Atlanta Forest Week of Action Update

An update on Defend the Atlanta Forest discussing what’s happened the past month from the Week of Action up to the current situation. 

https://scenes.noblogs.org/ 
https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/
https://twitter.com/defendATLforest
https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/contribute-to-the-atlanta-solidarity-fund 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Greetings. This is it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis,
and this episode I will once again be talking about
the Defend the Atlanta Force project. Last month I released
two episodes totally like three hours in content, uh, discussing
the movement from its inception up until the current state

(00:25):
of affairs at time of recording, which was like early May.
If you want background on this uh, really interesting and
vital piece of resistance that's happening in Atlanta, Georgia, then
I would recommend you at least attempts to check out
the Juggernaut of Audio, which is that two part a

(00:46):
long story short. There's this police training facility that the
Atlanta Police Foundation and other corporate interests in the city
are trying to build on one of the city's last
remaining like massive wafts of of a continuous forested land.
On an adjacent piece of forested land, a movie studio

(01:06):
called Black Hall is trying to expand their sound stage
onto a whole other section of the woods. The joint
projects of the police training facility, dubbed Cops City and
the Black Hall Studios sound stage expansion threatened hundreds of
acres of the largest continuous piece of the Atlantic Forest
located in southwest Intocab County. The area is often referred

(01:28):
to as the Lungs of Atlanta and produces a massive
amount of tree canopy in the city and is a
wonderful little ecological spot. I was lucky enough to visit
in late April to help in putting together those those
two episodes, and a lot of a lot a lot
has happened since then. Uh. Coming off the success of

(01:48):
getting Reeves Young to cease work on the Cops City project,
I felt like there was this sense of renewed optimism
regarding the potential of actually winning. On the other hand,
in just during the week before the Week of Action,
attempts by cops to enter the forest increased, and there
was talk of increasing crackdowns against the forest offenders by

(02:11):
local law enforcement, who also announced that they called in
the FBI to assist them, which leads us to the
Week of Action. On the morning of May nine, which
was a Monday, barely a day into the Week of Action,
a bulldozer was brought into the Atlanta Forest. This is
based on reporting by the Great Folks at the Atlanta

(02:34):
Community Press and other on the ground reports from forest
offenders hosted by the Defend the Atlanta Forest account and
scenes dot no blogs. So around nine thirty a m.
Monday morning, people inhabiting the Wilani Forest woke up to
the sounds of trees going down and metal machinery. A

(02:55):
bulldozer marked with Dodd Drilling LLC, accompanied by to Decab
County cops, had bulldozed a path through the forested Entrenchment
Creek Park, directly adjacent to the old Atlanta Prison Farm.
The park land is currently under threat by the Black
Hall Studios sound stage development. The Dodd Drilling bulldozer destroyed

(03:16):
a significant swath of forests, injuring plants and animals in
its path. When people learned about this, around forty folks
quickly mobilized and gathered around the bulldozer, confronting the project
managers and the police officers on the scene. Those gathered
showed it at the workers and cops to go home
and declared that this is a public park. When the

(03:40):
two Decab County police who were protecting the bulldozer were confronted,
it was revealed that they were actually working as off
duty uniformed private security, seemingly taking orders from the construction management.
The management who wore vests labeled Contour Engineering and Dodd
Phillips claimed that they were not working for black Holes studios.

(04:00):
Who who knows if that's true or who they might
be working for that Georgia state law does permit off
duty police officers to be hired, along with their uniforms,
service weapons, and vehicles, by private companies for their own purposes.
The police expressed that they were not aware that they
were in a public park along with the bulldozer they
were protecting, and faced with a confident group of responders

(04:24):
intent on defending the forest from further destruction, police and
the construction management quickly made the decision to retreat from
the woods. The off duty cops had called in reinforcements
from Decab County. Seven more Decab County vehicles showed up,
but by the time the extra police survived, workers were
driving the bulldozers back into the parking lot. The police

