It Could Happen Here - Stop Cop City, Dispatch from Weelaunee Summer: Part 3

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

As construction for Cop City is set to begin imminently, a referendum to let Atlanta voters decide the fate of the facility faces voter suppression.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Welcome back to It Could Happen Here. I'm Garrison Davis, and this is the last episode in my trilogy covering what's been happening this summer in Atlanta to stop Cop City. Last episode, we covered the end of the Week of Action, the resurgence of nighttime sabotage, and Atlas Long Engineering dropping out of the Cop City project. A relatively new big aspect of the movement that I've really only mentioned peripherally is the Cop City Vote Referendum. The goal of the referendum is to let the people of Atlanta vote on whether to repeal an ordinance authorizing the land lease of 381 acres of forest in DeKalb County that was given

to the Atlanta Police Foundation in 2021 to use the land for the construction of Cop City. In order to get the referendum on an upcoming ballot, the petition had to gather 60,000 signatures in 60 days. Every signature must be from an Atlanta resident who was registered to vote in 2021, and initially those who gathered signatures had to also be Atlanta residents. 60,000 signatures in 60 days was a lofty goal, but volunteers around the city were being increasingly mobilized during and after the week of action. For the first few weeks of the referendum, the city stayed mostly quiet. But then, on the July 5th APD press

conference, Mayor Andre Dickens addressed the referendum. Mayor, some of the protesters and opposers of the training center have begun collecting signatures in the hope of having a referendum put in the November ballot. What's your reaction to that? What's your comment on that? Will you allow them to do what they're doing right now and possibly have this in the referendum? Yeah, absolutely. The referendum process is one that's legally documented. It's in the city code and anybody can attempt to get the petition going and get the necessary signatures. We ask that they do so with honesty and truth. Collect the signatures from real people with sharing the truth about what they are looking to do. And so I don't personally believe they're going to be successful.

I believe that based on what we know about the citizens of Atlanta, they are supportive of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. We know that this is going to be unsuccessful if it's done honestly. And so we're making sure that we continue to monitor the process. This statement by the Democrat mayor of Atlanta, I don't think has been highlighted enough. The mayor is trying to frame a successful referendum as a fraudulent one. Dickens is priming propaganda channels and testing the waters for blatant election fraud-style messaging in the future by very clearly insinuating that if you win this, that means you're cheating. rally people walking by they were talking about the referendum and talking about the week of

action collecting signatures it did not feel like it was taking space away from any of the other aspects of the movement um which i think some some people were definitely worried about that like people worried that the referendum might act as like a release valve for both the movement and like uh the people who are like outside the movement and still like looking at cop city being like how can you get involved in this thing? And you see this very above-board electoral strategy of signing stuff. What if people's efforts just get funneled into that, and they miss out on the other, much more expansive aspects of the movement? One of the few more referendum-focused events during the Week of Action

was a community town hall discussion put on by the Hip Hop Caucus at the Gathering Spot on the evening of Friday, June 30th. Before the panel discussion, myself and Matt from the Atlantic Community Press Collective talked with two members of the Hip Hop Caucus about the event and their hopes for the referendum. This is Brandi Williams, an organizer with the Hip Hop Caucus. So the Hip Hop Caucus is a national nonpartisan nonprofit organization that uses hip hop culture to connect people to the civic and political process. And essentially we do that in four areas. We do that with, I think, 100 percent climate and environmental justice work.

We were founded as a voting and democracy organization out of the Voter Die movement. So we still do that work under our Respect My Vote platform. We also have our Good Trouble civil and human rights work. It's our multi-issue platform, and we look at it as the Justice Department for hip hop. So we do it. We work on everything from police reform to education and health care. And then our Justice Paid in Full, which is our economic justice platform. So how do we achieve economic justice?

We actually started our activation like on the ground work in LA last week during BET weekend. So we did a similar event in LA. We're doing this one here and we're planning to be here in Atlanta and through the referendum and through the election.

We also talked with Yonajahal Lone Wolf, an Atlanta resident and national community organizer. Recently, she had been working to spread awareness across the country about what's been going on in Atlanta. Myself, Hip Hop Caucus, Movement for Black Lives, Until Freedom, community Movement Builders, we all came up with this idea to create this photo shoot campaign, similar to Voter Die or anything, you know, where you have a nice shirt or a sticker and you're taking and just being there in solidarity. So we did it during LA BET Awards weekend last weekend. We had a nice turnout of folks that came. I was in LA for the Hollywood

Climate Summit. I spoke on a panel with Jane Fonda. So there was a lot of people from Hollywood that came and said, oh my God, that's what's happening in Georgia. We have to be, we cannot sign for on the referendum, but we stand with you all because what we are also educating people at is that if cop city is built they already having contracts with police nationally to come here this will be the largest police training facility in the united states i went to universal studios hollywood universal studios roller coasters this huge it's nice It's nice. It's 400 acres. That's 50 acres less will be Cop City. And I'm like, that's an amusement park of nothing but real gunfire, real bombs, real everything.

