August 25, 2023 • 53 mins
As construction for Cop City is set to begin imminently, a referendum to let Atlanta voters decide the fate of the facility faces voter suppression.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome back to It could Happen Here. I'm Garrison Davis,
and this is the last episode in my trilogy covering
what's been happening this summer in Atlanta to stop Cop City.
Last episode we covered the end of the Week of Action,
the resurgence of nighttime sabotage, and Atlas long Engineering dropping
out of the Cop City project. A relatively new, big
(00:29):
aspect of the movement that I've really only mentioned peripherally
is the Cop City vote referendum. The goal of the
referendum is to let the people of Atlanta vote on
whether to repeal an ordinance authorizing the land lease of
three hundred and eighty one acres of forest into Cab
County that was given to the Atlanta Police Foundation in
twenty twenty one to use the land for the construction
(00:52):
of Cop City. In order to get the referendum on
an upcoming ballot, the petition had to gather sixty thousand
signatures in six days. Every signature must be from an
Atlanta resident who was registered to vote in twenty twenty one,
and initially those who gathered signatures had to also be
Atlanta residents. Sixty thousand signatures in sixty days was a
(01:13):
lofty goal, but volunteers around the city were being increasingly
mobilized during and after the week of action. For the
first few weeks of the referendum, the city stayed mostly quiet,
but then on the July fifth APD press conference, Mayor
Andre Dickens addressed the referendum.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Mayor, some of these protesters and posters of the twenty
Center have biggun connecting signatures in the hope of having
a referendum, putting the November p Mu's your reaction to that?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
What's your comment on that?
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Will you allow them to do what they're doing right
now and possibly have in the referendum?
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Absolutely, the referendum process is one that's legally documented. It's
in the city code, and anybody can attempt to get
the petition going and get the necessary signatures. We asked
they do so with honesty and truth, collect the signatures
from real people, with sharing the truth about what they
are looking to do. And so I don't personally believe
(02:11):
they're going to be successful. I believe that based on
what we know about the citizens of Atlanta, they are
a supportive of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. We
know that this is going to be unsuccessful if it's
done honestly, and so we're making sure that we continue
to monitor the process.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
This statement by the Democrat mayor of Atlanta, I don't
think has been highlighted enough. The mayor is trying to
frame a successful referendum as a fraudulent one. Dickens is
priming propaganda channels and testing the waters for blatant election
fraud stile messaging in the future by very clearly insinuating
(02:48):
that if you win this, that means you're cheating.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
The referendum kept popping up like throughout the Week of
Action without It wasn't tailing up.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Space it was.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
It was never never the focus.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
It was always just like on the sidelines.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, but it was everywhere, Like every I think every
event the referendum was in some way shape or form.
You know, they're like the Home Depot rally and people
walking by they were talking about the referendum and talking
about the Week of Action collecting signatures.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
It did not feel like it was taking space away
from any of the other aspects of the movement. I
think some people were definitely worried about that, Like people
worried that the referendum might act as like a release
out for both the movement and like the people who
are like out of the movement and still like looking
at cop City being like, how can you get involved
in this thing? And you see this like very like
(03:35):
above for electoral strategy of slanning stuff like what if
people's efforts just get funneled into that and they missed
that on the other much more expensive aspects of the movement.
One of the few more referendum focused events during the
Week of Action was a community town hall discussion put
on by the Hip Hop Caucus at the Gathering Spot
on the evening of Friday, June thirtieth. Before the panel discussion,
(04:00):
myself and Matt from the Atlantic Community Press Collective talked
with two members of the Hip Hop Caucus about the
event and their hopes for the referendum. This is Brandy Williams,
an organizer with the Hip Hop Caccus.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
So.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
The Hip Hop Coccus is a national nonpart is a
nonprofit organization that uses hip hop culture to connect people
to the civic and political process. And essentially we do
that in four areas. We do that with I think
one hundred percent climbate and environmental justice, work. We were
founded as a voting and democracy organization out of the
Voter Die movement, so we still do that work under
(04:36):
our respect My Vote platform. We also have our Good
Trouble civil and human rights work. It's our multiissue platform
and we look at it as the justice department for
hip hop, so we do it. We work on everything
from police reform to education and healthcare, and then our
Justice Paid in Full, which is our economic justice platform,
So how do we achieve economic justice. We actually started
(05:00):
our activation, like on the groundwork in La last week
during be et weekend, so we did a similar event
in LA. We're doing this one here and we're planning
to be here in Atlanta and through the referendum and
through the election.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
We also talked with Leonajaha Lone Wolf, an Atlanta resident
and national community organizer. Recently she had been working de
spread awareness across the country about what's been going on
in Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (05:25):
Myself, hip Hop Quark is movement for Black Lives until Freedom,
community movement builders. We all came up with this idea
to create this photo shoot campaign similar to Voter Die
or in anything you know, with these where you have
a nice shirt or a sticker and you're taking and
just being there in solidarity. So we did it during
(05:48):
La BT Awards weekend last weekend. We had a nice
turnout of folks that came. I was in LA for
the Hollywood Climate Summit. I spoke on the panel with
Jane Fonda, so there was a lot of people from
Hollywood that came and said, oh my god, that's what's
happening in Georgia. We have to be if we cannot
sign for on the referendum, but we stand with you
(06:09):
all because what we are also educating people at is
that if Cop City is built, they already having contracts
with police nationally to come here. This will be the
largest police training facility in the United States. I went
to Universal Studios, Hollywood, Universal Studios. Rollercoat says, it's huge,
(06:31):
just nice. It's four hundred acres. That's fifty acres. Lest
will be Cop City. And then you know, and I'm like,
that's an amusement park of nothing but real real gunfire,
real bombs, real real everything. It's not gonna be fake.
It's not amusement park in that way. But this is
(06:54):
their call of duty in real.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Life, and it's in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
Speaker 7 (06:58):
They're not here to protect and serve. They're here to
shoot to kill. And so police from all across this
nation will be coming here to Georgia for this militarized
police training and that's a problem for me. And the
turnout in California showed that that's a problem for them too.
So we had a lot of people that came for that,
(07:19):
and today we're doing the same thing and we're having
a community town hall discussion because I think there's a
lot of people that don't understand why is cop city
because the mayor. I want to meet the mayor's publicists
because the way that this whole thing has been spinned
on his side that no, it would be great for
the EMT and the firefighters, and they're pushing EMT firefighters
(07:43):
more than the police part, but the police part is
a huge part. I think these type of conversations need
to be talked about, and so that's what this community
town hall is all about as well for those that
are kind of wavering neutral, maybe don't know, maybe they
know it a lot, you know, because the number one
thing that we've been like, I was on V one
O three yesterday on the radio station, and I also
(08:05):
have been doing a couple of other media and call ins,
and a lot of people don't understand, like they a
lot of people don't understand, like why is this a
bad thing? You know, you can move it somewhere else,
they say. But even if it's moved somewhere else, I'm
still gonna fight against cop city, you know, just because
I have this hits home for me too. Many of
(08:27):
my friends and family have been murdered by the hands
of radical power hungry, gun happy, trigger happy police officers.
And I feel that there is and then also another
thing too, I there is answers, you know, in regards
to we don't need more police, we need resources. They
(08:47):
shut down our hospital, they shut down the shelters. It's
not like they don't know, right, Like we tell them,
we need more jobs, not just any job, good quality jobs.
We need pristine health, not just affordable healthcare. And then
most importantly, it just are unsheltered friends to see that
(09:07):
they put bulldozers. They this administration, this this city continues.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
To ignore.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Ignore the people. We have the hugest the biggest wealth
gap in the nation. They and they call it Wakanda
the blackest city. But if this is how you treat
us our people, Our people need resources. That's where this
sixty seven million dollars should be going. It should not
be going towards a more police. We don't need more
(09:38):
police because when you go to Cobb County, when you
go over to Alpharetta, they don't have a lot of police.
They don't have a lot of Why would they need
a lot of police because they already got the resources.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
On top of the community town hall discussion, there were
a few other things to do at the event that,
you know, Jaha talked about.
Speaker 7 (09:57):
Stop Cop City photo campaign. One, you come and take
your photo and just showing that you stand in solidarity,
and then most importantly is to get some signatures.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
As well throughout the referendum process. It's been interesting how
many people, even in Atlanta are just now learning about
cop City.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
When did you first hear about cop City?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Honestly earlier this year, And.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Like a lot of the people that I am talking
to now, I was also kind of confused about the issue.
I wasn't really sure why, you know, they were so
opposed until I started learning a little more about what
actually was going to happen. At this training facility, So
(10:48):
the idea of building a mini city with the helicopter
landing pad with a shooting range or a firing range
military grade.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
In a community. So this is not on the outskirts.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
This is in a community, and then in a community
of color, and.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
You're bringing police from around the country in to learn.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
Military tactics, tactics that we use in foreign countries to
protect citizens.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
We should not be thinking about our.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
Citizens, our residents, as people who need to be protected
from themselves.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
If that, if I'm making sense, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So it's sort of like enemy combatants in your own.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
In your on backyard, but you're training them up in
a black community. So I can only imagine that some
of that many cities going to spill over into the communities.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Then you're bringing.
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Police officers from around the country here, so they're taking
that back.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
The specific community where the Atlanta Police Foundation is trying
to build a cop city has already been traumatized by
the violence of the States for hundreds of years now.
This whole area was violently stolen from Muscogee Creek, then
it became a slave plantation, and then part of it
was sold to the city of Atlanta. And then it
became a prison firm. Since then, the land has been
(12:09):
home to two landfills and three detention facilities. This is
the history of just this neighborhood for the last few
hundred years. Now, the carstor of violence inflicted on this land,
it's attempting to be exported, as police will soon come
from around the country and even the world to train
at copp City.
Speaker 6 (12:29):
No one wants it in their community, but you're going
to continue to burden this particular community with the same
thing over and over and over again. The people of
that community for generations have experienced all kinds of harm
at the hands of the people that they supposedly are
electing to represent and protect them from these types of things,
(12:52):
and they're actually the ones doing it to them. You
were elected by people to represent them, and they've told
you for two years, we don't want this.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
You are ignoring their voice.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
On the day of the Hip Hopcoccus Panel, an air
quality alert was issued due to incoming smoke from wildfires
up north in Atlanta. The AQI reached one hundred and
fifty the ocean.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
These fish, these birds, they're screaming at us right now.
