From the indictment-
"On or about August 9, 2022, EMILY MURPHY received $11.91 in reimbursement from the Network for Strong Communities for glue. This was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy."
Welcome to the South, speaking as a former Southerner. The good ol’ boys network has no qualms about doing this out in the open. That’s institutional power for you.
In some cases they've practically tried that, so not surprised.
The RICO act issue here, though, is purely to diminish the validity against Trump's charges. It's a political hit, and these poor people are facing the music for it.
I am well aware. The Grand Jury doesn't decide what charges someone gets. They decide whether there is enough evidence to proceed with the selected charges, which, when considering the nuances, ends up being a really low barrier. As they only need to sustain that there is probably cause to believe a crime was committed, not that one was actually committed. It also only requires a simple majority. As they often say, a DA could indict a ham sandwich if they wanted. To add on, when prosecutors lose grand juries against police, it's almost always the case that the prosecutor tanked the case intentionally. They use this tactic to make it look like they tried for political cover.
Federal Grand Juries indict, without exaggeration, this is an actual statistic, 99.99% percent of the time. With lower levels being generally only 1% off as well. Only 3% of the time does the Grand Jury even narrow the charges levied against someone they indict.
Now considering the matter here is whether or not the charges are conceptually appropriate, not being motivated by bad faith, and not whether they are legal in the strictest sense, I'm really not sure how you thought your comment was in any way a retort or a "gotcha". But you certainly went on to puff your chest out with that response, as if your mud pie creation was something to be proud of.
Don't assume everyone is as ignorant as you about the issues they are talking about.
They’ll charge normal people for bullshit like this while letting the Atlanta Police Foundation (a 501c3 private organization that is not the Atlanta Police Department) commit literal racketeering in broad daylight during the construction and administration of the publicly-funded urban warfare “training facility.”
The Georgia DA who allowed this must be a complete waste of taxpayer resources.
Man I commented on a thread about overpriced Chinese food like 45 minutes ago and thought the start of your comment was related to that. That was \*incredibly\* confusing
>Three leaders of a bail fund have been accused of money laundering.
That’s an insane charge and clearly retaliatory. Bails funds have always been a legal protesting tactic
The same Feds who have been systematically militarizing police forces? I agree that a higher authority should get involved, but I don’t have faith that any would be sympathetic to the protesters.
With the upcoming elections and Georgia being one of the key swing states, there is a good chance that the political winds favor Federal involvement in this case since so many people are getting hit with blatantly egregious charges.
[Same Feds that are being sued for surveilling racial justice activists](https://www.democracynow.org/2023/8/3/blm_protests_fbi_infiltration_entrapment)
They're not going to do anything either. No one wants to get into a shooting fight with police officers. People generally don't want to die or spend the rest of their life in prison for threatening a cop with a gun. People who think the 2a will naturally protect the country from fascism (or any other threat to democracy) are delusional.
I'm paranoid that they're just waiting for the right armed protest. They almost *always* treat right wing protests (proud boys, jan 6th, etc) with kid gloves. Peaceful Anti-Trump protest after a rally? Fucking get the tear gas (Phoenix).
That's the thing-- unarmed protest, they'll teargas, charge, beat, etc., quite readily. Armed protest they are a lot warier around. I've seen a lot of demos and I have never once seen cops start firing munitions at or charge toward a group of people carrying long guns.
Police are many things, but they are not generally very willing to put themselves in the way of a hail of rifle fire.
Without knowing facts of the different circumstances, I would guess armed protestors are generally behaving pretty well (not throwing rocks at police, damaging property, etc.). I am sure some of the protesters that have been tear gases by the police are doing those destructive things, though I know there are lots of incidents where police use excessive force for no reason.
I’m sure there are exceptions to everything I said above. And what you said is correct the police will be a lot less likely to use excessive force when protestors are armed.
Frankly I find myself to be a lot safer when there are armed folks alongside the demonstration. They've taken out multiple right-wing gunmen who fired on protests. Without them we'd be sitting ducks for right-wing terrorists.
Was gonna say, what a strange coincidence that people who challenged the actions of the police got charged with such serious crimes. I wonder how that could have happened?
> And three activists were charged with felony intimidation after authorities said they distributed flyers calling a state trooper a “murderer” for his involvement in the fatal shooting of an environmental protester in the woods.
Cops and politicians hate the truth
Never forget the internment of Japanese Americans. Executive Order 9066 was signed in 1942, making this movement official government policy. The order suspended the writ of habeas corpus and denied Japanese Americans their rights under the Fifth Amendment, which states that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process.
The government has many times used Executive Orders to circumvent the constitution knowing full well it would be found unconstitutional later and there would be no repercussions.
Been that way since day 1. No one ever actually intended themselves to be bound by the document. The document was for the benefit of the poor masses they had to sell on a system where they still didn’t get to vote or make meaningful decisions. First union to go on strike in the young America was arrested for conspiracy. We traded one tyrant for a gang of them and sang their praises for centuries.
