Furious battle at Atlanta forest defense gains cops only a tiny clearing by existing powerline cut

In addition to scenes.noblogs.org https://twitter.com/mphproject and https://twitter.com/defendATLforest are also covering the intense fight to defend the Atlanta Forest and stop the Cop City/Black Hall sound studio project. On the 3ed of August they reported an intense confrontation, with flaming barricades set but possibly breached, one arrest, but after a day of battle the cops had gained very little ground. They were able to clear only a tiny area of forest adding to the existing powerline cut possibly near an existing entrance to the forest.
No attempt was made to remove the heavily defended treesits.

It appears this is part of an attempt to install a natural gas pipeline, presumably the distribution line so the police training facility and Black Hall’s sound stages can have gas heat in the winter.

Some on Twitter have invoked fears that this could end up like MOVE, but MOVE was defending a single fortified rowhouse from the Philadelphia cops when the cops dropped a single improvised bomb (an IED) from a helicopter. While many indeed fear this situation too could end in extreme police violence, the air power available to the Dekalb County cops etc is insufficient for a bombing campaign against a large forested area. There would be no way to cover up an attempt,and the response from activists coast to coast would be withering and cost the government many,many times the value of this dispute. In the current, near-civil war political environment such violence by police anywhere could set off a hurricane of fighting everywhere. The Trump-loving MAGAts and open Fascists would probably scream, and from there matters could escalate completely out of control.

Here is the burning barricade, looks like burning tires from the smoke and configuration:

twitter(dot)com/MPHProject/status/1554837639924105222 photo (note that the ? and everything after it in the twitter URL has been removed to blind Twitter’s tracker, link broken to prevent Twitter and its TRACKERS from loading with this page, replace (dot) with . to use the link)

THIS is all they got:

(new cut is the path on top left of the powerline cut

Another view of the same cut, both from
twitter(dot)com/defendATLforest/status/1554979418023542786

(links broken to prevent Twitter and its TRACKERS from loading with this page, replace (dot) with . to use the links)

This cut may be related to this gas pipeline work:

Car towing attack on Stop Cop City/Defend Atlanta Forest camp ends in burning tow truck


The tow truck in flames after the final counterattack finished it off

Updated 8-3-2022 with new information from https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2022/08/02/report-back-on-the-fight-between-milsap-dozer-cops-and-forest-defenders/

On the 29th of July, the governmental and corporate bodies associated with the “Cop City” police training range project and Black Hall’s sound stage project tried again. This time they got ugly, sending a tow truck both to bring in a mini-excavator and to commit grand theft auto against forest defenders whose cars were believed to be the cars parked in Welaunee People’s Park.

Forest defenders found a man named Anthony Wayne James sitting (and FUMING) in the excavator. He attemtpted to destroy “the gazebo, porta potties,paved trails, and to re-close the barriers at the front of the park.” He had two Dekalb County cops backing him up. The defenders at the scene blocked the excavator with their bodies until reinforcements could arrive. When they did, the defenders opened up with a hail of rocks and “other projectiles” and Anthony Wayne James was forced to retreat with his machine.

The attack did not go well for the Ryan Milsap and his tow truck either: a heavy counterattack badly damaged the tow truck, to the point it now has to be recovered by tow truck itself. Multiple groups attacked the tow truck at intervals and finally it was set on fire. Due to tire damage common in vehicle fires, recovery will now require a flatbed or dollies. The truck is probably a total loss, a few tons of scrap steel and aluminum. The excavator attack failed as well, the machine being driven off under a hail of rocks by the defenders of the forest.

Tow truck after first counterattack

Tow truck after second counterattack

As for the proposed use of heavy machinery to demolish a structure or anything else while people are still in it, this has happened before (notably in DC) and the defenders of the forest were not having it. The Washington DC incident was an Oct 4, 2021 police and trash truck assault on unhoused camps at the L and M st underpasses. During that attack, one of “Bowser’s Panzers” (her mini-dozers) picked up an occupied tend and injured its defender. The resulting public fury delayed further attacks on unhoused camps in DC for over a month. From this incident it can be concluded that here like in Israel, cops or their agents who bring demolition equipment up to an occupied tent or structure intend to demolish it with people inside, without regard for their safety.

The communiques received and source of the photos:

https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2022/08/02/report-back-on-the-fight-between-milsap-dozer-cops-and-forest-defender

On the final day of the fourth week of action, forest defenders awoke to shouts about police activity in the recently reopened Intrenchment Creek/ Weelaunee People’s Park parking lot.

