Speaker 1: Welcome back to it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis.
Speaker 1: This is part two of my mini series about what's
Speaker 1: been happening this summer in Atlanta to stop cop City.
Speaker 1: Last episode we left off with the attempted march from
Speaker 1: Gresham Park to Entrenchman Creek Park, which some might say
Speaker 1: was a disappointment, but it also gave everyone more clarity
Speaker 1: about the current state of these types of direct action
Speaker 1: marches in Atlanta and the necessity for evolution. The main
Speaker 1: event on Thursday, June twenty ninth was a protest outside
Speaker 1: the Home Depot in the upscale retail district off of
Speaker 1: Ponce de Leon Avenue. Home Depot is one of the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Police Foundation's financial backers.
Speaker 2: There had been a rumor that Home Depot was going
Speaker 2: to be close earlier in the day. I got there
Speaker 2: four thirty. It wasn't closed, so I didn't see any signage.
Speaker 2: So I went and parked my car and came back
Speaker 2: and like, I think I got out there for fifty
Speaker 2: and people were starting to line up along the road, like, uh,
Speaker 2: there's a Starbucks. And they were lining up along ponts
Speaker 2: next to the Starbucks. And you know, I'm I'm talking
Speaker 2: to them watching this. They're chanting, they're they're pulling out banners,
Speaker 2: and we get a call that they are arresting Lorraine Fontana.
Speaker 2: So Lorraine Fontana is a seventy six year old activist
Speaker 2: in Atlanta, and she's great like she she pops up everywhere.
Speaker 2: She's beloved by everyone. And so we get this call
Speaker 2: that Lorraine Fontana is being arrested, and I bolts as
Speaker 2: far as my little legs will take me, and then
Speaker 2: I have to stop and catch my breath, like right
Speaker 2: before I get there. But Lorrain and one other person
Speaker 2: were arrested in the parking lot right outside the Home
Speaker 2: Depot's store.
Speaker 3: Called for brays here and why anybody protests in the.
Speaker 2: Store when they start reading now the layer I asked,
Speaker 2: the boy handed the practices and the time I also.
Speaker 4: Learning telling them how people cannot want their faces or side.
Speaker 1: After protesters left the store, they stood by a corner
Speaker 1: in the parking lot to holding signs, where they were
Speaker 1: then approached by APD officers, who then arrested two people
Speaker 1: without warning.
Speaker 2: It does kind of just show APD like basically doing
Speaker 2: exactly what they would with anyone, except in this case
Speaker 2: it's a seventy six year old woman who's like five
Speaker 2: or four eleven or something like.
Speaker 1: That, Like, yeah, no, I mean it was a lot
Speaker 1: of people were like surprised that this happened, Like how
Speaker 1: could the police do this? I think others were like
Speaker 1: not as surprised, be like no, it's the APD. They
Speaker 1: like it was a good demonstration for people being like
Speaker 1: showing that they do not care. They don't really care
Speaker 1: if you're a seventy seven year old woman or if
Speaker 1: you're a nineteen year old eco terrorist, they're gonna treat.
Speaker 2: You roughly the same. Yeah.
Speaker 1: After Lorraine's arrest, more and more people began showing up
Speaker 1: across the street from Home Depot calling for their divestment
Speaker 1: from the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Speaker 2: It got up to like thirty maybe forty people mostly
Speaker 2: just like chanting on the sidewalks sidewatch, but then they
Speaker 2: started to like walk back and forth when when the
Speaker 2: crosswalk was like there, yeah, and they were they were
Speaker 2: pushing the limit, like seeing seeing what they could get.
Speaker 2: But there was also my favorite part was the APD
Speaker 2: officer who was sitting.
Speaker 5: In his.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. My favorite part was, fuck, I gotta do
Speaker 2: this about breaking down in the middle. I did hear
Speaker 2: a little bit about this? All right? Take three? Take three?
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: There was the APD officer that was sitting in his
Speaker 2: ford explore on Ponts and at one point he calls
Speaker 2: out on his you know, loud speaker, I'm not an idiot.
Speaker 2: I swear I'm not an idiot. While he's backing up
Speaker 2: on Ponts with his lights on, just like what are
Speaker 2: you doing? People are asking a lot of questions.
Speaker 1: They are already answered, I'm on an idiots shirt.
Speaker 2: Oh it was great. So I caught like the briefest
Speaker 2: snippet of that audio, thankfully. That's funny.
Speaker 1: On Thursday night, after the Home Depot rally, there was
Speaker 1: a jail vigil around ten pm for Lorraine at the
Speaker 1: Rice Street Fulton County Jail.
Speaker 2: So there there are two jails. There's Atlanta City Detention
Speaker 2: Center and then there's Fulton County Jail, which we just
Speaker 2: call Rice Street because it's off off Rice Street. So
Speaker 2: when you get charged with criminal trespassed, it's like a
Speaker 2: misdemeanor charge, and typically you would go to Atlanta City
Speaker 2: Detention Center, which still a jail is still terrible, but
Speaker 2: relatively like better. Okay, Fulton County Jail is you know
Speaker 2: atrocious it is, you know Leshawan Thompson. Of course that
Speaker 2: the guy who was eating a lot in his cell
Speaker 2: by bugs because of neglect, that is Rice Street Jail.
Speaker 2: That's the Fulton County Jail. That's the Fulton County Jail.
Speaker 2: So we get worried that Lorraine is at Fulton County
Speaker 2: Jail and not ACDC, which is pretty striking. So everybody
Speaker 2: goes down to do a jail vigil and noise demo
Speaker 2: for context.
