I haven't heard people talking about this much, but I feel like it's important for people to know. Especially since SB 63 essentially bans bail funds by not allowing organizations, charities, individuals, or groups to bail out more than three people per year and requiring them to register as bonding agencies.
This is a direct response to all the protests happening here in Atlanta. So far, spreading the word can help as well as donating to The Atlanta Solidarity Fund .
In the meantime, here's some phone numbers of politicians you can go bug.
Randy Robertson (Guy who's sponsoring the bill): +1-404-656-0045
The environmentalist activist was shot at least 13 times near the site for the future Atlanta police training facility on Jan.18, according to the independent autopsy results.
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.
We have uncountable martyrs. We didn’t need another one. Yet
here they are, their smile and gentle presence enduring in the etheric fabric of our lived and digital memories, their loss haunting us, their actions encouraging us to continue living, to continue fighting, to continue defending our Home.
Tort: we remember, we won’t let them forget, and we never forgive. See you on the other side when the time comes around.
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.
A band of activists has turned a fight over a forest in southeast Atlanta into a wide-ranging, no-holds-barred battle over the climate crisis, environmental justice, white supremacy, the future of policing, and the very nature of protest movements. But will it work?
Story by David Peisner at The Bitter Southerner. Photos by Fernando Decillis.
The story is about the fight against the building of a new training facility for police and firefighters on the land where a prison farm once operated, bordered by a forest called Intrenchment Creek Park, also known by its Muscogee name, the Weelaunee Forest.
In the latest episode of Blessed Are the Binary Breakers, Água shares the story of their lifelong relationship with Weelaunee Forest. After discussing the Stop Cop City movement's past and present, Água guides us through abolishing the cop in our own heads; recognizing the interconnectedness & sacredness of all bodies; and breaking down binaries of "us" versus "them."
Listen to Blessed Are the Binary Breakers wherever you get podcasts — or click here for direct links + an episode transcript.
See under the readmore for image descriptions + more quotes.
ID: Text on an orange circle with a tree canopy as a backdrop reads, "Stopping Cop City: Agua's story — The sacred interconnectedness of all life. From the Blessed Are the Binary Breakers podcast." A transparent photo shows Agua, a Chicanx person with brown skin, short black hair, sunglasses, and an orange crop top reaching upwards with one arm.
An illustration of Tortuguita smiling at the viewer, their arms embracing a mini version of Weelaunee forest. Text around them reads "They died as they lived - building a better world." A turtle constellation shines in the sky behind them, and white outlines of dandelions border them. Under this image is a quote from Agua reading, "May we taste abolition – now, and in the worlds that we're building for our children." / end ID
ID: the same photo of Agua from before, but this time the full background is visible; they are standing on a huge branch high in the air, one arm reaching to touch the tree trunk of the tree. A quote from Agua reads, "I have been a resident of Atlanta, on Muscogee territory, for most of my life. … I've been going to [Weelaunee Forest] for about a decade. It's become a place where I go and visit particular trees and particular mushroom patches, and it's like going to visit my friends."
ID: a quote from Agua reads, "[My spirituality] orients me differently to finding the root of what's really causing cycles of harm, and seeing what it does to bring love to that place. ...
So if we just look at [Weelaunee]...it's a recovering forest, from its use as a prison farm from the 1920s to the 1980s. Before that, it's a plantation... And then of course in the 1830s, there's the Indian Removal Act...So there's trauma on trauma on trauma, and trauma embedded into the soil of this land...
And...the root to me, when we get all the way to the bottom, is a disregard for the sacred: the sacred of Black and Indigenous bodies, the sacred of the interconnected ecosystem that settlers chose to not participate inside of, to see themselves inside of — that web of sacred life."
A quote from Agua reads, "The more we can really see ourselves inside of the living system, and disidentify with the systems that are living off of us – like, we are the living body, and the police state is living off of us, sucking life force; it's literally taking lives, it's literally stealing people's family members, and cutting down the other half of our lungs: If one part of my lungs is inside of my body, the other part of my lungs is in the leaves of the trees…
And so we, we are the living body. And that's where I can always come and find more strength and rest…and all of the things that it takes for me to be able to show up and make choices about how to be protecting that life, and resisting violence and oppression."
Água also has a podcast, which you can check out here.
