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, 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.
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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 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 to the killing of Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán.
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.
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.”
Hundreds Oppose 'Cop City' Funding at Atlanta City Council Vote
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, according to the GBI.
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 after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Atlanta Police Department executed a search warrant at their home.
The warrants accuse 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.
‘Don’t Forget Us’: Forest Defenders Confront Horrors of Life in DeKalb County Jail
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.