Speaker 1: Last September, Lashawan Thompson, a thirty five year old man,
Speaker 1: was found dead after spending three months in an infested
Speaker 1: Fulton County Jail psychiatric cell. His body was covered in
Speaker 1: a thousand bug bites and insects were found in his mouth, ears, nose,
Speaker 1: and all across his body. Such inhumane incidents are not
Speaker 1: in irregularity in Fulton County Jail. Just earlier this month,
Speaker 1: a thirty five year old named Christopher Smith died in
Speaker 1: Fulton County Jail. He had been held in custody since
Speaker 1: October sixth, twenty nineteen, without bond on several unspecified felony
Speaker 1: and misdemeanor charges according to the County Sheriff's Office. Last month,
Speaker 1: a nineteen year old girl died in Fulton County custody
Speaker 1: after being arrested on a minor misdemeanor charge. This past
Speaker 1: year alone, six people have died in the Fulton County
Speaker 1: jail system. People in Atlanta have been doing jail vigils
Speaker 1: and noise demos for years and it's never really been
Speaker 1: a problem. Cops might tell people to move off to
Speaker 1: the side if the crowd gets to a certain size,
Speaker 1: but they have typically gone on without issue. But this
Speaker 1: time Fulton County deputies came out and declared that people
Speaker 1: are not allowed to protest outside the jail and ordered
Speaker 1: everyone to completely leave the parking lot and go all
Speaker 1: the way to the other side of this big hill
Speaker 1: off of Rice Street to jail property in order to
Speaker 1: continue protesting, which no one was really keen on doing,
Speaker 1: so this kind of game of chicken began.
Speaker 2: They eventually they pull on a bunch more sheriff's deputies
Speaker 2: and threatened arrest, So people started making their way up
Speaker 2: the hill, linking arms and get to the top of
Speaker 2: the hill and they're they're met with another group of
Speaker 2: protesters who had tried to come down, but they were
Speaker 2: stopped by police at the top of the hill. So
Speaker 2: now the crowd size like essentially doubled. Yeah, and the
Speaker 2: energy just goes through the roof. You know, both sides
Speaker 2: are just going back and forth. This This deputy is
Speaker 2: like completely overmatched, doesn't really They didn't seem like Fulton
Speaker 2: County had a plan. You know, usually APD or the
Speaker 2: cab they have some sort of protest planned. Fulton was
Speaker 2: flying by the seat of their pants, and so all
Speaker 2: of our cars were down at the bottom of the hill.
Speaker 2: They were back in the right street parking lot. And
Speaker 2: this this becomes like an issue because some of the
Speaker 2: protesters cars are there, all of the media cars are there,
Speaker 2: like down at the bottom of this hill, and they're
Speaker 2: not letting anyone go down there. And this woman shows
Speaker 2: up to like put I think money on her son's
Speaker 2: commissary car and they don't let her. Now she is
Speaker 2: like they're just shutting down j oracial loud, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2: So they finally first they're like we're gonna let you
Speaker 2: go down one by one, and everyone's like hell no,
Speaker 2: like we are not trusting you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, sure, sure, buddy, let's go, let's isolate isolated
Speaker 1: move through this police fortress in an isolated venor.
Speaker 2: Here. Uh So then they're like, okay, you can go
Speaker 2: as a group. Yeah, okay, as long as you have
Speaker 2: your vehicles down there, you can go as a group.
Speaker 2: So they slowly start to make their way down.
Speaker 6: They do not see in the next five minutes we
Speaker 6: want to start.
Speaker 2: We have to do. They get all the way to
Speaker 2: the bottom hill. They're in the parking lot and just
Speaker 2: like on the edge of where the cars are, and
Speaker 2: they kind of stop moving, and the shriff's deputy is like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I gotta keep moving, and so they start moving again
Speaker 2: and then stop again, and then the shriff's deputy says,
Speaker 2: all right, get them. And so then the deputy start
Speaker 2: moving in to make a rest. And quickly, you know this,
Speaker 2: this march kind of becomes this backward moving thing. Yeah
Speaker 2: I can't see that. I'm moving my hands to showcasson,
Speaker 2: but it becomes this backward moving thing up up the hill.
Speaker 2: That's the bottom line.
Speaker 6: I couplot to be you in the street, who will
Speaker 6: be taking ample cush get out the street, Get.
Speaker 1: Out the street, will be taking in the crowd was
Speaker 1: able to leave before anyone was detained, but it was
Speaker 1: a quite tense situation. The sort of dynamic we saw
Speaker 1: at the jail vigil and home depot protest led it
Speaker 1: directly into the next event on Friday morning, a previously
Speaker 1: announced second protest outside of Cadence Bank in Midtown calling
Speaker 1: on Cadence Bank to cancel the Atlanta Polace Foundation's twenty
Speaker 1: million dollar construction loan. All Right, people had a protest
Speaker 1: on Friday morning at Cadence Bank in Midtown Atlanta.
Speaker 2: There's maybe like.
Speaker 1: Around a dozen people here, uh, chanting outside of the building.
Speaker 1: Also about a dozen ap the officers walking walking down
Speaker 1: from up the street, preparing to meet the crowd. They're
Speaker 1: moving in closer that they're walking in again people still.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone's even touched touched the class door.
Speaker 1: Most of the people are just standing here on the sidewalk.
Speaker 2: You know that game you play with your cats where
Speaker 2: they come at you but they stop when you're watching them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's the game we're playing.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we turn away the cops
Speaker 1: advanced We like. This is also like half of like
Speaker 1: the Loony Tunes gags. Is this they're doing a Michelin
Speaker 1: frog all right, and they're they're now on the King's
Speaker 1: Bank property.
Speaker 2: They're start starting to advance.
Speaker 1: Police were yelling at people that they couldn't touch any
Speaker 1: of the steps leading up to the bank entrance, and
Speaker 1: that you weren't allowed to lean against any hand rails
Speaker 1: because the metal pole was bank property. So once again
Speaker 1: we got this little game of back and forth, except
Speaker 1: one side has guns and the power to rescue.
Speaker 6: Property.
Speaker 1: This cup said in the crowds trying to incite a riot,
Speaker 1: it feels very much like what you saw I guess
Speaker 1: in Portland.
Speaker 2: Obviously I wasn't there. Where there's an object that becomes
Speaker 2: this sacred goal and.
Speaker 1: Then you're you're battling over the thing because the thing
Speaker 1: has now been given.
Speaker 2: Given something like me actual physical like presence, and that
Speaker 2: is the thing that you are now fighting for. It
Speaker 2: becomes it becomes a symbolic in front of a building.
Speaker 2: It don't matter, but the police gave it significant.
Speaker 1: Because the police turn it into this like symbolic thing,
Speaker 1: it now means more than a just just being stabbed.
Speaker 2: So there was this camera guy who like kept kind
Speaker 2: of stepping up and like pushing the envelope.
