1 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:25,600 Speaker 1: The few days leading up to Saturday, January twenty first 2 00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:30,400 Speaker 1: felt like the calm before the storm. Nobody knew exactly 3 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:32,479 Speaker 1: what was going to happen at the weekend protest in 4 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:36,960 Speaker 1: downtown Atlanta, but there was a sense that something would. 5 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:41,280 Speaker 1: Shortly after the Wednesday shooting, a flyer went out calling 6 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:45,520 Speaker 1: for a gathering at Underground Atlanta on Saturday, January twenty first, 7 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:50,159 Speaker 1: and to wear black clothes in morning. This is it 8 00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis, and I arrived at 9 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:58,520 Speaker 1: Underground Atlanta just a bit before five pm. The crowd 10 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:01,600 Speaker 1: was still slowly grown, and a bunch of big news 11 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:05,560 Speaker 1: cameras were filling up the central area. As more people 12 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:08,440 Speaker 1: filtered in, some who knew Tort went up in front 13 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 1: of everyone to share memories of Torti Ghita and talk 14 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:14,120 Speaker 1: about the continuing fight to defend the forest. 15 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,120 Speaker 2: Obviously, we're all here because Tort was an amazing person 16 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:21,920 Speaker 2: and their life meant a lot. But Tort also shared 17 00:01:21,959 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 2: something in common with all of us, and that was 18 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:27,440 Speaker 2: the values and things that they were fighting for, and 19 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:29,320 Speaker 2: all of us are fighting for a great content. We 20 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:32,039 Speaker 2: all have it in common, but it makes us all targets. 21 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:35,840 Speaker 2: They will always target us because they don't believe in 22 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 2: the things that we believe in, and they will always 23 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:41,400 Speaker 2: be after us. And we all have to stand here 24 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:44,679 Speaker 2: and stay together and stay resilient, to fight for what 25 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 2: we believe in, and never let Towort's memory go without honor. 26 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 3: If they would kill an innocent person like Torque, someone 27 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 3: who loved their community, they will stop to kill us. 28 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:04,280 Speaker 3: They won't stop to kill everyone in that forest. They 29 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:07,800 Speaker 3: won't stop to kill anyone who defies them. And that 30 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:16,040 Speaker 3: is pretty much all I had to say. 31 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 1: A few people from the Atlanta Resistance Medics, a local 32 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:22,640 Speaker 1: street medical group dedicated to the liberation of medicine and 33 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:27,160 Speaker 1: providing medical resources for underprivileged and marginalized people, spoke about 34 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: Torti Ghita, who was a member of their collective. 35 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 4: If there's one thing that we want people to remember 36 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:36,160 Speaker 4: Tourt for, it's if they were somebody who protected the 37 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:39,959 Speaker 4: people around them, who went through the training along with 38 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 4: the rest of us, to be able to provide medical 39 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:45,520 Speaker 4: resources to the people that were around them. They may 40 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:48,920 Speaker 4: not have access to those no matter what else the 41 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:53,520 Speaker 4: news says about tort they were a protector. Everything they 42 00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:58,680 Speaker 4: did was out of love. Everything they did was out 43 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 4: of hope for a better world. And I don't care 44 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 4: what the police say. I don't care what the media says. 45 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:08,320 Speaker 4: I don't care what anybody says. Torpe was out here 46 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:11,520 Speaker 4: working for a better world. They may want to smear 47 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:14,720 Speaker 4: them as an extremist, they were not. They were out 48 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,519 Speaker 4: here protecting their fellow people. And that's what we want 49 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,160 Speaker 4: everybody to remember about them. Just say they were out 50 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:22,960 Speaker 4: here trying to build a better world, no matter what 51 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 4: anybody else says. 52 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:34,800 Speaker 5: All right, I'd love y'all to repeat after me, Art Doug. 53 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 5: La lu Ja siege, La lu Ja Siege is a 54 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:56,600 Speaker 5: medic in our collective. They were a forest defender. They 55 00:03:56,600 --> 00:04:03,080 Speaker 5: were a friend, They were funny kind Sarta Vida was 56 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 5: constantly thinking of others. They were constantly trying to protect 57 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:12,360 Speaker 5: other people, trying to protect the forest, trying to protect 58 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 5: everyone who was marginalized. They centered voices on them who 59 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 5: are on the margins and brought them into the center. 60 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:25,920 Speaker 5: They recognized that our struggles are interconnected. They recognized that 61 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:31,239 Speaker 5: cop City will never be built. They died defending that forest. 62 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:36,640 Speaker 5: The memory Oftito that I keep returning to is after 63 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:41,800 Speaker 5: the police destroyed the gazebo at Leilani People's Park in 64 00:04:41,839 --> 00:04:46,760 Speaker 5: the parking lot. They were at a meeting and they said, yeah, 65 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 5: so the cops think they can destroy our morale, they can't. Yeah. 66 00:04:56,520 --> 00:05:00,120 Speaker 5: Tartuita was one of the most resilient, strongest people. Well 67 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:06,480 Speaker 5: I know, they hugged everyone. They were so kind and 68 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 5: so giving, and even as the state tries to assassinate 69 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 5: their character in addition to their body, they were a 70 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:20,760 Speaker 5: freedom fighter. They were a person that I am honored 71 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:23,040 Speaker 5: to have known that I am honored to have called 72 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:23,560 Speaker 5: a friend. 73 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:29,080 Speaker 1: About four hundred people eventually gathered around Underground Atlanta. It 74 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:31,799 Speaker 1: seemed like slightly more people than we're at the vigil 75 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:32,800 Speaker 1: the previous night. 76 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:37,280 Speaker 6: Everything in modern life serves to atomize you, to make 77 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:40,440 Speaker 6: you feel like you were an individual, divorce from any 78 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 6: sense of collective identity, divorced from any sense that you 79 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:46,599 Speaker 6: have a purpose and that there is good in the world. 80 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:49,359 Speaker 6: The fact that you're here means that you're fighting against that. 81 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:53,599 Speaker 6: Don't let go of that. That is powerful. And that's 82 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:55,920 Speaker 6: why cop City isn't going to be built, is because 83 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,440 Speaker 6: we have love for ourselves and for the people around us. 84 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,120 Speaker 7: All right, So I'm sure all of you are fairly 85 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:06,960 Speaker 7: upset about this. I am Tort was a friend of mine. 86 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:12,799 Speaker 7: They were a friend of the community. Their death, their 87 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:15,000 Speaker 7: death will not be in. 88 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:20,520 Speaker 8: Vain, fucking top city fuck at all. 89 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:24,000 Speaker 1: By five point thirty, about half the crowd gathered at 90 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:27,480 Speaker 1: Underground Atlanta were in Black Bloc and the rest were 91 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:31,640 Speaker 1: a variety of activists, organizers, and random people who decided 92 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 1: that it was important to be at this event. After 93 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:39,080 Speaker 1: some speeches, chants, and stories of Tort, the gathering of 94 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 1: people turned into a march and took to the streets. 95 00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:49,360 Speaker 1: March is starting just left Underground Atlanta. Around three hundred 96 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:54,919 Speaker 1: people maybe maybe more, are marching down the street. There's 97 00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:00,120 Speaker 1: mix of people in block. There's medics here, people it's 98 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: kind of in regular clothes, holding signs. There's a banner 99 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:07,400 Speaker 1: in the front that reads they can't kill us All. 100 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:21,440 Speaker 1: Firework banner at the front that says trees give life, 101 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:27,720 Speaker 1: police take it. After just a minute of marching down 102 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:31,960 Speaker 1: one street, the crowd suddenly stopped. Looks like the marshes 103 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:34,840 Speaker 1: turning around going to the other side. 104 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 5: Stop stop doges. 105 00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:39,880 Speaker 9: Some more small. 106 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:45,760 Speaker 1: Fireworks betting launched in the sky. Banners getting moved to 107 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:51,440 Speaker 1: the front. It looks like the mark is now heading 108 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:57,920 Speaker 1: north into downtown. Organizers from the Party for Socialism and 109 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:01,600 Speaker 1: Liberation attempted to take control of the march and lead 110 00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:04,480 Speaker 1: the group south in the direction of the State Capitol 111 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: Building or possibly looping around to the CNN Center, but 112 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: autonomous activists in the crowd turned the march around and 113 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:16,160 Speaker 1: the group four hundred strong headed north. It sounds like 114 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:21,440 Speaker 1: the PSL people who were gathered at the underground tried 115 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,000 Speaker 1: tried to lead the march in one direction and everyone 116 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:26,320 Speaker 1: was like, no, we don't want to go that way. 117 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:29,960 Speaker 1: The ps AND people are gonna lead everyone into like 118 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:34,760 Speaker 1: the Federal Building section of downtown going south, and very 119 00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:37,560 Speaker 1: quickly they turned around. Well, other other people turned around. 