#Atlanta Bail Fund

[gwydionmisha]

The Atlanta police want to remind you that exercising your first amendment rights is considered terrorism as is any political opposition.

[uboat53]

The state arresting people for actions that are explicitly illegal is not, in and of itself, an indicator of creeping authoritarianism. Perhaps the nature of the law might be, but the act itself is not.

The state arresting people for actions that are explicitly legal beecause it doesn't like the people who those actions help IS, by itself, an indicator of creeping authoritarianism.

Everyone keep an eye on Atlanta, they seem to be willing to throw democracy aside in order to get their new police training center built.

[everlastingrandom]

Please Support the Atlanta Solidarity Fund!!

Within the last hour, an audio recording of Atlanta PD just dropped, with police admitting that the arrest of the three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF) this Wednesday was a blatant attempt to disrupt support for the Defend the Forest Movement, by cutting off mutual aid and bail funds.

The first trial hearing today was to determine if the arrestees would get bail. Even the judge could tell the charges were BS—money laundering and charity fraud—When all their transactions are public knowledge. But the court still set bail at $15,000 each to appease prosecution.

The ASF has been forced to use their own funds to avoid being jailed over the weekend, and with one of them denied disability aids and medications! One of the stipulations of the bail is that they can’t use their resources to support (deliberately vague at to what counts as support) the Defend the Forest movement.

The police are worried that the timing of the arrest before the City Council’s final Cop City budget vote on Monday June 5th may have galvanized protesters instead of disrupting them. But APD will follow this pattern of targeting bail funds and charities on the grounds of “enabling violence.” There is a high likelihood of more arrests more coming, and they see it as an opportunity to get overtime pay.

Please boost this if you can!

Donation Link Here!!

[bfpnola]

i dont even have the capacity right now to make as robust of a post as i would like but i really think we all need to be aware of these updates regarding the stop cop city movement taking place in atlanta, georgia, united states of america. bold added for emphasis in the quotes below:

According to the state of Georgia, buying $11.91 worth of glue can land you on a RICO indictment, if the glue is used to protest the police. That’s exactly what it says in yesterday’s indictment against 61 people who have allegedly been protesting Atlanta’s potential Cop City. If you don’t know what Cop City is, it’s a plan to spend at least $90 million and destroy over 300 acres of forest to build a sprawling training center with a mock urban neighborhood to practice police tactics, specifically tactics of repression. Now, sweeping and overreaching charges claim that “militant anarchists” are engaged in a criminal conspiracy to stop this repression training center from being built. But, the indictment proceeds to lay out actions like handing out fliers, giving people food, and even running a bail fund to help arrested protesters as grounds for this case. The social media activity of people involved is referenced, simple acts of free speech are cited, and even ideas like solidarity and mutual aid are discussed as problems which somehow add to the necessity for this indictment.

...

U.S. police killed more people than ever last year and have not changed or reformed since the murder of George Floyd, and the people in Atlanta organizing against Cop City are very much aware of this. Yet instead of acknowledging the simple fact that cops should not kill, and that their power should not be endlessly expanded while they murder without consequence, the state of Georgia is instead choosing to grossly overreach. They’re instead trying to tie the movement to Stop Cop City to George Floyd and say that efforts to limit police violence are criminal rather than justified. Regardless of whether or not activists and organizers fighting the massive police repression training center were in the streets in 2020, they are informed by the knowledge that sparked the biggest protest movement this country has ever seen: police murder without consequence, and expanding police power, means more violence, more killing, and more repression of movements to improve society. We must be clear that anyone who opposes police murders and the expansion of the police state is fighting on the side of justice. The details listed in the RICO indictment, like small Venmo charges, an individual signing their name as ACAB, and people attending a concert show that the state is very much on the other side, the side of ruthless oppression. But maybe even more clarifying is the broad, sweeping condemnation of basic tenants of human goodness. The state lists, “mutual aid, collectivism, social solidarity” as tenants of anarchism that run rampant in the movement to stop Cop City. The charges condemn, word for word, “the notion of social solidarity,” which, “relies heavily on the idea of human altruism.” In a tale as old as time, the indictment of these activists and organizers, of these people, these residents of Atlanta, is more an indictment of the state than of the movement opposed to the state’s interests. The state is revealing itself to be the real villain.

...

