that area because your breathing would stop, 1:04:47.440 --> 1:04:50.479 as mine temporarily did as I tried, as I tried 1:04:50.480 --> 1:04:54.640 to run through there, and then policer just took over 1:04:54.680 --> 1:04:58.960 this entire section of southeast Atlanta, just this entire section 1:04:59.000 --> 1:05:01.360 of the woods, all the intersections in this. 1:05:01.360 --> 1:05:06.400 Area, except for the very small space at the music 1:05:06.480 --> 1:05:09.960 festival was still going on during this entire time. 1:05:10.240 --> 1:05:12.320 The section like right in front of the stage where 1:05:12.320 --> 1:05:15.040 people continued to have the music festival for the next 1:05:15.040 --> 1:05:18.280 few hours. As police were as like, I kid you not, 1:05:18.480 --> 1:05:22.280 Like over five hundred police officers were in this surrounding area. 1:05:22.400 --> 1:05:25.080 There was the most amount of police I've ever seen 1:05:25.200 --> 1:05:29.320 respond to anything ever, it was wild. 1:05:29.560 --> 1:05:31.520 I am currently heading out. 1:05:31.560 --> 1:05:33.320 I will try to loop back around to a lot 1:05:33.320 --> 1:05:34.800 of People's Park because there's just no way through it 1:05:34.880 --> 1:05:38.120 right now with all the tear gas. But a cop 1:05:38.200 --> 1:05:41.560 van has pulled into the rc Field Music Festival. People, 1:05:41.600 --> 1:05:43.320 some of them are study by the stage, others are 1:05:43.400 --> 1:05:49.440 kind of dispersing. Night's getting pretty hectic. Cops fully surrounding 1:05:49.440 --> 1:05:52.560 a lot of People's Park and the music festival on 1:05:52.600 --> 1:05:55.479 all sides. There was at least one individual of note 1:05:55.480 --> 1:05:57.800 who was witnessed to be at the music festival the 1:05:57.960 --> 1:06:00.960 entire time during the direct action, and they were one 1:06:01.000 --> 1:06:04.439 of the very first arrests. Police chased this person down, 1:06:04.920 --> 1:06:08.200 tased and violently tackled them. Were you on the festival 1:06:08.440 --> 1:06:09.080 at that time? 1:06:09.840 --> 1:06:13.440 I was around the festival at that time. I even 1:06:13.600 --> 1:06:19.200 saw the police tackle someone at the festival and tackle 1:06:19.240 --> 1:06:24.040 and tase an indigenous person at the festival. And initially 1:06:24.240 --> 1:06:27.480 the police officer Georgia State Patrol and these are the 1:06:27.520 --> 1:06:31.080 folks that were responsible for killing Tortigita and making up 1:06:31.080 --> 1:06:34.920 a lie about it. They started running and there were 1:06:35.000 --> 1:06:37.439 three people in front of them. All three of those 1:06:37.480 --> 1:06:41.280 people started running and then there were two white folks 1:06:41.320 --> 1:06:44.360 that veered off to the left and one Indigenous person 1:06:44.440 --> 1:06:45.400 that veered off to the right. 1:06:46.320 --> 1:06:48.200 Go figure, the. 1:06:48.120 --> 1:06:51.520 Georgia State Patrol veered to the right and then tased 1:06:51.560 --> 1:06:56.160 and tackled the indigenous person. And then and there's the 1:06:56.200 --> 1:06:59.880 footage of this that may may not be released, where 1:07:00.920 --> 1:07:03.840 I was trying to de escalate the situation because this 1:07:03.960 --> 1:07:08.360 police officer, with no grounds to attack this person, is 1:07:08.520 --> 1:07:11.760 choking them on the ground and then really just asking 1:07:11.760 --> 1:07:16.280 you like literally what are you doing, Like why are 1:07:16.320 --> 1:07:19.360 you doing and then the persons that I didn't do anything, 1:07:19.480 --> 1:07:25.560 and then the Jorgia State Patrol officer responded, well, you ran, right, 1:07:25.760 --> 1:07:29.720 as if running when somebody with a gun chasing you 1:07:30.040 --> 1:07:36.240 is an admission of guilt of something. So the response 1:07:36.760 --> 1:07:38.920 was nonsensical and stupid. 1:07:39.680 --> 1:07:42.600 So they're tear gassing the forest and again, you know, 1:07:43.400 --> 1:07:49.560 grabbing from reports anyone who's who's running, anyone who who 1:07:50.280 --> 1:07:53.800 you know rightfully runs from a police officer running at 1:07:53.800 --> 1:07:57.080 them with an AR fifteen, which you know, we've been 1:07:57.120 --> 1:08:00.320 around police all week, and like the instinct to run, 1:08:00.720 --> 1:08:04.320 you know, even even now, is still pretty high. 1:08:04.400 --> 1:08:08.600 No, absolutely, and if you've never been chased by police before. 1:08:09.280 --> 1:08:12.480 Your first instinct isn't to like let them get you. 1:08:13.480 --> 1:08:16.759 Like I've had police just charge at me for filming 1:08:16.880 --> 1:08:20.639 police brutality before, and yeah, you generally want to move away. 1:08:21.000 --> 1:08:22.400 It is your immediate reaction. 1:08:22.840 --> 1:08:26.320 Yeah, anyone running at you with a gun is caused 1:08:26.320 --> 1:08:28.439 for fear and a police officer even more so. 1:08:29.040 --> 1:08:31.040 Okay, I am out of the area. 1:08:31.240 --> 1:08:33.960 Police have surrounded on basically every side of the line 1:08:33.960 --> 1:08:36.559 People's Park, the section of the four people are camping 1:08:36.600 --> 1:08:40.559 out of the music festival, All entrances and exits are stage, 1:08:40.680 --> 1:08:41.760 a whole bunch of intersections. 1:08:42.040 --> 1:08:42.959 This police stage. 1:08:43.160 --> 1:08:45.639 They're letting some people go, obviously they're arresting a whole bunch 1:08:45.640 --> 1:08:48.920 of other people. No clear indication on who they're arresting 1:08:49.000 --> 1:08:52.040 or why. It's pretty chaotic right now. 1:08:52.600 --> 1:08:55.920 They put out this officer needs help. Call that expanded 1:08:56.000 --> 1:08:58.839 beyond just APD. But the first thing they did was 1:08:58.840 --> 1:09:04.080 was calling every available APD officer. Fulton County Sheriff's Office 1:09:04.160 --> 1:09:06.800 joint to cab County started to mount up, and then 1:09:06.880 --> 1:09:09.760 of course the Georgia State Patrol definitely had to get 1:09:09.760 --> 1:09:14.280 in on this action. So jurisdictionally wide or this multi 1:09:14.320 --> 1:09:19.840 jurisdiction wide force of police amassed on Key Road with 1:09:20.280 --> 1:09:22.599 the cab kind of coming in on the other side. 1:09:23.080 --> 1:09:26.160 I passed through at least five hundred individual police officers. Yeah, 1:09:26.240 --> 1:09:29.400 that like that would check out because I walked a 1:09:29.479 --> 1:09:33.880 decent a decent, decent ways, I passed by many an 1:09:33.920 --> 1:09:37.200 intersection with at least fifty to one hundred cops was 1:09:37.240 --> 1:09:38.439 stationed at like each intersection. 1:09:38.800 --> 1:09:42.120 Oh and we can't forget the Sandy Springs Police Department 1:09:42.160 --> 1:09:45.000 also ends way down from outside the premier. 1:09:44.880 --> 1:09:48.480 Multiple swat teams. There was like I think three different bearcats. 1:09:48.760 --> 1:09:51.639 After I evacuated the area, I was still in shock 1:09:51.680 --> 1:09:55.280 about how many police officers mobilized to raid the festival. 1:09:55.960 --> 1:09:58.559 This is the biggest police response I've seen to anything 1:09:59.320 --> 1:10:02.479 in Atlanta in the time that I've been here. This 1:10:02.520 --> 1:10:04.200 is bigger than the police response is to most of 1:10:04.240 --> 1:10:08.040 like Portland actions compared to like twenty twenty, massive, massive 1:10:08.040 --> 1:10:12.120 amount of cops from multiple agencies taking over a huge 1:10:12.160 --> 1:10:20.840 area of South Atlanta and de kep County. As the 1:10:20.960 --> 1:10:24.240 second wave of police charged in and detained several music 1:10:24.280 --> 1:10:28.960 festival attendees, panic spread throughout the crowd. Hundreds of people 1:10:29.040 --> 1:10:32.320 rushed to the exits in an attempt to evacuate. Police 1:10:32.360 --> 1:10:36.559 blocked exits and arrested, detained, or harassed and threatened those 1:10:36.720 --> 1:10:41.080 trying to leave. One concertgoer reported that they received death 1:10:41.160 --> 1:10:51.920 threats from an intruding officer quote you're going to get shot. 1:10:52.000 --> 1:10:53.760 I don't know how to put it, but you're going 1:10:53.840 --> 1:10:57.200 to get shot with a bullet unquote. That same person 1:10:57.240 --> 1:11:00.720 who recorded that interaction also reported that you heard an 1:11:00.720 --> 1:11:03.120 officer with his side arm drawn in the living room 1:11:03.160 --> 1:11:05.960 is say, quote, I swear to God, I will fucking 1:11:06.080 --> 1:11:10.320 kill you unquote. Some people opted for safety in numbers 1:11:10.360 --> 1:11:13.200 and decided they'd rather stay together as a group as 1:11:13.200 --> 1:11:15.880 opposed to the risk of trying to escape through the 1:11:15.920 --> 1:11:19.599 woods alone. That night, about one hundred and fifty people 1:11:19.640 --> 1:11:23.320 congregated in front of the festival stage, and musicians that 1:11:23.360 --> 1:11:25.479 stuck around continued to play music. 1:11:25.880 --> 1:11:31.360 So the music festival continues unhindered until dusk, and about 1:11:31.400 --> 1:11:38.759 then is when DJ l Rad comes up and officers 1:11:38.760 --> 1:11:42.679 get out and call over like five people from the crowd. 1:11:43.080 --> 1:11:44.759 And so at this point I think there's like somewhere 1:11:44.840 --> 1:11:49.280 between one hundred seventy five to one hundred people still 1:11:49.280 --> 1:11:53.400 at the music fest, watching the music, and people are 1:11:53.600 --> 1:11:56.040 calling out from the stage like we have a legal 1:11:56.120 --> 1:11:59.240 right to be here, this is public property. 1:11:59.600 --> 1:12:05.439 We had we had dueling loud speakers trying to two 1:12:05.520 --> 1:12:09.720 people having a regular conversation across a field via opposing 1:12:09.760 --> 1:12:10.479 loud speakers. 1:12:10.560 --> 1:12:12.479 Very Scott Pilgrim versus the world right, like. 1:12:14.040 --> 1:12:15.880 You know, as the police are trying to shut down 1:12:15.880 --> 1:12:19.320 a concert, and there's like punks screaming into the bike 1:12:20.040 --> 1:12:22.840 and police officers using the yell red to scream back. 1:12:23.400 --> 1:12:26.080 It's just amazing. I mean, the visuals of this whole 1:12:26.120 --> 1:12:29.759 day I think are kind of really easy to imagine, 1:12:29.800 --> 1:12:30.800 even if you're not there. 1:12:30.960 --> 1:12:34.599 Yeah, Roughly after two hours of hunting down and detaining 1:12:34.640 --> 1:12:38.280 stragglers from the festival, dozens of swat in riot gear 1:12:38.439 --> 1:12:42.000 with high end rifles and armored vehicles slowly moved in 1:12:42.160 --> 1:12:46.160 towards the stage. Police told festival goers that they had 1:12:46.240 --> 1:12:49.200 three minutes to leave the festival under threat of arrest 1:12:49.360 --> 1:12:54.720 for domestic terrorism, to which festivalgoers responded by shouting no. 1:12:55.920 --> 1:12:58.360 In front of the stage. The crowd linked arms and 1:12:58.439 --> 1:13:05.800 enchanted let us go home. And we have children who 1:13:09.520 --> 1:13:12.519 apparently unable to mass arrest one hundred and fifty people. 1:13:12.560 --> 1:13:16.280 For whatever reason, police called for five individuals from the 1:13:16.320 --> 1:13:20.240 festival to engage in a brief discussion. After this odd 1:13:20.320 --> 1:13:24.920 negotiation with a handful of random concertgoers, festival attendees were 1:13:24.920 --> 1:13:27.400 told they had ten minutes to walk to their cars 1:13:27.439 --> 1:13:31.000 and go home or else be charged with domestic terrorism. 1:13:31.400 --> 1:13:35.080 About half the crowd has cars parked in the rc field, 1:13:35.680 --> 1:13:38.240 and the police allow them to go to their cars 1:13:38.320 --> 1:13:42.439 and leave, leaving like somewhere between you know, three dozen 1:13:43.560 --> 1:13:47.160 somewhere around three dozen people without cars still remaining at 1:13:47.200 --> 1:13:52.040 the festival, And this whole time they're also chanting, we 1:13:52.120 --> 1:13:55.240 have kids, let us go, and like it's this very 1:13:55.240 --> 1:13:58.840 big moment of solidarity that I've been told from like 1:13:59.000 --> 1:14:02.000 people who were there that you could tell that everybody 1:14:02.080 --> 1:14:04.599 was like really interested in keeping each other safe. 1:14:04.800 --> 1:14:07.720 Yeah, it was weird because police, definitely they were letting 1:14:07.760 --> 1:14:10.280 some people walk away and leave a place, some people 1:14:10.320 --> 1:14:14.040 drive away, arresting others not really with no clear indication 1:14:14.080 --> 1:14:16.840 for why they're letting some go and not letting others go. 1:14:17.360 --> 1:14:20.720 But then this crowd of people around the stage were 1:14:20.720 --> 1:14:24.519 eventually allowed to leave the music festival in big rent 1:14:24.520 --> 1:14:28.000 of vans. The police then id'd the people who rented 1:14:28.000 --> 1:14:31.560 the vans and were driving the vans, but everyone was 1:14:32.080 --> 1:14:37.040 able to exit who stayed by the music festival. Around midnight, 1:14:37.160 --> 1:14:40.479 the Atlanta Police Department posted a press release saying that 1:14:40.840 --> 1:14:44.479 thirty five people have been detained, which was kind of 1:14:44.520 --> 1:14:47.640 weird language because everyone assumed that those who had been 1:14:47.680 --> 1:14:50.439 taken by police were all going to be arrested and charged. 1:14:50.880 --> 1:14:54.080 But then less than an hour later, twelve individuals were 1:14:54.120 --> 1:14:59.000 suddenly released from police custody back to Gresham Park. Since then, 1:14:59.280 --> 1:15:02.920 witnesses and lawyers have claimed that police separated out people 1:15:02.960 --> 1:15:07.520 with Atlanta addresses on their IDs and released those individuals, 1:15:08.040 --> 1:15:10.720 and then the remaining twenty three people, mostly with out 1:15:10.760 --> 1:15:14.400 of state ideas or a non Atlanta address, were arrested 1:15:14.439 --> 1:15:19.559 and charged with domestic terrorism to continue the outside agitator narrative, 1:15:20.040 --> 1:15:22.879 bringing the total number of people charged with domestic terrorism 1:15:23.080 --> 1:15:27.040 to forty two. Ever, since Sunday night, there's been this 1:15:27.160 --> 1:15:30.639 effort from a police and their media allies to frame 1:15:30.760 --> 1:15:33.360 these arrests as if they happened at the scene of 1:15:33.360 --> 1:15:36.400 the crime, alleging that the twenty three people arrested were 1:15:36.439 --> 1:15:41.679 themselves torching equipment or actively engaged in domestic terrorism. Yet 1:15:41.840 --> 1:15:44.479 all of the arrests took place almost a mile away 1:15:44.520 --> 1:15:47.400 at the music festival, and even further away in some cases, 1:15:47.560 --> 1:15:50.160 like in the parking lot, which is on the other 1:15:50.320 --> 1:15:53.040 side of the forest from the north gate. To quote 1:15:53.080 --> 1:15:56.439 an article in Truth Out by Candice Burned, quote, law enforcement, 1:15:56.560 --> 1:16:01.120 failing to apprehend specific individuals at the site itself, indiscriminately 1:16:01.160 --> 1:16:04.960 targeted the music festival, pouring into the field, campgrounds and 1:16:05.040 --> 1:16:09.599 parking lot with weapons drawn. They issued commands, chased people down, 1:16:09.720 --> 1:16:14.679 and threatened to shoot and arrest festival attendees. Still, major 1:16:14.720 --> 1:16:18.080 news outlets all but ignored the fact that all arrests 1:16:18.120 --> 1:16:21.479 occurred seemingly at random. During a police raid of the 1:16:21.600 --> 1:16:25.040 nearby South River Music Festival, where people gathered to see 1:16:25.280 --> 1:16:28.559 Zack Fox Live, to jump in a bouncycastle and enjoy 1:16:28.560 --> 1:16:32.000 the outdoors. Many attendees had little to no idea of 1:16:32.040 --> 1:16:35.320 what had occurred at the cop City construction site. Those 1:16:35.360 --> 1:16:37.920 who got lucky were forced to walk through tiergas to 1:16:37.960 --> 1:16:41.160 get to their cars, while others were assaulted by police 1:16:41.200 --> 1:16:44.839 and charged with domestic terrorism, risking thirty five years in prison. 1:16:45.520 --> 1:16:48.040 Here's a clip from NBC's Today Show, We. 1:16:48.120 --> 1:16:51.160 Got breaking news out of Atlanta over night. Dozens arrested 1:16:51.160 --> 1:16:54.600 after what's being described as a coordinated criminal attack. It 1:16:54.640 --> 1:16:57.160 happened at the future site of a police training center. 1:16:57.200 --> 1:16:59.400 And this is Blaine Alexander's on the story for US 1:16:59.439 --> 1:16:59.800 Blaine Good. 1:17:01.000 --> 1:17:05.000 Officials say protesters burned construction vehicles and a trailer and 1:17:05.040 --> 1:17:07.879 set off fireworks toward officers stationed nearby. 1:17:08.320 --> 1:17:10.280 And this wasn't about a public safety training center. 1:17:10.320 --> 1:17:12.679 This was about anarchy, and this was about the attempt 1:17:12.720 --> 1:17:14.160 to destabilize. 1:17:13.600 --> 1:17:17.040 Police point to a group of what they call outside agitators, 1:17:17.200 --> 1:17:20.360 saying they left an event nearby, changed into black clothing, 1:17:20.520 --> 1:17:25.280 and mounted a coordinated attack on construction equipment and police officers. 1:17:25.840 --> 1:17:28.639 To quote a statement from the Sonic Defense Committee. Quote, 1:17:29.120 --> 1:17:33.240 the indiscriminate brutalization and arrest of festivalgoers suggests that law 1:17:33.280 --> 1:17:35.720 enforcement agencies will go to great lengths to paint the 1:17:35.760 --> 1:17:38.519 movement to stop Copcity and Defend the Atlanta Forest as 1:17:38.560 --> 1:17:43.200 a criminal organization. It is, in fact, a broad, decentralized 1:17:43.240 --> 1:17:48.639 movement with no ideological or organizational unity, only of shared goal. 1:17:49.280 --> 1:17:51.679 They believe that the movement is made up of bad 1:17:51.720 --> 1:17:56.519 actors who betray otherwise peaceful protesters, but the movement is 1:17:56.560 --> 1:18:00.559 not committed to any particular tactic, instead accepting the diversity 1:18:00.560 --> 1:18:03.880 of approaches to stop the project. The police claim that 1:18:03.920 --> 1:18:06.639 the movement is not made up of any Atlantans, while 1:18:06.880 --> 1:18:11.440 Atlanta University Center students, local clergy, faith leaders, small businesses, 1:18:11.479 --> 1:18:15.960 and dozens of locally famous artists and musicians organize themselves 1:18:16.040 --> 1:18:20.160 within the movement. The police's false narrative and heavy handed 1:18:20.160 --> 1:18:22.639 approach to dealing with the opposition to the Cop City 1:18:22.760 --> 1:18:26.840 project is slowly starting to enclose them in. As the 1:18:26.840 --> 1:18:30.320 movement grows and city and state officials refuse to see 1:18:30.320 --> 1:18:32.960 the reality of what they are dealing with, their own 1:18:33.000 --> 1:18:36.599 authority is being brought into question. If they are not careful, 1:18:36.720 --> 1:18:39.439 the stakes of the movement will soon exceed the bounds 1:18:39.479 --> 1:18:43.479 of the forest and Cop City. In fact, that process 1:18:43.680 --> 1:18:45.160 may already have begun. 1:18:45.880 --> 1:18:49.200 I think to talk about what happened, we kind of 1:18:49.240 --> 1:18:52.120 do have to go back to put it in context 1:18:53.120 --> 1:18:57.840 and going back to January that was the end of 1:18:57.280 --> 1:19:02.520 the occupation or the you know, continuous encampments in Wilani 1:19:04.840 --> 1:19:09.080 and then flash uh fast forward to to late January, 1:19:09.080 --> 1:19:12.400 they get the LDP and so all of these people 1:19:12.479 --> 1:19:16.200 who have been protecting the forest for so long are 1:19:16.280 --> 1:19:20.240 now watching construction equipment roll in and they're watching clear 1:19:20.280 --> 1:19:25.680 cutting and they can't do anything about it. And you 1:19:25.800 --> 1:19:29.560 had that action, uh, just after Tortigita's death in January, 1:19:29.840 --> 1:19:34.440 which was a very targeted you know, only two funders 1:19:34.439 --> 1:19:37.760 and other supporters of cop City and you know, maybe 1:19:37.760 --> 1:19:41.479 a random police vehicle. But it wasn't really like this 1:19:41.479 --> 1:19:45.080 this letting of energy. It was a very like specific 1:19:45.520 --> 1:19:48.120 sort of purpose. And so you have this like build 1:19:48.200 --> 1:19:51.320 up of energy that I think is really important to 1:19:52.200 --> 1:19:55.479 keep in mind with with what is about to happen 1:19:55.560 --> 1:19:58.960 in this story. And they so they can't do anything. 1:19:59.360 --> 1:20:04.280 And then you have Saturday where you see this massive 1:20:04.320 --> 1:20:08.920 people return to the forest, and I think it's almost 1:20:09.040 --> 1:20:13.840 unavoidable in retrospect to look at that and for them 1:20:13.920 --> 1:20:16.760 not to have said, what can we do now that 1:20:16.840 --> 1:20:22.720 we couldn't do before? So they gather and they do 1:20:22.840 --> 1:20:25.880 what they couldn't do before they head over to the 1:20:25.920 --> 1:20:27.200 construction site. 1:20:27.560 --> 1:20:29.600 There had not been an action like this in the 1:20:29.600 --> 1:20:33.640 woods for a long time. Bulldozers and equipment had not 1:20:33.720 --> 1:20:36.599 been damaged in quite a while, but on Sunday, people 1:20:36.600 --> 1:20:39.080 were able to use the safety in numbers that comes 1:20:39.120 --> 1:20:41.760 with a week of action to feel more empowered to 1:20:41.840 --> 1:20:45.639 take direct action against the actual machinery that is destroying 1:20:45.640 --> 1:20:49.200 the forest and building cop City. Sunday's action can be 1:20:49.240 --> 1:20:52.080 seen as a demonstration of the pent up righteous anger 1:20:52.360 --> 1:20:56.639 from watching the slow destruction of the forest. Participants view 1:20:56.680 --> 1:21:00.320 what happened as a justified strike against the active struction 1:21:00.439 --> 1:21:03.559 of the forest, a strike back made an anger after 1:21:03.600 --> 1:21:06.600 watching the Atlanta Police Foundation make steady progress over the 1:21:06.640 --> 1:21:08.280 course of the past few months. 1:21:08.720 --> 1:21:12.200 The day before, there was this chant that was taken 1:21:12.240 --> 1:21:13.760 up by the entire crowd, and I think we talked 1:21:13.800 --> 1:21:14.720 about this and. 1:21:16.360 --> 1:21:16.799 Earlier. 1:21:18.320 --> 1:21:20.800 If you build it, we will burn it. And that 1:21:21.040 --> 1:21:23.719 was something that if you looked all throughout the crowd, 1:21:23.840 --> 1:21:28.759 like they were chanting everybody, everybody, like not just people 1:21:28.800 --> 1:21:30.160 wearing camera or black block, like. 1:21:30.680 --> 1:21:33.360 A thousand people, everybody, Yeah, a thousand people watching from 1:21:33.439 --> 1:21:34.080 Gresham Park. 1:21:34.240 --> 1:21:38.920 And I think that this is that promise come true. 1:21:38.960 --> 1:21:41.920 Sunday's action was itself a pretty unique moment in the 1:21:41.920 --> 1:21:46.559 recent history of environmental and anti police struggles. Watching hundreds 1:21:46.560 --> 1:21:49.320 of people go on the offensive. To participate in a 1:21:49.439 --> 1:21:52.800 mass coordinated sabotage in defense of both the forest and 1:21:53.000 --> 1:21:56.799 targets of police of Islands felt like an unprecedented moment 1:21:56.880 --> 1:22:00.120 in our modern paradigm of resistance in the United States. 1:22:01.040 --> 1:22:03.559 But the raid on the music festival on March fifth 1:22:03.920 --> 1:22:06.720 was also just the start of an unparalleled wave of 1:22:06.760 --> 1:22:10.280 police repression during this week of action, which we will 1:22:10.320 --> 1:22:13.960 cover in the next episode. But throughout the whole week, 1:22:14.200 --> 1:22:18.160 the assurance that copcity will never be built never faltered, 1:22:18.680 --> 1:22:22.080 as demonstrated by common chance such as I believe that 1:22:22.160 --> 1:22:25.720 we will win. So I'm going to end this episode 1:22:26.040 --> 1:22:29.240 with the final chant from the Saturday a Gresham Park rally, 1:22:29.680 --> 1:22:32.960 right before a thousand people marched to the Wallani Forest 1:22:33.880 --> 1:22:34.559 in Atlanta. 1:22:34.640 --> 1:22:36.720 We always in with the asslogan. 1:22:37.520 --> 1:22:39.160 We're with the words of our. 1:22:39.080 --> 1:22:42.759 Love or assonas schoor because we have a judy. 1:22:44.920 --> 1:22:47.439 There's been so much blessed built here. 1:22:48.640 --> 1:22:51.960 Repeat up to me, give us our duty, the flag 1:22:52.040 --> 1:22:52.719 for our freedom. 1:22:56.080 --> 1:22:58.280 It's our judy to wed. 1:23:00.960 --> 1:23:07.519 Does not each other, irons at each other. I'm not 1:23:07.640 --> 1:23:09.760 gonna lose flaun Change. 1:23:12.200 --> 1:23:14.200 I'm not gonna loose Balanche. 1:23:17.640 --> 1:23:30.640 I'm not annose, but godzizea. 1:23:34.320 --> 1:23:42.080 Music festival audio courtesy of Unicorn Riot. Come Monday morning, 1:23:42.439 --> 1:23:46.080 basically no one was in the forest. The police raid 1:23:46.200 --> 1:23:49.000 the night prior pushed out most of the people gathered 1:23:49.040 --> 1:23:52.240 for the music festival and week of action, and it 1:23:52.320 --> 1:23:55.439 was still unclear how the rest of the week would 1:23:55.520 --> 1:24:00.439 now proceed. This Monday happened to be the Jewish holiday Perham. 1:24:00.960 --> 1:24:03.960 Initially there were plans to have a Perham celebration in 1:24:04.000 --> 1:24:07.400 the forest that evening, but it was unknown if people 1:24:07.400 --> 1:24:11.439 would feel comfortable returning to the woods. Welcome back to 1:24:11.479 --> 1:24:14.680 it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis. This is episode 1:24:14.720 --> 1:24:17.920 three of my mini series covering the March twenty twenty 1:24:18.000 --> 1:24:22.120 three Week of Action to defend the Atlanta Forest. Monday, 1:24:22.120 --> 1:24:25.400 March sixth also happened to be the day of an 1:24:25.479 --> 1:24:29.599 Atlanta City Council meeting, and the Stop Coop City Clergy 1:24:29.640 --> 1:24:34.160 coalition held a well attended press conference at noon outside 1:24:34.280 --> 1:24:37.840 City Hall. Reverend Keana Jones opened up at the press 1:24:37.840 --> 1:24:40.800 conference by making the Clergy's position clear. 1:24:41.479 --> 1:24:45.800 We are the faith Coalition against Cop City, and we 1:24:45.840 --> 1:24:49.519 are here so again raise our voices so that Mayor 1:24:49.560 --> 1:24:53.000 Andre Dickens and the members of the City Council of 1:24:53.080 --> 1:24:58.000 Atlanta know that we will not stand for the atrocities 1:24:58.400 --> 1:25:01.240 that have been occurring. I will not stand for cop 1:25:01.280 --> 1:25:05.320 City to go forward. The community came out and made 1:25:05.400 --> 1:25:10.040 public comment for over seventeen hours when given an opportunity, 1:25:10.479 --> 1:25:15.320 and said emphatically, no, we don't want your cop City. 1:25:15.880 --> 1:25:18.880 We don't want more repression of black people. 1:25:19.320 --> 1:25:23.519 We don't want more polluted air, we don't want less 1:25:23.520 --> 1:25:27.840 green space in our community. We don't want more policing 1:25:27.920 --> 1:25:32.840 and terrorizing of black, brown, indigenous bodies in our community. 1:25:33.400 --> 1:25:36.719 Reverend Jones gave her own perspective as a local Atlanta 1:25:37.120 --> 1:25:38.799 with deep ties to the city. 1:25:39.200 --> 1:25:42.360 So we are here as faith leaders today and we 1:25:42.479 --> 1:25:46.439 are here to say, Mayor Dickens, if you didn't hear 1:25:46.520 --> 1:25:49.559 us the first time, we are here once again to 1:25:49.680 --> 1:25:53.720 let you know that we don't want cop City. This 1:25:53.800 --> 1:25:57.640 is our community, this is our land. I am a 1:25:57.720 --> 1:26:02.000 daughter of East Atlanta. I still live in East Atlanta. 1:26:02.520 --> 1:26:06.479 I don't want cop City. My granny owns a home 1:26:06.520 --> 1:26:09.000 that she's been in for almost fifty years in the 1:26:09.040 --> 1:26:12.920 heart of East Atlanta village. She does not want cop City. 1:26:13.439 --> 1:26:16.639 My neighbor across the street does not want Cop City. 1:26:17.000 --> 1:26:20.840 The teachers at my daughter's school do not want Cop City. 1:26:21.280 --> 1:26:25.400 She also addressed the outside agitators narrative that police and 1:26:25.479 --> 1:26:29.720 media have continued to craft against force defenders, including by 1:26:29.800 --> 1:26:32.519 only arresting and charging people thought to be from out 1:26:32.560 --> 1:26:35.439 of town at the music festival that previous night. 1:26:36.040 --> 1:26:38.800 So we're here today to make sure that we ring 1:26:38.880 --> 1:26:42.320 the alarm and dispel the false narrative that it's outside 1:26:42.400 --> 1:26:46.200 agitators who don't want this. We know that this is 1:26:46.200 --> 1:26:49.599 the rhetoric that's been going on ever since abolition began, 1:26:50.160 --> 1:26:53.600 that it's outside agitators. They said slaves didn't want to 1:26:53.600 --> 1:26:55.479 be free, but it was white people from the North 1:26:55.479 --> 1:26:56.080 who wanted it. 1:26:56.120 --> 1:26:56.919 That's the lie. 1:26:57.040 --> 1:26:59.320 They said that black people in the South didn't want 1:26:59.360 --> 1:27:01.439 civil rights, but it was white people from the North. 1:27:01.520 --> 1:27:04.960 That's a lie. Today they are claiming that the black 1:27:04.960 --> 1:27:10.040 people love Cop City. It's outside agitators from elsewhere, and 1:27:10.160 --> 1:27:14.600 that again is a lie. Simply because the police have 1:27:14.840 --> 1:27:19.559 chosen to systematically arrest people from out of state doesn't 1:27:19.600 --> 1:27:21.880 mean that what they're saying is the truth. 1:27:22.360 --> 1:27:26.200 Reverend Leoshe addressed to other faith leaders and ask them 1:27:26.240 --> 1:27:29.800 to join in their calls to stop the cop City project. 1:27:30.479 --> 1:27:35.360 We local Atlanta clergy and religious leaders representing diverse communities 1:27:36.320 --> 1:27:39.479 call on clergy, religious leaders and people of faith in 1:27:39.600 --> 1:27:43.599 moral conscience across this nation and in solidarity with local 1:27:43.600 --> 1:27:48.400 Atlanta leaders to stop cop City, stop the swap, and 1:27:48.479 --> 1:27:50.160 defend the Atlanta forests. 1:27:50.320 --> 1:27:51.519 Wilani People's part. 1:27:52.360 --> 1:27:55.160 Today, we're gathered for this press conference and we will 1:27:55.200 --> 1:27:58.599 be delivering a letter to Atlanta City Council. But we 1:27:58.720 --> 1:28:01.960 invite you to continue in this faithful work that we 1:28:02.000 --> 1:28:05.320 are doing and contribute wherever you find. 1:28:05.080 --> 1:28:06.880 Your space in this growing movement. 1:28:07.760 --> 1:28:11.120 We call on clergy religious leaders, who are a moral 1:28:11.160 --> 1:28:15.480 authority in our society, to use your power in support 1:28:15.760 --> 1:28:17.280 of the forest protectors. 1:28:18.640 --> 1:28:19.680 We are deeply. 1:28:19.400 --> 1:28:22.920 Concerned for the greater Atlantic community and the implications for 1:28:23.000 --> 1:28:25.840 the future of public safety in the United States if 1:28:25.920 --> 1:28:27.320 Kopsudy moves forward. 1:28:28.080 --> 1:28:31.240 At the press conference, the coalition presented a letter to 1:28:31.280 --> 1:28:34.639 the City Council signed by over two hundred clergy members. 1:28:35.200 --> 1:28:37.479 Reverend Leoshe also read it aloud. 1:28:38.120 --> 1:28:41.480 Despite a record breaking amount of public comment opposing the facility, 1:28:42.320 --> 1:28:46.280 Atlanta City councils still pass legislation to build cop City. 1:28:47.120 --> 1:28:49.960 We are troubled by leadership that stops acting on the 1:28:49.960 --> 1:28:53.960 will of the people and aligns itself instead with corporate 1:28:54.080 --> 1:28:59.200 money and the dominant power structure. Urged on by the 1:28:59.240 --> 1:29:03.000 message of peace and compassion in all our faiths, we 1:29:03.160 --> 1:29:09.200 deplore escalating militarization by city and state government, most recently 1:29:09.240 --> 1:29:11.880 since the police killing of Rayshard Brooks here in twenty 1:29:11.920 --> 1:29:17.120 twenty by the Atlanta Police Department and Tortugita January eighteenth 1:29:17.120 --> 1:29:22.160 of this year by Georgia Patrol. We applaud the rising 1:29:22.200 --> 1:29:25.719 consciousness and the need to protect humans and the more 1:29:25.800 --> 1:29:29.800 than human by resisting police violence everywhere. 1:29:30.439 --> 1:29:32.720 Yes, and may I add that in the face. 1:29:32.760 --> 1:29:36.160 Of the violent raid that took place last night, as 1:29:36.160 --> 1:29:40.519 city residents gathered in solidarity to defend this forest, that 1:29:40.680 --> 1:29:44.639 is an example of the militarization that we are calling out. 1:29:44.960 --> 1:29:47.880 Through violence and greed, these lands have been subjected to 1:29:48.120 --> 1:29:53.200 centuries of abuse, from the forced removal of indigenous communities, 1:29:53.640 --> 1:29:58.080 to serving as a plantation for enslaved African labor, to 1:29:58.120 --> 1:30:00.960 the site of the old Atlanta prison farm in the 1:30:01.000 --> 1:30:05.000 twentieth century that produced immense profits for the prison system. 1:30:06.320 --> 1:30:07.759 Today, the sounds of berg. 1:30:07.600 --> 1:30:10.800 Song from the forest canopy live alongside the sound of 1:30:10.880 --> 1:30:14.519 gunfire and the adjacent APD firing range. 1:30:15.800 --> 1:30:18.479 We are troubled. 1:30:18.400 --> 1:30:22.479 By the commodification of community, land, water, and air on 1:30:22.560 --> 1:30:26.599 which all of us depend. We are profoundly troubled by 1:30:26.600 --> 1:30:30.640 the use of military tactics and escalated legal charges on 1:30:30.760 --> 1:30:36.240 members of our community, suppressing legitimate resistance, while at the 1:30:36.320 --> 1:30:40.559 same time clearcutting the forest trees despite not having the 1:30:40.640 --> 1:30:45.800 appropriate permits. The lands and the people of Atlanta have 1:30:45.920 --> 1:30:48.240 suffered violence for too long. 1:30:49.160 --> 1:30:51.240 We say no more. 1:30:51.720 --> 1:30:55.240 We declare with faith, commitment and hope that this land 1:30:55.280 --> 1:30:59.160 will be a part of healing and repair. We Atlanta clergy, 1:30:59.200 --> 1:31:02.080 religious leaders, and all of those across the nation and 1:31:02.200 --> 1:31:05.719 world who are in agreement join our voices with calling 1:31:05.760 --> 1:31:09.240 for the following, a complete stop of the cop City 1:31:09.360 --> 1:31:15.679 project and cancelation of the Atlanta Police Foundation's lease, dropping 1:31:15.800 --> 1:31:20.760 all charges against forest defenders and protesters. We demand an 1:31:20.800 --> 1:31:27.080 independent investigation into the uses of domestic terrorism charges. We 1:31:27.200 --> 1:31:32.080 demand an independent investigation into the killing of Manuel Tehran Tortugita. 1:31:32.800 --> 1:31:37.200 We speak their name, for which recently released video footage 1:31:37.200 --> 1:31:41.080 of the event suggests there was lying and deceit surrounding 1:31:41.080 --> 1:31:44.480 the incident on part of law enforcement in their initial 1:31:44.520 --> 1:31:45.919 reporting of the incident. 1:31:46.840 --> 1:31:50.840 The Muscogee elder Miko Chabbon, Colonel spoke at the press 1:31:50.880 --> 1:31:54.440 conference and called for land back and for the Muscogee 1:31:54.479 --> 1:31:58.920 people to return and remtreat the Wailani Forest in community 1:31:59.000 --> 1:32:01.400 with the black and brown residents of the area. 1:32:01.840 --> 1:32:05.760 Our ancestors lived here for over thirteen thousand years, and 1:32:05.800 --> 1:32:08.200 if you're to do the math correctly, this country that 1:32:08.240 --> 1:32:10.519 we now call the United States is somewhere in the 1:32:10.520 --> 1:32:14.960 neighborhood of two hundred and forty just over nearly two 1:32:15.040 --> 1:32:15.559 years ago. 1:32:16.080 --> 1:32:17.839 I came here to the Launi Forest. 