By Ryan Fatica
Scottsdale, AZ — “I’m here in an official capacity, representing Nationwide,” said a protester in a blue wig and a skintight blue acrylic body suit. She wore placards strung across her shoulders with hand-painted replicas of the Nationwide logo on the front and back of her body.
Her voice was muffled by the suit, which covered her entire face, hands, and probably feet. She peered out through eye holes it looked like she’d cut herself.
“This insurance contract I’ve signed with Cop City is just not worth it from a business perspective,” she explained. “And also because I’m going against the wishes of the people and the Earth.”
The Atlanta Police Foundation’s proposed urban warfare campus popularly derided as ‘Cop City’ is tied to the first known U.S. police killing of a climate activist — Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Paez Terán was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol outside the proposed ‘Cop City’ site in the South River Forest on January 18, 2023. Police initially claimed Terán shot an officer, however an independent autopsy indicates they were sitting cross-legged with their hands up in the air when shot.
Georgia authorities have gone to unprecedented lengths to repress opposition to the project — charging dozens of protesters under a rarely used domestic terrorism statute and arresting three organizers of a bail fund providing legal aid to activists, charging them with money laundering and charity fraud over what appear to be ordinary expense reimbursements.
Moments before, standing outside the corporate offices of Scottsdale Insurance, a subsidiary of Nationwide Insurance, the protester in the blue wig had done mock battle with another in a tree costume—complete with a crown of fronds and a homemade bark-textured mask. After Nationwide was defeated, the two had joined in tearing up a huge piece of paper with the words “Insurance Contract to Build Cop City” on the top. A group of about 20 others cheered, honked their horns and played kazoos in celebration.
The performance was part of a protest held Thursday by members of the Tucson, Phoenix, and Flagstaff chapters of the Weelaunee Defense Society, a national network of individuals and groups organized in solidarity with the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta.
Actual representatives of Scottsdale Insurance and Nationwide Insurance did not respond to requests for comment via their media line and refused to speak with a Unicorn Riot reporter during the protest.
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