It's not going to be fake. It's not amusement park in that way. But this is their call of duty in real life. And it's in the middle of a residential neighborhood. They're not here to protect and serve. They're here to shoot, to kill. And so police from all across this nation will be coming here to Georgia for this militarized police training. And that's a problem for me. And the turnout in California showed that that's a problem for me. And the turnout in California showed that that's a problem for them too. So we had a lot of people that came for that

and today we're doing the same thing and we're having a community town hall discussion because I think there's a lot of people that don't understand why is Cop City, because I want to meet the mayor's publicist because the way that this whole thing has been spin on his side, that no, it would be great for the EMT and the firefighters. And they're pushing EMT firefighters more than the police part. But the police part is a huge part.

I think these type of conversations need to be talked about. And so that's what this community town hall is all about as well. For those that are kind of wavering, neutral, maybe don't know, maybe they know it a lot, you know, because the number one thing that we've been seeing, like I was on V103 yesterday on the radio station. And, and I also been doing a couple of other media and call-ins and a lot of people don't understand. Like they, a lot of people don't understand, like, why is this a bad thing? You know, you can move it somewhere else, they say. But even if it's moved somewhere else, I'm still going to fight against Cop City, you know, just because I have, this hits home for me.

Too many of my friends and family have been murdered by the hands of radical, power hungry, gun happy, trigger happy police officers. And I feel that there is, and then also another thing too, there is answers, you know, in regards to, we don't need more police. We need resources. They shut down our hospital. They shut down the shelters. It's not like they don't know, right? Like, we tell them, we need more jobs, not just any job, good quality jobs. We need pristine health care, not just affordable health care. And then most importantly, our unsheltered friends, to see that they put bulldozers, this administration, this city continues to ignore the people.

We have the hugest, the biggest wealth gap in the nation. And they call it Wakanda, the blackest city. But this is how you treat us? Our people need resources. That's where this $67 million should be going. It should not be going towards more police. We don't need more police. Because when you go to Cobb County, when you go over to Alpharetta,

they don't have a lot of police. They don't have a lot of, why would they need a lot of police? Because they already got the resources. On top of the community town hall discussion, there were a few other things to do at the event that Unajah talked about. A Stop Cop City photo campaign. So everyone, you come and take your photo and just showing that you stand in solidarity. And then most importantly is to get some signatures as well. Throughout the referendum process, it's been

interesting how many people, even in Atlanta, are just now learning about Cop City. When did you first hear about Cop City? Honestly, earlier this year. And like a lot of the people that I am talking to now, I was also kind of confused about the issue. I wasn't really sure why, you know, they were so opposed until I started learning a little more about what actually was going to happen at this training facility. So the idea of building a mini city with a helicopter landing pad, with a shooting range or a firing range, military grade, in a community. So this is not on the outskirts. This is in a community, and then in a community of color. And you're bringing police from around the country in to learn military tactics, tactics that we use in foreign countries to protect citizens.

We should not be thinking about our citizens, our residents, as people who need to be protected from themselves, if I'm making sense. You know what I mean? Sort of like enemy combatants in your own... In your own backyard. But you're training them up in a Black community, so I can only imagine that some of that mini-city is going to spill over into the communities. Then you're bringing police officers from around the country here, so they're taking that back.

The specific community where the Atlanta Police Foundation is trying to build Cop City has already been traumatized by the violence of the state for hundreds of years now. is trying to build Cop City has already been traumatized by the violence of the state for hundreds of years now. This whole area was violently stolen from Muskogee Creek. Then it became a slave plantation. And then part of it was sold to the city of Atlanta, and then it became a prison farm. Since then, the land has been home to two landfills and three detention facilities. This is the history of just this neighborhood for the last few hundred years.

Now the carceral violence inflicted on this land is attempting to be exported, as police will soon come from around the country and even the world to train at Cop City. No one wants it in their community, but you're going to continue to burden this particular community with the same thing over and over and over again. The people of that community for generations have experienced all kinds of harm at the hands of the people that they, you know, supposedly are electing to represent and protect them from these types of things. And they're actually the ones doing it to them. You were elected by people to represent them. And they've told you for two years, we don't want this. And you are ignoring their voice. On the day of the Hip Hop Caucus panel, an air quality alert was issued due to incoming smoke from wildfires up north.