1:32:18.200 --> 1:32:20.679 I came here with my own family, my own children, 1:32:20.920 --> 1:32:23.439 with some of my elders, to just share a little 1:32:23.479 --> 1:32:26.320 bit about how this territoryiness land feels to us as 1:32:26.400 --> 1:32:29.720 Muskogee people, because, let it be known today, it was 1:32:29.800 --> 1:32:32.880 not our choice to leave here. We did go to 1:32:33.040 --> 1:32:36.080 war to protect these areas. We did go through much 1:32:36.120 --> 1:32:39.280 burden to protect these areas, only to be forced to 1:32:39.360 --> 1:32:43.759 leave here under military occupation, but also to be forced 1:32:43.760 --> 1:32:47.559 to leave here after treachery, after illegally lands were taken 1:32:47.600 --> 1:32:48.200 from us. 1:32:48.560 --> 1:32:49.800 This is our homeland. 1:32:50.400 --> 1:32:54.439 My ancestors for generation upon generation, for millennia are buried 1:32:54.479 --> 1:32:56.679 on the very ground that you walk on every day. 1:32:58.000 --> 1:33:00.600 And I think we have a say and how we 1:33:00.600 --> 1:33:02.920 should live as a society in this day and time. 1:33:03.720 --> 1:33:06.000 And so in this moment, our hope is to be 1:33:06.080 --> 1:33:09.400 able to come back to rematriate, to take our lives 1:33:09.439 --> 1:33:11.880 back and to the intimacy that we once had with 1:33:12.040 --> 1:33:15.000 everything that grows here in what you now call the 1:33:15.040 --> 1:33:17.840 state of Georgia, because no matter who we are and 1:33:17.880 --> 1:33:20.559 where we come from, we have to have air, we 1:33:20.640 --> 1:33:22.960 have to have water, we have to have the elements 1:33:22.960 --> 1:33:24.400 of this earth to take care of us. 1:33:24.640 --> 1:33:26.400 Regardless of what we think. 1:33:27.280 --> 1:33:30.280 We're dependent on this earth Mother, and she has been 1:33:30.280 --> 1:33:33.200 faithful in taking care of us. It's us that has 1:33:33.240 --> 1:33:37.120 not been faithful and respecting her. Our hope is that 1:33:37.160 --> 1:33:40.439 this earth is not destroyed before we even have a 1:33:40.560 --> 1:33:44.400 chance to come back, that lives aren't destroyed before we 1:33:44.479 --> 1:33:47.880 have a chance to come back. So today, in whatever way, 1:33:47.920 --> 1:33:50.960 I come here to join the choruses of voices that 1:33:51.000 --> 1:33:54.280 you hear all around you saying what is going on 1:33:54.439 --> 1:33:59.240 now is a violence against all of creation? What is 1:33:59.280 --> 1:34:03.000 going on now bringing death and harm and hurt is 1:34:03.040 --> 1:34:06.640 a violence against all of creation. And we stand in 1:34:06.680 --> 1:34:10.760 solidarity as Muskogie people. I stand in solidarity with the 1:34:10.840 --> 1:34:14.040 voices that we hear of those tenants, those persons who 1:34:14.080 --> 1:34:17.559 live in the land now. But my hope is now, 1:34:17.600 --> 1:34:22.080 at this moment in time, that somehow we can change 1:34:22.200 --> 1:34:27.080 the trajectory of our species and go into a direction 1:34:27.680 --> 1:34:31.080 where we can value each other, and we can stop 1:34:31.120 --> 1:34:35.200 the criminalizing of descent. We should be able to say no, 1:34:36.400 --> 1:34:39.280 the increasing of the militarized forces out there does not 1:34:39.320 --> 1:34:44.599 ever create peace. It only creates harm, and it only 1:34:44.680 --> 1:34:46.440 harms those that are most vulnerable. 1:34:47.680 --> 1:34:49.160 That's the prayer that I carry today. 1:34:49.720 --> 1:34:53.200 Reverend Darcy Jarrett joined in the call for a stewardship 1:34:53.240 --> 1:34:56.719 of the Wallani Forest to be returned to the Muscogee people. 1:34:57.320 --> 1:35:03.600 City Schools of Decatur has a of solidarity an acknowledgment 1:35:03.640 --> 1:35:07.280 of harms to cab County and the City of Atlanta. 1:35:07.320 --> 1:35:10.479 We call on you to make good on these words, 1:35:10.840 --> 1:35:14.639 to give the land back to our indigenous siblings, so 1:35:14.680 --> 1:35:17.640 that they, as they have stated and will do and 1:35:17.800 --> 1:35:21.320 always have done, work in collaboration with the black and 1:35:21.360 --> 1:35:26.400 brown community right there near where the site is outside 1:35:26.400 --> 1:35:30.320 of the Wilawni Forest. The City of Atlanta is ready 1:35:30.320 --> 1:35:34.960 to lease this land at just ten dollars an acre. Instead, 1:35:35.320 --> 1:35:40.080 give this land to the native inhabitants. Repatriate this land 1:35:40.200 --> 1:35:43.519 to the people to whom is their sacred call, to 1:35:43.640 --> 1:35:47.320 defend and work in community with the black and brown 1:35:47.360 --> 1:35:53.080 communities that are there. We call on you, Atlanta City Council, 1:35:53.560 --> 1:35:57.839 to be the moral compass and to not just halt 1:35:57.960 --> 1:36:02.280 the building of this structure, but to repatriate the land 1:36:03.000 --> 1:36:07.920 to the sovereign Muskogee Nation, the sacred keepers of this land. 1:36:08.960 --> 1:36:10.599 May it be so amen. 1:36:11.560 --> 1:36:15.960 Finally, Matthew Johnson spoke about the worrying amount of police 1:36:16.000 --> 1:36:19.400 repression and violence the movement has already seen. 1:36:20.000 --> 1:36:22.400 We're projecting by the end of the day, there will 1:36:22.439 --> 1:36:27.240 be forty people that have domestic terrorism charges, many of 1:36:27.280 --> 1:36:31.200 which just for being in a parking lot. I don't 1:36:31.240 --> 1:36:34.280 know how anybody can accept this when you have a 1:36:34.360 --> 1:36:37.720 projected forty people that are committed of domestic terrorism, not 1:36:37.880 --> 1:36:42.320 one dead body. Meanwhile, we can't even show the bruise 1:36:43.560 --> 1:36:46.600 on the police officer that was allegedly shut at but 1:36:46.720 --> 1:36:52.400 our friend's ashes. We have the ashes of a friend 1:36:52.479 --> 1:36:55.559 that we will spread. We can no longer accept this 1:36:55.640 --> 1:36:59.679 as a people as at lanterns. If we can't figure 1:36:59.720 --> 1:37:04.439 out away to fix public safety without lacking tons of 1:37:04.520 --> 1:37:07.960 black kids up in the blackest city in America, every 1:37:08.040 --> 1:37:10.599 person in that build that needs to step down. If 1:37:10.640 --> 1:37:12.759 we can't do it here, we can't do it anywhere. 1:37:14.080 --> 1:37:17.719 Both myself and Matt from the Atlanta Community Press Collective 1:37:18.080 --> 1:37:20.759 were at the press conference and we met up after 1:37:20.880 --> 1:37:24.599 to discuss the events of the day. During the press conference, 1:37:25.600 --> 1:37:28.040 some of the media's line of questioning was very much 1:37:28.080 --> 1:37:30.760 like aligned with the types of narratives being put out 1:37:30.760 --> 1:37:33.160 by police in relation to the events that previous night, 1:37:33.320 --> 1:37:37.080 the Sunday Direct Action and Music Festival. I think it's 1:37:37.280 --> 1:37:39.760 also worth noting that the people at the clergy event 1:37:39.840 --> 1:37:44.040 did not openly like demonize the actions that people chose 1:37:44.080 --> 1:37:47.400 to take on Sunday, And it was very much like 1:37:48.120 --> 1:37:50.400 the media definitely gave them opportunities to try to throw 1:37:50.400 --> 1:37:52.840 people under the bus and that did not happen. 1:37:53.240 --> 1:37:56.479 Yeah, and we've seen that all throughout the week. Every 1:37:56.960 --> 1:37:59.240 chance that the media is trying to throw somebody to 1:37:59.360 --> 1:38:04.040 like call cause dissension or a divide, amongst the movement 1:38:04.600 --> 1:38:09.360 has been really handily deflected by anyone who's come across it, 1:38:10.400 --> 1:38:14.639 and the clergy did not just a good job of 1:38:14.720 --> 1:38:17.960 like not falling into that trap, but of actually pointing 1:38:18.000 --> 1:38:22.080 out how that line of thinking was like missing the 1:38:22.120 --> 1:38:25.640 point and where the true violence was coming from this. 1:38:27.680 --> 1:38:31.519 And so why are there a majority of people engaging 1:38:31.600 --> 1:38:33.439 some funds coming from other states. 1:38:34.000 --> 1:38:35.840 The reality of it is that the ones who are 1:38:35.840 --> 1:38:38.200 engaging in violence are the police, and they're from right 1:38:38.240 --> 1:38:42.479 here in Atlanta, Georgia. You got APD, you got Georgia 1:38:42.479 --> 1:38:46.040 State Police, you got GBI, you got Georgia State troopers, 1:38:46.080 --> 1:38:49.320 you got everybody except the mart of police who are 1:38:49.360 --> 1:38:53.880 engaging in violence and terrorism against the people who are 1:38:53.920 --> 1:38:58.280 standing against this illegal land swap. So I would suggest 1:38:58.600 --> 1:39:01.439 that the next time you decide that you are going 1:39:01.479 --> 1:39:04.400 to bring up your police rhetoric that you get from 1:39:04.439 --> 1:39:07.880 whichever police source, you go ahead and discuss that with them. 1:39:07.960 --> 1:39:10.200 Because we don't know what they're doing. 1:39:10.240 --> 1:39:12.200 But what we do know is what we're doing and 1:39:12.240 --> 1:39:15.240 what we see from them that we know. I know 1:39:15.320 --> 1:39:17.800 when I get hit by an officer. I know when 1:39:17.800 --> 1:39:19.960 I see a mother with a child begging to be 1:39:20.040 --> 1:39:22.400 let up off the ground because her children are with her. 1:39:22.640 --> 1:39:25.280 I know when I see officers pointing a rifle inside 1:39:25.280 --> 1:39:26.240 a bouncy house. 1:39:26.680 --> 1:39:29.519 If I could just say, I'd like to just bring 1:39:29.600 --> 1:39:35.840 up a story. Initially, the colonizers that came onto this 1:39:35.960 --> 1:39:42.879 land attempted to use the indigenous folks as their slaves. However, 1:39:43.320 --> 1:39:48.439 the indigenous folks knew the land so they could get away. Now, 1:39:48.479 --> 1:39:51.160 when you ask me about why is it that you 1:39:51.240 --> 1:39:54.720 keep catching people that aren't from here that might not 1:39:54.880 --> 1:39:58.880 reflect the people that are actually involved in the resistance. 1:39:59.200 --> 1:40:00.479 God, bless you, thank you. 1:40:00.920 --> 1:40:04.559 After the press conference, people from the Clergy Coalition marched 1:40:04.600 --> 1:40:07.960 to the front door and entered City Hall before making 1:40:08.000 --> 1:40:11.000 it upstairs to sign up for public comment during the 1:40:11.080 --> 1:40:12.040 city council meeting. 1:40:13.200 --> 1:40:21.920 Hie, we shall not be moved. Fine for read now, 1:40:22.760 --> 1:40:24.599 we shall not be moved. 1:40:24.880 --> 1:40:34.240 Just like the street collided by the wall, We shall not. 1:40:38.120 --> 1:40:41.160 The large group of the clergy and the people gathered 1:40:41.400 --> 1:40:43.960 for the interfaith Coalition are now moving through City Hall. 1:40:44.479 --> 1:40:47.000 There's a whole bunch of cops here that looks relatively 1:40:47.040 --> 1:40:53.479 nervous about the easily sized group of people. The scary 1:40:53.560 --> 1:40:55.479 Christians are now invading City Hall lookout. 1:40:56.520 --> 1:40:58.719 So usually in city Hall there there are several APD 1:40:58.840 --> 1:41:01.559 officers who you know, just kind of hang out. But 1:41:01.680 --> 1:41:04.640 while the clergy are walking up to city Hall, you 1:41:04.680 --> 1:41:07.679 can look out and there is APD on every corner. 1:41:07.880 --> 1:41:10.960 And then you enter into city Hall and there are 1:41:11.080 --> 1:41:14.320 clusters of APD. There are I think four floors to 1:41:14.320 --> 1:41:17.839 City Hall. There are clusters of APD on three sides 1:41:18.000 --> 1:41:19.920 of every floor of City Hall. 1:41:20.280 --> 1:41:25.519 After an unexpectedly long awards and proclamations ceremony, the public 1:41:25.560 --> 1:41:28.360 comment section of the city council meeting finally began. 1:41:29.439 --> 1:41:33.080 I'm standing here today with the Faith Coalition. 1:41:33.840 --> 1:41:35.519 We are clergy and faith leaders. 1:41:37.040 --> 1:41:42.000 We are citizens, and we are protectors of the land 1:41:42.000 --> 1:41:45.920 that doesn't belong to us, but belongs to God. We 1:41:45.960 --> 1:41:49.800 are deeply concerned for our community members, for ourselves, and 1:41:49.840 --> 1:41:53.040 the implications for the future of public safety in the 1:41:53.160 --> 1:41:57.920 United States if this cop city development goes forward. We 1:41:57.960 --> 1:42:01.040 are asking for all people of faith, those of you 1:42:01.400 --> 1:42:05.160 who sit on council, regardless of your tradition or background, 1:42:05.360 --> 1:42:10.559 and those who stand with moral conscience, to stop the 1:42:10.640 --> 1:42:15.639 cop city project. My faith convicts me and tells all 1:42:15.680 --> 1:42:18.160 of us that there is a better way. We have 1:42:18.200 --> 1:42:22.599 a prophetic, moral imagination and opportunity here to do something 1:42:22.640 --> 1:42:27.599 different in Atlanta, to do something different for the South. Finally, 1:42:27.640 --> 1:42:29.879 we're asking for a community process. 1:42:29.960 --> 1:42:31.480 A community process. 1:42:33.080 --> 1:42:35.960 Let us come together with moral imagination to envision how 1:42:36.000 --> 1:42:39.439 the Wilani River forests can be the heart and lungs 1:42:39.479 --> 1:42:44.360 of community wellness and healing, not more militarization of police. 1:42:45.040 --> 1:42:47.280 We want a process that centers the voice and needs 1:42:47.280 --> 1:42:52.360 of Muskokee leaders and community members, our Indigenous siblings, incarcerated 1:42:52.360 --> 1:42:55.760 folks and surrounding prisons, families and neighbors who live in 1:42:55.760 --> 1:42:59.440 cross proximity to the firing range and under police surveillance. 1:42:59.640 --> 1:43:01.679 We want holistic. 1:43:01.080 --> 1:43:05.719 Community safety, clean water, tree canopies, a future for every 1:43:05.800 --> 1:43:11.759 single one of our children. May it be so. 1:43:10.080 --> 1:43:14.160 Someone from the Muscogee Creek Reservation in Oklahoma spoke about 1:43:14.240 --> 1:43:16.320 the desire to return to their homeland. 1:43:16.920 --> 1:43:21.559 The Miko of our Hellbi ceremonial grounds back home in 1:43:21.560 --> 1:43:25.080 Oklahoma has come here where our original fire was started, 1:43:25.400 --> 1:43:28.040 and then it was taken all the way to Oklahoma, 1:43:28.680 --> 1:43:30.240 and now we want to bring it back to our 1:43:30.320 --> 1:43:34.160 land and we want to start those fires again. Well, 1:43:34.360 --> 1:43:36.200 when we come back. We need a land to come 1:43:36.240 --> 1:43:39.000 back to. This is my first time coming back to 1:43:39.080 --> 1:43:42.240 visit my homelands. I wanted to visit here where my 1:43:42.400 --> 1:43:46.519 ancestors are, as a spiritual and personal journey. I didn't 1:43:46.560 --> 1:43:49.320 want to come here to try to fight the violence 1:43:49.360 --> 1:43:53.160 that I'm hearing. What I'm hearing is from the residence 1:43:53.240 --> 1:43:58.120 is they need investments in housing and public spaces, and 1:43:58.200 --> 1:44:02.600 not investment in further melody tries policing. They want investment 1:44:02.640 --> 1:44:08.280 in the well being of incarcerated and not further violent incarceration, 1:44:08.439 --> 1:44:11.200 but the well being of the community members. Thank you, 1:44:11.240 --> 1:44:12.920 Moto Chichatis. 1:44:13.840 --> 1:44:18.080 I turned seventy last week and I've lived in Atlanta 1:44:18.160 --> 1:44:22.320 my whole life. I'm not an outsider, and I am 1:44:22.360 --> 1:44:25.240 here to say to you that I find cop City 1:44:25.320 --> 1:44:30.000 to be an abomination. My husband is a pastor of 1:44:30.040 --> 1:44:32.040 a church a couple of miles from here, and he 1:44:32.080 --> 1:44:34.880 could not be here today. He's out of town, but 1:44:35.000 --> 1:44:38.360 he stands with me with these comments. But people who 1:44:38.360 --> 1:44:41.240 have spoken before me have said the things I would say. 1:44:41.280 --> 1:44:43.160 But I would like to say that I pretty much 1:44:43.200 --> 1:44:47.080 agree with every single thing they have said about this 1:44:47.479 --> 1:44:53.760 insanity that you all are calling a police safety training facility. 1:44:54.880 --> 1:44:57.960 So I think you need to just cancel it, start 1:44:58.040 --> 1:45:01.120 having some real conversations with the people of this city 1:45:01.760 --> 1:45:04.679 to solve the real problems in a way that will 1:45:04.720 --> 1:45:07.439 actually be effective. And this facility is not going to 1:45:07.479 --> 1:45:11.479 be it. And the mayor's proposed task force is just 1:45:11.720 --> 1:45:15.000 one more way to try to propagandize us to believe 1:45:15.040 --> 1:45:17.719 that this is good for us, when we're not stupid 1:45:17.920 --> 1:45:19.920 and we know it's just lipstick on a pig. 1:45:20.320 --> 1:45:23.439 And if you heart in your heart, be reminded of 1:45:23.479 --> 1:45:27.160 the story of another pharaoh who had a very hard heart, 1:45:27.760 --> 1:45:30.320 who would not free the people of God, who would 1:45:30.360 --> 1:45:33.559 not lead them to their land. You know what happened 1:45:33.560 --> 1:45:36.400 in that story. Don't think that you will not suffer 1:45:36.479 --> 1:45:39.640 the same fate. Don't think that the infrastructure of this 1:45:39.760 --> 1:45:43.360 so called Black Mecca will not come toppling over, because 1:45:43.400 --> 1:45:43.920 it will. 1:45:44.479 --> 1:45:47.320 There are a couple like things to note about how 1:45:47.439 --> 1:45:50.680 City Council public comment works. City Council doesn't tend to 1:45:50.680 --> 1:45:55.200 pay attention to them. Essensibly, the only one who pays 1:45:55.200 --> 1:45:58.120 attention is City Council President Doug Shipman, because it is 1:45:58.160 --> 1:45:59.760 his job to call time and to call up the 1:45:59.760 --> 1:46:03.080 next person. But you know, city councilors will like step 1:46:03.120 --> 1:46:05.080 in and out of the room, get something to eat. 1:46:06.040 --> 1:46:08.240 During the seventeen hours of public comment for cop City, 1:46:08.320 --> 1:46:10.320 like one of them held a press conference. 1:46:10.560 --> 1:46:13.880 There are two council members notoriously bad at paying attention 1:46:14.040 --> 1:46:17.639 to public comment. Dustin Hillis who is the committee chair 1:46:17.960 --> 1:46:21.840 for the Public Safety Legal Administration Committee. Basically he's in 1:46:21.920 --> 1:46:25.400 charge of police. And the other is Mary Norwood, who 1:46:25.439 --> 1:46:29.880 represents Buckhead and has what I would describe as ontologically 1:46:29.960 --> 1:46:34.439 evil vibes. Buckheed is the northern, primarily white neighborhood in 1:46:34.479 --> 1:46:38.120 Atlanta that is wanted to secede from the city, which 1:46:38.320 --> 1:46:43.559 in Atlanta has very uncomfortable segregation and redlining parallels. But 1:46:43.800 --> 1:46:47.920 despite not paying attention during public comment, these two in particular, 1:46:48.200 --> 1:46:52.280 both paid extra attention after public comment when Police Chief 1:46:52.400 --> 1:46:57.240 Darren Sheerbaum gave testimony on what happened the night previous, Where. 1:46:57.120 --> 1:47:03.200 There any firefighter or police city employee entries yesterday's event. 1:47:03.439 --> 1:47:06.160 Because memory there was not. We're very fortunate that that 1:47:06.320 --> 1:47:08.679 was the outcome. We're fortunate that there was no injuries. 1:47:09.200 --> 1:47:14.360 If this continues, do we have the ability to deploy 1:47:14.560 --> 1:47:20.559 even greater force to quill this. You know, the millions 1:47:20.560 --> 1:47:23.920 of damage, millions of dollars of damage to public and 1:47:23.960 --> 1:47:24.840 private properties. 1:47:25.800 --> 1:47:29.680 We will make adjustments as those that used various tactics. 1:47:30.479 --> 1:47:31.959 Yesterday was an escalation. 1:47:32.320 --> 1:47:35.240 We had not seen this large number of individuals engaged 1:47:35.240 --> 1:47:38.120 in this activity, and the aggressive manner in which the 1:47:38.200 --> 1:47:41.840 officers were attacked was a significant change from what we 1:47:41.880 --> 1:47:44.679 had seen before when it generally had been setting property 1:47:44.680 --> 1:47:46.720 on fire. We'd seen police cars set on fire, win 1:47:46.800 --> 1:47:49.360 those buses, but this was started as an attack against individuals, 1:47:49.560 --> 1:47:51.840 men and women who are employees of this city, So 1:47:51.880 --> 1:47:54.160 that was an escalation. Council Member hillis that we have 1:47:54.200 --> 1:47:57.599 already made adjustments for both within our capability as well 1:47:57.600 --> 1:47:59.840 as with our partners through out to Sheerbombs. 1:47:59.880 --> 1:48:02.920 To testimony, it was interesting the degree to which the 1:48:03.000 --> 1:48:08.080 Chief framed Sunday's direct action as primarily being targeted against 1:48:08.080 --> 1:48:12.479 officers and not the destruction of equipment and machinery at 1:48:12.479 --> 1:48:16.919 the North Gate. From the videos that APD themselves released 1:48:16.960 --> 1:48:20.519 of the incident, it's clear that engagement with the police 1:48:20.600 --> 1:48:24.400 was limited to keeping officers at bay as construction equipment 1:48:24.520 --> 1:48:28.640 was targeted, and despite the continued referring of fireworks as 1:48:28.760 --> 1:48:33.400 quote unquote mortars or explosives, as the chief himself admitted, 1:48:33.640 --> 1:48:39.200 no officers were harmed during the direct action. In a 1:48:39.280 --> 1:48:43.120 later episode, we'll hear more of Chief Sheerbaum's explanation of 1:48:43.160 --> 1:48:46.960 Sunday nights events, as it gives insight into the police's 1:48:47.000 --> 1:48:50.840 own surveillance capabilities and their ability to respond quickly to 1:48:51.000 --> 1:48:55.400 direct actions. But until then, back to the events of Monday, 1:48:55.479 --> 1:48:59.559 March sixth. After the city council meeting, I dressed up 1:48:59.600 --> 1:49:01.559 in the gayest little outfit that I had with me 1:49:01.960 --> 1:49:04.519 and went back to the woods for the first time 1:49:04.680 --> 1:49:09.280 since Sunday Night for Perhum. Initially, people were very cautious 1:49:09.360 --> 1:49:12.519 when entering the woods again, but as the night went on, 1:49:13.000 --> 1:49:15.320 more and more people started to pour into the forest, 1:49:15.640 --> 1:49:19.160 with some choosing to return to their camp. Later that night, 1:49:19.240 --> 1:49:22.000 I enjoyed an experimental noise show in the living room, 1:49:22.120 --> 1:49:25.040 probably to the detriment of people trying to sleep in 1:49:25.120 --> 1:49:28.000 the area. I went to the Perham in the woods. 1:49:28.080 --> 1:49:33.439 I got to share my memory of the Veggietail's esther 1:49:33.640 --> 1:49:36.920 story starring the Tickle Monsters. I got to bond with 1:49:37.000 --> 1:49:39.760 a few expangelicals about that, So that was fine. Then 1:49:39.760 --> 1:49:42.880 there was an experimental noise show in the forest, and 1:49:43.320 --> 1:49:45.200 really I think it actually is worth talking about because 1:49:45.200 --> 1:49:46.000 this was the first time. 1:49:45.880 --> 1:49:48.360 People returned to the forest. Yeah, this was the. 1:49:48.280 --> 1:49:50.640 First time that people like returned to the forest in 1:49:50.800 --> 1:49:53.760 mass since Sunday, and he started to kind of feel 1:49:53.760 --> 1:49:57.439 people's energy get reinvigorated. The woods became a place again 1:49:57.560 --> 1:50:00.160 that people were able to like be in and like 1:50:00.160 --> 1:50:03.719 they were able to be in community in the woods again. 1:50:03.800 --> 1:50:06.040 And that is in keeping with sort of how this 1:50:06.080 --> 1:50:09.960 movement is always responded to what we I guess could 1:50:10.040 --> 1:50:11.120 call a loss, right. 1:50:11.080 --> 1:50:14.720 Like twenty three people getting arrested in charged is is 1:50:14.760 --> 1:50:15.479 a great loss. 1:50:15.600 --> 1:50:18.760 Yeah, and the bounce back period is pretty quick. Like 1:50:18.760 --> 1:50:23.479 the resiliency is continual and always strengthening every time that, 1:50:23.720 --> 1:50:26.240 you know, the repression grows, like it does seem like 1:50:26.520 --> 1:50:27.840 the resiliency grows with it. 1:50:28.080 --> 1:50:30.960 People were not scared away from the woods. People still 1:50:31.120 --> 1:50:33.160 still were like, no, this is something I care about. 1:50:33.200 --> 1:50:34.960 I am still going to be in the woods. I'm 1:50:35.000 --> 1:50:38.120 still going to defend these woods. And you kind of 1:50:38.160 --> 1:50:42.000 have like there's always this essence of like fear kind 1:50:42.040 --> 1:50:45.719 of kind of underlying whenever you're like in the Wollani forest, 1:50:45.720 --> 1:50:48.280 because you know, people have been arrested and charged for 1:50:48.960 --> 1:50:52.800 laying in a hammock like that with another defendant, with 1:50:52.840 --> 1:50:56.800 another defendant, and like, so you know that it is 1:50:56.880 --> 1:50:59.559 it is fundamentally a risky place to be, but people 1:51:00.120 --> 1:51:03.439 think the potential cost is worth it, Like they will 1:51:03.479 --> 1:51:06.240 they continue to be here because they know this is 1:51:06.280 --> 1:51:08.639 a winnable fight and they know that it is worth 1:51:08.680 --> 1:51:12.240 it to defend these woods. Early Tuesday morning, a few 1:51:12.320 --> 1:51:16.479 stop Coop City banner drops happened throughout the city. Two 1:51:16.479 --> 1:51:19.479 people were detained by police during one of these banner drops, 1:51:19.800 --> 1:51:23.160 but were later released with a traffic citation after being 1:51:23.160 --> 1:51:27.519 interrogated separately and extensively photographed by law enforcement officials only 1:51:27.520 --> 1:51:33.320 identified as quote Georgia Police and Homeland Security unquote. Tuesday 1:51:33.479 --> 1:51:35.840 was the start of a series of non violent direct 1:51:35.880 --> 1:51:41.360 actions that were being launched around downtown and midtown. Tuesday morning, 1:51:41.400 --> 1:51:44.120 I followed a small group that went to the headquarters 1:51:44.160 --> 1:51:47.599 of Norfolk Southern, one of the Atlanta Police Foundation's financial 1:51:47.600 --> 1:51:50.760 contributors and noted enemy of Ohio. 1:51:51.439 --> 1:51:54.760 They entered the lobby and it's a very small group, 1:51:54.800 --> 1:51:56.240 but like I think half of it was. 1:51:56.360 --> 1:51:59.880 It was like five people and another five like press people. 1:52:00.080 --> 1:52:00.320 Yeah. 1:52:00.360 --> 1:52:02.960 So they enter and they read aloud a letter to 1:52:03.120 --> 1:52:06.519 Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, calling forward investment 1:52:07.560 --> 1:52:11.360 from of Norfolk Southern from copsody, and immediately they are 1:52:11.400 --> 1:52:15.840 met with uh a security guard screaming like go you 1:52:15.880 --> 1:52:18.639 get out of the hobby. You're you're being criminally trust 1:52:18.920 --> 1:52:21.559 you're being trespassed. You have to leave. One of the 1:52:21.600 --> 1:52:25.000 other security guards runs around with cell phone camera and 1:52:25.040 --> 1:52:29.120 like shoves it in everybody's faces, reaching rather rudely over 1:52:29.160 --> 1:52:31.120 you to get my face, and. 1:52:31.120 --> 1:52:39.360 They got very close to me entering the Norfolk Southern building. 1:52:39.800 --> 1:52:43.479 Please this letter. 1:52:49.760 --> 1:53:00.520 Explaining a horrible role in the city, can you please? 1:53:03.760 --> 1:53:06.559 And so the whole thing lasts like less than five minutes, 1:53:06.560 --> 1:53:09.280 maybe ride about five minutes when they finished reading the letter, 1:53:09.360 --> 1:53:11.840 Like all they asked was that the letter go to 1:53:11.920 --> 1:53:12.679 the CEO. 1:53:12.960 --> 1:53:13.160 YEP. 1:53:13.600 --> 1:53:17.879 While people were inside the headquarters, security called ns Police, 1:53:18.040 --> 1:53:21.920 which is the Norfolk Southern Police, who are legally allowed 1:53:21.960 --> 1:53:28.600 to arrest people. 1:53:28.880 --> 1:53:30.799 Anyone you can see. 1:53:32.439 --> 1:53:33.080 For your building. 1:53:33.400 --> 1:53:35.800 But nobody was arrested at that non violent direct action. 1:53:36.400 --> 1:53:38.760 The whole thing was over pretty quickly, and you know, 1:53:38.800 --> 1:53:41.640 as we were walking out, we saw like the the 1:53:42.840 --> 1:53:45.640 a force of Norfolk Southern Police like swarm kind of 1:53:45.720 --> 1:53:47.760 the exterior of the campus and like keep an eye 1:53:47.800 --> 1:53:48.400 out on things. 1:53:48.640 --> 1:53:50.680 And then we moved over to Woodriff Park, which was 1:53:50.760 --> 1:53:54.200 the meeting place for these non violent direct actions that 1:53:54.240 --> 1:53:57.800 happened about every every day at noon starting on starting 1:53:57.840 --> 1:54:01.880 on Tuesday. It's Tuesday, March seventh, around noon, there's about 1:54:01.880 --> 1:54:05.040 fifty or so people gathered in Woodriff Park who are 1:54:05.040 --> 1:54:09.240 heading out and marching to go stop by two of 1:54:09.280 --> 1:54:12.040 the Atlanta Police Foundation corporate funders. 1:54:12.560 --> 1:54:15.240 We roll up and I think at that point they 1:54:15.240 --> 1:54:16.920 were like twenty ish protesters. 1:54:16.960 --> 1:54:17.120 It was. 1:54:17.240 --> 1:54:19.479 It started off very small. There was no police, like 1:54:19.560 --> 1:54:21.760 no real visible police presence. They were like maybe a 1:54:21.760 --> 1:54:25.519 cruiser or two like kind of around and actually start 1:54:25.520 --> 1:54:27.519 to gather and kind of talk about like what their 1:54:27.560 --> 1:54:30.800 plan is for the day, which was just to march 1:54:30.880 --> 1:54:33.440 around to three different sites. They wanted the EIGHTE and 1:54:33.480 --> 1:54:44.240 T Building, the Georgia Pacific Building, and GSU Georgia State University. 1:54:44.080 --> 1:54:47.560 They are they are now leaving Woodriff Park. They got 1:54:47.640 --> 1:54:50.600 to Georgia Pacific, one of the cop City financial backers. 1:54:50.840 --> 1:54:54.200 Without much incident and without much in terms of visible 1:54:54.240 --> 1:54:57.600 police presence, people called on Mayor Dickens, who is the 1:54:57.680 --> 1:55:00.840 chair of the board of directors for Georgie Pacific, to 1:55:01.040 --> 1:55:03.920 cancel the Atlanta Police Foundation lease of the land that 1:55:04.000 --> 1:55:06.040 copp City is slated to be built on. 1:55:06.960 --> 1:55:10.080 Mayor Diggis, we want you to cancel this leak. We 1:55:10.240 --> 1:55:12.280 know that you have the authority to do so. 1:55:12.880 --> 1:55:15.800 They finished up that Georgia Pacific, they set up a 1:55:15.800 --> 1:55:17.640 little vigil for Torti Guita. 1:55:17.160 --> 1:55:20.440 And from Georgia Pacific they began their trek to the 1:55:20.480 --> 1:55:21.320 AT and T building. 1:55:21.520 --> 1:55:23.680 They left a little vigil for Torti Ghita in front 1:55:24.000 --> 1:55:31.360 of the Georgia Pacific Center and the group of like 1:55:31.480 --> 1:55:35.800 more than fifty people are continuing to march north. Police 1:55:36.480 --> 1:55:39.440 eight to ten police officers are directly behind them, and 1:55:39.480 --> 1:55:42.640 the whole bunch of police cars are blocking Peachtree along 1:55:42.680 --> 1:55:45.760 the path to AT and T. Was the APF's headquarters 1:55:45.960 --> 1:55:50.040 just across the street, and as the crowd approached this intersection, 1:55:50.480 --> 1:55:54.400 the amount of police ballooned massively in the block around 1:55:54.440 --> 1:55:57.160 the Atlantic Police Foundation headquarters. There's got to be about 1:55:57.360 --> 1:56:01.560 thirty to forty officers station and walking off the entrance 1:56:01.560 --> 1:56:04.320 to the APF, and also just like following the crowd 1:56:04.320 --> 1:56:09.760 around as they're as they're marching through the sidewalks. There's 1:56:09.800 --> 1:56:14.680 definitely over god, there's I think around seventy five officers 1:56:14.680 --> 1:56:15.840 deployed in this area right now. 1:56:15.880 --> 1:56:17.160 The number keeps growing. 1:56:17.840 --> 1:56:21.240 As we start walking down different sidewalks and different streets, 1:56:21.280 --> 1:56:23.240 you just see more officers that are already stationed. 1:56:24.200 --> 1:56:29.240 There are fifty activists and what certainly over one hundreds 1:56:29.240 --> 1:56:31.040 some were probably between one hundred, one hundred and twenty 1:56:31.760 --> 1:56:36.560 police officers started marching not like behind, not in front, 1:56:36.960 --> 1:56:40.040 but directly beside the march, sort of pinning the march 1:56:40.040 --> 1:56:42.440 to the wall and like essentially kettling the march. 1:56:42.680 --> 1:56:45.160 There was police station in front, there was police station behind, 1:56:45.320 --> 1:56:48.240 and police stationed on the side. It was surrounding the 1:56:48.280 --> 1:56:51.640 surrounding like these fifty people who were simply walking on 1:56:51.680 --> 1:56:55.320 the sidewalk stumbling upon a new group of officers. 1:56:55.320 --> 1:56:57.400 Got to be about one hundred officers in this area 1:56:57.480 --> 1:56:57.840 right now. 1:56:58.680 --> 1:57:02.280 At one point, a police vehicle was just parked on 1:57:02.360 --> 1:57:06.200 the sidewalk, completely blocking it. During this entire time, police 1:57:06.200 --> 1:57:09.440 were blocking all of the traffic in these intersections and roads. 1:57:09.360 --> 1:57:13.120 Driving wrong way up a one way like just you know, 1:57:13.160 --> 1:57:14.480 doing police things. 1:57:14.600 --> 1:57:18.480 Yeah, a Doorida State University canine unit. This blocking off 1:57:18.520 --> 1:57:21.200 the entire sidewalk next to a Fulton County Sheriff's vehicle. 1:57:24.000 --> 1:57:25.960 They're trying to make it impossible for people to actually 1:57:26.000 --> 1:57:26.800 move on the sidewalk. 1:57:27.360 --> 1:57:28.800 But for the most part, if. 1:57:28.680 --> 1:57:31.080 People have been able to move around the police and 1:57:31.880 --> 1:57:33.880 keep their movement going instead of just stalling in one 1:57:33.880 --> 1:57:38.000 spot or like trying to physically confront what is now 1:57:38.080 --> 1:57:41.200 like hundreds and hundreds of law enforcement officers from Fulton 1:57:41.240 --> 1:57:45.080 County Sheriffs and Atlanta Police Department and even like Georgia 1:57:45.120 --> 1:57:46.480 State University Police. 1:57:47.160 --> 1:57:48.520 So the group is split up in. 1:57:48.440 --> 1:57:50.680 Between two streets right now because people are trying to 1:57:50.800 --> 1:57:54.480 follow the follow the crossing signals because otherwise police are 1:57:54.480 --> 1:57:57.920 going to tackle and violently assault people. No one was arrested, 1:57:58.000 --> 1:58:00.480 People marched to their perspective locations. 1:58:00.680 --> 1:58:04.560 People very pointedly kept to laws. There was a couple 1:58:04.520 --> 1:58:07.280 of times when like the crosswalk changed and the group 1:58:07.360 --> 1:58:09.560 kind of had to split. They would stay and wait 1:58:09.640 --> 1:58:12.160 until the crosswalk went back to walk, and then crossover 1:58:12.200 --> 1:58:13.480 and join it's. 1:58:13.320 --> 1:58:16.320 So funny that the cops are so insistent if you 1:58:16.320 --> 1:58:18.600 stepped on the street, you're going to get arrested, and 1:58:18.640 --> 1:58:20.040 make sure people stay on the side of walks. 