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Speaker 1: Come Monday morning, Basically no one was in the forest.

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Speaker 1: The police raid the night prior pushed out most of

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Speaker 1: the people gathered for the music festival and week of action,

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Speaker 1: and it was still unclear how the rest of the

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Speaker 1: week would now proceed. This Monday happened to be the

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Speaker 1: Jewish holiday Porum. Initially there were plans to have a

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Speaker 1: Perum celebration in the forest that evening, but it was

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Speaker 1: unknown if people would feel comfortable returning to the woods.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis.

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Speaker 1: This is episode three of my mini series covering the

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Speaker 1: March twenty twenty three Week of Action to defend the

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Speaker 1: Atlanta Forest. Monday, March sixth also happened to be the

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Speaker 1: day of an Atlanta City Council meeting, and the Stopcop

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Speaker 1: City Clergy coalition held a well attended press conference at

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Speaker 1: noon outside City Hall. Reverend on To Jones opened up

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Speaker 1: at the press conference by making the Clergy's position clear.

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Speaker 2: We are the Faith Coalition against Cop City, and we

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Speaker 2: are here to again raise our voices so that Mayor

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Speaker 2: Andre Dickens and the members of the City Council of

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Speaker 2: Atlanta know that we will not stand for the atrocities

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Speaker 2: that have been occurring. We will not stand for cop

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Speaker 2: City to go forward. The community came out and made

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Speaker 2: public comment for over seventeen hours when given an opportunity,

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Speaker 2: and said emphatically, no, we don't want your cop City.

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Speaker 2: We don't want more repression of black people. We don't

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Speaker 2: want more polluted air, we don't want less green space

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Speaker 2: in our community. We don't want more policing and terrorizing

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Speaker 2: of black, brown, indigenous bodies in our community.

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Speaker 1: Referend To Jones gave her own perspective as a local

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Speaker 1: atlant with deep ties to the city.

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Speaker 2: So we are here as faith leaders today and we

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Speaker 2: are here to say, Mayor Dickens, if you didn't hear

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Speaker 2: us the first time, we are here once again to

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Speaker 2: let you know that we don't want cop City. This

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Speaker 2: is our community, this is our land. I am a

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Speaker 2: daughter of East Atlanta. I still live in East Atlanta.

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Speaker 2: I don't want cop City. My granny owns a home

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Speaker 2: that she's been in for almost fifty years in the

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Speaker 2: heart of East Atlanta Village. She does not want cop City.

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Speaker 2: My neighbor across the street does not want cop City.

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Speaker 2: The teachers at my daughter's school do not want Cop City.

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Speaker 1: She also addressed the outside agitator's narrative that police and

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Speaker 1: media have continued to craft against force defenders, including by

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Speaker 1: only arresting and charging people thought to be from out

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Speaker 1: of town at the music festival that previous night.

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Speaker 2: So we're here today to make sure that we ring

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Speaker 2: the alarm and dispel the false narrative that it's outside

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Speaker 2: agitators who don't want this. We know that this is

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Speaker 2: the rhetoric that's been going on ever since abolition began,

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Speaker 2: that it's outside agitators. They said slaves didn't want to

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Speaker 2: be free, but it was white people from the North

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Speaker 2: who wanted it. That's a lie. They said that black

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Speaker 2: people in the South didn't want civil rights, but it

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Speaker 2: was white people from the North. That's a lie. Today

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Speaker 2: they are claiming that the.

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Speaker 3: Black people love Cop City.

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Speaker 2: It's outside agitators from elsewhere, and that again is a lie.

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Speaker 2: Simply because the police have chosen to systematically arrest people

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Speaker 2: from out of state doesn't mean that what they're saying

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Speaker 2: is the truth.

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Speaker 1: Reverend Leoshe addressed to other faith leaders and asked them

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Speaker 1: to join in their calls to stop the Cop City project.

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Speaker 4: We local Atlantic clergy and religious leaders representing diverse communities

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Speaker 4: call on clergy, religious leaders and people of faith and

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Speaker 4: moral conscience across this nation and in solidarity with local

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Speaker 4: Atlanta leaders, to stop cop City, stop the swap, and

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Speaker 4: defend the Atlanta forests. Wilani People's part. Today, we're gathered

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Speaker 4: for this press conference and we will be delivering a

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Speaker 4: letter to Atlanta City Council.

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Speaker 3: But we invite you to.

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Speaker 4: Continue in this faithful work that we are doing and

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Speaker 4: contribute wherever you find your space in this growing movement.

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Speaker 4: We call on clergy religious leaders, who are a moral

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Speaker 4: authority in our society, to use your power in support

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Speaker 4: of the forest protectors. We are deeply concerned for the

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Speaker 4: greater Atlanta community and the implications for the future of

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Speaker 4: public safety in the United States if Copsuity moves forward.

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Speaker 1: At the press conference, the coalition presented a letter to

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Speaker 1: the City Council signed by over two hundred clergy members.

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Speaker 1: Reverend Leoshe also read it aloud.

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Speaker 4: Despite a record breaking amount of public comment opposing the facility,

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Speaker 4: Atlanta City councils still passed legislation to build Copcity. We

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Speaker 4: are troubled by leadership that stops acting on the will

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Speaker 4: of the people and aligns itself instead with corporate money

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Speaker 4: and the dominant power structure. Urged on by the message

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Speaker 4: of peace and compassion in all our faiths, we deplore

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Speaker 4: escalating militarization by city and state government, most recently since

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Speaker 4: the police killing of Rayshard Brooks here in twenty twenty

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Speaker 4: by the Atlanta Police Department and Tortugita January eighteenth of

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Speaker 4: this year by Georgia Patrol. We applaud the rising consciousness

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Speaker 4: and the need to protect humans and the more than

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Speaker 4: human by resisting police violence everywhere. And may I add

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Speaker 4: that in the face of the violent raid that took

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Speaker 4: place last night, as city residents gathered in solidarity to

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Speaker 4: defend this forest, that is an example of the militarization

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Speaker 4: that we are calling out. Through violence and greed, these

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Speaker 4: lands have been subjected to centuries of abuse, from the

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Speaker 4: forced removal of indigenous communities, to serving as a plantation

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Speaker 4: for enslaved African labor, to the site of the old

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Speaker 4: Atlanta Prison honor Farm in the twentieth century that produced

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Speaker 4: immense profits for the prison system.

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Speaker 3: Today, the sounds of berg.

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Speaker 4: Song from the forest Canopy live alongside the sound of

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Speaker 4: gunfire and the adjacent APD firing range.

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Speaker 3: We are troubled.

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Speaker 4: By the commodification of community, land, water, and air on

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Speaker 4: which all of us depend. We are profoundly troubled by

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Speaker 4: the use of military tactics and escalated legal charges on

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Speaker 4: members of our community, suppressing legitimate resistance, while at the

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Speaker 4: same time clearcutting the forest trees despite not having the

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Speaker 4: appropriate permits. The lands and the people of Atlanta have

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Speaker 4: suffered violence for too long. We say no more. We

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Speaker 4: declare with faith, commitment and hope that this land will

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Speaker 4: be a part of healing and repair. We Atlanta clergy,

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Speaker 4: religious leaders, and all of those across the nation and

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Speaker 4: world who are in agreement join our voices with calling

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Speaker 4: for the following, a complete stop of the cop City

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Speaker 4: project and cancelation of the Atlanta Police Foundation's lease, dropping

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Speaker 4: all charges against forest defenders and protesters. We demand an

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Speaker 4: independent investigation into the uses of domestic terrorism charges. We

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Speaker 4: demand an independent investigation into the killing of Manuel Tehran Tortugita.

