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#Georgia judge to toss landmark racketeering charges against ‘#CopCity’ protesters

By R.J. RICO
Updated 3:36 PM EDT, September 9, 2025

ATLANTA (AP) — "A Georgia judge on Tuesday said he will toss the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of a yearslong conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics pejoratively call '#CopCity.'

"Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said he does not believe Republican Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the 2023 indictments under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO. Experts believe it was the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history.

"The defendants faced a wide variety of allegations — everything from throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers, to supplying food to protesters who were camped in the woods and passing out fliers against a state trooper who had fatally shot a protester. Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on the RICO charges.

[...]

"Emerging in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests, the '#StopCopCity' movement gained nationwide recognition as it united anarchists, environmental activists and anti-police protesters against the sprawling training center, which was being built in a wooded area that was ultimately razed in DeKalb County.

"Activists argued that uprooting acres of trees for the facility would exacerbate environmental damage in a flood-prone, majority-Black area while serving as an expensive staging ground for militarized officers to be trained in quelling social movements.

"The training center, a priority of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, opened earlier this year, despite years of protests and millions in cost overruns, some of it due to the damage protesters caused, and police officials’ needs to bolster 24/7 security around the facility."

#StopCopCity #JusticeForTort #SaveTheForest #ACAB #StopCopyCitiesEverywhere

#StopCopyCitiesEverywhere

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