This is why I get pissed off when people tell me to be thankful for my freedoms or whatever. Even the free speech thing is a lie. Not like that bitch ass “cancel culture’s gone too far man” type stuff, but actual felony charges for distributing flyers criticizing the state murdering a kid in the woods. There are things that are not allowed here and if you do them, they won’t black bag you. They’ll shoot you in front of a crowd or they’ll fabricate a crime to put you away for, whatever they think will play better. But they’ll do it in front of everyone and we’ll shove our hands in our pockets and shrug and mutter “well did you hear about what’s goin on in Iran?” and go right back to pretending any one of us couldn’t be next.
This is literally what the 2nd amendment was intended for. If it doesn't protect the rights of Americans to use force to defend themselves against violent government thugs who abuse their authority like these cops, it's completely meaningless.
There’s no such thing as protected political speech in America. The police are literally allowed to execute anyone at any time for any reason without a trial. Welcome to the police state.
A tale as old as the country:
>[For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States](https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/historical/Declaration_of_Independence.htm)
The same cops and prosecutors and government officials labeling the protesters as 'domestic terrorists' are the same ones who said the Jan 6 traitors were just simple tourists... and their hypocrisy is not accidental.
Those same people on Jan 6 said beating a cop with a flag pole was just a peaceful protest and part of their rights... not domestic terrorism. But camping on the building site of cop training grounds IS terrorism. It will never make sense.
They do sound extremist but when the state is doing stuff like this:
> And three activists were charged with felony intimidation after authorities said they distributed flyers calling a state trooper a “murderer” for his involvement in the fatal shooting of an environmental protester in the woods.
It's clear that there's some funny business going on. That's a clear violation of their free speech just for calling out a state trooper over what very much looks to be murder.
It’s just an old fashion SLAPP Suit - that’s what’s going on.
People think Georgia is so progressive because of the Trump et al., indictments, but it’s the same backward corrupt-run good ol’ boy justice system I left years ago. Good riddance.
>People think Georgia is so progressive because of the Trump et al., indictments
I don't see anyone calling Georgia progressive, its more "hey a broken clock is right twice a day"
The autopsy said that Tortuguita was shot “at least 52 times.”
KKKemp sent in the Georgia state patrol BECAUSE they don’t wear body cams.
They were out for blood, then shot each other with friendly fire before unloading on a guy sitting in a tent with his hands up.
Nothing about it is in good faith whatsoever. The charges begin on the day of George Floyd's death, which was months before Cop City was even announced. The message is beyond clear, and is openly authoritarian.
> It will never make sense.
Which is the entire point.
They revel in their hypocrisy, it gives them a boner. Because people will argue about the hypocrisy and not the outright breaking of constitutional rights.
> We know man, we don't have to hear RATM lyrics every time there's an abuse of power like it's some sort of mind blowing butthole fart.
It wasn't even a new concept when RATM first wrote the song. In many ways, it pointed out the obvious. The only people whose minds it blew back then were sheltered suburbanite kids.
I think my least favorite part of the internet is when people pretend that human beings are some inscrutable mystery box rather than acknowledging that people in groups can be dumb in systematic, predictable ways.
Especially when this specific variety of dumb has been ongoing for a very long time, has been studied to death, and had more than enough people say the quiet parts out loud for any semi-interested observer to suss out.
Well they are also using the excessively broad RICO laws that Georgia wrote we were celebrating a few weeks ago when they were used against Trump. With racketeering laws this broad you really are putting too much power in the hands of prosecutors.
The messed up thing about Cop City is that it is not going to be run by the APD or the City of Atlanta... we (the tax payers of the City of Atlanta) are going to be paying the Atlanta Police Foundation (a 501c3 advocacy group with no connection to the APD) to run the facility.
It is a financial black hole, and that is the reason why I signed the petition to stop it and will be voting against it in November.
They have enough signatures but the city is still challenging the number as incorrect residencies and whether the deal can even be undone by referendum.
I've tried pointing this out to people too. They already have a facility that handles training for the things you'd expect officers and first responders to have training for.
The only difference here is the size and the focus on having a sort of urban combat environment which is problematic. But supporters of it will always pivot and try and focus on the other training courses that could be done, ignoring that Cobb county already has that exact facility that first responders and firefighters already will use but cops never do.
I don’t think it’s any surprise, the GOP doesn’t have faith that Kemp will support removing Fani Willis so this is the next step, obfuscation. Try to dilute the meaning of racketeering while simultaneously providing a sweet little “whatabout” talking point to the GOP base.
This is exactly what I thought when I heard the Republican AG was behind these RICO charges.
Exploit the broad & sweeping nature of RICO charges in order to turn public opinion against “overzealous prosecutors” using RICO as a bludgeon.
And the right-wing media outlets will cover how voters and the Black community are against using RICO and cleverly lump Trump and his cronies into their narrative/talking points.
You should probably update your comment to say "firing a gun" instead of "having", since it seems the fascists are using that ambiguity to derail the conversation.
It’s super cool how no one-even the ones on the right side of the issue-actually cares about this. Non-binary identities are ignored by basically everyone.
But yes you are correct, I’ve listened to and read extensive reporting by independent journalists covering this on the ground, and Tortuguita used they/them pronouns.
It is notable that these charges came from the AG of Georgia, and this is most definitely an act of political revenge.
Cop City is a political disaster for Carr and much of the city council, and its unpopularity is only increasing. The Stop Cop City referendum petition appears to have collected 150% of the signatures that they required... and Cop City's funding by the city is likely going to be struck down by the voters in November.
