It Could Happen Here - Week of Action to Stop Cop City, Part 3: Midweek Actions

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

The Clergy crash a city council meeting, people return to the forest for a Purim celebration, and activists are met with intense police repression during daily non-violent actions happening throughout downtown.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Come Monday morning, basically no one was in the forest. The police raid the night prior pushed out most of the people gathered for the music festival and week of action, and it was still unclear how the rest of the week would now proceed. This Monday happened to be the Jewish holiday Purim. Initially, there were plans to have a Purim celebration in the forest that evening, but it was unknown if people would feel comfortable returning to the woods.

Welcome back to It Could Happen Here, I'm Garrison Davis. This is episode three of my miniseries covering the March 2023 Week of Action to Defend the Atlanta Forest. Monday, March 6th also happened to be the day of an Atlanta City Council meeting, and the Stop Cop City Clergy Coalition held a well-attended press conference at noon outside City Hall. Reverend Kiana Jones opened up the press conference by making the clergy's position clear. We are the faith coalition against Cop City, and we are here to again raise our voices so that Mayor Andre Dickens and the members of the City Council of Atlanta know that we will not stand for the atrocities that have been occurring. We will not stand for Cop City to go forward.

public comment for over 17 hours when given an opportunity and said emphatically, no, we don't want your cop city. We don't want more repression of black people. We don't want more polluted air. We don't want less green space in our community. We don't want more policing and terrorizing of black, brown, indigenous bodies in our community. Reverend Jones gave her own perspective as a local Atlantan with deep ties to the city. So we are here as faith leaders today, and we are here to say, Mayor Dickens, if you didn't hear us the first time, we are here once again to let you know that we don't want Cop City. This is our community. This is our land. I am a daughter of East Atlanta. I still live in East Atlanta. I don't want Cop City.

My granny owns a home that she's been in for almost 50 years in the heart of East Atlanta Village. She does not want Cop City. My neighbor across the street does not want Cop City. The teachers at my daughter's school do not want Cop City. She also addressed the outside agitators narrative that police and media have continued to craft against force defenders, and media have continued to craft against force defenders, including by only arresting and charging people thought to be from out of town at the music festival that previous night. So we're here today to make sure that we ring the alarm and dispel the false narrative that it's outside agitators who don't want this. We know that this is the rhetoric that's been going

on ever since abolition began, that it's outside agitators. They said slaves didn't want to be free, but it was white people from the North who wanted it. That's a lie. They said that black people in the South didn't want civil rights, but it was white people from the North. That's a lie. Today they are claiming that the black people love Cop City.

It's outside agitators from elsewhere. And that, again, is a lie. Simply because the police have chosen to systematically arrest people from out of state doesn't mean that what they're saying is the truth. Reverend Leo Shea addressed other faith leaders and asked them to join in their calls to stop the Cop City project. and asked them to join in their calls to stop the Cop City project. We, local Atlanta clergy and religious leaders representing diverse communities, call on clergy, religious leaders, and people of faith and moral conscience across this nation and in solidarity with local Atlanta leaders to stop Cop City, stop the swap, and defend the Atlanta Forest,

Waulani People's Park. Today, we're gathered for this press conference and we will be delivering a letter to Atlanta City Council, but we invite you to continue in this faithful work that we are doing and contribute wherever you find your space in this growing movement. We call on clergy, religious leaders,

who are a moral authority in our society to use your power in support of the forest protectors. We are deeply concerned for the greater Atlanta community and the implications for the future of public safety in the United States if Kapsudi moves forward. At the press conference, the coalition presented a letter to the city council signed by over 200 clergy members. Reverend Leo Shea also read it aloud. Despite a record-breaking amount of public comment opposing the facility,

Atlanta City Council still passed legislation to build Cop City. We are troubled by leadership that stops acting on the will of the people and aligns itself instead with corporate money and the dominant power structure. Urged on by the message of peace and compassion in all our faiths, we deplore escalating militarization by city and state government. Most recently since the police killing of Rayshard Brooks here in 2020 by the Atlanta Police Department.

And Tortuguita, January 18th of this year by Georgia Patrol. We applaud the rising consciousness and the need to protect humans and the more than human by resisting police violence everywhere. And may I add that in the face of the violent raid that took place last night, as city residents gathered in solidarity to defend this forest, that is an example of the militarization that we are calling out.

