It Could Happen Here - Week of Action to Stop Cop City, Part 4: The Final Days

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

Police repression intensifies as people march to the Atlanta Police Foundation. Over the weekend the cops raid a secondary encampment, and a memorial for Tortuguita is held in the Weelaunee Forest.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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 music, 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. Welcome back to It Could Happen Here. I'm Garrison Davis. This is episode four of my miniseries detailing the March 2023 week of action to stop cop city in Atlanta, Georgia. This episode, we'll be hearing from a lot of new people as we close out the day-to-day coverage of this week of action. One of the last big organized rallies was on Thursday night, and it was put on by community movement builders and other Black-led groups from Atlanta.

The big event Thursday night was a six o'clock rally that met at the Martin Luther King National Historic Site. There was police stationed at King Center before anyone got there. We saw like dozens and dozens of police cars going by. All around the site are various, you know, quick response forces and riot cops just ready to move in. Large police response in the area already, as has been expected for the past few days. Multiple Sandy Springs police buses were driving by. There was multiple unmarked white vans full of officers. The area is crawling with police cars.

And now there's a small detail of officers across the street from people gathering here in the park. We are currently surrounded on every side by groups of police officers in riot gear. The crowd started off like actually fairly decently sized, maybe like 50 people and then continued as well as the speeches progressed to, I would say like 200, 250, maybe even a little bit more. They were passing out signs. So anyone who came, they had a sign ready for you. Andre Dickens is a sellout, of course, is a very popular one. There were Stop Cop City banners that people could hold. ATL verse 12, just a bunch of really clever protest slogans and things that people could get behind. The makeup of the crowd definitely leaned far less

white anarchists than certainly the accusations of this movement. And I think more representative of the movement as a whole. It was a mix of a bunch of different people. I would say it probably accurately reflected Atlanta demographics. Defend the forest signs and banners are being handed out throughout the crowd.

Other people are passing around the jail support number and jail support contact information. People are starting to get ready. So it meets at 6 o'clock and for about an hour and a half, we listen to a series of speeches as the crowd begins to swell. So we are here in solidarity together today to make it clear to the mayor that he's not going to keep lying on our name. They'll literally be building a mock city of Atlanta to practice how to oppress, brutalize, and kill people. And so we find it ridiculous, we find it disgusting, we find it embarrassing that our mayor, Andre Dickens,

would fix his mouth to say that black people want to be killed by the police, that black people want cop cities. The mayor must have forgotten that our ancestors were literally fighting abolition since they were brutally brought to this country. They were fighting for freedom, fighting the original police, right? The slave patrols that captured black bodies to take them back to their white masters. He's talking to the same black people whose elders were fighting here in these same streets in the 60s and the 70s to stop police occupation of our communities. That's right. Resistance to police, resistance to state violence is literally in our blood as black people. It is in our DNA.

They're lying on our name because they want money from the same white corporations that are funding Cop City. Home Depot, Chick-fil-A, Coca-Cola, Norfolk Southern, AT&T, Cox Enterprises, who owns the AJC. And this is a fight that we will win, that we are committed to winning. And so when we talk about winning, it's important to say, what do we mean when we say that we'll win? We mean no cop city anywhere. Not in South Atlanta, not in DeKalb, not in North Atlanta, nowhere. When we say that we will win, we are meaning that this fight does not stop with Cop City. This is a fight for the liberation of all oppressed people here and abroad.

And that's why it's disgusting that the mayor and that these corporations will talk about outside agitators. that the mayor and that these corporations will talk about outside agitators. The reason that there are people coming from all over the world to support this fight is because this is a fight that affects all of us. The Atlanta Police Foundation admitted that 43% of the cops being trained at that facility will not be in Georgia. So when people come from Tennessee, from New York, from California, it's because they know that their local police might learn how to kill them better here. And when people come from abroad, they know that currently the Atlanta Police Department trains with the Israeli police. So the same techniques being used to brutalize black people are being used to practice genocide on the Palestinian people.

And the same tactics being used to practice genocide on the Palestinian people are being used to brutalize black people right here. So when people come from all over the world to say stop Cop City, they're not outside agitators. They're standing in solidarity with us because this is a fight that affects us all. standing in solidarity with us because this is a fight that affects us all. As the rain picked up, Tortillita's mother, Belkis Teran, spoke next. All the forest defenders, I call them. I call them to come here to support us. All the people from different religions come here and help us. This is a matter of the Earth.

We are talking about the Earth that is dying. The Earth needs our love. The Earth needs our attention. And we are, we have conscience. We know that this is not right. Don't go by yourself. When we go to activities, stay together. Don't go outside by yourself. We need to make understand that this is the right thing to do. We are the correct people. We are right.

Because we are driving by love, by caring, by concern. And we love all those. I love you. And I know that you love me. A speaker from Black Votes Matter addressed the crowd next, starting off by talking about the importance of mass action. I just want to explain something because sometimes people get confused.

They get it twisted. They say, oh, y'all look like voters matter. All y'all do is talk about voting. Be clear. We understand that the way that we get to liberation is not going to come just through a vote. That's never been how it's worked for our people in this country. Sister Harriet didn't get a chance to vote for liberation. She didn't get a chance to vote to take our people off the plantation, right?

