Category: policing

Epic battle

The battle to stop construction of the proposed militarized police training facility being referred to as “Cop City” in the Atlanta Forest has many components.

    Militarized policingAt this time of endless instances of militarized policing the last thing we need is a facility to train police to use these tactics. To train police from all over the country. International?
    Training will be provided for urban warfare. Including helicopter pads and a mock city.
    Of course, the location chosen was right next to communities of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Where men, women and children who are already traumatized by policing would hear all the shooting from the training facility.
    Police from multiple agencies have continually harassed tree defenders. Manuel Teran (Tortuguita) was killed by police.
    Indigenous rights“You must immediately vacate Mvskoke homelands and cease violence and policing of Indigenous and Black people in Mvskoke lands” (Atlanta Forest)
    Civil libertiesAs is occurring all over the country, civil disobedience and protest is being threatened by elevating charges to domestic terrorism.
    66 Organizations Urge that Domestic Terrorism Charges Against Defend the Atlanta Forest Protesters Be Dropped
    EnvironmentTrees are more important now than ever to pull carbon dioxide out of the air.

    DEFEND THE ATLANTA FOREST
    an autonomous movement for the future of South Atlanta

    We call on all people of good conscience to stand in solidarity with the movement to stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta.

    DEFEND THE ATLANTA FOREST

    MY GOODMAN: On Wednesday, a group of Mvskoke Creek activists interrupted a Regional Commission meeting and attempted to give an eviction notice to the Atlanta mayor.

    MVSKOKE CREEK ACTIVIST 1: Objection. Objection. We have a letter being delivered from the Mvskoke Creek Nation on behalf of Mvskoke Creek spiritual leadership in opposition to Cop City.

    MVSKOKE CREEK ACTIVIST 2: I came all the way on the Trail of Tears to deliver this letter to you folks.

    UNIDENTIFIED: You’re welcome to leave.

    MVSKOKE CREEK ACTIVIST 2: We want you to know that the contemporary Mvskoke people are now making their journey back to our homelands and hereby give notice to Mayor Andre Dickens, the Atlanta City Council, the Atlanta Police Department, the Atlanta Police Foundation, the Dekalb County Sheriff’s Office, and so-called Cop City, that you must immediately vacate Mvskoke homelands and cease violence and policing of Indigenous and Black people in Mvskoke lands. We also ask for an independent investigation into the assassination of our relative Tortuguita and that the charges be dropped against Weelaunee Forest defenders.

    Opposition Grows to Atlanta “Cop City” as More Forest Defenders Charged with Domestic Terrorism

    A number of people and organizations are calling for the cancellation of “Cop City”
    Students of the Atlanta University Center Denounce the Building of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center
    Forest Defenders Vow Resistance After Court Okays Phase I Of ‘Cop City’
    Detroit ‘Cop City’ rally held in solidarity with Atlanta environmental defenders – BridgeDetroit
    CrimethInc. : The Forest in the City : Two Years of Forest Defense in Atlanta, Georgia
    Sign the petition: No massive police training complex. Stop Cop City!
    CITIES ACROSS THE US TAKE PART IN ‘WEEK OF ACTION’ AGAINST COP CITY
    RALLY IN SOLIDARITY WITH RESISTANCE TO COP CITY IN AVON, MASSACHUSETTS
    Elders Say Stop Cop City!
    Multiple State and Local Police Agencies Violently Raid Weelanuee Forest Music Festival, Week of Action Perseveres  

    On 1/31/2023, a number of people who are involved in justice work in central Iowa gathered at the offices of the law firm that represents Corporation Services Company. Which in turn represents U.S. Multifamily Capital Markets at Cushman and Wakefield. John O’Neill is the President of U.S. Multifamily Capital Markets. He sits on the executive committee board for the Atlanta Police Foundation, which is building “Cop City” in Atlanta. Where Manuel Teran (Tortuguita) was killed by police who were clearing tree sitters from the proposed construction area.