Through violence and greed, these lands have been subjected to centuries of abuse, from the forced removal of indigenous communities, to serving as a plantation for enslaved African labor, to the site of the old Atlanta prison, Honor Farm, in the 20th century that produced immense profits for the prison system. Today, the sounds of Berg's song from the forest canopy live alongside the sound of gunfire and the adjacent APD firing range. We are troubled by the commodification of community land, water and air on which all of us depend. We are profoundly troubled by the use of military tactics and escalated legal charges on members of our community, suppressing legitimate resistance while at the same time clear-cutting the forest trees

despite not having the appropriate permits. The lands and the people of Atlanta have suffered violence for too long. We say no more. have suffered violence for too long. We say no more. We declare with faith, commitment, and hope that this land will be a part of healing and repair. We Atlanta clergy, religious leaders, and all of those across the nation and world

who are in agreement join our voices with calling for the following. A complete stop of the Cop City Project and cancellation of the Atlanta Police Foundation's lease. Dropping all charges against forest defenders and protesters. We demand an independent investigation into the uses of domestic terrorism charges. We demand an independent investigation

into the killing of Manuel Teran Tortuguita. Yes. We speak their name. Yes. For which recently released video footage of the event suggests there was lying and deceit surrounding the incident on part of law enforcement and their initial reporting of the incident. The Muscogee elder, Miko Chabon-Colonel, spoke at the press conference and called for land back and for the Muscogee people to return and rematriate the Wolani Forest in community with the black and brown residents of the area. Our ancestors lived here for over 13,000 years. And if you're to do the math correctly, this country that we now call the United States is somewhere in the neighborhood of 240. Just over nearly two years ago, I came here to the Willaunee Forest.

I came here with my own family, my own children, with some of my elders, to just share a little bit about how this territory and this land feels to us as Muscogee people. Because let it be known today, it was not our choice to leave here. We did go to war to protect these areas. We did go through much burden to protect these areas, only to be forced to leave here under military occupation, but also to be forced to leave here after treachery, after illegally lands were taken from us. This is our homeland. My ancestors for generation upon generation for millennia are buried on the very ground that you walk on every day. And I think we have a say in how we should live as a society in this day and time.

And so in this moment, our hope is to be able to come back, to rematriate, to take our lives back into the intimacy that we once had with everything that grows here in what you now call the state of Georgia. Because no matter who we are and where we come from, we have to have air. We have to have water. We have to have the elements of this earth to take care of us, regardless of what we think. We're dependent on this earth mother, and she has been faithful in taking care of us. It's us that has not been faithful in respecting her. Our hope is that this earth is not destroyed before we even have a chance to come back. That lives aren't destroyed before we have a

chance to come back. So today, in whatever way, I come here to join the choruses of voices that you hear all around you saying, what is going on now is a violence against all of creation. What is going on now bringing death and harm and hurt is a violence against all of creation. And we stand in solidarity as Muscogee people. I stand in solidarity with the voices that we hear of those tenants, those persons who live in the land now. But my hope is now at this moment in time that somehow we can change the trajectory of our species and go into a direction where we can value each other, and we can stop the criminalizing of dissent, we should be able to say no. The increasing of the militarized forces out there does not ever create peace. It only creates harm.

And it only harms those that are most vulnerable. That's the prayer that I carry today. Reverend Darcy Jarrett joined in the call for stewardship of the Walani Forest to be returned to the Muscogee people. City Schools of Decatur has a statement of solidarity and acknowledgement of harms. DeKalb County and the City of Atlanta, we call on you to make good on these words, to give the land back to our indigenous siblings so that they, as they have stated and will do and always have done, work in collaboration with the black and brown community right there near where the site is,

outside of the Wilani Forest. The city of Atlanta is ready to lease this land at just $10 an acre. Instead, give this land to the native inhabitants. Repatriate this land to the people to whom is their sacred call to defend and work in community with the black and brown communities that are there. We call on you, Atlanta City Council, to be the moral compass

and to not just halt the building of this structure, but to repatriate the land to the sovereign Muscogee Nation, the sacred keepers of this land. May it be so. Amen. Finally, Matthew Johnson spoke about the worrying amount of police repression and violence the movement has already seen. We're projecting by the end of the day, there will be 40 people that have domestic terrorism charges, many of which just for being in a parking lot.

terrorism charges, many of which just for being in a parking lot. I don't know how anybody can accept this when you have a projected 40 people that are committed of domestic terrorism, not one dead body. Meanwhile, we can't even show the bruise on the police officer that was allegedly shot at, but our friend's ashes. We have the ashes of a friend that we will spread. We can no longer accept this as a people, as Atlantans. If we can't figure out a way to fix public safety without locking tons of black kids up in the blackest city in America, every person in that building needs to step down. If we can't do it here, we can't do it anywhere.