So we are very clear that what we have got to be, in fact, we just celebrated, commemorated the anniversary of Selma and the March of Montgomery, but be clear, the people of Selma didn't vote for a voting rights act. They had to fight for it. They had to march for it. In some cases, they bled for it. They had to resist for it. They had to take to the streets for it. It's in their tradition that we are out here today. So yes, I believe in the power of the vote, but I also believe in the power of mass action. He then talked about the intersection of Cop City and efforts to further restrict the democratic process in Georgia. The same corporations that are funding Cop City are the same ones that are funding the voter suppression. The same ones, we did a whole campaign a couple years ago when Georgia did that voter

suppression bill and we called out Home Depot and Coca-Cola and Delta and many of the other corporations that give money to the people that have taken away our rights to vote. And then if you don't have a government that reflects the people, then what do you need? You need a police force to enforce the fact that you don't have a government that reflects the people, then what do you need? You need a police force to enforce the fact that you don't have a government that reflects the people. And so our message for Mayor Dickens, our message for the city council, is that if you don't respond to the people, you're about to lose your job. You're about to lose your job. Because we've got that power. We've got the power to make that happen. Students from the Atlanta University Center, a consortium of four black colleges in Atlanta,

were some of the last people to give speeches before the march. We have attempted to reform our police force, add de-escalation training, add civil rights history training, and give more money to our police. But we continue to see black bodies across social media platforms, television, and other media platforms being displayed, being murdered. The victims have received no justice. And when we say no justice, what do we say? No justice! No peace! No justice, no peace. The building of the Atlanta Public Training Center is an insult and an act of the utmost disrespect from our city leaders.

We have a duty to fight for the change that we seek. As an active member of this community, I refuse to sit by and be idle and just let things happen. This city has been my home ever since I was born. I've been to various events here. I have seen the sights and I've lived through some of the most important events right here in this city. This is my home. This is your home. This is our home. This is a home of black excellence. This is the home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This is the home of black excellence. This is the home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is the home of John Lewis.

This is the home of Joseph Evelyn and Joseph E. Lowy. This is the home of civil rights. This is the home of C.T. Vivian. This is the home of great blackness itself. This is the home of every single black person here in America. This city, this house, this place of black excellence says no to cop city. My Afro-pessimist friends and revolutionaries both agree we are at war. The police in the city have said as much loudly with their words and their actions.

It feels obvious to me that we need warriors, weapons, and I know that that fact may give some of us trepidation, but I want to assure you that we need so much more than soldiers to win this fight. Whatever it is that you do, whatever skill you bring, I just ask that you make it a weapon. If we are ever going to experience democracy, we need your tools to be repurposed in this fight against Cop City.

If you're a writer like me, child, that pen better look like a threat to Cop City. If you do mutual aid, caring for community ain't gonna get any easier. Please show us the way. If you're an artist, where my artist at? You got a lot of them out here. Let every painting reveal the truth, including the joy and freedom that abolition calls us to. Let us make songs that inspire revolution. If you're a healer, get ready. We need you. Much will be lost in this struggle. Let us not forget. If you're a teacher, well we got a lot to learn about this war we're fighting and how police practice urban warfare.

If you're a lawyer, guide us when they say that any fighter is a criminal. If you're a digital organizer, keep your finger on the pulse and tell our stories far and wide. And if you're a community organizer, we need to tend to our relationships, not just use them. We need real solidarity, which goes beyond unity. We need pluralism, making space for many strategies to coexist. And ultimately, we need to practice democracy if we plan to build one. Cop City is the police in the establishment preparing for domestic war right here in the city of atlanta that's right any further training of the police is training against our existence

that shit cannot be built it will never be built we all must fight for the democracy we've never seen before. What are you willing to do? Thank you, y'all. So after about an hour of speeches, people are now finally getting ready to move. They announced on the loudspeaker where we are going. We are marching to the Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters on Peachtree,

the same location that had the front windows broken on the protest following the killing of Tortuguita that Saturday. So people leave. They stick onto the sidewalk because there's cops staring at them. And cops definitely had indicated that if people step onto the street, they would be arrested. that if people step onto the street, they would be arrested. Cops! City will never be built! Cops! City will never be built! The length of the march is stretching for about two or three city blocks, just because, you know, trying to cram 300 people onto a sidewalk makes that stretch out really long. But the cops have been pretty adamant that if anyone steps onto the street,

they're going to get arrested. There's a banner being carried across that says, What you water grows. Fund our future. Stop Cop City. Defend the forest. People with the Stop Cop City signs in the Coca-Cola font. Signs that read, Atlanta versus Cop City.

No Cop City on stolen land. The Thursday march definitely had the most amount of signs out of all of the individual marches or actions that I went to. Both small handheld signs and also signs with really tall handles to hold up above the crowd. Pull street! Pull street! Pull street! All right, people are being led into the street now. After walking on the sidewalk for a decent while, people have now taken to the street. Along the path of the march, a projector was set up, projecting Stop Cop City slogans onto the side of a building,

all with really good graphic design. Visuals is definitely a strength of the movement. There's this police riot helmet that has a tree growing underneath it, breaking apart the helmet. It says, trees give life, police take it. We got a police riot line set up a few blocks ahead of the people marching on the street, right next to the building with these with these top cop city stuff projected onto the side. Rather than let the police do an

escalatory show of violence, people opted to move back onto the sidewalk to continue the march uninhibited. People seem to be moving closer back onto the sidewalk as they're staring down this riot line. And police are now heading back inside their white rent-a-bus little vans that they've been staging their riot cops out of, and they're driving off. People are now in downtown Atlanta, outside of the Georgia Pacific Center. We have, uh, like, 12 regular police cars, the two, two white vans full of riot cops, and lots of other cops staged in places I cannot currently see. Alright, we're marching north along Peachtree Street, heading, heading to the Atlanta Police Foundation. Got the two bus max rent-a-buses full of riot cops right beside the march. Cops really adamant about not letting anybody march in the street. It's funny because a few days ago, they wouldn't let people stand on the sidewalk either.

