WEBVTT - On the Ground at Stop Cop City, Part Three: The Riot and State Repression 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:25.600 The few days leading up to Saturday, January twenty first 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:30.400 felt like the calm before the storm. Nobody knew exactly 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:32.479 what was going to happen at the weekend protest in 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.960 downtown Atlanta, but there was a sense that something would. 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.280 Shortly after the Wednesday shooting, a flyer went out calling 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:45.520 for a gathering at Underground Atlanta on Saturday, January twenty first, 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:50.159 and to wear black clothes in morning. This is it 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:54.160 could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis, and I arrived at 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:58.520 Underground Atlanta just a bit before five pm. The crowd 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.600 was still slowly grown, and a bunch of big news 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.560 cameras were filling up the central area. As more people 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.440 filtered in, some who knew Tort went up in front 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.600 of everyone to share memories of Torti Ghita and talk 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:14.120 about the continuing fight to defend the forest. 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.120 Obviously, we're all here because Tort was an amazing person 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:21.920 and their life meant a lot. But Tort also shared 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:24.240 something in common with all of us, and that was 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.440 the values and things that they were fighting for, and 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:29.320 all of us are fighting for a great content. We 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.039 all have it in common, but it makes us all targets. 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.840 They will always target us because they don't believe in 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:38.600 the things that we believe in, and they will always 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:41.400 be after us. And we all have to stand here 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.679 and stay together and stay resilient, to fight for what 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.800 we believe in, and never let Towort's memory go without honor. 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.840 If they would kill an innocent person like Torque, someone 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.680 who loved their community, they will stop to kill us. 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:04.280 They won't stop to kill everyone in that forest. They 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.800 won't stop to kill anyone who defies them. And that 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:16.040 is pretty much all I had to say. 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.640 A few people from the Atlanta Resistance Medics, a local 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.640 street medical group dedicated to the liberation of medicine and 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:27.160 providing medical resources for underprivileged and marginalized people, spoke about 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:29.880 Torti Ghita, who was a member of their collective. 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:32.720 If there's one thing that we want people to remember 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:36.160 Tourt for, it's if they were somebody who protected the 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.959 people around them, who went through the training along with 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.880 the rest of us, to be able to provide medical 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.520 resources to the people that were around them. They may 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.920 not have access to those no matter what else the 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:53.520 news says about tort they were a protector. Everything they 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:58.680 did was out of love. Everything they did was out 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:02.000 of hope for a better world. And I don't care 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:04.720 what the police say. I don't care what the media says. 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.320 I don't care what anybody says. Torpe was out here 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.520 working for a better world. They may want to smear 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.720 them as an extremist, they were not. They were out 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.519 here protecting their fellow people. And that's what we want 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.160 everybody to remember about them. Just say they were out 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:22.960 here trying to build a better world, no matter what 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:23.840 anybody else says. 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:34.800 All right, I'd love y'all to repeat after me, Art Doug. 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:52.720 La lu Ja siege, La lu Ja Siege is a 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:56.600 medic in our collective. They were a forest defender. They 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:03.080 were a friend, They were funny kind Sarta Vida was 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:08.560 constantly thinking of others. They were constantly trying to protect 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:12.360 other people, trying to protect the forest, trying to protect 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:17.880 everyone who was marginalized. They centered voices on them who 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.400 are on the margins and brought them into the center. 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:25.920 They recognized that our struggles are interconnected. They recognized that 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:31.239 cop City will never be built. They died defending that forest. 