The state has given the people of Atlanta, and everyone opposed to the eradication of democracy, no choice but to fight tooth and nail. They have gone for the nuclear option, and in doing so have exposed themselves. They have revealed the fascist underbelly they typically try to keep hidden. They have exposed that when people exercise every democratic avenue available, and are on the verge of success, they will resort to anti-democratic tactics to crush dissent. Beyond just this RICO case, the city of Atlanta is challenging the 100,000+ signatures gathered by grassroots organizers and volunteers working their asses off. Mayor Andre Dickens and his team are using the exact same regressive signature checking and discounting strategy he formerly opposed now that he wants to ram Cop City through against popular opinion and against the democratic process. Between the Mayor, the police, and the state, what choice do we have but to fight. When the government declares itself opposed to the very ideas of solidarity, mutual aid, and care for one another they seek to crush resistance. But instead they spark it. People everywhere are seeing the illegitimate nature of the institutions that kill, repress, and incarcerate anyone struggling for a better world. People everywhere see that institutions opposed to collectively looking out for each other, which seek to ban compassion and care with the threat of violence, have no legitimacy and must be opposed. They cannot be upheld or sustained. In a world where we need each other more than ever we can’t abide a repressive state that would rather police us into an early grave than grant us the resources we need to survive. And although it won’t be easy to overturn the system of capitalism and the violent police state that works to uphold it, we’ve been given no choice. We will Stop Cop City in Atlanta, and we will stop every attempt to build a Cop City anywhere. Officials in other Georgia counties, Baltimore, Ohio, and elsewhere are currently proposing their own Cop Cities, mimicking what they see in Georgia and attempting to build up their capacity to suppress dissent rather than building up their capacities to help people survive and thrive. We will out organize and out mobilize and out build the oppressive systems and institutions that seek to turn this country and the planet into one large police state. We have to. Be careful, but be determined. And get organized. Solidarity.

For over seven years, the fund—a nonprofit fiscally sponsored by the Network for Strong Communities—has provided legal defense and bail support for Atlanta. For aiding #StopCopCity protesters, the three fund organizers were arrested on charges of money laundering and charity fraud. Of what did this “fraud” consist? The warrants cited standard nonprofit reimbursements such as COVID tests and forest clean-ups in their rationale for the arrests. In the words of Kamau Franklin, an organizer with the Atlanta-based collective Community Movement Builders: “This is an arrest which is meant to, again, criminalize the movement, chill dissent, stop organizing, and stop activism from happening to stop ‘cop city’.” In so much as the work is radical, it will be under attack. Organizing that challenges capitalism, White supremacy, policing and prisons, and imperialism always carries risk. In the case of the bail fund, for example, what can movements do in the face of state repression? Potentially by shining a light on how mutual aid funding strategies are under siege, a clearer picture may emerge of ways to protect this valuable activity. Multiple people have noted that the Atlanta arrests represent yet another novel authoritarian and growingly fascist tactic to intimidate grassroots organizing and also draws on a long tradition of state repression against the Black freedom struggle. If successful, it could have far-reaching impacts on the swell of bail funds, abortion funds, transgender healthcare funds, and immigrant justice funds that have grown in recent years.

...

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund arrests did not occur in a vacuum. There is a long history of state repression against radical, grassroots power-building efforts—and those efforts continue today. Historian Say Burgin and political scientist Jeanne Theoharis aptly point out that across 1960 Southern sit-ins, 1961 Freedom Riders, and 1964 Freedom Summer, bail funds were a critical organizing effort for crystallizing and sustaining solidarity action. Where politically motivated captivity for civil rights activists loomed, bail funds responded. Mutual aid funding for these bail efforts were not just tactical, they were cultural. Mutual aid fundraising, in these contexts, gave everyday people a way to invest and engage in the very struggles they supported and needed. Mutual aid would provide yet another cultural outlet for radical, anti-repressive intent. This opportunity to mobilize people in radical efforts clarifies a threat to stakeholders in White supremacist institutions.

...

There are also increasing examples of state actors co-opting both the language and practices of mutual aid. In an interview with mutual aid organizer and writer Dean Spade, the Chicago Community Bail Fund highlighted examples of sheriffs welcoming the arrival of bail funds to support unaffordable bonds, city council-supported ordinances to protect bail funds “while continuing to take the money of Black and Brown community members paying bond for their loved ones,” and the city of New York’s own philanthropically backed bail fund created in 2017. As members of the Chicago Community Bail Fund reflected on New York’s system: “In effect, New York was funding the arrest, prosecution, and release of people caught in its criminal legal system instead of not arresting or prosecuting them in the first place.”