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Speaker 4: We speak their name, for which recently release video footage

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Speaker 4: of the event suggests there was lying and deceit surrounding

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Speaker 4: the incident. On part of law enforcement in their initial

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Speaker 4: reporting of the incident.

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Speaker 1: The Muskogee elder Miko Chabbon, Colonel spoke at the press

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Speaker 1: conference and called for a land back and for the

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Speaker 1: Muskogee people to return and remtreat the Wilani Forest in

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Speaker 1: community with the black and brown residents of the area.

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Speaker 5: Our ancestors lived here for over thirteen thousand years, and

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Speaker 5: if you're to do the math correctly, this country that

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Speaker 5: we now call the United States is somewhere in the

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Speaker 5: neighborhood of two hundred and forty just over nearly two

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Speaker 5: years ago. I came here to the Rilawni Forest. I

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Speaker 5: came here with my own family, my own children were

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Speaker 5: some of my elders, to just share a little bit

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Speaker 5: about how this territoryiness land feels to us as Muskogee people,

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Speaker 5: because let it be known today, it was not our

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Speaker 5: choice to leave here. We did go to war to

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Speaker 5: protect these areas. We did go through much to protect

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Speaker 5: these areas, only to be forced to leave here under

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Speaker 5: military occupation, but also to be forced to leave here

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Speaker 5: after treachery, after illegally lands were taken from us. This

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Speaker 5: is our homeland, my ancestors for generation upon generation for

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Speaker 5: millennia are buried on the very ground that you walk

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Speaker 5: on every day. And I think we have a say

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Speaker 5: in how we should live as a society in this

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Speaker 5: day and time. And so in this moment, our hope

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Speaker 5: is to be able to come back, to rematriate, to

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Speaker 5: take our lives back and to the intimacy that we

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Speaker 5: once had with everything that grows here in what you

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Speaker 5: now call the state of Georgia, because no matter who

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Speaker 5: we are and where we come from, we have to

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Speaker 5: have air, we have to have water, we have to

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Speaker 5: have the elements of this earth to take care of us.

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Speaker 5: Regardless of what we think. We're dependent on this Earth's mother,

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Speaker 5: and she has been faithful in taking care of us.

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Speaker 5: It's us that has not been faithful in respecting her.

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Speaker 5: Hope is that this earth is not destroyed before we

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Speaker 5: even have a chance to come back, that lives aren't

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Speaker 5: destroyed before we have a chance to come back. So today,

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Speaker 5: in whatever way, I come here to join the choruses

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Speaker 5: of voices that you hear all around you saying what

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Speaker 5: is going on now is a violence against all of creation.

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Speaker 5: What is going on now bringing death and harm and

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Speaker 5: hurt is a violence against all of creation, and we

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Speaker 5: stand in solidarity as Muskogee people. I stand in solidarity

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Speaker 5: with the voices that we hear of those tenets, those

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Speaker 5: persons who live in the land now. But my hope

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Speaker 5: is now, at this moment in time, that somehow we

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Speaker 5: can change the trajectory of our species and go into

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Speaker 5: a direction where we can value each other, and we

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Speaker 5: can stop the criminalizing of descent. We should be able

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Speaker 5: to say no, the increasing of the militarized forces out

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Speaker 5: there does not ever create peace. It only creates harm,

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Speaker 5: and it only harms those that are most vulnerable. That's

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Speaker 5: the prayer that I carry today.

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Speaker 1: Reverend Darcy Jarrett joined in the call for stewardship of

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Speaker 1: the Wallani Forest to be returned to the Muscogee people.

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Speaker 6: City Schools of Decatur has a statement of solidarity an

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Speaker 6: acknowledgment of harms to cab County and the City of Atlanta.

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Speaker 6: We call on you to make good on these words,

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Speaker 6: to give the land back to our indigenous siblings, so

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Speaker 6: that they, as they have stated and will do and

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Speaker 6: always have done, work in collaboration with the black and

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Speaker 6: brown community right there near where the site is, outside

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Speaker 6: of the Wilawni Forest. The City of Atlanta is ready

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Speaker 6: to lease this land at just ten dollars an acre. Instead,

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Speaker 6: give this land and to the native inhabitants. Repatriate this

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Speaker 6: land to the people to whom is their sacred call,

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Speaker 6: to defend and work a community with the black and

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Speaker 6: brown communities that are there. We call on you, Atlanta

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Speaker 6: City Council, to be the moral compass and to not

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Speaker 6: just halt the building of this structure, but to repatriate

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Speaker 6: the land to the sovereign Muscogee Nation, the sacred keepers

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Speaker 6: of this land. May it be so amen.

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Speaker 1: Finally, Matthew Johnson spoke about the worrying amount of police

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Speaker 1: repression and violence the movement has already seen.

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Speaker 7: We're projecting by the end of the day, there will

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Speaker 7: be forty people that have domestic terrorists and charges, many

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Speaker 7: of which just for being in a parking lot. I

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Speaker 7: don't know how anybody can accept this when you have

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Speaker 7: a projected forty people that are committed of domestic terrorism,

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Speaker 7: not one dead body. Meanwhile, we can't even show the

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Speaker 7: bruise on the police officer that was allegedly shot at,

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Speaker 7: but our friends' ashes. We have the ashes of a

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Speaker 7: friend that we will spread. We can no longer accept

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Speaker 7: this as a people as at lanterns. If we can't

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Speaker 7: figure out a way to fix public safety without lacking

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Speaker 7: tons of black kids up in the blackest city in America,

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Speaker 7: every person in that building needs to step down. If

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Speaker 7: we can't do it here, we can't do it anywhere.

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Speaker 1: Both myself and Matt from the Atlanta Community Press Collective

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Speaker 1: were at the press conference and we met up after

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Speaker 1: to discuss the events of the day. During the press conference,

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Speaker 1: some of the media's line of questioning was very much

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Speaker 1: like aligned with the types of narratives being put out

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Speaker 1: by police in relation to the events that previous night,

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Speaker 1: the Sunday Direct Action and Music festival. I think it's

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Speaker 1: also worth noting that the people at the clergy event

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Speaker 1: did not openly like demonize the actions that people chose

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Speaker 1: to take on Sunday, and it was it was very

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Speaker 1: much like the media definitely gives them opportunities to try

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Speaker 1: to throw people under the bus, and that did not happen.

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Speaker 8: Yeah all, And we've seen that all throughout the week.

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Speaker 8: Every every chance that the media is trying to throw

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Speaker 8: somebody to like cause dissension or or divide amongst the

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Speaker 8: movement has been really handily deflected by anyone who who's

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Speaker 8: come across it, and the clergy did not just a

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Speaker 8: good job of like not falling into that trap, but

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Speaker 8: of actually pointing out how that line of thinking was

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Speaker 8: like missing the point and where the true violence was coming.

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Speaker 3: From and why Victorian people engaging and from other states.

