State of Georgia using extreme legal measures to quell ‘Cop City’ dissenters

Don’t Call Me Resilient

Earlier this week, nearly five dozen people appeared in a courthouse outside Atlanta, Georgia to answer criminal racketeering charges brought against them by the state. The charges are related to protests against a planned paramilitary police and fire services training facility nicknamed Cop City. Georgia prosecutors have called the demonstrators “militant anarchists.” But many of those charged say they were simply attending a rally or a concert in support of the Stop Cop City movement. The protesters, their lawyers and their supporter say the government is using heavy-handed tactics to silence the movement -- and worry about the type of precedent this might set for our right to protest. Kamau Franklin, one of the leaders of the Stop Cop City movement and a lawyer himself, and Zohra Ahmed, a professor of law at the University of Georgia, join Vinita to talk about the situation, and why so many people are watching it.