WEBVTT - On the Ground at Defend the Atlanta Forest: Part Two 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:08.639 Welcome back to It could happen Here. I'm Garrison Davis 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:11.200 and this is part two of the two part mini 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.600 series on the Defend the Forest movement in Atlanta, Georgia. 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.120 Last month, I traveled to Atlanta to stay a week 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:20.599 in the woods and talk with some of the Forest Defenders. 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:23.520 In the previous episode, I covered the movement from its 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.239 inception to where the city council approved the Cops City 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.360 project near the end of last summer. I went over 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.839 a lot of historical background between the land itself and 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:37.440 the history there, the increasing gentrification of Atlanta, how the 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.680 movement pulled the veil off the secretive plans for Cops 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.560 City and pushed it into the public spotlight. We talked 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.159 about the early days of sabotage and the targeting of 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.760 individuals and positions of power. Basically, I did a lot 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.800 of a lot of talking, maybe maybe too much talking. 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:56.320 This episode will be more led by the discussions with 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.560 force defenders that I had during my week long excursion 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.040 to woods. We'll learn about how the movement evolved in 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:05.560 the wake of the city council vote up until the 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:09.319 current state of affairs. One thing that makes to defend 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.199 the Atlanta forest movement very different from previous eco defense 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:15.840 projects in recent memory is that it's right in the 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.199 middle of a sprawling metropolitan area. Right outside the forest 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.560 is an Amazon facility. Downtown Atlanta is just a ten 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.880 minute drive away. We'll be talking tactics a bit later 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:28.440 on in the episode, but just the simple nature of 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.080 doing a forest eco defense project while still inside the 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:36.280 city gives a lot of pretty interesting tactical opportunities. You 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.119 have to selectively use some of the older, more rule 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.559 eco defensive strategies while having the backing of a city 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.600 based mutual aid network. There's the option of rapid response 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:50.120 popular mobilization that city based protests can have but are 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.960 more challenging for EQO defense stuff that's like three hours 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.000 into the middle of nowhere. For the people camping in 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:59.840 the forest, they can easily get supplies or switch out 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.720 who's staying in the woods and who's living in the city. 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.280 The combination of forest and urban prompts and necessitates the 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:11.280 crucial experimentation and innovation that's been badly needed in eco 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:14.920 defense projects and protests for the past decade. There's a 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.440 lot of trams to go by here. It's definitally pretty morvy. 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:20.480 So it's definitely the most urban forest defense I've ever 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.639 been a party of. But it's really beautiful and unique 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.160 to see a lot of urban folks people live in 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:29.160 the city be able to be involved in like urban 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:32.519 tactics kind of mixing with you more traditional what a 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.480 how that means any more earth firsty forest tactics. It's 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:37.240 kind of like the rule book and a lot of 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.920 people say this, but like it's all repeated. The quote 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.959 unquote rule book for how to engage with the multiple 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:48.000 enemies in this area has been like chewed up, spit out, shadow, 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:50.880 and burnt over because it we're kind of doing something 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.200 that doesn't really happen a lot. Something similar I can 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.799 think of is the Sacred Oak Groove that was being 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:04.000 protected in Minneapolis in the nineties, and that was another 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.120 kind of anarchist and genous alliance the first presence. But 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.079 that's kind of one of the more urban in this 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:14.880 part of Turtle Island struggles I can think of this. 