Speaker 1: This summer has been a critical junction in the fight
Speaker 1: against copp City, the Atlanta Police Foundation's massive proposed training
Speaker 1: facility in de Cab County, which is slated to begin
Speaker 1: construction later this very month. The last week of action
Speaker 1: in March of twenty twenty three drew in over a
Speaker 1: thousand people against cop City and saw hundreds of forest
Speaker 1: defenders attack in mass the construction equipment and police infrastructure
Speaker 1: stored on the site in a pretty successful action. The
Speaker 1: police repression came down hard, but the militancy of the
Speaker 1: force defenders left a pretty impressionable mark. Later that month,
Speaker 1: to Cab County closed and barricaded in Trenchman Creek Park
Speaker 1: citing public safety concerns and allegedly found booby traps. Police
Speaker 1: did an exhaustive sweep of the forest and established a
Speaker 1: relatively firm control of the territory. After a year and
Speaker 1: a half of there being a nearly continuous presence in
Speaker 1: the Mulani by forest vendors, now the police began a
Speaker 1: forest occupation of their own. During the month that followed,
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Police Foundation or the APF, rushed to clear
Speaker 1: cut around ninety acres of the Mulani Forest, seemingly in
Speaker 1: a ploy to show investors and the city that they
Speaker 1: are committed to the project and to crush the spirits
Speaker 1: of those who spent years opposing the facility and defending
Speaker 1: the forest. People then set their sights on the Atlanta
Speaker 1: City Council, who in early June was to vote on
Speaker 1: whether or not to provide taxpayer funding for the APF's project.
Speaker 1: Over twenty three hours of public comment across multiple days,
Speaker 1: almost universally against copp City, culminated at the June fifth
Speaker 1: City Council meeting, which lasted into the early hours of
Speaker 1: the next morning. Despite the record breaking turnout opposing the
Speaker 1: facility in the earth early morning of Tuesday, June sixth,
Speaker 1: the Lanta City Council voted eleven to four in favor
Speaker 1: of the sixty seven million dollar funding package to build
Speaker 1: cop City. The next day, a group of community organizers
Speaker 1: announced a referendum campaign to collect tens of thousands of
Speaker 1: petition signatures from Atlanta voters to put the cop City
Speaker 1: land lease on the upcoming ballot. City council approving public
Speaker 1: funds for cop City was certainly disappointing, but not quite unexpected,
Speaker 1: because another week of action to Stop Cop City was
Speaker 1: already planned for later that same month. This is it
Speaker 1: could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis. In this three part series,
Speaker 1: I'll be talking about what's been happening in Atlanta this
Speaker 1: summer to Stop cop City. If you want to hear
Speaker 1: more about the background of this movement. In the month
Speaker 1: of May, we put out a five part series on
Speaker 1: the Week of Action from that spring, along with the
Speaker 1: few other previous Defend the Forest, Stop Cup City mini
Speaker 1: series published over the course of the last year and
Speaker 1: a half. With much of the forest already destroyed and
Speaker 1: no easy access to Entrenchment Creek Park, this week of
Speaker 1: action in June was set to be very unlike any
Speaker 1: that had come before. The kickoff rally was to begin
Speaker 1: on Saturday, June twenty fourth at Brownwood Park in East Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I made my way there and met up with Matt
Speaker 1: from the Atlantic Community Press Collective. My first feeling walking
Speaker 1: in is like it felt very society of the spectacle
Speaker 1: in terms of like the ratio of cameras to participants
Speaker 1: was the most extreme that I've really ever ever seen
Speaker 1: for like, you know, a week of action.
Speaker 2: I think there was there was outside of like a
Speaker 2: press conference.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like it felt like there was so many
Speaker 1: just cameras looming around, and it's like it's like there's
Speaker 1: so many people trying to make a similar frum of
Speaker 1: the movements to sell back to other people at this
Speaker 1: point in time, and like there's just a very like
Speaker 1: that's just a very large, pervasive feeling, and that combined
Speaker 1: with the more of the more liberalization of certain certain aspects,
Speaker 1: again compared to the last week of action, which felt
Speaker 1: there was a strong militant continuent.
Speaker 2: And like the liberals continued was still there if you will.
Speaker 1: Burn it, And that's not the vibe here. That's not
Speaker 1: the vibe here. There's definitely a big separation in terms
Speaker 1: of what types of people at what side of the park.
Speaker 3: Right now, there's a more like more like forested section
Speaker 3: of the park with a creek.
Speaker 1: On the south side, which is where people are setting
Speaker 1: up some camping sites had a kitchen, that's where the
Speaker 1: well content is. And then there's the other side of
Speaker 1: the park that has like the rec center and the playground,
Speaker 1: which seems more like family friendly stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are kids there, there's the popcorn setup.
Speaker 1: It's more like there is a Bounty House, which is
Speaker 1: great return.
Speaker 3: They couldn't, they couldn't keep this moving down.
Speaker 4: I won't.
Speaker 1: I won't rest until is destroyed, until the conty every
Speaker 1: Mounty Castle is in Atlanta.
Speaker 3: Till till every Bounty Castle is to that is.
Speaker 2: That is the new Movement's so good.
