Category: Abolition

Police vs Atlanta and the rest of us

The proposed construction of “Cop City”, an 85-acre, $90 million dollar project to build a police training facility in the South River Forest in Atlanta, is a prime example of so many injustices.

  • Land theft from the Muskogee people
  • Forced displacement of the Muskogee, the “Trail of Tears”
  • Enslavement of people of color
  • Once a prison with a history of abuse
  • Environmental injustice
  • Attempted corruption of city council members
  • Killing Manuel Teran (Tortuguita)
  • Charges of terrorism against people protesting the training center, and the death of Tortuguita

And these concerns are not limited to Atlanta, or Georgia. The plan is to train police there from all over the country.

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Groups who oppose the construction of Atlanta’s future public safety training facility are asking the courts to block construction at the site until the appeal against its land disturbance permit is sorted out. 

In Monday’s complaint, individuals said that despite an appeal against its permit, the Atlanta Police Foundation — who is the main funder of the project — is still clearing land at the planned site of the future training facility. The site has been the epicenter of a more than yearlong protest movement that refers to the area as “Cop City.”

Those who oppose the facility said the appeal should mean that the foundation must stop all construction or clearing of the site until the zoning board reaches a decision — but the foundation has continued business as usual.

Complaint filed to stop construction at Atlanta Public Safety Training Center amid permit appeal, Documents allege crews are still working on the land when they shouldn’t be by Gabrielle Nunex, 11Alive News, Feb 15, 2023

This video from Al Jazeera explains the many problems related to the proposed “Cop City” project in Atlanta.

From the transcript:

I’m not sure they’re trying to force us out of the community and just take over the whole Community overall but that’s what it looked like. The path we headed down to Atlanta’s proposal to construct the police facility here speaks to the land’s painful history.

The site was a prison farm until 1995. Prisoners there were subjected to harsh punishments and slave conditions including poor sanitation nutrition and overcrowding. Some critics say claims of unmarked graves have not yet been properly investigated.

Before that the land is thought to have been a plantation that enslaved at least 19 people. It was originally stolen from the Muskogee who lived there until the U.S government forcefully displaced them to Oklahoma. Today both activists and tribal members have reclaimed the indigenous name as Weelaunee People’s Park. Local Advocates have long called for the area to be preserved as a historical site. They just can’t wait, they cannot wait, they just want to go in and bulldoze everything and then write the history the way they want. They haven’t even done proper you know, ecological surveys yet. But Cop City isn’t the only facility that the residents have opposed. Around the forest is a Hollywood studio, sanitation Center, juvenile prison and asphalt and trucking factories, and KIRO landfill. Nobody wants to address the environmental Injustice of this. Those issues have never been vetted. The facilities have severely polluted Muscogee Creek which flows downstream to the South River.

History of the Land

Until the 1830s, the Weelaunee Forest — now called the South River Forest, located southeast of Atlanta — was occupied by the Muscogee people. The Muscogee were known as the first tribe to become “civilized” through George Washington’s civilization plan, a six-step plan to disrupt Native culture, occupy native land, and teach Indigenous people how to live like white settlers. 

The Muscogee were forcefully removed from the forest in the 1830s through the “Trail of Tears,” a decades-long movement to forcibly remove Indigenous people from their homelands, resulting in thousands of deaths. Following their removal, the land was purchased by plantation owner Lochlin Johnson. During the Civil War, it was the site of the Battle of Atlanta.

In 1918, 1,250 acres of the forest were bought by the Bureau of Prisons and United States Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta for $160,000. Until the early 1990s, the land was used as a prison farm.

Atlanta Is Starting Construction of ‘Cop City.’ Here’s What You Need to Know. We take a deep dive on the history of the land, the environmental and political implications, and the growing movement against the facility by Adam Mahoney, Madeline Thigpen, and Adam Mahoney, Capital B News, Feb 9, 2023

This is a link to posts I’ve written about “Cop City”. https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/?s=%22cop+city%22

On January 31st, we had a solidarity action in Des Moines related to “Cop City” and the killing of Tortuguita. We visited the local office of Cushman and Wakefield. They are a global corporation and John O’Neill is the President of U.S. Multifamily Capital Markets of the global firm. We asked the president at the local office to contact him to cut ties with the Atlanta Police Foundation. He confirmed that he did, for what it’s worth.

Following are some of the photos I took at our action that morning.

‘Cop City’ Opposition Spreads

Concerns and demands for investigation of the fatal police shooting of Tortuguita are growing.
(See: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/?s=Tortuguita+)

The Atlanta public safety training center’s land disturbance permit (LDP) is being challenged by a member of the project’s own review committee, and another member has resigned in outrage over the police killing of a protester at the site.

Community Stakeholder Advisory Committee (CSAC) member Amy Taylor filed an appeal on Feb. 6 with the DeKalb County Zoning Board of Appeal (ZBA). The appeal claims the County improperly issued the LDP because the project would violate a state limit on sediment runoff and because its lease gives an inaccurately large number for the amount of green space set aside.

Meanwhile, CSAC member Nicole Morado quit on Jan. 18, the day that police killed protester Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, after the protester allegedly shot and wounded a state trooper during a raid of civil-disobedience campers on the site.

“Really I did not want to be affiliated with a project that is using police violence and taking lives…,” Morado said in a phone interview. “I’m still an interested resident. I just don’t want to be affiliated with that group any longer.”

…

“It was kind of getting uncomfortable about how some of the members were being OK with how the police were treating the protesters over exaggerated concern over safety of the police officers,” she (Morado) said. “I was like, gimme a break. They can handle this. They’re professionals. … [The protesters are] just a bunch of kids – nonviolent, Earth-loving people.”

TRAINING CENTER PERMIT CHALLENGED BY ITS OWN REVIEW COMMITTEE MEMBER. Another Quits Over Protester Killing by John Ruch, Saporta Report, Feb 6, 2023

The public safety traning center’s master plan as of November 2022. (Image by Atlanta Police Foundation.)

(Atlanta police chief) Schierbaum was speaking about a march through midtown Atlanta, Georgia, last Saturday night that began peacefully, only to see several protesters separate and begin breaking windows of businesses and lighting fire to a police car. The marchers were protesting “Cop City”, an 85-acre, $90m training facility planned for South River forest, a wooded area south-east of the city.

