The Forest Fights Back – March 5th Action Report (USA)

On March 5th, around 5:30pm, just over 300 people marched to the North Gate, located on Key Road. This is the site of ongoing “erosion control” by Brent Scarborough Company, a subcontractor of Brasfield & Gorrie. In this area, police have staged around-the-clock for over a month, spending $41,500 per day to protect the area from protestors. They have used vehicle headlights and two large floodlights to illuminate the tree line surrounding the powerline cut.

The 300 of us damaged the silt fencing on both the east and west sides of the cut. Using box cutters as well as our hands and feet, we destroyed a high percentage of the work done by the Police Foundation contractors in the past month. That work needs to be re-done in order to meet the standards set by law (a standard we do not know much about, as that is not our primary concern).

We easily pushed police away from the area around the North Gate using just stones and some fireworks. Some people closed the gate while others lobbed stones, fireworks, and Molotov cocktails at officers on the other side, in order to prevent them from rushing in and harming us. Meanwhile, the two floodlights were destroyed. Two UTVs were destroyed. A piece of heavy machinery used to disturb the earth was destroyed. A trailer used as a make-shift office, provided to the Police Foundation by United Rentals, was destroyed. All of the porta potties were overturned. The security gate built inside of this zone, which is affixed with barbed wire at the top, was damaged and partially torn down.

Because of this action, most or all of the work conducted since the murder of Tortuguita was undone. Those assembled used shields to defend against possible police munitions, but there were none. The group dispersed into the woods without a trace. None of us were arrested or detained.

Rest in peace, Tort.
Cop City will never be built.

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Post script:

The Molotov cocktails seemed to differ from a classic recipe. This simple tool seemed to be only a small amount of flammable material, such as rubbing alcohol with dish soap added as a thickener, and a small firecracker taped to the side. Made in this way, forest defenders do not depend on the ground to break the bottle, as they would with a typical glass bottle. In the future, maybe this is helpful information for anyone fighting in the forest, desert, or places without a hard surface beneath their feet.

Submitted anonymously over email

via: scenes.noblogs.org