A round 8 a.m. on a cool, clear Monday in mid-November, James Cox Chambers Jr. is in Gresham Park, in southeast Atlanta, bouncing on the balls of his feet, shadowboxing the air in front of him. Dressed in a black hoodie with a Palestinian flag on it, black sweatpants, black …
Read More »Killed in Cop City
T he police entered the foggy forest not long after sunrise. The group of officers made their way through the thin, bare trees and found two people tucked into a hammock. With guns drawn, they ordered that the couple get out, and placed Sarah Wasilewski, her partner, and their friend …
Read More »Prosecutor Says Police Killing 'Cop City' Protester Was 'Objectively Reasonable'
Six police officers who shot and killed “Stop Cop City” protester Manuel Esteban Paez Terán will not face criminal charges, Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney George R. Christian ruled on Friday. “The use of lethal (deadly) force by the Georgia State Patrol was objectively reasonable under the circumstances of …
Read More »Why Georgia's Latest Assault on Free Speech Is So Chilling
I’ve worked with protest demonstrators of all kinds throughout my legal career in Georgia. What’s happening around the planned police training facility — referred to by opponents as “Cop City” — is the largest, most sustained attack on free speech since the Civil Rights Movement. It intensified earlier this month, …
Read More »The (Other) Georgia RICO Case That Could Threaten the Right to Protest Nationwide
On Tuesday morning, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced that a state grand jury had indicted 61 people allegedly connected to the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement, slapping a serious and shocking slate of RICO charges onto a decentralized movement that has sought to derail the construction of a massive …
Read More »Atlanta 'Cop City' Protesters Are Now Being Hit With RICO Charges
The Georgia Attorney General’s Office has filed RICO Act violation charges against protesters fighting to stop the construction of the police training facility known as “Cop City” in Atlanta’s South River Forest. The charges of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations were filed Tuesday, Sept. 5, in Fulton County …
Read More »Legal Observer Charged With Terrorism After 'Cop City' Sweep
Thomas Jurgens, a legal observer and attorney with civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center(SPLC), was arrested and charged with domestic terrorism during a Sunday night demonstration against the development of a85-acre police training complex in Atlanta’s South River Forest. Jurgens is one of more than 40 people charged with …
Read More »Georgia Is Trying to Kill Protests With Terrorism Charges. Activists Are Undeterred
ATLANTA — Last Saturday, a crowd of protesters clad in black marched up Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta. They wrapped t-shirts or balaclavas around their faces, with some stretching tube socks over their shoes, to make it impossible to tell who anyone was. As the protest crossed Ellis Street, the …
Read More »Georgia Governor Declares State of Emergency, Activates 1,000 National Guard Troops
A state of emergency has been declared in Georgia due to civil unrest in Atlanta following the police killing of an environmental activist. Gov. Brian Kemp issued the declaration Thursday, which calls for the arrival of 1,000 members of the Georgia National Guard to“subdue riot and unlawful assembly” through Feb. …
Read More »Cops Say Slain Atlanta Forest Protester Shot First. Activists Aren't So Sure
On Wednesday morning, law enforcement officers in Georgia shot and killed a protester in a densely wooded area of Atlanta’s South River Forest, which has been the site of ongoing protests against the development of a $90 million police training center, dubbed “Cop City,” for well over a year. The …
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