FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 29, 2023
Atlanta Police Target Home Depot Protesters, Movement Elder & Others Arrested
ATLANTA, GA — Today, an international boycott of Home Depot was announced, initiated with a protest at the Home Depot on Ponce de Leon Avenue. Anticipating protests, more than 30 police officers were staged in and around the parking lot. They followed and harassed anyone in the parking lot appearing to be protesters, arresting people for “trespassing” while they were standing with signs in the shopping center parking lot. One of the activists arrested today was Lorraine Fontana, a movement elder and long-time LGBTQ+ and housing rights activist. She is a member of the National Lawyers Guild and a co-founder of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance. She has a long history of involvement in local and nationwide social movements.
“Lorraine Fontana has more than 50 years of experience organizing for justice,” said E.R. Anderson. “She’s been in Atlanta for the majority of her career since moving here in 1968,” continued Anderson. “A journalist and attorney, Lorraine worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in New York City before coming to Georgia Legal Services and ultimately retiring from Georgia’s Lambda Legal. She is a prominent member of Grandmothers for Peace, the First Existentialist Church of Atlanta, Charis Circle, and Southerners On New Ground.”
These recent arrests follow an unprecedented level of police repression against the Stop Cop City Movement. Over this week, at least 3 people have been arrested during nonviolent protests against Cop City, and police have been seen in massive numbers at nearly all protests during the Sixth Week of Action. One person was arrested and one person was detained at a protest yesterday at Cadence Bank, the bank loaning the Atlanta Police Foundation money for Cop City. Police also swept Brownwood Park on Saturday, June 24th during a vigil for Tortuguita.
“It is very obvious that no sort of protest against Cop City will be tolerated by the Atlanta Police Department or the City of Atlanta, despite their claims of support for protests,” said community organizer Gloria Tatum. “The police have been denying activists their right to free speech and freedom of assembly for years and still have not been held accountable by elected officials. This behavior shows yet another reason why Cop City must never be built.”
The Stop Cop City movement has always had strong Queer participation and today’s arrest of a Queer rights elder is another example in a disturbing trend seen in the Kemp/Dickens regime in which Queer lives are endangered, jailed, and murdered for exercising the right to dissent. Tortuguita was a non-binary Afro-Indigenous activist. Many of the arrests and subsequent “domestic terrorism” charges were levied against Queer and Trans forest defenders, with Lorraine Fontana being the latest to be locked up in jail. Lorraine’s arrest also comes two days after Andre Dickens posted a video expressing “his support” for the LGBTQIA community.
The level of state repression against Stop Cop City organizers is intended to break the movement, but we will not be deterred. Cop City will never be built. We will continue to call out corporations and politicians that try to appear friendly to Queer communities, while actively causing us harm. We renew our call for Home Depot to cut all ties with the Atlanta Police Foundation or face further calls for boycott.
“Lorraine is a thoughtful and peaceful advocate for justice and peace. Her activist history in Atlanta is long. She is a long standing (50years +) involved resident of her Intown community and a treasured member of the Atlanta Grandmothers for Peace,” said Bobbie Paul, a friend of Lorraine’s. “She is a caring friend to many and always speaks out for those being persecuted and those in need.”
# # #
Leave a Reply