What we are doing to Mother Earth right now is
we are from cutting down the trees, fossil fuels, everything,
this is, this is, and especially this being the lungs
of Atlanta. Today, I'm wearing my mask because on my
(13:35):
weather advisory it said it said the air quality is
not good today for sensitive people. And that is just
with the trees, and they keep on cutting down these trees.
I moved here because of the trees. I'm from Arizona,
so I needed trees. That was nothing but desert. But
I moved here because of these trees because I love
(13:58):
the life force that trees give us. Even when we
see a tree, the Earth is talking back to us, saying,
stop doing what you're doing. The dolphins, the orcas, the wells,
they're all migrant. They're like, you're you're the ocean is
hot right now, the so they are. They're yelling at us,
(14:18):
and we're not listening. And and as a native in
my native way, our elders, our chiefs have said that
we plan for seven generations from now. I am a
mother of two sons, and what this administration is doing
and what these corporations are doing, they're not looking at
seven generations from now. They're not looking at how this
(14:41):
is gonna affect us on the long run. And and
and I love the fact of everyone that is standing
firm and saying stop cop City, because we see the vision.
We know what this, this Uchi Marca, this mother Earth
is going to look like seven generations from now. And
we're fighting to our death because the fact that we
want to make sure that our children's children's children's children
(15:05):
could still live here and be in a peaceful, safe
place and environment to live.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Since being elected as the Progressive candidate in twenty twenty one,
there's been an ever growing animosity towards Mayor Dickens from
all of his unfulfilled promises. When talking with you Najaha,
she expressed that she felt disappointed that herself and this
big block of people helped Andre get elected. And now
(15:32):
Mayor Dickens is fully committed to the cop City project
and is even having conversations with other black leaders in
the city to bring them on board and prevent them
from opposing Cop City.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
The mayor is in his position because of the blood,
sweat and tears and arrest and beat ups that we
got during Freedom Summer twenty twenty. He used the social
justice the civil rights organizations and activists voices to get
him in the position that he used them and say,
y'all help me. I'm gonna be there for you all.
(16:06):
And it's all a slap in the face. So I
don't like hypocrisy. And I see I see hypocrites all
throughout this and on the on this administration side, from
the governor all the way down, even when we try
to help our unsheltered friends. In December, when it was
so cold out here, I went on social media. I
(16:28):
raised five thousand dollars in two hours. I went and went,
Me and my friends went and got them all tents, tents,
sleeping bags, everything. The mayor called my comrade. Mayor Andre
called my comrade and was all like, why are you
saying that they don't have no heating stations? And I
set up a heating station. Not everyone wants to go there,
(16:51):
because so is there? Where is your mental health services?
What's the transitioning team that you should have on the
ground to helped transition them. Don't just open up a
temporary heating shelter. Where's a transition team to go and
talk to the people saying, hey, let me walk you
in to go get heated. There was none of that.
(17:11):
You're just expecting people to just go in there or
they knew where.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
It was at.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
So we went to the cab. We went to the cab,
and we also went down to Atlanta. We gave them tents.
The police went down there. The Atlanta Pede went down
there and put holes all in their tents. They slight
They used a knife and put and sliced their tents
open so it wouldn't they couldn't even stay in it. Yes, yes,
(17:36):
while it was still below freezing. This is all under
the administration of Mayor Andre. So no, we can't trust
We can't trust them.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Do you feel betrayed by Andre?
Speaker 7 (17:48):
Yes, because I voted for him. I voted for him.
I voted for him because I think I voted for
him like every other person voted for vote for someone.
Is that their care is They talk an amazing game.
And on top of it, my friends that were close
with him voted for him. My friends in the movement activists,
(18:13):
people that I look up to from as mentorship. They said, man, Andre,
he's gonna have fund a lot of the things that
we're doing.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Leonajaha spoke about how Mayor Dickens worked to build mutually
beneficial relationships between the city and non governmental quote unquote
progressive organizations. So while some NGOs have received money from
the city, now many of these big quote unquote civil
rights orgs are scared of jeopardizing potential funding and are
(18:43):
now currently refusing to speak out against cop City.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
Yeah. When I talk so the same people that have
spoken to Andre are the same people. I'm like, why
don't you involved, you know, And they're just like, I
think it's gonna be built, and at least I'm at
the table. A lot of them think that way. They
was like, I was there at the beginning fighting, I
had to sit down with the mayor. I believe this
(19:07):
is gonna be built. So since this is gonna be built,
let me figure out at least I'm at the table
in the community and there's community engagement. At least there's
some type of bridging happening. That's their angle. Anyone that
said black Lives Matter was on the front line with
us in twenty twenty, that is that was horrified by
the videos that they saw. This we are at prime time.
(19:30):
This is the eficenter of police terrorism being built. This
is it, This is this is it. This is not
each individual. We're trying to prevent more families, because if
they build this, it's gonna be a lot more families
that's gonna be crying and saying, they killed my baby.
(19:51):
So we're at the epicenter of a cop city and
you are silent. You're silent, but you was there for
the families. You was there posting black lives matter. You
was there saying stop police terrorism. But they're building a
they're building a terrorist headquarters, and you don't have nothing
(20:14):
to say. You're a hypocrite. You're a hypocrite, period, point blank.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Brandy also talked about the hypocrisy of pushing forward cup
City after the George Floyd uprising in twenty twenty.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
You know, three years ago, just in May, all these
companies were sending out these emails saying that black lives matter.
After George Floyd. They were pouring money into the community
to show their support for black lives. But some of
those same communities Home Depot, Coca Cola, Delta Airlines, waffle House.
You guys are I'm sure sent those emails out, and
(20:50):
now you're putting money into something that does not respect
black lives. So I think there's just this huge contradiction
in who these companies say they are how they're showing up.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Part of the growing propaganda battle over cop City is
an attempt to frame this state of the arched militarized
police training facility as a quote unquote public safety training center,
embodying the call for police reform that liberals protested for
in twenty twenty. Not only does this erase the abolitionist
corps of the twenty twenty uprising, but it also obfuscates
(21:25):
the fact that cop City is indeed a direct response
to twenty twenty, not in terms of police reform, but
in the aftermath of the neoliberal police state being under
genuine threat. Corporate America and police have made this pact
to maintain each other's legitimacy, as one cannot survive without
the other. Cop City is to ensure that what happened
(21:48):
in twenty twenty will never happen again. After the clear
cutting of around eighty acres to the Wahlani Forest, there's
been more of a focus on the stop cop City
(22:09):
wing of the movement than defend the forest. Sure, there
are still three hundred acres to defend and eighty acres
to restore, But as construction is getting more imminent, the
specific cop city focus has taken center stage in messaging.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
When it was initially talked about, it was all about
the environment.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
They're tearing down the.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Forest and as marginalized poor people. If I am hearing that,
I'm not seeing it as important. I'm trying to figure
out how much pay my rent, how much my kids,
how i'm i pay my bills, how I'm getting to
and from work, and so those things I think made
it difficult to break into the household of people who
(22:54):
really need to be paying attention, and I would dare
to say even the people in the community. I watched
some of the testimony from the city council meeting several
weeks ago. In the the state representative that spoke first
talked about how the church right next door to the
facility didn't even know what was happening next door to them.
(23:16):
So for the city of Atlanta to say, oh, we've
done outreach people in the community, no, that's not true, right,
But part of that is the way that the narrative
has started. And I think they were like, Okay, that
ain't got nothing to do with me. And then also
the fact that the faces that they saw on TV,
it was they're thinking, this is a white led, white organization,
(23:37):
white problem.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
It's not our problem. So they haven't engaged.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
So I think those are all things that we have
to consider that and let people know this is a
diverse problem.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
It impacts everybody.
Speaker 6 (23:47):
It's going to impact people of color and poor and
marginalized communities more than anybody else, just because of the
nature of how policing is done in America and so
and the and.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
The problems that we still have with that. So our
program is from.
Speaker 6 (24:02):
Red Dogs to cop City, the Dirty South history of
over policing Atlanta. So helping them understand how this is
just new iteration of what's been happening. So the Red
Dog Unit was at some call it a gang within
Atlanta PD for many years. It was disbanded in twenty eleven,
(24:23):
but they were terrorizing low poor communities of color, and
so cop City in the way that they're thinking about
training these officers would be just a new iteration of that.
So helping them understand that just because we have come
far with the civil rights, with our civil rights and
(24:46):
I'm not even talking specifically about the sixties movement, but
civil rights for people of color, women, LGBTQIA plus communities.
Just because we've come far doesn't mean it can't go back.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Atlanta's Red Dogs inspired the Scorpion Unit in Memphis that
killed Tyree Nichols this past January, and the current iteration
of the Red Dogs in Atlanta is the Apex Unit,
who have been very active in suppressing stop Cop City protests.
I'm going to play three brief clips from the panel discussion.
(25:19):
The first is from Mariah Parker, a local activist and
former Georgia County commissioner.
Speaker 8 (25:25):
This is a war on the Uprising of twenty twenty.
Speaker 9 (25:28):
Okay, this is in the aftermath of the largest uprisings.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
In North America.
Speaker 9 (25:35):
The Atlanta Police Foundation, who is the main driver and
the main funder and actually the owner of Cross City.
I keep forgetting the fact that this is not actually
going to go bust. The Limp Police Foundation trying to
rehab certain their control over black communities at a time
when people are starting to understand that communities are made
(25:56):
safe for bi bordable housing and healthcare, child.
Speaker 8 (25:59):
Care and edger.
Speaker 9 (26:01):
And where their supremacy in the public safety apparatus.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Has been challenged.
Speaker 8 (26:09):
Their dominance has been challenged, and so in response to
that uprising, they seized hold of the narrative that more
police training, more diversity in our officers would be the
magic key to heal all the wounds in our communities
(26:31):
and to actually deliver.
Speaker 9 (26:34):
A style of police thing that serves some people. And
so with that they were able to make arguments that
cop city would be the answer to right allegedly rising
crime rates, heal at these divides, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
At the end of the day, they it's.
Speaker 9 (26:55):
Like it's a form of counterinsurgency. The people rose up,
and so this is the police right for that one
response to reassert their dominance.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Next is kJ Henson, an Atlanta local and organizer with
Black Men Build and Blackmail Initiative Georgia.
