That's not what the survey indicates. It indicates that the surveyed population is almost evenly divided, with a slightly greater number supporting the facility, and a somewhat higher numer of black residents opposing it.
Well, that only makes sense. It's hard to have a business or culture in a crime ridden town.
So where are you from, Mr. Brown? Does this actually affect you or are you one of that 98 percent who doesn't live there and would rather see Atlanta burn than give up your "pastime" of "saving" the unwashed masses from themselves?
I’m not giving my exact address on the internet. But, yes, I live really, really close and--like myself--all my neighbors oppose the urban warfare center
And the corporations funding this center don’t operate local businesses. My neighbors who do...aren’t in favor of paying to have our green space destroyed in favor of a urban warfare crowd control training center
Again..as clearly you’re not local...those “local” outlets do everything they can to avoid paying taxes and reinvesting in the community, their executives don’t send their kids to public schools and--in fact--most of them live in the affluent exurbs like Alpharetta or John’s Creek. They have no stake in the safety of my community...and they don’t care
Sure, sure. It seems you might have mentioned that to Phisto Sobannii rather than citing a very small survey. How many people does Atlanta have? And they asked 800 people. And from that you make such grand statements.
Emory might be a "renowned" university, but they are enthrall to a certain group of people who think being awake is "helping" us plebes by getting rid of police and leaving us to the mercy of the worse elements of society. And it's still an incredibly small survey. 800 people is basically .2 percent of the population.
Finally, remember, a police force is often a direct reflection of the population it serves and vice versa.
He is a member of the Cox family, who own the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the WSB Radio and Television brand. WSB stands for “Welcome South, Brother.” Anarchists are no brother of mine or anyone here in Metro Atlanta. I am infuriated that Judge Robert McBurney extended the deadline to collect signatures for the petition.
Who is ultimately funding these types of movements? The international presence, as well as the high production values and swift reaction times, suggest something other than organic movements.
How about you do a better job of investigating Manuel Teran's death instead of just reciting police narratives? You could write a story about that. You seem to be an environmentalist on some issues Lee, but your callous disregard for the death of this environmental protestor at the hands police shocks me.
"According to the autopsy sent to ABC News, Teran did not have gunpowder residue on their hands."
Why aren’t there class action lawsuits against the people/organizations who fund violent protestors? They are basically representatives of these organizations and the organizations should be held responsible.
Many years ago, as a journalist, I covered the city of East St. Louis across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. And East St. Louis was almost all-black and poor, once described as "an inner city without an outer city." Crime was rampant but when I walked the neighborhoods and talked with residents, almost without exception they always told me "We need more police." (And better schools, and jobs, as well.)
Things haven't changed much. But now, as Lee documents so well, we have an odious group of leftists making things worse -- for the very people they claim to care for!
These misguided, angry, rebellious men (mostly) -- well, I actually think that deep down, they feel helpless, they've heard too much demonizing of the police, they have lost faith in the rule of law, and they think they can redeem themselves by becoming street warriors. I pity them but also oppose them, certainly their tactics.
But where are the Democratic party leaders -- local and national -- who can show up at protests to counsel and lead these radicals to a better, more effective way of social change? We also have a crisis of leadership if the Democratic Party leaders stay silent.
Just read this over on Public, about progressive fact checkers.
“A group of Swiss psychologists actually examined the relationship between leftist authoritarianism and narcissistic behavior. They concluded that “some leftist political activists do not actually strive for social justice and equality but rather use political activism to endorse or exercise violence against others to satisfy their own ego-focused needs.”
With the heavy funding from special interests and huge corporations pouring in on both sides (Cop City reportedly has its own corporate and private equity investors including Roark Capital and Inspire Brands), I have lots of questions. The fact that Meta and some billionaire's "anarchist" kid are financing a protest movement, one where young environmentalists are being killed, is so bizarre to me. (Imagine the anti-war protests of the 1960s being funded by a TV station -- totally normal, right?)
Like others, I do feel the activists deserved a voice in this though, especially given all the talk about potential training for urban warfare against citizens at this facility (I'm not sure if those rumors have been verified yet).