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

    See more about “Cop City” here:
    https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/?s=%22cop+city%22

    No Cop City Anywhere

    Simultaneously, as the climate warms, as storms and disasters worsen, as infrastructure crumbles, and as more and more people are left jobless and houseless, the true reason the political class pumps ever more resources into militarization is being revealed: It’s not to protect against some so-called ​“crime wave” the corporate media constantly fear mongers about, but instead to police the very collapse of capitalism itself. 

    BENJI HART, In These Times

    There are many efforts emerging to address the racism, militarism, and violence of policing in this country. These efforts are growing because they are at the intersection of capitalism, white supremacy, racism, militarism, authoritarianism, ongoing environmental devastation, and police and prison abolition.

    A monumental struggle is currently taking place in the Weelaunee Forest in DeKalb County near Atlanta, Georgia.

    The local government plans to level 85 acres of the forest to build a $90 million police training facility. The natural environment that would be lost is not only a precious recreational resource for Atlanta residents, but a crucial bulwark protecting against flooding and other climate change-related disasters, which are on the rise. Despite city leaders’ commitment to ramming the project through undemocratically, a decentralized campaign known as #StopCopCity is fighting back. 

    The movement is connecting police and prison abolition with environmental justice, and uniting organizations and individuals from across the political spectrum in demanding the city divert resources away from militarization and towards fighting climate change and protecting Black and brown lives.

    The threat of a militarized megadevelopment, and the intersectional, multiracial coalition mobilizing to resist it, bear some striking parallels with the recently-opened police academy in Garfield Park, Chicago — and the youth-led #NoCopAcademy campaign that fought its construction nearly six years ago.

    Simultaneously, as the climate warms, as storms and disasters worsen, as infrastructure crumbles, and as more and more people are left jobless and houseless, the true reason the political class pumps ever more resources into militarization is being revealed: It’s not to protect against some so-called ​“crime wave” the corporate media constantly fear mongers about, but instead to police the very collapse of capitalism itself. 

    Keeping poor and working people at bay while their communities are dismantled, their lands are poisoned, and their lives deemed insignificant can only be achieved through brute force. We are witnessing the robber barons barricade themselves in, sealed away from the catastrophes they created, with the same resources they stole from the people on the other side of the wall. 

    No Cop City Anywhere. Chicago’s #NoCopAcademy campaign and #StopCopCity in Atlanta are part of the same movement: to end violent policing, protect the environment and defend Black and brown lives by BENJI HART, In These Times, FEBRUARY 22, 2023

    As one example, solidarity is being built to support cities facing proposed construction of huge police training facilities. Some of these projects are referred to as No Cop City (Atlanta), No Cop Academy (Chicago), and Detroit Cop City (Detroit).

    Since april 2021, police abolitionists and environmentalists have been engaged in a furious struggle to prevent the destruction of a precious stretch of forest in Atlanta, Georgia, where the government aims to build a police training compound and facilitate the construction of a giant soundstage for the film industry. In this essay, participants in the movement chronicle a year of action, tracing the movement’s victories and setbacks and exploring the strategies that
    inform it. This campaign represents a crucial effort to chart new paths forward in the wake of the George Floyd Rebellion, linking the defense of the land that sustains us with the struggle against police.

    CRIMETHINC. EX-WORKERS COLLECTIVE
    CrimethInc. is a rebel alliance—a decentralized network pledged to anonymous collective action—a breakout from the prisons of our age. We strive to reinvent our lives and our world according to the principles of self-determination and mutual aid. www.crimethinc.com | USA, May 2022

    Environmental Justice

    The term “environmental justice” recognizes that environmental “bads” are not distributed evenly. Over generations, the effects of systematic racism concentrate environmental “bads” among the marginalized. Specifically, those cumulative effects concentrate the “bads” among people of color.

    In June 2022, Kwame Olufemi of Community Movement Builders told 11Alive News, “If you know anything about Atlanta at (all) then you know the places that flood the most are on the south side … In destroying the forest they’re going to exasperate those issues they’ve already had with peoples town flooding … It’s clearly not for us, it’s not for our community, and it’s going to be adverse to us and our people.”

