Bank Lit on Fire in SE Portland
An Anonymous Anarchist Lit a Bank of America on Fire in Solidarity with 6 Forest Defenders Charged with Domestic Terrorism in Atlanta
Early in the morning, on New Year’s Eve, I finished work and began my drive home. As I drove down SE Hawthorne Boulevard, the anxiety inducing blue and red flash of police and firefighter vehicles came into view. SE Hawthorne Boulevard is no stranger to crime and car accidents, so I thought nothing of it. I simply took a detour to avoid the area.
As it turned out, the Bank of America on SE 37th and Hawthorne Blvd. had been targeted in an arson attack according to an anonymous Anarchist who claims to be responsible.
On Noblogs.org, the post reads:
“Last night I broke into the Bank of America in Portland, Oregon and started a large fire. According to news reports, the fire grew quickly and took firefighters more than an hour to extinguish.
I attack for revenge against capital for the hell it creates, to break the illusion of police control that usually protects it, and just because I can.
Bank of America funds the Atlanta Police Foundation and a thousand other projects of control. Earlier that day, the six friends in Atlanta charged with “domestic terrorism” were released from jail. May this fire bring them some warmth in the winter.”
The ‘six friends’ they refer to are the 6 forest defenders in Atlanta who were recently arrested and charged with domestic terrorism following a clash with police on December 13th. The location of the incident is the Weelaunee Forest in SE Atlanta where forest defenders have been camping out to impede destruction of the forest and construction of what’s been dubbed as “Cop City”. Cop City is the 90-million dollar, 85-acre “Atlanta Public Safety Training Center” funded by private corporations and the City of Atlanta.
The 6 forest defenders have been accused of throwing glass bottles and rocks at GBI Agents and Atlanta Police, resisting arrests, and possessing pipe bombs and trip wires.
In May, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at authorities trying to remove protesters from the site. 8 protesters were arrested, but none were charged as domestic terrorist.
In August, forest protectors set a contractor’s truck on fire.
After the December arrests, Georgia’s Governer Republican Brian Kemp released a public statement via Tweet:
“Stop Cop City” is a coalition of tree sitters, activists, and organizers standing against the construction of the largest police facility in the United States. The facility plans to build on 85 acres of forest. The remaining 381 acres are said to remain “green space”. (For comparison, NYPD’s training academy is 32 acres. LAPD’s academy is 20 acres).
On June 7th, 2021, Atlanta City Council member Joyce Shepard introduced legislation that would authorize a ground lease to Atlanta Police Foundation for the full 381 acres for the next 50 years. 17 hours later the legislation was passed. Among the City Council Members that passed this legislation include current Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
The Atlanta Police Foundation is a nonprofit organization claiming to “unite the business and philanthropic community with the Atlanta Police Department”. The nonprofit is backed by corporate donors including Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, UPS, Cox Enterprises, Wells-Fargo, Bank of America, and more. APF CEO and President Dave Wilkinson claims that 95% of Atlantans approve of the project despite not producing evidence for the statistic. The foundation proposed to fund the training center through public-private partnership leaving the remaining $30 million for Atlanta taxpayers to pick up.
Tree sitters and members of “Defend the Atlanta Forest” Movement have created tree house shelters on site to prevent clearcutting of the Forest’s trees in preparation for constructing the center.
So…what is Cop City and why are people so determined to stop it?
The ‘Weelaunee Forest’ (South River Forest) is located in Southeast Atlanta. (Activists refer to South River Forest by its Muscogee name ‘Weelaunee’.) According to anthropologist Mark Auslander, the site used to be a prison farm. Long before it was converted to a prison farm, white settlers displaced the Muscogee Creek tribe off their ancestral land and established slave-based plantations. The land was not only stolen but continued to be used for oppression for many years. Many see ‘cop city’ as a continuation of that oppression.
Weelaunee Forest is a watershed that drains into the South River. Watersheds protect rivers by filtering out polluted run-off and acting as a buffer. South River has already been polluted by sewage run-off for decades. Despite the facility’s plan to replant trees it destroys, destruction of the watershed is an environmental concern. The watershed also surrounds neighborhoods with communities of mostly Black residents who strongly oppose the project.
The project’s plan includes military-grade training facilities, a mock city to practice urban warfare, dozens of shooting ranges, and a Black Hawk helicopter landing pad.
The Atlanta Police Foundation also funds “Operation Shield” and “Operation Aware”. The two programs sound like a story plot in an episode of Black Mirror. Operation Shield uses private funds to install cameras throughout the city and works with businesses to connect their cameras to the police surveillance system. Operation Aware uses a predicting policing platform and criminal analytics software designed by Microsoft to link the Operation Shield surveillance network to databases of recorded license plates, vehicle registrations, and criminal records. The software suggests suspects to a ‘real-time crime center’.
A 2017 study by Cornell university says the software may spark feedback loops that send police back into the same neighborhoods regardless of true crime rate. “It will increase unwarranted stops and searches, police presence in majority Black neighborhoods, and police brutality against Black people.” Recently, over 250 cameras were left dead for two months due to contracting and oversight issues, ultimately wasting taxpayer dollars.
Despite the recent arrests, activists say they have no plans to leave.
The 6 charged with domestic terrorism have a long road ahead of them as they wait to stand trial. They are currently out on bail.
The Anonymous Anarchist in Portland who set fire to the Bank of America has not been identified.
Stop Cop City: @stopcopcitylinks | Linktree
Defend Atlanta Forests: DefendAtlantaForest | Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok | Linktree