In Atlanta, the AQI reached 150. The ocean, these fish, these birds, they're screaming at us right now. What we are doing to Mother Earth right now is we are, from cutting down the trees, fossil fuels, everything, this is, and especially this being the lungs of Atlanta. Today, I'm wearing my mask because on my weather advisory, it said the air quality is not good today for sensitive people. And that is just with the trees. And they keep on cutting down these trees. I moved here because of the trees. I'm from Arizona, so I needed trees. That was nothing but desert. But I moved here because of these trees, because I love the life force that trees give us, even whales, they all migrate. They're like, the ocean is hot right now.

So they're yelling at us and we're not listening. And in my native way, our elders, our chiefs, have said that we plan for seven generations from now. I am a mother of two sons. And what this administration is doing and what these corporations are doing, they're not looking at seven generations from now.chimaca, this Mother Earth is going to look like seven generations from now. And we're fighting to our death because of the fact that we want to make sure that our children's children's children's children could still live here

and be in a peaceful, safe place and environment to live. Since being elected as the progressive candidate in 2021, there's been an ever-growing animosity towards Mayor Dickens from all of his unfulfilled promises. When talking with Yonashaha, she expressed that she felt disappointed that herself and this big block of people helped Andre get elected. And now Mayor Dickens is fully committed to the Cop City project and is even having conversations with other Black leaders in the city to bring them on board and prevent them from opposing Cop City. The mayor is in his position because of the blood, sweat, and tears and arrest and beat-ups that we got during Freedom Summer 2020. He used the social justice, the civil rights organizations and activists and voices to get him in the position that he used them and say, y'all help me.

I'm going to be there for you all. And it's all a slap in the face. So I don't like hypocrisy. So I don't like hypocrisy. And I see hypocrites all throughout this and on this administration side, from the governor all the way down. Even when we try to help our unsheltered friends, in December, when it was so cold out here, I went on social media. I raised $5,000 in two hours. thousand dollars in two hours i went and went me and my friends went and got them all tents um tents um sleeping bags everything the mayor called my comrade mayor andre called my comrade and was all like why are you saying that they don't have no heating stations and they i set up

a heating station not everyone wants to go there because Because, so is there, where is your mental health services? Where's the transitioning team that you should have on the ground to help transition them? Don't just open up a temporary heating shelter. Where's the transition team to go and talk to the people and say, hey, let me walk you in to go get heated. There was none of that. You're just expecting people to just go in there

or they knew where it was at. So we went to the cab. We went to the cab and we also went down to Atlanta. We gave them tents. The police went down there. The Atlanta PD went down there and put holes all in their tents. They used a knife and sliced their tents open

so they couldn't even stay in it. While it was yes below freezing yes while it was still below freezing this is all under the administration of mayor andre so no we can't trust we can't trust them do you feel betrayed by andre yes because i voted for him i voted for him i voted for him because i think i voted for him. I voted for him. I voted for him because I think I voted for him like every other person voted for someone, is that they're charismatic,

they talk an amazing game, and on top of it, my friends that were close with him voted for him. My friends in the movement, activists, people that I look up to as mentorship, they said, man, Andre, he's going to fund a lot of the things that we're doing.

Yonaja Ha spoke about how Mayor Dickens worked to build mutually beneficial relationships between the city and non-governmental, quote-unquote, progressive organizations. So while some NGOs have received money from the city, now many of these big, quote-unquote, civil rights orgs are scared of jeopardizing potential funding and are now currently refusing to speak out against Cop City. Yeah, when I talk to the same people that have spoken to Andre, are the same people, I'm like, why aren't you involved? You know, and they're just like, I think it's gonna be built.

And at least I'm at the table. A lot of them think that way. They was like, I was there at the beginning fighting. I had to sit down with the mayor. I believe this is gonna be built. So since this is gonna be built, let me figure, at least I'm at the table in the community and there's community engagement.

At least there's some type of bridging happening. That's their angle. Anyone that said Black Lives Matter was on the front line with us in 2020, that was horrified by the videos that they saw, we are at prime time. This is the epicenter of police terrorism being built. This is it.

This is it. This is not each individual. We're trying to prevent more families. Because if they build this, it's going to be a lot more families that's going to be crying and saying they killed my baby. So we're at the epicenter of a cop city and you are silent? You're silent? But you was there for these families?

