Stop Cop City

the top of our game, invented moves. Ain't nobody ever see him before? And then you get up there, tokyo, get the twisties a little bit, and then you just gotta you just gotta be like yeo, I gotta take a step back. You know. I know I'm the greatest, but this should happen sometimes. Bro, Michael Jordan's took two years off to go chill. Well, he played baseball, but you know what I'm saying, it had whatever the jim during that time. No, I don't think so he made

space jam. I think like after he came back with the year after some like um what's going on with you? How you doing? I'm great, I am thriving. Uh I am uh. I'm not excited about this eviction moratory. I'm expiring. We're gonna talk about a little bit more in a bit, but um, from a local perspective, my colleague, my comrade, Commissioner Tim Denson, has been working on eviction protection program

that actually protects both renters and landlords. He's working on it since last December, and the moderates on them he foresaw it coming. Oh yeah, oh yeah, he's alwayould coming away away and he's been working on it since December. Uh, the moderates on the commission who just hate the left

because we are young and like socialists or whatever. To stone waled it, stone waled it, stone walded for months and now we got you know, like forty I think compending evictions in the magistrate court at least not including all the ones that are about to get filed now. And it's just like y'all think this isn't a game. You'all think this is a game. This is not a game, live man. So is there is there any chance of

us of people like fighting for to get it? Just kind of like permanently in place in some manner for him, because I feel like we've been talking about this coming up and then it got extended, and then it's coming

up again. It seems like, you know, we're in an economic state where we might need that to kind of be indefinite until further notice type of Well, what we need to do is a federal house and guarantee and just you know, it would be far cheaper probably for us to just house everyone then to like fund the magistrate courts, operation of eviction proceedings and like and and pay for you know, the like substance abuse issues of the homeless, because one day somebody loses a job and

they lose their car, then they lose their house and now they're living in a camp somewhere. You know. I yes, we would be knowpe if there was just like let's maybe not big people, but you have to balance out the private market with public forces. I think, I mean

in a mixed economy like ours. And so did you make it so like you know, are you contributing it all to well Holm he's working on as far as the Oh yeah, I mean I've been, I've been, I've attended you know, meetings with the folks and other municipalities that have pilot of similar programs. Program works the um like, if you get an eviction proceeding fought against you and magised to court, magised to court, since you a letter and says, yo, there's this program you can get said

you can like take part in. We call it Project Reset, where we'll pay off part of your back rent if your landlord agrees not to kick you out. And it works out for both parties because the landlord and an eviction proceeding, they don't get shipped. They get to legally kick you out of the house, but they don't get any they don't get any money back. And so obviously

we're trying to keep renter's house. And so if you're a landlord, like, okay, my option start keep this person out and get no money or let this person stay and get like eighty percent of what I'm owed back, and who knows, maybe you might get it all maybe

you get it all back. Yeah, and so and so people who were like, oh, what about the landlord's Like, I personally don't like about the lords like for the most part, but we were we're looking at for that too, and so we didn't always work to make it happen, and it's still like, you know, we just gotta it's still like popping. It's really annoyingly annoying. But anyway, that's what. That's what's going on in my world. We'll talk a little bit more about those an other current events. Surely,

what's popping in your world? What's good? How's the studio? Oh, the studio is fine. I have been practically sleeping in there for the past week, cooking up some stuff. I mean, you know, it's always it's always weird to talk about my like musical stuff after you know, you're actually helping people and doing things real stuff like that. I barely even wrap on the show half the time. Well, I mean mixed up. The big thing right now is the show with Afroman coming up on Wednesday at Victory North

and Savannah, Georgia. But yeah, you know, just doing that, trying to promote it, getting back in the promotion games. I kind of had to slow down on some of the booking that I had been doing just because I just want to see where COVID's that. I got a little too excited when stuff started open. I know, it really hit me this week that I was like, for a couple of months, maybe it's pretty much since I

got vaccinateded back in April or whatever. I was like, it's a whole new and like very like, and then it was like and this week it really hit me, like yeah, because Savannah, actually they all just got a mask mandate. Yeah, we got we got a mask mandate in place. Um, I guess it's Georgia a hotspot at

this point, fucking practice probably. And I was like, I pretty I had, Um, I had a some sort of show at least once, you know, for for eat, for at least once of the next you know, three months, I had at least one show booked in Savannah, And now you know, I'm just looking down the line. I have no idea what's going to happen with those. So I was just like, skirt, stop booking anymore and just kind of try to wait it out. But in the meantime, you know, I got this new studio, so I am

definitely wearing it the funk out. I think I need to get a new one for real. But um, we have a pretty exciting show for you guys. Today. We're gonna be talking about a couple of different topics, but it's all going to be capped off with an interview with who we're talking to, UM, colleague of mine, a colleague in the movement. We don't like, not office mates or anything, but like kindred spirits as organizers. UM. By the end of Jasmine, who is a organizer with the

defund Atlanta what's it called? Sorry, I said, that's right, defund ap D, refund communities like working group within the Atlanta Democrats Socialists in America. So pretty much these are the like the defund people of Atlanta, UM, like their main bitch on the show to chop chat with us

about their campaign to stop cops City. This whole thing I sort of got, like it feels like when we even talked about it last time we talked, it sounds like a movie, Like it's like cartoonitially villainish, villain the villainous what they're trying to do. And actually you said it actually was a movie one time like this. There's a movie, uh, nineteen nine seven's called Copland. It's with Sylvester Stallone, Robert de Niro. It's got a bunch of those you know, like white actor dudes in it. It's