I would love to see a follow up piece looking at the funding sources across the board, and hearing what the protestors have to say (and what they're being told), and how that might differ from what city officials are saying/being told, and what local citizens are saying/being told. It just feels like maybe there's a lot more going on here.
Thanks EMM for voicing closest to my own questions after the Lee Fang interview I saw that seemed uncharacteristically one sided for power.
Red flags for me were the private funding, public objection/community voice, historical references (correctional center, indigenous origins), environmental impact, community impact, absence of alternatives in location or scale. And what about the decision timing, any possible White House influence? Setting purpose aside, what seems this controversial monstrosity isn't even in Atlanta. Looks like plenty to expand and clarify.
Def! Lee Fang is an awesome journalist, so I feel like he might write more about this. This is just one story. I'm assuming he'll cover other angles of it (he actually mentioned doing this in the comments), so I just wanted to add my thoughts as a reader.
Thank you Lee. I heard u discussing this subject with Glenn Greenwald on SYSTEM UPDATE. Very enlightening, as well as unfortunate/tragic, sowing anarchy. (Violence for Violence’s sake! How counterproductive! Falling right into the “Security State’s” hands! Uughh!
Interesting for me that these Atlanta activists, the BLM Global Network and Just Stop Oil are all receiving funds from billionaires and multi millionaires.
This story & the comments that follow it is a perfect example of the dismaying information/disinformation jumble that we face today. What, in all of the “evidence” cited above is reliable? Are any salient facts or arguments missing? Can anyone be trusted? Too bad for me, I’m an adult & will have to figure it out for myself.
anybody that funds this while pays for private security needs to be publicly shamed. This demand of defunding the police serves the need of a few at the cost of many.
I agree but, realistically, what can you expect? A society without police will devolve to mob rule, with the most violent and aggressive individuals calling the shots. The billionaires who seek to deliver that dystopia may be evil but they aren’t knuckleheads. Put yourself in their Les Ruby Slippers: wouldn’t you be more than a little concerned about the mob coming for you? Most of them wouldn’t be taking kindly to your plundering of resources and your self-aggrandizing exploitation of your social lessers. You would probably want a Sherman tank in your garage.
You may be right that the training center would improve policing that thus the Stop Cop City movement is self-defeating, but any critical analysis of the Manuel Teran killing shows that the cops really screwed that one up, and likely just shot and killed an unarmed protestor, shot one of their own in the cross-fire (the shooting occurred in the woods where visibility was limited and many officers were on site), and then dropped a gun on the dead Teran to cover the whole mess up.
Listen to the tapes of GA police body cams on the scene. Multiple officers stated on camera, immediately after the shooting, that they thought a friendly-fire incident had occurred. They did not witness the shooting itself, but they heard the shots, and their gun-trained ears told them that only police-officer weapons were fired.
So I went down a rabbit-hole and tried to figure out, "Is it possible to tell one type of gunshot from another?" The simple answer is yes, particularly in the case of suppressed vs unsuppressed weaponry. Unsuppressed weapons, like the Smith and Wesson Military and Police 9mm pistol that was found near Manuel Teran, are louder and tend have a lower pitch than suppressed weapons. Listen to the shots yourself, the audio was caught on tape. All the shots sound the same, and they all lack the characteristic lower frequencies that an unsuppressed weapon has ( I ran the audio through frequency analysis software).
But more important than all that, is that the GA police simply hasn't released any evidence that they claim they have. They claim they have gun records showing Teran owned the gun, but never released those records to the public. They claim they have a ballistics match on the gun to the bullet that struck the officer, those ballistics have never been released to the public. Autopsy results which have been released to the public have not shown any gunpowder residue on Manuel's hands (a telltale indicator that he fired a weapon). The whole investigatory process has been conducted by the GBI, which is the same agency that participated in the armed raid on the forest camp with suppressed assault rifles.
The results of the investigation have been handed over to an attorney who is known to be pro-police, and he will likely sit on the evidence, not release it to the public, and not prosecute the police involved. Environmental lawyer Stephen Donziger has done some good reporting on the whole miscarriage of justice that is taking place.
