February 15, 2023 • 57 mins
Police and politicians continue to intensify repression against the movement with domestic terrorism charges and unprecedented high bail costs. Meanwhile, a protest in downtown Atlanta ends with a police car in flames.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M M. The few days leading up to Saturday January
(00:26):
felt like the calm before the storm. Nobody knew exactly
what was going to happen at the weekend of protest
in downtown Atlanta, but there was a sense that something would.
Shortly after the Wednesday shooting, a flyer went out calling
for a gathering at Underground Atlanta on Saturday, January one,
and to wear black clothes in morning. This is it
(00:50):
could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis, and I arrived at
Underground Atlanta just a bit before five pm. The crowd
was still slowly grown, wing and a bunch of big
news cameras were filling up the central area. As more
people filtered in, some who knew Toward went up in
front of everyone to share memories of Torte Guita and
(01:11):
talk about the continuing fight to defend the forest. Obviously,
we're all here because Toward was an amazing person and
their life meant a lot. But Toward also shared something
in common with all of us, and that was the
values and things that they were fighting for. And all
of us are fighting for a great cause and we
all have it in common. But it makes us all targets.
(01:32):
They will always target us because there they don't believe
in the things that we believe in, and they will
always be after us. And we all have to stand
here and stay together and stay resilient, to fight for
what we believe it and never left towards memory and
start with our honors. If they would kill an innocent
(01:53):
person like tort someone who loved their community, they will
stop to kill us. They will stop to kill everyone
in the forest. They will stop to kill anyone who
defies them. And that he's pretty much all I had
to say. A few people from the Atlanta Resistance Medics
(02:19):
of local Street medic group dedicated to the liberation of
medicine and providing medical resources for underprivileged and marginalized people,
spoke about Tortuguita, who was a member of their collective.
If there's one thing that we want people to remember
toward for is that they were somebody who protected the
people around them, who went through the training along with
(02:39):
the rest of us to be able to provide medical
resources to the people that were around them. They may
not have access to those, no matter what else the
news says about tord They were a protector everything. They
did was out of love. Everything they did was out
of hope for a better world. And I don't care
(03:02):
what's the police say. I don't care what the media says.
I don't care what anybody says. Torment was out here
working for a better world. They may want to smear
them as an extremist, they were not. They were out
here protecting their fellow people. And that's what we want
everybody to remember about them, is that they were out
here trying to build a better world. No matter what
(03:22):
anybody else says. All I'd love y'all to repete after me.
Start do God be there, La lu Jase there start
(03:43):
got there, La lu Jassi. There was a medic in
our collective. They were a forest defender. They were a friend.
They were funny, they were kinda was constantly thinking of others.
(04:05):
They were constantly trying to protect other people, trying to
protect the forest, trying to protect everyone who was marginalized.
They centered voices on the who are on the margins
and brought them into the center. They recognized that our
struggles are interconnected. They recognized that Cops City will never
(04:27):
be built. They died just sending is that forest the
memory of Tortugita that I keep returning to is after
the police destroyed the gazebo and Wilani People's park in
the parking lot, they were at a meeting and they said, yeah,
so the cops think they can destroy our morale um,
(04:50):
they can't. Y. Yeah. Tartuita was one of the most resilient,
strongest people I know. They hugged everyone. They were so
kind and so giving, and even as the state tries
to assassinate their character in addition to their body, they
(05:15):
were a freedom fighter. They were a person that I
was I am honored to have known that I'm honored
to have called a friend. About four hundred people eventually
gathered around Underground Atlanta. It seemed like slightly more people
than were at the vigil the previous night. Everything in
modern life serves to atomize you, to make you feel
(05:38):
like you were an individual, divorce from any sense of
collective identity, divorced from any sense that you have a
purpose and that there is good in the world. The
fact that you're here means that you're fighting against that.
Don't let go of that. That is powerful, and that's
why Cops City isn't going to be built is because
we have love for ourselves and for the people around us.
(06:00):
All right, so I'm sure all of you are fairly
upset about this. I am Tort was a friend of mine.
They were a friend of the community. Their death, their
death will not be in Vain city suck at all.
(06:21):
By five thirty, about half the crowd gathered at Underground
Atlanta were in Black Block, and the rest were a
variety of activists, organizers, and random people who decided that
it was important to be at this event. After some speeches, chants,
and stories of Tort, the gathering of people turned into
a march and took to the streets. March is starting
(06:45):
just left Underground Atlanta. Around three hundred people, maybe maybe more,
are marching down the street. There's mix of people in
block because medics here. People it's kind of in regular clothes.
We'll do signs. There's a banner in the front that
(07:05):
reads they can't kill us all firework crap. Banner at
the front that says trees give life, police take it.
(07:25):
After just a minute of marching down one street, the
crowd suddenly stopped. Looks like the marchis turning around, going
to the other side. Stop drop drop SAgs. Some more
small fireworks being launching. This guy banners getting moved to
the front. It looks like the march is now heading
(07:52):
north into downtown. Organizers from the Party for Socialism and
Liberation attempted to take control of the march and lead
the group south in the direction of the State Capitol
Building or possibly looping around to the CNN Center, but
autonomous activists in the crowd turned to the march around
and the group four hundred strong headed north. It sounds
(08:16):
like the PSL people who were gathered at the underground
tried to tried to leave the march in one direction
and everyone was like, no, we don't want to go
that way. Uh the if you have some people are
gonna lead everyone into like the Federal Building section of
downtown going south, and very quickly they turned around. Well
(08:36):
other other people turned around. I was like, no, we're
not going that way. They're taking it right down Peach Tree,
(08:58):
heading heading north into down in town, right beside the
Coca Cola sign on Marietta. The march entered the Commercial District,
a section of the city completely got it out by
years of the Atlanta Way neoliberal policies that we talked
about in the Defend the Forest episodes from last May.
(09:19):
The area is populated almost exclusively by business people, university students,
and unhoused citizens, and was a common site for Atlanta
BLM protests. Now that the march is moving, it's easier
to see everyone in black, all of all, all the
people of block. It's looking more just like a large, large,
(09:44):
massive people in block now have not seen much police
presence downtown yet because it's just a few few patrol cars.
It's really unclear how Atlanta Police us going to respond
to this. Got some flares, a lot more of those
smoke fireworks or smoke grenade things. It's not a gren
(10:09):
it's like a cardboard tube shooting smoke out. The block
continued to travel north Road, Flares and fireworks lit the
path in the darkening evening. Graffiti quickly sprung up on
walls with phrases like r I P. Little Turtle and
stop cops City the march. The march is now approaching
an Atlanta police vehicle who's trying to back up the
(10:35):
cop just not one of the cop cop cars right
in the middle of where the march is going to go.
They're like less than a hundred feet away. Just one
single cop car that happens to be in the path
they are. They are trying to back out of the street.
The march has the tree Trees Give Life, Please take
it banner. It's a big cardboard cut out of a
(10:56):
tree right behind it. Police have their lights turned on.
Now it looks like the cop cars turning turning around. Yeah,
and the cop car is leaving rather quickly. The sun
(11:26):
was just starting to set as the block arrived at
the main goal of the night, the Atlanta Police Foundation
Headquarters at one nine one Peach Tree Street. They have
stopped in front of Atlanta Police Foundation Headquarters. People are
thrown throwing stuff at the windows, doors, broken windows that
(11:53):
the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. The people, the people funding
cops city firework thrown umbrellas moved in to block local
news cameras as windows shattered, Rocks emerged from backpacks and
(12:16):
smashed into the front of the building. Hammers met the
glass entrance as fireworks lit up the scene. Not another fire,
Another firework at the Atlanta Police Foundation. The march is
tightening up a decent bit. March is definitely tightening up.
(12:36):
A lot of people just in block now Shouts of
b water kept the mass moving forward as bank windows
received a similar pelting of rocks and hammers. People chanting
to move like water fuel. Lot of police cars right
(12:56):
beside the march. I'm guessing they're gonna pull in in
from pulling behind the march to Atlanta police cars right there.
People hitting a Chase Bank another stuff being dragged into
the street for like a pump to barricade Chase Banks.
Head of Regional Investment Banking, John Richard serves on the
(13:20):
board of the Atlanta Police Foundation. Police officers exited the
two cop cars that were trailing the march and quickly
ran away from the crowd, leaving their vehicles abandoned. Co
workers trying to keep track of where the police are
in relation to the march, because I got some cars
pulling it behind. Nope, police car pulled up behind the march,
(13:47):
Scott their windows broken, fireworks are under another firework. Another
Atlanta Please Please vehicle had the windows smashed. So there's two.
The two that was behind the march, the two Atlanta
Pice officer cars ever behind the march just got hit.
(14:10):
Wells Fargo, one of the main cops city funders received
special love and attention from the block. The Atlanta area
president for Wells Fargo, Mitch Grawl, is also on the
board of trustees for the Atlanta Police Foundation. A few
other banks hit around this area. Wells Fargo one of
(14:30):
the one of the contributors to the Atlant Police Foundations,
one of their big funders and backers. A lot of
the media here very very thirsty to get to get
stuff of, you know, when put into people breaking windows
and ship It was kind of surprising that the crowd
made it this far without any real police response. Time
(14:52):
almost stretches during these brief moments of uprising. About seven
minutes after the first windows shattered, Atlanta police finally arrived
and made their move. Police are in front of in
front of the march, now please in front of the
rough march. People might be turning around. They want to
(15:15):
do a flow like water type thing. Yeah. Multiple cop
cars are approaching the march on the front. Unclear what
the crowd is gonna do. Atlanta p D is now
now approaching the march. They're getting closer. They're going after
(15:42):
one of the banners, dragging somebody down, pulling something to
the ground. They're chasing people. One person is being arrested.
