Atlanta Forest Week of Action Update

If you want background on this uh, really interesting and vital piece of resistance that's happening in Atlanta, Georgia, then I would recommend you at least attempts to check out the Juggernaut of Audio, which is that two part a long story short. There's this police training facility that the Atlanta Police Foundation and other corporate interests in the city are trying to build on one of the city's last remaining like massive wafts of of a continuous forested land.

On an adjacent piece of forested land, a movie studio called Black Hall is trying to expand their sound stage onto a whole other section of the woods. The joint projects of the police training facility, dubbed Cops City and the Black Hall Studios sound stage expansion threatened hundreds of acres of the largest continuous piece of the Atlantic Forest

located in southwest Intocab County. The area is often referred to as the Lungs of Atlanta and produces a massive amount of tree canopy in the city and is a wonderful little ecological spot. I was lucky enough to visit in late April to help in putting together those those two episodes, and a lot of a lot a lot has happened since then. Uh. Coming off the success of getting Reeves Young to cease work on the Cops City project, I felt like there was this sense of renewed optimism

regarding the potential of actually winning. On the other hand, in just during the week before the Week of Action, attempts by cops to enter the forest increased, and there was talk of increasing crackdowns against the forest offenders by local law enforcement, who also announced that they called in the FBI to assist them, which leads us to the Week of Action. On the morning of May nine, which was a Monday, barely a day into the Week of Action,

a bulldozer was brought into the Atlanta Forest. This is based on reporting by the Great Folks at the Atlanta Community Press and other on the ground reports from forest offenders hosted by the Defend the Atlanta Forest account and scenes dot no blogs. So around nine thirty a m. Monday morning, people inhabiting the Wilani Forest woke up to

the sounds of trees going down and metal machinery. A bulldozer marked with Dodd Drilling LLC, accompanied by to Decab County cops, had bulldozed a path through the forested Entrenchment Creek Park, directly adjacent to the old Atlanta Prison Farm. The park land is currently under threat by the Black Hall Studios sound stage development. The Dodd Drilling bulldozer destroyed a significant swath of forests, injuring plants and animals in

its path. When people learned about this, around forty folks quickly mobilized and gathered around the bulldozer, confronting the project managers and the police officers on the scene. Those gathered showed it at the workers and cops to go home

and declared that this is a public park. When the two Decab County police who were protecting the bulldozer were confronted, it was revealed that they were actually working as off duty uniformed private security, seemingly taking orders from the construction management. The management who wore vests labeled Contour Engineering and Dodd Phillips claimed that they were not working for black Holes studios.

Who who knows if that's true or who they might be working for that Georgia state law does permit off duty police officers to be hired, along with their uniforms, service weapons, and vehicles, by private companies for their own purposes.

The police expressed that they were not aware that they were in a public park along with the bulldozer they were protecting, and faced with a confident group of responders intent on defending the forest from further destruction, police and the construction management quickly made the decision to retreat from the woods. The off duty cops had called in reinforcements from Decab County. Seven more Decab County vehicles showed up, but by the time the extra police survived, workers were

driving the bulldozers back into the parking lot. The police were persuaded to leave by the actions of intelligent people acting quickly and collectively in defense of the land. The force defenders then escorted the cops and the workers out of the park and made sure that the instruction of the woods had truly ceased. Police scanners reported that vehicles transporting the bulldozer faced a brage of rocks and had

their windshield smashed. Entrenchment Creek Park is still a public park and property of Decab County under a civil court injunction. The pending case prevents construction or clearing by Black Hall Studios. Later that same day, a group of around forty people marched to the home of Shepherd Long, the principle of Long Engineering, an engineering firm subcontracted to do surveying and other preconstruction work on the Atlanta Police Foundation's Public Safety

training center, which we called Cops City. The group rallied for about ten minutes outside Shepherd Lungs home and was demanding that Long Engineering sever its contract with the Cops City project. One of the group members read aloud a statement directed to Shepherd Long, which I will play the audio of here. In Mane is a city of forests with the most tree coverage of any urban city in America.