They were also protesting the fatal police shooting of Tortuguita, a fellow activist, less than a week earlier, on a raid in the Atlanta forest where dozens have been tree-sitting and camping for more than a year.

The march, arrests of 18 activists charged under a state domestic terrorism law, a series of raids on the forest in recent weeks and Tortuguita’s killing have escalated tensions over Cop City. They culminated Thursday afternoon in the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, declaring a state of emergency. Under the order, up to 1,000 national guard troops will be available until 9 February or upon further order.

Georgia is seeking to define ‘Cop City’ protests as terrorism, experts say. Actions by police match rhetoric from state politicians seeking to define a largely peaceful protest movement as terrorism by Timothy Pratt, The Guardian, Jan 28, 2023

Brian Kemp, the Georgia governor who declared a state of emergency and mobilized 1,000 members of the national guard over the (Atlanta) protests, has blamed “out-of-state rioters” and a “network of militant activists who have committed similar acts of domestic terrorism across the country” for the troubles.

Georgia’s response to the protests follows an alarming pattern of environmental and land rights defenders across the US being threatened, arrested and charged with increasingly drastic crimes, including terrorism, for opposing oil and gas pipelines or the destruction of forests or waterways, advocates claim.

“This was meant as a chilling deterrent, to show that the state can kill and jail environmental defenders with impunity. It reflects a trend towards escalation and violence to distract from the real issue of advancing corporate interests over lands,” said Nick Estes, author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance.

Atlanta shooting part of alarming US crackdown on environmental defenders. Twenty states have enacted laws restricting rights to peaceful protest, as environmentalists are increasingly criminalized by Oliver Milman and Nina Lakhani, The Guardian, Feb 2, 2023.

Two editorials on the $90m, 85-acre project, called “Cop City” by activists, recently appeared in the New York Times, both calling attention to flaws in the democratic process that led Atlanta city council to approve the training center in late 2021.

Students and faculty from Atlanta-area schools Emory University, Morehouse College, Spelman College and other historically Black schools also issued statements this week, urging the schools to denounce the project.

Three members of Congress – Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush and Senator Ed Markey – have called for an independent investigation into Tortuguita’s death, who law enforcement officials say fired first, wounding a Georgia state patrol officer.

…

More recently, opposition to development in South River forest has included neighborhood associations, established environmental groups such as the Sierra Club’s Georgia chapter, local schools, Atlanta-area citizens and others. About 70% of more than 1,000 comments to Atlanta city council in advance of their September 2021 vote on the project also opposed the project, according to an independent analysis.

‘COP CITY’ OPPOSITION SPREADS BEYOND GEORGIA FOREST DEFENDERS. Law Enforcement Training Center Has Drawn Attention And Concern From A Broad Range Of Local And National US Voices Who Worry About Its Impact by Timothy Pratt, The Guardian, Feb 9, 2023

Stop Cop City solidarity in Des Moines, 1/31/2023

Family of Manuel Teran demands GBI release info 

There continues to be no public police response to the killing of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran. A private autopsy found they had been shot at least thirteen times. Their body was so badly mangled the exact count could not be made.
(See other posts about this: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/?s=Tortuguita+ )

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. (WUPA) – The family of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran joined attorneys and advocates at a press conference on Monday, February 6, demanding the Georgia Bureau of Investigation release details on its investigation into the officer-involved shooting death of Teran.

The family’s attorneys said Teran, who was also known as Tortuguita and went by the pronouns they and them, was shot about 13 times with different guns, based on an independent autopsy. Teran’s mother, Belkis Teran, said the activist, who was born on April 23, 1996, was a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Florida State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and an associate’s degree in Sociology. During the press conference, she and her husband described Teran’s passion for preserving the environment and inspiring people, as well as the tragedy of losing one of their children.

Family of Manuel Teran demands GBI release info on deadly police shooting by Velencia Jones, CW69Atlanta, 2/7/2023

The idea of “Cop City” came after the uprisings in 2020 when the police-perpetrated murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and here in Atlanta, Rashad Brooks, began a new call for defunding and/or abolishing the police. While communities wrestled with the idea of alternative forms of public safety, the Black-led city of Atlanta, the Atlanta Police Foundation, the Atlanta Police Department, corporations and institutions in Atlanta as diverse as Morehouse, Spellman, Coca-Cola, the Atlanta Hawks, AT&T, and others, put down their Black Lives Matter signs and started planning a $90 million complex to demonstrate their commitment to police and to develop a tactical site that could stop mass movements. These institutions worked with corporate media to shift the narrative from police violence to a focus on “crime,” where the police were again centered as the solution to all our problems. Once the plans to build Cop City became known to the public, opposition emerged immediately. Although public opinion surveys have shown that 70 percent of Atlanta is against it, the city and its corporate friends have continued to move forward with construction.

…

But just like King, the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the Black Power movement and the climate movement, we continue to move forward. This campaign to Stop Cop City has participants from all of the above. It is a diverse grouping of organizations, community groups, loose confederations and individuals who continue to fight against the building of Cop City, the criminalization of a movement and in the defense of those falsely charged as terrorists for sitting in trees. It is after these arrests that we have all continued in a weekend of solidarity to fight back against Cop City. We have had multiple trainings, demonstrations, banner droppings and teach-ins, among other organizing efforts. Now, more than ever, the campaign to Stop Cop City needs support to show that movements of people will not be intimidated by state violence and its corporate backers. In the midst of worsening climate change, killing a forest and displacing a Black working-class community for the sake of a militarized police base must be stopped.

MLK’s Vision Lives On in Atlanta’s Fight Against New Police Training Facility. Plans for the “Cop City” in the heart of a working-class Black community include a mock city to practice urban warfare by Kamau Franklin, TRUTHOUT, January 17, 2023

Buffalo Rebellion

January 27 at 2:29 PM

Trigger warning: police murder

Last Wednesday, January 18th, militarized police raided Atlanta’s Weelaunee Forest and murdered Manuel “Tortuguita” Esteban Paez Teran. Tort was camping within the forest alongside other activists in order to defend the land and stop the destruction of 300 acres of the Atlanta Forest for a $90 million dollar “Cop City” to be developed. If built, Cop City will become the largest police training facility in the United States. Set to be designed as a military style compound, Cop City will serve as a model for police militarization where police will undergo urban warfare training, crowd control methods, bomb testing, and more to suppress and further impose racial violence on our communities.