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Speaker 2: The reality of it is that the ones who are

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Speaker 2: engaged in violence are the police, and they're from right

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Speaker 2: here in Atlanta, Georgia. You got APD, you got Georgia

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Speaker 2: State Police, you got GBI, you got Georgia State troopers,

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Speaker 2: you got everybody except the martyr police who are engaging

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Speaker 2: in violence and terrorism against the people who are standing

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Speaker 2: against this illegal land swap. So I would suggest that

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Speaker 2: the next time you decide that you are going to

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Speaker 2: bring up your police rhetoric that you get from whichever

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Speaker 2: police source, you go ahead and discuss that with them,

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Speaker 2: because we don't know what they're doing. But what we

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Speaker 2: do know is what we're doing and what we see from.

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Speaker 3: Them that we know.

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Speaker 2: I know when I get hit by an officer, I

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Speaker 2: know when I see a mother with a child begging

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Speaker 2: to be let up off the ground, because her children

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Speaker 2: are with her. I know when I see officers pointing

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Speaker 2: a rifle inside a bouncy house.

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Speaker 7: If I could just say, I'd like to just bring

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Speaker 7: up a story. Initially, the colonizers that came onto this

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Speaker 7: land attempted to use the indigenous folks as their slaves. However,

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Speaker 7: the indigenous folks knew the land so they could get away. Now,

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Speaker 7: when you ask me about why is it that you

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Speaker 7: keep catching people that aren't from here that might not

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Speaker 7: reflect the people that are actually involved in their resistance. God,

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Speaker 7: bless you, thank you.

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Speaker 1: After the press conference, people from the Clergy Coalition marched

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Speaker 1: to the front door and entered City Hall, before making

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Speaker 1: it upstairs to sign up for public comment during the

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Speaker 1: city council meeting.

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Speaker 4: Hie, we shall not be moved.

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Speaker 3: Fine for read now, we shall not be mole.

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Speaker 9: Just like the street pleased by wall, we shall not.

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Speaker 1: Ev The large group of the clergy and the people

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Speaker 1: gathered for the interfaith Coalition are now moving through City Hall.

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Speaker 1: There's a whole bunch of cops here that looks relatively

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Speaker 1: nervous about the easily sized group of people. The scary

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Speaker 1: Christians are now invading City Hall.

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Speaker 8: Lookout, so usually in city Hall there are several APD

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Speaker 8: officers who you know, just kind of hang out. But

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Speaker 8: while the clergy are walking up to city Hall, you

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Speaker 8: can look out and you there is APD on every corner.

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Speaker 8: And then you enter into city Hall and there are

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Speaker 8: clusters of APD. There are I think four floors to

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Speaker 8: city Hall. There are clusters of APD on three sides

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Speaker 8: of every floor of city Hall.

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Speaker 1: After an unexpectedly long awards and proclamations ceremony, the public

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Speaker 1: comment section of the city council meeting finally began.

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Speaker 4: I'm standing here today with the Faith Coalition. We are

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Speaker 4: clergy and faith leaders. We are citizens, and we are

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Speaker 4: protectors of the land that doesn't belong to us, but

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Speaker 4: belongs to God. We are deeply concerned for our community members,

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Speaker 4: for ourselves, and implications for the future of public safety

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Speaker 4: in the United States if this cop city development goes forward.

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Speaker 4: We are asking for all people of faith, those of

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Speaker 4: you who sit on council, regardless of your tradition or background,

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Speaker 4: and those who stand with moral conscience, to stop the

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Speaker 4: cop city project. My faith convicts me and tells all

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Speaker 4: of us that there is a better way. We have

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Speaker 4: a prophetic, moral imagination and opportunity here to do something

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Speaker 4: different in Atlanta, to do something different for the South. Finally,

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Speaker 4: we're asking for a community process. A community process. Let

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Speaker 4: us come together with moral imagination to envision how the

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Speaker 4: Lani River forests can be the heart and lungs of

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Speaker 4: community wellness and healing. Not more militarization of police. We

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Speaker 4: want a process that centers the voice and needs of

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Speaker 4: Muskoge leaders and community members, our indigenous siblings, incarcerated folks

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Speaker 4: and surrounding prisons, families and neighbors who live in cross

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Speaker 4: proximity to the firing range and under police surveillance.

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Speaker 1: We want holistic.

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Speaker 4: Community safety, clean water, tree canopies, a future for every

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Speaker 4: single one of our children. May it be so.

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Speaker 1: Someone from the Muscogee Creek Reservation in Oklahoma spoke about

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Speaker 1: the desire to return to their homeland.

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Speaker 9: The Miko of our Hellobi Ceremonial grounds back home in

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Speaker 9: Oklahoma has come here where our original fire was started,

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Speaker 9: and then it was taken all the way to Oklahoma,

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Speaker 9: and now we want to bring it back to our

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Speaker 9: land and we want to start those fires again. Well,

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Speaker 9: when we come back, we need a land to come

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Speaker 9: This is my first time coming back to visit my homelands.

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Speaker 9: I wanted to visit here where my ancestors are, as

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Speaker 9: a spiritual and personal journey. I didn't want to come

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Speaker 9: here to try to fight the violence that I'm hearing.

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Speaker 9: What I'm hearing is from the residence is they need

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Speaker 9: investments in housing and public spaces, and not investment in

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Speaker 9: further militarized policing. They want investment in the well being

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Speaker 9: of incarcerated and not further violent incarceration, but the well

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Speaker 9: being of the community members. Thank you, Moto Chichatis.

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Speaker 10: I turned seventy last week and I've lived in Atlanta

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Speaker 10: my whole life. I'm not an outsider, and I am

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Speaker 10: here to say to you that I find cop City

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Speaker 10: to be an abomination. My husband is a pastor of

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Speaker 10: a church a couple of miles from here, and he

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Speaker 10: could not be here today. He's out of town, but

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Speaker 10: he stands with me with these comments. The people who

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Speaker 10: have spoken before me have said the things I would say,

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Speaker 10: but I would like to say that I pretty much

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Speaker 10: agree with every single thing they have said about this

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Speaker 10: insanity that you all are calling a police safety training facility.

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Speaker 10: So I think you need to just cancel it, start

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Speaker 10: having some real conversations with the people of this city

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Speaker 10: to solve the real problems in a way that will

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Speaker 10: actually be effective. And this facility is not going to

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Speaker 10: be it. And the mayor's proposed task force is just

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Speaker 10: one more way to try to propagandize us to believe

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Speaker 10: that this is good for us, when we're not stupid

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Speaker 10: and we know it's just lipstick.

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Speaker 9: On a pig.

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Speaker 2: And if you heart in your heart, be reminded of

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Speaker 2: the story of another pharaoh who had a very hard heart,

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Speaker 2: who would not free the people of God, who would

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Speaker 2: not lead them to their land. You know what happened

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Speaker 2: in that story. Don't think that you will not so

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Speaker 2: for the same fate. Don't think that the infrastructure of

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Speaker 2: this so called Black Mecca will not come toppling over,

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Speaker 2: because it will.

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Speaker 8: There are a couple like things to note about how

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Speaker 8: City Council public comment works. City Council doesn't tend to

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Speaker 8: pay attention to them. Essensibly, the only one who pays

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Speaker 8: attention is City Council President Doug Shipman, because it is

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Speaker 8: his job to call time and to call up the

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Speaker 8: next person. But you know, city councilors will like step

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Speaker 8: in and out of the room get something to eat.

