It Could Happen Here - State Repression and Bail Fund Organizing in Atlanta

Episode Date: January 17, 2023

We talk with folks from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund and  Anti-Repression Committee about the tactics of State repression and bail fund organizing within the struggle to Defend the Atlanta Forest. https://atlsolidarity.orgSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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regarding the Defend the Atlanta Forest and Cop City movement that's been ongoing for almost two years now. If you're unfamiliar with the topic, I made a three-hour, two-part deep dive last May titled On the Ground at the Fendi Atlanta Forest that you can find up on the It Could Happen Here feed. And I've been doing random updates like in our history of the old Atlanta Prison Farm episodes from last August. But the TLDR is that the city of Atlanta and the corporate-funded Atlanta Police Foundation are trying to tear down a large section of the Wallani or South River Forest in DeKalb County to construct a massive $90 million militarized

state-of-the-art police training facility complete with a mock city. On top of that, Ryan Millsap's Blackhall Movie Studios are planning to cut down an adjacent section of the very same forest to expand their film production studio in a shady land swap deal that's currently the subject of a lawsuit. The past couple of weeks have seen a massive increase in the intensity of repression efforts by the state and local police inside Atlanta and DeKalb County against the cop city movement and people in the forest encampments trying to prevent the construction of the police training facility. Last month, on December 13th, there was a raid on the forest by a task force of local, state, and federal law enforcement. Police were shooting pepper balls, rubber-tipped metal

impact rounds, and tear gas canisters into the woods. They destroyed tree houses while people were still inside, and tore apart other infrastructure like the communal kitchen that was built inside the forest to support the encampment. Police fired chemical weapons at tree sitters, arrested multiple people, and pushed others out of the forest at gunpoint. One of the things setting this apart from previous raids is that six people have now been charged with domestic terrorism, as well as a number of other felonies. The people charged were initially denied bail and essentially held as political prisoners for trespassing in a forest, with the terrorism enhancement charge added on top.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation alleges, quote, several people threw rocks at police cars and attacked EMTs outside the neighboring fire stations with rocks and bottles. Task force members used various tactics to arrest individuals who were occupying makeshift tree houses, unquote. The Georgia Department of Homeland Security, which was formed as the result of a 2017 bill which is also responsible for the expanded definition of domestic terrorism, has chose to designate the Defend the Atlanta Forest as, quote, domestic violent extremists, unquote, which has led the state attorney general's office to also get involved in the case. I think it's worth mentioning that this 2017

domestic terrorism bill was first passed by the Georgia legislature in response to the neo-Nazi Dylann Roof mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which killed nine people. So now we have this law allegedly created in response to a murderous white supremacist targeted attack against black people now being used for the first time as a bludgeon against anti-racist protesters who are fighting against the expansion and further militarization of police facilities. This is a reminder that any expansion of state power will always come down the hardest on people who are actually pushing back against the power structures of the state, like the police. After being held in jail for two weeks on December 27th,

the six people were finally granted bail. But as of two days later, the jail was refusing to comply and release someone, instead saying that they will be, quote, held while the prosecutor adds additional charges, unquote. This abnormality was soon resolved, and by December 30th, all six people charged were released on bail thanks to the Solidarity Fund, everyone who donated, and people working jail support. Our interview today will be focusing on the jail support aspect and bail fund organizing. And for note, this interview was conducted prior to the release of the Forest Defenders. With me here today is James and Ralph. James is from the Atlanta Anti-Repression Committee, and Ralph is from the Solidarity Fund.

Greetings. Thank you. Thank you for joining me here. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Good to be here. So first, I would like to see if either of you have any kind of extra input on what's happened the past few weeks and how you think i mean i i can't i can't quite ask you why because you're obviously not not the police but like what what might be some reasons for some of the some of the increased repression and these extremely extremely high charges being levied at people

at this point in the movement yeah they are extremely high charges being levied at people at this point in the movement. Yeah, they are extremely high charges. They're really unprecedented charges in the state of Georgia. I don't think that those of us in the anti-repression space have really ever seen anything like this being used against protesters. And I think the reason why is pretty clear. And I think that that reason is because there's been an extremely effective social movement that's involved thousands of people from Atlanta and from across the country over the last year and a half, two years, that have brought a serious challenge against a very unpopular proposal from the city to build a police mega, mega compound. and i think that the police and various other agencies that they're

