The report—titled "We Will Find You": Global Look at How Governments Repress Nationals Abroad—also highlights the well-known case of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist and dissident who was violently murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. #KhashoggiMoment#StopCriminalizingDissent#CopCity
Six More Months in the Movement to Defend the Forest
2023-12-12 via #CrimeThinc
"Escalating Repression: #RICO and the Furtherance of the Conspiracy
"With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the 'tactics of organized criminals' language Governor Kemp used on July 2 was not just boilerplate copy drafted by an intern, nor was the August 2 press conference simply propaganda to assure backers that the state could still protect their investments. These phrases and statements were shaping operations, carefully crafted interventions designed to position the government for their next operation: the blanket criminalization of the entire movement.
"On August 29, the Attorney General of #Georgia, Christopher M. Carr, filed an indictment with the Fulton County Superior Court, bringing charges against 61 people under Georgia’s version of the Rackeeter-Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act O.C.G.A. § 16-14-4. The indictment became public on September 5. The document, which is over 100 pages long and very poorly written, claims that the 'conspiracy' (which it names 'Defend the Atlanta Forest') was 'founded' on May 25, 2020—the day that #MinneapolisPolice officers murdered #GeorgeFloyd, precipitating a nationwide #uprising.
"This was a serious escalation. It did not catch everyone by surprise: the #AtlantaSolidarityFund has been braced for such charges since February. The authorities and their extreme-right proxies had been demanding a full-scale crackdown on the movement for over a year, spreading a conspiracy theory that the movement was a mafia controlled by a shadowy and well-connected group (a narrative some activists also reproduced, apparently with no sense of irony). According to one version of this conspiracy theory, circulated by far-right trolls, the Network for Stronger Communities (a Georgia-based nonprofit organization) operates a number of financial enterprises, including the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, that coordinate acts of terrorism in order to accumulate wealth and influence. Of the 61 accused, three were members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. The 42 people already facing #DomesticTerrorism charges were also indicted, as well as a number of other people whose connection to the movement was unclear. The indictment alleged that some people had committed acts in 'overt furtherance of the conspiracy' such as buying #GlueSticks for #SignMaking. UK is using similar tactics, arresting people for just having [#Superglue or #BikeLocks in their possession.]
"The RICO indictment was not a legal procedure but a political act. It was not a judicial intervention to suppress criminal activity but a government measure to crush what the text describes as '#anarchism,' '#collectivism,' '#SocialSolidarity,' '#MutualAid.”
"It is not simply 61 people who are on trial. By dating the case to the murder of George Floyd, the prosecution showed that their real target was the entire population of millions that participated in the consequent revolt. This is not an unusual court case, but a new chapter in the fight between those who seek to preserve the hierarchies of a structurally white supremacist society and those fighting to destroy it root and branch. The indictment does not present a list of crimes. It describes the contours and values of a rival society emerging within the movement to stop Cop City, aspiring to reinvent the world according to a different logic.
"The Fulton County Judge assigned to the RICO case immediately recused himself. Until then, judges had not recused themselves from cases related to the movement even when they possessed obvious ties to the Atlanta Police Foundation."
High-ranking members of Atlanta’s police department have been using Signal, an encrypted phone app, to communicate about the controversial police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” – to each other, to other police departments and to companies involved in building the project, the Guardian has learned...
The rich pigs who own the #Atlanta Journal-Constitution for #CopCity.
From an MSM outlet crass enough to quote the Consul General of Israel to the Southeast US (Israel has agents all around it's warbucks sugar daddy nation) as saying... in regard to a #Palestine protester self-immolating in that city:
"It is tragic to see the hate and incitement toward Israel expressed in such a horrific way. The sanctity of life is our highest value." (Links in self-reply) #StopCopCity#AtlantaForest
". “They’re playing our game,” said one friend. We kept marching, many of us starting to beat our chests and howl like a pack of wolves in unison. Two cops came forward from the main line, seeking to act as negotiators, holding up a peace sign with one hand while the other gripped his riot shield. “Are we doing this?” I asked. “Hell yeah!” someone responded. “Go toward the little one!” yelled another friend, pointing at one of the (still quite large) cops. The first two cops were bounced off the banners like water off a duck’s back. Then came the crush of the crowd against the shields and batons. Large men pushing their full weight into 20-year-old women who can’t have weighed much over 100 lbs. For a moment, I could hear the logical, risk-averse voice in my head screaming, “Run! They’ve got you surrounded!”'
Since morning, hundreds of activists have been gathering in the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta, Georgia to peacefully enter the construction site and block the construction work. For over two years there have been protests and resistance against the planned police training center, for which large parts of a forest area are to be cleared.
The protest first received greater international attention due to the repression by the US state . Since the end of 2022, activists have been repeatedly arrested and sometimes charged with absurd accusations such as terrorism . In January , Manuel Esteban Paez Terán was killed with 57 shots during a police operation in a forest occupation.
