...A diverse array of major human rights and press freedom groups are among 90 organizations calling on Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to drop controversial racketeering charges against “Cop City” protesters.

Among signatories to a letter announced Sept. 28 are Amnesty International USA, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, PEN America, Greenpeace USA, March for Our Lives and the Movement for Black Lives. Similar to a letter sent in March decrying the use of domestic terrorism charges against protesters, the new letter calls the use of the state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law a political attempt to chill free speech. Both letters were organized by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Defending Rights & Dissent.

The Center for Constitutional Rights called a “ludicrous and terrifying” new level of criminalizing speech, even in comparison to international examples. “Attorney General Carr has fabricated an expansive racketeering conspiracy from a jumble of scraps — a zine encountered on the forest floor, a flyer posted on a mailbox, reimbursements for bathrooms for a public event in a park — almost all of which are protected by the First Amendment,” said the organization in the press release...

Read the full piece here.