Speaker 1: In contrast to the last kickoff rally at Gresham Park,
Speaker 1: which felt very unified, this time there was a noticeable
Speaker 1: separation in terms of what types of people are on
Speaker 1: the two sides of the park. People wearing camouflage and
Speaker 1: masks were more situated on the south side of the
Speaker 1: park where tents were being set up, versus people by
Speaker 1: the playground who were going around with the referendum signup
Speaker 1: sheet and where all the food was being handed out.
Speaker 3: It's so separated the game.
Speaker 4: No, the two groups.
Speaker 1: Cannot cannot, cannot count see each other and even like
Speaker 1: people like.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Turnout seemed to be a bit lower than some people expected,
Speaker 1: and it was definitely much lower compared to the previous
Speaker 1: few weeks of action and overall the rally was very
Speaker 1: muted and lacked a sense of energy or focus. Like
Speaker 1: the rallies, was start at eleven, which kind of kind
Speaker 1: of think nothing happened like it just it felt very directtionless.
Speaker 1: I felt like people do not quite know why they
Speaker 1: were there at this point in.
Speaker 2: Times, almost Nune before anyone really spoke on the bullhorn,
Speaker 2: and the music didn't start until noon, and then what
Speaker 2: was it like a half hour ago, so like twelve
Speaker 2: thirty probably when when the first like speaker said anything
Speaker 2: from the Faith Coalition.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: So far, the rally kind of feels like a microcosmum
Speaker 1: of the entire movement at this point, just not quite
Speaker 1: sure where to direct the energy to.
Speaker 3: There's a feeling that like people should do.
Speaker 1: Something, but they don't quite know how to. They haven't
Speaker 1: decided how that should be directed yet, and so like
Speaker 1: there's some people showing up, but it's just like it
Speaker 1: feels kind of stagnant, and like there's this there's this
Speaker 1: need to evolve.
Speaker 3: Right now, and I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think maybe people got burnt out from the city
Speaker 1: council things and there's a lot of energy being.
Speaker 3: Pumped into that. Yeah, and then I guess some people.
Speaker 2: People like three weeks of pushing energy.
Speaker 1: And that that was only like two weeks ago, like
Speaker 1: that that's still very recently three weeks it still feels
Speaker 1: it still feels very raw. Walking down the pathway on
Speaker 1: the south side of Brownwood you can see people setting
Speaker 1: up tents, carrying camping supplies and big jugs of water.
Speaker 1: Other people were assembling a makeshift kitchen in the tree line,
Speaker 1: and all of that was physically reminiscent of the last
Speaker 1: week of action. But being four miles away from the
Speaker 1: forest at Brownwood Park instead of the Wailani impacted the
Speaker 1: feeling on the ground. We're both were so far away
Speaker 1: from the forest, but there's like that separation of space,
Speaker 1: like it feels so distant.
Speaker 2: And distant, even more than than Gresham Park, even more Gresham,
Speaker 2: Like if this were happening in Gresham Park, I think
Speaker 2: that might even be a different feeling. Yeah, because at
Speaker 2: least you're attached to the Leilani.
Speaker 1: There was more determination on like the south side of
Speaker 1: of the park.
Speaker 3: And you could feel like the people want at least
Speaker 3: people want to do something physically, and they were.
Speaker 1: But it's even still unclear how it's going to get
Speaker 1: directed towards, like like what is this to bring.
Speaker 3: To stop prop city right now? Like that is and
Speaker 3: that's the.
Speaker 1: Big thing is like people are trying to figure that out,
Speaker 1: and there's people here, but like what are what are
Speaker 1: people actually going to be doing?
Speaker 2: Like that's that's the question that is You're going to
Speaker 2: be unanswered at least today.
Speaker 1: I would say the last Week of Action in March
Speaker 1: was very important in terms of setting the stage for
Speaker 1: what the next few months would look like. The direct
Speaker 1: action that happened on Sunday during the music festival was
Speaker 1: very important and successful, but also carried large ramifications for
Speaker 1: how the rest of the movement would be shaped in
Speaker 1: terms of the police repression and increase police presence in
Speaker 1: the forest. The weeks of Action definitely have this ability
Speaker 1: to affect how the movement as a whole evolves in
Speaker 1: the subsequent months. On Saturday, there were worries that if
Speaker 1: things were simply going to continue to be like the
Speaker 1: kickoff rally, that wouldn't be a positive direction and would
Speaker 1: be a bad sign. It's just so, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: hard not to convey this to the to the last
Speaker 1: Week of Action kickoff rally at Gresham, which is felt
Speaker 1: so different like that there was like almost ten times
Speaker 1: as many people. There was like a feeling of like motion,
Speaker 1: There was a feeling of like we can, we have
Speaker 1: we have to go do a thing, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: do it no matter what, Like we don't know it's
Speaker 1: gonna be on the other side of the tunnel, but
Speaker 1: we're going there to do it anyway.
Speaker 2: We're gonna find it out together.
Speaker 1: And there was that was a lot of determination, and
Speaker 1: then there was a lot of like there was like
Speaker 1: a pointedness, like they knew where they were going, and
Speaker 1: this does not It lacks that pointedness. It feels like
Speaker 1: people aren't quite sure why they're here or what to
Speaker 1: do at this point in time. And if the movement
Speaker 1: wants to be able to continue in its goals, it
Speaker 1: has to find some way to evolve in these next
Speaker 1: two months as construction is going to ramp up.
Speaker 3: And I guess this this week will kind of.
