Atlanta Bail Fund Jumps to Support Arrested Protesters Who Face Domestic Terrorism Charges in ‘Cop City’ Attack

Video footage released on March 5, 2023, shows left-wing rioters throwing fireworks and Molotov cocktails at officers in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta Police Department/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Organizations are defending and helping bail arrested protesters out of jail after the group of activists attacked the site of a planned police training center in Atlanta on Sunday, some of whom threw Molotov cocktails at officers.

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund on March 6 said it’s committed to providing bail and other resources to protestors who have been arrested. “We are already coordinating a network of lawyers to respond,” the organization said on Twitter. “Please donate to help us continue this work. Solidarity means nobody faces repression alone!”

The Movement 4 Black Lives also came to support the arrestees. “For folks out there protesting in ATL or anyone who may be arrested in the south, call this number to get legal support!” the group said on Twitter.

The Atlanta Police Department confirmed 23 people were arrested on charges of domestic terrorism following a violent demonstration at a police and fire training facility under construction, a project dubbed “Cop City” by critics.

Of those arrested, only two were Georgia residents, while the majority came from 14 states across America, including Maine and Arizona, according to a list issued by Atlanta Police Department. The list also includes an individual from Canada and another from France.

On March 5, demonstrators “changed into black clothing and entered the construction area and began to throw large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police officers,” the police authorities said in a statement. It added some protesters “destroyed multiple pieces of construction equipment by fire and vandalism.”

Video footage released by the Atlanta Police Department shows a piece of construction equipment was set ablaze at the site.

The department said, “illegal actions of the agitators could have resulted in bodily harm.”

Construction equipment set on fire by a group protesting the planned public safety training center in Atlanta on March 4, 2023. Atlanta Police Department via AP

Supporters and organizers, however, pushed back the police’s account.

Defend the Atlanta Forest, a far-left group involved in last Sunday’s incident, argued those arrested were “not ‘violent agitators,’ but peaceful concert goers who were nowhere near the demonstration. ”

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund also said on Twitter, “Police seem to be lashing out at anyone present at the music festival.”

“The strategy of extreme collective punishment is designed to scare protesters into silence, but also to pit the movement against itself,” the organization said on March 6. “They want to get activists focused on condemning and policing each other so that the cops don’t have to.”

The organization said it would “never condemn the tactics of protesters who fight earnestly for their beliefs.”

Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are assisting the probe.

“This was a very violent attack that occurred this evening, very violent attack,” Schierbaum said at a press conference. “This wasn’t about a public safety training center. This was about anarchy and this was about the attempt to destabilize and we are addressing that quickly.”

An aerial view of the planned site of a police training facility in Atlanta, Ga., on Feb. 6, 2023. Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images

Flashpoint

The planned training facility—which protesters have been targeting—is called the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. The complex is being established on 85 acres in DeKalb County that is owned by the city. The planned center would include classrooms, training areas, and an amphitheater. Officers will role-play real-life scenarios like high-speed chases and shoot-outs.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens also acknowledged the need to train officers.

“The City of Atlanta has the most extensive training requirements in the Southeast. 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,” the black Democrat mayor said at a January press conference.

“This training needs space, and that’s exactly what this training center is going to offer.”

The center was approved by the city council back in June 2021. The facility is located inside 1,000 acres of wooded land that environmentalists want to be turned into a protected green space. Protestors allege that the facility is a threat to the environment as well as a sign of rising police militarization.

Violent demonstrations erupted in January after a police operation aimed at identifying trespassers ended up killing a protestor. The protestor, Manuel Teran, 26, was given “verbal commands” by the police. However, he “did not comply” and shot a patrol officer, according to officials from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

Other officers returned fire. As a result, Teran died on the scene. Rioters then charged through downtown Atlanta on Jan. 21, damaging buildings in the process. Activists have raised questions about the police version of the incident, also pointing to the lack of body camera footage.

Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.