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:20.280 But I think another interesting part is like a lot 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.720 of force defense stuff is focused on like old growth, 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:27.440 being like we should defend it because it's old growth. Yeah, 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.160 this is not an old growth. This is like a messy, 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:36.720 dirty um confusing. I've gotten lost so many times. It's yeah, 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.160 there's tires, there's barrels, or it was built on the 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.320 prison farm. You'll find like old portions of the prison 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.600 which is incredibly funked up and haunted. Right, Like in 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:45.760 terms of like haunting is like there's the specter of 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.160 what used to be there. Police are trying to build 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:50.520 over it with their more like a bomb range, right, 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:53.120 It's like that's very much like they're just building over 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:57.040 the thing. Um. But it doesn't need to be old 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.640 growth to be worth defending. And that's an idea that 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.320 I think people need to understand more. Is like it 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.840 has value even if it's not like five hundred years old, 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:10.440 Like it has value despite not despite being one hundred 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.080 year old old forest, and it's because it is in 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:14.520 one forest. Like it has value because it is a 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:19.320 forest in a city, and that's something that's worth like emphasizing. Yeah, 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:21.640 I also think that's cool. And like people talk a 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.480 lot about like invasive plants and there's like I think 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.160 the Branford pairs in this forest are a really interesting example. 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:29.320 There are these trees that are like feral they used 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:31.640 to be part like planted here when it was a 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:36.680 um the farm plantation or whatever. And um, those trees 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.720 are fucking spiky, fine trees. They're spiking and ship well 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:42.440 but you know, the good news is they're awful, and 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:44.520 the bad news is they're awful. Like I know where 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.560 there are when I haul ass in the forest, I 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.320 usually don't get Bradford pair in my eye, but um, 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.680 but someone chasing me, well yeah, and and so it's 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.080 just it's cool to kind of interact with all these 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.039 things and get to choose how you want to interact 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:03.240 and like, yeah, is a um, you know, I think 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:07.159 it's interesting. It's not yeah, like a traditional forest or 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.960 like whatever forest that people would value in that way. Um, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.799 but for me, I connect to it, I think even 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:17.200 more than that, because it's not this like held up 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:19.760 is this thing of like purity, like they fucking buildoz 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:22.600 and like a month later that ship was overgrown you 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.120 couldn't see it again. And that was all quote unquote 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.160 invasive plants like whatever funk that means, which is often 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.520 that's the whole thing. They're often racialized plants. You know. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:35.800 It's it's almost like a punk forest. It's like we're 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:39.880 surrounded by enemies and that is the problem is um 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.360 they see this as a cess pool. And something I 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:44.440 talked to a lot of liberals about, like when they're taught, 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:46.240 we're talking them about defend the forest, like, oh, is 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:50.240 it a pristine wilderness with large old growth trees, and like, 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:53.120 you know what, that would be cool. The problem is 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:55.800 this forest needs to be allowed to return to that 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.960 because there's been so much abuse and part of like 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:01.839 whether I don't know what it insta quote, but there's 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.320 a lot of little winds and a lot of winds. 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.600 There is some big they're legally supposed to leave all 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:15.799 the big trees by the creek from what historical um, president, 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.120 do we trust the cops to quote unquote be accountable 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.640 to anyone? I don't know where we're thinking that will happen. 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:23.279 I've had a lot of people be like, oh, some 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:25.919 of these tree houses are strategic in the spots they 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:29.279 can't get friends. I've looked at the map and it 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:31.960 looks like this whole motherfucking play is Society for clear Cutting. 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.679 Exactly one month after the city Council voted to approve 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.680 the land Ley's Ordinance for cops city that defend the 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:44.760 force slogan was put to the test. On October, contractors 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.599 and land survey workers showed up around the forest and 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:50.599 appeared to be clearing land to take reference photos and 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:54.520 collect soil samples. Two dozen Force defenders emerged from the 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.120 woods and confronted the workers people hired to destroy the forest, 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.680 fled the work site and act they left. Police surveillance 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.719 tower in the area was toppled and the force defenders 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.719 were able to disperse with no arrests. Ten days later, 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.400 a similar turn of events took place. A group of 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:15.160 survey workers and construction teams were on site. Again a 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.000 small group of rapid response Force defenders who disrupted the 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.760 surveying and ground clearing at the old Atlanta Prison Farm. 