#atlanta forest defenders

[kiyohiroo]

I made a fundraiser on Bonfire in memory of Tortuiguita. Proceeds benefit the Atlanta Solidarity Fund.

Bella Ciao❤️

[twinksuicide]

pls come to these functions if u are in the ATL area and help raise money for this cause!!! the forest is very important to the environment surrounding this ever-growing city and the people that live in it. the “cop-city” they are trying to build on this land will turn our city into a playground for pigs and cause further unrest with the people.

also pls follow the instagram account @/defendatlantaforest for future events supporting the cause and updates on the situation!

https://instagram.com/defendatlantaforest?igshid=YWJhMjlhZTc=

For over a year, a powerful social movement has defended the last remaining forest in Atlanta against the city government’s plans to build a giant police training center and corporate film studio.

Yesterday, in a brutal raid involving pepper balls and tear gas, police destroyed the inspiring structures that people have built to protect the forest. Today, they are charging five arrestees with "domestic terrorism" for allegedly participating in forest defense.

This is standard government practice whenever ecological movements threaten business interests. But it is capitalist profiteering, not eco-activists, that is destroying the environment we all depend on and hastening climate change. It is police, not eco-activists, who are terrorizing communities.

Please stand in solidarity with those who are fighting to keep the earth habitable.🖤🏴

Background on the movement to defend the forest:

https://crimethinc.com/CityintheForest

[reasoningdaily]

POLITICO: Kemp declares state of emergency in Georgia over 'Cop City' protests

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday declared a state of emergency following violent protests in Atlanta against the construction of a police training facility and the killing by authorities of an environmental protester said to have shot a state trooper.

The state of emergency, which authorizes the use of up to 1,000 National Guard troops to respond to incidents of civil unrest, will last until Feb. 9, barring an extension by the governor.

Protesters oppose the construction of the Atlantic Public Safety Center, dubbed “Cop City,” in Dekalb County’s South River Forest. The movement gained national attention last week when a protester was fatally shot during a SWAT raid of the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” group encampment.

Police allege that Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, 26, shot first, although activists who were present during the raid dispute authorities’ version of events. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, the officers involved were not wearing body cameras at the time of the shooting.

Teran’s death sparked global protests against police violence, as activists held vigils from Akron, Ohio, to Kurdistan. Atlanta protests turned violent Saturday, with protesters throwing rocks at the skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation and setting fire to a police cruiser.

In his State of the State address on Wednesday, Kemp decried the protesters as “out-of-state rioters” who “tried to bring violence to the streets of our capital city.” He said it was “just the latest example of why here in Georgia, we’ll always back the blue.”

Kemp called out the National Guard to guard the state Capitol, the governor’s mansion and other public facilities during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and kept them mobilized and providing security at the Capitol well into 2021.

Since the summer of 2021, Defend the Atlanta Forest protesters have engaged in extended tree-sits, rallies, and other forms of resistance against the development of over 380 acres of forest land to build a mock city and tactical training ground for police.

Standoffs between protesters and police have escalated recently, with protesters throwing Molotov cocktails at officers and police employing tear gas and rubber bullets to remove protesters from treehouse encampments. Since December, a dozen protesters have been charged with domestic terrorism under a state law that can carry up to a 35-year prison term.

Activists argue that the construction of the training complex would exacerbate police violence against the predominantly Black and brown communities in the county and perpetuate environmental racism due to chemical runoff from weapons testing.

[prole-log]

[kropotkindersurprise]

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]

[edwordsmyth]

Manuel "Tortuguita" Teran, murdered yesterday (January 18) by police in Atlanta for protecting Weelaunee Forest from being destroyed and converted into the country's largest militarized police training center.

[jonasgoonface]

Our comrade Victor was snatched out of atlanta, and is approaching his 6th month of incarceration. First in DeKalb County, now in the Stewart Detention Center. Here's his site

[nunjournal]

per Atlanta Community Press Collective, Tortuguita was killed by police while seated and with their hands up. I know there have been some posts circulating about this already, but please keep it going. Atlanta Police Foundation’s narrative has and probably will continue to dominate the narrative because mainstream news orgs have just been parroting police press releases (as they do).

[darkarches]

Help protect Weelaunee Forest and stop the construction of cop city!

There was a conference last night for the Stop Cop City week of solidarity coming up February 19th-26th.

The main takeaway is that if people are interested in taking action, the best thing to do would be to target the construction company that the police have contracted, the funders of the project, and the insurance company insuring the project. The cops are the ones who want cop city built, but they can't do it without the groups mentioned above.

The construction company is Brasfield and Gorrie. My understanding is the company itself probably won't turn a huge profit from the project and is mostly doing it to strengthen relations with the police. If we can show them they will lose money from this project they may pull out. One way to show them how unprofitable this venture would be for them is to make it harder for them to complete other projects they're working on. One suggestion from the conference is that those who live near construction projects being done by Brasfield and Gorrie could try to obstruct progress on these projects to show there will be repercussions if they don't pull out of cop city.

The main funders of the project are big banks and corporations. I've included a link at the bottom with more details but some of the groups funding this are Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Target, Home Depot, and Chik-fil-a. The Atlanta Police Foundation is also helping fund and support the project. Below I've linked a map that shows the locations of these funders and offices of members of the Atlanta Police Foundation.

The insurance company signed onto the cop city project is AXA. At the conference last night it was emphasized that AXA is the main target we want to go after during the upcoming week of solidarity. The destruction of the forest cannot continue without an insurance company covering them. I did a quick google search and was able to find several AXA offices near me. Like with Brasfield and Gorrie, if we put the pressure on AXA they will hopefully realize this project is simply not worth it and pull out.

