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Dozens of ‘Cop City’ Activists Are Indicted on Racketeering Charges [1]
['Rick Rojas', 'Sean Keenan', 'More About Rick Rojas']
Date: 2023-09-05
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.
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. Atlanta prosecutors also used a RICO indictment against former President Donald J. Trump and his allies for their attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
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. 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.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/us/cop-city-atlanta-indictment.html
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