RICO

 James C. McKinley Jr. at NYT:

At the heart of the indictment against Mr. Trump and his allies in Georgia are racketeering charges under the state Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.

Like the federal law on which it is based, the state RICO law was originally designed to dismantle organized crime groups, but over the years it has come to be used to prosecute other crimes, from white collar Ponzi and embezzlement schemes to public corruption cases.

It’s a powerful law enforcement tool. The Georgia RICO statute allows prosecutors to bundle together what may seem to be unrelated crimes committed by a host of different people if those crimes are perceived to be in support of a common objective.

“It allows a prosecutor to go after the head of an organization, loosely defined, without having to prove that that head directly engaged in a conspiracy or any acts that violated state law,” Michael Mears, a law professor at John Marshall Law School in Atlanta. “If you are a prosecutor, it’s a gold mine. If you are a defense attorney, it’s a nightmare.”

Prosecutors need only show “a pattern of racketeering activity,” which means crimes that all were used to further the objectives of a corrupt enterprise. And the bar is fairly low. The Georgia courts have concluded that a pattern consists of at least two acts of racketeering activity within a four-year period in furtherance of one or more schemes that have the same or similar intent.

Brian Kemp's Oath

 

Many posts have discussed oaths .

Molly Ball at Time:

Kemp never stopped being a lib-triggering conservative; he even kept up his crusade against the phantom threat of voter fraud, signing an election law that Democrats including President Biden see as racist voter suppression. Kemp seeks no credit for protecting the vote and saving the election. He argues he was just doing his job, and would prefer to talk about almost anything else. “I have always followed the law and the Constitution,” he says. “I believe that that oath I took is better and bigger than any person including myself, and it’s certainly bigger than any political party.”

A High-Tech Lynching

 

“Be glad it’s 2020 and not 1920.”

— Former Georgia election worker Shaye Moss repeats the threats she received while counting votes during the 2020 election. pic.twitter.com/ukjwR8WOJd

— The Recount (@therecount) June 21, 2022

Several people have asked what the Shaye Moss threat about “being glad it’s 2020 and not 1920,” meant. As a life long southerner with family members in the Klan - I promise you it’s a lynching threat. Period.

— Uptown Al 🎸🎹🎬🎺🌈 (@uptown_al_) June 21, 2022

Indeed, the Klan was powerful in 1920s Georgia.

Stone Mountain

 Theresa Waldrop and Jamiel Lynch, at CNN:

A new exhibit that seeks to explain "the whole story" of the nation's largest Confederate monument, including the history of the Ku Klux Klan there, is coming to Georgia's Stone Mountain Park, the park's board said Monday.

The exhibit will be developed together with "credible and well-established historians," the board said in a news release, "to tell the warts and all history of the Stone Mountain carving," including the 1915 rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan on the mountain "and the 50-years of Klan rallies which followed," until the state bought the mountain and land around it in 1958.

The carving depicts three Confederate leaders of the Civil War on horseback: Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The figures are 90 feet by 190 feet on a carved oval background that is three acres -- larger than a football field, according to the association.

The monument has long been a flashpoint of debate between those who see it as part of the South's heritage and those for whom it represents White supremacy. It cannot be removed under Georgia law. 

 Timothy Pratt and Rick Rojas at NYT:

The idea for the sculpture — one of the largest bas-relief carvings in the world — emerged in 1914, portrayed as a massive memorial to the Lost Cause, or the notion that the South was defending more than just slavery in the Civil War.

The effort took decades to complete. It stalled during the Great Depression but picked up new momentum in 1954 as Marvin Griffin, a candidate for governor riding the outcry following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, promised to uphold segregation and finish the monument. (The park is owned by the state.)

Critics and historians said that racist anger, more than heartache over Confederate bloodshed, fueled the monument’s creation. “They have the wrong people on the mountain,” Mr. Hale said, suggesting that it might have been more accurate to depict segregationist politicians instead of Confederate leaders. “This mountain is about massive resistance to desegregation. It’s not about the Civil War.”

 

Florida Surpasses New York

The Census reports:

By adding an average of 803 new residents each day between July 1, 2013 and July 1, 2014, Florida passed New York to become the nation’s third most populous state, according to U.S. Census Bureau state population estimates released today. Florida’s population grew by 293,000 over this period, reaching 19.9 million. The population of New York increased by 51,000 to 19.7 million. 

California remained the nation’s most populous state in 2014, with 38.8 million residents, followed by Texas, at 27.0 million. Although the list of the 10 most populous states overall was unchanged, two other states did change positions, as North Carolina moved past Michigan to take the ninth spot. 

Another milestone took place in Georgia (ranked 8th), which saw its population surpass 10 million for the first time. 

North Dakota was the nation’s fastest-growing state over the last year. Its population increased 2.2 percent, followed by the 1.7 percent growth in Nevada and Texas. Each of the 10 fastest-growing states was in the South or West with the exception of North Dakota.  

Six states lost population between July 1, 2013, and July 1, 2014: Illinois (9,972 or -0.08 percent), West Virginia (3,269 or -0.18 percent), Connecticut (2,664 or -0.07 percent), New Mexico (1,323 or -0.06 percent, Alaska (527 or -0.07 percent) and Vermont (293 or -0.05 percent)..