Protests descended into chaos Sunday at Atlanta’s future police training facility, dubbed “Cop City,” as protesters held a rally against the construction of the compound and committed what police describe as a “very violent attack.”
Social media images showed construction equipment from the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center site in flames. Later, Darin Schierbaum, chief of police for the Atlanta Police Department, confirmed that at approximately 5.30 p.m., a group of individuals armed with fireworks, rocks and molotov cocktails “launched a coordinated criminal attack against officers that were at that location.”
The City Council approved the training center in 2021 in response to morale and hiring problems after a year of racial justice protests spurred by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
ADVERTISEMENT
Protesters from the group, which calls itself Defend the Atlanta Forest, claim that if built, “Cop City would further militarize police in Georgia and across the country, and the destruction of the forest would lead to increased flooding and unmitigated heatwaves in a predominantly Black, working-class neighborhood in south Atlanta.”
However, a statement from the Atlanta Police Department described the group as “violent agitators” who “used the cover of a peaceful protest of the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center to conduct a coordinated attack on construction equipment and police officers.”
Chief Schierbaum refused to call the actions of the group a “protest,” describing it as “criminal activity” instead.
“When you throw commercial grade fireworks, when you throw molotov cocktails, large rocks… your only intent is to harm,” he said.
Posting surveillance footage of the scene, police said the group “changed into black clothing, entered the construction area, and began throwing large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police officers.”
Cops said the group destroyed multiple pieces of construction equipment after multiple law enforcement agencies were deployed to the area. Officers detained at least 35 people so far.
“The illegal actions of the agitators could have resulted in bodily harm,” police said, without going into specifics.
“Officers exercised restraint and used non-lethal enforcement to conduct arrests.”
Chief Schierbaum said arrests were continuing and charges were expected to be laid. “Actions such as this will not be tolerated,” he said. “When you attack law enforcement officers, when you damage equipment, you are breaking the law.
“This wasn’t about a public safety training center, this was about anarchy, and this was about an attempt to destabilize.”
The group says it plans to protest until March 11. No officers were injured during the incident however some protesters received “some minor discomforts” that were being seen to by medical officials.
Read it at Fox 5 Atlanta