Both myself and Matt from the Atlanta Community Press Collective were at the press conference, and we met up after to discuss the events of the day. During the press conference, some of the media's line of questioning was very much aligned with the types of narratives being put out by police in relation to the events that previous night, the Sunday direct action and music festival. I think it's also worth noting that the people at the clergy event did not openly demonize the actions that people chose to take on Sunday.

And it was very much like the media definitely gave them opportunities to try to throw people under the bus and that did not happen. Yeah. And we've seen that all throughout the week. Um, every, every chance that the media is trying to throw somebody to like cause a dissension or, or a divide amongst the movement has been really handily deflected by anyone who, who, who's come across it. really handily deflected by anyone who's come across it. And the clergy did not just a good job of, like, not falling into that trap,

but of actually pointing out how that line of thinking was, like, missing the point and where the true violence was coming from. This is happening in Atlanta. And so why are the majority of people engaging in violence coming from other states? The reality of it is that the ones who are engaging in violence are the police, and they're from right here in Atlanta, Georgia. You got APD, you got Georgia State Police, you got GBI, you got Georgia State Troopers, you got everybody except the MARTA police who are engaging in violence and terrorism against the people who are standing against this illegal land swap. So I would suggest that the next time you decide that you are going to bring up your police rhetoric that you get from whichever police source, you go ahead and discuss that with them because we don't know what they're doing.

But what we do know is what we're doing and what we that with them because we don't know what they're doing. But what we do know is what we're doing and what we see from them that we know. I know when I get hit by an officer. I know when I see a mother with a child begging to be let up off the ground because her children are with her. I know when I see officers pointing a rifle inside a bouncy house. If I could just say, I'd like to just bring up a story. bouncy house. If I could just say, I'd like to just bring up a story. Initially, the colonizers that came onto this land attempted to use the indigenous folks as their slaves. However, the indigenous folks knew the land so they could get away. Now, when you ask me about why is it that you keep catching people that aren't from here, that might not reflect the people that are actually involved in the

resistance. God bless you. Thank you. After the press conference, people from the clergy coalition marched to the front door and entered City Hall before making it upstairs to sign up for public comment during the City Council meeting. The large group of the clergy and the people gathered for the interfaith coalition are now moving through City Hall. There's a whole bunch of cops here that look relatively nervous about the decently sized group of people. The scary Christians are now invading City Hall. Look out.

So usually in City Hall, there are several APD officers who just kind of hang out. But while the clergy are walking up to City Hall, you can look out and there is APD on every corner. And then you enter into City Hall and there are clusters of APD. There are, I think, four floors to City Hall. There are clusters of APD on three sides of every floor of City Hall. After an unexpectedly long awards and proclamations ceremony, the public comment section of the City Council meeting finally began. I'm standing here today

with the faith coalition. We are clergy and faith leaders. We are citizens and we are protectors of the land that doesn't belong to us, but belongs to God. We are deeply concerned for our community members, for ourselves and the implications for the future of public safety in the United States if this cop city development goes forward. We are asking for all people of faith, those of you who sit on council regardless of your tradition or background, and those who stand with moral conscience to stop the Cop City Project. My faith convicts me and tells all of us that there is a better way. We have a prophetic moral imagination and opportunity here to do something different in Atlanta, to do something different for the South. Finally, we're asking for a community process, a community process. Let us come together with moral imagination to envision how the

Willanee River Forest can be the heart and lungs of community wellness and healing, not more militarization of police. We want a process that centers the voice and needs of Muscogee leaders Reservation in Oklahoma spoke about the desire to return to their homeland. The Miko of our Halabi ceremonial grounds back home in Oklahoma has come here, where our original fire was started, and then it was taken all the way to Oklahoma. And now we want to bring it back to our land, and we want to start those fires again. Well, when we come back, we need a land to come back to.

