 I want to talk about a story that is truly at the intersection of so many issues, environmentalism, indigenous peoples' rights, police militarization, and the over-policing of majority black cities, the American police state, so on and so forth. That story is Cops City. Now, fortunately, people are finally starting to pay attention to Cops City, but the heightened awareness of Cops City comes at the expense of one activist's life, Manuel Teran, who was a 26-year-old queer Afro-Venezuelan forest defender who was killed by police on January 18th following a deadly raid on Cops City. Now, in order to understand why Manuel was caught on the crossfire in the first place, we need to understand what Cops City is and why these activists were opposing it so vehemently. Kendall Glenn of Decaturus Explains, Cops City is an 85-acre police slash fire training facility located in Decobb County's South River Forest. The location has historically been the old Atlanta prison farm site and a police shooting range. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the plan to turn the location into a state-of-the-art training facility in April of 2021. The project will cost approximately $90 million and the area will feature a burn tower, space for high-speed chases, a helicopter pad, a shooting range, and a mock village. Yeah. Now if that doesn't already sound positively dystopian to you, well, destroying this forest is going to have catastrophic impacts on the community because this forest is essentially a shield that protects them from anthropogenic climate change. In an article for The Atlanta Voice, Scott Roberts explains, clear-cutting the forest will have devastating effects on the environment, including worsened air quality and flooding in the predominantly black neighborhoods of southeast Atlanta. Furthermore, the Atlanta Police Department's current and future use of chemical weapons will poison the soil and the waters, endangering Atlanta's health. So needless to say, clearing out this forest in order to create a massive military-like training facility for cops isn't just going to lead to more brutalization disproportionately of black and brown people, it's also taking away a shield that will defend them against climate change. And to add insult to injury, Cop City is being constructed on land that was stolen from indigenous people and then subsequently turned into a slave plantation. The land belonged to the Muscogee people, who referred to it as the Wallaunee Forest for generations. Beginning in the early 1820s, the Muscogee were forcibly displaced from the area through a series of treaties. The removal continued into the 30s. The land then became a plantation for the remainder of the 19th century and into the early 20th century. In 1911, the city of Atlanta purchased the land. 18 years later, it became the Atlanta City Prison and Dairy Farm. From 1922 to the late 80s, the area ran as a prison farm. In 1990, the city began auctioning off farm animals and equipment. And soon after, public notice was issued to discuss future plans for the site. Now make no mistake about it, the city knows that a majority of the residents are against the creation of Cop City. They just don't care. And they also know how important this forest is for its population. Back in 2017, the Planning Department of Atlanta designated the South River Forest as the city's lungs. And this was because of the environmental significance of that forest. Now because it was so important they initially planned to turn the forest into an urban park. However, that idea was scrapped in favor of Cop City. And here we are now. So activists have been pushing back against the construction of Cop City in an effort to protect the South River Forest and prevent even more brutalization of black and brown people by police. And to resist, they've established encampments in the forest and have occupied it for prolonged periods of time. But cops, however, had been trying to forcibly remove the protesters for quite some time to no avail. And as a result, their tactics have become increasingly violent as time progresses. And during a raid on January 18th, one activist was shot dead. And that activist is Manuel Teran. Now, a Georgia state trooper was also shot and hospitalized with police claiming that Teran shot him. And Unicorn Riot reports that witnesses heard 10 to 12 gunshots all at once. So it was a fairly chaotic situation and police are claiming that Manuel fired first. But the evidence that they released thus far does not substantiate that claim. And there's no body camera footage of the incident as well, since no other officer was close enough to capture the incident. Now Georgia's Bureau of Investigation has released this photograph of a Smith and Wesson nine millimeter handgun that they claimed was in Teran's possession at the time that he was killed. And bullet sticks experts confirm that the bullets from this gun do in fact match the wound of the cop that was shot. But activists are disputing the cop's narrative and calling for an independent investigation by an impartial third party to figure out what really happened. And activists are rightfully skeptical of the cop's narrative because they've been caught lying to justify the use of deadly force against protesters in the past. For example, as Unicorn Riot reports, in June of 2022, Atlanta police officers were caught on radio traffic justifying the use of lethal force against protesters who used Molotov cocktails to defend themselves and the forest in the midst of a police raid. No force defenders have been charged for use of molotovs or incendiary devices. Quote, I told you deadly force encounters said one officer. That's why I brought it up. As long as we're all on the same page, Molotov cocktails, a deadly force encounter, a deadly force encounter is a situation in which cops are legally allowed to shoot and kill. Yeah. So that right there is why activists are rightfully skeptical of the cop's narrative about Terran. If they lied before to justify the use of lethal force against these protesters, what's to stop them from lying again to justify the use of lethal force against Manuel? Right. Now, me personally, I fundamentally distrust cops. So I automatically just assume that they're lying every single time that they open their mouths and I work backwards from that conclusion if and only if they provide the public with an overwhelming amount of evidence to substantiate the claims that they're making. But with respect to this story, they have not done that. And I simply have not been swayed. So I remain at my default position of distrust cops and assume that they're lying and short of an independent investigation, local activists don't seem to be buying it as well. And they're not letting police demonize Manuel Terran. And it seems like the community also isn't buying the official narrative from police. There was a vigil that was held for Manuel and that turned into an impromptu march and that impromptu march ended up turning into protests across Atlanta. And those are still going on till this day with activists calling for justice for Manuel and an end to the construction of Cop City. And some protests have turned into riots, which has predictably been the overall focus of media in an effort to obscure the overall message of these activists. But it's important to re-center this conversation around the activists message and not the message of the media or the cops. Cop City is an absolute abomination and the force defenders who are protecting the environment and the city are unquestionably heroes in my opinion. But some of the force defenders are being charged with domestic terrorism and criminal trespassing. Because if you refuse to allow cops to bulldoze this forest to create Cop City to brutalize that very community that they claim to be serving and protecting, then you're apparently a domestic terrorist. But the real act of terrorism, in my opinion, is the destruction of this forest in the first place. Now, one last thing that I want to leave you with is this. There's a GoFundMe for Manuel's family. And at the time that I record this video, they are halfway towards their goal of $100,000. So I'd encourage you to consider donating if you're able to. But either way, if you didn't know about Cop City, now you know. And unfortunately, one activist, their death led to people knowing about Cop City. So don't let that sacrifice be in vain. People need to spread the word and acknowledge that Cop City is a disgrace. But it's not necessarily a shocking thing to see in the dystopian country that we live in. It's just it's sickening. But here we are.