The #StopCopCity movement continues to contest the building of a facility to conduct warfare against the Atlanta area’s minoritized communities. Manual Teran, popularity known as Tortuguita, was murdered on January 18th by a collection of local police for sitting in the forest where Cop City is to be built — shot over 50 times with their hands up. There has yet to be public accountability for the assassination.
This past week, organizers collected over 100,000 signatures to place a referendum on the Atlanta November ballot that will defund Cop City. There are 500,000 people who live within the boundary of Atlanta proper, while technically only 60,000 signatures are required to place an initiative on the ballot. More people are on record for wanting to end police terror in Atlanta than voted in the last election. The movement is still collecting signatures and you check here to participate.
The movement continues to face intense local, state, and federal intimidation – violence that has continued since the state sanctioned assassination of Tortuguita. Protestors are facing a twenty year sentence for merely distributing flyers. A Republican presidential candidate suggested using RICO laws to destroy the movement – an approach that has mostly been used to target Black and racialized communities and an approach that has been used to intimidate movement activists.
Yet, the police murder of Black residents continues with far less accountability than the years preceding the George Floyd murder. Johnny Holman, a deacon who lived a mile from the home I grew up in, was murdered on August 10th by Atlanta police for being “non-compliant” at a fender-bender two minutes from his home. The value of Black and Indigenous and queer life continues to be of less value to the state than a piece of glass, a cigarette, not worth access to air, water, food, shelter. It is up to us to demand more, and the demand will not be heard peacefully.
In light of these unfolding events, I’m sharing resources on confronting police violence and intimidation:
- The Atlanta Solidarity Fund continues to collect donations to support protestors experiencing repression.
- Firestorm books received an unexpected visit from FBI agents on July 21st. They put out this guide for other organizers and collectives that might find themselves in a similar situation. To quote from their thoughtful post, “The FBI—an organization literally founded to disrupt organized labor and criminalize anarchists—is not part of our safety plan!”
- National Lawyer’s Guild has a guide for targeted organizations and a federal defense hotline
- This resource on what to do if you’re arrested. Provided by Timothy Fields, who happened across one of my earlier posts.
- CrimethInc’s When the Police Knock at Your Door, How to Survive a Felony Trial, Security Culture for communities and related articles on protections against police violence
- Interrupting Criminalization‘s Beyond Do No Harm, Building Coordinated Crisis Response Graphic Notes, and other resources on police abolition
- Millenials Are Killing Capitalism podcast episodes on the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition and the Law Can Never Be A Substitute For Politics.
- Beyond Criminal Courts (linked from the MAKC episode), particularly Community Interventions and Jury Nullification
- Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, a coalition of imprisoned persons “providing other prisoners with access to legal education, resources, and assistance”
- Uprising support maintains information to support people persecuted for their participation in the George Floyd uprising.
Charles write here 