Latest news with #CopCity
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Nearly 300 pages of Atlanta's ‘Cop City' records released after first-of-its-kind ruling
More than a year after a digital news outlet and a research group sued the Atlanta Police Foundation for allegedly violating Georgia's open records law, the foundation has sent plaintiffs nearly 300 pages of records linked to its role as the driving force behind the police training center known as 'Cop City'. The outcome 'opens the door to what we want; it's a guide stone for getting records from police foundations, so they can't be a black box', said Matt Scott, executive director of Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC), an Atlanta-based digital news outlet and one of two plaintiffs in the case. 'A city can't use police foundations as a way of getting around providing public records,' Scott added. The APF did not reply to an email from the Guardian seeking comment. ACPC and Lucy Parsons Labs, the two plaintiffs, got the records after Jane Barwick, the Fulton county superior court judge, concluded a bench trial by ruling that the foundation was 'under a duty to provide [the] records [...] pursuant to the Open Records Act'. The lawsuit was probably the first of its kind nationwide, Robert Vargas, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago, told the Guardian last year. Although the case centered on the Atlanta police foundation, observers said last year they were closely watching to see if its outcome had implications for police foundations in general and whether they might be subject to open records laws. Every major US city has a private foundation supporting police, with more than 250 nationwide, according to a 2021 report by research and activist groups Little Sis and Color of Change. The foundations have been used to pay for surveillance technologies in cities like Baltimore and Los Angeles without being subject to public scrutiny, according to the report. Vargas said the ruling, and the records provided, 'sets a precedent'. But he added that the results are a 'mixed bag', since Barwick did not offer an opinion about whether all the APF's records should be available to the public, or whether police foundations in general should be considered public agencies. 'The ruling doesn't come down hard on the bigger issue,' Vargas noted. This means police foundations could continue to assert they have a right to withhold records and invite further litigation. The 287-page document the APF sent to plaintiffs on 1 July offers insight into how the foundation actively lobbied Atlanta city council members to squash activist efforts to put Cop City's construction to a citywide vote in a referendum, among other issues. In a 17 September 2023 email, Rob Baskin, an APF spokesperson, said the foundation would speak to 'the mayor's key folks' and members of the city council about how allowing a referendum on Cop City to go before Atlanta voters 'would, at best, delay and could derail the project's financing', according to a document he attached. Letting the city's residents decide on the project would 'almost certainly [result] in the loss of credibility of City Council and its members', the document warns. Activists behind the referendum 'seek to override their elected representatives who conceived, debated and twice overwhelmingly approved the project in fully transparent public forums', the document says. The foundation omits that the city council meetings he refers to, in which the training center's funding was approved, included record-breaking numbers of Atlanta residents attending and dozens of hours of public testimony against the project. When the city council approved the training center funding anyway, the referendum effort was born. Cop City Vote organizers then spent months gathering 116,000 signatures in late 2023 in order to reach a required threshold of about half that number of verified, registered voters. A coalition of voting rights and pro-democracy law firms across the US drew up an ordinance to codify how the city could verify and count voter signatures on petitions to place questions on ballots in general, and offered it to Atlanta city council. This was needed because the Cop City referendum was the first such local democracy effort in the capital of Georgia's 176-year history – and no such process existed. But in the end, the city council scuttled the ordinance behind closed doors, as the Guardian reported at the time; the referendum never took place, mired in legal disputes. 'If we had known, and gotten these documents when we asked, there was a potential for immediate impact on public opinion,' Scott said, referring to the foundation's role in squashing the referendum. Also revealed in the document: the foundation posted 40 officers and installed eight cameras at the training center's 171-acre (70-hectare) footprint in a forest south-east of Atlanta in late 2023, to protect it from any vandalism by activists. Opposition to the $109-million center has come from a wide range of local and national organizations and protesters, and is centered on concerns such as unchecked police militarization and clearing forests in an era of climate crisis. Atlanta police, and the foundation, say the center is needed for 'world-class' training and to attract new officers. The last eight pages of the document include redacted emails, which appears to violate the judge's order to leave all records un-redacted. Plaintiffs plan to file a motion to obtain those records. After receiving the document several weeks ago, ACPC has not waited to test the ruling, and filed an open records request last week for minutes from the foundation's board meetings going back to 2005, Scott said. He has yet to receive a reply. 'We're going to keep going for transparency,' he said.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Nearly 300 pages of Atlanta's ‘Cop City' records released after first-of-its-kind ruling