Most of the cops that are surrounding the march right now are still in their vehicles, at least from this current vantage point, as opposed to the non-violent direct action marches and actions that have happened launching out of Woodruff Park the past week,

in which the police just tailed and surrounded the march on foot. I think this march is just slightly, I think this march is just slightly too big to use that tactic, so they're surrounding them with vehicles instead. As the march arrived at the Atlanta Police Foundation, the hundreds of protesters crammed onto the sidewalk were greeted by armed APD officers. Riot police are standing in front of the boarded up Atlanta Police Foundation headquarters at 191 Peachtree. There is a large, large crowd in front of these relatively small amount of

officers standing in front of the boarded up doors. A few dozen cops, some armed with AR-15s. A lot of cops stationed outside the APF headquarters and even more stationed inside APF headquarters. Police blocked off traffic on this section of Peachtree Street. Basically sandwiching everybody in. They could have mass arrested, as I'm sure they wanted to. Yeah, the police were ready to mass arrest the entire time. This is kind of a wild sight. We have hundreds of people staring down

about three dozen officers from the Atlanta Police Department armed with AR-15s, obviously all of their handguns. But hundreds and hundreds of people holding signs, staring down the police. You can feel the kind of, you can feel the temperature rising a little bit here. The cops look very nervous as hundreds of people who are chanting

at them and are not very happy are facing them down. They're so close together. They're just sandwiched in. This is such a tense situation right now. No one in the crowd has any visible weapons of any kind, of course. They're holding big signs. Cops have some zip cuffs ready. Cops have all of their guns ready.

I was able to see inside the building via a small slit in the plywood. There were tons of riot cops inside with shields, and all the cops on the inside of the building had gas masks strapped to their leg. At least one riot cop on the other side of the door was wearing a unique armored suit. Not like the regular police suits with riot armor, like on the outside. This armored padding was built into the clothing. He had these massive bulky leg pants with armor on the insides of them, and like a massive riot helmet. He was one of those cops who doesn't need a riot shield because his body is the riot shield. It was very weird. But for those first few minutes, it was a very high stress situation in front of the APF building.

It felt like neither the crowd nor the police knew exactly what was about to go down as a few hundred angry protesters were pushed up against a line of armed police. But as time went on, you got the impression that this crowd was probably not going to initiate conflict with the police. I mean, I feel like some of the mood has maybe kind of died down. Cops are starting to kind of move around the crowd a bit. There's cops being stationed to the north, to the south, to behind the crowd on the other side of the street.

This could go so many ways right now. This could end in so many different scenarios. But people have not initiated anything other than standing on the sidewalk and chanting and giving speeches. If you look, there's a small section of the APF building where there's still a tiny, tiny, tiny sliver of glass by one of the doors. And you can see lots of cops stationed inside with riot shields. But I do not believe this crowd is going to be busting down any doors.

Camu Franklin, the founder of Community Movement Builders, was the last person to speak in front of the Atlanta Police Foundation. We know Cop City is nothing but a strategy for over-policing our communities. We know that Cop City is nothing but a strategy to stop our movements. And what movements are those? The movements against police violence and terrorism in our movements. And what movements are those? The movements against police violence and terrorism in our community. It is in 2021 that they introduced this idea to start to put Cop City out here to stop our movements. When people were talking about defunding the police, abolish the police, find alternatives to public safety, they said hell no, we want more police. And they put that idea

out there. And the movement was born to stop Cop City. This movement is two years old, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop to me. By the end, you got this sense that this march did exactly what it wanted to. There were 300 people standing like a foot away from two dozen cops, staring them down, giving speeches, chanting. If people wanted to, other things could have happened. This rally could have resulted in many ways, many of them probably very ugly, and carrying a very high cost. The reason we did a march like this today was to say to all the naysayers, black folks don't want cop city. Indigenous people don't want cop city. White folks don't want cop city. Atlantans don't want cop city. Folks from outside Atlanta don't want cop city.

want cop city. Nobody in the United States wants cop city. The Palestinians don't want cop city. The people in Latin America don't want cop city. Nowhere in this world do we want cop city. We wanted to make sure that we came in safety and we leave in safety. We wanted to make sure that we don't have any more political prisoners today. That we wanted this to be a march about our unity and our safety in numbers. And as we wrap up today, that's what we want. It's not like we got to give them an excuse. When you're around a cop,

the same way when you're around a wild animal, what do you got to do? You got to be cautious. You got to be careful. You got to move a certain way. You got to know which way to go because you're looking to protect your safety. And right now, I'm looking to protect our safety. So as we depart here today, we are departing in unity. We are departing together. We are going to walk back in close quarters together where our cars were. If you're going to martyr, you're going to walk close together with other people as you go to martyr. If you need a van to pick you up, if you can't take water, two blocks this way, by the plaza.