working with the atlanta police the atlanta police foundation the georgia bureau of investigation the dekalb county police department all of these different agencies i think at this point are are are really frustrated and i think that really shows up in the charges that they've given people because what we're talking about are people who have been literally pulled out of tree sits. Like, this is the most like classic example of, you know, nonviolent direct action, civil disobedience you can think of. And you have people who are allegedly being pulled out of tree sits and charged with domestic terrorism. And I think that really shows, uh, it's both very, very scary, uh, in terms of the severity of the charges,

but it also has like an element of just being a little ridiculous in terms of using these types of charges. You know, they make you think of like, you know, the school shootings or, you know, like 9-11 or something like this. Like these are the sorts of things that come to mind when you think of domestic terrorism. And yet what we're talking about here is people who are allegedly being pulled out of tree sits after being shot at with pepper balls and tear gas for hours on end before they're pulled down. And I think that the point of that is to scare people. It's because they are having a very difficult time gaining any sort of public support or sympathy for this project. And I think they're just really at a loss. And so what they need right now is they need to scare people.

They need to shut down this social movement by whatever means that they have available. And right now, the technique that they're employing is just fear. And so the point of this is to have a chilling effect. It's to say that anybody who is protesting, who is a part of this social movement, could be liable to extremely, extremely heavy charges. And that's what they're banking on. They want people to be scared.

They want to separate out people from the movement who feel like they can no longer participate because the charges or the potential repression is too severe. They want to be able to scare away people that support the movement by saying, look, you're supporting a terrorist movement or you're supporting something that is extreme to some crazy degree, but we know what the real extreme position here is that they know that the city doesn't want this. They've had countless protests and all sorts of different examples of just public outcry against this project, and they proceeded with it anyway. And so now they're forced to be in this position where they're going to have to use whatever sort of either violence or force or like extreme charges to shut it down. Yeah. Atlanta Police Department since 2020 has had a huge, like the largest in the country by percentage budgetary increase granted by the city. And this was done after the most amount of public comment there ever was in the

history of city council which was all done to say to lower the police budget to to defund the police as it were and to send put that money to other use and then the second most amount of public comment the city council has ever received was 17 hours of public comment where over 70% of the respondents were saying to not build cop city. They, the Atlanta police foundation, the Atlanta police department and the city of Atlanta does not listen to the popular will from below from the people that they allege to represent.

But all of this pressure, the pressure to charge nonviolent protesters with domestic terrorism is coming from their corporate sponsors. It's coming from BB&T. It's coming from Bank of America, AT&T, Equifax, the Arthur Blank, who is the billionaire who runs Home Depot. It's coming from the people they actually represent which is their corporate backers they're they're seven months behind on this project uh rathfield and gory the company that is the general contractor who also funds the apf they're all certainly behind doors being like what's going on we're seven months behind on this project. Why have we not broken ground yet? And they're still being denied the land, the land disturbance permits because they're they can't get their own act together. They can't prove that this would be an environmentally friendly thing to do because it simply isn't. It's leveling over 500 acres of land, of forested land.

And instead, they just try to use brute force because that is what the state knows how to do they know to use brute force and then they want to put up trumped up charges onto on onto onto random people who they are trying to pin the whole movement on when the movement is thousands of people uh all over the city and all over the whole movement on when the movement is thousands of people all over the city and all over the country. Yeah, from some of the recent hearings and based on the DHS documents, they're really trying to do the thing where they frame an autonomous, do the thing where they frame an autonomous decentralized movement as a group and if you're part of a group that means that you're you know involved in in you know the domestic violent extremist group which is just not how these types of things work it's the same thing that

the right has been trying to label things like quote quote-unquote, Antifa as for years. Some prosecutors in cities around the country have tried to charge people with similar kind of domestic terrorism or gang violence charges due to their involvement with the Antifa group. it's the same tactic here in trying to frame a decentralized movement as like an organized group of people. And it seems like one aspect for why this is happening is like some of you have mentioned, it's in the form of like a deterrent, right? They're trying to scare people away,

saying that if you associate with this movement, we will charge you with terrorism, right? It's this thing to try to push people away, try to prevent anyone else from organizing in any capacity or just showing up to the forest. It's pretty comical, but it's also quite frightening in some ways, which is part of the intention. 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.

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. brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. 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.