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:36.640 The memory Oftito that I keep returning to is after 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:41.800 the police destroyed the gazebo at Leilani People's Park in 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.760 the parking lot. They were at a meeting and they said, yeah, 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:56.400 so the cops think they can destroy our morale, they can't. Yeah. 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:00.120 Tartuita was one of the most resilient, strongest people. Well 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:06.480 I know, they hugged everyone. They were so kind and 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:11.400 so giving, and even as the state tries to assassinate 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:15.960 their character in addition to their body, they were a 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:20.760 freedom fighter. They were a person that I am honored 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.040 to have known that I am honored to have called 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:23.560 a friend. 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:29.080 About four hundred people eventually gathered around Underground Atlanta. It 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.799 seemed like slightly more people than we're at the vigil 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:32.800 the previous night. 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.280 Everything in modern life serves to atomize you, to make 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.440 you feel like you were an individual, divorce from any 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.960 sense of collective identity, divorced from any sense that you 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.599 have a purpose and that there is good in the world. 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.359 The fact that you're here means that you're fighting against that. 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:53.599 Don't let go of that. That is powerful. And that's 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:55.920 why cop City isn't going to be built, is because 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.440 we have love for ourselves and for the people around us. 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.120 All right, So I'm sure all of you are fairly 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.960 upset about this. I am Tort was a friend of mine. 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:12.799 They were a friend of the community. Their death, their 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.000 death will not be in. 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:20.520 Vain, fucking top city fuck at all. 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.000 By five point thirty, about half the crowd gathered at 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:27.480 Underground Atlanta were in Black Bloc and the rest were 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:31.640 a variety of activists, organizers, and random people who decided 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.200 that it was important to be at this event. After 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:39.080 some speeches, chants, and stories of Tort, the gathering of 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.440 people turned into a march and took to the streets. 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:49.360 March is starting just left Underground Atlanta. Around three hundred 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:54.919 people maybe maybe more, are marching down the street. There's 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:00.120 mix of people in block. There's medics here, people it's 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.120 kind of in regular clothes, holding signs. There's a banner 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.400 in the front that reads they can't kill us All. 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:21.440 Firework banner at the front that says trees give life, 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:27.720 police take it. After just a minute of marching down 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:31.960 one street, the crowd suddenly stopped. Looks like the marshes 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.840 turning around going to the other side. 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:37.720 Stop stop doges. 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:39.880 Some more small. 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:45.760 Fireworks betting launched in the sky. Banners getting moved to 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:51.440 the front. It looks like the mark is now heading 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:57.920 north into downtown. Organizers from the Party for Socialism and 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:01.600 Liberation attempted to take control of the march and lead 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.480 the group south in the direction of the State Capitol 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:08.200 Building or possibly looping around to the CNN Center, but 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.800 autonomous activists in the crowd turned the march around and 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:16.160 the group four hundred strong headed north. It sounds like 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:21.440 the PSL people who were gathered at the underground tried 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.000 tried to lead the march in one direction and everyone 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.320 was like, no, we don't want to go that way. 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:29.960 The ps AND people are gonna lead everyone into like 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:34.760 the Federal Building section of downtown going south, and very 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.560 quickly they turned around. Well, other other people turned around. 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:53.160 It was like, no, we're not going that way. They're 0:08:53.200 --> 0:09:00.480 taking a ride down Peachtree heading heading north into down town. 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:08.760 Right beside the Coca Cola sign on Marietta. The march 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.680 entered the Commercial District, a section of the city completely 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.439 gutted out by years of the Atlanta Way neoliberal policies 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.199 that we talked about in the Defend the Forest episodes 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:22.080 from last May. The area is populated almost exclusively by 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:26.240 business people, university students, and unhoused citizens, and was a 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:30.960 common sight for Atlanta's twenty twenty BLM protests. Now that 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.880 the march is moving, it's easier to see everyone. 