Speaker 2: Will the bell weather either well, either a bell weather
Speaker 2: or a learning experience. Yeah, it might not be any
Speaker 2: sort of death now, but it will have to be
Speaker 2: a learning experience probably.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of most of most of my thoughts
Speaker 1: so far based on walking through both places.
Speaker 3: There's just not much else talk looks and how much
Speaker 3: is happening, Like it soon.
Speaker 1: Enough However, other things did start happening thanks to the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Police Department, but throughout that afternoon things remained mostly
Speaker 1: low key, and as the day went on, the gathering
Speaker 1: at Brownwood Park turned into a community barbecue and people
Speaker 1: started to get a much more clear idea of what
Speaker 1: the expectations for that day were. As people settled into
Speaker 1: the park, there ceased to be any big anticipation for
Speaker 1: what everyone was going to be doing that first day.
Speaker 1: There wasn't supposed to be a vigil for Tortighita in
Speaker 1: the park that evening, which was interrupted by Atlanta Police
Speaker 1: officers who swept through the park issuing a quote unquote
Speaker 1: friendly reminder that the park closed at eleven PM.
Speaker 4: All right, it's around eight thirty.
Speaker 1: How about forty police officers just walked through Brownwood Park
Speaker 1: telling people that are gathered here that the park closes
Speaker 1: at eleven and everyone's basically anticipating the police are going
Speaker 1: to try to sweep the entirety of the park, including
Speaker 1: the sections where people are trying to camp out. Around
Speaker 1: eleven PM, the cops were walking south through the park
Speaker 1: as the crowd was walking and chanting along the way.
Speaker 1: As well, cops left under the heels of like maybe
Speaker 1: seventy five to two hundred people who were chanting along
Speaker 1: the south side of Brownwood. They've been staging around Brownwood
Speaker 1: Park and Portland Avenue for the past hour or so.
Speaker 1: They had like twenty thirty cars, it's around forty fifty officers.
Speaker 1: People decided they did not wish to stand their ground
Speaker 1: and fight off a possible police raid at Brownwood Park,
Speaker 1: so they spent the next few hours packing up all
Speaker 1: the supplies and equipment that they just spent all day
Speaker 1: setting up, and then evacuated from the area. Okay, it
Speaker 1: is eleven ten PM. It seems like the cops essentially
Speaker 1: just did what I'm referring to as advanced bluffing. So
Speaker 1: they walk through it on eight thirty warning people, hey,
Speaker 1: park closes at eleven, which very much, very much indicating that, hey, we're.
Speaker 4: Going to sweep through and fuck with your shit if
Speaker 4: you're still here.
Speaker 1: So the next few hours people spent time, you know,
Speaker 1: packing up, breaking down the tents, of leaving heading to
Speaker 1: other locations, and then at eleven we kind of just
Speaker 1: expected police to do a standard sweep through, you know,
Speaker 1: destroy anything they find if they find people tell them
Speaker 1: to leave or else get arrested, standard stuff. At this point,
Speaker 1: there's about seven or eight police cruisers staged around the
Speaker 1: south side of the park, but they're not actually sweeping
Speaker 1: through because it's pretty clear that there's like no one
Speaker 1: actually in the park at this point. It's just very
Speaker 1: clearly like empty and quiet, So I don't even I
Speaker 1: don't even think cops are going to sweep through. It's
Speaker 1: it's been already like ten to fifteen minutes. We expected
Speaker 1: them to kind of sweep on the hour, but they
Speaker 1: just like don't need to. It's very clear that no
Speaker 1: one's in the park, so they just kind of like
Speaker 1: successfully bluffed themselves into getting everyone to leave. I mean,
Speaker 1: if there were people still here in invisible capacity, I'm
Speaker 1: sure police would sweep through, but there's really there's no
Speaker 1: invisible in the park for many of like the perimeters around,
Speaker 1: so they're not even gonna bother sweeping through. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks like this is the end of Brownwood Day
Speaker 1: one and the very kind of low key kickoff rally. Still,
Speaker 1: the week definitely is lacking a sense of direction. There's
Speaker 1: been a cab swat doing perimeter sweeps around the Wailani
Speaker 1: forest and the round Greshian Park where there's some future
Speaker 1: events planned.
Speaker 4: We will see how that plays out in these next
Speaker 4: few days.
Speaker 1: It certainly seemed like police wanted to make some show
Speaker 1: of force early on in the week to stifle the
Speaker 1: week of action. The threat of array the very first
Speaker 1: tonight was indeed disruptive to the logistics for the week,
Speaker 1: but ultimately people were able to band together to keep
Speaker 1: each other safe and cared for. During this current general
Speaker 1: sense of directionlessness, there were a lot of questions on
Speaker 1: how the movement will change during this turning point, With
Speaker 1: little in the way of obvious answers or new paths
Speaker 1: of resistance, The following Sunday and Monday of the week
Speaker 1: continued to be mostly low key. People used those days
Speaker 1: to facilitate workshops and discussions to work through the shift
Speaker 1: the movement was going through. At the end of the week,
Speaker 1: I sat down with Matt in East Atlanta Village to
Speaker 1: talk about the week as a whole and compare notes.
Speaker 1: Here's a bit of our conversation talking about the discussions
Speaker 1: that started happening during those first few days. This was
Speaker 1: a week of discussions, like it was, it really was.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of meetings. There was a lot
Speaker 1: of discussions happening, people figuring out what do we do,
Speaker 1: like if we actually want to stop cop City and
Speaker 1: it's going to get built in these next few months,
Speaker 1: like now.