Anyone who thinks that the police should not be able to shoot and kill protestors without very serious independent and public scrutiny should be very concerned about what happened around the Manuel Teran killing, and I say kudos to the Stop Cop City protestors who are demanding justice for Manuel Teran, because so far he has received none.
“You may be right that the training center would improve policing that thus the Stop Cop City movement is self-defeating…”
But that’s exactly the point. I know nothing of incident which you speak but more and better training will go a long way to preventing needless death and injury in policing and isn’t that what any sane person wanted from the BLM riots? I mean, if we’re going to have riots it should at least lead to something constructive.
As Fang’s article points out, this was all uncontroversial stuff supported by Obama and the NAACP until the last 8 years or so. Defunding the police is insane in this era with all the economic decay and poverty.
I don’t trust the motives of these carpet-bagging protesters. They are chaos agents — dangerous larpers at best — and their tactics should not be tolerated.
Calling these protestors chaos agents is akin to calling Jan 6 protestors insurrectionists. People have a right to non-violent protest whether you agree with what they are protesting about or not. Take away that right and you take a giant step in the direction of authoritarianism
Many of these protests are not non-violent -- they have molotov cocktails for fuck's sake and a guy who got killed had shot a state trooper. They also have a sustained and directed purpose. 1/6 was a somewhat spontaneous, isolated, expression of frustration. I say somewhat because there was a very suspicious corral operation to get the protestors onto the grounds and into the Capitol by individuals who have not been sought or prosecuted.
These "cop-city" protestors have a goal -- getting rid of the police -- that is fundamentally chaotic in purpose. Whatever you think about incidents of police violence the vast majority of what they do is keep and maintain order. The people funding the ACAB and defunding movement are those who won't be impacted by the result. People living in dangerous neighborhoods want more and better police not no police. So yes they are chaos agents whatever they call themselves.
Eh, you clearly didnt read my post. There is no evidence the Teran had a gun or fired it. In fact the physical evidence which has been released in the form of an autopsy report tells the opposite story, Teran did not fire a weapon.
Do you agree with everything the FBI does? Do you think that law enforcement agency is above reproach, and anyone criticizing it is a traitor and chaos agent? Police are the enforcement arm of the state. Necessary to maintain law and order, but also commonly used to crush popular dissent and stifle protest. Unless you are a total authoritarian, you should recognize that there needs to be room for criticism for the enforcement arm of the state.
Criticism, protest and reform are one thing. But I saw those BLM riots and they were anything but peaceful, with buildings in cities across the country on fire, lots of dead people, etc. I see these protests as an extension of that -- and just as incoherent. Their demands are ridiculous and not supported by the vast, vast majority of the populace. The whole thing felt like kayfabe from the start to be honest. When the BLM protests started in my city and people were peacefully protesting in my neighborhood -- down 2nd Ave -- some of them took video of pallets of bricks that had mysteriously been left out on the street. That simply doesn't happen in NYC where valuable construction materials like bricks will be gone in a few hours if left out. The uniform mainstream media positive spin on the violence and breaking of lockdowns after we'd all been told to STAY INSIDE for months -- does none of this give you pause? The CIA has a motto -- when in doubt sow chaos. They know they are losing their grip on the country. Trump's election freaked them out hard. And everything since then has been one disastrous attempt after another to destabilize and distract. These tactics go back a long way and I simply don't trust our out-of-control three letter agencies to be working in our best interests. And yes, that includes elements within the FBI. Look at who they focus their attention on and off. If the Feds wanted these anti-Cop-City protests stopped they would do it. Don't you remember how they cracked down on the Occupy Wall Street protests in like 20 fucking cities all in one night?
The police are a gang, but they're a local gang we need to maintain order. Reform is vital but these protests were not about reform and they still aren't. If they were they'd want better training for cops, not this shit.
This is an extraordinary sentence.
"James “Fergie” Chambers, the anarchist heir to a billionaire media fortune, recently promised $600,000 for the anti-training center campaign."