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.920 In black, all of all, all the people in bloc. 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:43.280 It's looking more just like a. 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:48.400 Large, large, massive people in bloc now have not seen 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.440 much police presence downtown yet because that's just a few 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:52.640 few patrol cars. 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:55.520 It's really unclear. 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.640 How Atlanta Police argus is going to respond to this. 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.120 Got some flares, a lot more of those smoke fireworks 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.640 or smoke grenade things. It's not a grain, it's like. 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:11.920 A cardboard tube shooting smoke out. 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:16.720 The block continued to travel north Road. Flares and fireworks 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:20.400 lit the path in the darkening evening. Graffiti quickly sprung 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:24.200 up on walls with phrases like rip little turtle and 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:28.400 stop cop city the march. The march is now approaching 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:35.000 an Atlanta police vehicle who's trying to back up the 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.679 cop does not one of the cop cop car is right 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:39.120 in the middle of where the march is gonna go. 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:43.120 They're like less than one hundred feet away, Just one 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.000 single cop car that happens to be in the path 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:47.319 they are. They are trying to back out of the street. 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.840 The march has the trees give life, Please take it banner. 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:58.080 There's a big cardboard cutout of a tree right behind it. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:09.880 Police have their lights turned on. Now looks like the 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:15.640 cop cars turning around. Yeah, and the cop car is 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:27.920 leaving rather quickly. The sun was just starting to set 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.760 as the block arrived at the main goal of the night, 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.640 the Atlanta Police Foundation Headquarters at one nine to one 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:35.840 Peachtree Street. 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:37.719 They've stopped in front of. 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.319 Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:48.720 People are thrown throwing stuff at the windows and doors. 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:56.040 Broken windows at the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. 0:11:55.600 --> 0:12:00.079 The people funding cop City firework thrown. 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:14.040 Umbrellas moved in to block local news cameras as windows shattered. 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.480 Rocks emerged from backpacks and smashed into the front of 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:21.240 the building. Hammers met the glass entrance as fireworks lit 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:26.760 up the scene. Another fire, another firework at the a 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:32.080 lot of Police Foundation. The march is tightening up a 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:37.160 decent bit. March is definitely tightening up. A lot of 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:41.960 people just in block now. Shouts of bee water kept 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:46.280 the mass moving forward as bank windows received a similar 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:55.360 pelting of rocks and hammers, people chanting to move like water. 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:57.560 I feel a lot of police cars right beside the march. 0:12:57.880 --> 0:12:59.920 I'm guessing they're going to pull in in front of 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:05.000 pull in behind the march. Two police cars right there. 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.120 People hitting Chase Bank. Another stuff being dragged into the 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:17.319 street for like a top two barricade. Chase Bank's head 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.280 of Regional Investment Banking, John Richard, serves on the board 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:25.199 of the Atlanta Police Foundation. Police officers exited the two 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.160 cop cars that were trailing the march and quickly ran 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:32.160 away from the crowd, leaving their vehicles abandoned. Corker's trying 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:34.840 to keep track of where the police are in relation 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.760 to the march. Looks I got some cars pulling up 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:47.680 behind the police car pulled up behind the march. Scott 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:49.400 their windows broken, fireworks. 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:57.199 From under another firework. 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.880 Another Atlanta Please vehicle had their windows smashed. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:02.480 So there's two. 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.120 The two that was behind the march, the two Atlanta 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:07.839 Police officer cars that were behind the march. 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:09.120 This got hit. 