FIRE-STARTER: IS VIOLENT PROTEST JUSTIFIED?

Anger over a new police training facility being built in Black-majority Atlanta, Georgia has only increased amid fears it could be used to train Israeli officers in the use of ‘advanced tactics’ for urban warfare as part of an exchange programme - thereby further implicating the US in the ongoing oppression of Palestinians.

Critics also worry that Cop City, as they brand it, will lead to greater police militarisation and criminalisation of marginalised people (and thus expand the prison-labour complex). And there are environmental concerns, as it’s being built on Atlanta’s largest green space - the Weelaunee Forest (aka the city’s lungs). Last year, police shot dead an activist attempting to protect trees from being cleared for Cop City.

Community anger has prompted some to resort to violence - with a number of local police motorbikes and other vehicles vandalised in protest. That’s triggered debate on whether such ‘violent’ methods of resistance are justified.

In this clip, Atlanta’s Mary Hooks (@maryhooks) - an organiser for the Movement for Black Lives - passionately argues that the answer is yes. While admitting it’s not a risk she’s willing to take herself, she ‘blesses’ those who do, arguing vandalism and arson are legitimate when other means of meaningful opposition have been closed off.

Hear her out and please let us know your views on this issue.

Video credit: Atlanta Community Press Collective (@atlpresscollective)

Shout out to our sister @maryhooks for making the point so powerfully!