Five activists arrested during Tuesday’s clash with law enforcement at the proposed site of Atlanta’s new public safety academy have been charged with domestic terrorism, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday.
The domestic terrorism charges are the most serious to date since activists started building camps and living among the trees more than a year ago in the dense city-owned forest in DeKalb County.
Tuesday, a task force of local, state and federal law enforcement attempted to remove barricades installed by activists to block access to the property. Defenders held a strong stance, fending off the attackers with rocks and bottles.
Supporters of the resistance effort — who have dubbed the proposed complex “Cop City” — reported police tactics including firing pepper balls, tear gas canisters and “chemical irritants” at the activists who had built makeshift camping platforms in trees.
- At a press conference yesterday morning near the property, supporters said the resistance would continue
- “I think there are forest defenders who will continue to defend the forest,” Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders said. “That means civil disobedience, that means rallies, demonstrations. That means all the tactics that we can use.”
According to a release from Stop Cop City ATL, police held at gunpoint and arrested a community member who supports the effort but isn’t involved with the encampment while they walked along a trail in the woods.
In a statement, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp made the scope of his persecution clear by referring to the encampment as a “criminal network,” and said law enforcement would continue to “ensure construction for the first responder training facility moves forward.”
- As of 11am Wednesday, according to reports relayed to the Atlanta Community Press Collective by activists, DeKalb police were trying to persuade the remaining occupiers to leave.