Speaker 10 (27:11):
We're clear that the police are not our protectors.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
Right.
Speaker 11 (27:17):
We suffer at the hands of the system on a
daily basis.
Speaker 10 (27:22):
Right, the system was built upon our backs, literally, So.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
We see that we've been discarded, we've been.
Speaker 10 (27:32):
Abused by the system. And that's the point. It's not
that we're disengaged because we don't care. We're disengaged because
we do care.
Speaker 7 (27:41):
Right, every election.
Speaker 10 (27:42):
Cycle it's black voters to the rescue. We're the folks
that are most impacted by the decisions of the same
elected officials that beg us to put them in position.
We suffer because these people will come to us and
beg for votes, for canvassers, for money, and.
Speaker 11 (28:02):
They turn around and they sell us out the first
chance they need.
Speaker 10 (28:06):
So it's we're dis engaged of a matter of I
can't get what I need from these people that say.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
That they're for me.
Speaker 7 (28:16):
Right, the very means of the people.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Are at risk.
Speaker 10 (28:19):
Cop city threatens are very right to protest. Right cop
city threats, the right.
Speaker 11 (28:24):
For us to stand in the street and use our
voice as a means of building collective.
Speaker 10 (28:32):
Power as a vehicle for making societal change. You can
come a domestic terrorist, you get jail without bed, without God,
you won't have a coordinate. I've been there myself, not
for infestic terrorism.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
We've just been from coordination.
Speaker 10 (28:46):
So we're seeing the rise of fascism in a very
real way, like in the realistic ways cop City, Like
you said, it is ground zero for what would become
a very popular trend, not this in America, but.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Across the world.
Speaker 10 (29:02):
Right, So it's on us to make sure that we
do everything that's.
Speaker 7 (29:06):
In our power to make sure that this.
Speaker 8 (29:07):
Day is stop.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Cop City is.
Speaker 11 (29:11):
Given police the training and the ability to have urban
warfare and suppression tactics at their will to be used
against the people.
Speaker 10 (29:23):
Urban warfare and suppression not like they not unlike what
we see in other countries, in other cities with organized
resistance everywhere.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Lastly, we have Reverend Keana Jones, member of the Faith
Coalition to Stop Cop City, whom we've heard from on
this show before.
Speaker 12 (29:43):
I want every Black Atlanta to think about what you
don't have.
Speaker 13 (29:46):
If you don't have affordable housing, it's because they put
the money in.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
The cop CIT.
Speaker 14 (29:51):
If you can't pay.
Speaker 12 (29:52):
Your life bill, it's because that assistance got given back
to the federal government.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
What they're paying for cop CIT.
Speaker 12 (29:58):
If there are no policing alternatives and no urgent initiatives
in your community, is that they've given the money and
hop sick.
Speaker 14 (30:05):
If you fell into that pot hole on Passilion, it's because.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
They give it the money to pop C.
Speaker 14 (30:12):
If you can't walk out of your door and brief
clean air, it's because they rather get it to top C.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
So Andrea Hickins.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Does not care about black people.
Speaker 13 (30:23):
I'm gonna do a Kanye West right now, but I'm saying,
ire Giggings don't care about black people. And Andrea Nickens
ain't no different than nobody else, and some of those
other consul people out there who have no soul called
legacy names ain't doing.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Nothing for black people. So, once again, what is Andre
Niggins doing for you? If he is willing to take police.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
And make sure that they got slot takes to roll
around in they walking around the ars in your neighborhood,
your children walking out the house to hearing gunshots constantly,
what do Andre Niggins care about you?
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Does his children hear that?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Okay, it is important to mention the venue that that
this was that this panel took place in, because this
is like a very much like a it feels it
feels like a Black Excellence type of like space. It's
like that is the space that it is. It's it is,
it is a private club. It holds like an amount
(31:21):
of like respect.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
There cultural significance.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
And on this panel at the gathering spot, the panelists
were We're talking about how why why is the mayor
who meant many of these people helped get elected because
he had promises about, you know, helping out the community,
giving millions of dollars to affordable housing. Why is he
using now like sixty seventy million dollars that could go
to affordable housing, that could go towards supporting black people
(31:47):
in Atlanta? Is funneling all of that money into the
police and and into not even like the police department,
a private police foundation, like funding funding the APFS project,
not a city project. I think it was Keana who
said that Andre Dickens does not care about black people. Yeah,
and having that be said at the gathering spot, I
think actually is very important and is worth talking about.
(32:11):
As the referendum was progressing, and people from across all
sides of the movement, we're working in conjunction just spread
awareness of Copcity and engage in action. The mayor was
making attempts to divide the movement.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Criminals are hiding in the middle of peaceful protests and
sometimes they are doing their own separate acts of violence.
Some of them are career arsonists and vandals from across
the nation. Local activists have been alerted to this numerous times.
(32:44):
These are the actions of blatantly outrageous, dangerous and violent criminals.
How are arsonists, vandals, violent actors able to be alongside
peaceful protesters. You have individuals that will burn up construction equipment,
light a fire to police vehicles, and then have a
(33:08):
bouncy house party the next day with peaceful protesters at
a park. So they will go to a park by day,
and then by night they're burning up police equipment or
setting fires or trying to destroy construction equipment. So these
individuals are trying to use the guys of peaceful protests
(33:29):
that maybe some local Atlantans may actually be engaged in
a desired conversation about their views on public safety. But
these individuals have different views than those folks. These individuals
are anarchists. They want to destroy. So these individuals are
alongside these arsonists, these criminals are alongside peaceful protesters, and
(33:49):
sometimes the peaceful protesters are aware of it, and sometimes
they are not. We have made it clear to local
activists that we know and individuals that tend to be peaceful.
We're letting them know that we are aware that there
are individuals that are in our city that have committed
crimes across the nation, and that they are on your
(34:10):
social media or in your network saying they're coming to
your event to do the same.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Mayor Dickens went further and essentially threatened that if you
are a so called activist and you don't snitch, then
the APD will treat you the same as a violent criminal.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
So when we give you that heads up as a
local organizer, you should take that heads up and also
see something, say something, as we're asking any other citizen
to do. When peaceful protesters, when organizers are not utilizing
their best judgment, then bad things can happen with them
being alongside them, and it makes it real tough for
(34:46):
APD to know who was the one with the dirty hands,
so to speak. And so that's what the message that
we want to get out to the public is that
these individuals mean harm and you don't want to be
around them or associated with them. When you are, it
makes it difficult to tell who.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
The city wants. The various wings of the fight to
stop cop City to turn on each other, to resent
each other, to so distrust and undermine any collective power.
That's why the referendum's Statement of solidarity explicitly rejecting respectability
politics and the framing of violent and nonviolent resistance was
(35:22):
so important. An online communicate claiming responsibility for torching police
motorcycles on the last day of the Week of action
addressed this dynamic quote. We took action after non combative
demonstrations at Cadence Bank and Home Depot. The police attacked
those demonstrations with no cause, as they do wherever and
(35:44):
however the movement gathers. There can be no separation of
time and space for tactics when police have turned society
into a war zone. Despite this, we dispersed our activity
as much as possible across their area of control. We
encourage those who are pursuing a strategy of referendum to
(36:04):
continue supporting all methods to stop cop City. If you
defy the state's unilateral authority in any way, you will
be seen as a valid target. As demonstrated throughout the
history of this movement, including during this last Week of action,
police will treat you like a violent criminal, whether you're
(36:25):
holding a sign in a parking lot, bailing activists out
of jail, or smashing a cop car. On July sixth,
a group of activists in unincorporated Decab County, near the
(36:47):
potential site of Cop City filed a lawsuit against the
City of Atlanta and the State of Georgia, claiming the
requirement that signature gatherers must themselves be Atlanta residents violated
their First Amendment right to free speech and petition the government.
Due to the potential constitutional violation, the lawsuit also requested
the court reset the sixty day clock for gathering signatures
(37:10):
while still counting the signatures that were already gathered. In
mid July, the City of Atlanta filed a reply in
federal court arguing that the cop city referendum was wholly
invalid since it seeks to provoke a land lease that
has already been signed. The filing reads, in part, quote,
(37:31):
repeal of a year's old ordinance cannot retroactively revoke authorization
to do something that has already been done. But if
the referendum could claim to result in a revocation or
cancelation of the lease, it would still be invalid because
it would amount to an impermissible impairment of that contract unquote.
The city also argued that if the court does deem
(37:52):
the Atlanta residency requirement for gathering signatures unconstitutional, then the
entire referendum should be deemed unlaw. A rebuttal by the
plaintiffs said that the city did not provide factual or
legal evidence for its claims and misread the cited precedence.
According to the plaintiffs, the land lease contract is ongoing,
(38:14):
not an irreversible quote unquote one time event, and since
the city authorized and issued the petition form, they skipped
their chance to argue that the referendum is somehow invalid
by already approving the language of the petition and letting
the referendum process begin. Near the end of July, US
(38:34):
District Court Judge Mark Cohen ruled in favor of the
cop city referendum, allowing non Atlanta residents to collect signatures
and reset the sixty day clock to collect the roughly
sixty thousand signatures needed to put the land lease on
the ballot. In his ruling, Judge Mark Cohen said, quote
requiring signature gatherers to be residents of the city imposes
(38:57):
a severe burden on core political speech and does little
to protect the city's interest in self governance unquote. Mary Hooks,
the tactical lead of the referendum coalition, reacted to the ruling, saying, quote,
we are thrilled by Judge Cohen's ruling and the expansion
of democracy to include our cab neighbors and level the
playing field for our coalition unquote. The city quickly filed
(39:21):
for an appeal, which was subsequently denied on August fourteenth,
with the judge stating quote, the city's real concern may
be that now that non residents have the ability to
gather signatures on the petition for the entire time that
they would have been permitted to do so had their
initial request been granted, there is an increased possibility that
a sufficient number of valid signatures could be obtained unquote.
(39:44):
As liberals cheered on the Fulton County District Attorney in
Atlanta for indicting Trump and co conspirators for election tampering
under reco charges, the same exact sort of charges that
this office has used against young black rappers and have
been wielded against the Stop Cop City movement, the City
of Atlanta's own election interference by repressing the referendum has
(40:07):
been largely ignored. Fulton County court set Trump's bond for
two hundred thousand dollars for attempting to overthrow a federal election.
