Dozens face domestic terrorism charges in Georgia incident

A group protesting the planned public safety training centre. Photo / AP

More than 20 people from more than a dozen states faced domestic terrorism charges after young men in black masks attacked the site of a police training centre under construction in a wooded area near Atlanta that has become the flashpoint of conflict between authorities and left-leaning protesters.

Police said one suspect is from France, and another is from Canada. Two are from Georgia, while others hail from Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Wisconsin. Police haven’t released their ages or other information.

Flaming bottles and rocks were thrown at officers during a protest on Monday at “Cop City,” where 26-year-old environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, or “Tortuguita,” was shot to death by officers at a protest in January.

The demonstrators tried to blind officers by shining green lasers into their eyes and used tyres and debris to block a road, the Georgia Department of Public Safety said on Tuesday. From a Venezuelan family, Tortuguita was dedicated to preserving the natural environment, friends and family said.

Those ideals clashed with Atlanta’s hopes of building a US$90 million ($145m) Atlanta Public Safety Training Centre that would boost police preparedness morale in the wake of violent protests that roiled the country after George Floyd’s death in 2020.

Officers respond to gunfire near the police training centre. Photo / AP

Now, authorities and young people are embroiled in a clash that appears to have little to do with many other high-profile conflicts. Protesters against what detractors call “Cop City” run the gamut from more traditional environmental environmentalists to young, self-styled anarchists seeking clashes with what they see as an unjust society.

Demonstrations spread to downtown Atlanta on January 21 when a police cruiser was set ablaze, rocks were thrown and fireworks were launched at a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation.

Windows were shattered in that building and others. Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said several pieces of construction equipment were set on fire in what he called “a co-ordinated attack” at the site for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Centreer in DeKalb County.

Surveillance video released by police shows a piece of heavy equipment in flames at the facility under construction. It was among pieces of construction gear destroyed, police said. Protesters dressed in black threw rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police officers on Monday at the construction site, police said.

Police from nearby communities stepped in to assist city officers, and no officers were injured, Schierbaum said, adding that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined police in the case. Officers used non-lethal enforcement methods to disperse the crowd and detain those involved, he said. Asked about injuries to any of the demonstrators, the chief said that “some minor discomfort” was reported.

Along with classrooms and administrative buildings, the training centre would include a shooting range, a driving course to practise chases and a “burn building” for firefighters to work on putting out fires.

A “mock village” featuring a fake home, convenience store and nightclub would also be built for rehearsing raids. Opponents have said the site will be used to practise “urban warfare”. Opponents say building the 34ha training centre would involve cutting down so many trees, it would be environmentally damaging.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has said the facilities will be built on a site that was cleared decades ago for a former state prison farm. He said the tract was filled with rubble and overgrown with invasive species, not hardwood trees. The mayor also said while the facility would be built on 34ha, about 300 others would be preserved as public green spaces.

Many activists also oppose spending so much money on a police facility that would be surrounded by poor neighbourhoods in a city with one of the nation’s highest degrees of inequality.

Many of those already accused of violence in connection with the training site protests are being charged with domestic terrorism, a felony that carries a penalty of up to 35 years in prison.

Those charges have prompted criticism from some that the state is being heavy-handed. Lawmakers are considering strengthening the penalty by classifying domestic terrorism as a serious violent felony. That means anyone convicted of the crime must serve the entire sentence ordered by a judge, can’t be sentenced to probation as a first offender and can’t be paroled unless an offender has served at least 30 years in prison.

Meanwhile, more protests were planned in the coming days, police said.