Solidarity Statement: Stop Cop City

+ Asheville convicts journalists for doing their jobs

June 28, 2023

Hey y’all!

No updates yet on our continued “felony littering” prosecution by the Buncombe County District Attorney, or on the lawsuit against the City filed on our behalf by the ACLU, demanding that the City both rescind the three-year bans from public parks they issued against us and change the policy which allowed them to violate our rights.

But, we do want to share three things: Parks are for Everyone, updates on the prosecution of journalists in Asheville, and our statement in solidarity with folks facing state repression as they work to Stop Cop City.

Parks are for Everyone

Because we are now plaintiffs as well as defendants, and because the original protest and subsequent state repression both hinge on the question of whose space is public space (particularly parks!), we are using this language for the newsletter title now, and we finally made an instagram account: @parksareforeveryone

Asheville Convicts Journalists

After appealing the district court ruling, two journalists have been convicted of trespassing in a public park in Superior Court, as they attempted to cover the protest which led to the subsequent targeting of so many of us. The judged decided that no defense based on the First Amendment was allowed for the jury trial. The case next goes to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

Solidarity with #StopCopCity

If you haven’t yet heard, we’d like to call your attention to Atlanta, where our neighbors are experiencing their own unprecedented state repression in the fight to stop “Cop City,” a planned urban tactical training complex which will hypermilitarize police. If built, it is projected to cost Atlanta residents over $71 million dollars (just part of the price tag) and will raze 85 acres of Weelaunee, the sole remaining urban forest in greater Atlanta. This highly unpopular proposal has met heavy resistance for over two years, by a broad movement with participants ranging from schoolchildren to neighborhood organizers, to church leaders, to tree sitters. 

The government has responded to this vibrant and historic groundswell with equally historic repression. In the last year, over 40 community members have been charged with domestic terrorism for alleged actions such as flyering, tree sitting, marching and being present at a music festival. In January, police murdered Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, an unarmed forest defender, during a raid on Weelaunee.  And one month ago, three members of Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a bail and legal defense fund operating since 2016 for first amendment-protected activities, were arrested and charged with money laundering and charity fraud. This is unprecedented—these are the first people in the US known to be criminally charged for operating a bail fund, a legal activity. 

This escalation of law enforcement retaliation is baseless and draconian. Like our felony littering charges, these charges against organizers are delivered as a fear tactic meant to isolate activists and to quash dissent. We are in deep solidarity in Asheville with our neighbors experiencing this repression who say “Atlanta doesn’t want Cop City!” 

Here is an extensive list of ways to support the Stop Cop City/Defend the Atlanta Forest movement, compiled and shared by Highlander Research and Education Center:

  • City of Atlanta residents: Visit @StopCopCity to support and sign the petition for a ballot referendum

  • Tell Mayor Dickens to End the Lease with Atlanta Police Foundation.

  • Tell the City Council to take another vote it’s possible for the Mayor and City Council to reverse the decision. Keep up the pressure and call/email City Council and Mayoral incumbents and candidates! See call script & more here.

  • Put pressure on investors in the project to divest from Cop City.

  • Sign the Petition Demanding corporations divest from Cop City.

  • Pressure builders of the project to drop their construction contracts.

  • Participate and Organize in solidarity events where you live. Rallies, Banner Drops, Creative Civil Disobedience, Petition Drives, etc. Send us pictures of what you did [email protected].

  • Donate to CMB – CMB has been the leading Black organization on the ground fighting to StopCopCity since its construction was announced.

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