June 9, 2023 • 25 mins
This episode I’m recapping my experience at the Atlanta City Council meeting this past Monday. I talk about the intimidation tactics of the state and the next steps in the fight to #StopCopCity
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Hey guys, and welcome to theLaw according to Amber. Every other Monday,
we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixtureof opinion and legal facts. Thus
the Law according to Amber. Besure to give me a follow on Facebook
at the Law according to Amber,as well as Instagram. Same name The
Law according to Amber. Hey,y'all, welcome back to another episode of
(00:32):
the Law according to Amber. Ignoremy voices tell a little bit of horse
from yelling at police. But thisis way better than last week. So
so I'm gonna go ahead and goahead and record this episode because I want
to give y'all the information while it'sfresh on my mind, but also kind
(00:53):
of in a timely fashion of likewhat's happening in real time too. So
this past Monday, I'm recording thison Wednesday, June seventh. This past
Monday, on June fifth, mI and organizers from all across the US
actually went to Atlanta for the CityCouncil meeting where they were going to decide
(01:15):
on giving funding to the Atlanta PoliceFoundation for a Cops City. Um,
A cop city is what is whatis named at what we're using as a
name for the Atlanta Police training facilitythat they want to build in Atlanta,
which would be the largest police trainingfacility in the nation. Um, that's
gonna focus on militarized tactics, urbanwarfare, giving them more too to use
(01:40):
against people, because after twenty twenty, they felt like they were out of
control, and you know, theonly way they can get back in control
is to over police and over surveilledfolks and you know, discriminate and murder
them more. And we've been fighting, I mean, organizing in Atlanta have
been fighting against this for years.Um. Folks on community movement builders work
(02:00):
their local orgs around like human rightsissues. Local black organizers have been fighting
against this for several years, Likethis isn't a new thing. And this
was the biggest, the big meetingwhere they were going to design on this
funding. And so this is whya lot of folks came to town to
(02:20):
support them, but also to voiceour opposition too, because one of the
main factors of Cops City is thatthe Atlanta Police Foundation has stated in the
plans over forty three percent of thepeople who come there will be from other
police departments outside of Georgia, becausethey're wanting to literally show this as their
advertising this as a national training facility, and we know that police don't need
(02:43):
more training. Police have to overtwo thousand hours of training in Atlanta.
The officers who killed Rashard Brooks hitover two thousand hours of training. The
officers in Memphis had thousands of hoursof training as well, more than actually
what's allotted for the whole state ofTennessee. Memphis officers have more than that,
and they still kill people. It'snot about the training. You can't
(03:04):
untrained bias and discrimination out of peoplebecause that's what they're being taught as police
officers. And so we know thatthem building a training center is not the
solution. What is the solution.It's funding communities, and that's what these
communities have asked for. That's themain things organizations have asked for. Hey
fund our communities, fun housing.Stop giving houses the cops to live in
our neighborhoods. Is what they're doingright now. In the Pittsburgh neighborhood in
(03:27):
Atlanta, they're gonna build five housesfor cops to live in this black community
to surveil them basically, instead ofjust giving that money to the people who
actually live there so they can maintaintheir homes so they can continue to have
black homeownership. That's what matters.That's not what they care about. To
help with the health care issues theyhave there. They only have one level
(03:49):
one trauma center, like one levelone hospital in the whole city of Atlanta.
You could put thirty one million orsixty seven million now, as it's
been recently found out, because theylive for two years about that too.
You're gonna put that towards building ahospital, towards funding community, towards actually
developing youth programs that don't include cops. And that's why I talked about it
(04:11):
in my comments. You know,the mayor, a state of the city
addressed earlier this year and said,this is the year of the youth.
If this was really the year ofthe youth, we wouldn't be building Cops
City. Because environmentalists, professors,different student orders, different nonprofits, all
kinds of folks have come out againstthis project and say how damaging it is
for the youth, how much environmentalracism is gonna cause for these youth who
(04:35):
live in that community where they're gonnabuild Cops City, and for the youth
of Atlanta. They've talked about theneed to actually fund programming there and right
now they fund a midnight basketball gameonce a month with cops. And that's
not what folks are asking for.They're asking for housing support, for food
support, they're asking for actual,real tangible resources, and instead of providing
(04:56):
that, they just throw you somethinghere and there and build city. And
that's that's not okay. And Icalled that out very plainly, because the
mayor doesn't get to be you know, let out Scott free. And I
feel like that's what a lot offolks have been doing. Make sure calling
out those who were in charge ofthe mayor, the city council, like
everybody has to be held accountable forthis gross negligence and straight up ignorance and
(05:19):
ignoring the will of the people.So I went to city Hall with organizers
in Atlanta and everyday citizens. Therewere everyday people who just live in Atlanta
who were there the meeting. Therewere over four hundred people who signed up
for public comment. Close to threehundred something spoke because people had to leave
(05:39):
eventually after a while, because youknow, the meeting started at one pm.
