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.
More than 20 people from more than a dozen states faced domestic terrorism charges Monday after dozens of young men in black masks attacked the site of a police training center under construction in a wooded area outside 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 Sunday at “Cop City,” where 26-year-old environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, 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 tires and debris to block a road, the Georgia Department of Public Safety said Monday. 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 $90 million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center that would boost police preparedness morale in the wake of violent protests that roiled the country after George Floyd’s death in 2020. Now, authorities and young people are embroiled in a clash that appears to have little to do with many other high-profile conflicts.