1:58:20.360 --> 1:58:21.320 But the result of that. 1:58:21.360 --> 1:58:23.040 Is that all the cops are standing in the street 1:58:23.200 --> 1:58:26.960 and they're blocking off like miles of traffic downtown Right now, 1:58:27.960 --> 1:58:30.760 people just arrived at the fifty one Peachtree Center Avenue 1:58:30.920 --> 1:58:34.240 AT and T Building in downtown Atlanta. Police were already 1:58:34.240 --> 1:58:36.920 stationed in front of the AT and T building, so 1:58:36.960 --> 1:58:40.240 there wasn't much to do. After a brief speech talking 1:58:40.280 --> 1:58:43.400 about AT and T's contributions to the Police Foundation and 1:58:43.520 --> 1:58:47.320 Cop City, the crowd moved on. Now people are turning 1:58:47.560 --> 1:58:51.440 west in the opposite direction from the AT and T headquarters, 1:58:52.200 --> 1:58:56.800 heading back into the Woodruff Park area where this march began. 1:58:57.760 --> 1:59:01.840 Police with long guns here. Finally, the crowd stopped at 1:59:01.840 --> 1:59:05.160 Georgia State University and talked about GSU's connections to the 1:59:05.200 --> 1:59:08.320 Atlanta Police Foundation. What is of note for this action, 1:59:08.520 --> 1:59:10.880 and really all of the actions that happened the next 1:59:10.920 --> 1:59:14.200 few days, is not what the protesters did. It's the 1:59:14.200 --> 1:59:18.160 police's disproportionate response to just fifty people walking on the sidewalk, 1:59:18.440 --> 1:59:23.560 chanting and giving short speeches outside of businesses tied to APF. 1:59:24.200 --> 1:59:27.360 With a small line of officers in front of GSU. 1:59:27.480 --> 1:59:29.960 They gave their last round of speeches and sort of 1:59:30.240 --> 1:59:32.120 dispersed for the day before. 1:59:32.160 --> 1:59:35.080 We wrap today and gave these clouds something else to 1:59:35.120 --> 1:59:35.440 go do. 1:59:36.480 --> 1:59:37.520 We will be out here. 1:59:37.960 --> 1:59:40.040 We won't be out here for the rest. 1:59:39.760 --> 1:59:41.920 Of the week, for the rest of the hunt, for 1:59:42.080 --> 1:59:43.040 the rest of that year. 1:59:47.160 --> 1:59:47.760 We won't fight. 1:59:48.040 --> 1:59:48.920 That's here we wait. 1:59:55.280 --> 1:59:58.400 Some of the police are now grouping up and opening 1:59:58.480 --> 2:00:02.480 up the sidewalk so people can actually It seems officers 2:00:02.520 --> 2:00:05.400 were in fact instructed to make arrests during this action, 2:00:05.880 --> 2:00:09.440 but for some reason did not follow through on those orders. 2:00:09.760 --> 2:00:13.760 According to scanner audio from Atlanta Police Department's SWAT team. 2:00:14.360 --> 2:00:15.600 That's about of them. 2:00:17.400 --> 2:00:19.520 The problem is they've been telling them to make a risk, 2:00:19.600 --> 2:00:21.080 but also is not taking a risk. 2:00:21.480 --> 2:00:24.720 I guess they weren't supposed to. I don't know. 2:00:24.840 --> 2:00:28.200 But un lit with that, we'll just hold what we 2:00:28.320 --> 2:00:30.280 got at fawn as leaders. 2:00:30.800 --> 2:00:35.240 Extensive police activity continued later that night. At around five 2:00:35.400 --> 2:00:39.160 thirty to six pm, police started staging around the forest 2:00:39.600 --> 2:00:42.800 in a way that usually indicates that a raid is forthcoming. 2:00:43.480 --> 2:00:47.360 Word spread around the recovering encampment that police could be 2:00:47.400 --> 2:00:48.560 preparing for a raid. 2:00:50.400 --> 2:00:52.640 So the initial reports were like that there were fifty 2:00:52.760 --> 2:00:57.560 police officers staged at Key Road and ready to go, 2:00:58.120 --> 2:01:01.680 and then the Decab County Swat starts to roll up 2:01:02.080 --> 2:01:06.280 at the fire station, and I would say a fair 2:01:06.320 --> 2:01:08.640 amount of like panic starts to set it at camp. 2:01:08.760 --> 2:01:13.760 Multiple multiple police copters are are getting flown overhead, multiple 2:01:13.760 --> 2:01:15.720 different SWAT teams are being brought in. At least like 2:01:15.880 --> 2:01:20.480 three or four different agencies are stationing officers around the woods. 2:01:20.520 --> 2:01:22.480 I believe it's estimated that at least one hundred and 2:01:22.480 --> 2:01:27.200 twenty police officers were being staged in the area directly 2:01:27.480 --> 2:01:31.000 surrounding the forest and in the area by the power 2:01:31.000 --> 2:01:32.080 line cut on Key Road. 2:01:32.200 --> 2:01:34.040 And it should be said that you know, up until 2:01:34.040 --> 2:01:37.320 this point, the police have never brought in that many 2:01:37.360 --> 2:01:41.000 resources to any protest action that I'm aware of, and 2:01:41.040 --> 2:01:45.320 not come in and engaged. So I was with a 2:01:45.360 --> 2:01:49.320 group offsite who like immediately began to fear, like you know, 2:01:49.440 --> 2:01:51.080 for they wouldn't be able to get back to their 2:01:51.080 --> 2:01:53.200 camp size, they wouldn't be able to get their gear, 2:01:53.200 --> 2:01:55.680 They wouldn't be able to get their medication, and that, 2:01:56.040 --> 2:01:58.680 from what I understand, was the general vibe around. But 2:02:00.080 --> 2:02:00.880 nothing happened. 2:02:00.920 --> 2:02:05.640 Nothing seemed to happen, and then at around seven police 2:02:05.640 --> 2:02:09.600 started to almost like express confusion on what was going on, 2:02:09.720 --> 2:02:12.560 and then everyone else expressed confusion for why the police 2:02:12.560 --> 2:02:15.880 were confused. And we think we've kind of put together 2:02:15.960 --> 2:02:22.560 what may have happened. So Clark, what is suspected of 2:02:23.040 --> 2:02:23.920 going down here? 2:02:24.360 --> 2:02:27.520 So the one thing that police don't understand and probably 2:02:27.520 --> 2:02:31.360 will never understand, is humor. Now, they become the butt 2:02:31.400 --> 2:02:35.160 of the joke often, but they don't understand comedy. So 2:02:35.400 --> 2:02:39.720 at seven o'clock that evening was scheduled Comedy in the Forest. 2:02:40.440 --> 2:02:43.120 And from what we've gathered, the police thought that the 2:02:43.160 --> 2:02:45.080 Comedy in the Forest event was going to be a 2:02:45.120 --> 2:02:48.280 cover for another Sunday night like action. 2:02:48.720 --> 2:02:52.480 So this event was scheduled on the public Defend the 2:02:52.520 --> 2:02:56.920 Atlanta Forest calendar that anyone can look at online is 2:02:57.080 --> 2:03:00.520 this Comedy in the Woods event for people to tell 2:03:00.680 --> 2:03:05.000 jokes around a campfire. And I guess they thought it 2:03:05.080 --> 2:03:07.240 was like it was like this event that was like 2:03:07.280 --> 2:03:09.840 a red herring so that people could then go do 2:03:10.360 --> 2:03:14.200 violent militancy in around the woods. So when seven o'clock 2:03:14.240 --> 2:03:17.400 came and went, like police were expecting people to like 2:03:17.480 --> 2:03:19.840 arrive at the woods or something, and that just didn't happen, 2:03:19.920 --> 2:03:22.879 because it turns out a few minutes before seven o'clock, 2:03:23.400 --> 2:03:26.280 this comedy event was canceled for like unrelated reasons. The 2:03:26.360 --> 2:03:29.760 organizer had had things come up, So this event just 2:03:29.880 --> 2:03:33.640 didn't happen. But there still was comedy in the woods. 2:03:34.240 --> 2:03:37.360 It just was that the police wasted probably over one 2:03:37.440 --> 2:03:43.440 hundred thousand dollars mobilizing over one hundred officers. I mean, obviously, 2:03:43.480 --> 2:03:45.320 I think some people in the woods were you know, 2:03:45.880 --> 2:03:49.600 had some frustration that that that you know, they experienced 2:03:49.720 --> 2:03:52.839 this fear of this possibly incoming rate that then resulted 2:03:53.320 --> 2:03:56.280 in there being nothing. I think it's always important to 2:03:56.800 --> 2:03:59.760 when people are relaying information, they relay information that is 2:03:59.800 --> 2:04:03.800 no without like unadue speculation. So like it is a 2:04:03.840 --> 2:04:06.919 fact to say that there's over one hundred cops stationing 2:04:07.080 --> 2:04:09.120 by the woods, and they've never had that many cops 2:04:09.120 --> 2:04:11.760 there before without doing some sort of raid or some 2:04:11.800 --> 2:04:15.000 sort of some sort of like activity in the forest. 2:04:15.160 --> 2:04:18.560 And part of what I've heard go on since then 2:04:18.720 --> 2:04:21.480 was you know, some very generative conversations about how they're 2:04:21.520 --> 2:04:24.040 going to take into account like this, this new paradigm 2:04:24.160 --> 2:04:28.080 that developed that night, And I think that again speaks 2:04:28.120 --> 2:04:30.760 to sort of just how the movement continues to develop 2:04:30.800 --> 2:04:34.280 and grow and like you know, handle new new challenges 2:04:34.320 --> 2:04:35.280 and shifts. 2:04:35.880 --> 2:04:38.880 So with the forest camp is still intact, the week 2:04:38.920 --> 2:04:42.560 of action continued on as planned, with another downtown nonviolent 2:04:42.600 --> 2:04:44.720 direct action that next morning. 2:04:45.200 --> 2:04:49.520 So Wednesday and noon is a lot smaller of direct 2:04:49.560 --> 2:04:51.280 action than the day before. 2:04:51.440 --> 2:04:53.440 It starts with like a dozen people. It slowly grows 2:04:53.480 --> 2:04:55.680 to like a few dozen, but yeah, it started extremely, 2:04:55.800 --> 2:04:59.720 extremely small. So this was one difference from Tuesday is 2:04:59.760 --> 2:05:02.680 that when we arrived, police already had a visible presence 2:05:02.880 --> 2:05:06.800 in downtown, stationed around Woodriff Park. So a group of 2:05:06.800 --> 2:05:09.800 people just launched from Woodriff Park, they kind of split 2:05:09.840 --> 2:05:14.080 off in different different little sub subgroups. Lots of people 2:05:14.120 --> 2:05:18.520 are just stationed outside of Marta Stops handing out flyers, 2:05:18.680 --> 2:05:21.000 and that is what people are doing right now. Police 2:05:21.080 --> 2:05:24.720 seem relatively confused and are trying to like mobilize the 2:05:24.720 --> 2:05:29.240 different areas where they feel like something might happen. But 2:05:29.680 --> 2:05:31.720 it's just people handing out flyers. 2:05:32.320 --> 2:05:34.600 And they decided to split into groups and engage in 2:05:34.680 --> 2:05:37.400 like just some typical outreach activity that you would see, 2:05:37.600 --> 2:05:39.480 you know, from any group, like just passing out flyers 2:05:39.480 --> 2:05:42.720 and pamphlets and attempting, from what I saw, to have 2:05:42.760 --> 2:05:45.120 like one on one conversations with anyone who wanted to. 2:05:45.360 --> 2:05:47.520 So, this this group that it broke off into these 2:05:47.560 --> 2:05:51.839 smaller subgroups. The group that we kind of accompanied stationed 2:05:51.880 --> 2:05:55.120 themselves around some Marta stops around I believe it was 2:05:55.120 --> 2:05:58.720 like the it was the Peachtree Lata station prep. Yeah, 2:05:58.720 --> 2:06:01.520 so they stationed at the like the three different exits 2:06:01.600 --> 2:06:04.320 or entrances for that, just just handing out flyers, handing 2:06:04.320 --> 2:06:07.680 out leaflets, trying to talk to anybody who walks by. 2:06:07.960 --> 2:06:11.120 Another group of people standing outside of a public transit 2:06:11.200 --> 2:06:15.080 spot handing out flyers, probably like I don't know, four 2:06:15.160 --> 2:06:19.560 or five other small, small groups doing similar things throughout downtown, 2:06:19.960 --> 2:06:21.960 which means police have a lot more places to be 2:06:22.320 --> 2:06:24.240 as opposed to just following one big group. 2:06:24.600 --> 2:06:27.720 The group that we followed had its own police presence 2:06:27.760 --> 2:06:30.440 follow it, and then when they split into three more groups, 2:06:30.960 --> 2:06:33.480 each group had its own police presence follow it, and 2:06:33.600 --> 2:06:37.680 police stuck to the protesters the entire time. And of course, 2:06:37.720 --> 2:06:41.280 like there's white transport vans that are full of cops 2:06:41.360 --> 2:06:42.160 kind of driving by. 2:06:42.600 --> 2:06:45.360 Thin white van full of police officers just showed up 2:06:45.360 --> 2:06:50.200 across the street. Army green tan SWAT vehicle just parked 2:06:50.440 --> 2:06:54.160 a block away from the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. There 2:06:54.240 --> 2:06:57.160 was an Atlanta SWAT vehicle parked outside of the Hooters. 2:06:57.440 --> 2:07:02.480 Totally normal response, totally normals. And so the leafleting goes 2:07:02.480 --> 2:07:04.880 on for you know, like forty five minutes, and then 2:07:05.560 --> 2:07:09.280 all of the groups start to gather together conveniently with 2:07:09.360 --> 2:07:11.360 the group that like we had embedded with. 2:07:11.960 --> 2:07:14.240 All right, there's actually a pretty decent number of people 2:07:14.280 --> 2:07:17.440 gathered here for the flywering event today. You know, normal 2:07:17.440 --> 2:07:20.879 police responds to people handing out flyers. Just fifty officers 2:07:20.880 --> 2:07:24.640 in the SWAT team. But yeah, there's probably at this point, 2:07:24.680 --> 2:07:27.720 like two or three dozen people that have kind of 2:07:27.840 --> 2:07:31.200 all converged together. It started off very small, people were 2:07:31.280 --> 2:07:35.120 very very spread out. They splintered off into little smaller groups, 2:07:35.480 --> 2:07:38.200 but now they've all kind of coalesced together back again. 2:07:38.920 --> 2:07:41.840 So all the little subgroups kind of meet up on 2:07:41.960 --> 2:07:45.480 Andrew Jung and peach tree right next to the Hooters 2:07:45.520 --> 2:07:46.560 and the hard Rock Cafe. 2:07:46.920 --> 2:07:50.240 This area is like the business district, so in the 2:07:50.280 --> 2:07:52.400 middle of the day, it's like really busy. It's a 2:07:52.400 --> 2:07:55.720 fairly like good spot to pass out leaflets. 2:07:55.800 --> 2:07:58.680 So they are passing out these leaflets. Pedestrians are still 2:07:58.680 --> 2:08:00.680 able to like walk through the side walks. It's pretty 2:08:00.680 --> 2:08:05.800 it's pretty chill. And then APD approaches the crowd, like 2:08:05.840 --> 2:08:08.560 the APD has already been around this area. There's there's 2:08:08.600 --> 2:08:11.879 this vehicle across the street watching people hand out flyers. 2:08:12.840 --> 2:08:17.720 But then Lieutenant Neil Welch approaches the crowd and gives 2:08:17.720 --> 2:08:19.640 them a dispersal order. 2:08:19.960 --> 2:08:21.520 Okay, can I read it this first order? 2:08:23.000 --> 2:08:23.320 All right? 2:08:23.320 --> 2:08:27.000 So I'm Lieutenant Neil Welch, a police officer, City of Atlanta. 2:08:27.600 --> 2:08:30.400 I hereby declare that, being on this sidewalk, you are 2:08:30.480 --> 2:08:34.360 obstructing or repeating the normal and reasonable movement a pedestrian 2:08:34.440 --> 2:08:39.920 traffic and violation of Atlanta City ordinates. Okay, and the 2:08:40.000 --> 2:08:42.640 name of the people is Saya, Georgia. I hereby command 2:08:42.640 --> 2:08:45.920 that all present in the sidewalk, all present here in 2:08:46.000 --> 2:08:50.480 the sidewalk immediately exit the street or the roadway or sidewalk. 2:08:50.920 --> 2:08:53.120 If you do not do so, you may be detained 2:08:53.200 --> 2:08:58.000 or arrested. Should you fail to exit the sidewalk in 2:08:58.080 --> 2:09:01.400 accordace with this lawful command, you shall be in violation 2:09:01.640 --> 2:09:07.240 of Section one five zero two six six substructing pedestrian traffic, 2:09:07.720 --> 2:09:11.440 which prehibits standing are being on any street, roadway, or 2:09:11.720 --> 2:09:14.920 sidewalk in a manner to obstructor impede the normal or 2:09:14.960 --> 2:09:16.800 reasonable pedestrian traffic. 2:09:17.440 --> 2:09:19.800 Cops threatened arrest and detainment. 2:09:20.520 --> 2:09:23.560 They claimed that people were blocking the sidewalk, which they 2:09:23.560 --> 2:09:26.160 absolutely were not. I was walking freely, as was all 2:09:26.200 --> 2:09:29.440 of like downtown pedestrian traffic. They were not blocking anything. 2:09:30.000 --> 2:09:35.800 This is this is pretty silly, utterly, utterly ridiculous response 2:09:35.840 --> 2:09:40.680 to people handing out flyers. So they were told they 2:09:40.760 --> 2:09:43.200 cannot be on the sidewalk. Obviously they can't be on 2:09:43.200 --> 2:09:46.600 the street. Where are you allowed to protest if not 2:09:46.680 --> 2:09:51.120 the sidewalk or the street. Seemed like very like flimsy 2:09:51.200 --> 2:09:53.720 legal footing. But obviously they police can arrest anyone they 2:09:53.720 --> 2:09:56.160 want to at any time for any reason. So people 2:09:56.160 --> 2:09:58.600 decided to move. They cross over the street, they walk 2:09:58.800 --> 2:10:01.720 like a block north, they cross the street again, and 2:10:01.760 --> 2:10:03.840 they they move onto this part of the sidewalk that 2:10:03.920 --> 2:10:06.640 is like really large, like a massive, massive open open 2:10:06.680 --> 2:10:07.560 section that. 2:10:08.160 --> 2:10:10.880 Right in front of the mall. So it's it's it's 2:10:10.920 --> 2:10:13.040 it's meant to like have a bunch of people passed 2:10:13.160 --> 2:10:13.440 by it. 2:10:13.680 --> 2:10:15.880 So people continue to hand out flyers. 2:10:15.800 --> 2:10:16.839 While this is happening. 2:10:17.080 --> 2:10:20.960 Uh, there's another group who comes in to the side 2:10:21.040 --> 2:10:24.560 of Petree Center Mall and enters the mall to find 2:10:24.560 --> 2:10:26.640 Mayor Andre Dickens. There are a couple of boards in 2:10:26.680 --> 2:10:31.040 Atlanta that stipulate the mayor is like the head of 2:10:31.040 --> 2:10:32.600 the board, and this is one of them, and it 2:10:32.680 --> 2:10:37.080 meets in Peatree Center Mall as one does. 2:10:37.200 --> 2:10:39.440 So the mayor is having a meeting in the mall. 2:10:40.440 --> 2:10:42.440 Office space is you know, sort of above the mall, 2:10:42.600 --> 2:10:43.320 and this group of. 2:10:43.320 --> 2:10:46.960 People from the Muscogie Nation enter and try to meet 2:10:47.080 --> 2:10:49.400 up with the mayor to hand off a letter. 2:10:50.560 --> 2:10:54.920 Objection to objection, we have a letter being delivered from 2:10:54.920 --> 2:11:03.480 the Creek Nation on behalf of Muscogee Creek Spiritual Leadership, and. 2:11:01.680 --> 2:11:03.600 I came all the way on the trial of tears 2:11:03.680 --> 2:11:08.200 to deliver this letter to you folks. We want you 2:11:08.240 --> 2:11:12.960 to know that the contemporary Muscogee people are now making 2:11:13.000 --> 2:11:17.160 their journey back to our homelands, and hereby give notice 2:11:17.600 --> 2:11:21.600 to Mayor Andrew Dickens, the Atlanta City Council, the Atlanta 2:11:21.600 --> 2:11:27.480 Police Department, the Atlanta Police Foundation, the Dakob County Sheriff's Office, 2:11:27.760 --> 2:11:31.760 and so called copp City that you must immediately vacate 2:11:31.880 --> 2:11:37.040 Muscogee homelands and cease violence and policing of Indigenous and 2:11:37.120 --> 2:11:40.920 Black people and Muscogee lands. We lived as stewards and 2:11:41.000 --> 2:11:44.080 in relationship to this land for more than thirteen thousand 2:11:44.160 --> 2:11:48.640 years until the illegitimate State of Georgia negotiated with the 2:11:48.680 --> 2:11:53.600 Tyrant Andrew Jackson for the militarized for the militarized force 2:11:53.720 --> 2:11:59.440 removal of Muscoge and Cherokee relatives to Indian territories. Mayor Dickens, 2:11:59.480 --> 2:12:09.760 can I give this letter to you? He got one, Mayor, 2:12:10.200 --> 2:12:12.240 we want to talk to you about our homelands. 2:12:12.280 --> 2:12:13.720 A Muskogee Cree people. 2:12:14.680 --> 2:12:18.920 Three indigenous an activists along with Kamal Franklin arrive and 2:12:19.880 --> 2:12:22.520 they find the mayor. They enter the board meeting and 2:12:22.760 --> 2:12:26.560 they begin to read this letter from the Muscoge Nation aloud. 2:12:27.120 --> 2:12:30.160 And in the letter it essentially says that Atlanta is 2:12:30.200 --> 2:12:33.240 being evicted out of the Wui Laanni forest and the 2:12:33.280 --> 2:12:35.880 most Scogi people are going to return and reclaim their 2:12:35.920 --> 2:12:41.640 ancestral land. Mayor Dickens, in true mayor fashion, bolts away 2:12:41.640 --> 2:12:44.880 from this, running through an exit door, which is then 2:12:44.960 --> 2:12:47.600 like blocked by a guard, which I think that has 2:12:47.640 --> 2:12:52.040 its own like set of legal issues, essentially just ignoring 2:12:52.480 --> 2:12:55.040 them over his shoulder. He calls out, I've got a 2:12:55.080 --> 2:12:59.600 copy of the letter and hides just completely. Trying to 2:12:59.800 --> 2:13:02.560 escape is not a good look for him. 2:13:03.120 --> 2:13:07.120 The Atlanta Police Department APEX Swatch team was called to 2:13:07.160 --> 2:13:10.520 the mall, and right as the activists were able to exit, 2:13:10.800 --> 2:13:14.440 the special police units rushed into the building, finding no one. 2:13:15.840 --> 2:13:18.840 By now, the police repression during this week of action 2:13:19.280 --> 2:13:22.760 far exceeded police activity during any of the prior weeks 2:13:22.760 --> 2:13:26.200 of action, and this trend would continue as the week 2:13:26.360 --> 2:13:30.240 entered its last few days. The next episode will wrap 2:13:30.320 --> 2:13:32.840 up our coverage for the week, as well as contain 2:13:32.880 --> 2:13:35.440 a bit more analysis of the police repression and the 2:13:35.480 --> 2:13:39.000 fallout of Sunday's direct action. But then there will be 2:13:39.080 --> 2:13:41.920 a fifth bonus episode that gives an overview of what's 2:13:41.960 --> 2:13:45.120 happened in the Malani Forest in the intervening two months. 2:13:45.800 --> 2:13:53.920 See you on the other side, Welcome back to it 2:13:53.960 --> 2:13:57.720 could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis. This is episode four 2:13:57.880 --> 2:14:01.160 of my mini series and detailing the March twenty twenty 2:14:01.200 --> 2:14:05.160 three week of action to stop cop City in Atlanta, Georgia. 2:14:06.040 --> 2:14:08.880 This episode, we'll be hearing from a lot of new 2:14:08.920 --> 2:14:11.640 people as we close out the day to day coverage 2:14:11.720 --> 2:14:16.200 of this week of action. One of the last big 2:14:16.360 --> 2:14:19.600 organized rallies was on Thursday night and it was put 2:14:19.640 --> 2:14:23.640 on by community movement builders and other black led groups 2:14:23.720 --> 2:14:24.480 from Atlanta. 2:14:24.920 --> 2:14:27.800 The big event Thursday night was a six o'clock rally 2:14:27.800 --> 2:14:31.040 that met at the Martin Luther King National Historic Site. 2:14:31.080 --> 2:14:34.240 There was police stationed at King Center before anyone got there, 2:14:35.200 --> 2:14:38.120 we saw like dozens and dozens of police cars going by. 2:14:38.440 --> 2:14:43.920 All around the site are various quick response forces and 2:14:44.480 --> 2:14:46.600 riot cops just ready. 2:14:46.360 --> 2:14:46.760 To move in. 2:14:47.280 --> 2:14:49.960 Large police response in the area already, as has been 2:14:50.000 --> 2:14:54.120 expected for the past few days. Multiple Sandy Springs police 2:14:54.200 --> 2:14:59.120 buses were driving by. There was multiple unmarked white vans 2:14:59.160 --> 2:15:03.440 full of officers. The areas crawling with police cars and 2:15:03.480 --> 2:15:05.920 now there's a small detail of officers across the street 2:15:06.320 --> 2:15:08.520 from the people gathering here in the park. 2:15:09.120 --> 2:15:14.200 We are currently surrounded on every side by groups of 2:15:14.200 --> 2:15:18.160 police officers in riodegear. The crowd started off like actually 2:15:18.320 --> 2:15:21.280 fairly decently sized, maybe like fifty people, and then continued 2:15:21.320 --> 2:15:25.080 as well as the speeches progressed to I would say 2:15:25.080 --> 2:15:27.320 like two hundred two hundred fifty, maybe even a little 2:15:27.320 --> 2:15:30.480 bit more. They were passing out signs, so like anyone 2:15:30.800 --> 2:15:33.280 who came, like they had a sign ready for you. 2:15:33.680 --> 2:15:36.160 Andre Dickins is a sellout of course, as a very 2:15:36.160 --> 2:15:38.840 popular one. There were stop Coop City like banners that 2:15:39.040 --> 2:15:42.640 people could like hold atl of verse twelve, like, you know, 2:15:42.800 --> 2:15:45.240 just a bunch of like really clever sort of protest 2:15:45.360 --> 2:15:48.560 slogans and things that people can get behind. The makeup 2:15:48.560 --> 2:15:51.200 of the crowd was definitely leaned like far less like 2:15:51.200 --> 2:15:55.560 white anarchists than certainly the accusations of this movement, I think, 2:15:55.640 --> 2:15:58.800 more representative of the movement as a whole, Like it 2:15:58.840 --> 2:16:01.720 was a mix of a bunch of different people. I 2:16:01.760 --> 2:16:06.080 would say, like it probably accurately reflected Atlanta demographics. 2:16:06.640 --> 2:16:08.920 Defend the forest signs and banners and being handed out 2:16:08.920 --> 2:16:11.440 throughout the crowd. Other people are passing around the Jail 2:16:11.440 --> 2:16:13.800 Support number and Jill Support contact information. 2:16:15.160 --> 2:16:16.520 People are starting to get ready. 2:16:16.920 --> 2:16:19.640 So it meets it at six o'clock and for about 2:16:19.680 --> 2:16:22.440 an hour and a half we listened to a series 2:16:22.480 --> 2:16:24.640 of speeches as the crowd begins to swell. 2:16:25.120 --> 2:16:29.000 So we are here in solidarity together today to make 2:16:29.040 --> 2:16:31.360 it clear to the mayor that he's not gonna keep 2:16:31.400 --> 2:16:34.360 lying on our names. They'll literally be building the mock 2:16:34.400 --> 2:16:38.280 city of Atlanta practice how to repress life. 2:16:38.560 --> 2:16:40.680 They kill. 2:16:41.120 --> 2:16:41.959 We find it. 2:16:42.400 --> 2:16:44.160 Ridiculous, we find it disgusting. 2:16:44.280 --> 2:16:48.280 We find it embarrassing that a mayor Andre Tickets would 2:16:48.320 --> 2:16:51.160 fix this, not to say that black people what if 2:16:51.160 --> 2:16:51.760 we killed by. 2:16:51.680 --> 2:16:54.720 The woolie that black people walk clock city. 2:16:54.680 --> 2:16:57.640 Yeah, the mayor must have for guy in that our 2:16:57.760 --> 2:17:03.959 ancestors will literally fighting abolition since they were brutally brought 2:17:04.000 --> 2:17:07.120 to this country. They were fighting for freedom, fighting the 2:17:07.200 --> 2:17:11.760 original police right, the slave patrols that captured black bodies 2:17:12.040 --> 2:17:14.040 to take them back to their white masters. 2:17:15.080 --> 2:17:16.359 He's talking to the same. 2:17:16.200 --> 2:17:19.840 Black people whose elders were fighting here in the same 2:17:19.879 --> 2:17:21.839 streets in the sixties. 2:17:21.440 --> 2:17:24.760 And the seventies to stop police occupation of our communities. 2:17:24.920 --> 2:17:25.440 That's right. 2:17:26.200 --> 2:17:30.120 Resistance to police, resistance to state violence is literally in 2:17:30.240 --> 2:17:32.039 our blood as black people. 2:17:32.080 --> 2:17:33.199 It is in our DNA. 2:17:34.200 --> 2:17:37.080 They're lying on our name because they want money from 2:17:37.120 --> 2:17:42.160 the same white corporations that are funding Cop City, Home Depot, 2:17:42.640 --> 2:17:46.640 Chick fil A, Coca Cola, Norfolk, Southern. 2:17:46.640 --> 2:17:47.520 At and t. 2:17:49.000 --> 2:17:52.960 COT enterprises who own say ajac and this is a 2:17:53.000 --> 2:17:56.320 fight that we will win, that we are committed to winning. 2:17:57.400 --> 2:17:59.680 And so when we talk about winning, it's important to 2:17:59.680 --> 2:18:01.520 say what do we mean when we say that we'll win. 2:18:02.160 --> 2:18:04.600 We mean no Cop City anywhere. 2:18:07.800 --> 2:18:13.280 Now in South Atlanta, not into cab not in North Atlanta, nowhere. 2:18:13.720 --> 2:18:16.160 When we say that we will win, we are meaning 2:18:16.320 --> 2:18:19.120 that this fight does not stop with Cop City. This 2:18:19.240 --> 2:18:21.800 is a fight for the liberation of all oppressed people 2:18:22.000 --> 2:18:22.800 here and abroad. 2:18:23.000 --> 2:18:23.680 That's right. 2:18:24.320 --> 2:18:27.920 And now, client's disgusting that the mayor and that these 2:18:27.959 --> 2:18:32.720 corporations will talk about outside agitators. Okay, the reason that 2:18:32.720 --> 2:18:35.280 there are people coming from all over the world to 2:18:35.280 --> 2:18:38.640 support this fight is because this is a fight that affects. 2:18:38.240 --> 2:18:38.760 All of us. 2:18:38.879 --> 2:18:39.440 That's right. 2:18:39.920 --> 2:18:44.520 The Atlanta Police Foundation admitted that percent of the cops 2:18:44.520 --> 2:18:47.439 being trained at that facility will not be in Georgia. 2:18:47.720 --> 2:18:48.959 So when people came from. 2:18:48.840 --> 2:18:53.520 Tennessee, from New York, from California, it's because they know 2:18:53.920 --> 2:18:57.199 that their local police might learn how to kill them better. 2:18:57.240 --> 2:18:58.320 Here, that's right. 2:18:59.000 --> 2:19:02.240 And when people come from abroad, they know that currently 2:19:02.400 --> 2:19:06.240 the Atlanta Police Department trains with the Israeli police. So 2:19:06.320 --> 2:19:10.160 the same techniques being used to brutalize black people are 2:19:10.200 --> 2:19:13.720 being used to practice genocide on the Palestinian people. And 2:19:13.800 --> 2:19:16.960 the same tactics being used to practice genofide on the 2:19:16.959 --> 2:19:20.400 Palestinian people are being used to brutilize black people right here. 2:19:21.400 --> 2:19:23.600 So when people came from all over the world to 2:19:23.640 --> 2:19:26.800 say stop Coup City, they're not outside agitators. They're standing 2:19:26.800 --> 2:19:28.720 in solidarity with us, because this is the fight. 2:19:29.560 --> 2:19:36.640 All as the rain picked up, Tortihita's mother, Belquise Taran 2:19:37.120 --> 2:19:39.360 spoke next on the. 2:19:39.520 --> 2:19:43.000 Cards the friend that I called them, I called them 2:19:43.000 --> 2:19:47.760 to come here to support us on the people from 2:19:47.959 --> 2:19:51.400 different religions come here and help us. 2:19:51.760 --> 2:19:57.720 This is a matter of the earth. You're talking a. 2:19:57.600 --> 2:20:02.359 Mountain's saying, right need. 2:20:02.360 --> 2:20:08.400 Our love, The earth needs our attention, and we are 2:20:09.800 --> 2:20:10.800 we have conscience. 2:20:10.920 --> 2:20:15.480 We know that this is not right. Don't go by 2:20:15.520 --> 2:20:20.280 yourself when we go to activities, stay together, don't go 2:20:20.360 --> 2:20:21.760 outside by yourself. 2:20:22.280 --> 2:20:25.680 Don't We need to. 2:20:24.840 --> 2:20:28.680 Make understand that this is the right thing to do. 2:20:29.640 --> 2:20:33.960 We we are the correct people. We are right because 2:20:34.480 --> 2:20:42.080 we are driving by love, by carry and concern, and. 2:20:42.040 --> 2:20:47.320 We love all of I love you and I know 2:20:47.520 --> 2:20:48.720 that you love me. 2:20:50.680 --> 2:20:54.039 A speaker from Black Votes Matter addressed to the crowd next, 2:20:54.400 --> 2:20:57.760 starting off by talking about the importance of mass action. 2:20:58.360 --> 2:21:00.959 I just want to explain something because sometimes people get confused, 2:21:00.959 --> 2:21:01.600 they get it twisted. 2:21:01.640 --> 2:21:02.720 They say, oh, y'all, look like vote. 2:21:02.720 --> 2:21:04.760 It's better all y'all do is talk about voting. 2:21:05.200 --> 2:21:07.240 Be clear, we understand that the way that we get 2:21:07.280 --> 2:21:09.240 to liberation is not going to come. 2:21:09.160 --> 2:21:10.640 Just through a vote. 2:21:11.760 --> 2:21:13.680 That's never been how it's worked for our people in 2:21:13.720 --> 2:21:16.200 this country. Sister Harry didn't get a chance to vote 2:21:16.400 --> 2:21:18.760 for liberations. She didn't get a chance to vote to 2:21:18.840 --> 2:21:22.600 take our people off the plantation right. So we are 2:21:22.680 --> 2:21:25.240 very clear that what we have got to be. In fact, 2:21:25.360 --> 2:21:28.879 we just celebrated, commemorated the anniversary of Selma and the 2:21:28.920 --> 2:21:31.560 marks of Montgomery. But be clear, the people of Selma 2:21:31.640 --> 2:21:34.520 didn't vote for a Voting Rights Act. They had to 2:21:34.560 --> 2:21:36.280 fight for it, they had to march for it. In 2:21:36.320 --> 2:21:39.400 some cases, they bled for it, they had to resist 2:21:39.640 --> 2:21:42.240 for it, they had to take to the streets for it. 2:21:42.240 --> 2:21:45.160 It's a that tradition that we are out here today. 2:21:45.440 --> 2:21:46.200 So yes, hot it. 2:21:46.480 --> 2:21:47.080 I believe. 2:21:48.840 --> 2:21:50.640 I believe in the power of the vote, but I 2:21:50.680 --> 2:21:52.720 also believe in the power of mass action. 2:21:53.640 --> 2:21:56.880 He then talked about the intersection of Copcity and efforts 2:21:56.920 --> 2:21:59.959 to further restrict the democratic process in Georgia. 2:22:00.400 --> 2:22:04.520 The same corporations that are that are funding cop City 2:22:04.840 --> 2:22:07.800 are the same ones that are funding the bonus questions, 2:22:08.959 --> 2:22:11.360 the same ones we've did our whole campaign a couple 2:22:11.400 --> 2:22:14.120 of years ago in Georgia, says that bonus prison bill. 2:22:14.320 --> 2:22:18.360 And we called out Home Depot and Coca Cola and 2:22:18.480 --> 2:22:21.800 tell them many of the other corporations that give money 2:22:22.080 --> 2:22:25.000 to the people, that are that are taken away our. 2:22:25.000 --> 2:22:25.879 Rights to vote. 2:22:25.920 --> 2:22:28.119 And then if you don't have a government that reflects 2:22:28.160 --> 2:22:31.119 the people, then what you need. You need a police 2:22:31.160 --> 2:22:33.840 force to enforce the fact that you don't have a 2:22:33.879 --> 2:22:38.119 government that reflects the people. And so our message from 2:22:38.160 --> 2:22:41.360 Mary Dickets, our message for the City Council is that 2:22:41.440 --> 2:22:44.959 If you don't respond to the people, you want to 2:22:45.040 --> 2:22:48.320 lose those chile you want to lose your job. 2:22:49.240 --> 2:22:50.879 Because we've got that power. 2:22:51.320 --> 2:22:53.560 We've got the power to make that happen. 2:22:54.080 --> 2:22:58.160 Students from the Atlanta University Center consortium of four black 2:22:58.200 --> 2:23:00.840 colleges in Atlanta, where some of the last people to 2:23:00.920 --> 2:23:02.560 give speeches before the march. 2:23:03.120 --> 2:23:06.440 We have attempted to reform our police force, add de 2:23:06.560 --> 2:23:10.120 el escalation training, add civil rights history training, and give 2:23:10.160 --> 2:23:12.640 more money to our police, but we continue to see 2:23:12.640 --> 2:23:16.240 black bodies across social media platforms, television, and other media 2:23:16.280 --> 2:23:22.560 platforms being displayed being murdered. The victims have received no justice. 2:23:22.600 --> 2:23:24.240 And when we say no justice, what do we say? 2:23:24.400 --> 2:23:30.840 No justice, no justice, no justice. 2:23:31.280 --> 2:23:34.320 The building of the Atlanta Public Training Center is an 2:23:34.360 --> 2:23:37.680 insult and an act of the utmost disrespect from our 2:23:37.720 --> 2:23:38.440 city leaders. 2:23:39.000 --> 2:23:41.080 We have a duty to fight for the change that 2:23:41.120 --> 2:23:41.640 we seek. 2:23:42.400 --> 2:23:46.119 As an active member of this community, I refuse to sit. 2:23:46.000 --> 2:23:48.840 By and be idle and just let things happen. 2:23:49.760 --> 2:23:53.440 This city has been my home ever since I was born. 2:23:54.040 --> 2:23:54.600 I have been to. 2:23:54.640 --> 2:23:55.760 Various events here. 2:23:55.959 --> 2:23:58.120 I have seen the sights and have lived through some 2:23:58.160 --> 2:24:01.760 of the most important events here in this City. This 2:24:01.800 --> 2:24:05.920 is my home. This is your home, This is our home. 2:24:06.400 --> 2:24:10.280 This is the home of Black excellence. This is the 2:24:10.320 --> 2:24:13.680 home of doctor Martin Luther King Junior. This is the 2:24:13.720 --> 2:24:17.240 home of John Lewis. This is the home of Joseph 2:24:17.400 --> 2:24:19.320 Evelyn and Joseph E. 2:24:19.400 --> 2:24:22.000 Lowy. This is the home of civil rights. This is 2:24:22.040 --> 2:24:24.040 the home of CT. 2:24:24.280 --> 2:24:24.680 Gibon. 