Speaker 1: And eventually or activists put one foot on the steps,
Speaker 1: being like, Okay, if you're gonna come after us for
Speaker 1: putting a foot on the bank steps.
Speaker 2: Fine, come at us, like call the bluff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So there was like people yelling at the CoP's face
Speaker 1: for like forty five minutes, maybe maybe longer. Time always
Speaker 1: stretches during these sorts of things. It's hard to start
Speaker 1: to keep it's hard to keep a sense of like
Speaker 1: temporal stability, even just during during weeks of action. In general,
Speaker 1: it's always hard to keep a sense of temporal stability.
Speaker 1: That's the sense of time warps around. Days blend into
Speaker 1: each other. A day feels like a week, a week
Speaker 1: feels like a day. It's it's very it gets very fuzzy.
Speaker 2: It gets incredibly trippy, and you're like yeah, and the
Speaker 2: exhaustion right like just compounds. There's a lot of things
Speaker 2: that that feed into it.
Speaker 1: Despite about a dozen people putting their foot on the
Speaker 1: sacred steps, the police did not decide to arrest anyone
Speaker 1: at this protest, and after about an hour of disruption,
Speaker 1: the crowd departed.
Speaker 2: The week of action.
Speaker 1: Ended much like the last one, with the final rally
Speaker 1: being the Youth March back at Brownwood Park. Lorraine just
Speaker 1: got out on bail and spoke about the jail conditions
Speaker 1: to the crowd of one hundred or so people gathered
Speaker 1: in the park on the morning of July first.
Speaker 3: And I don't want people to forget that our movement
Speaker 3: is connected with lots of other stone, one of.
Speaker 2: Which is prison abolition.
Speaker 7: And the idea that our so quote criminal justice system
Speaker 7: is such that people get just shoved behind bars.
Speaker 3: We don't want to see them. We don't care what
Speaker 3: happens to them.
Speaker 4: And even if they're not hadn't gone to trial yet.
Speaker 3: And they're in a jail awaiting hearing or awaiting a.
Speaker 2: Trial, they're treated like they already want the.
Speaker 5: People that they're criminals, we don't.
Speaker 1: Have to care as much about them.
Speaker 2: They're kind of the people.
Speaker 1: Lorraine said that she was in a crowded holding cell
Speaker 1: with twenty two other women and just a few metal benches,
Speaker 1: nothing else. This is where nearly two dozen people had
Speaker 1: to sleep, had to eat, use the bathroom, all in
Speaker 1: one place for days on end. Women were trying to
Speaker 1: sit or sleep on either of the hard benches or
Speaker 1: the floor. Some were attempting to use menstrul pads in
Speaker 1: place of a mattress. If they were lucky enough to
Speaker 1: be asleep. They were woken up at two am for
Speaker 1: breakfast and then again at four am for head counting.
Speaker 3: They were so full, I didn't have bloom for the
Speaker 3: people that were being arrested, so they were in this
Speaker 3: holding sale.
Speaker 2: Some of them been there three days.
Speaker 7: It was something like eighteen feet by six feet across.
Speaker 2: The last six feet were behind a divider that had
Speaker 2: a toy as toy, so it was even less. The
Speaker 2: prison system is every day doing these kind of being
Speaker 2: u and treatment to people that get arrested or not
Speaker 2: yet guilty of anything.
Speaker 1: Student organizers and parents also briefly spoke on why people
Speaker 1: are fighting against cop City.
Speaker 2: I don't want to live in a city.
Speaker 5: I don't want to live in a country in a
Speaker 5: world that prioritizes the protection of private property through murder
Speaker 5: in state violence over the fundamental building blocks of life. Okay,
Speaker 5: I think we need to be focusing on giving people
Speaker 5: places to live, giving people food to eat, water to drink,
Speaker 5: not on giving the police playgrounds where they can blow.
Speaker 2: Up bombs and shoot their guns.
Speaker 5: And that's why all of us together here need to
Speaker 5: come together be as one here in beautiful community, with children,
Speaker 5: with elders, everything in between, doing this amazing community. I
Speaker 5: love being out here with y'all. It's so much fun
Speaker 5: to just like be working the popcorn machines and all that.
Speaker 5: And that's why we're all here together, because we know
Speaker 5: that community is the key for us to stop cop City,
Speaker 5: Stop cop City.
Speaker 2: And so as we fight to.
Speaker 3: Stop top City, we are fighting for investment in the
Speaker 3: things that make families thrive in this city. Were telling
Speaker 3: all dreat chickens, were telling the little police foundations, and
Speaker 3: we command that money be reinvested, and they're housing for
Speaker 3: the people, child care for the people, education for the people,
Speaker 3: health care for the people. But those are the things
Speaker 3: that make our communities truly safe. And if they won't
Speaker 3: give it to us, we're gonna build those networks of
Speaker 3: care in our communities ourselves. That is what makes days
Speaker 3: like today so beautiful, the fact that the people have
Speaker 3: the capacity to feel and feed the people. The people
Speaker 3: have the capacity to make sure that people say hi, drating.
Speaker 3: People have the capacity to give each other medical care.
Speaker 3: And as we build out those networks of care, we
Speaker 3: make the government irrelevance.
Speaker 2: You try to tell us what they do all day long.
Speaker 3: But if we continue to build people's power, well they
Speaker 3: have to say don't even matter.
Speaker 2: So are you ready to build that.
Speaker 4: Kind of world?
Speaker 1: As people got ready to depart, the energy was noticeably
Speaker 1: higher than most other events that week. All right, it
Speaker 1: is Saturday morning on July first. This is the last
Speaker 1: day of the sixth Week of Action. The Youth Rally
Speaker 1: just left Brownwood Park and is now marching through East
Speaker 1: Atlanta Village. Shortly before the Youth Rally, news started to
Speaker 1: circulate that early early that morning, just after midnight, several
Speaker 1: Atlanta police motorcycles and cop cars suffered mysterious damages, which
Speaker 1: possibly could have contributed to the more bolsterous energy among
Speaker 1: some of the radical attendees.
Speaker 2: People are driving by and honking in support.
Speaker 1: As about seventy five people, maybe one hundred or marked
Speaker 1: as about seventy five or one hundred people are our
Speaker 1: marching next to Metropolitan Avenue.