We arrived to find an angry man named Anthony Wayne James sitting in an excavator and threatening to destroy the gazebo, porta potties,paved trails, and to re-close the barriers at the front of the park, effectively re-closing the public infrastructure. A small number of forest defenders blocked the excavator with only their bodies, including a few who remained under the gazebo while it was struck by the excavator bucket.

More forest defenders soon arrived and began to drive back the excavator with rocks and other projectiles. The irate operator had two Dekalb County police officers to back him up, as well as two other men waiting on the street. It was soon revealed that one of those was Ryan Millsap himself. Millsap believes he is the owner of the land in question, after a controversial land-swap agreement between the Dekalb County government and Blackhall Studios sought to give the land over to the film company so that they could develop it into the largest soudnstage complex on Earth. Millsap has since sold much of his holdings in the company in a fashion that nullifies the agreements with the County government and gives, he believes, Millsap personal ownership of the land with few or no obligations to the public.

After a brief interlude, in which forest defenders oriented themselves, the crowd of a few dozen advanced on the attackers. Masked defenders threw rocks at the County police and broke windows out of the truck that was used to carry the excavator in on a flatbed trailer. With the excavator outside the park, a barricade was erected to keep it from re-entering, and volleys of rocks and canned sparkling water kept the police and workers back. Ryan Millsap fled in another vehicle after he was called out by name. When the windows of the excavator were broken, Anthony Wayne James reappeared and repeatedly threatened to shoot all the forest defenders and motioned as if he had a gun several times. Millsap appeared to oversea all of this from a distance. Undeterred by his threats, defenders held the barricades and drove the attackers all the way to the end of the block.

With the immediate threat gone, a search through the truck left in the parking lot revealed a number of contracts for Blackhall Studios, Blackhall Rental Company, Anthony Wayne James drivers license and numerous credit cards. The registration for the vehicle revealed that it was owned personally by Ryan Millsap himself. A great cheer of delight went up after this news was spread, and the mechanic crew stripped the car completely, damaging each and every component of the Ram 5500 that was purchased for $62,500 by Millsap in 2020. The crowd dispersed, having assured the safety of park attendees, and the sanctity of the land. A few hours later, some anonymous individuals burned the truck.

After being held through the morning to ensure no reentry for the police or Millsap and his goons, the barricade was dismantled and the park was open again to the public. By evening, hundreds of people arrived to the forest for the final night of an autonomously organized music festival, passing through the barriers and past the burned-out vehicle, which became something of a public installation and photographic back-drop.

https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2022/07/31/tow-truck-set-on-fire-in-south-atlanta-forest-mini-excavator-scared-off/

Early Friday July.29th, a tow truck was sent to tow various community members & forest defenders vehicles from the Welaunee People’s Park… Several different autonomous groups took action to stop tow truck, one by slashing tires, smashing windows, graffiti, & generally fucking it up, & a mini excavator was also subsequently ushered out of parking lot near woods & cops kept at bay.
Later, another group came through & set that evil thing (tow truck) on fire.
The tow truck is no more, & we hope this serves as a warning to other tow trucks & various machines thinking about entering the forest to evict or destroy the woods, that you will inevitably suffer the same fate.
DEFEND THE FOREST! No cop city! No Black Hall sound stage everrrrrrr!

https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2022/07/30/ryan-milsaps-tow-truck-destroyed-in-weelaunee-peoples-park/

Tow truck smashed in ICP lot. Contents redistributed for better use.

Proud Boys hassle but can’t stop Orlando transgender rights protest

In Florida, fascist and theocratic governor DeSantis (AKA DeSatan) is pushing a proposal before the FL Board of Medicine to replace all gender-affirming care for anyone under 18 with “conversion therapy” and limit access for those over 18. Activists held an emergency protest in Orlando ahead of the major Fri Aug 5 protest at the Board meeting in Ft Lauderdale. Proud Boys and fascist media showed up but were unable to significantly interfere with this protest.

While the Proud Boys cheered at speaking passages about Fascism, genocide etc, the cheers for the most part could not be heard over the reaction from protest participants. Lacking the numbers to assault the rally without ending up in the hospital, and lacking the audio power to disrupt the rally with sound, they were rendered completely ineffective. They even left shortly before the rally dispersed, yielding posession of the field to LGBTQ activists.