You was there posting Black Lives Matter? You was there saying stop police terrorism? But they're building a terrorist headquarters and you don't have nothing to say, you're a hypocrite. You're a hypocrite. Period. Point blank. Brandy also talked about the hypocrisy of pushing forward Cop City after the George Floyd uprising in 2020. You know, three years ago, just in May, all these companies were sending out these emails saying that Black Lives Matter after George Floyd. They were pouring money into the community to show their support for Black lives. But some

of those same communities, Home Depot, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Waffle House, you guys are, I'm sure, sent those emails out. And now you're putting money into something that does not respect Black lives. So I think there's just this huge contradiction in who these companies say they are, how they're showing up. Part of the growing propaganda battle over Cobb City is an attempt to frame this state-of-the-art militarized police training facility as a, quote-unquote, public safety training center, embodying the call for police reform that liberals protested for in 2020. Not only does this erase the abolitionist core of the 2020 uprising, but it also obfuscates the fact that Cop City is indeed a direct response to 2020, not in terms of police reform, but in the aftermath of the neoliberal police state being

under genuine threat, corporate America and police have made this pact to maintain each other's legitimacy, as one cannot survive without the other. Cop City is to ensure that what happened will never happen again. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America.

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Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now, and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast,

Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails.

I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. After the clear-cutting of around 80 acres in the Wolani Forest, there's been more of a focus on the stop-cop-city wing of the movement than defend the forest. Sure, there are still 300 acres to defend and 80 acres to restore,

but as construction is getting more imminent, this Pacific cop city focus has taken center stage in messaging. When it was initially talked about, it was all about the environment. They're tearing down the forest. And as marginalized, poor people, if I am hearing that, I'm not seeing it as important. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to pay my rent, how I'm going to feed my kids, how I'm going to pay my bills, how I'm getting to and from work. And so those things, I think, made it difficult to break into the household of people who really need to be paying attention.

And I would dare to say even the people in the community, I watched some of the testimony from the city council meeting several weeks ago, and the state representative that spoke first talked about how the church right next door to the facility didn't even know what was happening next door to the facility didn't even know what was happening next door to them. So for the city of Atlanta to say, oh, we've done outreach, people in the community know, that's not true, right? But part of that is the way that the narrative has started. And I think they were like, okay, that ain't got nothing to do with me. And then also the fact that the faces that they saw on TV,

they're thinking this is a white-led, white problem. It's not our problem. So they haven't engaged. So I think those are all things that we have to consider and let people know this is a diverse problem. It impacts everybody. It's going to impact people of color and poor and marginalized communities more than anybody else, just because of the nature of how policing is done in America. And the problems that we still have with that. So our program is From Red Dogs to Cop City, The Dirty South's History of Over-Policing Atlanta. So helping them understand how this is just a new iteration of what's been happening.

So the Red Dog Unit was, some call it a gang, within Atlanta PD for many years. It was disbanded in 2011, but they were terrorizing low, poor communities of color. And so Cop City, in the way that they're thinking about training these officers, would be just a new iteration of that. So helping them understand that just because we have come far with the civil rights, with our civil rights, and I'm not even talking specifically about the 60s movement, but civil rights for people of color, women, LGBTQIA plus communities, just because we've come far doesn't mean we can't go back. Atlanta's Red Dogs inspired the Scorpion unit in Memphis that killed Tyree Nichols this past January. And the current iteration of the Red Dogs in Atlanta is the Apex unit, who have been very active in suppressing Stop Cop City protests. I'm going to play three brief clips from the panel discussion. The first is from Mariah Parker, a local activist and former Georgia County Commissioner.

This is a war on the uprising of 2020. This is in the aftermath of the largest uprisings in North America. The Atlanta Police Foundation, who is the main driver and the main funder, and actually the owner of Cop City. I keep forgetting the fact that this is not actually going to be on Cop City. The Atlanta Police Foundation trying to reassert their control over black communities at a time when people are starting to understand that communities are made safer by affordable housing

and healthcare and childcare and education, and where their supremacy in the public safety apparatus has been challenged. Their dominance has been challenged. And so in response to that uprising, they seized hold of a narrative that more police training, more diversity in our officers would be the magic key to heal all the wounds in our communities

and to actually deliver a style of policing that serves the people. And so with that, they were able to make arguments that Cop City would be the answer to allegedly rising crime rates, heal these divides, et cetera, et cetera. At the end of the day, they, it's a form of counterinsurgency. The people rose up and so this is the police rising up in response to reassert their dominance. Next is KJ Henson, an Atlanta local and organizer with Black Men Build

and Black Male Initiative Georgia. We're clear that the police are not our protectors. We suffer at the hands of the system on a daily basis. The system was built on our backs, literally. So we see that we've been discarded, we've been abused by the system and that's the point. It's not that we're disengaged because we don't care, we're disengaged because we do care. Every election cycle it's black voters to the rescue.