Speaker 2: Take a fire truck would pull their air horn. The
Speaker 2: fire trucks were kind of busy last night.
Speaker 1: Actually, I'm not sure the fire trucks were busy doing
Speaker 1: what There's well, it seems like a lot of police
Speaker 1: motorcycles were found to be set on fire at the
Speaker 1: sight of the old Police Trading Academy.
Speaker 2: Sounded like some police suck cruisers were wrecked somewhere else
Speaker 2: in the city too.
Speaker 1: On Memorial Drive Southeast, it sounded like three cop cars
Speaker 1: were also smashed up.
Speaker 2: Is you think there's something going around? Is it contagious? So, yeah,
Speaker 2: the fire crews were a little bit busy last night.
Speaker 2: Spontaneous vehicle vandalism.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's certainly one way to end this week of action.
Speaker 1: This definitely feels like the most positive part of the
Speaker 1: Week of action so far. Yeah, people have been marching
Speaker 1: for about twenty minutes now. The march is now turned
Speaker 1: down Glenwood and is heading back towards Brownwood Park. No
Speaker 1: police presence at all so far. There was just complete
Speaker 1: I've not seen a single cop car in this in
Speaker 1: this section of town. There's also three less cop cars
Speaker 1: in Atlanta than there usually is.
Speaker 2: So that might have something to do with it. It
Speaker 2: was from this zone too, that the second one where
Speaker 2: the cop cars are it was like a mile and
Speaker 2: a half away. Yeah, it's very very close, but yeah,
Speaker 2: very different than what we saw on last Saturday. Yes,
Speaker 2: where I like even on my way in I saw
Speaker 2: APD here every you know twenty feet yeah, and do
Speaker 2: not see a single Nope. APD vehicle is notable.
Speaker 1: The youth rally that closed the last week of action
Speaker 1: in March kind of felt like the end of an era.
Speaker 1: This one on July first felt very different, much more
Speaker 1: like the beginning of a new era. After a very
Speaker 1: scattered week, the movement finally started to feel like it
Speaker 1: had multiple directions to grow. This week definitely started on
Speaker 1: I would say, a muted note, and it's ended with
Speaker 1: a bit more directionality for the future and a bit
Speaker 1: more positivity.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: I think people were able to think of ways that
Speaker 1: the movement can evolve and grow from here and recognize
Speaker 1: the necessity for that and now change and yet recognized
Speaker 1: the necessity for change, and people are ready to continue
Speaker 1: and evolve as the situation on the ground is also changing.
Speaker 2: And I mean adaptability was was a part of the
Speaker 2: movement from the get go. Yes, just I think we
Speaker 2: got the movement got very tied to certain modes of
Speaker 2: operation that are not available anymore.
Speaker 7: Yep.
Speaker 1: You know, for the past like a few months, people
Speaker 1: have been it felt like people have been playing on
Speaker 1: the police's like board, like they've been they've been following that,
Speaker 1: and both both of the actual last night and the
Speaker 1: sort of talks that are happening throughout the city.
Speaker 2: I think that is probably going to change. All right.
Speaker 1: We are about a block away from Brownwood Park on
Speaker 1: Portland Avenue and Gresham Avenue, where there is pizza and
Speaker 1: water waiting. That is, that is I'm excited for water.
Speaker 1: I don't think I can have hot pizza right now.
Speaker 1: I think I would just faint, but cold water is certainly, certainly,
Speaker 1: enticely certainly. Yeah, and there's music back here in Brownwood.
Speaker 1: Tables set up, giving out literature, giving out food, water,
Speaker 1: lots of bubbles. Earlier, earlier, at the earlier, at the
Speaker 1: rally before the march, there was a water balloon fight
Speaker 1: which was very dangerous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I left it. I don't know why you've stayed
Speaker 2: around the water move. I took my laptop and left.
Speaker 2: There was there was there was a few very close
Speaker 2: moments there. But yeah, no, there's food.
Speaker 1: There's lots of signs, banners, lots of a lot of
Speaker 1: Little Caesar's pizza. There was much more energy here compared
Speaker 1: to the kickoff rally, which happened in the very same
Speaker 1: park exactly a week beforehand, which felt sort of reversed
Speaker 1: from the previous week of action this past March, which
Speaker 1: is interesting because like last week of action, you know,
Speaker 1: the kickoff rally was like the biggest thing, was the
Speaker 1: biggest energy point, and the youth rally was kind of
Speaker 1: the more like muted clothes and this has kind of
Speaker 1: been inversed.
Speaker 2: Which honestly for when you're looking at like what has
Speaker 2: happened over the last few months, maybe reading leaning out
Speaker 2: with a high note is yeah, is the ideal.
Speaker 1: I like that We're also ending with the bouncy castle,
Speaker 1: which is very very important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for the full flip, we have to end with
Speaker 2: the bouncy castle.
Speaker 1: Yes, although we should move the bouncy castle to eight
Speaker 1: ninety Memorial Drive Southeast, oh my god.
Speaker 2: Stop.
Speaker 1: After the youth rally, Matt and I got some coffee
Speaker 1: in Eastern It's a village and talked about the broad
Speaker 1: strokes of the week and the general state of the movement.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I think this week started with a
Speaker 1: lot of questions being had and it's ended with some
Speaker 1: of those questions being being answered and people figuring out
Speaker 1: that to answer some of some of those other questions.
Speaker 1: The answer will will will take the form of actions
Speaker 1: that happened in these next few months. And I feel
Speaker 1: like there's it's it's it's ended with a bit more
Speaker 1: directionality than when it began, which is interesting for a.
Speaker 2: Week of action. Yeah, it was needed, though it was
Speaker 2: absolutely needed.
Speaker 1: Like at like the first rally just felt so weird
Speaker 1: that for the first tick offf rally that the first day,
Speaker 1: that the first few days felt just very very like
Speaker 1: very scattered. It was unclear how what was happening was
Speaker 1: related to stop in Coff City. And in some ways
Speaker 1: this week of action feels like the reverse of the
Speaker 1: last week of action, where like the last week of action,
Speaker 1: it started with a point of directionality, like we are
Speaker 1: going to retake Wallani and they did.
Speaker 2: And then they're like, we are going.