it's a really good movie. But it's about a town that is populated by a local police department. So it's like they owned busin this is there. They all have houses there. It's like a suburb that's hidden away and it's kind of closed off from the rest of the city. But you know, kind of kind of in line with what you're talking about. Obviously, it's got some ust just alone in it. So stuff starts blowing up and people

start getting shot. But you know, that might not be too far away from the reality of the reality of Cops City. But yeah, we're gonna talk to Jasmine Dark about what's going on with the stop Cops City movement in Atlanta. We're also going to talk about the men's fencing team in the Olympics, the Olympics in general, and

yeah stuff, yea, all god stuff. After the jump. Okay, so we are back and the first topic we're going to talk about it's a topic that I don't think either one of us really wants to talk about because I don't think we really care about this ship that much. I don't like, I hate giving any kind of air

oxygen to dumb shit. Yeah, you know, and I don't really take a lot of joy in participating in pylons on people that aren't like lawmakers, Like if you're just to think of that, just make raps like you know, I'll let you live. So we're talking about the baby. The North Carolina rap Sensation has been a little bit of trouble this past few days or is it a

week or weeks? I don't even fucking no. Anyway, this nigger was performing at Rolling Loud, got on stage and went on a huge homophobic rant against the l g B t Q and HIV AIDS community. One of his fashion collaborators, Booho Man Men's Clothing, has stated that they won't be working with him anymore or in the future. And after for brushing it aside, Oh I forgot, he also was dropped from performing at the park Life Festival. It's going to go down in September. Yeah, he got.

He got dropped from Lollapalooza from Day in Vegas, like Governor's Ball in New York. He got. You gotta from a ton of different ship. Oh you can ball if you want to, but but so um. After brushing it aside and the backlash and then even doubling down for a little bit. He has since formally apologized. That was today he issued the statement, I want to apologize to the LGBTQ community lgbt Q plus community for the hurtful and triggering comments I made. Again, I apologize for the

misinformed comments about HIV AIDS. I know education on this is important. So yeah, in the in the interim in between his initial statement, in that latter statement, he tried to like cover his ask by saying that his my gay fans aren't junkies like the rest of the gay community.

Like he kind of he doubled down in a weird way where he was like trying to cover trying to cover his ass, but just kept saying work and then and then his Papa says, clearly wrote this apology statement for him, because I don't believe for a fucking second these He like sat down with his journal in the moonlight and was like in the depth of his soul, like, I mean we were talking before we started recording with us, Like I don't know why these just celebrities or like

famous figures go the route of the the pr statement Instagram, Like I mean, you might as well just get on camera and say some shing. It's like people might still not even believe you. You know, you might be a bad liar, bad actor, or maybe just people have something against you and they don't take your word for it or whatever. But it's more believable than just some statement

that you clearly and write, you know what I mean? Yeah, but I guess I mean better than him speaking from the heart, apparently, because everything to speaks from the herd's true. He added, social media moves fast, and social media moves so fast that people want to demolish you before you even had the opportunity to grow, educate, and learn from

your mistakes. As a man who had to make his way from very difficult circumstances, having people I know publicly work against me knowing that what I needed was education on these topics and guidance has been challenging, to which I say, this dude is twenty nine years old, nigger us an adult, Like I mean, like we're not talking about We're not talking about like the fucking square root of some ship, you know what I mean? Like this

is just I don't know. These guys are funny. If if you listen to do his music and then like you're shocked, you know what I mean, I'm not saying pass any judgment or anything. It's not passing any judgment, but it's just like this all kind of seems in line with this ship that he does, you know, So, I mean, I mean, I do think there it does speak to a lack of education around HIV and AIDS in the in the in the in the community at large.

I think there's a lot of misconceptions and myths that still circulate to this day, though medicine has made it such that for some floths of the populace impacted by UM the disease, like, you know, it's it's manageable, it's we some of some of the early, you know, early stigmas around it have faded away with some sorts of education. But like like, but there's still a lot of people stuff. There is still a lot of stuff that people don't understand about it, and a lot of a lot more

awareness ray thing to be done. That means that just keep the mouth shut about you don't know about it's that's even I think that's given the benefit of the doubt, or not given the benefit of the doubt. I don't want to say that's what you're doing, but it's just

I don't know. I don't I don't want to take I don't want to take it that easy on them, because it's like the way I look at it is, he wouldn't have gone if there was some crew there that you like, he just they're just he wouldn't have gone on there and just said that about any old body, you know what I mean. It's like he picked those communities because he thought that he could say some ship and get away with it, which you can. I mean, he's still rich, he's still doing the ship. He still

has his fans and the people who dig him. But like you can't use Oh, I wasn't educated about HIV and AIDS in the LGBT community enough to know that I shouldn't get on stage in front of like twenty people and just like this motherfucker's you know what I mean? Or if you want to do it, then be about it, you know what I mean? Yeah, I'd be a little bit right if that's the case. Yeah, I don't know.

But enough of these funny style niggas. Let's talk about this is a crazy amount of cancel culture cascading down on this man. Though I was almost comically so I mean ends on what your definition of cancel culture, because I defined it as consequences. This is just what should happen to you if you're dumbass in public. Um. But I mean people don't remember an examina their example that was like this in recent memory. I guess, I guess you know what the difference is. We haven't had music

festivals in a year and a half. I mean people to get pulled off the lineup. I forget the dude's name. I don't feel like looking it up. But there was a country singer guy like not too long ago, just a few months ago, who they TMZ caught him saying the N word going into his his driveway. This wasn't at like a concert in front of twenty people. He was saying the N word going into his driveway. They took a ship off the Spotify. They fucking canceled the ship.