Confirmed Fascists present were Proud Boy Luke Rohlfing, Infowars “media” fool Benjamin Frisby aka “Databattlesz,” Roger Stone acolyte Jacob Engels and two unidentified as of yet Proud Boys who no doubt will soon be indentified. This is a total of 5 fascists, and they were outnumbered 10 to one or more by rally participants. Somehow the Orlando cops correctly identified the public safety hazard, standing facing the Fascists instead of the nonviolent protest. Had the Fascists assaulted the rally with cops “standing down and standing by,” they would have done quite poorly against ten times their numbers of tough, street-hardened transgender activists and other LGBTQ allies.

Resistance!

The well-defended speaking stage

The two unidentifed Proud Boys/Nazis. Black and gold are the Proud Boys colors, it is considered CONFIRMED that these two are Proud Boys unless they are wannabes

Benjamin Frisby on L, Jacob Engels in the center, and one of the unidentified Proud Boys on the right

Orlando FL Banner Drop In Solidarity With Atlanta Forest Defenders

from
https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2022/07/29/orlando-usa-banner-drop-in-solidarity-with-forest-defenders/

Orlando USA Banner Drop In Solidarity With Forest Defenders

In solidarity with forest defenders <3
From Orlando with love and rage! We will carry the spirit of defiance
seen these past months in defense of the wild to the placated streets of
our city. A wild rage has been released, we carry it in our hearts.
The flame burns on!
-1312
ORL to ATL
-Received Anonymously Over Email

Alert: Feds raiding Umoja Party activist Omali Yeshtela’s home

As this is written, reports have come in of Federal thugs raiding Umoja Party leader Omali Yeshtela’s home. The supposed target of the investigation is “Russian Influence” but unless Putin is paying reparations for European assaults on Africa while invading Ukraine himself such influence seems highly unlikely.

If Biden’s FBI wants to target a major Russian influence operation in Florida, Trump’s compound in Mar-a-Lago would be a good place to start. It has been proven over and over again that Trump and Putin (BOTH of whom are Fascists) worked together to disrupt and take control of the 2016 US Presidential election.

By comparison, the Umoja Party promotes Black self-sufficiency and payment of reparations by white people for the damage their ancestors inflicted on Black people through slavery, Jim Crow, and so much more. There are outright fortunes built on the backs of slave labor still in existance today,notably Georgetown University in Washington DC, the US Capitol there as well, insurance companies still in business today that wrote policies for slaveowners, and so much more. Removal from the US economic past of the labor stolen from enslaved people would cause the current economy to collapse like the house of cards it is.

Thus, the goals of the Umoja Party (Black liberation) are not compatable with the goals of Putin (conquest of Europe and domination of a continent by one country). This in turn suggests that the real motivations for the raid have nothing to do with Russia and sure as hell have nothing to do with Putin or his invasion and bombardment of Ukraine. Instead, “Russian Influence” is probably being used as a fig leaf to cover continuing and ongoing FBI harassment of anyone who dares to step out of line and challenge white supremacy. After all, the FBI was founded to attack anarchists and other enemies of capitalism, racism and the US government at that time.

Climate Protesters disrupt Congressional baseball game


Photo by John Zangas

Less than a day before the Congressional Baseball Game and a scheduled disruption, Sen Joe Manchin caved on allowing at least SOME climate provisions into the big “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.” While CCAN cancelled their plans to disrupt the game, Shut Down DC and other groups did not. Protesters displayed banners inside before storms tempprarily shut the game down, while more protested outside

Some of the protesters were demanding the Dems “Seal the Deal” while others demanded Biden deliver on his so far empty words about declaring a climate emergency.Some of the protesters were demanding the Dems “Seal the Deal” while others demanded Biden deliver on his so far empty words about declaring a climate emergency. The existing deal was denounced as not enough, w a demand of “No New fossil fuels.” It was also pointed out that Biden, Sinema, and Manchin are all totally untrustworthy and may go back on their word. There was some ugliness inside the stadium as cops forcibly confiscated some of the banners from activists inside seated in the bleachers There was some ugliness inside the stadium as cops forcibly confiscated some of the banners from activists inside seated in the bleachers.

After being shut down by a “protest by nature” in the form of a thundrstorm, the game later resumed, the GOP shutting out the Dems 10-0 just as they do on human rights issues such as abortion and LGBTQ rights.