120 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:53,160 Speaker 1: It was like, no, we're not going that way. They're 121 00:08:53,200 --> 00:09:00,480 Speaker 1: taking a ride down Peachtree heading heading north into down town. 122 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 1: Right beside the Coca Cola sign on Marietta. The march 123 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:11,680 Speaker 1: entered the Commercial District, a section of the city completely 124 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:15,439 Speaker 1: gutted out by years of the Atlanta Way neoliberal policies 125 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:18,199 Speaker 1: that we talked about in the Defend the Forest episodes 126 00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:22,080 Speaker 1: from last May. The area is populated almost exclusively by 127 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:26,240 Speaker 1: business people, university students, and unhoused citizens, and was a 128 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:30,960 Speaker 1: common sight for Atlanta's twenty twenty BLM protests. Now that 129 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: the march is moving, it's easier to see everyone. 130 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:36,920 Speaker 9: In black, all of all, all the people in bloc. 131 00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:43,280 Speaker 9: It's looking more just like a. 132 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:48,400 Speaker 1: Large, large, massive people in bloc now have not seen 133 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:51,440 Speaker 1: much police presence downtown yet because that's just a few 134 00:09:51,679 --> 00:09:52,640 Speaker 1: few patrol cars. 135 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:55,520 Speaker 9: It's really unclear. 136 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:58,640 Speaker 1: How Atlanta Police argus is going to respond to this. 137 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:04,120 Speaker 1: Got some flares, a lot more of those smoke fireworks 138 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: or smoke grenade things. It's not a grain, it's like. 139 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 9: A cardboard tube shooting smoke out. 140 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:16,720 Speaker 1: The block continued to travel north Road. Flares and fireworks 141 00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:20,400 Speaker 1: lit the path in the darkening evening. Graffiti quickly sprung 142 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:24,200 Speaker 1: up on walls with phrases like rip little turtle and 143 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:28,400 Speaker 1: stop cop city the march. The march is now approaching 144 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:35,000 Speaker 1: an Atlanta police vehicle who's trying to back up the 145 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:37,679 Speaker 1: cop does not one of the cop cop car is right 146 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:39,120 Speaker 1: in the middle of where the march is gonna go. 147 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:43,120 Speaker 1: They're like less than one hundred feet away, Just one 148 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:45,000 Speaker 1: single cop car that happens to be in the path 149 00:10:45,559 --> 00:10:47,319 Speaker 1: they are. They are trying to back out of the street. 150 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:52,840 Speaker 1: The march has the trees give life, Please take it banner. 151 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:58,080 Speaker 1: There's a big cardboard cutout of a tree right behind it. 152 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:09,880 Speaker 1: Police have their lights turned on. Now looks like the 153 00:11:09,880 --> 00:11:15,640 Speaker 1: cop cars turning around. Yeah, and the cop car is 154 00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:27,920 Speaker 1: leaving rather quickly. The sun was just starting to set 155 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 1: as the block arrived at the main goal of the night, 156 00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:34,640 Speaker 1: the Atlanta Police Foundation Headquarters at one nine to one 157 00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:35,840 Speaker 1: Peachtree Street. 158 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:37,719 Speaker 9: They've stopped in front of. 159 00:11:39,559 --> 00:11:42,319 Speaker 1: Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. 160 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:48,720 Speaker 9: People are thrown throwing stuff at the windows and doors. 161 00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 1: Broken windows at the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. 162 00:11:55,600 --> 00:12:00,079 Speaker 9: The people funding cop City firework thrown. 163 00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: Umbrellas moved in to block local news cameras as windows shattered. 164 00:12:14,679 --> 00:12:17,480 Speaker 1: Rocks emerged from backpacks and smashed into the front of 165 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: the building. Hammers met the glass entrance as fireworks lit 166 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:26,760 Speaker 1: up the scene. Another fire, another firework at the a 167 00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:32,080 Speaker 1: lot of Police Foundation. The march is tightening up a 168 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:37,160 Speaker 1: decent bit. March is definitely tightening up. A lot of 169 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:41,960 Speaker 1: people just in block now. Shouts of bee water kept 170 00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:46,280 Speaker 1: the mass moving forward as bank windows received a similar 171 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:55,360 Speaker 1: pelting of rocks and hammers, people chanting to move like water. 172 00:12:55,760 --> 00:12:57,560 Speaker 1: I feel a lot of police cars right beside the march. 173 00:12:57,880 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 1: I'm guessing they're going to pull in in front of 174 00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:05,000 Speaker 1: pull in behind the march. Two police cars right there. 175 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:12,120 Speaker 1: People hitting Chase Bank. Another stuff being dragged into the 176 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:17,319 Speaker 1: street for like a top two barricade. Chase Bank's head 177 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:21,280 Speaker 1: of Regional Investment Banking, John Richard, serves on the board 178 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:25,199 Speaker 1: of the Atlanta Police Foundation. Police officers exited the two 179 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:28,160 Speaker 1: cop cars that were trailing the march and quickly ran 180 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:32,160 Speaker 1: away from the crowd, leaving their vehicles abandoned. Corker's trying 181 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:34,840 Speaker 1: to keep track of where the police are in relation 182 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 1: to the march. Looks I got some cars pulling up 183 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:47,680 Speaker 1: behind the police car pulled up behind the march. Scott 184 00:13:47,679 --> 00:13:49,400 Speaker 1: their windows broken, fireworks. 185 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:57,199 Speaker 9: From under another firework. 186 00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:01,880 Speaker 1: Another Atlanta Please vehicle had their windows smashed. 187 00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:02,480 Speaker 9: So there's two. 188 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:06,120 Speaker 1: The two that was behind the march, the two Atlanta 189 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:07,839 Speaker 1: Police officer cars that were behind the march. 190 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:09,120 Speaker 9: This got hit. 191 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:13,720 Speaker 1: Wells Fargo, one of the main cop city funders, received 192 00:14:13,880 --> 00:14:17,440 Speaker 1: special love and attention from the block. The Atlanta Area 193 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:21,760 Speaker 1: president for Wells Fargo. Mitch Grahl is also on the 194 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:25,600 Speaker 1: board of trustees for the Atlanta Police Foundation. A few 195 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:31,320 Speaker 1: other banks hit around this area. Wells Fargo one of 196 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:33,480 Speaker 1: the contributors to the Atlanta Police Foundations, one of their 197 00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:38,440 Speaker 1: big funders and backers. A lot of the media here 198 00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:43,200 Speaker 1: very very thirsty to get to get stuff of, you know, 199 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,720 Speaker 1: put into people breaking windows and shit. It was kind 200 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:49,560 Speaker 1: of surprising that the crowd made it this far without 201 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:55,560 Speaker 1: any real police response. Time almost stretches during these brief 202 00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:59,920 Speaker 1: moments of uprising. About seven minutes after the first window shattered, 203 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: Atlanta police finally arrived and made their move. 204 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:07,400 Speaker 9: Police are in front of in front of the march. 205 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:13,480 Speaker 1: Now please in front of the rough march. People might 206 00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:16,960 Speaker 1: be turning around. They want to do a full like 207 00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:17,720 Speaker 1: water type thing. 208 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:19,720 Speaker 9: Yeah. 209 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:23,320 Speaker 1: Multiple cop cars are approaching the march from the front. 210 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:30,720 Speaker 1: Unclear what the crowd is gonna do. Well, Atlanta p 211 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:32,520 Speaker 1: D is now now approaching the march. 212 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:37,040 Speaker 9: They're getting closer. 213 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:48,880 Speaker 1: They're going after one of the banners, dragging somebody down, 214 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 1: pulling someone to the ground. They're chasing people. One person's 215 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:02,840 Speaker 1: being arrested. M march is splitting in two different directions. 216 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:07,560 Speaker 1: Officers started randomly tackling and arresting anyone they could get 217 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: their hands on. More police arrived from the south and 218 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:12,720 Speaker 1: chased it down a small section of the march that 219 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:18,240 Speaker 1: branched off. Atlanta police coming from behind as well, so 220 00:16:18,280 --> 00:16:21,280 Speaker 1: they got Alanta police from both sides. Not many officers though, 221 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:26,479 Speaker 1: just a few officers. Looks like the majority of the march. 222 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:40,000 Speaker 10: With out street direcree chan movie dispersed, disperse, get, disburse. 223 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:50,120 Speaker 1: Please getting more aggressive, pushing a lot of people. Footage 224 00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:52,680 Speaker 1: and audio of these violent arrests were shared by the 225 00:16:52,760 --> 00:17:11,240 Speaker 1: Defend the Forest account, Unicorn Riot and myself your numbers. 226 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:27,240 Speaker 4: Here. 227 00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:31,200 Speaker 9: I hear screams coming from multiple directions. Large. 228 00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:36,160 Speaker 1: Looks like the march kind of split in two. 229 00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:41,120 Speaker 9: I've seen a lot of arrests. 