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.720 Wells Fargo, one of the main cop city funders, received 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:17.440 special love and attention from the block. The Atlanta Area 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.760 president for Wells Fargo. Mitch Grahl is also on the 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.600 board of trustees for the Atlanta Police Foundation. A few 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:31.320 other banks hit around this area. Wells Fargo one of 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:33.480 the contributors to the Atlanta Police Foundations, one of their 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:38.440 big funders and backers. A lot of the media here 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:43.200 very very thirsty to get to get stuff of, you know, 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.720 put into people breaking windows and shit. It was kind 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:49.560 of surprising that the crowd made it this far without 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:55.560 any real police response. Time almost stretches during these brief 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:59.920 moments of uprising. About seven minutes after the first window shattered, 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:02.840 Atlanta police finally arrived and made their move. 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.400 Police are in front of in front of the march. 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:13.480 Now please in front of the rough march. People might 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:16.960 be turning around. They want to do a full like 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:17.720 water type thing. 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:19.720 Yeah. 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.320 Multiple cop cars are approaching the march from the front. 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.720 Unclear what the crowd is gonna do. Well, Atlanta p 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:32.520 D is now now approaching the march. 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:37.040 They're getting closer. 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:48.880 They're going after one of the banners, dragging somebody down, 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:57.880 pulling someone to the ground. They're chasing people. One person's 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:02.840 being arrested. M march is splitting in two different directions. 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.560 Officers started randomly tackling and arresting anyone they could get 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.640 their hands on. More police arrived from the south and 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:12.720 chased it down a small section of the march that 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:18.240 branched off. Atlanta police coming from behind as well, so 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:21.280 they got Alanta police from both sides. Not many officers though, 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:26.479 just a few officers. Looks like the majority of the march. 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:40.000 With out street direcree chan movie dispersed, disperse, get, disburse. 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:50.120 Please getting more aggressive, pushing a lot of people. Footage 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.680 and audio of these violent arrests were shared by the 0:16:52.760 --> 0:17:11.240 Defend the Forest account, Unicorn Riot and myself your numbers. 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:27.240 Here. 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.200 I hear screams coming from multiple directions. Large. 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:36.160 Looks like the march kind of split in two. 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:41.120 I've seen a lot of arrests. 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.600 The individuals targeted likely committed no crime other than being 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.560 in the wrong place at the wrong time. The majority 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.480 of the march split away and in a different direction 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:54.960 from the cops. So I stated where the cops were 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.440 most of the march. I was able to get away 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:00.760 by going through two differ direction. 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:02.760 We have. 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:09.280 It looks like and Atlanta PD vehicle is on fire. 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:19.040 Atlanta PD vehicle burning in the street, burning cop car. 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.760 Police with AR style AR style rifles. 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:28.960 So I feel like most of the march had had 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.119 hitded on that way I saw over there. It seems 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:36.160 one of the cop cars that got smashed also spontaneously 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.720 lit on fire. When the police first confronted the march, 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.000 most of the block was able to peel off and 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:46.679 disappear into the night. Affinity groups reconnected, block was shed 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.360 and protesters evacuated out of downtown as the police flooded 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.560 the mile long stretch of Peachtree Street that the crowd 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.720 marched on. After a fire truck put out the burning 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.520 cop car, police taped off the area, and as they 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.359 were pushing people out, I recorded an officer saying this 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:03.680 amazing line. 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.520 The whole than fireworks, is my bomb going off? 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:14.600 Bombs or discount New Year's Eve fireworks? You choose all. 