Marches splitting in two different directions. Officers started randomly tackling
(16:05):
and arresting anyone they could get their hands on. More
police arrived from the south and chased it down a
small section of the march that branched off. Atlanta police
coming from behind as well. So I got Atlanta police
on both sides. Not many officers though, just just a
few officers. Looks like the majority of march with freaking
(16:30):
breaking out out three three Jay movie dispersed, dice, please
get me more aggressive, pushing a lot of people. Footage
and audio of these violent arrests were shared by the
(16:52):
Defend the Forest account, Unicorn Riot, and myself. Here I
(17:27):
hear screams coming from multiple directions. Large looks like the
march kind of split in two. I've seen a lot
of arrests. The individuals targeted likely committed no crime other
than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
(17:47):
The majority of the march split away and in a
different direction from the corps, so I stayed where the
cops were most of the march. I was able to
get away by going through two different direction we have
it looks like and Atlanta p D vehicle is on fire.
(18:12):
Atlanta p D vehicle burning in the street, burning cop car.
Police with a our style, a R style rifles, So
I feel like most of them march had had to
hit it on that way. It seems one of the
cop cars that got smashed also spontaneously lit on fire.
(18:37):
When the police first confronted the march, most of the
block was able to peel off and disappear into the night.
Affinity groups reconnected. Block was shed and protesters evacuated out
of downtown as the police flooded the mile long stretch
of Peachtree Street that the crowd marched on. After a
fire truck put out the burning cop car, police taped
(18:58):
off the area, and as they were pushing pile out,
I recorded an officer saying this amazing line. Bombs or
discount New Year's Eve fireworks? You choose. All In all,
the actions that night only took about an hour, and
crews made at home in time for dinner. Six people
(19:42):
were arrested at the protest Saturday night. Five were tackled
and pinned down as the crowd initially scattered, and one
other person was chased by a cop car. Sam from
the Atlantic Community Press Collective has more on that. A
protester who was subsequently arrested was witnesses state they were
(20:03):
basically followed through the streets by an Atlanta police vehicle
before witnesses say that they were hit by the same
vehicle and they were the untaken to jail. So, you know,
corn Ryot released that video and we were able to
speak with a few witnesses because, as I'm sure everyone
saw on social media this weekend, the arrests were a
(20:26):
familiar brutal, familiar brutal site. Before we continue, I do
want to play two short clips that were circulating the
night of the protest. First is police scanner audio of
the cop whose car spontaneously combusted. You want to you
will be the bloomer day car. I ain't able to
(20:47):
go getting on eat longer. You know. This next one
is from live news coverage of the march, and this
clip became an instant meme, so they're now saying gb
I suck my dick gb I is a Georgia Bureau
of Investigation. Mayor Andre Dickens and the chief of Police
(21:08):
gave a press conference hours later which gave us a
look at how the state was going to try and
frame the protests and acts of targeted vandalism. My message
is simple to those who seek to continue this type
of criminal behavior. We will find you, and we will
arrest you, and you will be held accountable. We have
arrested several of them this evening, and Chief Sherbonn will
(21:30):
give you the details on that. And some of them
were found with explosives on them. Uh you heard that correctly,
explosive and that has led to a police officer's car
being set on fire. During the press conference, the Chief
of Police clarified that no law enforcement officers were injured
as a result of the protest, and neither were anybody standers,
(21:53):
which means the only violence against people was done by
the cops who randomly tackled any protester that they could
chase down. And so it doesn't take a rocket scientist
or an attorney to tell you that breaking windows and
setting fires not protest. That is tears them and that
they will be charged accordingly and they will find that
this police department in the partnership is equally committed to
(22:13):
stop that activity. We already have prosecutors in the room
as we speak, and We're reviewing everything and we have
a lot of evidence to still go through. So even
charges you see tonight, those can easily be upgraded, and
they will be upgraded if appropriate. I brought up the
police chief's comments to a few of the forest offenders
that I spoke with after the protest on Saturday in downtown. Um,
(22:35):
police chief Schneier bomb it's hard, I've I've I've read
it before. Anyway, the lanted police chiefs said that breaking
windows and setting fires as terrorism. Um, I'm curious to
get everyone's thoughts on that. Sure, I think the Least
(23:00):
and Andre Dickens are doing what a lot of city
governments have done, especially during twenty twenty, which was like
do things like called property destruction terrorism, which like it's
not and you can call it everyone, you can call
it like property instruction terrorism is a very like specific
political strategy that exists. I think the right one does
(23:20):
it a lot, and it would be worth calling that, like,
you know, because defender Forest doesn't have a body count.
The police have only murdered uh an activist for defend
the Forest. Forest to find the Forest has not struck
in our violently against anybody except in defense against the police, Um,
you cannot do violence to property, you cannot be violent
(23:42):
towards a police carra It's it's the same way that
Andre Dickens is now getting on TV and claiming that
like calling fireworks explosives. It's like, yes, there are objects
that explode, but this is very clearly being done in
bad fifth because it is it is, it justifies. It
is the same way like the d and the FBI.
(24:03):
Are you call something terrorism, the money just pours in,
you get funding, you get justification to do things like that,
and you can arrest people in charge them with domestic terrorism.
That makes continuing and movement incredibly hard. That's a really
dangerous implication that any act in dissidents to the state
(24:24):
could be called domestic terrorism should really score the ship
of everybody, not just tore around the country. It should
not be allowed to stand and should be compared against
every from I talked with Peter about how if the
police are viewing vandalism or destruction of inanimate objects as
domestic terrorism, If breaking a window is terrorism, that makes
(24:47):
the question what exactly is destroying a forest? That juxtaposition
of what the police consider violence and like what sort
of like destruction of objects is violence. To me. This
demonstrates what they see like as valuable. And also this
demonstrates the police state and the corporation's inability to to
(25:07):
understand the aliveness of all things and how sacred the
earth is. It shows that what they consider sacred, what
they hold a sacred is property, and specifically their property.
I think they fear the woods in part because it
moves in ways that they can't comprehend. It moves in
(25:28):
nonlinear ways. Cricket also had something to say on this
topic well, and and what is destroying a forest? What
is destroying a person? They're more upset about the destruction
of property than the destruction of a person, a whole
human being who is twenty six years old. They were young,
they just started. And that does not seem to measure
up against some glass panes. That doesn't seem to register.
(25:48):
And what about the terror they inspire in the forest?
What about the I mean obviously that these rhetorical questions
when I'm preaching to the choir, but I mean, god, no,
it's just it's just infuriating. There's no I long for
the day when the line is not drawn at well,
you can do anything except touch private property. Noah mentioned
the juxtaposition of broken windows being terrorism, but violent actions
(26:12):
that actually hurt people seemingly not mattering nearly as much,
at least compared to a cracked window. It's a double
standard in the same way that you know, during people
setting front to police precincts was insurrection and an anarchy
and all these things, but when the National Guard would
shoot people it was a tragic air, are justified shooting.
(26:38):
When vigilantes would drive cars and the crowds and play
them bombs protest, it does not be treated with the
same levity because the powers that be can, never, will,
never will obviously never hold themselves the same standards that
they will call us as their enemies. The minim of
(26:59):
words does not matter. Just being able to get good
sound branch to put on like antie for action ship
and make them change because they can't back down from
the prop people that they're not willing to like back
down on that front, stake their flag, and from the
(27:20):
start of the movement, the police have aggressively arrested and
persecuted protesters associated with the Struggle to Stop Cops City,
starting all the way back with the first arrest of
eleven peaceful protesters snatched off the sidewalk during the city
council's vote to approve Cops City as corporations and the
state moved to push Coup Cities development forward despite all
(27:42):
public opposition, repression has increased dramatically over the last few months.
Since December, everyone arrested in connection with the movement against
Cops City has been charged with domestic terrorism. It's not
a huge surprise. Terms like terrorism and eco terrorism have
been coming up, I mean in private conversations probably since
(28:05):
the beginning um, but we can trace it back to
at least last summer when and some emailed emails we've
obtained through open records requests where a city council member
and the Police Foundation where just kind of pejoratively throwing
around the term terrorists in response to I think it
was graffiti or something like, I hope they catch these
(28:26):
terrorists soon, the terrorists who graffiti to building. It has
also shown up in a couple of different public meetings
that are about the training center. You know, committee members
who are pro public safety Training Center, anti anyone being
opposed to it, have also used the term eco terrorism.
(28:48):
The dangerous escalation of protest to suppression is not limited
to people engaging in pathsive resistance or direct action. Some
of our our open records requests have even shown that
since since best Fall, for for several months now, anyone
who participates in like a write in or a call
in campaign, sometimes those very simple emails of hey, I
(29:10):
don't think your company should be participating in this project
will get forwarded up to the chief of police. You know,
people's names, emails, just very very simple call in campaign
type stuff. Um, the most monoculous stuff gets forwarded as
part of you know, security alert. This is the anti
(29:31):
democratic chilling effect in action. Politicians and police are trying
to create a political climate where people are too scared
to exercise their rights to protest, organize, and take action.
Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp has bolstered this alarming escalation
of violence and repression against political speech by blaming out
of state rioters and a quote network of militant activists
(29:55):
who have committed similar acts of domestic terrorism across the
country unquote, rhetoric that has been mirrored by liberal politicians
in the city of Atlanta. The broad labeling of environmental
and racial justice movements as quote unquote terrorism and those
who get associated with such movements as domestic terrorists is
an extremely dangerous precedent designed to stifle public opposition and
(30:17):
scare anyone concerned about police militarization and climate change away
from protesting. It's a crude attempt to use as powerful
tools as possible to crush opposition and remove the protests
from public spotlight while creating cover for intensive suppression of
protest movements. Police are making an example out of people
by trying to pin the actions of autonomous individuals in
(30:40):
a decentralized movement on anyone that was unlucky enough to
cross paths with the police by threatening thirty five years
in prison. Let's talk a bit about the role of
the domestic terrorism charges and how they're being applied, because
they're not even being applied to people that are like
tied to specific acts like use specifically, we have evidence
(31:01):
that you burned down an escaped like it like a
like a construction equipment. That's that's not that's not they're
being used, not even being used for like we saw
we we saw you break this window. That's not even
how they're being used like the people restaurant Saturday, all
six of them got the same exact charges. How how
can all six people have done all the exact same thing,
So they're obviously not being used for in the type
(31:23):
of like factual evidence based way. It's all about like
trying to turn the movement itself into a criminal association. Yeah. Yeah,
a p D has even said that themselves in a
public meeting that's supposed to kind of liked provide advice
on like how the public wants this project built. You know,
they in the December meeting, which I think took place
a day after after those raids, they they bragged about
(31:46):
pulling someone over illegally for phil for filming the police.
They said they were very proud of themselves for taking
that person to jail. And then they just blatantly said
that anyone arrested for this in connection with this movement
will get a domestic terrorism charge. That which creates an
equivalency that being opposed to this project is domestic terrorism.
(32:08):
You know, the chief of Police, Darren sheer Bomb, went
before cameras on Saturday, and I think pretty much verbatim
said breaking a glass window that is terrorism. A lot
of people have opinions about how to protest right, But
what people have conveyed to us is that even those
who are, you know, kind of horrified by property damage,
(32:31):
it's just not domestic terrorism. It's just not being opposed
to the police, wanting the police to do something differently
is not terrorism. The Atlanta Solidarity Fund said of the
six people charged after Saturday's protest, quote, protest, even disobedient protest,
(32:52):
is not terrorism. It's tragic that we're at a point
where this even needs to be said, but that makes
it all the more important, and that the public speak
out against this divisive and dangerous rhetoric. We have reason
to believe these activists were arrested at random during the march.
All six faced the same blanket charges. They are being
(33:12):
held responsible for committing the same crime by virtue of
simply being present at a protest where property damage occurred. Unquote.
Twenty people have been charged with felonies under Georgia's domestic
terrorism laws since last December. Police affidavits have detailed the
alleged acts of so called terror, which include quote criminally
(33:35):
trespassing on posted land, sleeping in a forest, sleeping in
a hammock, with another defendant being known members of a
prison abolitionist movement unquote, and aligning themselves with defend the
Atlanta Forest by quote occupying a treehouse while wearing a
gas mask and camouflage clothing unquote. A review of the
(33:56):
twenty arrests showed that none of those arrested and lapped
with terrorism charges are accused of seriously injuring anyone. Nine
are alleged to have committed no specific illegal acts beyond
misdemeanor trespassing. Instead, mere association with a group committed to
defending the forest appears to be the foundation for declaring
(34:17):
them terrorists. The seven people arrested during the police raid
where the Georgia State Patrol shot and killed Tortuguita were
given a bond amount totaling one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars.
Escalating repression is taking form as egregious bail amounts for protesters,
inflated charges, and as last month saw the killing of
(34:39):
an activist. The environmental justice attorney Stephen Donzinger said, for
weeks these people were called terrorists, which is a complete
misuse of the word. The police have been conditioned to
believe these people are terrorists, and what do you do
with terrorists in the United States? You kill them. It
becomes a self fulfilling prophecy unquote. A whole bunch of
(35:03):
bail information has got released for the six people arrested
at the protest in downtown Atlanta on Saturday, January twenty one,
and it's pretty high. It's the highest bail for a
protest that I've ever seen. Two people that are slightly
more local to the area were granted three hundred and
(35:27):
fifty five thousand dollars each for their bonds. That's sent
over seven thousand dollars um with ankle monitoring and a
twenty four hour curfew, So that's a lot of four
Other people who were arrested were determined to be from
too far out of town and deemed flight risks by
(35:47):
the judge and they were completely denied bond. So they're
going to be held in jail and perpetuity until both
further legal challenges like this is going to get, you know,
pushed up to a higher level judge, but who knows
how long they're going to be in pre trial detention now,
um for pretty pretty ridiculous charges and like this arson
(36:09):
Um riot like a felony jay walking, essentially like protester
domest with terrorism across the board. When they're going over
the bill hearing, there was there was. They were talking
about how like this hearing is not for going over evidence,
(36:32):
this is this is, this isn't for Actually, yeah, they're
they're they're not. They're not interested in dealing with what
the facts actually were because there's no evidence that any
of any of the people arrested did anything wrong besides
the march in the street, which has been a staple
of the history of Atlanta for almost like almost a century. Um.
(36:54):
There's no absolutely no evidence but that that doesn't matter,
and that's not really the point either. The point is slid.
This is a brutal form of punishment and a deterrent
for for other people to say that if you're going
to go to a protest, if you're gonna go to
a march, you don't need to do anything at all,
and we'll give you a bond that's that's worth almost
four dred thousand dollars per person um, or we'll just
(37:17):
hold you until until this case gets litigated. You want
to come from out of town just to you nothing,
and then they decide that because you're from and a
half away and just happened to be a bed could
(37:42):
be we could be talking eighteen months before before try
if people are wanted, all right, they obviously they want
people to just plead guilty and not not have go
to trial, um, which is nonsense because there's no evidence.
But if they does get carried all the way to
trial that could take over a year. That could be
just being being held for things that you clearly didn't do.
(38:03):
But because the police and prosecutors have decided to use
these intense charges as a deterrent, it's just extremely blatant,
like abuse of abuse of the legal system, abuse of power. Um.
But I mean it's you know, I say abuse, but
like this is the way it's also designed, like this
is this is the purpose of professtors, this is the
purpose of police. They're doing their job as it's supposed
(38:24):
to be. They're just like make it unfeasible for people
to participate in dissidents and to make it so any
like any chance getting for people made even for most people,
like looking at an amount, like an impossible amount of
(38:45):
money to come up with it so out of the
realm of what is possible for so many like normal
everyday people who are participating in acts of protast then
it's just it's just designed to people for as long
as past. It's not. It's not even people who like this.
This would be in many ways just as Rifficus is.
If if these charges were from people who are like
(39:07):
in the forest Um, people like in a downtown marching
like this is like the dart marching were like the
most serious thing that happened was that any corre spontaneously
like that. It wasn't it was there's no age any
of these people anyway. It was even noted inside UM
(39:30):
during during these hearings that many of these people were
arrested before the car he even caught fire. Like the
just decided that again they were not ready to limitate
facts and may kind that this was not and making
sure obvious that the point of this is not too
in any way treat this with any real reality or
what happened, but just to make sure that we are
(39:52):
the people are as punished as possible for any actions
taken by a group that they were like in just
even like the vicinity of a downtown Affidavid's for the
seven people arrested at the deadly police raid on January eighteenth,
in which Tortuguita was killed. Begin by alleging that the
defendants were quote participating in actions as a part of
(40:14):
the Defend the Atlanta Forest group, a group classified by
the United States Department of Homeland Security as domestic violent
extremists unquote, But a DHS spokesperson has responded to media
inquiries by saying, quote, the Department of Homeland Security does
not classify or designate any groups as domestic violent extremists unquote.
(40:35):
The Atlanta Solidarity Fund responded to this news by saying, quote,
when police brought terrorism charges against Stop Coop City protesters,
they justified it by claiming that Defend the Atlanta Forest
had been designated a domestic violent extremist organization. This was
a lie. DHS has never designated any movement aligned organization
(40:56):
in this way. What does this mean? It suggests that
police and prosecutors have been lying, not just the public,
but to judges in an effort to justify outrageous, sensational
charges against activists. This cannot be tolerated in a free society.
The public has a long process ahead of unraveling the
(41:16):
tangle of lies, distortions, and cover ups that the police, prosecutors,
and their private backers have woven to suppress the right
to protest. We are determined to follow that threat to
its end. Injustice cannot go unchallenged unquote. To date, the
Atlanta Solidarity Fund has supported over sixty people arrested for
protesting the proposed Cops City development. Just a few days
(41:40):
before the killing of Tortoguita, It could Happen Here released
an interview with people from the Solidarity Fund and Anti
Repression Committee if you want to learn more about those organizations.
The Solidarity Fund is dedicated to continue supporting protesters in Atlanta,
but with the unprecedented seven hundred thousand dollars bail for
just two people, they need help to continue supporting activists
(42:02):
with bail and legal counsel, while they are also supporting
civil litigation against unjust arrests and police violence, including an
independent investigation into the death of Tortuguita. In a statement
released after the bail hearing, the Atlanta Solidarity Fund said, quote,
the arrested protesters and all other future protesters targeted from
(42:22):
political activity in Atlanta need your help. Please host fundraisers,
reach out to your networks and donate to the Atlanta
Solidarity Fund. We especially encourage you to consider becoming a
recurring donor. Solidarity means all of us supporting each other
for the long haul, until we are all free unquote.
