After joining an Atlanta protest over the police slaying of a teen in Ferguson, Missouri, Aurielle Marie was apprehended at the Atlantic Station and held for up to 10 hours in a police van.
“My folks could not find me in the system,’’ she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Everyone was worried about me. It was very scary.”
Now, years later, Marie is helping those caught up in a similar situation. She is among hundreds of volunteers who are working round-the-clock to help demonstrators arrested over several days of civil unrest here.
The volunteers include not only social justice activists but also professionals from across the political spectrum — progressive to conservative.
At least 100 lawyers stepped forward to offer their services after Lawrence Zimmerman, president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, sent out a tweet offering to represent arrested protesters pro bono. The group, calling itself “A Community of Lawyers Representing the Community,” has prosecutors, attorneys from large legacy firms and from civil and personal injury practices, debt collectors, and solo practitioners, said attorney Josh Schiffer, of ATL Justice Lawyers. Schiffer said he would release the list of lawyers’ names after a few more details are ironed out.
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“We want to make sure our efforts are directed accurately to support the beliefs we share and the causes we find to be universal,” said Schiffer. “And it’s the universal cause of equality and justice for all Americans that we rally around.’’
Others stepping forward to help are leaders of the Georgia Justice Project, the Southern Center for Human Rights, and the Atlanta Solidarity Fund.
The volunteers are monitoring the courts and jails to be on hand to provide legal assistance for those who may need it. In some cases, volunteers like Marie, with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, are helping families track loved ones who have been detained or providing bail assistance.
If someone needs legal assistance, Marie can connect them to an attorney with one of the lawyers’ groups.
Atlanta Fund volunteers also try to track down the families of defendants and to communicate with their employers to let them know their whereabouts and when they would be returning to work. The fund, which is supported by about two dozen volunteers, was created several years ago to counter-protest Nazi sympathizers who demonstrated at Stone Mountain Park, Marie said.
So far, among volunteers, a top concern has been to address the needs of those sick and elderly persons who have been jailed. Recently, she helped secure the release of a protester with cancer who had been detained and needed access to medications, she said.
“The thing about the political moment that we’re in, every type of person that you can think of is out and saying: This is unjust. This is despicable and we can do better,” Marie said.
‘Coming to light’
So far during protests in Atlanta, more than 400 people have been arrested on charges ranging from curfew infractions and city code violations, to burglary, aggravated assault and obstruction of a law enforcement officer, organizers said.
Most of the city ordinance infractions are being heard in the Municipal Court of Atlanta.
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Monday afternoon, dozens of cases of curfew violations were heard there, and defendants were quickly released with a September court date to return to fight the charges, said Rachel Holmes, senior staff attorney with the Georgia Justice Project.
"People have a right to protest,'' Holmes said. "And now they are being swept by the masses because of a lot of curfew violations. It's crazy."
More serious charges are being handled by the Fulton County Superior Court, where about 50 cases on the calendar on a recent day were evenly distributed between misdemeanors and felonies, said Kalpin Shah, an Atlanta criminal defense attorney. The overwhelming number of cases in both courts involve conduct related to one of the demonstrations, he said.
In almost every case, the conversations between defendants, lawyers and judges are being held on Zoom because of the state judicial emergency that forced the closure of courthouses across the state during the pandemic, Shah said.
Attorneys say that they are volunteering to help those who were protesting social injustices, not those who took advantage to loot or commit acts of violence.
However, they say that some of those picked up by police on more serious charges were just standing nearby as others damaged or looted businesses.
“What we’re trying to do is support people who want to exercise their First Amendment right and appealing to the government for change,” Shah said.
He recently offered to assist a Georgia Tech graduate who was helping distribute meals to protesters and was part of a group that provided food to furloughed MARTA employees. As protests erupted, he tried to get in his car when a SWAT team surrounded him. The man spent two days in jail based on an allegation that he had punched a police officer. He was released Wednesday on a $5,000 bond.
Another young protester was apparently caught ready to spray paint a wall before she was arrested and charged with a felony, he said. She was not aware that the act was considered a crime that would get her arrested, he said.
Shah said he feels an obligation to try to assist those who have been jailed for trying to draw attention to social injustices. Criminal defense attorneys, he said, “see the racial injustice, the police brutality every day. Now, it’s coming to light and in focus for the whole world to see.”
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