    “Cop City is a catalyst for further nationwide militarization of the police and the continued expansion of the surveillance state,” Defend the Atlanta Forest argues. “This development would remove a natural barrier to flooding and pollution for communities downstream … These [effects] would primarily affect BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] communities in Dekalb County that the city has chosen to ignore.”

    The effort to save Atlanta’s Forests by Sean McShee, The Wild Hunt, June 14, 2022

    https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/zines/city-in-the-forest/city-in-the-forest_print_black_and_white.pdf

    The campaign to defend the forest in Atlanta, Georgia has become one of the most vibrant movements of the post-Trump era, interweaving environmentalism, abolitionism, and the fight against gentrification. Yet as police shift to employing lethal violence and indiscriminate terrorism charges, it has reached a critical juncture. Participants explore how this struggle has developed over the past year, reflecting on the practices that have given it strength and analyzing the challenges before it.

    Our society is at a crisis point. Decades of escalating economic pressure have created rampant inequality and desperation. Rather than addressing the root causes of these, politicians across the political spectrum continue channeling more and more money to police, relying on them to suppress unrest by force alone. This dependance has enabled police departments and their allies to consume a vast amount of public resources. Meanwhile, driven by the same economic pressures, catastrophic climate change is generating hurricanes, forest fires, droughts, and widespread ecological collapse.

    In this context, starting in April 2021, a bold movement set out to defend a forest in Atlanta, Georgia, where local politicians and corporate profiteers want to build a police training compound and a soundstage for the film industry. The training compound, known as Cop City, would be the largest police training facility in the United States. It would devastate the South River Forest, also known as Weelaunee Forest in honor of the Muscogee Creek people who lived there until they were deported in the Trail of Tears.

    The Forest in the City. Two Years of Forest Defense in Atlanta, Georgia, Crimethinc, 2023-02-22

    The Atlanta Police Foundation has plans–backed by $60 million in corporate funding and $30 million in taxpayer money–to build an enormous police training facility over the city’s Weelaunee Forest.

    Activists and forest defenders are calling the plan “Cop City,” as it will include a mock village (complete with a nightclub), a Black Hawk helipad, an emergency vehicle driving course, dozens of firing ranges, and an area for explosives training.

    The neighborhoods that surround the forest are largely made up of lower-income Black residents. Cop City will decimate green space, which is already so rare in BIPOC communities, and replace it with a playground for the police to practice warfare tactics.

    Communities of color live with police-induced trauma every day. Now this Atlanta community will feel and hear the presence of a training facility where cops learn new ways to enact violence against Black and Brown communities, right in their own backyard.

    In addition to the terror of an ever-present police force, Cop City is an environmental racism nightmare. The Weelaunee Forest provides ecological relief for the people of Atlanta. It offsets stormwater runoff, which might otherwise push unwanted sediment into the drinking water. The mere presence of trees helps to keep the city cool during the long, hot, humid summers, and improves air quality by reducing carbon dioxide released into the air.

    Cop City has been gaining nationwide attention, and for good reason. The city of Atlanta, its police force, and its corporate sponsors are actively cooperating to increase police power, at a time when police departments are under scrutiny for abusing that power.

    Cop City will do irreparable harm to the city of Atlanta, and inspire more play villages for cops across the country. But there’s hope. Cop City does not have the full funding necessary to scale the project from private entities, meaning there is still time to put pressure on these investors to halt all funding to the Atlanta Police Foundation and APF Support Inc.

    Sign the petition to private investors: No massive police training complex. Stop Cop City!  

    Dozens of protesters made their way through downtown Detroit Friday afternoon before halting to a stop in the middle of Congress and Griswold, blocking traffic and prompting angry drivers to blare their horns. 

    “Stop Cop City!” the crowd chanted. “I am…a revolutionary!” 