230 00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:45,600 Speaker 1: The individuals targeted likely committed no crime other than being 231 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:48,560 Speaker 1: in the wrong place at the wrong time. The majority 232 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:52,480 Speaker 1: of the march split away and in a different direction 233 00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:54,960 Speaker 1: from the cops. So I stated where the cops were 234 00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:58,440 Speaker 1: most of the march. I was able to get away 235 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:00,760 Speaker 1: by going through two differ direction. 236 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:02,760 Speaker 9: We have. 237 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:09,280 Speaker 1: It looks like and Atlanta PD vehicle is on fire. 238 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 1: Atlanta PD vehicle burning in the street, burning cop car. 239 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:25,760 Speaker 9: Police with AR style AR style rifles. 240 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:28,960 Speaker 1: So I feel like most of the march had had 241 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:32,119 Speaker 1: hitded on that way I saw over there. It seems 242 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:36,160 Speaker 1: one of the cop cars that got smashed also spontaneously 243 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:39,720 Speaker 1: lit on fire. When the police first confronted the march, 244 00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 1: most of the block was able to peel off and 245 00:18:42,119 --> 00:18:46,679 Speaker 1: disappear into the night. Affinity groups reconnected, block was shed 246 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:50,360 Speaker 1: and protesters evacuated out of downtown as the police flooded 247 00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:53,560 Speaker 1: the mile long stretch of Peachtree Street that the crowd 248 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 1: marched on. After a fire truck put out the burning 249 00:18:56,760 --> 00:18:59,520 Speaker 1: cop car, police taped off the area, and as they 250 00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:02,359 Speaker 1: were pushing people out, I recorded an officer saying this 251 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:03,680 Speaker 1: amazing line. 252 00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:06,520 Speaker 9: The whole than fireworks, is my bomb going off? 253 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:14,600 Speaker 1: Bombs or discount New Year's Eve fireworks? You choose all. 254 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,400 Speaker 1: In all, the actions that night only took about an hour, 255 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:41,760 Speaker 1: and crews made it home in time for dinner. Six 256 00:19:41,800 --> 00:19:45,640 Speaker 1: people were arrested at the protest Saturday night. Five were 257 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,919 Speaker 1: tackled and pinned down as the crowd initially scattered, and 258 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,640 Speaker 1: one other person was chased by a cop car. Sam 259 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:55,720 Speaker 1: from the Atlanta Community Press Collective has more on that. 260 00:19:56,320 --> 00:20:01,760 Speaker 11: A protester who was subsequently arrested was witnesses state they 261 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:06,199 Speaker 11: were uh basically followed through the streets by an Atlanta 262 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:11,399 Speaker 11: police vehicle before witnesses say that they were hit by 263 00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:14,720 Speaker 11: the same vehicle and they were then taken to jail. So, 264 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:18,440 Speaker 11: you know, corn RYE released that video and we were 265 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:22,480 Speaker 11: able to speak with the few witnesses because, as I'm 266 00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:26,000 Speaker 11: sure everyone saw on social beautia this weekend, the arrests 267 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:29,440 Speaker 11: were a familiar brutal, familiar brutal site. 268 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:32,760 Speaker 1: Before we continue, I do want to play two short 269 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:36,760 Speaker 1: clips that were circulating the night of the protest. First 270 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:40,119 Speaker 1: is police at scanner audio of the cop whose car 271 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,080 Speaker 1: spontaneously combusted. 272 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:45,600 Speaker 10: You want a car, you know, yeah, I will these protests. 273 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:47,399 Speaker 12: They bloom a damn car and I ain't able to 274 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:52,160 Speaker 12: go getting uneat only you know as what you did. 275 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:56,119 Speaker 1: This next one is from live news coverage of the march, 276 00:20:56,520 --> 00:21:01,720 Speaker 1: and this clip became an instant meme, so. 277 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:03,040 Speaker 9: They're now saying GBI suck. 278 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:06,160 Speaker 4: GBI is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation. 279 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:09,119 Speaker 1: Mayor Andre Dickens and the chief of Police gave a 280 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:12,040 Speaker 1: press conference hours later, which gave us a look at 281 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:13,960 Speaker 1: how the state was going to try and frame the 282 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:16,560 Speaker 1: protest and acts of targeted vandalism. 283 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:20,040 Speaker 13: My message is simple to those who seek to continue 284 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:22,879 Speaker 13: this type of criminal behavior, We will find you, and 285 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:26,200 Speaker 13: we will arrest you, and you will be held accountable. 286 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:29,720 Speaker 13: We have arrested several of them this evening, and Chief 287 00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:32,520 Speaker 13: surebamb will give you the details on that. And some 288 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:36,440 Speaker 13: of them were found with explosives on them. You heard 289 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:40,320 Speaker 13: that correctly, explosives, and that has led to a police 290 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,399 Speaker 13: officer's car being set on fire. 291 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:46,400 Speaker 1: During the press conference, the Chief of Police clarified that 292 00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:49,800 Speaker 1: no law enforcement officers were injured as a result of 293 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:54,040 Speaker 1: the protest, and neither were any bodystanders, which means the 294 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:57,560 Speaker 1: only violence against people was done by the cops who 295 00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:00,640 Speaker 1: randomly tackled any protester that they could chase down. 296 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:03,480 Speaker 14: And so it doesn't take a rocket scientist or an 297 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:05,720 Speaker 14: attorney to tell you that breaking windows and. 298 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:06,959 Speaker 15: Setting fires not protest. 299 00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:09,760 Speaker 14: That is terrorism, and that they will be charged accordingly, 300 00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:11,879 Speaker 14: and they will find that this police department in the 301 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,280 Speaker 14: partnership is equally committed to stop that activity. We already 302 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,000 Speaker 14: have prosecutors in the room as we speak, and we're 303 00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:19,840 Speaker 14: reviewing everything and we have a lot of evidence to 304 00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,560 Speaker 14: still go through. So even charges you see tonight, those 305 00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:25,440 Speaker 14: can easily be upgraded, and they will be upgraded if appropriate. 306 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,160 Speaker 1: I brought up the police chief's comments to a few 307 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:31,520 Speaker 1: of the forest offenders that I spoke with after the 308 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:43,920 Speaker 1: protest on Saturday in downtown. Police chief schneierbamb it's hard, I've. 309 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:43,399 Speaker 9: Read it before. 310 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:48,479 Speaker 1: On Yeah, anyway, they alanted police chiefs said that breaking 311 00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:55,080 Speaker 1: windows and setting fires is terrorism. I'm curious to get 312 00:22:55,119 --> 00:22:56,400 Speaker 1: everyone's thoughts on that. 313 00:22:56,920 --> 00:23:01,760 Speaker 12: Sure, I think the Least and Andre Dickens are doing 314 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 12: what a lot of city governments have done, especially during 315 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:08,760 Speaker 12: twenty twenty, which was like do things like call property 316 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:13,399 Speaker 12: destruction terrorism, which like it's not and you can call 317 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:13,960 Speaker 12: it whatever you want. 318 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:17,160 Speaker 16: You can call it like property destruction and call it terrorism. 319 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:17,360 Speaker 15: Is a very like. 320 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:20,640 Speaker 12: Specific political strategy that exists. I think the right wing 321 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:22,320 Speaker 12: does it a lot. 322 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:24,560 Speaker 15: And it would be worth calling that, like, you. 323 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:28,359 Speaker 12: Know, because Defend the Forest doesn't have a BodyCount. The 324 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:31,440 Speaker 12: police have only murdered an activist for defend the Forest, 325 00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:34,720 Speaker 12: whereas Defend the Forest has not strucken out violently against 326 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:37,400 Speaker 12: anybody except in defense against the police. 327 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:39,560 Speaker 15: You cannot do. 328 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:43,040 Speaker 16: Violence to property. You cannot be violent towards a police car. 329 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:46,439 Speaker 12: It's the same way that Andre Dickens is now getting 330 00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:48,400 Speaker 12: on TV and claiming. 331 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 15: That like fire calling fireworks explosives. 332 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:54,760 Speaker 12: It's like, yes, there are objects that explode, but this 333 00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 12: is very clearly being done in bad fith because it 334 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:01,920 Speaker 12: is it is it justifies. This is the same way 335 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,760 Speaker 12: like the DoD and the FBI, you. 336 00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:06,800 Speaker 16: Call something terrorism, the money just pours on. 337 00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:10,199 Speaker 12: You get funding, you get justification to do things like that, 338 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:14,560 Speaker 12: and you can arrest people and charge them with domestic terrorism. 339 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,800 Speaker 12: That makes continuing and movement incredibly hard. That's a really 340 00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:24,200 Speaker 12: dangerous implication that any act in dissidence to the state 341 00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:26,760 Speaker 12: could be called domestic terrorism. Should really scare of the 342 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:30,440 Speaker 12: ship and everybody just here bit around the control and 343 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:34,240 Speaker 12: should not be allowed to stand and should be competed against. 