Press Contact: Jeremy Cherson, Director of Communications
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
(ATLANTA, GA) – In response to yesterday’s raid of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund offices and the subsequent arrest of three of its staff members, The Bail Project issued the following statement:
“The raid by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Atlanta Police Department on the Atlanta Solidarity Fund raises concerns that this is a broader attempt to intimidate and silence civilians protesting the development of the $90 million police training facility known by many as ‘Cop City.’ We’re afraid that this excessive display of force was used both to retaliate against those who have been engaged in acts of civil disobedience to protest the building of the facility and to intimidate those who support nonviolent actions like operating a community bail fund.
Historically, community bail funds like the Atlanta Solidarity Fund have been there to support peaceful protestors who are arrested and subjected to unnecessary incarceration for exercising their First Amendment rights. From the early establishment of bail funds during the Red Scare and Civil Rights eras to the community bail funds that have been established in recent times across this country to help civilians detained during racial justice demonstrations, bail funds have historically served as a bulwark for the First Amendment.
As a national bail reform organization, we believe that community bail funds also provide a key service to the individuals and families they serve by minimizing a person’s exposure to unnecessary pretrial incarceration and its attendant harms. Even if law enforcement officials determined that an investigation into the group’s finances was objectively warranted, surely they could have proceeded in a more measured and less heavy-handed way.”
IMAGE: flickr Chad Davis CC BY-SA 2.0
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