History
Historically, the need for mass defense efforts supporting protestors in Metro Atlanta has been infrequent. However, when the need arises, SCHR has been a hub for coordinating those efforts, identifying, recruiting, and supporting the collaborative needs of the collective. SCHR’s coordination has primarily relied on the efforts of volunteers willing to take on representation pro bono.
As political rhetoric and narratives in Georgia have begun to target dissent movements and prosecutors have, consequently, increased their use of inchoate and accomplice theories of liability to create larger and more complex indictments that more directly implicate First Amendment rights, traditional responses to mass arrests associated with protest have quickly become outdated, impractical, and insufficient.
Mission
The Bridge is a proactive response to an emerging need. It is a first-of-its-kind effort in building a permanent mass-defense infrastructure that coordinates legal representation for individuals arrested and prosecuted in connection with the exercise of their First Amendment Rights to Free Speech and Association in Metro Atlanta. It contemplates the robust and diverse needs of counsel to effectively and zealously advocate for persons accused in these types of case by compensating counsel, funding the necessary investigative and preparatory tasks, providing research support to the attorneys representing those accused persons, offering training relevant to the unique aspects of these prosecutions, and developing technological systems and infrastructure that support collaborative defense efforts.
Our most prominent work to date has been pairing 53 of the 61 persons named in the “Stop Cop City” RICO indictment with counsel. However, that is not the sum total of the project’s efforts. The Bridge’s mission is to coordinate legal representation and provide support for persons arrested and prosecuted in association with movements that respect human dignity.