344 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:35,200 Speaker 12: Some of reform. 345 00:24:35,720 --> 00:24:38,719 Speaker 1: I talked with Peter about how if the police are 346 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:43,960 Speaker 1: viewing vandalism or destruction of inanimate objects as domestic terrorism, 347 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,720 Speaker 1: if breaking a window is terrorism, that makes the question 348 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:49,840 Speaker 1: what exactly is destroying a forest? 349 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:53,840 Speaker 8: That juxtaposition of what the police consider violence, and like, 350 00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,880 Speaker 8: what sort of like destruction of objects is violence? 351 00:24:58,480 --> 00:24:58,720 Speaker 12: To me? 352 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:03,280 Speaker 8: This demonstrates what they see like as valuable. And also 353 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:07,159 Speaker 8: this demonstrates the police state and the corporation's inability to 354 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,600 Speaker 8: understand the aliveness of all things and how sacred the 355 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:15,400 Speaker 8: earth is. It shows that what they consider sacred, what 356 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,400 Speaker 8: they hold as sacred is property, and specifically their property. 357 00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:23,720 Speaker 8: I think they fear the woods in part because it 358 00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:28,120 Speaker 8: moves in ways that they can't comprehend. It moves in 359 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:29,440 Speaker 8: nonlinear ways. 360 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:33,800 Speaker 1: Cricket also had something to say on this topic, well. 361 00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:36,600 Speaker 17: And what is destroying a forest? What is destroying a person? 362 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:39,040 Speaker 17: They're more upset about the destruction of property than the 363 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:41,320 Speaker 17: destruction of a person, a whole human being who is 364 00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:44,439 Speaker 17: twenty six years old. They were young, they just started. 365 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:46,359 Speaker 17: And that does not seem to measure up against some 366 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,360 Speaker 17: glass panes. That doesn't seem to register. And what about 367 00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:51,440 Speaker 17: the terror they inspire in the forest? What about the 368 00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,440 Speaker 17: I mean, obviously that these rhetorical questions when I'm preaching 369 00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:58,280 Speaker 17: to the choir, but I mean, god, no, it's it's 370 00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:01,600 Speaker 17: just infuriating. There's no how long for the day When 371 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:04,239 Speaker 17: the line is not drawn at well, you can do 372 00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:06,120 Speaker 17: anything except touch private property. 373 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,600 Speaker 1: Noah mentioned the juxtaposition of broken windows being terrorism, but 374 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:16,400 Speaker 1: violent actions that actually hurt people seemingly not mattering nearly 375 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,200 Speaker 1: as much at least compared to a cracked window. 376 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:21,800 Speaker 12: Right, So it's a clear double standard in the same 377 00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:25,199 Speaker 12: way that like, you know, during twenty twenty, people setting 378 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:30,480 Speaker 12: farm to police precincts was insurrection and an anarchy and 379 00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:32,840 Speaker 12: on these things, But when the National Guard would shoot 380 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:38,800 Speaker 12: people it was a tragic air, I justified shooting. When 381 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,040 Speaker 12: when vigilantes would drive cars in the crowds and you 382 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:45,520 Speaker 12: know they can and play them for pit bombs protests, 383 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,800 Speaker 12: it does not get treated with the same levity because 384 00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:53,160 Speaker 12: the powers that be can never, will, never will obviously 385 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:55,680 Speaker 12: never hold themselves the same standards that they will. 386 00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 15: Call us as their enemies, the meaning. 387 00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:00,800 Speaker 16: Of words that matter to them. 388 00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:03,080 Speaker 12: What matters is being able to get good sound bites 389 00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:08,240 Speaker 12: to put on like Antifa actionship and make themselves because 390 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:11,720 Speaker 12: the city's decided that they can't back down from the 391 00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:15,399 Speaker 12: procrap people that they're not willing to like backdown on 392 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:16,240 Speaker 12: that find. 393 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:17,920 Speaker 15: That this is where they're going to stake their flag 394 00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:18,840 Speaker 15: and try and hold it out. 395 00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,440 Speaker 1: From the start of the movement, the police have aggressively 396 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:27,399 Speaker 1: arrested and persecuted protesters associated with the struggle to stop 397 00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,439 Speaker 1: cop City, starting all the way back with the first 398 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:34,680 Speaker 1: arrest of eleven peaceful protesters snatched off the sidewalk during 399 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:38,840 Speaker 1: the city council's vote to approve cop City. As corporations 400 00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,760 Speaker 1: and the state moved to push cop Citi's development forward 401 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:46,399 Speaker 1: despite all public opposition. Repression has increased dramatically over the 402 00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:50,399 Speaker 1: last few months. Since December, everyone arrested in connection with 403 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:54,960 Speaker 1: the movement against cop City has been charged with domestic terrorism. 404 00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:58,919 Speaker 11: It's not a huge surprise in terms like terrorism and 405 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,720 Speaker 11: eco terrorism have been coming up, I mean in private 406 00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:07,479 Speaker 11: conversations probably since the beginning, but we can trace it 407 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:12,320 Speaker 11: back to at least last summer, when and some emailed 408 00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:16,160 Speaker 11: emails we've obtained throughout open records requests where a city 409 00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:18,320 Speaker 11: council member and the Police Foundation were just kind of 410 00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:23,240 Speaker 11: pejoratively throwing around the term terrorists in response to I 411 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,199 Speaker 11: think it was graffiti or something like, I hope they 412 00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:30,880 Speaker 11: catch these terrorists soon. The terrorists who graffiti to building. 413 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:34,479 Speaker 11: It has also shown up in a couple different public 414 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,560 Speaker 11: meetings that are about the training center. 415 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:38,240 Speaker 4: You know. 416 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 11: Committee members who are pro Public Safety Training Center, anti 417 00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:46,840 Speaker 11: anyone being opposed to it have also used the term 418 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:47,960 Speaker 11: eco terrorism. 419 00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:52,080 Speaker 1: The dangerous escalation of protest to suppression is not limited 420 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:55,200 Speaker 1: to people engaging in pasive, resistance or direct action. 421 00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:58,840 Speaker 11: Some of our open records requests have even shown that 422 00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:04,160 Speaker 11: since sincest fall for several months now, anyone who participates 423 00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:06,440 Speaker 11: in like a write in or a call in campaign. 424 00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:11,040 Speaker 11: Sometimes those very simple emails of hey, I don't think 425 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:14,440 Speaker 11: your company should be participating in this project will get 426 00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:18,480 Speaker 11: forwarded up to the chief of police. You know, people's names, emails, 427 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:25,000 Speaker 11: just very very simple call in campaign type stuff. The 428 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,600 Speaker 11: most monoculous stuff gets forwarded as part of you know, 429 00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:29,440 Speaker 11: security alert. 430 00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:34,960 Speaker 1: This is the anti democratic chilling effect in action. Politicians 431 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:37,480 Speaker 1: and police are trying to create a political climate where 432 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:41,320 Speaker 1: people are too scared to exercise their right to protest, organize, 433 00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:46,000 Speaker 1: and take action. Georgia's Republican governor Brian Kemp has bolstered 434 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:49,760 Speaker 1: this alarming escalation of violence and repression against political speech 435 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:53,880 Speaker 1: by blaming out of state rioters and a quote network 436 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:57,280 Speaker 1: of militant activists who have committed similar acts of domestic 437 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:01,560 Speaker 1: terrorism across the country unquote rhetoric that has been mirrored 438 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:04,880 Speaker 1: by liberal politicians in the city of Atlanta. The broad 439 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:08,360 Speaker 1: labeling of environmental and racial justice movements as quote unquote 440 00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,760 Speaker 1: terrorism and those who get associated with such movements as 441 00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:16,160 Speaker 1: domestic terrorists is an extremely dangerous precedent designed to stifle 442 00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:20,120 Speaker 1: public opposition and scare anyone concerned about police militarization and 443 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:24,200 Speaker 1: climate change away from protesting. It's a crude attempt to 444 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:28,000 Speaker 1: use as powerful tools as possible to crush opposition and 445 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:31,920 Speaker 1: remove the protest from public spotlight while creating cover for 446 00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:36,320 Speaker 1: intensive suppression of protest movements. Police are making an example 447 00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:38,720 Speaker 1: out of people by trying to pin the actions of 448 00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,960 Speaker 1: autonomous individuals in a decentralized movement on anyone that was 449 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:46,600 Speaker 1: unlucky enough to cross paths with the police by threatening 450 00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 1: thirty five years in prison. Let's talk a bit about 451 00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:53,600 Speaker 1: the role of the domestic terrorism charges in how they 452 00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:57,000 Speaker 1: are being applied, because they're not even being applied to 453 00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:00,640 Speaker 1: people that are like tied to specific acts like use. Specifically, 454 00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:03,320 Speaker 1: we have evidence that you burned down an escap like 455 00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,520 Speaker 1: it like a like a construction equipment. That's that's not 456 00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,719 Speaker 1: what they're being used, not even being used for. Like 457 00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: we saw we saw you break this window, that's not 458 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:14,040 Speaker 1: even how you're being used. Like the people restaurant Saturday, 459 00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:16,920 Speaker 1: all six of them got the same exact charges. Yes, 460 00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:19,480 Speaker 1: how can all six people have done all the exact 461 00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:23,200 Speaker 1: same thing? So they're obviously not being used and they 462 00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:26,000 Speaker 1: type of like factual evidence based away it's all about 463 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,080 Speaker 1: like us trying to turn the movement itself into a 464 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:30,000 Speaker 1: criminal association. 