So, Andre Dickens has lied about the total cost of cop city to the citizens of Atlanta.

Instead of the 30 million originally planned,

Cop City will instead cost tax payers 67 million!

That's more than twice as much as promised!

The majority of Atleans oppose cop city being built so that's tax payer money going to a unsupported cause without any vote.

If you are in Atlanta please attend the second public comment on June 5th. If not from Atlanta make sure this problem is heard about all across the world. With all the misogynic, transphobic, homophobic, and racist laws being pass right now, I fear that this facility will be used to further the fascism present in the U.S.

Not to mention the ecological disaster this will cause

These pictures were taken by drone only three months from each other. The sediment and runoff from this alone far exceeds the national limit and it will only get worse with the chemical runoff from the explosives that will be used.

I know the world's sort of gone to the dogs lately but please please please don't let this go out of the public eye. If the police force can't train then the police force can't enforce these laws. I have a list of petitions and funds pined on my blog as well as phone numbers to blast if you want something more direct.

Stop Cop City!!!

It's a forest. Just say it.

This is the exact section of South River Forest property that's becoming the "cop city" training facility for the City of Atlanta.

I'm no expert on what constitutes a forest. But from Google Earth, this sure resembles one.

And yet the City of Atlanta put out some "facts" about the police training center being built here, and they're trying to convince us this is no big loss because it's not really a forest:

Weird. They know we have access to the internet, right?

Whatever this greenery is (and I still say it's a forest) it's going away for the training center. We're losing a huge stretch of trees -- which was supposed to all be a public green space, per the Atlanta City Design -- while massive highways stay the same & even get bigger. It's screwed up.

Remember this:

Nobody regrets the forests we saved. Just the ones we lost.

-----

Darin Givens is co-founder of ThreadATL, an urbanism advocacy group in Atlanta.

The Stop Cop City movement has sought to prevent the expropriation of part of the Welaunee Forest for the development of an 85-acre police mega training center: a model town to prepare the state’s repressive arms for the urban warfare that will ensue when the contradictions of their exploitation and extraction become uncontainable, as they did in 2020 after the APD murdered Rayshard Brooks.  That murder, and all those that came before, were the lodestars of the Black-led movement during the George Floyd uprisings; their demands were no less than the dismantlement of the entire carceral system. Unable to effectively manage or quell the popular street movements, the Atlanta Police Foundation set out to consolidate and expand their capabilities for surveillance, repression, imprisonment, armed violence, and forced disappearance. One result is Cop City, which has been racked by militant sabotage, land occupation, arson, and popular mobilizations, in an attempt to end the construction and return Atlanta to its people.  As the Atlanta Police Foundation was unable to contain the 2020 Black rebellion, so too have they been unable to quell the resistance against Cop City. The press reports that the project is hemorrhaging money and is mired in delays and difficulties. For their part, the city, the state, and the federal government, have in turn employed every tool in their power to destroy the movement. Last week, the Georgia State Senate passed a bill to effectively criminalize bail funds in the state; RICO charges have been contorted to target networks of support and care that surround the fighters; and last January, APD assassinated the comrade Tortuguita in cold blood while they rested in their tent in the forest. It is clear that Stop Cop City represents one of the conjunctural spear tips for expanding the existing systems of counterinsurgency that span Africa, Asia, and the Arab world.  Today the system’s belly rests atop Gaza, whose rumblings shake the earth upon which we walk. Through its Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program, the APD has sent hundreds of police to train with the Zionist occupation forces. And in October 2023, after Tufan al-Aqsa, the Atlanta Police Department engaged in hostage training inside abandoned hotels, putatively intended to “defeat Hamas,” in an advancement of tactics for the targeting of Black people. With every such expansion, the ability of counterinsurgency doctrines to counteract people’s liberation struggles grows. The purpose of counterinsurgency is to marshal state and para-state power into political, social, economic, psychological, and military warfare to overwhelm both militants and the popular cradle—the people—who support them. Its aim is to render us hopeless; to isolate and dispossess us and to break our will to resist it by any and all means necessary. This will continue apace, unless we fight to end it. Stop Cop City remains undeterred: on Friday, an APD cop car was burnt overnight in response to the police operation on February 8; yesterday, two trucks and trailers loaded with lumber were burnt to the ground. An anonymous statement claiming credit for the former, stated: “We wish to dispel any notion that people will take this latest wave of repression lying down, or that arresting alleged arsonists will deter future arsons.”  As the U.S. government and Zionist entity set their sights on the Palestinian people sheltering in Rafah, as they continue their relentless genocide of our people in Khan Younis, Jabalia, Shuja’iyya, and Gaza City, the Stop Cop City movement has clearly articulated its solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. They have done so with consistency and discipline, and we have heard them. Our vision of freedom in this life and the next requires us to confront and challenge the entangled forces of oppression in Palestine and in Turtle Island, and to identify the sites of tension upon which these systems distill their forces. This week, as with the last three years, the forest defenders have presented us one such crucible.

