May 8, 2023 • 50 mins
The Clergy crash a city council meeting, people return to the forest for a Purim celebration, and activists are met with intense police repression during daily non-violent actions happening throughout downtown.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Come Monday morning, Basically no one was in the forest.
The police raid the night prior pushed out most of
the people gathered for the music festival and week of action,
and it was still unclear how the rest of the
week would now proceed. This Monday happened to be the
Jewish holiday Porum. Initially there were plans to have a
(00:26):
Perum celebration in the forest that evening, but it was
unknown if people would feel comfortable returning to the woods.
Welcome back to it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis.
This is episode three of my mini series covering the
March twenty twenty three Week of Action to defend the
Atlanta Forest. Monday, March sixth also happened to be the
(00:48):
day of an Atlanta City Council meeting, and the Stopcop
City Clergy coalition held a well attended press conference at
noon outside City Hall. Reverend on To Jones opened up
at the press conference by making the Clergy's position clear.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
We are the Faith Coalition against Cop City, and we
are here to again raise our voices so that Mayor
Andre Dickens and the members of the City Council of
Atlanta know that we will not stand for the atrocities
that have been occurring. We will not stand for cop
City to go forward. The community came out and made
(01:29):
public comment for over seventeen hours when given an opportunity,
and said emphatically, no, we don't want your cop City.
We don't want more repression of black people. We don't
want more polluted air, we don't want less green space
in our community. We don't want more policing and terrorizing
(01:53):
of black, brown, indigenous bodies in our community.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Referend To Jones gave her own perspective as a local
atlant with deep ties to the city.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So we are here as faith leaders today and we
are here to say, Mayor Dickens, if you didn't hear
us the first time, we are here once again to
let you know that we don't want cop City. This
is our community, this is our land. I am a
daughter of East Atlanta. I still live in East Atlanta.
(02:26):
I don't want cop City. My granny owns a home
that she's been in for almost fifty years in the
heart of East Atlanta Village. She does not want cop City.
My neighbor across the street does not want cop City.
The teachers at my daughter's school do not want Cop City.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
She also addressed the outside agitator's narrative that police and
media have continued to craft against force defenders, including by
only arresting and charging people thought to be from out
of town at the music festival that previous night.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So we're here today to make sure that we ring
the alarm and dispel the false narrative that it's outside
agitators who don't want this. We know that this is
the rhetoric that's been going on ever since abolition began,
that it's outside agitators. They said slaves didn't want to
be free, but it was white people from the North
who wanted it. That's a lie. They said that black
(03:21):
people in the South didn't want civil rights, but it
was white people from the North. That's a lie. Today
they are claiming that the black people love Cop City.
It's outside agitators from elsewhere, and that again is a lie.
Simply because the police have chosen to systematically arrest people
from out of state doesn't mean that what they're saying
(03:45):
is the truth.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Reverend leo'she addressed to other faith leaders and asked them
to join in their calls to stop the cop City project.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
We local Atlantic clergy and religious leaders representing diverse communities
call on clergy, religious leaders and people of faith and
moral conscience across this nation and in solidarity with local
Atlanta leaders, to stop cop City, stop the swap, and
defend the Atlanta forests. Wilani People's part. Today, we're gathered
(04:17):
for this press conference and we will be delivering a
letter to Atlanta City Council. But we invite you to
continue in this faithful work that we are doing and
contribute wherever you find your space in this growing movement.
We call on clergy religious leaders, who are a moral
authority in our society, to use your power in support
(04:39):
of the forest protectors. We are deeply concerned for the
greater Atlanta community and the implications for the future of
public safety in the United States if Copsuity moves forward.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
At the press conference, the coalition presented a letter to
the City Council, signed by over two hundred clergy members.
Reverend Leoshe also read it aloud.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Despite a record breaking amount of public comment opposing the facility,
Atlanta City councils still passed legislation to build Copcity. We
are troubled by leadership that stops acting on the will
of the people and aligns itself instead with corporate money
and the dominant power structure. Urged on by the message
(05:23):
of peace and compassion in all our faiths, we deplore
escalating militarization by city and state government, most recently since
the police killing of Rayshard Brooks here in twenty twenty
by the Atlanta Police Department and Tortugita January eighteenth of
this year by Georgia Patrol. We applaud the rising consciousness
(05:47):
and the need to protect humans and the more than
human by resisting police violence everywhere. And may I add
that in the face of the violent raid that took
place last night, as city residents gathered in solidarity to
defend this forest, that is an example of the militarization
that we are calling out. Through violence and greed, these
(06:10):
lands have been subjected to centuries of abuse, from the
forced removal of indigenous communities, to serving as a plantation
for enslaved African labor, to the site of the old
Atlanta prison honor Farm in the twentieth century that produced
immense profits for the prison system.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Today, the sounds of berg.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Song from the forest canopy live alongside the sound of
gunfire and the adjacent APD firing range.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
We are troubled.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
By the commodification of community, land, water, and air on
which all of us depend. We are profoundly troubled by
the use of military tactics and escalated legal charges on
members of our community, suppressing legitimate resistance, while at the
same time clearcutting the forest trees despite not having the
(07:04):
appropriate permits. The lands and the people of Atlanta have
suffered violence for too long. We say no more. We
declare with faith, commitment and hope that this land will
be a part of healing and repair. We Atlanta clergy,
religious leaders, and all of those across the nation and
(07:26):
world who are in agreement join our voices with calling
for the following, a complete stop of the cop City
project and cancelation of the Atlanta Police Foundation's lease, dropping
all charges against forest defenders and protesters. We demand an
independent investigation into the uses of domestic terrorism charges. We
(07:50):
demand an independent investigation into the killing of Manuel Tehran Tortugita.
We speak their name, for which recently release video footage
of the event suggests there was lying and deceit surrounding
the incident on part of law enforcement in their initial
reporting of the incident.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
The Muskogee elder Miko Chabbon, Colonel spoke at the press
conference and called for a land back and for the
Muskogee people to return and remtreat the Wilani Forest in
community with the black and brown residents of the area.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Our ancestors lived here for over thirteen thousand years, and
if you're to do the math correctly, this country that
we now call the United States is somewhere in the
neighborhood of two hundred and forty just over nearly two
years ago. I came here to the Rilawni Forest. I
came here with my own family, my own children were
some of my elders, to just share a little bit
(08:47):
about how this territoryiness land feels to us as Muskogee people, because,
let it be known today, it was not our choice
to leave here. We did go to war to protect
these areas. We did go through much to protect these areas,
only to be forced to leave here under military occupation,
but also to be forced to leave here after treachery,
(09:09):
after illegally lands were taken from us. This is our homeland,
my ancestors for generation upon generation, for millennia, are buried
on the very ground that you walk on every day.
And I think we have a say in how we
should live as a society in this day and time.
And so in this moment, our hope is to be
(09:29):
able to come back, to rematriate, to take our lives
back and to the intimacy that we once had with
everything that grows here in what you now call the
state of Georgia, because no matter who we are and
where we come from, we have to have air, we
have to have water, we have to have the elements
of this earth to take care of us. Regardless of
what we think. We're dependent on this Earth's mother, and
(09:53):
she has been faithful in taking care of us. It's
us that has not been faithful in respecting her. Hope
is that this earth is not destroyed before we even
have a chance to come back, that lives aren't destroyed
before we have a chance to come back. So today,
in whatever way, I come here to join the choruses
(10:13):
of voices that you hear all around you saying what
is going on now is a violence against all of creation.
What is going on now bringing death and harm and
hurt is a violence against all of creation, and we
stand in solidarity as Muskogee people. I stand in solidarity
(10:34):
with the voices that we hear of those tenets, those
persons who live in the land now. But my hope
is now, at this moment in time, that somehow we
can change the trajectory of our species and go into
a direction where we can value each other, and we
can stop the criminalizing of descent. We should be able
(10:58):
to say no, the increasing of the militarized forces out
there does not ever create peace. It only creates harm,
and it only harms those that are most vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
That's the prayer that I carry today. Reverend Darcy Jarrett
joined in the call for stewardship of the Wallani Forest
to be returned to the Muscogee people.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
City Schools of Decatur has a statement of solidarity an
acknowledgment of harms to cab County and the City of Atlanta.
We call on you to make good on these words,
to give the land back to our indigenous siblings, so
that they, as they have stated and will do and
(11:41):
always have done, work in collaboration with the black and
brown community right there near where the site is, outside
of the Wilawni Forest. The City of Atlanta is ready
to lease this land at just ten dollars an acre. Instead,
give this land and to the native inhabitants. Repatriate this
(12:03):
land to the people to whom is their sacred call,
to defend and work a community with the black and
brown communities that are there. We call on you, Atlanta
City Council, to be the moral compass and to not
just halt the building of this structure, but to repatriate
(12:25):
the land to the sovereign Muscogee Nation, the sacred keepers
of this land. May it be so amen.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Finally, Matthew Johnson spoke about the worrying amount of police
repression and violence the movement has already seen.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
We're projecting by the end of the day, there will
be forty people that have domestic terrorists and charges, many
of which just for being in a parking lot. I
don't know how anybody can accept this when you have
a projected forty people that are committed of domestic terrorism,
not one dead body. Meanwhile, we can't even show the
(13:05):
bruise on the police officer that was allegedly shot at,
but our friends' ashes. We have the ashes of a
friend that we will spread. We can no longer accept
this as a people as at lanterns. If we can't
figure out a way to fix public safety without lacking
(13:27):
tons of black kids up in the blackest city in America,
every person in that building needs to step down. If
we can't do it here, we can't do it anywhere.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Both myself and Matt from the Atlanta Community Press Collective
were at the press conference and we met up after
to discuss the events of the day. During the press conference,
some of the media's line of questioning was very much
like aligned with the types of narratives being put out
by police in relation to the events that previous night,
the Sunday Direct Action and Music festival. I think it's
(14:01):
also worth noting that the people at the clergy event
did not openly like demonize the actions that people chose
to take on Sunday, and it was it was very
much like the media definitely gives them opportunities to try
to throw people under the bus, and that did not happen.