Speaker 3: Is the time to figure out what the fuck to
Speaker 3: do next.
Speaker 1: So people have been having those discussions this week, and
Speaker 1: if anything, the Week of Action has been useful in
Speaker 1: this in this sense that it's brought a lot of
Speaker 1: people together so they can have these generative conversations. And
Speaker 1: there was a lot more conversations during this week than
Speaker 1: last week. There was one on like what the state
Speaker 1: of the movement is now, especially with the referendum taking
Speaker 1: up more visibility, how are like radical is going to
Speaker 1: navigate this space and this movement with a lot of
Speaker 1: things in flux, And I think that that was definitely
Speaker 1: my first read. Even even on the Cookoff rally, I
Speaker 1: felt like there's a lot of people like not sure
Speaker 1: what to do, is very directionless. People were asking a
Speaker 1: lot of questions and more questions were being asked all
Speaker 1: throughout the week. There's a lot of discussions, a lot
Speaker 1: of meetings about like what do we do now, Like
Speaker 1: if construction is going to start in the next two months, like,
Speaker 1: what is this movement going to do? Like that people
Speaker 1: can chant if you build it, we will burn it.
Speaker 1: But chanting it and doing it two different things. And
Speaker 1: the movement is it's going to go through a period
Speaker 1: of evolution and in these next few months, and with
Speaker 1: all those questions being asked, I feel like the answer
Speaker 1: to those quiesequestions is going to be the actions people
Speaker 1: do take in these next few months. In the aftermath
Speaker 1: of the clear cutting, it felt like in some ways
Speaker 1: that the window of possibility for this movement was closing
Speaker 1: as options seemed to be getting smaller. More people started
Speaker 1: pursuing the referendum as a potential means of stopping Copcity,
Speaker 1: but those in the more militant anarchist wing of the
Speaker 1: movement were left questioning, after two years of employing a
Speaker 1: diversity of tactics largely led by direct action, if it's
Speaker 1: the right and move to switch to an electoral strategy
Speaker 1: now when the situation is approaching its most dire but
Speaker 1: since it is happening whether they like it or not,
Speaker 1: anarchists were wondering, what can people do so that the
Speaker 1: referendum doesn't completely dominate the narrative of the movement or
Speaker 1: disincentivize other evolutions of the struggle. Now, obviously, a group
Speaker 1: of people pursuing a referendum does not prohibit other people
Speaker 1: from engaging in direct action, but there still were worries
Speaker 1: that the referendum could become a sort of release mechanism
Speaker 1: for the movement, both in terms of new people's involvement
Speaker 1: being pushed toward this more liberalized electoral strategy instead of
Speaker 1: radical action, or if the petition or even potential ballot
Speaker 1: vote fails, then that being used as an indicator that
Speaker 1: most people in the city actually do want copcity. But
Speaker 1: through all this, what anarchists can do, and what they
Speaker 1: typically do, is to encourage radical autonomy and self determination
Speaker 1: regardless of electoral strategies or outcomes. Whether or not a
Speaker 1: petition gets sixty some thousand signatures does not affect a
Speaker 1: burning construction vehicle. Just as these sort of discussions were happening,
Speaker 1: It's kind of fitting that on Monday, June twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: we saw the first communication in months claiming responsibility for
Speaker 1: equipment sabotage. After the last week of action in March
Speaker 1: and subsequent police raids on the forest, increased security, the
Speaker 1: rapid clear cutting and big push for city council public
Speaker 1: comment followed by the start of the referendum wrote that
Speaker 1: series of events, there really hadn't been much in the
Speaker 1: way of nocturnal direct action sabotage happening in Atlanta or
Speaker 1: across the country in solidarity once a core component of
Speaker 1: this movement was seriously lacking in the months leading up
Speaker 1: to this summer, and then suddenly, after the June week
Speaker 1: of action's mostly uneventful start, a post went up on
Speaker 1: the sketchu web site scene stott no blogs dot org
Speaker 1: claiming that a group of anonymous individuals snuck into a
Speaker 1: subcontractor's machine storage lot and poured hydrochloric acid into the
Speaker 1: oil tanks of three vehicles. The target was Brent Scarborough Company,
Speaker 1: a Georgia based subcontractor who was hired to clear cut
Speaker 1: the Waalani forest and was currently engaged in mass land
Speaker 1: grading on the site. I drove by the site on
Speaker 1: Monday and I saw like over twenty machines like actively
Speaker 1: working on the land.
Speaker 3: Very avatar much Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yes, y or FORER and Gully the superior film, but no,
Speaker 1: like it's like the site's being very actively worked on,
Speaker 1: like I've never seen that many machines doing active work
Speaker 1: like all moving at the same time. Early Monday morning,
Speaker 1: the Stop Cop City Referendum put out a strong statement
Speaker 1: of solidarity with quote all tactics on the road to
Speaker 1: collective liberation unquote and openly rejected the state's framing of
Speaker 1: quote unquote violent and nonviolent resistance. To briefly quote a
Speaker 1: few of the last sentences of the statement, quote, the
Speaker 1: Cop City Vote Referendum campaign is grounded in the values
Speaker 1: of abolitionist organizing and racial and environmental justice. We also
Speaker 1: recognize our chosen tactic is a single intervention in a
Speaker 1: wide rainbow of fighting state repression. We seek to use
Speaker 1: the Cop City Referendum to leverage local power, educate and
Speaker 1: activate our communities, and build networks that can strengthen our
Speaker 1: city and future mobilizations. The referendum is one piece of
Speaker 1: a vibrant, multi faceted movement, one that defies respectable categorization
Speaker 1: as well as its state violence and repression. The Cop
Speaker 1: City Vote Referendum Coalition stands in solidarity and full support
Speaker 1: of the Stop Cop City Week of Action, The larger
Speaker 1: movement and abolitionist organizers and activists across this city.