So we want you to be safe, secure, because we want to be out here again to fight cop city. There was this sense that the people there wanted to show that if they wanted to do things they could have, but they knew that this was not the right time nor the right place. Restraint and understanding of what like praxis I would say in that situation is. And I mean, in the speeches that happened beforehand, there was people from community movement builders, from Black Votes Matter, a whole bunch of other black led groups in the city. And similarly, like what happened at the clergy event, there was not a single whiff of condemnation of militant tactics,

of property destruction, of actions that people take. People there who gave speeches recognized that such tactics were a staple of the civil rights movement. 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. 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. 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 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 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. Early Saturday morning, I woke up to news that police had begun another raid. But instead of raiding the Walani Forest, the police were searching the 10-acre property of the Lakewood Environmental Arts Foundation, or LEAF, a local non-profit that was offering safe haven for people during the Week of Action. Alright, so the Atlanta police have executed a warrant on the LEAF meetup spot in southeast Atlanta

that people have been using as a welcome center, as like a medic station, and just another spot to hang out. It was set up after the raid sunday night and it is now saturday morning the police have executed this warrant to search search premises id everyone who's there we got a group of people is being able to leave right now there has been a prison transport vehicle called in and cops have like blocked off intersections around the area. No one's allowed to get close. People are not allowed to return to their cars.

People are not allowed to return to their private property. Since Sunday night, the land was being used as a medic hub, and provided a secondary place to camp for those who didn't feel safe staying in the forest. During their raid Saturday morning, police detained at least 22 people and refused to show anyone the search warrant. And yeah, the group that got released is just walking up now. Maybe like two dozen people have been able to walk up. We just got through their police lines and we're going to, yeah, huddle and and get to a safe place uh we were woken up by um helicopters there had been helicopters doing rounds all evening uh and i don't even

know what time seven something we heard loudspeakers saying that they had a warrant to search the property, private property. And that was very disorienting, obviously. I was in the middle of sleeping. We came out with our hands open, our hands up. We had more than 20 guns pointed at us. Some people have their fingers on triggers, certainly. They were screaming at me. As I was waking up, we came through the line.

They said that they had a warrant to search the property. We know that Homeland Security was one of the departments that was part of the arrest crew or extraction crew or whatever. It's very traumatic, it's freezing this is the coldest day of this week and so we are um you know worried about people's health because people are cold um they detained us they They took identification. It was, yeah, extremely violent situation, but everyone here was really taking care of each other and remaining calm. To address the raid, activists scheduled a press conference for later that day, after a youth rally to defend the forest was to take place in East Village. And I think you can hear said youths in the background, so excuse their joyous young screams.

We thought that it was important for us to not only amplify the wonderful children's march that happened here today, the community in East Atlanta, this community where they are proposing to build Cop City came out this morning overwhelmingly to say that they don't want Cop City. So we had parents, we had children, we had other neighbors and community stakeholders who gathered right here in Brownwood Park today in East Atlanta to say that we are East Atlanta and Cop City is not a part of what we imagine and envision for this community. Also this morning, unfortunately, for this community. Also this morning, unfortunately, there is a place that was held as a commune for campers who wanted to stand in solidarity during this week of action. The place is called LEAF, L-E-A-F. That is the Lakewood Environmental Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization that's dedicated to combating food insecurity here within the city of Atlanta offered up their space to be used for people who did not feel safe camping in the forest because of the over aggression of police there and they wanted to stand in solidarity with this week of

action so LEAF offered up their space for those people to camp safely. Unfortunately, this morning, a gang of police officers descended upon that sacred space. During the raid, up to 40 officers swarmed the property, ransacking the infrastructure set up at the Leaf encampment site. Cops slashed apart two medical supply tents, disrupting medic operations, broke windows of a camper van parked on the site, and ripped apart a greenhouse. Police took pictures of the people detained at Leaf and collected their IDs, but after being held for several hours, Truthout, quote, one person was arrested for an outstanding parking ticket, demonstrating the state's desperation to snatch up anyone associated with the Stop Copsity movement. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Marlon Kautz. I'm an organizer with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. We're a civil liberties and anti-oppression organization that exists to make

sure that people who participate in social movements have the right to protest and don't suffer from repression. So the reason I'm here is because, as we've all heard previously, there was an incident of political repression early this morning. Police executed a search warrant and performed a raid against the Lakewood Environmental Arts Foundation, which is a community space in Lakewood, Atlanta, that exists primarily to serve artists and musicians. It's clear that it was part of a political strategy to repress and intimidate protesters who are associated with the Stop Cop City movement, a movement to defend the forest. This is very concerning, especially when taken in context. Of course, it's very likely that police are going to report that this was part of a routine investigation,

a law enforcement matter that they had every right to conduct. The other thing that police are likely to claim is that they made an arrest on scene. And our understanding is that they did make an arrest due to somebody who was there having an old traffic ticket from a long time ago. So it's important to clarify that the arrest was because of a traffic ticket, not because of any alleged crimes related to the movement or any other serious criminal activity. So it's important that we understand this raid as part of a series of ongoing abuses of the legal process to harass and intimidate political protesters. They were unable to demonstrate any criminal activity during their raid on the Lakewood Environmental Arts Foundation, but they're continuing to abuse

every justification that they can to raid spaces, to make arrests, and to hold people in jail. So before the police come out and say, we raided this place where all of these outside aggressors were, and we picked up some violent offenders, we want you to know that our brothers and sisters who are standing with us in solidarity, just saying, hey, we want to camp here since we don't feel safe camping in the people's park that's been overrun with police repression and aggression. They raided that place. They snatched people up. Some people were sleeping.

They took pictures of people. They took their IDs and they searched and searched, found nothing else, never produced a warrant. And only one person was arrested because of an outstanding parking ticket. About a week after the raid, the Guardian obtained evidence of the search warrant. The warrant stated that there was probable cause for believing that evidence of, quote, conspiracy to commit domestic terrorism, unquote, could be found at the Lakewood location. could be found at the Lakewood location. Listed in the warrant were objects officers sought, which included cameras, radios, boxes of nails, lighters, tents, camping equipment, spray paint, black clothing, and literature related to defend the forest. These were the materials tied to domestic terrorism.

As the week progressed, there were an increasing number of reports of police tailing people coming and going from marches, and especially the actions downtown. Basically, officers would follow people suspected of participating in the movement, pull them over, try to ID anyone within the vehicles, and then issue some nonsense traffic citation. This continued on Thursday after the Community Movement Builders March. As people were heading home from the public park, police stalked a few individuals and pulled over multiple vehicles. A van carrying one of the speakers was targeted, as well as two other cars that were pulled over as they were leaving the protest. Marlon from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund talked about the various ways police have been using their power to intimidate activists and suppress protest. of pretext stops of political protesters or people who are suspected of being political protesters because of bumper stickers on their car or the state that their license plate is from.

We've gotten reports of people being stop-and-frisked simply because they're profiled as looking like political activists. And of course, we've seen dozens of protesters or suspected protesters arrested and charged with domestic terrorism simply because they were found at a music festival that's associated with the Stop Cop City movement. And so we can see that every step of the way, police and prosecutors are abusing the legal process to intimidate and discourage this movement. Throughout this time, police have been watching or monitoring one of the off-site locations in the forest. They've parked in front of this site and kept up surveillance on it. And then leading

all the way up into Friday, there was a journalist pulled over, leaving the final nonviolent direct action from Woodruff Park. They were pulled over with two other people in the car and detained briefly, ostensibly to continue to identify and connect people. A big part of the story for this week of action is the excess of the police response to quite typical acts of quote-unquote non-violent protest, the sort that the government and even the police love to claim that they actually protect. With every single action downtown this week, virtually no laws were being broken, not even any civil disobedience. People were handing out flyers, marching on sidewalks,

giving out letters, and the police's response was to deploy SWAT, to mobilize hundreds of officers to shut down multiple city blocks, to carry AR-15s as they tail crowds of a few dozen people just walking on the sidewalk, and yelling at people if they accidentally misstep off the curb and threaten violent arrest. This was the sort of extremely aggressive response to people doing protest, quote unquote, the right way. We should highlight that that is the apparent goal of these protests was to show that even when they are doing things the right way, this is how the state reacts to dissent. It reacts in this militarized fashion where you like, it's, it's, I think a big part of what's happened in these types of protests that have happened the past week is demonstrating why people are campaigning to stop cop

city because the sheer amount of resources that the police already have in the city to be, to, to be deploying hundreds and hundreds of officers every single day to respond to people handing out flyers, uh, like to respond to people who are walking on the sidewalks. They have this massive amount of resources. They're using tear gas in the woods. They're using pepper balls. They're using flash bangs. They're having multiple different SWAT teams follow around people handing out pamphlets. The level of police militarization in Atlanta is already at

this extremely high point, and Cop City is only going to intensify that. And that is the reason they want to build Cop City. It's for this type of urban counterinsurgency training to quell civil unrest and to quell protest. On Thursday night, we held a very peaceful and successful march in downtown Atlanta, starting at the King Center. We had someone who was stopped by the police and asked if he was picking up protesters, taken out of the vehicle, handcuffed for no reason. They couldn't find a reason to detain him any longer, so they had to let him go. But Atlanta, this is why we're standing against Cop City. Because if Cop City is built, you can guarantee that you won't even be able to go to the grocery store without being harassed by the police for no reason at all.

When I spoke with Matthew Johnson, he brought up a similar point. With the resources that the police had to respond in the way that they did, the assertion that they need more training in a militarized facility or they need more resources is crazy because you have them literally outnumbering protesters and kettling them. And we have credible sources that say that there were SWAT forces who had instructed the officers to arrest nonviolent protesters, and there were actually police officers that refused to take that order, which I think is another fascinating dynamic that is worth exploring and understanding more. uh is worth exploring and understanding more but just with the resources that they had to try to shut down protesters harass folks uh constantly uh ticket and pull over people that they saw

you know creating like a logistical framework for the week of action is nuts and they're making our point for us like on friday the word came out that tortuguita had bullet holes through both of their palms and that they were more than likely sitting cross-legged with their hands up when they were shot by police and now we are supposed to be convinced that these people that lied about this killed somebody that was absolutely no threat to them on the same grounds that they're trying to build this police training facility. We're supposed to believe that this is going to make them less violent towards people. Like as you're building a militarized police training facility, and like people that try to convince themselves that this is going to be a place where people are also being taught de-escalation tactics, while like everything around it is militarized.

It's like if you had somebody build a water park, and you're like, oh yeah, I'm just trying to stay dry, I don't want to get splashed, anything like that. splashed anything like that and it's like oh no no don't worry we have a food court right in the middle of it and it's great you're really just coming there for the food court so don't worry about it and then like you go there and then you get splashed what were you expecting, that's obviously not what that facility is for, because all the infrastructure around it is made to be a water park or a militarized police training facility. So don't be surprised when maybe they might have one de-escalation program and like, you know, where the food court would be. And then somebody gets killed, right, because they're actually building the infrastructure for killing. So that's where we're at. because they're actually building the infrastructure for killing.

So that's where we're at. This week of action has shown a lot about how the police are operating post the 2020 uprising, how they will respond to people exercising their First Amendment right, and the indiscriminate way that police will respond to any act of protest. One of the main takeaways from this week is that their response to protest is deployed against people without target or focus. They care very little if you are breaking a window or if you're marching on the sidewalk. They're still going to send the SWAT team.

Police are acting as if they are entirely incapable of differentiating between acts of dissent. capable of differentiating between acts of dissent. Toward the end of the week, I sat down and talked with an unnamed forest defender to get their thoughts on the week of action. For security reasons, we did a vocal replacement. The police presence has been pretty unprecedented. I haven't seen shit like that here since 2020, not downtown at least.

I mean, shit, I don't think we had seen gas in Atlanta in a minute, and then they gassed the forest. It'd been a while yeah i mean they're punching out especially like tuesday they were putting out 150 200 cops the entirety of downtown i mean multi-jurisdictional task forces deployed multiple different atlanta apd SWAT teams between like regular apd SWAT and apex which is like the drug and gang interdiction unit. I mean, a fucking whole drone unit, GSP, some weird unmarked cars that I won't speculate on, helicopters, all that shit. You know, the type of police response you would expect to see in like a dystopian fucking police state for some people handing out flyers that just say, this is bad for the environment. It doesn't matter how

milquetoast or not. And like, I shouldn't say milquetoast, like that's not a bad thing. We need people to go hand out flyers. We need to inform people as far as what this is to get people involved. But like as nonviolent as you can get, and still they're going to treat you like you're fucking Al Qaeda, you know? And it puts you in a weird position because then it's like, okay, cool. If you're going to treat us the exact same for being nonviolent, why not do crime? If the police response to an assault on an outpost that drove the police out and burned five things down, the police response to 15 people handing out flyers downtown are going to be about the same, then why not take more militant radical action? The 23 people arrested on Sunday, March 5th, were not arrested as anyone was torching equipment.

They were not arrested at the power line cut. It was people who were attending a music festival. Arrests were not widely targeted against people who police knew were engaged in property destruction. They were targeted against anyone the cops could grab. Same was the case at the January 21st action, where people were marching downtown the Saturday after Tortuguita was killed. The only people arrested and subsequently charged with domestic terrorism was anyone the police could get their hands on. Officers went after people who were carrying banners the entire duration of the march. It was not targeted against people who were engaged in militant action.

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. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters 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, or wherever you get your podcasts. hinged 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 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 Piece, 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. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Among all this talk of police repression and multiple raids, it's easy to overlook that throughout the week, people still sought opportunities for finding joy in resistance. Because most people wouldn't dedicate years of their life to this if it was just miserable battles with police the whole time. I think one thing that's been lost in all of this too is all of the lighthearted events that have continued to go on through the week and like the

joy of the movement that was represented in the bouncy castle rip. But that joy is continuing in the woods. Like people are, people still continue to camp in the woods. People are still having dinner in the woods. People are still having campfires. People are still talking in the woods. It is still a place that people are gathering at and are enjoying each other's company in and are enjoying the woods in.

It is a place that the morale has never been fully crushed. The morale has never been fully crushed and the participatory acts of the week of action are continuing. Like none of that has been quashed. An example of the joyful, continuous resistance during the week of action can be found at the youth rally that happened on Saturday, the 11th. All right. so I'm at the youth rally Saturday after the warrant was served on the meetup spot in southeast Atlanta. There's around 200 people marching through East Village in Atlanta.

Pretty, pretty joyous group here, actually. And they're actually like on the streets. This is the first time we've had a large march like this take to the streets because every action that was in downtown or midtown atlanta was just so heavily surveilled by police who were not letting anyone get near the street at all but there's no police here uh they were busy doing the search warrant so this group is actually is actually able to take to the streets it's like everyone everyone kind of in this area of atlanta is pretty uh pretty pretty pro this little protest here.

There's workers from the little shops and stores nodding along. Fulton County Sheriff's just walked by the march on their off-shift workout routine wearing Fulton County gear. That's pretty funny. People dancing in the streets. Families walking with their kids through the streets. All right, I'm walking around the park that the youth rally started at and the press conference about the raid this morning just ended at. There's, as you can probably hear, kids playing in the park.

People are handing out food, massive, massive amount of food just in the middle of the park with all these tables set up. Overall, this is kind of one of the more joyous events that we've had since the initial Saturday rally at Gresham Park. Just with the amount of food, the amount of kids just running around and playing, all of the information tables that are handing out literature and giving, you know, making connections with people.

Yeah, when I was down here in January, the mood was very somber. The mood was very grim, like coming to the vigil when there was the destroyed remains of the gazebo, the torn up parking lot, all of the trees in there still within their like winter state with all of the leaves gone, everything was very kind of barren. And the first thing I noticed on Saturday as we were marching is like there's new life springing in the woods. There's this invigorated sense of the almost assurance of victory that people are carrying with them as they take action. And I think that really does change what the action you take is and that does change the

types of results that people will see is if they go at this with the idea that we are going to win this. And I think that that is kind of why the nonviolent direct actions have become like they have moved to the fore, right? When you think that you're going to lose and you have nothing to lose, you engage in these incredibly radical actions because what else are you going to do? And then when you have this belief that, no, we can win, we just have to find that pathway. And that is a part of the diversity of tactics is using both of those. And almost every ecological movement that's been successful has demonstrated that the pathway to success is often paved with a diversity of tactics.

pathway to success is often paved with a diversity of tactics, with people doing nonviolent action at noon, which will pull a massive militarized police response as people are doing regular ass shit. And then a part of diversity of tactics is also people leaving a music festival to go torch a bulldozer. And both of those things are a diversity of tactics. Now, I stand by most of that statement. However, issues can arise when there is a ticking clock, and during the time spent looking for this pathway,

the enemy, meanwhile, is making steady progress. Issues may also arise when a large diversity of tactics is shoved under just one roof. I had a lot of conversations with movement participants regarding the direct action that happened on Sunday night, and how it cast a shadow of repression over the whole week of action. To synthesize the many conversations, in general, most people thought that what physically happened was good. The actual actions at the North Gate were successful and justified. But there are other things on the periphery of that action that make it slightly more complicated. And now we can have lots of questions about tactics and cost-benefit analysis about that action, which I did not think it would be wise, especially being

so visible for me to be anywhere near on that day. We can have questions about that, but what was for certain was that the way in which the police responded was absurd, and predictably so. Now, with the destruction that I saw, etc., it cost them less than a million dollars and maybe like two weeks, actually, of construction that they were pushed back. Max. These are like max numbers. larger occupation and wider participation and wider buy-in in the movement. Instead, by the time we got to Monday, the clergy was having to do cleanup rather than like cast division of what the world could be. And so these are trade-offs, right? Where even though we have to be very clear about what a diversity of tactics means and also a separation of time and space. So, I mean, we can't just look at a diversity of tactics and everybody does what they want as if they're operating in a silo, but rather we give space for one another to do different things that

may work, respectful of the fact that some of our actions may affect one another. respectful of the fact that some of our actions may affect one another. In the lead up to the week of action, nighttime sabotage actions decreased around Atlanta in favor of these big public demos during daylight that seemed to result in more people getting arrested. And one of the results of Sunday's action happening in such close proximity to the festival and the encampments is that the people at the festival and in the woods who did not consent to participating in a high-profile direct action got disproportionately hit with the immediate repression from police. A lot of the people who were arrested were completely unaware of the actions that took place at the North Gate. Even if those actions were 100% justified in the end, it still creates a dynamic with an unequal distribution of police violence. Now, obviously, the woods are an inherently dangerous

place to be, and people are not responsible for actions that police choose to take, but there are still considerations to be had regarding the proximity of space and time when engaging in more risky actions, and how the consequences of those actions may affect people who did not consent to participating in actions at other locations. Especially when people are lulled into a false sense of safety by claiming that police have never cracked down hard in the forest during previous weeks of action. Yeah, in terms of the actions done Sunday in reference to a group of people assaulting a like police position, driving them out with force and then burning their shit, that was all good.

And we should not denounce that or step away from it. It only harms the movement to back away from radical action and act like there are definitions of good or bad protesters, because eventually the logical conclusion of that is snitching, and that only furthers the GBI's motivations to tear the movement apart. What went wrong Sunday is a result of two things. It's one, that the police use indiscriminate violence when people beat them. They were beaten. They got angry and they were beaten because they got their shit rocked by like fireworks.

And then they use indiscriminate violence against people who they knew were on the side of like where the events were that weren't where all the militants were coming back from. They didn't want to go up against those people because they're cowards. And second, because of how big the movement's gotten over the past two years, the strategy of the weeks of action has stagnated. It's made it so work so compact in a singular week that when you have all the diversity of

tactics that exist within defend the Atlanta forest and stop cop city, those tactics with how big everything is now they start to step on each other's toes. They can hurt each other sometimes because yeah, not everyone who was at the RC field was like ready for the consequences of like a militant radical action like that. And that doesn't mean that the action wasn't good or justified because the action was wildly successful. There were no arrests made at that action. There were arrests made when the police got angry and used indiscriminate violence because they were pissed off and they wanted to riot. So they retaliated at a music festival that was happening nearby. Yes. And that's the fault of nobody but the police.

That's not the fault of the people who went and assaulted that outpost. That's only the fault of the police and really the fault of a bad long-term strategy of two heavily compacting factors of, you know, being just like a weak and where. Making it so this movement where people can take radical action, it feels so limited to just inside the forest because that puts people in harm's way and that put people in harm's way, including the people who, you know, went and did the thing on Sunday. But no, it would be wrong as the movement to like balk at a radical action like that. Radical action like that is such a big part of why this movement has been as successful as it

has been. It's a huge part of why the police didn't do like a full sweep or a larger sweep or a series of raids in the following days. Because they were afraid that those 300 to 400 people who hit that outpost were lying and waiting in the forest ready to attack them because they were afraid of militant radical action. I was in front of the APF building, I could like hear some of the supervisors and coordinators talking about being scared of ambushes or like being scared of splinter groups, like being staged to attack officers. It's bizarre how fearful they are of the types of people who are opposing the Cop City Project. They're the most afraid of the people who are willing to go do physical violence to them. And not even physical violence, but people who are just willing to like throw a rock at them or like a firework. Once they realize that they haven't paralyzed somebody with fear, once they realize that they've not made you so afraid of taking action, they become such cowards.

In the aftermath of the police killing forest defender Tortuguita, law enforcement agencies tried to claim that Tortuguita shot at them first, leaving one officer injured. But recently released findings from multiple autopsies have cast more doubt on the state's version of events. On the afternoon of Friday, March 10th, towards the end of the week of action, the family of Tortuguita released the findings of an independent autopsy done by former GBI chief medical examiner Dr. Chris Sperry. The results suggested that Tortuguita was sitting cross-legged with their hands in front of their face when shot, and bullet exit wounds through the palms of both of their hands. The family ordered autopsy also did not find any evidence of gunshot residue

from a GSR test kit. And then a month later, DeKalb County released the results of their official autopsy, which found at least 57 bullet wounds across Tortiquita's body, and according to this autopsy, Tort did not have any gunpowder residue on its hands. And according to this autopsy, Tort did not have any gunpowder residue on its hands. Then, a few days later, via a public records request, the Atlanta Community Press Collective received the gunshot residue test kit from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's crime lab. The document contained the names of six Georgia State Patrol SWAT members who shot and killed Tortugita. Bryland L. Myers, Jerry A. Parrish, Jonathan Salceda, Jonathan Mark Lamb, Ronaldo Kegel, and Royce Zaw, with Zaw being the subject of a lawsuit after he shot a protester in the face with a less lethal round during the George Floyd protests in

May of 2020. The document also included the results of the GBI's crime lab report, claiming that they found, quote, the presence of more than five particles characteristic of gunshot primer residue, unquote, from a test kit, with the report also stating, quote, it should be noted that it is possible for a victim of gunshot wounds to have GSR present on their hands. Unquote. Considering that among the more than 57 gunshot wounds were entrance and exit wounds on Tortuguita's hands, which could be cause for gunshot residue if the crime lab findings are genuine, the findings do not point to any specific interpretation of events, as it's not unusual to find primer residue on the hands of a victim following the path of a bullet. Plus,

coupled with the ever-changing story from the GBI, on-the-ground chatter from APD officers claiming that Georgia State Patrol, quote, fucked their own officer up, unquote, as well as reports from forest defenders from the day of the shooting, there is indication that Georgia State Patrol most likely suffered from so-called friendly fire, with many people believing that the killing of Tortuguita was essentially an execution. Incident reports obtained via public records requests also revealed that GSP fired a quote-unquote less lethal pepperball gun at Tortuguita's tent as SWAT initially approached, once again contradicting the claims made by GBI officials in the months since the killing. As the week came to a close, on Sunday, March 11th,

a memorial service for Tortuguita was held in the Wolani Forest, where Tort's family spread their ashes in the forest it died to protect. I attended the Sunday morning memorial. The sky opened up and poured down rain in South Atlanta throughout the whole morning. Hundreds of people gathered in Wolani People's Park to light candles under a canopy and hear from Tort's family. Then, led by Tortuguita's mother, we walked through the forest to the site of the shooting, where a banner hung that read, On this ground, GSP assassinated forest defender, comrade, friend, lover, Tortuguita. To quote Candice Byrne in Truthout, In contrast to its tumultuous start, Sunday's vigil and ceremony provided a somber and heartfelt close to the fifth week of action. provided a somber and heartfelt close to the fifth week of action.

I met up with Matthew Johnson after the memorial to discuss the week of action, and we briefly touched on the memorial in the forest. I think that we have to hold space for very real grief. We lost a friend, and at the same time, just two days ago on Friday, what we always knew to be true was found to clearly be true. Tortugita was murdered. And we have to bear the brunt of that pain. And all the people in power lied and even gave their condolences to a state trooper that seemed as if he was shot by a state trooper. And did not say a mumbling word to even acknowledge our friend's existence and the value of their life.

And this morning was beautiful. I had been able to meet Bilkis, Protagita's mother, previously. And she really does have a beautiful spirit. I've really grown appreciation for that family. And just to see just how large these gatherings were, like throughout the week, even in spite of the hoopla on the opening weekend. It was very encouraging. But in a lot of ways, Tortuguita has become the face of this movement because they really did light up wherever they were. One thing that's gotten me through, I'm just thinking about when you would just see them sometimes and they would just give you the biggest,

like cheesiest smile, like out of nowhere. And like that got me through the first week after their passing. Yeah, but I've grown a great appreciation for that family. Because in so many ways, Tortugita is their hero and just to learn how consistent they were, as like such a welcoming and loving and caring person just meant so much. I mean, to know that this wasn't something new that they

had stumbled upon. They had lived this whole life of caring and making space for others. Some of Tort's friends have raised concerns that a side effect of Tort unwittingly becoming the face of the movement is that the details around their death have eclipsed some of what they died fighting for. In doing so, stripping toward of their individuality and removing their own agency to turn them into this perfect liberal friendly avatar of the movement to simply be used as a political tool and add to a list of demands. There's a thing that's been happening more and more recently that I've been bothered by, which is when organizations, specifically more liberal organizations, are invoking torts name at actions.

They're misgendering the hell out of them, and it's alienating a lot of people. And I understand that Sunday's action alienated a lot of liberal orgs. This is a problem with the week of action type strategy, with the diversity of tactics all being forced under one roof, but we cannot stand to alienate each other. And it's really frustrating and really angering to see this really beautiful soul be flattened into just a martyr that these liberals want them to be, stripping them of so much of their life and what was a revolutionary life and a revolutionary death into just martyrdom by taking away their identity and who they were and making them nothing more than someone who was murdered when they were someone who was living such a full and beautiful life until the day they died and this movement will tear itself apart if we do not accept the fullness

of torts life what it stood for and what they live for this movement has always been built on a lot of trans people in the woods fucking the cops up and if we alienate those people we're fucked there's no winning. And we can't lose. We don't have a choice about this anymore. We have to win by any means necessary. That will wrap up our day-to-day coverage of the entire week of action.

But much has happened in the intervening two months. So in the next episode, we'll cover where the movement is now, discuss the future of the fight to stop Cop City, and offer a more critical retrospective on the fifth week of action. See you on the other side. Music, festival, audio, courtesy of Unicorn Riot. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media.

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 right. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 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. 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 música, 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.