Atlanta police charge 23 people following attack on police and fire training center
Misty Severi
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At least 23 people have been charged in connection to the violent protest at the construction site of the planned Atlanta police and fire training center in Georgia, police officials announced on Monday.
The suspects were charged with at least one count of domestic terrorism after throwing Molotov cocktails, bricks, and fireworks at law enforcement officers. Protesters also set fires at the facility, police said. Thirty-five people were arrested after the incident on Sunday, but it’s not clear whether all 35 will be charged.
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“This was not a protest,” Atlanta Police Department officials said at a press conference Sunday night. “This wasn’t about a public training center; this was about anarchy.”
The arrests occurred at the South River Forest, also known as the Weelaunee Forest, where some of the protesters who opposed the new training facility had gathered peacefully. On one side of the forest held approximately 1,000 people at a music festival, on the other side, several hundred people marched to the construction site, according to event organizers.
“Music is not a crime, protest is not a crime. People lawfully exercising first amendment rights cannot be held criminally liable for the actions of others,” the Atlanta Solidarity Fund said in a statement.
Many of the people arrested were from out of state, and two were from out of the country. One protester was from France, the other from Canada, according to a list of the arrests obtained by WSBTV.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is planning to introduce legislation that seeks to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, calling the protesters at Sunday’s riot “antifa,” but it’s not clear what evidence Greene has that ties the organization to the recent protests.
“This is domestic terrorism. It was planned for weeks and announced on social media. Antifa are self proclaimed communists and consistently organize to attack our government over and over again,” Greene tweeted on Monday. “They should be taken seriously and not tolerated anymore.”
https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1632572429028425729
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A group dubbed “Stop Cop City” has been demonstrating against the construction of the new police training facility since the project was authorized in 2021.
Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) declared a state of emergency earlier this year over the unrest that flared up in Atlanta following the police shooting of an activist when officers were clearing the construction site.