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Speaker 8: During the seventeen hours of public comment for cop City,

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Speaker 8: like one of them held a press conference.

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Speaker 1: There are two council members notoriously bad at paying attention

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Speaker 1: to public comment. Dustin Hillis who is the committee chair

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Speaker 1: for the Public Safety Legal Administration Committee. Basically he's in

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Speaker 1: charge of police. And the other is Mary Norwood, who

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Speaker 1: represents Buckhead and has what I would describe as ontologically

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Speaker 1: evil vibes. Buckheed is the northern, primarily white neighborhood in

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Speaker 1: Atlanta that is wanted to from the city, which in

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Speaker 1: Atlanta has very uncomfortable segregation and redlining parallels. But despite

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Speaker 1: not paying attention during public comment, these two in particular,

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Speaker 1: both paid extra attention after public comment when police Chief

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Speaker 1: Darren Scherbaum gave testimony on what happened the night previous.

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Speaker 11: Were there any firefighter or police Citty employee entries yesterday's event.

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Speaker 12: Because mamerhillis there was not. We're very fortunate that that

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Speaker 12: was the outcome. We're fortunate that there was no injuries.

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Speaker 11: If this continues, do we have the ability to deploy

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Speaker 11: even greater force to quill this? You know, the millions

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Speaker 11: of damage, millions of dollars of damage to public and

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Speaker 11: private properties.

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Speaker 12: We will make adjustments as those that used various tactics.

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Speaker 12: Yesterday was an escalation. We had not seen this large

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Speaker 12: number of individuals engaged in this activity. In the aggressive

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Speaker 12: manner in which the officers were attacked was a significant

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Speaker 12: change from what we'd seen before when it generally had

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Speaker 12: been setting properly on fire. We'd seen police cars set

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Speaker 12: on fire when those busters, but this was started as

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Speaker 12: an attack against individuals, men and women who are employees

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Speaker 12: of this city, so that was an escalation. Council Member

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Speaker 12: hillis that we have already made adjustments for both within

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Speaker 12: our capability as well as with our partners.

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Speaker 1: Throughout to Sheerbaum's testimony, it was interesting the degree to

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Speaker 1: which the chief framed Sunday's direct action as primarily being

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Speaker 1: targeted against officers and not the destruction of equipment and

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Speaker 1: machinery at the North Gate. From the videos that APD

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Speaker 1: themselves released of the incident, it's clear that engagement with

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Speaker 1: the police was limited to keeping officers at bay as

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Speaker 1: construction equipment was targeted, and despite the continued referring of

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Speaker 1: fireworks as quote unquote mortars or explosives, as the chief

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Speaker 1: himself admitted, no officers were harmed during the direct action.

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Speaker 1: In a later episode, we'll hear more of Chief Sheerbaum's

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Speaker 1: explanation of Sunday Night's events, as it gives insight into

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Speaker 1: the police's own surveillance capabilities and their ability to respond

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Speaker 1: quickly to direct actions. But until then, back to the

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Speaker 1: events of Monday, March sixth. After the city council meeting,

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Speaker 1: I dressed up in the gayest little outfit that I

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Speaker 1: had with me and went back to the woods for

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Speaker 1: the first time since Sunday night for Perhum. Initially, people

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Speaker 1: were very cautious when entering the woods again, but as

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Speaker 1: the night went on, more and more people started to

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Speaker 1: pour into the forest, with some choosing to return to

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Speaker 1: their camp. Later that night, I enjoyed an experimental noise

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Speaker 1: show in the living room, probably to the detriment of

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Speaker 1: people trying to sleep in the area. I went to

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Speaker 1: the Perham in the woods. I got to share my

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Speaker 1: memory of the Veggietail's ester story starring the tickle monsters.

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Speaker 1: I got to bond with a few exangelicals about that,

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Speaker 1: so that was fine. Then there was an experimental noise

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Speaker 1: show in the forest, and really I think it actually

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Speaker 1: is worth talking about because this was the first time.

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Speaker 8: People return to the forest.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this was the first time that people like returned

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Speaker 1: to the forest in mass since Sunday, and he started

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Speaker 1: to kind of feel people's energy get reinvigorated. The woods

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Speaker 1: became a place again that people were able to like

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Speaker 1: be in and feel like they were able to be

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Speaker 1: in community in the woods again.

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Speaker 8: And that is in keeping with sort of how this

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Speaker 8: movement has always responded to what we I guess could

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Speaker 8: call a loss, right.

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Speaker 1: Like twenty three people getting arrested in charge is is

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Speaker 1: a great loss.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, and the bounce back period is pretty quick, Like

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Speaker 8: the resiliency is continual and always strengthening. Every time that

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Speaker 8: you know, the repression grows, like it does seem like

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Speaker 8: the resiliency grows with it.

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Speaker 1: People were not scared away from the woods. People still

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Speaker 1: still were like, no, this is something I care about.

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Speaker 1: I am still going to be in the woods. I'm

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Speaker 1: still going to defend these woods. And you kind of

438
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:11,600
Speaker 1: have like there's always this essence of like fear kind

439
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:15,000
Speaker 1: of kind of underlying whenever you're like in the Wollani

440
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:17,760
Speaker 1: Forest because you know, people have been arrested and charged

441
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:22,000
Speaker 1: for laying in a hammock like that with another defendant,

442
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:26,239
Speaker 1: with another defendant, and like so you know that it

443
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:28,679
Speaker 1: is it is fundamentally a risky place to be, but

444
00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:32,399
Speaker 1: people think the potential cost is worth it, Like they

445
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,760
Speaker 1: will they continue to be here because they know this

446
00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:37,919
Speaker 1: is a winnable fight and they know that it is

447
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 1: worth it to defend these woods. Early Tuesday morning, a

448
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:45,240
Speaker 1: few stop Coop City banner drops happened throughout this city.

449
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:48,320
Speaker 1: Two people were detained by police during one of these

450
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: banner drops, but were later released with a traffic citation

451
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:56,280
Speaker 1: after being interrogated separately and extensively photographed by law enforcement

452
00:27:56,280 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 1: officials only identified as quote Georgia Police and home Land

453
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:04,479
Speaker 1: Security unquote. Tuesday was the start of a series of

454
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 1: non violent direct actions that were being launched around downtown

455
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:12,520
Speaker 1: and midtown. Tuesday morning, I followed a small group that

456
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: went to the headquarters of Norfolk Southern, one of the

457
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 1: Atlanta Police Foundation's financial contributors and noted enemy of Ohio.

458
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:24,360
Speaker 8: They entered the lobby and it's a very small group,

459
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:25,840
Speaker 8: but like I think half of it was.

460
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:29,440
Speaker 1: It was like five people and another five like press people.

461
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:29,880
Speaker 3: Yeah.

462
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 8: So they enter and they read aloud a letter to

463
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,120
Speaker 8: Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, calling forward investment

464
00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:41,280
Speaker 8: of Norfolk Southern from Copcity, and immediately they are met

465
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 8: with a security guard screaming like go you're get out

466
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 8: of the lobby. Leave, you're being criminally or you're being trespassed.

467
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 6: You have to leave.

468
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:53,640
Speaker 8: One of the other security guards runs around with cell

469
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 8: phone camera and like shoves it in everybody's faces, reaching

470
00:28:57,680 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 8: rather rudely over you to get my face.

