[News] The Fight to Stop Cop City Won’t Stop: An Interview With Kamau Franklin
Anti-Imperialist News
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Tue Sep 26 10:41:44 EDT 2023
The Fight to Stop Cop City Won’t Stop: An Interview With Kamau Franklin
Another article follows this one!
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/24/the-fight-to-stop-cop-city-wont-stop/
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The Fight to Stop Cop City Won’t Stop
An Interview With Kamau Franklin
by Susie Day
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The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, intended to consume at least
85 acres of forest adjacent to Atlanta’s Black working-class
neighborhoods, is more accurately called Cop City. Slated to be one of
the largest militarized police training centers in the nation, Cop City
is owned by the nonprofit Atlanta Police Foundation, which, by paying
$10 a year to lease the land, is funding about two-thirds of this $90
million project, via corporate (Coca-Cola, Bank of America, UPS…)
donations. No surprise, then, that people feel Cop City bears watching.
Kamau Franklin has been watching Cop City since its inception. A human
rights attorney and full-on community organizer for over 30 years, Kamau
helped found Community Movement Builders
<https://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=4c8e141347&e=e9f3d86b9a>,
a collective of residents and activists in Atlanta’s Black working-class
and poor communities. CMB is one of many organizations in the Stop Cop
City movement. If it weren’t for months of dedicated fightback by these
groups and individual activists, Cop City would probably be ready to
open by now.
But massive demonstrations, rallies, tree-sittings, encampments, vigils,
petitions, and, more recently, a voters’ referendum have resoundingly
delayed the project, despite retaliatory waves of arrests, indictments,
and detentions. Most recently, Georgia’s attorney general charged 61
Stop Cop City activists under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act (RICO). Originally designed to curb the mafia, RICO is
used here to incriminate such mundane acts as handing out flyers,
raising donations, or buying glue to make pamphlets – and could add
prison sentences of five to 20 years. Having no idea of how all this
will end, I asked Kamau how it began…
*Kamau Franklin: *In 2020 Community Movement Builders was one of the
organizations doing a lot of work after the killing of George Floyd,
Breonna Taylor, and, here in Atlanta, Rayshard Brooks – which took place
less than a mile from our community house. We started organizing around
police violence. Things were dying down, then all of a sudden, we
started hearing about a plan by the city of Atlanta to build this
militarized training center. They’d be renting over 300 acres, with 90
acres scheduled to be deforested. This is land on what we’ve dubbed the
Weelaunee Forest, which was Muscogee tribal lands…. It’s geared up to
have a Blackhawk helicopter pad, over a dozen firing ranges, urban
warfare training, mock cities….
Instantly, we saw this as twofold. One, it was a continuation of
over-policing, in particular, of Black communities, which has led to
gentrification and to 90% of those arrested in Atlanta being Black. Two,
the Atlanta Police Foundation, using money from the city and private
corporations not only in Atlanta but nationally, was targeting movements
against police terror and violence.
*sd: *The project was announced in April 2021. What happened then?
*Kamau Franklin: *In April, May, June 2021, organizing really kicked
off. At first, it was straightforward: standard community rallies,
demonstrations, town halls. We had the second largest public hearing at
City Hall, but even though we peeled off some city council members, Cop
City was backed by the council and the mayor’s office. So the city
council voted to sign a lease for the Atlanta Police Foundation. After
that, they thought the movement would end.
But in June and July, folks slowly began to go into the forest and stay
there. Rallies and demonstrations, in and out of the forest, continued
to take place. That type of organizing went on for a while. It wasn’t
until the end of 2022, when, through an open records request, we found
that the Atlanta Police Foundation discussed charging movement
organizers with domestic terrorism. Then in December 2022, they made
their first raid into the forest against the forest defenders and
arrested six people. This was the first wave of arrests of people
charged with domestic terrorism.
Earlier on, there were arrests that took place during demos and rallies
against Cop City, but those folks weren’t charged with domestic
terrorism. Then, in January 2023, the police raided the forest again,
arrested another six activists, and killed Tortuguita [Manuel Esteban
Paez Terán, they/them, 26-year-old forest defender]. Later in January,
another seven or so organizers doing a vigil for Tortuguita in downtown
Atlanta were arrested for domestic terrorism. Weeks of action continued
and, this March, well over 23 people were arrested at a music festival
and charged with domestic terrorism.