(04:47):
were persuaded to leave by the actions of intelligent people
acting quickly and collectively in defense of the land. The
force defenders then escorted the cops and the workers out
of the park and made sure that the instruction of
the woods had truly ceased. Police scanners reported that vehicles
transporting the bulldozer faced a brage of rocks and had

(05:08):
their windshield smashed. Entrenchment Creek Park is still a public
park and property of Decab County under a civil court injunction.
The pending case prevents construction or clearing by Black Hall Studios.
Later that same day, a group of around forty people
marched to the home of Shepherd Long, the principle of

(05:29):
Long Engineering, an engineering firm subcontracted to do surveying and
other preconstruction work on the Atlanta Police Foundation's Public Safety
training center, which we called Cops City. The group rallied
for about ten minutes outside Shepherd Lungs home and was
demanding that Long Engineering sever its contract with the Cops

(05:51):
City project. One of the group members read aloud a
statement directed to Shepherd Long, which I will play the
audio of here. In Mane is a city of forests
with the most tree coverage of any urban city in America.
If you continue to work with bross Field and Gory,
the entire city will experience worse floods, higher temperatures, and
small field afternoons. You have the power to stop that.

(06:14):
This proposed military training compound is in the nucleus of
a culturally rich black community full of churches, preschools, and
community centers. Dozens of children and grandparents have lived there
for years. If you continue to work with brass Field
and Gory, our streets and backyards will be filled with shootings, explosions,
and dear gas. We want our children and neighbors to

(06:34):
be able to breathe clean air and experience the vastness
of the Atlanta Forest, not to be victims of a
domestic war zone. You have the power to stop that.
We are here to fight for the future of our city,
our children, our neighbors, and our planet. We hold no
ill will towards you personally. We just want you to
make this one right decision. We no long Engineering has

(06:57):
many other contracts with many other company. We are only
here to ask you to drop this one company, Rathfield
and Glory, until they dropped their contract with the Atlanta
Police Foundation. The group distributed flyers alerting neighbors to the
work of Shepherd Long and what his company was doing
in De capp County. After about ten minutes, the group

(07:20):
quickly dispersed without incident. The next day, There's a lot
of other events related to the Week of Action. There
was a security culture workshop and activist primer about building
a collective understanding of ways to keep us all safe
from imprisonment the government repression. There was a night of
hip hop and punk at a local radical venue that

(07:40):
served as a benefit show for the Forest Defense, and
other random events throughout the Week of Action included stuff
like clothing swaps, bike rides through the forest, yoga in
the park, plus daily breakfast and dinners, history talks, art parties,
wood walks, skill shares, and a sick night rave along
with you know, forced tours and much more. So that's

(08:03):
just two days of the Week of Action, the Monday
and the Tuesday. When we get back from this ad break,
I will get into what happened on Wednesday and then
and then Thursday. You know, we're going to go through
it linearly. Um, despite my criticisms of linear time, we
will go through this in a linear fashion because that's
how formatting this episode was easiest. Anyway, here's some ads,

(08:36):
and we are back talking about the Defending Atlantic Forest
Week of Action. So just after ten am on Wednesday,
May eleven, to de cab County Park Police entered the
forest to inspect the path created by the bulldozer that
previous Monday. As they were exiting the forest, forest defenders
to ambush them by throwing rocks and bottles at their

(08:57):
vehicles and smashing the car windows. At noons like two
hours later, a van marked law enforcement Department of Juvenile
Justice pulled up into the parking lot of entrenchmentt Creek Park.
It's worth noting that the area of Entrenchment Creek Park
and the forested area on the Atlanta Prison Farm has

(09:18):
like two child prisons on it. We talked more about
those in the in the two part series from last month.
But anyway, so this van marked Department of Juvenal Justice
pulled up into the parking lot inside in Trenchmant Creek Park.
But an hour later the van was attacked suddenly by
a brage of rocks and multiple tires were slashed. The

(09:41):
van attempted to escape, but was left stranded in the
parking lot until the cab police were able to escort
it out. Police were nervously walking backwards in order to
keep their eyes on the tree line, where they knew
forced defenders would be watching them at every moment. Multiple
police vehicles were damaged. Nobody was detain or arrested. Portions
of that report came from scenes dot no blogs dot Org.

