Three people connected to the Atlanta "Cop City" protests were arrested by federal investigators on Wednesday. Activists claimed the people are organizers of a bail fund group that assists protesters with bond and legal representation.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced on Wednesday that Marlon Scott Kautz, 39, Savannah Patterson, 30, and Adele Maclean, 42, were charged with money laundering and charity fraud.
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The charges stem 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," the bureau tweeted.
"Agents and officers executed a search warrant and found evidence linking the three suspects to the financial crimes. All three charged will be booked into a local jail and will have a bond hearing scheduled soon," the GBI wrote.
MacLean, Kautz, and Patterson are, respectively, the CEO, chief financial officer, and secretary of the Network for Strong Communities, which runs the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. The fund is a nonprofit organization that assists activists arrested for protesting the creation of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, dubbed "Cop City," with bail or legal representation.
Stop Cop City ATL, a coalition made of several activist movements protesting the training center, claimed that MacLean, Kautz, and Patterson are the first known people "associated with a bail fund to be criminally charged."
"This is an extreme provocation by Atlanta Police Department and the State of Georgia. Bailing out protesters who exercise their constitutionally protected rights is simply not a crime," Lauren Regan, executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, said in a statement.
"In fact, it is a historically grounded tradition in the very same social and political movements that the city of Atlanta prides itself on. Someone had to bail out civil rights activists in the '60s — I think we can all agree that community support isn't a crime."
Over 40 people have been arrested and charged with domestic terrorism in connection to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, an 85-acre compound intended to educate firefighters and 911 operators, as well as police officers, on how to serve the Atlanta communities. The center is intended to be for the Atlanta Police Department.
The Atlanta Solidarity Fund gained national attention in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter movement, providing bail funds and other forms of aid to communities. The Stop Cop City ATL coalition called the arrests of MacLean, Kautz, and Patterson a "direct attack on the tens of thousands of people who have contributed small dollar amounts to support the exercising of 1st Amendment rights."
The new training center is slated to have a mock city, the echo of the "Cop City" name, as well as a "burn building" for firefighters, a firing range, a driving course, stables and pastures for police horses, and kennels for K-9s.
While the training center website says that the site is not for militarized police training, many residents are concerned that the creation of the center will only escalate violent encounters between police and community members, particularly young black men.
Authorities have continuously been cleaning out protesters' camps in the South River Forest, where the training center is set to be built. The movement entered the national spotlight after authorities shot and killed environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Teran. He sustained at least 57 gunshot wounds, and state officials have claimed self-defense. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is also investigating this shooting.
Kautz predicted in a February statement that investigators looking to build a criminal case against protesters would turn to Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, according to ABC News. The law allows prosecutors to charge multiple people accused of committing separate crimes that are connected by a common goal.
RICO is a felony charge and could carry penalties of a prison term of five to 20 years; a fine of $25,000 or three times the amount of money gained from the criminal act, whichever is greater; or both.
"This is targeting of organizers and movements by the police and the state," Kamau Franklin, founder of Community Movement Builders, said in a statement regarding the arrests. "Bail funds have been a part of organizing the Civil Rights movement and labor movement. We will continue to fight back against Cop City and the political arrest of our friends and comrades."
Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) applauded the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in a statement shared on Twitter Wednesday, saying the protesters "came to harass police officers and civilians, choosing destruction over legitimate protest."
Kemp said he was "proud" to share that those who backed protesters' "illegal actions" will "face justice."
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"These criminals facilitated and encouraged domestic terrorism with no regard for others, watching as communities faced the destructive consequences of their actions," he wrote. "Today's announcement is a reminder that we will track down every member of a criminal organization, from violent foot soldiers to their uncaring leaders. We will not rest until they are arrested, tried, and face punishment."
The Washington Examiner reached out to Atlanta Solidarity Fund and Network for Strong Communities for comment on the arrests.