The same court set bond at three hundred and fifty
five thousand dollars each for multiple protesters arrested for being
merely present at a protest. After Georgia State Patrol killed
(40:28):
force defender Torteguita in January of this year, during all
of the glowing press for District Attorney Fannie Willis and
the City of Atlanta, it was revealed that on August eleventh,
the Atlanta Police Department killed a sixty two year old,
unarmed black man named Johnny Holman while responding to a
(40:48):
minor traffic accident. Both Holman and the unnamed second driver
called nine one one after the accident. Holman told nine
one operators quote, somebody ran into truck after waiting for
over an hour for police to arrive. Twenty three year
old officer Kiaran Kimbro responded to the scene. Kimbro joined
(41:10):
APD in March of twenty twenty one and currently as
an open complaint for quote sexual misconduct non criminal unquote.
Johnny Holman, who served as a deacon in his church,
called his kids to listen to how the officer was
escalating the situation, and then an unknown witness helped this
APD officer wrestle sixty two year old Johnny Holman to
(41:34):
the ground and put him in handcuffs as the officer
used his taser. To quote the Atlantic Community Press Collective quote,
the children listened for seventeen minutes as they drove to
the scene of the accident, hearing their father call for
help after officer kimbro tased him. When they arrived on scene,
they found officers giving chrest compressions to their father. Unquote.
(41:57):
Johnny Holman was then pronounced dead at Grady Hospital. A
week after APD killed Holman, Another person incarcerated at Fulton
County Jail died while being held on five thousand dollars
bond after being denied signature bond for shoplifting less than
five hundred dollars of goods. The City of Atlanta's own
(42:20):
alleged voter suppression has continued. Initially, the cop City vote
referendum hoped to not have to use the extra day
is granted by the judge and submit the collected signatures
on August twenty first, with the intention of getting them
verified in time to put the cop City vote on
the upcoming November ballot. Come Monday, August twenty first, the
(42:42):
referendum put out a statement that, despite collecting over one
hundred thousand signatures, that they are delaying submitting the petition
due to concerns that the city was going to employ
voter suppression tactics during the validation process. The statement reads,
in part quote, In recent days, we began to hear
from reporters and sources inside city Hall that the City
(43:03):
of Atlanta is planning to argue for a higher than
previously reported legal minimum signature count for ballot access. More
concerning were reports that they also planned to utilize signature
match in their verification process, an archaic and widely abandoned
tool of voter suppression that has been widely condemned across
the political spectrum, including by the Republican controlled Georgia State legislator.
(43:29):
Signature matching is a subjective form of a vote validation
which uses election workers to visually match signatures on a
ballot or in this case, of petition, to a previous
signature on their driver's license or voter registration card. Hours
after the referendum's statement, the City of Atlanta officially announced
their intention to use his signature matching for the cop
(43:51):
city vote referendum. Back in twenty eighteen, a federal judge
in Georgia ruled that signature matching did not serve any
legitimate in interest and disenfranchised black and brown voters disproportionately.
For years, the ACLU has advocated against and won multiple
court cases against discriminatory signature matching processes. Fair Fight Action,
(44:14):
a Georgia based voting rights organization founded by Stacy Abrams,
responded to the news Atlanta would be using signature matching
with a statement saying quote signature matching is a tool
of voter suppression that litigated extensively in Georgia and removed
from the mail in ballot process because of its harm
to voters resulting in mass disenfranchisement. Using the discredited process
(44:38):
of signature matching is unacceptable and risks unfairly rejecting thousands
of valid petitions. Signature verification is notoriously subjective, disproportionately impacts
voters of color, and as biased against disabled and elderly voters.
There is extensive precedent in Georgia showing the harms of
this process. It must be relegated to them. Past Fair
(45:01):
Fight calls on the city of Atlanta to rescind their
intent to use this process and to enact steps that
fairly evaluate these petitions unquote. Facing the City of Atlanta's
quote open and ongoing hostility to the cop city vote referendum,
the coalition has decided to use the time extension granted
(45:21):
by federal Judge Mark Cohen to continue collecting signatures to
quote leave no doubt as to the will of Atlanta
voters unquote. They now plan to submit petition signatures on
September twenty third. The City Council will then have fifty
days to validate the signatures, which means that if successful,
and assuming the city doesn't further interfere, the referendum would
(45:44):
get put on the ballot during the March primary election
in twenty twenty four. The vote being pushed into March
adds a few complications. Turnout may skew more Republican as
it's unlikely there will be a Democratic presidential primary, and
the vote being seven months away disrupts the momentum that
the campaign has been gaining over the past couple of months.
(46:08):
People who signed the petition back in June would have
to wait almost a whole year to vote on the ballot.
The few extra months does give more time to educate
the public about cop City during a lead up to
the election, but that goes both ways, which means that
after two years of this movement mostly taking form as
a ground war over territory, now for the time being,
(46:31):
much of the fight to stop Cop City will change
into a pr war in the public sphere. This shift
from a physical offense to a metaphysical offense was something
that I already felt coming back during the Week of
Action in terms of like cameras and spectacle the other
The big feeling I had on the Saturday kickoff rally
(46:53):
was like this just feels like society of the spectacle,
Like there's.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Such a performance.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
It was very performative, but it was like almost like
with all of the cameras looking at everything all the time,
it was like, are people trying to make a proximately
of this movement for the cameras? Like is that has
become almost more important? Or like it felt that way.
This is a conversation that people have like is it
worth creating moments where we expect the police to lash
(47:23):
out violently? Like is that effective as a propaganda tactic? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (47:27):
And that if comes with losing while looking good.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
It does. Yeah, that is like, that is losing while
looking good. But also I don't think that's nearly as
effective as people think it is. I think after twenty twenty,
I think people are kind of desensitized to a lot
of police violence at protests. The visual the visuals of
police hurting protesters, I don't think is nearly as impactful
as it was even three years ago. So I think
(47:54):
people are also realizing that and realizing that, hey, the
sacrifice inherent in up actions where you know that you're
probably going to get sucked up by police, that's not
worth it. That that one, it treats people as like tools.
That treats people as disposable, which is, you know, that's
not great if you want to build a long lasting movement,
(48:15):
And that's not even very effective. As the public relations
battle over the fate of cop City intensifies in the
lead up to the vote, with the City of Atlanta
undoubtedly ready to run a full election propaganda campaign, strategies
of resistance cannot overlook the physical construction of the facility.
Pre construction has been active and ongoing for a few
(48:37):
months now, mostly in the form of tree clearing and
land grading. Just a few days ago, the Atlanta Police
Foundation updated their construction timeline, saying that they had just
began installing a stone base for the main roadway, that
irrigation and site lighting is now underway, and full lawn
construction is set to quote begin in the next week
(48:59):
or or soot that now may be out of date,
but based on the progress being made on the site,
it's clear that construction is now imminent and with the
threat of the referendum, the APF will try to get
as much built as quickly as possible to help with
the pro copcity side of election messaging. One of the
(49:21):
original goals of the referendum was to try to place
an injunction on further construction until the ballot vote, but
it's unknown if or when that would happen. In the meantime,
activists may take a cue from Earth First, and instead
of trying to occupy the site, instead they might find
creative ways to make the construction site hard to work on. Also,
(49:43):
with the increased element of spectacle placing a lot of
extra eyes on pre announced public demonstrations, more secretive actions
may start becoming more common. There's other actions that can
happen more covertly, like if you're doing sabotage where you
don't need to invite a camera crew to film you
do crimes.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Why is move not?
Speaker 7 (50:02):
Why is?
Speaker 1 (50:04):
But no, it's also as a rule like why That's
the other thing is like so many of these events
during during these weeks of action are pre planned that
not only gives media heads up on like we're gonna
film this, and this is also gonna that's gonna change
the actions that happen while this is happening because everyone
knows they're being launched, it also gives police heads.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Up to to shut down the paths you're in chreudgment career.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
So that I think that comes with the week of
Action format because if people people coming in from out
of town, they don't know where to go, if they're
not already tied in with the movement, they don't know
what what what exactly to do. So that's that's another
thing that thinks could change during future actions that may
not be part of the Week of Action is more covert,
less less pre planned, pre announced actions that are maybe
(50:47):
uh maybe a little bit more mischievous. In their recent
statement on voter suppression, the referendum, also announced, quote the
coalition will consider using upcoming opportunities for non violent direct
actions to direct the people's frustration with the city council's
obstruction of the democratic process unquote. Camal Franklin of Community
(51:07):
Movement Builders added quote, if the city needs to see
a demonstration of the people's commitment to the issue, we're
happy to provide one. Unquote. Police intentionally denying anarchists operating
space by occupying the Wolani themselves may shift the more
liberal side of the movement to now focus on rallies
and events around the construction site, which could also inadvertently
(51:31):
draw eyeballs away and open up other territory across the
city that might be more vulnerable to attack by small
groups to quote. The direct action communicate claiming responsibility for
torching the police motorcade on July first. Quote. While signatures
are collected, the police are still killing. We cannot wait.
(51:52):
If the referendum fails, actions like ours and Boulder will
be the only means available. Unquote. With construction imminent, subcontractor
tensions increasing, and the City of Atlanta gambling with voter
suppression right now, the movement really cannot afford to alienate
the Green anarchists that pioneered the early legitimacy of this movement.
(52:15):
With bold direct action, the Atlanta Police Foundation is trying
to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. What
happens in the next few months may push Atlanta to
a dangerous tipping point. No matter the endpoint of this
particular struggle, victory or defeat cannot be imagined as the end.
(52:36):
The fight against Copcity is one large battle in an
ongoing war, a war of police militarization, racism, environmental justice,
and against the incestuous neoliberal police state in its leviathan
like formation. Based on what happens here in Atlanta, similar
police project proposals will be recalibrated. As the South goes,
(52:58):
so goes the nation. Capitalist realism posits that history is over,
that it's a literal thing of the past. But it
turns out you're living through it right now, So what
will you do to create it? You can read more
about the fights to stop Coopcity at Atlpresscollective dot com
and donate to the Alanta Solidarity Fund at Atlsolidarity dot org.
(53:23):
See you on the other side, It could Happen Here
as a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts
from cool Zone Media, visit our website coolzonemedia dot com
or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources
for It could happen here, updated monthly at coolzonemedia dot
(53:44):
com slash sources.