(42:43):
If the state is successful in creating this precedent of
domestic terrorism, protesters across the country could be facing similar
speech chilling charges. Activists and civil rights lawyers have called
for everyone to strongly reject this extreme level of depression
here and now before where it becomes the norm for
activists in every movement. What happens here will have legal
(43:05):
implications for the whole nation. It creates and it creates fear,
It creates a chilling effect. It was after after the
December raids. A lot of folks in the community. We're
really we're really questioning what was next, and it is
scary to think about. But it's been really heartening how
(43:27):
people have seen through the bullshit. Right Atlanta has an
incredible resilience, and so does this movement, even with domestic
terrorism in mind. Peter also mentioned how the increased charges
have inadvertently shown just how strong the community is. After
domestic terrorism charges first, Uh, first got laid out in December.
(43:53):
What was people's reaction to that, Because that's a pretty substantial,
like legal state repression effort. You know, you're in the woods,
you hear that your friends are now getting these ridiculous charges, Like,
how does that change with on the ground. Yeah, I
think the terrorism charges. Well, I'll say I was out
of town when the terrorism charges happened, and hearing about
(44:14):
those was actually what motivated me to come back to
Atlanta and move back into the woods, because I knew
that the terrorism charges were a scare tactic to try
and discourage people from participating in the Woods and the
movement at large. As the repression has intensified, and especially
since the terrorism charges started coming in the resolve and
the strength of this community has intensified even more, And
(44:35):
the increased repression has shown me the strength of this
community and also how deeply committed people are to being
a part of this fight no matter what. You can
go to at jail Underscore support on Twitter for information
on how to write to incarcerated protesters in Atlanta. The
(45:14):
terrorism charges being brought against Stop Coop City protesters stem
from a twenty seventeen law passed in Georgia in the
wake of the Dylan Roof massacre. This law, allegedly created
in response to a white supremacist mass shooting targeting black people,
is being used for the first time as a bludgeon
against anti racist protesters who are fighting against the expansion
(45:35):
and further militarization of police facilities. The state is just
as as a concept a whole is is pretty much
incapable of doing anything for intrusted means. This is the
same governments like that completely simplifies like all issues for example,
with like foreign in this country into problem to take
(45:58):
away the abilities for the paratimes people to defend themselves
by oversimplifying to a non ideological issue. And it's like
there's such a clear pattern of its perpetrating these things.
It's all like the state at any moment it can
grab power, it will show and that looks better sometimes
(46:20):
because it might be like going after somebody like Jelling Roof,
but it gets turned around later and used by them
to you know, gots just trying to defend the forest
and make sure that people cannot make pal for doing it,
for doing nothing more than asking the city to not
do something that a vast majority of people do not
(46:42):
want to happen. Laws that are put into effect to
stop far right violence will inevitably be used to repress
left wing movements. Any expansion of state power will always
come down the hardest on people who are actually pushing
back on the power structures of this eight, like the police.
And now this domestic terrorism law is being used against
(47:05):
force defenders for mere affiliation with Stop Cops City. The
way the state is using these domestic terrorism charges is
relatively unprecedented within the United States, But this stuff is
not completely unheard of. It's new for white Americans who
are protesting. It's new in a very specific context, but
(47:27):
it's not new for many other people who have experienced
state repression and have experienced state repression in other countries
around the world. You know, it's it's very similar the
US wood a lot of people who thousands of people
who know so many of them are just the US
(47:48):
under a country, and like all of these people are,
they do not have time to limigate the facts. They
are looking at people as flight rest evidence with instantial
to claims about affiliations to whatever the hell it is.
And then they you know, and the most extreme examples,
and they detained them going Tanama for the next twenty
(48:08):
years or in you know, being able to like the
connection to all of this to the idea if it's
the similar ways that the idea of persecutes their born
as the Pastinian people as waging a war in the
population and then taking as much like like using as
much force against the people who choose to fight that
(48:29):
state power, and then just arresting huge numbers of people
for claiming that they're like affiliated with the mass or something,
for liftage living in the same neighborhood and just throwing
the key. This is very similar to tactics that we've
seen used across the rest specificity during the global War
on Terror, just to lock up huge numbers of people
(48:49):
with impunity, without the ability for people to get proper
legal representation or for their ever to be a moment
to litigate the facts of what happened. And it's a
really troubling development happening show destructive in other countries across
the world, and be extremely concerned that this is happening anywhere,
(49:12):
not just that it's touched. This type of real system
should not comfort anywhere. One of the topics of The
original it could Happen Here series was Throuco's Boomerang. The
idea was also brought up during multiple conversations I had
in Atlanta. It's about how the types of imperialist and
(49:33):
colonialist violence that are done in other countries don't just
go away, They get transported back to the homeland. This
boomerang effect resulted in a whole series of colonial models
being brought back to the quote unquote West so that
it could endlessly practice something resembling colonialism or an internal
colonialism on itself. The forces of extreme gentrification can be
(49:58):
seen as one of these front lines. In that way,
it only makes sense that this is happening in Atlanta
to such an extreme degree. So like the idea of
like when it comes to from post boomerang is in
any strategies, tactics, equipment. The US is the best example
that has been Tactics and equipment as far that are
used overseas in a country's colonial wars. Imperial wars will
(50:24):
one day find their way returned to the core of
said empire to subjugate their own dissidents and their own people.
The best example of this in the U S was
melitarized policing cops and is a huge example of this.
We've seen a return of weapons and equipment from the
do D to US police, just as a w we
saw a man murdering and his trailer BANSMAT team using
(50:48):
night vision goggles and equipment that looks like it came
off of like army rangers. It is. It is a return,
like the tactics and the equipment and the strategy and
the mindset of an occupying army come back to the
center of the empire and are used to subjects people,
And in this case, COPS is a huge expansion of
(51:09):
just because of what it's designed to train people to do,
which is urban combat. And even more so, the legal
system that the US has used overseas to prosecute thousands
of people with their evidences well being returned to prosecute
it is defending the forest. The man shot by SWAT
in a trailer last month did end up surviving. But
what Noah is talking about is that there is no
(51:32):
true other, There is no true awayness. This new military
urbanism that seems to be necessary to sustain hyper capitalist
and gentrification is providing zones of experimentation through which the
state is able to try out and hone their techniques
of oppression. In my conversation with Cricket, they talked about
(51:52):
this phenomenon it comes back or it starts here and
where the training ground and then the export it. I mean,
they're it's it's and I think you're absolutely right that
there is no true other right, like that is a
construct to keep us out of solidarity with one another.
That is a strategy to keep us out of alliance
at the same table and demanding more. I mean, it's
something that I remember, I think it was. I think
(52:13):
it was maybe something Buddha Judge or I don't know,
some other some other politician UH talked about in the
wake of you know, saying like military weapons should not
be used against like like should not be used in
our streets or something like that. It's like, okay, but
the logical extension of that is that they should be
in other people's streets, like those are also civilians, Like
(52:36):
those are also people's towns and cities and homes. Like
why are we deciding that it's okay for them to
be there and not not here? And obviously we're not
actually deciding that they're not okay to be here. Um,
but I feel like even the sort of attempts to
try and address the insane militarization of the police don't
rely on that other as if this is not a
global issue, as if this is not something that affects everyone.
(53:00):
The Solidarity Fund has said, quote, invoking terrorism is a
dog whistle calling for more police violence. Ever since nine eleven,
American policy has been to hunt and kill terrorists by
any means. Applying this same terrorism label to activists in
our communities is prompting police to approach protests as war zones,
(53:22):
prepared to kill at any time. This can be seen
in the way GSP stormed the Atlanta forest with militarized
equipment and killed Tortuguita and God. I think there's also
this tendency to think of the assassination of environmental activists
is something that happens elsewhere, Like this is something that
happens in Central America, this is something that happens in
the Amazon, Like this is not something that happens in
(53:43):
the US. And it absolutely is something that happens in
the US. And I think just sort of too, to
the name of your podcast, right, like it happens here,
it's not, and it it could be any of us.
I think that that's another sort of possible strategy or
idea behind this, like oh, they're outside the agitators thing
of trying to create this scary, stranger danger and trying
(54:04):
to make people think that the person who has murdered
couldn't be them because they're from here, Like oh, like
I'm local, Like I wouldn't have been murdered. No, Like
like no, absolutely not. Like they will murder with impunity,
and it's really scary and it's really enraging. Like I
I think it is both to me inspiring and because
(54:25):
if they're going to kill no matter what, then why
not cause as much good trouble as we can. On Thursday, January,
Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in response
to protests Saturday night sparked by Torteguita's death. Under that order,
one thousand National Guard troops were mobilized to quell protests
(54:45):
and police the streets of Atlanta. Once again. I'll end
with the words of Tortuguita quote, Dear comrades, we are
in the trenches of the class war. The capitalists would
rather see us dead or enslaved, so we us to
fight like hell. Billionaires are causing a mass extinction and
can only be stopped by collective action. Cops city can
(55:08):
and must be stopped. But we need more help. We
need people on the front lines and robust supply networks.
We need to love and support each other unquote. Now
that the war is here, how are we going to
fight it? Yeah? The rain on leaves tickling, and the
earliest the instruments, the melody we mimic. It is the
(55:30):
sound of wind whistling. Long before the safety's channing under
the stars, camped under the organic pe she sang oh song,
and she was far silent, no virus, violets, but the
fragrance of her flowers that continued to invide us a medicine, materials,
of vitamins, of minerals and all that is essential, which
just grew right beside us. And Tyson started fighting over
(55:51):
the gifts that she provided, scorching the very soil that
all of us derived from. And when empires learning can't
withstand by you. But we returned to the land where
and sets this rain dance. We are all her creatures.
We still bear her features. Then, one and only reason
all living things is breathing. The city's deceive and leave.
Go see the dirt, young, Go be among the lungs
(56:12):
of mother Earth. Could yeah, yeah yeah, down for that
(56:38):
shop and down there was a forest music by the
narcissist Cookbook and Propaganda. So they're now saying gb I
suck my Dick. Gb I is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
It could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visitor webs a
(57:00):
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.