(10:05):
Earlier that same day, like early in the morning, around
forty people visited the home of Keith Lanier Johnson Jr.
In Kensaw, Georgia. Keith is the Eastern Regional president of
Brassfield and Gory. Brassfield and Gory are the current general
contractor on the Atlanta Police Foundations Cops City Project. Flyers

(10:27):
were posted around the neighborhood, past the low barrier fencing
around the gated community. An anonymous statement released online at
scenes dot no blogs read quote now that Keith is
no longer busy on the board of the Mount Perrin
Christian School. It seems he is now managing the one
hundred and forty two thou dollars of fines levied against

(10:47):
his employer for safety and wage theft violations. He's also
overseeing the destruction of grave sites, leveling of a vital
tree canopy, and the militarization of the American Police Force.
It is for those reasons that community members went to
his home at six am. We hope that Keith is
able to convince the two owners, currently sitting comfortably back

(11:08):
at home in Birmingham, that the current Atlanta Police Foundation
contract is untenable and there is an urgent need to
cancel it. It could turn out that Keith personally is
carrying to Brunt the pressure for his boss's decisions. Brassfield
and Gory will eventually drop the Cops City project. Anonymous
groups are developing new methods for disincentivizing the project. The

(11:31):
next day, on May twelve, a tightly packed crowd around
eight mask protesters converged on the Brassfield and Gory Atlanta
office in broad daylight. People holding banners and launching fireworks
arrived at the building, and force defenders covered the side
of the office with stop Cops City graffiti and chanting

(11:52):
will be Back as they left. Unicorn Riot reported that
five people were arrested following the action and booked on
several charges, including some felonies. Charges were including riot and
criminal damage to property and quote terroristic threats and acts.
I know that some but possibly not all, people's charges
got dropped, and the listed bond amount for some individuals

(12:15):
was extremely high, getting up to around fifty dollars just
for an individual. Nearing the end of the week of action.
On Saturday, May eleven, a march to Defend the Forest
took the streets in East Atlanta Village, led by local preschoolers.
There were some really nice signs and artwork done by kids.
The Defend the Forest twitter account posted some beautiful photos

(12:37):
of kids protests signs that says forest is life and
love you trees stop, never cut down the trees allowed
with very very good art. It was very very pleasant
to see. A Few hours later, another march to Atlanta
at the top cop City drew around two d protesters

(13:00):
is After about an hour of marching, the crowd returned
to Freedom Park, where they were then attacked by police.
Without warning. Dozens of cop cars pulled up and police
helicopters loomed overhead. Armored cops were arresting people on the
sidewalks for marching on the streets, for playing drums, or
for just standing in the wrong place. Atlanta police and

(13:22):
Georgia State Patrol officers assaulted, shoved, and tackled multiple people,
deployed tasers and threatened neighbors who filmed the arrests. One
person violently arrested was taken to the hospital for treatment.
To defend the forest, twitter account posted quote at least
seventeen arrests night by Atlanta Police Department. Spirits high as

(13:43):
the forest raves and the encampment grows outside the forest,
many stand vigil at the jail, welcoming arrestees as they
are released. We are strong together. The forest unites us.
The cops cannot divide us. Atlanta Police say that the
march was in violation of pedestrian laws, which is why
they charged and started assaulting people on the sidewalk. And

(14:06):
that wraps up some of the Week of Action stuff.
I know there was a lot more things that happened,
but trying to crime it all into a tight package
was challenging. So that that was the general general week
Week of Action vibes. But there is there's more. We
still We still have like half the episode to go
because a lot, a lot else has happened in in

