More than five dozen activists were indicted on RICO charges last week over the ongoing efforts to halt construction of the city of Atlanta’s planned public safety training center in DeKalb County.
RICO prosecution requires multiple acts wherein members set up an "illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit" through coercion, fraud or extortion.
How in the hell is this going to apply to loosely organized voluntary protesters who are unarmed in the face of heavily armed police?
They were organized enough to form a 503c charity and then funnel money in and out of it, track expenses and receipts, and perform reimbursements for supplies for conducting what amounts to traditional terrorism. They also established both on-grid and off-grid communication networks to organize and strategize. They also created and internally published their own educational materials to indoctrinate new recruits to the inner core of the cause.
You and I have very different definitions for "loosely".
You and I have very different definitions for "illegal coordinated scheme," " repeatedly or consistently collect a profit through coercion, fraud or extortion," and also "conducting what amounts to traditional terrorism"
a 503c charity and then funnel money in and out of it, track expenses and receipts, and perform reimbursements for supplies
You mean a 501c3 charity. Those are all required activities for a 501c3. That is not an criminal enterprise.
conducting what amounts to traditional terrorism
Do you actually support our democratic government powers being corrupted into authoritarianism sprinkled with fascism?
They also created and internally published their own educational materials to indoctrinate new recruits to the inner core of the cause.
That's what all organizations do, be they religious, charitable, or political.
The entire indictment reads like propaganda piece, carefully crafted as to focus on political 'anarchist militant' rhetoric like this is the late 1960s and 70s, to create a false narrative bubble so that it includes any and all of the community organizers involved.
This is an egregious abuse of power through the use of RICO, and it's not the first time GA has employed it against activist types.
Atlanta is in DeKalb county. Well, partially - Atlanta is in DeKalb and Fulton. The land being rented to build Cop City is owned by the city of Atlanta.
I’m actually from DeKalb county, so this quite literally hits home for me.
correct me if I'm wrong, but even though the land itself is owned by the city, it's in unincorporated land, meaning the neighbors to it don't get to have a voice on the city council to represent them?
I'm not sure what use dekalb county would be here, though.