WEBVTT - State Repression and Bail Fund Organizing in Atlanta 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:09.799 This is it could Happen Here. I'm Garrison Davis. This 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:11.879 episode is going to be a bit of an update 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:16.200 and an interview regarding the Defend the Atlanta Forest and 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:21.480 Cops City movement that's been ongoing for almost two years now. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.760 If you're unfamiliar with the topic, I made a three hour, 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:31.040 two part deep dive last May titled on the Ground 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.640 at Defend the Atlanta Forest that you can find up 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.839 on the it could Happen Here feed and I've been 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.840 doing random updates, like in our History of the Old 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.760 Atlanta Prison Farm episodes from last August. But the t 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.559 l d R is that the City of Atlanta and 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.920 the corporate funded Atlanta Police Foundation are trying to tear 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.120 down a large section of the Woolwanee or South River 0:00:56.240 --> 0:01:02.240 Forest into Cab County to construct a massive, ninety million dollar, militarized, 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:06.160 state of the art police training facility, complete with a 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:10.520 mock city. On top of that, Ryan millsaps Black Hall 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.200 Movie Studios are planning to cut down an adjacent section 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.720 of the very same forest to expand their film production 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.679 studio in a shady land swap deal that's currently the 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.640 subject of a lawsuit. The past couple of weeks have 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:30.240 seen a massive increase in the intensity of repression efforts 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.600 by the state and local police inside Atlanta and Decap 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:37.480 County against the Cops City movement and people in the 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.200 forest encampments trying to prevent the construction of the police 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:45.720 training facility. Last month, on a December there was a 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.040 raid on the forest by a task force of local, 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:53.840 state and federal law enforcement. Police were shooting pepperballs, rubber 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:58.080 tipped metal impact rounds, and tear gas canisters into the woods. 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:03.120 They destroyed treehouses while people were still inside, and tour 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.600 part other infrastructure, like the communal kitchen that was built 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.959 inside the forest to support the encampment. Police fired chemical 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:15.280 weapons at tree sitters, arrested multiple people, and pushed others 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.959 out of the forest at gunpoint. One of the things 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.680 setting this apart from previous raids is that six people 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:26.359 have now been charged with domestic terrorism as well as 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:30.160 a number of other felonies. The people charged were initially 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:34.880 denied bail and essentially held as political prisoners for trespassing 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.880 in a forest, with the terrorism enhancement charge added on top. 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:44.280 The Georgia Bureau of Investigation alleges quote several people through 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.680 rocks at police cars and attacked E m T s 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:52.239 outside the neighboring fire stations with rocks and bottles. Task 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:56.079 Force members used various tactics to arrest individuals who are 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:02.400 occupying makeshift treehouses unquote. The Georgia Department of Homeland Security, 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.560 which was formed as the result of a seen bill, 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:10.919 which is also responsible for the expanded definition of domestic terrorism, 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:15.280 has chose to designate the Defend the Atlanta Forest as 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:20.760 quote domestic violent extremists unquote, which has led the state 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.040 Attorney General's office to also get involved in the case. 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.320 I think it's worth mentioning that this seventeen domestic Terrorism 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:33.760 Bill was first passed by the Georgia legislature in response 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:37.360 to the neo Nazi Dylan Roof mass shooting at Emmanuel 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:42.560 African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which killed 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:47.320 nine people. So now we have this law allegedly created 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:51.720 in response to a murderous white supremacist targeted attack against 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.920 black people, now being used for the first time as 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.960 a bludgeon against anti racist protesters who are fighting again 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:06.000 the expansion and further militarization of police facilities. This is 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.760 a reminder that any expansion of state power will always 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.120 come down the hardest on people who are actually pushing 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:17.400 back against the power structures of the state, like the police. 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.599 After being held in jail for two weeks, on December, 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:26.919 the six people were finally granted bail, but as of 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.960 two days later, the jail was refusing to comply and 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:34.800 release someone, instead saying that they will be quote held 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:40.520 well the prosecutor add additional charges unquote. This abnormality was 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:45.279 soon resolved and by December all six people charged were 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:49.760 released on bail thanks to the Solidarity Fund, everyone who donated, 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:54.440 and people working jail support. Our interview today will be 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:58.919 focusing on the jail support aspect and bail Fund organizing 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.880 and for note, this interview was conducted prior to the 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:07.880 release of the Forest Defenders. With me here today is 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:12.680 James and Ralph. James is from the Atlanta Anti Repression 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:17.480 Committee and Ralph is from the Solidarity Fund. Greetings, thank you, 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.960 thank you for joining me here, thank you for having us. 