This is my first time coming back to visit my homelands. I wanted to visit here where my ancestors are as a spiritual and personal journey. I didn't want to come here to try to fight the violence that I'm hearing. What I'm hearing is from the residents is they need an investment in housing and public spaces and not investment in further militarized policing. They want investment in the well-being of incarcerated and not further violent

incarceration, but the well-being of the community members. Thank you, Mato. Chi-charis. I turned 70 last week and I've lived in Atlanta my whole life. I'm not an outsider and I am here to say to you that I find Cop City to be an abomination. My husband is a pastor of a church a couple of miles from here, and he could not be here today. He's out of town, but he stands with me with these comments. The people who have spoken before me have said the things I would say, but I would like to say that I pretty much agree with every single thing they have said about this insanity that you all are calling a police safety training facility. So I think you need to just cancel it, start having some real conversations with the people of this city to solve the real problems in a way that will actually be effective, and this facility is not going to be it.

And the mayor's proposed task force is just one more way to try to propagandize us to believe that this is good for us when we're not stupid and we know it's just lipstick on a pig. And if you harden your heart, be reminded of the story of another Pharaoh who had a very hard heart, who would not free the people of God, who would not leave them to their land. You know what happened in that story. Don't think that you will not suffer the same fate. Don't think that the infrastructure of this so-called black Mecca will not come toppling over because it will. There are a couple like things to note about how city council public comment works. City council doesn't tend to pay attention to them.

Ostensibly, the only one who pays attention is city council president Doug Shipman because it is his job to call time and to call up the next person. But city councilors will step in and out of the room, get something to eat. During the 17 hours of public comment for Cop City, one of them held a press conference. There are two council members notoriously bad at paying attention of public comment for Cop City, like one of them held a press conference. There are two council members notoriously bad at paying attention to public comment. Dustin Hillis, who is the committee chair for the Public Safety Legal Administration Committee. Basically, he's in charge of police. And the other is Mary Norwood, who represents Buckhead and has what I would describe as ontologically evil vibes. Buckhead is the northern, primarily white neighborhood in Atlanta that has wanted to secede from the city,

which in Atlanta has very uncomfortable segregation and redlining parallels. But despite not paying attention during public comment, these two in particular both paid extra attention after public comment when Police Chief Darren Shearbaum gave testimony on what happened the night previous. Were there any firefighter or police, city employee injuries at yesterday's event? Council Member Hillis, there was not. We're very fortunate that that was the outcome. We're fortunate that there was no injuries. If this continues, do we have the ability to deploy even greater force to quill the millions of dollars of damage to public and private properties?

We will make adjustments as those that use various tactics. Yesterday was an escalation. We had not seen this large number of individuals engaged in this activity and the aggressive manner in which the officers were attacked was a significant change from what we had seen before when it generally had been setting property on fire. We'd seen police cars set on fire, windows busted, but this was started as an attack against individuals, men and women who are employees of the city. So that was an escalation, Council Member Hillis, that we have already made adjustments for, both within our capability as well as with our partners. Throughout Sheerbaum's testimony, it was interesting the degree to which the chief

framed Sunday's direct action as primarily being targeted against officers, and not the destruction of equipment and machinery at the North Gate. From the videos that APD themselves released of the incident, it's clear that engagement with the police was limited to keeping officers at bay as construction equipment was targeted. And despite the continued referring of fireworks as quote-unquote mortars or explosives, as the chief himself admitted, no officers were harmed during the direct action. Welcome, I'm Danny Threl. 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.

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 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, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba.

He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with.

His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzales wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation.

Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In a later episode, we'll hear more of Chief Sheerbaum's explanation of Sunday night's events, as it gives insight into the police's own surveillance capabilities and their ability to respond quickly to direct actions. But until then, back to the events of Monday, March 6th.

After the city council meeting, I dressed up in the gayest little outfit that I had with me and went back to the woods for the first time since Sunday night for Purim. Initially, people were very cautious when entering the woods again, but as the night went on, more and more people started to pour into the forest, with some choosing to return to their camp. Later that night, I enjoyed an experimental noise show in the living room, probably to the detriment of people trying to sleep in the area. I went to the Purim in the woods.

I got to share my memory of the VeggieTales Esther story starring the tickle monsters. I got to bond with a few ex-evangelicals about that. So that was fine. Then there was an experimental noise show in the forest. Really, I think it actually is worth talking about because this was the first time people... Returned to the forest. Yeah. This was the first time that people like returned to the forest in mass since Sunday.

