Activism
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April 18, 2024
Sixty-one people are facing RICO charges from the state of Georgia for their activism. Here’s what some of them have to say about their case.
![A protester at a vigil in Atlanta, Georgia, commemorating the life of environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán on January 18, 2024. Tortuguita was killed by Georgia State Troopers a year before, on January 18, 2023, during a raid on a Stop Cop City encampment.](https://thenewsguy.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/localimages/AP24020010150795.jpg)
![A protester at a vigil in Atlanta, Georgia, commemorating the life of environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán on January 18, 2024. Tortuguita was killed by Georgia State Troopers a year before, on January 18, 2023, during a raid on a Stop Cop City encampment.](https://thenewsguy.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/localimages/AP24020010150795.jpg)
A protester at a vigil in Atlanta, Georgia, commemorating the life of environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán on January 18, 2024. Tortuguita was killed by Georgia State Troopers a year before, on January 18, 2023, during a raid on a Stop Cop City encampment.
(Collin Mayfield / Sipa USA via Getty Images)
Julia Dupuis thinks it’s a bit absurd that they’re wearing an ankle bracelet right now, given that all they were doing in Georgia was putting up flyers.
The flyers, which they posted on mailboxes in a town outside of Atlanta, were protesting the shooting of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán, a young activist whose killing by Fulton County deputies in 2023 turned them into a martyr in the fight against the Atlanta-area police training complex now known all over the world as “Cop City.”
Dupuis never thought of flyering as a particularly radical act. “Distributing flyers, putting up posters, peaceful protesting where you take to the street… it’s just spreading information to raise awareness—that’s like the most basic act of protest,” they say.
But the state of Georgia, which is as hell-bent on building Cop City as its opponents are on stopping it, had other ideas. And so, in September, Dupuis and 60 other Cop City activists found themselves indicted under Georgia’s version of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a law purportedly designed to punish organized crime syndicates.
The indictment was immediately condemned by legal scholars, who described it as a gross overreach of state power, and it came at a tumultuous time for the state and county, as former President Trump faces another Georgia RICO case for interference in the 2020 elections.
But for the “RICO 61,” the ongoing legal battle is not just theoretical—it’s their daily reality. As they await a potential June trial, many have been struggling to reckon with the ways state repression has put their lives on hold—in some cases, for acts as innocuous as flyering or sharing the cost of food. They’ve also noticed what’s often been missing in coverage of their case: their own voices. That silence, according to some of the RICO indictees, is what the state wants from them—and they’re no longer willing to comply.
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Or, in other words, they’re like Dupuis—sitting around with an ankle bracelet, time on their hands, and a need to tell their story.
“Speaking out is a really contentious and dangerous thing to do,” Dupuis says from their parents’ home in Massachusetts. (While defendants must return to Atlanta for trials, some were required to leave the state while the case is ongoing). “The prosecution loves to use people’s words against them. And so silence is the safest option. I reached a point where I didn’t want to take the safest option anymore.”
Whether it’s speaking out about their treatment while incarcerated—in the wake of the arraignment, codefendants report being denied food and water and being sexually harassed by guards in jail—or just the general terror of being subjected to a campaign of state repression, many feared that talking to the media would increase their persecution.
“I didn’t speak out for the longest time because I was terrified, to be completely honest,” says Dupuis. “I got out of jail, and I was just stunned. I was in shock. I was terrified that if I spoke out, I’d make myself a target in some way, that I’d signal to the state that I was more of a threat.”
This fear is understandable given the specifics of the indictment. It labels the Cop City activists “anarchists” and alleges a wide variety of crimes, from criminal trespass to domestic terrorism. Prosecutors also allege that, among other things, using a “burner” phone shows criminal intent, a sign of just how expansive the indictment’s scope is.
But as the months went on, the silence began to feel unbearable for some of the defendants. Dupuis felt “voiceless.”
“Speaking out is a really contentious and dangerous thing to do,” Dupuis says. “The prosecution loves to use people’s words against them. And so silence is the safest option. I reached a point where I didn’t want to take
…. to be continued
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