We're the folks that are most impacted by the decisions of the same elected officials that beg us to put them in position. We suffer because these people come to us and beg for votes, for canvassers, for money, and they turn around and they sell us out the first chance they get. So it's, we're disengaged of a matter of, I can't get what I need from these people that say that they're for me right the very means of the people are at risk top city threatens our very right to protest right top city threat is the right for us to stand in the street and use our voice as a means of building collective power as a vehicle for making societal change. You

become a domestic terrorist. You get jailed without bail, without bond. You won't have a court date. I've been there myself. Not for domestic terrorism, it just for court dates. So we're seeing the rise of fascism in a very real way. Like in the realest of ways. Cop City, like you said, is ground zero for what will become a very real way. Like in the realest of ways. Cop City, like you said, is ground zero for what will become a very popular trend, not just in America, but across the world. Right? So it's on us to make sure that we do everything that's in our power to make sure that this thing is stopped. Cop City is giving police the training and ability to have urban warfare and suppression tactics at their will to be used against the people.

Urban warfare and suppression, not unlike what we see in other countries, in other cities, with organized resistance everywhere. Lastly, we have Reverend Keanu Jones, member of the Faith Coalition to Stop Cop City, whom we've heard from on this show before. I want every Black Atlantan to think about what you don't have. If you don't have affordable housing, it's because they put the money in the cop city. If you can't pay your life bill,

it's because that assistance got given back to the federal government, but they're in the cop city. If you can't pay your life bill, it's because that assistance got given back to the federal government, but they're paying for cop city. If there are no policing alternatives and diversion initiatives in your community, it's because they're giving the money to cop city. If you fell into that pot hole on Ponce de Leon,

it's because they're giving the money to cop city. If you can't walk out of your door and breathe clean air, it's because they giving the money to cop city. If you can't walk out of your door and breathe clean air, it's because they'd rather give it to cop city. So Andre Dickens does not care about black people. I'm gonna do a Kanye West right now, but I'm saying Andre Dickens don't care about black people. And Andre Dickens ain't no different than nobody else.

And some of those other council people up there who have those so-called legacy names ain't doing nothing for black people. So once again, what is Andre Dickens doing for you? If he is willing to take police and make sure that they got slot tanks to roll around in, they walking around in the ARs in your neighborhood, your children walking out the house to hearing gunshots constantly, what do Andre Dickens care about you? Does his children hear that? in your neighborhood, your children walking out the house to hearing gunshots constantly. What do Andre Dickens care about you? Does his children hear that? Okay.

It is important to mention the venue that this panel took place in, because this is like a very much like a, it feels like a black excellence type of like space it is like that that is the space that it is it's a it is it is a private club um it holds like a an amount of like respect there cultural significance and on this panel at at the gathering spot the the panelists were we're talking about how why why is the mayor who many of these people helped get elected because he had promises about, you know, helping out the community, giving millions of dollars to affordable housing. Why is he using now like 60, 70 million dollars that could go to affordable housing, that could go towards supporting black people in Atlanta, funneling all of that money into the police and into not even like the police department, a private police foundation,

like funding the APF's project, not a city project. I think it was Keanu who said that Andre Dickens does not care about Black people. Yeah. And having that be said at the gathering spot, I think actually is very important and is worth talking about. As the referendum was progressing and people from across all sides of the movement were working in conjunction to spread awareness of Cop City and engage in action, the mayor was making attempts to divide the movement. Criminals are hiding in the middle of peaceful protests, and sometimes they are doing their own separate acts of violence. sometimes they are doing their own separate acts of violence. Some of them are career arsonists and vandals from across the nation. Local activists have been alerted to this numerous times.

These are the actions of blatantly outrageous, dangerous, and violent criminals. How are arsonists, vandals, violent actors able to be alongside peaceful protesters? You have individuals that will burn up construction equipment, light a fire to police vehicles and then have a bouncy house party the next day with, you know, peaceful protesters at a park. So they will go to a park by day, and then by night, they're burning up police equipment or setting fires or trying to destroy construction equipment. So these individuals are trying to use the guise of peaceful protests that maybe some local Atlantans may actually be engaged in a desired conversation about their views on public safety. But these individuals have different views than those folks. These individuals are anarchists. They want to destroy. So these individuals are alongside these arsonists. These criminals are alongside peaceful protesters. And sometimes the peaceful protesters are aware of it and sometimes they are not.