    The march followed a rally with members of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, Michigan Liberation, Detroit Will Breathe and several other social and environmental justice groups in a show of solidarity with protesters in the Atlanta area. For nearly two years, organizers and activists in Georgia have been protesting against “Cop City,” an 85-acre, $90 million police training center being developed in a forested area near Atlanta. In recent weeks, the “Stop Cop City” movement has spread across the country after an environmental protester defending the Georgia forest was killed by state police, and more than a dozen protesters were arrested. 

    In Detroit, protesters Friday spoke in opposition to a similar situation in Michigan – the expansion of Camp Grayling, a military training facility in the northern part of the state. Last year, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources began notifying locals that the National Guard wants to lease 162,000 acres of state-owned land across several counties, more than doubling its current training grounds, reported Bridge Michigan. The Guard said it needs the land to make Camp Grayling a destination for year-round cyber, electronic and space warfare training.

    Detroit ‘Cop City’ rally held in solidarity with Atlanta environmental defenders by Micah Walker and Jena Brooker, Bridge Detroit, February 24, 2023

    This morning (1/31/2023) a number of people who are involved in justice work in central Iowa gathered at the offices of the law firm that represents Corporation Services Company. Which in turn represents U.S. Multifamily Capital Markets at Cushman and Wakefield. John O’Neill is the President of U.S. Multifamily Capital Markets. He sits on the executive committee board for the Atlanta Police Foundation, which is building “Cop City” in Atlanta. Where Manuel Teran (Tortuguita) was killed by police who were clearing tree sitters from the proposed construction area.

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

    When the government is incapable

    It’s just unbelievable, or sadly, it is believable, that Congress can suggest severe cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Social Security, Medicare, and other social safety net programs. All of which could be paid for by a small fraction of the military budget. This is just another example of the government being incapable of helping us. And/or unwilling to do so.

    The following is from Des Moines Mutual Aid, that I am proud to be a part of.

    In the late 1970’s the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for School Children Program fed tens of thousands of children daily. Our free food project in Des Moines is a continuation of the program started by the Des Moines Chapter of The Black Panther Party for Self Defense fifty years ago.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation recognized what a threat the free food program was to the status quo in those days.

    Free food seemed relatively innocuous, but not to FBI head J. Edgar Hoover, who loathed the Black Panther Party and declared war against them in 1969. He called the program “potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to neutralize the BPP and destroy what it stands for,” and gave carte blanche to law enforcement to destroy it.

    How the Black Panthers’ Breakfast Program Both Inspired and Threatened the Government. The Panthers’ popular breakfast programs put pressure on political leaders to feed children before school by ERIN BLAKEMORE, History.com, FEB 6, 2018

    Newly uncovered FBI records are a poignant reminder of just how long African Americans and others have been demanding fair treatment from the law. Together with the marches across the nation last year after the killing of George Floyd, the records serve as a stark reminder why lasting police reform can no longer be delayed.

    The FBI documents shed new light on a scandalous raid on a Black Panthers apartment on Chicago’s West Side on Dec. 4, 1969. In the pre-dawn raid, officers under the command of then-Cook County State’s Attorney Edward Hanrahan shot and killed Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.

    The killing of two Black Panthers, the secrets of the FBI — and our nation’s long fight for police reform. Newly released documents shed disturbing light on the FBI’s involvement in a 1969 police raid that resulted in the deaths of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark by CST Editorial Board, Chicago Sun-Times, Jan 24, 2021,

    When those in authority talk about threats, they are referring to social, political, and militarized policing threats. Threats of violence and death.

    It’s important to point out that Mutual Aid is absolutely nonviolent. Violence is antithetical to Mutual Aid. The following describes the first action of Des Moines Mutual Aid, participating in a peace march.

    One year ago today Des Moines Mutual Aid participated in a march protesting the potential for war or increased hostilities with Iran that followed the fallout of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani by drone strike in Baghdad.