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[thatsleepymermaid]

I haven't heard people talking about this much, but I feel like it's important for people to know. Especially since SB 63 essentially bans bail funds by not allowing organizations, charities, individuals, or groups to bail out more than three people per year and requiring them to register as bonding agencies.

This is a direct response to all the protests happening here in Atlanta. So far, spreading the word can help as well as donating to The Atlanta Solidarity Fund .

In the meantime, here's some phone numbers of politicians you can go bug.

Randy Robertson (Guy who's sponsoring the bill): +1-404-656-0045

Brian Kemp (Governor of Georgia): +1-404-656-1776

[opencommunion]

The Stop Cop City movement has sought to prevent the expropriation of part of the Welaunee Forest for the development of an 85-acre police mega training center: a model town to prepare the state’s repressive arms for the urban warfare that will ensue when the contradictions of their exploitation and extraction become uncontainable, as they did in 2020 after the APD murdered Rayshard Brooks.  That murder, and all those that came before, were the lodestars of the Black-led movement during the George Floyd uprisings; their demands were no less than the dismantlement of the entire carceral system. Unable to effectively manage or quell the popular street movements, the Atlanta Police Foundation set out to consolidate and expand their capabilities for surveillance, repression, imprisonment, armed violence, and forced disappearance. One result is Cop City, which has been racked by militant sabotage, land occupation, arson, and popular mobilizations, in an attempt to end the construction and return Atlanta to its people.  As the Atlanta Police Foundation was unable to contain the 2020 Black rebellion, so too have they been unable to quell the resistance against Cop City. The press reports that the project is hemorrhaging money and is mired in delays and difficulties. For their part, the city, the state, and the federal government, have in turn employed every tool in their power to destroy the movement. Last week, the Georgia State Senate passed a bill to effectively criminalize bail funds in the state; RICO charges have been contorted to target networks of support and care that surround the fighters; and last January, APD assassinated the comrade Tortuguita in cold blood while they rested in their tent in the forest. It is clear that Stop Cop City represents one of the conjunctural spear tips for expanding the existing systems of counterinsurgency that span Africa, Asia, and the Arab world.  Today the system’s belly rests atop Gaza, whose rumblings shake the earth upon which we walk. Through its Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program, the APD has sent hundreds of police to train with the Zionist occupation forces. And in October 2023, after Tufan al-Aqsa, the Atlanta Police Department engaged in hostage training inside abandoned hotels, putatively intended to “defeat Hamas,” in an advancement of tactics for the targeting of Black people. With every such expansion, the ability of counterinsurgency doctrines to counteract people’s liberation struggles grows. The purpose of counterinsurgency is to marshal state and para-state power into political, social, economic, psychological, and military warfare to overwhelm both militants and the popular cradle—the people—who support them. Its aim is to render us hopeless; to isolate and dispossess us and to break our will to resist it by any and all means necessary. This will continue apace, unless we fight to end it. Stop Cop City remains undeterred: on Friday, an APD cop car was burnt overnight in response to the police operation on February 8; yesterday, two trucks and trailers loaded with lumber were burnt to the ground. An anonymous statement claiming credit for the former, stated: “We wish to dispel any notion that people will take this latest wave of repression lying down, or that arresting alleged arsonists will deter future arsons.”  As the U.S. government and Zionist entity set their sights on the Palestinian people sheltering in Rafah, as they continue their relentless genocide of our people in Khan Younis, Jabalia, Shuja’iyya, and Gaza City, the Stop Cop City movement has clearly articulated its solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. They have done so with consistency and discipline, and we have heard them. Our vision of freedom in this life and the next requires us to confront and challenge the entangled forces of oppression in Palestine and in Turtle Island, and to identify the sites of tension upon which these systems distill their forces. This week, as with the last three years, the forest defenders have presented us one such crucible.

(11 Feb 24)

National Lawyers Guild, Stop All Cop Cities: Lessons For a National Struggle (video, 1 hr 45 min)

[starredforlife]

hey idk if y’all have heard about what’s going on on Emory’s campus in Atlanta but it’s some intense stuff.

-There was an encampment for Palestine earlier today (04/25/24) thats been on and off since this morning.

-Several people have been arrested; police teargassed and shot rubber bullets at protesters of all ages, students and faculty, journalists.

-The QR code is a bail fund for the people arrested. (Venmo is HALLESTEWART)

-Here’s sources for videos, pictures, and an article. Warnings for police brutality.

donations can also be made to atlsolidarity.org !

