For months, city and state officials in Georgia have been covering up the police killing of a protester and charging protesters with domestic terrorism for exercising their constitutional rights. This is a dangerous attack on our First Amendment right to protest.

Nonviolent activists have been protesting the building of “Cop City” in Georgia, a massive training center for militarizing police which would include a fake city to practice suppressing protest.

Police shot and killed an activist named Tortuguita in a hail of 57 bullets, while Tortuguita sat in the forest with their arms raised. It appears that an officer shot another officer and tried to pin it on Tortuguita, but autopsies confirmed Tortuguita’s innocence.

We need justice and accountability for Tortuguita’s murder.

None of the officers involved in this unconscionable murder have been charged. But activists who passed out flyers about it were charged with an outrageous felony, and have been held in solitary confinement without bail.

Other activists have been arrested and held without bail for having mud on their shoes, sleeping in a forest, “standing next to signs for anarchy,” being “known members” of “a prison abolitionist movement,” and for supporting activists with legal aid and raising bail money. All of these activities are legal.

After charging 42 activists with domestic terrorism for acting within their rights, last week, Georgia’s Attorney General charged 61 activists with state RICO charges in order to further criminalize dissent.

This extreme government overreach is an unconstitutional attempt to silence dissent, which violates our First Amendment rights and is meant to intimidate others from joining the movement against police violence.

We must take a stand in support of the movement to Stop Cop City, and against the attacks on our rights. It’s time to hold those responsible accountable. If we don’t act, it will set a frightening precedent and threaten our right to dissent.

Please sign now to call on the Department of Justice to investigate Tortuguita’s killing, its subsequent cover-up, and the widespread assault on protesters’ civil rights.