More than a year after a digital news outlet and a research group sued the Atlanta Police Foundation for allegedly violating Georgia's open records law, the foundation has sent plaintiffs nearly 300 pages of records linked to its role as the driving force behind the police training center known as 'Cop City'. The outcome 'opens the door to what we want; it's a guide stone for getting records from police foundations, so they can't be a black box', said Matt Scott, executive director of Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC), an Atlanta-based digital news outlet and one of two plaintiffs in the case. 'A city can't use police foundations as a way of getting around providing public records,' Scott added. The APF did not reply to an email from the Guardian seeking comment. ACPC and Lucy Parsons Labs, the two plaintiffs, got the records after Jane Barwick, the Fulton county superior court judge, concluded a bench trial by ruling that the foundation was 'under a duty to provide [the] records [...] pursuant to the Open Records Act'. The lawsuit was probably the first of its kind nationwide, Robert Vargas, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago, told the Guardian last year. Although the case centered on the Atlanta police foundation, observers said last year they were closely watching to see if its outcome had implications for police foundations in general and whether they might be subject to open records laws. Every major US city has a private foundation supporting police, with more than 250 nationwide, according to a 2021 report by research and activist groups Little Sis and Color of Change. The foundations have been used to pay for surveillance technologies in cities like Baltimore and Los Angeles without being subject to public scrutiny, according to the report. Vargas said the ruling, and the records provided, 'sets a precedent'. But he added that the results are a 'mixed bag', since Barwick did not offer an opinion about whether all the APF's records should be available to the public, or whether police foundations in general should be considered public agencies. 'The ruling doesn't come down hard on the bigger issue,' Vargas noted. This means police foundations could continue to assert they have a right to withhold records and invite further litigation. The 287-page document the APF sent to plaintiffs on 1 July offers insight into how the foundation actively lobbied Atlanta city council members to squash activist efforts to put Cop City's construction to a citywide vote in a referendum, among other issues. In a 17 September 2023 email, Rob Baskin, an APF spokesperson, said the foundation would speak to 'the mayor's key folks' and members of the city council about how allowing a referendum on Cop City to go before Atlanta voters 'would, at best, delay and could derail the project's financing', according to a document he attached. Letting the city's residents decide on the project would 'almost certainly [result] in the loss of credibility of City Council and its members', the document warns. Activists behind the referendum 'seek to override their elected representatives who conceived, debated and twice overwhelmingly approved the project in fully transparent public forums', the document says. The foundation omits that the city council meetings he refers to, in which the training center's funding was approved, included record-breaking numbers of Atlanta residents attending and dozens of hours of public testimony against the project. When the city council approved the training center funding anyway, the referendum effort was born. Cop City Vote organizers then spent months gathering 116,000 signatures in late 2023 in order to reach a required threshold of about half that number of verified, registered voters. A coalition of voting rights and pro-democracy law firms across the US drew up an ordinance to codify how the city could verify and count voter signatures on petitions to place questions on ballots in general, and offered it to Atlanta city council. This was needed because the Cop City referendum was the first such local democracy effort in the capital of Georgia's 176-year history – and no such process existed. But in the end, the city council scuttled the ordinance behind closed doors, as the Guardian reported at the time; the referendum never took place, mired in legal disputes. 'If we had known, and gotten these documents when we asked, there was a potential for immediate impact on public opinion,' Scott said, referring to the foundation's role in squashing the referendum. Also revealed in the document: the foundation posted 40 officers and installed eight cameras at the training center's 171-acre (70-hectare) footprint in a forest south-east of Atlanta in late 2023, to protect it from any vandalism by activists. Opposition to the $109-million center has come from a wide range of local and national organizations and protesters, and is centered on concerns such as unchecked police militarization and clearing forests in an era of climate crisis. Atlanta police, and the foundation, say the center is needed for 'world-class' training and to attract new officers. The last eight pages of the document include redacted emails, which appears to violate the judge's order to leave all records un-redacted. Plaintiffs plan to file a motion to obtain those records. After receiving the document several weeks ago, ACPC has not waited to test the ruling, and filed an open records request last week for minutes from the foundation's board meetings going back to 2005, Scott said. He has yet to receive a reply. 'We're going to keep going for transparency,' he said.