"Anarchist heir to a billionaire media fortune?"
I'm half expecting Tolstoy's ghost to whip his ass.
Jezus...it’s the billionaires that funding cop city.....Fang knows that...why he’s pretending otherwise does not speak well for his honesty
https://news.littlesis.org/2022/11/15/meet-the-major-corporations-and-cultural-institutions-helping-build-cop-city-in-atlanta/
That's irrelevant to my point: which is the so called "anarchists" protesting cop city are anything but.
They are shameful morons.
Close to half of all Atlantans including a plurality of black residents oppose the center...despite the massively corporate funded campaign for it
It’s dishonest in the extreme to characterize the opposition as somehow a seditious plot of anarchist agitators
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23712765-buckhead_survey_public-1
Hey jackass, are you actually looking to engage with me or just grind your talking points?
Because if it's the latter, you can fuck off.
I just showed you a poll demonstrating the absolute ridiculousness of your contention that the opposition is some bunch of anarchists
Sorry that reality is so offensive to you
They're not anarchists, just morons?
I'm relieved to hear that.
That's not what the survey indicates. It indicates that the surveyed population is almost evenly divided, with a slightly greater number supporting the facility, and a somewhat higher numer of black residents opposing it.
Well, that only makes sense. It's hard to have a business or culture in a crime ridden town.
So where are you from, Mr. Brown? Does this actually affect you or are you one of that 98 percent who doesn't live there and would rather see Atlanta burn than give up your "pastime" of "saving" the unwashed masses from themselves?
I’m not giving my exact address on the internet. But, yes, I live really, really close and--like myself--all my neighbors oppose the urban warfare center
And the corporations funding this center don’t operate local businesses. My neighbors who do...aren’t in favor of paying to have our green space destroyed in favor of a urban warfare crowd control training center
And the article you cited lists Waffle House, Home Depot, Chick-fil-A, etc. Last I checked, those all had local outlets.
Again..as clearly you’re not local...those “local” outlets do everything they can to avoid paying taxes and reinvesting in the community, their executives don’t send their kids to public schools and--in fact--most of them live in the affluent exurbs like Alpharetta or John’s Creek. They have no stake in the safety of my community...and they don’t care
The people who work for them live in your community. The people who buy from them live in your community. It seems you've conveniently forgotten that.
Sure, sure. It seems you might have mentioned that to Phisto Sobannii rather than citing a very small survey. How many people does Atlanta have? And they asked 800 people. And from that you make such grand statements.
That “small survey” was conducted by a local university....which has some national renown and reputation
As you clearly know nothing about Atlanta...I won’t hold that against you
Emory might be a "renowned" university, but they are enthrall to a certain group of people who think being awake is "helping" us plebes by getting rid of police and leaving us to the mercy of the worse elements of society. And it's still an incredibly small survey. 800 people is basically .2 percent of the population.
Finally, remember, a police force is often a direct reflection of the population it serves and vice versa.
On the internet, no one knows you're a dog.
He is a member of the Cox family, who own the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the WSB Radio and Television brand. WSB stands for “Welcome South, Brother.” Anarchists are no brother of mine or anyone here in Metro Atlanta. I am infuriated that Judge Robert McBurney extended the deadline to collect signatures for the petition.
I’d gently suggest Mr. Chambers and his ilk do not represent even the worst, much less the best, of the historical anarchist tradition.
Who is ultimately funding these types of movements? The international presence, as well as the high production values and swift reaction times, suggest something other than organic movements.
Maybe I’ll write about that
Absolutely do that.
It does seem that many of those funding these movements to eliminate police are fine with investing in private “security” for themselves.
Please do - we need to drag them into the light and expose them, so that we’ll-meaning but misguided folks can see what they’re supporting, for one.
How about you do a better job of investigating Manuel Teran's death instead of just reciting police narratives? You could write a story about that. You seem to be an environmentalist on some issues Lee, but your callous disregard for the death of this environmental protestor at the hands police shocks me.
"According to the autopsy sent to ABC News, Teran did not have gunpowder residue on their hands."
https://abcnews.go.com/US/dekalb-county-releases-autopsy-cop-city-protester-manuel/story?id=98700731
How much corporate donations has the pro urban warfare center side received?
