February 15, 2023 • 57 mins
Police and politicians continue to intensify repression against the movement with domestic terrorism charges and unprecedented high bail costs. Meanwhile, a protest in downtown Atlanta ends with a police car in flames.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
The few days leading up to Saturday, January twenty first
felt like the calm before the storm. Nobody knew exactly
what was going to happen at the weekend protest in
downtown Atlanta, but there was a sense that something would.
Shortly after the Wednesday shooting, a flyer went out calling
for a gathering at Underground Atlanta on Saturday, January twenty first,
(00:45):
and to wear black clothes in morning. This is it
could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis, and I arrived at
Underground Atlanta just a bit before five pm. The crowd
was still slowly grown, and a bunch of big news
cameras were filling up the central area. As more people
filtered in, some who knew Tort went up in front
(01:08):
of everyone to share memories of Torti Ghita and talk
about the continuing fight to defend the forest.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Obviously, we're all here because Tort was an amazing person
and their life meant a lot. But Tort also shared
something in common with all of us, and that was
the values and things that they were fighting for, and
all of us are fighting for a great content. We
all have it in common, but it makes us all targets.
They will always target us because they don't believe in
(01:35):
the things that we believe in, and they will always
be after us. And we all have to stand here
and stay together and stay resilient, to fight for what
we believe in, and never let Towort's memory go without honor.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
If they would kill an innocent person like Torque, someone
who loved their community, they will stop to kill us.
They won't stop to kill everyone in that forest. They
won't stop to kill anyone who defies them. And that
is pretty much all I had to say.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
A few people from the Atlanta Resistance Medics, a local
street medical group dedicated to the liberation of medicine and
providing medical resources for underprivileged and marginalized people, spoke about
Torti Ghita, who was a member of their collective.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
If there's one thing that we want people to remember
Tourt for, it's if they were somebody who protected the
people around them, who went through the training along with
the rest of us, to be able to provide medical
resources to the people that were around them. They may
not have access to those no matter what else the
news says about tort they were a protector. Everything they
(02:53):
did was out of love. Everything they did was out
of hope for a better world. And I don't care
what the police say. I don't care what the media says.
I don't care what anybody says. Torpe was out here
working for a better world. They may want to smear
them as an extremist, they were not. They were out
(03:14):
here protecting their fellow people. And that's what we want
everybody to remember about them. Just say they were out
here trying to build a better world, no matter what
anybody else says.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
All right, I'd love y'all to repeat after me, Art Doug.
La lu Ja siege, La lu Ja Siege is a
(03:52):
medic in our collective. They were a forest defender. They
were a friend, They were funny kind Sarta Vida was
constantly thinking of others. They were constantly trying to protect
other people, trying to protect the forest, trying to protect
everyone who was marginalized. They centered voices on them who
(04:17):
are on the margins and brought them into the center.
They recognized that our struggles are interconnected. They recognized that
cop City will never be built. They died defending that forest.
The memory Oftito that I keep returning to is after
the police destroyed the gazebo at Leilani People's Park in
(04:41):
the parking lot. They were at a meeting and they said, yeah,
so the cops think they can destroy our morale, they can't. Yeah.
Tartuita was one of the most resilient, strongest people. Well
I know, they hugged everyone. They were so kind and
(05:06):
so giving, and even as the state tries to assassinate
their character in addition to their body, they were a
freedom fighter. They were a person that I am honored
to have known that I am honored to have called
a friend.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
About four hundred people eventually gathered around Underground Atlanta. It
seemed like slightly more people than we're at the vigil
the previous night.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
Everything in modern life serves to atomize you, to make
you feel like you were an individual, divorce from any
sense of collective identity, divorced from any sense that you
have a purpose and that there is good in the world.
The fact that you're here means that you're fighting against that.
Don't let go of that. That is powerful. And that's
(05:53):
why cop City isn't going to be built, is because
we have love for ourselves and for the people around us.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
All right, So I'm sure all of you are fairly
upset about this. I am Tort was a friend of mine.
They were a friend of the community. Their death, their
death will not be in.
Speaker 8 (06:15):
Vain, fucking top city fuck at all.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
By five point thirty, about half the crowd gathered at
Underground Atlanta were in Black Bloc and the rest were
a variety of activists, organizers, and random people who decided
that it was important to be at this event. After
some speeches, chants, and stories of Tort, the gathering of
people turned into a march and took to the streets.
(06:43):
March is starting just left Underground Atlanta. Around three hundred
people maybe maybe more, are marching down the street. There's
mix of people in block. There's medics here, people it's
kind of in regular clothes, holding signs. There's a banner
(07:04):
in the front that reads they can't kill us All.
Firework banner at the front that says trees give life,
police take it. After just a minute of marching down
(07:27):
one street, the crowd suddenly stopped. Looks like the marshes
turning around going to the other side.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Stop stop doges.
Speaker 9 (07:38):
Some more small.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Fireworks betting launched in the sky. Banners getting moved to
the front. It looks like the mark is now heading
north into downtown. Organizers from the Party for Socialism and
Liberation attempted to take control of the march and lead
(08:01):
the group south in the direction of the State Capitol
Building or possibly looping around to the CNN Center, but
autonomous activists in the crowd turned the march around and
the group four hundred strong headed north. It sounds like
the PSL people who were gathered at the underground tried
tried to lead the march in one direction and everyone
(08:24):
was like, no, we don't want to go that way.
The ps AND people are gonna lead everyone into like
the Federal Building section of downtown going south, and very
quickly they turned around. Well, other other people turned around.
It was like, no, we're not going that way. They're
(08:53):
taking a ride down Peachtree heading heading north into down town.
Right beside the Coca Cola sign on Marietta. The march
entered the Commercial District, a section of the city completely
gutted out by years of the Atlanta Way neoliberal policies
(09:15):
that we talked about in the Defend the Forest episodes
from last May. The area is populated almost exclusively by
business people, university students, and unhoused citizens, and was a
common sight for Atlanta's twenty twenty BLM protests. Now that
the march is moving, it's easier to see everyone.
Speaker 9 (09:33):
In black, all of all, all the people in bloc.
It's looking more just like a.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Large, large, massive people in bloc now have not seen
much police presence downtown yet because that's just a few
few patrol cars.
Speaker 9 (09:54):
It's really unclear.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
How Atlanta Police argus is going to respond to this.
Got some flares, a lot more of those smoke fireworks
or smoke grenade things. It's not a grain, it's like.
Speaker 9 (10:09):
A cardboard tube shooting smoke out.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The block continued to travel north Road. Flares and fireworks
lit the path in the darkening evening. Graffiti quickly sprung
up on walls with phrases like rip little turtle and
stop cop city the march. The march is now approaching
an Atlanta police vehicle who's trying to back up the
(10:35):
cop does not one of the cop cop car is right
in the middle of where the march is gonna go.
They're like less than one hundred feet away, Just one
single cop car that happens to be in the path
they are. They are trying to back out of the street.
The march has the trees give life, Please take it banner.
There's a big cardboard cutout of a tree right behind it.
(11:00):
Police have their lights turned on. Now looks like the
cop cars turning around. Yeah, and the cop car is
leaving rather quickly. The sun was just starting to set
(11:28):
as the block arrived at the main goal of the night,
the Atlanta Police Foundation Headquarters at one nine to one
Peachtree Street.
Speaker 9 (11:36):
They've stopped in front of.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters.
Speaker 9 (11:44):
People are thrown throwing stuff at the windows and doors.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Broken windows at the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters.
Speaker 9 (11:55):
The people funding cop City firework thrown.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Umbrellas moved in to block local news cameras as windows shattered.
Rocks emerged from backpacks and smashed into the front of
the building. Hammers met the glass entrance as fireworks lit
up the scene. Another fire, another firework at the a
lot of Police Foundation. The march is tightening up a
(12:32):
decent bit. March is definitely tightening up. A lot of
people just in block now. Shouts of bee water kept
the mass moving forward as bank windows received a similar
pelting of rocks and hammers, people chanting to move like water.
(12:55):
I feel a lot of police cars right beside the march.
I'm guessing they're going to pull in in front of
pull in behind the march. Two police cars right there.
People hitting Chase Bank. Another stuff being dragged into the
street for like a top two barricade. Chase Bank's head
(13:17):
of Regional Investment Banking, John Richard, serves on the board
of the Atlanta Police Foundation. Police officers exited the two
cop cars that were trailing the march and quickly ran
away from the crowd, leaving their vehicles abandoned. Corker's trying
to keep track of where the police are in relation
to the march. Looks I got some cars pulling up
(13:38):
behind the police car pulled up behind the march. Scott
their windows broken, fireworks.
Speaker 9 (13:48):
From under another firework.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Another Atlanta Please vehicle had their windows smashed.
Speaker 9 (14:01):
So there's two.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
The two that was behind the march, the two Atlanta
Police officer cars that were behind the march.
Speaker 9 (14:08):
This got hit.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Wells Fargo, one of the main cop city funders, received
special love and attention from the block. The Atlanta Area
president for Wells Fargo. Mitch Grahl is also on the
board of trustees for the Atlanta Police Foundation. A few
other banks hit around this area. Wells Fargo one of
(14:31):
the contributors to the Atlanta Police Foundations, one of their
big funders and backers. A lot of the media here
very very thirsty to get to get stuff of, you know,
put into people breaking windows and shit. It was kind
of surprising that the crowd made it this far without
any real police response. Time almost stretches during these brief
(14:55):
moments of uprising. About seven minutes after the first window shattered,
Atlanta police finally arrived and made their move.
Speaker 9 (15:04):
Police are in front of in front of the march.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Now please in front of the rough march. People might
be turning around. They want to do a full like
water type thing.
Speaker 9 (15:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Multiple cop cars are approaching the march from the front.
Unclear what the crowd is gonna do. Well, Atlanta p
D is now now approaching the march.
Speaker 9 (15:36):
They're getting closer.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
They're going after one of the banners, dragging somebody down,
pulling someone to the ground. They're chasing people. One person's
being arrested. M march is splitting in two different directions.
(16:03):
Officers started randomly tackling and arresting anyone they could get
their hands on. More police arrived from the south and
chased it down a small section of the march that
branched off. Atlanta police coming from behind as well, so
they got Alanta police from both sides. Not many officers though,
just a few officers. Looks like the majority of the march.
Speaker 10 (16:26):
With out street direcree chan movie dispersed, disperse, get, disburse.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Please getting more aggressive, pushing a lot of people. Footage
and audio of these violent arrests were shared by the
Defend the Forest account, Unicorn Riot and myself your numbers.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Here.