Public comment didn't end until four amthe next day, and then the
meeting actually didn't end until five thirtyam, so we were there for quite
(05:59):
a while. And one thing thatI noticed particularly in this fight is that
one day know that citizens don't wantthis. They are bought and paid for
by these corporations, the lant APolice Foundation, the America the land Away
also say American Way, they landAway, like all these big orgs in
the city. Their bought and paidfor by them. And so they were
(06:23):
gonna pass this, and we knewthat, but we also think it's important,
and organizes there tell me they thinkit's important to people hear that opposition,
though you still need to know wedo not want this, and so
they still filled up City Hall andmade comments. And something I thought was
it was just crazy about how theywere treating people was the day before they
put out a press release saying youcan bring liquids into City Hall that there's
(06:47):
water like a water fountain in thebuilding, but you cannot bring any liquids
or aerosols in the building, whichis just insane. I mean, at
one point you had over six hundredpeople inside of the building, about five
hundreds so outside who they wouldn't letin so easily a thousand people that have
(07:08):
shown up and then we can havewater it. It was crazy. So
after that, after they posted that, folks, you know, we're talking
about it on Twitter and the newsand how one we couldn't bring any water
in. But they also closed thebuilding down to like actual citizens for service.
(07:31):
So the only thing that would behappening in the building that they was
going to be the city council meeting. But it was pitched in away like
way it was written was that thebuilding was going to be closed, so
like the city council meeting gonna beonline, which wasn't true. So another
another tactic they used to kind ofdissuade people from showing up. Organizers there
had to put out notice like,hey, the building is open for the
(07:53):
meeting. We know that the languageis misleading, but please still show up.
It's the second thing. So thenwe actually get there and are in
the building and the areas and on, like literally there's hundreds of people in
here and the air is not onand we're trying to figure out why the
areas and on. And I talkedwith Lilyana Baktari, was a city council
(08:16):
member, and was like, hey, what's going on with the air,
And she said, we're trying tofix it. We're trying to get it
back on. So they get theair back on a few like an hour
later, and we are starting tocool off a little bit, and then
the meeting starts. So we goto the meeting. Everything's going fine,
and then I leave out of themeeting because I was hungry and there was
(08:39):
food downstairs. And the building istwo stories, so I try to walk
downstairs. They have a fire marshaland firefighters all throughout the like fire officials,
not the extra firefighters and uniforms withlike fire officials all throughout the building,
counting people. And any time someoneleft out of a room, you
could not go back in. Theywould listen to one else in And and
(09:00):
I was upstairs at one point tryingto go downstairs to get food. Instead,
I could not go downstairs. IfI went downstairs, I could not
come back up to make my publiccomment because they were counting the people in
the building. And I it wascrazy to me because we're in the city
council chambers, Like this room isn'tfull. It wasn't fool at all.
There were so many seats in thereupstairs. Wasn't fool. It wasn't full
of people, and so there wasanother tactic of like, you know,
(09:22):
let's dissuade more people from speaking orjust being here by telling them they can't
go downstairs where the food is,or they can't if they leave the building,
they can't come back in. Wereat one point when I was inside
the building, people outside weren't ableto get in, and they were telling
us if we left, we werebe able to come back either. I
was like, that's crazy, Likewhat m very much felt like jail um.
(09:46):
And and that's how that's also howfolks um operate with opposition, right,
Like they don't like the people areopposing them, they don't like being
held accountable, and so they're gonnamake you as inconveniced as possible, even
to the point where it's dangerous.I mean, at one point, people
were like getting dehydrated because we couldn'thave water, and other folks inside the
(10:07):
like who were inside of the citycouncil chambers, we're talking about there,
like, hey, this is thisis ludicrous. She said, we can't
have water. Meanwhile, the councilmembers have water, they got snacks,
they got coffee. You know,they're good, they're good. To go,
but us we couldn't have water,the most simple thing, and so
I thought that was a huge issueas well. They kind of led the
(10:30):
way for how people were feeling throughoutthe meeting. Then later on in the
evening, like around five or sixpm, it was very cold in the
council chambers, like people's noses weregetting stopped up. Folks were freezing,
and the council president, it wasso funny he kept making these announcements about
(10:50):
the air situation because he knew itwas messed up, Like he was like,
yeah, we're trying to fix it. We know that it's it's really
cold in here, so we're tryingto turn it down. He also kept
making announcements about the elevators because lotsof disabled folks kept mentioning like, hey,
they aren't allowing us to access tothese elevators, because I remember they
were trying to control where people wereand that also meant they weren't letting people
(11:13):
onto the elevators. At one pointthey announced it several of the elevators were
broken, and I was like,this is exactly why you don't need to
build cop city like you're building ismalfunctioning use that money to fix this building
ridiculous. Then later into the night, I think this was about eleven or
twelve, it was hot in thein the whole building, in the building,
(11:35):
the council chambers, The councilor wasliterally fanning themselves. I'm fanning myself.
Everybody's hot. The council president waslike, hey, we know that
the areas and working. We're tryingto get it back on. We're working
on it. Leana was telling melike, hey, they're working on they
really aren't getting the air back on. Fifteen twenty minutes past. Folks are
(11:56):
yelling out like it's hot, likecut the air back on, and the
council prison this is actually the airis malfunctioning. It's not working properly,
and so we're trying to get someonedown here to fix it. And I
was like, this is ridiculous.Y'all were giving money to cops and your
air isn't on and we're all inhere suffering. Like literally, it was
so hot, everybody's fanning themselves.It was ridiculous. And I was like
(12:20):
this, this is which I wantto put money towards cops. You want
to put money towards cops, butwe literally are in here sweating without water.