If you continue to work with bross Field and Gory, the entire city will experience worse floods, higher temperatures, and small field afternoons. You have the power to stop that. This proposed military training compound is in the nucleus of a culturally rich black community full of churches, preschools, and community centers. Dozens of children and grandparents have lived there

for years. If you continue to work with brass Field and Gory, our streets and backyards will be filled with shootings, explosions, and dear gas. We want our children and neighbors to be able to breathe clean air and experience the vastness of the Atlanta Forest, not to be victims of a domestic war zone. You have the power to stop that. We are here to fight for the future of our city, our children, our neighbors, and our planet. We hold no ill will towards you personally. We just want you to

make this one right decision. We no long Engineering has many other contracts with many other company. We are only here to ask you to drop this one company, Rathfield and Glory, until they dropped their contract with the Atlanta Police Foundation. The group distributed flyers alerting neighbors to the work of Shepherd Long and what his company was doing in De capp County. After about ten minutes, the group quickly dispersed without incident. The next day, There's a lot

of other events related to the Week of Action. There was a security culture workshop and activist primer about building a collective understanding of ways to keep us all safe

from imprisonment the government repression. There was a night of hip hop and punk at a local radical venue that served as a benefit show for the Forest Defense, and other random events throughout the Week of Action included stuff like clothing swaps, bike rides through the forest, yoga in the park, plus daily breakfast and dinners, history talks, art parties, wood walks, skill shares, and a sick night rave along

with you know, forced tours and much more. So that's just two days of the Week of Action, the Monday and the Tuesday. When we get back from this ad break, I will get into what happened on Wednesday and then and then Thursday. You know, we're going to go through it linearly. Um, despite my criticisms of linear time, we will go through this in a linear fashion because that's

how formatting this episode was easiest. Anyway, here's some ads, and we are back talking about the Defending Atlantic Forest Week of Action. So just after ten am on Wednesday, May eleven, to de cab County Park Police entered the forest to inspect the path created by the bulldozer that previous Monday. As they were exiting the forest, forest defenders to ambush them by throwing rocks and bottles at their

vehicles and smashing the car windows. At noons like two hours later, a van marked law enforcement Department of Juvenile Justice pulled up into the parking lot of entrenchmentt Creek Park. It's worth noting that the area of Entrenchment Creek Park and the forested area on the Atlanta Prison Farm has like two child prisons on it. We talked more about those in the in the two part series from last month.

But anyway, so this van marked Department of Juvenal Justice pulled up into the parking lot inside in Trenchmant Creek Park. But an hour later the van was attacked suddenly by a brage of rocks and multiple tires were slashed. The van attempted to escape, but was left stranded in the parking lot until the cab police were able to escort it out. Police were nervously walking backwards in order to keep their eyes on the tree line, where they knew

forced defenders would be watching them at every moment. Multiple police vehicles were damaged. Nobody was detain or arrested. Portions of that report came from scenes dot no blogs dot Org. Earlier that same day, like early in the morning, around forty people visited the home of Keith Lanier Johnson Jr. In Kensaw, Georgia. Keith is the Eastern Regional president of Brassfield and Gory. Brassfield and Gory are the current general

contractor on the Atlanta Police Foundations Cops City Project. Flyers were posted around the neighborhood, past the low barrier fencing around the gated community. An anonymous statement released online at scenes dot no blogs read quote now that Keith is no longer busy on the board of the Mount Perrin Christian School. It seems he is now managing the one hundred and forty two thou dollars of fines levied against

his employer for safety and wage theft violations. He's also overseeing the destruction of grave sites, leveling of a vital tree canopy, and the militarization of the American Police Force. It is for those reasons that community members went to his home at six am. We hope that Keith is able to convince the two owners, currently sitting comfortably back at home in Birmingham, that the current Atlanta Police Foundation contract is untenable and there is an urgent need to

cancel it. It could turn out that Keith personally is carrying to Brunt the pressure for his boss's decisions. Brassfield and Gory will eventually drop the Cops City project. Anonymous groups are developing new methods for disincentivizing the project. The next day, on May twelve, a tightly packed crowd around eight mask protesters converged on the Brassfield and Gory Atlanta

office in broad daylight. People holding banners and launching fireworks arrived at the building, and force defenders covered the side of the office with stop Cops City graffiti and chanting will be Back as they left. Unicorn Riot reported that five people were arrested following the action and booked on several charges, including some felonies. Charges were including riot and criminal damage to property and quote terroristic threats and acts.