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 in 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. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's 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. Part of why I wanted to talk with both of you here today is to kind of discuss the role of both the Solidarity Fund and anti-repression organizing. Discuss the role of that in how they support activism movements and how they support land defense movements, like in the case of Defend the Atlanta Forest. And yeah, what the role of this type of organizing is

in the context of this type of activism. I guess let's start with the Solidarity Fund, because that was one of the things that I saw in the aftermath of these charges and the raid, is a lot of calls to donate to the Solidarity Fund to help people out who have been hit with these outrageous charges. So could we, I guess, Ralph, could we talk a little bit about some of, you know, what the Solidarity Fund is and kind of how this type of organizing operates? Yeah, for sure. So the Atlanta Solidarity Fund formed, just to give a bit of context for the organization, we formed in 2016 in the lead up to a counter demonstration against some Ku Klux Klan members who were trying to burn a cross on Stone Mountain.

mountain uh in 2016 this was like after a sequence of them having protests there after the dylan roof massacre and uh people organized a counter demo and we thought it would be intelligent to form a uh a bail fund in case anyone got arrested because in the past bail funds in atlanta like refused to bail out anyone who they like deemed as committing crimes that they deemed violent. And we wanted to create a bail fund that does not discriminate against activists based on what the state alleges that they did or did not do. And we formed in that. And like after that, we would at different protests throughout the years, we would bail people out. We would fundraise to get them lawyers and we would at different protests throughout the years, we would bail people out. We would fundraise to get them lawyers and we would support them however we could, like organizing court vigils and court support.

And then and also suing the police, like countersuing them for when they did like egregious acts of police brutality or intimidation. egregious acts of police brutality or intimidation. And then in 2020 with the George Floyd uprising, we went from being a small bail fund to getting widespread support. We got tens of thousands of people donating money to us. And in Atlanta, over 900 people were arrested by the police that summer and you know we supported all of them all the ones who were not given signature bond we bailed out all the ones that were given signature bond and all the other ones we got them lawyers and we have been supporting them every step of the way a few of them have sadly gone to prison and we support them financially while they're in prison.

We're like putting money on their commissary every month and we like help them out with their phone calls. And we set aside money for when they get out there. You won't just be in destitute poverty, which is like what usually happens to people who have to sit in prison. what usually happens to people who have to sit in prison. And in the case of the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement, we've supported it through anti-repression by when people get arrested, getting them lawyers, bailing them out. And when there's been like door knocks or whatever from law enforcement agencies, we have lawyers who will represent them as well.

Because oftentimes those people aren't given charges, but they're being intimidated by law enforcement. And when you get a lawyer in between them, that intimidation normally stops. And we also do jail support for anyone who has to like, when they get in jail, they have a number that they can call us and we can help get them out. Um, and for the six people who are currently charged with domestic terrorism, as of the time of this recording, they're currently locked up and we are supporting them and we've hired lawyers to advocate for them at their bail at their next bail hearing. Um, and hopefully we will get them out and they

will not have to sit in jail during their pre-trial we are a volunteer organization like none of us are paid to do this uh we do this because we believe in um the power of like liberatory social movements and we want to support those movements and give them strength yeah because i would say i think i think a lot of you know relatively big cities around the states have some form of jail support organization whether it be formal or informal um and it's it's this type of organizing which happens kind of on the periphery of a lot of these types of movements right it's not it's it's not the it's not the like excitement of throwing back a tear gas canister at a cop it's it's all of the things that happen afterwards that can assist people who are facing, in some cases, very significant state repression. crucial to any to any type of like functioning like system that allows protests to happen as a part of democracy as a part of you know long-term revolutionary strategy whatever kind of whatever

kind of uh ideology you have these these types of these types of like peripheral jail support and bail fund organizing is it's definitely you know just as crucial as a lot of a lot of like the on the ground support stuff like you know bringing know, bringing water bottles or, you know, helping out people in the moment. Totally. Like every movement needs a rear guard. Like it needs people like the people who are out protesting and organizing. They're on the front lines and we're able to be the rear guard for, like, when the state does attack, like, we're able to, like, not have them be completely taken out of the field, like, they're able to, like, get back in, we're able to support them, and able to keep people safe from, like, police repression, and from what essentially amounts to, like, legal kidnapping

and, like, torture in the carceral state yeah and i mean in some cases like in portland in 2020 that's it very much was a legal kidnapping absolutely something that people are still are still uh dealing with on the on the on like the uh jail support side and helping people out with, you know, making sure that the state cannot get away with stuff like this. Because the thing they want the most is for nobody to push back on it, because that means they have permission to do it in the future without any possible consequence, or even any attempt at consequence.

possible consequence or even even like even like any like attempt at consequence um how could so i know like that nope a lot a lot of cities have have jail support stuff um a lot of this is also run on donations what what are what are some ways that people could could assist in these types of things um obviously people can donate to bail funds um and i think there's a lot of i mean even even just showing up outside of uh jail or prison after these types of events is something that that happens a lot in terms of in terms of ways to kind of start getting plugged in in this in this this type of peripheral bail fund and jail support organizing. Totally, yeah.

