Atlanta police arrested eight protesters on Tuesday after Molotov cocktails were thrown at officers escorting construction workers who are building a new police, fire, and EMS training facility.
Many of the protesters were from out of state. The FBI is also investigating the possibility that the protesters crossed state lines in order to commit felonies.
“There have been a number of concerted efforts to stop the building of the Public Safety Training Center by committing criminal acts here in Atlanta, in Dekalb County, in Birmingham, Alabama, and other states,” Schierbaum said. “And we appreciate the Federal Bureau of Investigation joining this investigation to stop these attempts of intimidation and stop these criminal acts for this Public Safety Training Center.”
“What is also very disturbing,” Schierbaum told reporters, is that “the majority of people being arrested here in Dekalb County and other places have drivers’ licenses from Pennsylvania, from Tennessee, from Rhode Island, from Virginia, from New York and from Minnesota.”
In fact, the site of the new public safety center has become a magnet for far-left protesters since construction started. The site has become an “autonomous zone” as protesters have set up illegal encampments on city land.
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Yesterday Atlanta Police violently mass-arrested a crowd in a park at a #StopCopCity protest. The arrests were indiscriminate and included journalists and bystanders. We are defending these protesters and preparing to pursue legal action against the unconstitutional arrests. pic.twitter.com/oLETOjvMoi
— Atlanta Solidarity Fund (@ATLSolFund) May 15, 2022
Far-left extremists & #Antifa from across US have been going to Atlanta to support an occupation at a construction site for a future police training academy. They've created barricades & hurled firebombs at responding police. Comrades have carried out violence in solidarity. pic.twitter.com/pz4sHNHFu1
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) May 18, 2022
According to the far-left media outlet Unicorn Riot, a truck barricade was set on fire amidst the police raid of the compound.
“We do know there’s other people that are on the property now. We’re asking them to leave. It’s illegal to be on the property. There’s not public access here. And so if those individuals leave, there will be no arrest. But if you do remain on site of the property intending to harm law enforcement officials to obstruct the property of the city of Atlanta will be arrested,” said Schierbaum.
The protesters refer to the campsite as “No Cop City” and the “forest defenders” have pounded spikes into trees making them extremely hazardous to cut down. They have also vandalized the offices of the construction company building the center.
What all of this suggests is an organization behind the protests. Several GoFundMe pages have been established and an Open Collective account has been opened to purchase supplies for their encampment, including surveillance items like “forest monitoring equipment” as well as a drone.
If the FBI spent half the amount of time investigating organized left-wing groups as they spend on right-wing extremists, we’d probably already know who was behind the effort to stop the construction of the police center.
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