I know that some but possibly not all, people's charges got dropped, and the listed bond amount for some individuals was extremely high, getting up to around fifty dollars just for an individual. Nearing the end of the week of action. On Saturday, May eleven, a march to Defend the Forest took the streets in East Atlanta Village, led by local preschoolers. There were some really nice signs and artwork done by kids.

The Defend the Forest twitter account posted some beautiful photos of kids protests signs that says forest is life and love you trees stop, never cut down the trees allowed with very very good art. It was very very pleasant to see. A Few hours later, another march to Atlanta at the top cop City drew around two d protesters is After about an hour of marching, the crowd returned to Freedom Park, where they were then attacked by police. Without warning. Dozens of cop cars pulled up and police

helicopters loomed overhead. Armored cops were arresting people on the sidewalks for marching on the streets, for playing drums, or for just standing in the wrong place. Atlanta police and Georgia State Patrol officers assaulted, shoved, and tackled multiple people, deployed tasers and threatened neighbors who filmed the arrests. One person violently arrested was taken to the hospital for treatment. To defend the forest, twitter account posted quote at least

seventeen arrests night by Atlanta Police Department. Spirits high as the forest raves and the encampment grows outside the forest, many stand vigil at the jail, welcoming arrestees as they are released. We are strong together. The forest unites us. The cops cannot divide us. Atlanta Police say that the march was in violation of pedestrian laws, which is why they charged and started assaulting people on the sidewalk. And that wraps up some of the Week of Action stuff.

I know there was a lot more things that happened, but trying to crime it all into a tight package was challenging. So that that was the general general week Week of Action vibes. But there is there's more. We still We still have like half the episode to go because a lot, a lot else has happened in in the days since then. In the early morning on Monday May sixteen, a week after the bulldozer descended on the forest, accompanied by off duty cops acting as security, a home

associated with Dodd Drilling LLC. Was painted with slogans including Dodd Drilling, Stay Out, stop Cops City and drop a p D. A message for the homeowner associated with Dodd Drilling was released, which you can read the full version of online at scenes dot no lugs dot org. I'll read some portions of it here. Quote. Last Monday, a bulldozer with your logo forced its way into the Wolani Forest and left one hundred foot trail of destruction in

its wake. Forced defenders responded quickly with rocks and rage, but some damage was already done. Despite having no permit, you allowed Atlanta Police to use your equipment to intimidate and injure the forest and its residents. Today, you know what it's like to have your space invaded. You came into our home, so we came to yours. Your private property is not as private as you may think. We demand that you stay out of the Wolani Forest and

stopped working with Atlanta Police and Cops City contractors. To all others who would support Cops City, it might have more costs than you anticipate, financial and otherwise. Many creatures care deeply about this forest and are prepared to defend it. Any partner of the a p D or contractor for Cops City is our enemy and a potential target. The will Annie Forest is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.

A list of local Atlanta evil doers is available at stop reeves young dot com. The next day, on Tuesday, May see Atlanta police, backed by other state and federal law enforcement, including the CAB Police, Georgia State Patrol, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI, raided the South Atlanta Forest. The raid came just days after the Week of Action, which brought hundreds to the Atlanta Forest to participate in workshops, plant gardens, watch films, and protest at

the homes of developers plotting the forests destruction. Shortly after the scheduled events ended, police gathered their forces to raid the forest encampment. Police started staging at around nine am on Tuesday and started coming in at around ten am. Force offenders started mobilizing and calling for support. Cops blocked off the roads leading to the forest access points and told drivers stuck at the blockade that quote, we're opening