Speaker 7 (14:17):
Yeah all, And we've seen that all throughout the week.
Every every chance that the media is trying to throw
somebody to like cause dissension or or divide amongst the
movement has been really handily deflected by anyone who who's
come across it, and the clergy did not just a
(14:37):
good job of like not falling into that trap, but
of actually pointing out how that line of thinking was
like missing the point and where the true violence was
coming from.
Speaker 8 (14:51):
And why are Victorian people engaging and private coming from
other states.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
The reality of it is that the ones who are
engaged in violence are the police, and they're from right
here in Atlanta, Georgia. You got APD, you got Georgia
State Police, you got GBI, you got Georgia State troopers,
you got everybody except the martyr police who are engaging
in violence and terrorism against the people who are standing
(15:18):
against this illegal land swap. So I would suggest that
the next time you decide that you are going to
bring up your police rhetoric that you get from whichever
police source, you go ahead and discuss that with them.
Because we don't know what they're doing. But what we
do know is what we're doing and what we see from.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Them that we know.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I know when I get hit by an officer. I
know when I see a mother with a child begging
to be let up off the ground because her children
are with her. I know when I see officers pointing
a rifle inside a bouncy house.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
If I could just say, I'd like to just bring
up a story. Initially, the colonizers that came onto this
land attempted to use the indigenous folks as their slaves. However,
the indigenous folks knew the land so they could get away. Now,
(16:12):
when you ask me about why is it that you
keep catching people that aren't from here that might not
reflect the people that are actually involved in their resistance. God,
bless you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
After the press conference, people from the Clergy Coalition marched
to the front door and entered City Hall, before making
it upstairs to sign up for public comment during the
city Council meeting.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Hie, we shall not be moved.
Speaker 9 (16:43):
Fine for now, we shall not be mole.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Just like the street.
Speaker 10 (16:51):
Pleased by wall, we shall not.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Ev The large group of the clergy and the people
gathered for the interfaith Coalition are now moving through City Hall.
There's a whole bunch of cops here that looks relatively
nervous about the easily sized group of people. The scary
Christians are now invading City Hall lookout.
Speaker 7 (17:20):
So usually in city Hall there are several APD officers
who you know, just kind of hang out. But while
the clergy are walking up to city Hall, you can
look out and you there is APD on every corner.
And then you enter into city Hall and there are
clusters of APD. There are I think four floors to
city Hall. There are clusters of APD on three sides
(17:41):
of every floor of city Hall.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
After an unexpectedly long awards and proclamations ceremony, the public
comment section of the city council meeting finally began.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I'm standing here today with the Faith Coalition.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
We are clergy and faith leaders.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
We are citizens, and we are protectors of the land
that doesn't belong to us, but belongs to God. We
are deeply concerned for our community members, for ourselves, and
implications for the future of public safety in the United
States if this cop city development goes forward. We are
(18:22):
asking for all people of faith, those of you who
sit on council, regardless of your tradition or background, and
those who stand with moral conscience, to stop the cop
city project. My faith convicts me and tells all of
us that there is a better way. We have a prophetic,
(18:42):
moral imagination and opportunity here to do something different in Atlanta,
to do something different for the South. Finally, we're asking
for a community process. A community process. Let us come
together with moral imagination to envision how the Lani River
forests can be the heart and lungs of community wellness
(19:04):
and healing. Not more militarization of police. We want a
process that centers the voice and needs of Muskoge leaders
and community members, our indigenous siblings, incarcerated folks and surrounding prisons,
families and neighbors who live in cross proximity to the
firing range and under police surveillance.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
We want holistic.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Community safety, clean water, tree canopies, a future for every
single one of our children. May it be so.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Someone from the Muscogee Creek Reservation in Oklahoma spoke about
the desire to return to their homeland.
Speaker 10 (19:40):
The Miko of our Hellobi ceremonial grounds back home in
Oklahoma has come here where our original fire was started,
and then it was taken all the way to Oklahoma,
and now we want to bring it back to our
land and we want to start those fires again. Well,
when we come back, we need a land to come.
(20:00):
This is my first time coming back to visit my homelands.
I wanted to visit here where my ancestors are, as
a spiritual and personal journey. I didn't want to come
here to try to fight the violence that I'm hearing.
What I'm hearing is from the residence is they need
investments in housing and public spaces, and not investment in
(20:23):
further militarized policing. They want investment in the well being
of incarcerated and not further violent incarceration, but the well
being of the community members. Thank you, Moto Chichatis.
Speaker 8 (20:37):
I turned seventy last week and I've lived in Atlanta
my whole life. I'm not an outsider, and I am
here to say to you that I find cop City
to be an abomination. My husband is a pastor of
a church a couple of miles from here, and he
could not be here today. He's out of town, but
(20:58):
he stands with me with these comments. The people who
have spoken before me have said the things I would say,
but I would like to say that I pretty much
agree with every single thing they have said about this
insanity that you all are calling a police safety training facility.
So I think you need to just cancel it, start
(21:21):
having some real conversations with the people of this city
to solve the real problems in a way that will
actually be effective. And this facility is not going to
be it. And the mayor's proposed task force is just
one more way to try to propagandize us to believe
that this is good for us, when we're not stupid
and we know it's just lipstick.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
On a pig.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And if you heart in your heart, be reminded of
the story of another pharaoh who had a very hard heart,
who would not free the people of God, who would
not lead them to their land. You know what happened
in that story. Don't think that you will not so
for the same fate. Don't think that the infrastructure of
this so called Black Mecca will not come toppling over,
(22:06):
because it will.
Speaker 7 (22:08):
There are a couple like things to note about how
City Council public comment works. City Council doesn't tend to
pay attention to them. Essensibly, the only one who pays
attention is City Council President Doug Shipman, because it is
his job to call time and to call up the
next person. But you know, City councilors will like step
in and out of the room, get something to eat
(22:29):
during the seventeen hours of public comment for cop City,
like one of them held a press conference.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
There are two council members notoriously bad at paying attention
to public comment. Dustin Hillis who is the committee chair
for the Public Safety Legal Administration Committee. Basically he's in
charge of police. And the other is Mary Norwood, who
represents Buckhead and has what I would describe as ontologically
evil vibes. Buckhead is the northern, primarily white neighborhood in
(22:58):
Atlanta that is wanted to from the city, which in
Atlanta has very uncomfortable segregation and redlining parallels. But despite
not paying attention during public comment, these two in particular,
both paid extra attention after public comment when Police Chief
Darren Scherbaum gave testimony on what happened the night previous.
Speaker 9 (23:20):
Were there any firefighter or police Citty employee entries yesterday's.
Speaker 11 (23:26):
Event, because mamerhillis there was not. We're very fortunate that
that was the outcome. We're fortunate that there was no injuries.
Speaker 9 (23:32):
If this continues, do we have the ability to deploy
even greater force to quill this. You know, the millions
of damage, millions of dollars of damage to public and
private properties.
Speaker 11 (23:49):
We will make adjustments as those that used various tactics.
Yesterday was an escalation. We had not seen this large
number of individuals engaged in this activity. In the aggressive
manner in which the officers were attacked was a significant
change from what we'd seen before when it generally had
been setting properly on fire. We'd seen police cars set
(24:09):
on fire when those busters, but this was started as
an attack against individuals, men and women who are employees
of this city, So that was an escalation. Council Member
hillis that we have already made adjustments for both within
our capability as well as with our partners.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Throughout to Sheerbaum's testimony, it was interesting the degree to
which the Chief framed Sunday's direct action as primarily being
targeted against officers and not the destruction of equipment and
machinery at the North Gate. From the videos that APD
themselves released of the incident, it's clear that engagement with
(24:43):
the police was limited to keeping officers at bay as
construction equipment was targeted, and despite the continued referring of
fireworks as quote unquote mortars or explosives. As the chief
himself admitted, no officers were harmed during the direct action.
(25:08):
In a later episode, we'll hear more of Chief Sheerbaum's
explanation of Sunday Night's events, as it gives insight into
the police's own surveillance capabilities and their ability to respond
quickly to direct actions. But until then, back to the
events of Monday, March sixth. After the city council meeting,
I dressed up in the gayest little outfit that I
(25:30):
had with me and went back to the woods for
the first time since Sunday night for Perhum. Initially, people
were very cautious when entering the woods again, but as
the night went on, more and more people started to
pour into the forest, with some choosing to return to
their camp. Later that night, I enjoyed an experimental noise
show in the living room, probably to the detriment of
(25:53):
people trying to sleep in the area. I went to
the Perham in the woods. I got to share my
memory of the Veggietail's ester story starring the tickle monsters.
I got to bond with a few expangelicals about that,
so that was fine. Then there was an experimental noise
show in the forest, and really, I think it actually
(26:13):
is worth talking about because this was the first time.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
People return to the forest.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, this was the first time that people like returned
to the forest in mass since Sunday, and you started
to kind of feel people's energy get reinvigorated. The woods
became a place again that people were able to like
be in and feel like they were able to be
in community in the woods again.