He lost this, he lost that, and it happened. And the whole lesson of it is say what you're gonna say. But people are allowed to react how they can react. That's all I'm saying. No nobody's locking the baby in jail, nobody. Nobody is saying, hey, you're not allowed to make music anymore. The venues that still want to funk with you, we'll funk with you. The fans that still want to funk with you, we'll funk with you. And the people that

don't won't. If that number of people that no longer want to funk with you is greater than the people that do you want to funk with you, then sorry, but you lost them, don't. That's just when it comes down to, that's just how would be out here. Yeah, all right, let's talk about more important things. Let's talk on more important things. Let's move on to look at

another kind of backlash that another dumbass is facing. Black voting rights leaders are getting fed up with President Joe Biden's failure to deliver on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and other pieces of legislation which crucially hinge upon

abolition of the filibuster so um. Latasha Brown and Cliff Albright, both founders of the Black Voters Matter Organization, have spoken out against Biden given their the you know, his his failure to just fucking buck up and scare the ship out of people like Cinema and Mansion that like just are standing in the way right. So Latasha Brown said, there's always this air that in some way that Black

Americans are supposed to wait. Oftentimes when we're engaged in this process, it's an urgency of what we need when there's an election, but then once there's a result, it seems that our issues are always put on the back burner. Cliff Albright went on to say, and these are both um reported by NPR that Biden lied when he said he would have the backs of black Americans, and I

laughed because it's like, yeah, nigga's surprised. I don't like, I don't know what you I don't know what you guys thought was gonna happen on some of these issues.

I think I'm kind of two minds, and I think one of them might be a bit opposed to what you're you're thinking is on this I want to see, But I don't think that this is comparable to like Obama having the House in the Senate and the White House and not getting shipped done or using what Republican obstruction there was to make excuses to not move because the Democrats are kind of Republican light and don't want to do certain ship anyway, I think this is I mean,

don't get me wrong, I think all of that can still be going on. But as far as like obstruction, I think the Republicans are on crack with their ship right now. And obviously Cinema and Mansion aren't helping. That's obvious. But I just, I just I just don't think it can be overlooked, especially this early on in the presidency. And I know, you know, there was an MPR article that you know, we had that we read for some of the background for the story, and um, you know

you had. Al Sharpton made a pretty good point where it's like, it's obviously it's hard to I'm paraphrasing. He was saying, obviously it's hard to make a judgment on something like the six months into a presidency. But the next thing you know, it'll be eight months. The next thing you know, it'll be ten months, the next thing

you know, it'll be the midttern. Will it be a fair to criticize totally understanding I'm not even I'm not sitting here saying that no one should criticize or even advocating, you know, like giving them the benefit of the doubt or understanding. You know, I'm just saying that me surveying the ship. That's just the aspect of it that I personally can't overlook or downplay to any degree. You know,

that the Republicans have completely lost the plot. A poll came out recently that over six the percent of these motherfucker's are like ready to give up democracy, Like six of them believe that voting is a privilege that can be taken away. You know what I'm saying, Like they're they're just you know, and we're not We're talking about from the tippy top of the party down to like the mom and pop voter. They're just the majority of

them have lost all interest in the American project. And because of that, I'm at the very least understanding to the predicament that the Democrats are in with trying to get some stuff done before the mid terms so people have a reason to come back out. Yeah, I guess.

I mean, we all do what we was within our power to do, and so as organizers on the ground, because this whole thing has come out of particularly a sense that you know, and I think the particular statement that Washington insiders had made people into the White House when asked what are we gonna do about voting rights.

They're responsive, Oh well, we can just outorganize them, like Kamala Harris the Democratic Party, it's gonna donate million dollars towards like voter outreach or production efforts or whatever, and kind of admitting that like, yeah, we're not going to actually change any of the laws like we said we would when we asked you to vote for us, but we'll put it back on y'all to keep on knocking on doors and making phone calls and like doing your

voter registration drive. And maybe we did that to get you in there because you were gonna take We're gonna pass the baton to you and you're gonna fix the ship the rest of the way. And they're just like psy y'all gonna keep you in the work, right um, And so uh, there's a little frustration with that, but we all douted the power, you know, as organizers on

the ground. We knock on doors, and we give volunteer stock on doors, and we you know, put the little flyers and oh no, oh no, I think we'll no, this's what I'm gonna This what I'm saying. I think we've hit our capacity as like having like worked the runoffs here in Georgia like last you know, in January, like I don't think there's anything more we can do. And and beyond that, I think everybody who bust their

ass to make it happen. Half those kids, half those people are burnt out and won't be coming back next time regardless because they gave their souls to the initiation, to the initiative of you know, taking back the sign. And so it's like if they don't, there's no like, oh, we'll does give you more money. It's like money to

train who like you. You killed off half the organizers that we had out here on the ground, like emotionally like emotionally dead into them, psychologically scarred them with how hard we worked to get the Senate and then y'all didn't do anything with it. And so I say this because we all do what we can, we do the best best we can. Organizers here in Georgia with a

