Atlanta Protesters In Uproar As ‘Stop Cop City’ Movement Activists Face Money Laundering and Charity Fraud Charges

Protestors against a giant police training facility known as “Cop City” being built in Atlanta are facing new charges.

Three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund were arrested by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Atlanta Police Department and charged with money laundering and charity fraud, Huffington Post reports. In a series of tweets from the Bureau, “officers executed a search warrant and found evidence linking the three suspects to the financial crimes.”

🧵The GBI, along w/ the Atlanta Police Department, have arrested three people on charges stemming from the ongoing investigation of individuals responsible for numerous criminal acts at the future site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center & other metro Atlanta locations.

— GA Bureau of Investigation (@GBI_GA) May 31, 2023

Marlon Scott Kautz, Adele Maclean, and Savannah Patterson are all board members of ASF, known for assisting in bailing out arrested activists. Patterson’s arrest warrant breaks down the context of her arrest. According to The Intercept, the money laundering charge goes back to reimbursements from the group to Patterson’s personal PayPal account for expenses including gas, forest clean-up, totes, COVID rapid tests, media, yard signs, and more.

The nonprofit is a prominent member of the “Stop Cop City” movement. “Cop City” is set to take up close to 85 acres in a historical forest owned by Atlanta. Gov. Brian Kemp released a statement on the arrests, calling them “criminals” who facilitated and encouraged domestic terrorism.”

Other activists, including Lauren Regan, executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, call the arrests “an unprecedented attack on bail funds and legal support organizations.” “This is the first bail fund to be attacked in this way,” Regan said to The Intercept. “And there is absolutely not a scintilla of fact or evidence that anything illegal has ever transpired with regard to Atlanta fundraising for bail support.”

Georgia’s Democratic leaders, Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, have supported activists like the Atlanta Solidarity Fund but encourage them to use nonviolent tactics to get city officials’ attention.