{"id":34088,"date":"2024-05-31T13:05:35","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T20:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=34088"},"modified":"2024-05-31T13:05:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T20:05:36","slug":"atlanta-police-surveil-people-opposing-cop-city-theres-this-constant-stalking-feeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/05\/31\/atlanta-police-surveil-people-opposing-cop-city-theres-this-constant-stalking-feeling\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Police Surveil People Opposing \u2018Cop City\u2019: \u2018There\u2019s This Constant Stalking Feeling\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Timothy Pratt\/Guardian UK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"AtlantaProtesters at the Cop City site near Atlanta, Georgia, on 7 September 2023. (photo: Megan Varner\/Reuters)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 may 24<\/strong> (RSN.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Residents wonder what legal protections are available as police monitor them at all hours, blaring sirens and shining lights<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Atlanta police have been carrying out around-the-clock surveillance in several neighborhoods for months, on people and houses linked to opposition against the police training center colloquially known as \u201cCop City\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surveillance in Georgia<\/a> has included following people in cars, blasting sirens outside bedroom windows and shining headlights into houses at night, the Guardian has learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While no arrests have been made, residents said they\u2019re at a loss as to what legal protections of privacy and freedom from harassment are available to them. Chata Spikes, the Atlanta police spokesperson, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ongoing actions started soon after an 8 February<\/a> pre-dawn, Swat-style raid on three Atlanta houses in which Atlanta police and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sought evidence relating to arson of construction and police equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police have since established themselves in four neighborhoods, centering on about 12 houses \u2013 including those that were previously raided \u2013 with marked and unmarked cars parking near them, driving slowly by and leaving when approached by residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social movement historian Dan Berger<\/a> said this low-tech type of surveillance and related behavior \u2013 blasting sirens and flashing lights, following people \u2013 has precedence dating at least to the civil rights era. He called the actions \u201cnaked intimidation with plausible deniability attached to it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berger added that \u201c[a] common strategy of police work is, when a movement reaches a point of threat, the powers that be begin actively trying to scare them out of existence \u2013 showing them they know where they live, who they hang out with\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cop City training center is being built on a 171-acre footprint in a forest south-east of Atlanta. Opposition has come from a wide range of local and national supporters and is centered on concerns such as unchecked police militarization and clearing forests in an era of climate crisis. Atlanta police say the center is needed for \u201cworld-class\u201d training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One resident of a Lakewood neighborhood house raided on 8 February described being in a car with another person several days afterward. Different vehicles followed them for four and a half hours, as they drove out of city limits and into Gwinnett county suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they stopped in a drive-through, a Gwinnett police officer pulled them over and gave them a ticket for having the car\u2019s license plate in the back window, and not on the bumper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian spoke to the driver in that incident, as well as half a dozen other residents of different Atlanta neighborhoods and a DeKalb county neighborhood experiencing increased Atlanta police presence in recent months. All of them spoke on the condition of anonymity or used assumed names, out of safety concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same Lakewood resident who was a passenger in the followed car was stirred from bed one morning in March at 3:30am, when a police car blasted its siren for about 10 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a lawyer,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it eventually reaches the point of harassment \u2013 how do you tell cops they\u2019ve crossed that threshold?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Ferguson<\/a>, a lawyer, law professor at the American University Washington College of Law and expert on police surveillance, privacy and civil rights, explained how this behavior can happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGenerally speaking, courts have given police the power to investigate crimes,\u201d he said. \u201c[T]he problem is, abuse and harassment are usually harder to define \u2026 and there aren\u2019t great external laws to say, \u2018You can\u2019t do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atlanta police have been carrying out \u201cphysical surveillance\u201d \u2013 as distinguished from digital or technological surveillance, Ferguson noted. The reason: \u201cPolice want to be seen because the purpose of the surveillance is to intimidate and expose dissenting voices. Police are using the coercive power of surveillance to silence protest and dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferguson noted that the US constitution\u2019s fourth amendment \u201cis supposed to be a check on this\u201d, adding that what\u2019s happening in Atlanta is \u201cexactly the kind of case where there needs to be some kind of external examination \u2013 like from the Department of Justice\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, some residents keep tallies of police activity outside their houses. In Lakewood, 10 houses exchange observations on a Signal thread. Ashley, a south Atlanta resident, made 16 entries on a list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne night, people were over for dinner and a cop car slowed down in front of the house, about 20ft from the entrance. The room got quiet,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like an intimidation tactic. \u2018We know you believe this one thing,\u2019\u201d referring to her participation in protests against Cop City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashley stopped spending time on her front porch, a custom in the US south, and started sleeping with binoculars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though I\u2019ve done nothing wrong \u2026 there\u2019s this constant stalking feeling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A resident of Starlight Heights \u2013 blocks from the Cop City site \u2013 said Atlanta police have pointed headlights at her bedroom around midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very scary,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re all women [in the house]. We don\u2019t want to go out \u2026 and talk to police at night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An incident earlier this week created another parallel to the civil rights movement. A resident of a house raided in February woke to a bright light outside his bedroom window, next to the front door, early last week at 3:15am. He opened the door to see a lit road flare catching fire to the wooden railing next to steps leading to the house\u2019s wooden porch. He ran into the house, filled a bucket with water and doused the flames. It is unclear who left the flare on the porch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m already paranoid,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a difference between police surveillance and trying to burn your house down.\u201d A lawyer recommended filing a police report. \u201cBut what if it\u2019s a state actor? Who protects us then?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: https:\/\/www.rsn.org\/001\/atlanta-police-surveil-people-opposing-cop-city-theres-this-constant-stalking-feeling.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timothy Pratt\/Guardian UK Protesters at the Cop City site near Atlanta, Georgia, on 7 September 2023. (photo: Megan Varner\/Reuters) 30 may 24 (RSN.org) Residents wonder what legal protections are available as police monitor them at all hours, blaring sirens and shining lights Atlanta police have been carrying out around-the-clock surveillance… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34088"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34089,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34088\/revisions\/34089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}