2:24:25.240 --> 2:24:28.000 This is the home of great blackness itself. 2:24:28.280 --> 2:24:32.199 This is the home of every single black person here 2:24:32.640 --> 2:24:39.440 in America. This city, this house, this place of Black 2:24:39.520 --> 2:24:43.240 excellence says no to Cop City. 2:24:43.720 --> 2:24:47.080 My Afro pessimist friends and revolutionaries both agree we are 2:24:47.120 --> 2:24:50.800 at war. The police in the city have said as 2:24:50.879 --> 2:24:55.279 much loudly with their words and their actions. It feels 2:24:55.320 --> 2:24:59.480 obvious to me that we need warriors weapons, and I 2:24:59.520 --> 2:25:03.600 know that fact may give some of us trepidation, but 2:25:03.680 --> 2:25:05.640 I want to assure you that we need so much 2:25:05.680 --> 2:25:09.879 more than soldiers to win this fight. Whatever it is 2:25:09.920 --> 2:25:12.760 that you do, whatever skill you bring, I just ask 2:25:12.840 --> 2:25:15.360 that you make it a weapon. If we are ever 2:25:15.480 --> 2:25:19.039 going to experience democracy, we need your tools to be 2:25:19.200 --> 2:25:24.600 repurposed in this fight against Cop City. If you're a 2:25:24.640 --> 2:25:26.920 writer like me, child that Patty better look like a 2:25:26.959 --> 2:25:33.680 threat to cop city. If you do mutual aid, caring 2:25:33.720 --> 2:25:36.480 for community ain't gonna get any easier. Please show us 2:25:36.480 --> 2:25:38.920 the way. 2:25:39.240 --> 2:25:41.000 If you're an artist, where my artist at. 2:25:43.360 --> 2:25:44.680 You got a lot of them out here. 2:25:45.760 --> 2:25:49.640 Let every painting reveal the truth, including the joy and 2:25:49.720 --> 2:25:55.520 freedom that abolition calls us to. Let us make songs 2:25:55.520 --> 2:26:00.959 that inspire revolution. If you're a healer, get ready, we 2:26:01.040 --> 2:26:01.360 need you. 2:26:02.680 --> 2:26:04.280 Much will be lost in this struggle. 2:26:05.560 --> 2:26:06.440 Let us not forget. 2:26:07.680 --> 2:26:09.560 If you're a teacher, well, we got a lot to 2:26:09.640 --> 2:26:12.160 learn about this war we're fighting and how police practice 2:26:12.280 --> 2:26:17.000 urban warfare. If you're a lawyer, guide us when they 2:26:17.040 --> 2:26:18.439 say that any fighter. 2:26:18.160 --> 2:26:18.800 Is a criminal. 2:26:19.920 --> 2:26:22.160 If you're a digital organizer, to keep your finger on 2:26:22.200 --> 2:26:25.879 the pulse and tell our stories far and wide. And 2:26:25.920 --> 2:26:29.480 if you're a community organizer, we need to tend to 2:26:29.560 --> 2:26:34.720 our relationships, not just use them. We need real solidarity 2:26:34.760 --> 2:26:40.320 which goes beyond unity. We need pluralism, making space for 2:26:40.400 --> 2:26:44.800 many strategies to coexist, and ultimately we need to practice democracy. 2:26:44.800 --> 2:26:47.039 If we plan to build one cop city, is the 2:26:47.040 --> 2:26:51.080 police in the establishment preparing for domestic war right here 2:26:51.080 --> 2:26:54.400 in the city of Atlanta. Any further training of the 2:26:54.400 --> 2:27:05.440 police is training against our existence. That shit cannot be built. 2:27:06.240 --> 2:27:07.640 It will. 2:27:09.320 --> 2:27:12.840 We all must fight for the democracy we've never seen before. 2:27:13.920 --> 2:27:14.920 What are you willing to do? 2:27:15.720 --> 2:27:16.000 Thank you? 2:27:19.560 --> 2:27:22.640 So, after about an hour of speeches, people are now 2:27:22.640 --> 2:27:23.680 finally getting ready to move. 2:27:23.720 --> 2:27:24.640 They announced on the. 2:27:24.640 --> 2:27:27.440 Loudspeaker where we are going. We are marching to the 2:27:27.480 --> 2:27:31.440 Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters on Peachtree, the same location that 2:27:31.520 --> 2:27:35.960 had the front windows broken on the protest following the 2:27:36.080 --> 2:27:40.400 killing of Tortighita that Saturday. So people leave, they stick 2:27:40.440 --> 2:27:44.120 onto the sidewalk because there's cops staring at them, and 2:27:44.640 --> 2:27:47.760 cops that definitely had had had indicated that if if 2:27:47.760 --> 2:27:50.959 people step on to the street, they would be arrested. 2:27:55.440 --> 2:27:58.320 The length of the march is stretching for about two 2:27:58.400 --> 2:28:01.120 or three city blocks, just because you know, trying to 2:28:01.120 --> 2:28:04.120 cram three hundred people onto a sidewalk. 2:28:03.760 --> 2:28:05.640 Makes sense stretch out really long. 2:28:06.360 --> 2:28:09.560 But the cops have been pretty pretty adamant that if 2:28:09.560 --> 2:28:12.440 anyone steps onto the street, they're going to get arrested. 2:28:12.800 --> 2:28:15.600 That is a banner being carried across that says what 2:28:15.879 --> 2:28:21.840 you water grows fund our future, Stop cop city, defend 2:28:21.840 --> 2:28:26.680 the forest. People with the stop cop City signs in 2:28:26.720 --> 2:28:30.879 the Coca Cola font signs that read Atlanta versus cop City, 2:28:31.440 --> 2:28:38.199 no cop city on stolen Land. The Thursday march definitely 2:28:38.280 --> 2:28:40.280 had the most amount of signs out of all of 2:28:40.320 --> 2:28:43.880 the individual marches or actions that I went to, both 2:28:44.040 --> 2:28:48.480 small handheld signs and also signs with really tall handles 2:28:48.480 --> 2:28:56.240 to hold up above the crowd. All right, people are 2:28:56.280 --> 2:28:59.760 being led into the street now after walking, after walking 2:28:59.800 --> 2:29:04.119 on the hidewalk for a decent while, people have now 2:29:04.160 --> 2:29:06.959 taken to the streets along the path of the march. 2:29:07.040 --> 2:29:09.800 The projector was set up projecting like stop stop coop 2:29:09.840 --> 2:29:12.320 city slogans onto the side of a building, almost like 2:29:12.440 --> 2:29:14.039 really really good graphic design. 2:29:14.200 --> 2:29:16.720 Visuals is definitely a strength of the movement. 2:29:17.120 --> 2:29:21.160 There's this police riot helmet that has a tree growing 2:29:21.200 --> 2:29:23.440 underneath it and breaking apart of the helmet. It says, 2:29:23.680 --> 2:29:26.240 trees give life, police take it. We got a police 2:29:26.320 --> 2:29:29.320 riot line set up a few blocks ahead of the 2:29:29.320 --> 2:29:32.400 people marching on the street right next to the building 2:29:32.440 --> 2:29:35.120 with these with the stop cop City stuff projected onto 2:29:35.120 --> 2:29:39.040 the side. Rather than let the police do an escalatory 2:29:39.240 --> 2:29:42.480 show of violence, people opted to move back onto the 2:29:42.520 --> 2:29:46.000 sidewalk to continue the march uninhibited. People seem to be 2:29:46.080 --> 2:29:49.920 moving closer back onto the sidewalk as they're staring down 2:29:49.959 --> 2:29:54.040 this riot line, and police are now heading back inside. 2:29:54.200 --> 2:29:58.480 They're white rent to bush little vans that they've been 2:29:58.520 --> 2:30:01.640 staging their riot cops out of, and they're driving off. 2:30:02.600 --> 2:30:06.560 People are now in downtown Atlanta outside of the Georgia 2:30:06.600 --> 2:30:07.360 Pacific Center. 2:30:08.879 --> 2:30:12.840 We have like twelve regular police. 2:30:12.480 --> 2:30:17.720 Cars, the two white vans full of riot cops and 2:30:17.920 --> 2:30:20.280 lots of them cops the stage in places I cannot 2:30:20.440 --> 2:30:25.240 currently see. All right, We're marching north along Peachtree Street, 2:30:27.080 --> 2:30:31.800 heading heading to the Atlantic Police Foundation got the two 2:30:32.080 --> 2:30:35.440 the two bus Max rent of buses full of riot 2:30:35.440 --> 2:30:39.320 cops right right beside the march. Cops really out of 2:30:39.320 --> 2:30:43.520 it about not letting anybody march in the street. It's 2:30:43.520 --> 2:30:45.720 funny because a few days ago they wouldn't let people 2:30:45.720 --> 2:30:48.400 stand on the sidewalk either. Most of the cops that 2:30:48.400 --> 2:30:50.800 are surrounding the march right now are still in their vehicles, 2:30:51.440 --> 2:30:55.800 at least from this current vantage point. As opposed to 2:30:55.840 --> 2:30:57.920 the non violent direct act of march, I was opposed 2:30:57.920 --> 2:31:01.160 to the non violent direct action marches and actions that 2:31:01.240 --> 2:31:04.240 have happened launching out of woodword Park the past week 2:31:04.840 --> 2:31:08.480 in which the police just tailed and surrounded the march 2:31:08.520 --> 2:31:11.879 on foot, I think this march is just slightly I 2:31:11.879 --> 2:31:14.280 think this march is just slightly too big to use 2:31:14.320 --> 2:31:19.480 that tactic, so they're surrounding them with vehicles instead. As 2:31:19.520 --> 2:31:22.680 the march arrived at the Atlanta Police Foundation, the hundreds 2:31:22.680 --> 2:31:26.160 of protesters crammed onto the sidewalk were greeted by armed 2:31:26.240 --> 2:31:30.120 APD officers. Riot police are standing in front of the 2:31:30.200 --> 2:31:34.600 boarded up Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters at one nine to 2:31:34.680 --> 2:31:38.520 one Peach Tree. There is a large, large crowd in 2:31:38.560 --> 2:31:42.520 front of these relatively small amount of officers standing in 2:31:42.520 --> 2:31:45.760 front of the board and up doors a few dozen cops, 2:31:46.040 --> 2:31:49.120 some armed with AR fifteen's, A lot of cops stationed 2:31:49.160 --> 2:31:54.440 outside the APF headquarters and even more stationed inside APF headquarters. 2:31:54.520 --> 2:31:57.160 Police blocked off traffic in the on this section of 2:31:57.200 --> 2:32:02.680 Peachtree Street, the sandwiching everybody in. They could have mass 2:32:02.720 --> 2:32:04.560 arrested as I'm sure they wanted to. 2:32:05.080 --> 2:32:08.680 Yeah, the police were ready to mass rest the entire time. 2:32:10.080 --> 2:32:11.680 This is this is kind of a wild sighte. 2:32:11.720 --> 2:32:15.920 We have hundreds of people staring down about three dozen 2:32:15.920 --> 2:32:20.080 officers from the Atlanta Police Department on their fifteen's, obviously 2:32:20.120 --> 2:32:24.480 all of their handguns from hundreds of hundred, hundreds of 2:32:24.480 --> 2:32:28.360 people holding signs staring down the police. You can you 2:32:28.400 --> 2:32:31.320 can feel the kind of you can feel the temperature. 2:32:30.879 --> 2:32:34.080 Rising a little bit here. The cops look very nervous 2:32:34.160 --> 2:32:34.520 as one. 2:32:34.560 --> 2:32:38.160 Hundreds of people who are chanting at them, and I'm 2:32:38.160 --> 2:32:42.240 not very happy are facing them down. They're so they're 2:32:42.240 --> 2:32:45.760 so close together, we're they're just sandwiched in. This is 2:32:45.800 --> 2:32:48.600 such a tense situation right now. No one in the 2:32:48.600 --> 2:32:50.680 crowd has any visible weapons of any kind. Of course, 2:32:51.000 --> 2:32:55.840 they're holding big signs. Cops have some zipcuffs ready, cops 2:32:55.879 --> 2:32:59.840 have all of their all their guns ready. I was 2:32:59.879 --> 2:33:02.680 able to see inside the building via a small slit 2:33:02.800 --> 2:33:06.320 in the plywood. There were tons of riot cops inside 2:33:06.360 --> 2:33:09.200 with shields, and all the cops on the inside of 2:33:09.200 --> 2:33:12.720 the building had gas masks strapped to their leg. At 2:33:12.840 --> 2:33:14.879 least one riot cop on the other side of the 2:33:14.920 --> 2:33:18.360 door was wearing a unique armored suit, not like the 2:33:18.400 --> 2:33:21.480 regular police suits with riot armor like on the outside, 2:33:22.040 --> 2:33:25.160 this armored padding was built into the clothing. He had 2:33:25.160 --> 2:33:29.240 these massive bulky leg pants with armor on the insides 2:33:29.280 --> 2:33:32.280 of them and like a massive riot helmet. He was 2:33:32.280 --> 2:33:35.200 one of those cops who doesn't need a riot shield 2:33:35.480 --> 2:33:39.240 because his body is the riot shield. It was very weird, 2:33:39.760 --> 2:33:42.680 But for those first few minutes, it was a very 2:33:42.879 --> 2:33:46.400 high stress situation in front of the APF building. It 2:33:46.440 --> 2:33:49.240 felt like neither the crowd nor the police knew exactly 2:33:49.320 --> 2:33:51.800 what was about to go down as a few hundred 2:33:51.879 --> 2:33:55.560 angry protesters were pushed up against a line of armed police. 2:33:56.200 --> 2:33:58.680 But as time went on, you got the impression that 2:33:58.760 --> 2:34:02.320 this crowd was probably not going to initiate conflict with 2:34:02.440 --> 2:34:04.680 the police, and I feel like some of the moods 2:34:04.760 --> 2:34:07.320 maybe kind of died down. Cops are trying to kind 2:34:07.360 --> 2:34:10.199 of move around the crowd a bit. There's there's cops 2:34:10.240 --> 2:34:14.000 being stationed to the north, to the south, to behind 2:34:14.000 --> 2:34:17.720 the crowd on the other side of the street. We 2:34:18.480 --> 2:34:20.600 this could go so many ways right now, This could 2:34:20.720 --> 2:34:25.360 end in so many different scenarios. But people have not 2:34:25.400 --> 2:34:27.959 initiating anything other than standing on the sidewalk and. 2:34:28.200 --> 2:34:29.439 Chanting and given speeches. 2:34:30.360 --> 2:34:32.800 If you look, there's a small section of the FF 2:34:32.840 --> 2:34:35.600 building where there's still a tiny, tiny, tiny sliver of 2:34:35.640 --> 2:34:38.320 glass by one of the doors, and you can see 2:34:38.360 --> 2:34:42.199 lots of lots of cops stationed inside with riot shields. 2:34:42.920 --> 2:34:45.160 But I do not believe this crowd is gonna be 2:34:45.400 --> 2:34:49.520 busting down any doors. Camu Franklin, the founder of Community 2:34:49.520 --> 2:34:52.960 Movement Builders, was the last person to speak in front 2:34:53.040 --> 2:34:54.279 of the Atlanta Police Foundation. 2:34:55.440 --> 2:35:00.240 No cops, it's nothing but a chry go over. Please 2:35:00.280 --> 2:35:04.440 think our communities. We know a cop city. There's nothing 2:35:04.480 --> 2:35:07.320 but a strategy to stop our movements. 2:35:08.160 --> 2:35:09.320 And what movements are those? 2:35:09.560 --> 2:35:13.279 The moments against police follans and terrorism in our community. 2:35:13.560 --> 2:35:16.400 It is in twenty twenty one that they introduced this 2:35:16.560 --> 2:35:20.000 idea to stop, to put cop city out here to 2:35:20.120 --> 2:35:23.840 stop our movements. When people were talking about the fund 2:35:23.920 --> 2:35:27.240 the police, abolish the police, find our turn it is 2:35:27.280 --> 2:35:29.080 the public safety, they. 2:35:28.879 --> 2:35:31.080 Said, hell no, we. 2:35:30.959 --> 2:35:32.600 Want more police. 2:35:33.320 --> 2:35:37.040 And I put that idea out there, and the movement 2:35:37.280 --> 2:35:40.440 was born to stop cop city. This movement is two 2:35:40.640 --> 2:35:42.520 years old and it doesn't look like. 2:35:42.440 --> 2:35:43.199 It's going to stop. 2:35:43.200 --> 2:35:43.360 To me. 2:35:45.080 --> 2:35:47.959 By the end, you got this sense that this march 2:35:48.120 --> 2:35:50.960 did exactly what it wanted to. There were three hundred 2:35:50.959 --> 2:35:53.440 people standing like a foot away from two dozen cops, 2:35:53.520 --> 2:35:57.240 starring them down, giving speeches chanting. If people wanted to 2:35:57.640 --> 2:36:01.240 other things could have happened. This rally could have resulted 2:36:01.280 --> 2:36:04.720 in many ways, many of them probably very ugly and 2:36:04.879 --> 2:36:06.480 carrying a very high cost. 2:36:06.959 --> 2:36:10.720 The reason we did in march like this today was 2:36:10.760 --> 2:36:14.560 to say to all the na saves. Black folks don't 2:36:14.600 --> 2:36:19.720 want cop City. In people don't want cop City. White 2:36:19.760 --> 2:36:23.920 folks don't want cop City. At Lantis don't want cop City. 2:36:24.800 --> 2:36:28.800 Folks from outside Atlanta don't want cop City. Don't body 2:36:28.840 --> 2:36:33.400 in the United States wants cop City because Ronestitians. 2:36:32.680 --> 2:36:33.680 Don't work Cops City. 2:36:34.560 --> 2:36:36.279 So people in Latin America. 2:36:35.959 --> 2:36:36.960 Don't want cop City. 2:36:37.879 --> 2:36:38.680 Don't were in. 2:36:38.640 --> 2:36:39.840 This world don't we. 2:36:39.920 --> 2:36:41.039 Work cop City. 2:36:42.400 --> 2:36:46.439 We wanted to make sure that we came in safety 2:36:46.720 --> 2:36:51.120 and we leave in safety. We wanted to make sure 2:36:51.720 --> 2:36:56.240 that we don't have any more political prisoners today. That 2:36:56.320 --> 2:36:58.960 we wanted this to be a march about our unity 2:36:59.120 --> 2:37:03.000 and our safety in numbers, and as we wrap up today, 2:37:03.280 --> 2:37:06.560 that's what we want. It's not like we gotta give 2:37:06.560 --> 2:37:09.840 them an excuse. When you are around the cop the 2:37:09.879 --> 2:37:12.080 same way when you're around the wild animal. 2:37:11.800 --> 2:37:13.240 What do you gotta do. 2:37:13.240 --> 2:37:17.280 You gotta be cautious, you gotta be careful. You gotta 2:37:17.400 --> 2:37:20.480 move a certain way, you gotta know which way to 2:37:20.560 --> 2:37:24.320 go because you're looking to protect your safety. And right 2:37:24.360 --> 2:37:28.320 now I'm looking to protect our safety. So as we 2:37:28.400 --> 2:37:33.000 depart here today, we are departing in unit, We are 2:37:33.040 --> 2:37:38.600 departing together. We are gonna walk back in close quarters 2:37:38.720 --> 2:37:41.600 together where our cars work. If you're going to Martyr, 2:37:42.320 --> 2:37:44.959 you're gonna walk close together with other people as you 2:37:45.040 --> 2:37:47.680 go to Marta if you need a van to pick 2:37:47.720 --> 2:37:52.080 you up, if you can't take Marta two blocks this 2:37:52.240 --> 2:37:58.800 way by deposit. So we want you to be safe, secure, 2:37:59.200 --> 2:37:59.959 because you want to be. 2:38:00.240 --> 2:38:01.720 Here gig the fight. 2:38:04.920 --> 2:38:07.560 There was this sense that the people there wanted to 2:38:07.560 --> 2:38:11.080 show that if they wanted to do things, they could have, 2:38:11.560 --> 2:38:14.240 but they knew that this was not This was not 2:38:14.280 --> 2:38:15.840 the right time nor the right place. 2:38:16.160 --> 2:38:20.280 Restraint and and understanding of what like practice I would 2:38:20.320 --> 2:38:21.720 say in that situation is. 2:38:21.879 --> 2:38:24.200 And I mean in the speeches that happened beforehand, there 2:38:24.280 --> 2:38:27.280 was people from community movement builders, from Black Votes Matter, 2:38:27.440 --> 2:38:30.240 a whole bunch of other black led groups in the city. 2:38:30.680 --> 2:38:33.879 And similarly, like like like what happened at the Clergy event, 2:38:33.920 --> 2:38:37.760 there was not a single whiff of condemnation of militant tactics, 2:38:38.280 --> 2:38:42.520 of of of property, destruction of actions that people take this. 2:38:42.840 --> 2:38:46.480 They people there who gave speeches recognized that such tactics 2:38:46.760 --> 2:38:52.840 were a staple of the civil rights movement. Early Saturday morning, 2:38:52.959 --> 2:38:56.440 I woke up to news that police had begun another raid. 2:38:57.160 --> 2:39:00.400 But instead of writing the Mulani Forest the the police 2:39:00.400 --> 2:39:03.680 were searching the ten acre property of the Lakewood Environmental 2:39:03.760 --> 2:39:07.760 Arts Foundation or LEAF, a local nonprofit that was offering 2:39:07.920 --> 2:39:11.880 safe haven for people during the week of Action. All right, 2:39:12.040 --> 2:39:15.120 so the Lant police have executed a warrant on the 2:39:15.240 --> 2:39:18.840 LEAF meet up spot in southeast Atlanta that people have 2:39:18.840 --> 2:39:21.520 been using as a welcome center, as like a medic 2:39:21.720 --> 2:39:24.640 station and just another spot to hang out. It was 2:39:24.800 --> 2:39:28.160 set up after the raid Sunday night and it is 2:39:28.200 --> 2:39:32.400 now Saturday morning. The police have executed this warrant to 2:39:32.800 --> 2:39:35.080 search Parmasis ID everyone who's there. 2:39:35.360 --> 2:39:37.240 We got a group of people. It's being able to 2:39:37.320 --> 2:39:37.959 leave right now. 2:39:39.080 --> 2:39:43.040 There has been a prison transport vehicle called in and 2:39:43.160 --> 2:39:45.360 cops have like blocked off intersections around the area. No 2:39:45.400 --> 2:39:47.400 one's allowed to get close. People are not allowed to 2:39:47.400 --> 2:39:49.160 return to their cars. People are not allowed to return 2:39:49.160 --> 2:39:52.640 to their private property. Since Sunday night, the land was 2:39:52.680 --> 2:39:55.920 being used as a medic hub and provided a secondary 2:39:55.959 --> 2:39:59.039 place to camp for those who didn't feel safe staying 2:39:59.160 --> 2:40:03.600 in the forest. During their raid Saturday morning, police detained 2:40:03.640 --> 2:40:06.920 at least twenty two people and refused to show anyone 2:40:07.040 --> 2:40:10.560 the search warrant. And yeah, the group that got released 2:40:10.600 --> 2:40:13.320 is just walking up now. Maybe like two dozen people 2:40:13.480 --> 2:40:14.480 have been able to walk up. 2:40:16.120 --> 2:40:23.760 We just goat through their police lines and we're gonna, yeah, 2:40:23.879 --> 2:40:27.400 huddle up and get to a safe place. We were 2:40:27.480 --> 2:40:33.560 woken up by helicopters. There had been helicopters doing rounds 2:40:33.600 --> 2:40:38.920 all evening and I don't even know what time. Seven something, 2:40:39.080 --> 2:40:44.359 we heard loud speakers saying that they had a warrant 2:40:45.879 --> 2:40:53.200 to search the property private property, and that was very disorienting. 2:40:53.280 --> 2:40:56.880 Obviously I was in the middle of sleeping. We came 2:40:56.920 --> 2:41:00.800 out with our hands open, our hands up. We had 2:41:00.920 --> 2:41:04.840 more than twenty guns pointed at us. Some people have 2:41:04.920 --> 2:41:08.039 their fingers on triggers. Certainly they were screaming at me. 2:41:09.160 --> 2:41:14.039 And as I was waking up, we came through the line. 2:41:14.120 --> 2:41:16.560 They said that they had a warrant to search the property. 2:41:16.840 --> 2:41:19.560 We know that Homeland Security was one of the departments 2:41:19.560 --> 2:41:23.039 that was arrested that was part of the arrest crew 2:41:23.120 --> 2:41:29.680 or extraction crew or whatever. It's very traumatic. Obviously, it's freezing. 2:41:29.800 --> 2:41:33.039 This is the coldest day this week, and so we are, 2:41:35.400 --> 2:41:39.520 you know, worried about people's health because people are cold. 2:41:40.400 --> 2:41:46.800 They detained us, they took identification. It was extremely violent situation, 2:41:47.080 --> 2:41:50.119 but everyone here was really taking care of each other 2:41:50.200 --> 2:41:51.039 and remaining calm. 2:41:51.520 --> 2:41:55.039 To address the raid, activists scheduled a press conference for 2:41:55.200 --> 2:41:57.840 later that day after a youth rally to defend the 2:41:57.879 --> 2:42:01.240 forest was to take place in East Village. And I 2:42:01.280 --> 2:42:04.560 think you can hear said youths in the background, so 2:42:05.080 --> 2:42:07.480 excuse their joyous young screams. 2:42:07.800 --> 2:42:10.400 We thought that it was important for us to not 2:42:10.480 --> 2:42:14.240 only amplify the wonderful children's march that happened here today, 2:42:14.320 --> 2:42:18.760 the community in East Atlanta, this community where they are 2:42:18.800 --> 2:42:23.560 proposing to build cop City, came out this morning overwhelmingly 2:42:23.640 --> 2:42:25.480 to say that they don't want cop City. 2:42:25.720 --> 2:42:26.959 So we had parents, we. 2:42:26.959 --> 2:42:30.480 Had children, we had other neighbors and community stakeholders who 2:42:30.560 --> 2:42:33.240 gathered right here in Brownwood Park today in East Atlanta 2:42:33.320 --> 2:42:36.480 to say that we are East Atlanta and cop City 2:42:36.560 --> 2:42:39.520 is not a part of what we imagine an envision 2:42:39.879 --> 2:42:44.760 for this community. Also this morning, unfortunately, there is a 2:42:44.920 --> 2:42:48.680 place that was held as a commune for campers who 2:42:48.720 --> 2:42:51.720 wanted to stand in solidarity during this week of action. 2:42:52.360 --> 2:42:56.440 The place is called Leith l EAF. That is, the 2:42:56.520 --> 2:43:01.480 Lakewood Environmental Arts Foundation, a nonprofit or organization that's dedicated 2:43:01.520 --> 2:43:04.960 to combating food insecurity here within the city of Atlanta, 2:43:05.120 --> 2:43:08.800 offered up their space to be used for people who 2:43:08.800 --> 2:43:12.240 did not feel safe camping in the forest because of 2:43:12.560 --> 2:43:16.800 the over aggression of police there and they wanted to 2:43:16.840 --> 2:43:19.600 stand in solidarity with this week of action, so LEIF 2:43:19.680 --> 2:43:23.920 offered up their space for those people to camp safely. Unfortunately, 2:43:24.000 --> 2:43:29.280 this morning, a gang of police officers descended upon that 2:43:29.720 --> 2:43:30.720 sacred space. 2:43:31.640 --> 2:43:34.960 During the raid, up to forty officers swarmed the property, 2:43:35.400 --> 2:43:39.320 ransacking the infrastructure set up at the Leaf Encampment site. 2:43:40.040 --> 2:43:43.960 Cops slashed aparts two medical supply tents, disrupting metical operations, 2:43:44.320 --> 2:43:47.040 broke windows of a camper van parked on the site, 2:43:47.160 --> 2:43:50.960 and ripped apart a greenhouse. Police took pictures of the 2:43:51.000 --> 2:43:54.520 people detained at Leaf and collected their ideas, but after 2:43:54.600 --> 2:43:57.480 being held for several hours, the police let all but 2:43:57.680 --> 2:44:01.080 one person go free. To quote an article by Candice 2:44:01.120 --> 2:44:04.480 Burned in Truth Out Quote, one person was arrested for 2:44:04.560 --> 2:44:09.280 an outstanding parking ticket, demonstrating the state's desperation to snatch 2:44:09.360 --> 2:44:12.279 up anyone associated with the Stop Copcity movement. 2:44:13.360 --> 2:44:16.400 Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Marlon Kautz. 2:44:16.760 --> 2:44:21.000 I'm an organizer with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, where civil 2:44:21.000 --> 2:44:24.720 liberties and anti repression organization that exists to make sure 2:44:24.760 --> 2:44:27.760 that people who participate in social movements have the right 2:44:27.840 --> 2:44:32.680 to protest and don't suffer from repression. So the reason 2:44:32.720 --> 2:44:37.160 I'm here is because, as we've all heard previously, there 2:44:37.200 --> 2:44:43.600 was an incident of political repression. Early this morning, police 2:44:43.640 --> 2:44:47.440 executed a search warrant and performed a raid against the 2:44:47.600 --> 2:44:52.400 Lakewood Environmental Arts Foundation, which is a community space in Lakewood, 2:44:52.400 --> 2:44:56.840 Atlanta that exists primarily to serve artists and musicians. It's 2:44:56.920 --> 2:45:00.160 clear that it was part of a political strategy to 2:45:00.240 --> 2:45:04.720 repress and intimidate protesters who are associated with the Stop Pop. 2:45:04.600 --> 2:45:06.480 City movement, a movement to defend the forest. 2:45:07.080 --> 2:45:13.600 This is very concerning, especially when taken in context. Of course, 2:45:13.760 --> 2:45:16.440 it's very likely that police are going to report that 2:45:16.480 --> 2:45:21.800 this was part of a routine investigation, a law enforcement 2:45:21.879 --> 2:45:25.000 matter that they had every right to conduct. The other 2:45:25.080 --> 2:45:27.720 thing that police are likely to claim is that they 2:45:27.920 --> 2:45:32.200 made an arrest on scene, and our understanding is that 2:45:32.240 --> 2:45:36.200 they did make an arrest due to somebody who was 2:45:36.240 --> 2:45:39.240 there having an old traffic ticket from a long time ago. 2:45:39.480 --> 2:45:43.039 So it's important to clarify that the arrest was because 2:45:43.080 --> 2:45:47.120 of a traffic ticket, not because of any alleged crimes 2:45:47.360 --> 2:45:51.400 related to the movement or any other serious criminal activity. 2:45:51.800 --> 2:45:54.360 So it's important that we understand this raid as part 2:45:54.400 --> 2:45:58.440 of a series of ongoing abuses of the legal process 2:45:58.640 --> 2:46:02.320 to harass and intimidate political throw testers. They were unable 2:46:02.360 --> 2:46:06.360 to demonstrate any criminal activity during their raid on the 2:46:06.400 --> 2:46:10.320 Lakewood Environmental Arts Foundation, but they're continuing. 2:46:09.879 --> 2:46:10.959 To abuse. 2:46:12.879 --> 2:46:14.760 Every justification that they can. 2:46:16.160 --> 2:46:20.760 To raid spaces, to make arrests, and to hold people 2:46:20.800 --> 2:46:21.320 in jail. 2:46:22.320 --> 2:46:26.840 So before the police come out and say we raided 2:46:26.879 --> 2:46:31.320 this place where all of these outside aggressors were and 2:46:31.520 --> 2:46:34.240 we picked up some violent offenders, we want you to 2:46:34.320 --> 2:46:36.920 know that our brothers and sisters who were standing with 2:46:37.000 --> 2:46:40.040 us in solidarity just saying hey, we want to camp here, 2:46:40.080 --> 2:46:42.720 since we don't feel safe camping in the people's park 2:46:43.000 --> 2:46:46.680 that's been overrun with police repression and aggression. 2:46:47.360 --> 2:46:48.480 They raided that place. 2:46:49.080 --> 2:46:53.080 They snatched people up, some people were sleeping, They took 2:46:53.160 --> 2:46:57.080 pictures of people, They took their IDs, and they searched 2:46:57.080 --> 2:47:01.360 and searched, found nothing else, never to warrant, and only 2:47:01.400 --> 2:47:06.200 one person was arrested because of an outstanding parking ticking. 2:47:07.240 --> 2:47:11.000 About a week after the raid, the Guardian obtained evidence 2:47:11.120 --> 2:47:14.240 of the search warrant. The warrant stated that there was 2:47:14.360 --> 2:47:18.600 probable cause for believing that evidence of quote conspiracy to 2:47:18.600 --> 2:47:23.120 commit domestic terrorism unquote could be found at the Lakewood location. 2:47:24.120 --> 2:47:30.400 Listed in the warrant were objects officers sought, which included quote, cameras, radios, 2:47:30.760 --> 2:47:37.160 boxes of nails, lighters, tents, camping equipment, spray paint, black clothing, 2:47:37.480 --> 2:47:41.360 and literature related to defend the forest. These were the 2:47:41.400 --> 2:47:47.560 materials tied to domestic terrorism. As the week progressed, there 2:47:47.600 --> 2:47:51.119 were an increasing number of reports of police tailing people 2:47:51.240 --> 2:47:57.000 coming and going from a march's and especially the actions downtown. Basically, 2:47:57.160 --> 2:48:00.359 officers would follow people suspected of participating in the movement, 2:48:00.760 --> 2:48:03.920 pull them over try to id anyone within the vehicles 2:48:04.200 --> 2:48:09.160 and then issue some nonsense traffic citation. This continued on 2:48:09.240 --> 2:48:13.160 Thursday after the Community Movement Builders march, as people were 2:48:13.160 --> 2:48:16.160 heading home from the public Park, police stalked a few 2:48:16.160 --> 2:48:20.480 individuals and pulled over multiple vehicles. A van carrying one 2:48:20.520 --> 2:48:23.160 of the speakers was targeted, as well as two other 2:48:23.280 --> 2:48:26.080 cars that were pulled over as they were leaving the protest. 2:48:27.440 --> 2:48:31.400 Marlin from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund talked about the various 2:48:31.400 --> 2:48:35.120 ways police had been using their power to intimidate activists 2:48:35.480 --> 2:48:36.920 and suppress protest. 2:48:37.600 --> 2:48:42.480 Our organization has gotten many reports of pretext stops of 2:48:42.600 --> 2:48:45.880 political protesters or people who are suspected of being political 2:48:45.920 --> 2:48:49.480 protesters because of bumper stickers on their car or the 2:48:49.520 --> 2:48:53.920 state that their license plate is ProMED. We've gotten report 2:48:55.120 --> 2:48:58.680 people being stop and frisked simply because they're profiled as 2:48:58.720 --> 2:49:03.440 looking like political acts the lists, and of course we've 2:49:03.480 --> 2:49:09.240 seen dozens of protesters or suspected protesters arrested and charged 2:49:09.280 --> 2:49:12.960 with domestic terrorism simply because they were found at a 2:49:13.200 --> 2:49:16.080 music festival that's associated with the stock Coop City movement. 2:49:16.800 --> 2:49:19.600 And so we can see that every step of the 2:49:19.640 --> 2:49:24.280 way police and prosecutors are abusing the legal process to 2:49:24.400 --> 2:49:26.400 intimidate and discourage this movement. 2:49:26.680 --> 2:49:29.720 Throughout this time, police have been watching or monitoring one 2:49:29.760 --> 2:49:33.039 of the off site locations in the forest. They've parked 2:49:33.080 --> 2:49:36.800 in front of this site and kept up surveillance on it. 2:49:37.600 --> 2:49:41.080 And then leading all the way up into Friday, there 2:49:41.760 --> 2:49:45.120 was a journalist pulled over leaving the final non violent 2:49:45.120 --> 2:49:48.160 direct action from Woodruff Park. They were pulled over with 2:49:48.240 --> 2:49:51.039 two other people in the car and like detained briefly, 2:49:52.040 --> 2:49:57.240 ostensibly to you know, continue to identify and connect people. 2:49:57.800 --> 2:49:59.720 A big part of the story for this week of 2:49:59.760 --> 2:50:03.520 Act is the excess of the police response to quite 2:50:03.680 --> 2:50:08.200 typical acts of quote unquote nonviolent protest, the sort that 2:50:08.280 --> 2:50:11.120 the government and even the police loved to claim that 2:50:11.200 --> 2:50:15.400 they actually protect. With every single action downtown this week, 2:50:15.600 --> 2:50:19.400 virtually no laws were being broken, not even any civil disobedience. 2:50:19.879 --> 2:50:23.480 People were handing out flyers, marching on sidewalks, giving out letters, 2:50:24.000 --> 2:50:27.240 and the police's response was to deploy SWAT, to mobilize 2:50:27.440 --> 2:50:30.080 hundreds of officers, to shut down multiple city blocks, to 2:50:30.160 --> 2:50:33.080 carry ar fifteens as they tail crowds of a few 2:50:33.080 --> 2:50:36.480 dozen people just walking on the sidewalk and yelling at 2:50:36.520 --> 2:50:39.840 people if they accidentally miss step off the curb and 2:50:40.000 --> 2:50:45.199 threaten violent arrest. This was the sort of extremely aggressive 2:50:45.240 --> 2:50:49.000 response to people doing protest quote unquote the right way. 2:50:49.720 --> 2:50:52.720 We should highlight that. That is the apparent goal of 2:50:52.760 --> 2:50:55.400 these protests was to show that even when they are 2:50:55.400 --> 2:50:58.000 doing things the right way, this is how the state 2:50:58.040 --> 2:50:59.320 reacts to dissent. 2:50:59.800 --> 2:51:03.240 It reacts in this militarized fashion where you like it's 2:51:03.280 --> 2:51:06.600 it's I think a big part of what's happened in 2:51:06.800 --> 2:51:08.880 these types of protests that have happened the past week 2:51:09.160 --> 2:51:13.160 is demonstrating why people are campaigning to stop cop City 2:51:13.360 --> 2:51:16.360 because the sheer amount of resources that the police already 2:51:16.400 --> 2:51:19.560 have in the city. To to be deploying hundreds and 2:51:19.760 --> 2:51:22.600 hundreds of officers every single day to respond to people 2:51:22.640 --> 2:51:26.280 handing out flyers, it's like to respond to people who 2:51:26.320 --> 2:51:29.440 are walking on the sidewalks. They have this massive amount 2:51:29.480 --> 2:51:33.280 of resources. They're using tear gas in the woods, they're 2:51:33.320 --> 2:51:37.119 using paper balls, they're using flash bangs, they're they're having 2:51:37.320 --> 2:51:41.440 multiple different swat teams follow around people handing out pamphlets. 