there were probably 200 - 250 protestors, a lot of them friends of tortugita who talked about how they were a beautiful person and a model emergency medic. people smashed the windows of a wells fargo, a very fancy hotel, and a cop car that was torched. and it was on atlanta's biggest tourist street, like this was happening across from a hooters and a hard rock cafe. a few people were arrested. i saw a line of maybe 20-25 cop cars driving to the protest, and helicopters over head. a few tourists asked about what the protest was about, seemed genuinely interested and horrified about cop city
and some black israelites trolled me on the way out.
though i really wish people wouldnt bring fireworks to shoot off, terrifying hearing that when idf trained cops are coming in with all the weapons taxpayers can buy
Aye fyi Tort uses they/them pronouns from what I heard. Like this testimony from their partner + one of their homies said that Tort was basically like a "trans parent" to the trans peeps at the forest.
Fyi the video is pretty sad, but I recommend for people to watch it.
What were the numbers? How did that raid actually go? CNN is robotic garbage jfc
It's not shocking, police have been "losing" bodycam footage and preventing legal observers from entering the forest. Local media has been accepting APD's lies whole-cloth. Activists are understandably cagey about the whole thing.
I saw speculation that a cop had his booger hook on the trigger and negligent discharged, then the other cops started panic firing. Nothing definitive, but it makes as much sense as the other option which is "premeditated murder".
Yes: https://news.littlesis.org/2022/11/15/meet-the-major-corporations-and-cultural-institutions-helping-build-cop-city-in-atlanta/
You never need an excuse to [REDACTED] wells fargo. They straight out stole vast numbers of homes from people. Not "These people couldn't pay their sub prime mortgages that Wells Fargo knew they'd default on", like actually used legal tricky to just flat out steal houses, cars, and other assets. I want to say it was like millions of homes but it seems like it's memory holed right now bc I can't find anything with a superficial search.
Apparently just last month they finally settled a lawsuit to provide restitution to some people.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/20/1144331954/wells-fargo-billions-wrongful-fees-settlement
First bank of America and now this. Our banks are some of the most scummy businesses in a field of scummy businesses.
Yeah it's hard to even call them criminal because of the scale of it. It's just capitalism, which is a lot more damning than any crime you could commit.
What are the odds on this spreading to other cities? 2020 needs a repeat
I think this is more an "organize international support" situation than a "spread it" situation. Like instead of rioting where you are, fundrais for legal defense, educate the public, organize to bring a contingent down to ATL, run a pressure campaign against the contractor for Cop City.
idk, the Memphis PD pre-emptively fired five cops who beat a man to death, that high school teacher was just beaten to death after asking for help after a car crash, and the video of the cops executing that disabled man when he came out with his hands up is going around.
I don't think there's any way to guess what combination of police atrocities will touch things off again but the pigs are certainly trying their best this month.
The police are always doing horrific shit. It's not what act will get people mad, it's when people are ready to do something about how angry they are.
