WEBVTT - Week of Action to Stop Cop City, Part Three: Midweek Actions 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:08.320 Come Monday morning, Basically no one was in the forest. 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:11.920 The police raid the night prior pushed out most of 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.880 the people gathered for the music festival and week of action, 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.599 and it was still unclear how the rest of the 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:22.919 week would now proceed. This Monday happened to be the 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.560 Jewish holiday Porum. Initially there were plans to have a 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.159 Perum celebration in the forest that evening, but it was 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.760 unknown if people would feel comfortable returning to the woods. 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.280 Welcome back to it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis. 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.839 This is episode three of my mini series covering the 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.640 March twenty twenty three Week of Action to defend the 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:48.320 Atlanta Forest. Monday, March sixth also happened to be the 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.480 day of an Atlanta City Council meeting, and the Stopcop 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.640 City Clergy coalition held a well attended press conference at 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:01.200 noon outside City Hall. Reverend on To Jones opened up 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.560 at the press conference by making the Clergy's position clear. 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.600 We are the Faith Coalition against Cop City, and we 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.280 are here to again raise our voices so that Mayor 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.800 Andre Dickens and the members of the City Council of 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.839 Atlanta know that we will not stand for the atrocities 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.039 that have been occurring. We will not stand for cop 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:29.160 City to go forward. The community came out and made 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:33.800 public comment for over seventeen hours when given an opportunity, 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:39.119 and said emphatically, no, we don't want your cop City. 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.720 We don't want more repression of black people. We don't 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:48.040 want more polluted air, we don't want less green space 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:52.720 in our community. We don't want more policing and terrorizing 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.640 of black, brown, indigenous bodies in our community. 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.960 Referend To Jones gave her own perspective as a local 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.600 atlant with deep ties to the city. 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.200 So we are here as faith leaders today and we 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.200 are here to say, Mayor Dickens, if you didn't hear 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.320 us the first time, we are here once again to 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.360 let you know that we don't want cop City. This 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.400 is our community, this is our land. I am a 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.799 daughter of East Atlanta. I still live in East Atlanta. 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:30.280 I don't want cop City. My granny owns a home 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:32.800 that she's been in for almost fifty years in the 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.720 heart of East Atlanta Village. She does not want cop City. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.440 My neighbor across the street does not want cop City. 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.640 The teachers at my daughter's school do not want Cop City. 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:49.200 She also addressed the outside agitator's narrative that police and 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:53.520 media have continued to craft against force defenders, including by 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:56.280 only arresting and charging people thought to be from out 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.239 of town at the music festival that previous night. 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.560 So we're here today to make sure that we ring 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.120 the alarm and dispel the false narrative that it's outside 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.960 agitators who don't want this. We know that this is 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.400 the rhetoric that's been going on ever since abolition began, 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.359 that it's outside agitators. They said slaves didn't want to 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.239 be free, but it was white people from the North 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.760 who wanted it. That's a lie. They said that black 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.040 people in the South didn't want civil rights, but it 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.679 was white people from the North. That's a lie. Today 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:28.480 they are claiming that the. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:30.040 Black people love Cop City. 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:36.040 It's outside agitators from elsewhere, and that again is a lie. 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:41.560 Simply because the police have chosen to systematically arrest people 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.600 from out of state doesn't mean that what they're saying 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:45.680 is the truth. 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.960 Reverend Leoshe addressed to other faith leaders and asked them 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.600 to join in their calls to stop the Cop City project. 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:59.160 We local Atlantic clergy and religious leaders representing diverse communities 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.280 call on clergy, religious leaders and people of faith and 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.320 moral conscience across this nation and in solidarity with local 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:12.160 Atlanta leaders, to stop cop City, stop the swap, and 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:17.320 defend the Atlanta forests. Wilani People's part. Today, we're gathered 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:19.680 for this press conference and we will be delivering a 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:21.239 letter to Atlanta City Council. 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:23.320 But we invite you to. 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.520 Continue in this faithful work that we are doing and 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.679 contribute wherever you find your space in this growing movement. 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.880 We call on clergy religious leaders, who are a moral 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:39.280 authority in our society, to use your power in support 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.919 of the forest protectors. We are deeply concerned for the 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.320 greater Atlanta community and the implications for the future of 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.120 public safety in the United States if Copsuity moves forward. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:55.039 At the press conference, the coalition presented a letter to 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.440 the City Council signed by over two hundred clergy members. 