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.600 Good to be here. So first I would like to 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:25.440 see if, if if either of you have any kind 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:29.920 of extra input on what's happened the past few weeks 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:32.760 and how you think, I mean, I can't I can't 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.640 quite ask you why because you're obviously not not the police, 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.280 but like, what what might be some reasons for some 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.560 of the some of the increased repression and to use 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.560 extremely extremely high charges being levied at people at this 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:49.920 point in the movement. Yeah, they are extremely high charges. 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.039 They're really unprecedented charges in the state of Georgia. I 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.360 don't think that does the best in the entire questions 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.360 based I've really ever seen anything like this being used 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:01.280 against protest series and I think the reason why it's 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.679 pretty clear. And I think that that reason is because 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.760 there's been an extremely effective social movements that's involved thousands 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.440 of people from Atlanta and from across the country over 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.039 the last year and a half two years that have 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:19.400 brought a serious challenge against a very unpopular proposal from 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:24.960 the city to build a police mega mega compounds. And 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:30.839 I think that the police and various other agencies that 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.520 they're working with, the Atlanta Police, the Atlanta Police Foundation, 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.040 the Georgia Bureau Investigation, that the Cap County Police Department, 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:39.479 all of these different agencies, I think at this point 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.520 are are are really frustrated. And I think that really 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.159 shows up in the charges that they've given people, because 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:49.040 where we're talking about are people who have been literally 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:51.119 pulled out of tree sets. Like this is the most 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.480 like classic example of you know, non violent direct action 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.440 civil disobedience you can think of, and you have people 0:06:57.440 --> 0:06:59.320 who are allegedly being pulled out of tree sets in 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:01.920 charge with them to terrorism, and I think that really 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:07.400 shows it's both very very scary in terms of the 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.120 severity of the charges, but it also has like an 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.640 element of just being a little ridiculous in in terms 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.840 of using these types of charge. You know, they make 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.120 you think of like you know, the school shootings or 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:22.640 you know, like nine eleven or something like this, like 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:24.840 like these are the sorts of things that come to 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:26.640 mind when you think of domestic terrorism. And yet what 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.160 we're talking about here is people who are allegedly being 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.040 pulled out of out of tree sets after you know, 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:35.040 being shot at with pepper balls and tear gasper and 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.960 um hours on end before they before they were pulled down. 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:43.600 And I think that then the point of that is 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.480 to scare people. It's because they are having a very 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.680 difficult time, um gaining any sort of public support or 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.760 sympathy for this project. And I think they're they're just 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:56.680 really out of out of loss, and so that what 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:58.400 they need right now is they need to scare people. 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.000 They need to shut down this special isn't it by 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.240 whatever means that they have available, And right now they're 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:08.320 The technique that they're employing is just fear. And so 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.160 the point of this is to have a chilling effect. 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.520 It's to say that anybody who is protesting, who is 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.120 a part of this social movement, could be liable to 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:22.320 extremely extremely heavy charges. And that's what they're banking on. 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:24.640 They want people to be scared. They want to separate 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.480 out people from from the movement who feel like they 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.040 can no longer participate because the charges or the potential 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.360 repression is too severe. They want to be able to 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.760 scare away people that support the movement by saying, look, 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.360 you're supporting a terrorist movement. You're supporting something that is 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.679 h extreme to to some crazy degree, but we know 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:46.559 what the what the the real extreme position here is 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.520 that they know that the city doesn't want this. They've had, 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:54.640 you know, countless protests and all sorts of different different 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:56.920 examples of just public outcry into this projects, and they 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:59.560 proceeded with it anyway, and so now they're forced to 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:01.199 be in this aste where they gonna have to they're 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.320 gonna have to use whatever sort of are they uh, 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:10.199 violence or force or like extreme charges to shut it down. Yeah, 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:16.840 the Atlanta Police Department since has had a huge, like 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:21.319 the largest in the country by percentage, budgetary increase granted 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.360 by the city. And this was done after the most 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.600 amount of public comment there ever was in the history 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:31.840 of city council, which was all done to say, to 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.840 lower the police budget, to to defund the police as 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.960 it were, and to send put that money to other use. 