“There isn’t any first modification in Atlanta,” wrote activist Micah Herskind.
Legislation enforcement officers in Georgia have arrested three high organizers behind a bail fund in Atlanta that has been aiding protesters towards Cop Metropolis.
Atlanta police arrested the organizers, the CEO, chief financial officer and the secretary for the group behind the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, at their homes on Wednesday morning. Based on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), the three had been charged with cash laundering and charity fraud.
Activists known as the arrests an escalation within the state’s try and crush the Cease Cop Metropolis motion, with members being hit with more and more harsh prices.
“It is a main escalation –– they’re arresting those that defend the arrested,” wrote Atlanta organizer Micah Herskind. “The implications of those arrests is that not solely are you able to not protest, however you can not defend those that are arrested for protesting. There isn’t any first modification in Atlanta.”
In an announcement, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) spoke as if the organizers and different anti-Cop Metropolis activists had been already discovered responsible of their prices from the GBI. He said that he was “proud” to have arrested the “criminals” who he says “facilitated and inspired home terrorism,” referring to terrorism prices towards Cop Metropolis protesters.
Town of Atlanta is pursuing a $90 million plan backed by each Republicans like Kemp and Democratic Mayor Andre Dickens to construct an 85-acre police militarization compound in a forest within the space. If constructed, Cop Metropolis can be the nation’s largest police coaching compound, and activists say that it will solely worsen brutality by native police, as evidenced by the violent response to nonviolent protesters — all whereas razing a forest to take action.
The Twitter account for the Defend the Atlanta Forest/Cease Cop Metropolis motion, pointed out that the Atlanta Solidarity Fund has aided in lawsuits towards the Atlanta Police Division over its arrests of a journalist and protesters within the motion. “That is retaliatory,” the group wrote.
https://twitter.com/SDonziger/standing/1663946335735906305
Activists have additionally identified that the GBI’s assertion in regards to the arrest, in addition to Kemp’s, seem to suggest that the state is getting ready to make use of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) prices towards the bail fund, which the Atlanta Solidarity Fund has been predicting for months.
The organizers have said that the state seems to be making a “flimsy narrative” that the group is a legal group. To date, over 40 activists have been charged with home terrorism for protesting the compound.
The Atlanta Solidarity Fund has been essential within the battle towards Cop Metropolis, serving to to offer help for protesters hit with bail quantities which have sometimes exceeded $300,000, in keeping with one of many arrested organizers.
“That is concentrating on of organizers and actions by the police and the state,” mentioned activist Kamau Franklin, with Group Motion Builders, in a statement. “Bail funds have been part of organizing the Civil Rights motion and labor motion. We’ll proceed to battle again towards cop metropolis and the political arrest of our buddies and comrades.”
Activists have lengthy maintained that the fees lobbed onto anti-Cop Metropolis activists are bogus and that regulation enforcement are creating false narratives with the intention to justify the arrests.
Backing up activists’ argument is the truth that police have already been caught mendacity about one of the vital essential and inhumane actions taken towards protesters up to now: the killing of Manuel Paez Terán, whose chosen identify was Tortuguita, in January. Although police claimed that Tortuguita shot first, a DeKalb County post-mortem discovered that there was no gunpowder residue on Tortuguita’s arms when police shot them 57 instances, killing them.
Not everybody pays for the information. However should you can, we want your help.
Truthout is broadly learn amongst folks with decrease incomes and amongst younger people who find themselves mired in debt. Our website is learn at public libraries, amongst folks with out web entry of their very own. Folks print out our articles and ship them to relations in jail — we obtain letters from behind bars often thanking us for our protection. Our tales are emailed and shared round communities, sparking grassroots mobilization.
We’re dedicated to retaining all Truthout articles free and obtainable to the general public. However with the intention to do this, we want those that can afford to contribute to our work to take action.
We’ll by no means require you to present, however we are able to ask you from the underside of our hearts: Will you donate what you’ll be able to, so we are able to proceed offering journalism within the service of justice and fact?