Speaker 7 (26:33):
And that is in keeping with sort of how this
movement has always responded to what we I guess could
call a loss, right.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Like twenty three people getting arrested in charge is is
a great loss.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
Yeah, and the bounce back period is pretty quick, Like
the resiliency is continual and always strengthening. Every time that
you know, the repression grows, like it does seem like
the resiliency grows with it.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
People were not scared away from the woods. People still
still were like, no, this is something I care about.
I am still going to be in the woods. I'm
still going to defend these woods. And you kind of
have like there's always this essence of like fear kind
of kind of underlying whenever you're like in the Wollani Forest,
because you know, people have been arrested and charged for
(27:18):
laying in a hammock like that with another defendant, with
another defendant, and like, so you know that it is
it is fundamentally a risky place to be, but people
think the potential cost is worth it, Like they will
they continue to be here because they know this is
a winnable fight and they know that it is worth
it to defend these woods. Early Tuesday morning, a few
(27:41):
stop Coop City banner drops happened throughout this city. Two
people were detained by police during one of these banner drops,
but were later released with a traffic citation after being
interrogated separately and extensively photographed by law enforcement officials only
identified as quote Georgia Police and home Land Security unquote.
(28:02):
Tuesday was the start of a series of non violent
direct actions that were being launched around downtown and midtown.
Tuesday morning, I followed a small group that went to
the headquarters of Norfolk Southern, one of the Atlanta Police
Foundation's financial contributors and noted enemy of Ohio.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
They entered the lobby and it's a very small group,
but like I think half of it was.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
It was like five people and another five like press people. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (28:29):
So they enter and they read aloud a letter to
Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, calling forward investment
of Norfolk Southern from Copcity, and immediately they are met
with a security guard screaming like go you're get out
of the lobby. Leave, You're you're being criminally or you're
being trespassed. You have to leave. One of the other
(28:51):
security guards runs around with cell phone camera and like
shoves it in everybody's faces, reaching rather rudely over you
to get my face, and.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
They got very close to me and entering the Norfolk
Southern building, the.
Speaker 12 (29:08):
Building, please, it's playing a horrible in the city. Can
(29:30):
leave the building.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
And so the whole thing lasts like less than five minutes,
maybe ride about five minutes when they finished reading the letter,
Like all they asked was that the letter go to
the CEO.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
While people were inside the headquarters, security called n S Police,
which is the Norfolk Southern Police, who are legally allowed
to arrest people anyone.
Speaker 7 (30:03):
But nobody was arrested at that non violent direct action.
The whole thing was over pretty quickly, and you know,
as we were walking out. We saw like the the
a force of Norfolk Southern Police like swarm kind of
the exterior of the campus and like keep an eye
out on things.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
And then we moved over to Woodriff Park, which was
the meeting place for these non violent direct actions that
happened about every every day at noon starting on starting
on Tuesday. It's Tuesday, March seventh, around noon, there's about
fifty or so people gathered in Woodriff Park who are
heading out and marching to go stop by two of
(30:38):
the Atlanta Police Foundation corporate funders.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
We roll up and I think at that point they
were like twenty is protesters.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
It was.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
It started off very small. There was no police, like
no real visible police presence. There were like maybe a
cruiser or two like kind of around and actually start
to gather and kind of talk about like what their
plan is for the day, which was just too march
around to three different sites. They wanted the eight and
T Building, the Georgia Pacific Building, and GSU Georgia State University.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
They are now leaving Woodriff Park. They got to Georgia
Pacific one of the cop City financial backers, without much
incident and without much in terms of visible police presence.
People called on Mayor Dickens, who is the chair of
the board of directors for Georgia Pacific, to cancel the
Atlanta Police Foundation lease of the land that cop city
(31:34):
is slated to be built on.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Mayor Dickens, we want you to cancel this lake.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
We know that you have the authority to do so.
They finished up that Georgia Pacific, they set up a
little vigil for Torti Guita.
Speaker 7 (31:46):
And from Georgia Pacific they began their trek to the
AT and T building.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
They left a little vigil for Torti Ghita in front
of the Georgia Pacific Center and the group of like
more than fifty people are continuing to march north. Police
eight to ten police officers are directly behind them, and
the whole bunch of police cars are blocking Peach Tree
(32:11):
along the path to AT and D. Was the APF's
headquarters just across the street, and as the crowd approached
this intersection, the amount of police ballooned massively in the
block around the Atlantic Police Foundation headquarters. There's got to
be about thirty to forty officers stationed blocking off the
entrance to the APF and also just like following the
(32:33):
crowd around as they're as they're marching through the sidewalks.
There's definitely over god, there's I think around seventy five
officers to play in this area right now. The number
keeps growing as we start walking down different sidewalks and
different streets, you just see more officers that are already stationed.
Speaker 7 (32:53):
There are fifty activists and what certainly over one hundreds,
and we're probably between hundred and hondred and twenty police
officers started marching not like behind, not in front, but
directly beside the march, sort of pinning the march to
the wall and like essentially kettling the march.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
There was police station in front, there was police station behind,
and police stationed on the side. It was surrounding the
surrounding like these fifty people who were simply walking on
the sidewalk stumbling upon a new group of officers. Got
to be about one hundred officers in this area right now.
At one point a police vehicle was just parked on
the sidewalk, completely blocking it. During this entire time, police
(33:35):
were blocking all of the traffic in these intersections and.
Speaker 7 (33:38):
Roads, driving wrong way up one way, like just you know,
doing police things.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah, a Doorida State University canine unit. This blocking off
the entire sidewalk next to a Fulton County Sheriff's vehicle.
They're trying to make it impossible for people to actually
move on the sidewalk. But for the most part, people
have been able to move around the police and keep
their movement going instead of just stalling in one spot
(34:04):
or like trying to partically confront what is now like
hundreds one hundreds of law enforcement officers from Fulton County
Sheriffs and Atlanta Police Department and even like Georgia State
University Police. So the group is split up in between
two streets right now because people are trying to follow
the crossing signals because otherwise police are going to tackle
(34:24):
and violently assault people. No one was arrested, People marched
to their perspective locations.
Speaker 7 (34:30):
People very pointedly kept to laws. There was a couple
of times when like the crosswalk changed and the group
kind of had to split. They would stay and wait
until the crosswalk went back to walk, and then crossover
and join.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
It's so funny that the cops are so insistent if
you stepped on the streets, you're going to get arrested
and make sure people stay on the side of walks.
But the result of that is that all the cops
are standing in the street and they're blocking off like
miles of traffic downtown Right now, people just arrived at
the fifty one Peachtree Center aff new AT and T
building in downtown Atlanta. Police were already stationed in front
(35:04):
of the AT and T building, so there wasn't much
to do. After a brief speech talking about AT and
T's contributions to the Police Foundation and Cop City, the
crowd moved on. Now people are turning west in the
opposite direction from the AT and T headquarters, heading back
into the Woodruff Park area where this march began. Police
(35:27):
with long guns here. Finally, the crowd stopped at Georgia
State University and talked about GSU's connections to the Atlanta
Police Foundation. What is of note for this action, and
really all of the actions that happened the next few days,
is not what the protesters did. It's the police's disproportionate
response to just fifty people walking on the sidewalk, chanting
(35:48):
and giving short speeches outside of businesses tied to APF
with a.
Speaker 7 (35:54):
Small line of officers in front of GSU. They gave
their last round of speeches and sort of just first for.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
The day before, we rep today and give these clouds
something else to go do.
Speaker 7 (36:06):
We will be out here.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
We won't be out here for the rest of the week,
for the rest of the month, for the year.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
We won't fight us here.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
We wait.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Some of the police are now grouping up and opening
up the sidewalk so people can actually leave. It seems
officers were in fact instructed to make arrests during this action,
but for some reason did not follow through on those orders.
According to scanner audio from Atlanta Police Department's SWAT team.
Speaker 6 (36:43):
That's about the of them. The problem is they've been
telling them to make a risk, but also is not
making a risk.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I guess they weren't supposed to.
Speaker 9 (36:53):
I don't know, but I'm with that.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
We'll just hold what we got and fawn is needed.
Extensive police activity continued later that night. At around five
thirty to six pm, police started staging around the forest
in a way that usually indicates that a raid is forthcoming.
Words spread around the recovering encampment that police could be
(37:17):
preparing for a raid.
Speaker 7 (37:26):
So the initial reports were like that there were fifty
police officers staged at Key Road and ready to go,
and then the Dacab County Swat starts to roll up
at the fire station, and I would say a fair
amount of like panic starts to set it at camp.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Multiple multiple police copters are getting flown overhead, multiple different
SWAT teams are being brought in. At least like three
or four different agencies are our stationing officers around the woods.
I believe it's estimated that at least one hundred and
twenty police officers were or were being staged in the
area directly surrounding the forest and in the area by
(38:06):
the power line cut on Key Road.
Speaker 7 (38:08):
And it should be said that you know, up until
this point, the police have never brought in that many
resources to any protest action that I'm aware of, and
not come in and engaged. So I was with a
group offsite who like immediately began to fear, like you know,
for they wouldn't be able to get back to their
camp size, they wouldn't be able to get their their gear,
(38:29):
they wouldn't be able to get their medication, and that,
from what I understand, was the general vibe around, but
nothing happened.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Nothing seemed to happen, and then at around seven police
started to almost like express confusion on what was going on,
and then everyone else expressed confusion for why the police
were confused. And we think we've kind of put together
what may have happened, So Clark is what is suspected
(38:58):
of going down here.