Source for bail fund + it has numbers to call for the university and jail as well (or check out the page for palestinianyouthmovement on instagram)

[probablyasocialecologist]

Approved by the Atlanta City Council in 2021, the plan has been met with months-long opposition from neighbors and protesters concerned with the destruction of the forest at a time of intensifying climate change and environmental racism. Protesters are also alarmed by the expansion of policing and its associated violence, and “Stop Cop City” has become a national rallying cry for environmental and racial justice movements. Law enforcement, in turn, has responded with a ferocious crackdown that has left one forest defender killed (Georgia state troopers riddled 26-year-old Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán with 57 bullets in January) and 42 charged with domestic terrorism. Three organizers with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a bail fund, are now facing money laundering and charity fraud charges, following SWAT arrests at the end of May.

[...]

Some union leaders say the fight to stop Cop City has significant stakes for the labor movement as a whole. “Working people always have to be wary of any repression against protesters, because there is a history in our country that once it’s used against anyone protesting government policies, it can be turned against workers in their union,” Carl Rosen, the general president of UE, says over the phone from Erie, Pennsylvania, where 1,400 UE members who work for Wabtec Corp. could soon go out on strike.

[...]

“Cops are the first line of defense for business owners and employers, so I think it makes sense for labor to be opposed to Cop City,” he says. “These cops are being trained at Cop City and will use the tactics they learn to crush our strike if we go out.”

[thingsthatmakeyouacey]

According to the Atlanta Community Press Collective, “The National Bail fund has now taken temporary responsibility for carrying out bail support in place of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund while the organizers of ASF face targeted ‘political repression.’” Donate here.

[marrowage]

i’m just. sick to my stomach over the video of georgia state patrol tasing a street medic who was already handcuffed and on the ground. donate to atlanta solidarity fund to help with protestor bail if you have the means

[thoughtportal]

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund bails out activists who are arrested for participating in social justice movements, and helps them get access to lawyers.

Your contribution will go directly to supporting those facing repression. Please contribute what you can.

When we stand together, we are strong!

https://atlsolidarity.org/#support

[antifainternational]

First, police announced plans to build a $90 million "Cop City" police training megaplex on environmentally-sensitive grounds near Atlanta. Then, people understandably started protesting this bullshit. Then, police responded to those protests in a draconian manner, assaulting protestors, charging 42 of them (including a legal observer from the National Lawyers' Guild) with "terrorism," and murdering one of the protestors. Then, people running the Atlanta Solidarity Fund were bailing out the arrested protestors and hooking them up with lawyers. Then, the police sent a SWAT team to arrest the admins of the Solidarity Fund, charging them with "charity fraud" and "money laundering!" The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund, which operates in much the same way as the Atlanta Solidarty Fund, has kicked in to help defend the admins of that fund, who are presently out on bail and putting together their defense case. Helping them fight the charges they're facing for helping other activists fight their charges = helping the helpers!

You can join us in defending the Atlanta Solidarity Fund admins here. You can help us to defend anti-fascists around the world facing heavy-handed tactics like what we've just described by making a contribution to the Defence Fund here.

[thatsleepymermaid]

Sources to help stop cop city!!!

Petitions and Funds

Atlanta Solidarity Fund

Donate money or sign the petition for the "Stop the Swap" lawsuit

Fundraiser for Tortuguita Healing Center

Muscogee Tribe fundraiser

Phone numbers and emails

Adre Dickens: (404) 330-6054 541

Brian Kemp: +1-404-656-1776

Construction company in charge: Brasfield & Gorrie 678-581-6400

Atlanta Paving and Concrete Construction: 770-220-0228

Atlanta Police Foundation: 770-354-3392

City of Atlanta 404-330-6100

Updated September 12th, 2024

[crimethinc]

Atlanta Police and Prosecutors Target Legal Support Activists

https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaSolidarity2023

Seeking to protect their cash cow, Cop City, Atlanta police have arrested three legal support organizers connected to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund and charged them with “money laundering” and “charity fraud.” This comes less than a week before Atlanta City Council will decide on whether or not to allocate additional millions of taxpayer dollars to fund Cop City.

This move marks a new low for Atlanta police and prosecutors in their descent into totalitarian tactics. Since December, in addition to murdering one protester, they have pressed trumped-up domestic terrorism charges against practically every defendant they have arrested. Now, in order to ensure that defendants in the movement to protect the forest in Atlanta cannot get proper legal defense, they are attacking activists who help to raise bail and provide legal support.

In this analysis, we discuss the precedents and implications of this attack on all forms of solidarity organizing.