Tort dedicated their life to mutual aid and climate activism. They preached non-violence in the face of state oppression. Buffalo Rebellion supports the demand for an independent investigation into the killing of Tort and rejects the police narrative. We see Tort’s work as a north star, guiding us even in their last moments, showing us that protecting the land from generations of violence and greed is worth our last breath.

As we write this message, the racist Governor of Georgia is calling in military troops to quell protest in response to police murdering another Black man, Tyre Nichols. In fact, police killed more people in 2022 than ever before. Cops protect the status quo, capitalist exploitation of oppressed people and the planet to enrich a few. We are not safe until we rise up to abolish these systems completely and build a new world belonging to all.

We call on everyone to rise in solidarity. There is power and safety in numbers. We urge you to visit the link in our bio for ways to take action now. Defend the Atlanta Forest. Defend the Earth. Defend our lives.

#StopCopCity #defendtheatlantaforest #justicefortortuguita #AbolishPolice

Meet the Major Corporations and Cultural Institutions Helping Build Cop City in Atlanta by Tia Brown, Eyes on the Ties, NOVEMBER 15, 2022

Stop Cop City solidarity in Des Moines, 1/31/2023

https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/2023/01/31/stop-cop-city-solidarity/
“Stop Cop City” solidarity

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.

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.

Indy 10, Black Lives Matter, Indianapolis

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.

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.

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

Tell the Atlanta Police Foundation: Stop Cop City and Resign!

The Atlanta Police Foundation is trying to build the largest police training facility in the US (colloquially known as Cop City) in the Weelaunee Forest, an Atlanta watershed surrounded by a Black community who overwhelmingly oppose the project. The plans include military-grade training facilities, a mock city to practice urban warfare, dozens of shooting ranges, and a Black Hawk helicopter landing pad. Protestors are bravely sitting in trees to stop the deforestation of this sacred urban forest.

Forest defender, protestor, and friend Tortuguita was murdered in cold blood on Wednesday January 18th, 2023 by the Atlanta Police during a violent raid of the forest.

Take action against the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF), who is the biggest supporter & funder of Cop City. Tortuguita’s blood is on their hands!

Use this form to automatically email APF board members & demand that they #StopCopCity and resign from the foundation.

Thanks to our friends at Resist and Abolish the Military Industrial Complex (RAM INC) for collecting this information and tweeting it out.

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-atlanta-police-foundation-stop-cop-city-and-resign?clear_id=true

Subject: Send a letter: Ask the Atlanta Police Foundation: Stop Cop City

The Atlanta Police Foundation is trying to build the largest police training facility in the US (colloquially known as Cop City) in the Weelaunee Forest, an Atlanta watershed surrounded by a Black community who overwhelmingly oppose the project. The plans include military-grade training facilities, a mock city to practice urban warfare, dozens of shooting ranges, and a Black Hawk helicopter landing pad. Protestors are bravely sitting in trees to stop the deforestation of this sacred urban forest. Forest defender, protestor, and friend Tortuguita was murdered in cold blood on Wednesday January 18th, 2023 by the Atlanta Police during a violent raid of the forest.

Take action against the Atlanta Police Foundation (APF), who is the biggest supporter & funder of Cop City. Tortuguita’s blood is on their hands! Use this form to automatically email APF board members & demand that they #StopCopCity and resign from the foundation.

Thanks to our friends at Resist and Abolish the Military Industrial Complex (RAM INC) for collecting this information and tweeting it out.

Can you join me and write a letter?

Click here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-atlanta-police-foundation-stop-cop-city-and-resign?source=email&

Thanks!

No Cop Academy-Chicago

It’s clear what it means when the establishment proposes dramatically expanding the militarization of police as their response to police brutality and killings.

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.

Thursday, January 31, we had an action, “Stop Cop City” Solidarity in Des Moines.

(See: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/2023/01/31/stop-cop-city-solidarity/ )

My friend Jon Krieg, who works at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), recently told me about the resistance to a proposal for a police training facility in Chicago, similar to “Cop City” in Atlanta. https://nocopacademy.com/

Debbie Southorn works for the American Friends Service Committee in Chicago, where she supports community efforts and youth organizing to end policing and reimagine community safety. In 2012, she co-founded the Chicago chapter of Black & Pink, currently serves on the National Committee of the War Resisters League, and is a Board Member of the Chicago Freedom School.  She’s written about policing and white supremacy for outlets including Truthout, In These Times, and The Intercept.   

Sophia: What is the cop academy? What do you want people to know about it? Why is it dangerous?

Debbie: In July of 2017, the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, announced his plans to spend at least $95 million on a new cop academy on the west side of Chicago. He has been heralding this project as an important step towards reform of the police department, saying that this building will provide a clean slate for the Chicago Police Department (CPD). There are so many reasons why this is dangerous. We know that this isn’t about having a kinder, gentler Chicago police department. 

This facility is being built so that the police department can have an expanded shooting range, so that they can do more mock raids. This is not about de-escalation and anti-bias training. They are trying to say that this is a response to the scathing Department of Justice report which delineated the realities of racism and violence that are plaguing this department. The report was issued in response to the killing of Laquan McDonald and the subsequent cover-up. 

PART ONE: No Cop Academy: What you should know about Chicago’s proposed police academy by the American Friends Service Committee, Nov 19, 2018

https://nocopacademy.com/
https://youtu.be/h2_1-J1100s

From 2017-2019, Chicago Black youth powerfully organized and led an effort against the construction of a $95 million dollar cop academy, and demanded the city of Chicago fund youth and communities instead. This upcoming documentary chronicles the explosive #NoCopAcademy campaign through those who lived it. “Real community safety comes from fully-funded schools and mental health centers, robust after-school and job-training programs, and social and economic justice. We want investment in our communities, not expanded resources for police.” #NoCopAcademy

SoapBox Productions and Organizing

#NoCopAcademy is a grassroots campaign launched by Assata’s Daughters, Black Lives Matter – Chicago, People’s Response Team, For The People Artists Collective, and many more grassroots organizations to mobilize against Rahm Emanuel’s plans to spend $95 million for a massive training center for Chicago police in West Garfield Park on the city’s West Side. We refuse any expansion of policing in Chicago, and demand accountability for decades of violence. Instead, we demand resources for schools and youth. This video offers the unique perspective of students who attend school one block away from the current cop academy, and young people who live adjacent to the site of the proposed expanded cop academy. What does it feel like to go to school next to cops every day? What would it feel like to have a shooting range, live scenario trainings, and a swimming pool for police next door to your high school gymnasium? What would you really need to feel safe in your neighborhood? In addition to centering the experiences that Black youth and youth of color have had with police in their communities, this piece goes the extra step by highlighting the ways young people are at the forefront of one of the most pressing issues in Chicago. The youth organizing team of #NoCopAcademy are organizing meetings, engaging their neighbors, meeting with City Council, engaged in direct action – all to demand an end to the violences that Black young people have experienced at the hands of the police and the city alike, and to demand schools for kids, not cops.