(11 Feb 24)

National Lawyers Guild, Stop All Cop Cities: Lessons For a National Struggle (video, 1 hr 45 min)

One Year Since Tortuguita's Killing: A Reflection on our Coverage of the movement against 'cop city'

Check their shoes and look for mud!” shouted one Atlanta police department officer to another. The sun was setting against a tree line growing greener daily due to recent balmy, spring-like weather in Atlanta, but the bucolic setting of a Sunday in the sun at a free music festival abruptly became panic and chaos. Dozens of law enforcement officers, many with automatic weapons, swarmed into a forest of hundreds of acres, seeking to find any of the 200 or so activists who had set fire to a bulldozer, trailer and other infrastructure used for construction on “Cop City”, a $90m, 85-acre police and fire department training center, about an hour earlier. The clash was just the latest dramatic chapter to hit the Cop City project, which has already seen one environmental activist shot dead by police – the first incident of its kind in the US – and drawn national and international attention to the fight to save the Georgia forest where the giant project is planned. The one officer’s frenzied order about dirty footwear seemed as absurd as any part of the Sunday night operation, since Georgia rains had left muddy patches all over the forest, and at least 600 people were lying on the grass, or camped among the trees, or entering the forest to catch an evening’s music under the stars or leaving – thus many had mud on their shoes. But such was the situation on Sunday night, on the second night of the fifth “week of action” by activists over the last year dedicated to protecting the land called South River forest on municipal maps and Weelaunee forest by activists – using the Muscogee (Creek) word for “brown water”. The scene included police running through trees, arresting a legal observer from the National Lawyers Guild, sending a negotiator to agree on terms with five randomly chosen individuals for letting about a hundred music festival audience members safely leave the forest, and detaining journalists for questioning on “what they were there to cover”. The first two days had included free music, herbal workshops and a peaceful march through neighborhoods surrounding the forest south-east of Atlanta. Then, around 5.30 on Sunday evening, about 200 activists, most in balaclavas and camouflage clothing, began lining up to the right of the stage. They marched around three sides of the audience, chanting “Viva Tortuguita” – a reference to Manuel Paez Terán, a 26-year-old activist who was camping several hundred feet away from that spot on 18 January when police shot and killed him in another raid. It was the first time police killed an environmental activist while protesting in US history. Authorities said that Paez Terán fired first. After several hours of chaos on Sunday night, 23 people – including a legal observer with the National Lawyers Guild – had been arrested and charged with “domestic terrorism” under state law, adding to the 18 defendants facing the same unprecedented charges who have been arrested in recent months.

[Image ID: A large group of people are gathered in protest on a sidewalk. A purple banner reading “Stop Cop City” is centered in the front of the photo. End ID.] 

A broad coalition of groups in Atlanta has launched a referendum to give voters a chance to say whether they want the controversial police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” built in a forest south-east of the city.

The effort requires organizers to collect about 70,000 signatures from Atlanta registered voters in 60 days. Then the question of the city canceling its agreement with the Atlanta Police Foundation to build the $90m center can be added to municipal election ballots in November.