For some folks, they don't getwater. And they allowed us to
drink water in the chambers because atfirst they wan't allow us to drink liquids
in there, but now it's hot, and so they're changing the rules in
real time. It was just crazyto me how many times he if I
(12:41):
wish I could go back and counthow many times he said, we're getting
the air turn back on or theair is malfunctioning. They happened several times
throughout the day and and I personallycouldn't help but feel like other folks too
said the same thing. It wasall like psychological tactics to dissuade people,
to make the opposition as uncomfortable aspossible, you know, because even though
(13:03):
they're city council members and they haveto listen to the public, you know,
they were they were still doing thingsto make it as uncomfortable for folks
as they could, to still showyou like, hey, we're still signing
with the police, basically. Andit started with the water, no water,
no air, saws limiting where peoplecould go in the building in the
air not working at all. Andthis is just extremely like it's ridiculous.
(13:30):
So eventually they do finally get tothe actual vote for cop City or for
the for the actual city Council umthe actual city Council meeting, and then
they take a vote to move toremove the Finance Committee reports where the top
top city vote where the cop Cityfunding vote will be to the end of
the meeting. And this is whenlike three thirty four am. At this
(13:52):
point, they know what they're doing. They're trying to like really when they're
trying to hold us out, basicallytrying to get us to you know,
not stay, and people weren't goingfor that. Like they stayed until the
very end. We had the ChambersField until the very end of the meeting
because we were serious about making surethat folks knew we did not support this
funding and they were going to haveto hear that opposition. So then they
(14:16):
introduced all their other counts of stuffand they finally get to the vote and
they approved it eleven to four.So eleven people say yes and poor people
said no. And folks were expectingthat, like folks, folks knew they
probably were going to approve it,and we're already getting ready for next steps
and so I understood that. Youknow, this isn't where it ends,
(14:41):
like a lot of folks have beensaying from the beginning, like we never
said Cop City wouldn't get funded.We said Cops City would never be built,
and we meant that, and CopsCity won't be built. And so
now folks have moved on to areferendum. So just this morning they introduced
a referendum. They'll be getting seventythousand signatures to put it on the ballot
(15:01):
for the people of Atlanta to theside. And as we know, the
people of Atlanta have already said no. The people of Atlanta have been saying
no, this whole is our time. They've been in full opposition of it.
And so I mean, I havea really good hope in the referendum,
I know they'll easily get that seventythousand signatures. On play a clip
from the press conference that hit thismorning about it, just so y'all can
(15:24):
kind of hear directly from the folksin Atlanta. The Broad's class section of
our community is to talk about thefuture of Atlanta, how decisions get mad,
and the kind of vision that wehave for ourselves in our comp on
Monday and Tuesday, and an extraordinarynumber of Atlantas came out to address their
(15:46):
representatives a city council and go onthe record about their pleasures about copsit in
the working class black neighborhood that Igrew up in in Southwest that landfer if
you see a deal that at onepoint starts as a land transfer with no
(16:08):
money in and then turns into theland transfer, but we're paying thirty one
million dollars that it eventually evolves intoa land transfer that process sixty seven million
dollars. Where I'm from, inmy working class black neighborhood in southwest Atlanta,
(16:29):
we would say that you are hustlingback and we don't understand what the
motivations are, despite the fact thatthere has been clarity from a broad section
of our community about what our prioritiesare and what will actually keep us saying.
And so we believe that this question, this issue is not only big
(16:49):
enough, but important enough for usto have an open democratic conversation about about
why the art transferring public assets toentities and then taxing ourselves for the privilege
right that is worthy of Japan.So then they bring on um come out
(17:11):
Frankly, who's a community movie builderswho's been leading a lot of the work
around um stop Coop City in themovement that's been built out of it.
And so I want to play alittle bit of what he said as well,
just because it kind of goes intothe details around the extual referendum um
and just the need for that peoplepower, like the fact that we are
ignoring the will of the people andso the people are gonna take that power
(17:33):
back into their own hands and we'regonna use the you know, the ability
to do a referendum. Today.We are here to let the people decide.
The people need to have a voiceand brother or not there is a
cop City. The City Council hasfailed over and over again to listen to
(17:56):
the masses of people in Atlanta,not only those who are organized who spent
nights here at city Hall calling forthis last to be cancelled, but through
every servant, every pole that we'vetaken, it is shown that a majority
(18:18):
of Atlantans are against top City.But yet the city Council has decided that
what the working class, particularly blackpeople in Atlanta, wants, is not
what they want. What they wantis what the corporations want. What they
(18:41):
want is what the developers want.What they want is what the Atlanta Police
Foundation wants, which is to continueto militarize police and to attack our movements
and criminalize our people. We don'twant that. We stand against that,
(19:02):
and today we're here bowling a referendumas we speak, calling for a valid
initiative for the people to decide andto vote on ending this lease the Stop
Top City. As we are speaking, the referendum is being filed with the
(19:22):
city cars off. The City Clerkat this stage is an administrative body.