#NoCopAcademy NoCopAcademy.com | IG: @nocoapacademy

Schools for Kids, Not Cops 

Protesters who oppose a police training facility in West Garfield Park were escorted from a City Council committee meeting on Tuesday. (Note: This video was originally published on May 22, 2018)

Police training facility protesters. Chicago Sun-Times

Police killing of Tyre Nichols should remind us of five lessons from 2020
In the face of normalized police violence and ongoing systemic racism, Mary Zerkel of the Chicago Peacebuilding Program writes about why we need to keep pushing for community safety for all beyond policing. Lessons from 2020 include:

  1. Reformist reforms don’t work.
  2. We need police out of traffic stops.
  3. We need police out of mental health response.
  4. Police must stop targeting social justice organizers.
  5. We need alternatives to police response to keep all community members safe.

Yes, policing is still deadly. The police killing of Tyre Nichols remind us: Let’s not forget the lessons of 2020 by MARY ZERKEL, American Friends Service Committee, JAN 31, 2023

https://afsc.org/action/think-twice-calling-police

Context of Killing Tortuguita

Why has the killing of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán (Tortuguita) affected me so profoundly? Does it bother you?

One of the main reasons I write so much is to help me understand things. This is the tenth article I’ve written about Tortuguita. (https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/?s=tortuguita).

One thing I’m realizing this morning from the article quoted below, Fred Hampton and Mumia’s Stories Shed Light on Tortuguita, is that, of course, the genocide of millions of Indigenous people in this country were killed defending Mother Earth.

Tortuguita’s story is yet another one related to power and oppression. These stories have enhanced significance as the political climate is becoming increasingly, rapidly authoritarian. Fueled by outrageous political trampling of our First Amendment rights. And taking away the processes by which we were sometimes able to affect change. Such as voting rights, and blatant attempts to enforce White supremacy.

Dissent must be violently put down if authoritarianism is to succeed. The public must be terrorized, afraid to resist any of the increasingly extreme measures targeting our freedom. Violently enforced by increasingly militaristic police. I remember how shocked I was when first seeing police in military gear, using military vehicles to quell the riots from another police killing. That of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Sadly, that is now routine.

Armies of officials are clothed in uniform, invested with authority, armed with the instruments of violence & death & conditioned to believe that they can intimidate, maim or kill Negroes with the same recklessness that once motivated the slaveowner.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It has never been easy to get people to come to protests. But it is now even more so. It wasn’t surprising that only nine of us showed up yesterday in solidarity to stop “Cop City”. And not surprising to see Atlanta officials moving forward on the “Cop City” facility.

Des Moines, Iowa, 1/31/2013, https://www.instagram.com/buffalo_rebellion/

ATLANTA (AP) — In the wake of the shooting death of an environmental activist, Atlanta-area officials reiterated Tuesday that they are moving forward with plans to construct a huge police and firefighter training center that protesters derisively refer to as “Cop City.”

It was one of officials’ most full-throated defenses of a plan that has faced consistent pushback from both locals and out-of-state leftist activists, some of whom moved into the South River Forest over a year ago and built platforms in surrounding trees. Self-described “forest defenders” say the project involves cutting down so many trees that it would be environmentally damaging. They also oppose investing so much money in a project which they say will be used to practice “urban warfare.”

Despite ‘Cop City’ protests, Atlanta moves forward with plan by R.J. RICO, Associated Press, Jan 31, 2023

Kelly Hayes: Welcome to “Movement Memos,” a Truthout podcast about organizing, solidarity and the work of making change. I’m your host, writer and organizer Kelly Hayes. Today, we are talking about the struggle to Stop Cop City in Atlanta and DeKalb County, Georgia, and the death of forest defender Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, who was gunned down by police on the morning of January 18. The Guardian has called the deadly shooting “unprecedented” in the history of U.S. environmental protest. While the killing of protesters, including environmentalists, is not unprecedented by any means in this country, law enforcement entering a forest occupation and killing a protester does mark an escalation of state violence for this era. Co-strugglers have described Terán as “a trained medic, a loving partner, a dear friend, a brave soul, and so much more.”

The Death of a Forest Defender at “Stop Cop City” by Kelly Hayes, TRUTHOUT, January 26,2023

We must not sever this shooting from the legacies of violence that clarify the character of the system and purpose of law enforcement.

Kelly Hayes & Alana Yu-lan Price

Tortuguita is not here to tell us their side of the story. But while Tortuguita cannot speak, there are voices among us who can lend us more insight and context in this moment.

There are people among us who can offer such insight because these events have a lineage. Experts have declared that Tortuguita’s killing marks the first time that an environmental activist has been killed by U.S. law enforcement. While their death does mark a historic escalation in these times, it is not altogether unprecedented, and we are unlikely to make sense of these events unless we consider them in their historic and global contexts. For example, many people in this country have died defending the Earth, as Indigenous people were resisting the destruction of the natural world while also resisting the acts of genocide committed against them, because to Native communities, this resistance was one and the same — defending their own lives, and defending the land and water.

…

I see the life and death of Tortuguita through the lens of nearly four decades spent in the struggle to free veteran Black Panther and MOVE sympathizer Mumia Abu-Jamal, as well as to monitor the human rights of political prisoners who are “invisible men and women” in the United States.