Speaker 14 (53:45):
Thanks for listening.
Welcome back to It could Happen Here. I'm Garrison Davis,
and this is the last episode in my trilogy covering
what's been happening this summer in Atlanta to stop Cop City.
Last episode we covered the end of the Week of Action,
the resurgence of nighttime sabotage, and Atlas long Engineering dropping
out of the Cop City project. A relatively new, big
(00:29):
aspect of the movement that I've really only mentioned peripherally
is the Cop City vote referendum. The goal of the
referendum is to let the people of Atlanta vote on
whether to repeal an ordinance authorizing the land lease of
three hundred and eighty one acres of forest into Cab
County that was given to the Atlanta Police Foundation in
twenty twenty one to use the land for the construction
(00:52):
of Cop City. In order to get the referendum on
an upcoming ballot, the petition had to gather sixty thousand
signatures in six days. Every signature must be from an
Atlanta resident who was registered to vote in twenty twenty one,
and initially those who gathered signatures had to also be
Atlanta residents. Sixty thousand signatures in sixty days was a
(01:13):
lofty goal, but volunteers around the city were being increasingly
mobilized during and after the week of action. For the
first few weeks of the referendum, the city stayed mostly quiet,
but then on the July fifth APD press conference, Mayor
Andre Dickens addressed the referendum.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Mayor, some of these protesters and posters of the twenty
Center have biggun connecting signatures in the hope of having
a referendum, putting the November p Mu's your reaction to that?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
What's your comment on that?
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Will you allow them to do what they're doing right
now and possibly have in the referendum?
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Absolutely, the referendum process is one that's legally documented. It's
in the city code, and anybody can attempt to get
the petition going and get the necessary signatures. We asked
they do so with honesty and truth, collect the signatures
from real people, with sharing the truth about what they
are looking to do. And so I don't personally believe
(02:11):
they're going to be successful. I believe that based on
what we know about the citizens of Atlanta, they are
a supportive of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. We
know that this is going to be unsuccessful if it's
done honestly, and so we're making sure that we continue
to monitor the process.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
This statement by the Democrat mayor of Atlanta, I don't
think has been highlighted enough. The mayor is trying to
frame a successful referendum as a fraudulent one. Dickens is
priming propaganda channels and testing the waters for blatant election
fraud stile messaging in the future by very clearly insinuating
(02:48):
that if you win this, that means you're cheating.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
The referendum kept popping up like throughout the Week of
Action without It wasn't tailing up.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Space it was.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
It was never never the focus.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
It was always just like on the sidelines.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, but it was everywhere, Like every I think every
event the referendum was in some way shape or form.
You know, they're like the Home Depot rally and people
walking by they were talking about the referendum and talking
about the Week of Action collecting signatures.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
It did not feel like it was taking space away
from any of the other aspects of the movement. I
think some people were definitely worried about that, Like people
worried that the referendum might act as like a release
out for both the movement and like the people who
are like out of the movement and still like looking
at cop City being like, how can you get involved
in this thing? And you see this like very like
(03:35):
above for electoral strategy of slanning stuff like what if
people's efforts just get funneled into that and they missed
that on the other much more expensive aspects of the movement.
One of the few more referendum focused events during the
Week of Action was a community town hall discussion put
on by the Hip Hop Caucus at the Gathering Spot
on the evening of Friday, June thirtieth. Before the panel discussion,
(04:00):
myself and Matt from the Atlantic Community Press Collective talked
with two members of the Hip Hop Caucus about the
event and their hopes for the referendum. This is Brandy Williams,
an organizer with the Hip Hop Caccus.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
So.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
The Hip Hop Coccus is a national nonpart is a
nonprofit organization that uses hip hop culture to connect people
to the civic and political process. And essentially we do
that in four areas. We do that with I think
one hundred percent climbate and environmental justice, work. We were
founded as a voting and democracy organization out of the
Voter Die movement, so we still do that work under
(04:36):
our respect My Vote platform. We also have our Good
Trouble civil and human rights work. It's our multiissue platform
and we look at it as the justice department for
hip hop, so we do it. We work on everything
from police reform to education and healthcare, and then our
Justice Paid in Full, which is our economic justice platform,
So how do we achieve economic justice. We actually started
(05:00):
our activation, like on the groundwork in La last week
during be et weekend, so we did a similar event
in LA. We're doing this one here and we're planning
to be here in Atlanta and through the referendum and
through the election.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
We also talked with Leonajaha Lone Wolf, an Atlanta resident
and national community organizer. Recently she had been working de
spread awareness across the country about what's been going on
in Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (05:25):
Myself, hip Hop Quark is movement for Black Lives until Freedom,
community movement builders. We all came up with this idea
to create this photo shoot campaign similar to Voter Die
or in anything you know, with these where you have
a nice shirt or a sticker and you're taking and
just being there in solidarity. So we did it during
(05:48):
La BT Awards weekend last weekend. We had a nice
turnout of folks that came. I was in LA for
the Hollywood Climate Summit. I spoke on the panel with
Jane Fonda, so there was a lot of people from
Hollywood that came and said, oh my god, that's what's
happening in Georgia. We have to be if we cannot
sign for on the referendum, but we stand with you
(06:09):
all because what we are also educating people at is
that if Cop City is built, they already having contracts
with police nationally to come here. This will be the
largest police training facility in the United States. I went
to Universal Studios, Hollywood, Universal Studios. Rollercoat says, it's huge,
(06:31):
just nice. It's four hundred acres. That's fifty acres. Lest
will be Cop City. And then you know, and I'm like,
that's an amusement park of nothing but real real gunfire,
real bombs, real real everything. It's not gonna be fake.
It's not amusement park in that way. But this is
(06:54):
their call of duty in real.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Life, and it's in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
Speaker 7 (06:58):
They're not here to protect and serve. They're here to
shoot to kill. And so police from all across this
nation will be coming here to Georgia for this militarized
police training and that's a problem for me. And the
turnout in California showed that that's a problem for them too.
So we had a lot of people that came for that,
(07:19):
and today we're doing the same thing and we're having
a community town hall discussion because I think there's a
lot of people that don't understand why is cop city
because the mayor. I want to meet the mayor's publicists
because the way that this whole thing has been spinned
on his side that no, it would be great for
the EMT and the firefighters, and they're pushing EMT firefighters
(07:43):
more than the police part, but the police part is
a huge part. I think these type of conversations need
to be talked about, and so that's what this community
town hall is all about as well for those that
are kind of wavering neutral, maybe don't know, maybe they
know it a lot, you know, because the number one
thing that we've been like, I was on V one
O three yesterday on the radio station, and I also
(08:05):
have been doing a couple of other media and call ins,
and a lot of people don't understand, like they a
lot of people don't understand, like why is this a
bad thing? You know, you can move it somewhere else,
they say. But even if it's moved somewhere else, I'm
still gonna fight against cop city, you know, just because
I have this hits home for me too. Many of
(08:27):
my friends and family have been murdered by the hands
of radical power hungry, gun happy, trigger happy police officers.
And I feel that there is and then also another
thing too, I there is answers, you know, in regards
to we don't need more police, we need resources. They
(08:47):
shut down our hospital, they shut down the shelters. It's
not like they don't know, right, Like we tell them,
we need more jobs, not just any job, good quality jobs.
We need pristine health, not just affordable healthcare. And then
most importantly, it just are unsheltered friends to see that
(09:07):
they put bulldozers. They this administration, this this city continues.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
To ignore.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Ignore the people. We have the hugest the biggest wealth
gap in the nation. They and they call it Wakanda
the blackest city. But if this is how you treat
us our people, Our people need resources. That's where this
sixty seven million dollars should be going. It should not
be going towards a more police. We don't need more
(09:38):
police because when you go to Cobb County, when you
go over to Alpharetta, they don't have a lot of police.
They don't have a lot of Why would they need
a lot of police because they already got the resources.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
On top of the community town hall discussion, there were
a few other things to do at the event that,
you know, Jaha talked about.
Speaker 7 (09:57):
Stop Cop City photo campaign. One, you come and take
your photo and just showing that you stand in solidarity,
and then most importantly is to get some signatures.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
As well throughout the referendum process. It's been interesting how
many people, even in Atlanta are just now learning about
cop City.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
When did you first hear about cop City?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Honestly earlier this year, And.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Like a lot of the people that I am talking
to now, I was also kind of confused about the issue.
I wasn't really sure why, you know, they were so
opposed until I started learning a little more about what
actually was going to happen. At this training facility, So
(10:48):
the idea of building a mini city with the helicopter
landing pad with a shooting range or a firing range
military grade.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
In a community. So this is not on the outskirts.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
This is in a community, and then in a community
of color, and.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
You're bringing police from around the country in to learn.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
Military tactics, tactics that we use in foreign countries to
protect citizens.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
We should not be thinking about our.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
Citizens, our residents, as people who need to be protected
from themselves.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
If that, if I'm making sense, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So it's sort of like enemy combatants in your own.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
In your on backyard, but you're training them up in
a black community. So I can only imagine that some
of that many cities going to spill over into the communities.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Then you're bringing.
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Police officers from around the country here, so they're taking
that back.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
The specific community where the Atlanta Police Foundation is trying
to build a cop city has already been traumatized by
the violence of the States for hundreds of years now.
This whole area was violently stolen from Muscogee Creek, then
it became a slave plantation, and then part of it
was sold to the city of Atlanta. And then it
became a prison firm. Since then, the land has been
(12:09):
home to two landfills and three detention facilities. This is
the history of just this neighborhood for the last few
hundred years. Now, the carstor of violence inflicted on this land,
it's attempting to be exported, as police will soon come
from around the country and even the world to train
at copp City.
Speaker 6 (12:29):
No one wants it in their community, but you're going
to continue to burden this particular community with the same
thing over and over and over again. The people of
that community for generations have experienced all kinds of harm
at the hands of the people that they supposedly are
electing to represent and protect them from these types of things,
(12:52):
and they're actually the ones doing it to them. You
were elected by people to represent them, and they've told
you for two years, we don't want this.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
You are ignoring their voice.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
On the day of the Hip Hopcoccus Panel, an air
quality alert was issued due to incoming smoke from wildfires
up north in Atlanta. The AQI reached one hundred and
fifty the ocean.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
These fish, these birds, they're screaming at us right now.
