An activist speaking into a megaphone can be seen amidst a partial shot of a marching crowd - a banner being held in the front of the march reads "Don't Cut Down the Forest! The trees are family."
🦄 Eco , 🦄 Police

‘Stop Cop City’ Week of Action Day 8: Youth Rally; Atlanta Police Vehicles Torched

By Unicorn Riot

Atlanta, GA — The sixth ‘Stop Cop City’ “Week of Action” concluded on Saturday, July 1. The day’s main event was a planned ‘Youth Rally’ in Brownwood Park in the East Atlanta Village (EAV) neighborhood, which had served as the main hub for gatherings and events throughout the week.

Families with children and protesters of all ages gathered in the park starting around 11 a.m., with a bouncy castle, face painting, a mat with Legos, and food and coffee stations set up to service the crowd.

At around 11:30 a.m., a short rally was held with speakers including Belkis Terán (mother of slain forest defender Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Paez Terán), ‘Cop City Vote’ referendum petition drive organizer Dr. Mariah Parker and Lorraine Fontana, a longtime Atlanta lesbian feminist activist who was controversially arrested two days earlier in a Home Depot parking lot during a protest demanding the corporation cut ties with the Atlanta Police Foundation.

Dr. Mariah Parker (they/them), an African-American femme-presenting person wearing a blue ‘Stop Cop City’ tank top with an Afro haircut speaks into a wired microphone standing in front of other protesters holding an out-of-focus banner held from white cloth in front of the shaded gazebo/picnic table area at Brownwood Park in southeast Atlanta. The sun is coming down brightly as it’s around noon.
Lorraine Fontana, a white woman with grey hair wearing tan cargo shorts and a black t-shirt with a white design on it, points with her left index finder while speaking into a wired microphone. She’s standing in front of two protesters who are behind her to the viewer’s left holding a banner reading “Don’t Cut Down The Forest! The Trees Are Family.” The banner also features two scribble-style drawings of trees that appear to have been drawn by children or in the style of a child. To the viewer’s right behind Fontana another protester wearing a bright green safety vest is holding up a cloth ‘Stop Cop City’ design attached to a bright green wooden pole - the pole’s color matches their vest almost exactly.

After half an hour of speeches, a crowd of about 100 marched around the surrounding streets of EAV to oppose ‘Cop City’ and raise awareness of the movement’s ongoing presence despite advancing construction and clearcutting in the nearby South River Forest (also known by its Indigenous Muscogee name, Weelaunee.) The march lasted around 40 minutes and returned to Brownwood Park where some remained to socialize.

A crowd of about 100 seen from the front marching in the street in the East Atlanta Village neighborhood. Several signs read “Stop Cop City” - two banners at the front of the March read “Don’t Cut Down the Forest! The Trees Are Family.” And “Save Weelaunee” alongside children’s drawings of the sun, a tree and a turtle.
A white child with Spider-Man-style face paint over their eyes is held by their parent as they walk amidst the larger crowd of protesters.
A small Black child with an Afro and red and gfeeen face paint on their forehead is pulled in a wagon by an adult with a Fanny pack and a bright neon butterfly design affixed around their eyes with face paint - they are situated amongst the larger protest crowd, the photo is taken facing the backs of the marchers but the child is facing backwards towards the camera

Alleged Arson/Sabotage at Current Atlanta Police Academy

Later on Saturday, local media reported that at around 2:30 a.m. “several motorcycles” at the Atlanta Police Training Academy had been destroyed by fire with “incendiary devices” also found on the scene.

While the exact number of police vehicles destroyed is unknown, photos posted by Atlanta News First seem to show at least three police motorcycles sustained extreme damage and were likely effectively destroyed. At least one police sedan or SUV had an “incendiary device” placed next to one of its front wheels.

Crime scene photo showing burnt-out Atlanta Police motorcycles in a parking lot at the Atlanta Police Training Academy. The image is washed in a red light presumably from a police or fire department vehicle from out-of-frame.
Crime scene photo showing burnt-out Atlanta Police motorcycles in a parking lot at the Atlanta Police Training Academy. The image is washed in a red light presumably from a police or fire department vehicle from out-of-frame.
Crime scene photo showing burnt-out Atlanta Police motorcycles in a parking lot at the Atlanta Police Training Academy. The image is washed in a red light presumably from a police or fire department vehicle from out-of-frame.
Atlanta Police Training Academy crime scene photos (first posted by Atlanta News First)

While no statement claiming responsibility was issued, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp was quick to issue a statement that seemed to imply that the entire movement against ‘Cop City’ was responsible:

At least a dozen previous acts of arson and sabotage have been anonymously claimed by forest defenders as part of the resistance to the controversial urban warfare training center, usually in communiques republished by the website ‘Scenes From The Atlanta Forest.’

Unicorn Riot's coverage on the movement to defend the Atlanta Forest:

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Categories: Eco, Police
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Published July 2, 2023
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A colorful bouncy castle house with pointy cone tips in its four corner columns sits on the basketball court at Brownwood Park in southeast Atlanta. To its right snacks and a popcorn machine sit on a folding table. Behind the snack table a banner hangs from trees reading “We End Police Terror Together” with a painted image of a clenched green fist emerging from an overturned and smashed police car - brown roots feeding into the green fist can be seen growing into the ground through the smashed windshield of the upside down cop car.

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