Senate runoff for electing ass ofphomore not blusted ass. I would I mean, I would inspect your Biden to like try to scare your mansion a little harder, Like I want every I want all my supporters to show up at his office in West Virginia and like, let let him know that you know, this is not like put a little bit of fear in his heart. Well, I mean something like go ahead and find recruit and like and like fond of an opponent or something, just to scare the ship out of him a little bit instead

of just like what whoops. They definitely don't think we can do. They definitely are posty footing about with that ship, especially with this particular issue, the voting rights issue, because I mean, the shaving of the margins is gonna matter. You know what I'm saying, It's like every vote is going to count. I've been I've been pretty vocal on this podcast, is saying I don't think that the Republicans

can be allowed to have power again. So you know, the like the if if we just kind of if the Democrats kind of just go about the ship with this las fair attitude. It seems like they have. I mean, the lip service is good, but the actions aren't really matching what Biden is saying in terms of how some of these voting restriction bills that they're passing in the States is gonna have an effect on the next election.

But that ship's coming and with that, I you know that that that's the things that's the thing that makes me have two minds about this whole situation because all this being scared of the filibuster because what if we do this, because then if the Republicans get power, then they're going to do that. Or what if we do X and Republicans get power, then they're going to do that. They're gonna do that ship anyway, They're gonna do it,

don't matter what, mark my words. The Republicans will they will kill the filibuster the second that they have the chance to, they will. They have power and then y'all and they're going to get it because y'all and did ship the Supreme Court. So stop. But what they're gonna do, they're gonna do the worst thing that you are fear. So just chill, Just do what you gotta do to get yours. We gotta play dirty sometimes, but you know,

as it is, we're gonna have to move through. Yeah, this next story kind of quickly so we can not have a crazy time. So there's been a lot of thoughts on the Olympics and stories emerging the Olympics that have swirled about and piqued the interest of the masses. Everything from you know with happen with some of the files before the Olympics, which are Cary Richardson, I think Raven Saunders. There's like this new controversy about this. I don't even know a score. She's in this fucked up

but she's badass, wants some ship. Got up on the podium and threw up an X to represent the what was it the place where the was the oppression? We're all oppressed. People's like struggles intersect or something. Real fucking cool. Does the thing where they throw the metal ball, Dan, Don't I sound like a stoner right now? She does the thing where they throw the metal ball. Yeah, I feel like you're just quitting out strippers in the club. Like she got the thing where she throws the battle bomb.

They got the heavy battle ball and then put it to the shot but shot, but shot. That's what it is. That's what That's what I'm playing with you well soon. Indition to this, a story that I found interesting this week from the Olympics um was that the US men's fencing team wore pink face masks to protest their own teammates UM earlier this week. So he was used of sexual assault for a two thousand, fifteen, two thousand thirteen incidents.

And I guess this all came to light immediately after he was announced to the Olympic team, and so this is the rest teammates went. Weren't fucking with it? So UM at their opening match? Yes, sorry, no, he he was suspended. Before we get into that, he was suspended UM, but I guess it was over. The suspension was overturned, so he was allowed to go back. But due to the protests of his teammates, they were certain sessions that were made. So for example, he's not allowed to stay

in Olympic village. He has to stay in a hotel that's nearby. He can't be alone with any female members or team members, and I guess he's like separated just generally from the rest of the team. But he, like you know, he denies the allegations and appeals suspension that would have kept him with the U S team. Bro, why would you put yourself through this? Just go home.

This is worse embarrassment than if you'd just been like I, yeah, I fucked up, MB, And now the whole point that he's like trying that they were trying to make where it's like, oh, well he earned this Olympic right and ship like that was like, now the whole thing is about you and not about the team or you know what I'm saying, what you guys are there to represent, So you're sucking it up either way. Ridiculous. But shout out to the US men's fencing team for holding down

for for women in a show of solidarity. They ended up coming in ninth place and loss. But why does I'm just I'm delivering the news. That's what happened. That's what they get. Well, that's what you get. Nah, But y'all do the right thing right, the right thing, practice on the practice on the skills and also whatever. You don't even know what shot put is talking about, telling them, telling them, tell them world class fencers to practice all

their skills all right. Um, for for reference, they're the ones that have the notza pointing swords, A yeah in in when they when they got h competitive rapping in the Olympics. My old ask is going to be there and then I can be an Olympian as well, and their judging be elite at what I do wraps all in the mind. It's not a physical thing. It's all

in the mind. Tell them all right, all right, we're gonna take a little break when we when we come back, we're gonna be talking with Jasmine from Dark after the jump. So this week I'm very excited a chat with Jasmine, who is a member of Dark stands for defund ap D Atlanta Police Department Refund Communities. It's a campaign run by the Democratic Socialists of America chapter in Atlanta, and they are part of a coalition of people who have

been fighting to stop Cops City. So we're gonna find out what cops City is, why it sucks, and how they've been organizing to uh to you know, fight you know, to fight back against city council and what is I think pretty unequivvocally into terrible proposal. Horrible First and foremost, Jasmine, how are you today? I'm good, Thank you for having me. How are you? I'm fantastic. I'm super excited talking about this. I think it's such a fascinating campaign. UM, but to

start out to tell us what cops City is? Yes, So, cops City is a proposal introduced by um Joyce Shepherd, who's a city council person for District twelve, which is

in southwest Atlanta. UM. She has proposed that the City of Atlanta give away over three hundred acres of city owned land UM that is currently a forest, to the Atlanta Police Foundation so that they can clear the land and build an eighty million dollar police training facility UM, which would include a shooting range, explosives testing, basically a place for them to practice urban warfare tactics which we know will be used against black people, brown people, and

