At least 35 people were arrested after protests against a new police training facility in Atlanta turned violent, with assailants throwing Molotov cocktails and bricks at officers, US police said.
According to the police, “violent agitators” launched a coordinated attack last Sunday against officers and set fire to construction equipment at the site of a facility dubbed by opponents as “Cop City.”
The center, which is being built on 85 hectares (34 acres) of wooded land in DeKalb County, has been the target of fierce opposition since officials announced the proposal in 2021, with tensions over the plan continuing to rise.
“This is not about a public safety training center, this is about anarchy, and this is about an attempt to destabilize,” Atlanta police chief Darin Schierbaum said during a press conference last night.
Security video from the facility’s entry point showed people dressed in black gathering behind a fence and throwing rocks and explosive devices at police who struggled to lock the gates.
Schierbaum said the department was fortunate that no officers were hurt during the incident.
“When you throw commercial-grade fireworks, when you throw Molotov cocktails … at officers, your only goal is to injure them,” he said.
“This is not a protest. This is a criminal activity.
Police in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, said in a statement that “the agitators destroyed a lot of construction equipment with fire and vandalism.”
More protests are expected this week.
The facility has been the focus of several protests by opponents who fear environmental damage and also say the center will damage relations between police and communities of color.
In January, a protester was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, and an officer was seriously wounded, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Several arrests were made last year, a camp set up near the site was raided by police and removed, and several protesters were arrested on charges of “domestic terrorism” for throwing rocks and bottles at police cruisers.