I am struck first by the fact that in the name of building “Cop City,” the public space we occupy, the air we breathe, the ground we walk on, the streets we live in, become crime scenes. Just as Mumia was driving while Black, just as Rayshard Brooks was sleeping while Black, just as Elijah McClain was going home while Black. Just as wild species are driven out because of deforestation.

One deja vu aspect of the police narrative spun by the police agencies in Tortuguita’s case is the criminalization of the victim. Tortuguita, as the police tale goes, is supposed to have shot first. Are we really to believe that the gentle, peace-loving, highly intelligent Tortuguita — as quotes from him now show — would have shot at a police officer, knowing how many were present? After Tortuguita’s brother phoned the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to find out how his sibling died, he concluded: “They’re not investigating the death of Manuel — they’re investigating Manuel.”

Fred Hampton and Mumia’s Stories Shed Light on Tortuguita, Julia Wright Says. Veteran Black Panther Julia Wright explains what we should remember about the past in order to understand this moment by Kelly Hayes & Alana Yu-lan Price, TRUTHOUT

We need an independent investigation and an autopsy not only of the body of a beloved freedom fighter, but of the corporate body politic capable of such a crime. Independent research is needed from liberation movement to liberation movement that will help build resistance to state terrorism — a resistance that will link one ground zero to another, from Flint, Michigan, to Jackson, Mississippi; from Standing Rock to chlordecone-contaminated Martinique; from Mumia’s Philadelphia to Atlanta’s Forest Defenders.

Fred Hampton and Mumia’s Stories Shed Light on Tortuguita

Tortuguita’s cautious voice rang out from a platform amid the tall pines the first time Vienna met them: “Who goes there?” she remembers them calling. The tree-dweller, who chose the moniker Tortuguita – Spanish for “Little Turtle” – over their given name, was perched above the forest floor in the woods just outside Atlanta last summer. Vienna quickly identified herself, and Tortuguita’s watchfulness melted into the bubbly, curious, funny persona so many in the forest knew. They welcomed the newcomer and helped her settle in alongside the other self-proclaimed “forest defenders” on an 85-acre (34-hectare) site officials plan to develop into a huge police and firefighter training center. Protesters derisively call it “Cop City.”

“It was a magical experience for me, being able to live out our ideals,” Vienna told The Associated Press, recalling how the protesters shared clothing, food and money, all while engaging in community activism. She and Tortuguita quickly fell in love during those warm, late summer days.

Protesters: ‘Cop City’ activist’s killing doesn’t make sense BY R.J. RICO, ASSOCIATED PRESS, JANUARY 30, 2023

Movement to Stop Cop City grows

What do you think about “Cop City”?

Cop City is a proposed $90 million, 300-acre police training compound backed by the Atlanta Police Foundation. It will be the largest police training facility in the US, to include a mock city where police will train with firearms, tear gas, helicopters, and explosive devices to repress protest and mass arrest.

This is exactly the opposite of what those of us in the abolition (of police and prisons) movement are working for. All the more concerning because Cop City would be used to train police from all over the country. Imagine your local police going to Cop City and returning with all this knowledge about militarized policing and repressing dissent.
(See: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/abolition/ )

It’s impossible for me to not see the connections of the police killings of Manuel Teran, Tyre Nichols, George Floyd, and hundreds of others.

A coalition of more than 1,300 climate and racial justice groups from across the United States on Monday joined a call for an independent investigation into the police killing of forest defender Manuel Paez Terán earlier this month, and demanded the resignation of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.

The groups noted that Dickens and the Atlanta City Council have the authority to terminate the land lease for Cop City in the forest and called for the mayor to do so immediately, denouncing his strong support for the Atlanta Police Foundation’s proposal.

Ikiya Collective, a signatory of the letter, noted that the training slated to take place at Cop City “will impact organizing across the country” as police are trained to respond to popular uprisings.

“This is a national issue,” said the collective. “Climate justice and police brutality are interconnected, which is why we are joining the Stop Cop City calls to action with the frontline communities in Atlanta.”

1,300+ US Groups Demand Atlanta Mayor’s Resignation Over Forest Defender Tortuguita’s Killing by Julia Conley, Common Dreams, January 30, 2023

https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/

I attended a vigil for Tortuguita in Chicago the day after they were killed by police. One of the signs posted beside candles and other tributes included words taken from an interview Tortuguita gave to writer David Peisner. This is what they said of the movement to Stop Cop City:

If enough people decide to do this with nonviolent action, you can overwhelm the infrastructure [of the state]. That’s something they fear more than violence in the streets. Because violence in the streets, they’ll win. They have the guns for it. We don’t.

The Death of a Forest Defender at “Stop Cop City” by Kelly Hayes, TRUTHOUT, January 26,2023

NLG National joins our Atlanta and University of Georgia Chapters and comrades in mourning the devastating loss of a beloved community member. Tortuguita was a kind, passionate, and caring activist, who coordinated mutual aid and served as a trained medic. The Atlanta Community Press Collective is compiling memories and accounts of their life, and we encourage everyone to honor and remember Tortuguita through the words of those who love them.

As radical movement legal activists, NLG recognizes that this horrific murder and the related arrests are part of a nationwide attack on protesters, land defenders, and marginalized folks, especially Black, Indigenous, and other activists of color. Labeling these demonstrators “domestic terrorists” is a harrowing repetition of No DAPL activist Jessica Reznicek’s terrorist enhancement last year, and both are clear indicators that the people in power view protesters and environmental activists as enemies of the state.

NLG STATEMENT IN SOLIDARITY WITH ATLANTA FOREST DEFENDERS, January 28, 2023

Jessica Reznicek

As mentioned in the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) statement above, domestic terrorism charges are being brought to stifle nonviolent civil disobedience as part of a nationwide attack on protesters, land defenders, and marginalized folks, especially Black, Indigenous, and other activists of color.

A PANEL OF three Trump-appointed judges this week upheld an excessive eight-year prison sentence handed down to climate activist Jessica Reznicek, ruling that a terrorism enhancement attached to her sentence was “harmless.”

The terror enhancement, which dramatically increased Reznicek’s sentence from its original recommended range, set a troubling precedent. Decided by a lower court in 2021, it contends that Reznicek’s acts against private property were “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government.” The appellate justices’ decision to uphold her sentence, callously dismissing the challenge to her terrorism enhancement, doubles down on a chilling message: Those who take direct action against rapacious energy corporations can be treated as enemies of the state.