M M. The few days leading up to Saturday January
(00:26):
felt like the calm before the storm. Nobody knew exactly
what was going to happen at the weekend of protest
in downtown Atlanta, but there was a sense that something would.
Shortly after the Wednesday shooting, a flyer went out calling
for a gathering at Underground Atlanta on Saturday, January one,
and to wear black clothes in morning. This is it
(00:50):
could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis, and I arrived at
Underground Atlanta just a bit before five pm. The crowd
was still slowly grown, wing and a bunch of big
news cameras were filling up the central area. As more
people filtered in, some who knew Toward went up in
front of everyone to share memories of Torte Guita and
(01:11):
talk about the continuing fight to defend the forest. Obviously,
we're all here because Toward was an amazing person and
their life meant a lot. But Toward also shared something
in common with all of us, and that was the
values and things that they were fighting for. And all
of us are fighting for a great cause and we
all have it in common. But it makes us all targets.
(01:32):
They will always target us because there they don't believe
in the things that we believe in, and they will
always be after us. And we all have to stand
here and stay together and stay resilient, to fight for
what we believe it and never left towards memory and
start with our honors. If they would kill an innocent
(01:53):
person like tort someone who loved their community, they will
stop to kill us. They will stop to kill everyone
in the forest. They will stop to kill anyone who
defies them. And that he's pretty much all I had
to say. A few people from the Atlanta Resistance Medics
(02:19):
of local Street medic group dedicated to the liberation of
medicine and providing medical resources for underprivileged and marginalized people,
spoke about Tortuguita, who was a member of their collective.
If there's one thing that we want people to remember
toward for is that they were somebody who protected the
people around them, who went through the training along with
(02:39):
the rest of us to be able to provide medical
resources to the people that were around them. They may
not have access to those, no matter what else the
news says about tord They were a protector everything. They
did was out of love. Everything they did was out
of hope for a better world. And I don't care
(03:02):
what's the police say. I don't care what the media says.
I don't care what anybody says. Torment was out here
working for a better world. They may want to smear
them as an extremist, they were not. They were out
here protecting their fellow people. And that's what we want
everybody to remember about them, is that they were out
here trying to build a better world. No matter what
(03:22):
anybody else says. All I'd love y'all to repete after me.
Start do God be there, La lu Jase there start
(03:43):
got there, La lu Jassi. There was a medic in
our collective. They were a forest defender. They were a friend.
They were funny, they were kinda was constantly thinking of others.
(04:05):
They were constantly trying to protect other people, trying to
protect the forest, trying to protect everyone who was marginalized.
They centered voices on the who are on the margins
and brought them into the center. They recognized that our
struggles are interconnected. They recognized that Cops City will never
(04:27):
be built. They died just sending is that forest the
memory of Tortugita that I keep returning to is after
the police destroyed the gazebo and Wilani People's park in
the parking lot, they were at a meeting and they said, yeah,
so the cops think they can destroy our morale um,
(04:50):
they can't. Y. Yeah. Tartuita was one of the most resilient,
strongest people I know. They hugged everyone. They were so
kind and so giving, and even as the state tries
to assassinate their character in addition to their body, they
(05:15):
were a freedom fighter. They were a person that I
was I am honored to have known that I'm honored
to have called a friend. About four hundred people eventually
gathered around Underground Atlanta. It seemed like slightly more people
than were at the vigil the previous night. Everything in
modern life serves to atomize you, to make you feel
(05:38):
like you were an individual, divorce from any sense of
collective identity, divorced from any sense that you have a
purpose and that there is good in the world. The
fact that you're here means that you're fighting against that.
Don't let go of that. That is powerful, and that's
why Cops City isn't going to be built is because
we have love for ourselves and for the people around us.
(06:00):
All right, so I'm sure all of you are fairly
upset about this. I am Tort was a friend of mine.
They were a friend of the community. Their death, their
death will not be in Vain city suck at all.
(06:21):
By five thirty, about half the crowd gathered at Underground
Atlanta were in Black Block, and the rest were a
variety of activists, organizers, and random people who decided that
it was important to be at this event. After some speeches, chants,
and stories of Tort, the gathering of people turned into
a march and took to the streets. March is starting
(06:45):
just left Underground Atlanta. Around three hundred people, maybe maybe more,
are marching down the street. There's mix of people in
block because medics here. People it's kind of in regular clothes.
We'll do signs. There's a banner in the front that
(07:05):
reads they can't kill us all firework crap. Banner at
the front that says trees give life, police take it.
(07:25):
After just a minute of marching down one street, the
crowd suddenly stopped. Looks like the marchis turning around, going
to the other side. Stop drop drop SAgs. Some more
small fireworks being launching. This guy banners getting moved to
the front. It looks like the march is now heading
(07:52):
north into downtown. Organizers from the Party for Socialism and
Liberation attempted to take control of the march and lead
the group south in the direction of the State Capitol
Building or possibly looping around to the CNN Center, but
autonomous activists in the crowd turned to the march around
and the group four hundred strong headed north. It sounds
(08:16):
like the PSL people who were gathered at the underground
tried to tried to leave the march in one direction
and everyone was like, no, we don't want to go
that way. Uh the if you have some people are
gonna lead everyone into like the Federal Building section of
downtown going south, and very quickly they turned around. Well
(08:36):
other other people turned around. I was like, no, we're
not going that way. They're taking it right down Peach Tree,
(08:58):
heading heading north into down in town, right beside the
Coca Cola sign on Marietta. The march entered the Commercial District,
a section of the city completely got it out by
years of the Atlanta Way neoliberal policies that we talked
about in the Defend the Forest episodes from last May.
(09:19):
The area is populated almost exclusively by business people, university students,
and unhoused citizens, and was a common site for Atlanta
BLM protests. Now that the march is moving, it's easier
to see everyone in black, all of all, all the
people of block. It's looking more just like a large, large,
(09:44):
massive people in block now have not seen much police
presence downtown yet because it's just a few few patrol cars.
It's really unclear how Atlanta Police us going to respond
to this. Got some flares, a lot more of those
smoke fireworks or smoke grenade things. It's not a gren
(10:09):
it's like a cardboard tube shooting smoke out. The block
continued to travel north Road, Flares and fireworks lit the
path in the darkening evening. Graffiti quickly sprung up on
walls with phrases like r I P. Little Turtle and
stop cops City the march. The march is now approaching
an Atlanta police vehicle who's trying to back up the
(10:35):
cop just not one of the cop cop cars right
in the middle of where the march is going to go.
They're like less than a hundred feet away. Just one
single cop car that happens to be in the path
they are. They are trying to back out of the street.
The march has the tree Trees Give Life, Please take
it banner. It's a big cardboard cut out of a
(10:56):
tree right behind it. Police have their lights turned on.
Now it looks like the cop cars turning turning around. Yeah,
and the cop car is leaving rather quickly. The sun
(11:26):
was just starting to set as the block arrived at
the main goal of the night, the Atlanta Police Foundation
Headquarters at one nine one Peach Tree Street. They have
stopped in front of Atlanta Police Foundation Headquarters. People are
thrown throwing stuff at the windows, doors, broken windows that
(11:53):
the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. The people, the people funding
cops city firework thrown umbrellas moved in to block local
news cameras as windows shattered, Rocks emerged from backpacks and
(12:16):
smashed into the front of the building. Hammers met the
glass entrance as fireworks lit up the scene. Not another fire,
Another firework at the Atlanta Police Foundation. The march is
tightening up a decent bit. March is definitely tightening up.
(12:36):
A lot of people just in block now Shouts of
b water kept the mass moving forward as bank windows
received a similar pelting of rocks and hammers. People chanting
to move like water fuel. Lot of police cars right
(12:56):
beside the march. I'm guessing they're gonna pull in in
from pulling behind the march to Atlanta police cars right there.
People hitting a Chase Bank another stuff being dragged into
the street for like a pump to barricade Chase Banks.
Head of Regional Investment Banking, John Richard serves on the
(13:20):
board of the Atlanta Police Foundation. Police officers exited the
two cop cars that were trailing the march and quickly
ran away from the crowd, leaving their vehicles abandoned. Co
workers trying to keep track of where the police are
in relation to the march, because I got some cars
pulling it behind. Nope, police car pulled up behind the march,
(13:47):
Scott their windows broken, fireworks are under another firework. Another
Atlanta Please Please vehicle had the windows smashed. So there's two.
The two that was behind the march, the two Atlanta
Pice officer cars ever behind the march just got hit.
(14:10):
Wells Fargo, one of the main cops city funders received
special love and attention from the block. The Atlanta area
president for Wells Fargo, Mitch Grawl, is also on the
board of trustees for the Atlanta Police Foundation. A few
other banks hit around this area. Wells Fargo one of
(14:30):
the one of the contributors to the Atlant Police Foundations,
one of their big funders and backers. A lot of
the media here very very thirsty to get to get
stuff of, you know, when put into people breaking windows
and ship It was kind of surprising that the crowd
made it this far without any real police response. Time
(14:52):
almost stretches during these brief moments of uprising. About seven
minutes after the first windows shattered, Atlanta police finally arrived
and made their move. Police are in front of in
front of the march, now please in front of the
rough march. People might be turning around. They want to
(15:15):
do a flow like water type thing. Yeah. Multiple cop
cars are approaching the march on the front. Unclear what
the crowd is gonna do. Atlanta p D is now
now approaching the march. They're getting closer. They're going after
(15:42):
one of the banners, dragging somebody down, pulling something to
the ground. They're chasing people. One person is being arrested.