Speaker 2: Unintentionally, these two things coincided. There was the release of
Speaker 2: the scenes like the first sabotage in months, and then
Speaker 2: the referendum released that same day, the solidarity statement for
Speaker 2: all yes actions taken to stop Cop City. No, I
Speaker 2: just think that needs the statement itself needs to be highlighted,
Speaker 2: and yeah, I think it seems like they're going to
Speaker 2: stick to that.
Speaker 1: The solidarity statement was widely applauded and seen as a
Speaker 1: good sign regarding the referendum's place in the larger fight
Speaker 1: against Cop City and how it was not intending to
Speaker 1: take space away from other aspects of the movement. Tuesday morning,
Speaker 1: there was a small protest outside the Cab County Border
Speaker 1: Commisson's building to call for the reopening of Entrenchment Creek Park.
Speaker 1: The park was a common gathering spot for the movement,
Speaker 1: at where many people camped during previous weeks of action.
Speaker 1: An executive order from DCAB CEO Michael Thurmond closed the
Speaker 1: park late last March as the police geared up to
Speaker 1: fortify Bolauni and speed run all of the tree felling.
Speaker 2: So I sat in the Board of Commissioner's meeting and
Speaker 2: it's it's different than a city council meeting, where like
Speaker 2: anybody who signs up to do public comment can do
Speaker 2: public comment. They only a lot thirty minutes of public comment,
Speaker 2: so about that amounts to ten speakers, and I think
Speaker 2: about six of them were actually there for, you know,
Speaker 2: to talk about opening the park. And then the rally,
Speaker 2: I think it was something like thirty thirty people. Was
Speaker 2: a student organized rally and they did a couple speakers
Speaker 2: and then that was that was it. Not much from
Speaker 2: the CAB, Like the CAB only came out to make
Speaker 2: sure that they weren't blocking a pathway and it was
Speaker 2: kind of hands off.
Speaker 3: I did get a parking ticket, that was my fault,
Speaker 3: you did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I let my parking expire for twelve minutes.
Speaker 1: A legalist mascot at the ACPC wow.
Speaker 2: H And yeah the minute I do something illegal, I
Speaker 2: get a trapping ticket.
Speaker 1: Previously in June that a CAB CEO proposed a one
Speaker 1: point eight million dollar construction plan necessary to reopen the park,
Speaker 1: but no clear date on when that would happen. One
Speaker 1: County commissioner has been trying to fast track reopening the park,
Speaker 1: but their resolution has repeatedly been deferred by the County Board.
Speaker 1: The soonest it will be reconsidered is October tenth. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the park will remain indefinitely closed. Throughout the first few
Speaker 1: days of the Week of action. There was something kind
Speaker 1: of looming over everyone's heads. There was a march planned
Speaker 1: from Gresham Park towards Malawney that was to take place
Speaker 1: on the evening of Wednesday, June twenty eighth. The police
Speaker 1: response to this action was primed to be the most
Speaker 1: intense out of the week. The path to Entrenchment Creek
Speaker 1: Park is a pretty closed in bike path with a
Speaker 1: tunnel going under an overpass where police have been staging
Speaker 1: to prevent people from entering the forest.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: I definitely felt like on Monday and Tuesday, everyone was
Speaker 1: still like thinking about what would happen on Wednesday, What
Speaker 1: would happen on the march from Gresham Park. That was
Speaker 1: the big unknown, That was the big danger.
Speaker 2: Like very palpable. Yeah, concern about how that was going
Speaker 2: to play out. Yeah, that probably, I mean all the
Speaker 2: way back to Saturday, that was probably like playing through
Speaker 2: people's minds and causing some of that like, yeah, uncertainty.
Speaker 1: Police were setting up perimeters around the forest in an
Speaker 1: increased capacity than the usual detail. Pretty early on in
Speaker 1: the day, there was a DACAB County SWAT mobile command
Speaker 1: center posted up in a school parking lot next to
Speaker 1: the tunnel and bike path leading from Gresham to Wolani.
Speaker 1: Kind Of as expected, this entire section of South Atlanta
Speaker 1: was crawling with police before people even gathered at Gresham Park.
Speaker 1: The day began with an unfortunately rocky start and the
Speaker 1: first arrest of the week outside Cadence Bank in Midtown.
Speaker 1: The protest was calling on the bank to cancel their
Speaker 1: twenty million dollar construction loan given to the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Speaker 2: So there was this action at Cadence Bank that they
Speaker 2: specifically didn't want media and so none of us were there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that was early in the morning. I don't I
Speaker 2: think we found out about it after renoon or something,
Speaker 2: so after I woke up. Yeah, I think it was
Speaker 2: like they said, thirty people, kind of like we saw
Speaker 2: the other day Friday. Yeah, on Friday. But as they
Speaker 2: were walking away, somebody gets well multiple they try or
Speaker 2: rest multiple people.
