Five members of Antifa are in custody on domestic terrorism charges after they were protesting outside of a planned $90 million police training center.
The site of the planned center has been the focal point of protests for months by Antifa who have referred to the site – which protesters have made an autonomous zone – as Cop City. Many of those who were arrested were holed up in treehouses where police later recovered explosives.
Prior to Tuesday’s arrests, police detained several people at the site for crimes including destruction of property and arson along with car-jacking and attacks on locals and government officials.
The official reasoning for the protest, according to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is environmental concern for the Weelaunee Forest. The center would cut out 381 acres of the woods.
Among the photos documenting the protest is an image of a group of ski mask-clad protesters standing over a truck with a banner reading: ‘No forest, no peace, truck the police’ as well as a smaller sign that read: ‘No Cop City.’
Those arrested have been named as Serena Hertel, 25, of California, Nicholas Olson, 25, of Nebraska, Francis Carroll, 22, of Maine, Arieon Robinson, 22, of Wisconsin and Leonardo Vioselle, 20, of Macon, Georgia.
Earlier this week, the GBI said that protesters had begun attacking police and other emergency services workers at the scene with rocks and bottles. After officers cleared the area, they recovered bombs, flares and gasoline, authorities said.
Multiple crimes occurred on Saturday when the local fire department was called to the scene to extinguish a dumpster fire. Richard Porter told WXIA that he was set upon by the group when he attempted to pick up some scrap metal from the area.
Porter said that members of the group threw things at him including a ‘gas bomb.’ He fled, leaving his truck behind which was burned out. Porter told the channel: ‘It seemed to me like they were going to burn the truck with me in it.’
Vioselle is the only member of the group is from the area where the public safety center is being constructed. Authorities used used tear gas and pepper balls to clear the protesters from the scene.
On the day of the arrests, the Atlanta Community Press Collective wrote on Twitter: ‘Treesitters report that they are surrounded and being teargas’d by police.’
While a representative from a group supporting the protest, the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, told AJC that those arrested were ‘legitimate political protesters.’
Marlon Kautz continued: ‘There’s clear evidence to the contrary that the people they have been arresting and targeting and attacking have been engaged in nothing but peaceful civil disobedience.’
A representative from another group, the Community Movement Builder, told the newspaper: ‘I think there are forest defenders who will continue to defend the forest. That means civil disobedience, that means rallies, demonstrations. That means all the tactics that we can use.’
The group said that dozens of police officers and undercover cops descended on the scene. After the initial arrest, officers began ‘coming through the woods to clear anybody and everybody,’ a local official told AJC.
Convictions of domestic terrorism carry with it sentences of anywhere between five and 35 years in prison. The group is being held at DeKalb County Jail.
