Ed. note: The author is not related to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
Gov. Brian Kemp has issued a statewide, 15-day state of emergency called out 1,000 Georgia National Guard troops, and given them arrest powers, anticipating more violent protests sparked by an environmental activist’s fatal shooting.
In the five-page executive order issued Thursday afternoon, Kemp wrote that “because of unlawful assemblage, violence, overt threats of violence, disruption of the peace and tranquility of this state and danger existing to persons and property, a State of Emergency is declared in the State of Georgia” through 11:59 p.m. February 9 “unless renewed by the Governor.”
Violence broke out in downtown Atlanta last Saturday after law enforcement officers shot and killed a protestor, Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, known as “Tortuguita” (“Little Turtle”) or “Tort,” in the forest off Moreland Avenue. The woods are near the old Atlanta Prison Farm, in the area of Constitution Road and Key Road.
An unidentified state trooper also was shot, allegedly by Teran. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said Teran had bought the Smith and Wesson M&P Shield 9mm pistol legally about two years ago. The GBI also says it has tied the bullet that struck the trooper to Teran’s firearm.
What the activists are saying
Defend the Forest’s website describes “Cop City” as “a proposed $90+ million police training compound backed by the Atlanta Police Foundation and its corporate patrons like Cox, Delta, the Koch brothers, and Home Depot, to name just a few.”
“At over 300 acres, Cop City will be the largest police training facility in the United States and is slated to include a mock city where police will train with firearms, tear gas, helicopters, and explosive devices to repress protest and mass unrest, much as they did during the 2020 George Floyd protests. Cop City will hyper-militarize law enforcement, equipping police with a site to train for the suppression of Atlanta’s diverse Black and working-class communities. Slated to be twice the size of already oversized police training facilities in New York and Los Angeles, Cop City, if completed, will serve as a national model of police militarization and budgetary bloat. The land slated for development into Cop City has long been the site of racialized violence: the land was violently stolen from the Muscogee (Creek) nation, later became the site of a 19th century slave plantation and was a forced labor camp (the Old Atlanta Prison Farm) as late as the 1990s.”
The group also opposes a controversial land swap involving Blackhall Studios, which in 2021 traded 53 acres of unbuildable wetlands for 40 acres of Intrenchment Creek Park. Local groups say trees are being cut down despite a current lawsuit to stop the privatization of public space at the park.
Who’s been charged with what
In response to Teran’s shooting, loosely-allied anarchist protestors called for a “Night of Rage” last Saturday, which consisted of burning an Atlanta Police Department SUV and smashing windows and a Wells Fargo ATM on Peachtree Street outside the Atlanta Police Foundation‘s headquarters. Six people, five of whom were from out of state, were arrested.
Here are the charges against them in Fulton County, according to online court records:
- Nadja Geier, 24, Nashville, TN
- second-degree criminal damage to property, first-degree arson, interference with government property, domestic terrorism (felonies); pedestrian in roadway, willful obstruction of law enforcement, riot, unlawful assembly (misdemeanors); bond denied
- Madeleine Feola, 22, Oberlin, OH
- second-degree criminal damage to property, first-degree arson, interference with government property, domestic terrorism (felonies); pedestrian in roadway, willful obstruction of law enforcement, riot, unlawful assembly (misdemeanors); bond denied
- Ivan Ferguson, 22, Nevada
- second-degree criminal damage to property, first-degree arson, interference with government property, domestic terrorism (felonies); pedestrian in roadway, willful obstruction of law enforcement, riot, unlawful assembly (misdemeanors); $355,000 split bond granted
- Graham Evatt, 20, Decatur
- second-degree criminal damage to property, first-degree arson, interference with government property, domestic terrorism (felonies); pedestrian in roadway, willful obstruction of law enforcement, riot, unlawful assembly (misdemeanors); $355,000 split bond granted with ankle monitor
- Francis Carroll, 22, Kennebunkport, ME
- second-degree criminal damage to property, first-degree arson, interference with government property, domestic terrorism, possession of tools for commission of a crime (felonies); pedestrian in roadway, willful obstruction of law enforcement, riot, unlawful assembly (misdemeanors); no bond granted
- Emily Kathryn Murphy, 37, Grosse Isle, MI
- second-degree criminal damage to property, first-degree arson, interference with government property, domestic terrorism (felonies); pedestrian in roadway, willful obstruction of law enforcement, riot, unlawful assembly (misdemeanors); bond denied
Seven others were arrested and charged in Dekalb County when Taran and the trooper were shot, according to online jail and court records.