The push comes after an estimated thousand people who showed up at City Hall on 5 June proved insufficient to stop Atlanta’s city council from approving about $67m for Cop City. Meanwhile, machines have already begun clear-cutting trees on the project’s 171-acre footprint in South River Forest.

The referendum faces what one organizer called “an atmosphere of repression” – including two activists being charged with felonies last week while putting up fliers, bringing total arrests since December to 50.

The largest group of arrests, on 5 March in a public park in the forest near where the project is planned, was followed by local government closing the park, in effect shutting off tree-sitting protests by “forest defenders” that had gone on for more than a year.

“We’re at the stage where they’ve pushed people out of the forest, they’ve arrested people … they’ve fenced off the forest, they’ve even begun clear-cutting,” said Kamau Franklin, founder of local group Community Movement Builders. “We’re at the stage where the most direct, legal mechanism to stop this project is by referendum.” [...]

...the movement opposing the project has drawn a wide range of people locally, nationally and internationally who oppose police militarization, urban forest destruction amid climate change and environmental racism. Most residents in neighborhoods surrounding the forest are Black.

Most of the organizations driving the referendum are also Black-led, including the regional chapter of Working Families Power, Black Voters Matter and the NAACP. Officials from the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, down to the mayor have consistently referred to opposition against the center as the work of white “outsiders”.

“That narrative is false,” said Britney Whaley, regional director of Working Families Power. “This has been national, but it’s also been community-grown for a few years now.”

Ashley Dixon, an Atlanta-area organizer, has led canvassing efforts to inform neighborhoods around South River Forest about the center for nearly a year. Her team has spoken to more than a thousand people. About 80% opposed the project once they knew about it, she said.

The only academic poll on the issue to date, from Atlanta’s Emory University, showed slightly more Black respondents opposed the project than supported it, with the opposite being true for whites. Atlanta’s population is 48% Black.

The idea for the referendum came from one that succeeded in stopping a spaceport from being built in coastal Georgia, said Will Harlan, founder of Forest Keeper, a national forest conservation organization. “To me, Cop City is the most important issue in conservation in the south-east,” Harlan said. “A referendum is the smartest, most democratic solution … [and] a way to find resolution and closure.”

Although the 2022 spaceport referendum affected a county of only 55,000 people, similarities between the two controversies point to the role voters can play when other efforts fall short.

In that case, local officials “dug their heels in” and stopped responding to press requests or providing transparent information to the public, said Megan Desrosiers, who led the referendum. In the case of Cop City, the Atlanta Police Foundation has stopped answering press requests for at least a year, and the city of Atlanta was recently discovered to be understating the project’s cost to taxpayers by about $36m.

The project is planned on land the city owns that is located in neighboring DeKalb county. Because of Atlanta’s ownership, only Atlanta voters can participate in the referendum. [...]

Organizers of the Cop City referendum pointed to the state’s heavy-handed approach to protesters as a primary concern. There have been 42 domestic terrorism charges to date. A bail and legal defense fund’s members were also arrested and the state added fundraising to its criminal description of the training center’s opposition.

In that context, it took about a dozen attempts at finding a legally required fiscal sponsor for the referendum, which may need as much as $3.5m to reach success, said spokesperson Paul Glaze.

Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter – one of two organizations that agreed to take the sponsorship role – said the recent Atlanta Solidarity Fund arrests were done “to send a message, in hopes it would have a chilling effect. We’re not naive about what the threats are – but we believe our community cares about this issue.”

-- From “Activists push for referendum to put ‘Cop City’ on ballot in Atlanta” by Timothy Pratt for The Guardian, 16 Jun 2023 

Jazzed to have this photograph included in The Guardian’s US Year in Pictures. One of my favorite shoots last year. (Caption: Ruins of the Atlanta prison farm inside the South River Forest. Activists occupied the forest to protest against the approved development of a $90m police training facility in the woodlands.) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm7QLObOdP2/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

elsewhere on the internet: stop cop city

Atlanta’s “Stop Cop City” Movement Is Youth-Led Democracy in Action (Nov 2023, The Nation)

In July, the Georgia State University Student Government Association passed a resolution opposing Atlanta’s proposed “Public Safety Training Center”—also known as Cop City—to be constructed on 85-acres of land outside of city limits.