Speaker 9 (17:27):
I hear screams coming from multiple directions. Large.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Looks like the march kind of split in two.
Speaker 9 (17:39):
I've seen a lot of arrests.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
The individuals targeted likely committed no crime other than being
in the wrong place at the wrong time. The majority
of the march split away and in a different direction
from the cops. So I stated where the cops were
most of the march. I was able to get away
by going through two differ direction.
Speaker 9 (18:02):
We have.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
It looks like and Atlanta PD vehicle is on fire.
Atlanta PD vehicle burning in the street, burning cop car.
Speaker 9 (18:21):
Police with AR style AR style rifles.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
So I feel like most of the march had had
hitded on that way I saw over there. It seems
one of the cop cars that got smashed also spontaneously
lit on fire. When the police first confronted the march,
most of the block was able to peel off and
disappear into the night. Affinity groups reconnected, block was shed
and protesters evacuated out of downtown as the police flooded
(18:50):
the mile long stretch of Peachtree Street that the crowd
marched on. After a fire truck put out the burning
cop car, police taped off the area, and as they
were pushing people out, I recorded an officer saying this
amazing line.
Speaker 9 (19:03):
The whole than fireworks, is my bomb going off?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Bombs or discount New Year's Eve fireworks? You choose all.
In all, the actions that night only took about an hour,
and crews made it home in time for dinner. Six
(19:41):
people were arrested at the protest Saturday night. Five were
tackled and pinned down as the crowd initially scattered, and
one other person was chased by a cop car. Sam
from the Atlanta Community Press Collective has more on that.
Speaker 11 (19:56):
A protester who was subsequently arrested was witnesses state they
were uh basically followed through the streets by an Atlanta
police vehicle before witnesses say that they were hit by
the same vehicle and they were then taken to jail. So,
you know, corn RYE released that video and we were
(20:18):
able to speak with the few witnesses because, as I'm
sure everyone saw on social beautia this weekend, the arrests
were a familiar brutal, familiar brutal site.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Before we continue, I do want to play two short
clips that were circulating the night of the protest. First
is police at scanner audio of the cop whose car
spontaneously combusted.
Speaker 10 (20:42):
You want a car, you know, yeah, I will these protests.
Speaker 12 (20:45):
They bloom a damn car and I ain't able to
go getting uneat only you know as what you did.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
This next one is from live news coverage of the march,
and this clip became an instant meme, so.
Speaker 9 (21:01):
They're now saying GBI suck.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
GBI is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Mayor Andre Dickens and the chief of Police gave a
press conference hours later, which gave us a look at
how the state was going to try and frame the
protest and acts of targeted vandalism.
Speaker 13 (21:16):
My message is simple to those who seek to continue
this type of criminal behavior, We will find you, and
we will arrest you, and you will be held accountable.
We have arrested several of them this evening, and Chief
surebamb will give you the details on that. And some
of them were found with explosives on them. You heard
that correctly, explosives, and that has led to a police
(21:40):
officer's car being set on fire.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
During the press conference, the Chief of Police clarified that
no law enforcement officers were injured as a result of
the protest, and neither were any bodystanders, which means the
only violence against people was done by the cops who
randomly tackled any protester that they could chase down.
Speaker 14 (22:01):
And so it doesn't take a rocket scientist or an
attorney to tell you that breaking windows and.
Speaker 15 (22:05):
Setting fires not protest.
Speaker 14 (22:07):
That is terrorism, and that they will be charged accordingly,
and they will find that this police department in the
partnership is equally committed to stop that activity. We already
have prosecutors in the room as we speak, and we're
reviewing everything and we have a lot of evidence to
still go through. So even charges you see tonight, those
can easily be upgraded, and they will be upgraded if appropriate.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
I brought up the police chief's comments to a few
of the forest offenders that I spoke with after the
protest on Saturday in downtown. Police chief schneierbamb it's hard, I've.
Speaker 9 (22:42):
Read it before.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
On Yeah, anyway, they alanted police chiefs said that breaking
windows and setting fires is terrorism. I'm curious to get
everyone's thoughts on that.
Speaker 12 (22:56):
Sure, I think the Least and Andre Dickens are doing
what a lot of city governments have done, especially during
twenty twenty, which was like do things like call property
destruction terrorism, which like it's not and you can call
it whatever you want.
Speaker 16 (23:14):
You can call it like property destruction and call it terrorism.
Speaker 15 (23:16):
Is a very like.
Speaker 12 (23:17):
Specific political strategy that exists. I think the right wing
does it a lot.
Speaker 15 (23:21):
And it would be worth calling that, like, you.
Speaker 12 (23:24):
Know, because Defend the Forest doesn't have a BodyCount. The
police have only murdered an activist for defend the Forest,
whereas Defend the Forest has not strucken out violently against
anybody except in defense against the police.
Speaker 15 (23:38):
You cannot do.
Speaker 16 (23:39):
Violence to property. You cannot be violent towards a police car.
Speaker 12 (23:43):
It's the same way that Andre Dickens is now getting
on TV and claiming.
Speaker 15 (23:48):
That like fire calling fireworks explosives.
Speaker 12 (23:50):
It's like, yes, there are objects that explode, but this
is very clearly being done in bad fith because it
is it is it justifies. This is the same way
like the DoD and the FBI, you.
Speaker 16 (24:04):
Call something terrorism, the money just pours on.
Speaker 12 (24:07):
You get funding, you get justification to do things like that,
and you can arrest people and charge them with domestic terrorism.
That makes continuing and movement incredibly hard. That's a really
dangerous implication that any act in dissidence to the state
could be called domestic terrorism. Should really scare of the
ship and everybody just here bit around the control and
(24:30):
should not be allowed to stand and should be competed against.
Some of reform.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
I talked with Peter about how if the police are
viewing vandalism or destruction of inanimate objects as domestic terrorism,
if breaking a window is terrorism, that makes the question
what exactly is destroying a forest?
Speaker 8 (24:50):
That juxtaposition of what the police consider violence, and like,
what sort of like destruction of objects is violence?
Speaker 12 (24:58):
To me?
Speaker 8 (24:58):
This demonstrates what they see like as valuable. And also
this demonstrates the police state and the corporation's inability to
understand the aliveness of all things and how sacred the
earth is. It shows that what they consider sacred, what
they hold as sacred is property, and specifically their property.
(25:20):
I think they fear the woods in part because it
moves in ways that they can't comprehend. It moves in
nonlinear ways.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Cricket also had something to say on this topic, well.
Speaker 17 (25:33):
And what is destroying a forest? What is destroying a person?
They're more upset about the destruction of property than the
destruction of a person, a whole human being who is
twenty six years old. They were young, they just started.
And that does not seem to measure up against some
glass panes. That doesn't seem to register. And what about
the terror they inspire in the forest? What about the
I mean, obviously that these rhetorical questions when I'm preaching
(25:55):
to the choir, but I mean, god, no, it's it's
just infuriating. There's no how long for the day When
the line is not drawn at well, you can do
anything except touch private property.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Noah mentioned the juxtaposition of broken windows being terrorism, but
violent actions that actually hurt people seemingly not mattering nearly
as much at least compared to a cracked window.
Speaker 12 (26:19):
Right, So it's a clear double standard in the same
way that like, you know, during twenty twenty, people setting
farm to police precincts was insurrection and an anarchy and
on these things, But when the National Guard would shoot
people it was a tragic air, I justified shooting. When
when vigilantes would drive cars in the crowds and you
(26:42):
know they can and play them for pit bombs protests,
it does not get treated with the same levity because
the powers that be can never, will, never will obviously
never hold themselves the same standards that they will.
Speaker 15 (26:55):
Call us as their enemies, the meaning.
Speaker 16 (26:59):
Of words that matter to them.
Speaker 12 (27:00):
What matters is being able to get good sound bites
to put on like Antifa actionship and make themselves because
the city's decided that they can't back down from the
procrap people that they're not willing to like backdown on
that find.
Speaker 15 (27:16):
That this is where they're going to stake their flag
and try and hold it out.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
From the start of the movement, the police have aggressively
arrested and persecuted protesters associated with the struggle to stop
cop City, starting all the way back with the first
arrest of eleven peaceful protesters snatched off the sidewalk during
the city council's vote to approve cop City. As corporations
and the state moved to push cop Citi's development forward
(27:41):
despite all public opposition. Repression has increased dramatically over the
last few months. Since December, everyone arrested in connection with
the movement against cop City has been charged with domestic terrorism.
Speaker 11 (27:55):
It's not a huge surprise in terms like terrorism and
eco terrorism have been coming up, I mean in private
conversations probably since the beginning, but we can trace it
back to at least last summer, when and some emailed
emails we've obtained throughout open records requests where a city
(28:16):
council member and the Police Foundation were just kind of
pejoratively throwing around the term terrorists in response to I
think it was graffiti or something like, I hope they
catch these terrorists soon. The terrorists who graffiti to building.
It has also shown up in a couple different public
meetings that are about the training center.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
You know.
Speaker 11 (28:38):
Committee members who are pro Public Safety Training Center, anti
anyone being opposed to it have also used the term
eco terrorism.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
The dangerous escalation of protest to suppression is not limited
to people engaging in pasive, resistance or direct action.
Speaker 11 (28:56):
Some of our open records requests have even shown that
since sincest fall for several months now, anyone who participates
in like a write in or a call in campaign.