What we are doing to Mother Earth right now is
we are from cutting down the trees, fossil fuels, everything,
this is, this is, and especially this being the lungs
of Atlanta. Today, I'm wearing my mask because on my
(13:35):
weather advisory it said it said the air quality is
not good today for sensitive people. And that is just
with the trees, and they keep on cutting down these trees.
I moved here because of the trees. I'm from Arizona,
so I needed trees. That was nothing but desert. But
I moved here because of these trees because I love
(13:58):
the life force that trees give us. Even when we
see a tree, the Earth is talking back to us, saying,
stop doing what you're doing. The dolphins, the orcas, the wells,
they're all migrant. They're like, you're you're the ocean is
hot right now, the so they are. They're yelling at us,
(14:18):
and we're not listening. And and as a native in
my native way, our elders, our chiefs have said that
we plan for seven generations from now. I am a
mother of two sons, and what this administration is doing
and what these corporations are doing, they're not looking at
seven generations from now. They're not looking at how this
(14:41):
is gonna affect us on the long run. And and
and I love the fact of everyone that is standing
firm and saying stop cop City, because we see the vision.
We know what this, this Uchi Marca, this mother Earth
is going to look like seven generations from now. And
we're fighting to our death because the fact that we
want to make sure that our children's children's children's children
(15:05):
could still live here and be in a peaceful, safe
place and environment to live.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Since being elected as the Progressive candidate in twenty twenty one,
there's been an ever growing animosity towards Mayor Dickens from
all of his unfulfilled promises. When talking with you Najaha,
she expressed that she felt disappointed that herself and this
big block of people helped Andre get elected. And now
(15:32):
Mayor Dickens is fully committed to the cop City project
and is even having conversations with other black leaders in
the city to bring them on board and prevent them
from opposing Cop City.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
The mayor is in his position because of the blood,
sweat and tears and arrest and beat ups that we
got during Freedom Summer twenty twenty. He used the social
justice the civil rights organizations and activists voices to get
him in the position that he used them and say,
y'all help me. I'm gonna be there for you all.
(16:06):
And it's all a slap in the face. So I
don't like hypocrisy. And I see I see hypocrites all
throughout this and on the on this administration side, from
the governor all the way down, even when we try
to help our unsheltered friends. In December, when it was
so cold out here, I went on social media. I
(16:28):
raised five thousand dollars in two hours. I went and went,
Me and my friends went and got them all tents, tents,
sleeping bags, everything. The mayor called my comrade. Mayor Andre
called my comrade and was all like, why are you
saying that they don't have no heating stations? And I
set up a heating station. Not everyone wants to go there,
(16:51):
because so is there? Where is your mental health services?
What's the transitioning team that you should have on the
ground to helped transition them. Don't just open up a
temporary heating shelter. Where's a transition team to go and
talk to the people saying, hey, let me walk you
in to go get heated. There was none of that.
(17:11):
You're just expecting people to just go in there or
they knew where.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
It was at.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
So we went to the cab. We went to the cab,
and we also went down to Atlanta. We gave them tents.
The police went down there. The Atlanta Pede went down
there and put holes all in their tents. They slight
They used a knife and put and sliced their tents
open so it wouldn't they couldn't even stay in it. Yes, yes,
(17:36):
while it was still below freezing. This is all under
the administration of Mayor Andre. So no, we can't trust
We can't trust them.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Do you feel betrayed by Andre?
Speaker 7 (17:48):
Yes, because I voted for him. I voted for him.
I voted for him because I think I voted for
him like every other person voted for vote for someone.
Is that their care is They talk an amazing game.
And on top of it, my friends that were close
with him voted for him. My friends in the movement activists,
(18:13):
people that I look up to from as mentorship. They said, man, Andre,
he's gonna have fund a lot of the things that
we're doing.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Leonajaha spoke about how Mayor Dickens worked to build mutually
beneficial relationships between the city and non governmental quote unquote
progressive organizations. So while some NGOs have received money from
the city, now many of these big quote unquote civil
rights orgs are scared of jeopardizing potential funding and are
(18:43):
now currently refusing to speak out against cop City.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
Yeah. When I talk so the same people that have
spoken to Andre are the same people. I'm like, why
don't you involved, you know, And they're just like, I
think it's gonna be built, and at least I'm at
the table. A lot of them think that way. They
was like, I was there at the beginning fighting, I
had to sit down with the mayor. I believe this
(19:07):
is gonna be built. So since this is gonna be built,
let me figure out at least I'm at the table
in the community and there's community engagement. At least there's
some type of bridging happening. That's their angle. Anyone that
said black Lives Matter was on the front line with
us in twenty twenty, that is that was horrified by
the videos that they saw. This we are at prime time.
(19:30):
This is the eficenter of police terrorism being built. This
is it, This is this is it. This is not
each individual. We're trying to prevent more families, because if
they build this, it's gonna be a lot more families
that's gonna be crying and saying, they killed my baby.
(19:51):
So we're at the epicenter of a cop city and
you are silent. You're silent, but you was there for
the families. You was there posting black lives matter. You
was there saying stop police terrorism. But they're building a
they're building a terrorist headquarters, and you don't have nothing
(20:14):
to say. You're a hypocrite. You're a hypocrite, period, point blank.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Brandy also talked about the hypocrisy of pushing forward cup
City after the George Floyd uprising in twenty twenty.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
You know, three years ago, just in May, all these
companies were sending out these emails saying that black lives matter.
After George Floyd. They were pouring money into the community
to show their support for black lives. But some of
those same communities Home Depot, Coca Cola, Delta Airlines, waffle House.
You guys are I'm sure sent those emails out, and
(20:50):
now you're putting money into something that does not respect
black lives. So I think there's just this huge contradiction
in who these companies say they are how they're showing up.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Part of the growing propaganda battle over cop City is
an attempt to frame this state of the arched militarized
police training facility as a quote unquote public safety training center,
embodying the call for police reform that liberals protested for
in twenty twenty. Not only does this erase the abolitionist
corps of the twenty twenty uprising, but it also obfuscates
(21:25):
the fact that cop City is indeed a direct response
to twenty twenty, not in terms of police reform, but
in the aftermath of the neoliberal police state being under
genuine threat. Corporate America and police have made this pact
to maintain each other's legitimacy, as one cannot survive without
the other. Cop City is to ensure that what happened
(21:48):
in twenty twenty will never happen again. After the clear
cutting of around eighty acres to the Wahlani Forest, there's
been more of a focus on the stop cop City
(22:09):
wing of the movement than defend the forest. Sure, there
are still three hundred acres to defend and eighty acres
to restore, But as construction is getting more imminent, the
specific cop city focus has taken center stage in messaging.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
When it was initially talked about, it was all about
the environment.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
They're tearing down the.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Forest and as marginalized poor people. If I am hearing that,
I'm not seeing it as important. I'm trying to figure
out how much pay my rent, how much my kids,
how i'm i pay my bills, how I'm getting to
and from work, and so those things I think made
it difficult to break into the household of people who
(22:54):
really need to be paying attention, and I would dare
to say even the people in the community. I watched
some of the testimony from the city council meeting several
weeks ago. In the the state representative that spoke first
talked about how the church right next door to the
facility didn't even know what was happening next door to them.
(23:16):
So for the city of Atlanta to say, oh, we've
done outreach people in the community, no, that's not true, right,
But part of that is the way that the narrative
has started. And I think they were like, Okay, that
ain't got nothing to do with me. And then also
the fact that the faces that they saw on TV,
it was they're thinking, this is a white led, white organization,
(23:37):
white problem.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
It's not our problem. So they haven't engaged.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
So I think those are all things that we have
to consider that and let people know this is a
diverse problem.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
It impacts everybody.
Speaker 6 (23:47):
It's going to impact people of color and poor and
marginalized communities more than anybody else, just because of the
nature of how policing is done in America and so
and the and.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
The problems that we still have with that. So our
program is from.
Speaker 6 (24:02):
Red Dogs to cop City, the Dirty South history of
over policing Atlanta. So helping them understand how this is
just new iteration of what's been happening. So the Red
Dog Unit was at some call it a gang within
Atlanta PD for many years. It was disbanded in twenty eleven,
(24:23):
but they were terrorizing low poor communities of color, and
so cop City in the way that they're thinking about
training these officers would be just a new iteration of that.
So helping them understand that just because we have come
far with the civil rights, with our civil rights and
(24:46):
I'm not even talking specifically about the sixties movement, but
civil rights for people of color, women, LGBTQIA plus communities.
Just because we've come far doesn't mean it can't go back.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Atlanta's Red Dogs inspired the Scorpion Unit in Memphis that
killed Tyree Nichols this past January, and the current iteration
of the Red Dogs in Atlanta is the Apex Unit,
who have been very active in suppressing stop Cop City protests.
I'm going to play three brief clips from the panel discussion.
(25:19):
The first is from Mariah Parker, a local activist and
former Georgia County commissioner.
Speaker 8 (25:25):
This is a war on the Uprising of twenty twenty.
Speaker 9 (25:28):
Okay, this is in the aftermath of the largest uprisings.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
In North America.
Speaker 9 (25:35):
The Atlanta Police Foundation, who is the main driver and
the main funder and actually the owner of Cross City.
I keep forgetting the fact that this is not actually
going to go bust. The Limp Police Foundation trying to
rehab certain their control over black communities at a time
when people are starting to understand that communities are made
(25:56):
safe for bi bordable housing and healthcare, child.
Speaker 8 (25:59):
Care and edger.
Speaker 9 (26:01):
And where their supremacy in the public safety apparatus.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Has been challenged.
Speaker 8 (26:09):
Their dominance has been challenged, and so in response to
that uprising, they seized hold of the narrative that more
police training, more diversity in our officers would be the
magic key to heal all the wounds in our communities
(26:31):
and to actually deliver.
Speaker 9 (26:34):
A style of police thing that serves some people. And
so with that they were able to make arguments that
cop city would be the answer to right allegedly rising
crime rates, heal at these divides, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
At the end of the day, they it's.
Speaker 9 (26:55):
Like it's a form of counterinsurgency. The people rose up,
and so this is the police right for that one
response to reassert their dominance.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Next is kJ Henson, an Atlanta local and organizer with
Black Men Build and Blackmail Initiative Georgia.
Speaker 10 (27:11):
We're clear that the police are not our protectors.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
Right.