    This was our first “public” event since adopting the name Des Moines Mutual Aid, a name we gave our crew during our growing work with our relatives at the houseless camps throughout the city and our help with coordinating a weekly free grocery store that has a 50 year history, founded by the Des Moines Chapter of The Black Panther Party For Self Defense.

    Des Moines Mutual Aid, January 7, 2020

    For years I’ve been warning about the collapse of our social, political, and governance systems from environmental chaos. But it has become increasingly clear that social and political collapse from extremists and the movement to authoritarianism is happening now. Authoritarianism advancing with the aid of increasingly militaristic, deadly police forces. With radically expanding surveillance and characterizing political dissent as terrorism. I removed the credit for the quote above from a good friend of mine for security reasons in this political climate.

    So, it’s time for many more of us to do something like a free food program again. A growing number of us are doing what “the government is incapable of”. In a minute I’ll be leaving to go to our Des Moines Mutual Aid free food project, as I have for almost three years.

    Mutual Aid is something I’ve written about extensively. See: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/mutual-aid/

    College students against Cop City

    Students at the Atlanta University Center and Morehouse College denounce the building of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (Cop City)

    DEMANDS OF MOREHOUSE COLLEGE STUDENTS

    • We demand that Morehouse College denounce and sever their support in building the “Public Safety Training Center” in our Atlanta community, which is referred to as “Cop City”.
    • We demand President Thomas dissent, as a Board Member of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, against their support of the creation of Cop City.
    • We call the student body to action. We must advocate for the reallocation of the 30 million of taxpayer dollars to be invested in the Atlanta community.
    • We demand that President Thomas align himself with these demands and join us to fight against every contribution to over policing.

    Streamed live on Feb 2, 2023.MOREHOUSE COLLEGE CROWN FORUM: Chris Smalls | Amazon Labor Union | TALKING RACE AND WORKER RIGHTS!

     We got to build the community that we want to live with.
    …that’s one without police

    Chris Smalls at Morehouse College

    The real Fighters and the real leaders are right here in this room and understand that Jay-Z and all these other billionaires like Oprah they’re not going to give us what we want, they’re just not. We have to understand that if we get the opportunity to we got to be the ones to pour back into our communities and not just pour back into our communities we got to build the community that we want to live with.

    And let me tell you one that is one without police. Let’s tell you right now that’s one without police. That’s a mouthful and that’s definite. That’s a revolution. Chris Smalls, I want to thank you for the words that you’ve given us today and I want to start with something that you said, and I think it’s very important that we remember this. We are here to keep it real and keep it black. These students are here, these are Morehouse students and members and faculty of the community who agree that there is a problem. We are here to discuss a system that is historically and continuously oppressing our community. We are here to acknowledge the murder of Tyree Nichols.

    We are here to address the construction of a mass police training center in Atlanta. And we are here to discuss Morehouse’s contributions to a system that does not serve black people. Morehouse, policing in America has not served our people their needs, their interests. It is not serving us. Morehouse has issued a statement referencing the murder of Tyree Nichols by law enforcement not only commemorating his life but to publicly endorse the mass militarization of the police. Morehouse has endorsed the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, also known as Cop City, for those who are unaware. Cop City is a Training Center built in a black community or planning to be built in a black community in Atlanta. The residents of Atlanta have descended its construction of the facility since its approval in September of 2021. There have been three years of peaceful protests, but the people have not been heard and the protests have resulted in violence. Two weeks ago, a protester was killed for believing what they thought was what they believed to be right standing against Cop City. And two days ago, Mayor Dickens of Atlanta addressed the building in this facility and not once did he acknowledge the problem of police brutality in our community. He alleged that Atlanta officers are already required to undergo civil rights history education training, but his team failed to address the murders of black people historically in Atlanta. The murder of Rayshard Brooks by APD or Anthony Hill a veteran with mental health issues who was undergoing amental health episode and was killed naked in the streets, these streets of DeKalb County where they plan to erect Cop City. There is an undeniable reality that police systems in our communities, across America, are terrorizing our people.

