Some Thoughts on Atlanta and Lützerath

Originally posted on medium, January 31, 2023

By Evan

A little over two weeks ago the US media introduced the story of environmental protests taking place in Lützerath, Germany and Atlanta, Georgia to the American populace. The stories are framed around a rise in conflict regarding two environmental protests, both facing intense crackdowns from militarized law enforcement.¹ In a spectacular case of irony, the protestors in Atlanta are pushing against the construction of the largest police training center in the United States, complete with a mock city to prepare for future urban unrest. Days later after the death of a young activist participating in the occupation of the Weelaunee forest, Atlanta saw street clashes as fights broke out between police and activists. Those arrested have been charged with domestic terrorism, throwing the book at those going against the city and State.² For leftists in Atlanta, it is of crucial importance to cease the existence of the proposed cop city, for its existence will be dedicated to training forces across the US to more effectively enact brutality and perpetuate a system that has already done irreparable damage.

I am reminded of Shimon Naveh’s “Between the Striated and the Smooth”, an account of the IDF’s training practices with reverence to their effectiveness in urban terrain to locate and eliminate targets.³ An unholy marriage exists in the design of operational commands of the IDF that is affixed by the writings of Deleuze, Guattari, Debord, and Bataille. These theorists’ ideas have found a home not only in the humanities but in the military academy. Considering that the Atlanta Police Department has been known to participate in a police exchange with Israel, the implications of advanced military tactics deployed by an advanced militarized law enforcement force spell doom for marginalized and oppressed communities.⁴ With the installation of 4,500 cameras across Atlanta in early 2022, alongside the adoption of Connect Atlanta, a network of real-time surveillance footage is available to the immediate access of the police.⁵ As of late 2022, the Atlanta Police has access to 17,000 camera feeds across the city.⁶ The shift from “a video integration center to a real-time crime center” is a reference to the previous work of Chief George Turner, who as early as 2011 had been calling for a city-wide effort to surveil the environment. In 2015, Turner cited Israel for providing inspiration for the final design of the project.⁷

The correct line of support seems obvious at best when confronted with systems of control and the destructive structural component of capital. Such a multitude of crises intercept at the crossroads in Atlanta and in Lützerath. While the local site of these demonstrations feature a force of actualization of struggle, it is situated in a larger community that is at threat. Jeremiah O. Asaka reviews two decades of climate change and terrorism scholarship to conclude that certain feedback loops are present in perpetuating a cycle of vulnerability and climate destruction. As climate change brings droughts and flooding, leading to disruption in supply chains, food production, and housing, as well as a lack of response from official institutions, seeds are sown for increased extremist and radical activity.⁸ Asylum-seekers in Germany reported many cases of resource scarcity in their homelands and identified such scarcity as forms of control from warring groups such as the Islamic State or wartime governments. Critical infrastructure like hydroelectric dams and water pipelines become valuable targets for organized military bodies, either to control or destroy.⁹ As resources become more scarce, either due to the impacts of climate change or due to social instability, environmental terrorism is becoming more impactful and dangerous.

While these are a few thoughts I’ve had on the matter, there is still much to be written and scrutinized when analyzing such precarious matters. Being not from Atlanta or Lützerath, I am limited in what knowledge I can uncover and what insights I can produce. What I can do, however, is simply enunciate my claim of solidarity with the resistance to the programs present in the two locales and be mindful of the resistance taking place in my own backyard. I throw my full support behind the resistance to a homicidal system of control, either here or there.

References

¹ Emily McGarvey, “Lützerath: German police oust climate activists after clashes near coal mine,” BBC News, (January 15, 2023). https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64285787

² George Chidi, “Cop City Goes National,” The Intercept, (January 23, 2023). https://theintercept.com/2023/01/23/cop-city-atlanta-protests/

³ Shimon Naveh and Eyal Weizman, “Between the Striated and the Smooth,” Cabinet 22 (2006). https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/22/naveh.php

⁴ Ilise Benshushan Cohen and Azadeh Shashahani, “U.S. Police are Being Trained by Israel — And Communities of Color Are Paying the Price,” The Progressive Magazine, (October 7, 2019). https://progressive.org/latest/us-police-trained-by-israel-communities-of-color-paying-price-shahshahani-cohen-191007/

⁵ Shaddi Abusaid, “‘A game-changer’: Atlanta police hope new camera network will help solve, reduce crime,” The Atlanta-Journal Constitution (January 26, 2022). https://www.ajc.com/news/a-game-changer-atlanta-police-hope-new-camera-network-will-help-solve-reduce-crime/NOQQDEYMXNAERARZACITEBHBKU/

⁶ “Atlanta police have access to 17,000 cameras city-wide, mayor says,” WSBTV News, (December 13, 2022). https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/atlanta-police-have-access-17000-cameras-city-wide-mayor-says/INGTBPVHOFCJTMAVVWGPIVV2DI/

⁷ “Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange,” Georgia State University. https://gilee.gsu.edu/about/partnerships/law-enforcement-2/. It is also to note that Germany is also participant of GILEE and participates in training programs in Israel.

⁸ Jeremiah O. Asaka, “Climate Change — Terrorism Nexus? A Preliminary Review/Analysis of the Literature,” Perspectives on Terrorism 15 no.1, (February 2021). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26984799

⁹ Christina Kohler, Carlos Denner dos Santos, and Marcel Bursztyn, “Understanding environmental terrorism in times of climate change:
Implications for asylum seekers in Germany,” Research in Globalization 1, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resglo.2019.100006