I challenge you to honesty answer that question
As a person who lives very close by, I assure you that the opposition is organic.
It’s the other side that has received millions in corporate donations
Why aren’t there class action lawsuits against the people/organizations who fund violent protestors? They are basically representatives of these organizations and the organizations should be held responsible.
These “protesters” really don’t seem to understand that they, themselves, are the Fascists. I’m so sick of stupid humans.
Many years ago, as a journalist, I covered the city of East St. Louis across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. And East St. Louis was almost all-black and poor, once described as "an inner city without an outer city." Crime was rampant but when I walked the neighborhoods and talked with residents, almost without exception they always told me "We need more police." (And better schools, and jobs, as well.)
Things haven't changed much. But now, as Lee documents so well, we have an odious group of leftists making things worse -- for the very people they claim to care for!
These misguided, angry, rebellious men (mostly) -- well, I actually think that deep down, they feel helpless, they've heard too much demonizing of the police, they have lost faith in the rule of law, and they think they can redeem themselves by becoming street warriors. I pity them but also oppose them, certainly their tactics.
But where are the Democratic party leaders -- local and national -- who can show up at protests to counsel and lead these radicals to a better, more effective way of social change? We also have a crisis of leadership if the Democratic Party leaders stay silent.
I believe the Democratic party leadership is much too busy censoring social media and attempting to start WWIII.
Just read this over on Public, about progressive fact checkers.
“A group of Swiss psychologists actually examined the relationship between leftist authoritarianism and narcissistic behavior. They concluded that “some leftist political activists do not actually strive for social justice and equality but rather use political activism to endorse or exercise violence against others to satisfy their own ego-focused needs.”
Sounds like every antifa fascist on earth.
With the heavy funding from special interests and huge corporations pouring in on both sides (Cop City reportedly has its own corporate and private equity investors including Roark Capital and Inspire Brands), I have lots of questions. The fact that Meta and some billionaire's "anarchist" kid are financing a protest movement, one where young environmentalists are being killed, is so bizarre to me. (Imagine the anti-war protests of the 1960s being funded by a TV station -- totally normal, right?)
Like others, I do feel the activists deserved a voice in this though, especially given all the talk about potential training for urban warfare against citizens at this facility (I'm not sure if those rumors have been verified yet).
I would love to see a follow up piece looking at the funding sources across the board, and hearing what the protestors have to say (and what they're being told), and how that might differ from what city officials are saying/being told, and what local citizens are saying/being told. It just feels like maybe there's a lot more going on here.
Thanks EMM for voicing closest to my own questions after the Lee Fang interview I saw that seemed uncharacteristically one sided for power.
Red flags for me were the private funding, public objection/community voice, historical references (correctional center, indigenous origins), environmental impact, community impact, absence of alternatives in location or scale. And what about the decision timing, any possible White House influence? Setting purpose aside, what seems this controversial monstrosity isn't even in Atlanta. Looks like plenty to expand and clarify.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/24/us/atlanta-public-safety-training-center-plans-community/index.html
Def! Lee Fang is an awesome journalist, so I feel like he might write more about this. This is just one story. I'm assuming he'll cover other angles of it (he actually mentioned doing this in the comments), so I just wanted to add my thoughts as a reader.
Thank you Lee. I heard u discussing this subject with Glenn Greenwald on SYSTEM UPDATE. Very enlightening, as well as unfortunate/tragic, sowing anarchy. (Violence for Violence’s sake! How counterproductive! Falling right into the “Security State’s” hands! Uughh!
“But no attempted engagement has pacified the movement.”
Really? An anarchist movement hasn’t been pacified by “engagement”? Wow!
wow
The comments here show why only paid subscribers are allowed on most Substacks.
In case anyone is wondering, I found what appears to be the ICAT lesson plans.
https://www.policeforum.org/assets/ICAT/ICAT_Module1_Aug2021.pdf
Found the below on page 2. Does this sound like something you'd find in an "urban warfare center?"