…

As her legal battles continue, Reznicek, whose acts of sabotage place her firmly on the right side of history, if not the law, deserves full-throated public support. As she noted in her 2017 statement claiming responsibility for the actions against the Dakota Access pipeline: “We acted from our hearts and never threatened human life nor personal property. What we did do was fight a private corporation that has run rampant across our country seizing land and polluting our nation’s water supply.”

Right-Wing Judges Say It’s “Harmless” to Label Climate Activist a Terrorist. A court upheld Jessica Reznicek’s excessive sentence for vandalism aimed at stopping the Dakota Access pipeline by Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, June 8, 2022

Stop Cop City

Stop Cop City (SCC) or Defend Atlanta Forest is a decentralized social movement in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, whose goal is to stop construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center by the Atlanta Police Foundation and the City of Atlanta. Opponents of the facility are concerned about the growth of policing in the city, which has witnessed several protests against police violence following the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the killing of Rayshard Brooks,[2] both by police officers.[3]

The proposed location for the facility is the Old Atlanta Prison Farm, and opponents of the facility particularly object to this location because of its history and because destruction of the forest conflicts with their concerns about environmental justice, and attempts to preserve the land as an urban park and conservation area.[4]

Stop Cop City, Wikipedia

We lost someone unnecessarily to police violence

How do you feel about the police shooting treesitter Manuel Teran (Tortuguita) in Atlanta?

I’ve been wondering why I felt so much sorrow about this. Some of the statements below have shed some light on this. My whole life I have been in resistance to capitalism and the state. I quickly learned there were such a small number of others engaged in this work, at least in this country. I felt a connection to, respect for them.

I’ve been a lifelong environmentalist. Among other things, refusing to own a car. So, I identify with the treesitters trying to protect the forest, the environment, Mother Earth.

For the past several years I’ve become involved in the abolition of police and prisons work.

I’ve just recently come across the concept of prefigurative work, which is living today in a manner consistent with the society you are working to create. All these concepts guide our Mutual Aid work (see: Points of Unity, Des Moines Mutual Aid below).

My heart is hurting over the death of Tortuguita, a forest defender I never met, for so many reasons. One is the loss of this young person, under any circumstance. Theirs was a life cut far too short. I also feel a sense of kinship in loss. I know many other activists who have worked encampments and tree-sits are also feeling this way, because there’s something special about that kind of struggle. There’s something in the prefigurative work, in the effort to rehearse the world we want, to care for each other, in the face of the elements, in the face of police, even when you’re under siege – it’s beautiful, messy work, and whether our battles are won or lost, we carry it with us, always

The Death of a Forest Defender at “Stop Cop City” by Kelly Hayes, TRUTHOUT, January 26,2023

I’m sharing this video from Unicorn Riot again, to show the excessive police presence at the Weelaunee Forest.

Those in the forest at the time of the police raid refute the police contention that Tortuguita first fired at the police. But the statement in this video, “today we lost someone unnecessarily to police violence” is true. They would not be dead if the police had not raided the forest.

So, today we lost someone unnecessarily to police violence. I believe everybody here agrees with the fact that nobody should die at the hands of the state. And in the midst of this grief and sorrow I want you to make space for that. We are organizing for a future free from oppression, free from violence.

Title: Atlanta Community Reacts to Police Killing of Forest Defender Manuel Teran
Uploader: Unicorn Riot
Uploaded: Thursday, January 19, 2023 at 4:16 PM EST via Parallel Uploader
License bync

  1. We believe in working shoulder to shoulder and standing in solidarity with all oppressed communities
    We ourselves are oppressed, and our mutual aid work is a fight for our collective liberation. We do not believe in a top-down model of charity. Instead, we contrast our efforts at horizontal mutual aid, the fostering of mutually beneficial relationships and communities, to dehumanizing and colonizing charity.
  2. We believe in community autonomy.
    We believe that the communities we live and organize in have been largely excluded from state social services, but intensely surveilled and policed by the state repressive apparatus. Capitalism is fundamentally unable to meet people’s needs. We want to build self-sustaining communities that are independent of the capitalist state, both materially and ideologically, and can resist its repression.
  3. We are police and prison abolitionists.
    Abolition and the mutual aid that we practice are inextricably linked. We don’t rely on capitalist institutions or the police to do our work. We believe in building strong and resilient communities which make police obsolete, including community systems of accountability and crisis intervention.
  4. We work to raise the political consciousness of our communities.
    Part of political education is connecting people’s lived experiences to a broader political perspective. Another component is working to ensure that people can meet their basic needs. It is difficult to organize for future liberation when someone is entrenched in day-to-day struggle.

Atlanta, Georgia – The ongoing protests against the construction of a police training center in the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta, Georgia are a testament to the spirit of resistance that was ignited by the Black Lives Matter movement and the George Floyd Protests of 2020. For two years, brave activists and protesters have occupied the forest and taken to the streets to demand that the city reverse its decision to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to further fund a police force that has historically been used to violently repress, control and limit the power of working class people and people of color in particular.

But the protesters in Atlanta are not only fighting against further wasteful spending on police and the “Cop City” training center, they are also fighting against the destruction of the region’s natural environment and the further pollution and degradation of land that will disproportionately affect the poor and working-class who live in the area. As those who oppose the massive development (which would include, among other things, several shooting ranges and a landing pad for Black Hawk helicopters!) have made clear, the forest is a vital part of the wetlands that help to contain and filter pollution and rainwater, preventing and limiting the threat of floods to the predominantly Black neighborhoods that border the forest.

IN STANDOFF OVER COP CITY, POLICE ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS by James Dennis Hoff, Left Voice, January 29, 2023

In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Atlanta organizer Micah Herskind and host Kelly Hayes discuss the death of Tortuguita, a forest defender who was gunned down by police while resisting the construction of “Cop City.” “It’s all hands on deck for the forces of the prison-industrial complex, the forces of capitalism … they are willing to use any and all tactics and tools available to them, whether that’s literal murder, whether that’s trying to deter the broader movement by slapping people with domestic terrorism charges. As environmental catastrophe is upon us, I think the forces of capital are organizing themselves,” says Herskind.