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:01.479 Reverend Leoshe also read it aloud. 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:05.240 Despite a record breaking amount of public comment opposing the facility, 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:11.040 Atlanta City councils still passed legislation to build Copcity. We 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.960 are troubled by leadership that stops acting on the will 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:18.479 of the people and aligns itself instead with corporate money 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:23.440 and the dominant power structure. Urged on by the message 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.599 of peace and compassion in all our faiths, we deplore 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:33.240 escalating militarization by city and state government, most recently since 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:36.080 the police killing of Rayshard Brooks here in twenty twenty 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:41.040 by the Atlanta Police Department and Tortugita January eighteenth of 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:46.839 this year by Georgia Patrol. We applaud the rising consciousness 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.680 and the need to protect humans and the more than 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:55.440 human by resisting police violence everywhere. And may I add 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:57.760 that in the face of the violent raid that took 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:02.599 place last night, as city residents gathered in solidarity to 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.800 defend this forest, that is an example of the militarization 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.080 that we are calling out. Through violence and greed, these 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:14.800 lands have been subjected to centuries of abuse, from the 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:19.200 forced removal of indigenous communities, to serving as a plantation 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.680 for enslaved African labor, to the site of the old 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.400 Atlanta Prison honor Farm in the twentieth century that produced 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.480 immense profits for the prison system. 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:31.520 Today, the sounds of berg. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.560 Song from the forest Canopy live alongside the sound of 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.320 gunfire and the adjacent APD firing range. 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.320 We are troubled. 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:46.200 By the commodification of community, land, water, and air on 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.400 which all of us depend. We are profoundly troubled by 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:54.440 the use of military tactics and escalated legal charges on 0:06:54.560 --> 0:07:00.119 members of our community, suppressing legitimate resistance, while at the 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:04.320 same time clearcutting the forest trees despite not having the 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:09.560 appropriate permits. The lands and the people of Atlanta have 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:15.600 suffered violence for too long. We say no more. We 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.320 declare with faith, commitment and hope that this land will 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.960 be a part of healing and repair. We Atlanta clergy, 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.880 religious leaders, and all of those across the nation and 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:29.520 world who are in agreement join our voices with calling 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:33.040 for the following, a complete stop of the cop City 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:39.480 project and cancelation of the Atlanta Police Foundation's lease, dropping 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:44.520 all charges against forest defenders and protesters. We demand an 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:50.880 independent investigation into the uses of domestic terrorism charges. We 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:55.960 demand an independent investigation into the killing of Manuel Tehran Tortugita. 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:00.960 We speak their name, for which recently release video footage 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.840 of the event suggests there was lying and deceit surrounding 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.240 the incident. On part of law enforcement in their initial 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:09.720 reporting of the incident. 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:14.640 The Muskogee elder Miko Chabbon, Colonel spoke at the press 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.640 conference and called for a land back and for the 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:21.960 Muskogee people to return and remtreat the Wilani Forest in 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.200 community with the black and brown residents of the area. 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.560 Our ancestors lived here for over thirteen thousand years, and 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:31.960 if you're to do the math correctly, this country that 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.320 we now call the United States is somewhere in the 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:38.760 neighborhood of two hundred and forty just over nearly two 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.080 years ago. I came here to the Rilawni Forest. I 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.880 came here with my own family, my own children were 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:47.400 some of my elders, to just share a little bit 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:51.080 about how this territoryiness land feels to us as Muskogee people, 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.000 because let it be known today, it was not our 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.240 choice to leave here. We did go to war to 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:01.079 protect these areas. We did go through much to protect 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.280 these areas, only to be forced to leave here under 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:08.040 military occupation, but also to be forced to leave here 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.600 after treachery, after illegally lands were taken from us. This 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:16.840 is our homeland, my ancestors for generation upon generation for 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.600 millennia are buried on the very ground that you walk 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.600 on every day. And I think we have a say 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:25.960 in how we should live as a society in this 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.280 day and time. And so in this moment, our hope 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.400 is to be able to come back, to rematriate, to 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.680 take our lives back and to the intimacy that we 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.120 once had with everything that grows here in what you 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.200 now call the state of Georgia, because no matter who 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:43.400 we are and where we come from, we have to 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.000 have air, we have to have water, we have to 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.160 have the elements of this earth to take care of us. 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:52.920 Regardless of what we think. We're dependent on this Earth's mother, 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:55.560 and she has been faithful in taking care of us. 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:58.600 It's us that has not been faithful in respecting her. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.320 Hope is that this earth is not destroyed before we 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.320 even have a chance to come back, that lives aren't 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.400 destroyed before we have a chance to come back. So today, 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:13.920 in whatever way, I come here to join the choruses 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.240 of voices that you hear all around you saying what 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:21.800 is going on now is a violence against all of creation. 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.960 What is going on now bringing death and harm and 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.800 hurt is a violence against all of creation, and we 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:34.199 stand in solidarity as Muskogee people. I stand in solidarity 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.280 with the voices that we hear of those tenets, those 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.839 persons who live in the land now. But my hope 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:45.040 is now, at this moment in time, that somehow we 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:50.120 can change the trajectory of our species and go into 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:54.240 a direction where we can value each other, and we 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:58.480 can stop the criminalizing of descent. We should be able 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.559 to say no, the increasing of the militarized forces out 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:07.640 there does not ever create peace. It only creates harm, 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.680 and it only harms those that are most vulnerable. That's 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:12.960 the prayer that I carry today. 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.080 Reverend Darcy Jarrett joined in the call for stewardship of 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.520 the Wallani Forest to be returned to the Muscogee people. 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:26.719 City Schools of Decatur has a statement of solidarity an 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:31.040 acknowledgment of harms to cab County and the City of Atlanta. 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.280 We call on you to make good on these words, 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:38.439 to give the land back to our indigenous siblings, so 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.400 that they, as they have stated and will do and 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:45.120 always have done, work in collaboration with the black and 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:50.160 brown community right there near where the site is, outside 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:54.120 of the Wilawni Forest. The City of Atlanta is ready 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:58.760 to lease this land at just ten dollars an acre. Instead, 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.320 give this land and to the native inhabitants. Repatriate this 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.920 land to the people to whom is their sacred call, 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.800 to defend and work a community with the black and 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:16.080 brown communities that are there. We call on you, Atlanta 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.719 City Council, to be the moral compass and to not 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:25.479 just halt the building of this structure, but to repatriate 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:30.960 the land to the sovereign Muscogee Nation, the sacred keepers 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.400 of this land. May it be so amen. 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:39.760 Finally, Matthew Johnson spoke about the worrying amount of police 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.160 repression and violence the movement has already seen. 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.200 We're projecting by the end of the day, there will 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:50.920 be forty people that have domestic terrorists and charges, many 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:54.760 of which just for being in a parking lot. I 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:57.960 don't know how anybody can accept this when you have 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.240 a projected forty people that are committed of domestic terrorism, 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.679 not one dead body. Meanwhile, we can't even show the 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.920 bruise on the police officer that was allegedly shot at, 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:15.920 but our friends' ashes. We have the ashes of a 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.240 friend that we will spread. We can no longer accept 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.080 this as a people as at lanterns. If we can't 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:27.600 figure out a way to fix public safety without lacking 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.239 tons of black kids up in the blackest city in America, 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.400 every person in that building needs to step down. If 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.600 we can't do it here, we can't do it anywhere. 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.439 Both myself and Matt from the Atlanta Community Press Collective 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.520 were at the press conference and we met up after 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.400 to discuss the events of the day. During the press conference, 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.800 some of the media's line of questioning was very much 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.520 like aligned with the types of narratives being put out 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:56.960 by police in relation to the events that previous night, 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.880 the Sunday Direct Action and Music festival. I think it's 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.560 also worth noting that the people at the clergy event 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.840 did not openly like demonize the actions that people chose 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.760 to take on Sunday, and it was it was very 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.920 much like the media definitely gives them opportunities to try 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.640 to throw people under the bus, and that did not happen. 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.120 Yeah all, And we've seen that all throughout the week. 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.480 Every every chance that the media is trying to throw 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:27.440 somebody to like cause dissension or or divide amongst the 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:32.400 movement has been really handily deflected by anyone who who's 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:37.680 come across it, and the clergy did not just a 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.520 good job of like not falling into that trap, but 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.760 of actually pointing out how that line of thinking was 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:48.280 like missing the point and where the true violence was coming. 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:57.200 From and why Victorian people engaging and from other states. 