Vandals in Atlanta hurled bricks and Molotov cocktails at police officers and set cars on fire on Sunday in protest of an 85-acre training complex for the city’s police and fire departments.
It’s the latest in a series of attacks against the facility, which has been dubbed “Cop City” by its detractors.
The planned $90 million complex has been the ire of environmentalists and anti-police activists since 2021, when the Atlanta City Council approved the complex in June of that year. The facility is primarily being funded by donations to the nonprofit Atlanta Police Foundation and will include an amphitheater, classrooms and training areas for police to carry out simulated crime situations, such as shootouts, the New York Post reported.
A coalition of left-wing activists soon moved into the woods after the decision was announced, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in a bid to prevent the construction. Other left-wing activists such as antifa members, criminal justice reform activists and other environmentalists have also become involved in the protests, the New York Times reported last week.
Protests at “Cop City” hit a fever pitch back in January, when a state trooper shot and killed an environmental activist named Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, 26, who reportedly went by the name Tortuguita and identified as non-binary. Teran was shot after allegedly refusing demands from authorities and firing a gun at state troopers.
ATLANTA’S FUTURE POLICE TRAINING FACILITY ‘COP CITY’ SET ABLAZE
A Georgia State Patrol trooper, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was also shot in the abdomen and left injured.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency over the violence that month, authorizing up to 1,000 members of the Georgia National Guard to be called upon for any other potential incidents of violence. The order remained in effect until Feb. 9.
At least 19 people had been arrested and charged with domestic terrorism since December to March 5…
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