Kelly Hayes: Welcome to “Movement Memos,” a Truthout podcast about organizing, solidarity and the work of making change. I’m your host, writer and organizer Kelly Hayes. Today, we are talking about the struggle to Stop Cop City in Atlanta and DeKalb County, Georgia, and the death of forest defender Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, who was gunned down by police on the morning of January 18. The Guardian has called the deadly shooting “unprecedented” in the history of U.S. environmental protest. While the killing of protesters, including environmentalists, is not unprecedented by any means in this country, law enforcement entering a forest occupation and killing a protester does mark an escalation of state violence for this era. Co-strugglers have described Terán as “a trained medic, a loving partner, a dear friend, a brave soul, and so much more.”

A lot of people may shy away from solidarity with the forest defenders, because the police are claiming that Tortuguita fired first. But we have plenty of reasons to be skeptical of the police narrative, and we cannot abandon this struggle, as the violent and legal repression of protesters has implications for all of our fights against state violence and environmental destruction.

My heart is hurting over the death of Tortuguita, a forest defender I never met, for so many reasons. One is the loss of this young person, under any circumstance. Theirs was a life cut far too short. I also feel a sense of kinship in loss. I know many other activists who have worked encampments and tree-sits are also feeling this way, because there’s something special about that kind of struggle. There’s something in the prefigurative work, in the effort to rehearse the world we want, to care for each other, in the face of the elements, in the face of police, even when you’re under siege – it’s beautiful, messy work, and whether our battles are won or lost, we carry it with us, always. Ruth Wilson Gilmore tells us that “where life is precious, life is precious.” In every encampment and forest defense scenario I’ve been a part of, people were trying to cultivate a place where life was precious and where people were precious to one another. In those spaces, I have seen things that made me believe we could remake the world. When I think about all of that power and potential, the thought of a young person, who was out there for the love of the trees, being struck down — it just rips right through me.

The Death of a Forest Defender at “Stop Cop City” by Kelly Hayes, TRUTHOUT, January 26,2023

In Tortuguita’s own words, 

“The right kind of resistance is peaceful because that’s where we win. We’re not going to beat them at violence. They’re very, very good at violence. We’re not. We win through nonviolence. That’s really the only way we can win. We don’t want more people to die. We don’t want Atlanta to turn into a war zone.”

and

“The abolitionist mission isn’t done until every prison is empty,” Teran told me. “When there are no more cops, when the land has been given back, that’s when it’s over.” I must’ve shaken my head a little at the grandiosity of this statement because Teran immediately broke into a sheepish smile. “I don’t expect to live to see that day, necessarily. I mean, hope so. But I smoke.” 

On Wednesday, January 18, Georgia State Patrol murdered Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, who was camping in a public park to defend the Weelaunee Forest and stop the construction of Cop City. Over the weekend, six protesters were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism. In solidarity with the protesters, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) calls for an end to the construction of Cop City and the ongoing police brutality against demonstrators.

NLG National joins our Atlanta and University of Georgia Chapters and comrades in mourning the devastating loss of a beloved community member. Tortuguita was a kind, passionate, and caring activist, who coordinated mutual aid and served as a trained medic. The Atlanta Community Press Collective is compiling memories and accounts of their life, and we encourage everyone to honor and remember Tortuguita through the words of those who love them.

As radical movement legal activists, NLG recognizes that this horrific murder and the related arrests are part of a nationwide attack on protesters, land defenders, and marginalized folks, especially Black, Indigenous, and other activists of color. Labeling these demonstrators “domestic terrorists” is a harrowing repetition of No DAPL activist Jessica Reznicek’s terrorist enhancement last year, and both are clear indicators that the people in power view protesters and environmental activists as enemies of the state.

Though Atlanta city officials continue to insist that Cop City will keep the community “safe,” the destruction of the Weelaunee Forest will undoubtedly exacerbate the climate crisis and expand the policing of Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color in Atlanta. The ongoing arrests and brutalization of demonstrators opposing the deforestation of stolen Muscogee land proves that policing is the true threat to our collective safety.

We reject the various attempts by the Georgia State Patrol and Atlanta officials to disregard these community members as “outside agitators.” This kind of language attempts to discredit the very important, justice-oriented goals of the community members defending the Forest.

Our comrades defending the Weelaunee Forest are advocating for racial, environmental, and economic justice. In solidarity with their efforts, NLG encourages everyone to support the movement in whatever way is most accessible to them. Please see below for information directly from the organizers about the best ways to support their efforts:

  • Donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund to support legal costs for arrested protestors and ongoing legal action.
  • Call on investors in the project to divest from Cop City (list of APF investors). Call on builders of the project to drop their construction contracts.
  • Organize political solidarity bail funds, forest defense funds, and forest defense committees where you live.
  • Participate in or organize local solidarity actions.
  • Endorse and circulate this statement of solidarity.

NLG STATEMENT IN SOLIDARITY WITH ATLANTA FOREST DEFENDERS, January 28, 2023

PRESS RELEASE: Emory doctors condemn police violence against Cop City protests

Monday, January 23, 2023
Defend the Atlanta Forest has received the following submitted statement:

As health care workers, we strongly condemn the repeated escalation of police violence in their interactions with members of the public protesting the construction of Cop City. On various instances, in both the streets of Atlanta as well as in the Weelaunee Forest/Intrenchment Creek Park which is under threat of destruction, police have used violence including reports of toxic chemical irritants such as tear gas, rubber bullets and now live ammunition which most recently resulted in the police killing of one of the forest defenders, Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Teran. A year after police in the U.S. killed more people than any prior year since records started to be tracked in 2013, we recognize violence perpetrated by police to be harmful to public health. We are also concerned by the detentions and the charges of domestic terrorism levied at individuals arrested while protesting the destruction of the forest. This fits within the context of a disturbing pattern and threat to public health whereby the USA has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world; perpetuated by a judicial and legislative system that targets Black and Indigenous peoples, migrants, those living in poverty, those who are unhoused, as well as environmental and social activists.