(14:29):
the days since then. In the early morning on Monday
May sixteen, a week after the bulldozer descended on the forest,
accompanied by off duty cops acting as security, a home
associated with Dodd Drilling LLC. Was painted with slogans including
Dodd Drilling, Stay Out, stop Cops City and drop a

(14:51):
p D. A message for the homeowner associated with Dodd
Drilling was released, which you can read the full version
of online at scenes dot no lugs dot org. I'll
read some portions of it here. Quote. Last Monday, a
bulldozer with your logo forced its way into the Wolani
Forest and left one hundred foot trail of destruction in
its wake. Forced defenders responded quickly with rocks and rage,

(15:15):
but some damage was already done. Despite having no permit,
you allowed Atlanta Police to use your equipment to intimidate
and injure the forest and its residents. Today, you know
what it's like to have your space invaded. You came
into our home, so we came to yours. Your private
property is not as private as you may think. We
demand that you stay out of the Wolani Forest and

(15:36):
stopped working with Atlanta Police and Cops City contractors. To
all others who would support Cops City, it might have
more costs than you anticipate, financial and otherwise. Many creatures
care deeply about this forest and are prepared to defend it.
Any partner of the a p D or contractor for
Cops City is our enemy and a potential target. The

(15:59):
will Annie Forest is not dying, it is being killed,
and those who are killing it have names and addresses.
A list of local Atlanta evil doers is available at
stop reeves young dot com. The next day, on Tuesday,
May see Atlanta police, backed by other state and federal
law enforcement, including the CAB Police, Georgia State Patrol, the

(16:22):
Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI, raided the South
Atlanta Forest. The raid came just days after the Week
of Action, which brought hundreds to the Atlanta Forest to
participate in workshops, plant gardens, watch films, and protest at
the homes of developers plotting the forests destruction. Shortly after
the scheduled events ended, police gathered their forces to raid

(16:46):
the forest encampment. Police started staging at around nine am
on Tuesday and started coming in at around ten am.
Force offenders started mobilizing and calling for support. Cops blocked
off the roads leading to the forest access points and
told drivers stuck at the blockade that quote, we're opening

(17:06):
up the site for construction. Soon, cops started arresting protesters
that gathered in Entrenchment Creek Park and towed any car
on the streets outside of the park. Helicopter circled the forest,
trying to track the movement of forest offenders under the
cover of the tree canopy. Police near occupied trees were

(17:26):
heard talking about quote flushing out people inside tree houses
in the face of militant resistance. Police did manage to
cut down trees and destroyed multiple treehouses, destroyed force defenders,
personal belongings, and other protest infrastructure set up by the
land defenders, all in an effort to allow contractors to
begin development of the ninety million dollar Cops City project.

(17:50):
On Twitter, the Defend the Atlanta Forest account posted quote
reports that the Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol are
chainsawing in an area of the old Atlanta Prison farm
where people have occupied trees to Defend the Forest. Dozens
of Forest Defenders moving in groups all over the woods
throughout the raid. No arrests inside the forest reported so far,

(18:11):
only from the perimeter at the public park. Police seem
unwilling to pursue people through the forest. Swat rifles trained
on force defenders occupying a treehouse to stop Cops City.
The Defend the Forest twitter account also posted a video
of a semitruck packed full of building supplies headed into
the north boundary of the proposed Cops City site, where

(18:34):
police were raiding the forest defense occupation. I'm gonna do
a little quote from Unicorn Riot, who reported on the
police raid. Quote. According to police, those committed to defending
the forest to put up a fight, pelting the officers
with rocks and what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail
was deployed along a fence line. In the wake of
the raid, a truck barricade constructed months ago to protect

(18:57):
those occupying the forest from police incursions, showed signs of
having being set on fire. Flaming barricades are a common
tactic used by protesters around the world to push back
against police unquote. Eventually, police let media enter a small
contained area on the other side of the blockade. Police
wanted to talk with the multiple press outlets that had