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.400 In all, the actions that night only took about an hour, 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:41.760 and crews made it home in time for dinner. Six 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.640 people were arrested at the protest Saturday night. Five were 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:48.919 tackled and pinned down as the crowd initially scattered, and 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.640 one other person was chased by a cop car. Sam 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.720 from the Atlanta Community Press Collective has more on that. 0:19:56.320 --> 0:20:01.760 A protester who was subsequently arrested was witnesses state they 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:06.199 were uh basically followed through the streets by an Atlanta 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:11.399 police vehicle before witnesses say that they were hit by 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:14.720 the same vehicle and they were then taken to jail. So, 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:18.440 you know, corn RYE released that video and we were 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.480 able to speak with the few witnesses because, as I'm 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:26.000 sure everyone saw on social beautia this weekend, the arrests 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.440 were a familiar brutal, familiar brutal site. 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:32.760 Before we continue, I do want to play two short 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.760 clips that were circulating the night of the protest. First 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.119 is police at scanner audio of the cop whose car 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:42.080 spontaneously combusted. 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:45.600 You want a car, you know, yeah, I will these protests. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:47.399 They bloom a damn car and I ain't able to 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:52.160 go getting uneat only you know as what you did. 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.119 This next one is from live news coverage of the march, 0:20:56.520 --> 0:21:01.720 and this clip became an instant meme, so. 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:03.040 They're now saying GBI suck. 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.160 GBI is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation. 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:09.119 Mayor Andre Dickens and the chief of Police gave a 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:12.040 press conference hours later, which gave us a look at 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:13.960 how the state was going to try and frame the 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:16.560 protest and acts of targeted vandalism. 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:20.040 My message is simple to those who seek to continue 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:22.879 this type of criminal behavior, We will find you, and 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:26.200 we will arrest you, and you will be held accountable. 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.720 We have arrested several of them this evening, and Chief 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.520 surebamb will give you the details on that. And some 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:36.440 of them were found with explosives on them. You heard 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:40.320 that correctly, explosives, and that has led to a police 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:43.399 officer's car being set on fire. 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.400 During the press conference, the Chief of Police clarified that 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:49.800 no law enforcement officers were injured as a result of 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:54.040 the protest, and neither were any bodystanders, which means the 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.560 only violence against people was done by the cops who 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:00.640 randomly tackled any protester that they could chase down. 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:03.480 And so it doesn't take a rocket scientist or an 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:05.720 attorney to tell you that breaking windows and. 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:06.959 Setting fires not protest. 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:09.760 That is terrorism, and that they will be charged accordingly, 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:11.879 and they will find that this police department in the 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:15.280 partnership is equally committed to stop that activity. We already 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.000 have prosecutors in the room as we speak, and we're 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:19.840 reviewing everything and we have a lot of evidence to 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:22.560 still go through. So even charges you see tonight, those 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:25.440 can easily be upgraded, and they will be upgraded if appropriate. 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:28.160 I brought up the police chief's comments to a few 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.520 of the forest offenders that I spoke with after the 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:43.920 protest on Saturday in downtown. Police chief schneierbamb it's hard, I've. 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:43.399 Read it before. 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:48.479 On Yeah, anyway, they alanted police chiefs said that breaking 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:55.080 windows and setting fires is terrorism. I'm curious to get 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:56.400 everyone's thoughts on that. 0:22:56.920 --> 0:23:01.760 Sure, I think the Least and Andre Dickens are doing 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:05.520 what a lot of city governments have done, especially during 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:08.760 twenty twenty, which was like do things like call property 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:13.399 destruction terrorism, which like it's not and you can call 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:13.960 it whatever you want. 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:17.160 You can call it like property destruction and call it terrorism. 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:17.360 Is a very like. 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:20.640 Specific political strategy that exists. I think the right wing 0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:22.320 does it a lot. 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.560 And it would be worth calling that, like, you. 