poor people here in the city. UM. It's a direct response to the protests and the uprisings that happened last summer. UM. And so we you know, we see that city council here in Atlanta is more committed to giving more resources to the police department, supporting capitalism and anti blackness and not really responding to community needs. So this is just

one kind of major timely example of their focus on that. Yeah, I think it's really interesting that out of the uprising last summer, for folks that weren't like directly engaged in it,

it seems like the demands were muddled. There's like hall from from like their safe distance and they're like, you know, suburban home or whatever, like it's people think policing should be better, but we're not sure how, Like oh, maybe we need to attract better officers and like let them blow up bombs in a fake city and this and this and like the heart of Atlanta that used to be a forest, um to like make them happy so

that policing will be better. When I was like, no, man, we were like pretty clear about We were like pretty clear if y'all have been out in street so those y'all want to hurt, Like we were not really playing around. And the way that that, you know, gets even the ideas like reimagining public safety like get twisted to the to be like what's into whatever you want, whatever justifications you need for expanding the you know, military police, prison

industrial stay that we live in. And we're seeing, you know, it sounds like we're seeing the same thing happen again here. UM. So they're very sorry, go ahead, and I asou to say, they're very good at co opting leftist language. So changing what reimagining public safety should mean, which is abolishing policing as an institution and creating you know, community controlled community lead UM, methods of community safety that center restorative and

transformative justice, not putting pops on bikes and communities. Um. And we've had this conversation both in the streets and through public comment and in personal conversations with city council people here in Atlanta, and many of them fain understanding over the phone and then get right back into their offices and continue to cause chaos. So I yeah, I'm not lending them any ignorance anymore, because we've explained it

multiple times and very clear language. They're just politically opposed to the concepts at this point, Yeah, very clearly, and even in opposed to not only the concepts, but like the with the community engagement aspect. That's been very interesting to watch from a distance. So what has um Well, I guess tell us a little bit about what your y'all's organizing has looked like, and then we'll get into, um, how the little city council has responded. So what So

for dark, what has organizing around this? And I guess the broad there's a broad coalition of people under the Defend the Atlanta Forest Banner doing this work. So for y'all or whatever coalitions you've been working with what has

organizing UM looks like. Yeah, So for Dark specifically, we entered the month of June really focused on UM a not our budget campaign, pushing for city council to divest UM policing and adopt a set of demands that would you know, create a pathway towards abolition here in the city. And on the same day that city Council actually voted to increase the police budget, once again ignoring demands and ignoring what residents have been asking for. UM. That same

day is when Joyce Shepard introduced that ordinance. So we quickly kind of pivoted to figuring out how to organize around this new Cops City UM, and we're fortunate to find a number of similarly minded organizations here in Atlanta UM. So we are focused primarily on ensuring that Cops City is not built, but also centering demands around land back so the Muscogee Creek. They're the original kind of stewards

of that land which was stolen from them. UM, reparative justice for the former laborers who were on the prison farm, which is what what used to be located on that land. So essentially black laborers were sold into indangured servitude on

at farm and they were forced to labor there. UM. So we want to center restorative justice for the living folks who work that land and their descendants UM and also think through in a democratic process on like city council, how the land could be used to actually address the needs of existing community members, things like affordable housing, grocery stores,

you know, real kind of public goods UM. And so we've been working with Sunrise Movement and they focus a lot on the environmental justice side of things, because again, this is a forest UM and we know that their implications for when they do these explosives and weapons testing that toxins will impact the residence of the surrounding community in ways that would lead to long term health damage.

We've been working with Community Movement Builders. They are a UM black organization in Pittsburgh really rooted in building liberated and self sustaining Black communities UM. And they are in the district where Joyce Shephard UM apparently is supposed to be representing the interests but it's not, yeah, exactly, UM Black Alliance for Peace and um D s A at large.

And so we've all been working together to primarily raise awareness about what's going on, and we do a lot of canvasing, and most of the folks we talked to are like, we've never we didn't know that this was happening. Even the people who live in the neighborhood surrounding where

cops city would be never heard of it. UM So raising awareness, really putting pressure on city Council to recognize, even if only for their own political interests, that this is not what community wants, so they should prepare to vote no on it when um it comes up for vote on August sixte and then we'll be having a

series of just community events um So. The first one, we'll be having a town hall UM in about a week and a half to combat the open forum session that happened a couple of weeks ago where the Atlanta Police Foundation essentially brought folks together to give a presentation but called it a community meeting, but nobody was allowed to speak, nobody was allowed to give actual input. So we'll be having our own town hall to show what

democracy is actually supposed to look like. UM And we'll also be having a teaching in a barbecue just to bring community together talk about the kind of historic context of the land and what it means UM in this current moment, as we fight against police brutality and as we fight for abolition UM and Yeah, we'll have a bunch of series of events essentially just to bring awareness to the topic and to yeah, make it plain that this is not what we want and that there will

be repercussions and consequences for those who aren't on our side. Yeah, I mean, I love the broad covolition that's kind of come together to fight you know, UM on their on their own turfs, like with Sunrise sort of focus on the environmental justice aspect of it UM as well as the variety of kinds of events that have been put on under this band or to send the Atlanta forests.