(19:17):
gathered near the site in an attempt to gain control
of the media narrative. Atlanta Police Deputy Chief sheer Bomb, Yes,
that's how I'm pronouncing it. I've no idea has actually said,
but I think it's sheer Bomb held an interview staged
by the Public Affairs Office Overall, the goal seemed to
be to control the media narrative by painting police as
the heroes and the protesters as a very small group

(19:39):
of outside agitators. After getting the statement from police, most
media left the scene while the blockades were still up
on both sides of the forest access road. Deputy Chief
sheer Bomb said that police escorted contractors into the forest
and preliminary work was being done. Police later specified that
they were at this site to company contractors tasked with

(20:01):
removing some temporary illegal structures that were set up by protesters,
and that quote no one was hurt. Media framed the
raid and subsequent arrests as the police cracking down on
a group of violent outside agitators, cops giving statements like quote,
we will not be deterred by the acts of a
few that do not represent our community, and with local

(20:25):
news covering the incident like quote several protesters who are
arrested after they threw a Molotov cocktail at police as
officers raided a camp on the grounds of the planned
Atlanta Police Departments training facility unquote, even though the arrests
took place in a completely different section of the woods
where protesters were gathered openly in a public park and

(20:47):
actually happened before the cocktail was thrown. Yet there was
a lot of attempts to link the arrests to the
maltof cocktail, but you know, media, media just do that,
and they got hold up the story of of the
of the cocktail and of the outside agitators attacking Atlanta
police and it's not representing our community. Eight people were

(21:10):
arrested and faced charges ranging from criminal trespassing to police obstruction.
Despite attempts by police to paint the movement as the
work of quote outside agitators, while also working alongside of
growing list of out of town law enforcement organizations, the
movement to oppose Cops City has been directly rooted within

(21:32):
a broad localized opposition, whether that be with Atlanta based
organizations fighting against gentrification, local chapters of climate change protest organizations,
or just anonymous individuals that reside across Atlanta, or the
indigenous people who have in setral connections to the land.
Hours after the raid, there was a Atlanta community press

(21:52):
conference put on at Entrenchment Creek Park, And I'm going
to read a statement that somebody gave at the press conference.
Quote this is an attempt to demoralize a vibrant and
diverse movement led by local community members against the replacement
of the largest urban tree canopy in the United States
with the largest police training compound in the United States.

(22:13):
The police will attempt to depict this movement as a
small group of hard line activists. We are all neighbors
of the forest. We are intelligent people who know that
the future of the world is on fire, and who
are determined to act and to defend what remains to
sustain life in this city and on this planet. The
city is only going to get hotter, Wrench is only

(22:34):
going to get more expensive. Food and gas prices are
only rising. The city has no answers for this except
for a more militarized police force. You can't prop up
a free society with violence alone. The next day, protesters
from Saturday's Stop Cop City march had court and all
of their charges were dropped. Atlanta police is just desperate

(22:57):
to get a good boogeyman to blame any potential uprising on,
and they're not being super successful and letting any of
these charges stick. There was this really great point made
by this person named Audi Khali and was going to
quote from a thread they posted quote. Thirty seven arrests
were made in relation to the decentralized Defend the Atlanta

(23:17):
Force movement over the past weeks, mostly for made up
jaywalking charges, but only twelve had their legal identities revealed
to corporate media and right wing doctors. Why all twelve
protesters who were docked these past couple of weeks were
said to be from out of state. When journalists asked
if other protesters had Georgia residences, answers were denied. The

(23:41):
answer to why is simple, These twelve currently possessed out
of state I das and appeared white, passing the other
twenty four arrestees might not necessarily fit these categories. Noticed
that right wing troll Andy no omitted the ages of
the arrestees who are not in their twenties as well.
This is another iteration of the outside educator and narrative

(24:03):
and an attempt to delegitimize resistance while denying local agency unquote.
Police are continuing to target stop cops to new protesters
with extremely high bales. Just getting nine protesters released during
one week cost over a hundred thousand dollars, So please,
if you're able to consider donating to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund.

