Cop City protesters face domestic terrorism charges

Domestic terrorism charges in a violent protest at the site of a law enforcement facility in Atlanta, Georgia, announced by police on a Sunday news conference

At least 23 people are facing domestic terrorism charges as a result of their arrest on Sunday during a violent protest at the site of a planned law enforcement training facility in Atlanta.

Some 35 people were detained Sunday, and two of those arrested are from Georgia, while the rest hail from states from Maine to Arizona and one each is from Canada and France, according to a list provided Monday by the Atlanta Police Department, which said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is the prosecutor.

Orange flames rose from a construction tractor and at least four other fires burned in and around the fenced site as people in black swarmed on both sides of the barricade before squad cars and armed officers arrived, surveillance videos released by the Atlanta Police Department show.

Protesters are calling for a weeklong campaign of protests at the site of the law enforcement facility, which is slated to host $90 million. Activists were charged with domestic terrorism after a protester was shot and killed at the construction zone.

The group changed into black clothing, went into the construction area and threw rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at the police officers. “The illegal actions of the agitators could have resulted in bodily harm.”

Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said no officers were hurt and that some of the people being held are not from Atlanta at a Sunday news conference.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/06/us/atlanta-cop-city-protests/index.html

Kamau Franklin, the City of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Police Foundation: The Action against racial injustice and police brutality at the South River Forest

Activist Kamau Franklin said the law enforcement response demonstrates police aggression and the tactical response of over-policing. People who oppose the site are worried that police will be taught how to get rid of social justice movements.

“The language being used by police, calling those arrested ‘outside agitators,’ is meant to separate protesters and meant to criminalize and detach a movement from its homegrown origins,” said Franklin, director of Community Movement Builders, part of a coalition of activists protesting at the site.

The police launched two clearing operations at the police facility site, including one in which officers killed a young man who was protesting against the police. The people arrested there last year were charged with domestic terrorism.

Plans to build the facility have met with fierce resistance following monthslong demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The development process has largely been kept secret with limited input from those most directly impacted in Atlanta.

“Moving the pieces around or pledging more greenspace in the project’s footprint does not change the fundamental disagreement over this unnecessary facility,” the group said, calling for “city officials to cancel the lease with the Atlanta Police Foundation and protect the entire South River Forest.”

“The city of Atlanta has the most extensive training requirements in the Southeast,” he said this year. “Our training includes vital areas like de-escalation training techniques, mental health, community-oriented policing, crisis intervention training, as well as civil rights history education.

Atlanta police said in a statement late Sunday that they will put in place a “multi-layered strategy” after Sunday’s riots and asked for a peaceful protest this week.

When you throw fireworks at officers, it is your only intention to hurt them, and the charges are going to show that, said Schierbaum.

In his statement Monday morning, Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp condemns violent activists, saying they “chose destruction and vandalization over legitimate protest, yet again demonstrating the radical intent behind their actions.”

Kemp said that as they continue to respect peaceful protest they will also ensure safety in their communities. “We will not rest until those who use violence and intimidation for an extremist end are brought to full justice.”

“There will continue to be protests meant to express the outrage of the community,” he said. These are large-tent protests. We don’t expect incidents beyond civil disobedience.

Belkis Terán, the Little Turtle, and the Atlanta Forest: The Case Over Spikes of a Public Safety Training Facility Located in the South River Forest

Among those returning to the site this week is Belkis Terán, the mother of the protester killed earlier this year, who was known to fellow activists as “Tortuguita,” or “Little Turtle.”

She told CNN that she would be going to Atlanta from Panama to spread her child’s ashes in the forest where he was killed.

At least 35 people were arrested on Sunday after activists set heavy equipment and items on fire at a construction site. Authorities say that they attempted to block the construction of a $90 million public safety training campus by throwing fireworks, rocks and Molotov cocktails.

“This was a very violent attack,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said, adding that his officers got backup from DeKalb County and the Georgia State Patrol. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI are also involved, he said.

The battle over the Public Safety Training Facility, called “Cop City” by opponents, touches on Atlanta’s history — it is to be built on land where prisoners once labored on a farm. The clash is about the future and the balance between progress and equity. Here’s a guide to the conflict and its main players.

In all, the city of Atlanta owns more than 380 acres in the South River Forest area. The land the training campus will be built on was purchased by the city in 1918. People who were sentenced for crimes worked there for a long time after the farm closed in 1995.

Critics say the facility would undermine the goal of creating a peaceful and cohesive green space even though it wasn’t included in the original plan.

Since artist renderings of the project were released in early 2021, the Defend the Atlanta Forest group has used Twitter and Instagram to document protesters’ activities, including camping in the forest. The week of action was announced by the group.

Why Mauricio Paez Tern Shot and killed in January? Investigating the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Parks and Technology Design Plan

In the month of January, officers shot and killed activist Mauricio Paez Tern during a raid in the forested area. Authorities said Terán had fired at and injured a state trooper first, but activists say another officer was the one responsible.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp put up to 1,000 National Guard members at his disposal, when he signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency in late January.

The facility is supported by the Atlanta Police Foundation, an independent nonprofit that aims to modernize the city’s police force and help it improve training and technology.

The police foundation is similar to others that sprang up in the wake of 9/11. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the CEO of the foundation makes more money than the Atlanta’s mayor or police chief and more than the heads of similar foundations.

The foundation has a large board of directors and advisers, which includes executives from corporations like Equifax and Knickerbocker along with big law firms and real estate developers.

Opponents of the planned facility are urging the city to take up that original plan — and in recent days, they note, a new vision of that plan has emerged, which includes options for linking existing parks and connecting them to Atlanta’s Beltline, a loop used by pedestrians and cyclists.

The Atlanta Police Foundation says the design plan that deemed the South River area part of a new parks network “was not well-known, however we quickly became aware that some environmentalists had come to embrace this aspirational concept.”

The APF also notes that the city council’s 2017 resolution embracing the green space plan “was not binding.” The foundation has committed to raising $60 million from private and philanthropic sources to help pay for the facility, with plans for the city to pay for the remaining $30 million.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/07/1161343394/atlanta-cop-city-protests-explained

Invertment Creek Park: Conserving Forestland and Public Space Over the Millsap-DeKalb Land Swap Agreement

The struggle to maintain forest land and public space is also happening over a land swap deal between DeKalb County and Ryan Millsap.

The studio’s 43 acres of land was exchanged for 40 acres of Invertment Creek Park which is close to a planned public safety training facility.

That land swap deal sparked legal challenges. Opponents of the park note that when it was established in 2003 there was a guarantee that it would remain a public park.