up the site for construction. Soon, cops started arresting protesters that gathered in Entrenchment Creek Park and towed any car on the streets outside of the park. Helicopter circled the forest, trying to track the movement of forest offenders under the cover of the tree canopy. Police near occupied trees were heard talking about quote flushing out people inside tree houses

in the face of militant resistance. Police did manage to cut down trees and destroyed multiple treehouses, destroyed force defenders, personal belongings, and other protest infrastructure set up by the land defenders, all in an effort to allow contractors to begin development of the ninety million dollar Cops City project.

On Twitter, the Defend the Atlanta Forest account posted quote reports that the Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol are chainsawing in an area of the old Atlanta Prison farm where people have occupied trees to Defend the Forest. Dozens of Forest Defenders moving in groups all over the woods throughout the raid. No arrests inside the forest reported so far, only from the perimeter at the public park. Police seem

unwilling to pursue people through the forest. Swat rifles trained on force defenders occupying a treehouse to stop Cops City. The Defend the Forest twitter account also posted a video of a semitruck packed full of building supplies headed into the north boundary of the proposed Cops City site, where police were raiding the forest defense occupation. I'm gonna do a little quote from Unicorn Riot, who reported on the

police raid. Quote. According to police, those committed to defending the forest to put up a fight, pelting the officers with rocks and what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail was deployed along a fence line. In the wake of the raid, a truck barricade constructed months ago to protect those occupying the forest from police incursions, showed signs of having being set on fire. Flaming barricades are a common tactic used by protesters around the world to push back

against police unquote. Eventually, police let media enter a small contained area on the other side of the blockade. Police wanted to talk with the multiple press outlets that had gathered near the site in an attempt to gain control of the media narrative. Atlanta Police Deputy Chief sheer Bomb, Yes,

that's how I'm pronouncing it. I've no idea has actually said, but I think it's sheer Bomb held an interview staged by the Public Affairs Office Overall, the goal seemed to be to control the media narrative by painting police as the heroes and the protesters as a very small group of outside agitators. After getting the statement from police, most media left the scene while the blockades were still up

on both sides of the forest access road. Deputy Chief sheer Bomb said that police escorted contractors into the forest and preliminary work was being done. Police later specified that they were at this site to company contractors tasked with removing some temporary illegal structures that were set up by protesters,

and that quote no one was hurt. Media framed the raid and subsequent arrests as the police cracking down on a group of violent outside agitators, cops giving statements like quote, we will not be deterred by the acts of a few that do not represent our community, and with local news covering the incident like quote several protesters who are arrested after they threw a Molotov cocktail at police as officers raided a camp on the grounds of the planned

Atlanta Police Departments training facility unquote, even though the arrests took place in a completely different section of the woods where protesters were gathered openly in a public park and actually happened before the cocktail was thrown. Yet there was a lot of attempts to link the arrests to the maltof cocktail, but you know, media, media just do that, and they got hold up the story of of the of the cocktail and of the outside agitators attacking Atlanta

police and it's not representing our community. Eight people were arrested and faced charges ranging from criminal trespassing to police obstruction.

Despite attempts by police to paint the movement as the work of quote outside agitators, while also working alongside of growing list of out of town law enforcement organizations, the movement to oppose Cops City has been directly rooted within a broad localized opposition, whether that be with Atlanta based organizations fighting against gentrification, local chapters of climate change protest organizations, or just anonymous individuals that reside across Atlanta, or the

indigenous people who have in setral connections to the land. Hours after the raid, there was a Atlanta community press conference put on at Entrenchment Creek Park, And I'm going to read a statement that somebody gave at the press conference. Quote this is an attempt to demoralize a vibrant and diverse movement led by local community members against the replacement of the largest urban tree canopy in the United States with the largest police training compound in the United States.

