More than 20 people from throughout the country were charged with domestic terrorism on Monday after scores of young people wearing black masks assaulted the construction site of a police training facility in a forested region outside Atlanta, where a demonstrator was slain in January.
The area has been the epicenter of an ongoing struggle between authorities and demonstrators with a tilt to the left. At a protest on Sunday in 'Cop City,' where 26-year-old environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, or 'Tortuguita,' was shot and killed by cops during a raid on a protest camp in January, officers were pelted with flaming bottles and rocks.
Atlanta 'Cop City' Protest
Per Fox8, the police claim that Tortuguita assaulted them, a claim that other activists dispute. The majority of individuals detained are from the United States, while one is from Canada and another is from France, according to authorities.
Tortuguita, like many demonstrators, was committed to conserving the environment, according to his friends and family, which conflicted with Atlanta's plans to construct a $90 million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center to increase preparation and morale after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Currently, officials and youths are engaged in a battle unrelated to previous high-profile clashes. Protesters opposed to 'Cop City' range from conventional environmentalists to young self-proclaimed anarchists seeking confrontations with what they see to be an unjust society.
Members of the movement's social media site, Defend the Atlanta Forest, tweeted on Monday that those detained were not aggressive agitators but rather peaceful concertgoers who were nowhere near the rally.
A spokesperson from a public relations agency participating in the group's activities stated that they could not respond immediately. With the death of Tortuguita, protesters expanded to downtown Atlanta.
At a midnight press conference on Sunday, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum stated that construction equipment was set on fire in what he termed an "organized attack" at the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center site in DeKalb County.
The incident occurred at the outset of what protestors call a weeklong "mass mobilization," with Thursday designated as a "National Day of Action Against Police Terror" at the 85-acre, $90 million law enforcement facility's 85-acre, wooded location.
According to CNN, the mobilization comes after authorities fatally shot a protester at a construction site in January following a confrontation in which a state trooper was injured. Some activists have camped in the forest around the proposed site and have been detained and charged with domestic terrorism.
After Sunday's clashes, Atlanta police say they will implement a "multi-layered strategy" that includes "reaction and arrest" as further protests are planned for the coming days. The police department also "requests that this week's protests remain peaceful."
In a statement released Monday morning, Georgia's Republican governor Brian Kemp slammed "violent activists," stating that they "chose damage and vandalism over lawful protest, once again proving the extreme agenda underlying their acts."
Violent Atlanta Protest Caught on Video
Sunday's arrests included a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) "legal observer," according to a joint statement from the SPLC and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG).
This week, Belkis Terán, the mother of the protester slain earlier this year, will return to the scene. She planned to go from Panama to Atlanta to scatter her child's ashes in the woodland near the tragic shooting location.
Per Newsweek via MSN, the Atlanta Police Department uploaded a video of what seemed to be fireworks being thrown at cops at a fence on the future site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. Additional social media videos depicted smoke and flames emanating from various locations on the property.
The Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which assists protest arrestees, stated that police "appear to be retaliating against anybody at the music event."
The police stated, "The agitators' unlawful conduct may have resulted in bodily harm. Police displayed caution and utilized non-lethal means of arresting suspects."
Defend The Atlanta Forest website sponsored a "week of action" from March 4 to March 11, noting that it was the sixth such week. When further demonstrations are planned, Atlanta police and other law enforcement agencies have a "layered strategy" that includes arrests.
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