471
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 1: And they got very close to me entering the Norfolk

472
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:08,920
Speaker 1: Southern Building building.

473
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:21,560
Speaker 3: Please this letter, it's playing a horrible in the city.

474
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 3: Can pave the building.

475
00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 8: And so the whole thing lasts like less than five minutes,

476
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 8: maybe ride about five minutes when they finished reading the letter,

477
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 8: Like all they asked was that the letter go to

478
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:42,240
Speaker 8: the CEO.

479
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 1: While people were inside the headquarters, security called n S Police,

480
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:51,480
Speaker 1: which is the Norfolk Southern Police, who are legally allowed

481
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 1: to arrest people.

482
00:29:53,040 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 8: Anyone, but nobody was arrested at that non violent direct action.

483
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:08,280
Speaker 8: The whole thing was over pretty quickly, and you know,

484
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 8: as we were walking out, we saw like the the

485
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 8: a force of Norfolk Southern Police like swarm kind of

486
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 8: the exterior of the campus and like keep an eye

487
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 8: out on things.

488
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,200
Speaker 1: And then we moved over to Woodriff Park, which was

489
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 1: the meeting place for these non violent direct actions that

490
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:27,400
Speaker 1: happened about every every day at noon starting on starting

491
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. It's Tuesday, March seventh, around noon, there's about

492
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 1: fifty or so people gathered in Woodriff Park who are

493
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 1: heading out and marching to go stop by two of

494
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Police Foundation corporate funders.

495
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 8: We roll up and I think at that point they

496
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 8: were like twenty is protesters.

497
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:46,720
Speaker 4: It was.

498
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 8: It started off very small. There was no police, like

499
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 8: no real visible police presence. There were like maybe a

500
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 8: cruiser or two like kind of around and actually start

501
00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:57,120
Speaker 8: to gather and kind of talk about like what their

502
00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 8: plan is for the day, which was just too march

503
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:03,000
Speaker 8: around to three different sites. They wanted the eight and

504
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:06,600
Speaker 8: T Building, the Georgia Pacific Building, and GSU.

505
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:16,880
Speaker 1: Georgia State University City. They're now leaving Woodriff Park. They

506
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:20,160
Speaker 1: got to Georgia Pacific, one of the COP City financial backers,

507
00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 1: without much incident and without much in terms of visible

508
00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:27,120
Speaker 1: police presence. People called on Mayor Dickens, who is the

509
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 1: chair of the board of directors for Georgia Pacific, to

510
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,440
Speaker 1: cancel the Atlanta Police Foundation lease of the land that

511
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:35,640
Speaker 1: cop city is slated to be built on.

512
00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 2: Mayor Dickens, we want you to cancel this leaks.

513
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:41,800
Speaker 3: We know that you have the authority to do so.

514
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:45,360
Speaker 1: They finished up that Georgia Pacific, they set up a

515
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:46,840
Speaker 1: little vigil for Torti Guita.

516
00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 8: And from Georgia Pacific they began their trek to the

517
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 8: AT and T building.

518
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 1: They left a little vigil for Torti Ghita in front

519
00:31:53,560 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 1: of the Georgia Pacific Center and the group of like

520
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: more than fifty people are continuing to march north. Police

521
00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:08,960
Speaker 1: eight to ten police officers are directly behind them, and

522
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 1: the whole bunch of police cars are blocking Peach Tree

523
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 1: along the path to AT and T. Was the APF's

524
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 1: headquarters just across the street, and as the crowd approached

525
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:23,240
Speaker 1: this intersection, the amount of police ballooned massively in the

526
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,280
Speaker 1: block around the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. There's got to

527
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:30,720
Speaker 1: be about thirty to forty officers stationed walking off the

528
00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 1: entrance to the APF and also just like following the

529
00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:37,560
Speaker 1: crowd around as they're as they're marching through the sidewalks.

530
00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 1: There's definitely over god, there's I think around seventy five

531
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 1: officers to play in this area right now. The number

532
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:50,160
Speaker 1: keeps growing as we start walking down different sidewalks and

533
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:52,840
Speaker 1: different streets, you just see more officers that are already stationed.

534
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:58,800
Speaker 8: There are fifty activists and what certainly over one hundreds,

535
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:01,640
Speaker 8: and we're probably between hundred and hondred and twenty police

536
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 8: officers started marching not like behind, not in front, but

537
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:09,680
Speaker 8: directly beside the march, sort of pinning the march to

538
00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:12,000
Speaker 8: the wall, and like essentially kettling the march.

539
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:14,680
Speaker 1: There was police station in front, there was police station behind,

540
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 1: and police stationed on the side. It was surrounding the

541
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:21,200
Speaker 1: surrounding like these fifty people who were simply walking on

542
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 1: the sidewalk stumbling upon a new group of officers. Got

543
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:27,360
Speaker 1: to be about one hundred officers in this area right now.

544
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 1: At one point, a police vehicle was just parked on

545
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 1: the sidewalk, completely blocking it. During this entire time, police

546
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,320
Speaker 1: were blocking all of the traffic in these intersections and.

547
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 8: Roads, driving wrong way up one way like just you know,

548
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:44,040
Speaker 8: doing police things.

549
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:47,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, a door to State University canine unit. This blocking

550
00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 1: off the entire sidewalk next to a Fulton County Sheriff's vehicle.

551
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:55,560
Speaker 1: They're trying to make it impossible for people to actually

552
00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:56,320
Speaker 1: move on the sidewalk.

553
00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:58,760
Speaker 3: But for the most part, people.

554
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:01,640
Speaker 1: Have been able to move around the police and keep

555
00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 1: their movement going instead of just stalling in one spot

556
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,720
Speaker 1: or like trying to particually confront what is now like

557
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,120
Speaker 1: hundreds one hundreds of law enforcement officers from Fulton County

558
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:14,879
Speaker 1: Sheriffs and Atlanta Police Department and even like Georgia State

559
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:18,320
Speaker 1: University Police. So the group is split up in between

560
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 1: two streets right now because people are trying to follow

561
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:24,760
Speaker 1: the crossing signals because otherwise police are going to tackle

562
00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:28,480
Speaker 1: and violently assault people. No one was arrested, people marched

563
00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 1: to their perspective locations.

564
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:34,080
Speaker 8: People very pointedly kept to laws. There was a couple

565
00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:36,839
Speaker 8: of times when like the crosswalk changed and the group

566
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:39,120
Speaker 8: kind of had to split. They would stay and wait

567
00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:41,760
Speaker 8: until the crosswalk went back to walk, and then crossover

568
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 8: and join.

569
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:45,799
Speaker 1: It's so funny that the cops are so insistent if

570
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 1: you stepped on the streets, you're going to get arrested

571
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:49,640
Speaker 1: and make sure people stay on the side of walks.