Speaker 7 (39:00):
So the one thing that police don't understand and probably
will never understand is humor. Now they become the butt
of the joke often, but they don't understand comedy. So
at seven o'clock that evening was scheduled Comedy in the Forest.
And from what we've gathered, the police thought that the
Comedy in the Forest event was going to be a
(39:20):
cover for another Sunday night like action.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
So this event was scheduled on the public Defend. The
Atlanta Forest calendar that anyone can look at online is
this Comedy in the Woods event for people to tell
jokes around a campfire. And I guess they thought it
was like it was like this event that was like
a red herring so that people could then go do
(39:46):
violent militancy in around the woods. So when seven o'clock
came and went like police were expecting people to arrive
at the woods or something, and that just didn't happen
because turns out, a few minutes before seven o'clock, this
comedy event was canceled for like unrelated reasons. The organizer
had had things come up, So this event just didn't happen.
(40:06):
But there still was comedy in the woods. It just
was that the police wasted probably over one hundred thousand
dollars mobilizing over one hundred officers. And I mean, obviously,
I think some people in the woods were you know,
had some frustration that that that you know, they experienced
this fear of this possibly incoming ray that then resulted
(40:29):
in there being nothing. I think it's always important to
when people are relaying information, they relay information that is
known without like unadue speculation. So like it is a
fact to say that there's over a hundred cops stationing
by the woods, and they've never had that many cops
there before without doing some sort of raid or some
sort of some sort of like activity in the forest.
Speaker 7 (40:50):
And part of what I've heard go on since then was,
you know, some very generative conversations about how they're going
to take into account like this. This new paradigm developed
that night, and I think that again speaks to sort
of just how the movement continues to develop and grow
and like you know, handle new new challenges and shifts.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
So with the forest camp still intact, the week of
action continued on as planned, with another downtown nonviolent direct
action that next morning.
Speaker 7 (41:21):
So Wednesday noon is a lot smaller of direct action
than the day before.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
It starts with like a dozen people. It slowly grows
to like a few dozen, but yeah, it started extremely,
extremely small. So this was one difference from Tuesday is
that when we arrived, police already had a visible presence
in downtown, stationed around Woodriff Park. So a group of
people just launch from Woodriff Park. They kind of split
off in different different little sub subgroups. Lots of people
(41:49):
are just stationed outside of Marta stops handing out flyers,
and that is what people are doing right now. Police
seem relatively confused and are trying to like mobilized to
different areas where they feel like something might happen, but
it's just people handing out flyers.
Speaker 7 (42:08):
And they decided to split into groups and engage in
like just some typical outreache activity that you would see,
you know, from any group, like just passing out flyers
and pamphlets and attempting, from what I saw, to have
like one on one conversations with anyone who wanted to.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
So this this group that it broke off into these
smaller subgroups. The group that we kind of accompanied stationed
themselves around some Marta stops around I believe it was
like them, it was the Peachtree Lata station. Yeah, so
they stationed at the at the like the three different
exits or entrances for that, just just handing out flyers,
handing out leaflets, trying to you know, talk to anybody
(42:42):
who walks by. Another group of people standing outside of
a public transit spot handing out flyers, probably like I
don't know, four or five other small, small groups doing
similar things throughout downtown, which means police have a lot
more places to be as opposed to just following one
big group.
Speaker 7 (43:00):
The group that we followed had its own police presence
follow it, and then when they split into three more groups,
each group had its own police presence follow it, and
police stuck to the protesters the entire time. And of course,
like there's white transport vans that are full of cops
kind of driving by.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Big white van with police officers just showed up across
the street. Army green Tan swat vehicle just parked a
block away from the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. There was
an Atlanta swat vehicle parked outside of the Hooters. Totally
normal response.
Speaker 7 (43:34):
Totally normal response. And so the leafleting goes on for
you know, like forty five minutes, and then all of
the groups start to gather together conveniently with the group
that like we had embedded with.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
All right, there's actually a pretty decent number of people
gathered here for the flywering event today. You know, normal
police response to people handing out flyers, just fifty officers
and a swat team. But yeah, there's probably a point
like two or three dozen people that have kind of
all converged together. They started off very small, people were
very very spread out. They they splintered off into little, little,
(44:10):
smaller groups. But now they've all kind of coalesced together
back again. So all the little subgroups kind of meet
up on Andrew Jung and Peach Tree, right next to
the Hooters and the Hard Rock Cafe.
Speaker 7 (44:22):
This area is like the business district. So in the
middle of the day, it's like really busy, it's a
fairly like good spot to pass out leaflets.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
So they are passing out these leaflets. Pedestrians are still
able to like walk through the sidewalks. It's pretty it's
pretty chill. And then APD approaches the crowd, like the
APD has already been around this area. There's there's this
vehicle across the street watching people hand out flyers. But
then Lieutenant Neil Welch approaches the crowd and gives them
(44:53):
a dispersal order.
Speaker 13 (44:55):
Okay, alright, so I'm out of Neil Welch, Police Officers,
City of Atlanta. I hereby declare that being on this sidewalk,
you are obstructing or repeating the normal and reasonable movement
a pedestrian traffic and violation of Atlanta City Ordinance. Okay,
in the name of the people is say to Georgia,
(45:17):
I hereby command that all present in the sidewalk, all
present here in the sidewalk, immediately exit the street or
the roadway or sidewalk. If you do not do so,
you may be detained or arrested. Should you fail to
exit the sidewalk, in accordace with this lawful command, you
shall be in violation of Section one five zero two
(45:40):
sixty six substructing pedestrian traffic, which prohibits standing or being
on any street, roadway, or sidewalk in a manner to
obstruct or impede the normal or reasonable pedestrian traffic.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Cops threatened arrest and detainment. They claimed that people were
blocking the sidewalk, which they absolutely weren't. I was walking freely,
as was all of like downtown pedestrian traffic. They were
not blocking anything. This is uh, this is pretty silly, utterly,
utterly ridiculous response to people handing out flyers. So they
(46:15):
were told they cannot be on the sidewalk. Obviously they
can't be on the street. Where are you allowed to
protest if not the sidewalk or the street. Seemed like
very like flimsy legal footing. But obviously they police can
arrest anyone they want at any time, for any reason.
So people decide to move, They cross over the street,
they walk like a block north, they cross the street again,
(46:37):
and they move on to this part of the sidewalk
that is like really large, like a massive, massive open
open section that right in.
Speaker 7 (46:44):
Front of the mall, so it's it's meant to like
have a bunch of people passed by it.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
So people continue to hand out flyers.
Speaker 7 (46:51):
While this is happening, there's another group who comes in
to the side of p Street Center mall and enters
the mall. You find Mayor Andre Dickens. There are a
couple boards in Atlanta that stipulate the mayor is like
the head of the board, and this is one of them,
and it meets in Peatree.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
Center Mall as one does. So the mayor is having
a meeting in the mall the.
Speaker 7 (47:16):
Office spaces, you know, sort of above the mall.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
And this group of people from the Muscogie Nation enter
and try to meet up with the mayor to hand
off a letter objection, objection.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
We have a letter being delivered from the Muscogee Creek
Nation on behalf of Muscogee Creek spiritual leadership and opposition
to copsidy.
Speaker 10 (47:37):
I came all the way on the trail of tears
to deliver this letter to you, folks. We want you
to know that the contemporary Muscogee people are now making
their journey back to our homelands, and hereby give notice
to Mayor Andrew Dickens, the Atlanta City Council, the Atlanta
Police Department, the Atlanta Police found the Dacob County Sheriff's
(48:02):
Office and so called copp City, that you must immediately
vacate Muscogee homelands and cease violence and policing of Indigenous
and Black people and Muscogee lands. We lived as stewards
and in relationship to this land for more than thirteen
thousand years until the illegitimate State of Georgia negotiated with
(48:24):
the Tyrant Andrew Jackson for the militarized for the militarized
force removal of Muscogee and Cherokee relatives to Indian territories.
Mayor Dickens, can I give this letter to you? He
got one, Mayor, we want to talk to you about
(48:47):
our homeland, the Muskogee Creek people.
Speaker 7 (48:50):
Three indigenous activists along with Kamal Franklin arrive and they
find the mayor. They enter the board meeting and they
begin to read this letter from the Muscogi Nation allowed
and in the letter, it essentially says that Atlanta is
being evicted out of the Louis Lanni Forest and the
most Scogee people are going to return and reclaim their
(49:11):
ancestral land. Mayor Dickens, in true mayor fashion, bolts away
from this, running through an exit door, which is then
like blocked by a guard which I think that has
its own set of legal issues, essentially just ignoring them
over his shoulder. He calls out, I've got a copy
of the letter and hides just completely trying to escape
(49:36):
what is not a good look for him.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
The Atlanta Police Department APEX Swatch team was called to
the mall, and right as the activists were able to exit,
the special police units rushed into the building, finding no one.
By now, the police repression during this week of action
far exceeded police activity during any of the prior weeks
of action, and this trend would continue as the week
(50:02):
entered its last few days. The next episode will wrap
up our coverage for the week, as well as contain
a bit more analysis of the police repression and the
fallout of Sunday's direct action. But then there will be
a fifth bonus episode that gives an overview of what's
happened in the Malani Forest in the intervening two months.
See You on the other Side Music Festival Audio courtesy
(50:29):
of Unicorn.
Speaker 10 (50:30):
Riot It Could Happen Here as a production of cool
Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit
our website coolzonemedia dot com or check us out on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for It could Happen Here, Updated
monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.