Sometimes those very simple emails of hey, I don't think
your company should be participating in this project will get
forwarded up to the chief of police. You know, people's names, emails,
(29:18):
just very very simple call in campaign type stuff. The
most monoculous stuff gets forwarded as part of you know,
security alert.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
This is the anti democratic chilling effect in action. Politicians
and police are trying to create a political climate where
people are too scared to exercise their right to protest, organize,
and take action. Georgia's Republican governor Brian Kemp has bolstered
this alarming escalation of violence and repression against political speech
by blaming out of state rioters and a quote network
(29:53):
of militant activists who have committed similar acts of domestic
terrorism across the country unquote rhetoric that has been mirrored
by liberal politicians in the city of Atlanta. The broad
labeling of environmental and racial justice movements as quote unquote
terrorism and those who get associated with such movements as
domestic terrorists is an extremely dangerous precedent designed to stifle
(30:16):
public opposition and scare anyone concerned about police militarization and
climate change away from protesting. It's a crude attempt to
use as powerful tools as possible to crush opposition and
remove the protest from public spotlight while creating cover for
intensive suppression of protest movements. Police are making an example
(30:36):
out of people by trying to pin the actions of
autonomous individuals in a decentralized movement on anyone that was
unlucky enough to cross paths with the police by threatening
thirty five years in prison. Let's talk a bit about
the role of the domestic terrorism charges in how they
are being applied, because they're not even being applied to
(30:57):
people that are like tied to specific acts like use. Specifically,
we have evidence that you burned down an escap like
it like a like a construction equipment. That's that's not
what they're being used, not even being used for. Like
we saw we saw you break this window, that's not
even how you're being used. Like the people restaurant Saturday,
all six of them got the same exact charges. Yes,
(31:17):
how can all six people have done all the exact
same thing? So they're obviously not being used and they
type of like factual evidence based away it's all about
like us trying to turn the movement itself into a
criminal association.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (31:30):
Yeah, APD has even said that themselves in a public
meeting that's supposed to kind of like provide advice on
like how the public wants this project built. You know,
they in the December meeting, which I think took place
a day after after those raids, they they bragged about
pulling someone over illegally for for filming the police. They
said they were very proud of themselves for taking that
(31:52):
person to jail, and then they they just blatantly said
that anyone arrested for this in connection with this movement
will get a domestic terrorism charge, which creates an equivalency
that being opposed to this project is domestic terrorism. You know,
the chief of police Darren Sheerbaum went before cameras on Saturday,
(32:13):
and I think pretty much verbatim said, breaking a glass
window that is terrorism. A lot of people have opinions
about how to protest, right, but what people have conveyed
to us is that even those who are, you know,
kind of horrified by property damage, it's just not domestic terrorism.
(32:33):
It's just not being opposed to the police, wanting the
police to do something differently is not terrorism.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
The Atlanta Solidarity Fund said of the six people charged
after Saturday's protest, quote, protest, even disobedient protest, is not terrorism.
It's tragic that we're at a point where this even
needs to be said, but that makes it all the
more important that the public speak out against this divisive
and dangerous rhetoric. We have reason to believe these activists
(33:06):
were arrested at random during the march. All six faced
the same blanket charges. They are being held responsible for
committing the same crime by virtue of simply being present
at a protest where property damage occurred. Unquote. Twenty people
have been charged with felonies under Georgia's domestic terrorism laws
(33:26):
since last December. Police affidavits have detailed the alleged acts
of so called terror, which include quote criminally trespassing on
posted land, sleeping in a forest, sleeping in a hammock
with another defendant being known members of a prison abolitionist
movement unquote, and aligning themselves with defend the Lanta forest
(33:49):
by quote occupying a treehouse while wearing a gas mask
and camouflage clothing unquote. A review of the twenty arrests
showed that none of those arrested and slapped with terrorism
charges are accused of seriously injuring anyone. Nine are alleged
to have committed no specific illegal acts beyond misdemeanor trespassing. Instead,
(34:12):
mere association with a group committed to defending the forest
appears to be the foundation for declaring them terrorists. The
seven people arrested during the police raid where the Georgia
State Patrol shot and killed Tortigita were given a bond
amount totaling one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars. Escalating repression
is taking form as egregious bail amounts for protesters, inflated charges,
(34:37):
and as last month saw the killing of an activist,
The environmental justice attorney Stephen Donzinger said. For weeks these
people were called terrorists, which is a complete misuse of
the word. The police have been conditioned to believe these
people are terrorists, and what do you do with terrorists
in the United States?
Speaker 9 (34:58):
You kill them.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy unquote. A whole bunch
of bail information has got released for the six people
arrested at the protest in downtown Atlanta on Saturday, January
twenty first, and it's pretty high. It's the highest bail
for a protest that I've ever seen. Two people that
(35:21):
are slightly more local to the area were granted three
hundred and fifty five thousand dollars each for their bonds.
Speaker 9 (35:30):
That's over seven.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Hundred thousand dollars with ankle monitoring and a twenty four
hour curfew, so that's a lot of four Other people
who were arrested were determined to be from too far
out of town and deemed flight risks by the judge
and they were completely denied bond. So they're going to
be held in jail and perpetuity until both further legal
(35:56):
challenges like this is going to get, you know, pushed
up to a higher level judge. But who knows how
long they're going to be in pre trial detention now
for pretty pretty ridiculous charges like this arson riot, like felony,
jaywalking essentially like pedestrian.
Speaker 15 (36:19):
Of them, the mesty terrorism terrorism.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
When they're going over the bill hearing, there was there
was they were talking about how like this hearing is
not for going over evidence, this is this is this
isn't for Actually, yeah, they're they're not. They're not interested
in dealing with what the facts actually were because there's
no evidence that any of any of the people arrested
(36:44):
did anything wrong besides march in the street, which has
been a staple of the history of Atlanta for almost
like almost a century. There's no absolutely no evidence but
that that doesn't matter, and that's not really the point either.
The point is this is a brutal form of punishment
and a deterrent for other people to say that if
(37:04):
you're going to go to a protest, if you're going
to go to a march, you don't need to do
anything at all, and we'll give you bond that's that's
worth almost four hundred thousand dollars, poor person, or we'll
just hold you until until this case gets litigated.
Speaker 15 (37:21):
Yeah, so if you.
Speaker 12 (37:21):
Want to come from out of town to just go
to a march, you could do nothing else and get
arrested for rest lack with a domestics and then they
decide that because you're.
Speaker 16 (37:32):
From I don't know, an hour and a half.
Speaker 15 (37:34):
Away and just happen to be across the state line,
that flight rest are going to be held in definitely trial,
which I mean, if there's one across system that this
could be we could.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Be talking years, years, eighteen months before before trial. If
people are wanted, right, they obviously they want people to
just plead guilty and not not have go to trial,
which is nonsense because there's no evidence. But if it
does get carried out all the way to trial, that
could take over a year. That could be just being
being held for things that you clearly didn't do. But
(38:03):
because the police and prosecutors have decided to use these
intense charges as a deterrent, it's just extremely blatant, like abusive,
abusive legal system, abusive power. But I mean it's you know,
I say abuse, but like this is the way it's
also designed, Like this is this is the purpose of prothectors,
this is the purpose of police they're doing their job
(38:23):
as it's supposed to be.
Speaker 12 (38:25):
They're just like make it unfeasible for people to participate
in dissonance and to make it so any like any
chance getting for people.
Speaker 15 (38:38):
It's made so.
Speaker 12 (38:40):
Even for most people, Like looking at an amount like
three hundred and fifty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 15 (38:44):
It's just an impossible amount of money to come up with.
Speaker 9 (38:46):
It's like.
Speaker 15 (38:48):
It's so out of the.
Speaker 12 (38:50):
Realm of what is possible for so many, like normal
everyday people who are participating in aunts of protest that
it's just it's just design people for as lar as pass.
Speaker 9 (39:00):
Well, it's not.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
It's not even people who like this. This would be
in many ways justice rrificus. Is if these charges were
from people who were like in the forest, people like
in a downtown marching like this is like downtown marching.
Speaker 12 (39:14):
Were like the most serious thing that happened was that
a car spontaneously like that is it wasn't it it
was there's no evidence to any of these people anyway.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
It was even noted inside during during these hearings that
many of these people were arrested before the car even
caught fire, Like.
Speaker 12 (39:36):
The Jurgans just decided that again they were not ready
to live it bots of any kind, that this was
not and making it so obvious that the point of
this is not to in any way treat this with
any realms like reality what happened, but just to make
sure that we are that people are as punished as
possible for any actions taken by a group that they
(39:58):
were likely just even in the vicinity.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Of a dantin Affidavid's for the seven people arrested at
the deadly police raid on January eighteenth, in which Tortigito
was killed, begin by alleging that the defendants were quote
participating in actions as a part of the Defend the
Atlanta Forest group, a group classified by the United States
Department of Homeland Security as domestic violent extremists unquote, but
(40:23):
a DHS spokesperson has responded to media inquiries by saying, quote,
the Department of Homeland Security does not classify or designate
any groups as domestic violent extremists unquote. The Atlanta Solidarity
Fund responded to this news by saying, quote, when police
brought terrorism charges against Stop Copcity protesters, they justified it
(40:45):
by claiming that Defend the Atlanta Forest had been designated
a domestic violent extremist organization.
Speaker 9 (40:51):
This was a lie.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
DHS has never designated any movement aligned organization in this way.
What does this mean? It suggests that police and prosecutors
have been lying not just to the public but to
judges in an effort to justify outrageous, sensational charges against activists.
This cannot be tolerated in a free society. The public
(41:13):
has a long process ahead of unraveling the tangle of lies, distortions,
and cover ups that the police, prosecutors, and their private
backers have woven to suppress the right to protest. We
are determined to follow that thread to its end. Injustice
cannot go unchallenged. To date, the Atlanta Solidarity Fund has
(41:34):
supported over sixty people arrested for protesting the proposed Copcity development,
just a few days before the killing of Tortigita. It
could happen. Here released an interview with people from the
Solidarity Fund and Anti Repression Committee if you want to
learn more about those organizations. The Solidarity Fund is dedicated
to continue supporting protesters in Atlanta, but with the unprecedented
(41:56):
seven hundred thousand dollars bail for just two people, they
need help to continue supporting activists with bail and legal counsel,
while they are also supporting civil litigation against unjust arrests
and police violence, including an independent investigation into the death
of Torteguita. In a statement released after the bail hearing,
the Atlanta Solidarity Fund said, quote, the arrested protesters and
(42:20):
all other future protesters targeted for political activity in Atlanta
need your help. Please host fundraisers, reach out to your networks,
and donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. We especially encourage
you to consider becoming a recurring donor. Solidarity means all
of us supporting each other for the long haul, until
(42:40):
we are all free. Unquote. If the state is successful
in creating this precedent of domestic terrorism, protesters across the
country could be facing similar speech chilling charges. Activists and
civil rights lawyers have called for everyone to strongly reject
this extreme level of repression here and now, before where
it becomes the norm for activists in every movement. What
(43:04):
happens here will have legal implications for the whole nation.
Speaker 11 (43:08):
It creates and it creates fear, It creates a chilling effect.
It was after the December raids a lot of folks
in the community. We're really questioning what was next, and
it is scary to think about, but it's been really
heartening how people have seen through the bullshit. Right, Atlanta
(43:31):
has an incredible resilience, and so does this movement, even
with domestic terrorism in mind.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Peter also mentioned how the increased charges have inadvertently shown
just how strong the community is. After domestic terrorism charges
first first got laid out in December, what was people's
reaction to that, because that's a pretty substantial, like legal
state repression effort. You know, you're in the woods, you
(44:01):
hear that your friends are now getting these ridiculous charges, Like,
how does that change what's on the ground.
