Dozens detained after construction vehicle set ablaze in Atlanta

• At least 35 people were detained after a construction vehicle was set on fire.
• And rocks and bricks were thrown at police officers.
• Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said the illegal actions of agitators could have resulted in bodily harm.

Authorities said at least 35 individuals were detained after a construction vehicle was set on fire and rocks and bricks were thrown at policemen, while violent protests at the expansive site of a planned police training center in Atlanta that opponents have called “Cop City” continued Sunday evening.

Before squad cars and armed cops arrived, people in black gathered on both sides of the barricade as orange flames rose from a construction tractor and at least four other fires raged in and around the enclosed site, according to surveillance footage published by the Atlanta Police Department.

“A group of violent agitators used the cover of a peaceful protest of the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center to conduct a coordinated attack on construction equipment and police officers,” the police department said.

The group changed into black clothing, went into the construction area and threw large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police officers, destroying construction equipment “by fire and vandalism,” the agency said in a statement. “The illegal actions of the agitators could have resulted in bodily harm.”

“Appropriate charges” are being coordinated with DeKalb County prosecutors and the Georgia Attorney General’s office, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said Sunday in a news conference, adding some detained are not from Atlanta and no officers were hurt.

“Officers exercised restraint and used non-lethal enforcement to conduct arrests,” the police statement added.

Sunday’s dispute comes after at least two “clearing operations” this year by police at the woodland site intended to house the $90 million, 85-acre law enforcement center, one of which resulted in the death shooting of a demonstrator.

The idea, according to opponents with the “Stop Cop City” group and others, would promote police militarization and be harmful to the environment.

Atlanta police now will implement a “multi-layered strategy,” including “reaction and arrest” as more protests are planned in coming days, it said in its statement, adding it “asks for this week’s protests to remain peaceful.”

“When you throw commercial-grade fireworks, when you throw Molotov cocktails, large rocks, a number of items at officers, your only intent is to harm, and the charges are going to show that,” Schierbaum said.

Several of the people detained there last year were accused of domestic terrorism.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens supports construction of the training center, which will include a shooting range, a simulated city, and a burn building, in spite of objections from protesters and some nearby residents of the DeKalb County location. It will be surrounded by more than 200 acres of protected green space, he has declared.

“The city of Atlanta has the most extensive training requirements in the Southeast,” Dickens said this year. “Our training includes vital areas like de-escalation training techniques, mental health, community-oriented policing, crisis intervention training, as well as civil rights history education.

“This training needs space, and that’s exactly what this training center is going to offer.”

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