2:51:41.800 --> 2:51:45.680 The level of police militarization in Atlanta is already at 2:51:45.720 --> 2:51:49.600 this extremely high point, and COP City is only going 2:51:49.640 --> 2:51:52.720 to intensify that. And that is the reason they want 2:51:52.800 --> 2:51:55.840 to build cop City. It's for this type of urban 2:51:55.879 --> 2:52:00.080 counterinsurgency training to quell civil unrest and to quell protests. 2:52:00.959 --> 2:52:04.520 On Thursday night, we held a very peaceful and successful 2:52:04.600 --> 2:52:07.959 march in downtown Atlanta, starting at the King Center. 2:52:08.680 --> 2:52:10.720 We had someone who. 2:52:10.520 --> 2:52:12.920 Was stopped by the police and asked if he was 2:52:13.000 --> 2:52:18.080 picking up protesters taking out of the vehicle, handcuffed for 2:52:18.120 --> 2:52:21.320 no reason. They couldn't find a reason to detain him 2:52:21.520 --> 2:52:24.720 any longer, so they had to let him go. But Atlanta, 2:52:24.760 --> 2:52:27.600 this is why we're standing against cop City, because if 2:52:27.640 --> 2:52:30.200 cop City is built, you can guarantee that you won't 2:52:30.200 --> 2:52:32.840 even be able to go to the grocery store without 2:52:32.879 --> 2:52:36.000 being harassed by the police for no reason at all. 2:52:36.520 --> 2:52:39.720 When I spoke with Matthew Johnson, he brought up a 2:52:39.760 --> 2:52:40.640 similar point. 2:52:41.280 --> 2:52:44.320 With the resources that the police had to respond in 2:52:44.360 --> 2:52:45.400 the way that they did. 2:52:46.000 --> 2:52:47.000 The assertion that. 2:52:46.920 --> 2:52:52.000 They need more training in a militarized facility or they 2:52:52.040 --> 2:52:56.680 need more resources is crazy because you had them literally 2:52:56.800 --> 2:53:03.919 out numbering protesters kettling them, and we have credible sources 2:53:03.920 --> 2:53:07.800 that say that there were swat forces who had instructed 2:53:08.280 --> 2:53:14.680 the officers to arrest nonviolent protesters, and there were actually 2:53:14.720 --> 2:53:17.560 police officers that refused to take that order, which I 2:53:17.600 --> 2:53:22.240 think is another fascinating dynamic that is worth exploring and 2:53:22.320 --> 2:53:27.199 understanding more. But just with the resources that they had 2:53:27.560 --> 2:53:33.760 to try to shut down protesters, harass folks, constantly, ticket 2:53:33.840 --> 2:53:36.920 and pull over people that they saw, you know, creating 2:53:37.040 --> 2:53:41.200 like a logistical framework for the week of action is nuts, 2:53:41.600 --> 2:53:47.840 and they're making our point for us. On Friday, the 2:53:47.920 --> 2:53:52.760 word came out that Tortugita had bullet holes through both 2:53:52.800 --> 2:53:56.600 of their palms and that they were more than likely 2:53:56.640 --> 2:54:00.000 sitting cross leg with their hands up when they were 2:54:00.200 --> 2:54:03.840 shot by police. And now we are supposed to be 2:54:03.959 --> 2:54:08.439 convinced that these people that lied about this killed somebody 2:54:09.200 --> 2:54:12.440 that was absolutely no threat to them. On the same 2:54:12.560 --> 2:54:15.400 grounds that they're trying to build this police training facility, 2:54:15.720 --> 2:54:18.480 we're supposed to believe that this is going to make 2:54:18.560 --> 2:54:23.360 them less violent towards people like as you're building a 2:54:23.360 --> 2:54:26.800 militarized police training facility, and like people that try to 2:54:26.840 --> 2:54:29.320 convince themselves that these is going to be a place 2:54:29.320 --> 2:54:33.520 where people are also being taught de escalation tactics, while 2:54:33.600 --> 2:54:36.560 like everything around that is militarized. It's like if you 2:54:36.760 --> 2:54:41.400 had somebody build a water park and you're like, oh, yeah, 2:54:41.480 --> 2:54:43.560 I'm just trying to stay dry. I don't want to 2:54:43.600 --> 2:54:45.920 get splashed or anything like that, and it's like, oh no, no, no, 2:54:45.840 --> 2:54:48.560 don't worries. We have a food court right in the 2:54:48.560 --> 2:54:50.520 middle of it, and it's great, you're really just coming 2:54:50.560 --> 2:54:52.879 there for the food court, so don't worry about it. 2:54:53.680 --> 2:54:57.879 And then like you go there and then you get splashed. 2:55:00.000 --> 2:55:03.080 What were you expecting? Like, that's obviously not what that 2:55:03.120 --> 2:55:07.680 facility is for, because all the infrastructure around it is 2:55:07.760 --> 2:55:10.440 made to be a water park or a militarized police 2:55:10.480 --> 2:55:13.440 training facility. So don't be surprised when maybe they might 2:55:13.520 --> 2:55:16.160 have one de escalation program and like you know where 2:55:16.200 --> 2:55:19.920 the food court would be, and then somebody gets killed, right, 2:55:20.000 --> 2:55:22.640 because they're actually building the infrastructure for killing. 2:55:23.360 --> 2:55:25.080 So that's where we're at. 2:55:25.640 --> 2:55:27.840 This week of action has shown a lot about how 2:55:27.879 --> 2:55:31.680 the police are operating post the twenty twenty Uprising, how 2:55:31.720 --> 2:55:34.840 they will respond to people exercising their First Amendment right, 2:55:35.440 --> 2:55:38.879 and the indiscriminate way that police will respond to any 2:55:38.920 --> 2:55:43.360 active protest. One of the main takeaways from this week 2:55:43.760 --> 2:55:47.360 is that their response to protest is deployed against people 2:55:47.480 --> 2:55:51.480 without target or focus. They care very little if you 2:55:51.520 --> 2:55:54.440 are breaking a window or if you're marching on the sidewalk, 2:55:54.640 --> 2:55:58.200 They're still gonna send the SWAT team. Police are acting 2:55:58.240 --> 2:56:01.880 as if they are entirely in case of differentiating between 2:56:01.959 --> 2:56:04.960 acts of descent. Toward the end of the week, I 2:56:05.040 --> 2:56:08.520 sat down and talked with an unnamed forest defender to 2:56:08.640 --> 2:56:12.279 get their thoughts on the week of action. For security reasons, 2:56:12.280 --> 2:56:13.680 we did a vocal replacement. 2:56:14.240 --> 2:56:17.440 The police presence has been pretty unprecedented. I haven't seen 2:56:17.480 --> 2:56:20.560 shit like that here since twenty twenty, not downtown at least. 2:56:20.840 --> 2:56:22.880 I mean shit, I don't think we had seen gas 2:56:22.959 --> 2:56:25.120 in Atlanta in a minute, and then they gassed the forest. 2:56:25.280 --> 2:56:27.760 It'd been a while, but yeah, I mean they're punching out, 2:56:28.160 --> 2:56:30.400 especially like Tuesday, they were putting out one hundred and 2:56:30.440 --> 2:56:33.240 fifty two hundred cops the entirety of downtown. I mean 2:56:33.520 --> 2:56:37.959 multi jurisdictional task forces deployed multiple different Atlanta APD SWAT 2:56:37.959 --> 2:56:41.520 teams between like regular APD SWAT and APEX, which is 2:56:41.560 --> 2:56:44.400 like the Drug and Gang Interdiction unit. I mean a 2:56:44.440 --> 2:56:47.920 fucking whole drone unit, GSP, some weird unmarked cars that 2:56:47.959 --> 2:56:51.200 I won't speculate on, helicopters, all that shit. You know, 2:56:51.280 --> 2:56:53.320 the type of police response you would expect to see 2:56:53.320 --> 2:56:55.600 in like a dystopian fucking police state. For some people 2:56:55.640 --> 2:56:58.280 handing out flyers that just say this is bad for 2:56:58.320 --> 2:57:00.680 the environment, doesn't matter how much milk toast or not, 2:57:00.720 --> 2:57:02.400 and like I shouldn't say milk toasts like that's not 2:57:02.440 --> 2:57:04.879 a bad thing. We need people to go hand out flyers. 2:57:04.920 --> 2:57:07.320 We need to inform people as far as what this 2:57:07.560 --> 2:57:10.080 is to get people involved, but like as non violent 2:57:10.120 --> 2:57:11.720 as you can get, and still they're going to treat 2:57:11.760 --> 2:57:13.800 you like your fucking al Qaeda, you know, and it 2:57:13.800 --> 2:57:17.600 puts you in a weird position because then it's like, okay, cool, 2:57:17.640 --> 2:57:19.560 if you're going to treat us the exact same for 2:57:19.680 --> 2:57:23.280 being nonviolent, why not do crime. If the police response 2:57:23.320 --> 2:57:25.280 to an assault on an outpost that drove the police 2:57:25.280 --> 2:57:27.520 out and burned five things down, the police response to 2:57:27.560 --> 2:57:29.960 fifteen people handing out flyers downtown are going to be 2:57:29.959 --> 2:57:33.039 about the same, then why not take more militant radical action? 2:57:33.760 --> 2:57:37.360 The twenty three people arrested on Sunday, March fifth were 2:57:37.400 --> 2:57:40.760 not arrested as anyone was torching equipment. They were not 2:57:40.879 --> 2:57:43.840 arrested at the power line cut. It was people who 2:57:43.840 --> 2:57:48.040 were attending a music festival. Arrests were not widely targeted 2:57:48.080 --> 2:57:51.600 against people who police knew were engaged in property destruction. 2:57:52.040 --> 2:57:55.600 They were targeted against anyone the cops could grab. Same 2:57:55.720 --> 2:57:58.440 was the case at the January twenty first action, where 2:57:58.440 --> 2:58:02.800 people were marching downtown Saturday after Tortugita was killed. The 2:58:02.800 --> 2:58:07.480 only people arrested and subsequently charged with domestic terrorism was 2:58:07.760 --> 2:58:10.959 anyone the police could get their hands on. Officers went 2:58:11.000 --> 2:58:14.360 after people who were carrying banners the entire duration of 2:58:14.400 --> 2:58:17.560 the march. It was not targeted against people who were 2:58:17.560 --> 2:58:25.320 engaged in militant action. Among all this talk of police 2:58:25.360 --> 2:58:30.000 repression and multiple raids, it's easy to overlook that throughout 2:58:30.080 --> 2:58:34.760 the week people still sought opportunities for finding joy and resistance, 2:58:35.120 --> 2:58:38.920 because most people wouldn't dedicate years of their life to 2:58:38.959 --> 2:58:42.200 this if it was just miserable battles with police the 2:58:42.240 --> 2:58:42.800 whole time. 2:58:43.640 --> 2:58:45.560 I think one thing that's been lost in all of this, too, 2:58:45.840 --> 2:58:48.160 is all of the lighthearted events that have continued to 2:58:48.160 --> 2:58:52.040 go on through the week, and like the joy of 2:58:52.080 --> 2:58:55.879 the movement that was represented in the Bouncy Castle rip. 2:58:56.160 --> 2:58:58.560 But that joy is continuing in the woods, like people 2:58:58.560 --> 2:59:00.360 have still continued to camp in the woods. People still 2:59:00.400 --> 2:59:03.360 having dinner in the woods, people are still having camp fires, 2:59:03.360 --> 2:59:05.080 people are still talking the woods. It is still a 2:59:05.120 --> 2:59:08.680 place that people are gathering at and are enjoying each other. 2:59:09.160 --> 2:59:11.760 This company in now are enjoying the woods, and it 2:59:11.800 --> 2:59:15.640 is a place that the morale has never been fully crushed. 2:59:15.920 --> 2:59:17.440 The moral has never been fully crushed. 2:59:17.520 --> 2:59:23.400 And like the participatory acts of the Week of Action 2:59:23.800 --> 2:59:27.720 are continuing like none of that has been quashed. 2:59:28.000 --> 2:59:31.880 An example of the joyful, continuous resistance during the Week 2:59:31.920 --> 2:59:34.600 of Action can be found at the youth rally that 2:59:34.680 --> 2:59:36.640 happened on Saturday the eleventh. 2:59:37.840 --> 2:59:40.680 All right, So I'm at the youth rally Saturday. 2:59:41.040 --> 2:59:43.680 After the warrant was served on the meetup spot in 2:59:43.720 --> 2:59:47.320 Southeast Atlanta. There's around two hundred people marching through East 2:59:47.400 --> 2:59:51.320 Village in Atlanta. Pretty pretty joyous group here actually, and 2:59:51.360 --> 2:59:52.840 they're actually like on the streets. 2:59:52.879 --> 2:59:54.440 This is the first time we've had a large march 2:59:54.440 --> 2:59:54.600 like this. 2:59:55.120 --> 2:59:58.480 Take to the streets because every action that was in 2:59:58.520 --> 3:00:02.440 downtown or midtown Atlanta was just so heavily surveilled by 3:00:02.480 --> 3:00:05.560 police who were not letting anyone get near the street 3:00:05.600 --> 3:00:05.879 at all. 3:00:06.000 --> 3:00:07.039 But there's no police here. 3:00:07.600 --> 3:00:10.879 They were busy doing the search war and so this 3:00:10.920 --> 3:00:13.240 group is actually is actually able to take to the streets. 3:00:13.760 --> 3:00:16.280 It's like everyone everyone kind of in this area of 3:00:16.280 --> 3:00:20.760 Atlanta is pretty pretty pro pro this little protest here. 3:00:21.879 --> 3:00:25.040 There's like workers from the little shops and stores nodding 3:00:25.040 --> 3:00:26.920 along Bullden County. 3:00:26.680 --> 3:00:28.879 Shares just walked by the march like on there, just 3:00:29.200 --> 3:00:32.440 you know, off shift workout routine, wearing Fulden County gear. 3:00:33.160 --> 3:00:33.959 That's pretty funny. 3:00:34.760 --> 3:00:39.320 People dancing in the streets, Families walking with their kids 3:00:39.520 --> 3:00:42.959 through the streets all right, walking around the park that 3:00:43.400 --> 3:00:47.560 the youth rally started at, and the press conference about 3:00:47.600 --> 3:00:51.000 the raid this morning just ended at there's as you 3:00:51.040 --> 3:00:53.360 can probably hear kids playing in the park. 3:00:53.680 --> 3:00:54.920 People are handing out food. 3:00:55.240 --> 3:00:57.560 It's a massive, massive amount of food just in the 3:00:57.600 --> 3:01:00.720 middle of the park with all these tables set up. Overall, 3:01:00.760 --> 3:01:03.279 this is kind of one of the more joyous events 3:01:03.320 --> 3:01:07.680 that we've had since the initial Saturday rally at Gresham Park, 3:01:08.440 --> 3:01:10.959 just with the amount of food, the amount of kids 3:01:11.000 --> 3:01:14.520 just running around and playing, all the information tables that 3:01:14.520 --> 3:01:17.720 are handing out literature and giving you know, making connections 3:01:17.720 --> 3:01:21.320 with people. Yeah, when I was down here in January, 3:01:21.840 --> 3:01:24.560 the mood was very somber. The mood was very grim 3:01:24.600 --> 3:01:27.840 like coming to the vigil when there was the destroyed 3:01:27.879 --> 3:01:31.440 remains of the gazebo, the torn up parking lot, all 3:01:31.520 --> 3:01:34.680 of the trees in there still within their like winter 3:01:35.200 --> 3:01:37.480 state with all of the leaves gone. Everything was very 3:01:37.520 --> 3:01:39.959 kind of barren. And the first thing I noticed on 3:01:40.000 --> 3:01:42.880 Saturday as we were marching is like there's new life 3:01:42.959 --> 3:01:47.520 springing in the woods. There's this invigorated sense of the 3:01:48.160 --> 3:01:51.520 almost assurance of victory that people are carrying with them 3:01:51.640 --> 3:01:54.040 as they take action. And I think that really does 3:01:54.160 --> 3:01:56.520 change what the action you take is, and that does 3:01:56.640 --> 3:01:58.800 change the types of results that people will see. Is 3:01:58.840 --> 3:02:02.040 if they go at this with the idea that we 3:02:02.080 --> 3:02:03.000 are going to win this. 3:02:03.480 --> 3:02:05.520 And I think that that is kind of why the 3:02:05.560 --> 3:02:08.720 non violent direct actions have become like that have moved 3:02:08.720 --> 3:02:11.160 to the floor. Right when you think that you're going 3:02:11.200 --> 3:02:14.680 to lose and you have nothing to lose, you engage 3:02:14.680 --> 3:02:19.360 in these incredibly radical actions because what else are you 3:02:19.400 --> 3:02:22.200 going to do. And then when you have this belief 3:02:22.240 --> 3:02:24.840 that no, we can win, we just have to find 3:02:24.879 --> 3:02:26.039 that pathway. 3:02:25.959 --> 3:02:27.960 And that is a part of the diversity of tactics 3:02:28.240 --> 3:02:30.760 is using both of those and almost every ecological movement 3:02:30.760 --> 3:02:34.920 that's been successful has demonstrated that the pathway to success 3:02:35.000 --> 3:02:38.480 is often paved with a diversity of tactics, with people 3:02:38.520 --> 3:02:42.840 doing non violent action at noon, which will pull a 3:02:42.840 --> 3:02:46.840 massive militarized police response as people are doing regular ass shit. 3:02:47.200 --> 3:02:49.480 And then a part of diversity of tactics is also 3:02:49.800 --> 3:02:53.440 people leaving a music festival to go towards a bulldozer, 3:02:53.720 --> 3:02:56.520 and both both of those things are a diversity of tactics. 3:02:56.959 --> 3:03:00.200 Now I stand by most of that statement. However, where 3:03:00.560 --> 3:03:03.920 issues can arise when there is a ticking clock and 3:03:04.320 --> 3:03:08.160 during the time spent looking for this pathway, the enemy 3:03:08.320 --> 3:03:13.760 meanwhile is making steady progress. Issues may also arise when 3:03:13.840 --> 3:03:18.199 a large diversity of tactics is shoved under just one roof. 3:03:19.160 --> 3:03:23.360 I had a lot of conversations with movement participants regarding 3:03:23.400 --> 3:03:26.920 the direct action that happened on Sunday night and how 3:03:26.920 --> 3:03:30.240 it cast a shadow of repression over the whole week 3:03:30.280 --> 3:03:36.600 of action to synthesize the many conversations. In general, most 3:03:36.600 --> 3:03:40.760 people thought that what physically happened was good. The actual 3:03:40.959 --> 3:03:45.000 actions at the North Gate were successful and justified. But 3:03:45.280 --> 3:03:48.120 there are other things on the periphery of that action 3:03:48.640 --> 3:03:50.920 that make it slightly more complicated. 3:03:51.400 --> 3:03:53.880 And now we can have lots of questions about tactics 3:03:53.879 --> 3:03:58.440 and cost benefit analysis about that action, which I did 3:03:58.480 --> 3:04:01.160 not think it would be wise, especially being so visible 3:04:01.160 --> 3:04:04.480 for me to have to be anywhere near on that day. 3:04:04.560 --> 3:04:08.240 We can have questions about that. But what was for 3:04:08.360 --> 3:04:12.039 certain was that the way in which the police responded 3:04:12.440 --> 3:04:15.200 was absurd and predictably so. 3:04:15.920 --> 3:04:18.600 Now with the destruction that I saw, etc. 3:04:18.800 --> 3:04:21.800 It cost them less than a million dollars and maybe 3:04:21.840 --> 3:04:24.879 like two weeks actually of construction that they were. 3:04:24.760 --> 3:04:27.440 Pushed back max. These are like max numbers. 3:04:28.320 --> 3:04:31.440 Was that worth twenty three people being arrested and quaching 3:04:32.320 --> 3:04:36.880 what could have been a larger occupation and wider participation 3:04:37.240 --> 3:04:40.640 and wider buying in the movement. Instead, by the time 3:04:40.720 --> 3:04:43.880 we got to Monday, the clergy was having to do 3:04:43.959 --> 3:04:46.080 clean up rather than like cast division of what the 3:04:46.080 --> 3:04:50.320 world could be, And so these are trade offs right 3:04:50.680 --> 3:04:54.680 where even though we have to be very clear about 3:04:54.720 --> 3:04:58.720 what a diversity of tactics means and also a separation 3:04:58.840 --> 3:05:03.039 of time and space. So I mean, we can't just 3:05:03.080 --> 3:05:05.920 look at a diversity of tactics and everybody does what 3:05:05.959 --> 3:05:09.000 they want as if they're operating in asylo, but rather 3:05:09.920 --> 3:05:12.800 we give space for one another to do different things 3:05:12.840 --> 3:05:16.840 that may work, respectful of the fact that some of 3:05:16.920 --> 3:05:18.920 our actions may affect one another. 3:05:19.640 --> 3:05:22.320 In the lead up to the Week of Action, nighttime 3:05:22.360 --> 3:05:27.560 sabotage actions decreased around Atlanta in favor of these big 3:05:27.720 --> 3:05:31.840 public demos during daylight. That seems to result in more 3:05:31.879 --> 3:05:35.840 people getting arrested. And one of the results of Sunday's 3:05:35.879 --> 3:05:39.200 action happening in such close proximity to the festival and 3:05:39.480 --> 3:05:42.680 the encampments is that the people at the festival and 3:05:42.720 --> 3:05:46.120 in the woods who did not consent to participating in 3:05:46.200 --> 3:05:50.680 a high profile direct action got disproportionately hit with the 3:05:50.720 --> 3:05:54.360 immediate repression from police. A lot of the people who 3:05:54.440 --> 3:05:57.840 were arrested were completely unaware of the actions that took 3:05:57.879 --> 3:06:01.080 place at the North Gate. Even if those actions were 3:06:01.080 --> 3:06:04.800 one hundred percent justified in the end, it still creates 3:06:04.840 --> 3:06:09.440 a dynamic with an unequal distribution of police violence. Now, 3:06:09.520 --> 3:06:12.800 obviously the woods are an inherently dangerous place to be 3:06:13.360 --> 3:06:17.080 and people are not responsible for actions that police choose 3:06:17.120 --> 3:06:20.560 to take. But there are still considerations to be had 3:06:20.760 --> 3:06:25.360 regarding the proximity of space and time when engaging in 3:06:25.400 --> 3:06:29.480 more risky actions, and how the consequences of those actions 3:06:29.560 --> 3:06:32.640 may affect people who did not consent to participating in 3:06:32.680 --> 3:06:37.760 actions at other locations, especially when people are lulled into 3:06:37.800 --> 3:06:40.959 a false sense of safety by claiming that police have 3:06:41.400 --> 3:06:45.600 never cracked down hard in the forest during previous weeks 3:06:45.600 --> 3:06:46.000 of action. 3:06:46.840 --> 3:06:49.520 Yeah, in terms of the actions done Sunday, in reference 3:06:49.520 --> 3:06:52.199 to a group of people assaulting a like police position, 3:06:52.440 --> 3:06:54.600 driving them out with force, and then burning their shit, 3:06:55.000 --> 3:06:56.760 that was all good, and we should not denounce that 3:06:56.800 --> 3:06:59.959 A step away from it. It only harms the movement 3:07:00.160 --> 3:07:02.120 to back away from radical action and act like there 3:07:02.120 --> 3:07:06.640 are definitions of good or bad protesters, because eventually the 3:07:06.680 --> 3:07:09.640 logical conclusion of that is snitching, and that only furthers 3:07:09.720 --> 3:07:12.959 like the GBI's motivations to tear the movement apart. What 3:07:13.000 --> 3:07:16.320 went wrong Sunday is as a result of two things 3:07:17.080 --> 3:07:20.039 it's one that the police used indiscriminate violence when people 3:07:20.080 --> 3:07:22.760 beat them. They were beaten, they got angry, and they 3:07:22.760 --> 3:07:25.480 were beaten because they got their shit rock by like fireworks. 3:07:25.920 --> 3:07:28.280 And then they use in discriminate violence against people who 3:07:28.280 --> 3:07:29.760 they knew were on the side of like where the 3:07:29.800 --> 3:07:32.560 events were that weren't where all the militants were coming 3:07:32.600 --> 3:07:34.840 back from. They didn't want to go up against those 3:07:34.879 --> 3:07:38.520 people because they're cowards. And second, because of how big 3:07:38.560 --> 3:07:41.320 the movement's gotten over the past two years, the strategy 3:07:41.320 --> 3:07:43.800 of the Weeks of Action has stagnated. It's made it 3:07:43.840 --> 3:07:46.400 so work, so compact in a singular week that when 3:07:46.440 --> 3:07:48.800 you have all the diversity of tactics that exist within 3:07:48.879 --> 3:07:52.600 Defend the Atlanta Forest and stop Coop City, those tactics, 3:07:52.720 --> 3:07:54.600 with how big everything is now, they start to step 3:07:54.600 --> 3:07:57.720 on each other's toes. They can hurt each other sometimes 3:07:57.760 --> 3:08:00.360 because yeah, not everyone who was at the RC field 3:08:00.480 --> 3:08:02.880 was like ready for the consequences of like a militant 3:08:02.959 --> 3:08:05.400 radical action like that. And that doesn't mean that the 3:08:05.480 --> 3:08:08.920 action wasn't good or justified, because the action was wildly successful. 3:08:09.320 --> 3:08:11.440 There were no arrests made at that action. There were 3:08:11.440 --> 3:08:13.240 a rest made when the police got angry and used 3:08:13.240 --> 3:08:15.879 indiscriminate violence because they were pissed off and they wanted. 3:08:15.600 --> 3:08:19.320 To riot, so they retaliated at a music festival that 3:08:19.440 --> 3:08:20.640 was happening nearby. 3:08:21.200 --> 3:08:23.760 Yes, and that's the fault of nobody but the police. 3:08:24.120 --> 3:08:25.720 That's not the fault of the people who went and 3:08:25.720 --> 3:08:28.480 assaulted that outpost. That's only the fault of the police, 3:08:28.520 --> 3:08:30.680 and really the fault of a bad long term strategy 3:08:30.680 --> 3:08:34.640 of two heavily compacting factors of you know, being just 3:08:34.760 --> 3:08:37.120 like a weak and where making it so this movement 3:08:37.200 --> 3:08:39.800 where people can take radical action, it feels so limited 3:08:39.840 --> 3:08:42.840 to just inside the forest because that puts people in 3:08:42.879 --> 3:08:46.320 harm's way, and that put people in harms way, including 3:08:46.440 --> 3:08:48.720 the people who you know, went and did the thing 3:08:48.760 --> 3:08:51.440 on Sunday. But no, it would be wrong as the 3:08:51.440 --> 3:08:53.600 movement to like balk out a radical action like that. 3:08:53.800 --> 3:08:55.640 Radical action like that is such a big part of 3:08:55.640 --> 3:08:58.040 why this movement has been as successful as it has been. 3:08:58.440 --> 3:09:00.280 It's a huge part of why the police did do 3:09:00.440 --> 3:09:02.680 like a full sweep or a larger sweep or a 3:09:02.720 --> 3:09:05.040 series of raids in the following days because they were 3:09:05.080 --> 3:09:07.280 afraid that those three hundred to four hundred people who 3:09:07.320 --> 3:09:09.800 hit that out posts were lying and waiting in the forest, 3:09:09.840 --> 3:09:11.800 ready to attack them because they were afraid of militant 3:09:11.879 --> 3:09:12.480 radical action. 3:09:13.040 --> 3:09:15.960 On Thursday, when I was in front of the APF building, 3:09:16.160 --> 3:09:19.359 I could like hear some of the supervisors and coordinators 3:09:19.800 --> 3:09:23.600 talking about being scared of ambushes or like being scared 3:09:23.640 --> 3:09:28.400 of splinter groups, like being staged to attack officers. It's 3:09:28.520 --> 3:09:31.680 it's bizarre how fearful they are. Of the types of 3:09:31.720 --> 3:09:35.160 people who are opposing the cop city project, they're. 3:09:34.959 --> 3:09:36.720 The most afraid of the people who are willing to 3:09:36.800 --> 3:09:40.240 go do physical violence to them, and not even physical violence, 3:09:40.280 --> 3:09:42.360 but people who are just willing to like throw a 3:09:42.440 --> 3:09:44.560 rock at them or like a firework. Once they realize 3:09:44.560 --> 3:09:47.680 that they haven't paralyzed somebody with fear, once they realize 3:09:47.680 --> 3:09:49.560 that they have not made you so afraid of taking action, 3:09:49.680 --> 3:09:51.000 they become such cowards. 3:09:52.600 --> 3:09:56.240 In the aftermath of the police killing forest defender Tortigita, 3:09:56.800 --> 3:09:59.920 law enforcement agencies tried to claim that Tortigita shot at 3:09:59.920 --> 3:10:04.920 the first leaving one officer injured, but recently released findings 3:10:04.959 --> 3:10:08.880 from multiple autopsies have cast more doubt on the state's 3:10:09.000 --> 3:10:13.760 version of events. On the afternoon of Friday, March tenth, 3:10:13.879 --> 3:10:16.600 Towards the end of the week of action, the family 3:10:16.640 --> 3:10:20.160 of Tortighita released the findings of an independent autopsy done 3:10:20.160 --> 3:10:25.320 by former GBI Chief Medical Examiner, doctor Chris Sperry. The 3:10:25.400 --> 3:10:29.080 results suggested that Tortighito was sitting cross legged with their 3:10:29.160 --> 3:10:31.920 hands in front of their face when shot and bullet 3:10:31.920 --> 3:10:34.760 exit wounds through the palms of both of their hands. 3:10:35.840 --> 3:10:39.840 The family ordered autopsy also did not find any evidence 3:10:39.920 --> 3:10:44.440 of gunshot residue from a GSR test kit. And then 3:10:44.560 --> 3:10:47.560 a month later, De Cab County released the results of 3:10:47.600 --> 3:10:51.400 their official autopsy, which found at least fifty seven bullet 3:10:51.400 --> 3:10:55.960 wounds across Tortigita's body and according to this autopsy, torte 3:10:56.000 --> 3:10:59.840 did not have any gunpowder residue on its hands. Then, 3:11:00.120 --> 3:11:03.360 a few days later, via a public records request, the 3:11:03.400 --> 3:11:07.400 Atlanta Community Press Collective received the gunshot residue test kit 3:11:07.600 --> 3:11:11.760 from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's crime Lab. The document 3:11:11.879 --> 3:11:15.440 contained the names of six Georgia State Patrol SWAT members 3:11:15.720 --> 3:11:21.600 who shot and killed Tortigita, Bryland L. Myers, Jerry A. Parish, 3:11:22.080 --> 3:11:28.120 Jonathan Salceda, Jonathan Mark lamb Ronaldo Kegel, and Royce Zaw, 3:11:28.760 --> 3:11:32.000 with Zaw being the subject of a lawsuit after he 3:11:32.040 --> 3:11:34.440 shot a protester in the face with a les lethal 3:11:34.560 --> 3:11:38.320 round during the George Floyd protests in May of twenty twenty. 3:11:39.080 --> 3:11:42.160 The document also included the results of the GBI's crime 3:11:42.240 --> 3:11:46.000 lab report, claiming that they found quote the presence of 3:11:46.080 --> 3:11:50.600 more than five particles characteristic of gunshot primer residue unquote 3:11:50.760 --> 3:11:54.800 from a test kit, with the report also stating quote, 3:11:55.120 --> 3:11:57.320 it should be noted that it is possible for a 3:11:57.440 --> 3:12:01.360 victim of gunshot wounds to have gas are present on 3:12:01.480 --> 3:12:05.920 their hands, considering that among the more than fifty seven 3:12:06.000 --> 3:12:09.840 gunshot wounds were entrance and exit wounds on Tortighita's hands, 3:12:10.240 --> 3:12:13.440 which could be caused for gunshot residue if the crime 3:12:13.520 --> 3:12:16.520 lab findings are genuine. The findings do not point to 3:12:16.560 --> 3:12:19.879 any specific interpretation of events, as it's not unusual to 3:12:19.920 --> 3:12:22.960 find primer residue on the hands of a victim following 3:12:23.000 --> 3:12:26.280 the path of a bullet. Plus, coupled with the ever 3:12:26.400 --> 3:12:29.680 changing story from the GBI, on the ground chatter from 3:12:29.680 --> 3:12:33.280 APD officers claiming that Georgia State Patrol quote fucked their 3:12:33.280 --> 3:12:37.040 own officer Upot. As well as reports from forced defenders 3:12:37.080 --> 3:12:39.959 from the day of the shooting, there is indication that 3:12:40.080 --> 3:12:43.840 Georgia State Patrol most likely suffered from so called friendly fire, 3:12:44.600 --> 3:12:48.200 with many people believing that the killing of Tortighita was 3:12:48.280 --> 3:12:50.080 essentially an execution. 3:12:51.440 --> 3:12:51.880 Instant. 3:12:51.920 --> 3:12:56.680 Reports obtained via public records requests also revealed that GSP 3:12:56.879 --> 3:12:59.800 fired a quote unquote, a Leslie Thual pepperball gun at 3:12:59.879 --> 3:13:04.840 d Tortighita's tent as SWAT initially approached, once again contradicting 3:13:04.840 --> 3:13:08.560 the claims made by GBI officials in the months since 3:13:08.640 --> 3:13:13.560 the killing. As the week came to a close on Sunday, 3:13:13.600 --> 3:13:17.680 March eleventh, a memorial service for Tortighita was held in 3:13:17.720 --> 3:13:22.080 the Malani Forest, where Tort's family spread their ashes in 3:13:22.160 --> 3:13:26.640 the forest it died to protect. I attended the Sunday 3:13:26.680 --> 3:13:30.560 morning memorial. The sky opened up and poured down rain 3:13:30.640 --> 3:13:35.039 in South Atlanta throughout the whole morning. Hundreds of people 3:13:35.160 --> 3:13:38.200 gathered in Wollanne People's Park to light candles under a 3:13:38.200 --> 3:13:44.120 canopy and hear from Towrt's family. Then, led by Tortighita's mother, 3:13:44.560 --> 3:13:47.160 we walked through the forest to the site of the shooting, 3:13:47.520 --> 3:13:51.320 where a banner hung that read, quote on this ground 3:13:51.560 --> 3:14:00.160 gsp assassinated forest defender, comrade, friend, lover Tortigita unquote. Family 3:14:00.240 --> 3:14:05.080 and friends spread Tortigita's ashes throughout the woods along the 3:14:05.120 --> 3:14:10.080 path to quote Candice burned in truth out. In contrast 3:14:10.160 --> 3:14:15.000 to its tumultuous start, Sunday's vigil and ceremony provided a 3:14:15.040 --> 3:14:18.640 somber and heartfelt close to the fifth week of Action. 3:14:20.560 --> 3:14:23.640 I met up with Matthew Johnson after the memorial to 3:14:23.720 --> 3:14:26.640 discuss the week of Action, and we briefly touched on 3:14:26.840 --> 3:14:28.360 the memorial in the forest. 3:14:29.240 --> 3:14:30.199 I think that. 3:14:31.680 --> 3:14:36.800 We have to hold space for very real grief. We 3:14:36.879 --> 3:14:39.400 lost a friend, and at the same time, just two 3:14:39.480 --> 3:14:44.160 days ago, on a Friday, what we always knew to 3:14:44.200 --> 3:14:50.560 be true was found to clearly be true. Tortigita was murdered, 3:14:51.320 --> 3:14:53.160 and we have to bear the burner of that pain. 3:14:53.560 --> 3:14:58.560 And all the people in power lied and even gave 3:14:58.680 --> 3:15:02.720 their condolences to a state trooper that seemed. 3:15:02.640 --> 3:15:06.480 As if he was shot by a state trooper. 3:15:06.520 --> 3:15:10.480 And did not say a mumbling word to even acknowledge 3:15:10.560 --> 3:15:13.600 our friend's existence and the value of their life. And 3:15:14.040 --> 3:15:17.080 this morning was beautiful. I had been able to meet 3:15:17.120 --> 3:15:24.120 Bilkis Tortugita's mother previously, and she really does have a 3:15:24.160 --> 3:15:30.440 beautiful spirit. I've really grown appreciation for that family, and 3:15:30.680 --> 3:15:35.960 just to see just how large these gatherings were like 3:15:36.040 --> 3:15:39.240 throughout the week, even in spite of the hoopla and 3:15:39.320 --> 3:15:45.959 the opening weekend, it was very encouraging. But in a 3:15:45.959 --> 3:15:50.000 lot of ways, Tortugita has become the face of this 3:15:50.080 --> 3:15:55.440 movement because they really did light up wherever they were. 3:15:55.959 --> 3:16:01.120 One thing that's gotten me through thinking about when you 3:16:01.120 --> 3:16:03.600 would just see them sometimes and they would just give 3:16:03.640 --> 3:16:06.760 you the biggest, like cheesiest smile, like out of nowhere. 3:16:06.800 --> 3:16:07.240 I just. 3:16:09.080 --> 3:16:12.360 And like that like got me through the first week 3:16:13.959 --> 3:16:21.440 after their passing. Yeah, but I've grown a great appreciation 3:16:21.640 --> 3:16:26.040 for that family because in so many ways, tord Ti 3:16:26.080 --> 3:16:29.320 Gita is their hero. And just learn how consistent they 3:16:29.400 --> 3:16:34.440 were as like such a welcoming and loving and caring 3:16:34.560 --> 3:16:38.000 person just meant so much. I mean to know that 3:16:38.040 --> 3:16:40.400 this wasn't something new that they had stumbled upon. They 3:16:40.400 --> 3:16:44.080 had lived this whole life of caring and making space 3:16:44.120 --> 3:16:44.560 for others. 3:16:45.160 --> 3:16:48.480 Some of Toward's friends have raised concerns that a side 3:16:48.480 --> 3:16:51.840 effect of toward unwittingly becoming the face of the movement, 3:16:52.520 --> 3:16:56.400 is that the details around their death have eclipsed some 3:16:56.480 --> 3:17:00.480 of what they died fighting for in doing so, stripping 3:17:00.480 --> 3:17:04.119 toward of their individuality and removing their own agency to 3:17:04.160 --> 3:17:07.800 turn them into this perfect liberal, friendly avatar of the 3:17:07.840 --> 3:17:12.039 movement to simply be used as a political tool and 3:17:12.280 --> 3:17:13.880 add to a list of demands. 