The cities gonna spend the entire budget of cop city getting its ass handed to it in court when 90% of these people are represented pro bono by people who find it unconscionable to charge someone with Rico for being near a protest which is like half the arrests. They arrested a SPLC lawyer who is likely willing to spend the years in court to get paid out the ass for being arrested while legally observing a protest. Most of those arrested have literally zero evidence linking them to any of their charges, just "you were there". I'd be surprised if even 10 of them have to even plea out.
We'll see. I don't want Cop City- but even still I'm dubious of whether we really have the signatures necessary.
We have about 500,000 people in the City of Atlanta.
And we need signatures from 70,000.
Of the 500,000 people here:
20% are below 18 which brings us down to 400,000.
40% (at least) support Cop City which brings our pool down to 240,000.
So we need to get basically one third of the folks who are old enough to count and who are against the petition.
If we managed to do then I'll be amazed.
The campaign reportedly collected a little over 100,000 signatures already, and are now wrestling with the city over the verification process that it is planning to use (which promises to take too long to allow the referendum to appear on the November ballot).
The fact is Cop City is extremely unpopular now as people like me have discovered how much of our tax money is going to go into this and straight into the pockets of an unaccountable foundation.
In the sweeping indictment released Tuesday, Republican Attorney General Chris Carr alleged the defendants are “militant anarchists” who supported a violent movement that prosecutors trace to the widespread 2020 racial justice protests.
Its about time the militant anarchists showed up. Jeesh.
Cops in this case are absolute POS they didn't use body cams and claimed the protester shot them even though all of the facts in the case points to the cops shooting one of their own.
> I could see maybe a libel charge
Libel is a tort, not a criminal charge.
I have not read the indictment, but as alleged in this article, this seems extremely flimsy and relying on a rather questionable interpretation of the law.
Even a libel charge makes no sense, they were shot with their hands up and in a cross-legged position according to the autopsy. It's a perfectly valid accusation in light of the evidence, and you'd have to prove they knowingly lied for libel to apply.
So organizing to excercise your First Amendment rights is racketeering if the cops don't like you, but it's OK to be a Nazi on the loose in Florida. Got it.
Fascism ALWAYS makes what it does legal and criminalizes not being utterly for them.
Shooting Nazis was treason and the Holocaust was the law. It's what they do. It's why you can never just get rid of them through voting or the courts either.
lol sure it’s domestic terrorism to not want a training camp that’s literally designed to give military training to police and allow them to enter the city faster. Totally.
I was there. A lot of people who were arrested were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Don’t believe any of this shit. I saw friends of mine who came to these protests simply to listen to live music be tackled by police just because they were in proximity to some bad apples. These same people are still in jail. It’s just blatant abuse of power.
Wow, way to make Georgia RICO charges really something worth taking seriously. It's not like there are any other important examples of that going on right now.
They have the right to protest. The trial and its jury will have a hard time agreeing with the city that COP CITY should be built too. Chris Carr is wrong and he knows it.
Racketeering charges are supposed to be based on someone profiting from the predicate acts. In Trumps case, he was trying to overturn the election to remain in office as President- a clear personal benefit.
How is anyone profiting from protesting?
just a reminder, we can stop these things. seattle stopped its 'cop city' half a dozen years ago. it took a movement similar to 'stop cop city'.
we won. https://crosscut.com/2016/10/fortress-seattle-police-department-block-the-bunker-campaign-matters
https://www.socialistalternative.org/2016/09/16/victory-seattle-blocks-police-bunker-victory-rally-rally-build-1000-homes-instead-sept-22/
They don't even care that it is going to cost the city tens of millions of dollar in lawsuits for the defamation, false arrests, and civil right violations. Great use of tax payer money. Anything to stick it to the libs, all because of fucking Trump. It is amazing how they refuse to let the sinking ship sink. It is going to doom them for the 2024 election.
Given that harming the population was the entire point of this entirely unnecessary (the state already has several that spend most of the year unused) facility, it's not surprising.
To these fascists, the scariest possibility was that the tax dollars might be spent on the population, instead of infrastructure, health and/or education.
Oh yes you can. If you haven't been paying attention the US government has been chipping away at the rights of people to protest, strike, or participate in any meaningful organization of people to protest against a cause. The Taft Hartley act passed during Truman's presidency (against the wishes of Truman who vetoed the bill and then had his veto overridden by Congress) made most organized strikes illegal and removed protections for organized labor. It's also illegal to have a large gathering or protest without a permit so if a government entity doesn't want you to protest they can just deny you a permit or only grant you a permit to protest in a place where your protest won't do much good (an extreme of this would be the scene in arrested development where anti war protestors where forced to protest in a cage outside the entrance to a military base full of unsympathetic people)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gje3HiouzvQ
Absolutely outrageous. If the government punishes this kind of legal dissent it's going to move underground and its going to become a lot less scrupulous and concientious about its tactics. By law or by violence, this deserves and will receive consequences.
this is what you get for handing out flyers.
they will ruin your life for a piece of paper.
this is why the courts are important Don't ever expect to be treated fairly under the law.
good old boys will get let off with a warning even after committing acts of terrorism. people in the out group will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for handing out pieces of paper.
white supremacists putting out their literature as a group at the Lawrenceville square not long ago...nothing happens. 61 people voice their concerns ... against oppression, put them in jail.