Speaker 1: To do an action to physically stop the construction of
Speaker 1: cop City, and they did, like they was doing all
Speaker 1: these things. And I think that week ended with more
Speaker 1: questions than what it started with because the police did
Speaker 1: the rate of the forest, there was a lot of
Speaker 1: there was more uncertainty by the end of the week
Speaker 1: because there was so much over policing. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of changes through throughout that week,
Speaker 1: and I think this week started in like an inverse
Speaker 1: is people started this week with a directionless sense, and
Speaker 1: they had a lot of questions going into this week,
Speaker 1: and I feel like some people have started to kind
Speaker 1: of figure out how the movement will evolve in these
Speaker 1: next few months, and it feels like people have a
Speaker 1: better idea of where of like how they're going to
Speaker 1: move forward in these next three months six months, and
Speaker 1: like the month and a half when construction is slated
Speaker 1: to begin in August.
Speaker 2: Later to begain and you know, this referendum is looking
Speaker 2: like it's doing pretty well, so hopefully that that does delay.
Speaker 2: But yeah, of course we also ended with the bouncy casts.
Speaker 2: We can't do it so acknowledging the importance of bouncy
Speaker 2: castles to this movement, or at least to Garrison, And.
Speaker 1: I yes, I think the other thing that makes it
Speaker 1: interesting in terms of this week being an inverse of
Speaker 1: the last week is that you know, on the last week,
Speaker 1: day two, there was this very.
Speaker 2: Fiery action with vehicles being smashed.
Speaker 1: And then on the second to last day, which is
Speaker 1: like late last night, either like late Friday, night or
Speaker 1: early Saturday morning at like one am, two am, there
Speaker 1: was three Atlanta police cars smashed by Reynoldstown I believe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just right like a mile and a half away from
Speaker 1: from Brownwood Park, YEP and close to the airport at
Speaker 1: the old Police training Academy. There was a it looks
Speaker 1: like a good fleet of Atlanta Police motorcycles.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's where the motorcycle Like, that's where the motors.
Speaker 2: The credit quarters is outside and those motorcycles are going
Speaker 2: to be no longer functioning.
Speaker 1: Yes, they are all charged to a crisp with like
Speaker 1: incendiary devices found there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the most noticeable differences about this week of
Speaker 1: action compared to the previous one was the turnout out
Speaker 1: of state support did not show up in similar numbers
Speaker 1: as to the last week of action in March. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of potential reasons for this. This week may
Speaker 1: have simply happened too soon, It coincided with other events
Speaker 1: across the country. Its messaging may not have reflected an
Speaker 1: adequate level of planning. There was probably some demoralization from
Speaker 1: the ninety acres of trees cut down and with entrenchment.
Speaker 1: Creek Park closed and under police occupation. Launching options in
Speaker 1: Atlanta was more of a mystery for those coming from
Speaker 1: outside the city. More time away from the death of
Speaker 1: Tortigita is probably also a factor. People in Atlanta may
Speaker 1: have to reconcile that the movement may not have as
Speaker 1: much widespread national support and all the ground numbers as
Speaker 1: it did last March.
Speaker 2: This is the smallest week of action we've had in
Speaker 2: over a year in Duisa memory. This is the smallest
Speaker 2: one I've I've reported on. Right, Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 2: think it might have even been comparable to the first
Speaker 2: week of Action, like it was around there, but it
Speaker 2: also felt more local. It did feel way more local.
Speaker 2: Once you go from like something so big as the
Speaker 2: last week of action to something more constrained, that is
Speaker 2: that sets a like a vibe shift. Yeah, that I
Speaker 2: think you've got to kind of come to terms with.
Speaker 2: And it's one of those moments where you're like, Okay,
Speaker 2: we are in a different paradigm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fewer numbers is not necessarily a bad thing. A
Speaker 1: group of five to ten people can sometimes be much
Speaker 1: more effective at doing certain things than a crowd of
Speaker 1: two hundred or even a thousand. You just have to
Speaker 1: specifically prepare for the numbers that you know that you'll
Speaker 1: have for such a long time, I felt like this
Speaker 1: was this movement was extremely effective in delaying construction like
Speaker 1: that was like extremely effective deadline year and a half
Speaker 1: deadlines kept getting pushed back every single thing. Like the
Speaker 1: occupation was very good at doing what it attempted to do,
Speaker 1: and at a certain point that became no longer viable.
Speaker 2: And things are now changing gears. Yeah, and you have
Speaker 2: to allow yourself that evolution like that.
Speaker 1: It has to the same way people started occupying the
Speaker 1: forest in October after the city council stuff in September
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, Like as the things change, you have
Speaker 1: to change your tactics with it.
Speaker 2: And as I mean, as revolutionary strategy goes, that's just
Speaker 2: that should be a baseline and adapting to what the
Speaker 2: situation is and not what the situation what you want
Speaker 2: it to be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think more people are talking about that
Speaker 1: this week and realizing that like maybe even another week
Speaker 1: of Action does not make sense for this new paradigm
Speaker 1: that we're existing in Atlanta. I've talked about the possibility
Speaker 1: of changing the week of Action structure before in previous episodes.
Speaker 1: And I really only brought that up because that's what
Speaker 1: people were conveying to me at the time. And this
Speaker 1: has continued to be a topic of debate both during
Speaker 1: and since June.
Speaker 2: What do you do with the week of Action format?
Speaker 2: And I know that we kind of talked about this
Speaker 2: during the last YEP recap episode where you brought up
Speaker 2: that that might have been the last Week of Action,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't because as I was making as episodes this
Speaker 1: Week of Action what was announced, I've heard more people
Speaker 1: say that they don't think the Week of Action format
Speaker 1: is applicable anymore more. I've heard more people say that
Speaker 1: than I did last week. What if Atlanta has kind
Speaker 1: of outgrown this format? This format's proved to be very
Speaker 1: useful in these past few years. There's been very positive parts,
Speaker 1: it's been very negative parts. And what if there's time
Speaker 1: for What if it's time for something like completely new,
Speaker 1: something that the police don't know how to respond.
Speaker 2: To, because something that matches the new paradigm. Yeah, because
Speaker 2: that's the other thing.