It has no decision making over thisexcept to make sure that the resolution itself
meets the legal standards, which itdoes. They have seven days to approve
it without any input from the CityCouncil, because we're watching them, without
(19:45):
any input on the Mayor's office,because we're watching them like good organizers.
We're a lawyer up ready for thefight alone. Though, so after that,
we hadn't have sixty days to gathera little over seventy thousand signatures to
get this on the ballot for theNovember election, and after that election,
(20:07):
we will do all that is possibleto make sure that the city of Almanta.
The people of Alvanta come out andvote to shut down city. So
now try to have a little clarityof folks there on the ground from the
press confersation this morning, just likeI've record them according it's like an hour
(20:30):
and a half later, so theyjust at that press conference this morning.
And I also want to talk abouthow this isn't the first time people have
used balot referendums to make changes whengovernment has failed, folks, because we
know that government, you know,they still out quite a bit. And
actually in Camden County, Georgia recently, like just this year, they had
(20:55):
a balot referendum about building a commerciallaunching pad in their community. Um,
and they wrote a ballot referendum forit because they didn't want it, and
the people they're I mean the officialsand like politicians, they're kept pushing for
it, and so they took theirpowers to the ballot box. UM.
And I know that a lot oftimes folks, you know, don't see
(21:17):
a point in voting or they feellike they you don't have any power.
But I will say these ballot referendums, UM, are really great ways to
use your voice to make change.And no one can come out with saying,
you know, they can't interfere withthat. The city council, the
mayor, like, they don't haveany power in the ballot referendum. You
(21:37):
know, legally, they have theright to file this UM and to list
you know, list it correctly howit's supposed to be listed with the actual
UM pieces they want to repeal.They've done that, and so now it
is the people's choice suicide and theycan't interfere. They have no you know,
no recourse there. And that's myfavorite party said. I mean,
(21:59):
really they other than you know,getting some people to vote no, which
I don't think, you know,I don't think they'll win because the majority
of Atlanta does not want this UM. So I think this is definitely their
first nightmare realistically, because they arevery determined to get this, to make
this project cap in, very determined, and we've seen that throughout the whole
few years they've been organizing against this. They are very determined to make this
(22:23):
happen, and we're not going tolet that happen. So I was really
excited to hear them announcing that ballotreferendum. I'll be supporting, you know.
However, I can, and I'llmake sure I'll keep y'all updated on
you know, folks who are inAtlanta who do vote, the who do
live there so they can't vote,ways that you can get active, because
(22:44):
now it's the time to get active. If you want to look up information
about the ballot initiative, um,you can go to cop City vote dot
com. Make sure I'm reading itright, Yep. Can go to cop
City vote dot com. There isinformation there on how folks can you bow
(23:04):
their signature, and then there's alsojust information around like what Cops City is
and how important it is to getthis ballad initiative passed. So I appreciate
y'all rocking on me for another episode. I'll definitely be doing some more updates
around things that are happening here locallyin Memphis or actually, I do want
to add in something else because Ithink it's important folks also understand the connection
(23:27):
between Memphis, Atlanta, the southernpolice departments and how important it is to
stop cop City for that reason alone. So Sarah and Davis the police sheet
that's here now. She started theRed Dog unit in Atlanta, which we
all know about. It's been talkedabout quite a lot, and also started
that guilty program into a similar programthat we have here in Memphis as well,
(23:48):
where the Israeli Defense Force. Folkscould either send people over to Israel
to learn from the Israeli Defense Forceor they come over here to Atlanta or
Memphist and learn different militarized tactics toliterally harm people. I mean, that's
what is really defense forces teaching.They're not teaching nothing noko by y'all.
Tactics that teach you how to breaksomebody's kneecap with one hit, stuff like
(24:14):
that. And so when CJ introducedthat program when she was a part of
the police department in Atlanta, theyintroduced it in Memphis too, and they
started introducing similar programs all throughout theSouth and throughout the US based off of
that Atlanta program. And so theselarger police forces like Atlanta, like Memphis,
they lead the way and how folkspolice in other places. And that's
(24:34):
also why it's important, not justbecause they would try to train there,
but also because the way that peopleare police is influenced by them, and
you can see that influence in theway that they've been responding. Even with
her starting the Red Dog Unit andthen using those same practice to other places,
including here where someone was murdered.We have Tyree Nichols who was murdered
right, we're seeing that in realtime. So this is an actual thing
(24:59):
that is harmful. She is harmfulfor one, but the practices that they
started in Atlanta spread out all overthe place, and so that's another reason
why we have to stop cop City, because we also know that by building
it, they will try to buildit and build cops cities and other places,
and that's not gonna happen. CopCity will never be built. And
if folks want to get active,you can go to cop city vote dot
(25:19):
com or stop cop City, Stopcoop City Solidarity dot org my bad.
You can go to those two sitesand get more information. So, as
always, thank y'all for listening toanother episode of The Law Courton to Amber.
Be sure to followed me on Facebookand Instagram, same name The Law
Courton to Amber. I also tweet, so my Twitter is amberisms a M
(25:42):
B E R I M is Underscoreisn't a separate page from my podcast.
