Use "junkets" to call out police violence, demand People Before Profit

Limerick Council will be sending a delegation to  Savannah, Georgia to meet with the Chamber of Commerce, as part of this year's St. Patrick's day celebration. Darragh O'Brien, minister for housing will also be travelling to Georgia and it is planned that he will visit Savannah and Atlanta.

In January, Atlanta made international headlines as Manuel Terán, also known as Tortuguita, was shot and killed during a raid which was carried out by police officers from the Atlanta police department, the Dekalb county police, the Georgia state patrol, the Georgia bureau of investigation and the FBI while trying to remove protesters who were occupying the Weelaunee forest.

Following the death of Tortuguita, Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency giving him the power to mobilise 1,000 Georgia National Guard troops to quell protests in response to police violence. As protests broke out windows were smashed and a police car was set on fire.

The occupation of the forest, which began in 2021, was an attempt to stop its destruction to build the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center more commonly known as "Cop City".

“Cop City", if built, would consist of a 85-acre site and include a faux nightclub and shop, a firing range, an area for explosives training and more and is intended to train police officers from across the USA and its allies in tactics to tackle dissent in urban environments. Similar fake cities have been developed by the US Military in the past but the scale of this development, at a cost of over $90 million, and its explicit purpose of developing tactics for use against their own citizens suggests a further militarisation of the US Police in the face of a climate and economic crisis.

So far, 41 people have been arrested and charged under domestic terrorism legislation which could result in imprisonment for up to 35 years. This legislation was introduced in 2017 and was criticised at the time for being so broad that it could be used to charge Black Lives Matter activists blocking a road with terrorism offences.

Some of the examples of terrorist activities that were listed on arrest warrants include “sleeping in the forest”, “sleeping in a hammock with another defendant”, and being “known members [of] a prison abolitionist movement”.

Ruairí Fahy, People Before Profit representative for Limerick City North is calling for the delegations to condemn  the escalation of police violence and to call for an end to the "Cop City" project.

"Last year the Council spent over €100 thousand sending people out all over the world on junkets that seem to be little more than publicly funded holidays for councillors. If they're still gung ho on jetting off this year they could at least call for the environmental activists being held on trumped up terrorism charges to be released, an independent investigation into the murder of Tortuguita, and for members of the Savannah Chamber to withdraw any support for the Cop City project. Ultimately they need to call for 'Cop City' to be cancelled for the health of the planet and the safety of everybody living on it."

Mr. Fahy also called on Darragh O'Brien to pressure the City of Atlanta to call an end to the project and instead support families facing eviction due to rent arrears caused by COVID-19 job losses.

“There’s been a huge upsurge in militarisation of the police in the US and around the world as poverty is on the rise. With families facing eviction here and in Atlanta what is needed is more public housing not better armed bailiffs to physically evict tenants. Darragh O’Brien should call on the Atlanta police to drop the terrorism charges and for an end to the Cop City charges before being willing to trade with people who will jail people who are standing up for the environment and an end to police violence.”

On Monday March 13th People Before Profit Limerick will be holding a public meeting in the People's Museum at 7PM to discuss climate change, “green capitalism” and policing.

In solidarity with the Defend the Forest campaign in Atlanta, there will be a speaker from Atlanta, Georgia explaining the fight against Cop City as well as speakers from Ireland talking about the fight for our forests and about policing at protests such as Shell To Sea, the water charges and the recent the Debenhams picket lines.