It Could Happen Here - On the Ground at Stop Cop City, Part 4: The Fight Continues

Episode Date: February 16, 2023

A Week of Action is planned for March 4th as the city of Atlanta prepares to receive land disturbance permits. We discuss how the movement might evolve going forward. Music by the Narcissist Cookbook and Propaganda. https://www.stopcopcitysolidarity.org/https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/ https://www.copcitysyllab.us/ https://www.srycampaign.org/ https://scenes.noblogs.org/ https://occupywallst.nyc/news/2023/2/11/defend-the-atlanta-forest-bring-tent-march-11-2023-stopcopcity4 https://itsgoingdown.org/three-theories-of-victory/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. In the early morning of January 31st, news started to proliferate that the city of Atlanta, the Atlanta Police Foundation, and DeKalb County reached a quote-unquote compromise regarding the future of Cop City. Word spread that city officials in Atlanta were about to announce a major scaling back of the Cop City project, that the project's size would be dramatically reduced and focus more on fire department and first responder resources, as opposed to the original plans for the militarized police campus. Many were skeptical about this news, and saw this simply as an empty promise masquerading

as a compromise, in a savvy PR move. But even some who were pessimistic at least saw this as a sign that the movement is having a substantial impact. at least saw this as a sign that the movement is having a substantial impact. Activists rallied outside City Hall, holding Stop Cop City signs and Defend the Forest banners. Some reporters were denied entry into the press conference, and protesters stood outside Mayor Andre Dickens' office and chanted. chanted. At the press conference that afternoon, the mayor of Atlanta and representatives of DeKalb County announced an agreement to allow the previously announced 85-acre Cop City project to proceed as planned, with land disturbance permits to be issued. The rest of the land parcel of

forest leased to the police foundation will be allegedly set for preservation, a claim that was already previously promised by officials involved with the project. DeKalb County and the City of Atlanta released a memorandum of understanding for the building of the site, containing a, quote, statement of principles, commitments, and intentions, unquote. Mayor Dickens framed the facility as an answer to demands for police training reform during 2020's George Floyd uprising, saying, quote, this training needs space, and that's exactly what this training center is going to offer, unquote. The mayor also responded to environmental concerns by claiming the area of forest slated for destruction contains only, quote, invasive species, softwoods, and weeds, unquote.

Officials said the so-called compromise agreement would contain provisions for preserving parts of the South River Forest. When asked how the environment would be protected, Mayor Dickens mentioned that it's a 385-acre set of land. Cop City is 85 acres. The rest is green space, and that, quote, the environment will be protected in that way, unquote, with no indication given on how it would be protected or by whom. Among the few environmental promises are, quote, replacing any removed or impacted specimen trees with 100 new hardwood plantings on the site or elsewhere, as well as one specimen tree for any invasive species tree that was removed, unquote. It's unknown if they have even counted how many trees have been felled so far. Activists called this a ploy to hastily push through a sequence of land disturbance permits. The most up-to-date site plans has the

Public Safety Training Center spread out over a parcel of 171 acres, with about 87 of those acres slated for disturbance. There is nothing in the lease agreement that restricts the police foundation from building outside of those 171 acres, though they promise it will be protected green space. This compromise PR stunt is not even a new tactic. In August of 2021, after initial protests against the project delayed the city council vote, the Atlanta Police Foundation claimed a similar quote-unquote compromise. Instead of clearing the 380-so acres that they are leased by the city of Atlanta, they would reduce the footprint of buildings and disturbed surfaces to only 90 acres, while more of the land would be cleared and turned into turf

fields, shooting ranges, and horse stables labeled quote-unquote green space. And wouldn't you know, that sounds almost exactly identical to this new plan for compromise unveiled at the end of last month. Upon such rhetoric and empty promises, the movement didn't falter, but continued to demand and fight for the full cancellation of the project, whether in the Wallani Forest or elsewhere. After the January 31st press conference, organizers in Atlanta called for a week of solidarity actions starting February 19th through the 26th. Quote, calling on all people wherever you are to take action in solidarity with the movement to stop Cop City. Protest, sit in, call and email the contractors building Cop City. Every action has an impact. Unquote. At stopcopcitysolidarity.org, there are guides

for various actions people can take, from calling cop city contractors or investors, to posting flyers around town, or planning direct action using the interactive target map. If you do go on any movement-related website, it's strongly recommended to use a VPN and a Tor-compatible browser like Brave. The national spotlight on the movement has certainly increased a great deal in the past month, both with an influx of scrutiny and support from across the country and even the world. The Press Collective has always had kind of a hybrid role, both of reporting on the movement and researching the movement, researching the prison farm. But a lot of media outlets don't quite understand the autonomous nature of the struggle. So we have kind of found ourselves in a role of kind of liaisoning between media and the rest of the movement. But thankfully, it's not just us doing it,