465 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:30,440 Speaker 3: Yeah. 466 00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:34,000 Speaker 11: Yeah, APD has even said that themselves in a public 467 00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:37,080 Speaker 11: meeting that's supposed to kind of like provide advice on 468 00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:39,680 Speaker 11: like how the public wants this project built. You know, 469 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:42,360 Speaker 11: they in the December meeting, which I think took place 470 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:46,120 Speaker 11: a day after after those raids, they they bragged about 471 00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:49,920 Speaker 11: pulling someone over illegally for for filming the police. They 472 00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:52,280 Speaker 11: said they were very proud of themselves for taking that 473 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,760 Speaker 11: person to jail, and then they they just blatantly said 474 00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:59,920 Speaker 11: that anyone arrested for this in connection with this movement 475 00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:04,560 Speaker 11: will get a domestic terrorism charge, which creates an equivalency 476 00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:09,200 Speaker 11: that being opposed to this project is domestic terrorism. You know, 477 00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:13,640 Speaker 11: the chief of police Darren Sheerbaum went before cameras on Saturday, 478 00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:17,440 Speaker 11: and I think pretty much verbatim said, breaking a glass 479 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:20,760 Speaker 11: window that is terrorism. A lot of people have opinions 480 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:25,520 Speaker 11: about how to protest, right, but what people have conveyed 481 00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,840 Speaker 11: to us is that even those who are, you know, 482 00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:33,640 Speaker 11: kind of horrified by property damage, it's just not domestic terrorism. 483 00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:38,400 Speaker 11: It's just not being opposed to the police, wanting the 484 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:42,840 Speaker 11: police to do something differently is not terrorism. 485 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:47,240 Speaker 1: The Atlanta Solidarity Fund said of the six people charged 486 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:53,719 Speaker 1: after Saturday's protest, quote, protest, even disobedient protest, is not terrorism. 487 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,320 Speaker 1: It's tragic that we're at a point where this even 488 00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,520 Speaker 1: needs to be said, but that makes it all the 489 00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,680 Speaker 1: more important that the public speak out against this divisive 490 00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:06,640 Speaker 1: and dangerous rhetoric. We have reason to believe these activists 491 00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:10,240 Speaker 1: were arrested at random during the march. All six faced 492 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,880 Speaker 1: the same blanket charges. They are being held responsible for 493 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:17,920 Speaker 1: committing the same crime by virtue of simply being present 494 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:23,040 Speaker 1: at a protest where property damage occurred. Unquote. Twenty people 495 00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:26,800 Speaker 1: have been charged with felonies under Georgia's domestic terrorism laws 496 00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:32,120 Speaker 1: since last December. Police affidavits have detailed the alleged acts 497 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,360 Speaker 1: of so called terror, which include quote criminally trespassing on 498 00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:40,080 Speaker 1: posted land, sleeping in a forest, sleeping in a hammock 499 00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:44,960 Speaker 1: with another defendant being known members of a prison abolitionist 500 00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:49,479 Speaker 1: movement unquote, and aligning themselves with defend the Lanta forest 501 00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:53,120 Speaker 1: by quote occupying a treehouse while wearing a gas mask 502 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:57,720 Speaker 1: and camouflage clothing unquote. A review of the twenty arrests 503 00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:00,880 Speaker 1: showed that none of those arrested and slapped with terrorism 504 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:05,320 Speaker 1: charges are accused of seriously injuring anyone. Nine are alleged 505 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:11,520 Speaker 1: to have committed no specific illegal acts beyond misdemeanor trespassing. Instead, 506 00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,960 Speaker 1: mere association with a group committed to defending the forest 507 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:19,640 Speaker 1: appears to be the foundation for declaring them terrorists. The 508 00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:22,320 Speaker 1: seven people arrested during the police raid where the Georgia 509 00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:25,560 Speaker 1: State Patrol shot and killed Tortigita were given a bond 510 00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:31,440 Speaker 1: amount totaling one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars. Escalating repression 511 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:36,760 Speaker 1: is taking form as egregious bail amounts for protesters, inflated charges, 512 00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:40,320 Speaker 1: and as last month saw the killing of an activist, 513 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:45,719 Speaker 1: The environmental justice attorney Stephen Donzinger said. For weeks these 514 00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:48,759 Speaker 1: people were called terrorists, which is a complete misuse of 515 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:52,319 Speaker 1: the word. The police have been conditioned to believe these 516 00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:56,319 Speaker 1: people are terrorists, and what do you do with terrorists 517 00:34:56,840 --> 00:34:57,840 Speaker 1: in the United States? 518 00:34:58,040 --> 00:34:58,680 Speaker 9: You kill them. 519 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:03,279 Speaker 1: It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy unquote. A whole bunch 520 00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:05,880 Speaker 1: of bail information has got released for the six people 521 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:11,400 Speaker 1: arrested at the protest in downtown Atlanta on Saturday, January 522 00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:17,160 Speaker 1: twenty first, and it's pretty high. It's the highest bail 523 00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:21,040 Speaker 1: for a protest that I've ever seen. Two people that 524 00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:26,880 Speaker 1: are slightly more local to the area were granted three 525 00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:30,680 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty five thousand dollars each for their bonds. 526 00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:31,840 Speaker 9: That's over seven. 527 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:35,439 Speaker 1: Hundred thousand dollars with ankle monitoring and a twenty four 528 00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:41,360 Speaker 1: hour curfew, so that's a lot of four Other people 529 00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:45,120 Speaker 1: who were arrested were determined to be from too far 530 00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 1: out of town and deemed flight risks by the judge 531 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,279 Speaker 1: and they were completely denied bond. So they're going to 532 00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:56,000 Speaker 1: be held in jail and perpetuity until both further legal 533 00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,320 Speaker 1: challenges like this is going to get, you know, pushed 534 00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:01,279 Speaker 1: up to a higher level judge. But who knows how 535 00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:03,919 Speaker 1: long they're going to be in pre trial detention now 536 00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:12,880 Speaker 1: for pretty pretty ridiculous charges like this arson riot, like felony, 537 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:16,239 Speaker 1: jaywalking essentially like pedestrian. 538 00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:22,080 Speaker 15: Of them, the mesty terrorism terrorism. 539 00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:27,520 Speaker 1: When they're going over the bill hearing, there was there 540 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,880 Speaker 1: was they were talking about how like this hearing is 541 00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:33,359 Speaker 1: not for going over evidence, this is this is this 542 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:39,400 Speaker 1: isn't for Actually, yeah, they're they're not. They're not interested 543 00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,200 Speaker 1: in dealing with what the facts actually were because there's 544 00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:44,480 Speaker 1: no evidence that any of any of the people arrested 545 00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:48,000 Speaker 1: did anything wrong besides march in the street, which has 546 00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,360 Speaker 1: been a staple of the history of Atlanta for almost 547 00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:56,279 Speaker 1: like almost a century. There's no absolutely no evidence but 548 00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:59,440 Speaker 1: that that doesn't matter, and that's not really the point either. 549 00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:02,120 Speaker 1: The point is this is a brutal form of punishment 550 00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,920 Speaker 1: and a deterrent for other people to say that if 551 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:06,520 Speaker 1: you're going to go to a protest, if you're going 552 00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:08,440 Speaker 1: to go to a march, you don't need to do 553 00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:12,080 Speaker 1: anything at all, and we'll give you bond that's that's 554 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:16,759 Speaker 1: worth almost four hundred thousand dollars, poor person, or we'll 555 00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:21,040 Speaker 1: just hold you until until this case gets litigated. 