Speaker 3: Please start chasing people.
Speaker 1: Someone gets grabbed and arrested, another person gets detained and
Speaker 1: then let go. Seemed like a pretty chaotic scene. That's
Speaker 1: not a great way to start off the day where
Speaker 1: you have your most stressful action plan for later. You
Speaker 1: wake up, you get chased by cops, and you're expecting
Speaker 1: to go do a march in a few hours in
Speaker 1: the most heavily police area of Atlanta right now. The
Speaker 1: march was to take place on the same bike path
Speaker 1: from Gresham Park to Intrenchment Creek Park that people took
Speaker 1: during the kickoff rally at the last week of Action,
Speaker 1: but much has changed on the ground since then. As
Speaker 1: people started to gather at Gresham Park on Wednesday evening,
Speaker 1: the numbers were quite small. As I progressed, around one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty people eventually amassed, but it was still
Speaker 1: a small fraction of the number of people at the
Speaker 1: previous Gresham Park march and with a much greater police presence.
Speaker 1: The exact plan for the night was heavily dependent on
Speaker 1: a lot of factors that it was impossible to explicitly
Speaker 1: know beforehand, like how many people would show up and
Speaker 1: what they would feel comfortable doing based on the police response.
Speaker 4: All right, this is.
Speaker 1: Wednesday, June twenty eighth.
Speaker 4: Me and Matt from the Community.
Speaker 1: Press Collective are gathered at Gresham Park. Overhead you can
Speaker 1: hear the Tacab helicopter circle at favorite sound, our favorite sound. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's about I don't know, maybe seventy five or more,
Speaker 1: close to one hundred, close to one hundred people gathered
Speaker 1: here in Gresham Park and people have plans to march
Speaker 1: towards Wolani or at least to the tunnel, and then
Speaker 1: what happens after that's kind of a big mystery. Definitely
Speaker 1: very different than the last time we were gathered in
Speaker 1: Gresham Park with a crowd of people.
Speaker 2: We're missing the music, We're missing the duwali like paint clouds,
Speaker 2: We're missing the kids, We're missing maybe the vibes. Just
Speaker 2: in general.
Speaker 1: Another eight hundred people or so, but I mean people
Speaker 1: are setting out science and some banners. Police have a
Speaker 1: decent presence around the around like the tunnel or like
Speaker 1: the overpass over the tunnel, and around Wilani.
Speaker 2: Right now, all around the Wilanni triangle there's there APD
Speaker 2: and the Cab County Police just hanging out more than usual.
Speaker 2: And at the fire station there was more cops than
Speaker 2: I've seen since.
Speaker 1: March fifth, since the last week of action. Yeah, earlier
Speaker 1: this morning, I saw a da KEB County swat nobile
Speaker 1: command unit at the school next to the tunnel overpass,
Speaker 1: but I do not know where that is now. It
Speaker 1: was it was not parked there last time we drove
Speaker 1: by about half an hour ago. So yeah, just that is.
Speaker 1: That is the update as of as of six thirty.
Speaker 1: So I'm guessing this crowd will start moving the next
Speaker 1: thirty minutes to forty minutes, probably have hour. Yeah, all right, Right,
Speaker 1: as the crowd was about to set off, someone made
Speaker 1: an announcement that due to small numbers and large police presence,
Speaker 1: there was to be a change of plans. Instead of
Speaker 1: going all the way to Entrenchment Creek Park or even
Speaker 1: the tunnel, they were going to march one third of
Speaker 1: the way and stop on the bike path. All right,
Speaker 1: it's around seven to twenty pm, about one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty people are leaving Gresham Park and they announced they're
Speaker 1: going to be going to hold a small vigil near
Speaker 1: one of one of the felled trees on the bike path.
Speaker 1: For a little while, the march was getting along fine,
Speaker 1: there was music and chanting, when suddenly police made an
Speaker 1: early appearance. Okay, so it's what seven seven forty seven
Speaker 1: fifty seven forty one on Wednesday, June twenty eighth.
Speaker 4: We are walking on the bike path and staged.
Speaker 2: Twenty five minutes into the walk and here we come
Speaker 2: on our first police presence of the day along our path.
Speaker 2: So too thinking to cap County, Yeah, two to cab
Speaker 2: County SuDS part side by side along the path. But
Speaker 2: they're not out of their vehicles.
Speaker 3: No, so.
Speaker 4: I think the crowd searsal order.
Speaker 3: They might try to give it a spursal order because
Speaker 3: there's too many people. Yeah. I didn't think they would
Speaker 3: try to fuck with it this soon.
Speaker 4: I thought they would wait to the tunnel.
Speaker 1: A small number of police were posted up right before
Speaker 1: the first bridge on the bike path, roughly about halfway
Speaker 1: to the tunnel. If they wanted to, the crowd could
Speaker 1: have marched past the police as they were not blocking
Speaker 1: the path. The two cop cars couldn't even follow behind
Speaker 1: because there was big metal bulgards preventing vehicles from going
Speaker 1: on the Wooden bridge, but the visible police caused the
Speaker 1: group to pause.