I mean, people should donate to their local bail funds and even become reoccurring donators, but people can join jail support teams. In Atlanta, we have a training, and it can get you trained on how to be a jail support person. And yeah, once you're plugged in you can like do jail and jail vigil like for when people get out so that they're not alone jails are often not always but often like in like remote areas of the city or even outside of the city so like it can be hard to like get get a bus back so you can offer them

rides back you can get plugged in to do it in court support. And currently, the six people charged with domestic terrorism are being denied bail. Hopefully, that will change. But in the case of people being held, you can write postcards or letters to people and let them know that there are people on the outside who support them. know that there are people on the outside who support them if you're in an area that like doesn't that doesn't have a group that um helps people out who are like who are having to sit in jail like you can put money on their commissary uh directly and you can write to them and you can send them books uh and in the sense of like people showing up pretty immediately outside of the jail, like it is really inspiring what happened the day in the evening after the six people, after the first five people were arrested. That evening, like a crowd of dozens of people showed up outside of DeKalb County Jail and had a noise demo to like make noise outside of the jail to let the five know that they were not alone

and that there's people outside who support them. Now I think we will shift the conversation over to James. James, you're with the Atlanta Anti-Repression Committee. We've already talked about the role of these ridiculous charges as a repression method. Could you briefly explain what the Atlanta Anti-Repression Committee is and its role in the periphery of these on-the-ground decentralized movements? Yeah, sure. So the Atlanta Anti-Repression Committee is a group that started in 2020 in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests. And we started because we recognized that there was a need for a kind of specific type of anti-repression work to be done, which is to say that there's a lot of, you know people that are arrested, people that are incarcerated, people that are imprisoned as a result of their activity in protest movements and social movements fighting for liberation.

That said, there's also a whole other type of work that needs to be done, which is the sort of what we like to call political defense. So in other words, we want to see these movements continue. We want to see these movements grow. And we want to see these movements be powerful. And a part of that is understanding the specific mechanisms of repression and fighting back against the narratives that are being used against protesters and the media. So a lot of what we do is media work. Because there's a lot of things that, you know, once you're arrested as a part of a protest movement, there's a lot

of things you can't say. But there's a lot of things that need to be said. Namely that the people that have been arrested, whether we're talking about people in the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, or in the Defend the Forest movement today are fighting for a just cause. These people should be doing what they're doing. And that's something that needs to be spread as far and wide as possible. And so we do a lot of media work to justify and support not just the individual protesters, but the things that they're fighting for. And then we also do a lot of essentially research and analysis to understand the overall patterns of repression as they play out. And so that's something that's like, that's really interesting, particularly in this case, because,

you know, I said, we've never seen this before in Georgia, but we have seen this before. We've seen exactly these tactics be used against, you know, protesters in the Standing Rock movement. We've seen it used in the Green Scare against the Earth Liberation Front, against Earth First. We've seen these movements over and over again come up against this giant wall, which is these sorts of charges accusing people of terrorism. And so part of what we do is analyze what those strategies are and try to publicize them, try to help people to understand. Because it's the agencies that we're up against, all these different wings of the state and their corporate backers, as Ralph was saying, they have an institutional memory.

They are able to look back, you know, 20 years in the past and be like, okay, there was a social movement over here and we were able to stop it because we did this, this, and this. And they're able to have that, that sort of memory to go back and look at those tactics. And part of the goal of repression is to cut people out of social movements, to cut off this sort of generational understanding of the dynamics of repression. And so we want to, we want to increase our capacity as people who are invested in seeing social movements succeed, be able to understand these sorts of repressive tactics and develop strategies against them. And I say that because we see repression as being a part of social movements. There are no social movements that are the specific mechanisms of state repression, how they work, how different agencies work, how the specific laws work, and to be able to disseminate that information far and wide, both within movements and also within the mainstream media.