Come Monday morning, Basically no one was in the forest.
The police raid the night prior pushed out most of
the people gathered for the music festival and week of action,
and it was still unclear how the rest of the
week would now proceed. This Monday happened to be the
Jewish holiday Porum. Initially there were plans to have a
(00:26):
Perum celebration in the forest that evening, but it was
unknown if people would feel comfortable returning to the woods.
Welcome back to it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis.
This is episode three of my mini series covering the
March twenty twenty three Week of Action to defend the
Atlanta Forest. Monday, March sixth also happened to be the
(00:48):
day of an Atlanta City Council meeting, and the Stopcop
City Clergy coalition held a well attended press conference at
noon outside City Hall. Reverend on To Jones opened up
at the press conference by making the Clergy's position clear.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
We are the Faith Coalition against Cop City, and we
are here to again raise our voices so that Mayor
Andre Dickens and the members of the City Council of
Atlanta know that we will not stand for the atrocities
that have been occurring. We will not stand for cop
City to go forward. The community came out and made
(01:29):
public comment for over seventeen hours when given an opportunity,
and said emphatically, no, we don't want your cop City.
We don't want more repression of black people. We don't
want more polluted air, we don't want less green space
in our community. We don't want more policing and terrorizing
(01:53):
of black, brown, indigenous bodies in our community.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Referend To Jones gave her own perspective as a local
atlant with deep ties to the city.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So we are here as faith leaders today and we
are here to say, Mayor Dickens, if you didn't hear
us the first time, we are here once again to
let you know that we don't want cop City. This
is our community, this is our land. I am a
daughter of East Atlanta. I still live in East Atlanta.
(02:26):
I don't want cop City. My granny owns a home
that she's been in for almost fifty years in the
heart of East Atlanta Village. She does not want cop City.
My neighbor across the street does not want cop City.
The teachers at my daughter's school do not want Cop City.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
She also addressed the outside agitator's narrative that police and
media have continued to craft against force defenders, including by
only arresting and charging people thought to be from out
of town at the music festival that previous night.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So we're here today to make sure that we ring
the alarm and dispel the false narrative that it's outside
agitators who don't want this. We know that this is
the rhetoric that's been going on ever since abolition began,
that it's outside agitators. They said slaves didn't want to
be free, but it was white people from the North
who wanted it. That's a lie. They said that black
(03:21):
people in the South didn't want civil rights, but it
was white people from the North. That's a lie. Today
they are claiming that the black people love Cop City.
It's outside agitators from elsewhere, and that again is a lie.
Simply because the police have chosen to systematically arrest people
from out of state doesn't mean that what they're saying
(03:45):
is the truth.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Reverend leo'she addressed to other faith leaders and asked them
to join in their calls to stop the cop City project.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
We local Atlantic clergy and religious leaders representing diverse communities
call on clergy, religious leaders and people of faith and
moral conscience across this nation and in solidarity with local
Atlanta leaders, to stop cop City, stop the swap, and
defend the Atlanta forests. Wilani People's part. Today, we're gathered
(04:17):
for this press conference and we will be delivering a
letter to Atlanta City Council. But we invite you to
continue in this faithful work that we are doing and
contribute wherever you find your space in this growing movement.
We call on clergy religious leaders, who are a moral
authority in our society, to use your power in support
(04:39):
of the forest protectors. We are deeply concerned for the
greater Atlanta community and the implications for the future of
public safety in the United States if Copsuity moves forward.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
At the press conference, the coalition presented a letter to
the City Council, signed by over two hundred clergy members.
Reverend Leoshe also read it aloud.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Despite a record breaking amount of public comment opposing the facility,
Atlanta City councils still passed legislation to build Copcity. We
are troubled by leadership that stops acting on the will
of the people and aligns itself instead with corporate money
and the dominant power structure. Urged on by the message
(05:23):
of peace and compassion in all our faiths, we deplore
escalating militarization by city and state government, most recently since
the police killing of Rayshard Brooks here in twenty twenty
by the Atlanta Police Department and Tortugita January eighteenth of
this year by Georgia Patrol. We applaud the rising consciousness
(05:47):
and the need to protect humans and the more than
human by resisting police violence everywhere. And may I add
that in the face of the violent raid that took
place last night, as city residents gathered in solidarity to
defend this forest, that is an example of the militarization
that we are calling out. Through violence and greed, these
(06:10):
lands have been subjected to centuries of abuse, from the
forced removal of indigenous communities, to serving as a plantation
for enslaved African labor, to the site of the old
Atlanta prison honor Farm in the twentieth century that produced
immense profits for the prison system.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Today, the sounds of berg.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Song from the forest canopy live alongside the sound of
gunfire and the adjacent APD firing range.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
We are troubled.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
By the commodification of community, land, water, and air on
which all of us depend. We are profoundly troubled by
the use of military tactics and escalated legal charges on
members of our community, suppressing legitimate resistance, while at the
same time clearcutting the forest trees despite not having the
(07:04):
appropriate permits. The lands and the people of Atlanta have
suffered violence for too long. We say no more. We
declare with faith, commitment and hope that this land will
be a part of healing and repair. We Atlanta clergy,
religious leaders, and all of those across the nation and
(07:26):
world who are in agreement join our voices with calling
for the following, a complete stop of the cop City
project and cancelation of the Atlanta Police Foundation's lease, dropping
all charges against forest defenders and protesters. We demand an
independent investigation into the uses of domestic terrorism charges. We
(07:50):
demand an independent investigation into the killing of Manuel Tehran Tortugita.
We speak their name, for which recently release video footage
of the event suggests there was lying and deceit surrounding
the incident on part of law enforcement in their initial
reporting of the incident.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
The Muskogee elder Miko Chabbon, Colonel spoke at the press
conference and called for a land back and for the
Muskogee people to return and remtreat the Wilani Forest in
community with the black and brown residents of the area.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Our ancestors lived here for over thirteen thousand years, and
if you're to do the math correctly, this country that
we now call the United States is somewhere in the
neighborhood of two hundred and forty just over nearly two
years ago. I came here to the Rilawni Forest. I
came here with my own family, my own children were
some of my elders, to just share a little bit
(08:47):
about how this territoryiness land feels to us as Muskogee people, because,
let it be known today, it was not our choice
to leave here. We did go to war to protect
these areas. We did go through much to protect these areas,
only to be forced to leave here under military occupation,
but also to be forced to leave here after treachery,
(09:09):
after illegally lands were taken from us. This is our homeland,
my ancestors for generation upon generation, for millennia, are buried
on the very ground that you walk on every day.
And I think we have a say in how we
should live as a society in this day and time.
And so in this moment, our hope is to be
(09:29):
able to come back, to rematriate, to take our lives
back and to the intimacy that we once had with
everything that grows here in what you now call the
state of Georgia, because no matter who we are and
where we come from, we have to have air, we
have to have water, we have to have the elements
of this earth to take care of us. Regardless of
what we think. We're dependent on this Earth's mother, and
(09:53):
she has been faithful in taking care of us. It's
us that has not been faithful in respecting her. Hope
is that this earth is not destroyed before we even
have a chance to come back, that lives aren't destroyed
before we have a chance to come back. So today,
in whatever way, I come here to join the choruses
(10:13):
of voices that you hear all around you saying what
is going on now is a violence against all of creation.
What is going on now bringing death and harm and
hurt is a violence against all of creation, and we
stand in solidarity as Muskogee people. I stand in solidarity
(10:34):
with the voices that we hear of those tenets, those
persons who live in the land now. But my hope
is now, at this moment in time, that somehow we
can change the trajectory of our species and go into
a direction where we can value each other, and we
can stop the criminalizing of descent. We should be able
(10:58):
to say no, the increasing of the militarized forces out
there does not ever create peace. It only creates harm,
and it only harms those that are most vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
That's the prayer that I carry today. Reverend Darcy Jarrett
joined in the call for stewardship of the Wallani Forest
to be returned to the Muscogee people.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
City Schools of Decatur has a statement of solidarity an
acknowledgment of harms to cab County and the City of Atlanta.
We call on you to make good on these words,
to give the land back to our indigenous siblings, so
that they, as they have stated and will do and
(11:41):
always have done, work in collaboration with the black and
brown community right there near where the site is, outside
of the Wilawni Forest. The City of Atlanta is ready
to lease this land at just ten dollars an acre. Instead,
give this land and to the native inhabitants. Repatriate this
(12:03):
land to the people to whom is their sacred call,
to defend and work a community with the black and
brown communities that are there. We call on you, Atlanta
City Council, to be the moral compass and to not
just halt the building of this structure, but to repatriate
(12:25):
the land to the sovereign Muscogee Nation, the sacred keepers
of this land. May it be so amen.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Finally, Matthew Johnson spoke about the worrying amount of police
repression and violence the movement has already seen.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
We're projecting by the end of the day, there will
be forty people that have domestic terrorists and charges, many
of which just for being in a parking lot. I
don't know how anybody can accept this when you have
a projected forty people that are committed of domestic terrorism,
not one dead body. Meanwhile, we can't even show the
(13:05):
bruise on the police officer that was allegedly shot at,
but our friends' ashes. We have the ashes of a
friend that we will spread. We can no longer accept
this as a people as at lanterns. If we can't
figure out a way to fix public safety without lacking
(13:27):
tons of black kids up in the blackest city in America,
every person in that building needs to step down. If
we can't do it here, we can't do it anywhere.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Both myself and Matt from the Atlanta Community Press Collective
were at the press conference and we met up after
to discuss the events of the day. During the press conference,
some of the media's line of questioning was very much
like aligned with the types of narratives being put out
by police in relation to the events that previous night,
the Sunday Direct Action and Music festival. I think it's
(14:01):
also worth noting that the people at the clergy event
did not openly like demonize the actions that people chose
to take on Sunday, and it was it was very
much like the media definitely gives them opportunities to try
to throw people under the bus, and that did not happen.