We have made it clear to local activists that we know and individuals that tend to be peaceful, we're letting them know that we are aware that there are individuals that are in our city that have committed crimes across the nation and that they are on your social media or in your network saying they're coming to your event to do the same. Mayor Dickens went further and essentially threatened that if you are a so-called activist and you don't snitch, then the APD will treat you the same as a violent criminal. So when we give you that heads up as a local organizer, you should take that heads up and also see something, say something as we're asking any other citizen to do. When peaceful protesters, when organizers are not, you know, utilizing their best judgment,

then bad things can happen with them being alongside them. And it makes it real tough for APD to know who was the one with the dirty hands, so to speak. And so that's what the message that we want to get out to the public is that these individuals mean harm and you don't want to be around them or associated with them. When you are, it makes it difficult to tell who's who. The city wants the various wings of the fight to stop Cop City to turn on each other, to resent each other, to sow distrust and undermine any collective power. That's why the referendum's statement of solidarity, explicitly rejecting respectability politics and the framing of violent and non-violent resistance was so important. An online communique claiming responsibility for torching police motorcycles

on the last day of the week of action addressed this dynamic. Quote, the Week of Action, addressed this dynamic. Quote, we took action after non-combative demonstrations at Cadence Bank and Home Depot. The police attacked those demonstrations with no cause, as they do wherever and however the movement gathers. There can be no separation of time and space for tactics when police have turned society into a war zone. Despite this, we dispersed our activity as much as possible across their area of control. We encourage those who are pursuing a strategy of referendum to continue supporting all methods to stop Cop City, unquote. If you defy the state's unilateral authority in any way, you will be seen as a valid target. As demonstrated throughout the history of this movement, including during this last week of action,

police will treat you like a violent criminal, whether you're holding a sign in a parking lot, bailing activists out of jail, or smashing a cop car. or smashing a cop car. 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 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. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now,

and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of

fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. On July 6th, a group of activists in unincorporated DeKalb County, near the potential site of Cop City, filed a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta and the

state of Georgia, claiming the requirement that signature gatherers must themselves be Atlanta residents, violated their First Amendment right to free speech, and petitioned the government. Due to the potential constitutional violation, the lawsuit also requested the court reset the 60-day clock for gathering signatures while still counting the signatures that were already gathered. In mid-July, the city of Atlanta filed a reply in federal court arguing that the cop city referendum was wholly invalid since it seeks to revoke a land lease that has already been signed. The filing reads in part, quote, repeal of a years-old ordinance cannot retroactively revoke authorization to do something that has already been done. But if the referendum could claim to result in a revocation or cancellation of the lease, it would still be invalid because it would amount to an

impermissible impairment of that contract, unquote. The city also argued that if the court does deem the Atlanta residency requirement for gathering signatures unconstitutional, then the entire referendum should be deemed unlawful. A rebuttal by the plaintiffs said that the city did not provide factual or legal evidence for its claims and misread the cited precedents. According to the plaintiffs, the land lease contract is ongoing, not an irreversible quote-unquote one-time event. And since the city authorized and issued the petition form, they skipped their chance to argue that the referendum is somehow invalid by already

approving the language of the petition and letting the referendum process begin. Near the end of July, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Cohen ruled in favor of the cop city referendum, allowing non-Atlanta residents to collect signatures and reset the 60-day clock to collect the roughly 60,000 signatures needed to put the land lease on the ballot. In his ruling, Judge Mark Cohen said, quote, requiring signature gatherers to be residents of the city imposes a severe burden on core political speech and does little to protect the city's interest in self-governance, unquote. Mary Hooks, the tactical lead of the referendum coalition, reacted to the ruling saying, quote, we are thrilled by Judge Cohen's ruling

and the expansion of democracy to include our decap neighbors and level the playing field for our coalition, unquote. The city quickly filed for an appeal, which was subsequently denied on August 14th, with the judge stating, quote, the city's real concern may be that now that non-residents have the ability to gather signatures on the petition for the entire time that they would have been permitted to do so had their initial request been granted, there is an increased possibility that a sufficient number of valid signatures could be obtained. Unquote. As liberals cheered on the Fulton County District Attorney in Atlanta for indicting Trump and co-conspirators for election tampering under RICO charges,

the same exact sort of charges that this office has used against young black rappers and have been wielded against the Stop Cop City movement, the city of Atlanta's own election interference by repressing the referendum has been largely ignored. Fulton County Court set Trump's bond for $200,000 for attempting to overthrow a federal election. The same court set bond at $355,000 each for multiple protesters arrested for being merely present at a protest after Georgia State Patrol killed force defender Tortugita in January of this year. During all of the glowing press for District Attorney Fannie Willis and the City of Atlanta, it was revealed that on August 11th, the Atlanta Police Department

killed a 62-year-old unarmed black man named Johnny Holman while responding to a minor traffic accident. Both Holman and the unnamed second driver called 911 after the accident. Holman told 911 operators, quote, somebody ran into my truck, unquote. After waiting for over an hour for police to arrive, 23-year-old officer Kieran Kimbrough responded to the scene. Kimbrough joined APD in March of 2021, and currently has an open complaint for, quote, sexual misconduct non-criminal, unquote. Johnny Holman, who served as a deacon in his church, called his kids to listen to how the officer was escalating the situation.