0:14:57.800 --> 0:14:59.560 The reality of it is that the ones who are 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:01.960 engaged in violence are the police, and they're from right 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.240 here in Atlanta, Georgia. You got APD, you got Georgia 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.880 State Police, you got GBI, you got Georgia State troopers, 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.840 you got everybody except the martyr police who are engaging 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:18.239 in violence and terrorism against the people who are standing 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:22.480 against this illegal land swap. So I would suggest that 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.440 the next time you decide that you are going to 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.640 bring up your police rhetoric that you get from whichever 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:31.680 police source, you go ahead and discuss that with them, 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:34.560 because we don't know what they're doing. But what we 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.120 do know is what we're doing and what we see from. 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:38.040 Them that we know. 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.200 I know when I get hit by an officer, I 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:43.520 know when I see a mother with a child begging 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.600 to be let up off the ground, because her children 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.160 are with her. I know when I see officers pointing 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:50.040 a rifle inside a bouncy house. 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.320 If I could just say, I'd like to just bring 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:59.600 up a story. Initially, the colonizers that came onto this 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:06.640 land attempted to use the indigenous folks as their slaves. However, 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:12.200 the indigenous folks knew the land so they could get away. Now, 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.920 when you ask me about why is it that you 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.480 keep catching people that aren't from here that might not 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:23.200 reflect the people that are actually involved in their resistance. God, 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:24.360 bless you, thank you. 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.360 After the press conference, people from the Clergy Coalition marched 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.760 to the front door and entered City Hall, before making 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.800 it upstairs to sign up for public comment during the 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:35.800 city council meeting. 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:41.920 Hie, we shall not be moved. 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:48.160 Fine for read now, we shall not be mole. 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:58.080 Just like the street pleased by wall, we shall not. 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:04.520 Ev The large group of the clergy and the people 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:07.720 gathered for the interfaith Coalition are now moving through City Hall. 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.760 There's a whole bunch of cops here that looks relatively 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:17.280 nervous about the easily sized group of people. The scary 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:18.840 Christians are now invading City Hall. 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:22.520 Lookout, so usually in city Hall there are several APD 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.359 officers who you know, just kind of hang out. But 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:28.439 while the clergy are walking up to city Hall, you 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.480 can look out and you there is APD on every corner. 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.720 And then you enter into city Hall and there are 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.080 clusters of APD. There are I think four floors to 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.600 city Hall. There are clusters of APD on three sides 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:43.720 of every floor of city Hall. 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:49.320 After an unexpectedly long awards and proclamations ceremony, the public 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.159 comment section of the city council meeting finally began. 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:57.879 I'm standing here today with the Faith Coalition. We are 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:03.680 clergy and faith leaders. We are citizens, and we are 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.760 protectors of the land that doesn't belong to us, but 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:12.760 belongs to God. We are deeply concerned for our community members, 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.520 for ourselves, and implications for the future of public safety 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:20.760 in the United States if this cop city development goes forward. 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.719 We are asking for all people of faith, those of 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:29.000 you who sit on council, regardless of your tradition or background, 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:34.400 and those who stand with moral conscience, to stop the 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:39.440 cop city project. My faith convicts me and tells all 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:41.919 of us that there is a better way. We have 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:46.399 a prophetic, moral imagination and opportunity here to do something 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:51.399 different in Atlanta, to do something different for the South. Finally, 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:57.040 we're asking for a community process. A community process. Let 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.840 us come together with moral imagination to envision how the 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.320 Lani River forests can be the heart and lungs of 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:08.919 community wellness and healing. Not more militarization of police. We 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.159 want a process that centers the voice and needs of 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:16.520 Muskoge leaders and community members, our indigenous siblings, incarcerated folks 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:19.840 and surrounding prisons, families and neighbors who live in cross 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:23.240 proximity to the firing range and under police surveillance. 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.440 We want holistic. 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:29.480 Community safety, clean water, tree canopies, a future for every 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:33.800 single one of our children. May it be so. 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:37.920 Someone from the Muscogee Creek Reservation in Oklahoma spoke about 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.119 the desire to return to their homeland. 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:45.320 The Miko of our Hellobi Ceremonial grounds back home in 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.840 Oklahoma has come here where our original fire was started, 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.840 and then it was taken all the way to Oklahoma, 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:54.000 and now we want to bring it back to our 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.959 land and we want to start those fires again. Well, 0:19:58.119 --> 0:19:59.800 when we come back, we need a land to come 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.920 This is my first time coming back to visit my homelands. 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:08.000 I wanted to visit here where my ancestors are, as 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.800 a spiritual and personal journey. I didn't want to come 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.880 here to try to fight the violence that I'm hearing. 