"Lessons from Abroad
o In 2015, PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler was in
Scotland with several American police chiefs for a
leadership development program, and decided to attend a
recruit graduation. Knowing that only about 2 percent of
police officers in Scotland carry firearms, Wexler asked a
Scottish officer, “How do you deal with people brandishing
knives, when you don’t have a firearm?”
o The Scottish officer said, “It’s no problem. We stand back,
we assess the situation.” He proceeded to describe Police
Scotland’s approach to critical thinking, de-escalation, and
tactics for resolving these incidents.
o The American police chiefs were shocked when Scottish
police officials explained that they receive 1.8 million
emergency calls per year, including thousands of incidents
involving persons with knives, but most years go by without
the police in Scotland shooting a single person.
o So in November 2015, at PERF’s request, Police Scotland
hosted a delegation of police chiefs and other high-ranking
officials from nearly 25 American police agencies, for four
days of training demonstrations, presentations, and candid
discussions about Scotland’s strategies for resolving
incidents. "
Herbert Marcuse is probably grinning in his grave, and trying like hell to raise his fist. 🤦♂️
Interesting for me that these Atlanta activists, the BLM Global Network and Just Stop Oil are all receiving funds from billionaires and multi millionaires.
Why?
This story & the comments that follow it is a perfect example of the dismaying information/disinformation jumble that we face today. What, in all of the “evidence” cited above is reliable? Are any salient facts or arguments missing? Can anyone be trusted? Too bad for me, I’m an adult & will have to figure it out for myself.
We live in a ridiculous police state. The 1% are the biggest criminals!
anybody that funds this while pays for private security needs to be publicly shamed. This demand of defunding the police serves the need of a few at the cost of many.
I agree but, realistically, what can you expect? A society without police will devolve to mob rule, with the most violent and aggressive individuals calling the shots. The billionaires who seek to deliver that dystopia may be evil but they aren’t knuckleheads. Put yourself in their Les Ruby Slippers: wouldn’t you be more than a little concerned about the mob coming for you? Most of them wouldn’t be taking kindly to your plundering of resources and your self-aggrandizing exploitation of your social lessers. You would probably want a Sherman tank in your garage.
You may be right that the training center would improve policing that thus the Stop Cop City movement is self-defeating, but any critical analysis of the Manuel Teran killing shows that the cops really screwed that one up, and likely just shot and killed an unarmed protestor, shot one of their own in the cross-fire (the shooting occurred in the woods where visibility was limited and many officers were on site), and then dropped a gun on the dead Teran to cover the whole mess up.
Listen to the tapes of GA police body cams on the scene. Multiple officers stated on camera, immediately after the shooting, that they thought a friendly-fire incident had occurred. They did not witness the shooting itself, but they heard the shots, and their gun-trained ears told them that only police-officer weapons were fired.
So I went down a rabbit-hole and tried to figure out, "Is it possible to tell one type of gunshot from another?" The simple answer is yes, particularly in the case of suppressed vs unsuppressed weaponry. Unsuppressed weapons, like the Smith and Wesson Military and Police 9mm pistol that was found near Manuel Teran, are louder and tend have a lower pitch than suppressed weapons. Listen to the shots yourself, the audio was caught on tape. All the shots sound the same, and they all lack the characteristic lower frequencies that an unsuppressed weapon has ( I ran the audio through frequency analysis software).
But more important than all that, is that the GA police simply hasn't released any evidence that they claim they have. They claim they have gun records showing Teran owned the gun, but never released those records to the public. They claim they have a ballistics match on the gun to the bullet that struck the officer, those ballistics have never been released to the public. Autopsy results which have been released to the public have not shown any gunpowder residue on Manuel's hands (a telltale indicator that he fired a weapon). The whole investigatory process has been conducted by the GBI, which is the same agency that participated in the armed raid on the forest camp with suppressed assault rifles.
The results of the investigation have been handed over to an attorney who is known to be pro-police, and he will likely sit on the evidence, not release it to the public, and not prosecute the police involved. Environmental lawyer Stephen Donziger has done some good reporting on the whole miscarriage of justice that is taking place.
