James Marsicano

Marsicano identifies as a “trans femme” and goes by the name “Jamie Marsicano.” ¹

Education and Career

Marsicano is a graduate of Brown University. ²

As of 2023, Marsicano was a law student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During a summer, Marsicano worked at the Law Office of Habekah B. Cannon, an “abolitionist” criminal-defense firm. ^{3 4}

Marsicano is a member of the left-wing to radical-left National Lawyers Guild. ³

Activism

Marsicano is described as being “fiercely committed to supporting Black trans femmes, prison abolition, and destabilizing all forms of oppression.” Marsicano is also interested in “prison abolition, gender justice, and uplifting POC trans/non-binary femme leadership.” ¹

Marsicano was a “core organizer” of Charlotte Uprising, a left-wing activist group primarily devoted to racial justice. ¹ Marsicano was also an organizer of Charlotte Jail Support. ⁵

As of 2018, Marsicano was an organizer of the Trans and Queer People of Color Collective. ²

Family

Marsicano’s father, Michael Marsicano, worked for 23 years as CEO of the Foundation for the Carolinas, a provider of donor-advised funds that gives to many left-of-center groups. Michael Marsicano has sat “on the boards of Duke University, Duke University Health System, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and Charlotte Center City Partners. He has chaired the boards of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Queens University of Charlotte and the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies (now Americans for the Arts).” ⁶ Along with his wife Leslie, Michael Marsicano leads Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles’s (D) $250 million Racial Equity Initiative. ^{7 4}

Arrests

Early Activism

In 2016, James Marsicano was first arrested and charged with disorderly conduct while protesting the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s office for not filing charges against a police officer who shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott. ⁷

In 2017, Marsicano was arrested while protesting at Charlotte Douglas Airport against President Donald Trump’s (R) executive order limiting immigration from many Muslim-majority countries. The protest was organized by Charlotte Action and Black Lives Matter groups. ⁷

In 2020, Marsicano was arrested and charged with assaulting a government official during the George Floyd protests in Charlotte. ⁷

Cop City Protests

In 2021, numerous left-wing groups began protesting the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, a police training facility nicknamed “Cop City.” Opposition groups included Stop Cop City, which claimed that the facility would further militarize the police and encourage violence against racial minorities. Other protest groups, including Defend the Atlanta Forest, protested the facility’s construction on 300 acres of forest. ⁸

The protest tactics and city response escalated throughout 2021 and 2022. Protesters staged demonstrations and occupied sections of the forest. The police alleged that protestors engaged in acts of sabotage and vandalism against construction contractors. In December 2022, a joint local, state, and federal task force raided an encampment of protestors obstructing construction, and after being pelted by rocks and bottles from treehouses, officers arrested five protesters who would be charged with domestic terrorism. ^{9 10 8} The Movement for Black Lives coordinated legal support for arrested protesters. ¹¹

In January 2023, Georgia State Troopers shot and killed protester Manuel Esteban Paez Teran during another raid, further enflaming opposition. As of March 2023, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations is investigating the shooting. ¹⁰

On March 5, attendees of the South River Music Festival approached a major construction site and allegedly began lobbing rocks, bricks, commercial-grade fireworks, and Molotov cocktails at construction vehicles, destroying many. Out of about 150 protesters, 35 were arrested and 23 were charged with domestic terrorism, including Marsicano. ^{12 11}

On March 7, Marsicano was one of the 22 accused to be denied bail. The one suspect granted bail was Tom Jurgens, a Southern Poverty Law Center employee allegedly attending the event as a legal observer for the National Lawyers Guild, of which Marsicano is a member. ^{13 3}