“Killing cops is okay!”
That’s a running theme in a diary purportedly written by Manuel Teran, the activist shot to death by police in January near the construction site of Atlanta’s public safety training center. Teran was killed after allegedly wounding a cop with a gun purchased 18 months earlier.
Called “Tortuguita,” or Little Turtle, by fellow “Forest Defenders,” Teran’s diary, which was found in the tent where the fatal shooting occurred, starts in early 2021.
“I am now unemployed again,” reads an entry dated Feb. 14, 2021. Following entries discuss picking up “sustainable building, odd jobs and tutoring,” while noting Teran was “happy with my rage” and pondered getting into something revolutionary.
Teran expressed interest in fighting a bill in the Florida legislature that brought heavier penalties for protesting. Later came a cause to dive into — Atlanta’s public safety training center.
In late March 2021, former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the construction of the $90 million facility. It soon drew opposition, became a magnet for protests and even fire bombings. Detractors came to brand it “Cop City.”
Teran wrote about frustrations, personal problems, aimlessness and bubbling rage, eventually expressing more than once about being ready to die.
The personal writings indicate that Teran thought about being a martyr for the cause.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
On Dec 18, 2021, Teran started a passage titled, “If the Cops (the word “Pigs” was crossed out) Kill me.”
“If the cops kill me, I want you to riot, burn down their stations and set their cars alight. Know that I went out fighting and ask we all could have peace and be free,” Teran wrote.
Then, “If the cops kill me I want you to riot, to kill as many of them as you can. They are terrorists. They keep us all subjugated ... I think they should all quit their jobs or die. I would love to live a long and peaceful life but I do not fear violence.”
A week later came the entry, “Being ready to die.”
“I have lived a life that I don’t regret ... To be ready to die is to affirm having a good life and no attachment. I do not know when I will die and that does not bother me.”
Scrawled on the page was, “Cop Cars on fire!”
A July 15, 2021 was bleak: “It feels so (blanking) hopeless to try to change this system and these people. The doom and all the gloom wash over me...”
Later that month: “I want every last prison guard and cop and government official to quit their job — or be put to death.”
A couple of pages later come drawings of a burning police car and police officer with bullet holes, captioned, “Burn police vehicles! Kill Cops!” and one of an officer in flames.
Credit: Court document
Credit: Court document
A few days later: “I don’t fear death or harm and honestly it makes me a fool but I accept it.”
Teran was also a list maker that ranged from ”call mom” or “paint” to “Map out street cams/security cams” and “sabotage Amazon fulfillment center.”
Amidst the calls for love and peace, for a class war and the dismantling of prisons and racism, Teran wrote about unfulfilled relationships and problems with white micro-aggressing white anarchists.
The Far Left movement has its interpersonal problems just like any workspace.
Teran had been dealing with mortality and with taking down the “fascist patriarchy” for a couple of years, increasingly getting more dark as the months went by.
An entry in September 2022 read, “I made the accounts knowing the risk and I do not regret it. Even if the FBI assassinates me, it will have been worth it. I have helped people and will hopefully inspire others to do more mutual aid without getting assassinated. My exit strategy is to keep resisting fascism, ecocide and the damn capitalist heteropatriarchy.”
Four pages later comes the passage, “Killing cops is okay! Killing people is generally a bad thing. Fascists and cops count as people but killing them is morally and ethically just because they are threats to the survival of many people ... Dead cops! Dead cops everywhere.”
Teran’s family members have said the activist was a pacifist who was “assassinated in cold blood.”
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
Asked about the writings, Jeff Filipovits, one of the family’s lawyers, told me, “It’s tough to know what someone is thinking reading their personal thoughts.”
He said a diary is a mixture of daily events, random passing thoughts, as well a a bit of fiction.
“Are you reading it right?” Filipovits asked. “The problem is that the state is not reading it right.”
He said prosecutors are trying to damage Teran’s character and are using the diary as a way to withhold evidence of the shooting from the Teran family lawyers.
The officers who killed Teran will not be charged in the killing, a special prosecutor assigned to the case announced after an investigation.
Filipovits said family lawyers have gotten very little forensic evidence since the killing and say that evidence is now part of an ongoing racketeering case.
State prosecutors are trying to introduce Teran’s diary as part of a racketeering case against 61 protestors and extremists who have protested and fought against building the training center.
“These statements are a glimpse into the mind of a ‘Forest Defender’ and the attitudes kept by Teran and his co-conspirators,” reads the motion.
Credit: Court document
Credit: Court document
Last December 15, Teran was livid after authorities leveled a camp near the construction site where protestors had been living, writings indicate.
“Yesterday, the fash (fascists) destroyed our camp, the day before that they kidnapped 5-6 comrades and a very good dog. Those bastards. The state which calls us terrorists is fascist.”
“Our resistance cannot be stopped. Momma didn’t raise a coward — fear will not stop me,” Teran wrote, later ending the passage, “(expletive) 12 (police). I hope every judge, kkkop and bootlicker dies painfully and is remembered as scum.”
That was the last entry in the diary. The fatal shooting was a month later and Teran has since become a martyr. At gatherings including news conferences at a recent protest march, supporter have carried signs and banners in tribute.
Days after Teran’s death, protesters smashed windows. And a police car was burned.
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