556 00:37:21,120 --> 00:37:21,680 Speaker 15: Yeah, so if you. 557 00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:24,799 Speaker 12: Want to come from out of town to just go 558 00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:26,879 Speaker 12: to a march, you could do nothing else and get 559 00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:30,759 Speaker 12: arrested for rest lack with a domestics and then they 560 00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:32,200 Speaker 12: decide that because you're. 561 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:34,680 Speaker 16: From I don't know, an hour and a half. 562 00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:36,399 Speaker 15: Away and just happen to be across the state line, 563 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:39,880 Speaker 15: that flight rest are going to be held in definitely trial, 564 00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:41,920 Speaker 15: which I mean, if there's one across system that this 565 00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:43,200 Speaker 15: could be we could. 566 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:46,600 Speaker 1: Be talking years, years, eighteen months before before trial. If 567 00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:49,200 Speaker 1: people are wanted, right, they obviously they want people to 568 00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:51,800 Speaker 1: just plead guilty and not not have go to trial, 569 00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:55,800 Speaker 1: which is nonsense because there's no evidence. But if it 570 00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:57,640 Speaker 1: does get carried out all the way to trial, that 571 00:37:57,680 --> 00:37:59,560 Speaker 1: could take over a year. That could be just being 572 00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:03,120 Speaker 1: being held for things that you clearly didn't do. But 573 00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:05,879 Speaker 1: because the police and prosecutors have decided to use these 574 00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:10,320 Speaker 1: intense charges as a deterrent, it's just extremely blatant, like abusive, 575 00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:16,000 Speaker 1: abusive legal system, abusive power. But I mean it's you know, 576 00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:18,319 Speaker 1: I say abuse, but like this is the way it's 577 00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,000 Speaker 1: also designed, Like this is this is the purpose of prothectors, 578 00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,120 Speaker 1: this is the purpose of police they're doing their job 579 00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:24,239 Speaker 1: as it's supposed to be. 580 00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:30,759 Speaker 12: They're just like make it unfeasible for people to participate 581 00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:34,359 Speaker 12: in dissonance and to make it so any like any 582 00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:38,040 Speaker 12: chance getting for people. 583 00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:38,920 Speaker 15: It's made so. 584 00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:42,239 Speaker 12: Even for most people, Like looking at an amount like 585 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,440 Speaker 12: three hundred and fifty five thousand dollars. 586 00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:46,239 Speaker 15: It's just an impossible amount of money to come up with. 587 00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:46,880 Speaker 9: It's like. 588 00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:49,920 Speaker 15: It's so out of the. 589 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:52,400 Speaker 12: Realm of what is possible for so many, like normal 590 00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:55,440 Speaker 12: everyday people who are participating in aunts of protest that 591 00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:59,919 Speaker 12: it's just it's just design people for as lar as pass. 592 00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:01,440 Speaker 9: Well, it's not. 593 00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:03,520 Speaker 1: It's not even people who like this. This would be 594 00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:06,319 Speaker 1: in many ways justice rrificus. Is if these charges were 595 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,520 Speaker 1: from people who were like in the forest, people like 596 00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:14,800 Speaker 1: in a downtown marching like this is like downtown marching. 597 00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:17,520 Speaker 12: Were like the most serious thing that happened was that 598 00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:22,880 Speaker 12: a car spontaneously like that is it wasn't it it 599 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:25,720 Speaker 12: was there's no evidence to any of these people anyway. 600 00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:31,640 Speaker 1: It was even noted inside during during these hearings that 601 00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:34,239 Speaker 1: many of these people were arrested before the car even 602 00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:35,360 Speaker 1: caught fire, Like. 603 00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:38,680 Speaker 12: The Jurgans just decided that again they were not ready 604 00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:41,480 Speaker 12: to live it bots of any kind, that this was 605 00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:44,000 Speaker 12: not and making it so obvious that the point of 606 00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:47,520 Speaker 12: this is not to in any way treat this with 607 00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:51,160 Speaker 12: any realms like reality what happened, but just to make 608 00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:54,080 Speaker 12: sure that we are that people are as punished as 609 00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:58,440 Speaker 12: possible for any actions taken by a group that they 610 00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,120 Speaker 12: were likely just even in the vicinity. 611 00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:04,759 Speaker 1: Of a dantin Affidavid's for the seven people arrested at 612 00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:08,040 Speaker 1: the deadly police raid on January eighteenth, in which Tortigito 613 00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:12,360 Speaker 1: was killed, begin by alleging that the defendants were quote 614 00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:15,440 Speaker 1: participating in actions as a part of the Defend the 615 00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:18,600 Speaker 1: Atlanta Forest group, a group classified by the United States 616 00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:23,480 Speaker 1: Department of Homeland Security as domestic violent extremists unquote, but 617 00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:28,080 Speaker 1: a DHS spokesperson has responded to media inquiries by saying, quote, 618 00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:31,560 Speaker 1: the Department of Homeland Security does not classify or designate 619 00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:36,800 Speaker 1: any groups as domestic violent extremists unquote. The Atlanta Solidarity 620 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:40,640 Speaker 1: Fund responded to this news by saying, quote, when police 621 00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:45,040 Speaker 1: brought terrorism charges against Stop Copcity protesters, they justified it 622 00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:48,520 Speaker 1: by claiming that Defend the Atlanta Forest had been designated 623 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:50,720 Speaker 1: a domestic violent extremist organization. 624 00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:52,440 Speaker 9: This was a lie. 625 00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:56,879 Speaker 1: DHS has never designated any movement aligned organization in this way. 626 00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:01,359 Speaker 1: What does this mean? It suggests that police and prosecutors 627 00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:04,120 Speaker 1: have been lying not just to the public but to 628 00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:09,200 Speaker 1: judges in an effort to justify outrageous, sensational charges against activists. 629 00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:13,240 Speaker 1: This cannot be tolerated in a free society. The public 630 00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:17,960 Speaker 1: has a long process ahead of unraveling the tangle of lies, distortions, 631 00:41:18,040 --> 00:41:21,360 Speaker 1: and cover ups that the police, prosecutors, and their private 632 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:25,320 Speaker 1: backers have woven to suppress the right to protest. We 633 00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:28,640 Speaker 1: are determined to follow that thread to its end. Injustice 634 00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:34,000 Speaker 1: cannot go unchallenged. To date, the Atlanta Solidarity Fund has 635 00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:38,440 Speaker 1: supported over sixty people arrested for protesting the proposed Copcity development, 636 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,719 Speaker 1: just a few days before the killing of Tortigita. It 637 00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:44,000 Speaker 1: could happen. Here released an interview with people from the 638 00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:47,160 Speaker 1: Solidarity Fund and Anti Repression Committee if you want to 639 00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:51,320 Speaker 1: learn more about those organizations. The Solidarity Fund is dedicated 640 00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:56,080 Speaker 1: to continue supporting protesters in Atlanta, but with the unprecedented 641 00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:59,880 Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand dollars bail for just two people, they 642 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:03,600 Speaker 1: need help to continue supporting activists with bail and legal counsel, 643 00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:07,840 Speaker 1: while they are also supporting civil litigation against unjust arrests 644 00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:11,640 Speaker 1: and police violence, including an independent investigation into the death 645 00:42:11,719 --> 00:42:15,719 Speaker 1: of Torteguita. In a statement released after the bail hearing, 646 00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:19,840 Speaker 1: the Atlanta Solidarity Fund said, quote, the arrested protesters and 647 00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:23,960 Speaker 1: all other future protesters targeted for political activity in Atlanta 648 00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:28,960 Speaker 1: need your help. Please host fundraisers, reach out to your networks, 649 00:42:29,040 --> 00:42:32,840 Speaker 1: and donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. We especially encourage 650 00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:37,200 Speaker 1: you to consider becoming a recurring donor. Solidarity means all 651 00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:40,560 Speaker 1: of us supporting each other for the long haul, until 652 00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:44,840 Speaker 1: we are all free. Unquote. If the state is successful 653 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:49,160 Speaker 1: in creating this precedent of domestic terrorism, protesters across the 654 00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:53,560 Speaker 1: country could be facing similar speech chilling charges. Activists and 655 00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:57,040 Speaker 1: civil rights lawyers have called for everyone to strongly reject 656 00:42:57,160 --> 00:43:00,200 Speaker 1: this extreme level of repression here and now, before where 657 00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:03,840 Speaker 1: it becomes the norm for activists in every movement. What 658 00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:07,239 Speaker 1: happens here will have legal implications for the whole nation. 659 00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:11,440 Speaker 11: It creates and it creates fear, It creates a chilling effect. 