The police will attempt to depict this movement as a small group of hard line activists. We are all neighbors of the forest. We are intelligent people who know that the future of the world is on fire, and who are determined to act and to defend what remains to sustain life in this city and on this planet. The city is only going to get hotter, Wrench is only going to get more expensive. Food and gas prices are only rising. The city has no answers for this except

for a more militarized police force. You can't prop up a free society with violence alone. The next day, protesters from Saturday's Stop Cop City march had court and all of their charges were dropped. Atlanta police is just desperate to get a good boogeyman to blame any potential uprising on, and they're not being super successful and letting any of these charges stick. There was this really great point made by this person named Audi Khali and was going to

quote from a thread they posted quote. Thirty seven arrests were made in relation to the decentralized Defend the Atlanta Force movement over the past weeks, mostly for made up jaywalking charges, but only twelve had their legal identities revealed to corporate media and right wing doctors. Why all twelve protesters who were docked these past couple of weeks were said to be from out of state. When journalists asked

if other protesters had Georgia residences, answers were denied. The answer to why is simple, These twelve currently possessed out of state I das and appeared white, passing the other twenty four arrestees might not necessarily fit these categories. Noticed that right wing troll Andy no omitted the ages of the arrestees who are not in their twenties as well.

This is another iteration of the outside educator and narrative and an attempt to delegitimize resistance while denying local agency unquote. Police are continuing to target stop cops to new protesters with extremely high bales. Just getting nine protesters released during one week cost over a hundred thousand dollars, So please, if you're able to consider donating to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. There will will be links in the description. So that was the raid that took place a few weeks ago.

Six tree houses were destroyed. And those tree houses weren't just like tree sets to defend the forest. These were also like people's homes like that that that's where people were living. Uh so six six of those were destroyed. Multiple force defenders, personal belongings were stolen or just dismantled and decimated by the cops. And overall the raid was pretty bad. I mean, it's it kind of it kind of sucked. We will talk about what has happened since

the raid. Would be come back from a little at break, all right, we are back after the raid. Officers from Atlanta Police Departments Zone three Field Investigations Team discussed using deadly force against protesters if they used molotov cocktails to defend themselves from a raid. According to scanner audio publicized by activists, listen closely for like thirty seconds to hear their conversation discussing deadly FORCEY good thing we didn't get out with dental today. I don't do well with fire.

Oh yeah right, hold you deadly fourth encounter. Wait, whatever doing with fire, That's why I brought it up. I was saying, as well, as long as we're all that they paid cockill deadly fourth encounter, you liar, the cock fill have them at the road, the treehow they had up they had cars like on it, people coming in serious the protest against COPT. Sure, So I'm just gonna reread one little section in case it was hard to hear. Quote I told you deadly force encounter. That's why I

brought it up. As long as we're on the same page, I'm atop cocktail is the deadly force encounter unquote. So a deadly force encounter is a situation where officers are legally allowed to shoot to kill. Basically, what this scanner audio insinuates is that police are preparing or thinking about just killing people when molotov cocktails are deployed. So that's

a thing. Also, it's a little interesting that police themselves referred to the project as cops City, But yeah, keeping track of scanner audio has been a big part of the not on the ground portion of the movement being all to track police communications, police locations all using open source information, and tops are really scared and paranoid when it comes to stuff around the forest and just don't seem to be able to grasp the idea of a

decentralized resistance movement that is capable of a diversity of tactics, including militant ones. There's this other scanner audio that was released displaying Atlanta police's ignorance, cowardice, and paranoia related to what they believe is a group dubbed Black Flag Atlanta. Hey, you guys gotta be carefully. Had a um to the cab. Guys are sitting in a van and they they attacked the van or you know, knocking windows out with flatting

attires and stuff. But they're supposed to be a group called a Black Flag Atlanta that are targeting police and they have an app and stuff that can monitor our vehicles and shows about patrol cars are sitting at with lab updates. You know, you know, you know, they could be jumping the pointing something or you know, set a trap or damaged propery ands out in the range. You said, they gotta what's the name of that? I just pulled back round find it. But the group is called Black

Flag Atlanta. So the so called group that police refer to as black Flag Atlanta is likely just referring to a hobbyist website that simply collects on the ground reports and open source police scanner information. The website is an open resource for anyone to use. It's not a group of people. It's just a random online tool that lets

you listen to scanner audio. The cops mentioned that they're afraid because of the actions of some anonymous individuals who surrounded a law enforcement vehicle and damaged it while officers were inside just sitting terrified, and then did the same to a juvenile detention facility. Van I discussed the details of that direct action earlier in this episode, when anonymous people through rocks and slash tires of those law enforcement vehicles.