Speaker 8 (44:06):
Yeah, I think the terrorism charges. Well, I'll say I
was out of town when the terrorism charges happened, and
hearing about those was actually what motivated me to come
back to Atlanta and move back into the woods because
I knew that the terrorism charges were a scare tactic
to try and discourage people from participating in the Woods
and the movement at large. As the repression has intensified,
(44:28):
and especially since the terrorism charges started coming in, the
resolve in the strength of this community has intensified. Even more,
and the increased repression has shown me the strength of
this community and also how deeply committed people are to
being a part of this fight.
Speaker 15 (44:43):
No matter what.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
You can go to at jail Underscore support on Twitter
for information on how to write two incarcerated protesters in Atlanta.
(45:14):
The terrorism charges being brought against Stop Copcity protesters stem
from a twenty seventeen law passed in Georgia in the
wake of the Dylan Roof massacre. This law, allegedly created
in response to a white supremacist mass shooting targeting black people,
is being used for the first time as a bludgeon
against anti racist protesters who are fighting against the expansion
(45:35):
and further militarization of police facilities.
Speaker 12 (45:39):
Well, the state is just also as a concept as
a whole is pretty much incapable of doing things for
altruistic means. This is the same government that are so
often used as like that completely simplifies like all issues,
for example, with like foreign mashootings in this country into
just a gun problem, to take away the abilities for
(46:00):
prioritize people to defend themselves by oversimplifying it into a
non ideological issue. And it's so like there's such a
clear pattern of who is perpetrating these things. It's all
like the state.
Speaker 15 (46:13):
At any moment it can grab power, it.
Speaker 12 (46:16):
Will do so.
Speaker 15 (46:17):
And that looks better sometimes because.
Speaker 16 (46:20):
It might be like going after somebody, like jelling a roof.
Speaker 12 (46:24):
But it gets turned around later and used by them
to murdern you know, trying to defend the forest and
make sure that people cannot make bail, and for doing
nothing more than asking the city to not do something
that a vast majority of people Atlanta do not want
to happen.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
Laws that are put into effect to stop far right
violence will inevitably be used to repress left wing movements.
Any expansion of state power will always come down the
hardest on people who are actually pushing back on the
power structures of this eight, like the police. And now
this domestic terrorism law is being used against force defenders
(47:06):
for mere affiliation with stop Coop City. The way the
state is using these domestic terrorism charges is relatively unprecedented
within the United States, but this stuff is not completely
unheard of. It's new for white Americans who are protesting.
It's new in a very specific context, but it's not
(47:27):
new for many other people who've experienced state repression and
have experienced state repression in other countries around the world.
Speaker 12 (47:35):
You know. It's it's very similar to the way that
like the US would I mean, we had a lot
of a lot of people who are in the US
global in thousands of people who you know, so many
of them are just the US Army rules into a
country and like all of these people are terrorists.
Speaker 15 (47:51):
They do not have time to litigate the facts.
Speaker 12 (47:55):
They're looking at people as flight rests with new evidence,
with unsistantially that claims to bout affiliations to whatever the
hell it is, and then they you know, and they
most extreme examples, end up detaining Gontanimo for the next
twenty years or in you know.
Speaker 15 (48:10):
Bringing back to the connection to all of this.
Speaker 12 (48:12):
To the idea, it's the similar ways that the idea
of persecutes their word of the Pastinian peoples of waging
a war of population and then taking as much, like
using as much force against the people who choose to
fight that state power, and then.
Speaker 15 (48:31):
Just arresting huge numbers of people for claiming that they're
like affiliated with AMAS or something for litis, living in
the same neighborhood and.
Speaker 16 (48:40):
Just throwing the Kyoa.
Speaker 15 (48:41):
This is very similar to tactics that we've seen used across.
Speaker 16 (48:45):
The word, specifically during the Global War on Terror, just.
Speaker 12 (48:48):
To lock up huge numbers of people with impunity, without
the ability for people to get proper or legal representation,
or for there ever to be a moment to litigate
the facts of what happened. And it's a really troubling
development to.
Speaker 15 (49:02):
Happening here.
Speaker 12 (49:03):
This has been so destructive in other countries all across
the world, and we should all be extremely concerned that
this is happening anywhere, not just that it's touched in
the US now, but this type of legal system should
find comfort anywhere in the world.
Speaker 1 (49:20):
One of the topics of the original It Could Happen
Here series was Thucau's boomerang. The idea was also brought
up during multiple conversations I had in Atlanta. It's about
how the types of imperialist and colonialist violence that are
done in other countries don't just go away. They get
transported back to the homeland. This boomerang effect resulted in
(49:43):
a whole series of colonial models being brought back to
the quote unquote West so that it could endlessly practice
something resembling colonialism or an internal colonialism on itself. The
forces of extreme gentrification can be seen as one of
these frontlines. In that way, it only makes sense that
this is happening in Atlanta to such an extreme degree.
Speaker 12 (50:06):
So like the idea of like when it comes to
frougos boomerang is that any any strategies, tactics, equipment.
Speaker 15 (50:14):
The US is the best example of really has been
tactics and equipment.
Speaker 12 (50:17):
Thus far that are used overseas in a country's colonial
wars imperial wars will one day find their way returned
to the core of said empire.
Speaker 15 (50:29):
To subjugate their own dissidents and their own people.
Speaker 12 (50:33):
The best example of this in the US was milatorized
police and Copsit is a huge example of this.
Speaker 15 (50:37):
We've seen a return of weapons and equipment from the
god to US police, just asibly what we.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
Saw a.
Speaker 15 (50:46):
Man murdering and his trailer by.
Speaker 12 (50:48):
Small team using their vision goggles and equipment that looks
like it came off of like Army Rangers in twenty fourteen.
Like it is, it is a return like the tactics
and the equipment and the strategy and the mindset of
an occupying army come back to the center of the
empire and are used to subjepeen its people. And in
this case, comp City is a huge expansion of this
(51:09):
because of what it's designed to train people to do,
which is combat. And even more so, the legal system
that the US has used overseas to prosecute thousands of
people with their evidence is well being returned to prosecute.
Speaker 15 (51:22):
That it is defending the forest.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
The man shot by Swat in a trailer last month
did end up surviving, But what Noah is talking about
is that there is no true other, There is no
true awayness. This new military urbanism that seems to be
necessary to sustain hyper capitalist to gentrification is providing zones
of experimentation through which the state is able to try
(51:47):
out and hone their techniques of oppression. In my conversation
with Cricket, they talked about this phenomenon. It comes back
or it starts here and more the training ground, and
then they export it. I mean, there's it's and I
think you're absolutely right that there is no true other.
Right like that is a construct to keep us out
of solidarity with one another. That is a strategy to
(52:07):
keep us out of alliance. At the same table and
demanding more. I mean, it's something that I remember, I
think it was.
Speaker 17 (52:13):
I think it was maybe something Buddha Edge or I
don't know, some other politician talked about in the wake
of twenty twenty, you know, saying like military weapons should
not be used against like like should not be used
in our streets or something like that. It's like, okay,
but the logical extension of that is that they should
be in other people's streets, like those are also civilians,
(52:36):
Like those are also people's towns and cities and homes.
Like why are we deciding that it's okay for them
to be there and not here? And obviously we're not
actually deciding that they're not okay to be here. But
I feel like even the sort of attempts to try
and address the insane militarization of the police don't rely
on that other as if this is not a global issue,
(52:57):
as if this is not something that affects everyone. The
Solidarity Fund has said, quote invoking terrorism is a dog
whistle calling for more police violence. Ever since nine to eleven,
American policy has been to hunt and kill terrorists by
any means. Applying this same terrorism label to activists in
our communities, is prompting police to approach protests as war zones,
(53:22):
prepared to kill at any time. This can be seen
in the way GSP stormed the Atlanta forest with militarized
equipment and killed Tortigita and God. I think there's also
this tendency to think of the assassination of environmental activists
as something that happens elsewhere, Like this is something that
happens in Central America, this is something that happens in
the Amazon, Like this is not something that happens in
(53:43):
the US. And it absolutely is something that happens in
the US. And I think, just sort of to the
name of your podcast, right, like it happens here, it's
not and it could be any of us. I think
that that's another sort of possible strategy or idea behind this,
like oh, they're outside the agitators thing of trying to
create this scary, stranger danger and trying to make people
(54:04):
think that the person who is murdered couldn't be them
because they're from here, Like oh, like I'm local, Like
I wouldn't have been murdered. No, Like no, absolutely not,
Like they will murder with impunity and it's really scary
and it's really enraging. Like I think it is both
to me inspiring and because if they're going to kill
(54:26):
us no matter what, then why not cause as much
good trouble as we can.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
On Thursday, January twenty sixth, Governor Brian Kemp declared a
state of emergency in response to protests Saturday night sparked
by Tortigita's death. Under that order, one thousand National Guard
troops were mobilized to quell protests and police the streets
of Atlanta. Once again. I'll end with the words of Tortighita. Quote,
(54:52):
Dear comrades, we are in the trenches of the class war.
The capitalists would rather see us dead or enslaved, so
we might us to fight like hell. Billionaires are causing
a mass extinction and can only be stopped by collective action.
Copsity can and must be stopped, but we need more help.
We need people on the front lines and robust supply networks.
(55:16):
We need to love and support each other unquote. Now
that the war is here, how are we gonna fight it?
Speaker 6 (55:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 18 (55:25):
The rain on leaves tickling the earliest, the instruments, the melody,
we mimick. It is the sound of wind whistle, And
long before the safetyest chan and under the stars, camped
underb canopy, she sang oh song, and she was far
from silent, the virus of violence with the fragrance of
her flowers that continue to invite us a medicine materials
are vitamins and minerals and all that is essential, which
(55:48):
just grew right beside us. Entice the starting fight end
over the gifts that she provide us, scorching up the
soil that all of us derived from. And when impious
learn it came with stand bia, we returned to the
land where An sets the rain dance. We have all
her preaches, we still bear her features. The one and
only reason all living things is breathe. And the cities
(56:08):
deceive and leave. Go see the dirt, young, Go be
among the lungs of mother Earth.
Speaker 15 (56:13):
Could yeah before him before shut him down. It was
(56:40):
a forest.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Music by the narcissist cookbook and propaganda.
Speaker 9 (56:49):
So they're now saying gb I suck my dick.
Speaker 15 (56:51):
GBI is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Speaker 1 (56:54):
It could happen here as a production of Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 11 (56:57):
For more podcasts from Cool Zone media visitor webs say
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 com slash sources.