Kavanaugh, Roberts get more home demos as Roberts quits GW teaching post

Video featuring “Emergency Response” to flatlining Constitution on a gurney 1 min 45 sec

On the 27th of July, protesters returned to the homes of “Justices” Kavanaugh and Roberts, with greatly reduced police interference. Two weeks of intensive policing failed to generate any legal grounds for arrests, so police are now dwindling back to the prior numbers.

Also on July 27, protesters and pro-choice activists got a special treat: “Justice” John Roberts has thrown in the towel on his teaching side gig at GW University. Apparently students were protesting him, and dissenting opinions are more than he can handle so he just deplatformed himself. Unable to compete in any “real world” arena, even an ivory tower (much less the people’s streets) he has decided to take his ball and go home.

“Democracy” established by settlers (originally with only white property-owning men allowed to vote) on stolen land is quite a joke, but it looks like this joke’s just about over.

Protesters disrupt Trump’s first post-J6 “America First” DC rally

On the 26th of July, Donald Trump returned to DC for the first time since he fled Biden’s Inaugural on Jan 20, 2021. He was the keynote speaker at an indoor “America First” rally at the Marriott Marquis near the Convention Center. Protesters dropped an “Indict Trump” banner inside and chants of “No Trump, no KKK no Fascist USA” resonated from the walls.

This was a potentially menacing event going in, given the violent fascist incidents of the past week or so. Someone close to Trump had arranged for a “security force” in mostly unmarked green uniforms displaying an eagle but no obvious name of any security company. There was the danger if Trump declared both his candidacy and that one or more fascist formations were welcome to act as his street army, considerable violence was possible. Most of that violence would be nowhere near DC, but the trigger incident would be the speech at the Marriot. Fortunately, neither of these ugly possibilities came to pass.

As it was, Trump gave an incredibly hypocritical speech about “law and order.” He demanded “we have to leave our police alone,” after his supporters beat, maced, tazed, and crushed members of the Capitol Police on Jan 6, 2021(J6). In a similar vein, he called for unleashing the National Guard on the public in the event of a “total breakdown of law and order” where “citizen’s basic rights have been violated. That again no doubt is not intended to mean the National Guard should have been used to put down his coup attempt, only to put down Black Lives Matter protests. He SCREAMED about the tent cities unhouse folks have been forced to build by evictions and skyrocketing rents, yet for most of his life he was known as one of the worst of racist slumlords in NYC. He praised the brutal so-called “justice” system of China.

The speech droned on for more than two hours, dripping with venom, hate, and hypocrisy. The Marriott Marquis should be ashamed of themselves for hosting Trump inside DC after J6. Oh well, you can’t spell “MarrRiot” without “Riot.”

Trump’s menacing “Greenshirt” guards

Insignia on Greenshirt uniforms-only the words “security liason” appear where a company name should be. Logo matches Colorado Security Agency-but no label


Photo by John Zangas

Triple murderer Christopher Semok seen w other Nazis at TPUSA, 90% confidence

This is reported with 905 confidence to be triple murderer Christopher Semok AKA Cristopher LaBlanc, formerly of Miami. Here he is free as a bird, hanging out with his fashy friends outside TPUSA. He is 20 years old, killed three people connected to progressive social movements between the ages of 16 and 18, and has never been prosecuted for it.

Several organized Nazi groups were spotted at TPUSA, including the Proud Boys, GDL, White Lives Matter FL, and the new “National Socialist Florida” outfit.

Antifascists Take Down and Destroy Proud Boy Banners in Florida on I-4

From itsgoingdown.org
https://itsgoingdown.org/florida-proud-boy-banners-destroyed/

Action report from antifascists in Florida.

On July 24th, antifascists spotted a pair of Proud Boys banners on I-4 in Florida on both sides of an overpass near mile marker 55 and pulled them down for destruction, ready for the hungry flames of justice.

The smaller banner read “FAFO” and “CCCPB.” Unknown what CCCPB means: chapter name, a reference to the Klan-linked “Council of Conservative Citizens” or something else? “FAFO” stands for “Fuck around and Find out” – and that’s exactly what the Proud Boys just did – they fucked around and found out!

The larger banner read “We Are Everywhere” with the Proud Boys logo. Since anarchists and antifa are everywhere and the Proud Boys are not, the banner was edited before the fire was lit.

The Proud Boys are not welcome in Florida or anywhere else. Antifa are everywhere, Proud Boys can indeed “Fuck around and Find out” as can any other fascist pieces of shit who dare to challenge us on our own turf.