Marches splitting in two different directions. Officers started randomly tackling
(16:05):
and arresting anyone they could get their hands on. More
police arrived from the south and chased it down a
small section of the march that branched off. Atlanta police
coming from behind as well. So I got Atlanta police
on both sides. Not many officers though, just just a
few officers. Looks like the majority of march with freaking
(16:30):
breaking out out three three Jay movie dispersed, dice, please
get me more aggressive, pushing a lot of people. Footage
and audio of these violent arrests were shared by the
(16:52):
Defend the Forest account, Unicorn Riot, and myself. Here I
(17:27):
hear screams coming from multiple directions. Large looks like the
march kind of split in two. I've seen a lot
of arrests. The individuals targeted likely committed no crime other
than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
(17:47):
The majority of the march split away and in a
different direction from the corps, so I stayed where the
cops were most of the march. I was able to
get away by going through two different direction we have
it looks like and Atlanta p D vehicle is on fire.
(18:12):
Atlanta p D vehicle burning in the street, burning cop car.
Police with a our style, a R style rifles, So
I feel like most of them march had had to
hit it on that way. It seems one of the
cop cars that got smashed also spontaneously lit on fire.
(18:37):
When the police first confronted the march, most of the
block was able to peel off and disappear into the night.
Affinity groups reconnected. Block was shed and protesters evacuated out
of downtown as the police flooded the mile long stretch
of Peachtree Street that the crowd marched on. After a
fire truck put out the burning cop car, police taped
(18:58):
off the area, and as they were pushing pile out,
I recorded an officer saying this amazing line. Bombs or
discount New Year's Eve fireworks? You choose. All In all,
the actions that night only took about an hour, and
crews made at home in time for dinner. Six people
(19:42):
were arrested at the protest Saturday night. Five were tackled
and pinned down as the crowd initially scattered, and one
other person was chased by a cop car. Sam from
the Atlantic Community Press Collective has more on that. A
protester who was subsequently arrested was witnesses state they were
(20:03):
basically followed through the streets by an Atlanta police vehicle
before witnesses say that they were hit by the same
vehicle and they were the untaken to jail. So, you know,
corn Ryot released that video and we were able to
speak with a few witnesses because, as I'm sure everyone
saw on social media this weekend, the arrests were a
(20:26):
familiar brutal, familiar brutal site. Before we continue, I do
want to play two short clips that were circulating the
night of the protest. First is police scanner audio of
the cop whose car spontaneously combusted. You want to you
will be the bloomer day car. I ain't able to
(20:47):
go getting on eat longer. You know. This next one
is from live news coverage of the march, and this
clip became an instant meme, so they're now saying gb
I suck my dick gb I is a Georgia Bureau
of Investigation. Mayor Andre Dickens and the chief of Police
(21:08):
gave a press conference hours later which gave us a
look at how the state was going to try and
frame the protests and acts of targeted vandalism. My message
is simple to those who seek to continue this type
of criminal behavior. We will find you, and we will
arrest you, and you will be held accountable. We have
arrested several of them this evening, and Chief Sherbonn will
(21:30):
give you the details on that. And some of them
were found with explosives on them. Uh you heard that correctly,
explosive and that has led to a police officer's car
being set on fire. During the press conference, the Chief
of Police clarified that no law enforcement officers were injured
as a result of the protest, and neither were anybody standers,
(21:53):
which means the only violence against people was done by
the cops who randomly tackled any protester that they could
chase down. And so it doesn't take a rocket scientist
or an attorney to tell you that breaking windows and
setting fires not protest. That is tears them and that
they will be charged accordingly and they will find that
this police department in the partnership is equally committed to
(22:13):
stop that activity. We already have prosecutors in the room
as we speak, and We're reviewing everything and we have
a lot of evidence to still go through. So even
charges you see tonight, those can easily be upgraded, and
they will be upgraded if appropriate. I brought up the
police chief's comments to a few of the forest offenders
that I spoke with after the protest on Saturday in downtown. Um,
(22:35):
police chief Schneier bomb it's hard, I've I've I've read
it before. Anyway, the lanted police chiefs said that breaking
windows and setting fires as terrorism. Um, I'm curious to
get everyone's thoughts on that. Sure, I think the Least
(23:00):
and Andre Dickens are doing what a lot of city
governments have done, especially during twenty twenty, which was like
do things like called property destruction terrorism, which like it's
not and you can call it everyone, you can call
it like property instruction terrorism is a very like specific
political strategy that exists. I think the right one does
(23:20):
it a lot, and it would be worth calling that, like,
you know, because defender Forest doesn't have a body count.
The police have only murdered uh an activist for defend
the Forest. Forest to find the Forest has not struck
in our violently against anybody except in defense against the police, Um,
you cannot do violence to property, you cannot be violent
(23:42):
towards a police carra It's it's the same way that
Andre Dickens is now getting on TV and claiming that
like calling fireworks explosives. It's like, yes, there are objects
that explode, but this is very clearly being done in
bad fifth because it is it is, it justifies. It
is the same way like the d and the FBI.
(24:03):
Are you call something terrorism, the money just pours in,
you get funding, you get justification to do things like that,
and you can arrest people in charge them with domestic terrorism.
That makes continuing and movement incredibly hard. That's a really
dangerous implication that any act in dissidents to the state
(24:24):
could be called domestic terrorism should really score the ship
of everybody, not just tore around the country. It should
not be allowed to stand and should be compared against
every from I talked with Peter about how if the
police are viewing vandalism or destruction of inanimate objects as
domestic terrorism, If breaking a window is terrorism, that makes
(24:47):
the question what exactly is destroying a forest? That juxtaposition
of what the police consider violence and like what sort
of like destruction of objects is violence. To me. This
demonstrates what they see like as valuable. And also this
demonstrates the police state and the corporation's inability to to
(25:07):
understand the aliveness of all things and how sacred the
earth is. It shows that what they consider sacred, what
they hold a sacred is property, and specifically their property.
I think they fear the woods in part because it
moves in ways that they can't comprehend. It moves in
(25:28):
nonlinear ways. Cricket also had something to say on this
topic well, and and what is destroying a forest? What
is destroying a person? They're more upset about the destruction
of property than the destruction of a person, a whole
human being who is twenty six years old. They were young,
they just started. And that does not seem to measure
up against some glass panes. That doesn't seem to register.
(25:48):
And what about the terror they inspire in the forest?
What about the I mean obviously that these rhetorical questions
when I'm preaching to the choir, but I mean, god, no,
it's just it's just infuriating. There's no I long for
the day when the line is not drawn at well,
you can do anything except touch private property. Noah mentioned
the juxtaposition of broken windows being terrorism, but violent actions
(26:12):
that actually hurt people seemingly not mattering nearly as much,
at least compared to a cracked window. It's a double
standard in the same way that you know, during people
setting front to police precincts was insurrection and an anarchy
and all these things, but when the National Guard would
shoot people it was a tragic air, are justified shooting.
(26:38):
When vigilantes would drive cars and the crowds and play
them bombs protest, it does not be treated with the
same levity because the powers that be can, never, will,
never will obviously never hold themselves the same standards that
they will call us as their enemies. The minim of
(26:59):
words does not matter. Just being able to get good
sound branch to put on like antie for action ship
and make them change because they can't back down from
the prop people that they're not willing to like back
down on that front, stake their flag, and from the
(27:20):
start of the movement, the police have aggressively arrested and
persecuted protesters associated with the Struggle to Stop Cops City,
starting all the way back with the first arrest of
eleven peaceful protesters snatched off the sidewalk during the city
council's vote to approve Cops City as corporations and the
state moved to push Coup Cities development forward despite all
(27:42):
public opposition, repression has increased dramatically over the last few months.
Since December, everyone arrested in connection with the movement against
Cops City has been charged with domestic terrorism. It's not
a huge surprise. Terms like terrorism and eco terrorism have
been coming up, I mean in private conversations probably since
(28:05):
the beginning um, but we can trace it back to
at least last summer when and some emailed emails we've
obtained through open records requests where a city council member
and the Police Foundation where just kind of pejoratively throwing
around the term terrorists in response to I think it
was graffiti or something like, I hope they catch these
(28:26):
terrorists soon, the terrorists who graffiti to building. It has
also shown up in a couple of different public meetings
that are about the training center. You know, committee members
who are pro public safety Training Center, anti anyone being
opposed to it, have also used the term eco terrorism.
(28:48):
The dangerous escalation of protest to suppression is not limited
to people engaging in pathsive resistance or direct action. Some
of our our open records requests have even shown that
since since best Fall, for for several months now, anyone
who participates in like a write in or a call
in campaign, sometimes those very simple emails of hey, I
(29:10):
don't think your company should be participating in this project
will get forwarded up to the chief of police. You know,
people's names, emails, just very very simple call in campaign
type stuff. Um, the most monoculous stuff gets forwarded as
part of you know, security alert. This is the anti
(29:31):
democratic chilling effect in action. Politicians and police are trying
to create a political climate where people are too scared
to exercise their rights to protest, organize, and take action.
Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp has bolstered this alarming escalation
of violence and repression against political speech by blaming out
of state rioters and a quote network of militant activists
(29:55):
who have committed similar acts of domestic terrorism across the
country unquote, rhetoric that has been mirrored by liberal politicians
in the city of Atlanta. The broad labeling of environmental
and racial justice movements as quote unquote terrorism and those
who get associated with such movements as domestic terrorists is
an extremely dangerous precedent designed to stifle public opposition and
(30:17):
scare anyone concerned about police militarization and climate change away
from protesting. It's a crude attempt to use as powerful
tools as possible to crush opposition and remove the protests
from public spotlight while creating cover for intensive suppression of
protest movements. Police are making an example out of people
by trying to pin the actions of autonomous individuals in
(30:40):
a decentralized movement on anyone that was unlucky enough to
cross paths with the police by threatening thirty five years
in prison. Let's talk a bit about the role of
the domestic terrorism charges and how they're being applied, because
they're not even being applied to people that are like
tied to specific acts like use specifically, we have evidence
(31:01):
that you burned down an escaped like it like a
like a construction equipment. That's that's not that's not they're
being used, not even being used for like we saw
we we saw you break this window. That's not even
how they're being used like the people restaurant Saturday, all
six of them got the same exact charges. How how
can all six people have done all the exact same thing,
So they're obviously not being used for in the type
(31:23):
of like factual evidence based way. It's all about like
trying to turn the movement itself into a criminal association. Yeah. Yeah,
a p D has even said that themselves in a
public meeting that's supposed to kind of liked provide advice
on like how the public wants this project built. You know,
they in the December meeting, which I think took place
a day after after those raids, they they bragged about
(31:46):
pulling someone over illegally for phil for filming the police.
They said they were very proud of themselves for taking
that person to jail. And then they just blatantly said
that anyone arrested for this in connection with this movement
will get a domestic terrorism charge. That which creates an
equivalency that being opposed to this project is domestic terrorism.
(32:08):
You know, the chief of Police, Darren sheer Bomb, went
before cameras on Saturday, and I think pretty much verbatim
said breaking a glass window that is terrorism. A lot
of people have opinions about how to protest right, But
what people have conveyed to us is that even those
who are, you know, kind of horrified by property damage,
(32:31):
it's just not domestic terrorism. It's just not being opposed
to the police, wanting the police to do something differently
is not terrorism. The Atlanta Solidarity Fund said of the
six people charged after Saturday's protest, quote, protest, even disobedient protest,
(32:52):
is not terrorism. It's tragic that we're at a point
where this even needs to be said, but that makes
it all the more important, and that the public speak
out against this divisive and dangerous rhetoric. We have reason
to believe these activists were arrested at random during the march.
All six faced the same blanket charges. They are being
(33:12):
held responsible for committing the same crime by virtue of
simply being present at a protest where property damage occurred. Unquote.
Twenty people have been charged with felonies under Georgia's domestic
terrorism laws since last December. Police affidavits have detailed the
alleged acts of so called terror, which include quote criminally
(33:35):
trespassing on posted land, sleeping in a forest, sleeping in
a hammock, with another defendant being known members of a
prison abolitionist movement unquote, and aligning themselves with defend the
Atlanta Forest by quote occupying a treehouse while wearing a
gas mask and camouflage clothing unquote. A review of the
(33:56):
twenty arrests showed that none of those arrested and lapped
with terrorism charges are accused of seriously injuring anyone. Nine
are alleged to have committed no specific illegal acts beyond
misdemeanor trespassing. Instead, mere association with a group committed to
defending the forest appears to be the foundation for declaring
(34:17):
them terrorists. The seven people arrested during the police raid
where the Georgia State Patrol shot and killed Tortuguita were
given a bond amount totaling one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars.
Escalating repression is taking form as egregious bail amounts for protesters,
inflated charges, and as last month saw the killing of
(34:39):
an activist. The environmental justice attorney Stephen Donzinger said, for
weeks these people were called terrorists, which is a complete
misuse of the word. The police have been conditioned to
believe these people are terrorists, and what do you do
with terrorists in the United States? You kill them. It
becomes a self fulfilling prophecy unquote. A whole bunch of
(35:03):
bail information has got released for the six people arrested
at the protest in downtown Atlanta on Saturday, January twenty one,
and it's pretty high. It's the highest bail for a
protest that I've ever seen. Two people that are slightly
more local to the area were granted three hundred and
(35:27):
fifty five thousand dollars each for their bonds. That's sent
over seven thousand dollars um with ankle monitoring and a
twenty four hour curfew, So that's a lot of four
Other people who were arrested were determined to be from
too far out of town and deemed flight risks by
(35:47):
the judge and they were completely denied bond. So they're
going to be held in jail and perpetuity until both
further legal challenges like this is going to get, you know,
pushed up to a higher level judge, but who knows
how long they're going to be in pre trial detention now,
um for pretty pretty ridiculous charges and like this arson
(36:09):
Um riot like a felony jay walking, essentially like protester
domest with terrorism across the board. When they're going over
the bill hearing, there was there was. They were talking
about how like this hearing is not for going over evidence,
(36:32):
this is this is, this isn't for Actually, yeah, they're
they're they're not. They're not interested in dealing with what
the facts actually were because there's no evidence that any
of any of the people arrested did anything wrong besides
the march in the street, which has been a staple
of the history of Atlanta for almost like almost a century. Um.
(36:54):
There's no absolutely no evidence but that that doesn't matter,
and that's not really the point either. The point is slid.
This is a brutal form of punishment and a deterrent
for for other people to say that if you're going
to go to a protest, if you're gonna go to
a march, you don't need to do anything at all,
and we'll give you a bond that's that's worth almost
four dred thousand dollars per person um, or we'll just
(37:17):
hold you until until this case gets litigated. You want
to come from out of town just to you nothing,
and then they decide that because you're from and a
half away and just happened to be a bed could
(37:42):
be we could be talking eighteen months before before try
if people are wanted, all right, they obviously they want
people to just plead guilty and not not have go
to trial, um, which is nonsense because there's no evidence.
But if they does get carried all the way to
trial that could take over a year. That could be
just being being held for things that you clearly didn't do.
(38:03):
But because the police and prosecutors have decided to use
these intense charges as a deterrent, it's just extremely blatant,
like abuse of abuse of the legal system, abuse of power. Um.
But I mean it's you know, I say abuse, but
like this is the way it's also designed, like this
is this is the purpose of professtors, this is the
purpose of police. They're doing their job as it's supposed
(38:24):
to be. They're just like make it unfeasible for people
to participate in dissidents and to make it so any
like any chance getting for people made even for most people,
like looking at an amount, like an impossible amount of
(38:45):
money to come up with it so out of the
realm of what is possible for so many like normal
everyday people who are participating in acts of protast then
it's just it's just designed to people for as long
as past. It's not. It's not even people who like this.
This would be in many ways just as Rifficus is.
If if these charges were from people who are like
(39:07):
in the forest Um, people like in a downtown marching
like this is like the dart marching were like the
most serious thing that happened was that any corre spontaneously
like that. It wasn't it was there's no age any
of these people anyway. It was even noted inside UM
(39:30):
during during these hearings that many of these people were
arrested before the car he even caught fire. Like the
just decided that again they were not ready to limitate
facts and may kind that this was not and making
sure obvious that the point of this is not too
in any way treat this with any real reality or
what happened, but just to make sure that we are
(39:52):
the people are as punished as possible for any actions
taken by a group that they were like in just
even like the vicinity of a downtown Affidavid's for the
seven people arrested at the deadly police raid on January eighteenth,
in which Tortuguita was killed. Begin by alleging that the
defendants were quote participating in actions as a part of
(40:14):
the Defend the Atlanta Forest group, a group classified by
the United States Department of Homeland Security as domestic violent
extremists unquote, But a DHS spokesperson has responded to media
inquiries by saying, quote, the Department of Homeland Security does
not classify or designate any groups as domestic violent extremists unquote.
(40:35):
The Atlanta Solidarity Fund responded to this news by saying, quote,
when police brought terrorism charges against Stop Coop City protesters,
they justified it by claiming that Defend the Atlanta Forest
had been designated a domestic violent extremist organization. This was
a lie. DHS has never designated any movement aligned organization
(40:56):
in this way. What does this mean? It suggests that
police and prosecutors have been lying, not just the public,
but to judges in an effort to justify outrageous, sensational
charges against activists. This cannot be tolerated in a free society.
The public has a long process ahead of unraveling the
(41:16):
tangle of lies, distortions, and cover ups that the police, prosecutors,
and their private backers have woven to suppress the right
to protest. We are determined to follow that threat to
its end. Injustice cannot go unchallenged unquote. To date, the
Atlanta Solidarity Fund has supported over sixty people arrested for
protesting the proposed Cops City development. Just a few days
(41:40):
before the killing of Tortoguita, It could Happen Here released
an interview with people from the Solidarity Fund and Anti
Repression Committee if you want to learn more about those organizations.
The Solidarity Fund is dedicated to continue supporting protesters in Atlanta,
but with the unprecedented seven hundred thousand dollars bail for
just two people, they need help to continue supporting activists
(42:02):
with bail and legal counsel, while they are also supporting
civil litigation against unjust arrests and police violence, including an
independent investigation into the death of Tortuguita. In a statement
released after the bail hearing, the Atlanta Solidarity Fund said, quote,
the arrested protesters and all other future protesters targeted from
(42:22):
political activity in Atlanta need your help. Please host fundraisers,
reach out to your networks and donate to the Atlanta
Solidarity Fund. We especially encourage you to consider becoming a
recurring donor. Solidarity means all of us supporting each other
for the long haul, until we are all free unquote.
(42:43):
If the state is successful in creating this precedent of
domestic terrorism, protesters across the country could be facing similar
speech chilling charges. Activists and civil rights lawyers have called
for everyone to strongly reject this extreme level of depression
here and now before where it becomes the norm for
activists in every movement. What happens here will have legal
(43:05):
implications for the whole nation. It creates and it creates fear,
It creates a chilling effect. It was after after the
December raids. A lot of folks in the community. We're
really we're really questioning what was next, and it is
scary to think about. But it's been really heartening how
(43:27):
people have seen through the bullshit. Right Atlanta has an
incredible resilience, and so does this movement, even with domestic
terrorism in mind. Peter also mentioned how the increased charges
have inadvertently shown just how strong the community is. After
domestic terrorism charges first, Uh, first got laid out in December.