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:40.640 And then the second most amount of public comment the 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:45.000 city Council has ever received was seventeen hours of public 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:49.199 comment were over sevent the respondents were saying to not 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:53.680 build cops city. They the Atlanta Police Foundation, the Atlanta 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.520 Police Department in the City of Atlanta, does not listen 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.480 to the popular will from below from the people that 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:03.320 they edge to represent. But all of this pressure, the 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:08.880 pressure to to charge non violent protesters with domestic terrorism 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.960 is coming from their corporate their corporate sponsors. It's coming 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.880 from BB and T, It's coming from BAC of America, A, 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:20.040 T and T, Equifax, the Arthur Blank, Arthur Blank, who 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.000 is the billionaire who runs home Depot. Uh, it's it's 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:25.480 coming from the people they actually represent, which is their 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:31.280 corporate backers. They're there seven months behind on this project. Uh, 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.720 grass Field and Gory, the company that is the general 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:40.520 contractor who also funds the APF. They're all certainly behind doors, 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.600 being like, what's going on. We're seven months behind on 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:47.000 this project. Why have we not broken ground yet? And 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.079 they're still being denied the land the land of sturbants 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.800 permits because there they can't get their own act together. 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:58.160 They can't prove that this would be an environmentally friendly 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.959 thing to do because it's simply escent. It's leveling over 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:06.600 acres of land of forested land. And instead they just 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.360 try to use brute force because that is what the 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.880 state knows how to do. They know to use brute force, 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.199 and then they want to put up trumped up charges 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:21.480 onto onto onto random people who they are trying to 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.640 tend the whole movement on when the movement is thousands 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:30.079 of people all over the city and all over the country. Yeah, 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.320 from like the from some of the recent some of 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:37.880 the recent hearings, and based on the based on the 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.679 DHS documents, they're they're really trying to do the thing 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:48.480 where they frame an autonomous, decentralized movement as a group, 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.200 and if you're part of a group, that means that 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.720 you're you know, involved in in, you know, the domestic 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:59.160 violent extremist group, which is just not how these types 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.280 of things work. It's same thing that the right has 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.520 been trying to label things like quote unquote Antifa as 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.080 for years. Some prosecutors and cities around the country have 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.600 tried to try to charge people with similar kind of 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:17.640 domestic terrorism or like gang violence charges due to their 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:22.040 involvement with the Antifa group. Um, And it's the same. 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:25.000 It's the same tactic here and trying to frame a 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.880 decentralized movement as like an organized group of people. And 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:34.040 it seems like one aspect for why this is happening 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:36.960 is like, like some of you have have mentioned, it's 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:39.719 it's in the form of like a deterrent. Right, They're 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.199 trying to scare people away, saying that if you associate 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.120 with this movement, we could we will charge you with terrorism. Right. 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:47.880 It's it's it's it's this, it's this thing to try 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.880 to push people away, UM, try to try to try 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.720 to prevent anyone else from from organizing in any capacity 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.280 or just showing up on like just just showing up 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:02.000 to the forest. It's it's it's pretty comical, but it's 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.800 also quite quite frightening and in some ways, which is 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:17.439 which is part of the intention, part of why I 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:21.320 wanted to talk with with both of you here today 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.600 is to kind of discuss the role of both the 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:30.440 Solidarity Fund and Anti Repression Organizing UM and just discussed 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.560 the role of that and in how they support like 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:37.520 activism movements and how they support UM land defense movements 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.440 like like like in the case of Defend the Atlanta Forest, 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.920 And yeah, what what what kind of what the role 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.640 of of this type of organizing is in AH, in 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.920 the context of this this type of activism. I guess, uh, 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.440 let's let's start with Let's start with the Solidarity Fund, 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.560 because that was you know, one of the things that 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.280 I saw in the aftermath of these charges in the 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.600 raid is a lot of calls to doing it, to 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.520 doing it, to the Solidarity Fund to help people out 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:11.240 who have been hit with these outrageous charges. So, uh, 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.760 I guess A Ralph, we talked a little bit about 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.599 some of some of you know, what what the Solidarity 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.480 Fund is and and uh and kind of how how 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:25.480 this how this type of organizing operates. Yeah, for sure. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.480 So the Atlanta Solidarity Fund formed just to have a 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:32.120 bit of context for the organization. We formed in two 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:37.040 thousand sixteen in the lead up to a um count 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:41.360 counter demonstration against uh some Ku Klux Klan members who 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:45.640 were trying to burn a cross on Stone Mountain in 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.080 two thousands sixteen. This was like after a sequence of 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:52.680 them having protests there after the Dylan Roof massacre, and 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.560 people organized a counter demo, and we thought it would 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:01.560 be intelligent to form a bail fund in case anyone 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.720 got arrested, because in the past bail funds in Atlanta 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.840 like refused to bail out anyone who they like deemed 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:12.800 as committing crimes that they deemed violent. Uh. And we 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.960 wanted to create a veil fund that does not discriminate 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:20.200 against activists based on what the state alleges that they 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:24.200 did or did not do. And we formed in that 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:27.920 and like after that, we would at different protests throughout 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:29.560 the years, we would buil people out. We would fund 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:31.880 raised to get them lawyers and we would support them 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:36.720 however we could, like organizing court vigils um and court support, 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:41.920 and then and also suing the police like countersuing them 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.320 for when they did like agree justus acts of police 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:53.000 brutality or intimidation. And then in with the George Floyd uprising, 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:57.240 we went from being a like small bail fund to 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.360 um getting widespread support. We got tens of thousands of 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:06.160 people donating money to us, and in Atlanta, over nine 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:11.640 people were arrested by the police that summer, and you know, 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:15.360 we supported all of them, all the ones who are 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:18.000 not giving signature bond. We bailed out all the ones 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:20.200 that were given signature bond, and all the other ones. 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.240 We got them lawyers and we have been supporting them 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.440 every step in the way. A few of them have 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:30.760 sadly gone to prison, and we support them financially while 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:34.360 they're in prison. Were like putting money on their promissary 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.160 every month, and we uh pay like help them out 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.440 with their phone calls, and we set aside money for 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:41.760 when they get out there. You won't just be in 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:46.200 destitute poverty, which is like what usually happens to people 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:52.080 who have to have sit in prison UM and in 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:55.760 the case of the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement, we've 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.920 supported it UM through anti repression by when people get arrested, 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:04.760 getting them lawyers, failing them out and UM when there's 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.719 been like door knocks or whatever from law enforcement agencies, 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.040 we have lawyers who will represent them as well, because 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.760 oftentimes those people aren't given charges, but they're being intimidated 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.359 by law enforcement, and when you get a lawyer in 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:25.560 between them, that intimidation normally stops. UH. And we also 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.000 do jail support for anyone who has to like when 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:29.560 they get in jail, they have a number that they 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.120 can call us and we can help get them out UM. 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.199 And for the six people who are currently charged with 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.280 domestic terrorism as at the time of this recording, they're 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.280 currently locked up and we are supporting them and we've 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.439 hired lawyers to advocate for them at their bail at 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:50.600 their next bail hearing UM and hopefully we will get 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.320 them out and they will not have to sit in 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:58.200 jail during their pre trial. We're a volunteer organization, like 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.199 none of us are paid to do this. UH. We 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.159 do this because we believe in UM the power of 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.879 like liberatory social movements and we want to support those 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:13.960 movements and give them strength. Yeah, because I would say, 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.280 I think I think a lot of you know, relatively 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.960 big cities around the state's how some form of jail 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:28.040 support organization, whether it be formal or informal um And 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.760 it's it's this type of organizing which happens kind of 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.520 on the periphery of a lot of these types of movements, right, 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:39.639 It's not it's it's not the it's not the like 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:43.840 excitement of throwing back a tear gas canister at a cop. 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:47.160 It's it's all of the things that happen afterwards that 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:53.440 can can assist people who are who are facing like 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:57.760 in some cases, very significant state state repression. And it's 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.199 definitely it's not it's not the most flashy work, but 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:05.679 it is, I would argue as pretty crucial to any 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:09.160 to any type of like functioning like system that allows 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.000 protests to happen as a part of democracy, is a 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:15.479 part of you know, long term revolutionary strategy, whatever kind 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:19.480 of whatever kind of ideology you have, These these types 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.840 of these types of like peripheral jail support and bails 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.840 fund organizings. It's definitely just as crucial as a lot 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.320 of a lot of like the on the ground support 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:31.720 stuff like you know, bringing water bottles or you know, 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:37.880 helping up people in the moment totally, Like every movement 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.840 needs a rear guard, Like it needs people like the 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:45.159 people who are out protesting and organizing there on the 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:47.320 front lines, and we're able to be the rear guard 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.880 or like when the state does attack, like we're able 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.960 to like not have them be completely taken out of 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.040 the field, Like they're able to get back and we're 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.840 able to support them and able to keep people safe 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.639 from like police repression and from what essentially amounts to 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:10.000 like legal kidnapping and like torture in the carceral state. Yeah, 