According to Ramirez, the ties between the university and the Atlanta Police Foundation further pushed students to act. “Approximately 20 faculty members and GSUPD personnel were identified as APF donors. Notably, GSU’s non-profit entity, The Georgia State Foundation, was also listed as a donor,” said Ramirez, citing documents obtained under the Georgia Open Records Act. “As an institution that prides itself on high Black student graduation rates and one of the most diverse student bodies in the country,” reads a statement from the GSU Student Coalition Against Policing & Militarism, “GSU’s participation in prison industrial complex expansion raises concerns.”

Mutual Aid and the movement to Stop Cop City  (Oct 2023, Shareable)

On August 29, 2023, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr filed an indictment against 61 members of the movement to Defend the Atlanta Forest and Stop Cop City. The indictment alleges a vast criminal conspiracy on the part of the activists, weaving them together in a legal scheme so fantastical that one of the accused is cited for being reimbursed for Elmer’s Glue.

It’s a patchwork case with Carr — the announced 2026 Georgia gubernatorial candidate — creating a veritable Charlotte’s Web; scrawling words in the web in a desperate ploy for attention. Unfortunately, it also represents a brazen assault on social justice organizers reminiscent of the FBI’s surveillance and attacks on the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in the 1960s and 70s.

In order to justify the harsh charges, each carrying up to 25 years in prison, Carr attempts to link the protestors together based on their shared commitments to collective welfare and mutual aid. In other words, the State of Georgia is currently arguing that participation in mutual aid projects and practicing solidarity constitutes furthering a criminal conspiracy. If Carr is going to try to make a twisted image of mutual aid tantamount to terrorism, we should all get clear on what mutual aid really is.

How We’ll Know if Stop Cop City Won (Summer 2023, Hammer & Hope)

After the Atlanta City Council coldly rejected 15 hours of public comment against Cop City on June 6, a coalition of electoral groups and abolitionist mainstays announced a referendum campaign to bring the question of Cop City to the ballot citywide. Theoretically, if we are able to collect 58,203 verified signatures from Atlanta residents (representing 15 percent of registered voters), the people of Atlanta will get to decide whether or not the Atlanta Police Foundation can keep its lease for the South River Forest. On August 21, the coalition announced that it had collected 104,000 signatures — for scale, current Mayor Andre Dickens garnered only a little over 50,000 votes in the last election — but would continue the signature drive through September to ensure that the city’s onerous signature verification process does not invalidate so many that the threshold isn’t met. Still, it’s a risky strategy: the city could stall the vote long enough to build the facility. We could make it on the ballot and lose. And if we lose in these ways, what will endure?

A Weapon by the State to Silence Our Voices (Apr 2023, Bolts Mag)

The Cop City arrests near Atlanta show how a buildup of "critical infrastructure" laws across the country threatens to quell protests for environmental justice and police accountability.

Atlanta’s big urbanism stories of 2022

DARIN GIVENS | JANUARY 22, 2023

Thanks to everyone who answered our call for the biggest stories in Atlanta urbanism from the last year, both good and bad! Below are some of the responses:

The growth of opposition to transit on the Atlanta Beltline

If you’ve lived in Atlanta for the last 20 years and attended some of the many public meetings about the plans for rail on the Beltline, the vocal opposition that’s emerged over the past year likely seems to come out of nowhere. Is it just some loud noise made by a small faction? Possibly. It’ll be interesting to see if it dies away or gains steam in 2023.

For now, take a look at Ryan Gravel’s good writeup on the reasons why transit is essential for the Beltline.

Westside Beltline: progress and delay

The Urbanize Atlanta site says it well: the construction of the Westside trail is very exciting (will it end up being a development magnet like the Eastside trail has been?), but the timeline for the full build-out has been frustrating for people in those neighborhoods who are looking forward to a fully connected path: “First, the good news for Atlanta BeltLine patrons and proponents: Another section of the 22-mile loop is making concrete strides toward becoming a reality. Less encouraging news: The Westside Trail’s Segment 4, spanning a crucial 1.3 miles, isn’t expected to open for public use until deep into 2025.”