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.000 Simply the mere threat of an on site protest shut 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.240 down construction for the whole day. Key access points for 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.320 machinery were blocked using available materials like piles of nearby tires, 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:37.040 preventing vehicular machinery from moving freely through the destruction site. 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.840 No construction occurred, despite the attempts of the Decab County 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:45.160 Police and the Atlanta Police Department, who mobilized twenty vehicles 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:47.560 in the vicinity of the forest in an effort to 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.400 prevent the protest or punish the participants. By the end 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:53.200 of the day, no one was arrested, and yet again 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:58.320 select monitoring systems and police surveillance towers were toppled and dismantled. 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:03.320 A statement released online from anonymous force defenders read quote, 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.280 this war will be one, one battle at a time. 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.679 Pressure must continue in a variety of ways to halt 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:13.760 all construction. It became clear that for the next phase 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.360 of the struggle to defend the force, people would have 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.280 to directly target and oppose the contracting companies hired to 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:24.280 decimate the woods and build the facilities. Today we know 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.640 of at least three companies that have been contracted by 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.320 the Atlanta Police Foundation to do work on the old 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.120 prison farm land. Some of the surveying work appears to 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.719 be done by Long Engineering, and two companies, Reaves Young 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.080 Construction and Brass Fielding Gorri, were hired to do grounds 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:43.480 clearing and early construction. It is not yet clear who 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.760 will be contracted to clear the land in Entrenchment Creek Park, 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.320 where Black Hole Studios hopes to expand their sound stage. 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.640 Again quoting the Crime Think article, the City in the Forest, 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:58.320 reinventing resistance for an age of climate crisis and police militarization. Quote. 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.360 The information that is known to date was hard won 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.840 by diligent activists on the ground. Shortly after the city 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.480 council voted in September, surveyors and small work crews began 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:12.760 entering the site near two key roads. The trucks and 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:16.120 uniforms revealed the names of the contractors, which once again 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.000 gave opponents of the Cops City project a chance to 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:22.720 initiate a struggle on their own terms. Had the force 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.720 defenders utilized only virtual or bureaucratic channels to collect information, 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:29.400 they might not have learned that Reeves Young were being 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.760 called in to do the actual destruction until it was 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:35.199 publicly announced much later. The ability to break news to 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:37.640 the public before the city government has been a consistent 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:41.600 advantage in trying to keep the momentum of the movement going. 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.360 Post the city council vote, a second Week of Action 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.719 was planned for November, albeit with some new twists. From 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:53.360 November tenth through, various groups organized a wide range of 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:58.000 cultural events, info nites, bonfires, and meetings for this week 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.520 of action. Many of these events occurred in or near 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:04.480 a publicly advertised encampment on the Entrenchment Creek Park side 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.560 of the forest. Days after the second week of action, 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.640 thirty people converged on the Reeves Young Construction headquarters in 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:16.720 sugar Hill, Georgia, forty miles outside of Atlanta, holding banners 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.200 and demanding that the company severed their contract with the 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.040 Atlanta Police Foundation. The group was able to walk right 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.600 into the offices, disrupting a board meeting involving company president 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:30.000 Dean Reeves and CEO Eric Young. Initially, the executives tried 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.160 to keep their cool, but in short time the businessmen 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.719 started getting more annoyed and eventually violence towards the protest. 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.400 There was a protest that like plus at the Reeves 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:45.000 Young office, went into the office and disrupted a board 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.040 member meeting that happened to have a lot of the 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:54.440 people who were like seers and chairman there and um, 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.080 from what I gather as a brawl. Yeah, I know. 