A dangerous trend toward authoritarianism

The killing of Tortuguita scares me. As an environmental activist, I often participate with my friends in public actions to try to bring attention to our evolving environmental crisis. I’ve realized for years that white privilege meant I didn’t feel particularly threatened by police during such actions in the past.

I don’t think my Black, Indigenous and other friends of color have ever felt safe from policing.

Now that has changed for me. I do feel threatened in the presence of police. And what really scares me now is how this is an escalation toward authoritarianism.

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When Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, ten young people in Indianapolis drove to Ferguson to see how they could help. Prior to the trip they didn’t know each other. They met via social media. I was loosely associated with Indy 10 because one of the members was a Quaker.

When it became known that Indy 10 planned to hold a rally during the Indianapolis 500 Parade, they received numerous death threats. They did not hold the rally then but did a short while later. This photo is from that rally. There was a palpable feeling of fear, but they gathered despite that.

During Buffalo Rebellion’s Climate Justice Summit last spring, we marched to the offices of MidAmerican Energy to protest their coal burning power plants in Iowa. The Des Moines police arrived, but seeing this as a peaceful gathering, left us alone.

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Just three days ago we held a “Stop Police City” solidarity rally in Des Moines, at one of the companies supporting that project. There was some tension as a security guard aggressively hassled us. https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/2023/01/31/stop-cop-city-solidarity/

Authoritarianism

What happened in Atlanta is clearly part of a dangerous trend of US law enforcement attacking climate leaders

Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, a brave environmentalist known as Tortuguita, was shot and killed by the police on January 18 as they (Tortuguita was non-binary and used they/them pronouns) encamped in a forest Tortuguita and other activists had been trying to defend from being razed and turned into an enormous $90m “urban warfare” style police academy. This tragedy is an obscene escalation in the decades long war the United States has been waging on climate activists.

What’s even more troubling is the lack of contrition exhibited by the state that is responsible for Tortuguita’s death.

Environmentalist Manuel Esteban Paez Teran’s death is part of a disturbing trend by Steven Donziger, The Guardian, Feb 2, 2023

“What’s even more troubling is the lack of contrition exhibited by the state that is responsible for Tortuguita’s death.” We increasingly see this lack of contrition in our society. Politicians push increasingly extreme policies that are completely out of touch with the needs of those they are supposed to serve. Ideologies are being legislated. All this is consistent with increasing authoritarianism.

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I recently wrote “There is a web of interconnections between the killing of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán (Tortuguita), who was resisting the plan to build “Cop City” in Atlanta, resistance to a police academy in Chicago, and the epidemic of violence and killing by police in this country.” That point was also made in this email I just received from Defund The Police.

As we begin a new year and a new budget cycle, we’d like to share some powerful and timely resources, budget tools, and calls to action for divesting from police and reinvesting in our communities’ futures. This comes at a time when our communities are mourning and organizing for loved ones whose lives have been stolen by police violence in recent weeks.

• In response to the tragic death of Tyre Nichols, DeCarcerate Memphis is calling on local, state, and national organizations to sign onto this letter with the following demands: end the deployment of armed patrol officers in traffic enforcement; eliminate the use of pretextual stops, terminating all Federal funding support for them; require public police reports showing the location of each stop and the demographic characteristics of every driver; and disband the Jump-Out squads that operate to criminalize, intimidate, and too-often brutalize residents in low-income Black and Brown communities.

• Defend the Atlanta Forest, part of the #StopCopCity movement, is calling for actions of solidarity following the police killing of Weelaunee forest defender Tortuguita. Check out their calls to action here, including a sign-on letter and telling investors in the project to divest from Cop City.

Defund The Police

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