The ongoing fallout from Cop City / South River Forest

There was a controversial land swap that resulted in loss of trees, a fight for the forest that garnered national attention from activists, and generally a lot of ill feelings on the local stage about this public safety facility that’s poised to be built in a forest that was previously slated as public green space.

ThreadATL wrote about it a couple of years ago. The fallout from the city’s awful decision to ignore the Atlanta City Design concept for the park has been terrible to watch.

Above: lake at the Prison Farm in the forest now slated to become a training facility; source: Atlanta City Design

Atlanta Medical Center closing

AMC in Old Fourth Ward became the latest in a string of hospital closures in Georgia, most of them (like AMC) are expected to have an outsized negative effect on lower-income patients in Black communities. As the AJC article about it notes: “Patients and doctors interviewed over the past two months repeated the expectation that the lower-income and Black communities would be the most harmed by the closures. They worry many will drop regular visits or never find a new doctor.”

Another major concern is access: AMC was served by three different MARTA bus routes, which made it accessible to staff and patients who need that transit option. Will the new offices they have to go to be as accessible?

The failure of the Edgewood neighborhood to support gentle density

The proposed rezoning of 90 and 98 Whitefoord Avenue in the Edgewood neighborhood would have produced 48 new housing units, including 25% of them priced for lower-income households at 60% of Area Median Income (AMI). The property is 4 blocks from a MARTA station and 3 blocks from Edgewood Retail (a regional jobs center) — great for walkable access. Sadly, it got shut down down before it ever left the zoning committee of the neighborhood. The proposal is still up at edgewoodforeveryone.com

Progress with parking reform

Planning pros tell us that several low-parking housing developments have been announced for the first time in ages for Atlanta. This is a huge change from a few years ago, when anything less than a ratio of one parking space per bedroom was unheard of.

Also, thanks to the leadership of Councilmember Jason Dozier, Atlanta is putting a lower cap on the number of parking spaces that can be built for new real estate projects. At the end of 2022, City Council made an amendment to the zoning ordinance that lowers the maximums parking spaces allowed to be built for new developments in Midtown and Downtown, the most walkable and transit-accessible parts of the city.

Two Peachtree tower in Downtown set to become affordable homes

Invest Atlanta approved $39 million to purchase the massive Two Peachtree office tower in Downtown with the intention of converting it into affordable housing! This 44-story building dates to 1968. Invest Atlanta will hold onto the building until a redevelopment partner is selected. Funding for the purchase is coming from the Eastside Tax Allocation District.

Converting office buildings to housing seems to be a trend in Downtown. Another 1960s tower at 100 Edgewood Avenue (across from Hurt Park) is being converted to 268 new housing units, likely for students. And not far away, work has begun on the conversion of another office building to residential at 41 Marietta Street, where it intersects with Forsyth.

Trolley line Trail finally happening

Eastside Trolley Trail between Kirkwood and the BeltLine is happening. The PATH Foundation has started work to link existing stretches of trail. Urbanize Atlanta reports that the trail will “start on-street in Reynoldstown near the Eastside Trail, run eastward through Edgewood, and connect with existing PATH sections that were installed prior to the 1996 Olympics as the project’s first phase. The finished project will provide a nearly two-mile route for non-drivers from the doorstep of Kirkwood’s downtown back to the BeltLine.”

Krog Street Market district

The construction of new office space next to Krog Street Market — one from Asana and one from Portman — is helping to fulfill the promise of the Beltline as not just a nice place to live, but a nice place to work. The variety of destinations on the Beltline help to emphasize that Atlantans are ready to live and work in places that aren’t served by highways for driving, but that are served by routes for alternative transportation.

The sudden removal of Peachtree Shared Space

This one really hurt. The Peachtree Shared Space, one of the most exciting projects from the Tim Keane era of Atlanta’s planning department, was dismantled at the order of Mayor Dickens. The roadway was returned to its sad former status as, essentially, a four lane car sewer.

