HEADS UP! legally parked cars in private lot booted near Cop City protest in Atlanta

Unicorn Riot is reporting that all cars parked legally in a paid parking lot near a Stop Cop City protest were double-booted. Empire Parking Services has just made themselves a Cop City contractor, with ALL that that implies.

The best defense against this is (as I have said before) NOT to drive to protests and approach by bike or transit. If bikes are used, keep them close so nobody can steal them or lock them with a lock other than your own.

None the less, this happened.The right way to deal with this is an angle grinder to cut off the padlocks that lock the boots. A normal car immobilizing boot has an ordinary padlock inside it, reachable underneath the arm near the ground. If it is not well hardened bolt cutters can snap it, putting one handle on the ground and body weight on the other.

If it is hardened like a good bike lock, an angle grinder can cut through the padlock in seconds. Then just open the cover over the hub and unscrew the clamp and your car is freed. Home Depot sells battery powered grinders capable of this for $140, you will also need the 18V battery to run it at about $90 sold WITH charger. A crew should have two or three of these.

These particular boots are unusual looking, but have to have a lock somewhere. If it is totally armored around the lock, cut one of the arms off and pull the rest off the wheel

Any crowd capable of putting the 24-7 police guard of the former Cop City staging area to panicked headlong flight is probably also capable of deterring or driving off any police or parking lot employee interference with forcible recovery of unlawfully booted cars.

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