Freedom ???
If people want the police to have better training, then why are they protesting a training facility? This facility is for all first responders as well, not just law enforcement.
Am I the only one who doesn’t know why it’s bad to have a police training center? Isn’t that what we want? We want cops trained so cops can get better at their job???
It’s not just a police training center. It would also train paramedics and fire fighters. I guess that Atlanta just wants less competent first responders.
You definitely didn't take the 3 minutes it takes to look up why people are against it. It's actually so easy to find that I think you commented disingenuously.
"Durrr uhm juas ayskeen questions" no you're not.
The only people who say that the facility will be used to further militarize police and harm “minorities” are the protesters. Which of course they would say that.
As far as we know, the reason we have the training facility is because there is a need to improve and modernize the police force.
We can’t not have police (which is what the idiotic demand of these protesters). And we want policing to be better. You cant eat your cake and have it.
These charges are absolutely ridiculous. Terrorism and racketeering?? Proof that conservatives can spin anything, even the American right to free speech and protest.
They don’t need more training on how to kill us. They’re already trained to believe we are hostile enemy combatants, not fellow citizens or even humans. The kind of training police need doesn’t involve urban warfare and machine gun training.
It’s a corporate sponsored terrorist training facility, backed by long term government financial support (aka a continual transfer of wealth from tax payers to the private organization that will run the place.) Fascists gonna fash, I guess.
From the indictment- "On or about August 9, 2022, EMILY MURPHY received $11.91 in reimbursement from the Network for Strong Communities for glue. This was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy."
$11.91 reimbursement? They might as well start jailing kids running lemonade stands
Oh shit, are you saying the kids running the lemonade stands are part of the conspiracy?! Huge if true.
They try all the time. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/asa-baker-lemonade-stand-shut-down-police-permit-b2145610.html
Welcome to the South, speaking as a former Southerner. The good ol’ boys network has no qualms about doing this out in the open. That’s institutional power for you.
In some cases they've practically tried that, so not surprised. The RICO act issue here, though, is purely to diminish the validity against Trump's charges. It's a political hit, and these poor people are facing the music for it.
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I am well aware. The Grand Jury doesn't decide what charges someone gets. They decide whether there is enough evidence to proceed with the selected charges, which, when considering the nuances, ends up being a really low barrier. As they only need to sustain that there is probably cause to believe a crime was committed, not that one was actually committed. It also only requires a simple majority. As they often say, a DA could indict a ham sandwich if they wanted. To add on, when prosecutors lose grand juries against police, it's almost always the case that the prosecutor tanked the case intentionally. They use this tactic to make it look like they tried for political cover. Federal Grand Juries indict, without exaggeration, this is an actual statistic, 99.99% percent of the time. With lower levels being generally only 1% off as well. Only 3% of the time does the Grand Jury even narrow the charges levied against someone they indict. Now considering the matter here is whether or not the charges are conceptually appropriate, not being motivated by bad faith, and not whether they are legal in the strictest sense, I'm really not sure how you thought your comment was in any way a retort or a "gotcha". But you certainly went on to puff your chest out with that response, as if your mud pie creation was something to be proud of. Don't assume everyone is as ignorant as you about the issues they are talking about.
They’ll charge normal people for bullshit like this while letting the Atlanta Police Foundation (a 501c3 private organization that is not the Atlanta Police Department) commit literal racketeering in broad daylight during the construction and administration of the publicly-funded urban warfare “training facility.” The Georgia DA who allowed this must be a complete waste of taxpayer resources.
It was the attorney general Chris Carr (also running for governor in 2026) that brought these charges, rather than a district attorney.
Man I commented on a thread about overpriced Chinese food like 45 minutes ago and thought the start of your comment was related to that. That was \*incredibly\* confusing
Prosecutors must have confiscated the glue and started eating it
>Three leaders of a bail fund have been accused of money laundering. That’s an insane charge and clearly retaliatory. Bails funds have always been a legal protesting tactic
Time for federal involvement!?
The same Feds who have been systematically militarizing police forces? I agree that a higher authority should get involved, but I don’t have faith that any would be sympathetic to the protesters.
With the upcoming elections and Georgia being one of the key swing states, there is a good chance that the political winds favor Federal involvement in this case since so many people are getting hit with blatantly egregious charges.
Doesn’t matter - the Feds getting involved doesn’t preclude the state from continuing to trial.
[Same Feds that are being sued for surveilling racial justice activists](https://www.democracynow.org/2023/8/3/blm_protests_fbi_infiltration_entrapment)
"We need to *fund* the police" -The head of the federal government. Yea I don't have much faith in the feds doing anything positive here
This will sound trite, but that's a different part of the government. The DOJ Civil Rights Division has gone after cops plenty of times.
constitutional involvement, guess which amendment
The 2a people think the cops are on their side. They aren't going to do shit about this.
'governments are evil, but the cops are eon our side' is a pretty insane ideology
they think their guns are the way they'll push back against legally elected governments. The police will be the 1st responders. it's a mystery
They are in it for the cosplay and gratification not for the intended use.
