The elaborate campaign of repression against the Stop Cop City movement is beginning to unravel. In the wake of global scandal around the murder of Tortuguita, failed prosecutions of protesters, and a RICO indictment which is proving to be a quagmire for the Georgia Attorney General’s office, legal claims against the authorities are mounting. The following is a roundup of lawsuits we are tracking and supporting around abuse of the rights of protesters in the Atlanta area.
Jacob Blake Protest
A lawsuit against Atlanta Police for illegally arresting protesters in January 2021 has already made its way through the discovery phase and is expected to have a favorable outcome. APD targeted protesters for holding a march and candlelight vigil calling attention to the police murder of Jacob Blake, arresting activists on the sidewalk and making false claims that they were blocking the street.
Natylyn Archibong Protest
Activists who were illegally arrested in September 2021 have a lawsuit pending against police for violating their constitutional rights to protest. The activists had held signs and chanted outside Atlanta council member Archibong’s house during a city council meeting about Cop City that took place on Zoom. 10 people, including a journalist, were targeted for arrest.
Inman Park Cop City Arrests
Protesters who were arrested and brutalized in Inman Park while protesting against Cop City in May 2022 have brought a civil suit against APD and Georgia State Patrol officers who unlawfully arrested them, accusing them of blocking the street when they were actually standing in a public park. The initial motion by the State to dismiss the lawsuit was denied, and the case is moving forward.
Cop City Journalist Suppression
Another journalist has brought a promising suit against police for detaining him and attempting to bully him into deleting footage that he recorded of police activity at the site where Cop City would be built. Police illegally threatened the journalist with arrest if he did not delete recordings of them. Discovery has concluded for this case and it’s moving on to motion for summary judgement.
GSU Fabricated Felonies
False arrests made of protesters at Georgia State University are now the subject of a civil suit. Protesters were arrested after marching through a campus building to protest the university’s support of Cop City. High-ranking APD official Jessica Bruce was caught on camera pressuring officers to fabricate felony charges against the protesters, despite officers’ objections that no felony had been committed.
Car and Phone Seizure
An activist who had their car and phone seized, searched, and held for months by police is suing over violation of their rights. Atlanta police brought no criminal charges against the activist and appear to have fabricated a pretextual investigation into wheatpasting to secure a warrant for the seizures, as part of an investigation into protests against Cop City.
RICO Defendant Lawsuits
Several defendants in the Cop City RICO case have already initiated civil litigation against police and prosecutors for false arrest and abuses suffered when they were arrested on March 5th 2022 at a protest music festival.
Analysis
Whenever police departments, city and state governments are caught abusing the rights of protesters, a very common legal defense is to claim that the abuses were anomalies. Supervisors and officials will claim they didn’t want officers to illegally attack and arrest people, it just happened accidentally so they can’t be punished for it.
But as the cases in Atlanta mount, these excuses are wearing thin in the courts. Civil liberties attorneys like Drago Cepar have shown a pattern of abuse and evidence shown across many events: Police leadership, together with prosecutors and city and state officials have a clear Cop City Policy. This policy dictates using aggressive tactics specifically against protests that criticize Cop City (and the police more generally), followed by bogus charges to justify false arrests. Demonstrating this policy in court has legal implications – for example, the City of Atlanta can now be held legally responsible for the abuses which it encourages APD officers to commit.
With each new lawsuit, the picture becomes more clear and the potential consequences for officials deepens. While courts can never guarantee justice, we are glad to see activists on the offensive against illegal practices that seem to have become normalized over the past few years within the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia state government. Each activist who brings a claim is standing up not just for their own rights, but strengthening the case of everyone else who has suffered at the hands of the police.
The Atlanta Solidarity Fund has supported many of these lawsuits and continues to assist activists with bringing cases against abusive authorities. We believe that it’s not enough to get activists out of jail or help them fight political prosecutions. We must use every tool available to ensure that police are not empowered to commit these abuses in the first place. If your rights have been violated because of participation in a protest movement, you can fight back! Get in touch to learn more about your options.