Speaker 1: It's like people have been doing this for like two
Speaker 1: years now, Like not only have people gotten used to
Speaker 1: a pattern, but like police have gotten used to a pattern,
Speaker 1: like police have gotten very good at resting the week
Speaker 1: of action, like they have, they have had two years
Speaker 1: to practice, they have they know how to do this now,
Speaker 1: So why why keep playing on their battlefield?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 2: Why why keep doing what APD is expecting you to do.
Speaker 1: That's part of what's you know, interesting about this resurgence
Speaker 1: of these nocturnal hit and run sabotages that are unannounced.
Speaker 1: That we saw the ones earlier in this week with
Speaker 1: the with the Brent Scarborough's machines. Then we saw the
Speaker 1: APD vehicles get hit last night, So perhaps there there
Speaker 1: will be more of that. Perhaps they'll be just new
Speaker 1: things that we can't even predict, Like there's so many
Speaker 1: other avenues that things could that things could go. Even
Speaker 1: during the use March, Matt and I were wondering if
Speaker 1: this new spike in sabotage actions would break the spell
Speaker 1: and we'd see a return of this type of action
Speaker 1: happening more frequently. You know.
Speaker 2: It's it's the sort of direct action that has really
Speaker 2: been missing over the last several months. Yeah, and no,
Speaker 2: And we've been talking about a lot this past week.
Speaker 1: We're talking about how there's been a lot of these
Speaker 1: sorts of like nocturnal hit and run direct actions, and
Speaker 1: late last night it seems like there was a resurgence.
Speaker 2: So we'll see how that continues, you know, after the
Speaker 2: Week of Action, if it continues, or if it was
Speaker 2: a Week of Action inspired element. But I have a
Speaker 2: feeling we'll see some of those continue to crop up.
Speaker 1: Absolutely and this did indeed turn out to be the case,
Speaker 1: all right. I will do my best to go over
Speaker 1: a short list of the claimed attacks against contractors, building Copcity,
Speaker 1: and corporations that fund the Atlanta Police Foundation from after
Speaker 1: this week of action. On a July first, over half
Speaker 1: a dozen Bank of America buildings in the Bay Area
Speaker 1: where vandalized and a dozen or so ATMs were smashed.
Speaker 1: In late June to early July, group of friends visited
Speaker 1: the home of copp City architect Anthony Kenny in Norcross, Georgia,
Speaker 1: while another group paid a visit to Ambrush baseil Walla,
Speaker 1: a member of the board of trustees for the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Police Foundation. People painted messages around their homes and tires
Speaker 1: were slashed. On the night of July second, Keith Johnson,
Speaker 1: the Eastern Regional president for Brassfield and Gory, the contracting
Speaker 1: firm who broadly oversaw the destruction of the forest and
Speaker 1: who has decided to physically build cop City, also received
Speaker 1: a mysterious visit late in the night. An unknown number
Speaker 1: of people evaded security guards and spread blood red paint
Speaker 1: around his pool and left a message reading cop City
Speaker 1: will never be built. Drop the contract and you can't hide.
Speaker 1: According to an online communicay, rotten fish and dirty motor
Speaker 1: oil were left hidden somewhere on the property. Part of
Speaker 1: the communicay, addressed to Keith reads quote, we know things
Speaker 1: haven't been feeling great in the office. You're losing money.
Speaker 1: Subcontractors are upset. There are fractures everywhere in the cop
Speaker 1: City project, and all of that weight and procarity is
Speaker 1: on your fragile shoulders. Each time you think of us,
Speaker 1: or see the reminders we left you, remember this is
Speaker 1: your own doing. You can make all of this stop
Speaker 1: by dropping the Copcity contract. On July fourth, in lieu
Speaker 1: of fireworks, people claimed to have set two Brent Scarborough
Speaker 1: machines on fire in broad daylight due to the lack
Speaker 1: of security during daytime. Scarborough is the subcontractor who physically
Speaker 1: leveled the ninety sum acres of Forest in the Wallani
Speaker 1: The same day in Michigan, Chase Bank ATMs were sabotaged
Speaker 1: with glue and the bank was vandalized with messages of resistance.
Speaker 1: Chase Bank's head of Regional Investment Banking serves on the
Speaker 1: board of the Atlanta Police Foundation. And on July eighth,
Speaker 1: a Bank of America in Berkeley was vandalized with stopcop
Speaker 1: city slogans and three ATMs were smashed. During the start
Speaker 1: of this little wave of actions, the Mayor's office and
Speaker 1: APD were none too happy, so on July fifth, Mayor
Speaker 1: Andre Dickens and Atlanta Police Chief Darren Scherbaum put on
Speaker 1: a press conference with the ATS, Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Speaker 1: and FBI to discuss the recent surge of direct actions.
Speaker 6: Our public safety facilities and property were the target of
Speaker 6: an extremely violent and dangerous attack on Saturday, July first,
Speaker 6: and there were several other destructive acts of extreme vandalism
Speaker 6: on public and private properly property that occurred that we
Speaker 6: have reason to believe are related to the construction of
Speaker 6: the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in Decab County. The
Speaker 6: current Atlanta Police Training Center at one eighty south Side
Speaker 6: Industrial Parkway was set up in the early morning hours
Speaker 6: of Saturday, July first. The targeted attack utilized extremely dangerous
Speaker 6: homemade incendiary devices to set a fire to the building
Speaker 6: and completely destroyed eight police motorcycle motorcycles. As shocking as
Speaker 6: this is, this was not an isolated incident of violence.
Speaker 6: This group actually took credit for these incidents and they
Speaker 6: stated it as I quote, we are vengeful wing nuts
Speaker 6: with nothing left to lose.
Speaker 7: Prior to that, about one hour prior to the event
Speaker 7: of one of the South Side industrial we had another
Speaker 7: precinct that was targeted in the city. This is our
Speaker 7: Path Force Precinct, Memorial Drive and the eight hundred block
Speaker 7: of the Memorial. These officers control the belt line which
Speaker 7: many of you all visit frequently. At that location, we
Speaker 7: had multiple windows broken on police vehicles. We believe the
Speaker 7: intent was to set those vehicles on fire as well.
