In Georgia, 61 people are under investigation on racketeering charges following a protracted state of protest against a proposed Atlanta-area police and fire training facility, which critics are calling Cop City.

In the sweeping indictment, prosecutors allege that the defendants are militant anarchists who have supported a violent movement that prosecutors trace back to the widespread protests against racial justice in 2020. The Aug. 29 indictment under the state’s racketeering law, also known as the RICO bill, was released Tuesday by Fulton County officials and filed by Republican politicians.

Attorney General Aty. Gene.

Chris Carr.

Stop Cop City’s efforts have been going on for more than two years and have sometimes resulted in vandalism and violence. Opponents say they fear the training center in the Atlanta area will lead to greater police militarization and that its construction will exacerbate environmental damage in a poor, predominantly black area.

The majority of those reported were already facing charges for their alleged involvement in the movement. More than three dozen people are charged with domestic terrorism in connection with violent protests. Three bailiff fund leaders have been charged with money laundering. And three activists were charged with felony harassment after authorities said they distributed fliers calling a state trooper a murderer for his involvement in the fatal shooting of an environmental protester in the woods.

The latest epicenter for anti-police protests: ‘Cop City’ in Atlanta

By linking the defendants to the alleged conspiracy, prosecutors have unleashed a vast array of allegations. That includes everything from owning an accelerant and throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers, to getting reimbursed for glue and food for the activists who spent months camping in the woods near the construction site.

Activists who led an ongoing referendum effort against the project immediately condemned the allegations, calling them anti-democratic.

Chris Carr may try to use his accusers and power to build his gubernatorial campaign and silence free speech, but his threats will not silence our commitment to standing up for our future, our community and our city the Cop City Vote coalition said in a speech. explanations.

Protests against the training center escalated after the fatal shooting in January of 26-year-old protester Manuel Esteban Paez Tern, better known as Tortuguita. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said state troopers fired in self-defense after Paez Tern fired on them as they drove protesters from a wooded area near the site of the proposed facility. But the troopers involved were not wearing body cameras, and activists have questioned the official account.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and others say the 85-acre, $90 million facility would replace inadequate training facilities, and help address police hiring and retention issues that worsened after nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice . The demonstrations erupted in the wake of the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the June 2020 Atlanta police killing of Rayshard Brooks. These events preceded the public announcement of the proposed training center by months.

Project rejected in Atlanta as ‘Cop City receives funding approval from City Council

Numerous incidents of violence and vandalism have been associated with the decentralized Stop Cop City movement. During a January protest in downtown Atlanta, a police car was set on fire. In March, more than 150 masked protesters chased police at the construction site and set fire to construction equipment before fleeing and blending into the crowd at a nearby music festival. These two cases have led to dozens of people being charged with domestic terrorism, although prosecutors have previously admitted they have struggled to prove that many of those arrested were actually those who took part in the violence.

RICO charges carry a severe penalty that may be added on top of the penalty for the underlying acts.

Georgia’s RICO Act, passed in 1980, makes it a crime to participate in, acquire or maintain control of a business through a pattern of racketeering activity, or to conspire to do so.

Racketeering activity is committing, attempting to commit, or soliciting, coercing, or intimidating another person to commit any of the more than three dozen state crimes listed in the law. At least two such acts are required to meet the standard of a racketeering activity pattern, which means that prosecutors must prove that an individual has committed two or more related offenses as part of their participation in an enterprise that be convicted under RICO.

The case was initially assigned to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, the judge who oversaw the Fulton County Dist racketeering case. atty Fani Willis recently filed a lawsuit against the former president

Donald

Trump and 18 others. But McAfee retaliated, saying he had worked with prosecutors on the case prior to his appointment as judge. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams is now overseeing the case.