{"id":111346,"date":"2023-04-05T01:57:52","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T01:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/?p=111346"},"modified":"2023-04-05T01:57:54","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T01:57:54","slug":"how-officials-in-georgia-are-suppressing-political-protest-as-domestic-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/?p=111346","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;How Officials in Georgia are Suppressing Political Protest as \u2018Domestic Terrorism\u2019&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/national-security\/how-officials-in-georgia-are-suppressing-political-protest-as-domestic-terrorism\" target=\"_blank\">ACLU<\/a>: &#8220;Over the past few months, 42 activists have been charged with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/03\/08\/atlanta-cop-city-protesters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d<\/a>\u00a0under Georgia state law. Their acts of \u201cterrorism\u201d? Alleged property damage and trespassing while protesting. These prosecutions exemplify a highly problematic trend of both the federal and state government: using domestic terrorism powers to punish dissent&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until 2017, Georgia\u2019s domestic terrorism statute criminalized acts intended to or reasonably likely to kill or injure at least 10 people. In the wake of the massacre of nine Black parishioners by a white supremacist gunman in Charleston, South Carolina, the Georgia legislature&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/news\/state--regional-govt--politics\/domestic-terrorism-bill-passes-senate-heads-govenor-desk\/dlptOMtXePYd9Jr45N4mAL\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">amended<\/a>&nbsp;the statute to vastly expand its reach. The new law broadened the state\u2019s definition of \u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d to include certain property crimes committed with the intent to \u201calter, change, or coerce the policy of the government\u201d by \u201cintimidation or coercion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The amendment added a stigmatizing label and a harsher punishment \u2014 up to 35 years in prison \u2014 to property crimes that were already illegal, simply because of accompanying political expression critical of government policy. At the time of the amendment\u2019s passing, the ACLU of Georgia and other civil rights groups\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/news\/state--regional-govt--politics\/civil-rights-groups-oppose-state-bills-affecting-ability-protest\/PeHReptUOIcaqLC1SOi39O\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">objected<\/a>\u00a0that the statute could be weaponized to suppress protected First Amendment activity. These concerns are now a reality for \u201cCop City\u201d activists.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ACLU: &#8220;Over the past few months, 42 activists have been charged with\u00a0\u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d\u00a0under Georgia state law. Their acts of \u201cterrorism\u201d? Alleged property damage and trespassing while protesting. These prosecutions exemplify a highly problematic trend of both the federal and state government: using domestic terrorism powers to punish dissent&#8230;. Until 2017, Georgia\u2019s domestic terrorism statute criminalized&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsstory"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111347,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111346\/revisions\/111347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}