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kropotkindersurprise · 1 year

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March 5, 2023 - Hundreds of forest defenders chased away police from a security post in Weelaunee Forest at the construction site of Cop City. The activists burned security and construction equipment and destroyed infrastructure. Thirty-five people were arrested by police, you can donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund to help them out. [video]/[video]/[video]

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probablyasocialecologist · 1 year

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The death of Paez Terán – the first time an environmental protester has been killed by police in US history – created headlines around the US and the world and further galvanised a protest movement against the huge project amid accusations of heavy-handed police action and some local Georgia politicians eager to depict activists as “terrorists”.

The incident reports reveal that officers were first to discharge a weapon – they fired a pepperball gun into Paez Terán’s tent, which was followed by gunshots they believed were coming from inside the tent, leading officers to fire a barrage of shots blindly into the tent, killing Paez Terán inside. It also reveals that, while they rendered medical assistance to an injured officer, they did not immediately do the same for Paez Terán.

[...]

There are nine mentions of the phrase “domestic terrorist” or “domestic terrorists” used by officers in the 20-page police incident report, which Paez Terán’s family said showed the attitude they took towards anyone they encountered in the forest during an operation that resulted in the death of the activist, who went by “Tortuguita” and used they/them pronouns.

#atlanta #cop city #tortuguita #atlanta forest #paez teran

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decolonize-the-left · 1 year

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The tree cutting has started

How to help:

Support the work of the Forest Justice Defense Fund a broad coalition dedicated to saving the Atlanta Forest by donating here

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund bails out activists who are arrested for participating in social justice movements, and helps them get access to lawyers. Donate here

You can donate to the lawsuit challenging the Dekalb County movie studio land swap here

Call Brasfield & Gorrie (678.581.6400), the Atlanta Police Foundation (770.354.3392), and the City of Atlanta (404.330.6100) and ask them to cancel the project and to remain peaceful with tree-sitters and other on-the-ground protesters

You can organize protests, send phone calls or emails, or help with direct actions of different kinds to encourage contractors of the various projects to stop the destruction. You can find some of the contractors here: stopreevesyoung.com

You can form an Action Group in your community, neighborhood, town, city, college, or scene. Together, you can host information nights, movie screenings, potluck dinners, and protests at the offices of contractors, at the homes of the board members, on campus, or elsewhere. You can post and pass out fliers at public places and shows, knock on doors to talk to neighbors and sign them up for text alerts, fundraisers, or actions, or you can innovate new activities altogether.

If you want to protest like the French NOW is the time to show that you will support and protect people on the Frontline!!

These protesters are protecting ALL of us after all! Cop city will be a training ground for police across the USA.

Let's show them our gratitude and give them that spark of morale that solidarity and support brings.

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nando161mando · 5 months

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Atlanta passes ordinance banning masks. This will presumably be used to target protesters and #StopCopCity activists.

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forourtimetoo · 1 year

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God aren’t you tired like the cops killed another Black man in Memphis just trying to go home and now there’s troops in the streets because god forbid we say enough is enough. Last week they killed a protestor in Atlanta trying to protect the forest from being turned into another site where they train cops to kill us. There were so many mass shootings this week that I can’t remember them all. More people have died in mass shootings this year than there have been days of the year, and that line doesn’t even hit me anymore. Texas prosecutors are investigating a teenager for a miscarriage, and the Alabama AG is trying to walk back earlier comments saying they’d use the state’s chemical endangerment law to prosecute people for self-managed medical abortions. 30,000 people were hospitalized this week with a virus the country is determined to pretend is over. Aren’t you tired? The Supreme Court is about to overturn affirmative action and make it easier to do racial gerrymandering and get rid of the Indian Child Welfare Act and make it so businesses can discriminate against gay people. Aren’t you tired of being scared of what the conservatives would do if they thought they could get away with it—the fetal personhood bans and the contraception bans and the criminalizations of trans & queer people and the attacks on the unhoused and all the other monsters under the bed that get realer every day? Aren’t you tired of being scared for your life, if you’re Black or Asian or trans or queer or disabled? Aren’t you just so tired some days?

#i am so tired #I am working very hard to think about this as a what needs to be done and how can I help moment #but I just want to curl up and cry #how does everything feel more Sisyphean than ever #it is time to do something with my hands I think #Nina rambles #us politics #politics #tyre nichols #abortion rights #repro justice #reproductive justice #abortion access #scotus #tortuguita #stop cop city #atlanta forest #gun violence #police violence

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etakeh · 1 year

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This is just how things are now I guess.

