#tortuguita — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #tortuguita, aggregated by home.social.
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Defendants in Georgia ‘Cop City’ case say they are in limbo as trial delays continue
By R.J. RICO
Updated 12:26 AM EDT, May 12, 2025ATLANTA (AP) — "Single mother Priscilla Grim lost her job. Aspiring writer Julia Dupuis frequently stares at the bedroom ceiling, numb. Geography and environmental studies researcher Hannah Kass is worried about her career prospects after she graduates from her Ph.D. program.
"The three are among 61 defendants accused by Republican Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr of participating in a yearslong racketeering conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility just outside Atlanta that critics pejoratively call 'Cop City.'
"Their cases are at a standstill, 20 months after being indicted under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO, which is likely the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history, experts say.
"Trial for five of the defendants was supposed to start last year but got bogged down in procedural issues. The judge overseeing the case then moved to another court. A new judge has set a status hearing for Wednesday.
"The delays have left people in limbo, facing charges carrying up to 20 years behind bars for what they maintain was #LegitimateProtest, not #DomesticTerrorism. The case also has suppressed a movement that brought together hundreds of #activists to protect a wooded patch of land that ultimately was razed for the recently completed $118 million, 85-acre (34-hectare) project.
"Officials say the project is sorely needed to replace outdated facilities and boost officers’ morale. Opponents say it will be a training ground for a #MilitarizedPolice force and its construction has worsened #environmental damage in a poor, majority-Black area.
"Protests escalated after the fatal 2023 shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, known as #Tortuguita, who was camping near the site when authorities launched a clearing operation. Officials said they killed Tortuguita, 26, after the activist shot and wounded a trooper from inside a tent.
"A family-commissioned autopsy concluded Tortuguita was killed with their hands in the air, but a prosecutor found the officers’ use of force was 'objectively reasonable.' "
Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/cop-city-rico-charges-61-atlanta-be5ef1ed1951a73870656f61fbbc567b#ACAB #StopCopCityQueens #StopCopCitiesEverywhere #JusticeForTort #USPol #StopCopCity #WeelauneeForest #DefendTheForest #CopCity #SilencingDissent #CiminalizingDissent #MilitarizedPolice
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HT @UnicornRiot
Parents of #ForestDefender Killed by Police File #CivilRights Lawsuit
By Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot December 20, 2024
"The parents of slain forest defender Manuel ‘#Tortuguita’ Paez Terán filed a civil rights lawsuit Tuesday against three Georgia law enforcement officers they say are most responsible for the death of their child in January 2023."
#JusticeForTort #StopCopCitiesEverywhere
#Decolonize #Resist #CorporateColonialism
#DayOfTheForestDefender #StopCopCity #SmashThePatriarchy
#DefendTheForest #ProtectTheForests #ACAB -
Dozens indicted on Georgia racketeering charges related to ‘Stop Cop City’ movement appear in court
by Kate Brumback, Nov 7, 2023
ATLANTA (AP) — “Nearly five dozen people indicted on racketeering charges related to protests against a planned police and firefighter training facility near Atlanta appeared in court on Monday as their supporters rallied outside the courthouse.
“Protests against the proposed training center — dubbed “Cop City' by opponents — have been going on for more than two years. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr obtained a sweeping indictment in August, using the state’s anti-racketeering law to target the #protesters and characterizing them as 'militant #anarchists.'
“Demonstrators and #CivilRights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (#ACLU), have condemned the indictment and accused #Carr, a Republican, of levying heavy-handed charges to try to silence a movement that has galvanized #environmentalists and #antipolice protesters across the country.
“All 61 people indicted were scheduled to be arraigned Monday, that is to have the charges against them formally read in court. Fifty-seven of them appeared, called in small groups before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams over a three-hour period, and each waived arraignment.
“Four defendants failed to appear. One was believed to be in France and prosecutors didn’t have a good address for him. One was in federal immigration custody. Another who is not American and who had left the country tried to return twice in recent days to attend the hearing but was denied entry to the country, her lawyer said. A fourth simply didn’t show.
“Most of the people who appeared had not yet surrendered at the Fulton County Jail to be booked on their charges. Some had recently reached agreements with prosecutors on a bond amount and conditions and others were still in the process of doing so.
“Adams told them they had until 10 a.m. Tuesday, 24 hours after the start of the arraignment proceedings, to turn themselves in. If they fail to do so, she warned, a warrant for their arrest could be issued and any bond would be rescinded.
“Adams instructed defense attorneys to provide the attorney general’s office with hard drives by Friday so they can receive copies of evidence in the case, known as discovery. Prosecutors are to finish copying and distributing that evidence to defense attorneys by the end of the year.