Speaker 7 (14:17):
Yeah all, And we've seen that all throughout the week.
Every every chance that the media is trying to throw
somebody to like cause dissension or or divide amongst the
movement has been really handily deflected by anyone who who's
come across it, and the clergy did not just a
(14:37):
good job of like not falling into that trap, but
of actually pointing out how that line of thinking was
like missing the point and where the true violence was
coming from.
Speaker 8 (14:51):
And why are Victorian people engaging and private coming from
other states.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
The reality of it is that the ones who are
engaged in violence are the police, and they're from right
here in Atlanta, Georgia. You got APD, you got Georgia
State Police, you got GBI, you got Georgia State troopers,
you got everybody except the martyr police who are engaging
in violence and terrorism against the people who are standing
(15:18):
against this illegal land swap. So I would suggest that
the next time you decide that you are going to
bring up your police rhetoric that you get from whichever
police source, you go ahead and discuss that with them.
Because we don't know what they're doing. But what we
do know is what we're doing and what we see from.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Them that we know.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I know when I get hit by an officer. I
know when I see a mother with a child begging
to be let up off the ground because her children
are with her. I know when I see officers pointing
a rifle inside a bouncy house.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
If I could just say, I'd like to just bring
up a story. Initially, the colonizers that came onto this
land attempted to use the indigenous folks as their slaves. However,
the indigenous folks knew the land so they could get away. Now,
(16:12):
when you ask me about why is it that you
keep catching people that aren't from here that might not
reflect the people that are actually involved in their resistance. God,
bless you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
After the press conference, people from the Clergy Coalition marched
to the front door and entered City Hall, before making
it upstairs to sign up for public comment during the
city Council meeting.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Hie, we shall not be moved.
Speaker 9 (16:43):
Fine for now, we shall not be mole.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Just like the street.
Speaker 10 (16:51):
Pleased by wall, we shall not.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Ev The large group of the clergy and the people
gathered for the interfaith Coalition are now moving through City Hall.
There's a whole bunch of cops here that looks relatively
nervous about the easily sized group of people. The scary
Christians are now invading City Hall lookout.
Speaker 7 (17:20):
So usually in city Hall there are several APD officers
who you know, just kind of hang out. But while
the clergy are walking up to city Hall, you can
look out and you there is APD on every corner.
And then you enter into city Hall and there are
clusters of APD. There are I think four floors to
city Hall. There are clusters of APD on three sides
(17:41):
of every floor of city Hall.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
After an unexpectedly long awards and proclamations ceremony, the public
comment section of the city council meeting finally began.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I'm standing here today with the Faith Coalition.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
We are clergy and faith leaders.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
We are citizens, and we are protectors of the land
that doesn't belong to us, but belongs to God. We
are deeply concerned for our community members, for ourselves, and
implications for the future of public safety in the United
States if this cop city development goes forward. We are
(18:22):
asking for all people of faith, those of you who
sit on council, regardless of your tradition or background, and
those who stand with moral conscience, to stop the cop
city project. My faith convicts me and tells all of
us that there is a better way. We have a prophetic,
(18:42):
moral imagination and opportunity here to do something different in Atlanta,
to do something different for the South. Finally, we're asking
for a community process. A community process. Let us come
together with moral imagination to envision how the Lani River
forests can be the heart and lungs of community wellness
(19:04):
and healing. Not more militarization of police. We want a
process that centers the voice and needs of Muskoge leaders
and community members, our indigenous siblings, incarcerated folks and surrounding prisons,
families and neighbors who live in cross proximity to the
firing range and under police surveillance.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
We want holistic.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Community safety, clean water, tree canopies, a future for every
single one of our children. May it be so.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Someone from the Muscogee Creek Reservation in Oklahoma spoke about
the desire to return to their homeland.
Speaker 10 (19:40):
The Miko of our Hellobi ceremonial grounds back home in
Oklahoma has come here where our original fire was started,
and then it was taken all the way to Oklahoma,
and now we want to bring it back to our
land and we want to start those fires again. Well,
when we come back, we need a land to come.
(20:00):
This is my first time coming back to visit my homelands.
I wanted to visit here where my ancestors are, as
a spiritual and personal journey. I didn't want to come
here to try to fight the violence that I'm hearing.
What I'm hearing is from the residence is they need
investments in housing and public spaces, and not investment in
(20:23):
further militarized policing. They want investment in the well being
of incarcerated and not further violent incarceration, but the well
being of the community members. Thank you, Moto Chichatis.
Speaker 8 (20:37):
I turned seventy last week and I've lived in Atlanta
my whole life. I'm not an outsider, and I am
here to say to you that I find cop City
to be an abomination. My husband is a pastor of
a church a couple of miles from here, and he
could not be here today. He's out of town, but
(20:58):
he stands with me with these comments. The people who
have spoken before me have said the things I would say,
but I would like to say that I pretty much
agree with every single thing they have said about this
insanity that you all are calling a police safety training facility.
So I think you need to just cancel it, start
(21:21):
having some real conversations with the people of this city
to solve the real problems in a way that will
actually be effective. And this facility is not going to
be it. And the mayor's proposed task force is just
one more way to try to propagandize us to believe
that this is good for us, when we're not stupid
and we know it's just lipstick.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
On a pig.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And if you heart in your heart, be reminded of
the story of another pharaoh who had a very hard heart,
who would not free the people of God, who would
not lead them to their land. You know what happened
in that story. Don't think that you will not so
for the same fate. Don't think that the infrastructure of
this so called Black Mecca will not come toppling over,
(22:06):
because it will.
Speaker 7 (22:08):
There are a couple like things to note about how
City Council public comment works. City Council doesn't tend to
pay attention to them. Essensibly, the only one who pays
attention is City Council President Doug Shipman, because it is
his job to call time and to call up the
next person. But you know, City councilors will like step
in and out of the room, get something to eat
(22:29):
during the seventeen hours of public comment for cop City,
like one of them held a press conference.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
There are two council members notoriously bad at paying attention
to public comment. Dustin Hillis who is the committee chair
for the Public Safety Legal Administration Committee. Basically he's in
charge of police. And the other is Mary Norwood, who
represents Buckhead and has what I would describe as ontologically
evil vibes. Buckhead is the northern, primarily white neighborhood in
(22:58):
Atlanta that is wanted to from the city, which in
Atlanta has very uncomfortable segregation and redlining parallels. But despite
not paying attention during public comment, these two in particular,
both paid extra attention after public comment when Police Chief
Darren Scherbaum gave testimony on what happened the night previous.
Speaker 9 (23:20):
Were there any firefighter or police Citty employee entries yesterday's.
Speaker 11 (23:26):
Event, because mamerhillis there was not. We're very fortunate that
that was the outcome. We're fortunate that there was no injuries.
Speaker 9 (23:32):
If this continues, do we have the ability to deploy
even greater force to quill this. You know, the millions
of damage, millions of dollars of damage to public and
private properties.
Speaker 11 (23:49):
We will make adjustments as those that used various tactics.
Yesterday was an escalation. We had not seen this large
number of individuals engaged in this activity. In the aggressive
manner in which the officers were attacked was a significant
change from what we'd seen before when it generally had
been setting properly on fire. We'd seen police cars set
(24:09):
on fire when those busters, but this was started as
an attack against individuals, men and women who are employees
of this city, So that was an escalation. Council Member
hillis that we have already made adjustments for both within
our capability as well as with our partners.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Throughout to Sheerbaum's testimony, it was interesting the degree to
which the Chief framed Sunday's direct action as primarily being
targeted against officers and not the destruction of equipment and
machinery at the North Gate. From the videos that APD
themselves released of the incident, it's clear that engagement with
(24:43):
the police was limited to keeping officers at bay as
construction equipment was targeted, and despite the continued referring of
fireworks as quote unquote mortars or explosives. As the chief
himself admitted, no officers were harmed during the direct action.
(25:08):
In a later episode, we'll hear more of Chief Sheerbaum's
explanation of Sunday Night's events, as it gives insight into
the police's own surveillance capabilities and their ability to respond
quickly to direct actions. But until then, back to the
events of Monday, March sixth. After the city council meeting,
I dressed up in the gayest little outfit that I
(25:30):
had with me and went back to the woods for
the first time since Sunday night for Perhum. Initially, people
were very cautious when entering the woods again, but as
the night went on, more and more people started to
pour into the forest, with some choosing to return to
their camp. Later that night, I enjoyed an experimental noise
show in the living room, probably to the detriment of
(25:53):
people trying to sleep in the area. I went to
the Perham in the woods. I got to share my
memory of the Veggietail's ester story starring the tickle monsters.
I got to bond with a few expangelicals about that,
so that was fine. Then there was an experimental noise
show in the forest, and really, I think it actually
(26:13):
is worth talking about because this was the first time.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
People return to the forest.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, this was the first time that people like returned
to the forest in mass since Sunday, and you started
to kind of feel people's energy get reinvigorated. The woods
became a place again that people were able to like
be in and feel like they were able to be
in community in the woods again.
