The Southern Poverty Law Center defended one of its staff attorneys after he was charged with a felony count of domestic terrorism near Atlanta, Georgia, after a violent protest of the development of a police training center.
Staff attorney Thomas Webb Jurgens, 28, was one of 23 people charged with domestic terrorism on Sunday for allegedly rioting against the construction of an estimated $90 million police training center across 85 acres of DeKalb County, which has been dubbed by activists as "Cop City." Police arrested 35 people, with Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum describing the incident as a "very violent attack" that involved protesters volleying large-scale fireworks and Molotov cocktails.
SPLC ATTORNEY AMONG 23 FACING DOMESTIC TERRORISM CHARGES AFTER 'COP CITY' PROTEST
“An employee at the SPLC was arrested while acting — and identifying — as a legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). 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,” SPLC wrote in a statement Monday evening.
“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," it added. "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.”
Jurgens's photo was released in an Atlanta Police Department press release Sunday evening, denoting that 23 people had been charged with domestic terrorism by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.
Protests over the training site, known as the Public Safety Training Facility, have occurred for at least two years. Some people protesting the development allegedly occupied publicly owned forest land to prevent the construction of the training grounds.
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Police this year have conducted at least two "clearing operations" at the police facility site, including one in which officers killed 26-year-old protester Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, leading to heightened tensions with groups such as Stop Cop City. Some arrested at a clearing operation last year were charged with domestic terrorism.
The SPLC is a civil rights watchdog monitoring alleged extremism and has developed a track record of labeling certain Christian and conservative organizations as "hate groups." The FBI rescinded a memo last month citing the SPLC on “radical-traditional Catholics” after a whistleblower published it.