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:28.359 Know, because Defend the Forest doesn't have a BodyCount. The 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:31.440 police have only murdered an activist for defend the Forest, 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:34.720 whereas Defend the Forest has not strucken out violently against 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:37.400 anybody except in defense against the police. 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:39.560 You cannot do. 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:43.040 Violence to property. You cannot be violent towards a police car. 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:46.439 It's the same way that Andre Dickens is now getting 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:48.400 on TV and claiming. 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:50.320 That like fire calling fireworks explosives. 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:54.760 It's like, yes, there are objects that explode, but this 0:23:54.880 --> 0:23:58.280 is very clearly being done in bad fith because it 0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:01.920 is it is it justifies. This is the same way 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:04.760 like the DoD and the FBI, you. 0:24:04.760 --> 0:24:06.800 Call something terrorism, the money just pours on. 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:10.199 You get funding, you get justification to do things like that, 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:14.560 and you can arrest people and charge them with domestic terrorism. 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:17.800 That makes continuing and movement incredibly hard. That's a really 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:24.200 dangerous implication that any act in dissidence to the state 0:24:24.240 --> 0:24:26.760 could be called domestic terrorism. Should really scare of the 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:30.440 ship and everybody just here bit around the control and 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:34.240 should not be allowed to stand and should be competed against. 0:24:34.240 --> 0:24:35.200 Some of reform. 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:38.719 I talked with Peter about how if the police are 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:43.960 viewing vandalism or destruction of inanimate objects as domestic terrorism, 0:24:44.280 --> 0:24:47.720 if breaking a window is terrorism, that makes the question 0:24:48.040 --> 0:24:49.840 what exactly is destroying a forest? 0:24:50.200 --> 0:24:53.840 That juxtaposition of what the police consider violence, and like, 0:24:54.280 --> 0:24:57.880 what sort of like destruction of objects is violence? 0:24:58.480 --> 0:24:58.720 To me? 0:24:58.960 --> 0:25:03.280 This demonstrates what they see like as valuable. And also 0:25:03.480 --> 0:25:07.159 this demonstrates the police state and the corporation's inability to 0:25:07.880 --> 0:25:11.600 understand the aliveness of all things and how sacred the 0:25:11.640 --> 0:25:15.400 earth is. It shows that what they consider sacred, what 0:25:15.440 --> 0:25:19.400 they hold as sacred is property, and specifically their property. 0:25:20.359 --> 0:25:23.720 I think they fear the woods in part because it 0:25:24.520 --> 0:25:28.120 moves in ways that they can't comprehend. It moves in 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:29.440 nonlinear ways. 0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:33.800 Cricket also had something to say on this topic, well. 0:25:33.600 --> 0:25:36.600 And what is destroying a forest? What is destroying a person? 0:25:36.920 --> 0:25:39.040 They're more upset about the destruction of property than the 0:25:39.040 --> 0:25:41.320 destruction of a person, a whole human being who is 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:44.439 twenty six years old. They were young, they just started. 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:46.359 And that does not seem to measure up against some 0:25:46.400 --> 0:25:49.360 glass panes. That doesn't seem to register. And what about 0:25:49.400 --> 0:25:51.440 the terror they inspire in the forest? What about the 0:25:51.960 --> 0:25:55.440 I mean, obviously that these rhetorical questions when I'm preaching 0:25:55.440 --> 0:25:58.280 to the choir, but I mean, god, no, it's it's 0:25:58.320 --> 0:26:01.600 just infuriating. There's no how long for the day When 0:26:01.600 --> 0:26:04.239 the line is not drawn at well, you can do 0:26:04.280 --> 0:26:06.120 anything except touch private property. 0:26:07.000 --> 0:26:11.600 Noah mentioned the juxtaposition of broken windows being terrorism, but 0:26:12.080 --> 0:26:16.400 violent actions that actually hurt people seemingly not mattering nearly 0:26:16.440 --> 0:26:19.200 as much at least compared to a cracked window. 0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:21.800 Right, So it's a clear double standard in the same 0:26:21.840 --> 0:26:25.199 way that like, you know, during twenty twenty, people setting 0:26:25.240 --> 0:26:30.480 farm to police precincts was insurrection and an anarchy and 0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:32.840 on these things, But when the National Guard would shoot 0:26:32.840 --> 0:26:38.800 people it was a tragic air, I justified shooting. When 0:26:38.840 --> 0:26:42.040 when vigilantes would drive cars in the crowds and you 0:26:42.080 --> 0:26:45.520 know they can and play them for pit bombs protests, 0:26:45.560 --> 0:26:48.800 it does not get treated with the same levity because 0:26:49.440 --> 0:26:53.160 the powers that be can never, will, never will obviously 0:26:53.160 --> 0:26:55.680 never hold themselves the same standards that they will. 0:26:55.440 --> 0:26:59.520 Call us as their enemies, the meaning. 0:26:59.359 --> 0:27:00.800 Of words that matter to them. 0:27:00.840 --> 0:27:03.080 What matters is being able to get good sound bites 0:27:03.160 --> 0:27:08.240 to put on like Antifa actionship and make themselves because 0:27:08.240 --> 0:27:11.720 the city's decided that they can't back down from the 0:27:11.760 --> 0:27:15.399 procrap people that they're not willing to like backdown on 0:27:15.480 --> 0:27:16.240 that find. 0:27:16.000 --> 0:27:17.920 That this is where they're going to stake their flag 0:27:17.960 --> 0:27:18.840 and try and hold it out. 0:27:19.880 --> 0:27:23.440 From the start of the movement, the police have aggressively 0:27:23.520 --> 0:27:27.399 arrested and persecuted protesters associated with the struggle to stop 0:27:27.440 --> 0:27:30.439 cop City, starting all the way back with the first 0:27:30.560 --> 0:27:34.680 arrest of eleven peaceful protesters snatched off the sidewalk during 0:27:34.680 --> 0:27:38.840 the city council's vote to approve cop City. As corporations 0:27:38.840 --> 0:27:41.760 and the state moved to push cop Citi's development forward 0:27:41.880 --> 0:27:46.399