Speaker 7 (26:33):
And that is in keeping with sort of how this
movement has always responded to what we I guess could
call a loss, right.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Like twenty three people getting arrested in charge is is
a great loss.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
Yeah, and the bounce back period is pretty quick, Like
the resiliency is continual and always strengthening. Every time that
you know, the repression grows, like it does seem like
the resiliency grows with it.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
People were not scared away from the woods. People still
still were like, no, this is something I care about.
I am still going to be in the woods. I'm
still going to defend these woods. And you kind of
have like there's always this essence of like fear kind
of kind of underlying whenever you're like in the Wollani Forest,
because you know, people have been arrested and charged for
(27:18):
laying in a hammock like that with another defendant, with
another defendant, and like, so you know that it is
it is fundamentally a risky place to be, but people
think the potential cost is worth it, Like they will
they continue to be here because they know this is
a winnable fight and they know that it is worth
it to defend these woods. Early Tuesday morning, a few
(27:41):
stop Coop City banner drops happened throughout this city. Two
people were detained by police during one of these banner drops,
but were later released with a traffic citation after being
interrogated separately and extensively photographed by law enforcement officials only
identified as quote Georgia Police and home Land Security unquote.
(28:02):
Tuesday was the start of a series of non violent
direct actions that were being launched around downtown and midtown.
Tuesday morning, I followed a small group that went to
the headquarters of Norfolk Southern, one of the Atlanta Police
Foundation's financial contributors and noted enemy of Ohio.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
They entered the lobby and it's a very small group,
but like I think half of it was.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
It was like five people and another five like press people. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (28:29):
So they enter and they read aloud a letter to
Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, calling forward investment
of Norfolk Southern from Copcity, and immediately they are met
with a security guard screaming like go you're get out
of the lobby. Leave, You're you're being criminally or you're
being trespassed. You have to leave. One of the other
(28:51):
security guards runs around with cell phone camera and like
shoves it in everybody's faces, reaching rather rudely over you
to get my face, and.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
They got very close to me and entering the Norfolk
Southern building, the.
Speaker 12 (29:08):
Building, please, it's playing a horrible in the city. Can
(29:30):
leave the building.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
And so the whole thing lasts like less than five minutes,
maybe ride about five minutes when they finished reading the letter,
Like all they asked was that the letter go to
the CEO.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
While people were inside the headquarters, security called n S Police,
which is the Norfolk Southern Police, who are legally allowed
to arrest people anyone.
Speaker 7 (30:03):
But nobody was arrested at that non violent direct action.
The whole thing was over pretty quickly, and you know,
as we were walking out. We saw like the the
a force of Norfolk Southern Police like swarm kind of
the exterior of the campus and like keep an eye
out on things.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
And then we moved over to Woodriff Park, which was
the meeting place for these non violent direct actions that
happened about every every day at noon starting on starting
on Tuesday. It's Tuesday, March seventh, around noon, there's about
fifty or so people gathered in Woodriff Park who are
heading out and marching to go stop by two of
(30:38):
the Atlanta Police Foundation corporate funders.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
We roll up and I think at that point they
were like twenty is protesters.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
It was.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
It started off very small. There was no police, like
no real visible police presence. There were like maybe a
cruiser or two like kind of around and actually start
to gather and kind of talk about like what their
plan is for the day, which was just too march
around to three different sites. They wanted the eight and
T Building, the Georgia Pacific Building, and GSU Georgia State University.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
They are now leaving Woodriff Park. They got to Georgia
Pacific one of the cop City financial backers, without much
incident and without much in terms of visible police presence.
People called on Mayor Dickens, who is the chair of
the board of directors for Georgia Pacific, to cancel the
Atlanta Police Foundation lease of the land that cop city
(31:34):
is slated to be built on.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Mayor Dickens, we want you to cancel this lake.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
We know that you have the authority to do so.
They finished up that Georgia Pacific, they set up a
little vigil for Torti Guita.
Speaker 7 (31:46):
And from Georgia Pacific they began their trek to the
AT and T building.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
They left a little vigil for Torti Ghita in front
of the Georgia Pacific Center and the group of like
more than fifty people are continuing to march north. Police
eight to ten police officers are directly behind them, and
the whole bunch of police cars are blocking Peach Tree
(32:11):
along the path to AT and D. Was the APF's
headquarters just across the street, and as the crowd approached
this intersection, the amount of police ballooned massively in the
block around the Atlantic Police Foundation headquarters. There's got to
be about thirty to forty officers stationed blocking off the
entrance to the APF and also just like following the
(32:33):
crowd around as they're as they're marching through the sidewalks.
There's definitely over god, there's I think around seventy five
officers to play in this area right now. The number
keeps growing as we start walking down different sidewalks and
different streets, you just see more officers that are already stationed.
Speaker 7 (32:53):
There are fifty activists and what certainly over one hundreds,
and we're probably between hundred and hondred and twenty police
officers started marching not like behind, not in front, but
directly beside the march, sort of pinning the march to
the wall and like essentially kettling the march.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
There was police station in front, there was police station behind,
and police stationed on the side. It was surrounding the
surrounding like these fifty people who were simply walking on
the sidewalk stumbling upon a new group of officers. Got
to be about one hundred officers in this area right now.
At one point a police vehicle was just parked on
the sidewalk, completely blocking it. During this entire time, police
(33:35):
were blocking all of the traffic in these intersections and.
Speaker 7 (33:38):
Roads, driving wrong way up one way, like just you know,
doing police things.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah, a Doorida State University canine unit. This blocking off
the entire sidewalk next to a Fulton County Sheriff's vehicle.
They're trying to make it impossible for people to actually
move on the sidewalk. But for the most part, people
have been able to move around the police and keep
their movement going instead of just stalling in one spot
(34:04):
or like trying to partically confront what is now like
hundreds one hundreds of law enforcement officers from Fulton County
Sheriffs and Atlanta Police Department and even like Georgia State
University Police. So the group is split up in between
two streets right now because people are trying to follow
the crossing signals because otherwise police are going to tackle
(34:24):
and violently assault people. No one was arrested, People marched
to their perspective locations.
Speaker 7 (34:30):
People very pointedly kept to laws. There was a couple
of times when like the crosswalk changed and the group
kind of had to split. They would stay and wait
until the crosswalk went back to walk, and then crossover
and join.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
It's so funny that the cops are so insistent if
you stepped on the streets, you're going to get arrested
and make sure people stay on the side of walks.
But the result of that is that all the cops
are standing in the street and they're blocking off like
miles of traffic downtown Right now, people just arrived at
the fifty one Peachtree Center aff new AT and T
building in downtown Atlanta. Police were already stationed in front
(35:04):
of the AT and T building, so there wasn't much
to do. After a brief speech talking about AT and
T's contributions to the Police Foundation and Cop City, the
crowd moved on. Now people are turning west in the
opposite direction from the AT and T headquarters, heading back
into the Woodruff Park area where this march began. Police
(35:27):
with long guns here. Finally, the crowd stopped at Georgia
State University and talked about GSU's connections to the Atlanta
Police Foundation. What is of note for this action, and
really all of the actions that happened the next few days,
is not what the protesters did. It's the police's disproportionate
response to just fifty people walking on the sidewalk, chanting
(35:48):
and giving short speeches outside of businesses tied to APF
with a.
Speaker 7 (35:54):
Small line of officers in front of GSU. They gave
their last round of speeches and sort of just first for.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
The day before, we rep today and give these clouds
something else to go do.
Speaker 7 (36:06):
We will be out here.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
We won't be out here for the rest of the week,
for the rest of the month, for the year.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
We won't fight us here.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
We wait.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Some of the police are now grouping up and opening
up the sidewalk so people can actually leave. It seems
officers were in fact instructed to make arrests during this action,
but for some reason did not follow through on those orders.
According to scanner audio from Atlanta Police Department's SWAT team.
Speaker 6 (36:43):
That's about the of them. The problem is they've been
telling them to make a risk, but also is not
making a risk.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I guess they weren't supposed to.
Speaker 9 (36:53):
I don't know, but I'm with that.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
We'll just hold what we got and fawn is needed.
Extensive police activity continued later that night. At around five
thirty to six pm, police started staging around the forest
in a way that usually indicates that a raid is forthcoming.
Words spread around the recovering encampment that police could be
(37:17):
preparing for a raid.
Speaker 7 (37:26):
So the initial reports were like that there were fifty
police officers staged at Key Road and ready to go,
and then the Dacab County Swat starts to roll up
at the fire station, and I would say a fair
amount of like panic starts to set it at camp.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Multiple multiple police copters are getting flown overhead, multiple different
SWAT teams are being brought in. At least like three
or four different agencies are our stationing officers around the woods.
I believe it's estimated that at least one hundred and
twenty police officers were or were being staged in the
area directly surrounding the forest and in the area by
(38:06):
the power line cut on Key Road.
Speaker 7 (38:08):
And it should be said that you know, up until
this point, the police have never brought in that many
resources to any protest action that I'm aware of, and
not come in and engaged. So I was with a
group offsite who like immediately began to fear, like you know,
for they wouldn't be able to get back to their
camp size, they wouldn't be able to get their their gear,
(38:29):
they wouldn't be able to get their medication, and that,
from what I understand, was the general vibe around, but
nothing happened.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Nothing seemed to happen, and then at around seven police
started to almost like express confusion on what was going on,
and then everyone else expressed confusion for why the police
were confused. And we think we've kind of put together
what may have happened, So Clark is what is suspected
(38:58):
of going down here.
