{"id":1062379,"date":"2023-05-31T20:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T20:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/production.public.theintercept.cloud\/?p=429826"},"modified":"2023-05-31T20:56:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T20:56:00","slug":"atlanta-police-arrest-organizers-of-bail-fund-for-cop-city-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/05\/31\/atlanta-police-arrest-organizers-of-bail-fund-for-cop-city-protesters\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Police Arrest Organizers of Bail Fund for Cop City Protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"
On Wednesday morning,<\/u> a heavily armed Atlanta Police Department SWAT team raided a house in Atlanta and arrested three of its residents. Their crime? Organizing legal support and bail funds for protesters and activists who have faced indiscriminate arrest <\/a>and overreaching charges<\/a> in the struggle to stop the construction of a vast police training facility \u2014 dubbed Cop City \u2014 atop a forest in Atlanta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a joint operation with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, Atlanta cops charged Marlon Scott Kautz, Adele Maclean, and Savannah Patterson \u2014 all board members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund<\/a> \u2014 with \u201cmoney laundering\u201d and \u201ccharity fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The arrests are an unprecedented attack on bail funds and legal support organizations, a long-standing facet of social justice movements, according to Lauren Regan, executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the first bail fund to be attacked in this way,\u201d Regan, whose organization has worked to ensure legal support for people resisting Cop City, told me. \u201cAnd there is absolutely not a scintilla of fact or evidence that anything illegal has ever transpired with regard to Atlanta fundraising for bail support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n