Four “Cop City” protesters and a documentary filmmaker allege Atlanta Police Department officers arrested them as “retaliation” for a protest held against the public safety training center on the day the city council approved its lease.
The plaintiffs — Johnna Gadomski, Hadar Ben Simon, Kelsey Smith, Juan Zapata and Lev Omelchenko — claim in separate lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia they were unlawfully arrested Sept. 8, 2021, as they were leaving a “Stop Cop City” protest outside then City Councilmember Natalyn Archibong’s home in East Atlanta.
The council that evening approved the training center’s lease with the Atlanta Police Foundation despite protests and 17 hours of public comment where most people voiced opposition. Then Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms held a press conference the day after the vote and scolded protesters who showed up outside the homes of some council members.
In a Nov. 3 news release from Juan Zapata, an unidentified plaintiff is quoted as saying, “As we protested police violence and the use of public resources to build Cop City, the police held their own counter-protest. They were out there to intimidate us and criminalize our beliefs, not to protect our rights.”
Another unnamed plaintiff said in the news release, “The arrests that night were not because we were engaging in any illegal activities. It was a deliberate attempt to silence us.”
The plaintiffs all claim they were arrested in violation of their First Amendment rights and falsely charged with the misdemeanor offense of “pedestrian in the roadway.”
Civil rights attorney Drago Cepar Jr. represents all of the plaintiffs.
The lawsuits say a group of about 12 people gathered outside Archibong’s house on Sept. 8, 2021, holding signs and chanting “to express the protesters’ views regarding the proposed construction of a police training facility (also referred to as “Cop City”) and City Council’s vote related to this highly controversial political matter.”
Archibong, who voted against the lease, did not ask the protesters to leave, the lawsuits say.
Because Archibong’s residential neighborhood has no sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic lights or lanes, the protesters complied with the city’s pedestrian in the roadway statute by standing as close to the curb as possible so as not to obstruct traffic, the lawsuits say. The group also did not step on the grass to ensure they were not trespassing on private property.
Approximately 20 minutes after the protest started, Atlanta Police arrived on the scene but took no action. After about 20 more minutes, the police told the group they were violating the noise ordinance, the lawsuits say.
The protesters did not believe they were violating any laws, but stopped use of the megaphones to comply with the police order. Police then told protesters they were obstructing traffic and had to leave “even though all protesters were as close to the curb as possible and several cars were able to pass them with no problem whatsoever,” according to the lawsuits.
The protesters walked while chanting rather than standing in one place for a few minutes before deciding to leave the area “due to police harassment, intimidation and threats of arrest,” the lawsuits say.
As they walked away from the area, various officers arrested all the protesters and charged them with “crime of pedestrian in the roadway.”
“During the protest other individuals (presumably neighborhood residents) were walking in the same street where the protest was taking place but were not arrested or harassed by the police because they were not engaged in the First Amendment activity that the protesters were engaged in,” according to the lawsuits.
Lev Omelchenko, a documentary filmmaker, further alleges in his lawsuit he was not participating in the protest. He says in the lawsuit Atlanta Police officers targeted him “to prevent him from further filming by abruptly cutting him off and arresting him.”
“Despite the fact that Mr. Omelchenko was not participating in the protest, was not chanting, but was instead filming the entire time, and despite the fact that Mr. Omelchenko clearly informed the officers of same – Mr. Omelchenko was nevertheless arrested …,” according to his lawsuit.
“Mr. Omelchenko was arrested because officers believed that he shared the views of the protesters,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuits all note that the APD has a “long history of not adequately training its officers when it comes to protecting and respecting citizens’ First Amendment rights” and retaliates against protesters by arresting them and charging them with breaking pedestrian in roadway laws.
In May 2022, for example, many “Stop Cop City” protesters were arrested in Inman Park and also charged with pedestrian in the roadway, according to the lawsuits.
“This leads to a conclusion that there is an official policy or directive by final policy maker(s) within the City of Atlanta to engage in practice of arresting protesters under the pretext of violating pedestrian in the roadway laws and the City – if not deliberately promoting this policy – is at the very least deliberately indifferent to it,” the new lawsuits say.
Cepar represents journalist Michael Watchulonis who alleges in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this year Atlanta Police officers illegally detained him and threatened him with arrest in January 2022 for filming at the city’s public safety training center site.
Cepar is the attorney for 19 plaintiffs in another lawsuit regarding arrests at a 2021 Black Lives Matter protest, according to Saporta Report.
In 2015, the APD was held in contempt for not complying with an order to train officers on citizens’ rights to film the police.