State warrants filed against several of the defendants allege they were wanted for “participating in actions as part of Defend the Atlanta Forest (DTAF), a group classified by the United States Department of Homeland Security as Domestic Violent Extremists::
“Said group has publicly claimed responsibility for numerous acts while stating their intent was to intimidate employees of the government and private companies into not accepting or completing tasks in and around the site of the Atlanta Police Training Center. These acts have included vandalism at offices and private residences; throwing Molotov cocktails, rocks, and fireworks at uniformed police officers; arson of public buildings, heavy equipment, private buildings, and private vehicles; shooting metal ball bearings at contractors; discharging firearms at critical infrastructure; preventing access to private land; and several other violations of law. These claims of responsibility have been made on websites, social media, and graffitti ‘tagging.'”
The warrants for individual activists’ arrests, which describe the state’s allegations and are matters of public record, give insights into their arrests when “Tort” and the unidentified state trooper were shot. The claims made by law enforcement are italicized and are subject to proof beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law:
- Spencer Bernard Liberto, 29, Pittsburgh, PA
- Domestic terrorism, criminal trespass (bonded out); aggravated assault upon a public safety officer (charge dropped). “The accused affirmed their cooperation with DTAF by trespassing on posted land and was arrested while sleeping in a hammock with another defendant. Said accused is also a known member of a prison abolitionist movement. Said accused was also present on the property during the shooting of a State Trooper by an activist, which resulted in serious injury, and the subsequent shooting of said activist, resulting in death.”
- Matthew Ernest Macar, 30, Pittsburgh, PA
- Domestic terrorism, criminal trespass (bonded out); aggravated assault upon a public safety officer (charge dropped). Images of Macar’s arrest warrants did not appear in Dekalb County’s online Judicial Information System as of press time Thursday.
- Timothy Murphy, 25, Rockport, ME
- Domestic terrorism, criminal trespass (bonded out). Images of Murphy’s arrest warrants did not appear in Dekalb County’s online Judicial Information System as of press time Thursday.
- Geoffrey Parsons, 20, Maryland
- Domestic terrorism (felony), criminal trespass (misdemeanor) (bonded out); aggravated assault upon a public safety officer (charge dropped); online jail records list him as John Doe. “The accused affirmed their cooperation with DTAF by criminally trespassing on posted land and sleeping in the forest. Said defendant declined to make a statement but others arrested with the defendant stated the defendant was with them. Said defendant was arrested while occupying a hammock adjacent to the other defendants. Said accused was also present on the property during the shooting of a State Trooper by an activist, which resulted in serious injury, and the subsequent shooting of said activist, resulting in death.”
- Christopher Reynolds, 31, Ohio
- Domestic terrorism, criminal trespass (court records list his address as the approximate location on Key Road of the old Atlanta Prison Farm) (bond denied). “The accused affirmed their cooperation with DTAF by criminally trespassing on posted land, being located within an established camp site, and fleeing from State Troopers multiple times. Said accused was also present on the property during the shooting of a State Trooper by an activist, which resulted in serious injury, and the subsequent shooting of said activist, resulting in death. Additionally, defendant was arrested for criminal trespass on the same property in May, 2022.”
- Teresa Yue Shen, 31, Brooklyn, NY
- Domestic terrorism (felony), criminal trespass (misdemeanor) (bonded out). “The accused affirmed their cooperation with DTAF by criminally trespassing on posted land and during a standoff with another defendant who was occupying an elevated treehouse. Said accused then fled upon being contact[ed] by law enforcement. The defendant was wearing camouflaged clothing, and carrying a backpack with a climbing harness and rope.”
- Sarah Wasilewski, 35, Pittsburgh, PA
- Domestic terrorism (felony), criminal trespass (misdemeanor) (bonded out). “The accused affirmed their cooperation with DTAF by criminally trespassing in posted land and admitted during an interview that she was aware of ‘Cop City’ prior to traveling to Atlanta and had pre-planned sleeping on the land. Said defendant admitted to participating in previous protests in other states for environmental causes. Said accused was also present on the property during the shooting of a State Trooper by an activist., which resulted in serious injury, and the subsequent shooting of said activist, resulting in death.”
All are considered innocent of the charges until and unless convicted in a court of law. It is The Clayton Crescent’s editorial policy not to publish mugshots of pretrial detainees.
What commentators are saying
GPB’s Bill Nigut notes that Dekalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston says she will recuse her office from prosecuting any charges related to the officer-involved shooting because she is prosecuting the cases against the protestors charged with domestic terrorism.