And you started to kind of feel people's energy get reinvigorated. The woods became a place again that people were able to like be in and feel like they were able to be in community in the woods again. begin and feel like they were able to be in community in the woods again. And that is in keeping with sort of how this movement has always responded to what we, I guess, could call a loss, right? Like 23 people getting arrested and charged is a great loss. Yeah. And the bounce back period is pretty quick. Like the resiliency is continual and always strengthening every time that, you know, the repressionression grows, it does seem like the resiliency grows with it. People were not scared away from the woods.

People still were like, no, this is something I care about. I am still going to be in the woods. I'm still going to defend these woods. There's always this essence of fear underlying whenever you're in the Wolani Forest. Because you know people have been arrested and charged for laying in a hammock. With another defendant. With another defendant. And so you know that it is fundamentally a risky place to be.

But people think the potential cost is worth it. They continue to be here because they know this is a winnable fight, and they know that it is worth it to defend these woods. Early Tuesday morning, a few Stop Cops City banner drops happened throughout the city. Two people were detained by police during one of these banner drops, but were later released with a traffic citation after being interrogated separately and extensively photographed by law enforcement officials only identified as, quote, Georgia Police and Homeland Security, unquote. Tuesday was the start of a series of nonviolent direct actions that were being launched around downtown and midtown. Tuesday morning,

I followed a small group that went to the headquarters of Norfolk Southern, one of the Atlanta Police Foundation's financial contributors and noted enemy of Ohio. They enter the lobby and it's a very small group, but like I think half of it was like five people and another five like press people. Yeah. So they enter uh they read aloud a letter to alan shaw the ceo of norfolk southern uh calling for divestment um from of norfolk southern from cop city and immediately they are met with uh a security guard screaming like go you're get out of the lobby leave you're you're being criminally trespassed or you're being trespassed you have to leave uh one of the other security guards runs around with a cell phone camera and shoves it in everybody's faces, reaching rather rudely over you to get my face.

Yes. They got very close to me. Entering the Norfolk Southern Building. Please leave the building. Please leave the building. The response to the demand is laid out in this five minutes, maybe right about five minutes. When they finished reading the letter, like all they asked was that the letter go to the CEO. While people were inside the headquarters, security called NS Police, which is the Norfolk Southern Police, who are legally allowed to arrest people.

Can you please leave the building? Can you please leave the building? I have donated over a million dollars to the city. Anyone can see this. Can you please leave the building? But nobody was arrested at that nonviolent direct action. The whole thing was over pretty quickly. And, you know, as we were walking out, we saw like the force of, um, a force of Norfolk Southern police, like swarm kind of the exterior of the campus and like keep an eye out on things.

And then we moved over to Woodruff park, which was the meeting place for, uh, these nonviolent direct actions that happened about every, every day at noon, starting on, starting on Tuesday. It's Tuesday, March 7th, around noon. There's about 50 or so people gathered in Woodruff Park who are heading out and marching to go stop by two of the Atlanta Police Foundation corporate funders. We roll up and I think at that point there were like 20-ish protesters. It started off very small. There was no real visible police presence.

There were like maybe a cruiser or two kind of around. And activists start to gather and kind of talk about what their plan is for the day, which was just to march around to three different sites. They wanted the AT&T building, the Georgia Pacific building, and GSU. Georgia State University. Shut it down! Shut it down! They're now leaving Woodruff Park.

They got to Georgia Pacific, one of the Cop City financial backers, without much incident and without much in terms of visible police presence. People called on Mayor Dickens, who is the chair of the board of directors for Georgia Pacific, to cancel the Atlanta Police Foundation lease of the land that Cop City is slated to be built on. Mayor Dickens, we want you to cancel this lease. We know that you have the authority to do so. They finished up at Georgia Pacific. They set up a little vigil for Tortuguita. And from Georgia Pacific, they began their trek to the AT&T building. They left a little vigil for Tortuguita in front of the Georgia Pacific Center. And the group of like more than 50 people are continuing to march north. Eight to 10 police officers are directly behind them, and a whole bunch of police cars are blocking Peachtree.

Along the path to AT&T was the APF's headquarters just across the street. And as the crowd approached this intersection, the amount of police ballooned massively. In the block around the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters, there's got to be about 30 to 40 officers stationed, blocking off the entrance to the APF, and also just like following the crowd around as they're marching through the sidewalks. There are 50 activists down different sidewalks and different streets. You just see more officers that are already stationed. There were 50 activists and what, certainly over 100, somewhere probably between 100 and 120 police officers started marching, not like behind, not in front, but directly beside the march,

sort of pinning the march to the wall and like essentially kettling the march. There was police station in front, there was police station behind, and police stationed on the side. It was surrounding these 50 people who were simply walking on the sidewalk. Stumbling upon a new group of officers. There ought to be about 100 officers in this area right now. At one point, a police vehicle was just parked on the sidewalk, completely blocking it. During this entire time, police were blocking all of the traffic in these intersections and roads. Driving wrong way, up a one way, like just, you know, doing police things.

Yeah. A Georgia State University canine unit is blocking off the entire sidewalk next to a Fulton County Sheriff's vehicle. They're trying to make it impossible for people to actually move on the sidewalk. But for the most part, people have been able to move around the police and keep their movement going instead of just stalling in one spot or trying to physically confront what is now hundreds of law enforcement officers from Fulton County Sheriffs and Atlanta Police Department, and even like Georgia State University police. So the group is split up in between two streets

right now. People are trying to follow the follow the crossing signals, because otherwise, police are going to tackle and violently assault people. No one was arrested. People marched to their prospective locations. People very pointedly kept to laws. There was a couple of times when the crosswalk changed and the group kind of had to split. They would stay and wait until the crosswalk went back to walk and then cross over and join. It's so funny that the cops are so insistent. If you step on the streets, you're going to get arrested

and making sure people stay on the sidewalks. But the result of that is that all the cops are standing in the street and they're blocking off miles of traffic downtown right now. People just arrived at the 51 Peachtree Center Avenue AT&T building in downtown Atlanta. Police were already stationed in front of the AT&T building, so there wasn't much to do. After a brief speech talking about AT&T's contributions to the Police Foundation and Cop City, the crowd moved on. Now people are turning west in the opposite direction from the AT&T headquarters, heading back into the Woodruff Park area where this march began. Police with long guns here.

Finally, the crowd stopped at Georgia State University and talked about GSU's connections to the Atlanta Police Foundation. What is of note for this action, and really all of the actions that happened the next few days, is not what the protesters did. It's the police's disproportionate response to just 50 people walking on the sidewalk, chanting, and giving short speeches outside of businesses tied to APF. With a small line of officers in front of GSU, they gave their last round of speeches and sort of dispersed for the day. Before we wrap today and give these clouds something else to go do,

we will be out here. We will be out here for the rest of the week, for the rest of the month, for the rest of the police are now grouping up and opening up the sidewalk so people can actually leave. It seems officers were in fact instructed to make arrests during this action, but for some reason did not follow through on those orders, according to scanner audio from Atlanta Police officers not making the arrests. I guess they weren't supposed to. I don't know, but I'm letting it with that. We'll just hold what we got and respond as needed. Extensive police activity continued later that night. At around 5.30 to 6 p.m., police started staging a round of the forest in a way that usually indicates that a raid is forthcoming.

Word spread around the recovering encampment that police could be preparing for a raid. Welcome, I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me as the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonoro. 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 Tex Elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. 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, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh.

And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian, Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian, Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba.

Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So the initial reports were like that there were 50 police officers staged at Key Road and ready to go. And then the DeKalb County SWAT starts to roll up at the fire station.

And I would say a fair amount of panic starts to set in at camp. Multiple police copters are getting flown overhead. Multiple different SWAT teams are being brought in. At least three or four different agencies are stationing officers around the woods. I believe it's estimated that at least 120 police officers were being staged in the area directly surrounding the forest and in the area by the power line cut on Key Road. And it should be said that, you know, up until this point, the police have never brought in that many resources to any protest action that I'm aware of and not come in and engaged. So I was with a group off-site who immediately began to fear they wouldn't be able to get back to their campsites, they wouldn't be able to get their gear, they wouldn't be able to get their medication.