Speaker 9 (57:11):
Thanks for listening.
The few days leading up to Saturday, January twenty first
felt like the calm before the storm. Nobody knew exactly
what was going to happen at the weekend protest in
downtown Atlanta, but there was a sense that something would.
Shortly after the Wednesday shooting, a flyer went out calling
for a gathering at Underground Atlanta on Saturday, January twenty first,
(00:45):
and to wear black clothes in morning. This is it
could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis, and I arrived at
Underground Atlanta just a bit before five pm. The crowd
was still slowly grown, and a bunch of big news
cameras were filling up the central area. As more people
filtered in, some who knew Tort went up in front
(01:08):
of everyone to share memories of Torti Ghita and talk
about the continuing fight to defend the forest.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Obviously, we're all here because Tort was an amazing person
and their life meant a lot. But Tort also shared
something in common with all of us, and that was
the values and things that they were fighting for, and
all of us are fighting for a great content. We
all have it in common, but it makes us all targets.
They will always target us because they don't believe in
(01:35):
the things that we believe in, and they will always
be after us. And we all have to stand here
and stay together and stay resilient, to fight for what
we believe in, and never let Towort's memory go without honor.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
If they would kill an innocent person like Torque, someone
who loved their community, they will stop to kill us.
They won't stop to kill everyone in that forest. They
won't stop to kill anyone who defies them. And that
is pretty much all I had to say.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
A few people from the Atlanta Resistance Medics, a local
street medical group dedicated to the liberation of medicine and
providing medical resources for underprivileged and marginalized people, spoke about
Torti Ghita, who was a member of their collective.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
If there's one thing that we want people to remember
Tourt for, it's if they were somebody who protected the
people around them, who went through the training along with
the rest of us, to be able to provide medical
resources to the people that were around them. They may
not have access to those no matter what else the
news says about tort they were a protector. Everything they
(02:53):
did was out of love. Everything they did was out
of hope for a better world. And I don't care
what the police say. I don't care what the media says.
I don't care what anybody says. Torpe was out here
working for a better world. They may want to smear
them as an extremist, they were not. They were out
(03:14):
here protecting their fellow people. And that's what we want
everybody to remember about them. Just say they were out
here trying to build a better world, no matter what
anybody else says.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
All right, I'd love y'all to repeat after me, Art Doug.
La lu Ja siege, La lu Ja Siege is a
(03:52):
medic in our collective. They were a forest defender. They
were a friend, They were funny kind Sarta Vida was
constantly thinking of others. They were constantly trying to protect
other people, trying to protect the forest, trying to protect
everyone who was marginalized. They centered voices on them who
(04:17):
are on the margins and brought them into the center.
They recognized that our struggles are interconnected. They recognized that
cop City will never be built. They died defending that forest.
The memory Oftito that I keep returning to is after
the police destroyed the gazebo at Leilani People's Park in
(04:41):
the parking lot. They were at a meeting and they said, yeah,
so the cops think they can destroy our morale, they can't. Yeah.
Tartuita was one of the most resilient, strongest people. Well
I know, they hugged everyone. They were so kind and
(05:06):
so giving, and even as the state tries to assassinate
their character in addition to their body, they were a
freedom fighter. They were a person that I am honored
to have known that I am honored to have called
a friend.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
About four hundred people eventually gathered around Underground Atlanta. It
seemed like slightly more people than we're at the vigil
the previous night.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
Everything in modern life serves to atomize you, to make
you feel like you were an individual, divorce from any
sense of collective identity, divorced from any sense that you
have a purpose and that there is good in the world.
The fact that you're here means that you're fighting against that.
Don't let go of that. That is powerful. And that's
(05:53):
why cop City isn't going to be built, is because
we have love for ourselves and for the people around us.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
All right, So I'm sure all of you are fairly
upset about this. I am Tort was a friend of mine.
They were a friend of the community. Their death, their
death will not be in.
Speaker 8 (06:15):
Vain, fucking top city fuck at all.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
By five point thirty, about half the crowd gathered at
Underground Atlanta were in Black Bloc and the rest were
a variety of activists, organizers, and random people who decided
that it was important to be at this event. After
some speeches, chants, and stories of Tort, the gathering of
people turned into a march and took to the streets.
(06:43):
March is starting just left Underground Atlanta. Around three hundred
people maybe maybe more, are marching down the street. There's
mix of people in block. There's medics here, people it's
kind of in regular clothes, holding signs. There's a banner
(07:04):
in the front that reads they can't kill us All.
Firework banner at the front that says trees give life,
police take it. After just a minute of marching down
(07:27):
one street, the crowd suddenly stopped. Looks like the marshes
turning around going to the other side.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Stop stop doges.
Speaker 9 (07:38):
Some more small.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Fireworks betting launched in the sky. Banners getting moved to
the front. It looks like the mark is now heading
north into downtown. Organizers from the Party for Socialism and
Liberation attempted to take control of the march and lead
(08:01):
the group south in the direction of the State Capitol
Building or possibly looping around to the CNN Center, but
autonomous activists in the crowd turned the march around and
the group four hundred strong headed north. It sounds like
the PSL people who were gathered at the underground tried
tried to lead the march in one direction and everyone
(08:24):
was like, no, we don't want to go that way.
The ps AND people are gonna lead everyone into like
the Federal Building section of downtown going south, and very
quickly they turned around. Well, other other people turned around.
It was like, no, we're not going that way. They're
(08:53):
taking a ride down Peachtree heading heading north into down town.
Right beside the Coca Cola sign on Marietta. The march
entered the Commercial District, a section of the city completely
gutted out by years of the Atlanta Way neoliberal policies
(09:15):
that we talked about in the Defend the Forest episodes
from last May. The area is populated almost exclusively by
business people, university students, and unhoused citizens, and was a
common sight for Atlanta's twenty twenty BLM protests. Now that
the march is moving, it's easier to see everyone.
Speaker 9 (09:33):
In black, all of all, all the people in bloc.
It's looking more just like a.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Large, large, massive people in bloc now have not seen
much police presence downtown yet because that's just a few
few patrol cars.
Speaker 9 (09:54):
It's really unclear.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
How Atlanta Police argus is going to respond to this.
Got some flares, a lot more of those smoke fireworks
or smoke grenade things. It's not a grain, it's like.
Speaker 9 (10:09):
A cardboard tube shooting smoke out.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The block continued to travel north Road. Flares and fireworks
lit the path in the darkening evening. Graffiti quickly sprung
up on walls with phrases like rip little turtle and
stop cop city the march. The march is now approaching
an Atlanta police vehicle who's trying to back up the
(10:35):
cop does not one of the cop cop car is right
in the middle of where the march is gonna go.
They're like less than one hundred feet away, Just one
single cop car that happens to be in the path
they are. They are trying to back out of the street.
The march has the trees give life, Please take it banner.
There's a big cardboard cutout of a tree right behind it.
(11:00):
Police have their lights turned on. Now looks like the
cop cars turning around. Yeah, and the cop car is
leaving rather quickly. The sun was just starting to set
(11:28):
as the block arrived at the main goal of the night,
the Atlanta Police Foundation Headquarters at one nine to one
Peachtree Street.
Speaker 9 (11:36):
They've stopped in front of.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters.
Speaker 9 (11:44):
People are thrown throwing stuff at the windows and doors.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Broken windows at the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters.
Speaker 9 (11:55):
The people funding cop City firework thrown.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Umbrellas moved in to block local news cameras as windows shattered.
Rocks emerged from backpacks and smashed into the front of
the building. Hammers met the glass entrance as fireworks lit
up the scene. Another fire, another firework at the a
lot of Police Foundation. The march is tightening up a
(12:32):
decent bit. March is definitely tightening up. A lot of
people just in block now. Shouts of bee water kept
the mass moving forward as bank windows received a similar
pelting of rocks and hammers, people chanting to move like water.
(12:55):
I feel a lot of police cars right beside the march.
I'm guessing they're going to pull in in front of
pull in behind the march. Two police cars right there.
People hitting Chase Bank. Another stuff being dragged into the
street for like a top two barricade. Chase Bank's head
(13:17):
of Regional Investment Banking, John Richard, serves on the board
of the Atlanta Police Foundation. Police officers exited the two
cop cars that were trailing the march and quickly ran
away from the crowd, leaving their vehicles abandoned. Corker's trying
to keep track of where the police are in relation
to the march. Looks I got some cars pulling up
(13:38):
behind the police car pulled up behind the march. Scott
their windows broken, fireworks.
Speaker 9 (13:48):
From under another firework.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Another Atlanta Please vehicle had their windows smashed.
Speaker 9 (14:01):
So there's two.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
The two that was behind the march, the two Atlanta
Police officer cars that were behind the march.
Speaker 9 (14:08):
This got hit.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Wells Fargo, one of the main cop city funders, received
special love and attention from the block. The Atlanta Area
president for Wells Fargo. Mitch Grahl is also on the
board of trustees for the Atlanta Police Foundation. A few
other banks hit around this area. Wells Fargo one of
(14:31):
the contributors to the Atlanta Police Foundations, one of their
big funders and backers. A lot of the media here
very very thirsty to get to get stuff of, you know,
put into people breaking windows and shit. It was kind
of surprising that the crowd made it this far without
any real police response. Time almost stretches during these brief
(14:55):
moments of uprising. About seven minutes after the first window shattered,
Atlanta police finally arrived and made their move.
Speaker 9 (15:04):
Police are in front of in front of the march.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Now please in front of the rough march. People might
be turning around. They want to do a full like
water type thing.
Speaker 9 (15:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Multiple cop cars are approaching the march from the front.
Unclear what the crowd is gonna do. Well, Atlanta p
D is now now approaching the march.
Speaker 9 (15:36):
They're getting closer.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
They're going after one of the banners, dragging somebody down,
pulling someone to the ground. They're chasing people. One person's
being arrested. M march is splitting in two different directions.
(16:03):
Officers started randomly tackling and arresting anyone they could get
their hands on. More police arrived from the south and
chased it down a small section of the march that
branched off. Atlanta police coming from behind as well, so
they got Alanta police from both sides. Not many officers though,
just a few officers. Looks like the majority of the march.
Speaker 10 (16:26):
With out street direcree chan movie dispersed, disperse, get, disburse.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Please getting more aggressive, pushing a lot of people. Footage
and audio of these violent arrests were shared by the
Defend the Forest account, Unicorn Riot and myself your numbers.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Here.
Speaker 9 (17:27):
I hear screams coming from multiple directions. Large.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Looks like the march kind of split in two.