You can just find all information aboutthings that I've talked about on there.
So yeah, peace,
Hey guys, and welcome to theLaw according to Amber. Every other Monday,
we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixtureof opinion and legal facts. Thus
the Law according to Amber. Besure to give me a follow on Facebook
at the Law according to Amber,as well as Instagram. Same name The
Law according to Amber. Hey,y'all, welcome back to another episode of
(00:32):
the Law according to Amber. Ignoremy voices tell a little bit of horse
from yelling at police. But thisis way better than last week. So
so I'm gonna go ahead and goahead and record this episode because I want
to give y'all the information while it'sfresh on my mind, but also kind
(00:53):
of in a timely fashion of likewhat's happening in real time too. So
this past Monday, I'm recording thison Wednesday, June seventh. This past
Monday, on June fifth, mI and organizers from all across the US
actually went to Atlanta for the CityCouncil meeting where they were going to decide
(01:15):
on giving funding to the Atlanta PoliceFoundation for a Cops City. Um,
A cop city is what is whatis named at what we're using as a
name for the Atlanta Police training facilitythat they want to build in Atlanta,
which would be the largest police trainingfacility in the nation. Um, that's
gonna focus on militarized tactics, urbanwarfare, giving them more too to use
(01:40):
against people, because after twenty twenty, they felt like they were out of
control, and you know, theonly way they can get back in control
is to over police and over surveilledfolks and you know, discriminate and murder
them more. And we've been fighting, I mean, organizing in Atlanta have
been fighting against this for years.Um. Folks on community movement builders work
(02:00):
their local orgs around like human rightsissues. Local black organizers have been fighting
against this for several years, Likethis isn't a new thing. And this
was the biggest, the big meetingwhere they were going to design on this
funding. And so this is whya lot of folks came to town to
(02:20):
support them, but also to voiceour opposition too, because one of the
main factors of Cops City is thatthe Atlanta Police Foundation has stated in the
plans over forty three percent of thepeople who come there will be from other
police departments outside of Georgia, becausethey're wanting to literally show this as their
advertising this as a national training facility, and we know that police don't need
(02:43):
more training. Police have to overtwo thousand hours of training in Atlanta.
The officers who killed Rashard Brooks hitover two thousand hours of training. The
officers in Memphis had thousands of hoursof training as well, more than actually
what's allotted for the whole state ofTennessee. Memphis officers have more than that,
and they still kill people. It'snot about the training. You can't
(03:04):
untrained bias and discrimination out of peoplebecause that's what they're being taught as police
officers. And so we know thatthem building a training center is not the
solution. What is the solution.It's funding communities, and that's what these
communities have asked for. That's themain things organizations have asked for. Hey
fund our communities, fun housing.Stop giving houses the cops to live in
our neighborhoods. Is what they're doingright now. In the Pittsburgh neighborhood in
(03:27):
Atlanta, they're gonna build five housesfor cops to live in this black community
to surveil them basically, instead ofjust giving that money to the people who
actually live there so they can maintaintheir homes so they can continue to have
black homeownership. That's what matters.That's not what they care about. To
help with the health care issues theyhave there. They only have one level
(03:49):
one trauma center, like one levelone hospital in the whole city of Atlanta.
You could put thirty one million orsixty seven million now, as it's
been recently found out, because theylive for two years about that too.
You're gonna put that towards building ahospital, towards funding community, towards actually
developing youth programs that don't include cops. And that's why I talked about it
(04:11):
in my comments. You know,the mayor, a state of the city
addressed earlier this year and said,this is the year of the youth.
If this was really the year ofthe youth, we wouldn't be building Cops
City. Because environmentalists, professors,different student orders, different nonprofits, all
kinds of folks have come out againstthis project and say how damaging it is
for the youth, how much environmentalracism is gonna cause for these youth who
(04:35):
live in that community where they're gonnabuild Cops City, and for the youth
of Atlanta. They've talked about theneed to actually fund programming there and right
now they fund a midnight basketball gameonce a month with cops. And that's
not what folks are asking for.They're asking for housing support, for food
support, they're asking for actual,real tangible resources, and instead of providing
(04:56):
that, they just throw you somethinghere and there and build city. And
that's that's not okay. And Icalled that out very plainly, because the
mayor doesn't get to be you know, let out Scott free. And I
feel like that's what a lot offolks have been doing. Make sure calling
out those who were in charge ofthe mayor, the city council, like
everybody has to be held accountable forthis gross negligence and straight up ignorance and
(05:19):
ignoring the will of the people.So I went to city Hall with organizers
in Atlanta and everyday citizens. Therewere everyday people who just live in Atlanta
who were there the meeting. Therewere over four hundred people who signed up
for public comment. Close to threehundred something spoke because people had to leave
(05:39):
eventually after a while, because youknow, the meeting started at one pm.