because, boy, is everyone interested all of a sudden. No one was talking about the movement at the beginning, so we were like, all right, we'll talk about it ourselves. We've been able to use our platform to publicize a lot of solidarity events, to use our platform to publicize a lot of solidarity events, not just share memorials and what people want others to know about tort, but publicize these things across the nation and across the world. Statements in solidarity have come in from radicals in Italy, Germany, France, and Rojava. After the killing of Tortugita, vigils happened in cities all across the United States. A wave of targeted vandalism and direct

action against cop city investors and contractors happened across the country in response to Tort's death. In Atlanta, there's a concerted effort to not cede perception of the movement to the state. People have an intentional, collaborative way to affect how the movement is seen externally. This media strategy is simply one prong of the fight, along with the encampments, sabotage, vandalism, pressure campaigns, and canvassing. I think it's really representative of the type of people that are dedicated to the struggle in general. The way that anyone and everyone has come together to handle the influx of media requests, to make smart decisions about it,

to make sure that decisions are made with the consent of those involved, be it sharing the stories of people who were arrested that day, sharing the stories of TORT's family and TORT's partners, and making sure to respect their boundaries in space. Despite the diverse nature of requests, there always seems to be somebody in the movement who's able to speak on whatever aspect of the struggle is needed. You need someone who's got a master's in environmental engineering. There's someone in the movement that can talk to you for 45 minutes about the good environmental reasons to stop Cop City. You need someone to talk for three hours about the history

of the place. There's someone for that too. You need someone to talk about how the project is a pretty good example of why the black mecca is a myth. The movement has people who can speak to that too. There's been a tremendous amount of attention paid to the movement all of a sudden. And again, the way folks have just stepped up and come together to handle it, I think speaks to the communal nature of the movement. It is dedicated to building. It's not just about saving the forest. It's about saving the forest for the community. When I spoke with Karen, the neighborhood mom who started canvassing and organizing in her community, she mentioned how even her older family, who are longtime Georgia residents, haven't totally bought the state's talking points.

I can say, you know, my mom and my mother-in-law and like, you know, family, they know that I care about this. And, you know, they're boomers. But I've been surprised how there's a lot of there's a lot of skepticism in the police narrative, which I found really interesting. You know, normally when something like this happens, it's just 100% police narrative. Mayor Dickens, the day Tort died, put out a pretty infamous tweet that just expressed their condolences to the family of the trooper that was injured and not one single word about the person that died. And in most fatal incidents with police, you at least get some kind of boilerplate language about,

oh, we're sorry that someone died. And a lot of the initial statements from government and large organizations just said nothing. But the media, even local news, in pretty much every single report, there's at least a line or two, if not a pretty decent chunk of, you know, whatever 5 p.m. news story it is that say protesters have questions, people have questions about Torts' death. given the pretty universally negative way that local Atlanta media in particular has covered the defend the forest movement, the fact that even those outlets have to respond to the overwhelming amount of folks speaking out about how what happened doesn't make sense, about what kind of person tort was, about how none of this had to happen in the first place. I'd love to say that as someone who pays attention to how the media covers this,

that I could have predicted that would happen. Three members of Congress, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, and Senator Ed Markey, have joined in calling for an independent investigation into Tortugita's death. Like I saw a screenshot from NBC News this morning, NBC News, and like the chyron was protesters still have questions about Tort's death. Like that's from this morning, even after after the riot, quote unquote, after the arson and property destruction and almost like a week after the incident. Yeah. Like, I mean, it was it's week after the incident yeah like i mean it was

it's hard to remember now but i think it was like almost a month after george floyd died before folks really yeah before it really got national attention with when ray shard was killed here in atlanta it was a little more immediate because of because of a lot of things during the rally at underground atl, while people were speaking in front of the dozen or so news cameras, someone talked about how there are still people in town that are just learning about Cop City and the fight to prevent it from being built. Today at work, I had four different conversations about the Walani Forest in regards to everything that's going on with four different people who were unaware of what was happening.

As big as this seems right now, a lot of people are still unaware. And as long as we keep being loud, as long as we make sure that Cop City will never be fucking built, we just got to keep talking about it. Mayor Dickens, Ryan Millsap, you have blood on your hands. Fuck Cop City. I think we're about to really see how the national media is going to pick up on the domestic terrorism. And frankly, the fact that they're talking to us at all, or the fact that they're talking to the movement at all,

I think speaks to the strength of the movement and the simple truth of it which is that tort didn't have to die and this is a very wide-ranging movement with a lot of people who have some very good reasons for being opposed to the project and I think those reasons are so compelling that I don't want to say it's easy to see past the noise but it's not that hard. I remember one conversation with Tort where I was like, and this might just be like a egotistical or something, but I really think this is like a lot bigger than you, you know, just a little neighborhood struggle. And yeah, we talked about, we were like, yeah yeah no people don't know it yet but it's the intersection of so many things and you know if more people realize that it would be huge

um and it's you know really heartbreaking that i think they were they were right um you know they didn't get to see you welcome I'm Danny Thrill won't you join me at the fire and dare enter Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America.

From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-ch chilling brushes with supernatural creatures take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted latin america since the beginning of time listen to nocturnal tales from the shadows. As part of my Cultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast.