No we fuckin don't
Shameless r/liberalgunowners plug
They're not going to do anything either. No one wants to get into a shooting fight with police officers. People generally don't want to die or spend the rest of their life in prison for threatening a cop with a gun. People who think the 2a will naturally protect the country from fascism (or any other threat to democracy) are delusional.
You don't need to get into a shooting fight. Cops don't attack armed protests.
I'm paranoid that they're just waiting for the right armed protest. They almost *always* treat right wing protests (proud boys, jan 6th, etc) with kid gloves. Peaceful Anti-Trump protest after a rally? Fucking get the tear gas (Phoenix).
That's the thing-- unarmed protest, they'll teargas, charge, beat, etc., quite readily. Armed protest they are a lot warier around. I've seen a lot of demos and I have never once seen cops start firing munitions at or charge toward a group of people carrying long guns. Police are many things, but they are not generally very willing to put themselves in the way of a hail of rifle fire.
one pause quicksand cobweb dependent cooperative yam slimy squeamish relieved
Without knowing facts of the different circumstances, I would guess armed protestors are generally behaving pretty well (not throwing rocks at police, damaging property, etc.). I am sure some of the protesters that have been tear gases by the police are doing those destructive things, though I know there are lots of incidents where police use excessive force for no reason. I’m sure there are exceptions to everything I said above. And what you said is correct the police will be a lot less likely to use excessive force when protestors are armed.
Armed protestors get a lot less support when any potential supporter know they'll be facing a heightened risk of death.
Frankly I find myself to be a lot safer when there are armed folks alongside the demonstration. They've taken out multiple right-wing gunmen who fired on protests. Without them we'd be sitting ducks for right-wing terrorists.
The day the cops open up on a protest with actual lead bullets is the day shit hits the fan.
Nah, just another CSNY song.
[It didn't matter, nothing happened.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings?wprov=sfla1)
It's already happened in the case of Cop City protests: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Manuel_Esteban_Paez_Ter%C3%A1n
The fuck are they going to do? Pull a gun on me and quote Hamilton?
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Was gonna say, what a strange coincidence that people who challenged the actions of the police got charged with such serious crimes. I wonder how that could have happened?
Lol they should accuse trump of money laundering by bail fund
> And three activists were charged with felony intimidation after authorities said they distributed flyers calling a state trooper a “murderer” for his involvement in the fatal shooting of an environmental protester in the woods. Cops and politicians hate the truth
Wildly unconstitutional, but that's never stopped an authoritarian.
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Never forget the internment of Japanese Americans. Executive Order 9066 was signed in 1942, making this movement official government policy. The order suspended the writ of habeas corpus and denied Japanese Americans their rights under the Fifth Amendment, which states that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process.
Remembering also the 24th amendment, the 'yes, you have to let black people vote, we really mean it' amendment.
The government has many times used Executive Orders to circumvent the constitution knowing full well it would be found unconstitutional later and there would be no repercussions.
Been that way since day 1. No one ever actually intended themselves to be bound by the document. The document was for the benefit of the poor masses they had to sell on a system where they still didn’t get to vote or make meaningful decisions. First union to go on strike in the young America was arrested for conspiracy. We traded one tyrant for a gang of them and sang their praises for centuries.
This is why I get pissed off when people tell me to be thankful for my freedoms or whatever. Even the free speech thing is a lie. Not like that bitch ass “cancel culture’s gone too far man” type stuff, but actual felony charges for distributing flyers criticizing the state murdering a kid in the woods. There are things that are not allowed here and if you do them, they won’t black bag you. They’ll shoot you in front of a crowd or they’ll fabricate a crime to put you away for, whatever they think will play better. But they’ll do it in front of everyone and we’ll shove our hands in our pockets and shrug and mutter “well did you hear about what’s goin on in Iran?” and go right back to pretending any one of us couldn’t be next.
This is literally what the 2nd amendment was intended for. If it doesn't protect the rights of Americans to use force to defend themselves against violent government thugs who abuse their authority like these cops, it's completely meaningless.
If calling the jackboot government thugs who killed protestors in cold blood “murderer” isn’t protected political speech, I don’t know what is.
You can say whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt a pig's feelings, then you're going to become a political prisoner
Sometimes simply EXISTING hurts a pig's peewins.
There’s no such thing as protected political speech in America. The police are literally allowed to execute anyone at any time for any reason without a trial. Welcome to the police state.
Call me crazy, but I think the easiest way to avoid being called a murder would be to not murder anybody, but to each his own…
The Truth is an invisible enemy and they can’t kill it, so they take one of us instead as close enough.
A tale as old as the country: >[For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States](https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/historical/Declaration_of_Independence.htm)
Yet trump does it every day and they support him in his RICO charges….
The same cops and prosecutors and government officials labeling the protesters as 'domestic terrorists' are the same ones who said the Jan 6 traitors were just simple tourists... and their hypocrisy is not accidental. Those same people on Jan 6 said beating a cop with a flag pole was just a peaceful protest and part of their rights... not domestic terrorism. But camping on the building site of cop training grounds IS terrorism. It will never make sense.