In May, they arrested the organizers who helped make public the names of
the police who killed Tortuguita. Then they charged people from the
Atlanta Solidarity Fund – a bail fund for movement people – with
white-collar crimes. Earlier this month, they charged 61 people –most of
whom had already been arrested – with RICO charges, using the strangest
indictment anyone has ever seen, that called things like “mutual aid”
and solidarity work akin to racketeering. A little before that, they
arrested four or five organizers who were passing out flyers. So we’ve
had this litany of charges, from domestic terrorism to RICO, for the
last eight to ten months.
*sd: *How do things stand? How many people are in jail; how many are
still living in the forest?
*Kamau Franklin: *In January, they cleared the forest out –the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation, the Atlanta Police Department, DeKalb County
Bureau, County Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
and Homeland Security – they put a fence around the entire forest. So as
of today, there are no more forest defenders. They’ve cleared some land;
they have not done any structural build but may be laying pipe and doing
other things. Most of the people arrested, if not all, have been
released on bail. There’s maybe one person on an immigration hold, still
locked up.
During the arrests – particularly on domestic terrorism charges – the
police separated people who had in-state licenses from out-of-state
people. Those who had Georgia driver’s licenses were, for the most part,
let go; people from out-of-state, they charged with domestic terrorism,
to further their narrative that these actions come from a bunch of
outside agitators. The overwhelming majority of people arrested and
charged with domestic terrorism were doing nothing more than sitting in
tree huts or tents or attending a music festival or a rally. But
charging domestic terrorism is meant to criminalize and frighten people
away from the movement.
*sd: *Mainstream media talk about some Cop City protesters “crossing the
line
<https://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=39b49b770d&e=e9f3d86b9a>,”
from free speech and civil disobedience into “terrorism.” Doesn’t
terrorism imply violence? What exactly is considered domestic terrorism
here?
*Kamau Franklin: *They’re talking about property destruction. There have
been times when graffiti was written on walls; when corporate offices
had their windows broken; a couple of occasions where equipment used to
knock down trees was disabled or burnt. Those weren’t the vast majority
of tactics used, but they have occasionally taken place.
We in the Stop Cop City movement don’t necessarily consider those acts
of violence, right? But if you want to charge somebody with property
destruction – if that’s what they were caught doing – then we’d fight
the charges, but at least we’d understand why someone got charged. But
those individual property acts are the basis for using, not only RICO
but also domestic terrorism charges, against a larger movement.
*sd: *A news account of Tortuguita being killed mentions that, at the
same time, a trooper was “seriously wounded.” What happened?
*Kamau Franklin: *The first news that morning was that a trooper in the
woods was shot in his stomach while doing a forest clearing. A few
minutes later, news came that a forest defender had been killed. The
Georgia Bureau of Investigation immediately put out a press release,
claiming that this forest defender shot the state trooper and that
police forces – many forces – then shot back at Tortuguita and killed
them. Right away, we began to challenge that narrative.
We asked folks in the surrounding neighborhood about hearing gunshots.
They did not say, as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation did, that one
shot was fired, then police returned fire. Neighborhood people said they
heard a sudden burst of gunfire. We should be clear that the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation claims there is no videotape of the actual
shooting – but in bodycam footage of police in other areas where they
were ripping up tents, you clearly hear a burst of gunfire reminiscent
of what people in the community said. The officers themselves say,
“What’s that? Sounds like suppressed fire
<https://jerichony.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0aca83ec057f583557dec5ce0&id=3c9cd1f122&e=e9f3d86b9a>,”
which is code for cop fire. One of them also comments, “Are they
shooting themselves?”
The official autopsy shows that there were 56 entry/exit wounds in
Tortuguita’s body and no gun residue on Tortuguita’s palms. So it seems
ridiculous that this young forest defender, with no prior criminal
record whatsoever, fired a single bullet at police, risking suicide,
knowing they would be met with 40 to 50 gunshots in return –
particularly since the autopsy showed that they were shot with their
palms up, covering their face, sitting in a crisscross position with
bullet holes throughout their knees, lower legs, thighs. So we dispute
the state’s narrative, that Tortuguita was out to kill a cop, and they
had no choice but to fire back. At this late date, they haven’t even
released the official report of how Tortuguita was killed.