572
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:51,680
Speaker 1: But the result of that is that all the cops

573
00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:54,040
Speaker 1: are standing in the street and they're blocking off like

574
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:58,640
Speaker 1: miles of traffic downtown. Right now, people just arrived at

575
00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:00,960
Speaker 1: the fifty one Peachtree Center aff new AT and T

576
00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:04,719
Speaker 1: building in downtown Atlanta. Police were already stationed in front

577
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:07,359
Speaker 1: of the AT and T building, so there wasn't much

578
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 1: to do. After a brief speech talking about AT and

579
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 1: T's contributions to the Police Foundation and Cop City, the

580
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: crowd moved on. Now people are turning west in the

581
00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:22,399
Speaker 1: opposite direction from the AT and T headquarters, heading back

582
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:27,680
Speaker 1: into the Woodruff Park area where this march began. Police

583
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:31,720
Speaker 1: with long guns here. Finally, the crowd stopped at Georgia

584
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:35,120
Speaker 1: State University and talked about GSU's connections to the Atlanta

585
00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:38,120
Speaker 1: Police Foundation. What is of note for this action, and

586
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:40,959
Speaker 1: really all of the actions that happened the next few days,

587
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:45,080
Speaker 1: is not what the protesters did. It's the police's disproportionate

588
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:48,400
Speaker 1: response to just fifty people walking on the sidewalk, chanting

589
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:53,560
Speaker 1: and giving short speeches outside of businesses tied to APF.

590
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 8: With a small line of officers in front of GSU.

591
00:35:57,040 --> 00:35:59,480
Speaker 8: They gave their last round of speeches and sort of

592
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:00,640
Speaker 8: just first for.

593
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:03,880
Speaker 2: The day before we wrap today and give these clouds

594
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:05,000
Speaker 2: something else to go do.

595
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:07,040
Speaker 8: We will be out here.

596
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:09,879
Speaker 2: We won't be out here for the rest of the week,

597
00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:12,600
Speaker 2: for the rest of the month, for the year.

598
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:18,040
Speaker 3: We won't fight us here.

599
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:18,479
Speaker 9: We wait.

600
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:28,000
Speaker 1: Some of the police are now grouping up and opening

601
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:31,400
Speaker 1: up the sidewalk so people can actually leave. It seems

602
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 1: officers were in fact instructed to make arrests during this action,

603
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:38,960
Speaker 1: but for some reason did not follow through on those orders.

604
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:44,240
Speaker 1: According to scanner audio from Atlanta Police Department's SWAT team, that's.

605
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 3: About the of them. The problem is they've been telling

606
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:50,160
Speaker 3: them to make a risk, but also is not making

607
00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:52,160
Speaker 3: a risk. I guess they weren't supposed to.

608
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,360
Speaker 4: I don't know, but I'm with that.

609
00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:59,840
Speaker 3: We'll just hold what we got and Fawn is needed.

610
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:04,799
Speaker 1: Extensive police activity continued later that night. At around five

611
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,680
Speaker 1: thirty to six pm, police started staging around the forest

612
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:12,360
Speaker 1: in a way that usually indicates that a raid is forthcoming.

613
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:16,800
Speaker 1: Words spread around the recovering encampment that police could be

614
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:18,160
Speaker 1: preparing for a raid.

615
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 8: So the initial reports were like that there were fifty

616
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:33,200
Speaker 8: police officers staged at Key Road and ready to go,

617
00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:37,440
Speaker 8: and then the Dacab County Swat starts to roll up

618
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 8: at the fire station, and I would say a fair

619
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:44,399
Speaker 8: amount of like panic starts to set it at camp.

620
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:49,840
Speaker 1: Multiple multiple police copters are getting flown overhead, multiple different

621
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:51,879
Speaker 1: SWAT teams are being brought in. At least like three

622
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:56,280
Speaker 1: or four different agencies are our stationing officers around the woods.

623
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:58,239
Speaker 1: I believe it's estimated that at least one hundred and

624
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:02,120
Speaker 1: twenty police officers were or were being staged in the

625
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:06,200
Speaker 1: area directly surrounding the forest and in the area by

626
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:07,839
Speaker 1: the power line cut on Key Road.

627
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:09,799
Speaker 8: And it should be said that, you know, up until

628
00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:13,080
Speaker 8: this point, the police have never brought in that many

629
00:38:13,160 --> 00:38:16,719
Speaker 8: resources to any protest action that I'm aware of, and

630
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 8: not come in and engaged. So I was with a

631
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 8: group offsite who like immediately began to fear, like you know,

632
00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:26,839
Speaker 8: for they wouldn't be able to get back to their

633
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:29,000
Speaker 8: camp size, they wouldn't be able to get their their gear,

634
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:31,480
Speaker 8: they wouldn't be able to get their medication, and that,

635
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 8: from what I understand, was the general vibe around, but

636
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:36,680
Speaker 8: nothing happened.

637
00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:41,440
Speaker 1: Nothing seemed to happen, and then at around seven police

638
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:45,320
Speaker 1: started to almost like express confusion on what was going on,

639
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:48,320
Speaker 1: and then everyone else expressed confusion for why the police

640
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:51,680
Speaker 1: were confused. And we think we've kind of put together

641
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:57,920
Speaker 1: what may have happened, So Clark is what is suspected

642
00:38:58,320 --> 00:38:59,640
Speaker 1: of going down here.

643
00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:03,280
Speaker 8: So the one thing that police don't understand and probably

644
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:07,200
Speaker 8: will never understand is humor. Now they become the butt

645
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:10,920
Speaker 8: of the joke often, but they don't understand comedy. So

646
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:15,480
Speaker 8: at seven o'clock that evening was scheduled Comedy in the Forest.

647
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:18,920
Speaker 8: And from what we've gathered, the police thought that the

648
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:20,800
Speaker 8: Comedy in the Forest event was going to be a

649
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:24,040
Speaker 8: cover for another Sunday night like action.

650
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:28,320
Speaker 1: So this event was scheduled on the public Defend the

651
00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:32,680
Speaker 1: Atlanta Forest calendar that anyone can look at online is

652
00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:36,279
Speaker 1: this Comedy in the Woods event for people to tell

653
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:40,719
Speaker 1: jokes around a campfire. And I guess they thought it

654
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:43,040
Speaker 1: was like it was like this event that was like

655
00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:45,520
Speaker 1: a red herring so that people could then go do

656
00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:49,960
Speaker 1: violent militancy in around the woods. So when seven o'clock

657
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 1: came and went like police were expecting people to arrive

658
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 1: at the woods or something, and that just didn't happen

659
00:39:55,719 --> 00:39:59,239
Speaker 1: because turns out, a few minutes before seven o'clock, this

660
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:02,600
Speaker 1: comedy event was canceled for like unrelated reasons. The organizer

661
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:06,280
Speaker 1: had had things come up, So this event just didn't happen.

662
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:10,320
Speaker 1: But there still was comedy in the woods. It just

663
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:13,840
Speaker 1: was that the police wasted probably over one hundred thousand

664
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:19,200
Speaker 1: dollars mobilizing over one hundred officers. And I mean, obviously,

665
00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:21,080
Speaker 1: I think some people in the woods were you know,

666
00:40:21,719 --> 00:40:25,200
Speaker 1: had some frustration that that that you know, they experienced

667
00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 1: this fear of this possibly incoming ray that then resulted

668
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 1: in there being nothing. I think it's always important to

669
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 1: when people are relaying information, they relay information that is

670
00:40:35,719 --> 00:40:39,560
Speaker 1: known without like unadue speculation. So like it is a

671
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: fact to say that there's over a hundred cops stationing

672
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:44,919
Speaker 1: by the woods, and they've never had that many cops

673
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:47,440
Speaker 1: there before without doing some sort of raid or some

674
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:50,760
Speaker 1: sort of some sort of like activity in the forest.