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:14.280 and I mean in some cases, like in Portland, that's 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:20.639 it's very much was a legal kidnapping, something that people 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:24.400 are still are still dealing with on the on the 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.920 on like the jail support side and helping people out 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:31.840 with with you know, making sure that the state cannot 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:36.720 get away with stuff like this um because they the 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.000 thing they want the most is for nobody to push 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.200 back on it, because that means they have permission to 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:43.880 do it in the future without you know, without any 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:47.159 possible consequence or even even like even like any like 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:53.160 attempt at consequence. How could so I know like that Nope, 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.479 A lot a lot of cities have have jail support stuff. Um. 0:20:56.520 --> 0:21:00.040 A lot of this is also run on donations. What 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:04.400 are what are some ways that people could could assist 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:08.360 in these types of things? Um? Obviously people can donate 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:12.880 to bail funds um. And I think there's a lot 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:17.520 of I mean, even even just showing up outside of 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:21.240 jail or prison after these types of events is something 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:23.800 that that happens a lot in terms of in terms 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.919 of ways to kind of start getting plugged in in 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:30.800 this in this type of like peripheral bail fund and 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:35.200 jail support organizing totally. Yeah, I mean people should should 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.720 donate to their local bail funds uh and even become 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.680 like reoccurring donators. But people can like join jail support teams. 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:45.720 There's like we in Atlanta, we have a training and 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:47.680 it can get you trained on how to be a 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:50.760 jail support person. And yeah, we have like once you're 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:54.399 plugged in, you can like do jail and jail vigil 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.840 like for when people get out so that they're not alone. 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.399 Jails are often not always, but often like in like 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:03.480 remote areas of the city or even outside of the city, 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:05.560 so like it can be hard to like get get 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:07.840 a bus back, so you can offer them rides back. 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:10.560 You can get plugged into do in court support and 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:14.520 like currently the six people charge of domestic terrorism are 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.239 like being denied bail. Hopefully that will change. But in 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:20.960 the case of like people being held, Uh, you can 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.160 write post cards or letters to people and let them 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:26.639 know that there are people on the outside who support them. 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.360 If you're in an area that like doesn't have that 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:34.080 doesn't have a group that um helps people out who 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:36.520 are like who are having to sit in jail, Like 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:40.040 you can put money on their commissary uh directly, and 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:43.520 you can write to them, and you can send them books. Uh. 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:46.159 And in the sense of like people showing up pretty 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:50.080 immediately outside of the jail, Like it is really inspiring. Uh. 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:54.720 What happened the day Uh in the evening after the 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:58.440 six after the first five people were arrested. Uh that 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:01.920 that evening, like a crowd of dozens of people showed 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:04.560 up outside of the Cab County jail and had a 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:07.639 noise demo to like make noise outside of the jail 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:09.920 to let the five know that they were not alone 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:13.040 and that there's people outside who support them. Now, I 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:17.520 think we will shift the conversation over to James. James, 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:21.680 you're with the Atlanta Anti Repression Committee. We've already talked 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:25.080 about the role of these ridiculous charges as a repression method. 0:23:25.680 --> 0:23:29.520 Could you briefly explain what the Atlanta Anti Repression Committee 0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:33.240 is and its role in the periphery of these on 0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:38.879 the ground decentralized movements. Yeah. Sure, So the Atlanta Antire 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:42.040 Repression Committee is a group that started in in the 0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:46.320 aftermath at the George Floyd protests, and we started because 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:50.560 we recognized that there was a need for a kind 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:55.240 of specific type of uh antire repression work to be done, 0:23:55.280 --> 0:23:57.720 which is to say that there's a lot of um, 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:00.080 you know, it's like the bulk of anti repression, and 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:03.119 you know that the single most important thing is keeping 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:06.119 people safe, right, and so what that entails is a 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:09.480 lot of legal defense for people that are arrested, people 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:11.840 that are incarcery, to people that are imprisoned as a 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:16.040 result of their activity and protest movements and social movements, um, 0:24:16.200 --> 0:24:22.640 fighting for you know, liberation. That said, um, there's also 0:24:22.680 --> 0:24:24.360 a whole a whole other type of work that needs 0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:26.439 to be done, which is the sort of what we 0:24:26.480 --> 0:24:30.560 like to call political defense. So in other words, we 0:24:30.600 --> 0:24:32.840 want to see these movements continue, we want to see 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:35.360 these movements grow, and we want to see these movements 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:38.639 be the powerful. And a part of that is understanding 0:24:38.640 --> 0:24:42.440 the specific mechanisms of repression and fighting back against the 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:45.639 narratives that are being used against protesters in the media. 0:24:46.119 --> 0:24:48.760 So a lot of what we do is media work, um, 0:24:48.800 --> 0:24:50.320 because there's a lot of things that you know, once 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:53.159 you're once you're arrested as a part of a protest movement, 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:56.320 there's a lot of things you can't say, um, But 0:24:56.359 --> 0:24:58.800