Speaker 7 (39:00):
So the one thing that police don't understand and probably
will never understand is humor. Now they become the butt
of the joke often, but they don't understand comedy. So
at seven o'clock that evening was scheduled Comedy in the Forest.
And from what we've gathered, the police thought that the
Comedy in the Forest event was going to be a
(39:20):
cover for another Sunday night like action.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
So this event was scheduled on the public Defend. The
Atlanta Forest calendar that anyone can look at online is
this Comedy in the Woods event for people to tell
jokes around a campfire. And I guess they thought it
was like it was like this event that was like
a red herring so that people could then go do
(39:46):
violent militancy in around the woods. So when seven o'clock
came and went like police were expecting people to arrive
at the woods or something, and that just didn't happen
because turns out, a few minutes before seven o'clock, this
comedy event was canceled for like unrelated reasons. The organizer
had had things come up, So this event just didn't happen.
(40:06):
But there still was comedy in the woods. It just
was that the police wasted probably over one hundred thousand
dollars mobilizing over one hundred officers. And I mean, obviously,
I think some people in the woods were you know,
had some frustration that that that you know, they experienced
this fear of this possibly incoming ray that then resulted
(40:29):
in there being nothing. I think it's always important to
when people are relaying information, they relay information that is
known without like unadue speculation. So like it is a
fact to say that there's over a hundred cops stationing
by the woods, and they've never had that many cops
there before without doing some sort of raid or some
sort of some sort of like activity in the forest.
Speaker 7 (40:50):
And part of what I've heard go on since then was,
you know, some very generative conversations about how they're going
to take into account like this. This new paradigm developed
that night, and I think that again speaks to sort
of just how the movement continues to develop and grow
and like you know, handle new new challenges and shifts.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
So with the forest camp still intact, the week of
action continued on as planned, with another downtown nonviolent direct
action that next morning.
Speaker 7 (41:21):
So Wednesday noon is a lot smaller of direct action
than the day before.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
It starts with like a dozen people. It slowly grows
to like a few dozen, but yeah, it started extremely,
extremely small. So this was one difference from Tuesday is
that when we arrived, police already had a visible presence
in downtown, stationed around Woodriff Park. So a group of
people just launch from Woodriff Park. They kind of split
off in different different little sub subgroups. Lots of people
(41:49):
are just stationed outside of Marta stops handing out flyers,
and that is what people are doing right now. Police
seem relatively confused and are trying to like mobilized to
different areas where they feel like something might happen, but
it's just people handing out flyers.
Speaker 7 (42:08):
And they decided to split into groups and engage in
like just some typical outreache activity that you would see,
you know, from any group, like just passing out flyers
and pamphlets and attempting, from what I saw, to have
like one on one conversations with anyone who wanted to.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
So this this group that it broke off into these
smaller subgroups. The group that we kind of accompanied stationed
themselves around some Marta stops around I believe it was
like them, it was the Peachtree Lata station. Yeah, so
they stationed at the at the like the three different
exits or entrances for that, just just handing out flyers,
handing out leaflets, trying to you know, talk to anybody
(42:42):
who walks by. Another group of people standing outside of
a public transit spot handing out flyers, probably like I
don't know, four or five other small, small groups doing
similar things throughout downtown, which means police have a lot
more places to be as opposed to just following one
big group.
Speaker 7 (43:00):
The group that we followed had its own police presence
follow it, and then when they split into three more groups,
each group had its own police presence follow it, and
police stuck to the protesters the entire time. And of course,
like there's white transport vans that are full of cops
kind of driving by.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Big white van with police officers just showed up across
the street. Army green Tan swat vehicle just parked a
block away from the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. There was
an Atlanta swat vehicle parked outside of the Hooters. Totally
normal response.
Speaker 7 (43:34):
Totally normal response. And so the leafleting goes on for
you know, like forty five minutes, and then all of
the groups start to gather together conveniently with the group
that like we had embedded with.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
All right, there's actually a pretty decent number of people
gathered here for the flywering event today. You know, normal
police response to people handing out flyers, just fifty officers
and a swat team. But yeah, there's probably a point
like two or three dozen people that have kind of
all converged together. They started off very small, people were
very very spread out. They they splintered off into little, little,
(44:10):
smaller groups. But now they've all kind of coalesced together
back again. So all the little subgroups kind of meet
up on Andrew Jung and Peach Tree, right next to
the Hooters and the Hard Rock Cafe.
Speaker 7 (44:22):
This area is like the business district. So in the
middle of the day, it's like really busy, it's a
fairly like good spot to pass out leaflets.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
So they are passing out these leaflets. Pedestrians are still
able to like walk through the sidewalks. It's pretty it's
pretty chill. And then APD approaches the crowd, like the
APD has already been around this area. There's there's this
vehicle across the street watching people hand out flyers. But
then Lieutenant Neil Welch approaches the crowd and gives them
(44:53):
a dispersal order.
Speaker 13 (44:55):
Okay, alright, so I'm out of Neil Welch, Police Officers,
City of Atlanta. I hereby declare that being on this sidewalk,
you are obstructing or repeating the normal and reasonable movement
a pedestrian traffic and violation of Atlanta City Ordinance. Okay,
in the name of the people is say to Georgia,
(45:17):
I hereby command that all present in the sidewalk, all
present here in the sidewalk, immediately exit the street or
the roadway or sidewalk. If you do not do so,
you may be detained or arrested. Should you fail to
exit the sidewalk, in accordace with this lawful command, you
shall be in violation of Section one five zero two
(45:40):
sixty six substructing pedestrian traffic, which prohibits standing or being
on any street, roadway, or sidewalk in a manner to
obstruct or impede the normal or reasonable pedestrian traffic.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Cops threatened arrest and detainment. They claimed that people were
blocking the sidewalk, which they absolutely weren't. I was walking freely,
as was all of like downtown pedestrian traffic. They were
not blocking anything. This is uh, this is pretty silly, utterly,
utterly ridiculous response to people handing out flyers. So they
(46:15):
were told they cannot be on the sidewalk. Obviously they
can't be on the street. Where are you allowed to
protest if not the sidewalk or the street. Seemed like
very like flimsy legal footing. But obviously they police can
arrest anyone they want at any time, for any reason.
So people decide to move, They cross over the street,
they walk like a block north, they cross the street again,
(46:37):
and they move on to this part of the sidewalk
that is like really large, like a massive, massive open
open section that right in.
Speaker 7 (46:44):
Front of the mall, so it's it's meant to like
have a bunch of people passed by it.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
So people continue to hand out flyers.
Speaker 7 (46:51):
While this is happening, there's another group who comes in
to the side of p Street Center mall and enters
the mall. You find Mayor Andre Dickens. There are a
couple boards in Atlanta that stipulate the mayor is like
the head of the board, and this is one of them,
and it meets in Peatree.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
Center Mall as one does. So the mayor is having
a meeting in the mall the.
Speaker 7 (47:16):
Office spaces, you know, sort of above the mall.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
And this group of people from the Muscogie Nation enter
and try to meet up with the mayor to hand
off a letter objection, objection.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
We have a letter being delivered from the Muscogee Creek
Nation on behalf of Muscogee Creek spiritual leadership and opposition
to copsidy.
Speaker 10 (47:37):
I came all the way on the trail of tears
to deliver this letter to you, folks. We want you
to know that the contemporary Muscogee people are now making
their journey back to our homelands, and hereby give notice
to Mayor Andrew Dickens, the Atlanta City Council, the Atlanta
Police Department, the Atlanta Police found the Dacob County Sheriff's
(48:02):
Office and so called copp City, that you must immediately
vacate Muscogee homelands and cease violence and policing of Indigenous
and Black people and Muscogee lands. We lived as stewards
and in relationship to this land for more than thirteen
thousand years until the illegitimate State of Georgia negotiated with
(48:24):
the Tyrant Andrew Jackson for the militarized for the militarized
force removal of Muscogee and Cherokee relatives to Indian territories.
Mayor Dickens, can I give this letter to you? He
got one, Mayor, we want to talk to you about
(48:47):
our homeland, the Muskogee Creek people.
Speaker 7 (48:50):
Three indigenous activists along with Kamal Franklin arrive and they
find the mayor. They enter the board meeting and they
begin to read this letter from the Muscogi Nation allowed
and in the letter, it essentially says that Atlanta is
being evicted out of the Louis Lanni Forest and the
most Scogee people are going to return and reclaim their
(49:11):
ancestral land. Mayor Dickens, in true mayor fashion, bolts away
from this, running through an exit door, which is then
like blocked by a guard which I think that has
its own set of legal issues, essentially just ignoring them
over his shoulder. He calls out, I've got a copy
of the letter and hides just completely trying to escape
(49:36):
what is not a good look for him.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
The Atlanta Police Department APEX Swatch team was called to
the mall, and right as the activists were able to exit,
the special police units rushed into the building, finding no one.
By now, the police repression during this week of action
far exceeded police activity during any of the prior weeks
of action, and this trend would continue as the week
(50:02):
entered its last few days. The next episode will wrap
up our coverage for the week, as well as contain
a bit more analysis of the police repression and the
fallout of Sunday's direct action. But then there will be
a fifth bonus episode that gives an overview of what's
happened in the Malani Forest in the intervening two months.
See You on the other Side Music Festival Audio courtesy
(50:29):
of Unicorn.
Speaker 10 (50:30):
Riot It Could Happen Here as a production of cool
Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit
our website coolzonemedia dot com or check us out on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for It could Happen Here, Updated
monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.
It Could Happen Here News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
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