Speaker 9 (17:39):
I've seen a lot of arrests.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
The individuals targeted likely committed no crime other than being
in the wrong place at the wrong time. The majority
of the march split away and in a different direction
from the cops. So I stated where the cops were
most of the march. I was able to get away
by going through two differ direction.
Speaker 9 (18:02):
We have.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
It looks like and Atlanta PD vehicle is on fire.
Atlanta PD vehicle burning in the street, burning cop car.
Speaker 9 (18:21):
Police with AR style AR style rifles.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
So I feel like most of the march had had
hitded on that way I saw over there. It seems
one of the cop cars that got smashed also spontaneously
lit on fire. When the police first confronted the march,
most of the block was able to peel off and
disappear into the night. Affinity groups reconnected, block was shed
and protesters evacuated out of downtown as the police flooded
(18:50):
the mile long stretch of Peachtree Street that the crowd
marched on. After a fire truck put out the burning
cop car, police taped off the area, and as they
were pushing people out, I recorded an officer saying this
amazing line.
Speaker 9 (19:03):
The whole than fireworks, is my bomb going off?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Bombs or discount New Year's Eve fireworks? You choose all.
In all, the actions that night only took about an hour,
and crews made it home in time for dinner. Six
(19:41):
people were arrested at the protest Saturday night. Five were
tackled and pinned down as the crowd initially scattered, and
one other person was chased by a cop car. Sam
from the Atlanta Community Press Collective has more on that.
Speaker 11 (19:56):
A protester who was subsequently arrested was witnesses state they
were uh basically followed through the streets by an Atlanta
police vehicle before witnesses say that they were hit by
the same vehicle and they were then taken to jail. So,
you know, corn RYE released that video and we were
(20:18):
able to speak with the few witnesses because, as I'm
sure everyone saw on social beautia this weekend, the arrests
were a familiar brutal, familiar brutal site.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Before we continue, I do want to play two short
clips that were circulating the night of the protest. First
is police at scanner audio of the cop whose car
spontaneously combusted.
Speaker 10 (20:42):
You want a car, you know, yeah, I will these protests.
Speaker 12 (20:45):
They bloom a damn car and I ain't able to
go getting uneat only you know as what you did.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
This next one is from live news coverage of the march,
and this clip became an instant meme, so.
Speaker 9 (21:01):
They're now saying GBI suck.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
GBI is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Mayor Andre Dickens and the chief of Police gave a
press conference hours later, which gave us a look at
how the state was going to try and frame the
protest and acts of targeted vandalism.
Speaker 13 (21:16):
My message is simple to those who seek to continue
this type of criminal behavior, We will find you, and
we will arrest you, and you will be held accountable.
We have arrested several of them this evening, and Chief
surebamb will give you the details on that. And some
of them were found with explosives on them. You heard
that correctly, explosives, and that has led to a police
(21:40):
officer's car being set on fire.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
During the press conference, the Chief of Police clarified that
no law enforcement officers were injured as a result of
the protest, and neither were any bodystanders, which means the
only violence against people was done by the cops who
randomly tackled any protester that they could chase down.
Speaker 14 (22:01):
And so it doesn't take a rocket scientist or an
attorney to tell you that breaking windows and.
Speaker 15 (22:05):
Setting fires not protest.
Speaker 14 (22:07):
That is terrorism, and that they will be charged accordingly,
and they will find that this police department in the
partnership is equally committed to stop that activity. We already
have prosecutors in the room as we speak, and we're
reviewing everything and we have a lot of evidence to
still go through. So even charges you see tonight, those
can easily be upgraded, and they will be upgraded if appropriate.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
I brought up the police chief's comments to a few
of the forest offenders that I spoke with after the
protest on Saturday in downtown. Police chief schneierbamb it's hard, I've.
Speaker 9 (22:42):
Read it before.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
On Yeah, anyway, they alanted police chiefs said that breaking
windows and setting fires is terrorism. I'm curious to get
everyone's thoughts on that.
Speaker 12 (22:56):
Sure, I think the Least and Andre Dickens are doing
what a lot of city governments have done, especially during
twenty twenty, which was like do things like call property
destruction terrorism, which like it's not and you can call
it whatever you want.
Speaker 16 (23:14):
You can call it like property destruction and call it terrorism.
Speaker 15 (23:16):
Is a very like.
Speaker 12 (23:17):
Specific political strategy that exists. I think the right wing
does it a lot.
Speaker 15 (23:21):
And it would be worth calling that, like, you.
Speaker 12 (23:24):
Know, because Defend the Forest doesn't have a BodyCount. The
police have only murdered an activist for defend the Forest,
whereas Defend the Forest has not strucken out violently against
anybody except in defense against the police.
Speaker 15 (23:38):
You cannot do.
Speaker 16 (23:39):
Violence to property. You cannot be violent towards a police car.
Speaker 12 (23:43):
It's the same way that Andre Dickens is now getting
on TV and claiming.
Speaker 15 (23:48):
That like fire calling fireworks explosives.
Speaker 12 (23:50):
It's like, yes, there are objects that explode, but this
is very clearly being done in bad fith because it
is it is it justifies. This is the same way
like the DoD and the FBI, you.
Speaker 16 (24:04):
Call something terrorism, the money just pours on.
Speaker 12 (24:07):
You get funding, you get justification to do things like that,
and you can arrest people and charge them with domestic terrorism.
That makes continuing and movement incredibly hard. That's a really
dangerous implication that any act in dissidence to the state
could be called domestic terrorism. Should really scare of the
ship and everybody just here bit around the control and
(24:30):
should not be allowed to stand and should be competed against.
Some of reform.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
I talked with Peter about how if the police are
viewing vandalism or destruction of inanimate objects as domestic terrorism,
if breaking a window is terrorism, that makes the question
what exactly is destroying a forest?
Speaker 8 (24:50):
That juxtaposition of what the police consider violence, and like,
what sort of like destruction of objects is violence?
Speaker 12 (24:58):
To me?
Speaker 8 (24:58):
This demonstrates what they see like as valuable. And also
this demonstrates the police state and the corporation's inability to
understand the aliveness of all things and how sacred the
earth is. It shows that what they consider sacred, what
they hold as sacred is property, and specifically their property.
(25:20):
I think they fear the woods in part because it
moves in ways that they can't comprehend. It moves in
nonlinear ways.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Cricket also had something to say on this topic, well.
Speaker 17 (25:33):
And what is destroying a forest? What is destroying a person?
They're more upset about the destruction of property than the
destruction of a person, a whole human being who is
twenty six years old. They were young, they just started.
And that does not seem to measure up against some
glass panes. That doesn't seem to register. And what about
the terror they inspire in the forest? What about the
I mean, obviously that these rhetorical questions when I'm preaching
(25:55):
to the choir, but I mean, god, no, it's it's
just infuriating. There's no how long for the day When
the line is not drawn at well, you can do
anything except touch private property.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Noah mentioned the juxtaposition of broken windows being terrorism, but
violent actions that actually hurt people seemingly not mattering nearly
as much at least compared to a cracked window.
Speaker 12 (26:19):
Right, So it's a clear double standard in the same
way that like, you know, during twenty twenty, people setting
farm to police precincts was insurrection and an anarchy and
on these things, But when the National Guard would shoot
people it was a tragic air, I justified shooting. When
when vigilantes would drive cars in the crowds and you
(26:42):
know they can and play them for pit bombs protests,
it does not get treated with the same levity because
the powers that be can never, will, never will obviously
never hold themselves the same standards that they will.
Speaker 15 (26:55):
Call us as their enemies, the meaning.
Speaker 16 (26:59):
Of words that matter to them.
Speaker 12 (27:00):
What matters is being able to get good sound bites
to put on like Antifa actionship and make themselves because
the city's decided that they can't back down from the
procrap people that they're not willing to like backdown on
that find.
Speaker 15 (27:16):
That this is where they're going to stake their flag
and try and hold it out.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
From the start of the movement, the police have aggressively
arrested and persecuted protesters associated with the struggle to stop
cop City, starting all the way back with the first
arrest of eleven peaceful protesters snatched off the sidewalk during
the city council's vote to approve cop City. As corporations
and the state moved to push cop Citi's development forward
(27:41):
despite all public opposition. Repression has increased dramatically over the
last few months. Since December, everyone arrested in connection with
the movement against cop City has been charged with domestic terrorism.
Speaker 11 (27:55):
It's not a huge surprise in terms like terrorism and
eco terrorism have been coming up, I mean in private
conversations probably since the beginning, but we can trace it
back to at least last summer, when and some emailed
emails we've obtained throughout open records requests where a city
(28:16):
council member and the Police Foundation were just kind of
pejoratively throwing around the term terrorists in response to I
think it was graffiti or something like, I hope they
catch these terrorists soon. The terrorists who graffiti to building.
It has also shown up in a couple different public
meetings that are about the training center.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
You know.
Speaker 11 (28:38):
Committee members who are pro Public Safety Training Center, anti
anyone being opposed to it have also used the term
eco terrorism.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
The dangerous escalation of protest to suppression is not limited
to people engaging in pasive, resistance or direct action.
Speaker 11 (28:56):
Some of our open records requests have even shown that
since sincest fall for several months now, anyone who participates
in like a write in or a call in campaign.