On Thursday’s “Politicial Rewind,” the AJC’s Kevin Riley said, “Some of the protestors are about the greenspace that they feel is going to be destroyed in this. Others are anti-police, clearly, you know. People object to even the term ‘protestors’ in some cases and want to refer to them. as ‘terrorists’ and ‘rioters.’ For our community, it is a very tough moment. And I also think that, at some point, our community is going to need a leader to emerge. Because right now, the protestors, the terrorists, the group against this—however you feel about them colors what you call them—but that group is controlling the narrative. They do something, there’s a reaction. And I think that puts us in a tough spot in terms of, ‘All right, let’s either really solve this problem, make the decision, make sure there’s clarity around what’s actually going to happen, because there’s a lot of confusion about what this center is, what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen.”
State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver also noted how permitting issues that plague unincorporated Dekalb County, as many Conley residents know all too well, put the forest at risk. She and other panelists on the show also expressed dismay at the growing 0-to-100-mph trend in politics, whether left or right, and particularly among younger people.
“What feels new to me, in my long political career, is that there’s a group of young people, totally astray, so estranged from any kind of real political dialogue, that they are totally in a mood to reject any form of community discussion,” Oliver said.
What the cops are saying
The Atlanta Police Foundation says the new training center is needed to boost police morale (police cite what they call the “Ferguson effect,” an unverifiable claim that crime goes up when police come under increased scrutiny) to “embrace police reform and cultural sensitivity”:
The new Atlanta Public Safety Training Center will reimagine law enforcement training and Police/Fire Rescue community engagement. The PSTC will:
Improve morale, retention, recruitment and training for APD and AFR professionals and ensure that Atlanta attracts and motivates those most highly committed to careers in law enforcement
Set a national standard for community engagement, neighborhood sensitivity and devotion to the civil rights of all citizens by law enforcement
Embrace police reform and cultural sensitivity through an extensive training and educational partnership with the National Center for Civil & Human Rights
Facilitate collaboration and joint training between Atlanta’s police, fire/ rescue agencies and their local, state and federal partner agencies
Welcome the community to its public spaces. The Public Safety Training Center will afford APD and AFR, the South’s largest law enforcement agencies, a state-of-the-art training facility, reduced insurance and operational training costs, and the essential training flexibility required of best-in class urban police departments.
The first phase of the Public Safety Training Center is scheduled to open 4Q 2023.
What Kemp is saying
Kemp spent a significant chunk of his “State of the State” address Wednesday praising law enforcement’s response to the tree-dwelling protestors, emphasizing that many of them came from out of state.
I also know there is strong, bipartisan support for our state law enforcement, including the brave men and women of the state patrol under Colonel Chris Wright’s leadership.
Just last week, we were reminded yet again of their steadfast courage and the dangers they face on a daily basis.
While helping to clear the site of the future Atlanta Public Safety Training Facility of militant activists, a Trooper was shot without warning or just cause. He was rushed to the hospital and endured multiple surgeries and days of severe pain, but just like all Troopers, he has refused to quit.
Just a few blocks from where you’re sitting, he continues to recover. He and his wife have both our thanks and our prayers.
I had the chance to meet with them earlier this week, and his resolve continues to be strong, but he continues to need our prayers.
Just this past weekend, when out-of-state rioters tried to bring violence to the streets of our capital city, State Patrol, Sheriff’s Deputies, and the Atlanta Police quickly brought peace and order. That’s just the latest example of why here in Georgia, we’ll always back the blue!
The joint session responded with a roaring cheer. Kemp recognized a GSP helicopter pilot, Sgt. Brad Harrison, who had found a lost child in Chattooga County last week, then returned to the “Night of Rage” protestors:
These and other public safety officers on both the state and local levels are the unsung heroes we don’t always hear about because their acts of service are given without expectation or reservation.
In light of this past weekend’s events, when men and women in uniform are putting themselves in harm’s way and literally in the line of fire, you can imagine their frustration when one of these criminals ends up right back out on the street in a matter of hours just to terrorize those streets further.
I appreciate that a Fulton County judge denied bond for four of the six rioters arrested last Saturday, and gave the other two bonds of over $355,000, along with a 24-hour curfew and ankle monitors. Unfortunately, this approach is not universal across the judicial system.
While some may not take this issue seriously, I can assure [you] I do. We can and we must do something about the revolving door of criminal justice! And I look forward to working with this legislature to get it done.
Kemp also linked this emergency order to two others: supply chain disruptions, repeatedly renewed since April 14, 2022, and to the tornadoes and severe storms that tore through Locust Grove, Griffin, and other areas near Clayton County earlier this month, renewed once since January 12.
During his inaugural parade, also on January 12, four Howitzers rocked downtown Atlanta with a 19-gun salute and helicopters did a fly-by as Kemp led a large contingent of troops and law enforcement officers from the GSU Convocation Center to the Capitol:
Some political observers in Georgia are speculating that Kemp, who along with Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, did not cave in to pressure from former President Donald Trump to help him cheat in the 2022 election, appears to be preparing for a higher-profile office, perhaps on the national level.
