Paradise Found | 1

Campsite Media.

On a chilly evening in January, an activist named Vienna Forrest goes on a date with her partner in Atlanta. It has been a long, rough month for Vienna, and she spent much of it lying low, crashing on the floor at a friend's house. Her partner, who goes by Tortigita, that's little turtle in Spanish, has decided that it's time for her to get out of the house. And we went to get Vietnamese and Mexican food, just got a whole buffet.

And Torchquito's like at their peak, they're just so happy. They quit cigarettes, they were just really doing good. A couple hours later, Vienna and Tort pack into a sedan, along with two other friends, and drive across town to a movie theater called the Starlight. The Starlight's pretty famous in its Yeah. So like next time tell your friends to The couple stays there, curled up in the back seat, hands laced together in the dark, even as the movie gets underway. So when I felt comfortable.

They were I'm feeling bad, I can lay my head on their chest and they'd comfort me. The film that night at the Starlight is Megan, the horror flick about the killer doll. The modern day Chucky, if you will. Took a while for me to remember what the movie was because I wasn't paying attention to the movie so much, but Yeah. As the movie winds down, Vienna turns to her partner, watching them. They seem like they didn't have a care in the world, or at least they

didn't show it. They hadn't this sort of resolve about things. It seemed like they were just ready for whatever was to come. Camera recording started.

About 36 hours later, in an event that will permanently, violently alter the trajectory of Vienna and tort's lives, a joint task force of law enforcement sweeps through a forest. Miles to the southeast of the drive-in. Their mission is to clear the woods of a group of activists who are camping there in an attempt to stop the construction of the largest police. In the country. The task force is divided into two teams, one of which approaches the camp from the north, and the other

Most of the members have their body cams rolling. That's the footage that you're hearing. Clear that tick. I'll let a police. Police pay nine, or you won't be fit. Fuck around. The officers are on high alert. They were warned in a briefing earlier that morning about the possibility of weapons, booby traps, even improvised explosive devices. They wade further into the woods, hacking apart empty hammocks. In one group, a task force member jokes about

finds a structure occupies. Sir a quick question. Can you get the fuck out? Please. There's some nervous laughter. And then at 901 a.m. everything Matters open. Is this target partners? The officers tense up, drop their hands to their sidebarns. Real sharp firing. And slowly, across the forest, they begin to move towards the sound of the gunfire. Jaguar, Jaguar! Watch across! A very faint transmission comes over the radio. Man down. Stop! From Wondery, Campside Media.

Paradise for the first time.

So why don't you just go ahead and introduce yourself? I'm gonna mic check here. Hi, uh Vienna. Um, how do I introduce myself? I guess just from the charges, how people would know me, partner in Tortuguita. Um, very much in the middle of the shitstorm. It's a good introduction. In the late months of 2023, Vienna Forrest sits on a sectional couch in an Airbnb in Atlanta, not far from where I live.

She's got her dog, Ellie, in her lap. While she talks, she digs her fingers into the scruff behind Ellie's ears. Although it has been nearly a year since the shooting in the forest, Vienna is still wrestling with the aftermath of the incident, which remains unresolved in every sense of the word, obscured by rumor, conjecture, and layers of government secrecy.

As for Vienna herself, she's attained a certain amount of infamy by her proximity to these events and the mass of issues they've brought to the surface. race and gentrification, police militarization and repression, climate activism and political polarization. The same issues, in other words, that are consuming all of the country. So yeah, it's a lot. Tell us a little bit about Kinda how I see my radical.

doing the groundwork and everything, but then I didn't in twenty twenty when there's the pandemic. twenty twenty years of the In the music industry. But the going had been hard even before. And so she heads home to suburban Overland. They have come to the realization that basically everything

I'm against is everything they'd stand for'cause they work in finance and they're evangelical Christians. What do you think they wanted for you if they had had their way and then been like, this is what we want for Vienna? They'd want me to follow in my dad's footsteps, work in finance, have a good paying job.

wife, kids, and uh white picket fence. Typical American dream. Eventually Vienna lands a job driving a delivery route for FedEx. The gig suits her, not only because of the money, which allows her to move out of her folks' place and into a house owned by a friend named Gavin. I just had a lot of time to just listen to podcasts and just really expand my mind a little bit more.

