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An attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was among a group of 23 protestors the Atlanta police placed under arrest following an allegedly violent attack on the police.
The incident occurred at the site of the future planned police training facility dubbed “cop city” by opponents of the project.
The Atlanta Police Department released Thomas Webb Jurgens, an employee at the SPLC, on Monday after he was charged with domestic terrorism.
During the violent demonstration, protesters launched Molotov cocktails, bricks, fireworks, and rocks at police officers and set their cars on fire.
“On March 5, 2023, a group of violent agitators used the cover of a peaceful protest of the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center to conduct a coordinated attack on construction equipment and police officers. They changed into black clothing and entered the construction area and began to throw large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police officers,” the Atlanta PD said in a statement.
“This was a very violent attack, very violent attack,” said Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum. “This wasn’t about a public safety training center. This was about anarchy, and this was about the attempt to destabilize, and we are addressing that quickly.”
Thomas Webb Jurgens’ employer came to his defense on Monday and explained that he was there in an official capacity as a legal observer.
“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 [his] arrest is not evidence of any crime, but of heavy-handed law enforcement intervention against protesters,” the SPLC said in a statement on Monday.
“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. 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,” the SPLC continued in its statement.
SPLC was quick to pull out the race card though the picture released by the Atlanta Police Department shows that the majority of those arrested are Caucasian.
SPLC, in conjunction with many of our Democrat leaders, equates policing with white supremacy.
How is it that when the police arrest protestors who are acting like violent thugs, the police are the ones who are demonized?
Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, condemned the violence and said that his state will not tolerate domestic terrorism. He vows to see justice in this case and plans to hold “those who use violence and intimidation for an extremist end” accountable.
Though there have been several calls for better police training, this group of protestors believes that the new police training facility “will promote the militarization of the police department and destroy the South River Forest.”
When will President Biden and other Democrats in prominent positions start criticizing this behavior and back the blue?
Where do these people work? Any, and I mean all, government assistance should be cut of immediately on conviction. What kind of legal observer dresses in all black and throws things at cops? These people are all cowards. If they were truly environmental warriors they would go to the big mud runs in the south and light a few mud trucks on fire and throw rocks at the rednecks. The redneck crowds would not be constrained by law, policy, or the other rules of behavior that necessarily restrains our law enforcement officers. Cowardly criminals playing a dangerous game. It is time to stand up and tell these children their antics will no longer be tolerated.