Who could have seen this coming? A large group of protesters gathered Saturday morning to protest the construction of the new police training center. It started off peacefully enough albeit with some chanting praising an infamous cop killer. By Sunday night a portion of the group were running around in black bloc, setting fire to construction equipment and throwing rocks at police. The Atlanta Police Department released video of a portion of this activity last night and this morning. The arson was clearly planned.

“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…

“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.

In addition to the earth mover set on fire, they group also burned a construction office and a small utility vehicle they claimed belonged to the police. These photos taken by Unicorn Riot.

On the left is the construction office starting to burn surrounded by people in black bloc.

There was a NY Times reporter at the scene who took some good video of the fires.

From earlier today pic.twitter.com/0tNHvZBj56

— Sean Keenan (@ThatSeanKeenan) March 6, 2023

Somehow he manages to not get anyone’s face on camera. Reporters who have filmed anarchists’ faces have been beaten up in the past and I’m guessing Sean Keenan knows that.

From earlier today pic.twitter.com/bnfXvVOMYa

— Sean Keenan (@ThatSeanKeenan) March 6, 2023

As of a short time ago, police say a total of 35 people were detained last night and this morning at least 23 of them have been charged with domestic terrorism. Prior to last night another 19 people arrested at the site have also been charged with domestic terrorism. As with previous arrests, it appears that a majority of the people arrested last night are not locals but came in from other states.

Police didn’t stop the group of several hundred from setting fires but they did get a lot of this on video. In this clip you can see a handful of cops being chases out of a fenced in construction area by more than a hundred rioters. Two guys in green camo can be seen high-fiving one another. Then the mob sets fire to at least three vehicles. Meanwhile, dozens of police officers appear to be just watching from the other side of the fence.

Police Chief Darin Schierbaum gave a statement to the press last night in which he called this a “significant escalation” by the anarchist mob. The chaos did get some attention from the networks this morning which probably won’t help their cause. If you want to see why Atlanta needs a large training center for police officers to train to deal with violence, here’s your evidence it’s needed.

Update: This group is planning a comedy show for tomorrow night so this may not be the end of the destruction this week. But I’m not sure there’s anything left for them to burn.

Comedy Show in the Forest! Tuesday 3/7 at 7pm pic.twitter.com/dYaMuXNCHl

— Defend the Atlanta Forest (@defendATLforest) March 3, 2023

Update: The Atlanta police chief narrates some of the video seen above at an Atlanta City Council meeting today. There’s some additional video showing people changing from black bloc clothing back into street clothes after the arson attacks. The chief notes that only one of the 23 people arrested was from Atlanta (and only two from Georgia).

APD chief https://t.co/qvEH2IAdlI

— Sean Keenan (@ThatSeanKeenan) March 6, 2023