“A final plea hearing will be set no later than the end of June, Adams said. She explained to the groups of defendants that if they want to reach a plea agreement with prosecutors they must do it by that date.
“A couple of hundred supporters of the ‘#StopCopCity' effort rallied outside the courthouse in downtown Atlanta on Monday morning singing, chanting and waving signs.“Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and other supporters say the 85-acre, $90 million facility would replace inadequate training facilities, and would help address difficulties in hiring and retaining police officers. Opponents have expressed concern that that it could lead to greater police #militarization and that its construction in the #SouthRiverForest will worsen #environmental damage in a poor, majority-Black area.
“Protests against the project, which have at time resulted in violence and vandalism, escalated after the fatal shooting in January of 26-year-old protester Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, known as #Tortuguita. A prosecutor last month said he would not pursue charges against the state troopers who shot Paez Terán, saying he found that their use of deadly force was ‘objectively reasonable.'
“Most of those indicted in August had already been charged over their alleged involvement in the movement. RICO charges carry a sentence of five to 20 years in prison that can be added on top of the penalty for the underlying acts.
“Among the defendants: more than three dozen people who were previously facing domestic terrorism charges in connection to the protests; three leaders of a #BailFund previously accused of money laundering; and three activists previously charged with felony intimidation after authorities said they distributed #flyers calling a state trooper a
'murderer' for his involvement in Paez Terán’s death.“Prosecutors have alleged a conspiracy that includes a wide variety of underlying crimes that range from possessing fire accelerant and throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers to being reimbursed for glue and food for activists who spent months camping in the woods near the construction site.”
#DefendTheForest #ACAB #DefendWeelauneeForest #Fascism #Censorship #ClimateJustice #DirectAction #JusticeForTort #JusticeForTortugita #AtlantaGeorgia #EnvironmentalRacism #StopCopCitiesEverywhere #FreeAllForestDefenders #CriminalizingDissent #SilencingDissent
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Police officers won't face charges in fatal shooting of protester Manuel Teran at Atlanta's '#CopCity'
Six troopers fired shots that resulted in Teran's death in January.
ByMark Osborne and Kiara Alfonseca
October 6, 2023"None of the #Georgia State Police troopers involved in the fatal shooting of Manuel '#Tortuguita' Teran will face charges, according to Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney George R. Christian.
"Teran, who used they/them pronouns, was shot and killed by police on Jan. 18 as officers raided campgrounds occupied by environmental demonstrators who had allegedly been camping out for months to protest the development of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, dubbed '#CopCity' by critics.
"According to an autopsy of Teran sent to ABC News, they did not have gunpowder residue on their hands. Officials claimed Teran fired the first shot at a state trooper. Officers then responded with gunfire.
"In Friday's announcement that no charges would be filed, Christian wrote that Teran responded to officers firing 'less lethal' pepperball rounds by 'shooting four (4) times his 9 mm pistol through the tent striking and seriously injuring a Georgia State Trooper. Six Troopers returned fire resulting in the death of Teran.'
"'The use of lethal (deadly) force by the Georgia State Patrol was objectively reasonable under the circumstances of this case,' Christian wrote. 'No criminal charges will be brought against the Georgia State Patrol Troopers involved in the shooting of Manuel Perez Teran.'
"Teran had at least 57 gunshot wounds in their body, according to the autopsy, including in the hands, torso, legs and head.
"An independent autopsy from the family found that Teran’s hands were raised during the fatal shooting, however, the DeKalb County autopsy stated, 'There are too many variables with respect to movement of the decedent and the shooters to draw definitive conclusions concerning Mr. Teran's body position.'
"The DeKalb County Medical Examiner's Office had ruled the death a homicide.
"The Georgia Attorney General's Office is conducting its own investigation into the shooting."
#StopCopCity #DefendTheForest #ACAB #DefendWeelauneeForest #Fascism #ClimateJustice #DirectAction #JusticeForTort #JusticeForTortugita #AtlantaGeorgia
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Will Potter on How the State and the Media Go After Radical Movements
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2MPVWHbhyw&ab_channel=GreenandRedPodcast
We’re in an unprecedented rollback of #CivilLiberties. States are passing laws to #OutlawProtests and #DirectAction, charging non-violent protesters with “#DomesticTerrorism” and #legalizing the #RunningOver of people blocking traffic. #StateSurveillance of activists has increased dramatically. Police budgets are getting astronomical increases to further militarize the state. In Atlanta, in the #StopCopCity campaign, police #assassinated a #ForestDefender, #Tortuguita, who had their hands up and then tried to claim self-defense.