3:17:14.560 --> 3:17:16.880 There's a thing that's been happening more and more recently 3:17:16.879 --> 3:17:20.359 that I've been bothered by, which is when organizations, specifically 3:17:20.400 --> 3:17:24.720 more liberal organizations, are invoking towards name actions, they're misgendering 3:17:24.760 --> 3:17:26.760 the hell out of them, and it's alienating a lot 3:17:26.800 --> 3:17:29.959 of people. And I understand that Sunday's action alienated a 3:17:29.959 --> 3:17:33.440 lot of liberal orgs. This is a problem with the 3:17:33.440 --> 3:17:37.520 week of Action type strategy, with the diversity of tactics 3:17:37.560 --> 3:17:40.080 all being forced under one roof. But we cannot stand 3:17:40.080 --> 3:17:43.440 to alienate each other. And it's really frustrating and really 3:17:43.480 --> 3:17:46.080 angering to see this really beautiful soul be flattened into 3:17:46.120 --> 3:17:47.959 just a murder that these liberals want them to be, 3:17:48.160 --> 3:17:50.040 stripping them of so much of their life and what 3:17:50.320 --> 3:17:53.760 was a revolutionary life and a revolutionary death into just 3:17:54.200 --> 3:17:56.879 martyrdom by taking away their identity and who they were 3:17:56.959 --> 3:17:59.520 and making them nothing more than someone who was murdered 3:18:00.680 --> 3:18:03.080 when they were someone who is living such a full 3:18:03.120 --> 3:18:05.640 and beautiful life until the day they died. And this 3:18:05.760 --> 3:18:08.040 movement will tear itself apart if we do not accept 3:18:08.040 --> 3:18:10.360 the fullness of towards life, what it stood for, and 3:18:10.360 --> 3:18:13.600 what they live for. This movement has always been built 3:18:13.800 --> 3:18:16.119 on a lot of trans people in the woods fucking 3:18:16.160 --> 3:18:18.800 the cops up, and if we alienate those people were fucked, 3:18:18.840 --> 3:18:21.000 there's no winning and we can't lose. We don't have 3:18:21.040 --> 3:18:23.120 a choice about this anymore. We have to win by 3:18:23.160 --> 3:18:24.320 any means necessary. 3:18:25.160 --> 3:18:27.760 That will wrap up our day to day coverage of 3:18:27.840 --> 3:18:31.520 the entire week of action, but much has happened in 3:18:31.560 --> 3:18:35.200 the intervening two months, so in the next episode we'll 3:18:35.240 --> 3:18:38.760 cover where the movement is now, discuss the future of 3:18:38.760 --> 3:18:41.959 the fight to stop Cop City, and offer a more 3:18:42.040 --> 3:18:45.680 critical retrospective on the fifth week of action. See you 3:18:45.920 --> 3:18:51.720 on the other side, welcome back to it could happen here. 3:18:52.200 --> 3:18:55.480 This is a bonus fifth episode following my coverage of 3:18:55.560 --> 3:18:57.520 the Stop Coop City Week of Action in. 3:18:57.440 --> 3:18:58.800 March of twenty twenty three. 3:18:59.560 --> 3:19:02.480 This will be a more critical retrospective on the week 3:19:02.520 --> 3:19:05.160 as a whole and offer a glimpse into what the 3:19:05.200 --> 3:19:07.880 movement might look like in the next few months as 3:19:07.920 --> 3:19:11.680 we are rapidly approaching summer. In the last episode, we 3:19:11.760 --> 3:19:15.520 talked about the police repression of protests and demonstrations as 3:19:15.560 --> 3:19:18.840 they happen, but we have yet to mention the various 3:19:18.879 --> 3:19:21.359 methods of state repression the movement is facing. 3:19:21.480 --> 3:19:22.279 Day to day. 3:19:23.120 --> 3:19:26.160 Repression for the Week of Action started well before the 3:19:26.240 --> 3:19:30.440 kickoff rally in Gresham Park. Emails from early February obtained 3:19:30.520 --> 3:19:33.800 via public records requests found that the Atlanta Police Foundation 3:19:34.000 --> 3:19:37.560 and its contractors were waiting for quote indictments to the 3:19:37.640 --> 3:19:40.760 leaders unquote of the Stopcob City and Defend the Atlanta 3:19:40.800 --> 3:19:44.680 Forest movement to quote the Atlantic Community Press Collective. In 3:19:44.760 --> 3:19:48.040 a February third email to APF board members, the director 3:19:48.080 --> 3:19:51.240 of Public Affairs, Rob Baskin, calls the Defend the Atlanta 3:19:51.280 --> 3:19:54.440 Forest and Stop Coop City movement a quote conspiracy of 3:19:54.480 --> 3:19:58.280 protesters against the Public Safety Training Center investigated by a 3:19:58.320 --> 3:20:02.600 consortium of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies unquote. 3:20:03.360 --> 3:20:06.680 Baskin promised the APF Board in an email quote that 3:20:06.879 --> 3:20:09.959 the recent arrests, our receipt of the land and disturbance permit, 3:20:10.200 --> 3:20:12.440 the mayor's announcement of the project will be moving forward, 3:20:12.680 --> 3:20:17.240 and the continued investigation by law enforcement will dampen activists' efforts. 3:20:17.640 --> 3:20:20.720 We will likely see more indictments in the coming weeks. 3:20:22.440 --> 3:20:25.520 Back in February, Brestfield and Gory, the general contractor for 3:20:25.560 --> 3:20:29.600 the project, planned to mobilize for land clearing around April, 3:20:30.080 --> 3:20:34.199 but told the Atlanta Police Foundation that subcontractor bidding wouldn't 3:20:34.240 --> 3:20:39.480 happen quote until indictments have happened unquote, And then, of course, 3:20:39.520 --> 3:20:42.360 a few weeks later, twenty three people were charged with 3:20:42.440 --> 3:20:46.520 domestic terrorism at a music festival. Matt from the Atlanta 3:20:46.560 --> 3:20:50.120 Community Press Collective talked about the history of domestic terrorism 3:20:50.240 --> 3:20:53.560 charges in the movement and how they affected bail proceedings. 3:20:54.240 --> 3:20:57.440 The domestic terrorism charges go back to the middle of December, 3:20:57.480 --> 3:21:01.359 that's when the first of them happened, and up until 3:21:01.760 --> 3:21:03.520 the week of action, there have been a total of 3:21:03.640 --> 3:21:07.600 nineteen arrest or individuals who have been charged with domestic 3:21:07.720 --> 3:21:13.000 terrorism and then of those people, anyone who did not 3:21:13.240 --> 3:21:17.520 have either a Georgia license or could not prove like 3:21:17.680 --> 3:21:25.199 Georgia residency, they were all initially denied bond, but everyone 3:21:25.560 --> 3:21:29.680 who lives here they were able to get bond. Before 3:21:29.720 --> 3:21:33.240 the bond hearing, we're kind of there are discussions that 3:21:33.760 --> 3:21:36.480 there's no way that they're going to hold twenty three 3:21:36.520 --> 3:21:41.320 people without bond with on such flimsy evidence. 3:21:41.520 --> 3:21:43.720 That's the most people that have been arrested and held 3:21:43.720 --> 3:21:47.720 in one day. It really is in relation to the 3:21:47.720 --> 3:21:48.360 movement so far. 3:21:48.520 --> 3:21:51.199 Yeah, this is the largest mass arrest of the movement, 3:21:52.080 --> 3:21:56.800 So it's kind of inconceivable for twenty three people to 3:21:56.879 --> 3:22:00.960 be held without bond. So we get to the bail hearing. 3:22:01.040 --> 3:22:04.119 The first person has their mother come on. Their lawyer 3:22:04.720 --> 3:22:08.440 brings their mother on, who swears essentially on like every 3:22:08.680 --> 3:22:14.000 religious text ever written, that her child will immediately go 3:22:14.120 --> 3:22:17.360 home with her and she will personally bring her child 3:22:17.440 --> 3:22:21.720 back to every court hearing and her child will have no, 3:22:22.200 --> 3:22:25.480 you know, further contact with the movement and all of 3:22:25.520 --> 3:22:30.560 these things. And the judge denies the bond. So at 3:22:30.600 --> 3:22:34.080 that point it's like, okay, there, you know, I guess 3:22:34.080 --> 3:22:35.640 we're going to go back to the old thing. If 3:22:35.680 --> 3:22:40.320 you can't prove residency, you're you're you're not getting out. 3:22:41.000 --> 3:22:44.000 It was like person number five is from Athens, Georgia, 3:22:44.040 --> 3:22:48.200 which is about an hour outside of Atlanta, and the 3:22:48.280 --> 3:22:51.800 judge denies her bond, not because the judge thinks she's 3:22:51.840 --> 3:22:55.840 a flight risk, but because she is a threat to 3:22:55.879 --> 3:23:00.560 the community. And that was the moment where the understanding changed. 3:23:00.600 --> 3:23:04.040 It was like, oh no, like nobody's getting out of me. 3:23:04.200 --> 3:23:06.879 Yes, this isn't this isn't a real this isn't a 3:23:06.879 --> 3:23:10.400 real bond. Here at the press conference after the leaf raid, 3:23:10.760 --> 3:23:14.120 Kamal Franklin from the Community Movement Builders spoke about it 3:23:14.160 --> 3:23:17.160 the years of state repression against people fighting to stop 3:23:17.240 --> 3:23:17.800 Cop City. 3:23:18.120 --> 3:23:22.600 This movement has been repressed by the states, by the 3:23:22.640 --> 3:23:27.280 city since its very beginnings. When we first started organizing 3:23:27.320 --> 3:23:30.800 in twenty twenty one, where we had rallies in demonstration, 3:23:31.120 --> 3:23:35.160 we would have police break them up, throw people to 3:23:35.200 --> 3:23:39.039 the ground, pepper spray them, and arrest them. We had 3:23:39.080 --> 3:23:42.879 over twenty arrest in our first years of rallying and 3:23:43.000 --> 3:23:45.120 demonstrating against Cop City. 3:23:45.720 --> 3:23:47.160 At the time, those. 3:23:46.879 --> 3:23:51.760 Folks were charged with resisting arrests, obstruction of governmental administration, 3:23:52.600 --> 3:23:55.360 and then the police decided to step up their tactics, 3:23:55.959 --> 3:23:59.240 and they started to form a task force, a task 3:23:59.280 --> 3:24:02.040 force that included at the Atlanta Police so, the Cab 3:24:02.120 --> 3:24:06.640 County Police, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia State Troopers, 3:24:06.800 --> 3:24:10.840 the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Homeland Security, where they 3:24:10.920 --> 3:24:16.000 began to talk about bringing charges of domestic terrorism against 3:24:16.080 --> 3:24:18.959 organizers and activists. And so now we're coming to a 3:24:19.040 --> 3:24:24.360 point where they're raiding houses, where they're telling organizers and 3:24:24.480 --> 3:24:28.480 activists that they can't stand on corners and legally give 3:24:28.520 --> 3:24:29.240 out leaflets. 3:24:29.920 --> 3:24:32.880 And then the judge kept saying like, I'm not here 3:24:32.959 --> 3:24:36.560 to hear anything on evidentiary claims and I'm not here 3:24:36.600 --> 3:24:40.920 to engage with the domestic terrorism statute. Like both of 3:24:40.959 --> 3:24:44.520 those were I think very valid things that defense attorneys 3:24:44.600 --> 3:24:46.000 kept bringing up, because. 3:24:45.879 --> 3:24:47.440 Yeah, they're problematic. 3:24:47.720 --> 3:24:50.800 Yeah, one of the defense attorneys mentioned that the way 3:24:50.840 --> 3:24:53.039 people are being charged with domestic terrorism right now doesn't 3:24:53.040 --> 3:24:55.040 really have any legal basis in the state of Georgia 3:24:55.120 --> 3:24:58.959 because the terrorism law works as like an enhancement for 3:24:59.080 --> 3:25:02.360 other folonial charges, and these people aren't being charged with 3:25:02.400 --> 3:25:05.760 anything besides domestic terrorism. There's no evidence these people committed 3:25:05.959 --> 3:25:08.920 any actual crimes. So they're just being charged with terrorism. 3:25:08.959 --> 3:25:13.080 This like nebulous concept. The judge said that the legal 3:25:13.080 --> 3:25:15.160 basis of these claims will have to be decided on 3:25:15.240 --> 3:25:19.880 another day. Similarly, they said that in regards to actual 3:25:19.920 --> 3:25:23.720 evidence that these people charged did any crimes, she said 3:25:23.720 --> 3:25:25.320 that she had none of this evidence in front of 3:25:25.320 --> 3:25:28.240 her and that evidence is for another day. One of 3:25:28.280 --> 3:25:31.440 the main reasons the judge said that defendants were denied 3:25:31.480 --> 3:25:34.480 bond was due to quote a lack of ties to 3:25:34.560 --> 3:25:39.800 community in Atlanta. But regarding this ties to the community aspect, 3:25:40.280 --> 3:25:42.959 the judge had this weird double standard. There was this 3:25:43.000 --> 3:25:45.760 one person arrested and charged who lives with their partner 3:25:45.760 --> 3:25:48.440 in Atlanta, who also had ties to another state where 3:25:48.440 --> 3:25:51.879 they had previously lived. So despite them having ties to 3:25:51.920 --> 3:25:54.000 the community in Atlanta, which was one of the main 3:25:54.040 --> 3:25:56.959 things the judge considered for this one individual, they were 3:25:57.000 --> 3:25:59.959 still denied bond on the basis that this individual also 3:26:00.240 --> 3:26:03.480 has ties to a different community, thus deeming them a 3:26:03.520 --> 3:26:06.720 flight risk even though they currently live in Atlanta. One 3:26:06.720 --> 3:26:09.200 of the reasons that the judge mentioned is based on 3:26:09.240 --> 3:26:11.119 the arrest warrants that she was given for why these 3:26:11.120 --> 3:26:14.800 people were a threat to the community. Is that the 3:26:14.840 --> 3:26:18.080 state claims that they were in possession of metal shields 3:26:18.360 --> 3:26:22.599 as they were being arrested. You know, shields the offensive 3:26:22.680 --> 3:26:26.440 weapon that shows that you are a threat you holding 3:26:26.440 --> 3:26:29.039 a shield. And so first of all, that's that's that's 3:26:29.040 --> 3:26:30.800 funny on us on that on that level. 3:26:30.959 --> 3:26:34.240 When you and I were coming in on Saturday and 3:26:34.480 --> 3:26:37.600 along with the march, we passed by a bunch of shields, 3:26:37.720 --> 3:26:41.840 right and they were kind of placed near the end 3:26:42.000 --> 3:26:45.039 of the path, like in anticipation that there might be 3:26:45.080 --> 3:26:50.039 police presents. And I took pictures of the shields and 3:26:50.840 --> 3:26:55.680 they are evidently plastic shields. There's no way of mistaking 3:26:55.720 --> 3:26:57.959 them for anything other than plastic. 3:26:57.879 --> 3:27:00.520 The plastic five gallon shields that you see almost every 3:27:00.560 --> 3:27:04.680 protest in every city across the country. The cops know 3:27:04.720 --> 3:27:07.200 what these things are. That the fact that they claimed 3:27:07.200 --> 3:27:11.320 that people were arrested carrying metal shields is so ludicrous 3:27:11.360 --> 3:27:13.840 because there was not There was not a single metal 3:27:13.879 --> 3:27:16.720 shield at this music festival. And there's a lot of 3:27:16.760 --> 3:27:19.520 footage of these arrests. I don't there's I've not seen 3:27:19.560 --> 3:27:22.680 evidence that every that any person was arrested that was 3:27:22.720 --> 3:27:25.560 carrying a shield, let alone a metal one. 3:27:25.680 --> 3:27:28.520 There's this weird thing where so typically when you do 3:27:28.640 --> 3:27:32.720 these these bail hearings, the the defense attorneys waive the 3:27:32.840 --> 3:27:38.280 reading of the warrant typically because they have already gone 3:27:38.320 --> 3:27:40.520 over that with their client, and you know, everybody's aware, 3:27:40.520 --> 3:27:42.720 and it just kind of speeds up the process. And 3:27:42.760 --> 3:27:45.720 it was like really notable that these attorneys weren't doing it, 3:27:46.640 --> 3:27:49.600 and once you started to listen to them, you notice 3:27:49.640 --> 3:27:54.520 this very repetitive nature of them. And so about halfway 3:27:54.560 --> 3:27:57.160 through we get to a lawyer who straight up calls 3:27:57.200 --> 3:28:01.000 out the fact that these warrants seem like they were 3:28:01.000 --> 3:28:02.320 just copy pasted. 3:28:02.280 --> 3:28:05.320 Like every single person all the way downline. During the 3:28:05.320 --> 3:28:08.279 first hearing, only one person was let out on bail, 3:28:08.680 --> 3:28:11.840 and they were an NLG legal observer and lawyer at 3:28:11.840 --> 3:28:15.080 the Southern Poverty Law Center. After the week of action, 3:28:15.240 --> 3:28:17.920 on March twenty third, there were a second set of 3:28:17.959 --> 3:28:20.680 bail hearings for ten of the people arrested on March 3:28:20.720 --> 3:28:24.039 fifth at the South River Music Festival. In a rare move, 3:28:24.240 --> 3:28:26.640 the second in command of the State of Georgia's Attorney 3:28:26.640 --> 3:28:30.920 General's office, John Fowler, was deployed to argue against granting 3:28:31.000 --> 3:28:35.800 bond Fowler, along with several top county prosecutors, weaved a 3:28:35.879 --> 3:28:40.080 complex narrative of a grand conspiracy of protesters dating back 3:28:40.120 --> 3:28:44.160 to twenty nineteen, saying that the quote unquote organization behind 3:28:44.280 --> 3:28:48.400 Defend the Forest is responsible for quote one hundred incidents 3:28:48.560 --> 3:28:53.440 nationwide unquote. Fowler claimed that the Force Defenders are a 3:28:53.480 --> 3:28:56.840 well funded group with millions of dollars hiding behind five 3:28:56.879 --> 3:29:00.280 oh one c three nonprofit organizations, and that the so 3:29:00.440 --> 3:29:03.640 called autonomous zone at the Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was 3:29:03.680 --> 3:29:06.840 murdered in twenty twenty, is a part of the same organization. 3:29:08.000 --> 3:29:11.240 Fowler also tempted to tie the use of laser pointers 3:29:11.320 --> 3:29:14.560 in the forest to a racial justice protests in twenty twenty, 3:29:14.959 --> 3:29:18.400 as well as a sophisticated communication network of prepaid phones, 3:29:18.440 --> 3:29:23.640 telegram channels, proton mails, and rise up accounts. Prosecutor Lance 3:29:23.680 --> 3:29:26.760 Cross stated that the quote unquote leader of the Defend 3:29:26.760 --> 3:29:32.480 the Atlanta Forest movement never actually goes into the forest. Okay, So, 3:29:33.040 --> 3:29:37.119 to paraphrase a friend of mine. As potentially dangerous as 3:29:37.200 --> 3:29:40.520 claims like these are, it will never stop being funny 3:29:40.520 --> 3:29:44.359 that the state just simply cannot conceive of horizontal organizing 3:29:44.400 --> 3:29:47.080 as like a real thing that exists and not just 3:29:47.120 --> 3:29:52.119 a smoke screen for this shadowy cabal of protesters. Prosecutor 3:29:52.240 --> 3:29:55.240 Lance Cross claimed that anyone at the music festival is 3:29:55.480 --> 3:29:58.120 a party to the crime of the direct action that 3:29:58.240 --> 3:30:00.840 took place around one and a half kilometers away at 3:30:00.840 --> 3:30:04.960 the construction site, and that after the direct action, individuals 3:30:05.160 --> 3:30:07.680 left to return to the other side of the woods, 3:30:07.760 --> 3:30:10.640 crossing over the creek and changing out of their black block. 3:30:11.280 --> 3:30:14.840 For the first defendant. At this hearing, Prosecutor Cross said 3:30:14.920 --> 3:30:18.520 that there's police helicopter video of this first person changing 3:30:18.560 --> 3:30:20.880 out of their black block, but when asked by the 3:30:20.920 --> 3:30:23.560 judge if the state has any evidence that this defendant 3:30:23.600 --> 3:30:26.160 did anything illegal, not just change clothing in a forest, 3:30:26.600 --> 3:30:30.360 the prosecutor was unable to provide any such evidence. This 3:30:30.440 --> 3:30:33.520 defendant received a twenty five thousand dollars bond with a 3:30:33.560 --> 3:30:36.800 stay away from Georgia order and a no contact order 3:30:37.000 --> 3:30:40.920 with any codefendants or anyone associated with the Defend the 3:30:40.959 --> 3:30:44.879 Atlanta Forest movement. Only one other defendant was granted bond 3:30:44.959 --> 3:30:47.680 during this hearing, a second year law student who was 3:30:47.760 --> 3:30:50.600 arrested as they were eating food at a food truck 3:30:51.200 --> 3:30:54.160 At the hearing, they presented letters of support from Tibetan monks, 3:30:54.200 --> 3:30:58.039 a former mayor, numerous academics, and Charlotte's mayor pro tem 3:30:58.360 --> 3:31:01.840 was on the call. Bond was also set at twenty 3:31:01.840 --> 3:31:04.720 five K, along with having to surrender their passport, where 3:31:04.760 --> 3:31:08.119 an ankle monitor, and maintain no contact with co defendants 3:31:08.440 --> 3:31:12.600 nor join any future protests. To paraphrase my friend again, 3:31:13.040 --> 3:31:16.320 these are old Green Scare tactics back in action and 3:31:16.480 --> 3:31:19.920 kicked into high gear. Courts are being used as a 3:31:19.959 --> 3:31:23.120 meat cleaver to hack off and isolate people from their communities, 3:31:23.440 --> 3:31:26.800 regardless of evidence. This is the type of repression that 3:31:26.879 --> 3:31:30.520 courts were born to do. Much of the repression we're 3:31:30.520 --> 3:31:33.320 seeing in Atlanta is a revamped version of the Green 3:31:33.360 --> 3:31:36.600 Scare with additional tactics and knowledge the state gained from 3:31:36.600 --> 3:31:40.240 the twenty twenty protests, including the targeting of jail support 3:31:40.400 --> 3:31:45.400 and bail fund organizations. Another thread in this grand Cabal 3:31:45.440 --> 3:31:47.760 of Forest Defender's narrative that the state was trying to 3:31:47.800 --> 3:31:52.039 weave was that prosecutors claimed that having an Atlanta Solidarity 3:31:52.080 --> 3:31:55.680 Fund jail support number on your person is evidence of 3:31:55.760 --> 3:32:00.120 criminal intent and that the Solidarity Fund is quote being 3:32:00.160 --> 3:32:04.280 investigated as a part of this whole thing unquote. The 3:32:04.320 --> 3:32:07.240 majority of the eight individuals denied bond were not even 3:32:07.320 --> 3:32:09.480 found to be at the site of the direct action, 3:32:09.959 --> 3:32:12.600 and none of the eight individuals had any evidence against 3:32:12.640 --> 3:32:16.240 them showing they committed any crime at that location, but 3:32:16.480 --> 3:32:19.920 were still deemed a risk to the community and denied bond. 3:32:20.520 --> 3:32:22.800 Being held against them is the fact that they had 3:32:22.840 --> 3:32:26.519 a jail support number on their person. As former communications 3:32:26.520 --> 3:32:29.680 director at the Southern Center of Human Rights Hannah Riley said, 3:32:30.200 --> 3:32:33.039 it is a gross irony that a jail support number 3:32:33.120 --> 3:32:36.360 is being framed as evidence of intent to commit crimes, 3:32:36.800 --> 3:32:39.520 where in fact its evidence that we live in a 3:32:39.560 --> 3:32:43.400 horrifying police estate. A defense attorney pointed out that all 3:32:43.440 --> 3:32:46.160 of the warrants had the same bits of evidence copy 3:32:46.240 --> 3:32:50.000 pasted like this alleged possession of a metal shield, to 3:32:50.080 --> 3:32:53.880 which the prosecution claimed this was simply a typo, meaning 3:32:53.959 --> 3:32:57.600 that people were being held in jail based on typos, 3:32:58.160 --> 3:33:01.480 and also the prosecutor responded by saying, quote, there were 3:33:01.600 --> 3:33:04.840 thirty forty fifty shields out there, I can't attest that 3:33:04.920 --> 3:33:08.120 he was carrying one. When referring to a specific defendant 3:33:08.879 --> 3:33:12.400 for one individual denied bond. Prosecutors claimed that they were 3:33:12.400 --> 3:33:16.359 an anarchist based on information provided by Customs and Border Protection, 3:33:16.959 --> 3:33:21.119 and yet no evidence of criminal acts were presented. Extra 3:33:21.160 --> 3:33:24.720 scrutiny was put on two defendants who were foreign nationals, 3:33:25.120 --> 3:33:28.840 with prosecutors wondering how someone from out of country could 3:33:28.879 --> 3:33:32.039 possibly know the solidarity fund of jail support number. A 3:33:32.040 --> 3:33:34.480 defense attorney try to point out that jail support numbers 3:33:34.480 --> 3:33:38.360 are often passed out to everyone present at protests by volunteers, 3:33:38.920 --> 3:33:41.640 and in the case of the circumstances regarding the raid 3:33:41.680 --> 3:33:45.280 of the music festival, panicked concertgoers were instructed to write 3:33:45.360 --> 3:33:47.960 down the jail support number as it became clear that 3:33:48.040 --> 3:33:53.360 police were indiscriminately grabbing people. Deputy Attorney General Fowler argued 3:33:53.400 --> 3:33:57.520 that wearing black clothes at a protest is akin to 3:33:57.600 --> 3:34:02.120 wearing a football uniform indicating a player was part of 3:34:02.160 --> 3:34:04.920 the team who took to the field during the game. 3:34:05.360 --> 3:34:08.039 And even if we may not know they carried the football, 3:34:08.400 --> 3:34:11.840 we do know that they were on the field, which 3:34:12.720 --> 3:34:15.520 I don't even want to get into. But it is 3:34:15.560 --> 3:34:18.360 still a fact that the majority of people were denied 3:34:18.400 --> 3:34:22.720 bond because some had black clothing mud on their shoes 3:34:22.800 --> 3:34:25.480 and ran from police. This is what made them a 3:34:25.520 --> 3:34:28.760 quote unquote threat to our community, and this is the 3:34:28.800 --> 3:34:32.880 evidence being used against people who were allegedly engaged in 3:34:33.080 --> 3:34:36.560 domestic terrorism. Near the end of the hearing, the judge 3:34:36.560 --> 3:34:40.360 claimed that everyone is presumed innocent and that the state 3:34:40.520 --> 3:34:42.760 does have to bear the burden of proof beyond a 3:34:42.760 --> 3:34:46.480 reasonable doubt at some point, but not now. During this 3:34:46.600 --> 3:34:50.080 spell hearing, one of the claims was that the reason 3:34:50.080 --> 3:34:52.039 why people were arrested is because they had mud on 3:34:52.080 --> 3:34:55.560 their clothes. The night before the festival started, there was 3:34:55.600 --> 3:34:59.600 a tornado warning in Atlanta. I forgot about that and 3:35:00.240 --> 3:35:04.440 there was rain, which makes I don't know if the 3:35:04.480 --> 3:35:07.520 prosecutors know this, but when rain mixes with dirt, it 3:35:07.640 --> 3:35:10.200 creates something called that we that we refer to as mud. 3:35:10.720 --> 3:35:13.040 So when people are, you know, at this music festival 3:35:13.080 --> 3:35:15.440 in a field full of dirt, they might get mud 3:35:15.480 --> 3:35:16.200 on their clothes. 3:35:16.440 --> 3:35:19.320 And yeah, so if you've ever been to a music festival, 3:35:19.760 --> 3:35:22.640 standing around for a very long period of time really annoying, 3:35:22.879 --> 3:35:27.280 people like to sit down. So I like, my feet 3:35:27.280 --> 3:35:30.240 were caked in mud, and I sat down a few times. 3:35:30.360 --> 3:35:33.279 I'm I'm my docker partons are still caked in mud. 3:35:33.720 --> 3:35:36.720 Not to mention the parking lot completely torn up, covered 3:35:36.720 --> 3:35:39.360 in mud, and as I mentioned earlier, the you know 3:35:39.480 --> 3:35:42.920 the person having like fill in mud all along the 3:35:42.959 --> 3:35:46.040 trails with gravel, So there's mud everywhere, and it is 3:35:46.080 --> 3:35:50.000 an inescapable fact of just being in both the forest 3:35:50.080 --> 3:35:50.880 and the festival. 3:35:51.040 --> 3:35:52.920 At the time of the bail hearings, they've very clearly 3:35:52.959 --> 3:35:56.440 had no evidence linking individuals to crimes, so the best 3:35:56.480 --> 3:35:58.840 they could come up with was metal shields and mud, 3:35:59.320 --> 3:36:02.800 two things things that are completely nonsense. There was no 3:36:02.879 --> 3:36:06.040 metal shields and oh wow, you have mud on your 3:36:06.080 --> 3:36:08.000 You have mud on your clothing. This is why you're 3:36:08.000 --> 3:36:11.320 a terrorist. During the hearing, a defense lawyer alleged that 3:36:11.360 --> 3:36:13.720 the twelve people who were detained at the music festival 3:36:13.720 --> 3:36:16.280 but not arrested and were later released at Gresham Park 3:36:16.720 --> 3:36:20.640 were all from Atlanta, and by releasing these twelve locals, 3:36:20.680 --> 3:36:23.600 police can claim that the people arrested were from fourteen 3:36:23.720 --> 3:36:26.920 different states, which is obviously part of an attempt to 3:36:26.959 --> 3:36:30.400 continue accelerating the outside agitator narrative that they've been pushing 3:36:30.400 --> 3:36:31.920 out since last in December. 3:36:32.640 --> 3:36:38.800 Of the twenty three who were charged. Only two had 3:36:39.120 --> 3:36:44.440 the Georgia licenses, the person from Athens and the legal deserver. 3:36:45.000 --> 3:36:47.200 The rest were out of state and two were out 3:36:47.200 --> 3:36:51.320 of country. So at one point during the proceedings the 3:36:52.080 --> 3:36:56.320 bail proceedings, one of the lawyers says that from what 3:36:56.440 --> 3:36:59.800 they understand, the twelve individuals who were let go Sunday 3:36:59.840 --> 3:37:04.200 night all had in state licenses. So it does appear 3:37:04.280 --> 3:37:10.480 that APD released people to continue this outside agitator narrative 3:37:10.520 --> 3:37:16.880 that they have been using for months now, since May, 3:37:16.959 --> 3:37:18.039 since early summer. 3:37:18.400 --> 3:37:22.280 Prosecutor Cross responded to claims that detained local Atlantans were 3:37:22.320 --> 3:37:25.920 let go by saying that the people released were interviewed, 3:37:26.280 --> 3:37:28.560 did not have the jail support number on their arm, 3:37:28.840 --> 3:37:32.840 and quote unquote knew little about the movement. At a 3:37:32.840 --> 3:37:36.680 press conference, Marlin from the Solidarity Fund talked about how 3:37:36.800 --> 3:37:40.760 repression has taken form and concerns of what other tactics 3:37:40.760 --> 3:37:42.160 the state may try to employ. 3:37:42.760 --> 3:37:46.080 No evidence has besially presented to support any of these 3:37:46.120 --> 3:37:49.680 claims of domestic terrorism, including on the other eighteen people 3:37:49.800 --> 3:37:52.760 who've been given this charge previously. In this movement, police 3:37:52.760 --> 3:37:56.160 some prosecutors are not involved in a law enforcement effort 3:37:56.520 --> 3:38:00.320 they're involved in a political campaign to suppress a political 3:38:00.400 --> 3:38:04.080 movement which they find objectionable because as the police, they 3:38:04.080 --> 3:38:06.480 have a vested interest in the construction of cop City. 3:38:07.800 --> 3:38:10.359 From a civil liberties perspective, we find this very concerning. 3:38:10.400 --> 3:38:12.840 We find it to be an abuse of power, and 3:38:12.959 --> 3:38:15.360 we're committed to ensuring that all of the activists who 3:38:15.360 --> 3:38:18.320 are targeted have access to the legal resources that they need, 3:38:18.440 --> 3:38:21.280 not only to defend themselves from these bogus charges, but 3:38:21.360 --> 3:38:25.279 also civil litigation against police who have abused their power 3:38:25.280 --> 3:38:28.840 and violated people's rights. We are concerned about the possibility 3:38:29.680 --> 3:38:31.959 that prosecutors may try to use RICO. 3:38:31.760 --> 3:38:34.000 Charges against organizers. 3:38:34.879 --> 3:38:39.040 Because RICO is understood as a way of suppressing organizations, 3:38:40.200 --> 3:38:42.840 and the narrative that we've seen coming from police and 3:38:42.879 --> 3:38:47.600 prosecutors is their belief that the broad and diverse stop 3:38:47.680 --> 3:38:51.320 Cop City movement is in fact a criminal conspiracy whose 3:38:51.360 --> 3:38:54.680 members conspire to commit acts of terrorism. 3:38:55.160 --> 3:38:56.879 This could not be further from the truth. 3:38:57.120 --> 3:39:00.920 This is like a clear misrepresentation of a broad movement 3:39:00.959 --> 3:39:04.800 that encompasses all of society. But this is the narrative 3:39:04.840 --> 3:39:07.400 that prosecutors are trying to promulgate to make it easier 3:39:07.440 --> 3:39:08.599 to target activists. 3:39:08.640 --> 3:39:11.520 In the intervening month and a half, five more people 3:39:11.560 --> 3:39:14.640 were led out on bond. Then, on May third, a 3:39:14.720 --> 3:39:17.440 series of preliminary hearings took place for the last three 3:39:17.440 --> 3:39:20.440 people being held into Cab County Jail from amongst the 3:39:20.680 --> 3:39:23.440 twenty three individuals arrested at the music festival and charged 3:39:23.440 --> 3:39:26.879 with domestic terrorism. Before the changes to the law in 3:39:26.879 --> 3:39:29.959 twenty seventeen, the State of Georgia required ten or more 3:39:29.959 --> 3:39:33.000 people to be killed for domestic terrorism charges to even 3:39:33.040 --> 3:39:37.000 be filed. During a wave of anti protest bills, while 3:39:37.080 --> 3:39:40.320 citing racially motivated mass shootings. To get the bill passed, 3:39:40.720 --> 3:39:43.960 the State of Georgia removed any death threshold and essentially 3:39:44.000 --> 3:39:47.920 replaced it with references to property damage. To quote a 3:39:47.959 --> 3:39:51.120 write up by the Atlantic Community Press Collective Quote, the 3:39:51.240 --> 3:39:55.320 Cab County Magistrate, Judge James Altman explained that he decided 3:39:55.360 --> 3:39:59.000 whether to uphold the charges based on two criteria. The 3:39:59.040 --> 3:40:02.280 first was whether prosecutors provided enough evidence to satisfy the 3:40:02.320 --> 3:40:06.440 conditions set forth in the Georgia Domestic Terrorism Statute, namely 3:40:06.720 --> 3:40:10.920 the threat to critical infrastructure. The second criteria prosecutors needed 3:40:10.920 --> 3:40:13.840 to meet was identification or their ability to show that 3:40:13.879 --> 3:40:17.360 the defendants were each a party to the alleged crimes 3:40:17.360 --> 3:40:21.400 committed on March fifth, quote, and it's worth noting that 3:40:21.440 --> 3:40:24.400 the threshold for probable cause is much lower than the 3:40:24.440 --> 3:40:28.800 threshold needed to convict someone of a crime. In opening arguments, 3:40:28.840 --> 3:40:32.600 Assistant da Lance Cross claimed that Defend the Forest activists 3:40:32.720 --> 3:40:36.760 are well funded and quote have a pretty good propaganda 3:40:36.879 --> 3:40:41.280 arm on social media, and that doing direct action while 3:40:41.360 --> 3:40:45.840 chanting stop Copcity qualifies activists to be charged under the 3:40:45.879 --> 3:40:50.439 Georgia Domestic Terrorism Statute because it's using violence to advocate 3:40:50.560 --> 3:40:54.560 change of government policy. Judge Altman found that the first 3:40:54.560 --> 3:40:58.000 criteria of the domestic terrorism charges were met for all 3:40:58.040 --> 3:41:01.240 three defendants on the basis that setting fires at the 3:41:01.240 --> 3:41:04.440 construction site in such close proximity to a power line 3:41:04.480 --> 3:41:08.280 tower was an attack on critical infrastructure, even if the 3:41:08.280 --> 3:41:12.480 defendants did not themselves start any fires. Georgia Bureau of 3:41:12.480 --> 3:41:16.920 Investigation Special Agent Ryan Long testified that the entire music 3:41:17.000 --> 3:41:21.440 festival was cover for the direct action against the construction site, 3:41:21.520 --> 3:41:24.800 even without evidence of defendants in black bloc or proof 3:41:24.879 --> 3:41:28.720 that they engaged in any destructive acts. Assistant DA Cross 3:41:28.800 --> 3:41:31.480 said that everyone at the site was enabling the destruction 3:41:31.560 --> 3:41:34.520 of the property and as such is party to the crime. 3:41:34.640 --> 3:41:37.360 Due to the assertion that the alleged crimes were only 3:41:37.440 --> 3:41:41.080 possible due to the large size of the crowd, one 3:41:41.120 --> 3:41:44.160 of the state's witnesses, a sergeant of the APD, said 3:41:44.160 --> 3:41:47.000 that he wouldn't be able to recognize anyone who was 3:41:47.040 --> 3:41:49.400 at the site, and that he could not tell if 3:41:49.440 --> 3:41:51.600 the defendant was even in the crowd of people at 3:41:51.640 --> 3:41:55.120 the North Gate, let alone through rocks or set fires. 