Sometimes those very simple emails of hey, I don't think
your company should be participating in this project will get
forwarded up to the chief of police. You know, people's names, emails,
(29:18):
just very very simple call in campaign type stuff. The
most monoculous stuff gets forwarded as part of you know,
security alert.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
This is the anti democratic chilling effect in action. Politicians
and police are trying to create a political climate where
people are too scared to exercise their right to protest, organize,
and take action. Georgia's Republican governor Brian Kemp has bolstered
this alarming escalation of violence and repression against political speech
by blaming out of state rioters and a quote network
(29:53):
of militant activists who have committed similar acts of domestic
terrorism across the country unquote rhetoric that has been mirrored
by liberal politicians in the city of Atlanta. The broad
labeling of environmental and racial justice movements as quote unquote
terrorism and those who get associated with such movements as
domestic terrorists is an extremely dangerous precedent designed to stifle
(30:16):
public opposition and scare anyone concerned about police militarization and
climate change away from protesting. It's a crude attempt to
use as powerful tools as possible to crush opposition and
remove the protest from public spotlight while creating cover for
intensive suppression of protest movements. Police are making an example
(30:36):
out of people by trying to pin the actions of
autonomous individuals in a decentralized movement on anyone that was
unlucky enough to cross paths with the police by threatening
thirty five years in prison. Let's talk a bit about
the role of the domestic terrorism charges in how they
are being applied, because they're not even being applied to
(30:57):
people that are like tied to specific acts like use. Specifically,
we have evidence that you burned down an escap like
it like a like a construction equipment. That's that's not
what they're being used, not even being used for. Like
we saw we saw you break this window, that's not
even how you're being used. Like the people restaurant Saturday,
all six of them got the same exact charges. Yes,
(31:17):
how can all six people have done all the exact
same thing? So they're obviously not being used and they
type of like factual evidence based away it's all about
like us trying to turn the movement itself into a
criminal association.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (31:30):
Yeah, APD has even said that themselves in a public
meeting that's supposed to kind of like provide advice on
like how the public wants this project built. You know,
they in the December meeting, which I think took place
a day after after those raids, they they bragged about
pulling someone over illegally for for filming the police. They
said they were very proud of themselves for taking that
(31:52):
person to jail, and then they they just blatantly said
that anyone arrested for this in connection with this movement
will get a domestic terrorism charge, which creates an equivalency
that being opposed to this project is domestic terrorism. You know,
the chief of police Darren Sheerbaum went before cameras on Saturday,
(32:13):
and I think pretty much verbatim said, breaking a glass
window that is terrorism. A lot of people have opinions
about how to protest, right, but what people have conveyed
to us is that even those who are, you know,
kind of horrified by property damage, it's just not domestic terrorism.
(32:33):
It's just not being opposed to the police, wanting the
police to do something differently is not terrorism.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
The Atlanta Solidarity Fund said of the six people charged
after Saturday's protest, quote, protest, even disobedient protest, is not terrorism.
It's tragic that we're at a point where this even
needs to be said, but that makes it all the
more important that the public speak out against this divisive
and dangerous rhetoric. We have reason to believe these activists
(33:06):
were arrested at random during the march. All six faced
the same blanket charges. They are being held responsible for
committing the same crime by virtue of simply being present
at a protest where property damage occurred. Unquote. Twenty people
have been charged with felonies under Georgia's domestic terrorism laws
(33:26):
since last December. Police affidavits have detailed the alleged acts
of so called terror, which include quote criminally trespassing on
posted land, sleeping in a forest, sleeping in a hammock
with another defendant being known members of a prison abolitionist
movement unquote, and aligning themselves with defend the Lanta forest
(33:49):
by quote occupying a treehouse while wearing a gas mask
and camouflage clothing unquote. A review of the twenty arrests
showed that none of those arrested and slapped with terrorism
charges are accused of seriously injuring anyone. Nine are alleged
to have committed no specific illegal acts beyond misdemeanor trespassing. Instead,
(34:12):
mere association with a group committed to defending the forest
appears to be the foundation for declaring them terrorists. The
seven people arrested during the police raid where the Georgia
State Patrol shot and killed Tortigita were given a bond
amount totaling one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars. Escalating repression
is taking form as egregious bail amounts for protesters, inflated charges,
(34:37):
and as last month saw the killing of an activist,
The environmental justice attorney Stephen Donzinger said. For weeks these
people were called terrorists, which is a complete misuse of
the word. The police have been conditioned to believe these
people are terrorists, and what do you do with terrorists
in the United States?
Speaker 9 (34:58):
You kill them.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy unquote. A whole bunch
of bail information has got released for the six people
arrested at the protest in downtown Atlanta on Saturday, January
twenty first, and it's pretty high. It's the highest bail
for a protest that I've ever seen. Two people that
(35:21):
are slightly more local to the area were granted three
hundred and fifty five thousand dollars each for their bonds.
Speaker 9 (35:30):
That's over seven.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Hundred thousand dollars with ankle monitoring and a twenty four
hour curfew, so that's a lot of four Other people
who were arrested were determined to be from too far
out of town and deemed flight risks by the judge
and they were completely denied bond. So they're going to
be held in jail and perpetuity until both further legal
(35:56):
challenges like this is going to get, you know, pushed
up to a higher level judge. But who knows how
long they're going to be in pre trial detention now
for pretty pretty ridiculous charges like this arson riot, like felony,
jaywalking essentially like pedestrian.
Speaker 15 (36:19):
Of them, the mesty terrorism terrorism.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
When they're going over the bill hearing, there was there
was they were talking about how like this hearing is
not for going over evidence, this is this is this
isn't for Actually, yeah, they're they're not. They're not interested
in dealing with what the facts actually were because there's
no evidence that any of any of the people arrested
(36:44):
did anything wrong besides march in the street, which has
been a staple of the history of Atlanta for almost
like almost a century. There's no absolutely no evidence but
that that doesn't matter, and that's not really the point either.
The point is this is a brutal form of punishment
and a deterrent for other people to say that if
(37:04):
you're going to go to a protest, if you're going
to go to a march, you don't need to do
anything at all, and we'll give you bond that's that's
worth almost four hundred thousand dollars, poor person, or we'll
just hold you until until this case gets litigated.
Speaker 15 (37:21):
Yeah, so if you.
Speaker 12 (37:21):
Want to come from out of town to just go
to a march, you could do nothing else and get
arrested for rest lack with a domestics and then they
decide that because you're.
Speaker 16 (37:32):
From I don't know, an hour and a half.
Speaker 15 (37:34):
Away and just happen to be across the state line,
that flight rest are going to be held in definitely trial,
which I mean, if there's one across system that this
could be we could.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Be talking years, years, eighteen months before before trial. If
people are wanted, right, they obviously they want people to
just plead guilty and not not have go to trial,
which is nonsense because there's no evidence. But if it
does get carried out all the way to trial, that
could take over a year. That could be just being
being held for things that you clearly didn't do. But
(38:03):
because the police and prosecutors have decided to use these
intense charges as a deterrent, it's just extremely blatant, like abusive,
abusive legal system, abusive power. But I mean it's you know,
I say abuse, but like this is the way it's
also designed, Like this is this is the purpose of prothectors,
this is the purpose of police they're doing their job
(38:23):
as it's supposed to be.
Speaker 12 (38:25):
They're just like make it unfeasible for people to participate
in dissonance and to make it so any like any
chance getting for people.
Speaker 15 (38:38):
It's made so.
Speaker 12 (38:40):
Even for most people, Like looking at an amount like
three hundred and fifty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 15 (38:44):
It's just an impossible amount of money to come up with.
Speaker 9 (38:46):
It's like.
Speaker 15 (38:48):
It's so out of the.
Speaker 12 (38:50):
Realm of what is possible for so many, like normal
everyday people who are participating in aunts of protest that
it's just it's just design people for as lar as pass.
Speaker 9 (39:00):
Well, it's not.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
It's not even people who like this. This would be
in many ways justice rrificus. Is if these charges were
from people who were like in the forest, people like
in a downtown marching like this is like downtown marching.
Speaker 12 (39:14):
Were like the most serious thing that happened was that
a car spontaneously like that is it wasn't it it
was there's no evidence to any of these people anyway.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
It was even noted inside during during these hearings that
many of these people were arrested before the car even
caught fire, Like.
Speaker 12 (39:36):
The Jurgans just decided that again they were not ready
to live it bots of any kind, that this was
not and making it so obvious that the point of
this is not to in any way treat this with
any realms like reality what happened, but just to make
sure that we are that people are as punished as
possible for any actions taken by a group that they
(39:58):
were likely just even in the vicinity.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Of a dantin Affidavid's for the seven people arrested at
the deadly police raid on January eighteenth, in which Tortigito
was killed, begin by alleging that the defendants were quote
participating in actions as a part of the Defend the
Atlanta Forest group, a group classified by the United States
Department of Homeland Security as domestic violent extremists unquote, but
(40:23):
a DHS spokesperson has responded to media inquiries by saying, quote,
the Department of Homeland Security does not classify or designate
any groups as domestic violent extremists unquote. The Atlanta Solidarity
Fund responded to this news by saying, quote, when police
brought terrorism charges against Stop Copcity protesters, they justified it
(40:45):
by claiming that Defend the Atlanta Forest had been designated
a domestic violent extremist organization.
Speaker 9 (40:51):
This was a lie.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
DHS has never designated any movement aligned organization in this way.
What does this mean? It suggests that police and prosecutors
have been lying not just to the public but to
judges in an effort to justify outrageous, sensational charges against activists.
This cannot be tolerated in a free society. The public
(41:13):
has a long process ahead of unraveling the tangle of lies, distortions,
and cover ups that the police, prosecutors, and their private
backers have woven to suppress the right to protest. We
are determined to follow that thread to its end. Injustice
cannot go unchallenged. To date, the Atlanta Solidarity Fund has
(41:34):
supported over sixty people arrested for protesting the proposed Copcity development,
just a few days before the killing of Tortigita. It
could happen. Here released an interview with people from the
Solidarity Fund and Anti Repression Committee if you want to
learn more about those organizations. The Solidarity Fund is dedicated
to continue supporting protesters in Atlanta, but with the unprecedented
(41:56):
seven hundred thousand dollars bail for just two people, they
need help to continue supporting activists with bail and legal counsel,
while they are also supporting civil litigation against unjust arrests
and police violence, including an independent investigation into the death
of Torteguita. In a statement released after the bail hearing,
the Atlanta Solidarity Fund said, quote, the arrested protesters and
(42:20):
all other future protesters targeted for political activity in Atlanta
need your help. Please host fundraisers, reach out to your networks,
and donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. We especially encourage
you to consider becoming a recurring donor. Solidarity means all
of us supporting each other for the long haul, until
(42:40):
we are all free. Unquote. If the state is successful
in creating this precedent of domestic terrorism, protesters across the
country could be facing similar speech chilling charges. Activists and
civil rights lawyers have called for everyone to strongly reject
this extreme level of repression here and now, before where
it becomes the norm for activists in every movement. What
(43:04):
happens here will have legal implications for the whole nation.
Speaker 11 (43:08):
It creates and it creates fear, It creates a chilling effect.
It was after the December raids a lot of folks
in the community. We're really questioning what was next, and
it is scary to think about, but it's been really
heartening how people have seen through the bullshit. Right, Atlanta
(43:31):
has an incredible resilience, and so does this movement, even
with domestic terrorism in mind.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Peter also mentioned how the increased charges have inadvertently shown
just how strong the community is. After domestic terrorism charges
first first got laid out in December, what was people's
reaction to that, because that's a pretty substantial, like legal
state repression effort. You know, you're in the woods, you
(44:01):
hear that your friends are now getting these ridiculous charges, Like,
how does that change what's on the ground.
