Today, our thoughts are with those impacted by Hurricane Idalia.

We will post resources for mutual aid efforts as we receive them.

Read about anarchist relief efforts in response to Hurricane Florence, five years ago:

https://crimethinc.com/Florence

Read about how capitalism and colonialism exacerbate natural catastrophes, and how communities can create truly resilient infrastructure for all:

https://crimethinc.com/Louisiana2021

"Yes, they tore up the streets with jackhammers, but the police couldn’t see or hear them doing so because the jackhammers were concealed beneath the skirts of stilt-walkers and drowned out by techno music."

What turn-of-the-century anti-capitalist movements can teach us about the importance of joyous, creative resistance:

https://crimethinc.com/wtoepilogue

The only humorous part of this ongoing nightmare is Musk declaring that his "giant data dump" might "take until next week," as they are "short-staffed this week."

Punchline: they haven't had a full staff on hand since he took power and fired half the work force.

They might still be short-staffed next week.

Georgia State Attorney General Chris Carr has indicted 61 people on charges of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in Fulton County.

The indictment includes 42 people previously charged with "terrorism" for allegedly participating in the movement to #StopCopCity, 3 people accused of distributing handbills, and the 3 people charged for organizing legal support for activists. The only thing that connects the indictees is that they have been arrested at some point, however randomly, and accused of protesting against the government's plan to destroy the Weelaunee Forest in order to build a police militarization compound.

The Fulton County prosecutor already withdrew from all cases related to the police training compound in June; likewise, the judge assigned this case immediately recused himself today.

Although the two RICO cases represent rival factions of the political class, the same grand jury that indicted Donald Trump is responsible for indicting those accused of "racketeering" for protesting Cop City. The court system is the central infrastructure of state violence; however Democrats may endeavor to represent it as a check on the aspirations of autocrats, it naturally lends itself to all forms of repression targeting the oppressed, and that is the chief role that it will always play.

This is not the first time that corporations and police have frivolously used RICO charges to intimidate those who oppose their power grabs. For example, from 2016 to 2019, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline brought RICO charges against the nonprofit organization Greenpeace. All of those charges were eventually thrown out.

For more background on how the authorities are using the legal system to try to crush environmental protest:

https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaSolidarity2023

Understanding the RICO Charges in Atlanta

A Sweeping Indictment Seeks to Criminalize Protest Itself

https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaRICO

In indiscriminately lumping together scores of arrestees, many of whom have ostensibly never met, into a fabricated conspiracy case, the prosecution is attempting to criminalize protest itself. This case should be of interest to anyone who is concerned about civil liberties such as the freedom to protest, the freedom to advocate against police brutality and authoritarianism, and the freedom to advocate for preserving the environment.

The indictment does not seem to indicate that prosecutors have any previously unreleased information at their disposal indicating the existence of a conspiracy, in the sense that the word is ordinarily employed. Rather, they have brought new charges against those whose names they already had as the result of previous arrests, and are now clumsily endeavoring to frame them as participants in a cohesive criminal enterprise.

#StopCopCity 🏴

Why was the indictment in the #StopCopCity RICO case so poorly written and riddled with so many inaccuracies?

Here's one clue—not only did the Fulton County District Attorney refuse to participate, even ChatGPT wouldn't help!

https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaRICO

Quoted in the New York Times, a constitutional law expert says that the RICO case against alleged #StopCopCity activists seems to be as much an indictment of an ideology as a denoscription of actual criminal activity.

This is an old story. After the Haymarket riot in 1886, seven anarchists were sentenced to death, despite the fact that most of them had not even been present at the riot. The governor eventually pardoned and released the ones who had not already been executed, but by then, the state terror campaign had achieved its intended effect.

The Georgia Attorney General hopes to drum up irrational fear of anarchists and use that to secure convictions regardless of the facts of the case. If he succeeds, it will have implications for protesters of all stripes.

Solidarity with the defendants.

https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaRICO