The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Roy Wood Jr. Explores Police Militarization & Atlanta's "Cop City"

Episode Date: January 28, 2023

"There's a lot of different ways to protest. Why is your way, live in a tree house 80 feet up and drop s**t in a paper bag?" Roy Wood Jr. visits the "forest defenders" who are actively protesting the construction of Atlanta's "Cop City."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Tonight, we take a look at Atlanta, where shit's getting crazy. I'm talking Waffle House crazy. Atlanta's busy downtown descended into chaos over the weekend. Hundreds of protesters marched in the streets in the wake of the death of a 26-year-old environmental activist. The activist was killed on Wednesday as officers cleared protesters from the site of a planned police training center. Police training center?

But these guys are trained, right? This isn't an armed militia of interns. Back before things got this bad, I went to Atlanta and met with local activists, Jasmine Burnett. The Atlanta Police Foundation is building a massive urban warfare training facility with bombs testing, tear gas explosions, a shooting range. Didn't people march to defund the police? It looked like they refunded the police.

They did! Activists have dubbed this development, Cop City, an 85-acre, 90 million dollar complex including a shooting range, burn buildings, and a mock city that includes apartments, a school, even a bar. So this makes it like like for the police. Yes, it's a playground. You can't call it a playground. Oh wait you right, this is literally a playground. But I had a dream about how they could make this project more appealing to activists. We name it after Montalutican. It doesn't matter. Talipari presents the training facility. The name doesn't change the impacts. I can tell you don't watch no Talipari. Not only is Cop City increasing police militarization,

it's also threatening the environment. For more, I spoke with Jackie Eccles, an activist who unfortunately didn't want to meet at a solo food place. Hey! Why can't we just talk on the dirt? Let's go. Paddle that way. You're not many interviews occur on dry land. Jackie took me out in the South River, part of a designated 3,500 acre preserve, which also includes the land where they want to build cop city. So why was a public park suddenly getting turned into copchilla? Honestly, I don't think it would happen anywhere else.

Why is that? The history of this watershed, the color of this watershed, makes it possible here. What color is that? That color is black. The folks that are affected are black and powerless. And that's the definition of environmental racism. And that's what the trees call you the end word, right? As I kept pretending I knew how to kayak, Jackie explained how the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the black the blacked. the blacked the blacked the blacked theircodeskowards.. theircodeskoomeauadeauadeauadeauadeau. the color color color color color color color color color color color color color color color color. the color. the color. the color. the color. the color. the color...aaaaau............. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their their their their their how to kayak, Jackie explained how the black neighborhoods around Cop City already flood every time it rained.

And this development will only make that worse. The Southeast Atlanta's had flooding problems forever. You pave 85 acres, you're going to get a whole lot more flooding. But you know what they say. Paved Paradise and build a $10 million parking lot. Activists like Jackie and ja been campaigning against Cop City using legal avenues, but others have been like, screw it. I'm going full madmast. Oh, fosts. Protesters threw at least one Molotop cocktail cocktail.

Protesters set fire to a construction worker's truck. Activists calling themselves, forest defenders have been occupying the woods around the cop city building site for over a year. So against my better judgment, I headed to one of their encampments. Yeah, barricades, burnt out truck and a pretty normal place. I met with Sabo and Greengrass, two forest defenders who were going to give me a tour of the... Wait, wait, wait, who the hell is this? I think that's the police rolling up? Yeah. Because. Because. Because, because, because, because, because, because, because, because, the forest, the forest, the forest, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their. their. their. their. their. their. their. the. the. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. their. their. their. their. their. their. the hell is this? I think that's the police rolling up. Yeah, because we're trying to obstruct their project. Greengrass just took off.

Greengrass don't f-foo the police. I understand, it's a black thing. Yeah, let's go this way. I'd rather take my chance with the Georgia Ewoks than the the the woods. So I just got here and the police just ran us into the forest. Is that normal? Yes. Yeah. They come Monday through Friday, just to terrorize us like police do.

Some of the forest defenders have a $25,000 bounty on their head. So they mask up to disguise their identity. And some are even taking a cue from old school tea pain. This is a plantation historically and an ex-prisoned farm. I'd be honest. I wish I had an auto tune I could speak in because you just made prison farm industrial complex sound so melodic. They let me to the living room, one of their encampments, with kind of an A24 horror film vibe. Press in the living room!

Yeah, don't just say press. You got to say Roywood Jr. You know from Deaf Comedy Jam. HBO is one of the best comedians to do it. Oh no, oh no. This living room is used as our community function. Hey, bingo. Y'all got bingo night? Yeah. Where is the Maltof cocktail station? Where's the gun training station?

The majority of us just want to live in peace with each other. We work here on ourselves and we do yoga and we meditate. Get massages here. But y'all get massages? You do yoga, meditate, stretch, and deal with your inner, like therapy. Yeah. Has that had any type of effect on stopping COPCity from coming?

Yeah. Their construction only got in like two days in the past year, and one of the primary construction firms dropped out. According to leak documents, the cop city building plan is months behind schedule. This crunch granola shit seems to be working, but forest defenders say law enforcement has stepped up raids on their camps, so they built barricades and they avoid police by living in tree houses, like some sort of Antifa Swiss family Robinson. Okay, so that's about 50 feet in the air.

Yeah? Tree sitters may drop things. Body grab bees. You just said that they drop paper bags of shit. Well, if the cops are in here and you can't come down from the tree. It's a lot of different ways to protest. Why is your way living the treehouse 80 feet up and drop shit and paper bag? We have to stop Cop City because they're practicing to murder us, they're practicing Obama's, they're practicing how to come into our homes more effectively while we're asleep.

The alternative is staying here, shit in a bag sometimes, or lay down and watch the world burn. Anyone up there? Please don't drop shit on us. This is my only suit. Since my visit to the Atlanta forest, police raids and arrests have only been more frequent, culminating in last week's shooting. Police don't usually target protesters like this in America.

What if they go after celebrity journalist next? Good thing I got rid of my phone in the wood so the police can't track me. Oh shit! How am I supposed to get an Uber out of here? Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching the Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.