2023 has been an unprecedented year. The Atlanta Solidarity Fund played a major role this year in standing up against repression of the Stop Cop City movement, providing more bail assistance than ever before. A protester was murdered by police. Our organization has faced attacks from police, prosecutors, and politicians. Our board members have been jailed, abused, and maliciously prosecuted. In this update we want to look back over what we’ve done this year, but most importantly to reaffirm that our work will continue into 2024 and beyond.
Defending the Right To Protest Cop City
The movement opposing Cop City has been active for years, but 2023 saw city and state authorities bring extreme repression in an effort to crush opposition to their agenda. Every step of the way, we responded.
When Governor Kemp and APD leadership called activists “terrorists” in the media, we called out misinformation and publicized violations of protesters’ rights through press conferences and media releases.
Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez Teran was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol while protesting Cop City. We moved quickly to support the family in pursuing justice and accountability, connecting them to legal support and financial assistance with forensic investigation of the killing.
Dozens of protesters were indiscriminately arrested and charged with “domestic terrorism”, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors abused the legal system to keep activists jailed indefinitely before trial by setting bails of up to $350k per person. Despite this, we mobilized enough funds to ensure that every one of these protesters got the assistance they needed to make bail. As 2023 comes to a close, all protesters are free, with one exception: Victor Puertas is being denied bail and held in ICE detention.
Defending the Right To Political Organizing
In September, authorities brought a sweeping indictment against 61 people, including protesters, legal observers, and our own board members. We were accused of being a racketeering organization, and the entire nation-wide protest movement against Cop City was characterized as a criminal conspiracy. Atlanta Solidarity Fund organizers were raided at home by SWAT police, thrown in jail, and once again prosecutors tried to keep them jailed indefinitely. Fortunately the judge recognized this as an unfounded political attack, calling the allegations “questionable at best”. The ensuing media outrage prompted even Dekalb County prosecutor Sherry Boston to publicly object to unwarranted charges against activists.
These attacks against our work have been distracting to say the least. We’ve faced countless setbacks this year due to harassment and malicious prosecution, but we have never lost sight of our core mission, and never stopped doing the work. Today, the stakes of that work are about more than individual cases, they’re about whether anyone will be able to feel safe protesting about anything in the coming years.
Make no mistake, authorities are attempting to establish a prosecutorial playbook which can criminalize any political movement, whether it’s about police violence, abortion rights, immigration, LGBTQ+ justice, or any other social issue. None of us can afford to let that go unchallenged. We are on the front lines of that fight, and will keep pushing in 2024 against the criminalization of political organizing.