*sd: *What about the many law enforcement agencies targeting Cop City
protesters? Does this call to mind the olden days of COINTELPRO? Or is
this something new?
*Kamau Franklin: *It definitely calls to mind COINTELPRO – and a newer
form, as well. Obviously, throughout COINTELPRO’s history, work between
local law enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was
common. Early on, before any arrests took place, via an open records
request, we found out that they had developed an actual task force: the
Atlanta police, DeKalb County police, Georgia Bureau of Investigation,
Homeland Security, and the FBI. What we have here are political actors:
the governor, the mayor, the DeKalb County Commissioners Office, the
police department, the Atlanta Police Foundation – a private actor –
they have their own task force, rooted in destroying the Cop City
movement, not only by trying to criminalize it, but by arresting it, and
literally by killing members of it. We feel they just didn’t expect this
movement to keep on going; they thought they’d stopped us.
*sd: *What’s the relationship between Atlanta’s communities and the Cop
City activists? Where are Atlanta’s elite in all this?
*Kamau Franklin: *The elite – particularly the Black elite, in terms of
preachers, business people, and former elected officials – have all
supported this mayor’s building of Cop City. They’ve clearly sided with
the corporations, which have donated literally millions of dollars to
building Cop City. It’s gonna be the first time in this country’s
history that a private, nonprofit organization, the Atlanta Police
Foundation, will be responsible for the training of a municipal police
department. The elite have been fully on board to make sure that no
further uprisings take place; that folks go back into their individual
holes in the ground and consume TV, buy products they’re told to buy and
leave the governing to them.
On the other side is the everyday community member and organizer, who
says, /We did not vote for this. /The area reserved for Cop City is
adjacent to a working-class Black community, which had no votes. The
forest had been designated for camping grounds and hiking trails – there
were literal plans written up and passed for that community but were
scrapped when Atlanta decided on Cop City. One reason this forest is so
important is that it helps with flooding, something that happens a lot,
with climate change. As they cut down trees, more flooding will take
place in those communities.
So, through the biggest mass action tactic we’ve used – the referendum
process – we’ve collected over 116,000 signatures from everyday
Atlantans, who say they want to have a vote in whether Cop City gets
built. We’ve collected more signatures than people who actually voted
for the current mayor. That’s unheard of in this city, and maybe across
the country. So, with everyday Atlantans – and what’s left of the
working-class and poor communities that haven’t been pushed out –
there’s a very good relationship of us talking to people, trying to
understand their needs and desires.
*sd: *What’s happening with those signatures?
*Kamau Franklin: *Our original deadline was August 21, to collect
approximately 58,000 signatures that would be verified as signatures of
people registered to vote during the last mayoral election. So, as we’re
getting closer to August 21, we start to hear that they’ll use
“signature-match” and “exact-match,” two well-known voter-repression tools.
The important thing to understand here is that this is the Democratic
Party doing all this – the same Party that sued the Georgia Republican
Party for using these exact methods to take away votes when Stacey
Abrams ran. Meanwhile, a judge had given us extra time –until September
21 – so we continued collecting signatures. Then an appeals court stayed
the judge’s order and said that we should stop collecting signatures.
So, on Monday, September 11, we gave in the signatures we had. But then
the city decided not to start verifying signatures, because of the stay
issued by the court. This is a stall tactic; they know that, if we get
this on the ballot, we will win at the polls.
*sd:* The RICO law used to charge those 61 people can include innocuous,
nonviolent acts such as handing out a flyer. Could it also be used
against people who’ve participated in this voter referendum?
*Kamau Franklin: *Yeah. The indictment is written in such a broad way
that there could be future arrests, indictments, and charges. With RICO,
anyone associated with organizing – even people who’ve been doing the
referendum part – “Let’s put democracy to the test!” – could be charged
with RICO for association with Stop Cop City activities.
*sd: *Isn’t RICO the same law that Fani Willis used to indict Trump?
