Three Atlanta activists who were arrested this week were granted bond on Friday, June 2. The bond is set for USD 15,000. Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson are organizers with Atlanta Solidarity Fund. The fund supports “people who are arrested at protests, or prosecuted for movement involvement” by raising money for legal defense and bail, among other things.
The arrests, carried out by Atlanta city and Georgia state authorities, have sparked outrage given their connection to the larger repression doled out to the movement against the USD 90 million police militarization project dubbed “Cop City”. The proposal has provoked significant public opposition, and activists who call themselves “forest defenders” have been occupying and camping out in parts of the forest to prevent it from being bulldozed. The forest defenders camp has been hit with heavy repression and in recent months, some of those arrested have been classified as “domestic terrorists”.
Further, in the Atlanta police’s report on the slaying of forest defender Tortuguita on January 18, it mentions the words “domestic terrorist” or “domestic terrorism” 20 times, to which Tortuguita’s family responded, “It is clear that all law enforcement regarded any person in the forest as guilty of being a domestic terrorist.”
The warrant for the three activists’ arrest on Wednesday accuses them of “misleading contributors by using funds collected through a State of Georgia registered 501c(3) Network for Strong Communities (NFSC) to fund the actions in part of Defend the Atlanta Forest (DTAF), a group classified by the United States Department of Homeland Security as Domestic Violent Extremists.” The activists were subject to militarized raids on their home for an allegation of charity fraud.
“I don’t find it real impressive,” said the judge reviewing the case against the three activists.
“[Kautz, Maclean, and Patterson] never should have been arrested or criminalized, so it’s hard to genuinely feel ‘good’ about this. But at least they will be free to fight this heinous, unconstitutional case from outside of jail,” tweeted Atlanta activist Micah Herskind.