Speaker 2: There was that one speech that we need to touch
Speaker 2: on from that night, and that was the speaker said,
Speaker 2: in order to win, we have to let go of
Speaker 2: the idea of losing while looking good. Yeah, and that
Speaker 2: I think is going to inform whatever the direct action
Speaker 2: side of things are for the next this next phase
Speaker 2: of the movement.
Speaker 1: While paused in front of the police cruisers, the crowd
Speaker 1: deliberated on what they wanted to do and what they
Speaker 1: thought they could accomplish. After a few minutes of discussion,
Speaker 1: they decided that they were not prepared to unnecessarily sacrifice themselves.
Speaker 1: One of the people from the crowd spoke briefly not
Speaker 1: only on this decision, but also how it fits into
Speaker 1: the difficult situation the movement has found itself in. Right now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to quote a little bit from this impromptu
Speaker 1: speech quote. We shouldn't come away from this feeling demoralized.
Speaker 1: We should feel clarity because we believe we set out
Speaker 1: to participate in a movement to obstruct the construction of
Speaker 1: a police militarization site, but that is not being allowed
Speaker 1: to happen. The people we're fighting against believe we are
Speaker 1: a domestic insurgency. They are treating us like an insurgency.
Speaker 1: The state is using militaristic language like denying anarchists operating space,
Speaker 1: and so we're going to great lengths to be safe,
Speaker 1: to play it safe, and to go slow, and to
Speaker 1: proceed rationally and defend one another. But we're coming under
Speaker 1: constant attack. Everything we do, we're under attack unquote. Just
Speaker 1: earlier that morning, people were attacked by the state and
Speaker 1: arrested as they stood on the sidewalk outside of a bank.
Speaker 1: Those who work to bail activists out of jail are attacked.
Speaker 1: People doing on the ground jail support are physically attacked
Speaker 1: and face police intimidation.
Speaker 4: Quote.
Speaker 1: We don't want to be engaged in a failing struggle.
Speaker 1: Our enemy is treating us like terrorists. That's what they're
Speaker 1: calling us, and that's what they believe we are. It's
Speaker 1: not just a rhetorical trick. That's how they're treating the movement.
Speaker 1: And so we have to figure out how we're going
Speaker 1: to win, because we intend to win. But you can't
Speaker 1: just only defend yourself. The safest thing for us to
Speaker 1: do is to never go to a protest about this movement. Again,
Speaker 1: if our top priority is safety, everyone who is not
Speaker 1: currently facing charges should move away, should not go to
Speaker 1: events or actions. But if we have a higher priority
Speaker 1: than safety alone, we're going to have to figure out
Speaker 1: what we're going to do to achieve that, which is
Speaker 1: going to require going on the offense when we're able
Speaker 1: and how we're able. This movement has been very creative,
Speaker 1: and we're going to have to continue to be more
Speaker 1: and more creative, and we're going to have to continue
Speaker 1: to deploy all available means in order to have this
Speaker 1: kind of offensive, victorious, and strong movement that we all
Speaker 1: deserve when we fight, when we attack the enemy, when
Speaker 1: we have our offensive actions, we have to follow through
Speaker 1: with them. We have to go all the way with them.
Speaker 1: We have to be willing to believe in ourselves to
Speaker 1: believe that we can win. And so I believe that
Speaker 1: we are going to win this movement, and I think
Speaker 1: you guys believe that we're going to win this movement.
Speaker 1: But that's going to require us to abandon the idea
Speaker 1: of looking good while losing. We can't look good losing.
Speaker 1: So are we look good losing or are we going
Speaker 1: to win?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 4: It is eight o'clock.
Speaker 1: The crowd sat in the middle of the trail behind
Speaker 1: the first bridge, where two.
Speaker 4: Decap County vehicles were parked.
Speaker 1: They deliberated for a little bit, and then a few
Speaker 1: people spoke and now the crowd has turned around at
Speaker 1: a marching back to Greshiam.
Speaker 2: Park, marching back, no arrests. We do have two helicopters
Speaker 2: now hanging over us. That's my favorite thing in the world.
Speaker 1: Part and a lot of other decav on the ground
Speaker 1: in other parts of the bike path, in the trails.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they would have walked directly into what looked like
Speaker 2: a full swat team above the bridge. So they made
Speaker 2: the right choice, is.
Speaker 3: What it seems like to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And they talked about their intentionality of the decision,
Speaker 1: and it's how it's important to not just keep losing
Speaker 1: while trying to look cool and throw yourself out a
Speaker 1: line of police.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that hopefully, I mean, what what does that
Speaker 2: look like in practice? I guess we'll see you over
Speaker 2: the next few months, three.
Speaker 1: Days, three days to two months, yeah, three.
Speaker 2: Days, several months. But it does sound like there's some
Speaker 2: attempt now a directionality that wasn't I wasn't sing yeah
Speaker 2: until this is.
Speaker 1: The exact same march people tried to do back in March,
Speaker 1: and they did it, and they're trying to do it
Speaker 1: here again in June.
Speaker 4: And it doesn't work. It didn't It doesn't work the
Speaker 4: first time.
Speaker 2: It doesn't work.
Speaker 4: It worked the first time, it does' wanke second time.
Speaker 4: So now it's time to change something exact.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: On the walk back to Grushiam Park, we got clear
Speaker 1: photos of the amount of riot police waiting for us
Speaker 1: at the tunnel and it was a great many.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, there is a lot.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of of a riot.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And that was when of the vans posted above the tunnel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that a trailer. Yeah, that's what they bring
Speaker 2: all their riot shields in. Okay.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that that would have sucked.
