Gov. Kemp Declares State of Emergency Amidst Consistent Cop City Protests [Update]
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Updated as of 1/28/2023 at 3:15 p.m. ET
After a Georgia State Patrol trooper shot and killed activist Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, civil unrest unleashed across downtown Atlanta. As a result of the latest protest-turn-riot, Gov. Brian Kemp declared a 15-day state of emergency utilizing up to 1,000 Georgia National Guard troops, per Axios.
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In the most ironic way possible, Kemp displayed the exact reason why people are protesting the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, dubbed “Cop City.” Besides harming the environment, demonstrators believe the center will encourage cops to claim even more lives.
The report says Kemp has the troops on standby to “subdue riots” and “unlawful assembly” which may be broadly applied as we’ve seen from the Black Lives Matter protests. People kneeled or sat or the ground in silence and still got pepper-sprayed.
“The Georgia Department of Defense troops called to respond to this State of Emergency shall have the same powers of arrest and apprehension as do law enforcement officers to be exercised with caution and only if the circumstances demand the exercise of such powers to protect the safety of persons or property,” read the order.
If you’re planning on being in these streets, be careful.
Cop City Protests and Arrests in Atlanta
The Atlanta Police Foundation intended for the site to “boost morale” and recruitment. The $90 million, 85-acre cop training facility, featuring shooting ranges and mock cities, is planned to be built in Weelaunee Forest. Though the APF claims only 22 percent of the land will be used for the facility, advocates believe the construction will not only harm the environment but also the surrounding Black neighborhoods, per Fox 5 Atlanta.
A military-grade cop training center being built next door to Black residents doesn’t sound like the best initiative. Per CNN, residents were blindsided by the announcement of the project and feel as though it will exacerbate the issue of racially-biased policing by teaching cops a more aggressive, militarized way of policing.
Many opponents marched alongside supporters of Teran, who died near the site of the facility. Some protestors were arrested and charged after the demonstration turned violent.
Read more from CNN:
Police have released the charges for the six people who were arrested Saturday evening in downtown Atlanta, authorities said, during protests that came in response to a proposed police training facility and the fatal police shooting of an activist earlier in the week.
They each face four felony charges: domestic terrorism, arson in the first degree, criminal damage in the second degree and interference with government property, according to police.
Each of the suspects, who range from 20 to 37 years old, is also facing four misdemeanor charges, including unlawful assembly, police said.
One of the arrested protestors is from Georgia, according to police. The others are from Tennessee, Washington, Maine and Michigan.
Anyone else feeling deja vu?
In 2020, people took to the streets against police brutality. In Atlanta, they’ve done the same but, instead, with a goal to prevent what they see as being a catastrophic extension of the police violence we witnessed just a few years ago.
As a result, some violent protestors turned the peaceful demonstration into a riot and now politicians are once again under the impression that our fight for justice is inappropriate.
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