Dozens of people were arrested Sunday night at the site of Atlanta’s future police training facility after “agitators” destroyed construction materials and attacked officers, authorities said.
Atlanta police said the attackers used a peaceful protest as cover before they “changed into black clothing, entered the construction area, and began throwing large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police officers.”
Authorities took 35 people into custody and said multiple pieces of construction equipment were burned or vandalized in the attack.
A video of the incident released by police shows a group of people clad in black clothing throwing fireworks at officers at one of the construction site’s entrances.
“As I’ve said before, domestic terrorism will not be tolerated in this state,” Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday morning. “As we continue to respect peaceful protest, we will also continue to ensure safety in our communities. We will not rest until those who use violence and intimidation for an extremist end are brought to full justice.”
The attack comes amid a week of demonstrations against the future training site that left-wing opponents call “Cop City,” the $90 million facility approved by the Atlanta City Council in 2021.
Protesters mainly oppose the facility because it removes greenery from Weelaunee Forest and promotes the militarization of police.
More than 200 protesters first assembled Saturday near the forest and held a march where demonstrators chanted “If you build it, we will burn it,” according to the Atlanta Community Press Collective, a protest news site.
Defend the Atlanta Forest, a Twitter account that opposes the new facility, said Sunday night after the attack that police were “attempting to mass arrest peaceful concert goers and musicians who are chanting ‘We have kids’ and ‘Let us go home.’”
Activists first moved into the site in June 2021 and have been involved in a number of violent incidents since then, including throwing Molotov cocktails at police in May 2022 and trying to set a lost driver’s car on fire last November.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.