Public comment didn't end until four amthe next day, and then the
meeting actually didn't end until five thirtyam, so we were there for quite
(05:59):
a while. And one thing thatI noticed particularly in this fight is that
one day know that citizens don't wantthis. They are bought and paid for
by these corporations, the lant APolice Foundation, the America the land Away
also say American Way, they landAway, like all these big orgs in
the city. Their bought and paidfor by them. And so they were
(06:23):
gonna pass this, and we knewthat, but we also think it's important,
and organizes there tell me they thinkit's important to people hear that opposition,
though you still need to know wedo not want this, and so
they still filled up City Hall andmade comments. And something I thought was
it was just crazy about how theywere treating people was the day before they
put out a press release saying youcan bring liquids into City Hall that there's
(06:47):
water like a water fountain in thebuilding, but you cannot bring any liquids
or aerosols in the building, whichis just insane. I mean, at
one point you had over six hundredpeople inside of the building, about five
hundreds so outside who they wouldn't letin so easily a thousand people that have
(07:08):
shown up and then we can havewater it. It was crazy. So
after that, after they posted that, folks, you know, we're talking
about it on Twitter and the newsand how one we couldn't bring any water
in. But they also closed thebuilding down to like actual citizens for service.
(07:31):
So the only thing that would behappening in the building that they was
going to be the city council meeting. But it was pitched in away like
way it was written was that thebuilding was going to be closed, so
like the city council meeting gonna beonline, which wasn't true. So another
another tactic they used to kind ofdissuade people from showing up. Organizers there
had to put out notice like,hey, the building is open for the
(07:53):
meeting. We know that the languageis misleading, but please still show up.
It's the second thing. So thenwe actually get there and are in
the building and the areas and on, like literally there's hundreds of people in
here and the air is not onand we're trying to figure out why the
areas and on. And I talkedwith Lilyana Baktari, was a city council
(08:16):
member, and was like, hey, what's going on with the air,
And she said, we're trying tofix it. We're trying to get it
back on. So they get theair back on a few like an hour
later, and we are starting tocool off a little bit, and then
the meeting starts. So we goto the meeting. Everything's going fine,
and then I leave out of themeeting because I was hungry and there was
(08:39):
food downstairs. And the building istwo stories, so I try to walk
downstairs. They have a fire marshaland firefighters all throughout the like fire officials,
not the extra firefighters and uniforms withlike fire officials all throughout the building,
counting people. And any time someoneleft out of a room, you
could not go back in. Theywould listen to one else in And and
(09:00):
I was upstairs at one point tryingto go downstairs to get food. Instead,
I could not go downstairs. IfI went downstairs, I could not
come back up to make my publiccomment because they were counting the people in
the building. And I it wascrazy to me because we're in the city
council chambers, Like this room isn'tfull. It wasn't fool at all.
There were so many seats in thereupstairs. Wasn't fool. It wasn't full
of people, and so there wasanother tactic of like, you know,
(09:22):
let's dissuade more people from speaking orjust being here by telling them they can't
go downstairs where the food is,or they can't if they leave the building,
they can't come back in. Wereat one point when I was inside
the building, people outside weren't ableto get in, and they were telling
us if we left, we werebe able to come back either. I
was like, that's crazy, Likewhat m very much felt like jail um.
(09:46):
And and that's how that's also howfolks um operate with opposition, right,
Like they don't like the people areopposing them, they don't like being
held accountable, and so they're gonnamake you as inconveniced as possible, even
to the point where it's dangerous.I mean, at one point, people
were like getting dehydrated because we couldn'thave water, and other folks inside the
(10:07):
like who were inside of the citycouncil chambers, we're talking about there,
like, hey, this is thisis ludicrous. She said, we can't
have water. Meanwhile, the councilmembers have water, they got snacks,
they got coffee. You know,they're good, they're good. To go,
but us we couldn't have water,the most simple thing, and so
I thought that was a huge issueas well. They kind of led the
(10:30):
way for how people were feeling throughoutthe meeting. Then later on in the
evening, like around five or sixpm, it was very cold in the
council chambers, like people's noses weregetting stopped up. Folks were freezing,
and the council president, it wasso funny he kept making these announcements about
(10:50):
the air situation because he knew itwas messed up, Like he was like,
yeah, we're trying to fix it. We know that it's it's really
cold in here, so we're tryingto turn it down. He also kept
making announcements about the elevators because lotsof disabled folks kept mentioning like, hey,
they aren't allowing us to access tothese elevators, because I remember they
were trying to control where people wereand that also meant they weren't letting people
(11:13):
onto the elevators. At one pointthey announced it several of the elevators were
broken, and I was like,this is exactly why you don't need to
build cop city like you're building ismalfunctioning use that money to fix this building
ridiculous. Then later into the night, I think this was about eleven or
twelve, it was hot in thein the whole building, in the building,
(11:35):
the council chambers, The councilor wasliterally fanning themselves. I'm fanning myself.
Everybody's hot. The council president waslike, hey, we know that
the areas and working. We're tryingto get it back on. We're working
on it. Leana was telling melike, hey, they're working on they
really aren't getting the air back on. Fifteen twenty minutes past. Folks are
(11:56):
yelling out like it's hot, likecut the air back on, and the
council prison this is actually the airis malfunctioning. It's not working properly,
and so we're trying to get someonedown here to fix it. And I
was like, this is ridiculous.Y'all were giving money to cops and your
air isn't on and we're all inhere suffering. Like literally, it was
so hot, everybody's fanning themselves.It was ridiculous. And I was like
(12:20):
this, this is which I wantto put money towards cops. You want
to put money towards cops, butwe literally are in here sweating without water.