Like I feel like there's a lot of joy in this movement, Like there's a lot of les barbecues, and there's like people's hanging out in the forest having a good dime and join the forest while it's here. Hopefully it doesn't go anywhere, but UM as a part of just raising awareness about what it gives to the city and its inherent value and with land back and with you know, thinking about atonement and restorative justice around UM slavery and the relationships with slavery and our modern day

prison industrial complex. There's just so much packed into this, into this fight that's so interesting. Um, there's also there's also like a Hollywood component, if it might not mistaken, Is that still going on and can speak to that, because I was very curious that, like, yeah, it could

just tell us about that part. Yes, So Black Hall Studios they are, I guess, a Hollywood studio that was planning to build UM a facility in the same Entrenchman Creek Park, the same location they've are, you destroyed a number of acres of land, but then realized that the land that they destroyed was would not be suitable for what they wanted to build. So they're also looking now

to destroy another two hundred acres to build a sound stage. UM. And again they moved similarly to city council UM pretending that they were having all of these public comment sessions but really just kind of bull dozing forward with their plans for development. UM. It's yeah, it's there's a lot

going on. There's a lot of capitalism involved in the studio project as well as the UM the actual what would be the cop City facility UM, which we know is being funded by the Atlanta Police Foundation, which UM a private entity that receives a lot of money from top companies here in the city of Atlanta and foundations as well. So yeah, and then that actually that I

think itself has some times to UM. The Atlanta Police Foundation has sometimes the way that this UM movement against Cops City as being or or or the discussion around Cops City is being portrayed in the media. Isn't there some sort of link between like the Atlanta Police planoundation in the Atlanta Gurtal Constitution or something like that. So yes,

I believe that. Um. So the facility is also supported by the Atlanta Committee for Progress, which that yeah, the cos Enterprises, which owns the a C which has been shaping the way. Yeah, so like the biggest newspaper in the state of Georgia is also somewhat complicit in shaping the narrative around whose you know, whose voices matter in

the conversation around Cops City. I'm I'm shocked that it's not more coverage of of just the work that y'all are doing, and it's been focused primarily on the debate in city Hall or lack thereof given how loath to actually attend and be present, you know, like be like conscious and consciously present for pulblic comment. A lot of the City council folks seemed to be Yeah a j C has a history of blocking activists on Twitter when they've been called out about I feel like that should

be illegal or something that's nuts. Yo, you would think, yeah, what what anyway? UM how speaking of you know, the folks on City Council, how f at all do you see this fight kind of playing into the races for mayor and City Council and City Council president that we

are in the throes of right now. Um, in regards to like how people are positioning themselves, the rhetoric people are using around crime generally and things like that, so that that's a huge component of I think the transition out of Keisha Lance Bottoms and administration and into whatever this new one looks like. Everyone's been very critical of, um Keisha Lance Bottoms for rising crime here in the city,

which largely is a lot of myth making. Um In the crime that you do see is a direct result obviously of exploitation and need um given the context of this global pandemic UM where folks receive very little support from the government. People are you know, housing insecure, food insecure, all of these mechanisms that lead to whatever we consider crime to be. UM. And so they're using that as kind of talking points for why we need a cop facility,

why we need more police. We know Joyce Shepherd, the council person that introduced this legislation, has a history of calling the police on people in her own community. UM. So there's very little i think hope on the left that the folks that are currently on city council will

actually um be different or do anything different. Even the ones that consider themselves on the left, like Antonio Brown, are perpetuating this idea of public safety that includes cops on bicycles or police training and want to a tribute brutality to bad apples or bad culture of policing UM, even though they've been in dialogue with many activists who have explained the direct um focus of policing is to subjugate black and brown bodies, is to protect capitalism and

those who benefit from it. UM. So we don't have any faith in anyone who is currently on city Council to actually respond to what it is that community needs,

and so we UM are. Part of our campaign is to amplify that truth, to let people know what their city council members are actually voting on, and how they are voting, and how oftentimes their plans don't actually match the words that they say UM when they're speaking with community, And to offer candidates who are running against those folks the opportunity to state, UM, what side they fall on, UM, so that we can amplify them if or their platform

rather UM, if they're you know, on the right side. Yeah, a couple of months left. Election season always sucks. So we'll see how A guy I saw polling this morning. They had Cassim Read in the lead, which just I don't get here. It hurt me. I was like, y'all playing like, how do we get back here? Yeah, it's anything here. Atlanta politics highlights that representation is not liberation. Just because you have black people in power does not

mean that they're fighting for your interests. We have to build people power such that these city council institutions become irrelevant and aren't able to actually dictate our lives. We can't rely on individuals UM to actually speak for our interests, because if they're successful, it's likely that they're tied to capitalists and moneyed interests and not community right right, right right, in order they have to play the game in order to even be sitting sitting at that table, which means

like being beholden to to corporate power, to capital, etcetera. Yeah, it's really hard to maintain your integrity and your grounded nous even if you come out of social movement, like once you enter that space ideals that all the times in like the official just like not losing my way because like, yeah, we got developers being like hey, what's up, trying to you know, like etcetera. Um and so, um, let's see what happened. We covered a ton of stuff already,

didn't not take long. Surprised. Um, So let's see. Oh, can you speak some to the Buckhead city hood movement and how city Council is leveraging the voices of that movement to push for cops city. Yes. So again with this narrative of crime, crime being such a huge issue in Atlanta, talking about crime instead of talking about social issues like poverty. Um So, Buckhead is a wealthy community

in North Atlanta. Um, it's home to Atlantic small fis plaza, very bougie areas that are just meant to attract people who are very wealthy. Um. And so for decades UM they've been living in their own enclave of rich whiteness. And again due to the deprivation caused by the pandemic that has been increased, um social prime. I guess you could call it whatever crime means. We you know, capitalism defines crime, not actually you know what is bad for society.