(source)

#atlanta forest #just some fucker #Weelaunee Forest #atlanta #cop city

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fuckyeahanarchistposters · 1 year

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Police killed an Atlanta forest defender today, someone who loved the forest, someone who fought to protect the earth & its inhabitants.

For the last couple years protesters have occupied Atlanta forest to prevent it being cut down to make way for a massive police training facility dubbed "Cop City".

#Atlanta forest #Defend the Atlanta forest #Stop Cop City

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defundthepolicedestroythegop · 1 year

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#Norfolk Southern #train derailment #Cop City #Atlanta #Atlanta Forest #environmental disaster #capitalism

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fernreads · 2 years

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In a last-ditch effort to please police leaders who’ve decried a decline in morale amongst officers, Atlanta officials may have approved a plan with a hurricane-sized hole.

Atlanta, known as “the city in a forest,” is set to lose more than 100 acres of its South River Forest, the region’s most important landscape in protecting its residents from climate change. In the aftermath of Atlanta’s worst-ever flooding event in 2009, scientists concluded that the forest’s sprawling tree cover and absorbent soil and roots were indispensable in protecting the area, which is expected to be one of the country’s most impacted by future climate disasters.

Despite this knowledge, the city has agreed to lease nearly 400 acres of the forest to the Atlanta Police Foundation for just $10 per year. In return, the foundation plans to replace the pristine land with a $90 million training facility for the Atlanta Police Department and firefighters, dubbed “Cop City” by activists. About $30 million of the project, which will be one of the country’s most expensive training facilities, will be funded by taxpayers’ money.

The decision was undeterred by overwhelming public outcry against the project: Of the more than 1,100 Atlanta residents who called the City Council to voice their opinion on the project, 70% expressed opposition to Cop City. Albrica Batts, an Atlanta resident who was one of more than 700 residents who called in opposition, says the public hearing process was an “extremely hurtful” experience.

“I lost faith in the city government,” she said. “It felt like the council did not care about their constituents. It’s all about money, greed, power, and corruption.”

Many of the locals living directly around the new facility have been placed in another tough predicament. Although the city owns the land where the facility will be built, it resides in unincorporated DeKalb County, where residents do not have representation in the City Council. The site is roughly 1 mile outside the city limits.

Policing and the idea of public safety have been a flashpoint in the city’s growing racial and economic divide. Atlanta is the 10th most segregated metro area in America and has the country’s second-largest gap between the rich and the poor. A rise in violence reflects that reality.

“Since the summer of 2020, I think people have made their voice loud and clear about their feelings towards police brutality and the police presence in general in Atlanta,” said Batts, who lives about 1 mile from the proposed site. “But this project feels like there are larger forces at play.”

The proposed facility, which will begin construction in the coming months, will be a “game-changer” for public safety, says police foundation President Dave Wilkinson. It will send a “message that tells everybody public safety is a big deal,” he said earlier this year.

But environmental advocates and many neighboring residents of the proposed site say the facility will only make it harder for them to feel safe in their homes. Not only is the center set to disturb one of the region’s most important ecosystems, residents fear it will increase noise pollution, lead to more negative interactions with the police, and disrupt their emotional and physical health.

“A police training center is no place for a park; a park is no place for a police training center,” said Joe Santifer, a resident of the Glen Emerald Park neighborhood surrounding the proposed site. Santifer, an advisory board member for the public input process around actions in the South River Forest, says the project is akin to putting “a park in the middle of a war zone.”

Image caption: The new facility will include a simulated city for officers to train in, a helicopter landing base, new outdoor shooting ranges, and burn tower sites. Source: Atlanta Police Foundation. [alt text: a map of the proposed facility. /end alt text.]

The facility will include a simulated city for officers to train in, a helicopter landing base, new outdoor shooting ranges, and burn tower sites. The police foundation also hopes to build separate museums on the site dedicated to police officers, firefighters, and the labor prison that was once located there.

Southeast Atlanta, Santifer says, has “historically [been] a dumping ground for unpopular public projects,” and this facility will “just continue that legacy.” According to the White House’s database, which measures climate and economic injustices, the three census tracts surrounding the facility, home to 13,000 people, are all disadvantaged. Residents living there — 75% of whom are Black — have some of the country’s highest rates of poverty, asthma, diabetes, and exposure to toxic waste.

One major fear, Batts says, is the psychological trauma that residents will face in response to a growing police presence and the constant drumming of shooting bullets at the gun range. There is already a smaller gun range near the proposed site that has caused major emotional issues, and she can’t imagine how much worse it can get.

“You’ll hear like 20, 30, 40, 50 rounds go off, and you’re wondering like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ ” she said of the current firing range. “It is very, very stressful. You want to feel safe in your neighborhood, but it’s hard to feel that way if you’re just hearing gunshots going off in the middle of the night.”