(24:24):
There will will be links in the description. So that
was the raid that took place a few weeks ago.
Six tree houses were destroyed. And those tree houses weren't
just like tree sets to defend the forest. These were
also like people's homes like that that that's where people
were living. Uh so six six of those were destroyed.
Multiple force defenders, personal belongings were stolen or just dismantled

(24:49):
and decimated by the cops. And overall the raid was
pretty bad. I mean, it's it kind of it kind
of sucked. We will talk about what has happened since
the raid. Would be come back from a little at break,

(25:12):
all right, we are back after the raid. Officers from
Atlanta Police Departments Zone three Field Investigations Team discussed using
deadly force against protesters if they used molotov cocktails to
defend themselves from a raid. According to scanner audio publicized
by activists, listen closely for like thirty seconds to hear

(25:34):
their conversation discussing deadly FORCEY good thing we didn't get
out with dental today. I don't do well with fire.
Oh yeah right, hold you deadly fourth encounter. Wait, whatever
doing with fire, That's why I brought it up. I
was saying, as well, as long as we're all that
they paid cockill deadly fourth encounter, you liar, the cock

(25:59):
fill have them at the road, the treehow they had
up they had cars like on it, people coming in
serious the protest against COPT. Sure, So I'm just gonna

(26:19):
reread one little section in case it was hard to hear.
Quote I told you deadly force encounter. That's why I
brought it up. As long as we're on the same page,
I'm atop cocktail is the deadly force encounter unquote. So
a deadly force encounter is a situation where officers are
legally allowed to shoot to kill. Basically, what this scanner
audio insinuates is that police are preparing or thinking about

(26:42):
just killing people when molotov cocktails are deployed. So that's
a thing. Also, it's a little interesting that police themselves
referred to the project as cops City, But yeah, keeping
track of scanner audio has been a big part of
the not on the ground portion of the movement being
all to track police communications, police locations all using open

(27:04):
source information, and tops are really scared and paranoid when
it comes to stuff around the forest and just don't
seem to be able to grasp the idea of a
decentralized resistance movement that is capable of a diversity of tactics,
including militant ones. There's this other scanner audio that was
released displaying Atlanta police's ignorance, cowardice, and paranoia related to

(27:28):
what they believe is a group dubbed Black Flag Atlanta. Hey,
you guys gotta be carefully. Had a um to the cab.
Guys are sitting in a van and they they attacked
the van or you know, knocking windows out with flatting
attires and stuff. But they're supposed to be a group
called a Black Flag Atlanta that are targeting police and

(27:49):
they have an app and stuff that can monitor our
vehicles and shows about patrol cars are sitting at with
lab updates. You know, you know, you know, they could
be jumping the pointing something or you know, set a
trap or damaged propery ands out in the range. You said,
they gotta what's the name of that? I just pulled

(28:10):
back round find it. But the group is called Black
Flag Atlanta. So the so called group that police refer
to as black Flag Atlanta is likely just referring to
a hobbyist website that simply collects on the ground reports
and open source police scanner information. The website is an

(28:30):
open resource for anyone to use. It's not a group
of people. It's just a random online tool that lets
you listen to scanner audio. The cops mentioned that they're
afraid because of the actions of some anonymous individuals who
surrounded a law enforcement vehicle and damaged it while officers
were inside just sitting terrified, and then did the same

(28:52):
to a juvenile detention facility. Van I discussed the details
of that direct action earlier in this episode, when anonymous
people through rocks and slash tires of those law enforcement vehicles.
Quoting from an anonymous statement on scenes dot no blogs quote,
the cops believe that black Flag Atlanta is a group
that tracks and monitors cops and their locations around the

(29:13):
forest and works to attack them. This is laughably wrong.
Rather than understanding that our power comes from open source intelligence,
horizontal organizing, and transparency, they have conjured up a shadowy
organization that organizes hits on police officers and publishes their
targets right beforehand. Unquote, cops really just don't seem to

