DefendAtlForest has just issued this press release about the considerable police brutality of March 5, and in it they state that the week of action shall persevere:

MULTIPLE STATE AND LOCAL POLICE AGENCIES VIOLENTLY RAID WEELAUNEE FOREST MUSIC FESTIVAL, WEEK OF ACTION PERSEVERES  

ATLANTA, GA. Last night, multiple police agencies dressed in militarized gear and armed with lethal weapons raided a local family-friendly music festival in a public park within the Weelaunee forest. They used excessive force to arrest dozens of concert-goers and threatened to shoot people in the park. The event was being held on the second day on the fifth Week of Action to protect the Weelaunee (Atlanta) Forest and stop Cop City.

Around a thousand people gathered in a field among the trees in Weelaunee Forest for a second day of the music festival to listen to musicians perform, catch up with friends, enjoy an inflatable bounce house and share food. 

A separate protest group with hundreds of people marched to the forest near the Old Prison Farm, the site leased to the Atlanta Police Foundation for Cop City. The march was in response to the murder of activist Tortuguita and a move to reclaim the Weelaunee Forest as a public commons. There are reports of construction vehicles and surveillance equipment being set on fire.  

Sometime after this action, police retaliated viciously by raiding the entire forest, arresting at least 35 people at the nearby music festival, including people with no connection to or awareness of the action on the other side of the nearly 600 acre forest.

People attending the festival say police tased concert-goers who were moving away from the commotion, tackled people to the ground and threatened to use lethal force. One cop reportedly kept an indigenous concert-goer in a chokehold while fully on top of them. Another eyewitness reports that a police officer of unknown agency said, “I swear to God I will fucking kill you” to civilians in Weelaunee People’s Park (Intrenchment Creek Park). The Atlanta Community Press Collective reports that tear gas and pepper balls were used on people during arrests. 

Despite this indiscriminate and violent attack by the police, the festival continued for over an hour with the crowd chanting “Stop Cop City” and “the show must go on” between musical acts. Then, an army of police forces, without warning, raided the festival en masse. Unicorn Riot reports that officers surrounded the inflatable bounce house, pointed guns inside and later tore it down. The heavily-armed officers then surrounded the remaining crowd, which included children, and deployed LRAD (acoustic warfare equipment). The police threatened to arrest all of the music festival participants on domestic terrorism charges.  In defense, festival-goers, park-goers, children, and musicians stuck together and chanted, “We have children here!” and “Let us go home!”. According to the Atlanta Community Press Collective, after festival-goers demanded to be released, the police checked identification cards of those leaving the forest. Multiple legal observer were detained and one legal observer was arrested.  Several musicians were arrested as well. Additionally, multiple reporters were threatened with arrest by police. According to DeKalb County jail records, at least 22 people have been charged with domestic terrorism. 

There have been many additional reports of police aggression that are still being confirmed.  The Atlanta Solidarity Fund stated, “Indiscriminate police violence tonight against Stop Cop City festival-goers. Police seem to be lashing out at anyone present at the music festival. Music is not a crime, protest is not a crime. People lawfully exercising first amendment rights cannot be held criminally liable for the actions of others. “

“Cop City will never be a legitimate project. It continues to be widely opposed by Atlantans. The civil rights violations committed by police yesterday reaffirms that this cop training facility should never be built. We stand steadfast in our conviction to build a new world in which all people are safe from police terror,” says an organizer who wishes to remain anonymous.

To support those arrested, please visit atlsolidarity (dot)org/ and donate to the bail fund.

Today (note-this is Monday and has come and gone), the Week of Action continues with a Faithworkers/Clergy Press Conference and city council address at noon, forest tours in the afternoon, a Purim celebration in the evening, and more. You can visitdefendtheatlantaforest(dot)org/calendar/

Much happened in the Weelaunee Forest on the 5th of March, the second day of the March 4-11 week of action. Forest defenders managed to burn most of the “construction infrastructure” of the project, only to have cops assault a music festival (at least 35 arrests) later in the day.

As a march approached the fenced zone where construction and surveillance equipment is kept, cops fleeing the march were basically chased into the lot,a flurry of fireworks setting them to flight. After they retreated, a bulldozer, two police “UTV” vehicles, a surveillance tower, and an office trailer were put to the torch.

Later, a storm of cops descended on a music festival that was not even in the same area as the fires, tackled a number of people, pointed a loaded rifle at children and in a “bouncy house” and ultimately made 25 arrests bearing seemingly no relation to the earlier battle that ended in defeat for the police. Eventually they even brought an armored vehicle known as the “beast,” only to have it get stuck and have to tow it out.

Tanks are one thing police armored vehicles are NOT: wheels not tracks(so they get stuck in mud, very thin armor, no main gun. More like a very light armored personel carrier on wheels.

Kickoff march into Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta went well. Not one cop dared show their face as people arrived at the well-named Intrenchment Creek trailhead.

Note that since the start of the year, the Atlanta cops have started charging ALL non-Georgia residents arrested at any protest over Cop City with “domestic terrorism” without regard to alleged offense, all the way down to jaywalking. In addition, this charge is then used as a basis to hold defendents without bond. In other words, Atlanta and Georgia have de facto institutued adminstrative detention without trial

Video liberated from tiktok after being posted there by Atlanta Forest Defenders. A cop is invited into the kitchen for breakfast by three bears. The invite does not carry an opt-out option…

If you are getting ready for the weekend…Here’s a promo for the week of action against Atlanta’s Cop City project that begins tomorrow and runs through March 11

On the 28th of February, the Party for Socialism and Liberation held a protest outside the Pinellas County School Board’s meeting. They were protesting the DeSantis/Moms4Liberty agenda of book banning, budget cuts, “Don’t Say Gay,” the entire school takeover agenda. In Pinellas Countu, if astroturfing so-called “Moms 4 Liberty” manages to elect two more school board members they get a working majority and can effectively turn the Pinellas County schools into Christian religious schools, firing anyone who is unwilling to be part of that agenda.