• More than 60 so-called environmental activists were charged through a RICO indictment for allegedly conspiring to block construction of an Atlanta police training facility in Georgia’s woodlands.
• The mostly out-of-state members of Atlanta Forest, described as a “self-identified coalition and enterprise of militant anarchists, eco-activists and community organizers,” is accused of coordinating, advertising and conducting “direct action” designed to prevent the construction of the Atlanta Police Public Safety Training Center and Shadowbox Studios, previously known as Blackhall Studios, to “promote anarchist ideas.”
• The 109-page indictment claims the decentralized Defend the Atlanta Forest organization behind the protests is motivated by left wing anarchism, a drive to protect the environment at any cost, and “an anti-law enforcement ideology that attempts to push a narrative that all police are violent, militant individuals that frequently use excessive fore and violence against innocent citizens” with the goal of eliminating “police forces in their entirety.”
• Authorities say the group began a criminal conspiracy on May 25, 2020, ultimately concocting a plan to “occupy” the forested acres of DeKalb County, Georgia that are owned by the Atlanta Police Foundation and leased for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. To pull off the scheme, the group allegedly used the dark web to coordinate, and used traditional social media and blogs to solicit funding from a nationwide audience.

Tagged: Crime Blotter