And we're kicking off our second season digging into how Tex Elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just

hate the people in charge, and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough, so join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry, and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace,

wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Black Lit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Black Lit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. One of the main talking points the state has been trying to push through to the media

is condemning cop city protesters and force defenders as outside agitators. There's a good crime think zine titled The Making of Outside Agitators that focuses on the use of the term as related to the 2014 Ferguson uprising that gave birth to the modern Black Lives Matter movement. For this next section, I'll paraphrase a little bit from that zine. The state and media's invocation of the term in Atlanta has been accelerating rapidly since the raids last December, using it alongside notions of terrorism to justify the police's violent escalation of protest suppression. For example, this clip from the Cop City Community Stakeholders Advisory Committee meeting held days after the December raid that

introduced the domestic terrorism charges. Speaking is the assistant chief for the Atlanta Police Department. And so one of the things we charged them with to include criminal trespass was domestic terrorism charges that we put on them. So going forward, that is one of the charges we'll be using because that's exactly what they are. None of those people live here. They do not have a vested interest in this property. And we show that time and time again. Why is an individual from Los Angeles, California, concerned about a training facility being built in the state of Georgia. And that is why we consider that domestic terrorism. There's a darkly prophetic sentence

from that Crimethinkazine I mentioned, quote, when we hear them say outside agitators, we know the authorities are getting ready to spill blood. A pretty consistent talking point by the Police Foundation, police, the state in general, has been that a lot of the people they've arrested for incidents related to Defend the Forest have had out-of-state licenses, out-of-state addresses, and what they describe as no connection to Georgia. They have been sent here to stir up trouble, right? They aren't from here. They're just here to, because they don't like the cops, right? They have no stake in the struggle.

So there's some pretty obvious problems with that, and there's some pretty lengthy historic racism tied to the term outside agitators that makes it, you know, especially heinous to use in the South. The term outside agitators was used to describe the freedom riders. So it's got a little bit of got a little bit of history there. the Freedom Riders. So it's got a little bit of history there. Governor Brian Kemp declaring a state of emergency so that the National Guard can be on standby to occupy Atlanta sure seems like outside agitation, but even the Atlanta Police Department's use of the term carries with it a great deal of hypocrisy. APD has, since 2020, really made a big deal out of stepping up its recruitment efforts. And if you go back and look at those presentations to the media, to city council,

they consistently talk about, oh, we went to New York for three days. We went to Miami for a week. I believe it was, would have been September, just after Darren Shearbaum was officially installed as chief of police. He went before the city council and talked about how he was so proud to have personally recruited someone from Detroit per basically a part of their loan application because they're applying for a loan to finance part of cop city by their own numbers. 43% of recruits that will be trained at this facility will come from out of state they are 43 from outside the state of georgia again

in apd's own statements about the facility this facility is built to bring in people from out of state from out of the country even, because Atlanta participates in the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, which is basically an exchange program with the IDF, with the Israeli military, where we go there, they come here, we teach each other. News articles claiming that a majority of those arrested are residents from other states might sound like convincing evidence to middle-class readers, but anyone who has been poor and precarious knows that the permanent address you give when you're arrested may not be the same as the place you actually live. You might give a different address because you aren't sure your current housing will last,

because your landlord doesn't know your place has more people in it than are named on the lease, or simply because you don't want local vigilantes to know where you live. Instead, you might give a more reliable long-term address, perhaps from another state. I mean, on a human level, like, how many times have you moved somewhere and not changed your address? How many times have you... Going to the DMV sucks. Yes, going to the TMV sucks. A lot of people don't have the privilege to be able to go to the DMV or don't have a permanent home address. A lot of people are dealing with housing instability. There's so many aspects of this that makes it pretty egregious.

Not only, of course course is this a struggle that is deeply compelling regardless of where you call home it just doesn't match up to like the facts of life like it's it's a little bit bizarre their insistence that the local populace couldn't possibly be that opposed to it when grab any one person in the movement who's from, who's from Georgia and they know 10 people who's opposed to it. That person knows 10 people. And also you,

you have statistics like during the what? 17 hours of public comment, 70% of people who called in were opposed to it. Basically the only people who weren't were people who self-identified as police officers, firefighters, and those who lived in Buckhead. And it's not that simple, but it's pretty clear that maybe you'd be okay with building the facility somewhere else. Maybe you're an abolitionist. Maybe this, that, and the other, Maybe you're an abolitionist. Maybe this, that, and the other.

