Atlanta victory! 61 charges dismissed in the Cop City RICO case

Atlanta, GA – On Tuesday, December 30, after two years of local pressure and national support, a Georgia judge issued an order dismissing RICO charges against 61 activists who protested the construction of Cop City.

The ruling comes just months after the charges of three activists wrongfully charged with money laundering in connection to the administration of the Atlanta Solidarity bail funds in 2024 were also dropped due to a flimsy legal argument and increasing pressure from the community.

In his order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer said that the attorney general did not have the authority to bring Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act charges and had to seek permission from the governor to do so but did not in this case. “The attorney general acknowledged that no prior authority was granted by the governor to bring RICO charges,” Farmer wrote in his order.

Legal experts have pointed out that the indictment, which groups the activists together in what the state tried to deem as an organized criminal conspiracy, was an overreach in power by the attorney general’s office.

“Judge Farmer correctly dismissed the indictment because the prosecution did not follow the law when filing these charges,” attorney Amanda Clark Palmer said in a statement on Tuesday calling the state’s case a “bloated, tortured and overblown prosecution.”

The RICO indictment orchestrated by state Attorney General Chris Carr, who is planning to run for governor, was the culmination of a massive wave of repression in the face of the Stop Cop City movement. The movement, made up of activists, community members and a coalition of organizations in Atlanta, saw all forms of attack by the state over the last two years.

In 2023, in the months following the police murder of activist Manuel Paez Teran, known as Tortuguita, in the Weelaunee Forest at the construction site of Cop City, 69 protesters were indicted on bogus charges: 61 activists on state RICO charges, five activists on domestic terrorism and arson charges, and three on money laundering charges.

While the state has not dropped the domestic terrorism charges, the RICO and money laundering charges being dismissed reveal a pattern of failure and weakness in the larger efforts to intimidate people into silence and criminalize mass resistance to the militarization of the police.

This victory highlights not just the weakness of the regressive forces in power but the true strength of the people and the power of bold and courageous solidarity.

#AtlantaGA #GA #InJusticeSystem #StopCopCity