Tag: atlanta forest
One Year Since Tortuguita’s Killing: A Reflection on our Coverage of the Movement Against ‘Cop City’ and the First Eco-Activist Killed in the US
Thursday, January 18, 2024, marks one year since Manuel “Tortuguita” Esteban Paez Terán was killed by police in the South River Forest outside Atlanta. A 26-year-old queer anarchist, Tortuguita had been an active participant in the movement against “Cop City” for months before Georgia State…
‘Cop City’ Defendant Victor Puertas Has Been Held For Months Without Trial, but His Community Hasn’t Forgotten Him
November 12 marked Victor Puertas’ 46th birthday. But while family and friends throughout the region gathered in his hometown of Salt Lake City, Victor spent the day behind bars.
For more than seven months, Puertas has been in pretrial detention after he was arrested and…
No Gunpowder Residue Found on Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán According to DeKalb County Autopsy
DeKalb County, GA — Three months after Georgia State Patrol officers shot Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán, killing the 26-year-old environmental and human rights advocate, the DeKalb County medical examiner released their autopsy results. In the 34-page report, Dr. Gerald T. Gowitt, the chief medical…
‘Cop City’ Receives Brief Stop Work Order
Construction on Atlanta's 'Cop City' training facility was halted for a short time Thursday afternoon after inspectors found permit violations at the hotly contested work site.
Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán’s Independent Autopsy Report Released at Press Conference
Decatur, GA – The family of Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán held a press conference Monday morning outside the Historic DeKalb Courthouse to release the full autopsy of Tortuguita and to discuss the lawsuit the family filed this week against the City of Atlanta under…
Police Raid Atlanta Forest After ‘Cop City’ Opponents Overrun Security Post
Dekalb County, GA — At least 30 people were arrested on Sunday evening in the South River Forest during a ‘week of action’ music festival taking place near the location of the proposed controversial ‘Cop City’ facility.
UPDATE: 3/6/23 — According to the Atlanta Police…
‘Stop Cop City’ Week of Action Begins in Atlanta
Atlanta, GA – Atlanta-area forest defenders, community activists and their allies from around the country and the world are initiating a ‘week of action’ against a proposed ‘Cop City’ urban warfare campus and a movie industry facility that would demolish much of the largest urban…
‘Tortuguita Vive’: A No-Compromise Movement Responds to Police Killing a Forest Defender
DeKalb County, GA – The anonymous communique issued in May 2021 was written in romantic prose. Its author describes a nighttime walk through the South River Forest, just south of Atlanta, where “a couple of queers” had discovered seven unattended pieces of heavy machinery parked…
Atlanta Activists Say Prosecutors Plan to Indict them on RICO Charges
Atlanta, GA – Community organizations involved in the ongoing campaign to defend the South River Forest outside Atlanta, Georgia and ‘Stop Cop City’ say state prosecutors are planning on releasing indictments in the coming weeks charging them as a “criminal organization” under RICO statutes.
The…
Indigenous-Led Occupation Begins at Roof Depot Site Demanding City Call Off Demolition
Minneapolis, MN – East Phillips residents and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) started an occupation of the Roof Depot site in the early hours of Tuesday morning in resistance to the city’s plan to demolish the site which sits atop decades of arsenic…
Minneapolis March Connects Roof Depot Demolition Resistance to the Atlanta Forest
Minneapolis, MN – Two weeks before a planned national week of action in Atlanta against ‘Cop City’ and a week before slated construction is about to begin in the demolition of the Roof Depot EPA Superfund site in Minneapolis, a protest in East Phillips brought…
Marches and Vigils Across the US Respond to the Police Killing of Forest Defender Tort
In the days following the police killing of Manuel Terán (Tort/Tortuguita) in the Atlanta Forest, solidarity actions occurred in cities throughout the country. Tort was shot and killed on Wednesday, Jan. 18 during a large police operation to evict activists camped in the forest (forest…
Protester Shot and Killed by Officers During Raid on Atlanta Forest
Atlanta, GA – A protester was shot and killed by police Wednesday morning, January 18, in the midst of a multi-jurisdictional raid on the Atlanta Forest, also known as the Weelaunee Forest, in DeKalb County, southeast of Atlanta.
Update 1/19/23 at 4:30 p.m. EST:
The…
SWAT Teams Attack Atlanta Forest Encampments, Activists Charged with ‘Terrorism’
Atlanta, GA – On December 13 and 14, 2022, SWAT teams and other armed police officers from eight different federal, state, county, and city police agencies conducted a raid on those camping out in the Atlanta forest in hopes of preventing the construction of a…
[Mini Doc] Defending the Atlanta Forest: Behind the Movement to Stop Cop City
Hear from the people on the ground in Atlanta, Georgia in our new mini documentary about their efforts to protect the forest and the people from the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Public Safety Training Center (also known as ‘Cop City’) and other developments.…