Speaker 7: Half and fire off of the of the red fuse
Speaker 7: on the ground that has been used by this group
Speaker 7: in the past to set police vehicles on fire that
Speaker 7: was dropped when a citizen observed the criminal actions progress
Speaker 7: and actually interrupted the crimes that were occurring there. So
Speaker 7: we believe that the fire attack that was planned on
Speaker 7: Memorial Drive was thwarted by an observant citizen. A short
Speaker 7: time later, about an hour, we had the fire at
Speaker 7: our facility on Southside Industrial. Our training center has housed
Speaker 7: there most recently, and then our special operations precinct is there.
Speaker 7: The intent was for all forty to be destroyed, and
Speaker 7: had all those forty vehicles caught on fire, that police
Speaker 7: facility would have been gravely damaged, if not destroyed in
Speaker 7: the fire. And we are thankful for a police officer
Speaker 7: that saw this unfolding and likely interrupted that plan for
Speaker 7: being able to play out in its fullness. There's an
Speaker 7: indication that this was likely committed by the exact same intevisions.
Speaker 7: We will let and see where.
Speaker 5: The fact tickets.
Speaker 1: According to Chief Sheerbaum and Mayor Dickens, the actions against
Speaker 1: Atlanta Police on July first, over the course of just
Speaker 1: a few hours equaled over were three hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in damages as.
Speaker 7: We're around thirty five thousand, and they once you outfit
Speaker 7: us a little bit more so, do that times eight,
Speaker 7: that's going to put you in the ballpark.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and that's not even including the rest of the
Speaker 6: smoke and damage. And other things, and the broken windows
Speaker 6: on the police car, etc.
Speaker 7: So the group that struck this weekend is a dedicated
Speaker 7: group of professional anarchists, and I know that may seem
Speaker 7: a contradiction in terms. So this is a group of
Speaker 7: individuals who don't pray, play by any rules, and we'll
Speaker 7: go to any links they need to to carry out.
Speaker 7: And this is their words. We will wage a campaign
Speaker 7: of violence and destruction, and so what we saw this
Speaker 7: weekend was part of that campaign.
Speaker 1: It's always funny when police make anarchists sound very cool
Speaker 1: and scary. But Chief Scherbaum also pretty clearly explained the
Speaker 1: reasoned methodology behind the pressure campaigns targeting contractors and APF
Speaker 1: financial sponsors.
Speaker 7: We know from the postings of this group their intent
Speaker 7: to stop the Public Safety Trading Center has left the
Speaker 7: democratic pro sess of the city Council and is now
Speaker 7: moving to intimidate and force out contractors that are committed
Speaker 7: to building the Public Safety training Center this weekend. During
Speaker 7: the week of action, three different locations private residences were targeted.
Speaker 7: Tires were flattened on contractors home. A home of an
Speaker 7: executive for Brassalgory was significantly vanalyzed. In another jurisdiction. And
Speaker 7: then we had another location where graffiti was used to intimidate.
Speaker 7: And then yesterday morning, slightly after seven o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 7: a location at four eighteen McDonough Boulevard belonging to Brent
Speaker 7: Scarborough's company, which is a key provider of work and
Speaker 7: this training centers was also targeted and attacked and equipment
Speaker 7: was set on fire at that location. These acts are
Speaker 7: of a small, determined group. These are small individuals from
Speaker 7: across the country that are using violence and fear and
Speaker 7: intimidation to stop a public safety training center. And this
Speaker 7: group cannot hide behind the dark of night or the
Speaker 7: home address and feel that they are not going to
Speaker 7: be held accountable. I have standing at this podium with
Speaker 7: me today representings from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the ATF,
Speaker 7: and we are also partner with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Speaker 7: These agencies are working together to determine where federal laws
Speaker 7: violated this weekend and ensure that the full expertise of
Speaker 7: American law enforcement is present right here in Atlanta to
Speaker 7: stop this group, stop this group across the region, stop
Speaker 7: their ability to impact the public safety network of Atlanta
Speaker 7: and hold them accountable.
Speaker 1: Despite continued threats from law enforcement, the only arrests that
Speaker 1: have happened so far in relation to this movement are
Speaker 1: from daytime protests, forest raids, and bail fund organizers. We've
Speaker 1: yet to see anyone arrested in Atlanta for doing like
Speaker 1: a specific one of these nocturnal like nights sabotage actions.
Speaker 2: That has not happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the scariest indictments everyone's expecting are going
Speaker 1: to come in these next few years, after you give
Speaker 1: the FBI two three, four years to investigate, after you
Speaker 1: interview or people whove been arrested, see if anyone stitches,
Speaker 1: if anyone turns state's witness. But so far, it's been
Speaker 1: safer to do nocturnal sabotage actions than it has been
Speaker 1: to attend a public protest. And that is an interesting
Speaker 1: paradigm as well, is that no one's actually got arrested
Speaker 1: for lighting like cop cars and fire in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night. No one's been arrested for sabotaging equipment
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night. All of the arrests
Speaker 1: that are you know, are being tied to like violent
Speaker 1: crime are from like daytime protests, which is an interesting
Speaker 1: factor about this movement. Direct action in the most surveiled
Speaker 1: city in America can be tricky, and even just managing
Speaker 1: cell phones and Internet search data is a huge factor.
Speaker 1: But as much real security there is out in the world,
Speaker 1: the amount of security theater is arguably a stronger aspect
Speaker 1: in getting people to not go out and do direct action.
Speaker 1: The implicit threat of the panopticon is often enough to
Speaker 1: stifle people's potential action, but these things are beatable. Guides
Speaker 1: for how to do it exist either at your local
Speaker 1: anarchist book fair or online as long as the computer
Speaker 1: is running tour browser and a reputable VPN.
Speaker 2: The Internet.
Speaker 1: The internet's a fun place. That's there is a lot
Speaker 1: of no blogs and sites and the zines that tell
Speaker 1: you how to do that. I don't know, I mean
Speaker 1: they people always make mistakes, People get caught sometimes make mistakes.
Speaker 2: It's risky, and there are cameras everywhere in the city.
Speaker 2: You have to Yeah, some of them, don't worry. But
Speaker 2: it's like, do you really want to play Russian Roulette?
Speaker 1: No, that's a part of that's a part of when
Speaker 1: people like plan these nocturnal actions is like just because
Speaker 1: it's nighttime, doesn't mean you're not sick getting watched or
Speaker 1: you're not.