The Guardian
06-06-2025
- The Guardian
Woman sues Atlanta officer for allegedly leaving her topless in squad car
A woman has sued an Atlanta police officer for allegedly leaving her breasts exposed while taking her from her house to a squad car – where she sat several hours, topless, while officers stopped and looked at her, with one masked officer opening the car door to take a photo. The incident took place during a pre-dawn, Swat-style raid staged by Atlanta police and agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (or ATF), on 8 February 2024. The agents sought evidence related to the arson of police motorcycles and cars, carried out in opposition to a controversial police training center known as 'Cop City', which has attracted local, national and internet media attention. The raid – including the woman's experience of being left topless for hours – was reported on by the Guardian at the time. The lawsuit, filed 23 May by Atlanta-area attorneys Jeff Filipovits and Wingo F Smith, asserts that the woman's fourth amendment rights protecting her against unreasonable seizure were violated during the raid and draws on details laid out in the Guardian's story. The federal complaint is important as a test of the police's ongoing claims of qualified immunity nationwide – the 'only thing that stands between the government and people seeking to vindicate their constitutional rights', said Patrick Jaicomo, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, where he works on the public interest law firm's 'project on immunity and accountability'. An Atlanta police spokesperson said it doesn't comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit names Amy Smith as plaintiff; Atlanta police officer Frances Raymonville-Watson is named as defendant, as she 'held Ms Smith in custody, unclothed and for hours for no purpose other than to embarrass and humiliate her'. Smith told the Guardian anonymously last year: 'They grabbed me, led me outside and handcuffed me – leaving me completely uncovered.' Officers put her in a squad car, where she remained for 'what seemed like hours', she said at the time. 'While Ms Smith was topless in the back of the squad car, an unknown male officer wearing a face covering opened the rear door of the squad car and took Ms Smith's picture,' the lawsuit alleges. 'While Ms. Smith's chest was uncovered, several officers came and went from the squad car, looking in at her through the window,' it continues. 'The security of the scene and the officers conducting the search did not require plaintiff to be held with exposed breasts,' the lawsuit concludes. Ms. Smith was eventually released. The February 2024 raids followed a publicity campaign lasting several months, including a $200,000 reward for information leading to arrests for arson and 450 billboards promoting the reward in New York, Seattle and other cities. The controversial training center – which officially opened its doors in an invitation-only ceremony in April – attracted global headlines after police shot dead Manuel Paez Terán, or 'Tortuguita', an environmental activist protesting against the project, in January 2023. Opposition to the training center, built on a 171-acre footprint in a forest south-east of Atlanta, has included local and national organizations and protesters, centered on concerns such as unchecked police militarization and clearing forests in an era of climate crisis. Atlanta police officials say the center is needed for 'world-class' training, and to attract new officers. Jaicomo said police raid people's homes across the country every day at hours when they are likely to find people partially clothed or naked, making the incident described in the lawsuit an important one. He pointed to a 2015 eleventh Circuit case out of Georgia affirming a district court finding of 'a broad, clearly established principle that individuals who have been placed in police custody have a constitutional right to bodily privacy'. The Atlanta lawsuit is meaningful, Jaicomo asserted, because 'any case where you have the opportunity to overcome qualified immunity has the potential to set a precedent'. Meanwhile, he said, the 'traumatic experience will stick with her for the rest of her life', referring to Smith. He called the incident an example of 'police doing things to humiliate and punish people' – and of 'the constitutional transgressions taking place thousands of times daily that, if left unaddressed, the government will use more frequently'.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Chilling' effect on protesters as Cop City prosecution drags into second year
Nearly two years into the largest Rico, or conspiracy, prosecution against a protest movement in US history, the case is mired in delays and defence claims that proceedings are politically motivated and ruining the lives of the 61 activists and protesters who face trial. Rico cases are usually brought against organized crime, and are associated with the mafia, but in Georgia a sprawling prosecution has been brought against dozens of people opposed to a police training center near Atlanta known as Cop City. The controversial training center – which officially opened its doors last months in an invitation-only ceremony – attracted global headlines after police shot dead Manuel Paez Terán, or 'Tortuguita', an environmental activist protesting against the project, in January 2023. Opposition to the training center, built on a 171-acre footprint in a forest south-east of Atlanta, has included local and national organizations and protesters, centered on concerns such as unchecked police militarization and clearing forests in an era of climate crisis. Atlanta police officials say the center is needed for 'world-class' training, and to attract new officers. Last week, defense attorneys in the halls of Fulton county superior court were still unclear on or unhappy with the results of the most recent hearing in the case. 