They do sound extremist but when the state is doing stuff like this: > And three activists were charged with felony intimidation after authorities said they distributed flyers calling a state trooper a “murderer” for his involvement in the fatal shooting of an environmental protester in the woods. It's clear that there's some funny business going on. That's a clear violation of their free speech just for calling out a state trooper over what very much looks to be murder.
Where my "free speech absolutists" at?
I believe they are *checks notes* preparing to sue the Anti-defamation Legue.
Wild past few years man!
Busy calling Biden sleepy while coddling Mitch McConnell for having one foot in the grave
They're all busy formulating arguments about how racism is actually not that bad.
Crying about J6 dbags going to prison.
It’s just an old fashion SLAPP Suit - that’s what’s going on. People think Georgia is so progressive because of the Trump et al., indictments, but it’s the same backward corrupt-run good ol’ boy justice system I left years ago. Good riddance.
>People think Georgia is so progressive because of the Trump et al., indictments I don't see anyone calling Georgia progressive, its more "hey a broken clock is right twice a day"
The same cops that shot their own guy, killed a protestor, and used that incident as an excuse to bring harsher charges on the greater group.
The autopsy said that Tortuguita was shot “at least 52 times.” KKKemp sent in the Georgia state patrol BECAUSE they don’t wear body cams. They were out for blood, then shot each other with friendly fire before unloading on a guy sitting in a tent with his hands up.
Every article and wiki says 14 times, where is your quoted 52 from?
Once you get over 2 or 3, does it really matter? They might have fired 52 times and hit 14. That's about how accurate cops are.
Nothing about it is in good faith whatsoever. The charges begin on the day of George Floyd's death, which was months before Cop City was even announced. The message is beyond clear, and is openly authoritarian.
> It will never make sense. Which is the entire point. They revel in their hypocrisy, it gives them a boner. Because people will argue about the hypocrisy and not the outright breaking of constitutional rights.
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It doesn’t have to make sense. They are the government and they will not put up with any dissent from the people who pay their salaries.
We don’t so much pay their salaries as they rob us at gunpoint.
Some of those that work forces... Are the same that burn crosses
We know man, we don't have to hear RATM lyrics every time there's an abuse of power like it's some sort of mind blowing butthole fart.
If anything reddit is completely unoriginal.
Meh, [new people are constantly entering the conversation](https://xkcd.com/1053/)
> We know man, we don't have to hear RATM lyrics every time there's an abuse of power like it's some sort of mind blowing butthole fart. It wasn't even a new concept when RATM first wrote the song. In many ways, it pointed out the obvious. The only people whose minds it blew back then were sheltered suburbanite kids.
Obviously. That’s the point. You think they’re preaching this shit to people that live that reality every day?
Now I'm trying to think of how many other kinds of farts there could be.
I can think of at least one, and it's NOT FUNNY!
This comment again.... Come up with something original. (Op)
You get my upvote for Rage Against the Machine!
It makes perfect sense, you just have to think like a nazi.
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Jesse what the fuck are you talking about
please read through some of his posts 😭 [it gets worse](https://reddit.com/r/rant/s/8rpY7UFR98)
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I think my least favorite part of the internet is when people pretend that human beings are some inscrutable mystery box rather than acknowledging that people in groups can be dumb in systematic, predictable ways. Especially when this specific variety of dumb has been ongoing for a very long time, has been studied to death, and had more than enough people say the quiet parts out loud for any semi-interested observer to suss out.
Well they are also using the excessively broad RICO laws that Georgia wrote we were celebrating a few weeks ago when they were used against Trump. With racketeering laws this broad you really are putting too much power in the hands of prosecutors.
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The messed up thing about Cop City is that it is not going to be run by the APD or the City of Atlanta... we (the tax payers of the City of Atlanta) are going to be paying the Atlanta Police Foundation (a 501c3 advocacy group with no connection to the APD) to run the facility. It is a financial black hole, and that is the reason why I signed the petition to stop it and will be voting against it in November.
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It’s on the ballot?
They have enough signatures but the city is still challenging the number as incorrect residencies and whether the deal can even be undone by referendum.
Last I heard the city was also planning on using signature matching, an infamous and widely recognized means of voter suppression.
"Signature matching" is better called as arbitrarily denying people the right to vote.
When I got the news the city council approved it, I thought there wasn’t anything else to do.
Why is a theoretical democrat city acting so republican
Because democrats are centrists. Especially democrats in Georgia. If you’re progressive at all you pretty much don’t have a political party.
I will let you gue$$ but you can only gue$$ one time. If you make more than one gue$$ then you lo$e.
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I've tried pointing this out to people too. They already have a facility that handles training for the things you'd expect officers and first responders to have training for. The only difference here is the size and the focus on having a sort of urban combat environment which is problematic. But supporters of it will always pivot and try and focus on the other training courses that could be done, ignoring that Cobb county already has that exact facility that first responders and firefighters already will use but cops never do.
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to paraphrase The Raid: they ain't there to do good they're there to make somebody richer
That would require the police to deescalate the situation. I think we all know how good police are at deescalating things.
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RICO indictments in Georgia. So hot right now.
The funny part is the reporter's name is RJ Rico.
We live in a simulation
From rappers to presidents to protesters, everyone gets a Rico.