3:41:56.000 --> 3:41:59.360 Defense argued that mere presence at a location should not 3:41:59.600 --> 3:42:03.320 be automatic aiding and a betting, but Judge Altman said 3:42:03.360 --> 3:42:06.400 there was sufficient evidence presented showing the acts of the 3:42:06.400 --> 3:42:09.400 crowd and that the defendant's presence is at least sufficient 3:42:09.480 --> 3:42:12.879 for being party to the crime, even by simply participating 3:42:13.000 --> 3:42:16.160 at the music festival. One of the hearings was for 3:42:16.280 --> 3:42:19.119 the indigenous person who was tased at the music festival, 3:42:19.440 --> 3:42:22.320 who was specifically witnessed to be there during the duration 3:42:22.440 --> 3:42:25.840 of the direct action. Under questioning from the defense, special 3:42:25.840 --> 3:42:28.560 Agent Long said that the defendant was not visible on 3:42:28.600 --> 3:42:32.320 the helicopter footage of the incident. After initially suggesting that 3:42:32.360 --> 3:42:36.040 the defendant was identified by a helicopter pilot. Long rolled 3:42:36.080 --> 3:42:38.960 that back by saying he was unsure if the chopper 3:42:39.040 --> 3:42:41.240 was able to track the defendant and then had to 3:42:41.320 --> 3:42:42.840 leave to go make a few calls to get a 3:42:42.920 --> 3:42:47.240 more definitive answer, which he failed to provide, But the 3:42:47.320 --> 3:42:51.280 judge still found that the second criteria of identification was 3:42:51.400 --> 3:42:54.720 sufficient to find two of the defendants at least party 3:42:54.760 --> 3:42:58.400 to the actions at the construction site. Special Agent Long 3:42:58.440 --> 3:43:01.279 testified that there is a quot unquot to command structure 3:43:01.440 --> 3:43:04.520 in the Stop Cop City movement and described the movement 3:43:04.560 --> 3:43:07.680 as a pyramid scheme created by activists with different names 3:43:07.720 --> 3:43:10.400 like stop Coop City and Defend the Forest to act 3:43:10.440 --> 3:43:14.560 as little different subgroups to attract new subordinate members to 3:43:14.640 --> 3:43:19.879 operate under leadership. Long asserted that activists pretend to be 3:43:20.000 --> 3:43:23.920 ecologists one day and then anarchists the next to further 3:43:23.959 --> 3:43:27.280 their cause, which once again we have to point out, 3:43:27.600 --> 3:43:30.160 is on one hand, a dangerous thing to claim. On 3:43:30.200 --> 3:43:34.280 the other hand, extremely funny social media posts were brought 3:43:34.320 --> 3:43:37.920 up by prosecutors as evidence linking defendants to criminal acts 3:43:38.120 --> 3:43:42.560 and a conspiracy of terrorism. During the first hearing, Special 3:43:42.560 --> 3:43:45.840 Agent Long claimed that they knew that the defendant was 3:43:45.959 --> 3:43:49.560 at the construction site due to street pool camera footage 3:43:49.680 --> 3:43:53.960 and social media posts allegedly made by the defendant's friend. 3:43:54.840 --> 3:43:58.800 In another hearing, agent Long claimed that on the defendant's 3:43:58.920 --> 3:44:02.920 social media they were posts of stop coop City banners 3:44:02.920 --> 3:44:06.600 and flyers, demonstrating an awareness of the nature of the 3:44:06.640 --> 3:44:11.400 stop cop City movement. The state also cited alleged social 3:44:11.400 --> 3:44:15.400 media posts of the defendant self describing as anti capitalist 3:44:15.520 --> 3:44:20.280 and anti colonial as proof of criminal intent. Near the 3:44:20.400 --> 3:44:24.000 end of the last hearing, Judge Altman said that social 3:44:24.040 --> 3:44:28.240 media posts do not count towards probable cause. However, the 3:44:28.280 --> 3:44:31.359 framing of social media posts by prosecutors as an indication 3:44:31.400 --> 3:44:34.520 of guilt is still cause for alarm, and what gets 3:44:34.520 --> 3:44:37.640 admitted as evidence during trial is still yet to be determined. 3:44:38.600 --> 3:44:41.720 When the prosecution asked if a defendant had a jail 3:44:41.760 --> 3:44:44.959 support number on their arm, the judge noted that, quote 3:44:45.280 --> 3:44:49.280 the existence or non existence of an organization doesn't really 3:44:49.360 --> 3:44:52.600 seem to me as an element of the crime unquote. 3:44:53.160 --> 3:44:56.120 Similar to the March twenty third hearings, Prosecutor Johnson tried 3:44:56.120 --> 3:44:58.920 to argue that the solidarity fund and jail support is 3:44:58.959 --> 3:45:02.000 an arm of the Stop Phpy movement, to which the 3:45:02.080 --> 3:45:06.720 judge reiterated that participation in an alleged organization is not 3:45:06.879 --> 3:45:11.000 part of the crime of domestic terrorism. For one defendant, 3:45:11.120 --> 3:45:13.760 the judge granted bond on the conditions of twenty five 3:45:13.800 --> 3:45:16.320 thousand dollars bail, with the defendant having to turn over 3:45:16.360 --> 3:45:19.480 her passport, a no contact order with other co defendants, 3:45:19.520 --> 3:45:23.960 and no participation in discussion of stop coopsity on social media. 3:45:24.640 --> 3:45:29.080 Bond for the other two defendants was denied. Ultimately, Judge 3:45:29.120 --> 3:45:33.160 Altman upheld the domestic terrorism charges against all three defendants 3:45:34.200 --> 3:45:38.040 on the low barrier of evidence sufficient for ruling probable cause. 3:45:38.440 --> 3:45:41.840 Judge Altman said that, quote whether it gets any further 3:45:41.920 --> 3:45:45.520 than that is not my problem, unquote, and that if 3:45:45.560 --> 3:45:49.280 the DA wanted further charges brought against defendants, he must 3:45:49.360 --> 3:45:51.600 use a grand jury. As the judge did not find 3:45:51.720 --> 3:45:56.160 probable cause for arson or assault on an officer, Judge 3:45:56.200 --> 3:46:00.600 Altman mentioned that he was concerned about alleged witnesses intimidation 3:46:00.840 --> 3:46:04.879 by members of the Defend the Forest movement. Meanwhile, in 3:46:04.920 --> 3:46:08.680 the adjacent Fulton County, there was also a preliminary hearing 3:46:08.800 --> 3:46:11.440 for one of the six people arrested at the protest 3:46:11.520 --> 3:46:15.360 in downtown Atlanta on January twenty first, the Saturday following 3:46:15.400 --> 3:46:19.600 the killing of Tortigita. Judge Ashley Drake upheld a total 3:46:19.680 --> 3:46:23.600 of eight charges, including one of domestic terrorism, and the 3:46:23.600 --> 3:46:27.240 next day the defendant was released on bail. One thing 3:46:27.280 --> 3:46:30.360 of note from this hearing is that Deputy Attorney General 3:46:30.480 --> 3:46:34.280 John Fowler compared the Defend the Forest movement to nine 3:46:34.320 --> 3:46:38.920 eleven by saying, quote, protesters were trying to knock out 3:46:38.959 --> 3:46:42.000 the windows of one to nine to one Peachtree Street. 3:46:42.760 --> 3:46:52.320 That is a dangerous situation. That's a twin towers unquote. 3:46:52.400 --> 3:46:56.480 When talking about the various hearings, I mentioned helicopter and 3:46:56.680 --> 3:47:00.160 street pole camera footage of the direct action on Sunday 3:47:00.400 --> 3:47:03.480 that both prosecutors and the defense were using to support 3:47:03.600 --> 3:47:06.600 their claims, and I think it's worth diving a bit 3:47:06.640 --> 3:47:11.000 deeper into specifically the police helicopter footage, since I like 3:47:11.120 --> 3:47:13.520 keeping up with the methods that police are using to 3:47:13.600 --> 3:47:17.280 surveil and suppress protest. I'm going to start by letting 3:47:17.320 --> 3:47:20.920 Atlanta Police Chief Darren Sheerbaum walk us through what was 3:47:20.959 --> 3:47:24.800 able to be observed via helicopter mounted cameras. Based on 3:47:24.840 --> 3:47:27.200 his testimony during the city council meeting that took place 3:47:27.480 --> 3:47:30.240 less than twenty four hours after the incident. 3:47:30.120 --> 3:47:32.840 Individuals were seeing changing out of the clothes that they 3:47:32.879 --> 3:47:35.880 were wearing at the concert and were now dressing themselves 3:47:35.879 --> 3:47:39.840 in all black with backpacks with items fensive nature approaching. 3:47:40.040 --> 3:47:43.000 What we saw is this group moved rather quickly to 3:47:43.080 --> 3:47:45.959 the site for the proposed public safety trading center. They 3:47:46.000 --> 3:47:49.000 move quickly on the group of officers that were assembled there. 3:47:49.320 --> 3:47:52.560 These officers had been stationary at the site protecting the location. 3:47:52.959 --> 3:47:55.520 In the first line, there are individuals with shields that 3:47:55.560 --> 3:47:58.320 are forming The officers attempted to first to de escalate 3:47:58.360 --> 3:48:03.560 by repositioning themselves. You repositioning themselves inside of the fenced 3:48:03.560 --> 3:48:07.039 in area. The officers again start to reposition because they 3:48:07.080 --> 3:48:09.520 can tell this is not a peaceful demonstration. So you 3:48:09.560 --> 3:48:13.959 just start to see smoke occurring as fires are set, 3:48:14.360 --> 3:48:17.920 malotov cocktails are thrown, and fireworks are discharged from our 3:48:18.000 --> 3:48:20.160 air unit that is deployed in the area. You will 3:48:20.160 --> 3:48:23.199 see individuals that have started to move against the officers. 3:48:23.840 --> 3:48:27.960 They will have start throwing rocks fireworks as they are 3:48:27.959 --> 3:48:30.280 pushing the officers in the area where we see individuals 3:48:30.320 --> 3:48:33.320 as another group is engaging the officers with rocks, Malotov 3:48:33.320 --> 3:48:35.840 cocktails and bottles are moving to set fire to the 3:48:35.879 --> 3:48:38.320 various equipments in the area. While you see in the 3:48:38.360 --> 3:48:40.080 left hand of the gentleman with the mask over his 3:48:40.120 --> 3:48:42.600 face is a Malotov cocktail it is being there will 3:48:42.640 --> 3:48:45.160 be accelerants in his hands that will be used also 3:48:45.280 --> 3:48:47.520 to attack some of the construction equipment that is in 3:48:47.560 --> 3:48:51.800 the area. These individuals are massed hide their identity. This 3:48:52.000 --> 3:48:55.439 is playing out across the area that had been previously 3:48:55.480 --> 3:48:56.120 been fenced in. 3:48:56.840 --> 3:48:58.760 There will be generators. 3:48:58.280 --> 3:49:01.000 That are will be destroyed, other pieces of equipment that's 3:49:01.040 --> 3:49:04.800 being destroyed. There you see more accelerant being thrown onto 3:49:04.920 --> 3:49:07.280 the vehicle that is being set on fire. 3:49:07.560 --> 3:49:08.960 And what you see here, ladies. 3:49:08.760 --> 3:49:12.280 And gentlemen, is as some of the individuals that had 3:49:12.360 --> 3:49:15.520 just previously attacked the worksite returned back into the woods. 3:49:15.560 --> 3:49:18.320 They start changing back into the clothes that they were 3:49:18.400 --> 3:49:21.600 just wearing moments before, as they were portraying themselves to 3:49:21.640 --> 3:49:24.600 be attendees of the event that was occurring in the music. 3:49:24.640 --> 3:49:27.280 So it was clear today that we saw repeat of 3:49:27.320 --> 3:49:30.360 what we've seen in the past where events that are 3:49:30.400 --> 3:49:34.200 shown to be peaceful and to being publicized as to 3:49:34.200 --> 3:49:38.080 be peaceful are being used by individuals as cover to 3:49:38.160 --> 3:49:41.880 launch illegal and criminal attacks. We had a rapid response 3:49:41.920 --> 3:49:44.880 from our partners at the Decab County Police Department, the 3:49:44.880 --> 3:49:46.640 Sheriff of Fulton County. 3:49:46.560 --> 3:49:48.120 As well as the Georgia State Patrol. 3:49:48.720 --> 3:49:51.680 Those officers entered into the woods as individuals were attempting 3:49:51.680 --> 3:49:54.360 to flee, hide the weapons they had just used, as 3:49:54.360 --> 3:49:56.800 well as to change their clothing, and we begin to 3:49:56.840 --> 3:49:59.240 make a number of arrest. 3:49:58.760 --> 3:50:02.040 I spoke with the unnamed Forest defender about the surveillance 3:50:02.080 --> 3:50:04.960 capabilities of the state on full display during the week 3:50:05.000 --> 3:50:05.400 of Action. 3:50:05.960 --> 3:50:08.840 I find that the thermal helicopter video fascinating for a 3:50:08.880 --> 3:50:11.160 variety of reasons. One, it's interesting to look at the 3:50:11.160 --> 3:50:14.000 surveillance capacity of the state. It's, to my memory, the 3:50:14.040 --> 3:50:16.520 first time the APD has ever posted their own thermal 3:50:16.560 --> 3:50:19.480 chopper footage. It's a very similar camera to the type 3:50:19.520 --> 3:50:21.920 you would see on a birector on some kind of 3:50:22.040 --> 3:50:25.200 armed unmanned aerial vehicle. What I found most interesting about 3:50:25.200 --> 3:50:27.400 the thermals is exactly how they were using that type 3:50:27.400 --> 3:50:29.720 of targeting software to attract people, and I think it's 3:50:29.760 --> 3:50:31.480 worth people knowing what they were doing with it, so 3:50:31.520 --> 3:50:33.600 we have an idea how to counter it. When you're 3:50:33.680 --> 3:50:36.040 using a software to tract targets on an optical lens, 3:50:36.080 --> 3:50:38.640 at least during a daytime event, thermals are easier because 3:50:38.640 --> 3:50:40.720 it breaks the image up into just two colors white 3:50:40.720 --> 3:50:42.440 and then like black and gray, so they can track 3:50:42.480 --> 3:50:44.360 the body heat shapes of people in white and then 3:50:44.400 --> 3:50:46.240 just click the thermals off, get a snapshot of the 3:50:46.280 --> 3:50:48.560 outfit they're wearing, click the thermals back on, and track 3:50:48.600 --> 3:50:50.320 them easier than it is to track them with just 3:50:50.360 --> 3:50:52.800 a normal camera. This gives them a clear image of 3:50:52.800 --> 3:50:54.640 what they're wearing before they d blocked, and then they 3:50:54.640 --> 3:50:56.560 can go back to tracking that person, follow them to 3:50:56.560 --> 3:50:58.400 where they're de blocking, wait for them to de block, 3:50:58.400 --> 3:51:01.200 get another picture with the regular camera, and then arrest them. 3:51:01.880 --> 3:51:03.640 So that meant that when people were leaving, it was 3:51:03.720 --> 3:51:06.920 advantageous to be deep blocking under overhead cover, under thick brush, 3:51:06.960 --> 3:51:08.840 under thick canopy, out of direct line of site with 3:51:08.880 --> 3:51:11.160 the chopper, you know, not in the open air. It's 3:51:11.240 --> 3:51:13.560 definitely a really hard thing to counter. The surveillance. State's 3:51:13.560 --> 3:51:15.200 one of the things that I find the most fearful 3:51:15.200 --> 3:51:18.120 about the police state. Not like individual beat cops. They're 3:51:18.120 --> 3:51:20.760 guns and shit are cool or whatever, But man, those cameras, 3:51:21.000 --> 3:51:21.800 they're really something. 3:51:21.840 --> 3:51:22.040 You know. 3:51:22.080 --> 3:51:23.880 I think the Portland Police Bureau just got a new 3:51:23.880 --> 3:51:26.400 spy plane and new Sessna loaded up with surveillance equipment 3:51:26.440 --> 3:51:28.600 and shit like that. All that stuff does so much 3:51:28.640 --> 3:51:30.360 more to fuck you up than just like a riot 3:51:30.360 --> 3:51:32.440 team does. You can throw mortars at a riot team. Sorry, 3:51:32.480 --> 3:51:35.320 I shouldn't say mortars. Fireworks that are called mortars. 3:51:35.320 --> 3:51:35.720 My bad. 3:51:35.920 --> 3:51:38.560 Don't want to lean into the explosives narratives. Honestly, they're 3:51:38.600 --> 3:51:42.320 fucking weird about fireworks. But you know, those surveillance capacities 3:51:42.320 --> 3:51:43.760 are one of the hardest things to counter. 3:51:44.280 --> 3:51:46.800 One term that's already come up during our coverage of 3:51:46.840 --> 3:51:50.720 Stop Coop City is Fuco's boomerang, And while that still 3:51:50.720 --> 3:51:53.360 applies here, we're now also kind of getting into some 3:51:53.480 --> 3:51:56.920 panaptocon territory, as shown by this type of surveillance capacity, 3:51:57.000 --> 3:52:00.720 specifically at actions. And one of the biggest reasons why 3:52:00.720 --> 3:52:04.240 the panopticon works is that people are scared of it. 3:52:04.240 --> 3:52:07.040 It scares you away from even taking action in the 3:52:07.080 --> 3:52:07.720 first place. 3:52:08.200 --> 3:52:10.360 And like, as soon as you overcome that paralyzing fear, 3:52:10.720 --> 3:52:13.440 the cops become really afraid of you. That's why we 3:52:13.600 --> 3:52:15.760 say that, like the biggest weapon that the state has 3:52:15.840 --> 3:52:17.880 is fear, because like the cops go from these big, 3:52:17.920 --> 3:52:20.520 fucking tough guys to like whining cowards the second you 3:52:20.640 --> 3:52:23.280 just become not afraid. You don't even have to beat them, 3:52:23.360 --> 3:52:26.080 you don't have to overcome the actual physical weapons. But 3:52:26.120 --> 3:52:29.240 once you get out of that headspace, that paralyzing fear, 3:52:29.360 --> 3:52:31.120 once you let it pass over you and through you, 3:52:31.520 --> 3:52:34.720 they're fucking terrified. And if we're gonna win, we need 3:52:34.760 --> 3:52:35.840 to be their worst nightmare. 3:52:36.680 --> 3:52:40.000 As state repression against the stop cop City movement continues, 3:52:40.400 --> 3:52:44.600 the coalition against the police training facility only continues to grow. 3:52:45.280 --> 3:52:49.080 Last month, Angela Davis returned an award proclamation given to 3:52:49.080 --> 3:52:52.680 her by the Atlanta City Council in protest of cop City. 3:52:53.240 --> 3:52:59.000 If the attempts by the Atlanta Police to build the 3:52:59.120 --> 3:53:04.560 largest police training grounds in the country are successful, this 3:53:04.600 --> 3:53:09.600 will represent a major setback for the movement for radical 3:53:09.640 --> 3:53:14.920 democratic futures, not only throughout the US, but globally as 3:53:14.960 --> 3:53:21.680 well as a person who has participated in campaigns against 3:53:22.080 --> 3:53:27.840 prisons and police for far longer than a half century. 3:53:28.320 --> 3:53:33.120 I want to salute all those who are involved in 3:53:33.240 --> 3:53:37.920 the stop cup City movement, and I want to urge 3:53:37.960 --> 3:53:44.000 people everywhere to find ways to generate support for them. 3:53:44.240 --> 3:53:47.280 Angela Davis made it clear that she stood in solidarity 3:53:47.320 --> 3:53:50.320 with force defenders facing repression from the police and the 3:53:50.360 --> 3:53:53.840 city of Atlanta, and joined in calls to halt the 3:53:53.880 --> 3:53:56.600 construction of this facility, which will only serve as a 3:53:56.600 --> 3:54:01.320 tool to advance what she called militarized police rights and repression. 3:54:01.960 --> 3:54:07.480 Atlanta activists are on the front lines of the abolitionist movement, 3:54:07.880 --> 3:54:14.920 at its crucial intersection with movements to save our forests, 3:54:14.960 --> 3:54:20.960 indeed to save our planet. The attempt to build a 3:54:21.480 --> 3:54:29.400 massive militarized police training facility is a dangerous and ominous 3:54:29.440 --> 3:54:34.360 development that we have to oppose with all our might, 3:54:36.000 --> 3:54:38.640 and so I want to join those who are standing 3:54:38.800 --> 3:54:43.720 strong in defense of the forest against the construction of 3:54:43.800 --> 3:54:50.120 this police training ground. I urge people everywhere to join 3:54:50.520 --> 3:54:54.640 the campaign to stop up City. 3:54:55.440 --> 3:54:59.240 After Angelie Davis's announcement, the Walter Rodney Foundation released a 3:54:59.280 --> 3:55:04.120 statement reporting Davis's decision and against the construction of Cop City. 3:55:04.480 --> 3:55:09.160 It's interesting to see their more mainline sort of center 3:55:09.320 --> 3:55:12.680 or center left like organizations that have begun to come 3:55:12.720 --> 3:55:17.120 on board. Even with what happened Sunday and especially the 3:55:17.480 --> 3:55:23.320 Thursday march and rally, had it necessitated a response from 3:55:23.360 --> 3:55:26.920 the city. So Friday morning there was actually an organization 3:55:27.800 --> 3:55:32.280 concerned Black Clergy who had a press conference like calling 3:55:32.360 --> 3:55:34.600 out Cop City protesters, and so you had this like 3:55:34.760 --> 3:55:38.160 very state run. One of the city council members, Antonio Lewis, 3:55:38.240 --> 3:55:40.640 was there like live streaming at the entire time. And 3:55:40.680 --> 3:55:44.440 so you can tell the efficacy of a lot of 3:55:44.440 --> 3:55:47.600 things that have happened this week by how the city 3:55:47.720 --> 3:55:51.480 is reacting and how like it is necessitating them going 3:55:51.520 --> 3:55:55.440 to greater and greater lengths to like try to show 3:55:55.800 --> 3:55:57.160 that the movement is wrong. 3:55:57.840 --> 3:55:59.960 One way that the city has been working to advocate 3:56:00.120 --> 3:56:02.800 for the further development of the Cop City project is 3:56:02.800 --> 3:56:05.720 by launching a website of their own for the Public 3:56:05.760 --> 3:56:09.280 Safety Training Center full of videos of the mayor and 3:56:09.320 --> 3:56:12.960 police chief walking through South Atlanta trying to convince neighbors 3:56:13.000 --> 3:56:16.600 that the project is a good idea. In the past 3:56:16.600 --> 3:56:19.840 few months. The city has also been turning the official 3:56:19.880 --> 3:56:23.400 City of Atlanta Twitter account into a hilarious copp City 3:56:23.520 --> 3:56:27.360 propaganda outlet. About two weeks after the end of the 3:56:27.360 --> 3:56:30.480 Week of Action, on March twenty fourth, to Cab County 3:56:30.520 --> 3:56:35.000 CEO Michael Thurmond announced an executive order to indefinitely close 3:56:35.280 --> 3:56:38.880 Entrenchment Creek Park, also known as Wallani People's Park, claiming 3:56:38.960 --> 3:56:41.160 that the park was a danger to the public due 3:56:41.160 --> 3:56:44.720 to booby traps allegedly found in the forest. At a 3:56:44.760 --> 3:56:48.560 press conference, Thurman displayed photos of wooden boards with nails 3:56:48.640 --> 3:56:52.320 sticking out of them allegedly found in the park. The 3:56:52.360 --> 3:56:55.520 executive order reads that the park will quote remain closed 3:56:55.600 --> 3:56:58.640 until further notice to protect the safety of the families, 3:56:58.880 --> 3:57:02.160 residents and visit and their pets in the area, and 3:57:02.440 --> 3:57:07.120 to County personnel. A few days after the announcement, to 3:57:07.240 --> 3:57:09.840 Cab police led a joint task force in a raid 3:57:09.880 --> 3:57:13.720 of the Willani Forest and Entrenchment Creek Park. The land 3:57:13.880 --> 3:57:17.360 was effectively cleared of all force defenders, with one person 3:57:17.400 --> 3:57:21.120 being arrested. During the raid, The memorial for Tortigito was 3:57:21.160 --> 3:57:24.440 destroyed by the police and cement barricades were set up 3:57:24.480 --> 3:57:28.320 around the entrances and exits to the park. Days later, 3:57:28.560 --> 3:57:32.080 police and contractors began cutting trees in the Wilani Forest, 3:57:32.440 --> 3:57:36.440 with no one around to resist the destruction. The Solidarity 3:57:36.440 --> 3:57:39.240 Fund to put out a statement saying, quote, closing down 3:57:39.280 --> 3:57:41.880 a public park in order to prevent protests from happening 3:57:41.920 --> 3:57:46.720 in that space is unconstitutional. To CAB CEO Michael Thurmond, 3:57:46.760 --> 3:57:49.880 is trying to do an end run around the First Amendment. 3:57:51.440 --> 3:57:54.760 Dacab County Commissioner Ted Terry is pushing to reopen the 3:57:54.800 --> 3:57:58.040 park through a resolution expected to be introduced in early May. 3:57:58.840 --> 3:58:01.560 But it wasn't just the park's closure that made force 3:58:01.640 --> 3:58:05.280 defense more challenging. After the mass action at the North 3:58:05.320 --> 3:58:09.000 Gate in early March, security was greatly increased at the 3:58:09.000 --> 3:58:13.720 construction sites in the Willani Forest, with massive spotlights illuminating 3:58:13.720 --> 3:58:16.800 the area to daylight levels twenty four hours a day, 3:58:17.560 --> 3:58:20.840 which made returning to the sort of night time sabotage 3:58:20.880 --> 3:58:23.600 actions in the forest that pioneered some of the movements 3:58:23.680 --> 3:58:27.280 militancy in its early days to be much more complicated. 3:58:28.080 --> 3:58:31.480 During my conversations with forest defenders, there was still a 3:58:31.520 --> 3:58:35.040 desire to see more of those small sabotage actions as 3:58:35.080 --> 3:58:39.120 the large daytime mass actions seemed to result in more 3:58:39.120 --> 3:58:42.560 people getting arrested near the site of militant activity. 3:58:43.280 --> 3:58:46.080 People are angry, you know, like their friend, our friend 3:58:46.400 --> 3:58:49.240 was murdered. You can just feel however you want about this, 3:58:49.320 --> 3:58:51.680 but like a lot of people and I guess myself included, 3:58:51.720 --> 3:58:55.640 are just really angry. There's this kind of blinding rage 3:58:55.680 --> 3:58:58.920 that comes with it of just like eye for an eye, 3:58:58.960 --> 3:59:01.360 blood for blood. You know that the police killed our 3:59:01.400 --> 3:59:03.760 friend and that they need to hurt for that one, 3:59:03.840 --> 3:59:05.320 and they need to hurt for all the people that 3:59:05.320 --> 3:59:07.240 they've murdered and all the things they're trying to do. 3:59:07.920 --> 3:59:09.960 And that leads people to take actions that may not 3:59:10.040 --> 3:59:12.920 be well thought out, but that are very well intentioned 3:59:12.960 --> 3:59:15.800 and have tangible results that hurt the police state, but 3:59:15.880 --> 3:59:18.480 that are actions that do bring harm to themselves or others, 3:59:18.560 --> 3:59:22.040 because there are not you know, these like middle of 3:59:22.080 --> 3:59:24.480 the night slash and run sabotage attacks that don't have 3:59:24.560 --> 3:59:28.080 arrests happen that are safer. And I think we should 3:59:28.160 --> 3:59:30.520 see a return of that tactic because the level of 3:59:30.560 --> 3:59:32.760 police presence that we saw at all the actions this 3:59:32.800 --> 3:59:37.480 week post Sunday, like doing shit at downtown protests. Fuck that, Like, 3:59:37.920 --> 3:59:40.400 that's not like we're not pulling shit off there without 3:59:40.440 --> 3:59:44.280 a mass arrest or, like everyone's getting gassed. Like it's 3:59:44.280 --> 3:59:47.000 not a tactically advantageous or viable way of doing things. 3:59:47.080 --> 3:59:49.240 But I think people wanted to prove to the cops 3:59:49.280 --> 3:59:52.040 that like, no, no, no, we could open field fuck 3:59:52.120 --> 3:59:54.200 them up. And yeah, there were consequences to that, but 3:59:54.240 --> 3:59:56.240 people fuck them up in the open field, and that's 3:59:56.280 --> 3:59:57.280 worth ap Plotting. 3:59:57.280 --> 3:59:59.800 The bounds of the forest is not the only location 4:00:00.160 --> 4:00:03.800 actions take place. Just about a week after the park 4:00:03.840 --> 4:00:06.880 closure and when some of the clearcutting began, a report 4:00:06.920 --> 4:00:10.120 back was posted online that read quote, on the night 4:00:10.280 --> 4:00:13.640 of Wednesday, April fifth, we set fire to three excavators 4:00:13.720 --> 4:00:16.920 owned by Brent Scarborough Company on a site across from 4:00:16.960 --> 4:00:21.120 the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta. Brent Scarborough is the company 4:00:21.160 --> 4:00:25.680 and individual responsible for clearcutting the Willani Forest. Copcity will 4:00:25.720 --> 4:00:29.960 never be built unquote. The March twenty twenty three week 4:00:30.000 --> 4:00:32.120 of action was always going to be a kind of 4:00:32.240 --> 4:00:34.920 turning point in showcasing what will be seen in the 4:00:34.960 --> 4:00:37.760 struggle to defend the forest to this spring, and how 4:00:37.880 --> 4:00:40.400 that will then lead into the summer and what forms 4:00:40.440 --> 4:00:43.120 of resistance people will choose to take, whether that be 4:00:43.320 --> 4:00:46.680 another singular week of action or take notes from the 4:00:46.760 --> 4:00:49.720 Old Earth First playbook and try to do a whole 4:00:49.760 --> 4:00:52.000 summer of action. How do you kind of see the 4:00:53.200 --> 4:00:57.160 movement too top Cup City like changing or evolving in 4:00:57.200 --> 4:00:59.200 the next few months. I mean, because all this is 4:00:59.240 --> 4:01:01.160 kind of I felt like it's been kind of very 4:01:01.240 --> 4:01:04.280 much on the heels of what happened in January. People 4:01:04.320 --> 4:01:07.120 have tried to, like, you know, just try to find 4:01:07.360 --> 4:01:10.200 new paths of resistance in the wake of the police 4:01:10.280 --> 4:01:13.640 killing r How do you how do you see like 4:01:13.640 --> 4:01:15.960 the fight continuing at this stage where like they have 4:01:16.000 --> 4:01:20.080 some line of Germans permits, there's early construction. What are 4:01:20.160 --> 4:01:23.400 like the avenues of resistance that people are trying to 4:01:23.560 --> 4:01:24.040 go down. 4:01:25.280 --> 4:01:29.040 I think that we have to be very clear in 4:01:29.200 --> 4:01:34.520 assessing what has worked installing the project and what will 4:01:34.520 --> 4:01:37.160 work to stop the project, because those aren't necessarily the 4:01:37.200 --> 4:01:42.440 same things. I think there are nuances in particular strategies. 4:01:44.320 --> 4:01:49.240 There is a difference between especially in our particular context. 4:01:49.320 --> 4:01:52.760 That's similar between the difference between gorilla warfare and urban 4:01:52.800 --> 4:01:55.680 guerrilla warfare and I see that guerilla warfare is more 4:01:55.720 --> 4:02:04.400 so when people have been destroying equipment, you know, at contractors, 4:02:04.640 --> 4:02:07.960 you know, offices or wherever, or like near the forest, 4:02:08.360 --> 4:02:11.040 et cetera, and you could just hide off into the 4:02:11.080 --> 4:02:13.480 woods and just like disappear back into nothingness. 4:02:13.720 --> 4:02:18.720 Nobody gets touched. What we have to look at with. 4:02:20.480 --> 4:02:24.520 The actions at the music festival were it exposed a 4:02:24.560 --> 4:02:28.760 lot of people because and this is once again because 4:02:28.760 --> 4:02:31.480 the police acted so heavy handedly. But we also know 4:02:31.560 --> 4:02:33.840 that the police act heavy handedly, which is why we're here. 4:02:34.120 --> 4:02:36.800 So that gets kind of dicey because that's like kind 4:02:36.840 --> 4:02:39.080 of like urban guerrilla warfare where you have the gorillas 4:02:39.120 --> 4:02:41.440 just shooting paw pa pal and then like running into. 4:02:41.360 --> 4:02:42.400 Somebody's grandma's house. 4:02:43.000 --> 4:02:46.120 People do not fuck with the people that just running 4:02:46.120 --> 4:02:49.400 grandma's house for cover, right, And that's where things get 4:02:49.440 --> 4:02:54.200 a little bit dicey, because in many ways, a lot 4:02:54.240 --> 4:02:56.760 of us were looking at means to open up the 4:02:56.800 --> 4:02:59.120 movement with this week of action, and that was what 4:02:59.320 --> 4:03:02.560 was widely in stood for a lot of people. And nevertheless, 4:03:02.600 --> 4:03:07.160 when you just come in with the boomstick from the beginning, 4:03:07.480 --> 4:03:10.040 that dictates the tone of the rest of the week 4:03:10.840 --> 4:03:13.440 and then where you could, you know, for instance, operate 4:03:13.520 --> 4:03:18.680 from a space of like moral authority. It becomes much 4:03:18.760 --> 4:03:22.040 easier for people on the fence to justify to themselves. 4:03:21.520 --> 4:03:24.080 Well, what are the police supposed to think? Right? 4:03:24.520 --> 4:03:27.920 I mean, we have to realize that there are several 4:03:28.360 --> 4:03:32.440 like mental resistances that have been taught to people for 4:03:32.520 --> 4:03:35.120 them to try to discredit us. And I just I 4:03:35.120 --> 4:03:39.720 think there's some important context. Right when Martin Luther King 4:03:39.800 --> 4:03:43.000 Junior was doing like the nonviolent direct action, at a 4:03:43.000 --> 4:03:46.120 certain point, they had to make a calculated decision to 4:03:46.200 --> 4:03:49.120 include women and children in the marches because they had 4:03:49.160 --> 4:03:53.160 assessed in America had become too desensitized to seeing black 4:03:53.200 --> 4:03:55.880 men beaten in the streets. Right, So that was a 4:03:55.920 --> 4:03:59.240 tactical decision to bring in more people. 4:03:59.360 --> 4:03:59.520 Right. 4:03:59.600 --> 4:04:02.240 So there are like calculations that people have to make 4:04:02.520 --> 4:04:04.560 and assessions that they have to make based on the 4:04:04.560 --> 4:04:05.520 information that we're. 4:04:05.400 --> 4:04:08.600 Dealing with through talking with forced defenders. I've heard a 4:04:08.720 --> 4:04:12.440 variety of internal critiques of the Week of Action format 4:04:12.840 --> 4:04:15.560 because it is such a concentrated time period. The week 4:04:15.600 --> 4:04:18.720 of Action can give police a very concentrated time to 4:04:18.920 --> 4:04:22.720 over police and over surveil and for activists. It can 4:04:22.800 --> 4:04:26.160 open up an expenditure of energy during the week, which 4:04:26.280 --> 4:04:29.280 then can lead to a lack of energy leading up 4:04:29.320 --> 4:04:32.880 to what's been called the week of repression in the past. 4:04:33.080 --> 4:04:36.000 Every time following a week of action, after people from 4:04:36.000 --> 4:04:39.120 out of town leave, it then leads into a week 4:04:39.200 --> 4:04:41.480 of repression where police will then do a rate of 4:04:41.480 --> 4:04:45.080 the forest and have their sort of retaliation the week after. 4:04:45.880 --> 4:04:48.520 There's been talk of potential changes to some of the 4:04:48.560 --> 4:04:52.000 Week of Action format, perhaps doing something more akin to 4:04:52.080 --> 4:04:53.240 a summer of resistance. 4:04:53.880 --> 4:04:56.160 So the week of repression is always the week that 4:04:56.200 --> 4:04:59.080 comes after the week of Action, where the cops are like, Okay, 4:04:59.120 --> 4:05:00.640 the bulk of your reserve, if you're out of state 4:05:00.680 --> 4:05:02.360 supporter is gone. We're going to come fuck you up. 4:05:02.400 --> 4:05:04.320 Now they are less of you. Now you're less ready 4:05:04.360 --> 4:05:07.880 to deal with us. And that is like a major 4:05:07.920 --> 4:05:10.600 strategic flaw in the weeks of action because it kind 4:05:10.600 --> 4:05:14.840 of creates a activist tourism for people coming out of state, 4:05:14.880 --> 4:05:17.840 and not that Atlanta doesn't appreciate their support and their solidarity, 4:05:18.120 --> 4:05:19.760 and that so many of those out of state people 4:05:19.800 --> 4:05:22.640 do stay long term, but it does create a situation 4:05:22.680 --> 4:05:25.160 where like, yeah, we're having an influx of people for 4:05:25.200 --> 4:05:27.560 a week, building infrastructure for a week, and then the 4:05:27.680 --> 4:05:29.600 bulk of those people, a good percentage are going to 4:05:29.640 --> 4:05:31.640 go home because yeah, like traveling long term is hard. 4:05:31.640 --> 4:05:34.760 People have jobs, kids, whatever, you have commitments wherever you are, 4:05:35.360 --> 4:05:37.160 and they have to go home. And then the cops 4:05:37.240 --> 4:05:39.720 just wreck our shit and do raids, and like, unless 4:05:39.720 --> 4:05:41.440 people want to get on board with doing some pretty 4:05:41.480 --> 4:05:44.280 crazy shit, those raids are hard to counter. It would 4:05:44.280 --> 4:05:46.240 behoove us to take a realistic audit of what the 4:05:46.240 --> 4:05:48.200 weeks of action have meant and what they are actually 4:05:48.320 --> 4:05:51.080 useful for which the strategic gains of the weeks of 4:05:51.120 --> 4:05:54.840 action are always now going to be more metaphysical than physical. 4:05:54.880 --> 4:05:56.800 They bring people to this space, They give them a 4:05:56.920 --> 4:05:59.040 closeness to the forest that they would not achieve without 4:05:59.040 --> 4:06:02.000 actually coming here. But as far as tangibly, like materially 4:06:02.040 --> 4:06:04.120 stopping cop City, those kind of middle of the night 4:06:04.160 --> 4:06:08.200 slash and run attacks, tertiary targeting of contractors, all that stuff, 4:06:08.480 --> 4:06:10.520 that's how you pressure the money, and the money's where 4:06:10.520 --> 4:06:10.800 you win. 4:06:11.640 --> 4:06:14.200 Ultimately, it's up to the autonomous actors that make up 4:06:14.280 --> 4:06:17.640 this so called movement and how their choices will determine 4:06:17.680 --> 4:06:20.400 how the fight to stop Cop City will grow and evolve. 