But Atlanta doesn't want this. Atlanta doesn't want this here. Let's imagine that some of these arrestees who gave out-of-town addresses are in Atlanta for the very first time. Would that make them outside agitators? Maybe, if the issue was specific to Atlanta alone and they had no stake in the cause. Cop City would be a place that police agencies from all around the country and world come to to train and practice urban militarism. Climate collapse and the destruction of forests is similarly a worldwide issue, and one of apocalyptic magnitude. It's a false narrative in one sense because

climate change affects everybody. Cutting down a forest would make climate change worse. Like, that's a very, very, very obvious talking point. If environment, if protecting the environment is important to you, it is obvious that this is a very key struggle right now, especially in the context of Atlanta being a growing and also gentrifying city. this being such a vast green space in those communities that don't have the manicured Piedmont Park in their backyards. When people are suffering the same forms of oppression everywhere, it makes sense for us to come to each other's assistance. This is not outside agitation. This is solidarity. Solidarity has always been the most important tool of the oppressed. This is why authorities go to such lengths to demonize anybody who has the courage to take risks to support others. Cricket spoke at length about the outside agitator narrative

that the state has been employing. I think one thing that comes to mind is something that I've heard a lot is that the people in this movement are not from here, quote unquote, that they're outside agitators, that they're not from this community. They're not, you know, and it seems to me very clear to be an attempt to sort of discredit what is a very clear majority of the community that does not want this forest destroyed, does not want Cop City built, you know, 70%. And that argument infuriates me because, I mean, first of all, the US military is the biggest like outside agitator in the world. And I just, I find that irony sort of unbearable. And then I think there's this

question we can get into, questions of what does it mean to be from somewhere? And what I think is a more helpful question is, how are you somewhere? How are you in relation to a place And what I think is a more helpful question is how are you somewhere? How are you in relation to a place? And I think Tort was someone who was always trying to be in the right relation with the land and in right relation with their neighbors and right relation with the communities here. One story that I keep revisiting of them is when we were checking in and people were asking them, you know what, what do folks in the forest need? What can we get them? Do they need food? What, you know, what do they need? And tort was like, oh no, actually, you know, we have everything we need, but it would be great if people could start, we could make sure they're

giving food to the poor folks in their own communities. Like make sure you're giving food to the people in your neighborhoods. Are you checking in with the unhoused communities in your neighborhood? Like they were just, I think, constantly seeking to be in right relation. And I think regardless of where all of us are from, if we can claim to be from somewhere, I mean, arguably if we're not Muskogee Creek, none of us is from here. But I think it's a more helpful direction to think about what are we doing once we're here? How are we trying to be here? And yeah, I mean, that specific argument really, How are we trying to be here? And yeah, I mean, that specific argument really,

it really frustrates me because I think it really obfuscates how much this is a local movement and also having solidarity from across state lines, from across national lines, speaks to the intersection of our, the intersections of our oppressions, the intersections of our movements. It doesn't speak to the fact that this is co-opted

or it doesn't indicate anything other than that none of us is free and to all of us are free. The ultimate goal of the police is not so much to brutalize and pacify specific individuals as it is to extract rebelliousness itself from the social fabric. They seek to externalize agitation, so anyone who stands up for themselves will be seen as an outsider, as deviant, and antisocial. Noah mentioned how the outside agitator narrative is rooted in stripping people of their own autonomy. It's completely denying you the freedom of movement and the freedom to decide that you would like to go and support other issues as if with, like, the empathy of the Minajonen to show solidarity with other people, as well as, like, just deciding that if you are living here but from out of town, that that somehow makes you a flight risker that makes you in some ways more more dangerous than if you were i guess an official resident in some way it's all complete bullshit i mean and even some some of the people who are like out of town they're like not even two hours away from

from where the prosecutors are claiming where they're from yeah the outside agitators narrative only works if we have this sense of otherness that we talked about in the last episode. This disconnect and separation from neighboring struggles. As if lines on a map change the morality of actions.

Keeping people in pre-trial jail for an unknown amount of time could be literally over a year because they are deemed non-local, so the judge thought they were a quote-unquote flight risk. Beyond the charges themselves, which are innately kind of absurd,

and the brutality is the point, the sheer audacity of keeping people with no evidence in cages for years for going to a protest is just it's not surprising but it still is incredibly upsetting like it's like it's no and it would be completely decried if it were happening in any other country right and a massive human rights violation if those were happening in china because of the u.s china relations like absolutely not there there There'd be an entire, like, I don't know, national outcry. But because it's people who are resisting this government in

this state, then yeah, it doesn't get the same kind of empathy. It doesn't get the same outcry. When I talked with Karen, she spoke about how thankful she is that there are people from across the country, people like Tort, who care about the South River Forest enough to travel to Atlanta to defend it. In terms of the narrative of like outside agitators, you know, I'm really grateful that people are coming to like protect the forest in so meaningful. Um, yeah. And I, yeah, I think I, um, I think after the first raid, I told tort that and I'm glad I did, but yeah, it really is like just so much gratitude. The framing of outside agitators is meant to keep people away and stifle solidarity, just like the domestic terrorism charges are meant to.

