The Legal Weapon Used Against Trump Is Now Being Turned on Environmental Activists

61 protesters camped out for months in an Atlanta forest to protest construction of a massive police training facility.

The protesters’ concerns were about both environmental harm and the militarization of the police.

They have been met with increasingly brutal state force, both at the ground level and in the halls of justice.

Julian Zelizer : It's galling to see environmental and antipolice brutality activists charged with crimes far more serious than their documented actions.

He says Georgia attorney general insisted that “the individuals who have been charged are charged with violent acts. But his indictment doesn’t have much meat on the bones, so to speak. The aggressive acts named in the charges are related to property damage, protesters naming private equity executives who are publicly known to be financing the construction of Cop City .

Last year , a Georgia court registered a RICO case against members of the famed Young Stoner Life collective.

The case is being pursued by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis , who also recently indicted Trump .

The message from the YSL and Cop City indictments is clear: If you form a crew of any kind, and the law decides your group is actually a gang, then every single bit of expression can be criminalized.