Atlanta: burning the movie studio to defend the forest
In Atlanta, Georgia, the city council voted on September 8, 2021 to allocate 34 acres of the South River Forest to a $90 million police militarization training center project, known to locals as “Cop City.” The facility includes a reconstructed city for cops to train in, as well as a helicopter landing pad, new firing ranges and more. Its development is led by the Atlanta Police Foundation and two-thirds of the funding comes from “philanthropic” and corporate donors, sending the rest of the bill back to the public.
Since April 2021, a struggle has been underway to oppose this “Cop City” project, with regular attacks and sabotage and an occupation of the wooded area to the east, which has reverted to its former name of Weelaunee Forest. And since the Hollywood film studio on the edge of the forest, Shadowbox Studios (formerly Blackhall Studios), also planned to expand by destroying another 80 hectares on the same side as the “Cop City” project, it became another target from the start. This summer, on July 31, when workers intervened accompanied by cops to try to clear the land needed for its expansion, they were, for example, pelted with stones, a backhoe was smashed and a company pickup truck set on fire, after other identical attacks (see brief chronology below).
On October 17, 2022, unknown assailants broke into the massive Shadowbox Studios movie complex, where they managed to partially burn down one of its structures (a janitorial/dressing room building. The communique of the attack, along with some others, can be found below.
Shadowbox/Blackhall Studios set aflame
<<Last night a fire was lit in a janitorial closet in a building within the West-side Complex of Shadowbox (BlackHall) Studios. The fire caught onto the support beams and became an inferno.
To us, Shadowbox is a hostile occupation of the Weelaunee-Anarchic-Zone. May this be a warning to them, a small taste of what’s to come if they attempt to expand South of the river.
We don’t like movies. We don’t like screens. We are in the real world: Unseen to the Hypno-Dystopic Civilization around us, Somewhere among shadow and tree;
We move by night.
We watch the enemy.
We plan our strikes.>>
(traduit de l’anglais de Scenes from the Atlanta forest,
18 octobre 2022)
GEORGIA POWER RETREATS FROM OLD PRISON FARM!
<<Recently Georgia Power work trucks & boom cranes were descended upon with rocks & fire at the very edge of forest otherwise kown as the old prison farm.
We remember that you let the cops utilize your euipment to fell trees in a particular part of the Forest in early August as repression from the last “week of action,” & we haven’t forgot….any opportunity, despite the location, Georgia Power employees & any tools they utilize will be candidates for seige.
May the Pines & other oaks & fruit trees you fell one day fall on & destroy your personal homes & vehicles!>>
(traduit de l’anglais de Scenes from the Atlanta forest,
10 octobre 2022)
EXCAVATOR TORCHED AT MICHELLE OBAMA PARK
<<Several weeks ago, we lit an excavator at Michelle Obama Park on fire, effectively & fully decommissioning it. This was for revenge for the greedy capitalists who turned what was once a beautiful forest into a barren lot approximately 18 months ago— this barren lot plan being the police & black halls hopes for the rest of Welaunee.
The police are trying to silence arsons in the area in hopes they do not continue it seems….
Sorry to say, any time a machine comes anywhere near the forest, expect fire🔥🔥🔥 mother fuckers.
The best “poetry” in this movement is a machine on fire. Shut your mouths & let the flames do the talking.
For those that secretly want to be “known”, tell your ego to simmer & go do the damn thing– defend the forest & protect your friends.>>
(traduit de l’anglais de Scenes from the Atlanta forest,
14 septembre 2022)
A brief chronology since the movement’s beginnings
Spring-Summer 2021: The City of Atlanta, in partnership with Blackhall Studios, approves the exchange of public land in Dekalb County at Intrenchment Creek Park for a parcel of land currently owned by the film studio.
April-May 2021: Local activists and environmentalists uncover a plan by the Atlanta Police Foundation to turn the land known as the Old Atlanta Prison Farm at Key Road and Fayetteville Road into a large police training complex.
May 15, 2021: More than 200 people gather at Intrenchment Creek Park for a briefing on development proposals.
May 17, 2021: Seven pieces of construction equipment left unattended on the Blackhall-owned parcel – mostly tractors and excavators – are vandalized.
June 2021: Notices are posted in the forest informing passersby that trees in the area have been ‘nailed down,’ with the implication that cutting them down could damage chainsaws and possibly injure those using them.
June 10, 2021: Three more backhoes are burned on the parcel of land owned by Blackhall Studios.
June 23-26, 2021: First week of action drawing hundreds into the movement.
Summer 2021: The Stop Cop City coalition and other left-wing groups join the movement. These organizations and activist networks organize their own demonstrations, meetings and create pages on social networks.
November 10-14, 2021: A wide range of cultural events, information evenings, bonfires and meetings take place during a second week of action. This coincides with the establishment of an encampment in the forest, which lasted six weeks.
November 12, 2021: A protest takes place at Reeves Young headquarters. Information gathered by activists indicates that Reeves Young Construction has been hired to destroy the forest and build the Cop City project. About 30 people converge on the company’s headquarters in Sugar Hill, Georgia, holding banners and demanding that the company break its contract with the Atlanta Police Foundation.
November 27, 2021: A group of Muscogee (Creek Indians) return to their traditional lands at the current location of Intrenchment Creek Park in the South River Forest, which in Creek is called Weelaunee. The Muscogee delegation calls on everyone to defend the land from Cop City and Blackhall developments.
December 20, 2021: Banners are hung in the backyard of the private residence of Dean Reeves, president of Reeves Young.
January to May 2022: Numerous Long Engineering and Reeves Young construction machines are destroyed, as well as ATMs that fund the Atlanta Police Foundation (Bank of America & Wells Fargo).