Inside the attempt to charge Georgia’s ‘Cop City’ activists with racketeering

Rico charges against 61 people have outraged civil liberties groups who see an effort to demonize legitimate protesters

At one point during the courtroom arraignment this week of 61 defendants charged with criminal conspiracy in connection with a protest movement in Atlanta, the bailiff could be heard shouting out numbers corresponding to the next batch - like a crowded delicatessen at lunch hour.

The courtroom's six rows of wooden benches were packed with attorneys and defendants, with one row at the back reserved for media. It took about four hours for the Fulton county superior court judge Kimberly M Esmond Adams to go through the felony criminal charges with the defendants, all tied to opposition against a planned police and fire department training center known as Cop City".