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.440 What I'm hearing is from the residence is they need 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:23.160 investments in housing and public spaces, and not investment in 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:27.160 further militarized policing. They want investment in the well being 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:32.720 of incarcerated and not further violent incarceration, but the well 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:36.680 being of the community members. Thank you, Moto Chichatis. 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:41.840 I turned seventy last week and I've lived in Atlanta 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:46.120 my whole life. I'm not an outsider, and I am 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.040 here to say to you that I find cop City 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:53.760 to be an abomination. My husband is a pastor of 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:55.840 a church a couple of miles from here, and he 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.679 could not be here today. He's out of town, but 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.120 he stands with me with these comments. The people who 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.040 have spoken before me have said the things I would say, 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:06.960 but I would like to say that I pretty much 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:10.840 agree with every single thing they have said about this 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:17.560 insanity that you all are calling a police safety training facility. 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.760 So I think you need to just cancel it, start 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.879 having some real conversations with the people of this city 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.480 to solve the real problems in a way that will 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:31.200 actually be effective. And this facility is not going to 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:35.280 be it. And the mayor's proposed task force is just 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.800 one more way to try to propagandize us to believe 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:41.520 that this is good for us, when we're not stupid 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:43.639 and we know it's just lipstick. 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:43.720 On a pig. 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:47.239 And if you heart in your heart, be reminded of 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.960 the story of another pharaoh who had a very hard heart, 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:54.119 who would not free the people of God, who would 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.320 not lead them to their land. You know what happened 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:59.879 in that story. Don't think that you will not so 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.320 for the same fate. Don't think that the infrastructure of 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:06.720 this so called Black Mecca will not come toppling over, 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:07.720 because it will. 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.120 There are a couple like things to note about how 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:14.480 City Council public comment works. City Council doesn't tend to 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:19.000 pay attention to them. Essensibly, the only one who pays 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:21.919 attention is City Council President Doug Shipman, because it is 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:23.639 his job to call time and to call up the 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.879 next person. But you know, city councilors will like step 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:28.880 in and out of the room get something to eat. 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:32.040 During the seventeen hours of public comment for cop City, 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:34.120 like one of them held a press conference. 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.679 There are two council members notoriously bad at paying attention 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:41.440 to public comment. Dustin Hillis who is the committee chair 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:45.639 for the Public Safety Legal Administration Committee. Basically he's in 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:49.200 charge of police. And the other is Mary Norwood, who 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:53.679 represents Buckhead and has what I would describe as ontologically 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:58.240 evil vibes. Buckheed is the northern, primarily white neighborhood in 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:02.199 Atlanta that is wanted to from the city, which in 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:08.000 Atlanta has very uncomfortable segregation and redlining parallels. But despite 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:11.720 not paying attention during public comment, these two in particular, 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:16.040 both paid extra attention after public comment when police Chief 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:20.200 Darren Scherbaum gave testimony on what happened the night previous. 0:23:20.720 --> 0:23:27.040 Were there any firefighter or police Citty employee entries yesterday's event. 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:29.960 Because mamerhillis there was not. We're very fortunate that that 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:32.439 was the outcome. We're fortunate that there was no injuries. 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:38.160 If this continues, do we have the ability to deploy 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:44.320 even greater force to quill this? You know, the millions 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:47.720 of damage, millions of dollars of damage to public and 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:48.639 private properties. 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:53.640 We will make adjustments as those that used various tactics. 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:57.479 Yesterday was an escalation. We had not seen this large 0:23:57.640 --> 0:24:01.119 number of individuals engaged in this activity. In the aggressive 0:24:01.240 --> 0:24:05.000 manner in which the officers were attacked was a significant 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:07.600 change from what we'd seen before when it generally had 0:24:07.600 --> 0:24:09.880 been setting properly on fire. We'd seen police cars set 0:24:09.920 --> 0:24:11.800 on fire when those busters, but this was started as 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:14.760 an attack against individuals, men and women who are employees 0:24:14.760 --> 0:24:17.360 of this city, so that was an escalation. Council Member 0:24:17.400 --> 0:24:20.160 hillis that we have already made adjustments for both within 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:22.320 our capability as well as with our partners. 0:24:22.640 --> 0:24:26.280 Throughout to Sheerbaum's testimony, it was interesting the degree to 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:30.960 which the chief framed Sunday's direct action as primarily being 0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:35.280 targeted against officers and not the destruction of equipment and 0:24:35.400 --> 0:24:39.400 machinery at the North Gate. From the videos that APD 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:43.800 themselves released of the incident, it's clear that engagement with 0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:47.120 the police was limited to keeping officers at bay as 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:51.560 construction equipment was targeted, and despite the continued referring of 0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:56.440 fireworks as quote unquote mortars or explosives, as the chief 0:24:56.480 --> 0:24:59.680 himself admitted, no officers were harmed during the direct action. 0:25:08.520 --> 0:25:11.800 In a later episode, we'll hear more of Chief Sheerbaum's 0:25:11.880 --> 0:25:15.960 explanation of Sunday Night's events, as it gives insight into 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:19.840 the police's own surveillance capabilities and their ability to respond 0:25:19.960 --> 0:25:23.840