The construction of Cop City will not solve a government’s failures to listen to the wishes of members of the community, its failure to stop the widening gap between rich and poor, the lack of affordable housing, the negative effects of gentrification and racism, or the poor and unequal access to nutritious food, healthcare and mental health services. As physicians, we recognize that these failures have negative consequences on the public’s mental and physical health. Instead of strengthening community health, Cop City will be a dangerous attempt to invest in harmful and violent solutions, strengthening the corporate and political powers that seek profit over the well-being of the people, while simultaneously eroding and transforming natural and public spaces into privately owned property. The public health evidence for developing healthy and thriving communities strongly opposes the expansion of policing and its subsequent violence. All Atlanta communities deserve more life affirming investments, not those that value private property over human life.

…

Signed,
Michel Khoury, MD, Co-director of Georgia Human Rights Clinic
Amy Zeidan, MD, Co-director of Georgia Human Rights Clinic
Mark Spencer, MD, Co-Leader, Internal Medicine Advocacy Group
Suhaib Abaza, MD, Co-founder, Campaign Against Racism ATL chapter
Social Medicine Consortium

Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán

This is a continuation of news and reflections about the first killing of an environmental activist in this country. Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán was killed in Atlanta on January 21, 2023. Other stories I’ve written about this are listed in this table. This troubles me because I am an environmental activist, as are many of my friends. I don’t like to think of us as targets of extreme police brutality. Or charged as “domestic terrorists”.

Many stories tell of Tortuguita’s advocacy for nonviolence. Which makes it seem unlikely that they shot at police. But that is what the police are saying.

In Solidarity with Atlanta’s Forest Defendershttps://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/2023/01/23/in-solidarity-with-atlantas-forest-defenders/
Do you trust the police?https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/2023/01/25/do-you-trust-the-police/
Killing and Criminalizing Activistshttps://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/2023/01/26/killing-and-criminalizing-activists/
Modern-Day Lynchingshttps://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/2023/01/27/modern-day-lynchings/

WASHINGTON – On January 21, 2023, Atlanta Forest Defender Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán was shot and killed by Atlanta police. Terán, an environmental activist, was peacefully protesting the clearing of South River Forest land near Atlanta, where the state plans to build a new military-grade training facility. In recent weeks police have conducted multiple raids on environmental activists camping in the forest, which was identified as a key area for mitigating climate change impacts in Atlanta.  

Terán’s killing sets a dangerous precedent for environmental activism in the U.S., while over the last decade, thousands of environmental defenders around the globe have been and continue to be murdered, imprisoned or arrested for defending the planet. 

 Erich Pica, President of Friends of the Earth U.S., said this: 

Friends of the Earth U.S. expresses our solidarity with those outraged and in mourning at the police killing of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán, while protecting the South River Forest from logging and exploitation. His killing is a domestic example of the increasing threat of death faced by environmental defenders across the globe, while protecting their communities from companies and governments seeking to log, mine, dam rivers or extract fossil fuels.   

Police brutality and the militarization of the police force is just one of the many violent and unconscionable attempts to crush those fighting to protect our planet. Indigenous Peoples, local communities and environmental defenders are the planet’s greatest caretakers and advocates. Friends of the Earth U.S. stands against the brutal treatment of these heroes around the globe. 

Statement on Manuel Terán’s killing, Friends of the Earth, January 24, 2023

Title: Atlanta Community Reacts to Police Killing of Forest Defender Manuel Teran
Uploader: Unicorn Riot
Uploaded: Thursday, January 19, 2023 at 4:16 PM EST via Parallel Uploader
License bync

Confluence

Doesn’t it seem that we are in a time when many swollen tributaries are coming together, causing massive flooding?

Not only literally from environmental chaos.

While I’ve been devasted by the killing of land defender Manuel Teran Tortuguita in Atlanta, there is the emerging story of yet another police murder, that of Tyre Nichols in Tennessee. This against a background of mass shootings occurring nearly daily. Sometimes more than one a day. School children drilled on what to do in response to an active shooter.

The violence of the militarization of policing. When Congress cannot pass laws related to gun safety and reforms of policing. The violence of the attack on the US Capital. The authoritarian practices and legislation passed there. The example this provides to other countries around the globe. The extreme gerrymandering and voter suppression.

Against a background of the violence of poverty, hunger, and houselessness. The epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives. The ongoing discovery of the remains of thousands of native children on the grounds of the institutions of forced assimilation. Children continuing to be removed from their homes. Continued violence against women, including criminalizing abortion.

The continued colonization and broken treaties.

The violence of US military around the world. The escalating proxy war against Russia in the Ukraine.

The violence against Mother Earth. Monocropping, CAFOs, fertilizers, pipeline construction and leaks. The violence against the water.

The violence of substance abuse and deaths. And suicides.

The violence of banning books. Violent suppression of free speech. Eradicating study of the multicultural peoples that many of the students are members of. Forced assimilation continues.

The violence of the southern border, against those seeking asylum, and against those in the country who are immigrants.

This violence and oppression fueled by systems of capitalism, institutional racism, white supremacy, and dominance.

It’s both enraging and exhausting to hear people who are supposed to be leaders lament these tragedies and offer the same tired ideas that have never worked before. Why would they work now?

Mutual Aid

Trying to make incremental changes to the system will never work because the system is the problem.

As my friend Ronnie James says:

I’m of the firm opinion that a system that was built by stolen bodies on stolen land for the benefit of a few is a system that is not repairable. It is operating as designed, and small changes (which are the result of huge efforts) to lessen the blow on those it was not designed for are merely half measures that can’t ever fully succeed.

So the question is now, where do we go from here? Do we continue to make incremental changes while the wealthy hoard more wealth and the climate crisis deepens, or do we do something drastic that has never been done before? Can we envision and create a world where a class war from above isn’t a reality anymore?”

Ronnie James

Mutual Aid is “where we go from here.”

This morning Ronnie and I were in Des Moines as usual, distributing donated food.
(See: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/mutual-aid/)

So I work with a dope crew called Des Moines Mutual Aid, and on Saturday mornings we do a food giveaway program that was started by the Panthers as their free breakfast program and has carried on to this day. Anyways, brag, brag, blah, blah.

So I get to work and I need to call my boss, who is also a very good old friend, because there is network issues. He remembers and asks about the food giveaway which is cool and I tell him blah blah it went really well. And then he’s like, “hey, if no one tells you, I’m very proud of what you do for the community” and I’m like “hold on hold on. Just realize that everything I do is to further the replacing of the state and destroying western civilization and any remnants of it for future generations.” He says “I know and love that. Carry on.”

Ronnie James