#defend the forests

[icarusxxrising]

Important, PLEASE Read and Share.

TW // Violence and Police Brutality.

Protesters in Atlanta Georgia are being threatened on bogus charges by the state.

For the past 2+ years, protesters in Atlanta Georgia have been protesting and camping out in the Weelaunee Forest, Atlanta's largest remaining green space. With so little of these vast spaces left, and more being taken, it is so important to save what we can.

The Atlanta Police Foundation chose the Weelaunee Forest to establish a massive training complex which would include fake city like buildings for Police training, which is why the project has been dubbed "Cop City". This training facility would no doubt be used to increase the militarization of the Police, and add to the harassment and brutalization both black communities and protesters face when trying to live and exercise their rights.

The facility would be built adjacent to a majority Black, working class community that was not only promised the forest for trails and park space, but would surely be subject to even more policing instead of a Third Space* they can use as a community.

The facility would desecrate 87 acres of land, spanning over 381 acres, and costing around $90 million dollars that could have gone back into community projects and care instead of further the subjugation of the working class.

Police have been extremely violent towards the dubbed "Forest Defenders", raiding the forest multiple times to shoot pepper balls at nonviolent protesters and also destroying shelters, water/food storage, and even purposely destroy Jewish religious sites, including a Sukkah that was built for Sukkot and was destroyed by police in a raid 2 months after, along with a large Menorah which "disappeared". The forest camps has become an important religious site for Jewish people in and around Atlanta, as more than 60+ Jewish People have traveled to the forest for Shabbat, with hundreds more joining the live stream for Shabbat.

The forest is not just important for nearby Black and Jewish communities, the Defenders adding shelters, cafeterias, and even a small stage venue in the forest in an effort to Squat the forest has provided local homeless communities with a warm place to eat and shelter. The forest has transformed into a safe space for the community as Defenders educate each other and the Atlanta communities on first aid, cultural differences, leftism and anarchism in practice, and more.

Following violent interactions with Police, protesters have responded by burning down construction equipment (with no construction workers nearby), and throwing rocks at Cops who attempted to get close to harass the protesters. When it comes to the safety of our planet and communities, property is replaceable.

However, a life is not. On January 18th, 2023, a nonbinary anarchist eco activist, who was knowledgeable as a street medic and worked tirelessly as a forest defender, was shot and killed by Georgia State Troopers during another raid on the forest. Their name was Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán.

Police claimed Tortuguita shot first and injured a trooper, which the media picked up and began to circulate. However, multiple autopsies have confirmed not only did Tortuguita have no gunpowder residue on their hands, but Tortuguita was shot while on their knees, hands in the hair, surrendering to Police. Autopsies also concluded Tortuguita was hit with at least 57 gunshot wounds across their entire body, showing Tortuguita was executed by a police fire squad.

Police body camera footage also showed a Cop admitting that the Troopers had "fucked up their own guy", which authorities of course dismissed and refuse to participate in proving their innocence that they're so sure of.

In response to this, protesters took to the streets and burned a cop car, leading to police arresting 40+ activists. Police also arrested, threatened, and intimidated anyone who was peacefully discussing and sharing information about Tortuguita's murder on the streets of Atlanta, attempting to silence anyone who was even peacefully raising awareness.

Atlanta Police also conducted a random raid of a legally operating Bail Fund based in Atlanta, The Atlanta Solidarity Funds. The raid came as the Atlanta Solidarity Funds was legally raising money and awareness to help with Bail and Legal Defense, as protesters who were arrested peacefully were being charged with Domestic Terrorism, and now RICO/Racketeering charges. The Atlanta Police claim that the Bail Fund was laundering money, but other Bail Funds are calling this out as an obvious act of intimidation since absolutely no stories or proof has been released in conjuction with these financial charges.

There's a lot more, this has been going on for years, but one thing is certain. If we do not stop this here, they will tear the forests in your cities down and continue to militarize the police, furthering the oppression of the working class and continuing to make Black and marginalized communities lives hell.

Please read up on what has been happening in Atlanta because there's way more than the bits I talked about here. The Forest Defenders have been through so fucking much, and they still have a lengthy battle. But you cannot kill an idea. You can follow the Atlanta Solidarity Fund and the Forest Defenders on Social Media to keep up with them.

PLEASE boycott when possible, or be extremely vocal, towards the companies backing cop city. PLEASE tell them they have Blood on their hands.

Please continue to raise awareness, and follow Cop City closely. Please Read and Share.

[prole-log]

[kropotkindersurprise]

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

[edwordsmyth]

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

[fuckyeahanarchistposters]

Defend the forest

Crimethinc poster in support of the struggle to defend the Atlanta Forest from being cleared to make way for a massive police training facility dubbed 'Cop City'.

[ewwww-what]

Aelwyn Abernant and a vision of her sister

[nunjournal]

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

[darkarches]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[prole-log]

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

[jonasgoonface]

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

[yesiwillyes]

so fucked and scary..obvs this is a shitty news source but i encourage people to look around on their own. atlanta community press collective is a great source of info... but literally they're doing multi-agency raids on people's homes. busting down their doors at 6am and stealing their phones and laptops and journals, whatever. promising more arrests to come. and andre dickens has the nerve to say that "arson" is not the way to have your voice heard, you need to take legal routes etc etc when literally he and his people did everything in their power to suppress the petition for the referendum that more than a quarter of atlantans signed. like really, there are "legal" routes? it's so heartbreaking and scary to think of anyone having to sit in jail rn let alone someone dragged from their home this morning. donate to the atlanta solidarity fund if you can. and let's all take a moment to imagine anyone we might know who's in jail rn happy and free and with their friends again

[radicalgraff]

"Avenge Tort"

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

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

[nando161mando]

March Against Cop Campus!

From Atlanta to the Bay

Stop Police Militarization in our Communities

Sat Sep 30 @ 3pm

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

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

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

@antifainternational @anarchistmemecollective @kropotkindersurprise @radicalgraff

#StopCopCity #StopCopCampus #BlockCopCity #DefendTheForest #DefendTheBay

[probablyasocialecologist]

The report suggests that Manuel, who was killed during a clearing operation near the site for the future Atlanta police training facility, was in a seated position, “cross-legged,” with their hands showing “exit wounds” in both palms at the time of their death.

“What did we learn from this autopsy? Manuel was shot in the head through his right eye, in his left upper chest, his legs, through the abdomen and several times through the palms,” their legal team said.

“Manuel was looking death in the face, hands raised, when killed,” said Brian Spears, an attorney for Teran’s family.

[...]

“Protests by non-locals are inherently terrorism,” Second-in-command Atlanta Police Department Assistant Chief Carven Tyus was recently quoted as saying of the protesters.

[everlastingrandom]

Please Support the Atlanta Solidarity Fund!!

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

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

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

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

Please boost this if you can!

Donation Link Here!!