675
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:54,560
Speaker 8: And part of what I've heard go on since then was,

676
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:57,480
Speaker 8: you know, some very generative conversations about how they're going

677
00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:01,280
Speaker 8: to take into account like this. This new paradigm developed

678
00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:04,279
Speaker 8: that night, and I think that again speaks to sort

679
00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:07,000
Speaker 8: of just how the movement continues to develop and grow

680
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:11,040
Speaker 8: and like you know, handle new new challenges and shifts.

681
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,759
Speaker 1: So with the forest camp still intact, the week of

682
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:18,680
Speaker 1: action continued on as planned, with another downtown nonviolent direct

683
00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:20,480
Speaker 1: action that next morning.

684
00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:25,560
Speaker 8: So Wednesday noon is a lot smaller of direct action

685
00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:27,080
Speaker 8: than the day before.

686
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:29,239
Speaker 1: It starts with like a dozen people. It slowly grows

687
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:31,480
Speaker 1: to like a few dozen, but yeah, it started extremely,

688
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:35,520
Speaker 1: extremely small. So this was one difference from Tuesday is

689
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:38,440
Speaker 1: that when we arrived, police already had a visible presence

690
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:42,600
Speaker 1: in downtown, stationed around Woodriff Park. So a group of

691
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 1: people just launch from Woodriff Park. They kind of split

692
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:49,839
Speaker 1: off in different different little sub subgroups. Lots of people

693
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:54,280
Speaker 1: are just stationed outside of Marta Stops handing out flyers,

694
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:56,800
Speaker 1: and that is what people are doing right now. Police

695
00:41:56,880 --> 00:42:00,520
Speaker 1: seem relatively confused and are trying to like mobilized to

696
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:05,040
Speaker 1: different areas where they feel like something might happen, but

697
00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:07,080
Speaker 1: it's just people handing out flyers.

698
00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:10,360
Speaker 8: And they decided to split into groups and engage in

699
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:13,080
Speaker 8: like just some typical outreache activity that you would see,

700
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:15,280
Speaker 8: you know, from any group, like just passing out flyers

701
00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:18,440
Speaker 8: and pamphlets and attempting, from what I saw, to have

702
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:20,840
Speaker 8: like one on one conversations with anyone who wanted to.

703
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:23,319
Speaker 1: So this this group that it broke off into these

704
00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:27,640
Speaker 1: smaller subgroups. The group that we kind of accompanied stationed

705
00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:30,920
Speaker 1: themselves around some Marta stops around I believe it was

706
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:34,600
Speaker 1: like them, it was the Peachtree Lata station. Yeah, so

707
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:36,920
Speaker 1: they stationed at the at the like the three different

708
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,880
Speaker 1: exits or entrances for that, just just handing out flyers,

709
00:42:39,920 --> 00:42:42,640
Speaker 1: handing out leaflets, trying to you know, talk to anybody

710
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:46,080
Speaker 1: who walks by. Another group of people standing outside of

711
00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:50,160
Speaker 1: a public transit spot handing out flyers, probably like I

712
00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:53,319
Speaker 1: don't know, four or five other small, small groups doing

713
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:56,960
Speaker 1: similar things throughout downtown, which means police have a lot

714
00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,359
Speaker 1: more places to be as opposed to just following one

715
00:42:59,400 --> 00:42:59,919
Speaker 1: big group.

716
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:03,520
Speaker 8: The group that we followed had its own police presence

717
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:06,200
Speaker 8: follow it, and then when they split into three more groups,

718
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:09,239
Speaker 8: each group had its own police presence follow it, and

719
00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:13,439
Speaker 8: police stuck to the protesters the entire time. And of course,

720
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:17,080
Speaker 8: like there's white transport vans that are full of cops

721
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:17,960
Speaker 8: kind of driving by.

722
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:21,480
Speaker 1: Big white van with police officers just showed up across

723
00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:26,279
Speaker 1: the street. Army green Tan swat vehicle just parked a

724
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:30,080
Speaker 1: block away from the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. There was

725
00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:32,960
Speaker 1: an Atlanta swat vehicle parked outside of the Hooters.

726
00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:38,040
Speaker 8: Totally normal response. Totally normal response. And so the leafleting

727
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:40,320
Speaker 8: goes on for you know, like forty five minutes, and

728
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:44,160
Speaker 8: then all of the groups start to gather together conveniently

729
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,080
Speaker 8: with the group that like we had embedded with.

730
00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:50,000
Speaker 1: All right, there's actually a pretty decent number of people

731
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:53,240
Speaker 1: gathered here for the flyering event today. You know, normal

732
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:56,640
Speaker 1: police response to people handing out flyers, just fifty officers

733
00:43:56,680 --> 00:44:00,399
Speaker 1: and a swat team. But yeah, there's probably a point

734
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:03,440
Speaker 1: like two or three dozen people that have kind of

735
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:07,000
Speaker 1: all converged together. They started off very small, people were

736
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:10,080
Speaker 1: very very spread out. They they splintered off into little, little,

737
00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:13,440
Speaker 1: smaller groups. But now they've all kind of coalesced together

738
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:16,879
Speaker 1: back again. So all the little subgroups kind of meet

739
00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:20,640
Speaker 1: up on Andrew Jung and Peach Tree, right next to

740
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:22,360
Speaker 1: the Hooters and the Hard Rock Cafe.

741
00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:26,040
Speaker 8: This area is like the business district. So in the

742
00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 8: middle of the day, it's like really busy, it's a

743
00:44:28,239 --> 00:44:31,440
Speaker 8: fairly like good spot to pass out leaflets.

744
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:34,440
Speaker 1: So they are passing out these leaflets. Pedestrians are still

745
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:36,640
Speaker 1: able to like walk through the sidewalks. It's pretty it's

746
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 1: pretty chill. And then APD approaches the crowd, like the

747
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:44,480
Speaker 1: APD has already been around this area. There's there's this

748
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:48,680
Speaker 1: vehicle across the street watching people hand out flyers. But

749
00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:53,719
Speaker 1: then Lieutenant Neil Welch approaches the crowd and gives them

750
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:55,359
Speaker 1: a dispersal order.

751
00:44:55,760 --> 00:45:02,080
Speaker 13: Okay, alright, so I'm out of Neil Welch, Police Officers,

752
00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:05,960
Speaker 13: City of Atlanta. I hereby declare that being on this sidewalk,

753
00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:09,000
Speaker 13: you are obstructing or repeating the normal and reasonable movement

754
00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:13,600
Speaker 13: of pedestrian traffic and violation of Atlanta City Ordinance. Okay,

755
00:45:15,560 --> 00:45:17,360
Speaker 13: in the name of the people, is say to Georgia,

756
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:20,839
Speaker 13: I hereby command that all present in the sidewalk, all

757
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:24,680
Speaker 13: present here in the sidewalk, immediately exit the street or

758
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:27,759
Speaker 13: the roadway or sidewalk. If you do not do so,

759
00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:32,600
Speaker 13: you may be detained or arrested. Should you fail to

760
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:36,040
Speaker 13: exit the sidewalk in accordance with this lawful command, you

761
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:40,319
Speaker 13: shall be in violation of Section one five zero two

762
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:45,239
Speaker 13: six six substructing pedestrian traffic, which prohibits standing or being

763
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:49,120
Speaker 13: on any street, roadway, or sidewalk in a manner to

764
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:52,560
Speaker 13: obstruct or impede the normal or reasonable pedestrian traffic.

