On the evening of February 1st, a small group of friends sabatoged 11 Truist ATMs and branches across Atlanta, in a coordinated attack. Areas targeted included Buckhead, Midtown, Decatur, East Atlanta, and Gresham Park. It was simple enough. We covered cut up gift cards in super glue and jammed them into card slots, and we covered toothpicks in super glue and broke them off in door locks. We left stickers on the ATM screens (and over the ATM cameras) explaining our intent, and left some decorations and messages in self etching paint. Multiple locations were confirmed to be working at reduced capacity the next day.
We took this action in solidarity with those fighting the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. We admire their commitment to struggle and their furtherance of a rich history of resistance in Appalachia. We feel similarly that all "acceptable" avenues of resistance have been exhausted. Not that they shouldn't continue to happen, but that we see direct action as our main hope in moving forward. No one is coming to save us, no matter who, how much, or the manner in which we ask. If we want to go down for anything, it should be fighting for everything that we find sacred. It should be for asserting and spreading the existence of a better world that's already here.
Truist bank contributed 86.7 million dollars to the Mountain Valley Pipeline project and also contributes funds and has affiliations with the Atlanta Police Foundation – and thus Cop City. We chose affluent areas that have been gentrified or are beginning gentrification. The location in Gresham park lies about 3 minutes from the Cop City construction site. This is the very community the project threatens to put at risk.
We hope our message to Truist is absolutely clear: when you seek to make a profit from destroying our earth and people's lives, expect resistance
Found on Scenes From The Atlanta Forest