The state is trying out every tactic to scare people away from participating in the movement. So it feels like just the past month there's been such an intense increase in the level of state repression and state violence. increase in the level of state repression and state violence how do you see things evolving in the next few like weeks and months and or like even days at this point like just with how both like physical violence is definitely increasing with the raids and now like you know killing somebody um and then the types of like you know know, judicial abuse of power, giving people $700,000 bail, keeping many others just in jail in perpetuity for who knows how long. Yeah, I mean, I think it's clear looking at this movement that the state, the cops, police have always been the first to escalate and have have now murdered someone have now assassinated someone and uh are the ones who are constantly sort of making putting other people's lives in danger

they're really the people who are making folks unsafe uh and and tort was a street medic tort was someone who went through street medic training with someone who was passionate about protecting their community and in street medic training one of the things that is taught there's a whole section on police weapons and state weapons and sure sure, we cover tear gas, we cover bullets, we cover all anything that you can sort of commonly see protests or in raids. And one of the biggest weapons that we always cover is fear. And that is really what I see happening with this escalation is that, yes, there's a sort of increase of literal weapons of arms, of just everything that we've heard about in the forest. But I think when you take that in combination with the ludicrous charges, what they're really trying to weaponize

is our own fear, as our own emotions making us think that it's too dangerous to be in the forest, that it's not worth it, that it's too risky. Making us think that the forest itself is somehow an unsafe place. Making us think that the people who protect it are unsafe. And I think that's the sort of trend that I'm seeing. I think in terms of what's coming next, I think they're going to keep leaning into the weapon of fear. I think it's, you know, it's not ha-ha funny that they accuse protesters and the people who've been charged with domestic terrorism of intimidation when clearly they're using those charges to intimidate people, both the people who are charged with it and anyone who might consider themselves an ally or a friend of the forest and a friend of the forest defenders. So what I see moving forward in terms of carrying TORTS legacy forward, in terms of carrying this movement forward, is not buying into that bullshit. Like very much being fear-walking and not trying to say people shouldn't be scared or not have those feelings.

But one of the memories of TORT that I have is them very clearly refusing intimidation, whether it was cops, whether it was, you know, whoever the sort of representative of the state was. They never gave into that. And I think that's what I'm trying to carry forward. A lot of us are trying to carry forward. Noah spoke similarly about fear being a powerful weapon of the state and a very insidious one because it doesn't punish people for actions they may or may not have done, but instead works to prevent people from taking action in the first place. Fear is the number one tool that the state brings to bear. All of their toys and their guns and shit do not have the reach and do not have the capacity to stop acts of liberation as fear does. Making people afraid of the idea of revolting,

of the idea of dissidence is extremely powerful, and it's something that we all have to combat in our own ways. It's something we all have to resist in our own ways, because obviously the state is capable of murdering and of putting people in prison for a very long time and that is scary and that is a valid thing to be afraid of but we stand to lose so much if we do not combat that fear to face off with them that it's just something that I've found I have to manage. It's something that, because we, I'm so much more afraid of what we all lose if we don't stop them here than I am of myself being harmed or going to prison. We all stand to lose, tens of millions of people stand to lose everything if we allow climate apocalypse to bear, to lose everything if we allow climate apocalypse to bear, if we allow the powers that be to get significantly more effective at combating dissidents in the streets.

That goes not just for in the United States, but for Cop City. This is an international struggle. I mean, this is the same police department that does cross-train with the IDF. If you think the IDF wouldn't be coming to this facility to train better how to kill Palestinian dissidents, I know you're joking with yourself. This will mean something to every foreign military, to every foreign police force, and every police force in the U.S.

There's a quote from Tortugita talking about how to deal with fear. What I'm about to read also demonstrates, as their partner said, that Tort was very aware of the risks inherent to resisting the state, especially as a non-white forest defender. But with an understanding of that risk and the fear associated with said risk, they chose it was worth it to keep on fighting. Am I scared of the state? Pretty silly not to be. I'm a brown person.

I might be killed by the police for existing in certain spaces. Fear is the mind killer. That's a quote I think about often. I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is a little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I think about often. To continue what Tort said, quote, I am scared, but you can't let the fear stop you from doing things, from living, from existing, from resisting. Unquote. Yeah.

Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning

of time. Experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, Whenever you get your podcast. underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong though, I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to god things can change if we're loud enough so join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech Thank you. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature.

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Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In the early 1960s, Atlanta was as a business-oriented city, a city moving forward from its racial past and into a hopeful new future. This was the beginning of the Atlanta way. Still today, you can find the city too busy to hate everywhere, on murals, posters, and t-shirts. It's become part of Atlanta's identity, or at least Atlanta tries to tell itself that. Within the slogan lies this admission of the belief that racism and oppression can be beaten by hyper-capitalism. Meaning the first and foremost goal of the city is economic progress. Equality and racial justice must take a back seat because

the city is just too busy. There's few better examples of this in action than the black neighborhoods that were demolished to build infrastructure for the 1996 Olympics and later the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Since then, the Beltline's original vision of public transit, green space, and affordable housing has been abandoned in favor of developing luxury apartments and gentrified retail joints. As Foucault's boomerang brings the internal colonization of gentrification and increasing police militarization to Atlanta, it only makes sense that Cop City and the battle to stop it is happening here. are over as soon as the fundraising is over. When someone is shot resisting the state in a peaceful, nonviolent, direct action, they're labeled a terrorist. I don't understand how someone can possibly reconcile those two things. They seem to me to be grotesque. I mean, it's disgusting,

but I don't see that reflected in any mainstream narrative. Noah, talk with me about how he first got involved in the Stop Cop City movement. talk with me about how he first got involved in the Stop Cop City movement. Yeah, so my introduction to Cop City started where most people in Atlanta did when it got first leaked that this was a thing that the city was planning. I remember having just a very like, oh my god, what the fuck reaction to realizing they're going to destroy the largest urban canopy in the country to build a big fake city for them to practice doing urban combat in. That's, like, parody, dystopian. And very quickly, people were organizing in various different ways to stop that and to make their voices heard that this was not something that Atlanta was okay with.