(43:53):
What was people's reaction to that, Because that's a pretty substantial,
like legal state repression effort. You know, you're in the woods,
you hear that your friends are now getting these ridiculous charges, Like,
how does that change with on the ground. Yeah, I
think the terrorism charges. Well, I'll say I was out
of town when the terrorism charges happened, and hearing about
(44:14):
those was actually what motivated me to come back to
Atlanta and move back into the woods, because I knew
that the terrorism charges were a scare tactic to try
and discourage people from participating in the Woods and the
movement at large. As the repression has intensified, and especially
since the terrorism charges started coming in the resolve and
the strength of this community has intensified even more, And
(44:35):
the increased repression has shown me the strength of this
community and also how deeply committed people are to being
a part of this fight no matter what. You can
go to at jail Underscore support on Twitter for information
on how to write to incarcerated protesters in Atlanta. The
(45:14):
terrorism charges being brought against Stop Coop City protesters stem
from a twenty seventeen law passed in Georgia in the
wake of the Dylan Roof massacre. This law, allegedly created
in response to a white supremacist mass shooting targeting black people,
is being used for the first time as a bludgeon
against anti racist protesters who are fighting against the expansion
(45:35):
and further militarization of police facilities. The state is just
as as a concept a whole is is pretty much
incapable of doing anything for intrusted means. This is the
same governments like that completely simplifies like all issues for example,
with like foreign in this country into problem to take
(45:58):
away the abilities for the paratimes people to defend themselves
by oversimplifying to a non ideological issue. And it's like
there's such a clear pattern of its perpetrating these things.
It's all like the state at any moment it can
grab power, it will show and that looks better sometimes
(46:20):
because it might be like going after somebody like Jelling Roof,
but it gets turned around later and used by them
to you know, gots just trying to defend the forest
and make sure that people cannot make pal for doing it,
for doing nothing more than asking the city to not
do something that a vast majority of people do not
(46:42):
want to happen. Laws that are put into effect to
stop far right violence will inevitably be used to repress
left wing movements. Any expansion of state power will always
come down the hardest on people who are actually pushing
back on the power structures of this eight, like the police.
And now this domestic terrorism law is being used against
(47:05):
force defenders for mere affiliation with Stop Cops City. The
way the state is using these domestic terrorism charges is
relatively unprecedented within the United States, But this stuff is
not completely unheard of. It's new for white Americans who
are protesting. It's new in a very specific context, but
(47:27):
it's not new for many other people who have experienced
state repression and have experienced state repression in other countries
around the world. You know, it's it's very similar the
US wood a lot of people who thousands of people
who know so many of them are just the US
(47:48):
under a country, and like all of these people are,
they do not have time to limigate the facts. They
are looking at people as flight rest evidence with instantial
to claims about affiliations to whatever the hell it is.
And then they you know, and the most extreme examples,
and they detained them going Tanama for the next twenty
(48:08):
years or in you know, being able to like the
connection to all of this to the idea if it's
the similar ways that the idea of persecutes their born
as the Pastinian people as waging a war in the
population and then taking as much like like using as
much force against the people who choose to fight that
(48:29):
state power, and then just arresting huge numbers of people
for claiming that they're like affiliated with the mass or something,
for liftage living in the same neighborhood and just throwing
the key. This is very similar to tactics that we've
seen used across the rest specificity during the global War
on Terror, just to lock up huge numbers of people
(48:49):
with impunity, without the ability for people to get proper
legal representation or for their ever to be a moment
to litigate the facts of what happened. And it's a
really troubling development happening show destructive in other countries across
the world, and be extremely concerned that this is happening anywhere,
(49:12):
not just that it's touched. This type of real system
should not comfort anywhere. One of the topics of The
original it could Happen Here series was Throuco's Boomerang. The
idea was also brought up during multiple conversations I had
in Atlanta. It's about how the types of imperialist and
(49:33):
colonialist violence that are done in other countries don't just
go away, They get transported back to the homeland. This
boomerang effect resulted in a whole series of colonial models
being brought back to the quote unquote West so that
it could endlessly practice something resembling colonialism or an internal
colonialism on itself. The forces of extreme gentrification can be
(49:58):
seen as one of these front lines. In that way,
it only makes sense that this is happening in Atlanta
to such an extreme degree. So like the idea of
like when it comes to from post boomerang is in
any strategies, tactics, equipment. The US is the best example
that has been Tactics and equipment as far that are
used overseas in a country's colonial wars. Imperial wars will
(50:24):
one day find their way returned to the core of
said empire to subjugate their own dissidents and their own people.
The best example of this in the U S was
melitarized policing cops and is a huge example of this.
We've seen a return of weapons and equipment from the
do D to US police, just as a w we
saw a man murdering and his trailer BANSMAT team using
(50:48):
night vision goggles and equipment that looks like it came
off of like army rangers. It is. It is a return,
like the tactics and the equipment and the strategy and
the mindset of an occupying army come back to the
center of the empire and are used to subjects people,
And in this case, COPS is a huge expansion of
(51:09):
just because of what it's designed to train people to do,
which is urban combat. And even more so, the legal
system that the US has used overseas to prosecute thousands
of people with their evidences well being returned to prosecute
it is defending the forest. The man shot by SWAT
in a trailer last month did end up surviving. But
what Noah is talking about is that there is no
(51:32):
true other, There is no true awayness. This new military
urbanism that seems to be necessary to sustain hyper capitalist
and gentrification is providing zones of experimentation through which the
state is able to try out and hone their techniques
of oppression. In my conversation with Cricket, they talked about
(51:52):
this phenomenon it comes back or it starts here and
where the training ground and then the export it. I mean,
they're it's it's and I think you're absolutely right that
there is no true other right, like that is a
construct to keep us out of solidarity with one another.
That is a strategy to keep us out of alliance
at the same table and demanding more. I mean, it's
something that I remember, I think it was. I think
(52:13):
it was maybe something Buddha Judge or I don't know,
some other some other politician UH talked about in the
wake of you know, saying like military weapons should not
be used against like like should not be used in
our streets or something like that. It's like, okay, but
the logical extension of that is that they should be
in other people's streets, like those are also civilians, Like
(52:36):
those are also people's towns and cities and homes. Like
why are we deciding that it's okay for them to
be there and not not here? And obviously we're not
actually deciding that they're not okay to be here. Um,
but I feel like even the sort of attempts to
try and address the insane militarization of the police don't
rely on that other as if this is not a
global issue, as if this is not something that affects everyone.
(53:00):
The Solidarity Fund has said, quote, invoking terrorism is a
dog whistle calling for more police violence. Ever since nine eleven,
American policy has been to hunt and kill terrorists by
any means. Applying this same terrorism label to activists in
our communities is prompting police to approach protests as war zones,
(53:22):
prepared to kill at any time. This can be seen
in the way GSP stormed the Atlanta forest with militarized
equipment and killed Tortuguita and God. I think there's also
this tendency to think of the assassination of environmental activists
is something that happens elsewhere, Like this is something that
happens in Central America, this is something that happens in
the Amazon, Like this is not something that happens in
(53:43):
the US. And it absolutely is something that happens in
the US. And I think just sort of too, to
the name of your podcast, right, like it happens here,
it's not, and it it could be any of us.
I think that that's another sort of possible strategy or
idea behind this, like oh, they're outside the agitators thing
of trying to create this scary, stranger danger and trying
(54:04):
to make people think that the person who has murdered
couldn't be them because they're from here, Like oh, like
I'm local, Like I wouldn't have been murdered. No, Like
like no, absolutely not. Like they will murder with impunity,
and it's really scary and it's really enraging. Like I
I think it is both to me inspiring and because
(54:25):
if they're going to kill no matter what, then why
not cause as much good trouble as we can. On Thursday, January,
Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in response
to protests Saturday night sparked by Torteguita's death. Under that order,
one thousand National Guard troops were mobilized to quell protests
(54:45):
and police the streets of Atlanta. Once again. I'll end
with the words of Tortuguita quote, Dear comrades, we are
in the trenches of the class war. The capitalists would
rather see us dead or enslaved, so we us to
fight like hell. Billionaires are causing a mass extinction and
can only be stopped by collective action. Cops city can
(55:08):
and must be stopped. But we need more help. We
need people on the front lines and robust supply networks.
We need to love and support each other unquote. Now
that the war is here, how are we going to
fight it? Yeah? The rain on leaves tickling, and the
earliest the instruments, the melody we mimic. It is the
(55:30):
sound of wind whistling. Long before the safety's channing under
the stars, camped under the organic pe she sang oh song,
and she was far silent, no virus, violets, but the
fragrance of her flowers that continued to invide us a medicine, materials,
of vitamins, of minerals and all that is essential, which
just grew right beside us. And Tyson started fighting over
(55:51):
the gifts that she provided, scorching the very soil that
all of us derived from. And when empires learning can't
withstand by you. But we returned to the land where
and sets this rain dance. We are all her creatures.
We still bear her features. Then, one and only reason
all living things is breathing. The city's deceive and leave.
Go see the dirt, young, Go be among the lungs
(56:12):
of mother Earth. Could yeah, yeah yeah, down for that
(56:38):
shop and down there was a forest music by the
narcissist Cookbook and Propaganda. So they're now saying gb I
suck my Dick. Gb I is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
It could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visitor webs a
(57:00):
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.
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Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
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