*Kamau Franklin: *These laws are so fungible; they become tools of
power, political expediency, in whoever’s hands they’re in. The domestic
terrorism law itself was enacted after Dylann Roof shot up a church in
South Carolina; it was supposed to protect so-called minorities against
violent, extreme acts. That law has never been used before in Georgia –
and the first time it’s used is to attack people opposing police
violence. RICO has also been used against hip-hop artists, charging them
with criminal enterprises.
You also have Attorney General Chris Carr, about to run for governor,
trying to score points with his political base by charging these
activists with RICO. To be honest, I don’t think he’s concerned about
whether he’s able to prosecute and imprison people; he’s trying to throw
red meat at a constituency. Particularly when you look at how he laid
out the indictment, blaming anarchist ideology, suggesting that the
beginning of the conspiracy – which is extremely important –happened the
day George Floyd was murdered by police. No one had even heard about Cop
City on that day, but he claims May 25, 2020, was the start of a
criminal enterprise, because people had the nerve to challenge the
supremacy of police in our communities.
*sd: *I’m wondering if “anarchism” isn’t some wonky prosecutorial way to
convince the public that these charges are basically colorblind and not
based on a fear of Black people.
*Kamau Franklin: *Yeah, it brings out this fear of Black folks. Also the
fear of Antifa – I thought, when I read the indictment, that “anarchism”
is almost like saying “communism.” This is more of a media campaign –
because many people arrested weren’t anarchists at all, right? If he
gets one or two convictions, he’ll be happy.
In the meantime, there are 61 people whose lives are overturned; who’ve
lost jobs; been kicked out of school; and they have to raise the money
to get to court dates. People’s lives are in limbo, and some will have
to be rebuilt, under the fear of prison time. Because you have a corrupt
state, which will use any means at its disposal to stamp out this movement.
*sd: *Could Cop City be built, even as these RICO cases go to court?
*Kamau Franklin: *Most definitely. The city has basically seized control
of the physical area. There are trucks, trailers, all kinds of equipment
there now, clearing forest land. They’ve knocked down over 70 or 80
acres. This struggle has continued for two years, but we are definitely
nearing some inflection point, the potential of the movement to stop Cop
City. And even if we’re not successful – people don’t like to talk about
that part – how do we still hold together? What are our future battles?
*sd: *Can you compare this to another time in history?
*Kamau Franklin: *I think Standing Rock is very comparable, in terms of
the number of people, the multitude of forces, directly challenging
tribal lands being taken away, climate change and fighting white
supremacy, and capitalism. I also think there’s a direct correlation to
what’s been happening in this country over the last ten years, since
Trayvon Martin was killed, Mike Brown in Ferguson, George Floyd and
others, where different uprisings and mobilizations have politicized a
new generation of people.
I feel like people understand that we’re not only opposing bad policing;
we’re opposing the very way in which cities – Atlanta being one example
– operate to disenfranchise working-class and poor people; in this case,
Black people. We’re not stopping because they tell us to stop; this
movement has grown. We have socialists, communists, anarchists,
revolutionaries, nationalists, community organizers, environmentalists,
voting rights activists, and everyday community people – the
expansiveness of this movement scares them. The diversity of tactics
scares them, The fact that we haven’t sold each other out because of
property destruction. They’ve not been able to divide us, for the most
part, into “good” versus “bad” activists.
*sd: *Are protests still going on?
*Kamau Franklin: *Oh, yeah. Just a few days ago, there was quite a
heroic protest, because it was /after/ people were charged with RICO.
These organizers and activists, led by a clergy coalition, decided to go
onto the blocked-off grounds, where Cop City’s planned to be built. They
issued a stop-work order to the workers in Cop City. Five or six people
were arrested. At the time, they were not charged with domestic
terrorism or RICO. But their bravery, to understand that these charges
may be hanging over their heads, and still protest…
And when we turned in all the referendum ballots, close to 300 people
came with us. There are also conversations about actions next week;
about a huge action in November. The referendum is just one part of the
struggle. There will be actions throughout the struggle, as long as the
struggle lasts. And we may still win.
susie day writes about prison, policing, and political activism. She’s
also written political satire, a collection of which, /Snidelines:
Talking Trash to Power/, was published in 2014. In 2020, her book, /The
Brother You Choose: Paul Coates and Eddie Conway Talk About Life,
Politics, and The Revolution /was published by Haymarket/./ She lives in
New York City with her partner, the infamous Laura Whitehorn.
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