Atlanta cops have released latest aerial footage that shows dozens of demonstrators sneaking right into a future police training facility moments before all hell is allegedly unleashed.
The large group, described by authorities as “aggressive agitators,” was caught by a police helicopter’s heat-sensitive camera because it bumped into Atlanta’s emerging Public Safety Training Center – dubbed “Cop City” on Sunday.
Moments later, a video that was released late Monday showed crowds of protesters setting fire to construction equipment in what police described as a “coordinated attack”.
Protesters were also filmed throwing Molotov cocktails, fireworks and bricks at responding officers.
A minimum of 23 of them were charged with domestic terrorism on Monday. They were still in custody as of Tuesday, in keeping with online prison records.
Police accused the group of using the “peaceful protest cover” of the proposed training facility to wreak havoc.
“They disguised themselves in black, entered the development site and commenced throwing large stones, bricks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks on the cops,” police said.
“Agitators destroyed many pieces of construction equipment by fire and vandalism.”
Amongst those arrested in reference to the ordeal is Thomas Webb Jurgens, 28, an Atlanta attorney on the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In a press release late Monday, the SPLC insisted that his lawyer acted as a “legal observer” when he was detained.
“The SPLC worker was arrested while acting – and identifying himself – as a legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG),” the statement read.
“The worker is an experienced legal observer and his detention doesn’t indicate any crime, but fairly a violent intervention by law enforcement against the protesters.”
Most of those caught come from other parts of the USA – France and Canada, in keeping with police.
There have been clashes between police and left-wing protesters on the training center because it was approved by the Atlanta City Council in 2021.
Environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, 26, was shot dead by cops during a raid on a protest camp there in January.