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:03.400 There's reports of the the Reeves CEO guy like punching 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:08.040 punching protesters. There's a joke that a worker puts someone 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.840 in the guillotine, and I love the version of these 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:21.960 workers doing like wwfer Love, We'll love for more cop 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:24.400 fights fights with cops to just be w w E 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:38.319 style match. Disrupting the board of meeting was another successful 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.560 step in the goal of applying direct confrontational pressure to 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.640 the Atlanta Police foundations contracted construction service providers. Days later, 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:51.160 two more bulldozers were lit on fire read entertaining aounts 0:11:51.160 --> 0:12:02.040 of ulic road and we got to construct vehicles fall 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.720 involved in the quat and simpedia my location as well. 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:12.040 There this equipment was located on the land swap parcel 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.640 by Black Hall Studios, the planned future location of quote 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:20.760 Michelle Obama Park unquote. These were the eleventh and twelve 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:24.320 pieces of heavy machinery to be sabotaged, and I think 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:28.679 now we're at like around twenty five, which is a 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:33.079 lot um. The anonymous communicate this time was short and 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.440 to the point, quote we burnt to bulldozers in the 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:40.240 South Atlanta forest. No cops city, no Hollywood dystopia, defend 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:44.880 the Atlanta Forest. On top of the more publicly advertised 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:48.480 encampment at Entrenchman Creek Park. Around the second week of action, 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.040 a small cluster force defenders set up a secondary, more 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.520 secretive encampment on a stretch of woods in the old 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:59.839 Atlanta prison Farm. Again quoting the crimes article quote, a 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.640 few dozen people pitched tents, erected tarps and makeshift kitchens, 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:08.160 hung banners, and constructed a bonafid protest camp in the woods. 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:11.760 Establishing a semi permanent presence in the forest was a 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.040 way to gather information on an ongoing basis and to 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:21.920 provide an immediate deterrent to developers. So I was involved 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:26.720 in the original occupation of the forest. There was a 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:31.400 group of autnomous individuals who many of whom were housing 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:35.480 and secure, and we're like, we need fucking housing, and like, 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:38.280 there's this struggle and we believe in it and want 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.680 to fight in it. And so we moved to the 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.040 fucking woods. And we've lived in these woods. Believe the 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:48.160 six the official time is six weeks that we were 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.679 in the woods. And we had a higher quality of 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.480 life than like many people who like lived in houses 0:13:55.520 --> 0:14:01.560 and apartments. We had the nicest kitchen of anyone we knew. Yeah, 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:07.280 we had armchairs and couches and fire pits, and we 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.960 you know, we had more food than we knew what 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.000 to do with. And so we just started feeding people, 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:18.560 and like we created a social space that allowed the 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:22.400 movement to drow simply because we're like, oh, we need 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.720 these needs man in our lives. Don't we go do that? 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:29.800 And like evolved over time. A little over a month 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:34.000 after the more secretive encampment was established, about a dozen protesters, 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.000 some bearing witch hats, marched to the gate of Black 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.840 Hole Studios on Constitution Road and blocked the main entrance. 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.680 A communicate posted online read quote iconic spells for destruction 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.120 were loudly chanted at black Halls general direction as the 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:53.200 witch block held hands, cackled and skipped in a sunwise direction, 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:57.520 blocking Black Hole Studios as main entrance. Smoke torches were 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:02.480 lit approximately one our post, which block antics the Cab 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.280 County Police responded to a call made by Black Hole 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.160 Studios saying that they quote followed the protesters into the 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:13.480 woods and deduced an encampment they came upon must belong 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:18.520 to the apparent witches unquote, which is quite the sentence. 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.400 Shortly after, a large contingent of police raided the forest, 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:28.400 evicting the protest camp established there. There was at one 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:37.040 point group and help a demonstration outside of Black Holes 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:43.320 UM outside of Black Holes site near the woods, and 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:53.080 they expressed their discontent at the yeah, peaceful, entirely peaceful 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.280 protests at Black Haws Studios that was like just kind 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.680 of standing in like the front gate where employees leaving 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:04.040 them or um and generally doing stuff like bringing American flags, 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.600 holding signs like um and just like taking up space 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.560 and making the like actual interns and leaving of the 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:17.200 facility like less doable. And their response was for a 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.400 Black Hall to lie and so like the camp and 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:24.200 camp and wasn't trespassing on their property which was