And then an unknown witness helped this APD officer wrestle 62-year-old Johnny Holman to the ground and put him in handcuffs as the officer used his taser. To quote the Atlantic Community Press Collective, quote, the children listened for 17 minutes as they drove to the scene of the accident, hearing their father call for help after Officer Kimbrough tased him. When they arrived on scene, they found officers giving chest compressions to their father. Unquote. Johnny Holman was then pronounced dead at Grady Hospital.

A week after APD killed Holman, another person incarcerated at Fulton County Jail died while being held on $5,000 bond after being denied signature bond for shoplifting less than $500 of goods. The city of Atlanta's own alleged voter suppression has continued. Initially, the cop city vote referendum hoped to not have to use the extra days granted by the judge and submit the signatures on August 21st with the intention of getting them verified in time to put the cop city vote on the upcoming November ballot. Come Monday, August 21st,

the referendum put out a statement that despite collecting over 100,000 signatures, that they are delaying submitting the petition due to concerns that the city was going to employ voter suppression tactics during the validation process. The statement reads in part, quote, In recent days, we began to hear from reporters and sources inside City Hall that the city of Atlanta is planning to argue for a higher than previously reported legal minimum signature count for ballot access. More concerning were reports that they also plan to utilize signature match in their verification process, an archaic and widely abandoned tool of voter suppression that has been widely condemned across the political spectrum, including by the Republican-controlled Georgia state legislator. Signature matching is a subjective form of vote validation, which uses election workers to visually match signatures on a ballot, or in this case a petition, to a previous signature on their driver's license or voter registration card.

Hours after the referendum's statement, the city of Atlanta officially announced their intention to use signature matching for the cop city vote referendum. Back in 2018, a federal judge in Georgia ruled that signature matching did not serve any legitimate interest and disenfranchised black and brown voters disproportionately. For years, the ACLU has advocated against and won multiple court cases against discriminatory signature matching processes. Fair Fight Action, a Georgia-based voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams, responded to the news Atlanta would be using signature matching with a statement saying, quote, signature matching is a tool of voter suppression that

litigated extensively in Georgia and removed from the mail-in ballot process because of its harm to voters resulting in mass disenfranchisement. Using the discredited process of signature matching is unacceptable and risks unfairly rejecting thousands of valid petitions. Signature verification is notoriously subjective, disproportionately impacts voters of color, and is biased against disabled and elderly voters. of color and is biased against disabled and elderly voters. There is extensive precedent in Georgia showing the harms of this process. It must be relegated to the past. Fair Fight calls on the city of Atlanta to rescind their intent to use this process and to enact steps that fairly evaluate these petitions, unquote. Facing the city of Atlanta's, quote, open and ongoing hostility to the cop city vote

referendum, the coalition has decided to use the time extension granted by federal judge Mark Cohen to continue collecting signatures to, quote, leave no doubt as to the will of Atlanta voters, unquote. They now plan to submit petition signatures on September 23rd. The city council will then have 50 days to validate the signatures, which means that if successful, and assuming the city doesn't further interfere, the referendum would get put on the ballot during the March primary election in 2024. The vote being pushed into March adds a few complications. Turnout may skew more Republican, as it's unlikely there will be a Democratic presidential primary, and the vote being seven months away disrupts the momentum that the campaign has been gaining over the past couple of

months. People who signed the petition back in June would have to wait almost a whole year to vote on the ballot. The few extra months does give more time to educate the public about Cop City during the lead up to the election, but that goes both ways, which means that after two years of this movement mostly taking form as a ground war over territory, now for the time being, much of the fight to stop Cop City will change into a PR war in the public sphere. This shift from a physical offense to a metaphysical offense was something that I already felt coming back during the week of action. In terms of cameras and spectacle, the big feeling I had on the Saturday kickoff rally was like, this just feels like society of the spectacle. Like there's such a performance.