765
00:45:53,239 --> 00:45:57,640
Speaker 1: Cops threatened arrest and detainment. They claimed that people were

766
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:01,160
Speaker 1: blocking the sidewalk, which they absolutely weren't. I was walking freely,

767
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:04,160
Speaker 1: as was all of like downtown pedestrian traffic. They were

768
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:05,200
Speaker 1: not blocking anything.

769
00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:07,200
Speaker 8: This is uh, this is.

770
00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:12,760
Speaker 1: Pretty silly, utterly, utterly ridiculous response to people handing out flyers.

771
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:18,000
Speaker 1: So they were told they cannot be on the sidewalk.

772
00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:21,120
Speaker 1: Obviously they can't be on the street. Where are you

773
00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 1: allowed to protest if not the sidewalk or the street.

774
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:28,439
Speaker 1: Seemed like very like flimsy legal footing. But obviously they

775
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 1: police can rest anyone they want at any time, for

776
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:33,279
Speaker 1: any reason. So people decide to move, They cross over

777
00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:36,520
Speaker 1: the street, they walk like a block north, they cross

778
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 1: the street again, and they move on to this part

779
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:41,360
Speaker 1: of the sidewalk that is like really large, like a massive,

780
00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:44,200
Speaker 1: massive open open section that right.

781
00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:47,200
Speaker 8: In front of the mall, so it's it's it's meant

782
00:46:47,280 --> 00:46:49,239
Speaker 8: to like have a bunch of people passed by it.

783
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:51,240
Speaker 1: So people continue to hand out flyers.

784
00:46:51,600 --> 00:46:55,440
Speaker 8: While this is happening, there's another group who comes in

785
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:59,200
Speaker 8: to the side of p Street Center mall and enters

786
00:46:59,239 --> 00:47:01,800
Speaker 8: the mall. You find Mayor Andre Dickens. There are a

787
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:05,520
Speaker 8: couple boards in Atlanta that stipulate the mayor is like

788
00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:08,040
Speaker 8: the head of the board, and this is one of them,

789
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:12,839
Speaker 8: and it meets in Peatree Center Mall as one does.

790
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:15,160
Speaker 1: So the mayor is having a meeting in the mall.

791
00:47:15,760 --> 00:47:18,480
Speaker 8: The office spaces, you know, sort of above the mall, and.

792
00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:21,840
Speaker 1: This group of people from the Muscogie Nation enter and

793
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:24,719
Speaker 1: try to meet up with the mayor to hand off

794
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:25,160
Speaker 1: a letter.

795
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:28,680
Speaker 3: Objection, objection.

796
00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:31,680
Speaker 13: We have a letter being delivered from the Muscogee Creek

797
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:36,240
Speaker 13: Nation on behalf of Muscogee Creek spiritual leadership and opposition

798
00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:37,160
Speaker 13: to copsidy.

799
00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:39,360
Speaker 9: I came all the way on the trail of tears

800
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:43,960
Speaker 9: to deliver this letter to you folks. We want you

801
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:48,720
Speaker 9: to know that the contemporary Muscogee people are now making

802
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:52,960
Speaker 9: their journey back to our homelands and hereby give notice

803
00:47:53,400 --> 00:47:57,400
Speaker 9: to Mayor Andrew Dickens, the Atlanta City Council, the Atlanta

804
00:47:57,440 --> 00:48:02,600
Speaker 9: Police Department, the Atlanta Police found the Dacob County Sheriff's

805
00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:06,960
Speaker 9: Office and so called copp City, that you must immediately

806
00:48:07,160 --> 00:48:12,719
Speaker 9: vacate Muscogee homelands and cease violence and policing of Indigenous

807
00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:16,600
Speaker 9: and Black people and Muscogee lands. We lived as stewards

808
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:19,400
Speaker 9: and in relationship to this land for more than thirteen

809
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:24,239
Speaker 9: thousand years until the illegitimate State of Georgia negotiated with

810
00:48:24,360 --> 00:48:29,040
Speaker 9: the Tyrant Andrew Jackson for the militarized for the militarized

811
00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 9: force removal of Muscogee and Cherokee relatives to Indian territories.

812
00:48:34,600 --> 00:48:39,239
Speaker 9: Mayor Dickens, can I give this letter to you? He

813
00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:47,200
Speaker 9: got one, Mayor, we want to talk to you about

814
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:49,520
Speaker 9: our homeland, the Muskogee Creek people.

815
00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:55,799
Speaker 8: Three indigenous activists along with Kamal Franklin arrive and they

816
00:48:55,880 --> 00:48:58,719
Speaker 8: find the mayor. They enter the board meeting and they

817
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:02,360
Speaker 8: begin to read this letter from the Muscogi Nation allowed

818
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:05,920
Speaker 8: and in the letter, it essentially says that Atlanta is

819
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 8: being evicted out of the Louis Lanni Forest and the

820
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:11,680
Speaker 8: most Scogee people are going to return and reclaim their

821
00:49:11,719 --> 00:49:17,400
Speaker 8: ancestral land. Mayor Dickens, in true mayor fashion, bolts away

822
00:49:17,440 --> 00:49:20,680
Speaker 8: from this, running through an exit door, which is then

823
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:23,399
Speaker 8: like blocked by a guard which I think that has

824
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:28,520
Speaker 8: its own set of legal issues, essentially just ignoring them

825
00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:31,160
Speaker 8: over his shoulder. He calls out, I've got a copy

826
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 8: of the letter and hides just completely trying to escape

827
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:38,319
Speaker 8: what is not a good look for him.

828
00:49:38,920 --> 00:49:42,840
Speaker 1: The Atlanta Police Department APEX Swatch team was called to

829
00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:46,320
Speaker 1: the mall, and right as the activists were able to exit,

830
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:50,200
Speaker 1: the special police units rushed into the building, finding no one.

831
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:54,640
Speaker 1: By now, the police repression during this week of action

832
00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 1: far exceeded police activity during any of the prior weeks

833
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:01,960
Speaker 1: of action, and this trend would continue as the week

834
00:50:02,160 --> 00:50:06,040
Speaker 1: entered its last few days. The next episode will wrap

835
00:50:06,160 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 1: up our coverage for the week, as well as contain

836
00:50:08,719 --> 00:50:11,160
Speaker 1: a bit more analysis of the police repression and the

837
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:14,759
Speaker 1: fallout of Sunday's direct action. But then there will be

838
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:17,719
Speaker 1: a fifth bonus episode that gives an overview of what's

839
00:50:17,760 --> 00:50:20,880
Speaker 1: happened in the Malani Forest in the intervening two months.

840
00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:29,640
Speaker 1: See You on the Other Side Music Festival audio courtesy

841
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:33,880
Speaker 1: of Unicorn Riot. It Could Happen Here as a production

842
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:34,960
Speaker 1: of cool Zone Media.

843
00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:37,840
Speaker 4: For more podcasts from cool zone Media, visit our website

844
00:50:37,880 --> 00:50:41,000
Speaker 4: coolzonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,

845
00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:43,520
Speaker 4: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

846
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:46,240
Speaker 9: You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated

847
00:50:46,360 --> 00:50:50,360
Speaker 9: monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.