Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has declared a state of emergency, activating 1,000 troops from the Georgia National Guard, to tackle anti-police riots in Atlanta.
As Valiant News reported, leftist activists had been camping out on the scene of the planned “Cop City,” a new training city for Atlanta law enforcement, for over a year, when police attempted to clear out the protestors last Wednesday.
“As law enforcement was moving through the property, officers located a man inside a tent in the woods,” the GBI said in a statement. The man, later identified as Manuel Teran, allegedly “did not comply” with verbal commands, and then shot a Georgia State Patrol Trooper. Other officers returned fire and killed Teran, while the injured officer was taken to a local hospital.
Despite some of the leftist groups peacefully protesting with candelit vigils, other radical environmentalists called for “reciprocal violence” to be conducted against the police. Riots subsequently broke out in Atlanta, with the police arresting six people on Saturday, after they attacked police cruisers and broke windows.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said that some of them had even been found with explosives that “led to a police officer’s car being set on fire,” adding that he believed the six arrested “meant harm to people and to property.”
Six people were arrested after a peaceful protest over a proposed police training ground turned violent in Atlanta, police said. https://t.co/7LDbaelFxK pic.twitter.com/gXpRjNq5im
— ABC News (@ABC) January 22, 2023
Footage from tonight in #Atlanta when #antifa smashed out the windows of a police car and threw explosives in it.
Note how they use the "vigil" banner to block view and aggressively tell the person to stop filming pic.twitter.com/gH7IbuH8nC
— AntifaWatch (@AntifaWatch2) January 22, 2023
More footage from Atlanta Police Foundation vandalism that we missed.
Again, note the clear planning that has taken place. The bricks/rocks are being pulled out of a bag that was put down in front of multiple people in black bloc (0:57). https://t.co/OCwxtaZldW pic.twitter.com/Pl7OIrIwzr
— AntifaWatch (@AntifaWatch2) January 23, 2023
On Thursday, Governor Kemp issued the temporary state of emergency, based on the “unlawful assembly, violence, threats, disturbance of the peace and tranquility of this state and existing danger to persons and property” seen in the anti-police riots.
“Georgians respect peaceful protesters, but do not tolerate acts of violence against persons or properties,” Kemp said in the emergency order, granting him the power to mobilise 1,000 members of the Georgia National Guard. The state of emergency will last until February 9th.
Earlier this month, Kemp warned against the “domestic terrorist activities” taking place near the planned police training centre. “The only response we will give to intimidation and violence is swift and exact justice,” Kemp said in a January 3rd statement.
The Governor claimed that the antifa activists involved “are members of a broader network of militant activists who have committed similar acts of domestic terrorism and intimidation across teh country with no regard for the people are communities impacted by their crimes.” Notably, most of the six rioters arrested on Saturday were not from Georgia.
Below is my statement on domestic terrorist activities related to the proposed Atlanta public safety training center: pic.twitter.com/RLD7mcdfX7
— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) January 3, 2023