I don’t think it’s any surprise, the GOP doesn’t have faith that Kemp will support removing Fani Willis so this is the next step, obfuscation. Try to dilute the meaning of racketeering while simultaneously providing a sweet little “whatabout” talking point to the GOP base.
Maybe an attempt to water them down, make them seen overused?
This is exactly what I thought when I heard the Republican AG was behind these RICO charges. Exploit the broad & sweeping nature of RICO charges in order to turn public opinion against “overzealous prosecutors” using RICO as a bludgeon. And the right-wing media outlets will cover how voters and the Black community are against using RICO and cleverly lump Trump and his cronies into their narrative/talking points.
you sir are a scholar and a gentelman, both. exactly what i was trying to say, but like 1000x better
These are the cops who also murdered a protester and lied about them having a gun. Edit: proper pronouns for the victim the cops murdered.
You should probably update your comment to say "firing a gun" instead of "having", since it seems the fascists are using that ambiguity to derail the conversation.
I believe the victim in question used they/them pronouns, if you’re referring to Tortuguita.
It’s super cool how no one-even the ones on the right side of the issue-actually cares about this. Non-binary identities are ignored by basically everyone. But yes you are correct, I’ve listened to and read extensive reporting by independent journalists covering this on the ground, and Tortuguita used they/them pronouns.
It is notable that these charges came from the AG of Georgia, and this is most definitely an act of political revenge. Cop City is a political disaster for Carr and much of the city council, and its unpopularity is only increasing. The Stop Cop City referendum petition appears to have collected 150% of the signatures that they required... and Cop City's funding by the city is likely going to be struck down by the voters in November.
Let’s hope so! On top of being a bad idea, it also would destroy a unique ecosystem.
The cities gonna spend the entire budget of cop city getting its ass handed to it in court when 90% of these people are represented pro bono by people who find it unconscionable to charge someone with Rico for being near a protest which is like half the arrests. They arrested a SPLC lawyer who is likely willing to spend the years in court to get paid out the ass for being arrested while legally observing a protest. Most of those arrested have literally zero evidence linking them to any of their charges, just "you were there". I'd be surprised if even 10 of them have to even plea out.
We'll see. I don't want Cop City- but even still I'm dubious of whether we really have the signatures necessary. We have about 500,000 people in the City of Atlanta. And we need signatures from 70,000. Of the 500,000 people here: 20% are below 18 which brings us down to 400,000. 40% (at least) support Cop City which brings our pool down to 240,000. So we need to get basically one third of the folks who are old enough to count and who are against the petition. If we managed to do then I'll be amazed.
The campaign reportedly collected a little over 100,000 signatures already, and are now wrestling with the city over the verification process that it is planning to use (which promises to take too long to allow the referendum to appear on the November ballot). The fact is Cop City is extremely unpopular now as people like me have discovered how much of our tax money is going to go into this and straight into the pockets of an unaccountable foundation.
Yeah the city and state is pulling out every slimy legal maneuver to kill the ballot petition.
In the sweeping indictment released Tuesday, Republican Attorney General Chris Carr alleged the defendants are “militant anarchists” who supported a violent movement that prosecutors trace to the widespread 2020 racial justice protests. Its about time the militant anarchists showed up. Jeesh.
This doesn't sound suspicious at all.
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Cops in this case are absolute POS they didn't use body cams and claimed the protester shot them even though all of the facts in the case points to the cops shooting one of their own.
Literally an audio recording of other officers twice asking their own guys "hey wtf?" and accusing them of shooting their own officer.
Yeah, the point is to make people afraid to criticize the state and police.
> I could see maybe a libel charge Libel is a tort, not a criminal charge. I have not read the indictment, but as alleged in this article, this seems extremely flimsy and relying on a rather questionable interpretation of the law.
Even a libel charge makes no sense, they were shot with their hands up and in a cross-legged position according to the autopsy. It's a perfectly valid accusation in light of the evidence, and you'd have to prove they knowingly lied for libel to apply.
So organizing to excercise your First Amendment rights is racketeering if the cops don't like you, but it's OK to be a Nazi on the loose in Florida. Got it.
Fascism ALWAYS makes what it does legal and criminalizes not being utterly for them. Shooting Nazis was treason and the Holocaust was the law. It's what they do. It's why you can never just get rid of them through voting or the courts either.
This is Georgia
The same Georgia republicans who betray our country daily by supporting fascists who tried to overthrow our government
lol sure it’s domestic terrorism to not want a training camp that’s literally designed to give military training to police and allow them to enter the city faster. Totally.
I was there. A lot of people who were arrested were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Don’t believe any of this shit. I saw friends of mine who came to these protests simply to listen to live music be tackled by police just because they were in proximity to some bad apples. These same people are still in jail. It’s just blatant abuse of power.
They still would have been tackled if there were no "bad apples." This entire thing is the fault of the cops and no one else.
Wow, way to make Georgia RICO charges really something worth taking seriously. It's not like there are any other important examples of that going on right now.
This is some happy horseshit
They’re trying to charge protestors with fucking rico charges. This is insane
Cop City is a strange name for a terrorist training camp.
Is it?
They have the right to protest. The trial and its jury will have a hard time agreeing with the city that COP CITY should be built too. Chris Carr is wrong and he knows it.