involved in the raid against the forest offenders, suggested that because one of them is from California and is in Atlanta, that makes him a terrorist. This is utterly absurd. We live in one country. We're allowed, we have the freedom to travel. And we have the, unlike the police, we regular people have solidarity and can, and have empathy and can see our own interests in other struggles that take

place elsewhere. And that it is a noble thing to be like, I have to go somewhere to support, to participate. And this is not something that should be discouraged. And this is not terroristic. This is a sign of the beautifulness of human empathy and the ability to see yourself in others. And this is what the police lack. That's definitely something I wanted to bring up at some point, because this is a tactic that we've seen both the Atlanta Police Foundation, the city council, and right-wing propagandists like Andy Ngo have tried to frame this in terms of the outside reports that get published,

one of the things they emphasize is that people arrested, some of them have been born in other states. They always mention the state that this person was born in, which is just a ridiculous notion that people don't have the freedom to move around the country. Absolutely absurd. don't have the freedom to move around the country uh absolutely absurd that that that people don't have the the freedom to move around to places and choose where they want to live so they're framing they're framing people who are arrested that were that happened to be born in other places

they're they're they're using this as a in terms of like the outside agitator angle to be like people are are coming into atlanta to try to you know sow chaos and disorder within our city um and look they're they're pulling on people from all from all around the country then they're trying to you know frame it in this like very conspiratorial lens um and that's just that is that is that is something that i've also noticed and and found to be uh a quite interesting tactic i mean i would they definitely want it to be an effective strategy in terms of the outside agitator angle of you know people coming coming in from out of state to get to get involved in this group this this antifa aligned terrorist group as someone like andy no would say uh and it's it's it's it's purely it's purely a propaganda tactic because it it it relies on the notion that people

can't move around the country and decide where they want to live uh which obvious which obviously is an absurd notion um and i think as as said, it also kind of, you know, the other side of this is that it highlights the kind of the beautiful nature of being able to choose where you want to go and choose to get involved in things that you feel are important, even if they aren't in the current place

where you are living. Just to add a little bit to this, like it's crazy because it's like the, when you read the reports in the news of the people that they arrest, they always make it a point to talk about people from out of town. And they always seem to omit the people that are from Atlanta that they've arrested. And not that I'm advocating that they should be publicizing these people at all, but just to highlight that what they're doing is a propaganda tactic. just to highlight that what they're doing is a propaganda tactic. And I think it has really fallen on their face in Atlanta because Atlanta is a city that's famous for the civil rights movement. We're talking about freedom riders. We're talking about people from all over the South,

from all over the country coming to it. Martin Luther King went to Soma. He's from Atlanta. This type of logic just doesn't really seem to work here. And it's really bizarre to see them try to use it over and over and over again. It's really just like a failed playbook at this point. 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. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

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 Blacklit 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. Within the context of both how the repression against the Defend the Atlanta Force movement has evolved and where it's at now with what's happened in the past few weeks,

and then also considering the types of analysis of past ecological and resistance movements that we've seen, how do you see some of the repression by the state evolving as the Atlanta Forest stuff continues? Well, I think that overall, with respect to social movements, we've seen an increase in this type of charge that Azraq was sort of getting at. It's a type of charge that criminalizes your participation in a group or in a social movement. And so if you look at the specific warrants

that are used against some of these people that they just arrested, you know, I'm thinking of one in particular where it goes into detail and it says, this person is accused of being a part of a domestic violence, a domestic violent extremist movement called Defend the Atlanta Forest. and they're responsible for all of these acts of, uh, all of these different crimes from trespassing to, uh, to arson or whatever, you know, and so they lump this all together. They say that an autonomous social movement is a coherent organization. And then they say that the individual that they arrested, uh, confirmed their participation in this group called Defend the Atlanta Forest by sitting in a treehouse and wearing camouflage. This is absurd because there's no evidence in this example that this particular person or any of these people have

anything to do with any of these other crimes that they're alleging were a part of this movement. So what they're doing instead, they know that they can't arrest them for that, but what they're doing instead is they're coming at it from this legal angle where they're saying, this movement as a whole is a discrete group. This group is an extremist group. And so your participation in anything that seems like it's a part of this group is criminal in and of itself, and in this case, terrorists in and of itself. And this is a really disturbing trend that we've seen over the last few years with the increase in the use of conspiracy charges, with the increase in the use of RICO charges, racketeering charges. And the point of all of these different legal strategies is to hold people accountable for crimes that they did not do. And that's exactly