And that, from what I understand, was the general vibe around but nothing happened nothing seemed to happen and and then at around seven police started to almost like express confusion on what was going on and then everyone else expressed expressed confusion for why the police were confused. And we think we've kind of put together what may have happened. So, Clark, what is suspected of going down here? So the one thing that police don't understand and probably will never understand is humor. Now, they become the butt of the joke often, but they don't understand comedy. So at 7 o'clock that evening was scheduled

comedy in the forest. And from what we've gathered, the police thought that the comedy in the forest event was going to be a cover for another Sunday night like action. So this event was scheduled on the public defend the Atlanta forest calendar that anyone can look at online, um, is this comedy in the woods event for people to tell jokes around a campfire. And I, I guess they thought it was like, it was like this event that was like a red herring so that people could then go do violent militancy in around the woods. So when seven o'clock came and went, like police were expecting people to like arrive at the woods or something. And that just didn't happen because it turns out a few minutes before seven o'clock, uh, this comedy event was canceled for like unrelated reasons. The organizer

had had things come up. So this event just didn't happen, but there still was comedy in the woods. It just was that the police wasted probably over $100,000 mobilizing over 100 officers. I mean, obviously, I think some people in the woods were, you know, had some frustration that, you know, they experienced this fear of this possibly incoming raid that then resulted in there being nothing. I think it's always important to, when people are relaying information, they relay information that is known without unadduced speculation.

So it is a fact to say that there's over 100 cops stationing by the woods, and they've never had that many cops there before without doing some sort of raid or some sort of activity in the forest. And part of what I've heard go on since then was, you know, some very generative conversations about how they're going to take into account this new paradigm that developed that night.

And I think that, again, speaks to sort of just how the movement continues to develop and grow and handle new challenges and shifts. So with the forest camp still intact, the week of action continued on as planned with another downtown nonviolent direct action that next morning. So Wednesday at noon is a lot smaller of direct action than the day before. It starts with like a dozen people. It slowly grows to like a few dozen.

But yeah, it started extremely, extremely small. So this was one difference from Tuesday is that when we arrived, police already had a visible presence in downtown stationed around Woodruff Park. So a group of people just launched from Woodruff Park. They kind of split off in different little subgroups. Lots of people are just stationed outside of MARTA stops handing out flyers and that is what people are doing right now. Police seem relatively confused and are trying to like mobilize to different areas where they feel like something might happen but it's just people handing out flyers. And they decided to split into groups and engage in like just some typical outreach activity that you would see from any group,

like just passing out flyers and pamphlets and attempting, from what I saw, to have one-on-one conversations with anyone who wanted to. So this group that broke off into these smaller subgroups, the group that we kind of accompanied stationed themselves around some MARTA stops. I believe it was the Peachtree MARTA station. Yeah, Peachtree Center MARTA stops around, I believe it was like the, it was the Peachtree station. Yeah. So they stationed at the, at the, the, like the three different exits or entrances for that. Just, just handing out flyers, handing out leaflets, trying to talk to anybody who walks by. Another group of people standing outside of a public transit spot, handing out flyers, probably like, I don't know, four or five other small groups doing similar things throughout downtown, which means police have a lot more places to be as opposed to just following one big group.

The group that we followed had its own police presence follow it. And then when they split into three more groups, each group had its own police presence follow it. And police stuck to the protesters the entire time. And of course, like there's white transport vans that are full of cops kind of driving by. Big white van full of police officers just showed up across the street. Army green tan SWAT vehicle just parked a block away from the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters. There was an Atlanta SWAT vehicle parked outside of the Hooters.

Totally normal response. Totally normal response. And so the leafleting goes on for, you know, like 45 minutes. And then all of the groups start to gather together conveniently with the group that like we had embedded with. All right. There's actually a pretty decent number of people gathered here for the flyering event today. You know, normal police response to people handing out flyers, just 50 officers and a SWAT team. But yeah, there's probably at this point like two or three dozen people that have kind of all converged together.

It started off very small. People were very, very spread out. They splintered off into little smaller groups, but now they've all kind of coalesced together back again. So all the little subgroups kind of meet up on Andrew Young and Peachtree right next to the Hooters and the Hard Rock Cafe. This area is like the business district. So in the middle of the day, it's like really busy. It's a fairly good spot to pass out leaflets. So they are passing out these leaflets. Pedestrians are still able to walk through the sidewalks. It's a fairly good spot to pass out leaflets. So they are passing out these leaflets. Pedestrians are still able to walk through the sidewalks. It's pretty chill.

And then APD approaches the crowd. APD has already been around this area. There's the SWAT vehicle across the street watching people hand out flyers. But then Lieutenant Neil Welch approaches the crowd and gives them a dispersal order. Okay, can I read the dispersal order? All right, so I'm Lieutenant Neil Welch, a police officer of the city of Atlanta. I hereby declare that being on this sidewalk, you are obstructing or impeding the normal and reasonable movement of pedestrian traffic in violation of Atlanta city ordinance. Okay?