660 00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:16,840 Speaker 11: It was after the December raids a lot of folks 661 00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:21,320 Speaker 11: in the community. We're really questioning what was next, and 662 00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:25,160 Speaker 11: it is scary to think about, but it's been really 663 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:30,320 Speaker 11: heartening how people have seen through the bullshit. Right, Atlanta 664 00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:35,719 Speaker 11: has an incredible resilience, and so does this movement, even 665 00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:38,520 Speaker 11: with domestic terrorism in mind. 666 00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:43,840 Speaker 1: Peter also mentioned how the increased charges have inadvertently shown 667 00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:48,800 Speaker 1: just how strong the community is. After domestic terrorism charges 668 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:54,320 Speaker 1: first first got laid out in December, what was people's 669 00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:57,360 Speaker 1: reaction to that, because that's a pretty substantial, like legal 670 00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:01,520 Speaker 1: state repression effort. You know, you're in the woods, you 671 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:04,160 Speaker 1: hear that your friends are now getting these ridiculous charges, Like, 672 00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:05,840 Speaker 1: how does that change what's on the ground. 673 00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:10,400 Speaker 8: Yeah, I think the terrorism charges. Well, I'll say I 674 00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:13,440 Speaker 8: was out of town when the terrorism charges happened, and 675 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:16,719 Speaker 8: hearing about those was actually what motivated me to come 676 00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:19,320 Speaker 8: back to Atlanta and move back into the woods because 677 00:44:19,520 --> 00:44:22,040 Speaker 8: I knew that the terrorism charges were a scare tactic 678 00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:24,800 Speaker 8: to try and discourage people from participating in the Woods 679 00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:28,040 Speaker 8: and the movement at large. As the repression has intensified, 680 00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:31,640 Speaker 8: and especially since the terrorism charges started coming in, the 681 00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:35,120 Speaker 8: resolve in the strength of this community has intensified. Even more, 682 00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:38,440 Speaker 8: and the increased repression has shown me the strength of 683 00:44:38,520 --> 00:44:41,960 Speaker 8: this community and also how deeply committed people are to 684 00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:42,919 Speaker 8: being a part of this fight. 685 00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:43,600 Speaker 15: No matter what. 686 00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:48,080 Speaker 1: You can go to at jail Underscore support on Twitter 687 00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:52,800 Speaker 1: for information on how to write two incarcerated protesters in Atlanta. 688 00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:18,359 Speaker 1: The terrorism charges being brought against Stop Copcity protesters stem 689 00:45:18,520 --> 00:45:21,160 Speaker 1: from a twenty seventeen law passed in Georgia in the 690 00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:25,520 Speaker 1: wake of the Dylan Roof massacre. This law, allegedly created 691 00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:28,680 Speaker 1: in response to a white supremacist mass shooting targeting black people, 692 00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:31,720 Speaker 1: is being used for the first time as a bludgeon 693 00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:35,400 Speaker 1: against anti racist protesters who are fighting against the expansion 694 00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:38,239 Speaker 1: and further militarization of police facilities. 695 00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:41,319 Speaker 12: Well, the state is just also as a concept as 696 00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:44,160 Speaker 12: a whole is pretty much incapable of doing things for 697 00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:47,880 Speaker 12: altruistic means. This is the same government that are so 698 00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:53,440 Speaker 12: often used as like that completely simplifies like all issues, 699 00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:57,200 Speaker 12: for example, with like foreign mashootings in this country into 700 00:45:57,239 --> 00:45:59,800 Speaker 12: just a gun problem, to take away the abilities for 701 00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:02,960 Speaker 12: prioritize people to defend themselves by oversimplifying it into a 702 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:07,160 Speaker 12: non ideological issue. And it's so like there's such a 703 00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:11,640 Speaker 12: clear pattern of who is perpetrating these things. It's all 704 00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:13,720 Speaker 12: like the state. 705 00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:16,920 Speaker 15: At any moment it can grab power, it. 706 00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:17,480 Speaker 12: Will do so. 707 00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:20,719 Speaker 15: And that looks better sometimes because. 708 00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:24,760 Speaker 16: It might be like going after somebody, like jelling a roof. 709 00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:27,520 Speaker 12: But it gets turned around later and used by them 710 00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:31,560 Speaker 12: to murdern you know, trying to defend the forest and 711 00:46:31,920 --> 00:46:35,399 Speaker 12: make sure that people cannot make bail, and for doing 712 00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:39,680 Speaker 12: nothing more than asking the city to not do something 713 00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:42,719 Speaker 12: that a vast majority of people Atlanta do not want 714 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:43,160 Speaker 12: to happen. 715 00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:46,279 Speaker 1: Laws that are put into effect to stop far right 716 00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:51,240 Speaker 1: violence will inevitably be used to repress left wing movements. 717 00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:54,960 Speaker 1: Any expansion of state power will always come down the 718 00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:58,840 Speaker 1: hardest on people who are actually pushing back on the 719 00:46:58,920 --> 00:47:02,560 Speaker 1: power structures of this eight, like the police. And now 720 00:47:02,719 --> 00:47:05,920 Speaker 1: this domestic terrorism law is being used against force defenders 721 00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:10,239 Speaker 1: for mere affiliation with stop Coop City. The way the 722 00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:14,799 Speaker 1: state is using these domestic terrorism charges is relatively unprecedented 723 00:47:14,960 --> 00:47:19,000 Speaker 1: within the United States, but this stuff is not completely 724 00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:23,280 Speaker 1: unheard of. It's new for white Americans who are protesting. 725 00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:27,600 Speaker 1: It's new in a very specific context, but it's not 726 00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:31,239 Speaker 1: new for many other people who've experienced state repression and 727 00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:34,680 Speaker 1: have experienced state repression in other countries around the world. 728 00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:37,320 Speaker 12: You know. It's it's very similar to the way that 729 00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:40,319 Speaker 12: like the US would I mean, we had a lot 730 00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:42,000 Speaker 12: of a lot of people who are in the US 731 00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,799 Speaker 12: global in thousands of people who you know, so many 732 00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:48,880 Speaker 12: of them are just the US Army rules into a 733 00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:51,080 Speaker 12: country and like all of these people are terrorists. 734 00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:54,720 Speaker 15: They do not have time to litigate the facts. 735 00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:58,080 Speaker 12: They're looking at people as flight rests with new evidence, 736 00:47:58,160 --> 00:48:01,880 Speaker 12: with unsistantially that claims to bout affiliations to whatever the 737 00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:05,120 Speaker 12: hell it is, and then they you know, and they 738 00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:08,319 Speaker 12: most extreme examples, end up detaining Gontanimo for the next 739 00:48:08,360 --> 00:48:10,520 Speaker 12: twenty years or in you know. 740 00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:12,600 Speaker 15: Bringing back to the connection to all of this. 741 00:48:12,719 --> 00:48:15,360 Speaker 12: To the idea, it's the similar ways that the idea 742 00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:19,360 Speaker 12: of persecutes their word of the Pastinian peoples of waging 743 00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:24,000 Speaker 12: a war of population and then taking as much, like 744 00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:27,719 Speaker 12: using as much force against the people who choose to 745 00:48:28,440 --> 00:48:30,279 Speaker 12: fight that state power, and then. 746 00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,759 Speaker 15: Just arresting huge numbers of people for claiming that they're 747 00:48:34,840 --> 00:48:38,800 Speaker 15: like affiliated with AMAS or something for litis, living in 748 00:48:38,880 --> 00:48:39,960 Speaker 15: the same neighborhood and. 749 00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:41,080 Speaker 16: Just throwing the Kyoa. 750 00:48:41,440 --> 00:48:45,560 Speaker 15: This is very similar to tactics that we've seen used across. 751 00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:48,040 Speaker 16: The word, specifically during the Global War on Terror, just. 752 00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:51,320 Speaker 12: To lock up huge numbers of people with impunity, without 753 00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:54,120 Speaker 12: the ability for people to get proper or legal representation, 754 00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:56,520 Speaker 12: or for there ever to be a moment to litigate 755 00:48:56,560 --> 00:48:59,840 Speaker 12: the facts of what happened. And it's a really troubling 756 00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:00,840 Speaker 12: development to. 757 00:49:02,680 --> 00:49:03,279 Speaker 15: Happening here. 758 00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:07,560 Speaker 12: This has been so destructive in other countries all across 759 00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:10,000 Speaker 12: the world, and we should all be extremely concerned that 760 00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:14,040 Speaker 12: this is happening anywhere, not just that it's touched in 761 00:49:14,239 --> 00:49:17,520 Speaker 12: the US now, but this type of legal system should 762 00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:19,879 Speaker 12: find comfort anywhere in the world. 763 00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:22,520 Speaker 1: One of the topics of the original It Could Happen 764 00:49:22,600 --> 00:49:27,520 Speaker 1: Here series was Thucau's boomerang. The idea was also brought 765 00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:31,320 Speaker 1: up during multiple conversations I had in Atlanta. It's about 766 00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:34,680 Speaker 1: how the types of imperialist and colonialist violence that are 767 00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:38,480 Speaker 1: done in other countries don't just go away. They get 768 00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:43,239 Speaker 1: transported back to the homeland. This boomerang effect resulted in 769 00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:46,120 Speaker 1: a whole series of colonial models being brought back to 770 00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:49,680 Speaker 1: the quote unquote West so that it could endlessly practice 771 00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:55,719 Speaker 1: something resembling colonialism or an internal colonialism on itself. The 772 00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:59,239 Speaker 1: forces of extreme gentrification can be seen as one of 773 00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:02,880 Speaker 1: these frontlines. In that way, it only makes sense that 774 00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:06,280 Speaker 1: this is happening in Atlanta to such an extreme degree. 775 00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:09,560 Speaker 12: So like the idea of like when it comes to 776 00:50:09,600 --> 00:50:13,920 Speaker 12: frougos boomerang is that any any strategies, tactics, equipment. 777 00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:16,080 Speaker 15: The US is the best example of really has been 778 00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:17,360 Speaker 15: tactics and equipment. 779 00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:21,320 Speaker 12: Thus far that are used overseas in a country's colonial 780 00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:26,760 Speaker 12: wars imperial wars will one day find their way returned 781 00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:29,400 Speaker 12: to the core of said empire. 782 00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:32,279 Speaker 15: To subjugate their own dissidents and their own people. 783 00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:35,560 Speaker 12: The best example of this in the US was milatorized 784 00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:37,400 Speaker 12: police and Copsit is a huge example of this. 785 00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:41,239 Speaker 15: We've seen a return of weapons and equipment from the 786 00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:44,360 Speaker 15: god to US police, just asibly what we. 787 00:50:44,440 --> 00:50:44,880 Speaker 3: Saw a. 788 00:50:46,360 --> 00:50:48,000 Speaker 15: Man murdering and his trailer by. 789 00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:51,160 Speaker 12: Small team using their vision goggles and equipment that looks 790 00:50:51,239 --> 00:50:54,120 Speaker 12: like it came off of like Army Rangers in twenty fourteen. 791 00:50:54,239 --> 00:50:57,640 Speaker 12: Like it is, it is a return like the tactics 792 00:50:57,719 --> 00:51:00,200 Speaker 12: and the equipment and the strategy and the mindset of 793 00:51:00,680 --> 00:51:03,320 Speaker 12: an occupying army come back to the center of the 794 00:51:03,360 --> 00:51:06,000 Speaker 12: empire and are used to subjepeen its people. And in 795 00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:09,160 Speaker 12: this case, comp City is a huge expansion of this 796 00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:11,360 Speaker 12: because of what it's designed to train people to do, 797 00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:15,280 Speaker 12: which is combat. And even more so, the legal system 798 00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:18,560 Speaker 12: that the US has used overseas to prosecute thousands of 799 00:51:18,640 --> 00:51:22,520 Speaker 12: people with their evidence is well being returned to prosecute. 800 00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:23,160 Speaker 15: That it is defending the forest. 801 00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:26,719 Speaker 1: The man shot by Swat in a trailer last month 802 00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:30,160 Speaker 1: did end up surviving, But what Noah is talking about 803 00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:33,560 Speaker 1: is that there is no true other, There is no 804 00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:38,840 Speaker 1: true awayness. This new military urbanism that seems to be 805 00:51:38,960 --> 00:51:44,000 Speaker 1: necessary to sustain hyper capitalist to gentrification is providing zones 806 00:51:44,040 --> 00:51:47,480 Speaker 1: of experimentation through which the state is able to try 807 00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:51,160 Speaker 1: out and hone their techniques of oppression. In my conversation 808 00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:54,960 Speaker 1: with Cricket, they talked about this phenomenon. It comes back 809 00:51:55,080 --> 00:51:57,080 Speaker 1: or it starts here and more the training ground, and 810 00:51:57,160 --> 00:52:00,560 Speaker 1: then they export it. I mean, there's it's and I 811 00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:02,680 Speaker 1: think you're absolutely right that there is no true other. 812 00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:05,120 Speaker 1: Right like that is a construct to keep us out 813 00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:07,719 Speaker 1: of solidarity with one another. That is a strategy to 814 00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:09,680 Speaker 1: keep us out of alliance. At the same table and 815 00:52:09,760 --> 00:52:13,000 Speaker 1: demanding more. I mean, it's something that I remember, I 816 00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:13,440 Speaker 1: think it was. 817 00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:15,160 Speaker 17: I think it was maybe something Buddha Edge or I 818 00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:18,680 Speaker 17: don't know, some other politician talked about in the wake 819 00:52:18,719 --> 00:52:22,520 Speaker 17: of twenty twenty, you know, saying like military weapons should 820 00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:25,319 Speaker 17: not be used against like like should not be used 821 00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:28,400 Speaker 17: in our streets or something like that. It's like, okay, 822 00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:31,520 Speaker 17: but the logical extension of that is that they should 823 00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:35,839 Speaker 17: be in other people's streets, like those are also civilians, 824 00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:39,280 Speaker 17: Like those are also people's towns and cities and homes. 825 00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:41,799 Speaker 17: Like why are we deciding that it's okay for them 826 00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:45,560 Speaker 17: to be there and not here? And obviously we're not 827 00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:49,400 Speaker 17: actually deciding that they're not okay to be here. But 828 00:52:49,480 --> 00:52:51,480 Speaker 17: I feel like even the sort of attempts to try 829 00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:54,239 Speaker 17: and address the insane militarization of the police don't rely 830 00:52:54,400 --> 00:52:57,240 Speaker 17: on that other as if this is not a global issue, 831 00:52:57,280 --> 00:53:00,360 Speaker 17: as if this is not something that affects everyone. The 832 00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:04,520 Speaker 17: Solidarity Fund has said, quote invoking terrorism is a dog 833 00:53:04,560 --> 00:53:08,520 Speaker 17: whistle calling for more police violence. Ever since nine to eleven, 834 00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:12,120 Speaker 17: American policy has been to hunt and kill terrorists by 835 00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:16,800 Speaker 17: any means. Applying this same terrorism label to activists in 836 00:53:16,920 --> 00:53:21,760 Speaker 17: our communities, is prompting police to approach protests as war zones, 837 00:53:22,239 --> 00:53:25,680 Speaker 17: prepared to kill at any time. This can be seen 838 00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:29,120 Speaker 17: in the way GSP stormed the Atlanta forest with militarized 839 00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:33,000 Speaker 17: equipment and killed Tortigita and God. I think there's also 840 00:53:33,080 --> 00:53:35,920 Speaker 17: this tendency to think of the assassination of environmental activists 841 00:53:35,920 --> 00:53:38,480 Speaker 17: as something that happens elsewhere, Like this is something that 842 00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:41,279 Speaker 17: happens in Central America, this is something that happens in 843 00:53:41,320 --> 00:53:43,719 Speaker 17: the Amazon, Like this is not something that happens in 844 00:53:43,760 --> 00:53:46,000 Speaker 17: the US. And it absolutely is something that happens in 845 00:53:46,040 --> 00:53:49,000 Speaker 17: the US. And I think, just sort of to the 846 00:53:49,120 --> 00:53:52,120 Speaker 17: name of your podcast, right, like it happens here, it's 847 00:53:52,239 --> 00:53:55,000 Speaker 17: not and it could be any of us. I think 848 00:53:55,040 --> 00:53:58,480 Speaker 17: that that's another sort of possible strategy or idea behind this, 849 00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:01,759 Speaker 17: like oh, they're outside the agitators thing of trying to 850 00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:04,600 Speaker 17: create this scary, stranger danger and trying to make people 851 00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:07,399 Speaker 17: think that the person who is murdered couldn't be them 852 00:54:07,520 --> 00:54:11,120 Speaker 17: because they're from here, Like oh, like I'm local, Like 853 00:54:11,200 --> 00:54:14,600 Speaker 17: I wouldn't have been murdered. No, Like no, absolutely not, 854 00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:17,960 Speaker 17: Like they will murder with impunity and it's really scary 855 00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:20,919 Speaker 17: and it's really enraging. Like I think it is both 856 00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:26,120 Speaker 17: to me inspiring and because if they're going to kill 857 00:54:26,200 --> 00:54:28,839 Speaker 17: us no matter what, then why not cause as much 858 00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:30,080 Speaker 17: good trouble as we can. 859 00:54:30,800 --> 00:54:34,640 Speaker 1: On Thursday, January twenty sixth, Governor Brian Kemp declared a 860 00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:38,520 Speaker 1: state of emergency in response to protests Saturday night sparked 861 00:54:38,520 --> 00:54:42,959 Speaker 1: by Tortigita's death. Under that order, one thousand National Guard 862 00:54:43,040 --> 00:54:46,640 Speaker 1: troops were mobilized to quell protests and police the streets 863 00:54:46,680 --> 00:54:51,840 Speaker 1: of Atlanta. Once again. I'll end with the words of Tortighita. Quote, 864 00:54:52,520 --> 00:54:56,160 Speaker 1: Dear comrades, we are in the trenches of the class war. 865 00:54:56,840 --> 00:54:59,560 Speaker 1: The capitalists would rather see us dead or enslaved, so 866 00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:03,280 Speaker 1: we might us to fight like hell. Billionaires are causing 867 00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:06,839 Speaker 1: a mass extinction and can only be stopped by collective action. 868 00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:11,919 Speaker 1: Copsity can and must be stopped, but we need more help. 869 00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:15,960 Speaker 1: We need people on the front lines and robust supply networks. 870 00:55:16,600 --> 00:55:21,000 Speaker 1: We need to love and support each other unquote. Now 871 00:55:21,160 --> 00:55:23,960 Speaker 1: that the war is here, how are we gonna fight it? 872 00:55:24,640 --> 00:55:24,839 Speaker 6: Yeah? 873 00:55:25,600 --> 00:55:29,240 Speaker 18: The rain on leaves tickling the earliest, the instruments, the melody, 874 00:55:29,360 --> 00:55:31,480 Speaker 18: we mimick. It is the sound of wind whistle, And 875 00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:35,080 Speaker 18: long before the safetyest chan and under the stars, camped 876 00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:38,160 Speaker 18: underb canopy, she sang oh song, and she was far 877 00:55:38,280 --> 00:55:41,440 Speaker 18: from silent, the virus of violence with the fragrance of 878 00:55:41,480 --> 00:55:45,120 Speaker 18: her flowers that continue to invite us a medicine materials 879 00:55:45,239 --> 00:55:48,040 Speaker 18: are vitamins and minerals and all that is essential, which 880 00:55:48,160 --> 00:55:50,840 Speaker 18: just grew right beside us. Entice the starting fight end 881 00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:53,360 Speaker 18: over the gifts that she provide us, scorching up the 882 00:55:53,640 --> 00:55:56,520 Speaker 18: soil that all of us derived from. And when impious 883 00:55:56,640 --> 00:55:59,400 Speaker 18: learn it came with stand bia, we returned to the 884 00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:02,319 Speaker 18: land where An sets the rain dance. We have all 885 00:56:02,400 --> 00:56:05,160 Speaker 18: her preaches, we still bear her features. The one and 886 00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:08,320 Speaker 18: only reason all living things is breathe. And the cities 887 00:56:08,360 --> 00:56:11,400 Speaker 18: deceive and leave. Go see the dirt, young, Go be 888 00:56:11,480 --> 00:56:13,239 Speaker 18: among the lungs of mother Earth. 889 00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:40,400 Speaker 15: Could yeah before him before shut him down. It was 890 00:56:40,600 --> 00:56:41,760 Speaker 15: a forest. 891 00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:46,200 Speaker 1: Music by the narcissist cookbook and propaganda. 892 00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:51,520 Speaker 9: So they're now saying gb I suck my dick. 893 00:56:51,600 --> 00:56:54,200 Speaker 15: GBI is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation. 894 00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:57,280 Speaker 1: It could happen here as a production of Cool Zone Media. 895 00:56:57,560 --> 00:57:00,200 Speaker 11: For more podcasts from Cool Zone media visitor webs say 896 00:57:00,239 --> 00:57:03,359 Speaker 11: coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 897 00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:06,719 Speaker 11: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts, you can 898 00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:09,440 Speaker 11: find sources for It could happen here, Updated monthly at 899 00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:11,680 Speaker 11: coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. 900 00:57:11,920 --> 00:57:12,680 Speaker 9: Thanks for listening.