The Atlanta Police Department arrested and charged 23 individuals with domestic terrorism after they set fire to construction equipment at a new police training facility and threw rocks, bricks, and fireworks at police officers on Sunday.
Among those arrested was Thomas Jurgens, a lawyer and employee of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a non-profit organization that documents extremist activity.
“On March 5, 2023, a group of violent agitators 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,” the Atlanta Police Department said of the arrest. “They changed into black clothing and entered the construction area and began to throw large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police officers.”
Videos shared on social media showed members of the riotous crowd vandalizing and burning construction equipment and throwing rocks and fireworks at police officers.
The Atlanta Police Department said it detained a total of 35 people and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) subsequently charged 23 with domestic terrorism, including Jurgens.
The SPLC confirmed Jurgens’s arrest in a statement on Monday, saying he was merely acting as a legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) at the time.
“An employee at the SPLC was arrested while acting — and identifying — as a legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG),” the SPLC statement read. “The employee is an experienced legal observer, and their arrest is not evidence of any crime, but of heavy-handed law enforcement intervention against protesters.”
At a Monday Atlanta City Council meeting, law enforcement officials shared footage of individuals near the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center changing out of clothes they had worn moments earlier during the violent riot and said the footage showed that attackers were attempting to pass themselves off as attendees of a nearby music festival.
“Events that are shown to be peaceful and being publicized as being peaceful are being used by individuals as cover to launch illegal and criminal attacks,” said Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum.
Escalating Violence
The under-construction police training facility, known as the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, has been the site of ongoing protests. Opponents of the new training facility have referred to it as “Cop City” and have formed the “Stop Cop City” movement in response.
The “Stop Cop City” movement has seen activists attempt to block efforts to cut down trees to clear space for the new facility. By late 2021, some activists began living in trees to prevent certain trees from being cut down, slowing progress to clear and develop the land.
In December, GBI arrested and charged five activists with domestic terrorism after allegedly finding explosive devices, gasoline, and road flares in their tree sites.
In January, police killed an activist after an exchange of gunfire while attempting to clear protesters out of the area. Georgia law enforcement officials said the activist, Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, opened fire, injuring a Georgia state trooper. State troopers then returned fire, killing Terán.
The Monday SPLC statement made no mention of the attacks on police officers and destruction of construction equipment that preceded Jurgen’s arrest but described his arrest as part of a pattern of escalating behavior by police against the “Stop Cop City” activists.
“This is part of a months-long escalation of policing tactics against protesters and observers who oppose the destruction of the Weelaunee Forest to build a police training facility,” the SPLC statement read. “The SPLC has and will continue to urge de-escalation of violence and police use of force against Black, Brown and Indigenous communities — working in partnership with these communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people.”
NTD News reached out to the SPLC for further comment, but the organization did not respond before this article was published.
Defend the Atlanta Forest, an organization affiliated with the “Stop Cop City” movement, released a statement on Monday saying the police response to the events that occurred the day before only reaffirmed their arguments for opposing the new police training center. The organization claimed the 35 individuals that police arrested were part of a music festival protesting the new police training center and had “no connection to or awareness of” the violent clash going on near the construction site.
“Cop City will never be a legitimate project. It continues to be widely opposed by Atlantans,” Defend the Atlanta Forest said, quoting an anonymous organizer. “The civil rights violations committed by police yesterday reaffirms that this cop training facility should never be built. We stand steadfast in our conviction to build a new world in which all people are safe from police terror.”
