Sixty-one activists have been indicted in the United States on racketeering charges, following a long-running state investigation into protests against a proposed police training facility in Atlanta, Georgia.
On Tuesday, prosecutors in Fulton County Georgia released a sweeping indictment against the protesters, who attempted to stop the construction of the facility, dubbed “Cop City” by its critics.
The indictment alleges that the defendants are “militant anarchists” who have supported a violent movement, stretching back to the racial justice protests in 2020.
All 61 defendants have been charged under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, commonly known as RICO.
The “Cop City” construction project attracted national scrutiny since its announcement in 2021, as the US reckoned with questions of police violence.
But in the two years since, the protest movement against “Cop City” has, at times, veered into vandalism and violence.
Original from www.aljazeera.com