Racketeering charges are supposed to be based on someone profiting from the predicate acts. In Trumps case, he was trying to overturn the election to remain in office as President- a clear personal benefit. How is anyone profiting from protesting?
The one in Baltimore is gonna be worse
just a reminder, we can stop these things. seattle stopped its 'cop city' half a dozen years ago. it took a movement similar to 'stop cop city'. we won. https://crosscut.com/2016/10/fortress-seattle-police-department-block-the-bunker-campaign-matters https://www.socialistalternative.org/2016/09/16/victory-seattle-blocks-police-bunker-victory-rally-rally-build-1000-homes-instead-sept-22/
They don't even care that it is going to cost the city tens of millions of dollar in lawsuits for the defamation, false arrests, and civil right violations. Great use of tax payer money. Anything to stick it to the libs, all because of fucking Trump. It is amazing how they refuse to let the sinking ship sink. It is going to doom them for the 2024 election.
Given that harming the population was the entire point of this entirely unnecessary (the state already has several that spend most of the year unused) facility, it's not surprising. To these fascists, the scariest possibility was that the tax dollars might be spent on the population, instead of infrastructure, health and/or education.
look like they are abusing the racketeering law
Uncle RICO is busier than Santa on Christmas Eve
This has a first amendment violation all over it. You can’t arrest people for protesting
Oh yes you can. If you haven't been paying attention the US government has been chipping away at the rights of people to protest, strike, or participate in any meaningful organization of people to protest against a cause. The Taft Hartley act passed during Truman's presidency (against the wishes of Truman who vetoed the bill and then had his veto overridden by Congress) made most organized strikes illegal and removed protections for organized labor. It's also illegal to have a large gathering or protest without a permit so if a government entity doesn't want you to protest they can just deny you a permit or only grant you a permit to protest in a place where your protest won't do much good (an extreme of this would be the scene in arrested development where anti war protestors where forced to protest in a cage outside the entrance to a military base full of unsympathetic people) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gje3HiouzvQ
This seems quite retaliatory. That means they are pushing the right buttons. Keep at it.
Absolutely outrageous. If the government punishes this kind of legal dissent it's going to move underground and its going to become a lot less scrupulous and concientious about its tactics. By law or by violence, this deserves and will receive consequences.
Georgia loves going straight to RICO.
Great, they're trying to water down "RICO" charges and make them seem like not a big deal.
This is the most blatant abuse of racketeering charges I’ve ever heard of.
Sounds like you have a class action ready to go.
So much for the 1st amendment !
Fascist over reach from the cops what’s new
$90 million, 85 acre, training facility, at tax payers cost. WTF.
I’m just going to leave these two here. https://youtu.be/pruElitWvrE?si=E2lslYssKEpDhgSz https://youtu.be/o4TcvRyplwE?si=1ydljSgbzrDoPTGq
this is what you get for handing out flyers. they will ruin your life for a piece of paper. this is why the courts are important Don't ever expect to be treated fairly under the law. good old boys will get let off with a warning even after committing acts of terrorism. people in the out group will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for handing out pieces of paper.
white supremacists putting out their literature as a group at the Lawrenceville square not long ago...nothing happens. 61 people voice their concerns ... against oppression, put them in jail. Freedom ???
If people want the police to have better training, then why are they protesting a training facility? This facility is for all first responders as well, not just law enforcement.
but will gym "rape enabler" jordan demand the evidence?
This is awful and heartbreaking
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Am I the only one who doesn’t know why it’s bad to have a police training center? Isn’t that what we want? We want cops trained so cops can get better at their job???
It’s not just a police training center. It would also train paramedics and fire fighters. I guess that Atlanta just wants less competent first responders.
You definitely didn't take the 3 minutes it takes to look up why people are against it. It's actually so easy to find that I think you commented disingenuously. "Durrr uhm juas ayskeen questions" no you're not.
The only people who say that the facility will be used to further militarize police and harm “minorities” are the protesters. Which of course they would say that. As far as we know, the reason we have the training facility is because there is a need to improve and modernize the police force. We can’t not have police (which is what the idiotic demand of these protesters). And we want policing to be better. You cant eat your cake and have it.
These charges are absolutely ridiculous. Terrorism and racketeering?? Proof that conservatives can spin anything, even the American right to free speech and protest.
Some of those that work forces....
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They don’t need more training on how to kill us. They’re already trained to believe we are hostile enemy combatants, not fellow citizens or even humans. The kind of training police need doesn’t involve urban warfare and machine gun training. It’s a corporate sponsored terrorist training facility, backed by long term government financial support (aka a continual transfer of wealth from tax payers to the private organization that will run the place.) Fascists gonna fash, I guess.
Top down, this is one of the most evil things I’ve heard a state government do.
This shouldn’t be legal to do all of this to these people. Holy shit.
Cop city, the very name says it all. Defund, disband, stop killing pregnant girls that are accused of shoplifting.
In america, being left wing is the same as mob activity or treason.
[dozens](https://linktr.ee/stopcopcitylinks) of ways to support the protestors solidarity with the poor working class and planet forever ✊🏻♾️⛓️👊🏻
Horse feathers. That’s obscene!