This is a list of targets which includes a map of where these targets are located throughout the US. There is also a list of actions that people can take, but be creative.

Nobody wants cop city except the police and corporations. Let's help save the Weelaunee Forest!

[radicalgraff]

"Avenge Tort"

Graffiti on the police headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island in response to the murder of Manuel Teran aka Tort, an Atlanta Forest defender who was shot and killed by cops on Wednesday.

The Atlanta city council plans to clear the forest to build a massive police training facility dubbed "Cop City".

[reasoningdaily]

The New York Times: Gov. Kemp Authorizes National Guard to Intervene in Atlanta Protests

Jan. 27, 2023Updated 3:32 p.m. ET

Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia has issued an emergency order activating up to 1,000 Georgia National Guard troops to “subdue riot and unlawful assembly” that may break out over a public safety training facility — dubbed “Cop City” by detractors — that has been proposed in Atlanta.

The governor’s move on Thursday follows more than a week of unrest in Atlanta over the officer-involved shooting death of Manuel Teran, 26, a demonstrator who had been living in the forested site of the planned training campus to protest police militarization and protect the trees.

The authorities claim that Teran fired a gun at a state trooper during a “clearing operation” in the woods before being killed by the police. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said that no body camera footage of the encounter is available.

Teran’s death brought an already tense feud between law enforcement and opponents of the project to a head, prompting vigils and marches in Atlanta and across the country.

Some of the protests in Atlanta have taken a turn for the destructive, with activists smashing windows and setting fire to police cruisers. So far, 19 activists have been arrested and charged with “domestic terrorism” in connection with protests.

The expected release on Friday of video images of a traffic stop in Memphis that led to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by police officers may further inflame tensions in Georgia.

The Atlanta Police Department said in a statement that its personnel were “closely monitoring the events in Memphis, and are prepared to support peaceful protests in our city.”

“We understand and share in the outrage surrounding the death of Tyre Nichols,” the department added. “Police officers are expected to conduct themselves in a compassionate, competent, and constitutional manner and these officers failed Tyre, their communities and their profession.”

Mr. Kemp’s executive order is set to expire on Feb. 9.

[prole-log]

"Not One Inch" -- new work from NO Bonzo against Cop City in Atlanta. Here is a high res pdf.

[nando161mando]

March Against Cop Campus!

From Atlanta to the Bay

Stop Police Militarization in our Communities

Sat Sep 30 @ 3pm

Kennedy Plaza in San Pablo, California (23rd St & Brookside Dr)

The City of San Pablo plans to build a $43 million police training center and shooting range for cops around the Bay Area. The people of San Pablo and the Bay Area oppose this expansion of police power because of cops long history of harassing, abusing, incarcerating, and killing Black and Brown people.

Show up and march with us against the construction. We need healthy communities not police! Together we can stop Cop Campus!

@antifainternational @anarchistmemecollective @kropotkindersurprise @radicalgraff

#StopCopCity #StopCopCampus #BlockCopCity #DefendTheForest #DefendTheBay

[everlastingrandom]

Please Support the Atlanta Solidarity Fund!!

Within the last hour, an audio recording of Atlanta PD just dropped, with police admitting that the arrest of the three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF) this Wednesday was a blatant attempt to disrupt support for the Defend the Forest Movement, by cutting off mutual aid and bail funds.

The first trial hearing today was to determine if the arrestees would get bail. Even the judge could tell the charges were BS—money laundering and charity fraud—When all their transactions are public knowledge. But the court still set bail at $15,000 each to appease prosecution.

The ASF has been forced to use their own funds to avoid being jailed over the weekend, and with one of them denied disability aids and medications! One of the stipulations of the bail is that they can’t use their resources to support (deliberately vague at to what counts as support) the Defend the Forest movement.

The police are worried that the timing of the arrest before the City Council’s final Cop City budget vote on Monday June 5th may have galvanized protesters instead of disrupting them. But APD will follow this pattern of targeting bail funds and charities on the grounds of “enabling violence.” There is a high likelihood of more arrests more coming, and they see it as an opportunity to get overtime pay.

Please boost this if you can!

Donation Link Here!!

[mrsblackruby]

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRsJ5PVt/

[melchiorgabor]

STOP COP CITY & DEFEND THE ATLANTA FOREST

on january 18, georgia state troops murdered Tortugita (aka Tort, they/it) during a raid of the weelaunee forest in the city of atlanta.

“cop city” is a proposed police training facility planned for construction in southwest atlanta. the designated land belongs to the Muskogee Nation, whose people were forcibly removed by the state in the 1800s.

today, atlanta is the greenest city in the us. we are known for our tree coverage. cop city will destroy a significant portion of our forest, which is essential for climate change mitigation. despite being opposed by 70% of atlanta citizens, the state and local government is not interested in listening to us. cop city will consume 85 acres of land, some of it the site of the old atlanta prison farm.

since 2021, a number of people have been protecting the forest by living in the trees. Tort was one of those people, and last week they were murdered by police while trying to prevent the construction of a facility meant to train more cops to murder more people.

the tree sitters are peaceful. stop cop city/defend the atlanta forest are peaceful protests. there have been rallies and events across the country this week in support of atlanta forest defenders.

please know that the mainstream coverage of Tort’s death and the ensuing protests is not accurate. GSP will not release body cam footage from the raid that killed Tort. they will not release ballistics. all they want is to demonize the brave people in this movement. don’t let them control this narrative.

if you’re able, please consider donating to the atlanta solidarity fund & help other protesters who have been arrested over the course of this week. you can also donate to a gofundme in support of Tort’s loved ones.

the community has been devastated. please spread the word, oppose cop city, and remember Tortugita.

#StopCopCity #JusticeForTort