This was not something we were okay with having in our communities, this was not something that anybody wanted. That took a lot of different fronts for me. I mean, that went from working, whether that be on the streets to just doing food distros and medical trainings to, you know, scampering around the woods with my friends, like that took many different forms, just as all forms of resistance do. And over time that has, you know, changed and evolved, but I still think it's something that I work in on a lot of different fronts to be as effective

as a person as possible when it comes to resisting this. The sheer resiliency we've seen in Atlanta post-2020 has been incredibly impressive and inspiring. After 2020, the radical communities in a lot of cities dealt with pretty extreme burnout due to such a grueling summer. And ever since then, people seem to be recovering and anticipating the next cycle of mass uprising. As news spread of Memphis police's brutal beating of Tyree Nichols, which resulted in his death, there was renewed discussion if it was going to spark the quote-unquote next 2020. But Atlanta is one of the few cities where things really haven't halted since 2020.

Defend the Forest stuff has been going pretty hard ever since 2021. And it's been a very impressive amount of resiliency. Can you kind of talk on that aspect of how people have been able to do that? Yeah, I think it comes down to having a really good support network of people people who are willing to um be support activists who are jailed support actors medically financially like who are able to make this possible and it also comes down to that the defend the forest Forest movement is so, it is so important to anybody, or should be so important to anybody who looked at 2020 as a strike back

against police violence. What cop city means for all of us is a world in which it is much harder to resist police, especially in cities. And for a lot of activists who came out of 2020, Defend the Forest became an extension of that fight. It became its own fight to protect the forest and an extension of the battle against the violence of the state and against the ability of the police to further militarize. And I think that kept a lot of people going. But it certainly happens. I mean, it can be really exhausting work. It can be really defeating at times. And it's been really important, I think, for people everywhere and here to have, you know, friends and things that they can do to decompress and take time off

when needed to stay, to keep the ability to keep doing this, and to not burn out completely, and to be able to keep going against what feels like all odds at times. Also, just activists here are pretty fucking resilient. I'm continually so impressed by the people I see just continuing to go out day after day and working behind the scenes, doing everything possible to make sure that we can keep going. The Solidarity Fund has a couple of things on getting money on people's commissaries, and in the past has done letter-writing campaigns for political prisoners across the country, which is certainly a thing that we're looking at, potentially people being held very long- term. That's absolutely going to be something in the coming weeks that I hope people spring to do.

Obviously, these people who are incarcerated need our support in every way we can possibly do that. If the people currently incarcerated are granted bond during the appeal process, and it's set to the same amount as the last two individuals, process and it's set to the same amount as the last two individuals, that would be $355,000 per person for at least five more people. That included with like the previous bond amounts that were set for previous raids. I mean, we're approaching $3 million in potential bonds, which is just designed to drain people as much as possible and make the idea of protest as seem impossible. And again, this is just another tactic. This is how they perpetuate power is through fear and making it seem as impossible to protest and making it seem like if you were to get arrested that you

would never get out because that's terrifying. And that's the number one tool that they bring to bear. There have been a few semi-distinct stages in the struggle against Cop City. In summer of 2021, the initial stage was trying to get the city council to vote no on the project. There was a lot of canvassing, calling representatives, involvement from large above-ground organizations like the DSA and Sunrise, you know, people trying to quote-unquote campaign the right way to get the project shut down before it even started. And then, even despite 70% of the local people who called in not wanting this, the city council voted for it anyway. And then starting two months after the vote, and for over a year now, we've had this forest occupation or encampment stage. People going

into the woods and having their continuous physical presence there itself be a deterrent for construction. Concurrently, there have been random acts of sabotage, with construction equipment spontaneously bursting into flames, alongside pressure campaigns targeting subcontractors and cop city investors. With the past few police raids having been increasingly violent, the last one resulting in the death of a forest offender, I asked the people I spoke with if they saw any forthcoming new stage of the movement, considering the cops are trying really hard to make it very dangerous to camp in the woods right now. What's your sense from on the ground how stuff might, you know, with these increasing charges, increasing amounts of bail funds, and increasing use of force, what's some

kind of ways that you feel stuff might start changing on the ground? Like, do you think the encampment style will continue or will it kind of evolve in a new kind of unexpected direction? It remains to be seen how the approach to living in the woods will adapt to these changes. The DeKalb County Police Department has claimed that they're going to increase their surveillance and patrol of the neighborhood that the woods is in. It remains to be seen what that will mean for the encampment and how active they're going to be in,