According to the website for the project, it was supposed to shift directly into a Phase Two at the end of this Phase One, and add more features such as seating.

https://www.sharepeachtree.com/demo

It’s a safe assumption that the pushback on the shared street from powerful voices in Downtown — ones who didn’t like the idea of car lanes being turned into shared spaces with slower traffic — has succeeded. On Twitter, Councilmember Amir Farokhi wrote that he tried to change this decision about dismantling the shared space, but hasn’t been able to. Which is particularly disappointing since he’s the Council’s Transportation Committee Chair.

A developer was found for the Civic Center site

After a couple of disappointing false starts with other developers, Atlanta Housing has selected the team of Tishman Speyer and H.J. Russell & Co. as master developers for the 14-acre site, which has sat vacant for eight years. Atlanta Civic Circle has the story. Fingers crossed: so far, the developers haven’t pulled out. Though there’s some major concern over the amount of affordable housing that might be provided here (it should be a high amount, including deep affordability for lower-income households).

---

This was reposted from ThreadATL.org

The decision of what cities value now has implications for what—and who—they will value in the future. Atlanta’s South River Forest, which regulates temperatures and provides residents with a critical source of climate resiliency, is an asset that benefits majority-Black neighborhoods in one of the most heat-stressed cities in the country. Destroying 85 acres of it despite public opposition is a choice with long-term consequences.

Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ and the relationship between place, policing, and climate | Brookings.edu

#STOPCOPCITY: Atlanta's Militant Forest Defenders

Descripción

STOP COP CITY: Atlanta's Militant Forest Defenders

STOP COP CITY is about the militant occupation of Atlanta's South River Forest. For over a year, a coalition of militant anarchists, community organizers, and eco-activists have been resisting police and contractors to halt the deforestation of hundreds of acres of urban forest.

REPORTERS: JUSTIN PALACIOS, IG @JustinRoseTX. COLLIN MAYFIELD. IG @Collin_Mayfield. DANIEL SCHMIDT, IG @DSchmidtPhotos/CrimeAndConflict

More than a year after the death of an environmental activist, questions remain on the dangerousness of the Stop Cop City movement near Atlanta

A makeshift memorial in the South River Forest for environmental activist Manuel Terán. Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images by Michael K. Logan, Kennesaw State University and Jennifer Carson, University of Central Missouri Manuel Terán was one of a few dozen environmentalist activists who joined a protest nearly three years ago against the clearing of about 300 acres of woodlands near Atlanta to…

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This is so us.

The fall in Southern Appalachia is a wildly beautiful spectacle for the senses. The hills are ablaze with myriad shades of orange, yellow, red, green and brown as the trees shake off their yearly foliage and get ready for winter. Beautiful small towns dot the Southern Appalachian region and many have been embraced by adventurers. Rapid rivers that behold incredible cascading waterfalls, winding roads and stunning vistas all bring in folks from around the country during the fall. 

There have been many chapters in Atlanta’s skating history. Throughout the years there have been different crews, leaders and visitors who have added to the fabric of one of the most influential scenes in the world. Over the last few years there is a new bond growing from within our community. Many of us have become film workers. Occasionally we get to work with each other on movies and television series. It is a huge mental relief to be in the trenches with the members of the community as we bring our skill sets to production. The hardest day can be made a little easier when you bump into someone at work who knows how to fill a need on a film set but also knows how good a perfect royale feels.

We are in the midst of one of the longest labor disputes in the history of the film industry. Our livelihoods have taken a hit so that our leadership can fight for fair wages and protections against technologies that can be used to replace humans. Having a close knit group of friends who understand the financial and mental stress this is causing has been a wonderful form of therapy. We have been gathering around the fire in backyards, having cookouts on front porches and going on the occasional session. 

A few weeks ago the boys decided to take a trip up into the hills to camp, skate, create and bond. We got a loose plan in place and headed up to South Central Appalachia to cruise some parks in the incredible beauty of the changing seasons. We packed the cars, grabbed coffee from Little Tart, fueled up, said a quick goodbye to our buddy Pete Simpson at the gas station and headed up 85. Luis Corrales and I were in my truck while Chris Smith and Matty Shrock rode in Chris’s van. 