4:06:24.640 --> 4:06:28.080 As I'm writing this, just thirty minutes ago we found 4:06:28.080 --> 4:06:31.040 out that the clearcutting at the Cop City construction site 4:06:31.160 --> 4:06:37.040 has essentially been completed. The overhead photos are devastating. Where 4:06:37.080 --> 4:06:40.400 there were young, growing trees just weeks ago is now 4:06:40.440 --> 4:06:43.720 a flattened mound of red clay and dirt, as if 4:06:43.760 --> 4:06:48.120 the ground itself was bleeding. I counted over one hundred 4:06:48.240 --> 4:06:52.560 trees uprooted from the earth. Hundreds of people have dedicated 4:06:52.960 --> 4:06:56.120 years of their life to defending this forest, and the 4:06:56.240 --> 4:06:59.640 site of sizeable destruction has brought out a variety of 4:07:00.040 --> 4:07:04.400 reaving reactions. If cop City doesn't get built in the Wallawni, 4:07:04.920 --> 4:07:09.680 the land could be carefully reforested and healed via regenerative permaculture. 4:07:10.440 --> 4:07:14.040 With intentional stewardship, the forest could grow to be ecologically 4:07:14.120 --> 4:07:17.680 healthier than it was before. In some ways, the destruction 4:07:17.760 --> 4:07:20.760 that has already taken place makes it even more vital 4:07:20.960 --> 4:07:24.720 to try and stop the construction of cop City. No 4:07:24.760 --> 4:07:28.800 one is advocating a defeatist approach where force defenders essentially 4:07:29.040 --> 4:07:32.000 give up and let the police foundation build it, because 4:07:32.160 --> 4:07:35.400 there are still numerous ways to fight against the construction 4:07:35.480 --> 4:07:38.320 of this facility, But now is not the time to 4:07:38.360 --> 4:07:42.240 sugarcoat the dire situation people are in, and there should 4:07:42.320 --> 4:07:45.960 be time allowed to grieve this loss as well as 4:07:46.120 --> 4:07:49.480 strike back against the destruction. It would be a mistake 4:07:49.560 --> 4:07:52.120 to gaslight each other and act as if we're closer 4:07:52.120 --> 4:07:55.400 than ever to halting the Cop City project. The fact 4:07:55.400 --> 4:07:59.200 that it's gotten this far itself is devastating. From the beginning, 4:07:59.240 --> 4:08:01.760 people have said that even if they do believe that 4:08:01.880 --> 4:08:05.040 Cop City will never be built, the Atlanta Police Foundation 4:08:05.240 --> 4:08:09.480 and police will absolutely attempt to do as much damage 4:08:09.560 --> 4:08:12.840 as they can possibly get away with anyway, both to 4:08:12.920 --> 4:08:17.680 force defenders and to the forest itself. The past few months, 4:08:17.760 --> 4:08:21.440 I've been increasingly hearing the vice versa of that sentiment. 4:08:22.200 --> 4:08:25.280 If Cop City does end up getting built, people have 4:08:25.400 --> 4:08:27.800 pledged that the Atlanta Police Foundation will have to pay 4:08:28.120 --> 4:08:31.360 for every inch they take. Even if there is no 4:08:31.440 --> 4:08:34.920 longer hope to save the entire Wilani Forest, then we 4:08:35.000 --> 4:08:38.920 must do so without hope. At least, there is always vengeance. 4:08:39.640 --> 4:08:41.760 It is a long road ahead, and there is still 4:08:41.920 --> 4:08:47.440 much to do. To quote my favorite anarchomonarchist, Tolkien, at 4:08:47.520 --> 4:08:51.200 this moment, the movement will hone its focus to prevent 4:08:51.440 --> 4:08:55.240 or at the very least disincentivize, the physical construction of 4:08:55.360 --> 4:08:56.640 cop City. 4:08:56.680 --> 4:08:58.640 I think it'd be worth thinking of this movement as 4:08:58.680 --> 4:09:01.000 an almost two year old movement that's outgrown the week 4:09:01.040 --> 4:09:03.560 of action. You know, why limit ourselves to seven days? 4:09:03.640 --> 4:09:05.960 Fuck it, do a summer, you know, do three months 4:09:06.000 --> 4:09:07.840 of like we're doing three months of action in Atlanta. 4:09:07.880 --> 4:09:09.840 Come to Atlanta whenever you want, and then go home 4:09:09.880 --> 4:09:12.280 and do shit at home. There wills fargos where you live. 4:09:12.320 --> 4:09:14.160 There are Chase banks where you live. There are Atlas 4:09:14.160 --> 4:09:16.920 construction offices where you live. And yeah, you should come 4:09:16.920 --> 4:09:18.880 to Atlanta and you should come see the space, and 4:09:18.920 --> 4:09:20.480 you should be in the forest, and you should feel 4:09:20.640 --> 4:09:23.000 like the love and community that's there. We win by 4:09:23.000 --> 4:09:25.040 fighting on enough fronts that they can't fight us back 4:09:25.080 --> 4:09:28.360 on all of them. The state dies by a thousand cuts, 4:09:28.720 --> 4:09:30.760 not by all of us being in one place where 4:09:30.760 --> 4:09:33.440 they can kettle our asses. Like, that's just not how 4:09:33.440 --> 4:09:35.840 we're going to win. So, yeah, if we had three 4:09:35.840 --> 4:09:38.760 months of like we're occupying the forest for three months, 4:09:39.160 --> 4:09:40.880 come to the space whenever you feel like it. 4:09:41.200 --> 4:09:41.600 But you know. 4:09:41.760 --> 4:09:44.040 Hopefully when people go home they feel inspired to like 4:09:44.160 --> 4:09:46.440 understand that they can do just as much hitting those 4:09:46.440 --> 4:09:48.680 companies where they live as they can here, because the 4:09:48.720 --> 4:09:51.240 money's all going to the same place. The CEO at 4:09:51.240 --> 4:09:53.360 the top doesn't care if you hit their businesses in 4:09:53.400 --> 4:09:56.640 Georgia or in fucking Illinois, or in Oregon or Washington 4:09:56.720 --> 4:09:58.040 or whatever. The money's all the same. 4:09:58.560 --> 4:10:01.560 A phrase I've been hearing a lot lately is cop 4:10:01.640 --> 4:10:06.120 city is everywhere to quota communicate, posted on scenes, dot no, blogs, 4:10:06.160 --> 4:10:06.640 dot org. 4:10:06.840 --> 4:10:07.280 Quote. 4:10:07.520 --> 4:10:10.520 We will keep winning, not just here in so called Atlanta, 4:10:10.560 --> 4:10:13.560 but we must attack all across these so called states. 4:10:14.200 --> 4:10:16.560 The money and power that seek to kill us and 4:10:16.600 --> 4:10:21.560 a Destroyablanni are nationwide, and so our movement must be nationwide. 4:10:22.040 --> 4:10:25.920 A net of resistance, too vast to comprehend and too 4:10:26.080 --> 4:10:31.400 resilient to suppress. Reality is the battlefield, but so called America, 4:10:31.440 --> 4:10:35.720 all of it is the backdrop unquote. When chief is 4:10:35.760 --> 4:10:39.680 sheerbamb gave testimony at city council even he mentioned the 4:10:39.840 --> 4:10:43.720 far reaching manifestations of the fight to stop cop City. 4:10:44.240 --> 4:10:46.240 We have been seeing over the last number of months, 4:10:46.760 --> 4:10:50.200 crimes that have been occurring in other cities focused towards 4:10:50.200 --> 4:10:53.280 the public safety training center. So we have seen arsons 4:10:53.360 --> 4:10:56.400 and cities outside of Atlanta. We've seen the destruction of 4:10:56.440 --> 4:10:59.840 property outside of Atlanta, and we've seen the harassment of. 4:11:00.160 --> 4:11:02.240 Private sector employees outside of Atlanta. 4:11:02.680 --> 4:11:05.480 So that is the next is where the Federal Pure 4:11:05.520 --> 4:11:09.840 of Investigation has been assisting in this administigation. 4:11:10.440 --> 4:11:13.080 Like I said in the second episode, the stakes of 4:11:13.120 --> 4:11:16.040 the movement may soon exceed the bounds of the forest 4:11:16.200 --> 4:11:19.360 and cop City, and in fact that process it may 4:11:19.400 --> 4:11:22.960 have already begun. We are seeing stop Coop City turn 4:11:23.040 --> 4:11:26.240 into a new mode of insurgency and resistance to modern 4:11:26.280 --> 4:11:30.120 policing in general, not simply limited to the construction of 4:11:30.160 --> 4:11:33.480 this one a training center, as the police are trying 4:11:33.520 --> 4:11:37.440 to build a training center to practice quelling future civil unrest. 4:11:38.000 --> 4:11:40.840 The site of the Malani Forest and beyond has been 4:11:40.880 --> 4:11:43.920 a training ground for anarchists and those who fight the 4:11:43.960 --> 4:11:48.120 ever growing police estate the past two years. It's been 4:11:48.200 --> 4:11:53.440 a dangerous playground for experimentation and liberation. Applications for the 4:11:53.520 --> 4:11:57.080 lessons learned in the Mulani Forest extend far past the 4:11:57.080 --> 4:12:00.360 barriers of the woods. As a far right attack on 4:12:00.400 --> 4:12:03.680 abortion and trans people are accelerating across this country, but 4:12:03.840 --> 4:12:07.920 especially the South. Perhaps some of the organizing infrastructure that's 4:12:07.960 --> 4:12:12.280 been developed can take new focus on these battlegrounds, and 4:12:12.320 --> 4:12:15.360 even just the mere existence of the struggle against cop 4:12:15.440 --> 4:12:18.760 City in Atlanta has been a deterrent for other cities 4:12:18.760 --> 4:12:23.160 and states seeking to push forward similar proposals. But as 4:12:23.200 --> 4:12:27.240 the movement possibly expands past its original scope in these 4:12:27.280 --> 4:12:29.200 next few months, people will need to be careful that 4:12:29.240 --> 4:12:33.280 the idyllic notion of the struggle doesn't eclipse the original 4:12:33.360 --> 4:12:36.480 and still active goal, which is to stop cop City. 4:12:37.160 --> 4:12:40.680 Cop city is indeed everywhere, but the current manifestation in 4:12:40.720 --> 4:12:44.920 Atlanta is unique to Atlanta, and the corresponding struggle to 4:12:45.000 --> 4:12:48.800 stop the physical construction of this training facility cannot be 4:12:49.000 --> 4:12:54.640 overlooked in favor of fantasies of utopian anarchy. To steal 4:12:54.720 --> 4:12:58.000 an idea from Matt of the Community Press Collective, one 4:12:58.200 --> 4:13:02.360 interpretation of the phrase cop city is everywhere is the 4:13:02.360 --> 4:13:06.320 realization that Atlanta is a cop city, and it already 4:13:06.400 --> 4:13:09.760 has been for years without us knowing it, and if 4:13:09.760 --> 4:13:12.960 we don't turn back the tide here, cop city will 4:13:12.960 --> 4:13:14.120 be exported. 4:13:13.680 --> 4:13:18.920 Everywhere Atlanta once again because of the Atlanta Police Foundation 4:13:19.120 --> 4:13:22.880 is the most surveiled city in the country because of 4:13:23.040 --> 4:13:26.400 twenty seventeen's Operation Shield program where they put tons of 4:13:26.400 --> 4:13:29.120 cameras all throughout the city and essentially made it a 4:13:29.200 --> 4:13:32.240 surveillance state once again. Crime has continued to go up 4:13:32.920 --> 4:13:37.240 during this time, and that would have significantly more to 4:13:37.280 --> 4:13:41.600 do with the disparity of wealth and opportunities of Black 4:13:41.600 --> 4:13:45.160 Atlantans that are born under the poverty line. Only five 4:13:45.200 --> 4:13:48.560 percent of them are projected to ever cross that line. 4:13:49.360 --> 4:13:54.400 At the same time, the average median income of black 4:13:54.400 --> 4:13:59.320 households is one third that of the average median income 4:13:59.760 --> 4:14:03.040 of white households in Atlanta, So that's about thirty five 4:14:03.080 --> 4:14:05.360 thousand dollars to one hundred and four thousand dollars. 4:14:05.720 --> 4:14:06.240 And so. 4:14:07.840 --> 4:14:13.840 The wealth is just so disproportionately spread, and so much 4:14:14.160 --> 4:14:17.920 of the labor intensive economy is predicated on it that 4:14:18.240 --> 4:14:23.160 black people are pigeonholed into service economy jobs and they 4:14:23.240 --> 4:14:29.680 have very few opportunities here. Now, that type of inequality 4:14:31.280 --> 4:14:37.120 breeds discontent and people looking for other opportunities, and the 4:14:37.160 --> 4:14:40.200 police are ready to catch them at every turn for 4:14:40.320 --> 4:14:44.200 arresting the juvenile in the point system that they have 4:14:44.240 --> 4:14:48.200 for Atlanta police department, it's five points. However, you only 4:14:48.240 --> 4:14:51.160 receive a quarter of a point as a police officer 4:14:51.200 --> 4:14:55.760 if you answer a service call. So police officers often 4:14:55.880 --> 4:14:58.520 ignore service calls because that doesn't give them. 4:14:58.440 --> 4:14:59.200 The credit that they want. 4:14:59.240 --> 4:15:01.880 So, just to put that in context, you get twenty 4:15:01.880 --> 4:15:07.160 times the credit in Atlanta's point quota system for arresting 4:15:07.160 --> 4:15:11.120 a juvenile then going where people actually wanted police to 4:15:11.160 --> 4:15:13.960 show up, and we're supposed to be convinced that this 4:15:14.040 --> 4:15:16.400 system is made to keep us safe. 4:15:17.160 --> 4:15:17.440 Right. 4:15:18.240 --> 4:15:21.480 The City of Atlanta and the Police Foundation wants Copcity 4:15:21.520 --> 4:15:24.280 to be a national training center for police to come 4:15:24.320 --> 4:15:29.440 and practice militaristic counterinsurgency for export across the country. They 4:15:29.560 --> 4:15:33.240 murdered someone to further this goal. All eyes must be 4:15:33.320 --> 4:15:34.560 on Atlanta. 4:15:34.720 --> 4:15:38.960 Cop City is a symbol of police repression. Cop City 4:15:39.040 --> 4:15:42.760 is a symbol of the oppression of the people of Atlanta. 4:15:43.240 --> 4:15:45.600 I want you to look around and see the families 4:15:45.600 --> 4:15:47.600 here in this part today. 4:15:48.400 --> 4:15:50.200 These are people who came because. 4:15:49.960 --> 4:15:51.400 They're concerned for their children. 4:15:51.800 --> 4:15:54.640 These are people who are concerned because they don't want 4:15:54.840 --> 4:15:57.520 their city overrun by militarization. 4:15:58.080 --> 4:16:00.800 The level of repression the movement is face is a 4:16:00.840 --> 4:16:03.800 sign that the state feels like this movement is a 4:16:03.840 --> 4:16:07.320 threat and the state feels like this movement has the 4:16:07.400 --> 4:16:12.560 possibility of actually succeeding, so in response, they're increasing repression. 4:16:13.240 --> 4:16:15.720 And on the flip side of that, during this past 4:16:15.720 --> 4:16:18.840 week of action, I saw a lot of affirmation that 4:16:18.880 --> 4:16:21.400 this is going to be successful and that people believe 4:16:21.440 --> 4:16:25.640 that they will stop Cop City. A common refrain during 4:16:25.680 --> 4:16:28.280 the past week of action is that cop City will 4:16:28.320 --> 4:16:31.240 never be built, and I believe that we will win. 4:16:32.120 --> 4:16:35.200 There's been such a unique emphasis on the fact that 4:16:35.400 --> 4:16:38.080 people believe that this fight is one hundred percent winnable 4:16:38.360 --> 4:16:40.920 and that people do have the ability to stop cop City, 4:16:41.200 --> 4:16:44.280 and that people who are participating truly believe that, And 4:16:44.320 --> 4:16:46.120 I think that is an important part of why it's 4:16:46.160 --> 4:16:47.520 gotten as far as it has. 4:16:48.280 --> 4:16:51.280 We can get everything we want for this city. We 4:16:51.320 --> 4:16:53.840 can stop cop City. We got the power. 4:16:53.960 --> 4:16:55.680 We believe y'all. 4:17:00.920 --> 4:17:03.200 There's gonna be a lot of people tell us about 4:17:03.240 --> 4:17:06.960 what we can't do, about what these organizers are here 4:17:07.080 --> 4:17:07.400 can't do. 4:17:07.680 --> 4:17:09.800 Tell them what it tells about what we we we 4:17:09.920 --> 4:17:12.440 can't do. I'm to tell you all of us out here, 4:17:12.480 --> 4:17:15.720 we're organizers. We are in a business. 4:17:15.920 --> 4:17:18.960 I've taken that which other people say it is impossible, 4:17:19.400 --> 4:17:20.600 we make it possible. 4:17:25.040 --> 4:17:27.560 As long as we believe I say we are. 4:17:30.320 --> 4:17:33.960 Believe, I believe that we will win. 4:17:36.480 --> 4:17:39.640 This is interesting to me because in my experience, a 4:17:39.640 --> 4:17:43.320 lot of leftists and anarchists approach much of their practice 4:17:43.800 --> 4:17:47.280 with the concept of them expecting to not succeed, but 4:17:47.440 --> 4:17:50.200 they're going to do it anyway, which there is a 4:17:50.320 --> 4:17:53.200 kind of fated beauty to that in a certain way. 4:17:53.560 --> 4:17:56.240 And part of that is taking action even if you 4:17:56.280 --> 4:17:59.320 don't think it will lead to a decisive victory. But 4:17:59.360 --> 4:18:02.120 also I think fe that being in that mindset might 4:18:02.200 --> 4:18:05.280 set you up for that outcome. If you're preparing to fail, 4:18:05.520 --> 4:18:07.920 that means you're probably going to fail or at the 4:18:08.040 --> 4:18:11.280 very least limit the ways that you do action. And 4:18:11.560 --> 4:18:14.640 throughout this movement thus far, it's been interesting the degree 4:18:14.680 --> 4:18:17.240 to which people are convinced that they are going to win. 4:18:17.760 --> 4:18:20.360 If you're being prepared to fail, you won't take the 4:18:20.440 --> 4:18:23.520 radical action that it takes to win. Winning's hard, and 4:18:23.560 --> 4:18:26.840 winning means doing things that are scary and uncomfortable, and 4:18:26.920 --> 4:18:29.480 doing things that put you in danger, and doing things 4:18:29.480 --> 4:18:32.120 that are new and unknown and different and taking new 4:18:32.160 --> 4:18:35.360 strategies and doing new things, and we in the US 4:18:35.840 --> 4:18:37.600 and a lot of other places, but this is US 4:18:37.640 --> 4:18:40.680 based movements. So there's so much learned helplessness on the 4:18:40.760 --> 4:18:44.160 left here from so many years of like we lost 4:18:44.160 --> 4:18:47.880 it Occupy and then we lost in Ferguson and Standing Rock, 4:18:48.240 --> 4:18:51.280 and in twenty twenty, all of these movements that put 4:18:51.400 --> 4:18:54.400 big body blows to the state put some hits in, 4:18:54.480 --> 4:18:57.160 but we're just followed by these waves and waves of oppression. 4:18:57.880 --> 4:19:00.440 We've learned so much helplessness. And for the first time 4:19:00.440 --> 4:19:03.280 in my life, I'm looking at a movement that I'm like, no, no, 4:19:03.640 --> 4:19:06.720 we can fucking beat them. And people are stagnating, we're 4:19:06.760 --> 4:19:10.000 blinking because of what happened on Sunday, and like, no, no, no, 4:19:10.240 --> 4:19:12.800 what happened on Sunday prove that we can win. It 4:19:12.840 --> 4:19:15.680 proved that we can one fight them in the open 4:19:15.720 --> 4:19:17.520 field and beat them, that they are afraid of us, 4:19:17.560 --> 4:19:20.240 that they will see territory if we hit them, And 4:19:20.320 --> 4:19:22.280 it proved that they are so afraid of us that 4:19:22.320 --> 4:19:25.800 they need to mobilize fucking ten different police departments to 4:19:25.880 --> 4:19:28.600 come deal and then they won't even step into the 4:19:28.640 --> 4:19:30.840 actual brush of the forest because they think we're the 4:19:30.840 --> 4:19:34.280 fucking vietcom that proves we can win more than anything 4:19:34.280 --> 4:19:37.200 that proves we can win. And if we do not 4:19:37.400 --> 4:19:40.000 accept that, what is proved that we can win is 4:19:40.080 --> 4:19:43.920 like property destruction and to a degree doing violence, we 4:19:43.960 --> 4:19:47.280 won't win. Those fireworks helped a lot. They pushed the 4:19:47.320 --> 4:19:50.280 cops out and like, we shouldn't balk at that, And 4:19:50.360 --> 4:19:53.560 I guess I don't classify that as violence. The police 4:19:53.600 --> 4:19:56.840 classify that is violence what they consider taking hits, I guess. 4:19:57.280 --> 4:19:58.760 But yeah, we are so on the cusp of a 4:19:58.800 --> 4:20:00.760 make or break kind of deal here, and the only 4:20:00.760 --> 4:20:03.400 way that we win is not this internal debate we're 4:20:03.440 --> 4:20:06.160 having about the efficacy of tactics. It's doubling down on 4:20:06.200 --> 4:20:09.000 what we're already doing because it's working, and expanding on it. 4:20:09.440 --> 4:20:12.320 Do you believe that copsity will be actually stopped? 4:20:13.320 --> 4:20:17.240 We got to and here's what I mean by that. 4:20:18.880 --> 4:20:23.400 This is the line. Right we have. 4:20:24.360 --> 4:20:32.040 Environmental racism, police militarization and brutality, and police and racism, 4:20:32.160 --> 4:20:35.480 and it's all coming to a head right here in 4:20:35.480 --> 4:20:41.520 this particular movement. We have to win because what they're 4:20:41.560 --> 4:20:45.000 doing now is to build capacity to make sure that 4:20:45.080 --> 4:20:49.760 we can't win, right and so why people are pushing 4:20:49.800 --> 4:20:52.840 so hard is that, as we've seen over the past 4:20:53.040 --> 4:20:55.640 couple of weeks, the police have plenty of like tanks 4:20:55.680 --> 4:21:02.000 and shit and all sorts of militarized tactical gear. And 4:21:02.040 --> 4:21:05.160 now they're trying to build another base in the blackest 4:21:05.200 --> 4:21:10.400 part of the city and to build up more capacity 4:21:10.480 --> 4:21:14.000 to put down any sense of rebellion or push back 4:21:14.080 --> 4:21:19.040 against empire. We cannot allow it to happen. And I mean, 4:21:19.600 --> 4:21:23.400 there is so much money going to kill people in 4:21:23.800 --> 4:21:28.400 end life. And if we win right here and make 4:21:28.480 --> 4:21:33.760 this stand right here, that changes the potentiality for how 4:21:33.840 --> 4:21:36.880 we view how to keep one another safe and how 4:21:36.960 --> 4:21:42.480 to reinvest in ourselves and our people throughout this country 4:21:43.320 --> 4:21:46.040 in a huge way. I think that we are at 4:21:46.040 --> 4:21:50.080 the precipice of not only winning cup City, but pushing 4:21:50.320 --> 4:21:54.200 back the tide of the cult of death that this 4:21:54.320 --> 4:21:55.200 country has become. 4:21:56.000 --> 4:21:58.480 The clear cuts in the Malaune forest at this stage 4:21:58.720 --> 4:22:02.640 serve a threefold per one. It obviously gets them closer 4:22:02.640 --> 4:22:05.720 to construction and the mass land grading that is scheduled 4:22:05.760 --> 4:22:08.760 to start on May twenty third two. It's a ploy 4:22:08.960 --> 4:22:13.080 by the APF to secure additional needed funds from Copcity investors. 4:22:13.560 --> 4:22:16.920 And finally, it's to demoralize the people who spent years 4:22:16.960 --> 4:22:19.480 of their life working to stop this project. 4:22:19.920 --> 4:22:23.480 Everything that police have done is essentially always a reprisal, right, 4:22:23.960 --> 4:22:28.640 the movement does something and the police clamp down in 4:22:28.640 --> 4:22:30.560 a reprisal to try to repress the movement. 4:22:30.800 --> 4:22:33.280 Police always escalate, but they have always been like in 4:22:33.320 --> 4:22:34.520 response to something. 4:22:34.560 --> 4:22:38.520 And their goal, of course is to quiet and chill 4:22:38.880 --> 4:22:43.640 free speech and end the movement. But every time this happens, 4:22:44.040 --> 4:22:47.040 the opposite effect is what comes out of it. And 4:22:48.040 --> 4:22:52.440 from the domestic terrorism rest in December, like really, that's 4:22:52.520 --> 4:22:56.040 when this even larger groundswell of national support happened and 4:22:56.200 --> 4:22:58.880 people started to take notice because this was an extreme measure. 4:22:59.320 --> 4:23:02.680 And then with the killing of Tortighita in January, that 4:23:02.880 --> 4:23:07.200 changed so much about the movement, including people's personal connection 4:23:07.480 --> 4:23:11.440 to this struggle, where no longer are people doing this 4:23:11.560 --> 4:23:15.000 simply because they believe it is what's right. They are 4:23:15.040 --> 4:23:18.320 doing this because they have to, because the state cannot 4:23:18.360 --> 4:23:20.960 get away with this, This death cannot be in vain, 4:23:21.400 --> 4:23:24.040 and now people believe that they have to succeed or 4:23:24.120 --> 4:23:27.320 at the very least make this state pay for every inch, 4:23:27.800 --> 4:23:31.080 and that may mean looking beyond the binary of a 4:23:31.160 --> 4:23:36.000 victory and defeat. According to a construction timeline from this 4:23:36.080 --> 4:23:40.120 past April, the Atlanta Police Foundation plans to start construction 4:23:40.360 --> 4:23:43.760 on August twenty ninth, twenty twenty three, in order for 4:23:43.880 --> 4:23:47.480 a quote unquote soft opening of the facility in December 4:23:47.560 --> 4:23:51.080 of twenty twenty four. One hiccup that the APF has 4:23:51.160 --> 4:23:53.520 run into is that it seems they have yet to 4:23:53.560 --> 4:23:56.320 secure enough money to finish the project and have been 4:23:56.360 --> 4:23:59.480 forced to ask their investors and the city for more 4:23:59.480 --> 4:24:04.040 additional despite scaling back their plans for the project. As 4:24:04.080 --> 4:24:06.440 a short clip put together by the Atlanta Community Press 4:24:06.440 --> 4:24:08.200 Collective explains. 4:24:07.960 --> 4:24:10.360 The city Council will in fact have to vote on 4:24:10.400 --> 4:24:14.040 whether or not to allocate thirty three million taxpayer dollars 4:24:14.080 --> 4:24:17.600 to the construction of cop City in the very near future. Additionally, 4:24:17.800 --> 4:24:21.120 the Atlanta Police Foundation budget documents show that current construction 4:24:21.200 --> 4:24:23.960 plans have been scaled back from what was originally promised. 4:24:24.000 --> 4:24:26.560 This indicates a failure by the foundation to raise the 4:24:26.600 --> 4:24:28.080 promise sixty million. 4:24:27.800 --> 4:24:29.080 Dollars in private funds. 4:24:29.160 --> 4:24:32.120 Should the city vote down this funding package of thirty 4:24:32.160 --> 4:24:34.840 three million. It is difficult to see a path forward 4:24:34.920 --> 4:24:38.320 for the Atlanta Police Foundation's effort to begin construction on 4:24:38.440 --> 4:24:40.680 Cop City anytime in the near future. 4:24:41.040 --> 4:24:44.120 The City Council has actually not yet voted to approve 4:24:44.160 --> 4:24:47.520 the allocation of millions of dollars in city funds to 4:24:47.720 --> 4:24:49.000 the Cop City project. 4:24:49.400 --> 4:24:51.600 Through an open records request, we were able to get 4:24:51.600 --> 4:24:54.520 our hands on emails between the Atlanta Police Foundation and 4:24:54.600 --> 4:24:59.280 Atlanta's Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Leachandra Berts. In this email exchange, 4:24:59.320 --> 4:25:01.720 the Police found expressed a need for the city to 4:25:01.760 --> 4:25:04.800 provide thirty three point five million dollars in funding for 4:25:04.880 --> 4:25:08.760 the project. Bergs responded by mentioning the need for legislative 4:25:08.760 --> 4:25:11.600 action to secure the funds. The emails state that the 4:25:11.640 --> 4:25:15.520 Police Foundation wants to pass this legislation before June thirtieth 4:25:15.560 --> 4:25:18.640 because they need the City of Atlanta's money to secure 4:25:18.680 --> 4:25:19.680 their construction loan. 4:25:20.000 --> 4:25:23.280 It's expected that as soon as May fifteenth, a member 4:25:23.320 --> 4:25:26.840 of the City Council will introduce legislation to allocate public 4:25:26.880 --> 4:25:29.840 funds to the Atlanta Police Foundation to build COP City, 4:25:30.280 --> 4:25:33.360 and a final vote could happen as soon as June fifth. 4:25:34.480 --> 4:25:36.800 One thing that the movement to stop Cop City has 4:25:36.840 --> 4:25:39.800 shown us is that no matter what police do, people 4:25:39.960 --> 4:25:43.360 continue to show up despite what happens, and the movement 4:25:43.480 --> 4:25:47.400 keeps expanding. As the unnamed forest defender told. 4:25:47.240 --> 4:25:50.200 Me, infrastructure wise, this week of Action was the biggest 4:25:50.200 --> 4:25:53.680 infrastructure I've seen doing a week of action. I thought 4:25:53.760 --> 4:25:56.080 that the infrastructure we put together for week one was 4:25:56.120 --> 4:25:58.400 pretty big, but I mean it doesn't even compare. It's 4:25:58.400 --> 4:26:00.560 not the same ballpark as what happened for Week five, 4:26:01.320 --> 4:26:03.040 just from how the medics were set up and how 4:26:03.080 --> 4:26:05.680 food was handled. There was a shuttle bus program, there 4:26:05.680 --> 4:26:07.720 was a welcome table at a church at one point, 4:26:07.760 --> 4:26:10.480 there was like twenty four to seven clinic spaces. There 4:26:10.520 --> 4:26:13.480 was twenty four to seven ride programs, and medics on standby, 4:26:13.520 --> 4:26:15.920 and like all these things that were ready to support everybody, 4:26:16.480 --> 4:26:18.440 Like there was all this infrastructure set up to make 4:26:18.480 --> 4:26:20.640 sure that people were as supported as possible and to 4:26:20.640 --> 4:26:22.800 make it as easy as possible and lower the barrier 4:26:22.840 --> 4:26:25.360 of entry to the movement as much as possible, more 4:26:25.360 --> 4:26:27.600 than there has been in any other Week of action 4:26:27.720 --> 4:26:31.000 so far. I feel like the way that we continue 4:26:31.440 --> 4:26:33.600 that is to take lessons learned from what's happened this 4:26:33.640 --> 4:26:36.120 week from the problems with the infrastructure, the issues that 4:26:36.160 --> 4:26:38.320 it had, expand on it and then fucking do it 4:26:38.320 --> 4:26:40.760 for way longer, Like we could do this for an 4:26:40.880 --> 4:26:43.200 entire summer. I am fully of the belief that the 4:26:43.240 --> 4:26:45.760 infrastructure I saw on display during the fifth week of action, 4:26:45.880 --> 4:26:48.040 we could do that for a summer. I believe in 4:26:48.080 --> 4:26:49.800 the kind of people who put it together, and I 4:26:49.840 --> 4:26:52.040 believe in the people who did it. To do that, 4:26:52.520 --> 4:26:54.720 we just have to kind of look at what went wrong, 4:26:54.800 --> 4:26:57.040 what went right, and fix it. All the things that 4:26:57.120 --> 4:26:59.320 existed in this week of action, as far as they're 4:26:59.360 --> 4:27:02.360 being food rides, medics, and like group supplies, all these 4:27:02.360 --> 4:27:04.640 things existed during weeks of Action one through four. 4:27:04.920 --> 4:27:05.640 It's just grown. 4:27:05.680 --> 4:27:08.240 It's gotten more logistically intense. There are more and more 4:27:08.280 --> 4:27:10.840 people filling those roles. There's more and more stuff coming in. 4:27:10.880 --> 4:27:12.960 Like the amount of supplies that we just got sent 4:27:13.360 --> 4:27:15.240 in or people brought with them from out of state 4:27:15.280 --> 4:27:18.240 has just so vastly expanded since the first week of action. 4:27:18.600 --> 4:27:20.920 It's just gotten more i don't know, like not professional, 4:27:21.000 --> 4:27:24.440 but more polished. It's become a much more polished setup system. 4:27:24.600 --> 4:27:26.320 As time went on from the first camp that we 4:27:26.400 --> 4:27:28.800 had during the first Week of Action to now you know, 4:27:29.160 --> 4:27:31.880 almost two years later. And that's a huge part of 4:27:31.920 --> 4:27:34.160 why I think we've outgrown the Week of Action. We 4:27:34.240 --> 4:27:36.680 have these types of thought processes and logistics to do 4:27:36.720 --> 4:27:38.720 this for a summer or for a month, We just 4:27:38.760 --> 4:27:41.920 need people and resources. We need more people to be willing, 4:27:41.960 --> 4:27:44.200 because I don't want people to get tired. 4:27:45.040 --> 4:27:48.320 Just last month, another Week of Action was called for 4:27:48.520 --> 4:27:52.920 June twenty fourth to July first, directly leading into what's 4:27:53.040 --> 4:27:57.440 being called the Wollawni Summer, with locals in Atlanta calling 4:27:57.480 --> 4:28:01.040 on supporters and forced defenders everywhere to come to Atlanta 4:28:01.080 --> 4:28:04.880 for the week and stay for the summer. With Entrenchment 4:28:04.960 --> 4:28:08.360 Creek Park still closed and they're being ongoing efforts to 4:28:08.400 --> 4:28:11.880 have it be reopened. What the week and following summer 4:28:11.920 --> 4:28:14.280 will look like is it still very unknown. 4:28:15.000 --> 4:28:17.400 We always are going to need more people. People are 4:28:17.440 --> 4:28:18.720 our most important resource. 4:28:18.840 --> 4:28:19.280 Always. 4:28:19.680 --> 4:28:21.920 The way that we limit burnout is by having more 4:28:22.040 --> 4:28:24.280 and more people so that the burden falls less and 4:28:24.360 --> 4:28:27.080 less heavy on small groups of people, and so that 4:28:27.120 --> 4:28:30.040 people can take breaks. And that's another problem I have 4:28:30.160 --> 4:28:32.360 with like the Week of Action as a strategy is 4:28:32.400 --> 4:28:34.600 you're just going non fucking stop. 4:28:34.360 --> 4:28:34.800 For a week. 4:28:34.840 --> 4:28:36.720 If you had three months, you're like, ah, I'm going 4:28:36.800 --> 4:28:38.920 to chill for a couple of weeks. I'll be back, 4:28:39.120 --> 4:28:41.400 you know, because I have all this time, and it 4:28:41.440 --> 4:28:43.720 frees up people from out of state to come in, 4:28:43.920 --> 4:28:46.520 have times to work it out in their schedule more. 4:28:46.880 --> 4:28:49.160 There will be more information put out in the coming weeks. 4:28:49.440 --> 4:28:51.560 You can keep up to date by following stop Coop 4:28:51.600 --> 4:28:55.400 City on Instagram, Defend atl Forest on Twitter, or by 4:28:55.480 --> 4:29:00.360 checking out stopcopcitysolidarity dot org. Ideally with a VPM and 4:29:00.560 --> 4:29:02.080 tour slash a Brave browser. 4:29:02.520 --> 4:29:04.600 If you were at the music festival and you're just 4:29:04.640 --> 4:29:07.400 a normal person, you weren't involved with the movement before this, 4:29:07.520 --> 4:29:09.480 and you were at the music festival and you kind 4:29:09.480 --> 4:29:11.440 of saw why we're fighting for this. You saw that 4:29:11.480 --> 4:29:13.080 space and then you saw the type of violence that 4:29:13.120 --> 4:29:15.760 the police were willing to output to do it. Let 4:29:15.760 --> 4:29:17.480 that move you to get involved further. You don't have 4:29:17.520 --> 4:29:19.720 to join an organization, you know, I don't want to 4:29:19.760 --> 4:29:22.920 speak for other people. I'm a hard anarchist. Fuck organizations 4:29:22.920 --> 4:29:25.480 to a large degree, but have an affinity group, get 4:29:25.480 --> 4:29:27.480 your friends together. If you guys want to be helping 4:29:27.520 --> 4:29:29.440 out with the food. People, help out with the food. 4:29:29.480 --> 4:29:29.760 People. 4:29:29.800 --> 4:29:31.880 You want to be medics, go join a medic collective 4:29:32.440 --> 4:29:35.200 like find what everything calls to you and just go 4:29:35.280 --> 4:29:37.120 and do it. Because we need people and there's no 4:29:37.160 --> 4:29:39.240 barrier of entry to join the movement. There's no test 4:29:39.280 --> 4:29:40.800 you have to take. You just have to show up. 4:29:41.800 --> 4:29:44.920 I will end this Week of Action retrospective with a 4:29:45.000 --> 4:29:50.200 promise from a forest defenders. See you on the other side. 4:29:50.480 --> 4:29:51.760 We well Barn. 4:29:53.520 --> 4:29:57.680 We well Burn, we well. 4:29:57.280 --> 4:30:08.600 Burn Music Festival. Audio courtesy of Unicorn Riot. 4:30:10.520 --> 4:30:13.000 It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media. 4:30:13.120 --> 4:30:15.800 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 4:30:15.800 --> 4:30:18.920 coolzonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 4:30:18.960 --> 4:30:22.320 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 4:30:22.320 --> 4:30:25.040 find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at 4:30:25.080 --> 4:30:27.280 coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. 4:30:27.480 --> 4:30:28.320 Thanks for listening.