you know, repressing people in a day-to-day sort of thing. And also, I think one change is reconsidering what on-the-ground means and what the bounds of the forest are. There's more woods that Blackhall plans to develop on nearby. So reconsidering what on-the-ground is, you know, Brassfield and Gorey construction sites could be considered an on-the-ground site, you know, for actions. And, you know, I think there's a lot of room to grow in that direction as well. Like, do you see this moment as like a substantial turning point? I think so. I mean, I don't think it couldn't be a turning point. I think that every escalation of violence that has happened has been perpetrated by law enforcement. There's never been a moment

in which the people combating law enforcement have been the ones to escalate of violence that has happened has been perpetrated by law enforcement. There's never been a moment in which the people combating law enforcement have been the ones to escalate the violence. And I think that this marks a willingness of the government here in the city government that this is the hill that they're willing to die on. This is where they're going to stand their ground and where they are proving to us that they are committed and so committed to the idea of building capacity that they are willing to kill people. And I think that that is a turning point in how we as a movement have to be willing to respond to the state and how we have to be willing to look at them not just as this entity that we are facing down in the courts and doing phone blasts,

because that clearly doesn't work, they are just going to murder us, but as a force that is a, you know, like, offensive militarized force coming after us, I think that is a, that it marks a really big, just, shift in, overall, in looking at what the city government here is willing to do to get this done. I think that a variety of tactics will always be in play. People are always going to have different ways that they feel comfortable and safe and responding. But I do think that what we saw on Saturday was a response to that, that people showed up and they made it very clear that we were not going to take this lying down, that people weren't going to be willing to let the state go unanswered, and that they weren't going to let the police go unanswered for this act.

and going forward, I think we will. I think, I hope at least that we see more and more people taking up acts of physical resistance to law enforcement and to the state to prevent them from building Cop City and prevent them from committing further acts of violence against their comrades. So far, the forced occupation has proved effective in delaying the construction of Cop City. In the past, barricades have inhibited the movement of construction equipment, machinery left in the woods has been sabotaged, and during attempts to fell trees, force defenders have put their own bodies on the line by climbing into the treetops to prevent them from being cut down. Other prongs of the movement have similarly produced successes. Pressure campaigns focused on getting contractors and businesses to divest or pull out of the project resulted last April in Reeves Young Construction,

the initial contractor for Cop City, severing ties with the project after months of pressure. And just this month, Quality Glass Company announced that they would not be working on Cop City, as well as no longer doing business with Brasfield & Gorey, the current contractor for the facility. These pressure campaigns can include protests at company offices, phone calls imploring them to drop the contract, or actions more along the lines of vandalism at job sites or visits to the neighborhoods of company executives, even to simply drop off flyers or banners. I don't think this was ever a fight that we were going to win on one front.

The amount of people that we were able to put in the encampment in the forest was really beautiful to see, but the state was always going to be able to put out enough manpower to shut that down. This is a battle that we win on multiple fronts. to shut that down. This is a battle that we win on multiple fronts. And that includes having physical presence in the forest and preventing machinery from coming in. But that also includes acts of sabotage. Making sure that contractors who are signed on to COP City do not feel comfortable and do not feel safe

signing on to this project and making this economically impossible for the city to continue doing. As far as it being, like, a new strategy, I don't know if it would be new as we've already seen, you know, equipment spontaneously combust and such things, but I do think this marks a point in potentially, like potentially the frequency of these things happening and also a necessary, I think, evaluating of where we are now and thinking realistically about what our next steps are to make this an untenable situation for the city to continue prosecuting. Well, one evolution that I see happening is a consensus

amongst long-term organizers in Atlanta that we want as many people coming here to participate as possible. And also that I think OneChange is being less picky in who we invite to participate and encouraging liberals and moderates to be a part of this. They've always been a part of it, but really emphasizing that side of the movement more. Back in the Defend the Atlanta Forest episodes from last May, I talked about the shack model, the aim of which is to make construction economically untenable by maintaining a presence in the forest, sabotaging work, and targeting specific subcontractors locally and elsewhere. In addition to contractors, corporate funders affiliated with the APF can also be targeted to disincentivize affiliation with the project. Solidarity actions

targeting Atlanta Police Foundation contributors have been happening nationwide. As mentioned at the top of the episode, a week of solidarity is coming up on February 19th, and stopcopcitysolidarity.org has many resources. In the past, actions have included everything from office protests, divestment campaigns, vandalism, and actions by workers within these companies to pressure them into cutting ties. No action is too small or too ambitious. An analysis on Tactics, published recently on It's Going Down, said this regarding the targeting of cop city investors. In other campaigns, banks like Wells Fargo have been forced to divest from police and prison expansion.

