More than three months after signaling that he would, a Fulton County judge has formally dismissed racketeering charges against 61 people involved in the “Stop Cop City” movement, in a written dismissal order ruling that Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr lacked the legal authority to bring the case and needed the permission of the governor.
According to Fox 5, “The ruling guts the state’s central argument that opposition to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center constituted a criminal enterprise.”
According to the AP, “the 61 defendants in what experts call the largest criminal racketeering case filed against protesters in U.S. history faced such allegations as throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers and providing protesters with food. Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on the racketeering charges.”
Judge Farmer rejected allowing the attorney general to independently decide to prosecute the crimes, stating it would lead to “absurd results” and give the state’s top lawyer powers far beyond those granted by the constitution.
“Litter on a state road, get prosecuted by the AG. Open container of alcohol at a Bulldogs game, get prosecuted by the AG,” Farmer wrote. “These examples sound farfetched and far down the slippery slope, but they are the reality if the AG were allowed to expand his authority beyond that granted to him.”
The dismissal comes after more than two years of attempted prosecution that sought to convict protesters who opposed the training facility. Five of the original 61 defendants continue to face arson and state domestic terrorism charges. The state may still re-file RICO charges with permission from the governor, and it could appeal the judge’s ruling.
Even with the RICO counts dismissed, the case illustrates how the threat of extreme charges can function as punishment in itself — draining resources, intimidating organizers, and chilling lawful protest. The parallel to Minneapolis is not just legal, but strategic: maximize fear, raise the stakes, and fracture movements through legal overreach.
The case fits a widening pattern in which authorities attempt to recast protest networks as criminal conspiracies — from felony conspiracy prosecutions tied to campus and bridge protests for Palestinian human rights or immigrant rights, to federal conspiracy charges emerging from the Cities Church demonstration — shifting legal risk from what individuals did to who they organized with.
Exceptional breakdown of how procedural punishment works outside the courtroom. The framing shift from individual actions to organizational affiliation basicaly inverts due process into a resource war. I saw somethign similar with mutual aid groups during 2020 where even dropped charges meant months of legal fees and internal fracturing. The 20-year threat isnt just legal pressure its community disruption by design.