Speaker 11 (27:17):
We suffer at the hands of the system on a
daily basis.
Speaker 10 (27:22):
Right, the system was built upon our backs, literally, So.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
We see that we've been discarded, we've been.
Speaker 10 (27:32):
Abused by the system. And that's the point. It's not
that we're disengaged because we don't care. We're disengaged because
we do care.
Speaker 7 (27:41):
Right, every election.
Speaker 10 (27:42):
Cycle it's black voters to the rescue. We're the folks
that are most impacted by the decisions of the same
elected officials that beg us to put them in position.
We suffer because these people will come to us and
beg for votes, for canvassers, for money, and.
Speaker 11 (28:02):
They turn around and they sell us out the first
chance they need.
Speaker 10 (28:06):
So it's we're dis engaged of a matter of I
can't get what I need from these people that say.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
That they're for me.
Speaker 7 (28:16):
Right, the very means of the people.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Are at risk.
Speaker 10 (28:19):
Cop city threatens are very right to protest. Right cop
city threats, the right.
Speaker 11 (28:24):
For us to stand in the street and use our
voice as a means of building collective.
Speaker 10 (28:32):
Power as a vehicle for making societal change. You can
come a domestic terrorist, you get jail without bed, without God,
you won't have a coordinate. I've been there myself, not
for infestic terrorism.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
We've just been from coordination.
Speaker 10 (28:46):
So we're seeing the rise of fascism in a very
real way, like in the realistic ways cop City, Like
you said, it is ground zero for what would become
a very popular trend, not this in America, but.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Across the world.
Speaker 10 (29:02):
Right, So it's on us to make sure that we
do everything that's.
Speaker 7 (29:06):
In our power to make sure that this.
Speaker 8 (29:07):
Day is stop.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Cop City is.
Speaker 11 (29:11):
Given police the training and the ability to have urban
warfare and suppression tactics at their will to be used
against the people.
Speaker 10 (29:23):
Urban warfare and suppression not like they not unlike what
we see in other countries, in other cities with organized
resistance everywhere.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Lastly, we have Reverend Keana Jones, member of the Faith
Coalition to Stop Cop City, whom we've heard from on
this show before.
Speaker 12 (29:43):
I want every Black Atlanta to think about what you
don't have.
Speaker 13 (29:46):
If you don't have affordable housing, it's because they put
the money in.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
The cop CIT.
Speaker 14 (29:51):
If you can't pay.
Speaker 12 (29:52):
Your life bill, it's because that assistance got given back
to the federal government.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
What they're paying for cop CIT.
Speaker 12 (29:58):
If there are no policing alternatives and no urgent initiatives
in your community, is that they've given the money and
hop sick.
Speaker 14 (30:05):
If you fell into that pot hole on Passilion, it's because.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
They give it the money to pop C.
Speaker 14 (30:12):
If you can't walk out of your door and brief
clean air, it's because they rather get it to top C.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
So Andrea Hickins.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Does not care about black people.
Speaker 13 (30:23):
I'm gonna do a Kanye West right now, but I'm saying,
ire Giggings don't care about black people. And Andrea Nickens
ain't no different than nobody else, and some of those
other consul people out there who have no soul called
legacy names ain't doing.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Nothing for black people. So, once again, what is Andre
Niggins doing for you? If he is willing to take police.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
And make sure that they got slot takes to roll
around in they walking around the ars in your neighborhood,
your children walking out the house to hearing gunshots constantly,
what do Andre Niggins care about you?
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Does his children hear that?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Okay, it is important to mention the venue that that
this was that this panel took place in, because this
is like a very much like a it feels it
feels like a Black Excellence type of like space. It's
like that is the space that it is. It's it is,
it is a private club. It holds like an amount
(31:21):
of like respect.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
There cultural significance.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
And on this panel at the gathering spot, the panelists
were We're talking about how why why is the mayor
who meant many of these people helped get elected because
he had promises about, you know, helping out the community,
giving millions of dollars to affordable housing. Why is he
using now like sixty seventy million dollars that could go
to affordable housing, that could go towards supporting black people
(31:47):
in Atlanta? Is funneling all of that money into the
police and and into not even like the police department,
a private police foundation, like funding funding the APFS project,
not a city project. I think it was Keana who
said that Andre Dickens does not care about black people. Yeah,
and having that be said at the gathering spot, I
think actually is very important and is worth talking about.
(32:11):
As the referendum was progressing, and people from across all
sides of the movement, we're working in conjunction just spread
awareness of Copcity and engage in action. The mayor was
making attempts to divide the movement.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Criminals are hiding in the middle of peaceful protests and
sometimes they are doing their own separate acts of violence.
Some of them are career arsonists and vandals from across
the nation. Local activists have been alerted to this numerous times.
(32:44):
These are the actions of blatantly outrageous, dangerous and violent criminals.
How are arsonists, vandals, violent actors able to be alongside
peaceful protesters. You have individuals that will burn up construction equipment,
light a fire to police vehicles, and then have a
(33:08):
bouncy house party the next day with peaceful protesters at
a park. So they will go to a park by day,
and then by night they're burning up police equipment or
setting fires or trying to destroy construction equipment. So these
individuals are trying to use the guys of peaceful protests
(33:29):
that maybe some local Atlantans may actually be engaged in
a desired conversation about their views on public safety. But
these individuals have different views than those folks. These individuals
are anarchists. They want to destroy. So these individuals are
alongside these arsonists, these criminals are alongside peaceful protesters, and
(33:49):
sometimes the peaceful protesters are aware of it, and sometimes
they are not. We have made it clear to local
activists that we know and individuals that tend to be peaceful.
We're letting them know that we are aware that there
are individuals that are in our city that have committed
crimes across the nation, and that they are on your
(34:10):
social media or in your network saying they're coming to
your event to do the same.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Mayor Dickens went further and essentially threatened that if you
are a so called activist and you don't snitch, then
the APD will treat you the same as a violent criminal.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
So when we give you that heads up as a
local organizer, you should take that heads up and also
see something, say something, as we're asking any other citizen
to do. When peaceful protesters, when organizers are not utilizing
their best judgment, then bad things can happen with them
being alongside them, and it makes it real tough for
(34:46):
APD to know who was the one with the dirty hands,
so to speak. And so that's what the message that
we want to get out to the public is that
these individuals mean harm and you don't want to be
around them or associated with them. When you are, it
makes it difficult to tell who.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
The city wants. The various wings of the fight to
stop cop City to turn on each other, to resent
each other, to so distrust and undermine any collective power.
That's why the referendum's Statement of solidarity explicitly rejecting respectability
politics and the framing of violent and nonviolent resistance was
(35:22):
so important. An online communicate claiming responsibility for torching police
motorcycles on the last day of the Week of action
addressed this dynamic quote. We took action after non combative
demonstrations at Cadence Bank and Home Depot. The police attacked
those demonstrations with no cause, as they do wherever and
(35:44):
however the movement gathers. There can be no separation of
time and space for tactics when police have turned society
into a war zone. Despite this, we dispersed our activity
as much as possible across their area of control. We
encourage those who are pursuing a strategy of referendum to
(36:04):
continue supporting all methods to stop cop City. If you
defy the state's unilateral authority in any way, you will
be seen as a valid target. As demonstrated throughout the
history of this movement, including during this last Week of action,
police will treat you like a violent criminal, whether you're
(36:25):
holding a sign in a parking lot, bailing activists out
of jail, or smashing a cop car. On July sixth,
a group of activists in unincorporated Decab County, near the
(36:47):
potential site of Cop City filed a lawsuit against the
City of Atlanta and the State of Georgia, claiming the
requirement that signature gatherers must themselves be Atlanta residents violated
their First Amendment right to free speech and petition the government.
Due to the potential constitutional violation, the lawsuit also requested
the court reset the sixty day clock for gathering signatures
(37:10):
while still counting the signatures that were already gathered. In
mid July, the City of Atlanta filed a reply in
federal court arguing that the cop city referendum was wholly
invalid since it seeks to provoke a land lease that
has already been signed. The filing reads, in part, quote,
(37:31):
repeal of a year's old ordinance cannot retroactively revoke authorization
to do something that has already been done. But if
the referendum could claim to result in a revocation or
cancelation of the lease, it would still be invalid because
it would amount to an impermissible impairment of that contract unquote.
The city also argued that if the court does deem
(37:52):
the Atlanta residency requirement for gathering signatures unconstitutional, then the
entire referendum should be deemed unlaw. A rebuttal by the
plaintiffs said that the city did not provide factual or
legal evidence for its claims and misread the cited precedence.
According to the plaintiffs, the land lease contract is ongoing,
(38:14):
not an irreversible quote unquote one time event, and since
the city authorized and issued the petition form, they skipped
their chance to argue that the referendum is somehow invalid
by already approving the language of the petition and letting
the referendum process begin. Near the end of July, US
(38:34):
District Court Judge Mark Cohen ruled in favor of the
cop city referendum, allowing non Atlanta residents to collect signatures
and reset the sixty day clock to collect the roughly
sixty thousand signatures needed to put the land lease on
the ballot. In his ruling, Judge Mark Cohen said, quote
requiring signature gatherers to be residents of the city imposes
(38:57):
a severe burden on core political speech and does little
to protect the city's interest in self governance unquote. Mary Hooks,
the tactical lead of the referendum coalition, reacted to the ruling, saying, quote,
we are thrilled by Judge Cohen's ruling and the expansion
of democracy to include our cab neighbors and level the
playing field for our coalition unquote. The city quickly filed
(39:21):
for an appeal, which was subsequently denied on August fourteenth,
with the judge stating quote, the city's real concern may
be that now that non residents have the ability to
gather signatures on the petition for the entire time that
they would have been permitted to do so had their
initial request been granted, there is an increased possibility that
a sufficient number of valid signatures could be obtained unquote.
(39:44):
As liberals cheered on the Fulton County District Attorney in
Atlanta for indicting Trump and co conspirators for election tampering
under reco charges, the same exact sort of charges that
this office has used against young black rappers and have
been wielded against the Stop Cop City movement, the City
of Atlanta's own election interference by repressing the referendum has
(40:07):
been largely ignored. Fulton County court set Trump's bond for
two hundred thousand dollars for attempting to overthrow a federal election.