The importance of the forest, which helps mitigate flooding, filters air pollution, and reduces the city’s rising heat, cannot be undersold, says Jacqueline Echols, an environmental activist and president of the South River Watershed Alliance. Atlanta is the 19th fastest-warming city in the U.S., and over the last 70 years, it has experienced a 75% increase in heavy rainstorms and flooding events. Since 1950, nearly 30 tropical storms have passed through the region despite being 300 miles from the coast.

“Protecting our forests is about protecting our neighborhoods,” Echols said. “There cannot be an Atlanta, especially not an equitable Atlanta, in the face of climate destruction without our forests.”

[alt text: A map of the area around the proposed training facility. Top text reads: “Danger Zone: More than 11000 people live in the three census designations surrounding the proposed facility. Residents living within one mile of the facility are expected to experience the worst noise and environmental pollution levels.” The map shows Southeast Atlanta and the surrounding area, and has markers for Public Schools, Housing Neighborhoods, a Youth Detention Center, the Training Facility, and Industries. Bottom text reads: “Map: Adam Mahoney/Capital B News. Created with Datawrapper.” /end alt text]

In addition to the negative climate impacts from cutting down so many trees, experts believe the burn tower sites and shooting ranges will lead to a slew of toxic chemicals seeping into the South River, which runs through the forest. The South River is already one of America’s most contaminated.

“This is an act of disinvestment, especially with the environment,” Echols said. “Investment means investing in the community’s environment and bettering our livelihood. Disinvestment occurs when you take that away, and that is what is happening around the South River.”

Acknowledging the importance of maintaining green space in combating the city’s unique climate challenges, the Atlanta City Council voted in 2020 to preserve an inlet of forest land outside the South River Forest. “This is the first — but not the last — property that we’ll use tree trust money to protect,” then-city Planning Commissioner Tim Keane said at the time. But just one year later, the same council voted to lease the South River Forest.

At the same time that the City Council voted emphatically to lease the land, they rebuffed the opportunity to update Atlanta’s Tree Protection Ordinance, which puts guidelines into place to protect the city’s trees from developers and homebuilders. The city’s tree canopy has consistently shrunk in the last decade, while the area’s population has grown unchecked and threatened local greenery, a 2021 study found.

Despite the project pushing through, many residents continue to fight. A few dozen have even taken refuge in the forest in an attempt to block the facility’s construction. Two weeks ago, eight of the activists, who refer to themselves as “land defenders,” were arrested by Atlanta police for trespassing.

The continued fight, residents say, is about protecting their community and the city at large. “Atlanta is changing so fast,” Batts said. “I just think about the effects these projects are going to have on the formative years of our children.”

“They’re growing up in this type of environment where I don’t think it’s healthy to be seeing a constant police presence, for your neighborhood to be changing — not to mention the environmental impacts.”

#article #excerpt #full article under the cut #bolding mine #environmental justice #atlanta #atlanta forest #defend the atlanta forest #georgia #us politics #environmental racism #policing

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conflictgoblin · 1 year

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#justice for tort #atlanta forest #atlanta #stop cop city #cop city #acab

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noneedtofearorhope · 2 years

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Posted on June 13, 2022 -

On 6/12 we smashed every window and door of the Atlas construction office in Kansas City area in solidarity with the Atlanta forest defense. We will continue this path of destruction until cop city is stopped and the forest can exist in peace. Atlas be warned, much more is coming.

Sending love to the forest, -some anarchists-

-Received anonymously over email

#stop cop city #atlanta forest #direct action #forest defense #solidarity #vandalism #anarchy #anarchism #communique

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thatwitchybitchandco · 10 months

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#stopcopcity #stop cop city #Atlanta #atlanta forest #cop city #cop city vote

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thatsleepymermaid · 3 months

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I haven't heard people talking about this much, but I feel like it's important for people to know. Especially since SB 63 essentially bans bail funds by not allowing organizations, charities, individuals, or groups to bail out more than three people per year and requiring them to register as bonding agencies.

This is a direct response to all the protests happening here in Atlanta. So far, spreading the word can help as well as donating to The Atlanta Solidarity Fund .

In the meantime, here's some phone numbers of politicians you can go bug.

Randy Robertson (Guy who's sponsoring the bill): +1-404-656-0045

Brian Kemp (Governor of Georgia): +1-404-656-1776

#atlanta #stop cop city #politics #project 2025 #cop city #prison abolition #Georgia #Brian Kemp #Randy Robertson #activism #intersectional activism #black lives matter #SB 63 #weelaunee forest

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nando161mando · 2 months

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Developing Action Capacity, A Path: Zine