    MOREHOUSE COLLEGE CROWN FORUM: Chris Smalls

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | February 10, 2023
    MEDIA CONTACT: Kannette King


    Students of the Atlanta University Center Denounce the Building of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center
    Morehouse College Holds Private Forum with Mayor of Atlanta to Discuss Atlanta Public Safety Training Center
    Atlanta, GA – On Thursday, February 2, 2023, students of the Atlanta University Center occupied a school-sanctioned event at Morehouse College. During the event, the students shared their concerns about the College’s association with the Atlanta Public Training Center, as well as the larger issue of systemic oppression and police brutality in the city of Atlanta.

    Following the event, the students refused any private discussion of the Institution’s relationship with the training center, demanding a public forum for President Thomas to address all students’ concerns publically. The President organized a forum addressing the student body and invited Mayor Dickens to address the construction of the Atlanta Public Training Center. This raised a new concern address in the forum by the student speaker.

    On Tuesday, February 7, 2023, Morehouse College hosted a private forum with the Mayor of Atlanta for students from the Atlanta University Center. Unfortunately, the forum was not open to the public and residents of the community were not given the opportunity to attend and express their concerns. Additionally, Clark Atlanta University personnel were not formally invited, and Spelman College only informed their students about the event an hour before it took place.

    Despite these limitations, the President of Morehouse College allowed only one student to make a statement during the program, which was limited to five minutes in the ninety-minute forum. Many questions were left unanswered and students departed the event feeling disappointed in the condescending manner of communication from the Mayor. It appeared that the purpose of the Mayor and his staff was not to converse with the community about public concerns, but instead to propagate the need for an Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.

    In conclusion, the intention of the forum was to address the concerns of students and the community, but it was clear that many of these concerns were not taken seriously. The students and residents of Atlanta deserve a platform where their voices can be heard and their concerns addressed in a meaningful way.

    About Morehouse College: Founded in 1867, Morehouse College is a private, all-male, liberal arts institution located in Atlanta, GA. The College has a rich history of producing outstanding leaders and thinkers, and has a commitment to providing a transformative educational experience for its students.
    About Atlanta University Center: The Atlanta University Center is a consortium of historically black colleges and universities located in Atlanta, GA. The consortium includes Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University, and is dedicated to providing world-class educational opportunities for African American students.

    Video of 02/02/23 Student Demonstration

    Morehouse students issue demands, statement on Cop City

    FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

    To the Morehouse Community,

    The Graves Hall Bell, forged in 1886 from Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore, MD, serves as a Morehouse relic that was utilized to signify danger or celebration. Whenever there was a sign of external danger towards the campus grounds, the bell would be rung for students and staff to seek refuge to the nearest building in sight. The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, Cop City, is a threat that is approaching our institution and community.

    In 2016, The bell was rung to signify a universal danger, the election of Donald J. Trump. We find ourselves again in times of imminent danger. With the creation of Cop City, it is apparent the enemy is near. We must speak up about the development of Cop City, for its construction will only lead to more instances of police brutality and racial profiling within the Atlanta community. We, the concerned Morehouse students, understand the great moral hypocrisy of our institution supporting the implementation of this policing facility, and we can not allow this to go unnoticed.

    The bell will ring!

    From the Samuel T. Graves Era to the present day, this bell embodies the immense amount of triumph and strength that this institution has been able to endure. For these reasons, we will ring the bell in honor and support of its historical significance.

    Signed, Students Allied to the Movement

    DEMANDS OF MOREHOUSE COLLEGE

    I. We demand that Morehouse College denounce and sever their support in building the “Public Safety Training Center” in our Atlanta community, which is referred to as “Cop City”.

    II. We demand President Thomas dissent, as a Board Member of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, against their support of the creation of Cop City.

    III. We call the student body to action. We must advocate for the reallocation of the 30 million of taxpayer dollars to be invested in the Atlanta community.

    IV. We demand that President Thomas align himself with these demands and join us to fight against every contribution to over policing.

    Des Moines, Iowa

    More blog posts: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/?s=Tortuguita+

    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