But these efforts often take years and lots of resources. Atlanta Police Foundation supporters like public universities, Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, or Emory University, could be lower hanging fruit. Comrades should identify which COP city funders are most vulnerable to pressure, where potential allies like student groups and unions are positioned, and share this info and synchronize actions. Unquote. Bureaucratic red tape can also be effective in delaying progress. Ongoing zoning appeals could result in an official stop work order, but it remains unseen if such an order will even be followed, as currently laws around zoning appeals are being ignored by the contractors and the Atlanta Police

Foundation. Tortuguita had spoken of a theory of theirs concerning the potential for intense police repression and how the aftermath of that might play out. Quote, they could come in and completely destroy the place, raise it, arrest everybody they could find, kill anybody who resists arrest. They could do that, and then days later, there would be a shitload of people back here. For every head they cut off, there would be more who would come back to avenge the arrested, to avenge the... tort did not finish that sentence, but resuming. What I'm saying is, if they do a huge crackdown and completely try to crush the movement, they'll succeed at hurting some people, they'll succeed at destroying some infrastructure, but they're not going to succeed at stopping the movement. That's just going to strengthen the movement.

It will draw a lot of attention to the movement. If enough people decide to do this with nonviolent action, you can overwhelm the infrastructure of the state. That's something they fear more than violence in the streets. Because violence in the streets, they'll win. They have the guns for it. We don't. Unquote. No matter how the movement continues, the weight of Tort's absence will be felt

as long as this fight carries on. It's such a huge loss. But as we keep thinking about, you know, WWTD, what would Tort do? It's continued to support those projects. It's continued to uplift the spaces and groups that are supporting the most vulnerable amongst us and uplifting their voices, uplifting their safety.

And there are going to continue to be trainings offered, training specifically for folks who are marginalized and afraid of gun violence and want to know how to be able to protect themselves and protect their friends. want to know how to be able to protect themselves and protect their friends. This came about specifically in the wake of the shooting at the gay bar, I guess a few months ago now, Jesus. And that was something that tort was helping to organize. So yeah, we're going to keep doing that work. How do you think you're going to continue on without tort there now? You know, I think they set me up.

The hardest thing to navigate, like, okay, what can I do? Where can I fit in? Like, short of, you know, living in the forest. And I think with just like the canvassing, I feel like I've really figured out the ways I can, you know, my place in it, enough to keep me busy. Was tort kind of very instrumental to having you help figure out like your role in this? I mean, honestly, I would just like spitball, you know, an idea and they'd be like, yeah, you should do that. Or we were like, yeah,

that'd be sick. And that gave me the confidence to be like, okay. And also like, I think this movement is interesting because it's totally different from any other organization or anything I've done in that. Like if you want to volunteer in any other thing, like, you know, you make a graphic and you check it and you send it to someone and get it approved, you know? And just like the kind of deconstructing that thinking was like, I mean, tort was really instrumental in that. And it can be like difficult to navigate, but really just walking all that back and being like, if you want to like, you know, canvas your neighbors, like you just do it. The Stop Cop City movement has called for a fifth week of action

to be held on March 4th through March 11th in Atlanta, Georgia. They are asking all those opposed to Cop City to come participate in a variety of events and actions both in and out of the forest, and if you're able to, bring a tent. If you're unable to travel, there's still calls to support people in your own community who might be able to do so. This week of action will be a key moment in the next phase of the fight to defend the forest. I want people to know that being in the woods, even if just for a few days, will transform you in unexpected and delightful ways. And that's something that we witnessed with Tort.

Tort lived in the woods for less than a year, and they transformed and blossomed into their purpose in unexpected and beautiful ways. And so if you have the opportunity to come and spend any amount of time in these woods, I encourage you to do so because I think that you'll find that it will nourish you and aid in your growth as a human. The police have not succeeded in scaring everybody out of the forest. Wolani People's Park is still legally required to operate as a public park. Last month, I saw regular people jogging the trails. People still come

every day. The movement has only grown despite the repression, and now force defenders in Atlanta are urging people everywhere to organize for the upcoming mass convergence. A large list of resources and movement websites I'll be putting in the description for people to learn more and stay up to date with information regarding the Week of Action. I'll end this series by reading from a Defend the Forest poster that I saw around Atlanta. Quote, It is your mission to stop Cop City by all of the means at your disposal. Without hesitation, defend the forest from destruction, the city from commercialization, the future from ruin, the imagination from conquest, and the heart from resignation. Do not wait for further instruction. Reality is the battlefield. Fight us, our medicine, materials Our vitamins, our minerals And all that is essential, it just grew right beside us

And Tysa started fighting over the gifts that she'd provide us Scorching the very soil that all of us derived from And when empires learn and can't withstand fire We return to the land where our ancestors reigned in We are all but creatures, we still bear her features The one and only reason all living things is breathing The cities deceive and leave, go see the dirt We still bear her features The one and only reason all living things is breathing The city's deceiving Leave, go see the dirt

Young'll be among the lungs of Mother Earth Before you found your voice There was a chorus Before you take your throne You must restore it Before your flesh and bone Before you build a home Before they chopped them down

There was a forest Before they chopped them down There was a forest Music by The Narcissist Cookbook and Propaganda It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Music by The Narcissist Cookbook and Propaganda. slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow of Wrath. Join me, Danny Trails, and

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