But there's a perception that in Buckhead crime has increased and the white people there are upset with it. And so as city council does often they acquiesced to the demands of what rich people want. And so they are in the process of funding this kind of additional policing unit safe safety unit in Buckhead um and are again using the rhetoric around crime to justify why these additional police forces would need a place to train. Um. And

that's connected directly to cops city. So again just relaying the same language that we hear time and time again that poor people are causing problems and we need police officers who can stop them. Um. And despite the evidence, despite all of the conversations that activists have had with city council members around this issue, UM acknowledging and presenting

data that more policing does not actually lower crime. UM they refused to listen because they know that the wealthy people want something and that's who their constituents are, no matter what district they're in. UM. Joyce Shepherd is in a primarily black area UM and still feels the need to acquiesce to these demands. So and I recall seeing UM the Atlanta the official Atlanta City Council Twitter reet. I think it was like Fox CBS forty six, Fox

News somebody. But they were talking about how Atlanta homeowners were calling for UM cops City to sort of like contrast that like the four hours of public comment they had received at the last meeting largely against cops City, like didn't count because its people were probably ters or interlopers or something like that. But this homeowner and Buckhead said that they were this, this person owns property and so like they you know, have rights and a voice.

UM was scared about crime, and like the center the centering that UH perspective to sort of like blanket over the very loud and broad chorus of people that were against against the measure? Right, how how how many renters does it take the equal one homeowner? Yeah? Exactly, yeah, yeah.

And the comment about homeowners being more active citizens than renters is just misguided UM and a way to elevate property owners UM again tend to be obviously wealthier, UM wider UM, and their their desires over what the broad vast majority of residents actually want. UM. And we know that the city council people they wouldn't know if a homeowner or a renter are called because they don't listen to our public comment. They don't even do, they've already

made their minds up. Yeah. And then and I think there was an incident where Joyce Shepherd some people went to her house, correct because she called the police, well, I mean people because she wasn't listening to the public comment in the meetings. And then, if I recall correctly as well, during the public comment at a subsequent meeting, she left to hold a press conference about not being scared the protest. Yes? Is that? Is that? Is that correct?

Is that what happened? She held an entire press conference about how she wasn't scared and she was going to move forward with her plans, despite the fact that she was scared enough apparently to call the police, but when peaceful folks showed up to her house to demand what it is that they want, which is the whole point I thought of being an elected official was to actually um elevate the needs of the folks that you're supposed to be representing. But city coun so doesn't have the

same definition of democracy. So I mean, like, just given that you know, those these blows, these what must be like setback for what feels like being stonewalled? Like what how do you all keep moving forward? Like does that inform a shift in tactics or strategy? Um? And how do and how do you all keep it faith in the face of that kind of stonewalling? I think a major revelation UM, for I think a lot of organizers here in the city is like I said before, city

council is not They're not changing their minds, right. So once you learn that lesson, it's easy to adapt to an alternative strategy. Our fight is not going to be one through electoral politics, um again, because the people who enter that space have already decided that they have different priorities than actually upholding what it is that residents want.

And so our main mission is to build people power around these ideas, to build a collective of communities that are organized and committed to abolition, getting rid of policing, creating community centered institutions for public safety UM that aren't centered around violence and retribution UM so that we can make these other institutions obsolete. And obviously we are going to have to in the meantime try to fight on the electoral front, because that's currently how decisions are made.

You know, we need currently a process to close the Atlanta City Detention Center, and that's something that the mayor will have control over. So it doesn't mean giving up on the electoral fight, but it means that our our vision should be broader than the people who currently sit on city Council so that we have enough power to supersede and ignore the decisions that they make in isolation

outside of community UM. And then like he like we talked about before, we like to have community events like this work can be very draining obviously if you're not seeing the type of winds that you know your energy has um poured into. And so yeah, we have barbecues

we have community meetings. We really just want to build relationships with one another so that we can have enough sustained energy to keep moving, because this is not something that's gonna even if we are successful in getting city Council to vote no on Cops City, the fight to abolish to the Atlanta Police Department is not going to be over just because of that. So we're like batting down all these things that like are popping up while also trying to plan for a longer term vision for

the city. Yeah, and so where where is um? Where is cops? Where's Cops City at right now? What are y'all's planning, What are y'all's next moves looking like with regards to yes. So we are we are in turbo mode right now because the the vote is on the six of August currently scheduled for that. We understand that am I get pushed back again because city a lot of city council people may not want to be on the record either way because of these elections that are

coming up in November. But we are prepared in the event that they decide that they do want to vote on it on the sixteenth, So in preparation for that, We will be having a people's town hall on August five, from six thirty to nine pm at the Neighborhood Church in Candler Park, and again that's going to be an opportunity for us to counter the fake listening session that

the Atlanta Police Foundation had on the fifteenth. People can come out talk about how they feel about pop City UM and will also be inviting city council members to attend, so if they choose, they can have another opportunity to hear what it is that residents actually want. We are also encouraging people to call city council members, particularly Westmoreland Eyed, Antonio Brown, Andre Dickens, Parokee, and Archibald, people who have

previously been crib like, how would you describe their? People who are movable whatever that means, right, People who are not Joy Shepherd, who are actively championing pretty much UM want call them, you know, let them know that this is not what we want. They like to pretend that there are all these other people calling them saying the opposite. UM. Somehow those people are never on the record, So we're

encouraging folks to UM to call them. We also have a website, Stop cop City dot org where folks can go to sign our petition, just again to put on the record how many people are against this. UM. You can follow dark a t L on Instagram where you can keep up with all of our canvassing events. We are canvasing Joy Shepherd's District this weekend, UM, and you'll get be able to get more information on the teaching that we are planning as well UM for the weekend

right before the vote this. It's important to know about the movement in Atlanta, about lessons that people can take away to other places or anything. Yeah, I mean, I would say obviously, I think any movement for liberation, for socialism in general, abolition should be centering the most impacted UM, black people, brown people, poor people. If you're if your movement doesn't have anybody who meets that criteria in it,

you might want to think about forming coalition. UM. This fight is going to be long and so UM again, it's important to build community with people that you can sustain the fight alongside. UM. And we know for Atlanta specifically that this fight is far beyond cops City. UM. We have an entire kind of cultural and material shift that we have to make away from punitive justice away

from policing, UM for us to actually be safe. UM. And we know that folks and community know this when we canvass people talk about the fact that the cops have never helped them, UM, that they don't feel safe around police officers. UM. And so we need to be creating alternative systems as we work to um demolish the

ones that are currently in place. And it's important for us and for our own mental health not to believe that city Council is going to be the ones to help us in that sight, um, but but rather they are currently oppositional forces and will be called out and

treated as such. And so any of them who are listening to this who are running for mayor or running for reelection, like, please know that we will be actively opposing you and making your campaign very unsuccessful if you're not on the right side here tell them, put them put the fear in their hearts, right and right like all these businesses who want to put out ads about diversity and inclusion but are behind the scenes funding cops.

City like, we're coming for you to so just be unnoticed. So, yeah, we really appreciated Jasmine in her time, particularly you know as an elected official to speak with people that organize in a very different realm than I do. Like, I do believe that we can accomplish things through policy through

like tooralism, obviously because I've made it my life's work. Um. But what struck me most in our conversation was her idea and the idea of many about building power outside of the state of just like building strong communities, building community networks of care and of safety. That so that you don't need the you don't need policymakers to like legislate the way your your neighborhood is kept safe or is run or resource um And so that was dope, doctor is real, dope. What can What do you think

people can do to help to the cause. So, if you're in the Alanta area, uh August seven, this weekend, they're gonna be um canvassing um to Stockhop City from ten am to one pm, starting at south Side Park Trail. They're also calling on people to call the Atlanta City Council. It looks like that was yesterday, So maybe not don't do maybe don't do that, Maybe don't do that. But then they also, yeah, they got another candide see like

lit them up and follow them. Yeah, yeah, you can follow dark A t L on Instagram and Twitter and just kind of keep up with what they're doing. And you know, just uh, I think beyond getting involved this cause if you're not local, thinking about the intersection between uh, criminal justice and other forms of justice struggle, like you know,

environmental justice, racial justice, the ways. One of the things that I find really intriguing about this campaign it is the way it's brought together such a diverse coalition of people who you got like Sunrise Movement on the one hand that are and all these people that are like I love the forest, save the forest because they like live in Ferngali or whatever, and the people that hate the police, and they're like yeah, like look the police, and like it's a it's a weird uh. It's like, uh,

I don't know. I try to think of like a duo, like like a classic duo that that doesn't make sense coming together, the odd couple. It's like the odd couple. Yeah, it's like I don't know who that is, but our times Okay, that sounds like it sounds like indeed, I believe that, but yeah, um matching out to them. And then this week we were gonna have maybe a little bit of discussion about hip hop addressing environmental issues, since

there is that intersection within the campaign that we're discussing. However, we actually have a whole episode on the topic of like eco hip hop that we can't wait to show you, So we're gonna save some of those gyms for that week, So stay tuned. Next week we're gonna be talking about the results of the Ohio election. Oh my god, Nina

Turners and that other ladies are head another bitch. So yeah, by the time you hear this, we will know who has won the Ohio eleventh special election for Congress to fill Marcia Fudge his seat, which I'm personally very jazzed about. We'll see who fingers crossed. And then after that, we're going to have that eco rap episode for you, and we'll have a whole episode dedicated to music. What the

funk were we're supposed to do? We're supposed to find like a rap about Olympic ship and then also like a rap about black voters being mad at the president, Like I mean, yeah, we can find them, or we could wrap them ourselves exactly correct them. An Tho Joel speaking, can you drop a beat please, Oh dope, yo yo, it's waiting on reparations. I admit we submissfits that one dude really got to skip the Olympics. The baby fucking round out on everybody's shipless find and take it too long.

You really need to fix it. Jump the topic to topic. Out of my pocket. You wint holding my jock. You did properly drop it. I'm hot doggy dog and the unknown style like crowd, do flips like Simone Biles. Whow I tried? I could rock while spe knife on the mic. How do you like me now? Laura and Fain the lust of in nature then make up the last gap of three acres, the same ones that came forwards to your gas and taste us. They want to erase it,

bulldoze and display it so they can arrect you. Even ranges practice their tactics that fameless poison the soil with lead. Contentment nation that runs through the rivers with children might play yet, but we ain't gonna take it. We organized in formation campus and calling them making the statement to Joyson declared that a mirror andre that the forest is stake were to epsking to stay. I'm dope knife Lingua franca. We are waiting on reparation. You next week, Winning on

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