Crackdown on environmental defenders at an alarming level | First Thing

Shooting in Atlanta part of dangerous escalation in the criminalization of environmental defenders, campaigners warn. Plus, how to escape learned loneliness

Good morning.

The shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, believed to be the first environmental defender killed in the US, is the culmination of a dangerous escalation in the criminalization and repression of those who seek to protect natural resources in America, campaigners have warned.

What is planned for the urban forest? Protesters are trying to stop 85 acres of the forest being torn down to build a sprawling, state-of-the-art, $90m police training complex – dubbed “Cop City” by opponents as it will feature a mock city for “tactical” exercises. State and local authorities have reacted aggressively to all attempts to defend the area.

Is this kind of crackdown happening elsewhere? Yes. Georgia’s response to the protests follows an alarming pattern of environmental and land rights defenders across the US being threatened, arrested and charged with increasingly drastic crimes, including terrorism, for opposing oil and gas pipelines or the destruction of forests or waterways, advocates claim.

What is happening with the officers involved? It has emerged that two of the since-fired Memphis police officers charged with murdering Tyre Nichols had failed to document their use of force in prior cases, and a pair of others were suspended from the department for other infractions, according to personnel records.

What did Kamala Harris say? She called for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which she co-authored as a senator. She decried the police officers’ “violent act” as “not in the interest of keeping the public safe”. She said: “Was [Tyre] not entitled to the right to be safe? Tyre Nichols should have been safe.”