(29:34):
have a clue on what's what's actually going on um
or how any types of decentralized infrastructure works, or how
movements are really operated. It is an interesting thing to see.
But scared cops are also dangerous cops, as we just
mentioned about them planning to use lethal force if there's

(29:56):
a multip cocktail in the area right when cops are scared.
That's not necessarily always a good thing. Um. It just
you know, a lot of police training is based on
being afraid and then using deadly force if you are afraid.
So it's just a thing to think about. I'm not
I'm not I'm not making any like commentary here. I'm

(30:17):
just saying, yeah, cops seem really scared, and that can
be good. It also can be dangerous. I'm now going
to talk a bit about solidarity actions, because you know,
not everyone's able to go to Atlanta, even if even
if they would like to go to land and help
to help participate, some people just aren't able to. But
that doesn't mean people are unable to assist in the movement.

(30:38):
I'm gonna do a little quote from Unicorn Riot quote.
In recent weeks, autonomous attacks in solidarity with efforts to
defend the Atlanta Forest have occurred throughout the country, according
to a website that tracks such actions, One repeated target
has been at Las Technical Consultants, the apparent company of
Long Engineering, a subcontractor of the Cops City project, which

(31:00):
had its windows of its office smashed in Albany, New York,
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and it's building tag with the graffiti
in Highland, Indiana. The website also received reports of attacks
on Bank of America, which donates money to the police
foundations across the country, including the Atlanta Police Foundation. Attacks
were reported in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Portland's Enemy Appolis unquote. And

(31:24):
I'm going to just go through a list of solidarity
actions that have happened in May and now up into June.
Most of these were posted on scenes dot no blogs
that seems to be the main site for anonymously posting
communication or report backs. You can find guides to how
to do so with more Internet security on websites like

(31:44):
Scenes and websites like Warrior up. So Anyway, here's just
a list of little communications that have been released related
to solidarity actions that have taken place in the past month. Quote.
On the evening of May tenth, I smashed seven windows
at the office building where the northeast offices of Atlas
are located in Albany, New York. I also tagged Atlas

(32:06):
stopped destroying the Atlanta Forest, destroying conscience of acres of
forest during the sixth greatest mass extinction of species. To
build a police training facility following one of the largest
anti police uprisings in decades is fucking disgusting with his vandalism.
I urge Atlas to do the right thing and to
drop any contracts with brass Field and Gory and the

(32:26):
Cops City project. During the week of Action, the brass
Field and Gory Corporate HQ in Birmingham, Alabama was targeted.
According to a strongly worded anonymous statement published on scenes.
The report back reads quote, on the morning of the
thirte the windows and glass doors to the brass Field
and Gory Corporate HQ were smashed. The words drop Cops

(32:48):
City or else were spray painted on the windows. Paint
was applied to the front sign. Let it serve as
a warning to the executives at brass Field and Gory.
We know where you work and we know where you sleep.
You're houses could be next Keith Johnson Miller, George James Gory.
You will drop this contract eventually. Why wait to see
how far will go? In solidarity with a struggle in

(33:11):
Atlanta unquote. And then just a few days ago, construction
offices in Pennsylvania were hit the community a was short
and sweet just reads quote. Door windows smashed and building
tagged at the northeast office of Atlas Technical Consultants at
two one to six Fillmore Avenue in Erie, Pennsylvania. Stop

(33:32):
Cops City, Defend the Atlanta Forest and Forests Everywhere. A
few days ago, on May thirty one, there was a
massive police mobilization involving helicopters and a road checkpoint around
the Atlanta Forest at the proposed Cops City site. According
to reports, Atlanta Police Department accompanied Long Engineering, who seemingly
we're surveying for a perimeter fence. No arrests were reported.