actually 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.040 in place in of like a public park, um and 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:34.560 orchestrated with the police to evict um. And they orchestraed 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:39.560 with the police to do like a pretty like intense 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:43.600 eviction for like what it was. Essentially we were what 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:48.800 amounted to a homeless camp living there, and they had 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:53.440 two helicopters circling, more police than I could count. They 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:58.600 were throwing our ship into dump trucks and like actively 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.800 like pursuing people through the woods. It was like an 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:08.160 absolutely I mean, it was like like very like visible 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.720 show of force against us. Quoting the crime Thing article 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:14.600 again quote at the urging of Black Hall the Cab 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:18.360 County police entered the forest on mass mobilizing police cruisers 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:22.000 and the parking lot officers on foot, helicopters and drones overhead, 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.760 and unmarked vehicles in the streets. The officers were likely 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:29.160 intimidated by the low visibility to rain. In any event, 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:32.240 all of the force defenders based in the encampment escaped 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.840 without being detained. This was the first time a concerted 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:39.080 effort was made by law enforcement to engage protesters in 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:42.919 the South River Forest. And be honest, it was a 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.560 fucking pain in the ass and it was a traumatizing 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:49.960 and like that is all true, but it's also even 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:54.240 we learned from and like we got a pretty good 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:58.959 idea of like apd s and like the Cab Counties 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:04.160 the capabilities, and like how they are like surveilling thing 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.800 protests and how they're surveilling camps, and like how they 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.000 figured out where we were and like what triggered them 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:13.800 to act against us, and like that's allowed us to 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:18.880 move in far more confident ways that are also far 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:24.880 more subversive. It's really interesting that you know, just like 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.960 when they make it, you know, illegal to do n 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:34.199 v d A whenever they attack, like that and do 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:38.199 these really violent raids that put people in like awful 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.320 positions and like traumatize the ship out of people. They 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.480 are teaching us how to fight back. They are showing 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.520 us their weaknesses, and in a really ironic way, the 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:50.640 next time they come in and they funk it up, 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:53.639 because people know what to expect, it'll be a monster 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:58.679 of their own making. Because like for every one step 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.240 of aggression that they take, that's two steps further we 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.399 can take towards them with everything that we learned from 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:08.280 the struggle. And obviously this forest is really beautiful and 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.520 the more time I spend here, the more I feel 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.600 connected to it and driven to like protect it. But 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.280 also a big part of it for a lot of us, 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:21.720 is for me, is like, um, you know, they're doing 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.720 this for their own morale, and so my goal is 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:30.119 to make sure they are unhappy. And so yeah, even 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:35.000 if I uh yeah, even if they win, as long 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:37.199 as we come back and we learn from that and 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:39.960 we keep pushing back, you know, it is a lay 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:44.560 of attrition, and um, it is about their morale. And 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:48.560 like it doesn't matter if they build the police facility. 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.840 What matters is that every single time that the police 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:56.360 moved to recuperate that their losses, which they just took 0:19:56.400 --> 0:20:01.000 a big one, they are faced with just unyielding hostility. 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.240 Um And I think that, like that's something that's really important, 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:07.040 is that we don't expect to not take a lot 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:10.520 of hells. Like in the forest occupation, we understand the 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.080 nature of this thing. We're in a static position, completely 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:18.040 moving around it. But like it's a it's about making 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.159 them fight for every inch the best we can. The 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:24.320 encampment was just one part of a large ongoing fight. 