Stop 1 was the Asheville DIY. If you live anywhere near Asheville then I would suggest you check this park out. It is in a really incredible Arts District with food, coffee and drinks all in the same complex as the park. Two of our buds from the Asheville area, Adam Robert (Krob) and Trey Kendrick, rolled through. Trey brought his new pup with him which made a wonderful day even better. We clipped up and after everyone felt good about it we headed to Lake Powhatan Campgrounds from night one of fire bonding.

The boys cooked steaks over the open fire and I made some ramen on my tailgate. We imbibed while laughing hysterically late into the night. At one point, Krob had a large ember jump out of the fire and onto his jacket. He jumped up, spun around and frantically tried to get his jacket off. He ended up dropping to the ground, finally extinguished the ember then quickly stood up, leaned against a lantern post and deadpanned the group and said “This is so us.”. We fucking lost it and had to spend the next few hours reminding eachother that we were sharing the campground with other folks and needed to quiet down the laughter.

On day 2 we rode through the Carolina mountain roads into Waynesville. Waynesville skatepark is incredible. It sits in the middle of a valley and has a rambling stream running through the park that it is in. We forgot to charge the HVX batteries so our clipping was constantly being put on hold while we rotated batteries from the car chargers. Afterwards we hit the road to Pisgah National Forest. The energy was a bit lower on night two but we had some intense bonding moments and shared stories of the good old days. 

Day 3 we didn’t really have a plan. We ate breakfast in Brevard, NC and decided to check out their new mini ramp park. When we got there we realized that none of us had enough energy to skate a mini so we decided to head back south to skate the Greenville DIY. Greenville DIY, or Twin Towers, is a bit more rugged than Asheville DIY but offered a different kind of fun. Chris, Matty and Luis grabbed some tricks and we loaded up the cars to head home.

Matty and Chris had to rush home but Luis and I took our time. We stopped at Thomas Creek Brewery on the way back and chatted about doing another trip soon, our relationships and potential timelines for being back at work. Luis is a good human that I am really happy to have met. The strength of a road trip in bonding is amazing. Luis and I certainly have an even stronger relationship after this trip.

The world is being ripped apart at the seams and the instability of our work hasn’t been too great on stress levels. It was really nice to get away from it all for a few days with friends. To bond, to film clips and make photographs. Hope everyone is getting through the darks days and staying strong. If you have the ability, go into the woods, light a fire and enjoy the fire dancing on the faces of your friends while you still have them.

Stop Cop City Movement RICO Indictments (with Matt Scott of ACPC)

This week, we’re featuring an interview with Matt Scott of the Atlanta Community Press Collective update us on the movement to Stop Cop City in light of the recent indictment of 61 people on Racketeering charges by the state of Georgia at the end of August and the legal shenanigans of the city to block a public referendum on the police training center that would destroy the south Atlanta forest and river. We'll also hear about recent non-violent civil disobediences and the call for a mass action on November 13th, 2023 (with a multi-city info-tour in the buildup).

Transcript

PDF (Unimposed)

Zine (Imposed PDF)

Follow ACPC:

website: https://ATLPressCollective.com

XTwitterX: @Atlanta_Press

Instagram: @ATLPressCollective

Mastodon: @Atlanta_Press/@kolektiva.social

Tax Deductible Donations: Open Collective page

Other DTF / Stop Cop City Movement Media:

Cop City Vote: website & XTwitterX

Defend The Atlanta Forest: website , XTwitterX, Instascam, Fedbook

Block Cop City website

Then, you’ll hear a segment by anarchist prisoner, Sean Swain on alien abductions.

Belarusian and Ukrainian Anarchist Perspectives

We released a recording of a panel from St-Imier, Switzerland, this July where Belarusian and Ukrainian anarchists talked about their experiences in the last few years since the uprising against Lukashenko and the escalation in the Russian invasion. You can check it out at our website or in our podcast stream: https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2023/09/13/ukrainian-belarusian-perspectives-on-resisting-russian-invasion/

. ... . ..

Featured Track:

They Want Efx (instrumental) by Das efx

Check out this episode!