One afternoon, Vienna is sitting in the driver's seat of the van, watching the planes race past, listening to a podcast that's become Yeah. Forest movement. In early 2021, it was revealed to the public that the city of Atlanta The Atlanta police found into the largest police training facility in the country. The focus of the episode.

Adjacent, notably, to a historically black neighborhood, in a city where the relationship To its critics, what makes matters worse is the most by a collection Powerful corporate donors. Like someone went. as aggressives as possible. And yet, as the podcast episode makes clear, the supporters of Cops City have Multiple efforts are underway to stave off construction. Some activists are Politically, lobbying officials to take a stand against the complex, others are using a more direct route.

Yeah. Ghost like saboteur. An anonymous and diverse movement that's brought up. Forest effects. themselves. Instinctively, It's as if someone is reaching out of the speakers and grabbing her by the collar. Pay attention to this. I think a lot of people in this country can relate with the feeling of just like being stuck in a rut and just No working home, working home sort of vibe.

feeling like m they want to do more and As crazy as it is to live in the woods and protest this thing, there's some beauty to just like even though there are risks and everything, at least you are taking control of your own life. Although she has no connection to Atlanta, the cause is One day she spots news of a gathering of the water. event for anyone. I'm also doing activism.

Approaching Atlanta from the southwest on the still boiling asphalt of 75, Vienna watches the city draw into view. The vast green canopy and the jagged skyscrapers that loom over it. South again, past Centennial Park, through the late afternoon traffic, until she reaches the South River Forest, one of the largest urban woodlands in the country. thousands of acres in total, just a few short miles from the city proper. It was already after dark'cause we were driving all day.

Uh we pulled in past the concrete barricades that have been pushed across the side and the parking lot was just absolutely overfilled. And cars. Barely found a parking spot and Yeah, yeah. that uh wore away forever ago. You are now leaving the USA, it reads. Smiling, Vienna and her friend pushed deeper into the forest. Following the sound of voices through the darkness.

What came up behind uh the little uh circle of people that were there. Uh there was uh string lights lighting up the f forest floor.

There's the technically off-limits part. of an old prison farm and the Cop City construction site. And then there's the public park where most of the forest defenders live in an area known as Space City. That's where the kitchen was, all the food. There was a little uh campfire which people would gather around and just be in community with each other. In the heart of space camp is a clearing where the tall trees have grown together overhead. Stitching themselves into a weather resistant canopy.

Uh living room area we called it. It's a little pine grove, so it was a nice spot to lay. It's here that the forest defenders, many of whom have adopted forest names to protect their true identities. Sit in community with one another. People would bring instruments and play folk songs, sing together, just talk about dumb stuff and or even get into some of the heavier stuff and the theory and our political thoughts and just really enrich each other's lives.

But tonight, Vienna's first in the woods, things are pretty quiet. A lot of folks are already in their sleeping bags. It wasn't until the next morning that I really got the full experience. This place is astonishing, she thinks. Everything is so cleverly engineered, from a water delivery network to piles of food donated by supporters, or procured more creatively. We'd go to pantries, we'd go na dump strings.

We're very resourceful. There's a gazebo that's been repurposed as a sort of gathering place, complete with an upright piano. There are dining tables for group suppers. There are even improvised toilets. We lovingly call them shitters and uh you'd sit there and Into the trench and then you'd cover with ash and dirt and it uh kept out the smell and there's something truly liberating about uh taking a shit in the middle of the woods. Just bringing back to your animalistic uh nature, you know.