Speaker 2: Like it's there's a lot of things that go into that.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of ways to get got whether you're
Speaker 1: like buying supplies and you keep a receipt and people
Speaker 1: please find a receipt, They track back, they find security
Speaker 1: acount of you'll be purchasing things and then they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this bottle is bought it this place because you have
Speaker 1: this receipt in your house and blah blahlah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Like there's there's lots of ways that that stuff happens.
Speaker 1: So like I'm not going to give a guide on
Speaker 1: how to do it right now, but like anarchists have
Speaker 1: been doing this for a long time.
Speaker 2: After you do that crime, you've never done that crime.
Speaker 1: Like it's it's not something that you do as a person,
Speaker 1: like you cease to become a person, you've become like
Speaker 1: you are that action.
Speaker 2: It is subsumed in the action, and then and then
Speaker 2: it's you never talked about it ever again. It's gone
Speaker 2: or else you end up going to prison. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: risking like not just your safety, the safety everyone's safety
Speaker 2: just by remembering that you did it.
Speaker 1: No you know, like these become standards and anarchist communities,
Speaker 1: like you never brag about something, You never allude to
Speaker 1: anything like it's it's it's not it's not a game
Speaker 1: like you're it's not a game. You're it is your
Speaker 1: your life and other people's lives on the line. When
Speaker 1: when when you're doing stuff like this and it's yeah,
Speaker 1: you you never do it to like cool. You never
Speaker 1: do it to brag about it like that. That's just
Speaker 1: not how this works, which is why there's kind of
Speaker 1: a much more like kind of insular culture around some anarchists,
Speaker 1: especially anarchists to identify as like illegalists or like the
Speaker 1: types of like like green nihilists or green anarchists. That
Speaker 1: kind of pioneered the militancy of this movement both slightly
Speaker 1: even slightly before the first City Council vote and then
Speaker 1: definitely after the first City Council vote where we saw
Speaker 1: a massive explosion no pun intended in the number of
Speaker 1: type of sabotages happening in the Wlani Forest. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: I think that drew a lot of anarchists do come
Speaker 1: to Atlanta because it.
Speaker 2: Was like, oh, they're doing a thing that's been the
Speaker 2: thing since the end of the green scare.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, this is like the thing that I believe
Speaker 1: in that this is like, this is my politics. Now
Speaker 1: there's a spot where I can do my politics. And
Speaker 1: still no one's been caught for that. And I think
Speaker 1: that that was a big part of why Atlanta got
Speaker 1: so big last year, was that people had the ability
Speaker 1: to like live free in the forest and then do
Speaker 1: crazy shit at night. Like you can you live in
Speaker 1: this like autonomous zone during the day. You're able, whether
Speaker 1: you're you have housing instability, whether you just want like
Speaker 1: an escape from like horrible police state living. Like where
Speaker 1: in whatever, wherever the city you're in, you can go
Speaker 1: live in the Wilane Forest. You can live in a tent,
Speaker 1: you can have friends, you can defend this force during
Speaker 1: the day, and then you can do crazy, crazy shit
Speaker 1: at night. And that drew a lot of people to Atlanta,
Speaker 1: And now with the forest not being there, that also
Speaker 1: changes that that changes the type of people who are come,
Speaker 1: who are who want to come to the city because
Speaker 1: that that was a big draw for people And now
Speaker 1: that that's no longer an option, you can't really sleep
Speaker 1: in the Wilani Forest as easily anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that changes the types.
Speaker 1: Of people who want to come to Atlanta and who
Speaker 1: are gonna like do crazy shit because that's just how And.
Speaker 2: Further on safety, they're not here. Yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 1: As the referendum is hoping to stop cop City by
Speaker 1: having Atlanta residents vote on whether to cancel the land lease,
Speaker 1: other in the Diverse movement have continued their efforts to
Speaker 1: pressure contractors and funders to drop out of the cop
Speaker 1: City project. This tactic has already demonstrated its ability to succeed,
Speaker 1: with Reeve's Young Construction dropping out of the project in
Speaker 1: April of twenty twenty two, and some material suppliers have
Speaker 1: since cut ties with cop City. This is something that
Speaker 1: APD Chief Darren Shecherbaum certainly seems worried about.
Speaker 7: This effort of fear was not going to succeed, and
Speaker 7: the coalition of law enforcement from the GBI to the FBI,
Speaker 7: to the ATF, Atlanta Police Department, and a slew of
Speaker 7: regional agencies is going to stop that campaign so it
Speaker 7: doesn't happen and individuals.
Speaker 5: Do not leave the project.
Speaker 1: On July second, protesters in Minnesota visited the homes of
Speaker 1: Atlas Technical Consultants employees during daylight, people marched around the
Speaker 1: neighborhoods with instruments and banners, knocked on doors, talked with neighbors,
Speaker 1: and left a letter of demands to drop the contract
Speaker 1: and cut ties with the Atlanta Police Foundation. The project
Speaker 1: manager for Atlas Technical Consultants engaged with protesters in the
Speaker 1: street and told them that Atlas had indeed already dropped
Speaker 1: out of the project due to mounting pressure than we want.
Speaker 8: Atlas is no longer involved.
Speaker 1: Why they decide to get out of it?
Speaker 8: We stopped doing that. Why because you guys are fucking
Speaker 8: nightmares and you broke all our fucking windows.
Speaker 2: So you remember, I don't care what you want to say,
Speaker 2: So you.
Speaker 8: Know my house and knock on my door and do
Speaker 8: this ship. My company is not involved in this, So
Speaker 8: get the fuck away from me. Okay, I'm glad.
Speaker 2: Alright.
Speaker 1: A few days later, Atlas and Long Engineering released an
Speaker 1: official statement saying that they would no longer be working
Speaker 1: on the cop City project. Anarchists and those on the
Speaker 1: left in general seem to have a hard time calling wins,
Speaker 1: But I'm not sure if it gets any more definitive
Speaker 1: than that audio clip in showing that this type of
Speaker 1: direct action can absolutely work in getting businesses to leave
Speaker 1: the project. In the next episode, we'll talk more about
Speaker 1: the referendum, the city's attempts to divide the movement, and
Speaker 1: the growing pr battle over the fate of Copcity.
Speaker 2: See you on the other side.
Speaker 4: It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.
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