For some folks, they don't getwater. And they allowed us to
drink water in the chambers because atfirst they wan't allow us to drink liquids
in there, but now it's hot, and so they're changing the rules in
real time. It was just crazyto me how many times he if I
(12:41):
wish I could go back and counthow many times he said, we're getting
the air turn back on or theair is malfunctioning. They happened several times
throughout the day and and I personallycouldn't help but feel like other folks too
said the same thing. It wasall like psychological tactics to dissuade people,
to make the opposition as uncomfortable aspossible, you know, because even though
(13:03):
they're city council members and they haveto listen to the public, you know,
they were they were still doing thingsto make it as uncomfortable for folks
as they could, to still showyou like, hey, we're still signing
with the police, basically. Andit started with the water, no water,
no air, saws limiting where peoplecould go in the building in the
air not working at all. Andthis is just extremely like it's ridiculous.
(13:30):
So eventually they do finally get tothe actual vote for cop City or for
the for the actual city Council umthe actual city Council meeting, and then
they take a vote to move toremove the Finance Committee reports where the top
top city vote where the cop Cityfunding vote will be to the end of
the meeting. And this is whenlike three thirty four am. At this
(13:52):
point, they know what they're doing. They're trying to like really when they're
trying to hold us out, basicallytrying to get us to you know,
not stay, and people weren't goingfor that. Like they stayed until the
very end. We had the ChambersField until the very end of the meeting
because we were serious about making surethat folks knew we did not support this
funding and they were going to haveto hear that opposition. So then they
(14:16):
introduced all their other counts of stuffand they finally get to the vote and
they approved it eleven to four.So eleven people say yes and poor people
said no. And folks were expectingthat, like folks, folks knew they
probably were going to approve it,and we're already getting ready for next steps
and so I understood that. Youknow, this isn't where it ends,
(14:41):
like a lot of folks have beensaying from the beginning, like we never
said Cop City wouldn't get funded.We said Cops City would never be built,
and we meant that, and CopsCity won't be built. And so
now folks have moved on to areferendum. So just this morning they introduced
a referendum. They'll be getting seventythousand signatures to put it on the ballot
(15:01):
for the people of Atlanta to theside. And as we know, the
people of Atlanta have already said no. The people of Atlanta have been saying
no, this whole is our time. They've been in full opposition of it.
And so I mean, I havea really good hope in the referendum,
I know they'll easily get that seventythousand signatures. On play a clip
from the press conference that hit thismorning about it, just so y'all can
(15:24):
kind of hear directly from the folksin Atlanta. The Broad's class section of
our community is to talk about thefuture of Atlanta, how decisions get mad,
and the kind of vision that wehave for ourselves in our comp on
Monday and Tuesday, and an extraordinarynumber of Atlantas came out to address their
(15:46):
representatives a city council and go onthe record about their pleasures about copsit in
the working class black neighborhood that Igrew up in in Southwest that landfer if
you see a deal that at onepoint starts as a land transfer with no
(16:08):
money in and then turns into theland transfer, but we're paying thirty one
million dollars that it eventually evolves intoa land transfer that process sixty seven million
dollars. Where I'm from, inmy working class black neighborhood in southwest Atlanta,
(16:29):
we would say that you are hustlingback and we don't understand what the
motivations are, despite the fact thatthere has been clarity from a broad section
of our community about what our prioritiesare and what will actually keep us saying.
And so we believe that this question, this issue is not only big
(16:49):
enough, but important enough for usto have an open democratic conversation about about
why the art transferring public assets toentities and then taxing ourselves for the privilege
right that is worthy of Japan.So then they bring on um come out
(17:11):
Frankly, who's a community movie builderswho's been leading a lot of the work
around um stop Coop City in themovement that's been built out of it.
And so I want to play alittle bit of what he said as well,
just because it kind of goes intothe details around the extual referendum um
and just the need for that peoplepower, like the fact that we are
ignoring the will of the people andso the people are gonna take that power
(17:33):
back into their own hands and we'regonna use the you know, the ability
to do a referendum. Today.We are here to let the people decide.
The people need to have a voiceand brother or not there is a
cop City. The City Council hasfailed over and over again to listen to
(17:56):
the masses of people in Atlanta,not only those who are organized who spent
nights here at city Hall calling forthis last to be cancelled, but through
every servant, every pole that we'vetaken, it is shown that a majority
(18:18):
of Atlantans are against top City.But yet the city Council has decided that
what the working class, particularly blackpeople in Atlanta, wants, is not
what they want. What they wantis what the corporations want. What they
(18:41):
want is what the developers want.What they want is what the Atlanta Police
Foundation wants, which is to continueto militarize police and to attack our movements
and criminalize our people. We don'twant that. We stand against that,
(19:02):
and today we're here bowling a referendumas we speak, calling for a valid
initiative for the people to decide andto vote on ending this lease the Stop
Top City. As we are speaking, the referendum is being filed with the
(19:22):
city cars off. The City Clerkat this stage is an administrative body.