Quoting from an anonymous statement on scenes dot no blogs quote, the cops believe that black Flag Atlanta is a group that tracks and monitors cops and their locations around the forest and works to attack them. This is laughably wrong. Rather than understanding that our power comes from open source intelligence, horizontal organizing, and transparency, they have conjured up a shadowy organization that organizes hits on police officers and publishes their

targets right beforehand. Unquote, cops really just don't seem to have a clue on what's what's actually going on um or how any types of decentralized infrastructure works, or how movements are really operated. It is an interesting thing to see. But scared cops are also dangerous cops, as we just mentioned about them planning to use lethal force if there's a multip cocktail in the area right when cops are scared.

That's not necessarily always a good thing. Um. It just you know, a lot of police training is based on being afraid and then using deadly force if you are afraid. So it's just a thing to think about. I'm not I'm not I'm not making any like commentary here. I'm just saying, yeah, cops seem really scared, and that can

be good. It also can be dangerous. I'm now going to talk a bit about solidarity actions, because you know, not everyone's able to go to Atlanta, even if even if they would like to go to land and help to help participate, some people just aren't able to. But that doesn't mean people are unable to assist in the movement. I'm gonna do a little quote from Unicorn Riot quote.

In recent weeks, autonomous attacks in solidarity with efforts to defend the Atlanta Forest have occurred throughout the country, according to a website that tracks such actions, One repeated target has been at Las Technical Consultants, the apparent company of Long Engineering, a subcontractor of the Cops City project, which had its windows of its office smashed in Albany, New York, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and it's building tag with the graffiti

in Highland, Indiana. The website also received reports of attacks on Bank of America, which donates money to the police foundations across the country, including the Atlanta Police Foundation. Attacks were reported in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Portland's Enemy Appolis unquote. And I'm going to just go through a list of solidarity actions that have happened in May and now up into June. Most of these were posted on scenes dot no blogs that seems to be the main site for anonymously posting

communication or report backs. You can find guides to how to do so with more Internet security on websites like Scenes and websites like Warrior up. So Anyway, here's just a list of little communications that have been released related to solidarity actions that have taken place in the past month. Quote. On the evening of May tenth, I smashed seven windows at the office building where the northeast offices of Atlas

are located in Albany, New York. I also tagged Atlas stopped destroying the Atlanta Forest, destroying conscience of acres of forest during the sixth greatest mass extinction of species. To build a police training facility following one of the largest anti police uprisings in decades is fucking disgusting with his vandalism. I urge Atlas to do the right thing and to drop any contracts with brass Field and Gory and the

Cops City project. During the week of Action, the brass Field and Gory Corporate HQ in Birmingham, Alabama was targeted. According to a strongly worded anonymous statement published on scenes. The report back reads quote, on the morning of the thirte the windows and glass doors to the brass Field and Gory Corporate HQ were smashed. The words drop Cops City or else were spray painted on the windows. Paint

was applied to the front sign. Let it serve as a warning to the executives at brass Field and Gory. We know where you work and we know where you sleep. You're houses could be next Keith Johnson Miller, George James Gory. You will drop this contract eventually. Why wait to see how far will go? In solidarity with a struggle in Atlanta unquote. And then just a few days ago, construction offices in Pennsylvania were hit the community a was short

and sweet just reads quote. Door windows smashed and building tagged at the northeast office of Atlas Technical Consultants at two one to six Fillmore Avenue in Erie, Pennsylvania. Stop Cops City, Defend the Atlanta Forest and Forests Everywhere. A few days ago, on May thirty one, there was a massive police mobilization involving helicopters and a road checkpoint around