Speaker 2: That would not have been fun.
Speaker 4: No, that would have gone very poorly.
Speaker 2: Would have been tear gas though, and I do miss
Speaker 2: being tear gas.
Speaker 3: I can like spray with pepper spray if you want.
Speaker 2: It's not the same as tear gas.
Speaker 3: I can spray right now if you want.
Speaker 1: Matt ultimately declined to be pepper sprayed. Torti Guita's mother,
Speaker 1: Belkise Tearan, came to Gresham Park to also join the march.
Speaker 2: So what we had was one hundred and fifty people
Speaker 2: in Belkis Tarran and I think that that, yeah, plays
Speaker 2: a role in how this goes on.
Speaker 3: Nov Having bell Keise.
Speaker 1: Very like visibly present, like walking up to everybody there
Speaker 1: and greeting them. Just having her presence there affects what
Speaker 1: people want to do, and it reminds you of what's
Speaker 1: actually like the actual stakes at hand, so you're caring
Speaker 1: for everyone around you in a much more like conscious capacity.
Speaker 1: Belcise spoke, a few other people spoke, and then they
Speaker 1: turned around and headed back to Greshia and that was
Speaker 1: the decision that was made and no no one was hurt,
Speaker 1: no one was arrested. People got back to Gresham Park.
Speaker 1: Some people had ice cream.
Speaker 2: Two people in particular had ice cream and they were
Speaker 2: very happy about it. It definitely wasn't maybe it was us.
Speaker 3: Other people also had ice cream.
Speaker 2: Other people did have ice cream. I don't think they
Speaker 2: were quite as excited.
Speaker 3: It's like the overpriced ice.
Speaker 1: Throughout the week, you could tell that people were really
Speaker 1: wanting to be back in the forest and Wilani People's Park.
Speaker 1: People made do gathering at Brownwood Park, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: the same. There was an undeniable distance between where people
Speaker 1: were gathered this week of action and the sight of
Speaker 1: all the previous battles in the Wilani. The fact that
Speaker 1: so much of the forest had already been destroyed loomed
Speaker 1: heavily over the week, and that's something that people are
Speaker 1: still processing and are still comprehending. Another big aspect of
Speaker 1: the week, like this is this is the first week
Speaker 1: of action where people haven't gone in the gone in
Speaker 1: the willani Like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no action, which feels weird. Well, we should
Speaker 2: say in the triangle because you know, the forest is obviously, but.
Speaker 1: Like the site, like this is the first time that
Speaker 1: people haven't been like in the forest, and that's a
Speaker 1: new thing to navigate, that's a new feeling to navigate,
Speaker 1: Like there's there's a different there's a different.
Speaker 2: Sense multiple chance.
Speaker 1: There's multiple chance being like not one lead, don't cut
Speaker 1: down the trees and like the trees are gone, like
Speaker 1: it's the site's been cleared, and I think people are
Speaker 1: still catching up to that and like rel Like it's
Speaker 1: still something that people are processing and they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to process that if they want to like continue, like
Speaker 1: they have to like look at the situation being like
Speaker 1: this is we have to accept what has happened.
Speaker 3: Then we can choose what's to do, because you can't
Speaker 3: act as.
Speaker 2: You can't deny what the reality is.
Speaker 1: No, and you can't act as if the trees are
Speaker 1: still there, because that's going to change the type of
Speaker 1: the types of like actions you do. Like you can't
Speaker 1: trace it in the in the trees. It's it's changing
Speaker 1: the actual actions people are going to take to try
Speaker 1: to stop copsitting. I think the Wednesday action almost needed
Speaker 1: to happen. So many people still dream about what if
Speaker 1: we could reoccupy Wollane. People are still caught in that
Speaker 1: headspace because they got so used to that over the
Speaker 1: course of almost two years, so inevitably there was going
Speaker 1: to be an attempt where a few hundred people try
Speaker 1: to re enter Willane People's park. They're almost needed to
Speaker 1: be an attempt just to see what would happen, And
Speaker 1: we saw what would happen. And now people can use
Speaker 1: that action as reference when making future plans and decisions
Speaker 1: about actions, because you can point back to this and
Speaker 1: demonstrate what the police response will be when people march
Speaker 1: to Wolani. Massive amounts of SWAT riot police waiting for you,
Speaker 1: SWAT mobile command centers, heavily armed police estanged on roads, overpasses, entrances,
Speaker 1: and all around the forest. Specifically waiting for people to
Speaker 1: try to cross over or through the tunnel, so now
Speaker 1: people know what will happen if they try and do
Speaker 1: the same thing again. In some ways, it kind of
Speaker 1: needed to not just be theoretical speculation, but actually happen
Speaker 1: so that people can now truly allow themselves to evolve,
Speaker 1: so that you don't have this question in the back
Speaker 1: of your head, because now that question has been answered,
Speaker 1: you would be throwing yourself at a wall of swat
Speaker 1: and riot gear. And now everyone can let themselves evolve
Speaker 1: and start figuring out what new things can be fostered
Speaker 1: and imagined. We'll hear more about those evolutions and conclude
Speaker 1: my coverage of the week of Action in the next episode.
Speaker 1: See you on the other side. It Could Happen here
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