In the past there had been a wide variety of forms of action, including sabotage of construction vehicles. A petition that collected twice as many signatures as necessary against Cop-City was rejected by the city on flimsy arguments.
"Days ago, voters in Ecuador approved a total ban on oil drilling in protected land in the #Amazon, a 2.5m-acre tract in the #Yasuní national park that might be the world’s most important #biodiversity hotspot. The area is a Unesco-designated biosphere reserve and home to two non-contacted #Indigenous groups. This could be a major step forward for the entire global climate justice movement in ways that are not yet apparent.
"This vote is important not only for Ecuador and for the Indigenous peoples in the Yasuní, who now have hope of living in peace in perpetuity. It is also a potential model for how we can use the democratic process around the world to help slow or even stop the expansion of fossil fuels to the benefit of billions of people.
"The Yasuní referendum proves that real democracy that respects the popular will can be a powerful tool for transitioning to a sustainable future. Ecuador’s state oil company, #Petroecuador, had been producing nearly 60,000 barrels a day in the Yasuní. It now must figure out how to dismantle its entire operation and go home. When in history has a popular vote ever forced an oil company to cease active drilling? Never.
"The Yasuní vote was not the result of a business decision made in a boardroom or government office. It was the product of two decades of #grassroots organizing by citizens and #activists like you and me. I know because I have been to Ecuador more than 250 times to work on a historic pollution case against #Chevron on behalf of the Indigenous people there. Many of the same Indigenous leaders and activists who helped fight Chevron organized the Yasuní vote.
"At the same time, the vote underscores how important it is to protect our increasingly fragile democracy. Without a robust democracy that allows citizens to place issues of critical importance on the ballot without the intermediation of elites, the Yasuní referendum never would have happened.
"The flipside is that powerful #OilAndGas companies understand the threat a real citizen-based democracy poses to their power. They fear a society where citizens can put referendums on the ballot without the approval of business leaders. Those of us in the climate movement often can’t even stop to focus on the connection between democracy and climate justice because we’re so focused on dealing with the immediate crises taking place before our eyes, such as the Maui fire.
"In the United States, it is not broadly known that the #FossilFuel industry quietly funds a national lobbying campaign that has introduced draconian #antiprotest bills in at least 18 states. These laws threaten anyone #protesting at an oil or gas facility with huge fines and serious prison sentences; some states even impose criminal liabilities on non-profit advocacy groups that support the protesters. These are really laws of intimidation designed to stop protest before it happens. And they are also manifesting in other countries including #Australia, the #UnitedKingdom and #Germany.
"As a result, many Americans who have committed #peaceful acts of non-violent #CivilDisobedience – central to the birth of our country and a cornerstone of our political tradition – now face decades in prison. In Atlanta, #Georgia, 42 people have been charged by prosecutors with 'domestic terrorism' for trying to save the city’s last green canopy in the #WeelauneeForest. Local police are trying to raze part of the forest to build a military-style police training academy, colloquially called “#CopCity”, that already resulted in the first police killing of a climate activist in US history. (The police have said that the activist, Manuel Paez #Terán, was used a weapon; activists dispute that claim.)
"The Atlanta cases represent a frightening escalation of attacks on #FreeSpeech and protest in the US. None of those charged – whom authorities accused mainly of vandalism and arson – committed a direct act of violence against another person. Nobody was injured other than the activist shot and killed by police while sitting in the forest.
"That this is happening in a city considered to be one of the cradles of the American civil rights movement shows just how entwined corporate and police power have become in their efforts to erode democratic rights.
"The prosecutions in Georgia are also occurring in a broader context where the right to vote has been seriously impaired. Voter suppression is now a regular feature in many US states, with ludicrous laws being passed to throw out votes. In this short century, two presidents have taken office in the US who did not win the popular vote. Votes are constantly thrown out for the thinnest of reasons, as journalists such as Greg Palast have meticulously documented.
On top of these threats to democracy at the state level, the US #supremecourt and its unelected, mostly #FarRight justices are weakening both our democracy and its ability to regulate the fossil fuel industry. The court has consistently approved measures like voter ID laws and felon disenfranchisement that make it more difficult for historically marginalized groups to vote. It has also, of late, decided its role is to strike down popular legislation, so who knows what they’d do to a popularly won ban on oil drilling.
"I am an #EnvironmentalJustice and #HumanRights lawyer, but one reason I spend significant time focused on issues of democracy is because I simply cannot do my work if our political system does not allow the political space to advocate freely. After I helped Indigenous peoples win a major pollution case in Ecuador, I was detained for almost three years in the US after being targeted with the nation’s first-ever corporate prosecution. My own case is a reminder that the normal rules of democracy can easily be suspended when entrenched economic interests face a serious enough threat to their bottom line.
"As I write this, a heat dome in the US sits over the entire midwest and is affecting 100 million people. Fires have destroyed millions of acres of land. A tropical storm just smacked southern California for the first time, and the historic town of Lahaina in Hawaii burned to the ground with hundreds of people still unaccounted for. In the meantime, the oil industry is reporting record profits, creating enormous incentives for a small group of powerful shareholders to maintain their power by shrinking our democratic space.