(33:56):
Long Engineering, as we've stated, is owned by Atlas Technical
Consultant and it's currently being contracted by Brassfield and Gory,
the Atlanta Police Foundation's general contractor. The Soft Reeves Young
campaign released a statement discussing the events of the past
few days quote. On May thirty one and June one,
Brassfield and Gory subcontractor Long Engineering entered the old Atlanta

(34:17):
prison farm with chainsaws and heavy machinery. They're cutting down
trees in order to build a fence around the zone.
This is where the Police Foundation believes they will build
the Cops City Training Compound. They hope to prevent the
community from seeing what they are doing. Long Engineering, owned
by a man named Shephard Long of ken Saw, Georgia,

(34:37):
has already participated in destructive acts in the South River Forest.
For this, they have become the object of a nationwide
pressure campaign by activists and communities organizing to oppose police
militarization and climate change. Long is a subsidy of Atlas
Technical Consultants. If activists and community members can convince Brassfield

(34:58):
and Gory to drop their contract with the Atlanta Police Foundation,
the project could lose funding and fall apart. Brass Field
and Gory uses many subcontractors to do their projects, including
Atlas Technical Consultants subsidy Long Engineering. By encouraging Long Engineering
to drop the contract with Brassfield and Gory, we encourage
Brassfield and Gory to drop their contract with cops. City.

(35:21):
Climate collapse and police militarization are not abstract processes so
that nobody can stop. They happen because of observable and
preventable reasons. If you care about police brutality, if you
want to stop climate change, this is your chance to
do something unquote. And I do think there are a
lot of signs that people actually can make actual impacts.

(35:43):
At the last community Stakeholder Advisory meeting, Atlanta Assistant police
Chief Darien schnear Bomb said that construction plans could be
quote delayed or deferred because of the actions of a
very few unquote, and said that this is why police
agencies are working to quote addressed criminal protests very quickly
so it doesn't get into that realm unquote. And on

(36:07):
the day I record this, which is June second, earlier
this morning to police chased force defenders into the woods
near a work site and found a camp ten force
defenders confronted and surrounded a bulldozer that was in the woods,
resulting in a work stoppage. On a communicate released online
at scenes read quote work stopped Today Thursday, June second,

(36:30):
as a group of ten Force Defenders confronted a bulldozer
in the forest just west of the Duvy today forcet
defenders launched rocks and fireworks, yelling get the funk out
of the woods. As the machine was attacked. Four to
five workers, likely with long engineering, hid behind the bulldozer
while one Atlanta Police officer stood idly with his hands

(36:53):
on his hips. Force defenders retreated into the woods howling.
No arrests were made. We call upon any one who
wants to defend the forest and stop cops City to
support the struggle by sewing chaos along the perimeter, plan
a slow moving car caravan on Constitution Road, or a
rally at the juvie workers and pigs. We repeat, stay

(37:14):
the funk out of the woods, unquote. And also today
a new timeline was released detailing the construction plans for
a cop city. The Atlanta Police Foundation plans to begin
cutting down massive swaths of trees in about two weeks.
The clearing is planned for nearly of the four hundred
acre property, so defour stations seems to be just two

(37:38):
weeks away now. Based on the full site plans that
are viewable online, I will link the plans in the
show notes, along with the stop Reeves Young campaign, which
details ways to assist like calling campaigns and random stuff
that is maybe more possible from afar. But the stop
cop City project is going to continue all throughout the

(37:59):
summer and seems to have no sign of cooling down.
It is only it is only heating up as the
summer gets hotter. So well the stuff in the forest
in more ways than one, But anyway, that doesn't for us. Today.
You can check out stop reeve Zone dot com for
the calling campaign and for the list of quote evil
doers that are working to DeForest sections of the Atlanta

(38:23):
South River Forest. You can go to scenes dot no
blogs dot org to read communicates and report backs, and
I'll put links for the Atlanta Soliday Ality Fund in
the description as well. See you on the other side.
It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.

(38:43):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zone media dot com, or check us out on
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could
Happen Here, updated monthly at cool Zone media dot com.
Slash sources, thanks for listening.