התחל במצב לא מקוון עם האפליקציה Player FM !
E83: Criminalizing Protest: The Stop Cop City RICO Charges
Manage episode 379058421 series 2460300
Ever since its announcement in 2021, the Atlanta police training facility project known as “Cop City” has been the subject of much criticism from activists concerned with police violence and environmental justice. The proposal included razing 85 acres of forest in DeKalb County, Georgia (just South of the city of Atlanta) to build, among other things, a mock “city” in which police would conduct training exercises. In response, members of the surrounding community and beyond have engaged in swift, voluminous, and continuous protest.
But in September 2023, in a severe escalation against the protest movement, Georgia Attorney General Michael Carr indicted 61 protestors under the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act. Given that this act has historically been used to charge members of organized criminal syndicates (and of recent note, Donald Trump and his campaign staff for seeking to overturn the state-level presidential election results), its use to indict political protesters as part of a criminal conspiracy is a worrisome landmark in Georgia’s prosecutorial history. More broadly, it represents a critical abrogation of speech and association freedoms, and it sets a terrifying precedent for the suppression of political movements.
On today’s show, Alex, Calvin, and Sophie dive into the actual language of the 109-page indictment document to analyze its rhetorical conflation of political protest and free association with a “criminal conspiracy.” In addition to critiquing the document’s numerous typographical errors and sloppy, imprecise prose, we assess how its language of threat-construction renders advocates of racial and environmental justice “violent anarchists,” whose expressions and practices of “mutual aid” and “solidarity” allegedly constitute illegal associations in a broader “conspiracy.” We also discuss the dark implications of this case for free speech and free association, the chilling effects the indictment could have on political movements nationwide, and some of its particular significance for scholars and teachers of rhetoric and technical communication.
You can read the full indictment document against the Defend the Atlanta Forest organizers here:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23940338-cop-city-rico-indictment
You can donate to the Legal Defense Fund for Stop Cop City organizers here:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/atllegalfund
For a full list of mutual aid funds, including payments to individual defendants, see the following LinkTree:
94 פרקים
Manage episode 379058421 series 2460300
Ever since its announcement in 2021, the Atlanta police training facility project known as “Cop City” has been the subject of much criticism from activists concerned with police violence and environmental justice. The proposal included razing 85 acres of forest in DeKalb County, Georgia (just South of the city of Atlanta) to build, among other things, a mock “city” in which police would conduct training exercises. In response, members of the surrounding community and beyond have engaged in swift, voluminous, and continuous protest.
But in September 2023, in a severe escalation against the protest movement, Georgia Attorney General Michael Carr indicted 61 protestors under the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act. Given that this act has historically been used to charge members of organized criminal syndicates (and of recent note, Donald Trump and his campaign staff for seeking to overturn the state-level presidential election results), its use to indict political protesters as part of a criminal conspiracy is a worrisome landmark in Georgia’s prosecutorial history. More broadly, it represents a critical abrogation of speech and association freedoms, and it sets a terrifying precedent for the suppression of political movements.
On today’s show, Alex, Calvin, and Sophie dive into the actual language of the 109-page indictment document to analyze its rhetorical conflation of political protest and free association with a “criminal conspiracy.” In addition to critiquing the document’s numerous typographical errors and sloppy, imprecise prose, we assess how its language of threat-construction renders advocates of racial and environmental justice “violent anarchists,” whose expressions and practices of “mutual aid” and “solidarity” allegedly constitute illegal associations in a broader “conspiracy.” We also discuss the dark implications of this case for free speech and free association, the chilling effects the indictment could have on political movements nationwide, and some of its particular significance for scholars and teachers of rhetoric and technical communication.
You can read the full indictment document against the Defend the Atlanta Forest organizers here:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23940338-cop-city-rico-indictment
You can donate to the Legal Defense Fund for Stop Cop City organizers here:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/atllegalfund
For a full list of mutual aid funds, including payments to individual defendants, see the following LinkTree:
94 פרקים
Kaikki jaksot
×ברוכים הבאים אל Player FM!
Player FM סורק את האינטרנט עבור פודקאסטים באיכות גבוהה בשבילכם כדי שתהנו מהם כרגע. זה יישום הפודקאסט הטוב ביותר והוא עובד על אנדרואיד, iPhone ואינטרנט. הירשמו לסנכרון מנויים במכשירים שונים.