It was very performative, but it was like almost like with all of the cameras looking at everything all the time, it was like, are people trying to make a facsimile of this movement for the cameras? Like is that, that has become almost more important or like it felt that way. This is a conversation that people have. Like, is it worth creating moments where we expect the police to lash out violently? Like, is that effective as a propaganda tactic? And that comes with losing while looking good.

It does. Yeah, that is like, that is losing while looking good. But also, I don't think that's nearly as effective as people think it is. I think after 2020, I think people are kind of desensitized to a lot of police violence at protests. I the visual, the visuals of police hurting protesters, I don't think is nearly as impactful as it was even three years ago. I so I think people are also realizing that and realizing that, hey, the sacrifice inherent in setting up actions where you know that you're probably going to get fucked up by police, that's not worth it.

That one, it treats people as like tools, it treats people as disposable, which is, you know, that's not great if you want to build a long-lasting movement. And it's not even very effective. As the public relations battle over the fate of Cop City intensifies in the lead-up to the vote, with the city of Atlanta undoubtedly ready to run a full election propaganda campaign, strategies of resistance cannot overlook the physical construction of the facility. of resistance cannot overlook the physical construction of the facility. Pre-construction has been active and ongoing for a few months now, mostly in the form of tree clearing and land grading. Just a few days ago, the Atlanta Police Foundation updated their construction

timeline, saying that they had just began installing a stone base for the main roadway, that irrigation and site lighting is now underway, and full-on construction is set to, quote, begin in the next week or so, unquote. That now may be out of date, but based on the progress being made on the site, it's clear that construction is now imminent. And with the threat of the referendum, the APF will try to get as much built as quickly as possible to help with the pro-Cop City side of election messaging. One of the original goals of the referendum was to try to place an injunction on further construction until the ballot vote, but it's unknown if or when that would happen. In the meantime, activists may take a cue from Earth First,

and instead of trying to occupy the site, instead they might find creative ways to make the construction site hard to work on. Also, with the increased element of spectacle placing a lot of extra eyes on pre-announced public demonstrations, more secretive actions may start becoming more common. There's other actions that can happen more covertly, like if you're doing sabotage, where you don't need to invite a camera crew to film you do crimes. Wise move not to invite a camera crew when you do crimes.

But no, also like... As a rule. Like why... That's the other thing is like so many of these events during these weeks of action are pre-planned. That not only gives media a heads up on, like, we're going to film this, and that's going to change the actions that happen while this is happening because everyone knows they're being watched. It also gives police a heads up to prepare.

To shut down the path to your intrepid career. Yeah. So I think that comes with the week of action format because there's people coming in from out of town. They don't know where to go. If they're not already tied in with the movement, they don't know what exactly to do. So that's another thing that I think could change during future actions that may not be part of the week of action, is more covert, less pre-planned, pre-announced actions that are maybe a little bit more

mischievous. In their recent statement on voter suppression, the referendum also announced, quote, the coalition will consider using upcoming opportunities for nonviolent direct actions to direct the people's frustration with the city council's obstruction of the democratic process, unquote. Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders added, quote, if the city needs to see a demonstration of the people's commitment to the issue, we're happy to provide one, unquote. Police intentionally denying anarchists operating space by occupying the Wolani themselves may shift the more liberal side of the movement to now focus on rallies and events around the construction site, which could also inadvertently draw eyeballs away and open up other territory across the city

that might be more vulnerable to attack by small groups. To quote the Direct Action Communique claiming responsibility for torching the police motorcade on July 1st, quote, while signatures are collected, the police are still killing. We cannot wait. If the referendum fails, actions like ours and Boulder will be the only means available, unquote. With construction imminent, subcontractor tensions

increasing, and the city of Atlanta gambling with voter suppression, right now the movement really cannot afford to alienate the green anarchists that pioneered the early legitimacy of this movement with bold direct action. The Atlanta Police Foundation is trying to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. What happens in the next few months may push Atlanta to a dangerous tipping point. No matter the endpoint of this particular struggle. Victory or defeat cannot be imagined as the end. The fight against Cop City is one large battle in an ongoing war, a war of police militarization, racism, environmental justice, and against the incestuous neoliberal police state in its Leviathan-like formation. Based on what happens here in Atlanta, similar police project proposals will be recalibrated.

As the South goes, so goes the nation. Capitalist realism posits that history is over, that it's a literal thing of the past. But it turns out you're living through it right now. So what will you do to create it? You can read more about the fight to stop Cop City at atlpresscollective.com and donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund at atlsolidarity.org. 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 Shadowbride.

Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. and legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions.

Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

New episodes every Thursday. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into Tex Elite New episodes every Thursday. the belly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from.