What the referendum in Ecuador teaches us is that democratic processes when coupled with strong grassroots organizing can produce startlingly effective results. Taking a cue from our friends in that brave country, the next major move for the climate justice movement could be to launch a national campaign to put the simple question presented in Ecuador before the American people in every state that allows citizens to place their own questions on the ballot. The question is whether we can vote to end the destruction of our planet by the burning of fossil fuels.
"It is clear we cannot trust either of the two major US political parties – both of which mostly support fossil fuel expansion – to adequately address this crisis. We simply cannot save the planet without first protecting and strengthening our democracy."
I want to open by saying I'm not here to pick fights. I welcome conversation, advice, aid, partnership, etc with anyone who who is taking the increasing rise in fascism seriously.
That said, some folks and were having a discussion about defense of certain people and events. And we touched on one of my biggest gripes about "liberal" folks: a refusal to address reality AS IT IS (material conditions) rather than AS THEY WANT IT to be (wishful thinking/internalized propaganda).
So these organizers are looking to protect people from the proud boys..... by calling the proud boys with badges.
It doesn't make sense. I certainly don't see it keeping marginalized people safer.
#Leif facing charges after defending themself from assault in Wadsworth, OH is the perfect example. And just (one of) the more recent one(s). Look at the BLM movement, #copcity, the history of the labor struggle... the police aren't our friends.
NEWS: 👇Leonard Leo, architect of SCOTUS majority, says he will not cooperate w DC AG tax probe
"while 1 of Leo’s primary aligned groups had been incorp in VA for nearly 20 yrs, for at least a decade it was using UPS drop box in DC Georgetown neighborhood as principal office address.
It also didnt include fact that The 85 Fund quietly relocated in recent mos from the capital area to TX amid the investig"
@GottaLaff link is broken, fyi.
Leo has to be stopped. he's a big backer of #CopCity as well.
p.s. I thought it was the 86 fund?? or maybe my mind was creating symbolism where it doesn't exist 🤣
"Residents of the municipality of Juan C. Bonilla blocked the Mexico-Puebla federal highway on Monday night in rejection of the imposition of a police complex in San Lucas Nextetelco and to demand the dismissal of municipal president José Cinto Bernal, whom they accuse of being a 'traitor to the people.'"
"The inhabitants assured that the construction of the security complex will not be to protect the people, but rather to surveil residents who defend water and territory in the region from transnational companies, such as Bonafont, and from projects that pollute and dispossess them of their land."
1/2
Das 40,00€ teurer gewordene Nachfolgeticket zum 9-Euro-Ticket soll Daten melken. Zwar solle das Ticket übergangsweise nicht nur für Smartphones erhältlich sein sondern auch auf Chip-Karten und kurzzeitig auf Papier mit QR-Code, aber wichtig scheint es den Regierenden vor allem anderen, dass mit dem 49€-Ticket Echtzeit-Verkehrsdaten erhoben werden können.
Positiv klingt zunächst: "Es werde nicht gespeichert, wer von A nach B fährt, sondern nur, wie stark die Verkehrsmittel ausgelastet sind. Für die Fahrgäste könnte das ein Nutzen sein, weil die Verkehrsunternehmen so für ausreichend Kapazitäten sorgen könnten."
Allerdings: Das Ticket wird wohl nur als Abo personalisiert erworben werden können, so dass darüber anfallende Personendaten zukünftig schnell integriert werden könnten. Mit Hinblick auf den aktuellen massiven Ausbau des Überwachungsstaats und der Kontrollgesellschaft in Deutschland und der EU (digitale Personenkennziffer/RegMod, Chatkontrolle, Identifizierungspflicht, Biometrie, eIDAS uvm) ist es doch auch gar nicht die Frage ob, sondern nur wann und mit welchem Vorwand (Anschläge, Pandemie, Jugendschutz, Wahlkampf) personalisierte Datenerfassung und Polizeizugriffe kommen werden, sobald die digitale Kontrollinfrastruktur erst einmal errichtet wurde.
They Doxxed Us, We Dox Them #StopCopCity
"On September 29, the Fulton County Clerk’s office scanned and uploaded the signatures, names, and full legal addresses of 116,000 civilians. These are the identities of a large number of people who signed a petition to convene a referendum on the future of Cop City. This process is being illegally suppressed by the government. While the Dickens administration and his lawyers use every legal trick they can to delay the referendum process, Brasfield & Gorrie and their subcontractors (thanks to money provided by Cadence Bank and the Atlanta City Council), are erecting barbed wire fence around Weelaunee. They are planning to move forward with construction no matter what the law says.
We are releasing the identities and addresses of the Atlanta Committee for Progress."
Official Indictment of 61 People in Fulton County in Atlanta Public Safety Training Center Investigation (law.georgia.gov)
Excerpt:...