As the morning haze. turns off, Fienna watches dozens more. Into the park. That's a big influx of people there is Not probably hundreds of people. Members of environmental organizations and pro-labour groups. Clergy, anarchists and drifters, veterans of past climate action. The country. It's hard to like describe how like big of a popular movement this was. A local activist nicknamed Earthworm has As a resident of Atlanta, Earthworm knows how committed movement feels. to be in her city.

Still, she's rarely. There would be like picnics and barbecues and speaking events, symposia... Muscogee elders who'd been like forced off of this land were coming from Oklahoma, then like taught about their traditional dance. And I remember thinking at the time and remarking like Wow, who would have thought that opposition to Cop City would manifest this way?

So it's just such a diverse movement. To other attendees, like two protesters who go by Lavender and Mermaid, respectively, the week of action is proof of something that they long suspected. That it is possible to build a community on one's own terms with one's own guiding principles. A vision of a society where we can Really care about it. Politically. Yeah. I found people that I loved and a space that I loved. And I found a st a struggle worth fighting for.

Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Game. construction of a facility that represents everything the activists fear. Movement is a hate. I think What sparks it is a lot of trans and gender nonconforming and queer folks are already out and casted by a society. So that pushes them more into more radical spaces, more questioning the norms that have been put upon us. And that m makes us more prone to be politically active and be challenging things in ways that most people don't.

A lot of queer people are unhoused because they've been disowned or whatever. So they are more free to live in a forest for a few months. And then there's a queer community there. And then that attracts more queers and so on and so forth. Many people went in binary and came out Less binary. Yeah. It it starts with the the she starts she her and then you're she they and then you're they she and now you're they them. Oopsies. Oops. The real pipeline no one talks about.

At camp, the residents pass around a book called Joyful Militancy, which Vienna devours. It's written by a pair of activist scholars, and the basic idea is that the world is broken, increasingly so, by capitalism, by war, by the destruction of the environment. To fix it will require direct action, direct resistance, and also friendship, comradeship, mutual reliance.

Righteous fights, the idea goes, make for beautiful communities. And those beautiful communities can be an antidote to a culture that often feels alienated. It's basically, Vienna comes to realize, what was meant by that you are now leaving the USA sign. Every day of the week of action, she is seeing firsthand how quickly the typical grind of real life can be replaced by something superior, something elevated and almost spiritual in nature. It was very much a living for today sort of vibe.

We were just living out our ideals in a lot of ways. We had basically our own society out there where we were taking care of each other, living very communally. Very self-directed. It sounds like you were happy. I was. It was probably the happiest I've ever been in my life. Wednesday, August 3rd, approximately 1225 p.m. Around the same time. An interesting thing. And an activist who has recently been defended. Tracking the defend the forest mm-hmm.

Construction. the explosions created by protesters outside a future Atlanta police and fire training facility. Associated with the project. Anti cop city. All of a sudden you hear this big loud boom, you know, in the back window shattering. My partner looked and she's like, are they breaking our windows? I was like, yeah. Contractors have awoken to protesters outside their home. bec became very, very loud. There were drums Uh there was loudspeakers.

people at my doors and windows, you know, pounding on them. Police have managed to arrest a few dozen activists and charge them with minor crimes. But to date, none of those arrested have wanted to talk about the nature of the movement. or its aims, or its internal structure. This guy is different. He seems to want to talk, and so the GBI agent seizes his opportunity. Do you know how the activism against Cops City got started? Like who if there was like any

central group or anything that that it that brought it to light? Uh I've asked that same question myself and nobody there's no answers. Okay. It's it's basically just I don't know. It's just magic in a way. It just seems like the wind blew a feed and then it started sprouting. There's no organization really. There are people who have been there longer than others. But there's really no administration. There's no

Not that I know of, it's all very seclusive. Because then someone like me could get detained and know exactly who to tell. Or even like text messages and sharing names and things like that, the information just can always be got. So if the information isn't even there to begin with

It's called safety culture. Okay, so basically it I guess to have an analogy, if if there is no leader, there's no leader that can be docked. Exactly. As the interview progresses, the GBI investigator pushes his subject. What about some of these tactics? They're pretty destructive, right? Well, the activist answers, we are working with what we have, with what resources are available to us.

have guns. We have to have some we can't stand up to tanks, we can't stand up to guns, but we can make it difficult for you guys to do what you guys want to do. And there's a few people in there that are just out there because they just want to Chaos is chaos. But there are consequences. The young activist had been. Consequences to leaderlessness and chaos as everyone in the forest is a Find out.

At the end of the week of Vienna reluctant to see. being the key word. She has a job, and she has a roommate. Steadfastly. Unfortunately they were not as kind to the same. Yeah. And um the Yeah. Or uh While Vienna's been enjoying Has gotten markedly worse. Now they're the ones. Yeah. That's when my life kinda fell apart. I feel a lot of guilt and regret about their death. just because I spent so much time outside the house and I

didn't give them the support I felt like I needed to give them. But the guilt and the grief is only part of it. As she prepares a memorial service for Gavin, Fienna discovers that her roommate has left behind unpaid bills. The bank is moving to repossess the house. Fienna decides she won't wait to be evicted. So I quit my job and I went to the first place that I felt safe. Which is the forest? Climbing out of the city.

Forest, Vienna spots the burnout husk of a pickup truck covered in graffiti. She does a double take. That's new. She should And she realizes in contrast to her arrival. Sight and law enforcement is on alert. There are rumors of added surveillance. So everyone is often a little bit more than a little bit of a Just walk into camp and there's just nobody around, and it's just like really eerie ghost town vibes. She passes a series of tree.

Tree forts, basically, that forest defenders use to monitor law enforcement movement and impede the progress of clear-cutting. And I hear, who goes there?

The voice Viana hears belongs to a short, sinewy. And they're like, oh hi there. The activist goes by Tortigita, little turtle. Living in the woods for months in the Which is why Vienna realized Yeah. Or just there too. party and everything as fun as it is. Laughter. I think it's incredibly important to continue having popular support because Cop City is incredibly unpopular already. We are very popular. Uh and I say this

You know, like we're really cool. We're we're winning every day that we're out here. Every party that we have is a success every time somebody's needs are met, every time somebody has a nice warm dry place to sleep out in the woods. Well, maybe not dry. Vienna and Torret spend the day. Walking and talking, sharing ideas.

Later, Vienna tells Tort about her childhood in Nebraska, and Tort gives her a rundown on their backstory. They grew up in Venezuela, and when they were young, their mother had remarried an oil executive. Cognitive dissonance, Tort knows, considering where their politics ended up, and Tort had traveled the world, Russia, Egypt, Europe.

After high school, they'd briefly studied medicine with the goal of becoming a doctor. Later, they'd moved to Florida, to Tallahassee, where they found a life in activism. They built a mutual aid network, helped create a massive community garden toward the country, participating in climate protests. To make money, to make enough to survive, they'd worked on a lawn crew. Then they'd heard about the movement to build Cop City and come to the same decision as Vienna. This is where I'm meant to be.

Torret adores life in the camp. As a later tell an Atlanta journalist named David Pisner. I love living in the woods. Like being a four-stobo's pretty chill. Especially when you have friends. And I'm really good at making friends. This diary, which they keep next to their sleeping bag in their tent, is a piece called A Poem Under a Tree. The beauty of a lover's touch should be free, and so should everything else one needs to live. each atom of eternity, the vastness of it all amazing.

Earth without art would be nothing about it. For me the little things make life worth living. Chop wood Pete chop wood, carry water. Vienna is We're flirting, we did massages, gave each other massages, and That's enough detail for this podcast.

It's worth noting that all of this, the romance, the courtship, comes at a pivotal time in the history of the camp. While Vienna was in Nebraska, dealing with the aftermath of Gavin's death, forest defenders had been involved in a series of skirmishes with law enforcement. Later, a transformer, part of the local electrical grid, had also been damaged. Meanwhile, activists had sabotaged a truck belonging to Ryan Milson.

a real estate mogul who was developing another section of the South River Forest, which made him, in the eyes of the forest defenders, a target too. Well new tonight, vandals destroyed a work truck near the controversial site of a planned training facility for Atlanta police and first responders. Millsap says vandals ripped the doors off this Ram 5500 pickup, then torched it.

And he says they spray painted threats on the sidewalk directly aimed at him. The threats on the truck were not ambiguous. Do crime. If this park isn't safe, Millsap isn't either. This was the same truck, the same graffiti Vienna had passed on a return to the woods. Tortugita talked about it being almost like a symbol of we're winning, you know, in a lot of ways.

'cause we built a little planter out of it. We did art and everything with it. It kind of represented a lot of the movement in the sense of while there was destruction, we also were growing from that destruction. Vienna carves out a role for herself in the camp. Lookout and medic, part time cook. Part of the glue that can be

keeps the camp running. Diversity of tactics was always something I was respected. You had no people who were doing canvassing and that's like all they did. There's some people who wanted cross the creek because they don't wanna get arrested. I never took part in whatever perceived actions were taken over there. This is deliberate. Her it's too risky. Across the creek. Private land. And jail is the last place as a trans woman she wants to be.

I am not an adrenaline drunk. I'm out here because I like the forest a lot. I love the forest. I don't crave conflict. Some I'm sure some folks do. And yeah, some folks probably have flashbacks. point moments where it's like, oh yes, the truck being lit on fire or whatever. But not not me. No, I I I love

Love it when we're all chill. Love it when everything is calm. And yet Torrid has two speeds, two modes really. They can be friendly, they can be easy-going, but they can also be reactive, quick to Especially feel pushed. Which they do when law enforcement starts making incursions into the forest, destroying tree sits and arresting a number of protesters. Trespassing. Whenever the cops destroy things, It just makes us angry. And and then we just build more things. Cause it's

It's like it's like what what better way to say fuck the police than to like build and thrive and be happy be happy and peaceful and kind to each other. Like that's that's such good vengeance. But the problem with the Yeah, yeah. Is that it can perpetuate a cycle. It tends to bring more heat, more pressure. Next step. A response that will forever shatter the paradise the couple have found. Coming up on this season. Forest. There will be no gray area or political double.

We will support our law enforcement officers. Bill. Period. We've heard that we're militarizing the police. We will never be militarized. We are equipped to respond to whatever dangers may befall our city. There were armored SWAT police at every entrance to the house. They had come prepared to attack and kill anybody that they encountered in the house. What's on fire down there?

Now I don't wish even on my worst enemy. Because do you know what it's like to be grieving for somebody and not know who you're even grieving for yet? Nope. Am I scared of of the state? I mean pretty silly not to be, you know. That was the first time I knew what they were charging. The weight really hit me. If their explanation of the events of that morning are true. They would have every reason. Yeah. We came to the forest as a production of Wondery, Campside Media, and Tenderfoot T.

And is written and reported by me and Tommy Andres. For Campside Media, our producers are Abakar Adon and Henry. Additional production assistance. Pratt, John Roosh, Aaliyah Papes, Johnny Kaufman, and Jamie Albright. Sound design and mix. Garrett Tiedeman. The theme is by Mondo Boys. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set and Garrett T. Our studio engineers are Jimmy Guthrie at Arcade 160 and Seth Cohen at Seth Co. Sound. Fact-checking by Aaliyah Papes. Tommy Andres is the executive producer.

For Wondery, our senior producer is Lata Pandya. Coordinating producer is Sierra Franco, development producer is Olivia. Consulting by Cassius Adair of Sylvion Consulting. Executive producers are Vanessa Gregoriadis, Me Matthew Scher for Campside Media. Executive producers are Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay for Tenderfoot TV. Executive producers are Nigerie Eaton, George Lavender, Marshall Lewey, and Jen Sargent for Wondery.