On the 10th of March, news came out that W Va is asking the US Supreme Court to review (and no doubt uphold) their law banning transgender girls from girl’s sports in school. This in response to a lawsuit filed by a young trans girl against this restriction. That night, Our Rights DC showed up at the US Supreme Court, reminding those present that Stonewall was a riot.

On the 9th of March, Stop Cop City protesters marched on the headquarters of the Atlanta Police Foundation, key funder of the Cop City project. When they arrived, the building was boarded up, and cops some armed with rifles stood shoulder to shoulder defending it.

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.

On the 9th of March, protesters returned to Univ of S Florida’s Tampa campus, setting up on Fowler Ave so university cops would lack the ability to enforce “trsspass” notices stemming from Mondays brutally violent arrests. Speakers (including several arrested or assaulted Monday by police) demanded all charges from Monday’s violent police attack be dropped unconditionally, and that the University meet their original demands to stand up to DeSantis, increase Black enrollment, protect trans students, and continue diversity programs.

In addition, students are demanding the USF police chief Chris Daniel be fired for elbowing a protester in the back while twisting their wrist-and for no doubt ordering all the other police violence. He was himself caught on video committing that assault.

These activists will no more shut up in response to police violence than the heroes defending the Atlanta Forest will. DeSantis is the enemy of anyone in Florida who is not white, cishet, and an “in-solid” evangelical Christian. Any university administration that submits to his demands is also the enemy and should expect to be treated as such.

Congress and the GOP have blocked DC’s criminal justice reform bill in an ugly preview of things to come. On March 8, protesters marched on Capitol Hill and staged a civil disobedience against this interference, demanding statehood and the right to be left alone. Seventeen arrests were reported.

If this campaign fails, there is the real risk of the GOP in coming years banning abortion, restricting birth control, persecuting LGBTQ folks, and possibly even banning covid vaccines in DC (as may be about to happen in FL) all thanks to Congress’s control and veto over DC Home Rule.

(Video is three clips from much longer video by Ford Fischer)

On March 8, an extremely heavy police presence shadowed an Atlanta Stop Cop City march. Some of the cops were armed with AR-15 rifles.

The 8th of March was the 5th day of the March 4-11 Week of Action against Cop City. Marchers in downtown Atlanta visited several funders and collaborators with the Cop City project including AT&T and Georgia State University.

An extremely heavy police presence shadowed the march. Some of the cops were armed with AR-15 rifles, unknown if any of these were the select fire version capable of fully automatic fire. Cops must still be sore about seeing all construction work done since the murder of Tort at Cop City go up in smoke Sunday!

Update: All four USF arrestees have been bonded out, but three have been charged with felony assault for BEING assaulted by cops. Ahh yes-hit a cop on the club with your head

THIS is police assaulting protesters at USF in Tampa today. Protesters from SDS were opposing Florida dictator DeSantis’s anti-diversity policies targetting all schools and universities. The police chief was personally present and may have struck the first blow. Also note that cops are a gang and this may in truth be about Atlanta.

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