the Atlanta Forest at the proposed Cops City site. According to reports, Atlanta Police Department accompanied Long Engineering, who seemingly we're surveying for a perimeter fence. No arrests were reported. Long Engineering, as we've stated, is owned by Atlas Technical Consultant and it's currently being contracted by Brassfield and Gory, the Atlanta Police Foundation's general contractor. The Soft Reeves Young campaign released a statement discussing the events of the past

few days quote. On May thirty one and June one, Brassfield and Gory subcontractor Long Engineering entered the old Atlanta prison farm with chainsaws and heavy machinery. They're cutting down trees in order to build a fence around the zone. This is where the Police Foundation believes they will build the Cops City Training Compound. They hope to prevent the

community from seeing what they are doing. Long Engineering, owned by a man named Shephard Long of ken Saw, Georgia, has already participated in destructive acts in the South River Forest. For this, they have become the object of a nationwide pressure campaign by activists and communities organizing to oppose police militarization and climate change. Long is a subsidy of Atlas

Technical Consultants. If activists and community members can convince Brassfield and Gory to drop their contract with the Atlanta Police Foundation, the project could lose funding and fall apart. Brass Field and Gory uses many subcontractors to do their projects, including Atlas Technical Consultants subsidy Long Engineering. By encouraging Long Engineering to drop the contract with Brassfield and Gory, we encourage Brassfield and Gory to drop their contract with cops. City.

Climate collapse and police militarization are not abstract processes so that nobody can stop. They happen because of observable and preventable reasons. If you care about police brutality, if you want to stop climate change, this is your chance to do something unquote. And I do think there are a lot of signs that people actually can make actual impacts.

At the last community Stakeholder Advisory meeting, Atlanta Assistant police Chief Darien schnear Bomb said that construction plans could be quote delayed or deferred because of the actions of a very few unquote, and said that this is why police agencies are working to quote addressed criminal protests very quickly

so it doesn't get into that realm unquote. And on the day I record this, which is June second, earlier this morning to police chased force defenders into the woods near a work site and found a camp ten force defenders confronted and surrounded a bulldozer that was in the woods,

resulting in a work stoppage. On a communicate released online at scenes read quote work stopped Today Thursday, June second, as a group of ten Force Defenders confronted a bulldozer in the forest just west of the Duvy today forcet defenders launched rocks and fireworks, yelling get the funk out of the woods. As the machine was attacked. Four to five workers, likely with long engineering, hid behind the bulldozer while one Atlanta Police officer stood idly with his hands

on his hips. Force defenders retreated into the woods howling. No arrests were made. We call upon any one who wants to defend the forest and stop cops City to support the struggle by sewing chaos along the perimeter, plan a slow moving car caravan on Constitution Road, or a rally at the juvie workers and pigs. We repeat, stay the funk out of the woods, unquote. And also today a new timeline was released detailing the construction plans for

a cop city. The Atlanta Police Foundation plans to begin cutting down massive swaths of trees in about two weeks. The clearing is planned for nearly of the four hundred acre property, so defour stations seems to be just two weeks away now. Based on the full site plans that are viewable online, I will link the plans in the show notes, along with the stop Reeves Young campaign, which details ways to assist like calling campaigns and random stuff

that is maybe more possible from afar. But the stop cop City project is going to continue all throughout the summer and seems to have no sign of cooling down. It is only it is only heating up as the summer gets hotter. So well the stuff in the forest in more ways than one, But anyway, that doesn't for us. Today. You can check out stop reeve Zone dot com for the calling campaign and for the list of quote evil doers that are working to DeForest sections of the Atlanta

South River Forest. You can go to scenes dot no blogs dot org to read communicates and report backs, and I'll put links for the Atlanta Soliday Ality Fund in the description as well. See you on the other side. It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool Zone media dot com. Slash sources, thanks for listening.