Anyone who thinks that the police should not be able to shoot and kill protestors without very serious independent and public scrutiny should be very concerned about what happened around the Manuel Teran killing, and I say kudos to the Stop Cop City protestors who are demanding justice for Manuel Teran, because so far he has received none.
“You may be right that the training center would improve policing that thus the Stop Cop City movement is self-defeating…”
But that’s exactly the point. I know nothing of incident which you speak but more and better training will go a long way to preventing needless death and injury in policing and isn’t that what any sane person wanted from the BLM riots? I mean, if we’re going to have riots it should at least lead to something constructive.
As Fang’s article points out, this was all uncontroversial stuff supported by Obama and the NAACP until the last 8 years or so. Defunding the police is insane in this era with all the economic decay and poverty.
I don’t trust the motives of these carpet-bagging protesters. They are chaos agents — dangerous larpers at best — and their tactics should not be tolerated.
Calling these protestors chaos agents is akin to calling Jan 6 protestors insurrectionists. People have a right to non-violent protest whether you agree with what they are protesting about or not. Take away that right and you take a giant step in the direction of authoritarianism
Many of these protests are not non-violent -- they have molotov cocktails for fuck's sake and a guy who got killed had shot a state trooper. They also have a sustained and directed purpose. 1/6 was a somewhat spontaneous, isolated, expression of frustration. I say somewhat because there was a very suspicious corral operation to get the protestors onto the grounds and into the Capitol by individuals who have not been sought or prosecuted.
These "cop-city" protestors have a goal -- getting rid of the police -- that is fundamentally chaotic in purpose. Whatever you think about incidents of police violence the vast majority of what they do is keep and maintain order. The people funding the ACAB and defunding movement are those who won't be impacted by the result. People living in dangerous neighborhoods want more and better police not no police. So yes they are chaos agents whatever they call themselves.
Eh, you clearly didnt read my post. There is no evidence the Teran had a gun or fired it. In fact the physical evidence which has been released in the form of an autopsy report tells the opposite story, Teran did not fire a weapon.
Do you agree with everything the FBI does? Do you think that law enforcement agency is above reproach, and anyone criticizing it is a traitor and chaos agent? Police are the enforcement arm of the state. Necessary to maintain law and order, but also commonly used to crush popular dissent and stifle protest. Unless you are a total authoritarian, you should recognize that there needs to be room for criticism for the enforcement arm of the state.
Criticism, protest and reform are one thing. But I saw those BLM riots and they were anything but peaceful, with buildings in cities across the country on fire, lots of dead people, etc. I see these protests as an extension of that -- and just as incoherent. Their demands are ridiculous and not supported by the vast, vast majority of the populace. The whole thing felt like kayfabe from the start to be honest. When the BLM protests started in my city and people were peacefully protesting in my neighborhood -- down 2nd Ave -- some of them took video of pallets of bricks that had mysteriously been left out on the street. That simply doesn't happen in NYC where valuable construction materials like bricks will be gone in a few hours if left out. The uniform mainstream media positive spin on the violence and breaking of lockdowns after we'd all been told to STAY INSIDE for months -- does none of this give you pause? The CIA has a motto -- when in doubt sow chaos. They know they are losing their grip on the country. Trump's election freaked them out hard. And everything since then has been one disastrous attempt after another to destabilize and distract. These tactics go back a long way and I simply don't trust our out-of-control three letter agencies to be working in our best interests. And yes, that includes elements within the FBI. Look at who they focus their attention on and off. If the Feds wanted these anti-Cop-City protests stopped they would do it. Don't you remember how they cracked down on the Occupy Wall Street protests in like 20 fucking cities all in one night?
The police are a gang, but they're a local gang we need to maintain order. Reform is vital but these protests were not about reform and they still aren't. If they were they'd want better training for cops, not this shit.
Also if you want to listen to the officers saying they only heard suppressed gunfire, and that the incident was crossfire. I compiled some video clips in a Twitter thread. https://twitter.com/jonatha14828976/status/1645179345416368129