Atlanta City Council approves $67 million in public funds for ‘Cop City’ and other latest posts and upcoming coverage in this newsletter!

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In this newsletter:
Atlanta City Council approves $67 million in public funds for ‘Cop City’, three Atlanta bail fund activists arrested and granted bond, activists inside Georgia jails share their stories, and 'Cop City' protesters visit Nationwide Insurance in Arizona.

Unicorn Riot Coverage of Protests Against 'Cop City'

Unicorn Riot was on the ground in Atlanta, GA for the last 'Week of Action' in March 2023 ([link removed]) , and we'll be covering the upcoming one from June 24 - July 1.

For more than two years, a diverse movement encompassing a variety of Atlanta communities has been organizing and campaigning against the construction of a massive police training compound dubbed 'Cop City' by opponents. If completed, the Atlanta Police Foundation's Public Safety Training Center will be the largest police training facility in the country and will require the destruction of hundreds of wooded acres in Weelaunee, aka the South River Forest, just south of metro Atlanta.

Throughout this year, Unicorn Riot has been covering the movement with regular updates on protests and repression, and a couple deep-dive mini documentaries summarizing different aspects of the movement: Defending the Atlanta Forest: Behind the Movement to Stop Cop City ([link removed]) and ‘Tortuguita Vive’: A No-Compromise Movement Responds to Police Killing a Forest Defender ([link removed])

In case you've missed any of it, here's our coverage from Atlanta. ([link removed])

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Latest: ‘Their Overreach is Sowing the Seeds of Their Undoing’: Forest Defender Speaks from Bartow County Jail [June 20, 2023]

Over seven weeks after they were arrested while distributing fliers in a small suburb of Atlanta, Charley Tennenbaum continues to be held in the Bartow County Jail for actions they say are protected by the First Amendment. On April 28, Charley and two other individuals were arrested ([link removed]) in the city of White, Georgia and slapped with felony charges for distributing fliers containing information about Jonathan Salcedo, a Georgia State Patrol trooper who has been linked ([link removed]) to the killing of Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán.

Learn more here. ([link removed])
Latest: ‘Cop City’ Protesters Visit Nationwide Insurance [June 14, 2023]

Costumed protesters staged a mock cancellation of Scottsdale Insurance's contract with the Atlanta Police Foundation, which is building 'Cop City,' in a street theater demonstration held outside the offices of the insurance company (a Nationwide subsidiary) on June 8, 2023.

Learn more here ([link removed]) .
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Nationwide Drops 'Cop City' Contract in Guerrilla Theater Satire

Atlanta City Council Approves $67 Million in Public Funds for ‘Cop City’

Following hundreds of speakers who voiced their opposition to funding ‘Cop City’ over a 14-hour public comment period, Atlanta City Council approved $67 million in funding for the controversial project early morning on June 6.

Starting in the morning on June 5, crowds amassed at City Hall to speak against the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Public Safety Training Center, also known as ‘Cop City,’ and urge council members to vote against funding the project that’s been at the center of an international protest movement for nearly two years. Lines of Atlanta residents snaked through the building’s lobby as crowds chanted phrases like “if you build it, we will burn it” and “stop cop city.”

Learn more here. ([link removed])

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** Hundreds Oppose 'Cop City' Funding at Atlanta City Council Vote
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Three Atlanta Activists Arrested, Home Raided Over Bail Fund

Around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 31, three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund were arrested during a raid by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the Atlanta Police Department and charged with money laundering and charity fraud.

Marlon Kautz, Savannah Patterson, and Adele Maclean were arrested at The Teardown Community, a hub for mutual aid and activism as well as a residence where the three lived. All three have been booked into the notorious DeKalb County Jail ([link removed]) , according to the GBI.

Learn more here. ([link removed])

Atlanta Solidarity Fund Organizers Granted Bond

Three Atlanta Solidarity Fund organizers arrested May 31 were awarded bond in DeKalb County Magistrate Court on the afternoon of June 2.

Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson were arrested in Atlanta ([link removed]) after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Atlanta Police Department executed a search warrant at their home.

The warrants accuse ([link removed]) the three operators of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which organizes support for those arrested while protesting in and around Atlanta, of charities fraud and money laundering. Within the warrants, reimbursements for expenses like “gasoline,” “yard signs” and “covid rapid-tests” are listed as proof of the alleged financial crimes.

Learn more here. ([link removed])

‘Don’t Forget Us’: Forest Defenders Confront Horrors of Life in DeKalb County Jail

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Unicorn Riot spoke with and received testimony from more than a dozen people who were formerly incarcerated at the DeKalb County Jail, as well as family members of those held there and others familiar with conditions in the jail. Most of those interviewed requested that their names be withheld out of concern that sharing their stories could affect their ongoing legal cases. Most of those interviewed were ‘Stop Cop City’ activists, while others were held on unrelated charges.

Learn more here. ([link removed])


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