FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Marlon Kautz, Atlanta Solidarity Fund
EMAIL: [email protected]
GEORGIA LEGISLATURE ATTACKS THE RIGHT TO PROTEST BY EXPANDING CASH BAIL AND CRIMINALIZING BAIL FUNDS
SB63 passed the Georgia Senate Thursday and is expected to pass the Georgia House of Representatives Tuesday
ATLANTA, GA — A sweeping state bill, SB63, which passed the Georgia Senate on Thursday, expands the number of charges which require cash bail and criminalizes non-profit bail funds, seriously threatening the rights of political activists, as well as poor and unhoused people. The Georgia House of Representatives is expected to pass the bill on Tuesday, after which it will go to Governor Kemp’s desk for signature.
SB63 is aimed at eroding the right to protest in Georgia by criminalizing the type of support that the Atlanta Solidarity Fund has been providing to arrested activists for years. A provision of the bill that was only adopted on Wednesday would prohibit organizations from paying more than 3 cash bonds per year. SB63 also adds thirty charges to the list of “offenses” requiring cash bail, including unlawful assembly and obstruction of a police officer, charges typically associated with protesting.
Marlon Kautz, a spokesperson for the Atlanta Solidarity Fund: “Our work ensures that people who are targeted by police for protesting don’t sit in jail simply because they can’t afford bail. We believe everyone has the right to defend themselves against unjust charges, and that being poor doesn’t mean you should have to do that from a cell. This bill is specifically designed to disrupt our work and keep innocent people incarcerated. Legislators are trying to give police and prosecutors the power to keep activists – and anyone else – in jail for months without evidence against them.”
In May, an Atlanta Police Department SWAT team and Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents raided the home of three organizers from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund and charged them with money laundering and charity fraud. In August, Attorney General Chris Carr indicted the three organizers on state RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges, along with 58 other people in an effort to criminalize the movement to Stop Cop City.
Marlon Kautz commented “This is the latest in a series of unprecedented efforts by Georgia authorities to end the right to protest in our state by jailing dissenters. First police charged activists with extreme felonies simply for protesting Cop City, and used high bails to try to keep them in jail without trial. When we assisted those protesters in securing bail, the Attorney General doubled down by targeting us with RICO charges. Now legislators are tripling down on an unconstitutional war against protesters by trying to rewrite the bail system itself. Where will this end?”
The type of support provided by the Atlanta Solidarity Fund is transparent and routine, no different from dozens of other bail funds across the country, all of which stand on the shoulders of a long historical line of bail funds dating back to the Civil Rights Era.
Kautz said “The Governor is showing he will stop at nothing to crush his political enemies, but this affects more than just Cop City activists. When due process of law is attacked it erodes all of our rights, and makes us more vulnerable to abuse by corrupt officials. Who will be the Governor’s next target? Abortion activists? LGBTQ+ advocates? Immigrant justice organizers? We don’t know, but the Atlanta Solidarity Fund is committed to defend their rights.”
Pilar Weiss, the Director of Community Justice Exchange, which hosts the National Bail Fund Network, told the Atlanta Community Press Collective that, “The purpose of these laws restricting and regulating community bail funds is clearly to suppress organizing and reject the expression of community solidarity. These laws have nothing to do with safety or justice and are an open attack on mutual aid and community care,” continued Pilar. “As criminalization of community solidarity increases, we’re seeing an increase in attacks like this whose aim is to block and reduce any routes to freedom.”
Several states are considering or have adopted restrictive cash bail measures in the last couple of years, including in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas. But Illinois bucked that trend last year by becoming the first state to eliminate cash bail altogether.
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