It has no decision making over thisexcept to make sure that the resolution itself
meets the legal standards, which itdoes. They have seven days to approve
it without any input from the CityCouncil, because we're watching them, without
(19:45):
any input on the Mayor's office,because we're watching them like good organizers.
We're a lawyer up ready for thefight alone. Though, so after that,
we hadn't have sixty days to gathera little over seventy thousand signatures to
get this on the ballot for theNovember election, and after that election,
(20:07):
we will do all that is possibleto make sure that the city of Almanta.
The people of Alvanta come out andvote to shut down city. So
now try to have a little clarityof folks there on the ground from the
press confersation this morning, just likeI've record them according it's like an hour
(20:30):
and a half later, so theyjust at that press conference this morning.
And I also want to talk abouthow this isn't the first time people have
used balot referendums to make changes whengovernment has failed, folks, because we
know that government, you know,they still out quite a bit. And
actually in Camden County, Georgia recently, like just this year, they had
(20:55):
a balot referendum about building a commerciallaunching pad in their community. Um,
and they wrote a ballot referendum forit because they didn't want it, and
the people they're I mean the officialsand like politicians, they're kept pushing for
it, and so they took theirpowers to the ballot box. UM.
And I know that a lot oftimes folks, you know, don't see
(21:17):
a point in voting or they feellike they you don't have any power.
But I will say these ballot referendums, UM, are really great ways to
use your voice to make change.And no one can come out with saying,
you know, they can't interfere withthat. The city council, the
mayor, like, they don't haveany power in the ballot referendum. You
(21:37):
know, legally, they have theright to file this UM and to list
you know, list it correctly howit's supposed to be listed with the actual
UM pieces they want to repeal.They've done that, and so now it
is the people's choice suicide and theycan't interfere. They have no you know,
no recourse there. And that's myfavorite party said. I mean,
(21:59):
really they other than you know,getting some people to vote no, which
I don't think, you know,I don't think they'll win because the majority
of Atlanta does not want this UM. So I think this is definitely their
first nightmare realistically, because they arevery determined to get this, to make
this project cap in, very determined, and we've seen that throughout the whole
few years they've been organizing against this. They are very determined to make this
(22:23):
happen, and we're not going tolet that happen. So I was really
excited to hear them announcing that ballotreferendum. I'll be supporting, you know.
However, I can, and I'llmake sure I'll keep y'all updated on
you know, folks who are inAtlanta who do vote, the who do
live there so they can't vote,ways that you can get active, because
(22:44):
now it's the time to get active. If you want to look up information
about the ballot initiative, um,you can go to cop City vote dot
com. Make sure I'm reading itright, Yep. Can go to cop
City vote dot com. There isinformation there on how folks can you bow
(23:04):
their signature, and then there's alsojust information around like what Cops City is
and how important it is to getthis ballad initiative passed. So I appreciate
y'all rocking on me for another episode. I'll definitely be doing some more updates
around things that are happening here locallyin Memphis or actually, I do want
to add in something else because Ithink it's important folks also understand the connection
(23:27):
between Memphis, Atlanta, the southernpolice departments and how important it is to
stop cop City for that reason alone. So Sarah and Davis the police sheet
that's here now. She started theRed Dog unit in Atlanta, which we
all know about. It's been talkedabout quite a lot, and also started
that guilty program into a similar programthat we have here in Memphis as well,
(23:48):
where the Israeli Defense Force. Folkscould either send people over to Israel
to learn from the Israeli Defense Forceor they come over here to Atlanta or
Memphist and learn different militarized tactics toliterally harm people. I mean, that's
what is really defense forces teaching.They're not teaching nothing noko by y'all.
Tactics that teach you how to breaksomebody's kneecap with one hit, stuff like
(24:14):
that. And so when CJ introducedthat program when she was a part of
the police department in Atlanta, theyintroduced it in Memphis too, and they
started introducing similar programs all throughout theSouth and throughout the US based off of
that Atlanta program. And so theselarger police forces like Atlanta, like Memphis,
they lead the way and how folkspolice in other places. And that's
(24:34):
also why it's important, not justbecause they would try to train there,
but also because the way that peopleare police is influenced by them, and
you can see that influence in theway that they've been responding. Even with
her starting the Red Dog Unit andthen using those same practice to other places,
including here where someone was murdered.We have Tyree Nichols who was murdered
right, we're seeing that in realtime. So this is an actual thing
(24:59):
that is harmful. She is harmfulfor one, but the practices that they
started in Atlanta spread out all overthe place, and so that's another reason
why we have to stop cop City, because we also know that by building
it, they will try to buildit and build cops cities and other places,
and that's not gonna happen. CopCity will never be built. And
if folks want to get active,you can go to cop city vote dot
(25:19):
com or stop cop City, Stopcoop City Solidarity dot org my bad.
You can go to those two sitesand get more information. So, as
always, thank y'all for listening toanother episode of The Law Courton to Amber.
Be sure to followed me on Facebookand Instagram, same name The Law
Courton to Amber. I also tweet, so my Twitter is amberisms a M
(25:42):
B E R I M is Underscoreisn't a separate page from my podcast.
You can just find all information aboutthings that I've talked about on there.
So yeah, peace,
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