'So when is it that the trial would begin?' one veteran defense attorney asked another – after the day's proceedings were supposed to have answered at least that question. Another highlighted how the state had introduced more alleged evidence against the 61 defendants tied to a movement to stop Cop City the same morning – despite the court already having given prosecutors two deadlines for discovery material, the last one a year ago. The state's indictment alleges that actions ranging from throwing molotov cocktails to paying for camping supplies for protestors who occupied woods near the proposed site of the training center were 'in furtherance of the conspiracy'. There were already more than five terabytes of evidence that one defense attorney described as 'unorganized, not date-stamped, with some files corrupted' during the hearing. Chaos has accompanied the case since Georgia attorney general Chris Carr's August 2023 indictment of 61 people used Rico to prosecute the case, several defense attorneys said. As the case drags on, 'it's not just your case and your freedom, but what you do in your everyday life that is on hold,' said attorney Xavier T de Janon. De Janon mentioned his client, Jamie Marsicano, as an example: they have graduated law school and passed the North Carolina bar – but won't be admitted until the charges are resolved. Also, the case's high profile means 'a precedence could be set, a potential chilling effect: when people are protesting against the government, they see other people prosecuted for Rico,' said defense attorney Brad Thomson, with the People's Law Office. This is particularly important right now, Thomson added: 'We're seeing with the Trump administration that people are even being deported for protesting.' Judge Kevin Farmer, newly assigned to the case after the previous judge left for another court, reminded a full courtroom at least four times that Georgia's attempt to charge the protesters with criminal conspiracy was already nearly two years old. Defense attorneys reminded the court that numerous irregularities had already occurred. 'Y'all brought this case, at the time you brought it – that was your choice,' Farmer told Georgia's deputy attorney general, John Fowler, at one point, referring to several missed deadlines set by the court. At Wednesday's proceedings, Atlanta's police presence included officers standing across the street taking photos of protesters urging the state to drop the charges, posting up on the corner and parking along the street in front of the courthouse. An overflow courtroom had to be arranged for supporters and media trying to follow along. Farmer, in his first hearing as the new judge on the case, acknowledged its scale. 'I have a 61-person elephant. Normally you try to eat the elephant one bite at a time. I'm gonna try to eat the elephant four or five bites at a time,' he said. The plan: hold trials of small groups of defendants, each one lasting around a month, and then fewer over time, according to Fowler. Farmer said trials could begin as early as June – but then the day's proceedings included the state's intention to release more evidence, recovered from undercover agents, according to Fowler. De Janon said evidence already included 37 days of bodycam and surveillance video and 29 days of audio files. Farmer also said he wanted defense attorneys to file individual motions on behalf of their clients by 30 May, rather than sign on to each other's, as many have done until now. This means the number of motions – on issues such as alleged first amendment violations or misuse of Georgia's Rico statute – could balloon from more than 250 to three or four times that amount, De Janon said. Another wrinkle in the proceeding: the case's former judge, Kimberly M Esmond Adams, issued an order at 10.50pm the night before, denying motions to dismiss filed from one group of defendants – including members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF), or ASF, a bail fund whose members are mentioned more than 100 times in the original indictment's 109 pages. Their attorney, Don Samuel, told the court he did not understand why Adams would respond to motions received in September on the night before the hearing, and that the order did not address issues raised in his motions. The ASF defendants may be in the first group to face trial as early as next month, according to the court. An attorney with more than a decade's experience in Atlanta who observed the proceeding said he had 'never seen a judge who was no longer on a case blindside an attorney or group of attorneys with an order sent at the last minute the night before a hearing'. Outside the courthouse afterward, ASF member and defendant Marlon Kautz pointed to the case's continuing impact: 'As long as 61 people are facing decades in prison … simply for being associated with a political movement, protest everywhere is chilled and intimidated.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Defense attorneys say they were blindsided by new evidence in ‘Stop Cop City' RICO case
A Fulton County judge is promising to streamline a complicated racketeering case with 61 defendants. The charges stem from the Stop Cop City protests and the violence surrounding them. Prosecutors announced on Wednesday that after two years, they'd found new evidence they wanted to introduce. Defense attorneys thought that was very late in this process. Prosecutors said law enforcement gave them new evidence in the case, and they tried to get it to the defense attorneys, more than 30 of them, as quickly as possible. 'For the first time ever, the state revealed that there's more evidence in this case. Fifty-seven gigabytes, actually,' defense attorney Xavier De Janon told the court. That's an issue because Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer severed all 61 cases and announced he'll start trying them in groups of five. RELATED STORIES: Defendants in Georgia 'Cop City' case say they are in limbo as trial delays continue GA prosecutors drop money laundering counts against 3 Atlanta training center protesters Protesters take over Atlanta City Council meeting by throwing ping-pong balls, yelling The first in the series of trials could start as soon as June. All 61 defendants and their lawyers crowded into courtroom 1D on Wednesday for what's called a status update. They were given a May 30 deadline to file all their motions so the trial could finally begin. Defendant Marlon Kautz insists the trial is politically motivated. 'As long as 61 people are facing decades in prison on RICO charges simply for being associated with a political movement, protest everywhere is chilled,' Kautz told Channel 2's Richard Elliot. De Janon couldn't stress how complicated a RICO case with 61 defendants will be. 'It's no secret with all that, this case is extremely complex. 61 co-defendants, multiple allegations over multiple years,' De Janon said. The state attorney general's office is trying this case. Elliot reached out to that office for comment on this story, but so far, has not heard back from them.
