Three Georgia activists were arrested by a heavily-armed SWAT team and charged with financial crimes for soliciting donations to a bail fund for protesters against a controversial cop training facility (see story here).
“The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced its agents and Atlanta police had arrested three leaders of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has bailed out protesters and helped them find lawyers,” ABC News reported (here) on Wednesday, May 31, 2023.
Defense attorneys are worried they may be arrested and charged with domestic terrorism if they defend the protesters in court (see story here).
The state’s Republican governor and attorney general are behind the actions, saying they will “not rest until we have held accountable every person who has funded, organized, or participated in this violence and intimidation.”
Lawyers for an arrested protester have filed a legal challenge against the law’s constitutionality.
After the George Floyd protests against police brutality, several Republican-run states passed laws targeting protesters for such acts as blocking traffic (see story here), and legalizing car attacks against those protesters (see story here).
Republicans have a long history of opposing dissent and condoning violence against protesters, dating at least back to the Vietnam War and civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s.