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:27.560 Over the course of those six weeks, hundreds of people 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:31.720 were able to circulate through this camp, enjoying meals and performances, 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:36.080 making arts together, and spending time around campfires, building and 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.280 sharing a life in the woods. After the camp was 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:42.439 attacked and structures were destroyed by the Cab County Police, 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.560 land offenders and Atlanta residents mobilized quickly to recover camp 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.159 supplies and belongings and continued on with efforts to defend 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:53.720 the forest. A great thing about these types of free 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:57.399 autonomous zones is that they can directly demonstrate to people 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:00.200 what a free life outside the confines of in a 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.040 society can look like and what it can feel like 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:05.520 it's not just like we want to save the words 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:07.600 and we want to go back to our regular asse lives. 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.560 A lot of us are realizing that we're living in 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:12.600 the apocalypse and we're just gonna we want to keep 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:15.719 living like this. It's not just this words, it's not 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.360 just this police facility, and we want them to not 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:22.600 have any more space or platform to organize this police. 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:24.800 But we want a lot of us want to be free. 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:26.840 We want other people that like during the idea of 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.200 like whatever the funk it is, hitchhiking train happening living 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.399 in the woods, the fact that it's a fucking crime 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.760 or considered crazy to be the people living in the 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.320 woods is insane. And that's kind of the vibe we 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:41.560 got from the muscoge for Access today. They're like our 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:45.119 whole world, like we're here trying to reclaim our culture 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:47.080 because there's a lot of hope for saving the land 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:53.000 from like an indigenous perspective, if people would respect them. 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:56.800 And the whole point is the US government doesn't actually 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.400 want them and doesn't actually respect them, and as a ations, 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.080 I literally have prisoner of war numbers because they're hoping 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:05.159 by blood quantum if they kill these people off, they 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:07.520 can take their land back, So the whole land back 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:10.639 idea of fucking freaks and not anyway. We want to 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:12.320 save this for us, but it's not just about this 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.119 forest for kind of endangered species. We've talked about ourselves 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:17.840 feeling like deer Like how deer like they'll be chilling. 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:19.760 They'll be like all around being a deer and mating food, 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:22.440 and we're like, I was on guard, you know, to 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:25.840 do something else if there's an enemy around. It kind 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:27.800 of feels that way, like it will be chilling. Nothing's 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:30.560 going on. Also, there's caps. But the whole point is 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.359 if it can happen here, ha ha, did it, it 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:35.280 can happen somewhere else. And we help to spread the 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:38.360 vibe that people not like Occupy would a varriable name 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:40.479 for a movement. But it's cool that that happened at 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:41.879 the time that we had made sense. We all have 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:44.000 nobody knew any better. We know better now, that's great, 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:48.840 but get the vibe. We're getting this vib to like 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:51.000 continue this kind of stuff. And obviously there's people in 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:54.160 all kinds of places, a squad buildings and do all 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:57.240 sorts of ship. But the more territory that we occupy 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:01.879 and control and can help remake treat to indigenous grassroots comrades, 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:08.400 not IRA and Reorganization Act, government sanctioned Indigenous groups right 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:11.199 if they can't. Not everyone's air. Ally, these have to 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:14.600 be ally. Ships that make sense. The Muscogee commrads that 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:18.520 we're close to, obviously not all of them, that some romanticized, 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:21.480 generalized bullshit. They said the same ship that when we 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:23.320 talk to them, they're like even our own people betray 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:25.560 it sometimes because we're not all the same. It's some 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:28.720 homogeneous bullshit. And I've seen that play out poorly in 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:30.880 other places. And like the garity of the land back 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:35.520 to the neightives and like which natives like people were 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:38.439 all on the spectrum of conversation and be conization. And 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:41.080 sadly some of us are further along the lines and others. 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:45.800 And it's very much on the colonizer's fault for doing that. 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:51.560 But where we're at is the people, the people that 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:53.480 feel the call the anarchy, the people that feel the 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:57.080 call to the some kind of radical left orientation. They 0:23:57.119 --> 0:23:59.000 can find it in their hearts and in their patients 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:02.000 to tolerate each other, need to band together to come 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:04.600 up with better plans because we're all we got and 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:08.480 it doesn't get better, it's getting worse. So hopefully this 0:24:08.560 --> 0:24:10.440