what we're seeing now with the six people that they just arrested. They want to hold people accountable for crimes that they did not do. And that's exactly what we're seeing now with the six people that they just arrested. They want to hold these people accountable and make them martyrs for an entire movement that's involved hundreds and thousands of people doing all sorts of things, criminal or otherwise. And that is a disturbing trend. And it's especially disturbing because if you look at the way that the law is written in Georgia with respect to domestic terrorism, so that's an enhancement charge. to basically say that they were attempting to change governmental policy by intimidation,

which is an interesting way of saying protesting is illegal. All protest involves trying to change governmental policy. That is what protesting is. And what they are attempting to do now with these charges is to reframe that entirely and say that that is terrorism. And that is, you know, it's sort of it's we're on a tricky slope right now, because it's like, on the one hand, we need to recognize that these charges are absurd, and they very likely won't stand up in court, because they're very clearly unconstitutional, at the very least. So we need to not be afraid of them on the one hand and to show how absurd they are on the other hand we should take this as a serious threat uh to social movements uh all across the united states in all different sorts of uh fields and areas and different different types of fights for for for different different sorts of things to say like wow this is

a huge huge stretch that they're trying to pull here because they have seen like in the last few decades, like a tremendous amount of polarization in America, all sorts of social movements that involve, you know, Black Lives Matter was 20 million people. Are these people all terrorists? And so that's why it's important to pay attention to what's happening now in Atlanta with the struggle to defend the Atlanta forest and the charges that they're putting against these people, because if they can succeed with this type of charge that's a very very dangerous precedent for people who are part of all sorts of social movements and not just the left wing either you know there's a part of this that's like

since uh the January 6th uh you know so-called insurrection however you want to however you want to characterize it, there's been a tremendous push by the federal government to crack down on social movements. They see this as threats to their stability, that there are situations where there's thousands or millions of people who are participating in all different sorts of social movements and thinking to send a clear message that people should not be out protesting. Thank you both for talking with me today. Where can people both learn more about your respective organizations?

And then also, how can people support forced offenders who are facing this increasingly harsh state repression? harsh state repression? You could visit the, just like Google or look up on any of the major social media platforms, Atlanta Solidarity Fund, and you could go to our website. And if you want to support any forest defenders who are facing serious charges, you could donate money or you could write them postcards

or you could send them books that they've requested. And when court dates come up, we'll probably publicize those so that people can come out and show their support and solidarity to the people facing charges and you could come out to do court support.

And you can get involved in the movement yourself if you feel so inclined. Yeah, and I'll just add to that. The Atlanta Anti-Repression Committee can be found on Instagram. You can look it up. And just generally speaking, this is something that people need to talk about. So any chance that you have to talk about, to explain what's happening in Atlanta, to put a giant light on this situation, because everybody needs to be paying attention to this. Because this is not just, you know, as people in the Defend the Forest movement say, it's not just a local issue. There are national and even international implications for this type of stuff.

And that's also true with regards to repression. for this type of stuff. And that's also true with regards to repression. If they can succeed with these charges here, that's a major death blow to all sorts of social movements. And they'll be trying to export this tactic elsewhere. We think it won't stick, but we think it's extremely important

for people to be talking about it and to make this the national issue that we recognize that it is. Some of those links we will also be putting in the description below. The day that this episode is being released just so happens to be Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And also, it's the last day in a weekend of solidarity to stop Cop City. This past weekend, there's been events, gatherings, actions, and

rallies in Atlanta and across the country in support for the Stop Cop City movement and the six individuals facing domestic terrorism charges. On Saturday, I saw pictures of a huge banner hanging outside of a squat in France in solidarity with Atlanta and struggles to defend the Atlanta forest. It seems the extremely high charges in Georgia have not dissuaded people from across the country from engaging in direct action. In December, Atlas construction offices, one of the contractors working on Cop City, were attacked in Manhattan and Michigan in solidarity with those arrested defending the Wolani Forest. On January 5th, a construction site and offices for Brassfield and Gorey, the main contractors currently working on Cop City, were attacked by

anarchists in South Florida, according to a statement published on the website scenes.noblogs.org. And just days earlier, another post on the site claimed credit for setting fire to a Bank of America in Portland. The Bank of America is a major contributor to the Atlanta Police Foundation. Both of those statements referenced the domestic terrorism charges. You can check out Defend the Atlanta Forest at defendtheatlantaforest.org and most major social media sites. You can check out scenes.noblogs.org for more stories of direct action on the front lines. And of course, you can check out the Atlanta Solidarity Fund at atlsolidarity.org. There you can donate to bail funds and help people currently facing state repression.

That's all for us today. See you on the other side. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at CoolZoneMedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trails, and step into the flames of right.

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