In the name of the people of the state of Georgia, I hereby command that all present in the sidewalk, all present here in the sidewalk, immediately exit the street or the roadway or sidewalk. If you do not do so, you may be detained or arrested. Should you fail to exit the sidewalk in accordance with this lawful command, you shall be in violation of Section 150266, obstructing pedestrian traffic, which prohibits standing or being on any street, roadway, or sidewalk in a manner to obstruct or impede the normal or reasonable pedestrian traffic.

Cops threatened arrest and detainment. They claimed that people were blocking the sidewalk, which they absolutely were not. I was walking freely, as was all of the downtown pedestrian traffic. They were not blocking anything. This is pretty silly. An utterly ridiculous response to people handing out flyers. utterly ridiculous response to people handing out flyers. So they were told they cannot be on the sidewalk.

Obviously, they can't be on the street. Where are you allowed to protest if not the sidewalk or the street? Seemed like very flimsy legal footing, but obviously police can arrest anyone they want at any time for any reason. So people decided to move. They cross over the street. They walk like a block north. They cross the street again, and they move on to this part of the sidewalk that is like really large,

like a massive, massive open section. Yeah, right in front of the mall. So it's meant to like have a bunch of people pass by it. So people continue to hand out flyers. While this is happening, have a bunch of people pass by it. So people continue to hand out flyers. While this is happening,

there's another group who comes in to the side of Peachtree Center Mall and enters the mall to find Mayor Andre Dickens. There are a couple of boards in Atlanta that stipulate the mayor is like the head of the board. And this is one of them. And it meets in Peachtree Center Mall, as as one does so the mayor is having a meeting in the mall and his office space is you know sort of above the mall and this group of people from the muskogee nation enter um and try to meet up with the mayor to hand off a letter objection

objection we have a letter being delivered from the Muscogee Creek Nation on behalf of Muscogee Creek spiritual leadership in opposition to Cox Lake. are now making their journey back to our homelands and hereby give notice to Mayor Andrew Dickens, the Atlanta City Council, the Atlanta Police Department, the Atlanta Police Foundation, the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office, and so-called Cop City, that you must immediately vacate Muskogee homelands and cease violence and policing of indigenous and black people in Muskogee lands. We lived as stewards and in relationship to this land for more than 13,000 years until the illegitimate state of Georgia negotiated with the tyrant Andrew Jackson for the militarized

for the militarized force removal of Muskogee and Cherokee relatives to Indian territories. Mayor Dickens, can I give this letter to you? He got one. Mayor, we want to talk to you about our homeland. Three indigenous activists, along with Kamau Franklin, arrive and they find the mayor. They enter the board meeting and they begin to read this letter from the Muscogee Nation out loud. And in the letter, it essentially says that Atlanta is being evicted out of the Wailani Forest and the Muscogee people are going to return and reclaim their ancestral land. of the Wulani Forest and the Muscogee people are going to return and reclaim their ancestral land.

Mayor Dickens, in true mayor fashion, bolts away from this, running through an exit door, which is then blocked by a guard, which I think that has its own set of legal issues. Essentially just ignoring them. Over his shoulder, he calls out, I've got a copy of the letter and hides, just completely trying to escape what is not a good look for him. The Atlanta Police Department Apex SWAT team was called to the mall, and right as the activists were able to exit, the special police units rushed into the building, finding no one. By now, the police repression during this week of action far exceeded police activity during any of the prior weeks of action, and this trend would

continue as the week entered its last few days. The next episode will wrap up our coverage for the week, as well as contain a bit more analysis of the police repression and the fallout of Sunday's direct action. But then there will be a fifth bonus episode that gives an overview of what's happened in the Mulani Forest in the intervening two months. See you on the other side. Music, festival, audio, courtesy of Unicorn Riot. 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. 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 an anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturno on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons?

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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. Welcome to Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get real and dive straight into todo lo actual y viral. We're talking musica, los premios, el chisme,

and all things trending in my cultura. I'm bringing you all the latest happening in our entertainment world and some fun and impactful interviews with your favorite Latin artists, comedians, actors, and influencers. Each week, we get deep and raw life stories, combos on the issues that matter to us, and it's all packed with gems, fun, straight up comedia, and that's a song that only nuestra gente can sprinkle. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts.