Georgia

US-Based Black Radicals Convening In Atlanta, Georgia

June 21, 2023 By Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. Organize! Black Liberation, Georgia, Pan Africanism, Transformation

We are immersed in the irreversible contradictions of the end of the epoch of U.S. and European capitalist domination to a world in which for the first time in more than five hundred years, the Western world will no longer be in a position to establish the rules and enforce its “order” on a global scale without effective opposition from the 90 % that makes up the rest of global humanity. But the white world is not ready to accept the end of white world supremacy without a fight. Under the leadership of the United States, the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination has demonstrated that it is prepared to use unrestrained, murderous violence, the same tools it deployed to establish its hegemony beginning in 1492 – in order to maintain white civilizational dominance.

Atlanta City Council Approves USD 31 Million For Controversial ‘Cop City’

June 6, 2023 People's Dispatch. Educate! Atlanta, Cop City, Deforestation, Georgia, Police

Atlanta’s 15-member City Council approved USD 31 million in funding to help build “Cop City,” the “urban warfare” training facility proposed to be built in the forest in the southern city. The 11-4 vote took place after 15 hours of public comments were heard regarding the project, with the vast majority expressing overwhelming concern over the project and and rejecting it. Throughout the session, over 1,000 people gathered inside and outside Atlanta City Hall to protest the controversial project. The Atlanta Police Foundation (APF), ostensibly a nonprofit but which provides support for the Atlanta Police Department and is spearheading the project of Cop City, believes that the facility is necessary.

Training Center Costs Call Years Of Promises Into Question

June 5, 2023 Riley Bunch and Brian Eason, Atlanta Journal Constitution. Educate! Atlanta, Cop City, Georgia, Police, Taxes

In the spring of 2021, the Atlanta Police Foundation announced an attractive deal for city taxpayers. If the city put up $30 million for a public safety training center, the nonprofit and its philanthropic partners would handle the rest of the project’s $90 million price tag. That promise was repeated month after month, year after year, by one mayor and then the next. Today, the Atlanta Police Foundation still asks for donations to the project on a fundraising page that says the city will only contribute $30 million to the cause. But that’s not true. And it hasn’t been true for years.

Georgia State Students Demand The University Denounce Cop City

May 20, 2023 GSU Student Coalition Against Policing and Militarism, Scalawag Magazine. Resist! Cop City, Georgia, militarism, Police, Student Activism

We, the Georgia State University Student Coalition Against Policing & Militarism, write this letter to express our solidarity with the Stop Cop City movement. We demand that the university end its sprawling investments in carceral projects, including, but not limited to, Cop City. The university heavily invests in policing, surveillance, and other forms of state violence that disproportionately impact racially-oppressed students, both historically and in our contemporary time, who comprise most of the school's population. Further, while the institution increases funding for GSU Police Department (GSUPD), which enacts racialized violence against its students, departments face budget cuts that reduce the educational capacity of the university.

Union Win At Bus Factory Electrifies Georgia

May 18, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Electric Vehicles, Georgia, Unions, Victory, Worker Rights and Jobs

After a bruising three-year fight, workers at school bus manufacturer Blue Bird in Fort Valley, Georgia, voted May 12 to join United Steelworkers (USW) Local 697. “It’s been a long time since a manufacturing site with 1,400 people has been organized, let alone organized in the South, let alone organized with predominantly African American workers, and let alone in the auto industry,” said Maria Somma, organizing director with the USW. “It’s not a single important win. It’s an example of what’s possible—workers wanting to organize and us being able to take advantage of a time and a policy that allowed them to clear a path to do so.”

Three Face Felonies For Allegedly Flyering Near Home Of Georgia Trooper

May 14, 2023 Ryan Fatica, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Cop City, Felonies, Georgia, Legal System, Police

Bartow County, Georgia — More than 3 ½ months after Georgia State Patrol agents killed forest defender Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán during a raid on the Weelaunee Forest, officials still refuse to name the officers responsible for their death or take any steps toward bringing them to justice. After months of waiting, it appears that activists and community members have begun stepping up to provide transparency themselves. In late April, researchers with the Atlanta Community Press Collective released the names of six Georgia State Patrol SWAT agents believed to be involved in Tortuguita’s killing.

Forest Defenders Appear For Preliminary Hearings

May 7, 2023 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. Resist! #StopCopCity, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Georgia, Police, Protests

DeKalb County, Georgia - Two defendants arrested in March during a music festival against ‘Cop City’ were again denied bond Wednesday in DeKalb County Magistrate Court, while a third was granted $25,000 bond with conditions. The defendants, all of whom are facing domestic terrorism charges for their alleged participation in the movement against the sprawling police training complex, have been detained since their arrests two months ago. Luke Harper and Victor Puertas were denied bond, while Fredrique Robert-Paul was granted a $25,000 bond with conditions including relinquishing her passport, remaining in Georgia pending trial, severing contact with codefendants, and avoiding discussing the movement against ‘Cop City’ on social media.

March And Encampment At Georgia Tech To Stop Cop City

May 6, 2023 It's Going Down. Resist! Cop City, Georgia, Police, Student Activism

On April 24th, demonstrations took place at Emory University, Georgia Tech, Agnes Scott College, Clark Atlanta, Spelman, and Morehouse. At Georgia Tech, a few dozen of us gathered on Tech Green, an open green space located on campus. A graduate student hosted one of their classes on the Green while we set up tents and gazebos. For several hours, we distributed literature about the movement to defend the Weelaunee forest and to stop Cop City. We also distributed a zine about the 2017 murder of queer anarchist and Pride Alliance student Scout Schultz by GTPD officer Tyler Beck, and the subsequent revolt on campus in the wake of the killing.

Our Missing Middle Housing Didn’t Just Go Missing

April 24, 2023 David S. Rotenstein, Next City. Educate! Affordable Housing, Gentrification, Georgia, Housing

In early February, the city commission in Decatur, Georgia voted to amend the city’s zoning law to allow the construction of “duplex, triplex, and quadruplex residential units” in “single-family residential zoning districts” — what many housing advocates call missing middle housing. The legislation followed on the heels of 20 years of special studies, litigation and resident agitation over the city’s declining affordable housing stock, gentrification and displacement. By early 2023, it was too late to preserve the Atlanta suburb’s affordable housing stock. As for Decatur’s diversity, the tipping point for demographic and economic inversion had been reached long ago.

Cities Across The US Are Mobilizing To Honor Tortuguita’s Birthday

April 23, 2023 It's Going Down. Resist! Atlanta, Cop City, Georgia, Police, Solidarity, Tortuguita

Supporters of the fight against Cop City in so-called Atlanta, Georgia are planning solidarity demonstrations, educational events, benefit concerts, and solidarity events to mark the birthday of anarchist and forest defender Tortuguita. This call for continued action comes after forty-two people now face “domestic terrorism” charges for simply “their participation in the movement, with arrest warrants citing the flimsiest grounds, including protesters having mud on their shoes and the number for a legal support group scrawled on their arms.” Moreover, the call for continued solidarity comes as the Dekalb County Medical Examiner has released the damning results of their autopsy, which directly contradicts claims made by law-enforcement that Tortuguita fired upon them, causing them to fire back and kill them in mid-January of this year, when police carried out a raid on protest encampments in the Weelaunee forest.

Atlanta’s “Cop City” Is A Blueprint For America’s Future

April 2, 2023 Taya Graham, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Atlanta, Cop City, Georgia, Police

In a special episode of Police Accountability Report, TRNN reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis report from the ground in Atlanta, where for weeks forest defenders have been fighting and risking their lives to stop the construction of “Cop City”—a massive planned police training center that would be used to instruct officers from around the country in deadly repression tactics. Speaking directly with activists on the frontlines, Graham and Janis explore the truth behind the police killing of Manuel “Tortuguita” Tehran, and the dark money sources funding the creation of the Atlanta Public Safety Center.

Youth Organizers Unite Marginalized Communities To Stop Atlanta’s Cop City

April 2, 2023 Ngakiya Camara, Truthout. Organize! #StopCopCity, Atlanta, Black Radical Tradition, Cop City, Georgia, White People, Youth Activism

A crowd of youth organizers have mastered this call and response chant, a unanimous voice talking back to a potential Cop City. Nearing the end of Defend the Atlanta Forest’s Week of Action, the energy from the In Defense of Black Lives rally held at the Atlanta Police Foundation Headquarters is palpable. There is laughter, chanting, a fire of hope that electrifies the air — folks have just finished roasting the heavily militarized police, who eye the crowd through the slits of their helmets. The solidarity between these kids is their biggest threat. Black youth organizers were at the center of this rally that was organized by the Stop Cop City Coalition, In Defense of Black Lives Atlanta (IDBL), which is a coalition movement based in Atlanta that works to defend Black life and to defund the Atlanta Police Department.

Behind The #StopCopCity Domestic Terrorism Warrants

March 23, 2023 Ryan Fatica, a contributor and Chris Schiano, Unicorn Riot. Educate! #StopCopCity, Atlanta, Cop City, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Georgia, Police, Terrorism

Atlanta, Georgia — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, in collaboration with several other law enforcement agencies, charged 23 more people with ‘domestic terrorism’ for their alleged involvement in the ongoing effort to stop ‘Cop City’ and to defend the Weelaunee Forest in unincorporated DeKalb County southeast of Atlanta. This brings the total number of ‘Cop City’ opponents charged under the statute to 42. Most of those arrested are currently being held at the DeKalb County Jail after being denied bond by Magistrate Judge Anna Watkins Davis on March 7. Four arrestees, including attorney Thomas Jurgens, have been granted bond.

Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán’s Independent Autopsy Report Released

March 15, 2023 Alex Binder, Unicorn Riot. Educate! Cop City, Georgia, Police, police brutality, Tortuguita

The family of Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán held a press conference Monday morning outside the Historic DeKalb Courthouse to release the full autopsy of Tortuguita and to discuss the lawsuit the family filed this week against the City of Atlanta under the Georgia Open Records Act. Tortuguita was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol on January 18 in the South River Forest as they were dedicating their time to the diverse ‘Stop Cop City’ movement. The autopsy conducted of Tortuguita at the request of their family by Dr. Kris Sperry has found that when Tortuguita was shot and killed, their hands were raised in the air.

Atlanta Was A Constitution-Free Zone During ‘Stop Cop City’ Week Of Action

March 15, 2023 Candice Bernd, Truthout. Resist! Atlanta, Cop City, First Amendment, Georgia, Police, police brutality

Southeast Dekalb County, Georgia—Belkis Terán raised her arms wide to welcome the rain now pounding hard over the newly thatched pavilion in the parking lot of the “Weelaunee People’s Park,” a space once known to residents of Atlanta and Southeast DeKalb County as Intrenchment Creek Park. Long before settlers dubbed the South branch of the Ocmulgee River here as simply the “South River,” the Mvskoke tribe, who were forcibly relocated from this area to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, called the river Weelaunee, the tribal word for “green/brown/yellow water.”

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