![]() ![]() “They’re all working in some way, shape or form toward the same goal,” John Fowler, the deputy attorney general leading the prosecution division, said Tuesday.Īmong the 61 people named in the indictment, 42 activists have already been charged under Georgia’s domestic terrorism statute.īut activists in the city have challenged the prosecutors’ portrayal. Prosecutors have relied on the RICO law because it enables them to stitch together seemingly disparate accusations and an array of people linked by their association to a criminal conspiracy or enterprise. But in the indictment, prosecutors claimed that it had “evolved into a broader anti-government, anti-police and anti-corporate extremist organization.” Prosecutors described the movement to interfere with the construction, called Defend the Atlanta Forest, as broad, decentralized and autonomous. “Anti-government anarchists in Atlanta recognized an opportunity to rally against the law enforcement,” the indictment said. Those tensions only intensified after Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by the Atlanta police outside a fast-food restaurant. In the RICO indictment, prosecutors traced the roots of the campaign back to almost a year before city officials announced the leasing of the land to build the training center - to May 25, 2020, the day George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, touching off demonstrations across the country, including some in Atlanta. It would include areas to practice driving techniques and mock setups of a convenience store, a home and a nightclub, allowing trainees to learn in simulations of circumstances they could encounter in the field. Supporters say the complex will provide the Atlanta Police Department with upgraded facilities to train officers to go about their work in a large and challenging city. The $90 million project, which would be built on a stretch of forested land in DeKalb County, just outside Atlanta, has been a source of tension in the city for two years. “We are extremely concerned by this breathtakingly broad and unprecedented use of state terrorism, anti-racketeering and money laundering laws against protesters,” said Aamra Ahmad, senior staff attorney with American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project. The American Civil Liberties Union and other critics said the indictment reflected the relentlessly aggressive approach officials had taken to cracking down on protests and pushing forward with building the facility, which has included prosecuting dozens of activists on domestic terrorism charges. In an 109-page indictment, which had been handed up last week and was released on Tuesday, prosecutors accused those involved in the effort of arson, domestic terrorism and money laundering and outlined instances in which activists were accused of throwing Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police officers, firefighters and emergency workers.Īttorney General Christopher M. ![]() In this case, prosecutors have sought to portray the fight against the training facility - officially known as the Atlanta Public Safety Center - as a criminal enterprise. Trump and his allies for their attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Atlanta prosecutors also used a RICO indictment against former President Donald J. The Georgia attorney general was pursuing the activists under the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO - a powerful tool that has been employed by prosecutors to target street gangs and public corruption. More than 60 activists who challenged a planned Atlanta police and fire training complex have been indicted by a Georgia grand jury in a sprawling racketeering case, accused of engaging in violence, intimidation and property destruction as part of a campaign to stall construction of the facility known by its critics as Cop City. ![]()
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