Last week three training center opponents were arrested on charges of fraud and money laundering in connection with funds raised to support opposition against Atlanta’s planned public safety training center.
Marlon Scott Kautz, 39, and Adele Maclean, 42, owners of a home on Mayson Avenue known as the Teardown House — along with Savannah D. Patterson, 30, of Savannah — were bail fund organizers with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund helping raise money to support protesters arrested in relation to the “Stop Cop City” movement.
The three had a representative from the Atlanta Justice Alliance read a statement in their behalf to council members. In the letter, the organizers said they awoke to the sound of their door being broken down.
“Dozens of police with assault weapons and equipment surrounded our home in DeKalb County and threatened to throw a flash bang grenade into our living room,” they said. “We, of course, surrendered peacefully and were taken to jail in our pajamas.”
They were all released on Saturday on a $15,000 bond each. Opponents of the training center have accused city and state government officials of executing the raid to squash dissent.
“As we saw with the killing of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, there seems to be no limit to the violence police are willing to direct against those they see as political opposition,” the arrested individuals’ statement said.
“If the Atlanta police and DeKalb District Attorney Sherry Boston are strategically deploying violence against nonprofit organizations in order to interfere with public participation at City Council hearings, what does that say about the state of democracy in Atlanta?” they said.