The same court set bond at three hundred and fifty
five thousand dollars each for multiple protesters arrested for being
merely present at a protest. After Georgia State Patrol killed
(40:28):
force defender Torteguita in January of this year, during all
of the glowing press for District Attorney Fannie Willis and
the City of Atlanta, it was revealed that on August eleventh,
the Atlanta Police Department killed a sixty two year old,
unarmed black man named Johnny Holman while responding to a
(40:48):
minor traffic accident. Both Holman and the unnamed second driver
called nine one one after the accident. Holman told nine
one operators quote, somebody ran into truck after waiting for
over an hour for police to arrive. Twenty three year
old officer Kiaran Kimbro responded to the scene. Kimbro joined
(41:10):
APD in March of twenty twenty one and currently as
an open complaint for quote sexual misconduct non criminal unquote.
Johnny Holman, who served as a deacon in his church,
called his kids to listen to how the officer was
escalating the situation, and then an unknown witness helped this
APD officer wrestle sixty two year old Johnny Holman to
(41:34):
the ground and put him in handcuffs as the officer
used his taser. To quote the Atlantic Community Press Collective quote,
the children listened for seventeen minutes as they drove to
the scene of the accident, hearing their father call for
help after officer kimbro tased him. When they arrived on scene,
they found officers giving chrest compressions to their father. Unquote.
(41:57):
Johnny Holman was then pronounced dead at Grady Hospital. A
week after APD killed Holman, Another person incarcerated at Fulton
County Jail died while being held on five thousand dollars
bond after being denied signature bond for shoplifting less than
five hundred dollars of goods. The City of Atlanta's own
(42:20):
alleged voter suppression has continued. Initially, the cop City vote
referendum hoped to not have to use the extra day
is granted by the judge and submit the collected signatures
on August twenty first, with the intention of getting them
verified in time to put the cop City vote on
the upcoming November ballot. Come Monday, August twenty first, the
(42:42):
referendum put out a statement that, despite collecting over one
hundred thousand signatures, that they are delaying submitting the petition
due to concerns that the city was going to employ
voter suppression tactics during the validation process. The statement reads,
in part quote, In recent days, we began to hear
from reporters and sources inside city Hall that the City
(43:03):
of Atlanta is planning to argue for a higher than
previously reported legal minimum signature count for ballot access. More
concerning were reports that they also planned to utilize signature
match in their verification process, an archaic and widely abandoned
tool of voter suppression that has been widely condemned across
the political spectrum, including by the Republican controlled Georgia State legislator.
(43:29):
Signature matching is a subjective form of a vote validation
which uses election workers to visually match signatures on a
ballot or in this case, of petition, to a previous
signature on their driver's license or voter registration card. Hours
after the referendum's statement, the City of Atlanta officially announced
their intention to use his signature matching for the cop
(43:51):
city vote referendum. Back in twenty eighteen, a federal judge
in Georgia ruled that signature matching did not serve any
legitimate in interest and disenfranchised black and brown voters disproportionately.
For years, the ACLU has advocated against and won multiple
court cases against discriminatory signature matching processes. Fair Fight Action,
(44:14):
a Georgia based voting rights organization founded by Stacy Abrams,
responded to the news Atlanta would be using signature matching
with a statement saying quote signature matching is a tool
of voter suppression that litigated extensively in Georgia and removed
from the mail in ballot process because of its harm
to voters resulting in mass disenfranchisement. Using the discredited process
(44:38):
of signature matching is unacceptable and risks unfairly rejecting thousands
of valid petitions. Signature verification is notoriously subjective, disproportionately impacts
voters of color, and as biased against disabled and elderly voters.
There is extensive precedent in Georgia showing the harms of
this process. It must be relegated to them. Past Fair
(45:01):
Fight calls on the city of Atlanta to rescind their
intent to use this process and to enact steps that
fairly evaluate these petitions unquote. Facing the City of Atlanta's
quote open and ongoing hostility to the cop city vote referendum,
the coalition has decided to use the time extension granted
(45:21):
by federal Judge Mark Cohen to continue collecting signatures to
quote leave no doubt as to the will of Atlanta
voters unquote. They now plan to submit petition signatures on
September twenty third. The City Council will then have fifty
days to validate the signatures, which means that if successful,
and assuming the city doesn't further interfere, the referendum would
(45:44):
get put on the ballot during the March primary election
in twenty twenty four. The vote being pushed into March
adds a few complications. Turnout may skew more Republican as
it's unlikely there will be a Democratic presidential primary, and
the vote being seven months away disrupts the momentum that
the campaign has been gaining over the past couple of months.
(46:08):
People who signed the petition back in June would have
to wait almost a whole year to vote on the ballot.
The few extra months does give more time to educate
the public about cop City during a lead up to
the election, but that goes both ways, which means that
after two years of this movement mostly taking form as
a ground war over territory, now for the time being,
(46:31):
much of the fight to stop Cop City will change
into a pr war in the public sphere. This shift
from a physical offense to a metaphysical offense was something
that I already felt coming back during the Week of
Action in terms of like cameras and spectacle the other
The big feeling I had on the Saturday kickoff rally
(46:53):
was like this just feels like society of the spectacle,
Like there's.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Such a performance.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
It was very performative, but it was like almost like
with all of the cameras looking at everything all the time,
it was like, are people trying to make a proximately
of this movement for the cameras? Like is that has
become almost more important? Or like it felt that way.
This is a conversation that people have like is it
worth creating moments where we expect the police to lash
(47:23):
out violently? Like is that effective as a propaganda tactic? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (47:27):
And that if comes with losing while looking good.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
It does. Yeah, that is like, that is losing while
looking good. But also I don't think that's nearly as
effective as people think it is. I think after twenty twenty,
I think people are kind of desensitized to a lot
of police violence at protests. The visual the visuals of
police hurting protesters, I don't think is nearly as impactful
as it was even three years ago. So I think
(47:54):
people are also realizing that and realizing that, hey, the
sacrifice inherent in up actions where you know that you're
probably going to get sucked up by police, that's not
worth it. That that one, it treats people as like tools.
That treats people as disposable, which is, you know, that's
not great if you want to build a long lasting movement,
(48:15):
And that's not even very effective. As the public relations
battle over the fate of cop City intensifies in the
lead up to the vote, with the City of Atlanta
undoubtedly ready to run a full election propaganda campaign, strategies
of resistance cannot overlook the physical construction of the facility.
Pre construction has been active and ongoing for a few
(48:37):
months now, mostly in the form of tree clearing and
land grading. Just a few days ago, the Atlanta Police
Foundation updated their construction timeline, saying that they had just
began installing a stone base for the main roadway, that
irrigation and site lighting is now underway, and full lawn
construction is set to quote begin in the next week
(48:59):
or or soot that now may be out of date,
but based on the progress being made on the site,
it's clear that construction is now imminent and with the
threat of the referendum, the APF will try to get
as much built as quickly as possible to help with
the pro copcity side of election messaging. One of the
(49:21):
original goals of the referendum was to try to place
an injunction on further construction until the ballot vote, but
it's unknown if or when that would happen. In the meantime,
activists may take a cue from Earth First, and instead
of trying to occupy the site, instead they might find
creative ways to make the construction site hard to work on. Also,
(49:43):
with the increased element of spectacle placing a lot of
extra eyes on pre announced public demonstrations, more secretive actions
may start becoming more common. There's other actions that can
happen more covertly, like if you're doing sabotage where you
don't need to invite a camera crew to film you
do crimes.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Why is move not?
Speaker 7 (50:02):
Why is?
Speaker 1 (50:04):
But no, it's also as a rule like why That's
the other thing is like so many of these events
during during these weeks of action are pre planned that
not only gives media heads up on like we're gonna
film this, and this is also gonna that's gonna change
the actions that happen while this is happening because everyone
knows they're being launched, it also gives police heads.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Up to to shut down the paths you're in chreudgment career.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
So that I think that comes with the week of
Action format because if people people coming in from out
of town, they don't know where to go, if they're
not already tied in with the movement, they don't know
what what what exactly to do. So that's that's another
thing that thinks could change during future actions that may
not be part of the Week of Action is more covert,
less less pre planned, pre announced actions that are maybe
(50:47):
uh maybe a little bit more mischievous. In their recent
statement on voter suppression, the referendum, also announced, quote the
coalition will consider using upcoming opportunities for non violent direct
actions to direct the people's frustration with the city council's
obstruction of the democratic process unquote. Camal Franklin of Community
(51:07):
Movement Builders added quote, if the city needs to see
a demonstration of the people's commitment to the issue, we're
happy to provide one. Unquote. Police intentionally denying anarchists operating
space by occupying the Wolani themselves may shift the more
liberal side of the movement to now focus on rallies
and events around the construction site, which could also inadvertently
(51:31):
draw eyeballs away and open up other territory across the
city that might be more vulnerable to attack by small
groups to quote. The direct action communicate claiming responsibility for
torching the police motorcade on July first. Quote. While signatures
are collected, the police are still killing. We cannot wait.
(51:52):
If the referendum fails, actions like ours and Boulder will
be the only means available. Unquote. With construction imminent, subcontractor
tensions increasing, and the City of Atlanta gambling with voter
suppression right now, the movement really cannot afford to alienate
the Green anarchists that pioneered the early legitimacy of this movement.
(52:15):
With bold direct action, the Atlanta Police Foundation is trying
to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. What
happens in the next few months may push Atlanta to
a dangerous tipping point. No matter the endpoint of this
particular struggle, victory or defeat cannot be imagined as the end.
(52:36):
The fight against Copcity is one large battle in an
ongoing war, a war of police militarization, racism, environmental justice,
and against the incestuous neoliberal police state in its leviathan
like formation. Based on what happens here in Atlanta, similar
police project proposals will be recalibrated. As the South goes,
(52:58):
so goes the nation. Capitalist realism posits that history is over,
that it's a literal thing of the past. But it
turns out you're living through it right now, So what
will you do to create it? You can read more
about the fights to stop Coopcity at Atlpresscollective dot com
and donate to the Alanta Solidarity Fund at Atlsolidarity dot org.
(53:23):
See you on the other side, It could Happen Here
as a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts
from cool Zone Media, visit our website coolzonemedia dot com
or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources
for It could happen here, updated monthly at coolzonemedia dot
(53:44):
com slash sources.
Speaker 14 (53:45):
Thanks for listening.
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James Stout
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