To put this all in context, we talk with investigative journalist and author Will Potter (@will_potter). We discuss the #StopHuntington #AnimalCruelty campaign, the #EarthLiberationFront, the taming down of climate actions in the 2010s and how the police state ignored right wing terror groups in the same period.
We also discuss the role of the #FBI and the liberal #CorporateMedia in going after radical movements, how Cop City is shifting things and where popular culture fits into the story.
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i want to share a couple of revamped WW2 political posters under #CreativeCommons #NonCommercialUse to aid #protest of #CopCity
learn more on my patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/no-cop-city-803932052/
#usPolitics #antifa #StopCopCity #acab #atlanta #WeelauneeForest #ForestDefenders #DefendAtlantaForest #Tortuguita #ManuelTerán
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"What’s indisputable is that police repression has extended into all corners of this movement, amounting to a profoundly undemocratic exertion of state power. From the outset, the voices of the people have been marginalized and subsumed under deference to Atlanta’s police state.
As in the days of brutal repression of the civil rights movement, so too are the levers of state power aligned against the Stop Cop City movement. But there are also reasons for hope. Despite the best efforts of Atlanta authorities to contain the movement, to smear those standing in solidarity as outside agitators, this movement is both intersectional and multilocational.
Beyond the week of action, the battle to stop Cop City continues, in forms ranging from sabotage to legal battles over environmental permitting minutiae. Only time will tell how this movement resolves — whether it succumbs to police repression or whether Cop City will indeed never be built. But it’s been a hell of a fight so far, with the full force of state power brought against the protesters that dare to defy it."
#StopCopCity #Tortuguita #JusticeforTort #Atlanta #AtlantaForest #DefendtheAtlantaForest #Weelaunee #WeelauneeForest #BlackLivesMatter
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"With the end of the Food Autonomy Festival came the end, too, of 10 days of mass mobilization in the forest. As the movement grows and mobilizes new kinds of engagement, more possibilities open up for the Weelaunee Forest and those who choose to protect it. Alongside the student organizations, faith leaders, and Black-led organizations catalyzed by the movement, an assortment of farmers and botanists across the continent now have multiple-year investments planted in the forest along with a combative vision to foster them.
Two years into the movement to Stop Cop City, the Atlanta Police Foundation’s vision of a future wrought with violence and ecological destruction continues to be challenged. People from disparate backgrounds have come together to halt the destruction of the forest utilizing a myriad of different tactics, but all contributing to the creation of a free Weelaunee Forest."
#StopCopCity #Atlanta, #WeelauneeForest #Tortuguita #AtlantaForest
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#StopCopCity protesters marched into the offices of Atlas in #Tempe, #Arizona, one of the firms contracted to build the massive counter-insurgency training facility in #Atlanta, Georgia,
#WeelauneeForest #Weelaunee #Tort #JusticeforTort #Tortuguita
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"The state and ruling class are trying to create the impression that they are beating our movement. In fact, they are running out of options, falling back on ever harsher methods of coercion and ever more transparent ploys for consent. If this line of effort fails, their only choice will be to double-down on repression and trigger a bigger political crisis – or to retreat."
#StopCopCity #Tortuguita #JusticeforTort #Tort #ATL #Atlanta #DefendtheAtlantaForest #AtlantaForest #WeelauneeForest #NoCopCity
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Here is an article on the history of the Weelaunee Forest, originally an Indigenous Muscogee Creek area, and the current fight to save it:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/the-new-fight-over-an-old-forest-in-atlanta
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Vigils tonight happening across the country in solidarity with the fight to #StopCopCity. At People's Park in the #WeelauneeForest, people gathering to remember #Tortuguita, a 26 year-old anarchist who was murdered by law enforcement on January 18th. Video via @defendATLforest.
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via Seattle Black Anarcho Coalition (@Black_Anarcho) on Twitter
> ✨🏴STOP COP CITY! ✨🏴
> Comrades are encouraged to show up in solidarity with ATL Forest Defenders to honor the life of our fallen comrade…Cami (previously went by the name Tort) was murdered by police on 1.18.2023 while defending Weelaunee Forest!More via @CrimethInc https://crimethinc.com/2023/01/19/solidarity-with-the-movement-to-stop-cop-city-and-defend-weelaunee-forest
#Seattle #SeattleWA #CalAnderson #CalAndersonPark #AtlantaForest #ATLForestDefenders #StopCopCity #Cami #WeelauneeForest #Tortuguita