'Riotsville, USA' was the original 'Cop City'
history repeating itself
I’m no film critic but “Riotsville, USA” is important and strikingly relevant. It feels as if you’re watching a movie in history class, if our history classes actually told the truth. Using all archival footage discovered by director Sierra Pettengill, the film gives us an inside look at the beginnings of the militarization of US police as a response to civil unrest. It’s the late 60s and The Establishment knows it’s losing control amidst war, protests, police brutality against Black communities, and political assassinations. Sound familiar?
Welcome to Riotsville, USA— a point in American history when the nation’s rulers— politicians, bureaucrats, police—were faced with the mounting militancy of the late-1960s, and did everything possible to win the war in the streets. Using training footage of Army-built model towns called “Riotsvilles” where military and police were trained to respond to civil disorder, in addition to nationally broadcast news media, director Sierra Pettengill connects the stage-craft of “law and order” to the real violence of State practice. Recovering an obscured history whose effects have shaped the present in ways both insidious and explosive, RIOTSVILLE, USA is a poetic and furious reflection on the rebellions of the 1960s- and the machine that worked to destroy them.
-synopsis of film by magnolia pictures
One (the film mentions 2) of the Riotsville locations was in none other than good ole’ Georgia, of course! A mere 2 hours from today’s proposed Cop City in the Weelaunee Forest of so-called Atlanta lives Fort Gordon—a military base named after confederate general and head of Klu Klux Klan in Georgia John Brown Gordon. Here (as well as Fort Belvoir in Virginia) is where a mock town was built for police to practice civilian suppression tactics, specifically against Black people. The story practically writes itself…
It is a sunny day at the end of a rainy week as I entered the Weelaunee forest during the 5th week of action since the resistance began in April 2021. There is a wooden shelter built in the exact spot the cops bulldozed the previous one not long ago. Folks are excited about this newer, more solid structure for folks to gather and share food and resources under. Today, beneath said shelter friendly volunteers are giving out free stickers, Earthbounds 2023 Farmer’s Almanac, and native trees: American plum, elderberry, hazelnut, persimmon. The abundance and generosity are palpable.
There is a kind greeter handing out welcome literature. There are memorials for Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán, the forest defender who was assassinated in cold blood by Georgia State patrol while sitting cross-legged with their hands raised on the morning of January 18, 2023. I walk about a mile or two down the paved path in the park and feel like I’m in a fairytale as I breathe in the sweet smelling wisteria abound. Further down the path I am enveloped by wetlands and I can’t believe how beautiful this important ecology on either side of the path. A friend stops to free a young elderberry being strangled by an invasive honeysuckle.
At the campsite there are dozens of tents and the energy is calm and peaceful. Someone encourages us to head over to a certain area because “the vibes are really great” and they are, indeed, great. There is a DIY art gallery set up displaying works from different artist. Upcycled printed T-shirts offered on a donation based honor system to raise funds for the movement. Two people are sitting on a blanket making music at a frequency that make me want to lay on the forest floor with my eyes closed and just exist. Everyone I meet is welcoming and kind.
Watching the film Riotsville, USA while living in Atlanta, especially during this time, feels like a big unfunny joke. Is it really necessary for me to say that the similarities are uncanny and disconcerting?
Let’s see we have: Racism in America, summer uprisings for Black liberation, militarization of police to suppress movements, mock towns/cities, the mythic narrative of outside “agitators” as a way to discredit the movement, denial and openly smug reframing of police brutality, a “nation moving toward two societies” or co-opting language of the movement, cops lying about being shot at as justification of murder, claims of ‘domestic terrorism’ and the list goes on.
These types of aggressive tactics stem from a dark place, a place of fear and desire to control. To paraphrase the film, the Establishment fears a truly revolutionary spirit that is unwilling to compromise or wait any longer, that is willing to risk death rather than have their people continue in a subordinate status. The late and prescient Tortuguita reminded us that the police are prepared for violence, they bank it, and we know that they’ve been training for decades. This isn’t a some secret or hidden history of the US. All of the footage on Riotsville, USA is public information. It was broadcast on national television and publicly debated!
It seems that today in 2023 many Americans have caught on to what Black and Indigenous people have known in this country since the beginning— that politicians aren’t coming to save us, in fact, they are all too willing to impose fear and organize harm directly against us to maintain control. It’s undeniable that history of Riotsville is directly tied to our current historical moment. The struggle against Cop City is a struggle in which all civilians (of the South, yes, but also nationally and transnationally) have stake in. The profit driven policies and environmental destruction allowed by our current (mis)leaders will reach far beyond the city of so-called Atlanta. We know that corporations, mainstream media, police, and politicians have long been Besties hell bent on maintaining the status quo. What does that mean for the rest of us?
Anti-Reader, I’d like to leave you with a few more words, a call to action if you will, from the fearless writer Arundhati Roy.
Our strategy should be not only to confront Empire but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness— and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.
The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling— their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.
Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
I head 15 miles south of the Weelaunee Forest to my grandmother’s house, the house in which I grew up, to bring her the American plum and elderberry trees I was given along with sheets on how to care for them. She is particularly excited about the medicinal elderberries. We will plant them into the ground right after this cold snap and look forward to a fruitful, regenerative future.
🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲
Remember, Anti-Reader, this is an independent newsletter. For more information, ways to learn more + support I nudge you to the following places:
The Weelaunee forest. The media paints it out to be a scary “outside agitator” space. It isn’t. It’s beautiful. Go see for yourself.
A great place to put some dollars is the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. Dozens of protestors are being wrongfully charged with domestic terrorism and this organization directly supports activists on the ground.
The Atlanta Community Press Collection for independent coverage on what’s happening on the ground.
A previous essay of mine where I clearly had Things to Say.
For a deeper glimpse into the history of the Atlanta struggle and how we got here today consider watching this panel that was hosted by Haymarket Books yesterday.
One need not be an abolitionist to understand the violence of this proposed project.
Be well, plant a tree, unite, persevere.
In solidarity,
Lexi
Thank you for this insightful article and the view inside the resistance in the Weelaunee Forest.