Early Wednesday morning in a residential area of southeast Atlanta, a SWAT team showed up with riot gear and rifles. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations and the Atlanta Police Department arrested three organizers associated with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a local bail fund that, since 2016, has offered legal support and help covering bail to those who exercise their First Amendment right to protest. The Atlanta Solidarity Fund had also been helping to bail out those arrested for protesting the proposed creation of a $90 million so-called Public Safety Training Center that opponents have dubbed Cop City.
The Atlanta Solidarity Fund had been helping to bail out those arrested for protesting the proposed creation of a $90 million, corporate-backed Public Safety Training Center that opponents have dubbed Cop City.
Fiercely resisted by many Atlanta residents but backed by corporations and politicians across the spectrum, Cop City would not only further train police in urban warfare tactics by offering a mock city to train in, but the construction of the proposed 85-acre facility would help destroy a precious forest of 381 acres in a majority Black area of southeast Atlanta.
Atlanta activists had seen these arrests coming. In February 2023, Marlon Kautz of the solidarity fund warned that Georgia prosecutors were building a criminal case against activists opposed to the project.
Those predictions came true Wednesday when the SWAT team raided the home of Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson, and carted them to jail on charity fraud charges that experts have denounced as fabricated. A Wednesday tweet from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund characterized the arrests as “an attempt to cut off protestors from legal aid” and said, “We remain unafraid and stand strong in fighting to protect civil liberties.”
At Friday’s bond hearing, Don Samuels, an attorney representing the three who were arrested, said, “My real concern here is if you look at these warrants ……
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