Speaker 8 (44:06):
Yeah, I think the terrorism charges. Well, I'll say I
was out of town when the terrorism charges happened, and
hearing about those was actually what motivated me to come
back to Atlanta and move back into the woods because
I knew that the terrorism charges were a scare tactic
to try and discourage people from participating in the Woods
and the movement at large. As the repression has intensified,
(44:28):
and especially since the terrorism charges started coming in, the
resolve in the strength of this community has intensified. Even more,
and the increased repression has shown me the strength of
this community and also how deeply committed people are to
being a part of this fight.
Speaker 15 (44:43):
No matter what.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
You can go to at jail Underscore support on Twitter
for information on how to write two incarcerated protesters in Atlanta.
(45:14):
The terrorism charges being brought against Stop Copcity protesters stem
from a twenty seventeen law passed in Georgia in the
wake of the Dylan Roof massacre. This law, allegedly created
in response to a white supremacist mass shooting targeting black people,
is being used for the first time as a bludgeon
against anti racist protesters who are fighting against the expansion
(45:35):
and further militarization of police facilities.
Speaker 12 (45:39):
Well, the state is just also as a concept as
a whole is pretty much incapable of doing things for
altruistic means. This is the same government that are so
often used as like that completely simplifies like all issues,
for example, with like foreign mashootings in this country into
just a gun problem, to take away the abilities for
(46:00):
prioritize people to defend themselves by oversimplifying it into a
non ideological issue. And it's so like there's such a
clear pattern of who is perpetrating these things. It's all
like the state.
Speaker 15 (46:13):
At any moment it can grab power, it.
Speaker 12 (46:16):
Will do so.
Speaker 15 (46:17):
And that looks better sometimes because.
Speaker 16 (46:20):
It might be like going after somebody, like jelling a roof.
Speaker 12 (46:24):
But it gets turned around later and used by them
to murdern you know, trying to defend the forest and
make sure that people cannot make bail, and for doing
nothing more than asking the city to not do something
that a vast majority of people Atlanta do not want
to happen.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
Laws that are put into effect to stop far right
violence will inevitably be used to repress left wing movements.
Any expansion of state power will always come down the
hardest on people who are actually pushing back on the
power structures of this eight, like the police. And now
this domestic terrorism law is being used against force defenders
(47:06):
for mere affiliation with stop Coop City. The way the
state is using these domestic terrorism charges is relatively unprecedented
within the United States, but this stuff is not completely
unheard of. It's new for white Americans who are protesting.
It's new in a very specific context, but it's not
(47:27):
new for many other people who've experienced state repression and
have experienced state repression in other countries around the world.
Speaker 12 (47:35):
You know. It's it's very similar to the way that
like the US would I mean, we had a lot
of a lot of people who are in the US
global in thousands of people who you know, so many
of them are just the US Army rules into a
country and like all of these people are terrorists.
Speaker 15 (47:51):
They do not have time to litigate the facts.
Speaker 12 (47:55):
They're looking at people as flight rests with new evidence,
with unsistantially that claims to bout affiliations to whatever the
hell it is, and then they you know, and they
most extreme examples, end up detaining Gontanimo for the next
twenty years or in you know.
Speaker 15 (48:10):
Bringing back to the connection to all of this.
Speaker 12 (48:12):
To the idea, it's the similar ways that the idea
of persecutes their word of the Pastinian peoples of waging
a war of population and then taking as much, like
using as much force against the people who choose to
fight that state power, and then.
Speaker 15 (48:31):
Just arresting huge numbers of people for claiming that they're
like affiliated with AMAS or something for litis, living in
the same neighborhood and.
Speaker 16 (48:40):
Just throwing the Kyoa.
Speaker 15 (48:41):
This is very similar to tactics that we've seen used across.
Speaker 16 (48:45):
The word, specifically during the Global War on Terror, just.
Speaker 12 (48:48):
To lock up huge numbers of people with impunity, without
the ability for people to get proper or legal representation,
or for there ever to be a moment to litigate
the facts of what happened. And it's a really troubling
development to.
Speaker 15 (49:02):
Happening here.
Speaker 12 (49:03):
This has been so destructive in other countries all across
the world, and we should all be extremely concerned that
this is happening anywhere, not just that it's touched in
the US now, but this type of legal system should
find comfort anywhere in the world.
Speaker 1 (49:20):
One of the topics of the original It Could Happen
Here series was Thucau's boomerang. The idea was also brought
up during multiple conversations I had in Atlanta. It's about
how the types of imperialist and colonialist violence that are
done in other countries don't just go away. They get
transported back to the homeland. This boomerang effect resulted in
(49:43):
a whole series of colonial models being brought back to
the quote unquote West so that it could endlessly practice
something resembling colonialism or an internal colonialism on itself. The
forces of extreme gentrification can be seen as one of
these frontlines. In that way, it only makes sense that
this is happening in Atlanta to such an extreme degree.
Speaker 12 (50:06):
So like the idea of like when it comes to
frougos boomerang is that any any strategies, tactics, equipment.
Speaker 15 (50:14):
The US is the best example of really has been
tactics and equipment.
Speaker 12 (50:17):
Thus far that are used overseas in a country's colonial
wars imperial wars will one day find their way returned
to the core of said empire.
Speaker 15 (50:29):
To subjugate their own dissidents and their own people.
Speaker 12 (50:33):
The best example of this in the US was milatorized
police and Copsit is a huge example of this.
Speaker 15 (50:37):
We've seen a return of weapons and equipment from the
god to US police, just asibly what we.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
Saw a.
Speaker 15 (50:46):
Man murdering and his trailer by.
Speaker 12 (50:48):
Small team using their vision goggles and equipment that looks
like it came off of like Army Rangers in twenty fourteen.
Like it is, it is a return like the tactics
and the equipment and the strategy and the mindset of
an occupying army come back to the center of the
empire and are used to subjepeen its people. And in
this case, comp City is a huge expansion of this
(51:09):
because of what it's designed to train people to do,
which is combat. And even more so, the legal system
that the US has used overseas to prosecute thousands of
people with their evidence is well being returned to prosecute.
Speaker 15 (51:22):
That it is defending the forest.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
The man shot by Swat in a trailer last month
did end up surviving, But what Noah is talking about
is that there is no true other, There is no
true awayness. This new military urbanism that seems to be
necessary to sustain hyper capitalist to gentrification is providing zones
of experimentation through which the state is able to try
(51:47):
out and hone their techniques of oppression. In my conversation
with Cricket, they talked about this phenomenon. It comes back
or it starts here and more the training ground, and
then they export it. I mean, there's it's and I
think you're absolutely right that there is no true other.
Right like that is a construct to keep us out
of solidarity with one another. That is a strategy to
(52:07):
keep us out of alliance. At the same table and
demanding more. I mean, it's something that I remember, I
think it was.
Speaker 17 (52:13):
I think it was maybe something Buddha Edge or I
don't know, some other politician talked about in the wake
of twenty twenty, you know, saying like military weapons should
not be used against like like should not be used
in our streets or something like that. It's like, okay,
but the logical extension of that is that they should
be in other people's streets, like those are also civilians,
(52:36):
Like those are also people's towns and cities and homes.
Like why are we deciding that it's okay for them
to be there and not here? And obviously we're not
actually deciding that they're not okay to be here. But
I feel like even the sort of attempts to try
and address the insane militarization of the police don't rely
on that other as if this is not a global issue,
(52:57):
as if this is not something that affects everyone. The
Solidarity Fund has said, quote invoking terrorism is a dog
whistle calling for more police violence. Ever since nine to eleven,
American policy has been to hunt and kill terrorists by
any means. Applying this same terrorism label to activists in
our communities, is prompting police to approach protests as war zones,
(53:22):
prepared to kill at any time. This can be seen
in the way GSP stormed the Atlanta forest with militarized
equipment and killed Tortigita and God. I think there's also
this tendency to think of the assassination of environmental activists
as something that happens elsewhere, Like this is something that
happens in Central America, this is something that happens in
the Amazon, Like this is not something that happens in
(53:43):
the US. And it absolutely is something that happens in
the US. And I think, just sort of to the
name of your podcast, right, like it happens here, it's
not and it could be any of us. I think
that that's another sort of possible strategy or idea behind this,
like oh, they're outside the agitators thing of trying to
create this scary, stranger danger and trying to make people
(54:04):
think that the person who is murdered couldn't be them
because they're from here, Like oh, like I'm local, Like
I wouldn't have been murdered. No, Like no, absolutely not,
Like they will murder with impunity and it's really scary
and it's really enraging. Like I think it is both
to me inspiring and because if they're going to kill
(54:26):
us no matter what, then why not cause as much
good trouble as we can.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
On Thursday, January twenty sixth, Governor Brian Kemp declared a
state of emergency in response to protests Saturday night sparked
by Tortigita's death. Under that order, one thousand National Guard
troops were mobilized to quell protests and police the streets
of Atlanta. Once again. I'll end with the words of Tortighita. Quote,
(54:52):
Dear comrades, we are in the trenches of the class war.
The capitalists would rather see us dead or enslaved, so
we might us to fight like hell. Billionaires are causing
a mass extinction and can only be stopped by collective action.
Copsity can and must be stopped, but we need more help.
We need people on the front lines and robust supply networks.
(55:16):
We need to love and support each other unquote. Now
that the war is here, how are we gonna fight it?
Speaker 6 (55:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 18 (55:25):
The rain on leaves tickling the earliest, the instruments, the melody,
we mimick. It is the sound of wind whistle, And
long before the safetyest chan and under the stars, camped
underb canopy, she sang oh song, and she was far
from silent, the virus of violence with the fragrance of
her flowers that continue to invite us a medicine materials
are vitamins and minerals and all that is essential, which
(55:48):
just grew right beside us. Entice the starting fight end
over the gifts that she provide us, scorching up the
soil that all of us derived from. And when impious
learn it came with stand bia, we returned to the
land where An sets the rain dance. We have all
her preaches, we still bear her features. The one and
only reason all living things is breathe. And the cities
(56:08):
deceive and leave. Go see the dirt, young, Go be
among the lungs of mother Earth.
Speaker 15 (56:13):
Could yeah before him before shut him down. It was
(56:40):
a forest.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Music by the narcissist cookbook and propaganda.
Speaker 9 (56:49):
So they're now saying gb I suck my dick.
Speaker 15 (56:51):
GBI is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Speaker 1 (56:54):
It could happen here as a production of Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 11 (56:57):
For more podcasts from Cool Zone media visitor webs say
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 com slash sources.
Speaker 9 (57:11):
Thanks for listening.
It Could Happen Here News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
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